The Relationship between Violence and Power in Hannah Arendt's Thought

Abstract

This paper sheds light on one of the most controversial issues of Political philosophy in the twentieth century mainly the relationship between violence and power. specially since the twentieth century started with world war caused a shock because of the amount of violence it produced, and thus revealed the devastation and destruction that man can do. Therefore, a group of ideas emerged which believed that violence was always inherent in the history of politics and power, and will remain as long as power exists. Hence the importance of Arendt as she took an opposing position to whom they regard to power and violence as the same thing. In her writings, she tried to show that power and violence are two opposites and the presence of one of them necessarily means the absence of the other. This paper’s main aim is to analyze Arendt’s thoughts regarding the relationship between violence and power as they contradict each other.