Abstract
Hannah Arendt insisted repeatedly on the novelty of the phenomenon of totalitarianism, its unprecedentedness. She thought, “Few guides [are] left through the labyrinth of inarticulate facts if opinions are discarded and tradition is no longer accepted as unquestionable”.1 If there can be no return to tradition, if we have permanently lost “the Ariadne thread of common sense,” “we can no longer rely on traditional categories, concepts and standards to comprehend what has happened”, is there then nevertheless a way for thinking to illuminate the darkness of our times? Can we reconcile ourselves to the past? If we are to follow Arendt, then “we have to learn ‘to think without banisters’ (Denken ohne Geländer).
Favoring storytelling over theories is one of the conclusions Arendt draws from the loss of tradition. Storytelling is a nonHegelian way of reconciling with reality. It also is an adequate way of taking human plurality seriously. The openness inherent in the notion of plurality is relevant for a conception of history that differs from the tradition. In this article, I will address the question whether there is a way of thinking without being tyrannical. To try to answer this question I will first sketch the conditions of the activity of thought after 1945 that Arendt describes by turning to literature. I will then ask whether there is a way to face reality and to reconcile us with the past. I conclude that non-tyrannical thinking remains related to experience, is expressed in ‘concrete’ words, it uses metaphors, and allows for thinking the particular without subordinating it. Arendt’s way of writing opens possibilities in the search for non-tyrannical thought, and it is worth considering for feminist philosophy.