9 Chapter Hannah Arendt and the Philosophical Repression of Politics Andrew Schaap Jacques Rancière and Hannah Arendt both disavow political philosophy even as they place the conflict between philosophy and politics at the cen- tre of their philosophical analyses. In response to a roundtable on his ‘Ten theses on politics’ in 2001, Rancière declared: I am not a political philosopher. My interest in political philosophy is not an interest in questions of [the] foundation of politics. Investigating political philosophy for me, was investigating precisely ... what political philosophy looked at and pointed at as the problem or obstacle ... for a political philosophy, because I got the idea that what [it] found in [the] way of foundation might well be politics itself. 1 These remarks echo a similar declaration made by Hannah Arendt in an interview with Günter Gaus for German television in 1964. Following Gaus’s introduction of her as a philosopher, Arendt protested that she does not belong to the circle of philosophers. If she has a profession at all it is politi- cal theory: The expression ‘political philosophy’, which I avoid, is extremely bur- dened by tradition. When I talk about these things ... I always mention that there is a vital tension between philosophy and politics ... There is a kind of enmity against all politics in most philosophers ... I want to look at politics ... with eyes unclouded by philosophy. 2 Arendt and Rancière followed parallel intellectual trajectories, ‘turning away’ from philosophy in response to the shock of a historical event and the disillusionment with a former teacher. Jacques Rancière in the Contemporary Scene.indb 145 Jacques Rancière in the Contemporary Scene.indb 145 10/13/2011 8:45:23 PM 10/13/2011 8:45:23 PM