Abstract
What we understand today by the word democracy is not univocal. But one basis of modern democracy, “human rights, “ is recognized worldwide, at least verbally. One can, of course, dispute which rights are meant for particular situations, but such a dispute would not be possible if the validity of one human right was not considered self-evident: the right to the free expression of one’s own opinion. This right accords with the basic significance of freedom of speech already operating in history’s first democracy with the Greeks. According to Aristotle, humans are meant to live together in a democratic polis because they possess the capacity to reciprocally give accounts (λóϒov δvαι) of their dealings, and these accounts are carried out in speaking freely with one another. So one can say that since antiquity, democracy is fundamentally founded on the respect for freedom of opinion.
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Notes
I would like to express my thanks to Amy Morgenstern for translating this article.
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, 1103al7–18.
Related to this, cf. from the author, “Authentic Existence and the Political World, in: „Research in Phenomenology, “ Volume XXVI (1996).
Cf. above all the Heraclitean fragment “ήϑος άνϑρώπω δαίμων” (Diels/Kranz B 119); with respect to this, cf. from the same author, Heraklit, Parmenides und der Anfang von Philosophie und Wissenschaft. Eine phänomenologische Besinning (Berlin, 1980), 447 ff.
It is thanks to the work of Christian Meier (“Die Entstehung des Politischen bei den Griechen, “ Frankfurt a.M., 1983) that this interrelation has been shown in its fully historical breadth.
Hua VI, 459 ff.
“are caught”: “eingeklemmt”; Kant says “eingeklammert, “ what in modern German means: “put in brackets, “ “left aside”; but this is not what Kant has in mind.
Cf. from the author, “Die Zweideutigkeit der Doxa und die Verwirklichung des modernen Rechtstaats” in Meinungsfreiheit. Grundgedanken und Geschichte in Europa und USA, eds. J. Schwartländer and D. Willoweit (Kehl a. Rh., 1986), Tübinger Universitätsschriften, vol. 6, Forschungsproject Menschenrechte.
Cf. Hannah Arendt, Das Urteilen. Texte zu Kants politischer Philosophie, ed. with an essay by R. Beiner (München/Zürich, 1985).
Cf. Hannah Arendt, Macht und Gewalt (München, 1970).
Note from the translator: the German equivalent for “shy away” is “wir scheuen uns, ” an expression that echoes the word “Scheu, ” the German translation for aidos.
Which, with Heidegger in mind, has the character of a “basic mood” (Grundstimmung) determining an entire epoch. To this, cf. from the author, “Intercultural Understanding and the Role of Europe, ” in The Monist, January 1995, and “Fundamental Moods and Heidegger’s Critique of Contemporary Culture, ” in Reading Heidegger. Commemorations, ed. J. Sallis (Bloomington/Indianapolis, 1993).
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Held, K. (1998). The Ethos of Democracy from a Phenomenological Point of View. In: Zahavi, D. (eds) Self-Awareness, Temporality, and Alterity. Contributions to Phenomenology, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9078-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9078-5_11
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