Oct
2
Fragments of a Political Phenomenology
What does it mean to make a public appearance?
If one believes Hannah Arendt, it involves very
particular conditions; those of a specific space in
which this appearance will be perceived by others. A
“space of appearance,” as Arendt calls it, by no means
automatically exists in every place where people gather
as a crowd. Instead it is constituted wherever “people
are together in the manner of speech and action.” It
is only in this being together that an intersubjective
“interstitial space” is created in which people exist not
merely as things that are indifferent to one another
but explicitly make their appearance in front of and for
one another.