This book presents an account of Hannah Arendts performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on actions disclosure of the unique who of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendts critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the right to have rights, and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the daimon metaphor that appears in Arendts own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.

Trevor Tchir is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Algoma University,Canada.

Chapter One - Introduction.- Chapter Two - Actions Disclosure of the Who and the World.- Chapter Three - Appearances of the Divine Daimon.- Chapter Four -Aletheia: The Influence of Heidegger.- Chapter Five - Labor and World Alienation: Arendts Critique of Marx.- Chapter Six - The Dignity ofDoxa: Politicizing Kants Aesthetic Judgment.- Chapter Seven - Forgotten Fragments: Arendts Critique of Teleological Philosophies of History.- Chapter Eight - Conclusion.