book
Between Past and Future
Arendt, Hannah. Between Past and Future. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Related concepts2 concepts
Concept
Judgment
Judgment names the capacity to decide when understanding is incomplete but harm, coordination, or responsibility will not wait. It becomes important whenever action must proceed under partial information and real consequence. It helps preserve proportionality, answerability, and room for revision, but can fail when judgment hardens into dogma, paralysis, or punitive finality. It differs from certainty because judgment accepts incomplete sight; it differs from preference because judgment weighs consequence beyond taste; it differs from optimization because judgment keeps contestability and human proportion in view; it differs from rule-following because judgment must still respond when rules lag reality.
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Concept
Public interpretation
Public interpretation names evaluative activity that still connects reasons to standing across boundaries. It becomes important whenever legitimacy depends on more than enforcement or belonging alone. It helps preserve contestability and repair, but can fail when communication intensifies while evaluative space vanishes. It differs from private understanding because public interpretation must be able to matter publicly; it differs from interpretive collapse because collapse is the loss of this shared function, not failed comprehension alone.
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When Accountability No Longer Expires
How Legitimate Authority Learns to Survive Harm
An institutional lens on why legitimate authority can persist after harm. Organizations learn to survive scandal without resolving it.
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