plurality

is a politics of shared differences rooted in the idea that we are all the same in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live.

Plurality is perhaps the key concept in Arent's understanding of action. She uses it to explore the situation humans achieve when they 'gather together and act in concert,' thus finding themselves enmeshed within a 'web of relationships.' In general terms, reality is the simultaneous realisation of shared equality and distinctive, individual differences. Arent calls it 'the basic condition of both action and speech.' Withotu equality, individuals would not be able to comprehend each other or communicate, and without distinctiveness, they would have no need or reason to communicate, no impetus to interject themselves as unique selves into the shared world. Plurality, then, is the common condition in which human beings reveal their 'unique distinctiveness.' Arendt presents this in terms of a paradox: 'Plurality is the condition of human action because we are all the same, that is, human, in sucha a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will lve.' Thus, plurality promotes the notion of a politics of shared differences' (Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory By Carole Pateman, Mary Lyndon Shanley)

is one of the most basic existential conditions of human life on earth. It requires the reality of a common world for the enactment of political action and speech.

Plurality, then, requires the reality of a common world for the enactment of political action and speech' Action and speech are not only requisite for the experience of politcal life, they are also the very activities which make possible the experience of plurality. Plurality is the context of political life because it is the condition which allows humans to live together in the formation of a communal 'we' and, for this reason, is seen to be 'one of the most basic existential conditions of human life on earth' (bowen-Moore 54).

is the fact or condition of denoting, comprising, or consisting of more than one... plural meaning.

The fact or condition of denoting, comprising, or consisting of more than one... plural meaning.

is the fact that men, not man, live in the world and inhabit the earth. It is the fundamental condition of politics in that politics goes on among plural, distinct human beings, each of whom can act and start something new. The results that emerge from such interaction are contingent and unpredictable.

the conditions of possibility for a viable public life that could unite citizens, while simultaneously preserving their liberty and uniqueness' (internet encyclopedia). The fact that men, not man, live in the world and inhabit the earth. She is concerned above all with the conditions of the political. 'She argued that the mistake made by all political philosophers since Plato has been to ignore the fundamental condition of politics: that it goes on among plural human beings, each of whom can act and start something new. The results that emerge from such interaction are contingent and unpredictable' (Human Condition ix).

is the sine qua non of political life in that it is the condition that makes it possible for human beings to create a public space for its enactment.

the condition of plurality makes it possible for human beings to create a public space for the enactment of a political life' . . .'plurality is the sine qua non of political life' (bowne 55).

plurality, n.All

plurality