In this article, I investigate the concept of unexpectedness in action, drawing primarily on the ideas of Arendt and Ricoeur. The investigation is furthered through temporal, historical and semantic dimensions of action, highlighting how unexpectedness serves as a basic characteristic through which a novelty appears. This three-dimensional investigation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how unexpectedness is seen and heard as a novelty within the context of human action. I argue that unexpectedness appears as a novelty through which new beginnings can occur. The investigation introduces an examination of Arendt’s action to show its character of unexpectedness. Ricoeur’s understanding of action, narrative and imagination will enable me to thoroughly examine Arendt’s understanding of action and its characteristic of unexpectedness.
AguessyHonoratMadhavaAshishAskinYakov F., et al.1977. Time and the Philosophies. UNESCO.
2.
ArendtHannah. 1958. The Human Condition. The University of Chicago Press.
3.
ArendtHannah. 1960. “Freedom and Politics: a Lecture.” Chicago Review14, no. 1: 28–46.
4.
ArendtHannah. 1963. On Revolution. Penguin Books.
5.
ArendtHannah. 1970. On Violence. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers.
6.
ArendtHannah. 2005. “Introduction into Politics.” In The Promise of Politics, 93–200. Schocken Books.
7.
ArendtHannahKohnJerome. 1954. “The Crisis in Culture.” In Between Past and Future, Eight Exercises in Political Thought, 197–226. Penguin Books.
8.
BachelardGaston. 1964. The Poetics of Space: The Classic Look at How We Experience Intimate Places, Translated by Maria Jolas. Beacon Press.
9.
BachelardGaston. 2005. On Poetic Imagination and Reverie. Spring Publications.
10.
BachelardGaston. 2010. The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos, Translated by Daniel S. Russell. Beacon Press.
11.
BachelardGaston. 2013. The Intuition of the Instant, edited by LescureJean, Translated by Eileen Rizo-Patron. Northwestern University Press.
12.
BeinerRonaldArendtHannah. 1992. “Interpretive.” In Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, 89–156. The University of Chicago Press.
13.
BorrenMarieke.2013. “‘A Sense of the World’: Hannah Arendt’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Common Sense.” International Journal of Philosophical Studies21, no. 2: 225–55. doi:10.1080/09672559.2012.743156.
14.
CanovanMargaret.2017. “The Contradictions of Hannah Arendt’s Political Thought.” Hannah Arendt6: 3–24. doi:10.4324/9781315253657-2.
15.
CarrDavidTaylorCharlesPaulRicoeur. 1991. “Discussion: Ricoeur on Narrative.” In On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and Interpretation, 160–87. Routledge.
16.
CastoriadisCorneliusRicoeurPaul.. 2017. “Dialogue on History and the Social Imaginary.” In Ricoeur and Castoriadis in Discussion: On Human Creation, Historical Novelty, and the Social Imaginary, edited by AdamsSuzi, 3–20. Rowman & Littlefield International.
17.
D’EntrèvesMaurizio Passerin. 1989. “Freedom, Plurality, Solidarity; Hannah Arendt’s Theory of Action.” Philosophy & Social Criticism15, no. 4: 317–50. doi:10.1177/019145378901500401.
18.
GaffneyJennifer.2015. “Another Origin of Totalitarianism: Arendt on the Loneliness of Liberal Citizens.” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology47, no. 1: 1–17. doi:10.1080/00071773.2015.1097405.
19.
GeertzClifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Basic Books.
20.
HeideggerMartin. 2010. Being and Time, Translated by Joan Stambaugh. State University of New York Press.
21.
JervolinoDomenico.1996. “Gadamer and Ricoeur on the Hermeneutics of Praxis.” In Paul Ricoeur: The Hermeneutics of Action, edited by KearneyRichard. Sage Publications.
22.
KearneyRichard.1995. “Narrative Imagination: Between Ethics and Poetics.” Philosophy & Social Criticism21, no. 5–6: 173–90. doi:10.1177/0191453795021005-613.
23.
KoselleckReinhart.2002. “Concepts of Historical Time and Social History.” In The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts, Translated by Todd Samuel Pressner Et Al., 115–30. Columbia University Press.
24.
KoselleckReinhart.2004. “The Space of Experience and the Horizon of Expectation: Two Historical Categories.” In Futures Past, translated by Keith Tribe, 255–76. Columbia University Press.
25.
MarkellPatchen.2010. “The Rule of the People: Arendt, Arche, and Democracy.” In Politics in Dark Times, Encounters with Hannah Arendt, edited by BenhabibSeyla, 58–83. Cambridge University Press.
26.
PucciEdi.1995. “History and the Question of Identity: Kant, Arendt, Ricoeur.” Philosophy & Social Criticism21, no. 5–6: 125–36. doi:10.1177/0191453795021005-610.
27.
RaeGavin. (2024) Arendt, Free Will, and Action. Philosophy & Social Criticism0(0): 1–20. doi: 10.1177/01914537241284547
28.
RicoeurPaul. 1976. Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Texas Christian University Press.
29.
RicoeurPaul. 1979. “The Function of Fiction in Shaping Reality.” Man and World12, no. 2: 123–41. doi:10.1007/bf01252461.
30.
RicoeurPaul. 1984. Time and Narrative, Translated by David Pellauer and Kathleen Blamey, Vol. 1. The University of Chicago Press.
31.
RicoeurPaul. 1985. Time and Narrative, Translated by David Pellauer and Kathleen Blamey, Vol. 2. The University of Chicago Press.
32.
RicoeurPaul. 1986 In Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, edited by GeorgeH. Taylor. Columbia University Press.
33.
RicoeurPaul. 1988. Time and Narrative, Translated by David Pellauer and Kathleen Blamey, Vol. 3. The University of Chicago Press.
34.
RicoeurPaul. 1991a. “Imagination in Discourse and in Action.” In From Text to Action, Translated by Kathleen Blamey and John B Thompson, 168–87. Northwestern University Press.
35.
RicoeurPaul. 1991b. “Initiative.” In From Text to Action, Translated by Kathleen Blamey and John B Thompson, 208–26. Northwestern University Press.
36.
RicoeurPaul. 1991c. “The Model of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered as a Text.” In From Text to Action, translated by Kathleen Blamey and John B Thompson, 144–67. Northwestern University Press.
37.
RicoeurPaul. 1991d. “Life in Quest of Narrative.” In On Paul Ricoeur, edited by WoodDavid. Routledge.
38.
RicoeurPaul. 1992. Oneself as another, Translated by Kathleen Blamey. The University of Chicago Press.
39.
RicoeurPaul. 2013. Hermeneutics: Writings and Lectures, edited by MichelJohannPoréeJérôme, Translated by David Pellauer. Polity Press.
40.
RicoeurPaul. 2016a. Philosophical Anthropology: Writings and Lectures, edited by MichelJohannPoréeJérôme, Translated by David Pellauer. Polity Press.
41.
RicoeurPaul. 2016b. “Metaphor and the Central Problem of Metaphysics.” In Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation, Translated by John B. Thompson, 127–43. Cambridge University Press.
42.
RicoeurPaul. 2024. In Lectures on Imagination, edited by GeorgeH. TaylorSweeneyRobert D.AmalricJean-LucCrosbyPatrick F.. The University of Chicago Press.
43.
RicoeurPaulClaudeLarreRaimundoPanikkar, et al.1976. Cultures and Time. The UNESCO Press.
44.
SavageRoger W. H.2021. Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophical Anthropology as Hermeneutics of Liberation: Freedom, Justice, and the Power of Imagination. Taylor & Francis Group.
45.
TaylorGeorge H.2006. “Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Imagination.” The Journal of French Philosophy16, no. 1–2: 93–104.
46.
TaylorGeorge H.2017. “On the Cusp: Ricoeur and Castoriadis at the Boundary.” In Ricoeur and Castoriadis in Discussion: On Human Creation, Historical Novelty, and the Social Imaginary, edited by AdamsSuzi, 23–48. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.
47.
TaylorGeorge H.2018. “The Deeper Significance of Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Productive Imagination: the Role of Figuration.” In Productive Imagination: Its History, Meaning, and Significance, edited by GeniusasSauliusNikulinDimitri. Rowman & Littlefield International.
48.
VollrathErnstFantelHans. 1977. “Hannah Arendt and the Method of Political Thinking.” Social Research44, no. 1: 160–82.
49.
WinchPeter. 1958. The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy. Routledge.
50.
WithrowGerald J. 1979. Time and the Sciences. UNESCO.
51.
YarMajid.2000. “From Actor to Spectator.” Philosophy & Social Criticism26, no. 2: 1–27. doi:10.1177/019145370002600201.
