The Refracted Life of a Human Being

Jaroslava Vydrová

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Chapter 14 The Refracted Life of a Human Being

In: On Revolt, Rebellion and Revolution

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Jaroslava Vydrová

Jaroslava Vydrová
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 331–346

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004744721_016

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Abstract

This study addresses Helmuth Plessner’s political anthropology, which contains a genealogy of political life that explains how the formation of the political world emerges from the foundation of the human being. The human is conceived as essentially “refracted” and formed through the interaction with others. To be human means coping with power and powerlessness, freedom as well as various dependencies. If we want to talk about conflicts or confrontations such as revolutions, we must look first at what political life is based on. Every law that is established in the state should consider human nature, as Plessner states. He thus traces anthropological principles that determine human beings. These include analyses of the sphere of the political as the sphere of the home and the foreign, the friend and the enemy, and the relation of the self to itself. Plessner is critical of the misinterpretation and reduction (nivelization) of the political, because the political requires participation in the public sphere.

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On Revolt, Rebellion and Revolution

Navigating the Challenges of Human Conflict

Series: New Research in the History of Western Philosophy, Volume: 14

Cover On Revolt, Rebellion and Revolution

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004744721

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 14 Nov 2025

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - 19th & 20th Century Philosophy
  - Social & Political Philosophy
- Social Sciences
  - Economics & Political Science

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Chapter 14 The Refracted Life of a Human Being

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On Revolt, Rebellion and Revolution

Navigating the Challenges of Human Conflict

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