The Failure of Judgment: Disgust in Arendt's Theory of Political Judgment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hannah Arendt, the twentieth century's great theorist of political judgment, was also infamous for her own political judgments. Most notably, her essay “Reflections on Little Rock” sparked massive criticisms, accusing Arendt for holding racist views. Rather than rejecting Arendt's theory of judgment on this basis, this article argues that her theory makes it possible to theorize the immanent possibility of a failure of judgment. By developing the role of disgust on both the sensuous and reflective level of political judgment, we can account for the failure of political judgment along, for example, racial and gendered lines.