Arendt On Power

A. Power Construed As Experience of Possibility (power from L. potens, potential)     

B. Political Rationality à

            yields emphasis on open futurity ineradicably inhering in present/presence à    

            history as interminable social struggle

C. Characterized by Dissensus, Dependent on Consent

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A. Power Construed As Amplification of Capacities

B. Instrumental Rationality à

            Yields emphasis on The Future as destination/"Manifest" Destiny à

            History as causal material forces, often superhuman ones (prone to technological determinism         and "natural progressivisms" in which differences tend to be cast as exploitable atavisms)

C. Characterized by Consensus, Dependent on Dissent (prediction and control warranted by scientific             beliefs that attract a consensus after being put to the test)