Abstract

This chapter explores the central role that freedom of movement plays throughout Hannah Arendt’s work. It highlights its significance not only in her analysis of totalitarian domination, through the suppression of this freedom in the world, but also in the perpetual motion set in motion by the logic embedded in ideology. When Arendt reflects on what freedom is not, she finds it in executive will, the notion of free will as “I do what I want.” This conception underpins the persistent and fatal equivalence between freedom and sovereignty. In contrast, Arendt conceives of genuine freedom as the foundation for acting in concert, grounded in respect for plurality, contingency, and political friendship. Freedom, in this sense, is what grants meaning to politics, especially in light of the critical distinction Arendt draws between politics and violence in her writings. The chapter concludes by addressing Arendt’s notion of friendship with oneself and her own tensions surrounding the principle of non-contradiction, which become particularly relevant in her exercise of freedom of movement in thought.