Political inaction as a community of knowledge: a reading of Filon’s The contemplative life

Abstract

This article seeks to question the relationship between “Political”, “Life” and “Action”, returning to the reading of Hannah Arendt’s concept of “vita active” in The Human Condition. Particularly, going back to the subject of “action” as a condition of possibility of “political life”. To do this, this analysis will focus on the thought of Philo, especially in a strange text in his corpus: The contemplative life or supplicants. The aim of the paper is to reflect on the place where philosophical reflection and theological reflection as a political forms are installed and what implications does this has: what happens when the foundation of teaching does not pass through the “vita activa” but by a passive life under consecration to the task of reflection and study: can we raise from there a communal manner that constitutes politics as in-action?