Grossman and Arendt: three paradoxes of "experiential liberalism"

Grossman and Arendt share a peculiar kind of liberalism that I define as "experiential liberalism," according to which human experience and freedom coincide. Here for “experience” I shall understand human existence marked by birth plus human capacity of imagination of possibilities and human ability to acquire habits of action. As much as their analysis of totalitarianism as opposed to freedom is insightful, their philosophical views allow for theoretical paradoxes on political, metaphysical, and epistemic levels. As matter of fact, defending political freedom, Grossman and Arendt highlight the shadow of totalitarianism upon the nature of any power; defending uniqueness of personal freedom, they highlight its fate of death by State, History, and Nature. Finally, defending free thought, they seem to indicate that thought cannot be a source of liberation. A thorough analysis shows that in Grossman's (unaware) use of a more complete pattern of representation in thought there might be a possibility to smooth this last paradox. However, Arendt and Grossman show that if one wants to defend the complex pattern of experiential freedom has to tolerate the controversial pendulum of opposites as individual/society, finite/infinite, thought/action. The endurance of the three paradoxes marks a common line of thought that can be shared by whoever wants a political commitment based on human experience as opposed to ideology.