Precis on Preface: Gap Between Past and Future by Cheryl Jamison

In her Preface, Hannah Arendt’s central argument deals with the responsibility of “each new generation, indeed every new human being” to “discover” and “pave” anew the gap that exists between the past and the future (13). This gap, described as a “thought-event” manifests in three-fold warfare: the struggle between the antagonistic forces of the past and the present; the struggle between man with his past; and the struggle between man with his future (10).

The preface opens with a quotation from French poet Rene Char: “our inheritance was left to us by no testament” (3). Arendt argues that “testament,” referring to tradition, ensures that possessions, valuable treasures, of a past generation are properly preserved and handed down to future generations. (Today we might use a will or living trust to ensure this process.) In short, the future, even before it had been realized, eluded man through an interval or gap in time because the past had not ensured its safe passage. This interval is an opportunity of necessity for each new generation to create its own being, its own state of existence.

The treasure, which was so valuable yet nameless, was an expression of freedom and self-realization—freedom from the encumbrances of society and the constant search of self (4). The problem, as Arendt described, is that because this treasure of freedom had not been passed down through tradition, there was no name or value assigned to it. Without this assignment of name or value, there was nothing to “think about and to remember” (6). The importance of remembrance is the necessity of a “pre-established framework of reference” (5). In other words, there must be some “thing” of assigned value—treasured possession—that attaches itself to the mind and, thereafter, is open to recollection. In fact, questions arose as to whether the treasure ever, in reality, existed. As Arendt puts it, “The tragedy began . . . when it turned out that there was no mind to inherit and to question, to think about and to remember” (6). The treasure was lost in obscurity because it had no place of “thought” in which to exist—to be known, to be recalled, and to be passed down to future generations.

Arendt argues that the gap between past and future is a “non-time-space . . . [that] can only be indicated, but cannot be inherited and handed down from the past” (13). Her call to action, as stated previously, is that new generations must find and chart its own course. This call to action is an opportunity for continued renewal of intellectual thought that pushes each succeeding generation beyond the realm of the past.