The Human Condition

by Arendt, Hannah

• ISBN13: 9780226025988
• ISBN10: 0226025985
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights,The Human Conditionis in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then--diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions--continue to confront us today. This new edition, published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, contains an improved and expanded index and a new introduction by noted Arendt scholar Margaret Canovan which incisively analyzes the book's argument and examines its present relevance. A classic in political and social theory,The Human Conditionis a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was one of the leading social theorists in the United States. HerLectures on Kant's Political PhilosophyandLove and Saint Augustineare also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Margaret Canovan
Prologue	1	(6)
I. The Human Condition	7	(15)
1. Vita Activa and the Human Condition	7	(5)
2. The Term Vita Activa	12	(5)
3. Eternity versus Immortality	17	(5)
II. The Public and the Private Realm	22	(57)
4. Man: A Social or a Political Animal	22	(6)
5. The Polis and the Household	28	(10)
6. The Rise of the Social	38	(12)
7. The Public Realm: The Common	50	(8)
8. The Private Realm: Property	58	(10)
9. The Social and the Private	68	(5)
10. The Location of Human Activities	73	(6)
III. Labor	79	(57)
11. "The Labour of Our Body and the Work of Our Hands"	79	(14)
12. The Thing-Character of the World	93	(3)
13. Labor and Life	96	(5)
14. Labor and Fertility	101	(8)
15. The Privacy of Property and Wealth	109	(9)
16. The Instruments of Work and the Division of Labor	118	(8)
17. A Consumers' Society	126	(10)
18. The Durability of the World	136	(3)
19. Reification	139	(5)
20. Instrumentality and Animal Laborans	144	(9)
21. Instrumentality and Homo Faber	153	(6)
22. The Exchange Market	159	(8)
23. The Permanence of the World and the Work of Art	167	(8)
V. Action	175	(73)
24. The Disclosure of the Agent in Speech and Action	175	(6)
25. The Web of Relationships and the Enacted Stories	181	(7)
26. The Frailty of Human Affairs	188	(4)
27. The Greek Solution	192	(7)
28. Power and the Space of Appearance	199	(8)
29. Homo Faber and the Space of Appearance	207	(5)
30. The Labor Movement	212	(8)
31. The Traditional Substitution of Making for Acting	220	(10)
32. The Process Character of Action	230	(6)
33. Irreversibility and the Power To Forgive	236	(7)
34. Unpredictability and the Power of Promise	243	(5)
VI. The Vita Activa and the Modern Age	248	(79)
35. World Alienation	248	(9)
36. The Discovery of the Archimedean Point	257	(11)
37. Universal versus Natural Science	268	(5)
38. The Rise of the Cartesian Doubt	273	(7)
39. Introspection and the Loss of Common Sense	280	(5)
40. Thought and the Modern World View	285	(4)
41. The Reversal of Contemplation and Action	289	(5)
42. The Reversal within the Vita Activa and the Victory of Homo Faber	294	(11)
43. The Defeat of Homo Faber and the Principle of Happiness	305	(8)
44. Life as the Highest Good	313	(7)
45. The Victory of the Animal Laborans	320	(7)
Acknowledgments	327	(2)
Index	329