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