The Human Condition (book)
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The Human Condition, published in 1958, is one of the central theoretical works of the philosopher Hannah Arendt. It is categorically difficult to understand, with many academics still debating about the author's intention. The most common interpretation is that it is an account for the historical development of the situation of human existence, from the Ancient Greeks to modern Europe.
Arendt aims the book at the possibilities of the vita activa (the title she preferred) in the modern world. She divides the book into discussions of labor, work, and action and their place within four realms: the political, the social, the public, and the private.
The claim that Arendt suffered from "polis envy" is probably best substantiated by this book. It can be read as a lament for the rise of the consumer society which "socializes the life process". Slavery may have been a regretful institution in Athens, but without it all "free-men" have to engage in their own perpetual cycle of production and consumption as necessity is socialized. In doing this the clear Greek division between private and public is extinguished - the home was the site where all the activities relating to the life process were taken care of and "the step over the threshold of the home" each day into a public arena, was the crossing of a gulf. This space was so organized so that citizens could appear in a way that they could perform "memorable acts" for their fellow citizens. It is this degradation of public space into an area to "merely" move through on one's passage through the consumption cycle that is, perhaps, Arendt's meta-philosophy.
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