Hannah Arendt The Human Condition Summary
Philosophy, social history, political theory, and literature are only relevant markers for demarcating the different areas of investigation that converge in Hannah Arendt’s, The Human Condition. The book is sui generis in its reflection on the human agency and its capacity for action.
An entry point to this theoretical labyrinth is in the title of the book, The Human Condition. Arendt sets up her argument by differentiating between human nature and human condition. The problem of human nature, according to Arendt, is unanswerable as one cannot assume a fixed essence of humanity. To define our nature “would be like jumping over our own shadows”. (Arendt, 1958:10)
“Moreover, nothing entitles us to assume that man has a nature or essence in the
An entry point to this theoretical labyrinth is in the title of the book, The Human Condition. Arendt sets up her argument by differentiating between human nature and human condition. The problem of human nature, according to Arendt, is unanswerable as one cannot assume a fixed essence of humanity. To define our nature “would be like jumping over our own shadows”. (Arendt, 1958:10)
“Moreover, nothing entitles us to assume that man has a nature or essence in the