The Human Condition By Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt, one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century, published a book in 1958 titled The Human Condition. In this book, Arendt discusses many ways in which she views the human condition, but more specifically she discusses its relation to labor and work. She characterizes labor and work as essential aspects of the human condition. Arendt goes on to specify these two aspects in the sense of the public realm versus the private realm, as well as in terms of the social life, and in the political. Arendts dives into depth on how work and labor are politically significant acts and how they affect the private and public realms. What is the difference between work and labor? Arendt would say there is a huge
one. Work takes place in the world around us and at the same time creates the world around us. It creates lasting effects and can be utilized by future generations to come. While the ending result of work is disposable, its main intention is to be used to ensure the preservation and advancement of life. The idea, concept, or value of the work holds its permanence. Work is an inherently violent activity according to Arendt. It is the act of breaking up nature through the use of raw materials and then the transformation of those materials into useful objects. Work according to Arendt, makes a “world” in which all of us humans live. She says that "Viewed as part of the world, the products of work - and not the products of labor - guarantee the permanence and durability without which a world would not be possible at all" (Arendt 94). We have the power to contribute to our world through work, through lasting ideas and advances that will not disappear as we do. Work removes us from the repetitive cycle of nature and brings us into a common reality and shared space. This is why work and its meaning through Arendt’s interpretation is essential.
Labor and the act of laboring is done due to absolute need and for the continuance of daily life. The labor itself according to Arendt is carried out by animal laborans. The purpose of labor is to sustain one's livelihood. Anything that maintains the conditions of human life can be classified as labor; drinking, eating, and internal functions are all examples of what Arendt calls labor. Arendt focuses on the fact that the products of our labor are used up through consumption and thus our labor leaves nothing permanent behind, labor "never produces anything but life" (Arendt 88). This can be viewed in contrast to work, which does leave something behind.
Labor can be productive and unproductive. Productive labor is almost always done by chance. Things that are side effects of labor like human life itself and those that can have an impact on the future of human life are productive labor. Everything else, the labor and stuff you do just to survive, is unproductive in Arendts classification.
To understand work and labor Arendt says you must gain context of them in the spheres of public and private life. Public life is the realm where everything you do can be seen and observed. In this realm you find things like work, because as described earlier work creates lasting use or meaning for the public. The private realm is what you would expect; existing in the household where you are not always seen or observed. Looking back at the Greek city-states, or polis, Arendt observes that the freedom to act, or action, took place in the political or public realm and that the necessities of life, or labor, took place in the private realm of the household. Things like love and pain occur in the private realm, however the public is able to have an understanding and possible empathy for these things, so the realms do overlap occasionally and aspects from each can be brought into the other. According to Arendt, living in the private sphere only would result in deprivation of the world and of the reality shared between others. There has to be an overlap.
Arendt discusses that overlap in the social realm, in particular, the rise of the social in human life through the creation of mass civilizations.
And its tendency to move property from the private realm of the household to the public realm of society. Arendt defines the the social as “the rise of housekeeping, its activities, problems, and organizational devices.” and the “public organization of the life process” (Arendt 38 & 46). Society has changed a lot from men being able to choosingly avoid the public realm. One could see privacy in ancient times as a loss, a lack of life. Now if you chose to, you can live in your parents basement until you are 50 and stay in the house 90% of the time, living mainly in the private life. With mass civilizations that we have now, it is becoming more crucial to leave the private realm to link up with other humans in your society. Without the power of the masses and the contribution of all there is no true power or real
political.
A common thought among some radical democrats and one slightly held by Arendt is that the power comes from the people and the political sphere develops when you are taking action for the betterment of all humans. It is in fact essential to the possibility of genuine political action that a world brings together the plurality of human beings. Work becoming public and political has zero limitation. The political significance of work is that you are creating something that outlives you, and serves the world around you more than it will ever possibly serve you.
Labor connects to the political in a way that because we have now reached a point in society where we define everything outside of labor as hobbies or ‘play time’ without labor itself we would feel meaningless in our work.
The political to me is when you act with intention to create lasting change for those other than yourself as well as yourself. Without labor in modern day America at least, there would be a loss of the political because no one would consider themselves to be advancing or contributing. No one would care to form the social or the political because of the value in them saying without labor there is no purpose. Work in contrast has everlasting effects, but nowadays people are not attending their nine to five to create lasting effects, they are doing it to pay for the bar that upcoming weekend. Art is work that lasts, it has durability and meaning. Art brings work into the social and
political.
Vita activa, or active life, is what Arendt argues is the fundamental of the human condition. Included in active life is labor, work, and action. Work and labor play different roles in everyday life, and can be attributed to adding or detracting from public and private life. Work and labor are both essential aspects of the human condition, without them there would be a lack of meaning and lack of furtherance in society. The concept of social life and the political play important roles in Arendts explanation of the human condition. By analyzing these relationships, there is more importance and depth to be found in things done in one’s everyday life.