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work:

labor:

the end-product:

[the model/idea of a table]

production -->

definite

beginning

definite

end

hannah arendt (1906-1975)

stepping out of the private and entering the public --> "courage"

~ (ARTIFICIAL) EQUALITY — ARTICULATED SPATIALLY

—> our recognition of each other in a public space --

spatial aspect of the political:

[Q] how public do you think we are when we are -- while listening to our ipods -- taking the bus?

"since our feeling for reality depends utterly upon appearance and therefore upon the existence of a public realm into which things can appear out of the darkness of sheltered existence, even the twilight which illuminates our private and intimate lives is ultimately derived from the much harsher light of the public realm." (51)

[Q] does then the public realm give us our world?

action:

escape from earth -->

alienation from the world

speech —> revelatory character of speech

—> disclosing "who" one is.

the individual appears as "who" she is --> plurality

"... this equality of the political realm has very little in common with our concept of equality: it meant to live in among and to have to deal only with one's peers, and it presupposed the existence of 'unequals' who, as a matter of fact, were always the majority of the population in a city-state. equality, therefore, far from being connected with justice, as in modern times, was the very essence of freedom: to be free meant to be free from the inequality present in rulership and to move in a sphere where neither rule nor being ruled existed." (32-3)

public:

(1) seen & heard by everybody (50)

(2) the world itself -- as which is common to us -- and --

world earth nature

MODERN WORLD ALIENATION:

labor: biological life of man as an animal

work: artificial world of objects -- human beings build upon earth -- worldliness

action: plurality of distinct individuals

[Q] what kind of equality is arendt talking about here? is it a "universal equality" -- or "equality" as being commensurable?

ex. analogy of a table:

(1) flight from the earth into the universe

(2) flight from the world into the self

[Q] the difference between "whatness" and "whoness"

common world

and this world -- which we have in common -- becomes our "topos" (place) of responsibility:

  • where we respond to the world
  • and to each other,
  • create meaning,
  • do not judge actions solely by their outcomes or their utility.

common nature

Mao Tse-Tung: "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among People" (1957)

"Those who demand freedom and democracy in the abstract regard democracy as an end and not as a means. Democracy as such sometimes seems to be an end, but it is in fact only a means. Marxism teaches us that democracy is part of the superstructure and belongs to the realm of politics. That is to say, in the last analysis, it serves the economic base. The same is true of freedom. Both democracy and freedom are relative, not absolute, and they come into being and develop in specific historical conditions."

[Q] what is the problem with this understanding of freedom?

Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) -- "Epilogue" --

"even though we might lack bread and other necessities of life, we wanted freedom. we, the young people, were particularly hampered because we were brought up amidst lies. we continually had to lie. we could not have a healthy idea, because everything was choked in us. we wanted freedom of thought." (a young girl student from the united nations' report on the problem of hungary)

"what I propose is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing." (5)

human condition

human nature

[Q] what are we doing?

labor the

work vita

action activa

the human condition (1957)

"the most radical change in the human condition we can imagine would be an emigration of men from the earth to some other planet. such an event, no longer totally impossible, would imply that man would have to live under man-made conditions, radically different from those the earth offers him." (10)

arendt's critique of traditional political philosophy ~ misrepresentation of human activity

objectives in reading this text:

earth ~ the quintessence of the human condition

[Q] is there, then, for arendt, an essence to human existence?

bios -- action (praxis) as the focus --

  • an autonomous and authentically human way of life

VERSUS

zoe ~ mere life (bound by necessity & utility)

marx: misconception of political action for a combination of labor & work:

political action ~ making

plato: contempt for democracy -- the political being informed by the knowledge of the philosopher --> "eternal truth"

bios politikos: a life devoted to public-political matters (aristotle) (12)

human beings ~ never absolutely conditioned (11)

the question for us is not

"what am i?" or "what are we?"

BUT

neither labor nor work --> bios

- to understand:

. the conditions of the activities of the vita activa

. the difference between utility & meaningfulness

. the political as that which is different from the social

. the difference between whatness & whoness

. FREEDOM as the "reason of being" of the POLITICAL

room for openness & contingency

"who are we?"

necessity

usefulness/utility

plato:

perception of truth --> essentially speechless.

promethean powers --> releasing processes with unfathomable consequences:

contemplation versus (political) activity:

acting & being together ~

zoon politikon --

[when translated as]:

  • "social animal" --> society

going back:

[Q] what kind of activity is labor? and work?

thus: the coercion of truth.

~ alliance between people for a specific purpose.

[Q] what happens to responsibility?

theoria ~ contemplation --> experience of the eternal. (20)

labor --> condition of life

work --> condition of worldliness

action --> condition of plurality

[Q] do we need others to labor?

[Q] plato's understanding of justice?

when politikon is translated as "social" --> it no longer "meant a unique, outstanding way of life, of being-together, in which the truly human characteristics, could show and prove themselves. it had come to signify an all-embracing quality that men share with many animal species..." ("marx and western political thought")

[Q] what was the purpose of society for plato? hobbes?

the relationship between freedom & speech has been severed.

bios politikos:

the accompaniment of action & speech

[Q] action & speech?

--> disclosing who one is & in public.

action: entirely dependent upon the constant presence of others. (23)

power --> power struggles regarding the ruler versus the ruled.

a gap between power & responsibility

"to be political, to live in a polis, meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through force and violence. in greek self-understanding, to force people by violence, to command rather than persuade, were prepolitical ways of to deal with people..." (26-7)

[Q] the distinction between the "what" and the "who" of the human being?

"thought was secondary to speech, but speech and action were considered to be coeval and coequal, of the same rank and the same kind; and this originally meant not only that most political action, in so far as it remains outside the sphere of violence, is indeed transacted in words, but more fundamentally that finding the right words at the right moment, quite apart from the information or communication they may convey, is action." (26)

aristotle:

"zoon logon ekhon" ~ a living being capable of speech.

power --> interests.

[Q] back to the link between freedom and speech?

[Q] what about hobbes?

how are decisions made in a political order for hobbes?

social

neither private nor public (28)

-- arendt will transform this relationship.

private versus public

emerged in the modern age with political form of a nation-state.

[Q] what does arendt think happens when the political community is understood as a "family" organization -- like a "natural association" rather than a "political" one?

body of people & political community ~ family

ex. political realm?

ex. household?

[Q] examples?

[ nation-wide administration -->

nation ~ family ]

"the vita activa, human life in so far as it is actively engaged in doing something, is always rooted in a world of men and of man-made things which it never leaves or altogether transcends." (22)

[Q] what is "the social" then?

[Q] what do we understand power to be in this context?

[think "private" -- needs & desires]

not a matter of human life understood as a living together.

"whether a nation consists of equals or non-equals is of no great importance in this respect, for society always demands that its members act as though they were members of one enormous family which has only one opinion and one interest." (39)

the driving force of politics (after the model of a household) becomes LIFE itself.

[versus] the polis: realm of FREEDOM.

"we live in a society in which men consider all their activities primarily as bodily activities, in the sense that their end is 'the preservation of individual life,' and themselves primarily as owners of labor force." (marx and western political thought")

plurality ~ condition of all political life (7)

criticism of -->

politics ~ only a means to protect society

"the human condition comprehends more than the conditions under which life has been given to man. men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence... (9)

--> the life that we live in the presence of others.

"...in addition to the conditions under which life is given to man on earth, and partly out of them, their human origin and their variability notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things. ... this is why men, no matter what they do, are always conditioned beings." (9)

[Q] can we understand this human condition to be the same as a human nature?

the world in which the vita activa spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers... (9)

[Q] so how should we understand responsibility here?

human existence ~ conditioned existence

Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition, Sections 1-6

Dr. Yasemin Sari

"Topos of Responsibility"

human existence:

"... it would be impossible without things, and things would be a heap of unrelated articles, a non-world, if they were not the conditioners of human existence." (9)

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