Activity and Human Condition in Hannah Arendt

Abstract

We would like to demonstrate in this essay that it is possible to establish a relationship between Arendt and Marx about the concepts of "active life" and "human condition", despite Arendt's criticism of Marx in The Human Condition. We will argue that Marx and Arendt depart from a conception of man as an active being. Arendt is anchored in the concept of “energeia” in Aristotle, and Marx in the concept of "activity" of German Idealism. Both seek to overcome the predominance of contemplation over action. In addition to this common assumption, Marx, contrary to what Arendt says, but according to his perspective, establishes a distinction between "work", associated with useful work producing value of use, and work, thought not as metabolism with nature, as Arendt says, but as work under capitalist conditions of production. In fact, we argue that the idea of being active in its triple articulation with the work, work and the action theorized by Arendt prolongs Marx's perspective. From this perspective, the concept of inversion, that is, the reversal of the hierarchy between contemplation and action, is fundamental for certain how much Arendt prolongs Marx's perspective.