LFU:online

Consideration of Arendt's positions in the context of her treatise The Human Condition; comprehension of Arendt's differentiation between labor, work, and action; discussion of current questions regarding Arendt's basic notions such as private/public; power/violence, plurality, natatality, etc.

As Arendt notes at the beginning of her treatise, the central theme of The Human Condition "is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing" (Arendt 1988: 5). In the course of her argumentation it turns out, however, that is all but simple to think "activity", which - as a basic term - is linked to the history of philosophical thinking in various respects. In fact, The Human Condition is illustrating that thinking must transgress the "proverbial ivory-tower independence of thinkers" (Arendt 1988: 324) in order to give an account of acting.

Reading proseminar; short presentations followed by discussions. 

Written.

Arendt, Hannah. Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben. München: Piper, 2010. 

None.