"Thinking about what we are doing"

the reach of The Human Condition in contemporary philosophical-political thought

Abstract

Explaining and articulating the three activities that condition human life, namely, labor, work and action, appear as the motto of the Arendt’s work The Human Condition. However, our attention turns to one of the last sentences that compose the prologue, which present the proposal that will guide the reflections of this work, that is configured in “just think what we are doing”. This proposal seems to be something simple, somewhat unrelated to great philosophical works. However, “thinking about what we are doing” presents itself as something deep and profitable, because it is a matter of thinking about what modern man is doing within his active life. Given this argumentative framework, it may be asked: what is the impact of Arendtian thought, contained in the pages of The Human Condition, sixty years after its publication? Are we facing a great work on political and philosophical thought, or, more than this, are we before a classic? To answer these questions, three will be the qualities we will use to think about this work: if it is capable of being an authentic interpreter of its time; if readings and re-readings are instigated; and if it was able to elaborate concepts and categories that lead us to understand reality.