#2 – 20/10/2016: The Human Condition (1): The Public and the Private Realm


[The Human Condition] is a primer on how to think about and evaluate the res publica, the public things; how to protect them once they've been identified; and how to live a political life.
- Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Why Arendt Matters

After gaining an idea of Arendt's worldview in the last session, we now move on to one of Arendt's more in-depth works, which she described herself as a 'book on political theories'. In The Human Condition, Arendt rethinks key political concepts – in particular, labour, work, and action – giving them new definitions from the vantage point of 'post-totalitarian' society.

As the first of two sessions on The Human Condition, our next meeting will focus on Arendt's (re)definition of the public and the private realm, and thus of political life in relation to each.

#2 The Human Condition (1): The Private and the Public Realm – 20/10/2016, 5–7pm

Primary reading: Hannah Arendt, 'Vita Activa and the Human Condition' and 'The Public and the Private Realm', in The Human Condition (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998), pp. 7-12; 38-73. Click here for PDF.
Secondary reading: Margaret Canovan, 'Introduction', in The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998) Click here for PDF.

Location: LHRI, Seminar Room 1


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