The Human Condition

The Human Condition

First edition
Author	Hannah Arendt
Subject	Political theory
Published	1958
Publisher	University of Chicago Press
Publication place	United States

The Human Condition,^[1] first published in 1958, is Hannah Arendt's account of how "human activities" should be and have been understood throughout Western history. Arendt is interested in the vita activa (active life) as contrasted with the vita contemplativa (contemplative life) and concerned that the debate over the relative status of the two has blinded us to important insights about the vita activa and the way in which it has changed since ancient times. She distinguishes three sorts of activity (labor, work, and action) and discusses how they have been affected by changes in Western history.