The Human Condition, by Hannah Arendt Essay

Cleaning up down South: supermarkets, ethical trade and African horticulture is a piece by Susanne Freidberg published in Social and Cultural Geography journal in 2003 (Freidberg, 2003). Susanne Friedberg holds PhD from UC Berkely and is a Professor of Geography in Darmouth College, New Hampshire (“Susanne Freidberg,” n.d.). In the article the author argues that the ethical standards have become fetishised. The UK supermarkets compliance with such standards edges on paranoia. It does not mean that the supermarkets care about these standards from moral point of view but that the compliance is driven by fear of bad

Slavery has been a major component of human civilization all throughout history. People turn to slavery for many reasons, such as fear of different ethnicities and fear that these new foreign people will take over land that is not theirs. The conditions under which slaves work and live varies greatly by the time and location of which the slaves lived. Slaves play a major role in their society and contribute greatly to their communities, often forming one of the largest masses of the population. Though the accuracy of the information from primary sources may be tainted with exaggeration and bias, it is easy to deduce from primary works the treatment of slaves and the working and living conditions surrounding them. According to many sources,

“Indentured servitude declined over the century, and most of these domestic servants were now either free women or slave women” (Coryell, pg. 104). Those who worked in a servitude role were indentured servants, who had the ability to work a number of service years in order to earn their freedom and they would be given a small plot of land, afterwards, to continue to thrive. Eventually, in order to compensate for the growing American need of lower overall costs to purchase labor workers, longer time in servitude, and to decrease the need to give land lots, the term of indentured servant changed to slave, which limited potential freedoms and humanity. This demand for labor changed the owner and slave relationship. “Owners began providing minimal clothing and food. Owners viewed all of slaves’ labor as their own” (Coryell, pg. 105). By forcing a dependent relationship, owners were able to maintain their

Slavery lives on all era in world history till lately, but its life has not constantly had the similar economic trait. Two questions ought to be answered to properly examine any definite cause of slavery: (1) what further systems of labor live in the civilization also to slavery? And (2) what system of labor is leading? In this manner we can make a difference among ancient slavery (e.g., in Greece and Egypt where free farmers live together with slaves, but slavery was leading) and antebellum slavery in the United States (which live together with free farmers, but was conquered by the industrially-based capitalism of the urban North). The past dominance of capitalism in the United States made antebellum slavery the most uncivilized system of slave work. Not

Why work like a dog so you can pant for a moment or two before you die?” (54). Then when speaking to the runaway slave Thoreau says “But there is slavery in the North, too. Every man shackled to a ten-hour-a-day job is a work-slave. Every man who has to worry about next month’s

The act of slavery retains questioned in many different ways, such ways that questions the overall thought of humanity as a whole. In Cannibals ALL! Or Slaves Without Masters, George Fitzhugh uses diatribe to persuade his audience that the weak should commit towards enslavement and become superintendent by a person of prestigious background. Fitzhugh states that, “It is the duty of society to enslave the weak”. (L.2-L.3)

“The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible.” - OSCAR WILDE, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, humans are created by the World State. Also they are conditioned human souls to have a synthetic, dream-like life. In the World State, people are happy. Almost everything is thought of for the World State citizens, and people perform their duties with no complaint since they are designed to fit their job and their social status. From birth or hatching, till they become active in society, all citizens goes through psychological and chemical processing, where many follow the beliefs provided by the World State controllers. Even though the World State citizens are driven to obey their instinctual feelings, which are enforced by the state controllers, people are still cannot escape by their natural human instincts since science is not enough to control the complete society.

More often than not, we commit actions in our daily life to satisfy our biological needs, i.e. to survive. Hannah Arendt’s book “The Human Condition” has made me realize that we, as human beings, are constantly in need of defining our true identities among the society, which is to fulfill our human aspirations. In other words, what we usually do every day does not necessarily present who we are, but rather what we are. This paper will focus on analyzing the relation between our actions (our biological needs) and what it means to be human (our human aspirations).

Human nature is a broad subject. What does it truly mean? It is a word with more than just one definition. To put in simpler terms, human nature is characterized into two major types; human perception and human behaviour. Of course, not all humans have the same perspective. Likewise, they all do not perform the same behaviours. Humans are different from one another, as is every other living entity. Because of this, there may be similarities between humans, but there are most definitely differences as well. Written by Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner is a book that describes the life of a young Sunni Muslim/Pashtun named Amir. The book follows his life as he changes from childhood to adulthood to show how human nature greatly affects his life, and the individuals around him. This book is filled with many characters that have unique strengths and weaknesses that help describe their ‘human nature.’ For instance, Baba, Amir’s father, nicknamed as Mr. Hurricane, is described as an extremely brave person who acts upon himself to help and defend others from their troubles. An example of this is when he decides to build an orphanage (Hosseini 12-13). His downfall in the end was his decision to reject the chemotherapy, as his bravery made him ignorant. The author’s perspective on human nature shows how it is able to determine the fate of an individual throughout their life. This is evident on Amir’s case, as his actions revolve around the

Arendt seeks throughout the book to explain humanity. As oppose to describing humanity through their actions and demeanor, she examines the things humans participate in their day-to-day lives, as well as the world that surrounds humanity. She begins to explain this by the first chapter, the “Human Condition.” In this chapter, Arendt starts to make clear of her topic by explaining human conditioning through examples of daily life choices and actions. Arendt accounts “Vita Activa,” a terminology used to describe people’s normal action.

What is humanity? Humanity is the human race; human beings collectively. There are good things about humanity and bad things. The downside to humanity is racism, abortion, and disrespect. Some upside for humanity is humility, compassion, and the few people with respect. Humanity is, by no means, perfect, but it has its good character.

I'm not saying that I hate Aristotle for going with slavery but thats not what I would want humans to do. Everyone at least gets a chance at being free, no one should have to do labor because its the law, to me it's wrong. Especially because I don't want to be a slave myself so why should I see others like that.

Nineteenth century arguments supporting slavery are rooted in the idea that a slave is less than a man. Although Douglas by no means shares these arguments, he makes a similar claim in his discussion of the institution of slavery and the transition from slavery to freedom through the use of animal imagery and the relation between manhood and freedom. Douglass does this in order to emphasize the dehumanizing character of the institution of slavery and the restoration of humanity upon freedom, whether in body or in spirit.

A person’s up-bringing determines the path he or she is lead to in the future. This concept becomes the first objective of tasting the foundations of what life has to offer. Often times we begin to judge our entire lives from ground zero- the moment of natality, our very birth, to the stage of acquiring skills for the biological need for survival as well as the emotional support that would condition that person in society. The natality stage, the initiator of action according to Hannah Arendt, is the most significant part of any person’s life. Taking this level, one starts to be taught how to rationalize and to find that sense of belonging.