具体描述
A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then—diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions—continue to confront us today. This new edition, published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, contains an improved and expanded index and a new introduction by noted Arendt scholar Margaret Canovan which incisively analyzes the book's argument and examines its present relevance. A classic in political and social theory, The Human Condition is a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely.
作者简介
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was an influential German political theorist and philosopher who came to the United States as a refugee from the Nazis in 1940. She held a number of academic positions at American universities including the University of California, Berkeley; Northwestern University; the University of Chicago; and Princeton University, where she was the first woman appointed to a full professorship. Her works, which deal with issues of power, authority, revolution, thought, and judgment, include The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Between Past and Future, and the incomplete and posthumously published The Life of the Mind. Wanda McCaddon began recording books for the fledgling audiobook industry in the early 1980s and has since narrated well over six hundred titles for major audio publishers, as well as abridging, narrating, and coproducing classic titles for her own company, Big Ben. Audiobook listeners may be familiar with her voice under one of her two "nom de mikes," Donada Peters and Nadia May. The recipient of an Audie nomination and more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, AudioFile magazine has named her one of recording's Golden Voices. Wanda also appears regularly on the professional stage in the San Francisco Bay Area.
目录信息
Prologue 1
I The Human Condition
1 Vita Activa and the Human Condition 7
2 The Term Vita Activa 12
3 Eternity versus Immortality 17
II The Public and the Private Realm
4 Man: A Social or a Political Animal 22
5 The Polis and the Household 28
6 The Rise of the Social 38
7 The Public Realm: The Common 50
8 The Private Realm: Property 58
9 The Social and the Private 68
10 The Location of Human Activities 73
III Labor
11 "The Labour of Our Body and the Work of Our Hands" 79
12 The Thing-Character of the World 93
13 Labor and Life 96
14 Labor and Fertility 101
15 The Privacy of Property and Wealth 109
16 The Instruments of Work and the Division of Labor 118
17 A Consumers' Society 126
IV Work
18 The Durability of the World 136
19 Reification 139
20 Instrumentality and Animal Laborans 144
21 Instrumentality and Homo Faber 153
22 The Exchange Market 159
23 The Permanence of the World and the Work of Art 167
V Action
24 The Disclosure of the Agent in Speech and Action 175
25 The Web of Relationships and the Enacted Stories 181
26 The Frailty of Human Affairs 188
27 The Greek Solution 192
28 Power and the Space of Appearance 199
29 Homo Faber and the Space of Appearance 207
30 The Labor Movement 212
31 The Traditional Substitution of Making for Acting 220
32 The Process Character of Action 230
33 Irreversibility and the Power To Forgive 236
34 Unpredictability and the Power of Promise 243
VI The Vita Activa and the Modern Age
35 World Alienation 248
36 The Discovery of the Archimedean Point 257
37 Universal versus Natural Science 268
38 The Rise of the Cartesian Doubt 273
39 Introspection and the Loss of Common Sense 280
40 Thought and the Modern World View 285
41 The Reversal of Contemplation and Action 289
42 The Reversal within the Vita Activa and the Victory of Homo Faber 294
43 The Defeat of Homo Faber and the Principle of Happiness 305
44 Life as the Highest Good 313
45 The Victory of the Animal Laborans 320
Acknowledgments 327
Index 329
· · · · · · (收起)
读后感
阿伦特于1906年10月14日生于德国汉诺威的一个犹太人家庭。她的父母都是社会民主党成员,母亲还是卢森堡的崇拜者。她在马堡和弗莱堡大学攻读哲学、神学和古希腊语,后转至海德堡大学,先后师从海德格尔和雅斯贝斯,深受存在主义哲学的影响。1933年纳粹上台后,参与犹太...
为尊重知识产权,这里仅抄录陶先生文中的第一、第二则勘误,其他勘误请参见陶先生博客全文。 全文网址: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_48a348be0102ecnz.html 或 http://tao.dongfeng.blog.163.com/blog/static/1285367132013519590121/ --- 原文:In the experience ...
【按语:在实践优于思辨、行动意味着自由的意义上,阿伦特是康德-尼采式的;就行为属于讲述者而非作者,源自意愿的行动的尺度是伟大而非预先的道德律的意义上,阿伦特更是尼采-海德格尔式的。在《人的境况》中,阿伦特是含混的:她一方面反对古希腊的玄思优于vita activa,另一...
《人的境况》读书笔记 一、出处: [美]汉娜·阿伦特《人的境况》,王寅丽译,上海人民出版社2009年1月版 二、《人的境况》研究综述: 《人的境况》是一本具有原创性的,不拘泥于知识条框的全新作品,就阿伦特自己的话来说,就是“她整个学说的序言”。这就要...
用户评价
这本书的结构安排极具匠心,它并非线性叙事,更像是一系列相互关联的棱镜,从不同角度折射出人类存在的某些基本维度。其中关于“死亡”与“开端”的论述,给我留下了极其深刻的印象。作者巧妙地将这两极联系起来,指出正是人类有限的生命——必然走向终结的事实——才赋予了“行动”以紧迫性和意义。如果生命是无限的,那么任何行动都将失去其独特性和不可替代性。这种对有限性的赞美,在充斥着“永恒成功”和“无限迭代”叙事的当下,显得尤为珍贵和反叛。它提醒我们,正是那些会结束的事情,才值得我们用全部的热情去投入。我特别喜欢那种略带悲剧色彩的清醒认知,它不是消极的宿命论,而是一种积极的拥抱局限。这种认知层面的提升,使得这本书的阅读体验远超一般的哲学普及读物,它更像是一次精神上的淬火,让人在清醒中获得一种力量。
这本书的开篇就给我一种强烈的震撼,仿佛作者直接将我拉入了一个宏大而又异常贴近的哲学空间。它并非那种晦涩难懂的学院派论述,而是以一种近乎散文诗的笔触,探讨着“行动”与“劳作”之间那微妙而核心的区别。我记得最清楚的是关于“公共领域”的描绘,它不仅仅是一个物理上的场所,更是一种人类互动中不可或缺的场域,是意义得以产生和被铭记的土壤。作者对“劳动”的刻画尤其深刻,那种将人异化、仅仅聚焦于生存必需品的重复性活动,与“行动”——那种纯粹为了展示自我、为了与他人建立联系而进行的实践——形成了鲜明的对比。这种对比迫使我反思自己日常生活的重心,我们究竟是仅仅在“劳作”中耗尽时间,还是在真正的“行动”中实现我们的存在价值?阅读的过程,更像是一场对自身生活方式的持续拷问,每一次翻页都伴随着一种“顿悟”的快感,那种感觉,就像在迷雾中突然看到了一座灯塔,清晰地指明了方向,尽管那方向本身仍然需要我们自己去探索和确立。这本书的文字密度很高,但叙事节奏却把握得极佳,如同精密的仪器,在揭示人类境况的复杂性的同时,又保持着一种近乎冷静的优雅。
我发现这本书在语言运用上达到了极高的水准,每一个句子都仿佛经过了反复的锤炼,信息量巨大却又毫不拖泥带水。在探讨“劳动”如何吞噬了“行动”的空间时,作者提出了一个极具洞察力的观点:现代社会对效率和生产力的无止境追求,正在无形中抹平了人类经验的多样性。我们越来越像被设计精密的机器,其活动被简化为可量化的产出,而那些真正彰显人性光辉、难以被量化的“伟大瞬间”——艺术的创造、深刻的对话、无私的奉献——反而被边缘化了。这种论述并非空泛的控诉,而是建立在对西方政治哲学传统演变路径的细致梳理之上的。读完这部分,我简直想立刻扔掉我手机里那些只会让我分心的“工具”,去寻找一些真正能滋养心灵、完成自我确认的“行动”。这本书的价值在于,它能让你重新审视那些你习以为常的日常活动背后的哲学根基,并勇敢地质疑其合理性。
说实话,我最初是带着一种怀疑的态度来翻开这本大部的,因为“人类境况”这个主题听起来就过于宏大,很容易流于空泛的陈词滥调。然而,这本书令人惊讶地避免了这一点,它所有的论述都建立在扎实的历史观察和对人类经验的细腻洞察之上。我尤其欣赏作者处理“孤独”与“群体性”关系的方式。在现代社会,我们似乎前所未有地被连接起来,信息爆炸、社交网络无处不在,但真正的“孤独感”似乎也达到了顶峰。这本书没有简单地指责科技的弊端,而是深入剖析了这种孤独的根源——它并非是物理上的隔离,而是“不可言说性”的缺失,是无法在他人面前充分展现和确认自身存在的困境。作者的笔法在这里变得尤为犀利,她似乎能看穿我们精心构建的表象,直抵那种渴望被“看见”的原始冲动。读到这部分时,我常常会停下来,看着窗外的人群,思考着我们每个人都在如何努力地在“在场”和“消失”之间寻求平衡。它提供的不是一套现成的答案,而是一套极其精妙的分析工具,用以解构我们身处的复杂世界。
这本书最让我感到兴奋的一点,是它对“奇迹”和“新生”的探讨,这无疑是全书的高光时刻。在一切似乎都被既定的规律和重复的劳动所主宰的世界里,作者坚持认为,人类的本质中蕴含着一种随时可以“开端”的能力。这种“开端”的力量,是人类区别于自然界中任何其他事物的根本标志。它意味着,无论我们过去做了什么、陷入了怎样的境地,我们总有能力,通过新的行动,引入新的、不可预测的因素,从而打破既有的因果链条。这种对潜能的强调,带来了一种令人振奋的乐观主义,但这种乐观并非盲目,而是建立在对人类局限性深刻理解之上的。它像一剂强心针,注入了对未来变革的信心。我合上书页时,感觉到的不再是沉重的负担,而是一种被赋予了重新定义自己生命叙事的责任感和兴奋感。这本书,绝对值得被反复研读和思考,它对“何以为人”的追问,是永恒而迫切的。
第一學期
如果她活到今天的话,可能会更加悲观。
又讀了一邊
其实在读她讲劳动工作行动的时候,脑子里蹦出来的是降维打击,从三维到二维到一维什么的=.= 阿伦特显然大大得益于她的古典学背景以及对马克思(洛克斯密)的细致阅读,并构筑起了自己原创性的理论。拓展对现代性和自由的理解的上佳著作。
逻辑清晰书写也很简明