Abstract

Hannah Arendt sets out to achieve a definition of “the human condition” that is based neither on the results of the scientific knowledge pursued by anthropology nor on the elaborations of philosophical thought as proposed by Husserl and Heidegger, but rather on an understanding of the original and authentic meaning of “human action.” In searching for an answer to the question “Who is man?,” in attempting to define his identity, Arendt bases her investigation on a phenomenological analysis of the conditions of human existence, of the activities closely connected with it, and of the spaces in which these activities take place.This formulation, with which Arendt opens her work The Human Condition, solicits a comparison with German philosophical anthropology, in particular with that of Arnold Gehlen, especially with regard to the concept of “action.”