Arendt’s anti-humanism of labour

European Journal of Social Theory 22 (2):175-190 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The aim of this article is to situate Arendt’s account of labour as a critical response to humanisms of labour, or put otherwise, to situate it as an anti-humanism of labour. It compares Arendt’s account of labour with that of the most prominent humanist theorist of labour at the time of the composition of The Human Condition: Georges Friedmann. Arendt’s and Friedmann’s accounts of labour are compared specifically with respect to the range of capacities, social relations, and possibilities of fulfilment at stake in the activity of labour. The comparison provides a previously unexplored context for understanding Arendt’s account of labour and her distinction between labour and work. The relevance of Arendt’s and Friedmann’s theories of labour for the contemporary debate about the meaning of work in an age of automation is also briefly discussed.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Labour, Work, and Action: Arendt's Phenomenology of Practical Life.Chris Higgins - 2010 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 44 (2-3):275-300.
Symbol, Exchange and Birth: Towards a Theory of Labour and Relation.Anne O’Byrne - 2004 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 30 (3):355-373.
Freedom as a Mode of Thought: Hannah Arendt.Zane Ozola - 2023 - Athens Journal of Philosophy 2 (4):221-233.
Automation, Labour Justice, and Equality.Denise Celentano - 2019 - Ethics and Social Welfare 13 (1):33-50.
Automatic Subjects.Kevin Floyd - 2016 - Historical Materialism 24 (2):61-86.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-11-24

Downloads
845 (#27,701)

6 months
168 (#22,863)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Nicholas H Smith
University of Connecticut

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Two treatises of government.John Locke - 1953 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Peter Laslett.
The human condition [selections].Hannah Arendt - 2013 - In Timothy C. Campbell & Adam Sitze (eds.), Biopolitics: A Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.
Meaningful Work.Andrea Veltman - 2016 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.

View all 10 references / Add more references