The Human Condition

This brief chapter both introduces and recapitulates Arendt’s definition of work, which has already emerged from its contrast with labor throughout Part 3 of the book.

Arendt argues that the work of homo faber, the person who literally “works upon” (136) the material of human artifice, is defined by use, not consumption. As detailed in Part 3, the objects produced by human labor are consumed through the biological process of the maintenance and reproduction of the animal species. By contrast, objects of use created by work endure, even if they come from natural materials and will eventually decay: “What usage wears out is durability” (137). The products of work thus have a temporal persistence lacking in the products of consumption, a stability that constitutes the objectivity of the human-made world. Arendt posits that if humans don’t interact with nature, “there is eternal movement, but no objectivity” (137). Nature, despite its fertility, is indifferent to humanity in its perpetual flux; work, on the other hand, imprints a lasting, specifically human character onto existence.

While Arendt concedes that there is considerable overlap between labor and work, she nevertheless insists that the latter alone creates objects that “will remain in the world for a certain while unless they are wantonly destroyed” (138).