The Public and the Private Realm

1. The Public and the
Private Realm
The Human Condition –
Hannah Arendt
Paulina
Mendez

2. 1. Hannah Arendt
 Her Life and her work
 Her principal books
2. The Human Condition
 What was the context in which it was written
3. The public and the private realm:
 Man: a social or a political animal
 The Polis and the household
 The rise of the social
 The public realm: The common
 The Private Realm: Property
 The location of Human Activities
4. Conclusion
The Outline

3. • Linden (Hanover) October 14, 1906 – New York, December 4, 1975.
• Studies: Philosophy in the University of Marburg (1926)
University of Heidelberg (1928)
• During the World War, she was compelled to leave to France – 1933
• She spent five weeks in internal Gurs concentration camp in France – 1940.
• In 1941, Arendt escaped to the United States and became an editor at the German
Jewish magazine Aufbau.
Hannah Arendt:
Her Life and work
She described herself instead as a political
theorist because her work centers on the
fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth
and inhabit the world".

4. Her principal books
• Using the example of the protagonist, born in 1771, shows the failure
of the attempted assimilation of Jews rich and cultured in the
nineteenth century due to increased social antisemitism.
Rahel Varnhagen. Lebensgeschichte einer
deutschen Jüdin aus der Romantik. (1931 – 1933)
• It is he major work in which she traced the roots of Stalinist
Communism and Nazism in both anti-Semitism and imperialism.
The origins of totalitarism (1951)
• Her most influential work, that distinguishes between the concepts of
political and social, labour and work and various forms of action
exploring implications of those distinctions. Her theory of political
action, corresponding to the existence of a public realm, is
extensively developed in this work
The Human condition (1958)

5. The Human Condition – What was the
context in which it was written?
The first artificial
satellite (1957-
1958)
The Cold
War (1945-
1991)
The automation of man
and technology
development
The
fertilization in
vitro

6. The public and the private realm
Man a social or a political animal
Three types of Human conditions:
Animal
laborans
Homo
faber
Man of
Action
The work
-Needs of our body
- Survival
Introduces new
objects durable in
the time which can
be shared
-Creator of history
-Action and speech
-Share ideas,
dialogue and
thoughts

7. Man a social or a political animal
“All human activities are conditionated by the fact that men life together”
Action
Society
Zóon politikum

8. Man a social or a political animal
City States
Human being Public life
oikon
Private
life
idion
Action (praxis) and speech (lexis)
Everything merely necessary
or useful is strictly excluded
in this sphere

9. Private
Realm
Public
Realm
Social
Realm
The Polis and the Household

10. The Polis and the Household
Public
Realm
Private
Realm
Social
Realm

11. Society
“The collective of families
economically organized
into the facsimile of one
super-human family”
Nation
“ it’s political form of
organization”
The Polis and the Household

12. The Realm
of the Polis
The Sphere
of Freedom
The Polis and the Household
“The mastering of the necessities
of life in the household was the
condition for the freedom of the
Polis”

13. Middle Ages Societies
“Freedom is located in the
realm of the social and
force or violence
becomes the monopoly
of the governance”
The Greek Philosophers
• Political realm
• Force and violence
The Polis and the Household

14. The Polis and the Household
Private
Realm
“Household
”
Public
Realm
“Polis”

15. • Social & Political realms are less distinct
• Politics
a function of the society
• Action, Speech and thought
superstructures upon
social interest
• Housekeeping
Collective
The Polis and the Household
In the Modern World

16. The rise of the social
The emergence of the society has not only
blurred the old borderline between private and
political it also has changed the meaning of the
two terms.
Why?

17. The rise of the social
SOCIAL
SPHERE
- Housekeeping
administration
-
INTIMAT
E
Feelings
Emotions
PRIVATESPHERE
The intimacy of the heart has no
objective tangible place in the world
and can not be localized in the
public sphere.
There was a rebellious reaction
against society: the leveling
demands of the social
Poetry, music and painting

18. The rise of the social
Equals or non- equals
Recognizes Demands
 One opinion and one interest
 Certain kind of behavior
 Impose innumerable rules
 Exclude spontaneous action
or outstanding achievement

19. The rise of the social
ECONOMICS appears as a technical tool to measure the
behavior of the mass of society:
-Long periods of time
- Uniform behavior of the objects to be observed.
BEHAVIOR replaced the ACTION
Larger
population
Restricted number of
members
Public sphere SocietyPolis

20. The rise of the social
The significant events are in rare deed
not in the everyday relationships also the
historical period shows itself only in the
few events that illuminate it.
Is the uniformity of society too bad?
The intimate liberties were invaded
by the social when implanted
behavioral parameters.
In the post modern state I will
decide if I am man or woman but I
won’t decide if I want to smoke, to
have children, to be fat or thin.

21. The public realm: The common
Everything that appears in public can be seen
and heard.
Private
Irrelevant
Public
Relevant

22. The public realm: The common
Plurality of individuals
inherently unequal, which
are 'constructed' as equals
politically.
They are acting in concert
with each other and the
freedom can emerge

23. The public realm: The common
The human artifact
gathers all together and
yet prevent our falling
over each other

24. The public realm: The common
Actually this common
world can not have the
capacity to gather
together.

25. Private life :
“ To be deprived of things
essential to a truly human
life”
• Deprived from:
– Being heard and seen
– An “objective” relationship
– The possibility to achieve
sth more permanent than
life itself
The Private Realm: Property

26. The Private Realm: Property
• In Modern terms
– Deprivation of an “objective” relationship
Loneliness
Public
Realm
Private
Realm
Coexistence

27. The Private Realm: Property
• The rise of Christianity
– “everybody should mind his own business”
– The political responsibility is undertaken exclusively for
the sake of the well-being and salvation
Government
Christian
A necessary evil due
to man’s sinfulness
Socialists
Hope to abolish it
eventually

28. The Private Realm: Property
• Property and wealth are more into the Public realm
than into the Private realm
• Poverty and propertylessness
Private
Realm
Public
Realm

29. The Private Realm: Property
“Poverty forces
the free man to
act like a slave”

30. The social and the Private
The private property
transcends generations
Destinated to be use
and consume

31. The social and the Private
Two dangerous situation if the private sphere disappear:
 Prevent the apathy
 Motivate the inittiative
The life is threatened where
necessity is altogether
eliminated
It is necessary to have a
private place to keep the
authenticity of the life.

32. The Location of Human Activities
Tendency to hide
from being
heard or seen
Does Goodness
exist in this
world?
Goodness and
the public realm
Love of
goodness Vs.
Love of wisdom

33. The Location of Human Activities
“either the Public Realm
corrupted the Religious
body and thereby became
itself corrupted, or the
Religious body remained
uncorrupt and destroyed the
Public Realm altogether”

34.  The society has conquered the public and the private
realm and now, we are in the condition to realize the
consequences for human existence when both public
and private spheres of life are gone, the public
because it has become a function of the private and
the private because it has become the only
common that we have.
Conclusion

35.  What is the influence of the development of all media
(TV, Internet, Radio, Social net) on action and speech?
 Have these technological findings extinguished the last
retreat of the private sphere, the intimacy?
 How does the revolution in media affect the human
condition, especially the human action and its
components?
 How would Hannah Arendt's describe the deep financial
crisis the world is suffering nowadays?
Questions

36. Thanks for your