The Human Condition

This chapter introduces many of the historical, scientific, economic and cultural themes that Arendt will discuss over the course of Part 6.

Arendt begins by outlining three major events of the pre-modern era that have continued to shape and determine our present. These are: first, the “discovery” of America and the consequent exploration and mapping of the entire earth; second, the Protestant Reformation, which ended feudal property relations in Europe and created the conditions for capitalist production and wealth; and third, the invention of the telescope and the ability to consider the earth from the perspective of the universe. For Arendt, these pre-modern events “are still happening in an unbroken continuity” (248) with our modern age. She will focus chiefly on the third point in Part 6.

The common thread in these seemingly disparate historical developments is what Arendt calls “world alienation […] the hallmark of the modern age” (254). This quote refers to the sacrifice of the world and the worldliness of human beings brought about by the aftereffects of the three great events mentioned above. In short, we are no longer at home in the world, and are thereby left struggling to find meaning in it.