"The first boomerang effects of science's great triumphs have made themselves felt in a crisis within the natural sciences themselves. The trouble concerns the fact that the "truths" of the modern scientific world view, though they can be demonstrated in mathematical formulas and proved technologically, will no longer lend themselves to ''normal expression in speech and thought''. The moment these "truths" are spoken of conceptually and coherently, the resulting statements will be "not perhaps as meaningless as a 'triangular circle,' but much more so than a 'winged lion' " (Erwin Schrodinger)."
(after:10s)["We do not yet know whether this situation is final. But it could be that we, who are earth-bound creatures and have begun to act as though we were dwellers of the universe, will forever be unable to understand, that is, to think and speak about the things which nevertheless we are able to do. In this case, it would be as though our brain, which constitutes the physical, material condition of our thoughts, were unable to follow what we do, so that from now on we would indeed need ''artificial machines to do our thinking and speaking''."]
(after:20s)[- Hannah Arendt, (text-style:"italic")[The Human Condition], p. 3]
(after:21s)[[[[Next->Title]]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:"white")+(background:"black")+(font:"baskerville"))#The Human Condition
#a game
[[begin->beginning]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))You awaken in a room with green wallpaper and tiled floors. You are lying on the ground. Groggily you begin to sit up, wiping the [(link:"sleep")[sleep, which encrusts the edges of your vision,]] from your eyes.
[[[Look Around?->roomDescription]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))The [wallpaper]<paper| has delicate [flowers]<f| painted on. It’s scratched and peeling in places, where perhaps [pets]<p| have worn it away. The room is empty, save for you. The floor is cold.
[[[Are you Human?->thinking]]]
(click: ?paper)[(replace: ?paper)[wallpaper, which is a deep emerald green]]
(click: ?f)[(replace: ?f)[little gold flowers]]
(click: ?p)[(replace: ?p)[[pets or furniture]<fur|]]
(click: ?fur)[(replace: ?fur)[pets or furniture or children]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Huh. That’s strange. There is a voice, but no one is speaking. The voice is coming from (cycling-link:"inside","within","something inside of") you.
[[[Is this what thinking feels like?->thinking2]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Is this what thinking feels like?
[Maybe]<A1|
[[[Yes->thinking3]]]
[I don’t know]<A2|
(click: ?A1)[(replace: ?A1)[]]
(click: ?A2)[(replace: ?A2)[]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Ah. Glad we got that sorted. Now back to the business at hand.
[[[Look around the room more->look1]]]
[[[Are you human?->human1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))There’s not much more to see. The floor is cold. The walls are [green]<green|. The room feels old in a vaguely comforting way.
There is no [door]<door|.
[[[I wish there were furniture to sit on->look2]]]
[[[Are you human?->human1]]]
(click: ?green)[(replace: ?green)[green with gold details]]
(click: ?door)[(replace: ?door)[door or windows]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Are you human?
I [think]<think| so
(more:)[Would you like to find out?
[[[No->whyNot]]]
[[[Yes->human2]]]]
(click: ?think)[(replace: ?think)[[know]<know|]]
(click: ?know)[(replace: ?know)[believe]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Well, there isn’t. There’s only the floor. Maybe do crisscross applesauce.
[[[Do crisscross applesauce->end1]]]
[[[Are you human?->human1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))
You sit crisscross applesauce and avoid [thinking]<thinking|.
You Win.
[[[Replay?->beginning]]]
(click: ?thinking)[(replace: ?thinking)[thinking about if you are human]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))In that case, I guess you don't need me.
[[[sit crisscross applesauce->end1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))How will you [find out]<find|?
[[[I won’t->stubborn]]]
[[[I can read that book over there->bookshelf]]]
(click: ?find)[(replace: ?find)[find out if you are human]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Huh? Really? You're okay with not knowing?
[[[Yes->end2]]]
[[[No not really->human2]]]
<!--maybe do more along this route. don't want the endings getting repetitive-->
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Look, if you don't want to learn you don't have to keep playing the game
[[[Sit crisscross applesauce->end1]]]
[[[Read the book->bookshelf]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Suddenly, a book shelf appears in the far corner of the room
(after:2s)[You approach the book shelf. It is low, made of light brown wood, and sturdy. It has indents and watermarks on its surface, grooves which hint at items belonging there.]
(after:4s)[It looks rather bare. On the top shelf is a single book.]
[[[pick it up->bookshelf2]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))The book is stained and old. The spine is cracked and some of the pages are falling out, but it has the answers you seek.
[[[Read the book->bookread]]]
[[[Summarize it for me->summary]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Ok. Go ahead:
http://sduk.us/afterwork/arendt_the_human_condition.pdf
[[[summarize it for me->summary]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))
The book tells you there are two ways humans live their lives.
(after:2s)[=
[[[The *vita contemplativa*->contem1]]], a life of thinking and reasoning, seperate from the world
[[[The *vita activa*->activa]]], a life of activity and being among menSuddenly, an armchair appears to your left. It’s a reddish brown hue spotted with beige.
[[[Sit down?->contem2]]]
[[[Go to *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Ah, I see you’ve gotten bored of a life of contemplation. It does get tiring after a while.
Arendt argued that the active life has been undervalued in philosophy, but is actually very important to understanding humanity.
Where would you like to begin?
[[[Labour->labour1]]]
[[[Work->work1]]]]
[[[Action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))You approach the chair and sink into it as it creaks. You give a sigh of relief and let yourself relax.
Arendt said the contemplative life has been favoured in philosophy ever since Ancient Greece, when Plato and Aristotle arrived on the scene and turned the world on its head.
The contemplative life is wordless. it involves neither interaction nor performance with other human beings. it doesn't even involve the body. it is purely an activity of the mind.
(after:5s)[=
What would you like to do?
[[[Think->think1]]]
[[[Reason->reason1]]]
[[[Go to *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Ah see, there’s a problem with that. I can’t help you there.
Thinking is an internal activity, meaning nobody else can help you with it.
In fact, according to Arendt, it is at the exact moment that you stop interacting with me that you begin to actually think.
Thought and worldly activities (like playing this game) can never happen simultaneously.
(after:5s)[= [[[Think some more?->think2]]]
[[[Go to *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Reasoning, rational thought, is something we are all blessedly endowed with. Arendt doesn’t linger on it in detail, besides stating that it is one of several mental activities that go on in the vita contemplativa.
[[[Can you reason?->reason2]]]
[[[Think instead->think1]]]
[[[Go to *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))You are already thinking.
(after:2s)[= [[[Think some more?->think2]]]
[[[Reason->reason1]]]
[[[Go to *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Suddenly a desk appears. It looks like a matching set with the book shelf, the same shade of light brown wood. On it is a notebook with some propositional logic statements. Can you figure out which ones are valid and which are invalid?
[[[Yes->reason3]]]
[[[I’d rather go to the *vita activa*->activa1]]]
[[[I'd rather just think->think1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))If dogs exist, then they are good
Dogs exist
Therefore, Dogs are good
[[[valid->correct1]]]
[[[invalid->incorrect1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))If dogs exist, then they are good
Dogs do not exist
Therefore, dogs are good
[[[valid->incorrect2]]]
[[[invalid->correct2]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Correct!
[[[Next question->reason4]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Incorrect. :(
[[[Retry->reason3]]]
[[[Next question->reason4]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Incorrect. :(
[[[Retry->reason4]]]
[[[Next question->reason5]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Correct!
[[[Next question->reason5]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))If Peter is born, then he will sin
Peter is not born
Therefore, Peter does not sin
[[[valid->correct3]]]
[[[invalid->incorrect3]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Correct!
[[[Move on->moveon]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Incorrect. :(
[[[Retry->reason5]]]
[[[Move on->moveon]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))What would you like to do now?
[[[Think->think1]]]
[[[Go to the *vita activa*->activa1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Good choice! Arendt argued that the active life has been undervalued in philosophy, but is actually very important to understanding humanity.
Where would you like to begin?
[[[Labour->labour1]]]
[[[Work->work1]]]
[[[Action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Suddenly you realize you are (cycling-link:"ravenous","hungry","starving"). Luckily there is a mini fridge in the corner(if:(history: where it is "reason2")'s length >= 1)[ right next to the desk]. You open to find bread, turkey slices, tomatoes, and mustard.
[[[Make yourself a sandwich.->labour2]]]
[[[Eat the turkey slices straight out of the package live the ravenous animal you are->labour2]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))(if:(history: where it is "reason2")'s length >= 1)[You walk over to the desk.](else:)[Suddenly a desk appears. It looks like a matching set with the book shelf, the same shade of light brown wood.] Above it, there is a window.
It’s time to make something.
Write your thoughts here:
(input-box:2bind $writing,"X","Write anything you like")
[[[next->work2]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Action is the only aspect of the vita activa which Arendt insists is essential to humanity. Action is the aspect of life which occurs in conversation with other people. It is the ongoing collaborative process of story-creation, but not story-preservation.
The products of action are ephemeral and frail. When writers and artists attempt to preserve actions in stories and paintings, this also results in the destruction of the act itself. And yet, action is what most stories are ultimately about. Great actions and great speeches live on through works of art, but not in them. they live on in the reader or viewer. This interactivity, whether instantaneous or over a great length of time, is essential to action.
Action is also political, although it does not always or necessarily occur only in the realm of politics. In fact, Arendt tells us that most politics is not done in the mode of action but in the mode of work. Even in ancient times, this was the case for the creation of the laws. Law-making was seen not as a political action, but as a pre-condition for political action, as banal as the building of the chairs on which they sat. the real political action occurred not in the making of laws but in the talking about them.
[[[The consequences of Action->consequence]]]
[[[Human plurality->plural]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Congratulations! You’ve just performed labour.
According to Arendt, labour is all of the activities which we perform to maintain our life processes. It’s the activity which we must do merely to stay alive.
As such, it’s the only human activity we share with (link:"animals")[non-human animals]. All living beings must keep their bodies alive. Unlike the other human activities, labour never ceases. It is cyclical and endless.
[[[Marx and labour->marx1]]]
[[[The modern age and labour->labour3]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Arendt criticizes Marx for over-emphasizing the centrality of labour to the human condition. According to her, labour is but one of many human activities, and a view which imagines it as the only or the highest human activity is
In Arendt’s view, the labourer (link:"qua")[insofar as they are a] labourer has nothing to be proud of. One should instead be proud of their [[[work->work1]]].
[[[The modern age and labour->labour3]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))In the modern age, we have fridges, stand mixers, and other machines which do our labour for us. Arendt fears that in this process we are giving up something of the human life. Not because labour is an essential part of life. None of these activities, besides perhaps action, are essential aspects of humanity. Plus, Ancient Greek elites managed to rid themselves of labour through slavery, and however unjust it may have been, those elites (link:"were not")[were not, according to Arendt,] inhuman.
Arendt feared that modern automation would fail in its mission of freeing us from labour. Instead of becoming devotees of work and action, she thought we would fall entirely into a life of (link:"consumption")[consumption, becoming a society of consumers].
[[[Marx and labour->marx1]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville")){(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))}
By writing "(print: $writing)" you just performed work!
Work in Arendt is the process by which (cycling-link:"men","men and women","people") come to make enduring use objects. Unlike the products of labour, these aren’t objects of consumption, which are destroyed almost immediately, but objects that endure over (some length of) time.
The products of work are everything which makes up (link:"the artificial aspect of human life.")[= the artificial aspect of human life. This room, all of the objects in it, are all products of work. They are the solidifying and stabilizing aspects of human life.
However, much of what we do in the modern day doesn’t strictly speaking meet the criteria for “work.” Not only do many of our products fail to endure, but they are produced in a labouring, rather than a working, mode.
The people who made this computer, for example, do so on an assembly line in such incremental steps that each individual person probably had no idea what they were doing. They had no image in their head of the thing they were making. This process of (cycling-link:"making a mental image a reality","reification") is an essential component of work to Arendt.
[[[Work and the Public Realm->work3]]]
[[[Achieving immortality through work->immortality]]]
[[[The violence of work->violence1]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]You look out the window. Below you people wander by, to and from places of business. At the street corner a man sells hot dogs. Occasionally, somebody glances up at you, writing at your desk. Yet you are separate from them.
Work involves a kind of relationship to other people, a relationship of performance. Arendt cites the medieval marketplace as an example of this. In the marketplace, people not only sold their works to consumers, but they performed their work for the sake of their own glorification.
Moreso than in labour, work is public and social. But it also involves an inevitable kind of separation. People interact not as individuals but only as the owners of commodities.
[[[Achieving immortality through work->immortality]]]
[[[The violence of work->violence1]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Many of the legends of the past teach us about the glory of work. Work is how a hero can achieve immortality.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s lover Enkidu dies tragically on the battlefield. The hero, faced for the first time with (link:"death")[the undeniable reality of death], goes on a journey to find the secret to immortality. Chunks of the text are missing, but in the end he returns to the city and builds a wall to protect its citizens.
One way we could read this story is that Gilgamesh achieved his goal. Through work, through the act of making something which endures, he became immortalized. The wall and the legend of the wall keep the memory of Gilgamesh alive.
We do the same in our own lives every day. When we create a book or game, when we build things like houses, when we raise children (for child-rearing is also an act of making), we create something enduring which we may be remembered by. Work provides mankind with a sort of immortality.
[[[Work and the Public Realm->work3]]]
[[[The violence of work->violence1]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Work in Arendt involves an inevitable “element of violation and violence,” not against other people, but against the natural world. In order to make something, one must first acquire raw materials from nature.
(cycling-link:"Salt","Wood","Iron") from (cycling-link:"the ocean","a tree","the earth") to make (cycling-link:"food","beds and chairs and houses","skyscrapers and electronics")
All of these involve robbing the natural world of something. This is why work shouldn't be overvalued. If we value work too highly, we run the risk of turning all nature and all beauty into mere use objects.
[[[Achieving immortality through work->immortality]]]
[[[Work and the Public Realm->work3]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about action->action1]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))One of the defining facts of action, according to Arendt, is the fact that it has consequences. In fact, action’s consequences are the most irreversible of any human activity. In the case of work, one can always begin a new project again. But in the case of action, every attempt is also a final attempt, and every blunder a permanent blunder.
This is why forgiveness is an essential component of public life. When an action has caused harm, forgiveness cuts short the cycle of violence it might lead to. Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgiveness without retribution. Punishment can be an important component to forgiveness. Forgiveness also retains one of the kew features of action-- whereas other reactions, such as vengeance, do not-- because it is unpredictable.
[[[Human plurality->plural]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
[[[Look at that door over there->door]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))Above the bookshelf a painting appears.
<img src="https://i.redd.it/9zzutuu57db11.jpg">
(size:0.8)[*"Me Looking At Her Looking At Me" by Jenna Gribbon*]
Although the painting itself is of course a product of work and not action, it represents one of the key features of action-- that it can only occur in the presence of other people. Me looking at her looking at me beautifully illustrates the essential life-giving power of interpersonal connection. Despite the fact that it is a snapshot of a domestic scene, it shows to us a moment of undeniable mutual recognition, a recognition that far exceeds the mere performance of work. This is a gaze that recognizes human plurality and individuality.
[[[The consequences of Action->consequence]]]
[[[Learn about labour->labour1]]]
[[[Learn about work->work1]]]
[[[Look at that door over there->door]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))You walk outside.
[[[The end->end4]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))A door appears next to the book shelf. It’s yellow like the wall, and wooden. Through it lies the world of men. By walking through it, you may be able to discover if you are human.
[[[Walk through the door?->end3]]]
[[[I still have more to learn->summary]]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))#The Human Condition
#a game
By Zoe Lyons
Music: Sufjan Stevens - Meditations - Convocations
[[begin again ->beginning]]
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:#d7c174)+(background:#0d2d27)+(font:"baskerville"))