A Philosophical Perspective on Human Activity

Introduction: Hannah Arendt, a German - Jewish philosopher, has in her work, The Human Condition, developed ideas about human activity (vita activa) which are closely related to occupational science. Description: Arendt... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: Hannah Arendt, a German - Jewish philosopher, has in her work, The Human Condition, developed ideas about human activity (vita activa) which are closely related to occupational science.

Description: Arendt describes three modalities of vita activa: labour, work and action. Labour is the recurring repetitive activities that must be constantly made to maintain our biological existence. Work means activities that give rise to an artificial world of things, that is, products and phenomena created by people. Action is the activity that takes place between people. Action means to take the initiative and to start something. Action is characterized by unpredictability. According to Arendt it is in the modality action that humans attain freedom. However, modern Western society is designed after the modality of labour even though we have the technical prerequisites to devote ourselves to the modality of action.

Application: The objective of this presentation is to describe similarities and differences between vita activa and occupational science and also to describe modern activity problems from the perspective of vita activa. In today's society it is required to perform duties, organized in a repetitive manner, both at home and at work. High demands on production following the labour modality, combined with lack of the action modality can be draining and lead to ill-health and increased alienation in both work and home situations.
Vita activa can develop occupational science and the idea of modalities can contribute to a better understanding of activity problems.