Arendt's Three Spheres in Human Mind

In The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt discusses three different spheres and how they are applied to public and private spheres. These definitions were constructed in the 50s and accordingly times have changed. Although Arendt frequently refers to the ancient world. not much has changed to contemporary times. Arendt argues that the past has been destroyed by modernity Arendt grew up In a time of war and chaos in which she was not welcomed to express her true self or freely practice her religion.

Her history undoubtedly biased her to come to her conclusive definitions, Although decades have slipped away, that does not mean that Arendt’s arguments do not still hold some truths in them. Arendt used the model of the ancient world, specifically ancient Greece, to create her definitions for household, political, and social. All three of the spheres overlap Within one another. Arendt’s definition of social realm deals with taking aspects of the private world and marketing it as mass production to the public.

The social realm takes away from the traditional values of a proper home, According to Arendt. the idea of social life is taking an aspect from the private sphere and molding it to become a part of the public sphere, “this functionalization makes it impossible to perceive any serious gulf between the two realms: and this is not a matter of a theory or an ideology. since With the rise of society, that is, the rise of the ‘household’ (oikia) or of economic activities to the public realm, housekeeping and all matters pertaining formerly to the private sphere of the family have become a ‘collective’ concern”.

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Arendt states that society takes a private matter and drags it into the public life. A contemporary example of Arendt‘s Idea of social sphere is a restaurant. Traditional homes are supposed to have housewives whom spend their days cooking laVIsh meals for the” family. Restaurants allow people to have delicious meals Without the mother putting in the work for the meal.

However while gaining leisure time, the family loses closeness, If a mother does not cook meals then there is no longer a set time in which the family gathers and discusses every member’s day. Political and social spheres overlap; here Thomas Aquinas compares the Latin translation of the two realms. “the head of the household, he finds, has some similarity to the head of the kingdom, but. he adds, his power is not so ‘perfect’ as that of the king”. The contemporary political sphere is quite different from that of ancient Greece. Arendt’s description suggests a very passive aggressive form of governing the state. The politics of the ancient world were equal, whereas, the politics of contemporary times consists of inequality. The political sphere argues In favor of speech over Violence, “to be political, to live in a polis, meant that everything was decided through words and persuaSIon and not through Violence”. An example of the nonVIolence of the government is therapy.

Instead of acting out in Violence or in result of Violent actions, therapy has been established within society as a form of resisting violence. Therapy is run by educated. certified people. who specialize in aiding others to release tension The whole basis of the system is to allow people to release anger and other emotions through their words and not through violence Arendt discusses another overlap of the realms. “the polis was distinguished from the household in that it knew only ‘equals,‘ whereas the household was the center of the strictest inequality…it meant neither to rule or to be ruled.”  Arendt‘s description of household deals strictly with the private sphere. Cash economy entering into the household is a social intrusion. Acontemporary example of the household is home cooking. Cooking was obwously the duty of the female. It is accurate that the “household was the center of the strictest inequality”, specifically, the women made most of the ch0ices.

She chose what to serve, how to serve it. and so on; however, she did take into account the likes and dislikes of her family and the time her children and husband would return home. Certain tasks in the private realm were focused on the male’s endeavors. Men needed to accomplish certain tasks In order to be considered part of the outer world. ”that individual maintenance should be the task of the man and species survival the task of the women was obvious. and both of these natural functions. the labor of man to provide nourishment and the labor of the woman in giving birth. were subject to the same urgency of life, Natural community in the household, therefore, was born of necessity, and necessity ruled over all activities performed in it”. Arendt uses events and theories from the past and attempts to apply them to modernity. Arendt‘s descriptions of the three realms illustrate the changes in society. Although several centuries have passed since ancient Greece, some of the beliefs have not changed or have varied slightly.