Considerations on the notions of labor, automation, and alienation in Arendt

Abstract

The theme of alienation is the guiding thread of this exhibition. What we will call alienation here has to do with the ancient and current expectations of abolishing labor from the human condition, from the Greeks to the recent phenomenon of automation and cybernetization. To articulate the triad of labor, automation, and alienation, we will divide this exposition into three topics. We will initially seek to trace the beginnings of Arendt's research on the category of labor in her bibliography, contextualizing the political background of this investigation. In this initial contextualization, we will indicate that the research begins with a dialogue with Marx, seeking to address the gap present in The Origins of Totalitarianism. This gap lies in the absence of a systematic treatment of the totalitarian elements of Bolshevism/Stalinism, a fact that would justify writing a second volume of Origins. Given that Arendt's thesis is that totalitarianism, crystallized in two forms of domination, Nazism and Stalinism, represents a rupture in the Western political tradition, and given that such a rupture required crystallizing elements, in a second moment we will seek to link the categories of labor and alienation in classical philosophy, privileging the Aristotelian conception of labor, according to Arendt's interpretation. Finally, we will point out the urgency of considering the dignity of labor in the face of the modern phenomenon of automation, which replaces human labor with machines, making the laborer’s condition increasingly precarious and legally insecure, and we will indicate, by way of conclusion, a phenomenon that Arendt considers terrifying: cybernetization as a replacement not only for manual labor, but also for the human mind/spirit.