Das öffentliche Leben

Abstract

According to Hannah Arendt, the processes of acceleration and growth of modern economy result from the fact that the once concealed reproduction of human life has become a matter of public interest. Ever since, the biological metabolism of mankind and the labour required to sustain it are colonizing all other relations to the world. The following article calls these fundamental assumptions into question. It seeks to show i) that Arendt’s basic notions, such as ‘labour’ and ‘producing’, remain wholly ambiguous, ii) that she overgeneralizes certain social and economic tendencies of her time, and iii) that the biological metabolism offers no satisfactory explanation for the self-referential economic growth she describes. *Kontaktpersonen: Ingo Elbe, Privatdozent undWissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Philosophie der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, E ˗ Mail: ingo.elbe@uni-oldenburg.de Sven Ellmers,Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Philosophie der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, E ˗ Mail: sven.ellmers@uni-oldenburg.de Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie 2015; 2(2): 371–400