Homo Laborans. Tra Hannah Arendt e Simone Weil

Abstract

Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil, who had in common both a Jewish origin and the experience of the exile, were able to cast a light on the darkness of the 20th century with their words and actions. They lived two parallel lives – even though Simone's came to an end when she was 34 years old. The aim of this essay is to retrace their arguments on themes they both dealt with: it is interesting to note how sometimes they complete each other, while other times they provide different perspectives on the challenging tasks that the events in Europe gave to political thought in the 20th century. This essay specifically deals with similarities and differences in their ways of conceiving labour, with a particular emphasis on the labouring class – the "homo laborans", in Arendt's words – and their theories on industrial work. To conclude, I will put forward some reflections on Arendt and Weil's relationship with the Marxist tradition, in an attempt to consider their criticism and their disagreements with Karl Marx's theories.