Key Arguments

• The human world consists of things produced by activity, and these things in turn condition their makers.
• Humans constantly create self-made conditions that possess the same conditioning force as natural things.
• Whatever touches human life immediately assumes the character of a condition; thus humans are always conditioned beings.

Source Quotes

The human condition comprehends more than the conditions under which life has been given to man. Men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence. The world in which the spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers.

Men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence. The world in which the spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers. In addition to the conditions under which life is given to man on earth, and partly out of them, men constantly create their own, self-made conditions, which, their human origin and their variability notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things.

The world in which the spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers. In addition to the conditions under which life is given to man on earth, and partly out of them, men constantly create their own, self-made conditions, which, their human origin and their variability notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things. Whatever touches or enters into a sustained relationship with human life immediately assumes the character of a condition of human existence.

In addition to the conditions under which life is given to man on earth, and partly out of them, men constantly create their own, self-made conditions, which, their human origin and their variability notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things. Whatever touches or enters into a sustained relationship with human life immediately assumes the character of a condition of human existence. This is why men, no matter what they do, are always conditioned beings.

Key Concepts

• Men are conditioned beings because everything they come in contact with turns immediately into a condition of their existence.
• The world in which the spends itself consists of things produced by human activities; but the things that owe their existence exclusively to men nevertheless constantly condition their human makers.
• men constantly create their own, self-made conditions, which, their human origin and their variability notwithstanding, possess the same conditioning power as natural things.
• Whatever touches or enters into a sustained relationship with human life immediately assumes the character of a condition of human existence.

Context

I Vita Activa AND THE HUMAN CONDITION (lines 435–507): General account of conditioning as constitutive of human existence.