The modern discovery of an Archimedean point—a standpoint outside the Earth—was turned against the d… — Hannah Arendt

The modern discovery of an Archimedean point—a standpoint outside the Earth—was turned against the discoverer himself, as if access to it were granted only on the condition that it be used in a self-negating way.

By Hannah Arendt, from The Human Condition

Key Arguments

The clause 'he used it against himself' implies that the extra-worldly vantage was applied in a way that undermined the human standpoint.
The phrase 'it seems that he was permitted to find it only under this condition' presents the discovery as conditional upon this self-subverting use, suggesting an intrinsic price or pact tied to the achievement of an Archimedean standpoint.

Source Quotes

(He found the Archimedean point, but he used it against himself; it seems that he was permitted to find it only under this condition.) F K

Key Concepts

(He found the Archimedean point, but he used it against himself; it seems that he was permitted to find it only under this condition.)

Context

Chapter VI, The Vita Activa and the Modern Age (lines 4875–4877), likely within the section on the discovery of the Archimedean point; Arendt characterizes the extra-terrestrial vantage as achieved at the cost of turning it against the human perspective.