4. PRECISIONES AL CONCEPTO DE TRABAJO CORRESPONDENCIA INÉDITA Y. R. SIMÓN - H. ARENDT, RODRIGO...

8/13/2019 4. PRECISIONES AL CONCEPTO DE TRABAJO CORRESPONDENCIA INDITA Y. R. SIMN - H. ARENDT, RODRIGO MU

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PRECISIONES AL CONCEPTO DE TRABAJOCORRESPONDENCIA INDITAY.R. SIMN - H. ARENDTRODRIGO MUOZ

The transcription of two hitherto unpublished letters betweenYves Simn and Hanna Arendt in 1953 is offered. The documentscontain valuable reflections on the concept and meaning of work.The texts are preceded by an introduction, which attempts toestablish the relevance of the texts in the general body of YvesSimn's thinking about work.

1. IntroduccinYves R. Simn (1903-1961), pensador de origen francs,aunque afincado en los Estados Unidos desde el estallido de laII G uerra M undial, resulta de sobra conocido por sus valiosascontribuciones en el mbito de la filosofa social y poltica, intersque cultiva desde su etapa de formacin universitaria en elInstituto Catlico de Pars y en la U niversidad de la Sorbona. Encontacto con los crculos intelectuales de la Francia de los aosinmediatamente anteriores a la II Guerra Mundial, sola frecuentarlos encuentros que se llevaban a cabo en casa de J. Maritain alcual se ver despus unido por una relacin de amistad, dondedesp ierta su inters por la filosofa de tradicin tom ista1.

1 J. M aritain, Yves R. Simn, Brother in Arms , enN otes et Documents,1979(14), 4: Porque tena ms aprecio a la verdad que al Aquinate, su mismo progresoen la verdad haca que apreciara al Aquinate con ms y ms conciencia ydeterminacin .Anuario Filosfico 2002(35),731-751 731


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RODRIGO MUOZLa reflexin de Simn sobre una realidad de trascendenciaantropolgica y social como es el trabajo ofrece una riqueza singular, en la medida en que toma en cuenta tanto los elementosmanejados por el pensamiento clsico, como la complejidad queconoce el trabajo en las sociedades modernas a partir del fenmenode la industrializacin. Son muy escasos, sin embargo, los estudiosacerca de este aspecto de su reflexin2, a pesar de que esta cuestinatrajo la atencin del autor desde la primera etapa de su actividadintelectual, como se pone de manifiesto desde sus primeraspublicaciones.El objetivo de estas pginas consiste en ofrecer dos textos in

ditos,que aportan importantes precisiones y una mayor elaboracindel concepto de trabajo con respecto al que queda reflejado endiversos lugares de su obra precedente. Se trata del texto de unacarta dirigida por Y. Simn a Hannah Arendt de fecha 18 de mayode 1953,junto a la respuesta de sta en carta fechada el 13 de juliodel mismo ao. A continuacin, como introduccin a las cartas, seindican las lneas fundamentales de la reflexin sobre el trabajo enlos escritos del autor, que constituyen el marco adecuado para lalectura de las cartas3.Ya en 1936 el autor publica dos artculos titulados Travail etcontemplation y La definition du travail, que se vern seguidospoco despus, en 1938, por su ensayo Trois legons sur le travail.La carta dirigida a Arendt que se recoger despus tiene su origen,

2 Existe una monografa que tiene su origen en una tesis de doctorado presentada en la Facultad de Teologa de la Universidad de Navarra: A. Gonzlez Daz-Barreiro,E ltrabajoenYvesR .Simn,Pro manuscripto, Pamplona, 2001.3Los textos manuscritos de la citada correspondencia mantenida entre Y. Simn yArendt fueron ofrecidos por el Y. Simn Institute y en particular por un hijo delautor, Anthony Simn, al autor del trabajo de doctorado citado en la nota precedente. Expreso mi gratitud a ambos por ese ofrecimiento, que permitir conocercon mayor precisin los perfiles del pensamiento de Y. Simn sobre el trabajo.732


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CORRESPONDENCIA INDITA Y. R. SIMN H. ARENDT

precisamente, en la alusin que sta realiza en La condicinhumanaal ensayo de Simn4.Al ao 1947 corresponde otro escrito, The Concept of Work,que recoge su colaboracin a un congreso5y que resulta para nosotros de particular inters, porque se alude expresamente a l en lacarta que escribe a Arendt en 1953 para hacer algunas matizacionessobre su contenido.El tema del trabajo sigui atrayendo el inters del autor en aosposteriores, como pone de relieve un curso impartido sobre estamateria en la Universidad de Chicago en 1958. Este trabajo docente cuajar despus, en buena parte, en un libro publicado concarcter postumo,Work SocietyandCulture (1971).No es posible, naturalmente, ofrecer en estas pginas un panorama completo del pensamiento que Simn expone en las fuentesprecedentes. Bastar con indicar aquellas observaciones de la cartaen las que el autor precisa o aporta algn matiz a lo que habaexpresado en su obra anterior.

4 Cfr. H. Arendt, The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press, 1958,cap. IV, nota 5. La referencia a la obra de Simn y, ms en general, al pensamiento catlico liberal o de izquierda francs, critica una concepcin segn la cualel trabajador trabaja para s mismo y no para el producto, como instrumento en laproduccin de objetos cuya forma final desconoce totalmente. Arendt concedeque esa circunstancia tiene importancia histrica pero no resulta pertinente en unadescripcin de las articulaciones fundamentales de lavita activa. Como se ver,esta observacin incide en la distincin que Simn trata de profundizar en la cartaentre trabajo y arte.5 Y. R. Simn, The Concept of W ork , en R. B. Heywood (ed.),T heWorksoftheMind Chicago, 1947, 3-17.

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2. Caractersticas metafsicas del trabajoLa distincin trabajo-arteEn su ensayo Trois legons sur le travail, Simn aborda unaprimera caracterizacin del trabajo partiendo de lo que puede considerarse su arquetipo o primera expresin, el trabajo manual.Entre las caractersticas metafsicas de este tipo de trabajo, el autorhaba afirmado con anterioridad a 1953 cuatro rasgos principales:a) Lautilidad. El trabajo es una actividad til, de carcter instrumental, es decir, que persigue un fin o est en funcin de un

resultado diverso a la misma actividad.b) Latransitividad.Estamos ante un tipo de actividad que, aunteniendo su origen en el agente, se dirige siempre a un objeto exterior que recibe la accin y en esa medida se perfecciona. El efectoinmanente de la accin de trabajar, la perfeccin que queda en elsujeto, no forma parte, seala el autor, de las caractersticas metafsicas del trabajo.c) El trabajo es tambin una actividad mvil, intrnsecamentesometida a la ley del cambio y del tiempo (p. 2). Implica unasucesin de cambios fsicos que se realizan prolongndose en eltiempo sobre una materia externa. Esto es lo que hace que trabajo yreposo se excluyan recprocamente, puesto que en el reposo lamovilidad est ausente.

d) Finalmente, considera Simn que el trabajo es una actividadracionalmentedirigida6. Esta caracterstica se ver prolongada porel autor en los que l denomina trabajos de la mente.A estas cuatro caractersticas antes sealadas, en la carta aArendt aade una quinta: ladependencia de la naturaleza,entendida como un sistema de datos. Este punto resulta, segn el autor,de la mayor importancia para abordar el problema de las relaciones

6 Aunque la racionalidad no aparece expresamente en Trois legons sur letravail entre las caractersticas metafsicas del trabajo, se ocupa de ella al tratardel trabajo del espritu. El texto de la carta menciona expresamente esta caracterstica, atribuyndola a un escrito posterior al ensayo citado.734


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entre el trabajo y el arte. Si inicialmente consider el trabajo comoun tipo particular de arte, una reflexin ms atenta le lleva ahora aadvertir tomando pie de una observacin de Maritain que lopropio del arte, si se prescinde de las limitaciones del conocimientohum ano, es la pura creatividad. As ha ocurrido con la aparicin dela fotografa u otros procedimientos semejantes, que han exaltadola independencia creativa del artista. El trabajo, por el contrario, seencuentra sometido a leyes de la naturaleza7.El texto del manuscrito introduce adems una precisin.Cuando hablamos de trabajos de tecnologa avanzada, se ha deconsiderar que estamos ante una naturaleza artificial o elaboradapor el hombre. De ah que ese tipo de trabajos se acercan a la ideadel arte como creacin libre, de modo que en los procesos cuyaevolucin viene marcada por el progreso tecnolgico, consideraSimn que la realidad del trabajo se disuelve en la independenciacreativa propia del arte.

Esta afirmacin permite al autor criticar la descripcin queofreci Marx de la sociedad racional, en la cual el trabajo aparececomo un elemento libre de toda constriccin. Simn encuentraaqu, no slo una visin revolucionaria de la emancipacin respecto del poder social, sino tambin lo que denomina una fantasa tcnico cientfica de sustitucin de las normas libres propias del artepor las leyes de la naturaleza. En sentido paralelo discurre, aju iciode S imn, la propuesta de socialismo utpico de Fourier.

3 . Trabajos de la mente y trabajo moralEl estudio de las caractersticas metafsicas del trabajo vienedividido por el autor en tres partes, que denomina el hombre y lanaturaleza, el hombre y la humanidad y el hombre y la verdad.

7 La cuestin de las relaciones entre los conceptos de arte y trabajo serabordada por el autor con posterioridad, en su obra de publicacin postumaW ork,Society andCulture,New York, 1971, 73ss.

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RODRIGO MUOZJunto al trabajo manual que es considerado por Simn como elarquetipo y que pertenece al primer elemento de la distincin recin apuntada, se ocupa a continuacin de los trabajos de la mente.Al observar las diversas formas en que interviene la mente paraejercer su funcin directiva sobre el trabajo se pueden distinguirvarios tipos de trabajo intelectual. El primero al que alude el textoque comentamos es el pensamiento cientfico. Consiste en la direccin del trabajo manual, es decir, en la accin del hombre sobre lanaturaleza fsica que tiene por objeto alcanzar una ventaja para elhom bre. En la carta dirigida a Arendt se recoge una alusin tangencial a esta cuestin, por considerar que el escrito de 1947 resultasuficientemente claro.Tampoco corrige o aade precisiones sustanciales sobre loexpresado en ese paper, aunque s con respecto a su ensayoanterior al tocar el tema del trabajo moral , que se encuadra enla triple distincin citada anteriormente en el elemento denominadoel hombre y la humanidad . Simn alude con la expresin trabajomoral al esfuerzo que cada hombre debe realizar para ganar elcontrol sobre s mismo, por poner orden en la esfera de los apetitos,tanto en el orden de la persona como en el de la sociedad. El textodirigido a Arendt reconoce haber cometido un error o una reduccin en su primer ensayo Trois legons sur le travail. All asumaque los diversos tipos de trabajo podan sistematizarse desde ladistincin bipolar trabajo-contemplacin. Este error se habra evitado fcilmente aade Simn en el manuscrito que estamoscomentando de haber tenido ms en cuenta la distincin tripartita de Aristteles para los hbitos intelectuales: el rea relativaal arte, la regida por la ciencia y aqulla en la que domina laprudencia.

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CORRESPO NDENCIA INDITA Y. R. SIMN H. ARENDT

4. Caractersticas tico sociales del trabajo: cumplimientolegal y expansin libreAl lado de las caractersticas metafsicas del trabajo, Simnconsidera otro aspecto de esa realidad, el de sus caractersticastico sociales, en el que ahora se detiene con algo ms de atencin.Al ocuparse de esta dimensin del trabajo, el texto de la cartavuelve sobre una distincin acuada por el autor aos atrsapareca ya empleada en el ensayo de 1938, que constituye unpaso ms en la delimitacin del concepto de trabajo. Simn

distingue dos grupos o tipos de actividades del hombre, las decumplimiento legal legal fulfillmeni) y las de expansin libre{free development); es decir, aquellas que se realizan en cumplimiento de alguna legalidad, en el sentido ms amplio, y otras quediscurren libremente. Tal distincin viene a completar las caractersticas metafsicas del trabajo, el cual queda enmarcado entre lasactividades de cumplimiento legal. Simn lo haba expresado conlas siguientes palabras: para que una actividad que presente lascaractersticas metafsicas del trabajo sea tambin trabajo en elsentido tico social, se requiere que pertenezca al orden del cumplimiento legal 8.

El autor ilustra la distincin con algunos ejemplos: la accin dedar un paseo con objeto de facilitar la digestin constituye una actividad de cumplimiento legal, sin embargo, esa misma accin fsicade dar un paseo para gozar del paisaje y del ejercicio que comportasera de expansin libre; de modo semejante, cultivar un huertopara alimentar a la familia o hacerlo durante el tiempo de ocioporque se considera un ejercicio interesante y agradable.Tal distincin resulta cercana a la consideracin del carcterpenoso o enojoso del trabajo y al lugar que se atribuye a esteelemento en la definicin o en el concepto de trabajo. Como afirmael texto de la carta, Simn est convencido de que el trabajo nopuede definirse como una actividad necesariamente penosa o

Ver Y. Simn,Troislegonssur letravail Paris, 1938, 16s. 737


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dificultosa, pero al mismo tiempo afirma que la definicin detrabajo debe contar de algn modo con ese elemento.La carta se hace eco de la crtica que expres Maritain a estanocin de cumplimiento legal como rasgo tpico del trabajo, porconsiderar que el contenido relevante de esa expresin quedaramejor expresado si se sustituyese por la nocin de utilidad so c ia r.Simn admite que durante aos estuvo tentado de admitir la observacin de su colega, pero que la cuestin que ahora atrae suatencin la del contraste entre el trabajo y el arte le lleva aprestar ms vivo inters a la nocin de cumplimiento legal.En el texto de la carta dirigida a Arendt afirma no haber alcanzado una decisin firme, pero manifiesta su inclinacin en undeterminado sentido. La respuesta resultara de una comparacinentre la necesidad implicada por las reglas del arte y la necesidadque entraa la sujecin a una naturaleza que segn se ha descritoantes sita al trabajo en oposicin parcial con respecto al arte.Aunque de forma tmida y desde la falta de certeza, Simnsospecha que las reglas del arte, por ser formas de creacin libre, seasimilan a la categora de expansin libre que, en el contexto tico

social, contrastan con el sentimiento de obligacin, restriccin oconstriccin que acompaa la experiencia del trabajo con unafrecuencia sorprendente (cfr. ln. 115 y ss.). Ciertamente, la nocinmaritainiana de utilidad social da cuenta de algunos de los factoresencerrados en la expresin cumplimiento legal , pero Simn prefiere mantener esta ltima y mostrar que se funda en el tipo denecesidad sujecin a la naturaleza que sita al trabajo enoposicin parcial al arte. Desde el punto de vista socio tico eltrabajo habla tanto de disciplina como el arte de libertad, y estecontraste no queda suficientemente expresado en la nocin deutilidad social, puesto que no puede decirse que el trabajo essocialmente til por esencia y el arte no lo sea. Y concluye: Estasson, hasta el momento presente, cuestiones pendientes desolucin .

No obstante, en la fase final de la elaboracin de la carta,todava aade Simn una observacin relativa a esta cuestin delcumplimiento legal como elemento caracterstico del trabajo, segn738


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queda reflejada en elpostscriptum.Se trata de una alusin al fin opropsito de la accin.Parte de la distincin entre las acciones que tienen por finalidadla supervivencia y aquellas otras que se dirigen hacia formas devida ms nobles, para establecer desde ah una comparacin entrela accin del trabajador y la del artista. En ambos casos estamosante acciones ejercidas sobre la naturaleza fsica, pero el trabajadorque acta ms directamente por la supervivencia o para su sostenimiento tiene, por decirlo as, ms de trabajador; mientras que elartista que trabaja de modo directo sobre formas de vida msnobles o altas, representa con ms propiedad la condicin de artista

que la de trabajador.Esta observacin contina el texto del manuscrito puedearrojar algo de luz al problema de la utilidad social frente alcumplimiento legal. Si el trabajo es, en un primer sentido, unaaccin ejercida sobre la naturaleza para la supervivencia delhombre, tal nocin de trabajo se realizara completamente en lafigura de un ermitao que cultiva su huerto, y aqu la referencia ala utilidad social sera absolutamente innecesaria. Adems, segnconsideramos el trabajador en la sociedad, podemos observar quelas actividades dirigidas a la supervivencia son propiamente losnegocios de las organizaciones sociales ms bajas (en Aristteles,la familia). Por el contrario, la comunidad donde prospera el arte esla ms completa y perfecta de todas: el Estado, la Repblica o lacomunidad humana.

En este sentido, el recurso a la nocin de utilidad social noresultara muy provechoso para la comparacin entre el arte y eltrabajo, sino que sera ms fructfera la oposicin entre la supervivencia y las formas de vida ms altas. Por lo dems, la conexinentre la supervivencia y el cumplimiento legal, de una parte, y lasformas de vida ms altas y la expansin libre, de otra, resulta obvia(cfr. ln . 150 y ss.).

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RODRIGOMUOZ5. Carta de Y . R. Simn dirigida a H. Arendt820 North Notre Dame AvenueSouth Bend 17, IndianaMay 18, 1953Mrs.Hannah Arendt130 M orningside D rive, Apt. 6DNew York, New Y ork

DearM rs.Arendt:I was very happy to have this long conversation with you and tointroduce to you my little pupil Charles Kahn. As you saw, this boyis as charming as he is brilliant; being without a father, I think helikes to be treated by me as a son; having five sons of my own, Iam so well trained in paternal love that I enjoy immensely an extrason of such distinction.I felt honored more than I can say by your persistent interest in

my writings and your desire to read my papers on workis for me ahighly valued encouragement. I suppose that you have, by now,received my book on free choice; I am packing for you everythingI have published on the subject of work, and after I have directedthe University of Chicago Press to send you my Philosophy ofDemocratic Government, I shall be wondering whether I can stillspeak of your persistent interest in my publication: this kindinterest may well be quenched forever.As I mentioned to you, I consider that the essay in the definitionof work which makes up the first of my Trois Lecons... andappeared in beginner's English in the Review of Polines wasradically spoiled by an initial error. My 1947 paper shows the wayin which I would now correct this error. Yet I would like to giveyou a more elabrate idea of my present views on the definition ofwork.I retain the distinction between the metaphysical and the social-ethical characteristics of work. But I would divide the study of the

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metaphysical characteristics into three parts which might beentitled M an and Nature , M an and M ankind , M an and Truth .Under Man and Nature, I would first describe manual work. Inspite of the fierce and relentless opposition of all the intellectuals Iknow, I keep holding it obvious that the fullest and truly archetypalrealization of the concept of work is found in manual labor. Whatdistinguishes manual labor is the fact that it includes the finalphase of action upon physical nature. The metaphysicalcharacteristics of manual labor are utility, transitivity, mobility,rationality these are studied in my early papers anddependence upon nature as system of date (das Gegeben). The lastpoint, untreated in my previous writings, now seems to me ofmajor importance for the problem of the relations between workand art. In the last of my Trois Legons... I treated work as aparticular case of art and elaborated on the paradox that Aristotle,who knew so well the meaning of art as intellectual virtue ignoredso shockingly the cultural significance of work. As my friendMaritain stressed it many times, the fact that human art borrowselements from the world of experience and preexistent reality isentirely due to the limitations of human knowledge and entirelyforeign to the essential tendencies as art as such. If allowed tofollow its own inclination without hindrance or limitation, artwould be pur creativeness, free from obligation to any pattern,exemplar or actual data. We can easily see that in diverse historicalperiods art sometimes inclines towards larger acceptance of itsindebtedness to existent nature and sometimes asserts moredaringly its ideal of independent creation. I like the words ofCocteau: The photographer has liberated the draftsman . Thanksto photography and similar devices, the art of our time ischaracterized by an exaltation of creative independence, which isthe kind of freedom that is proper to art as such. All other thingsbeing equal greater creative independence from nature causes anartist to be more of an artist, but does not cause a worker to bemore of a worker; it rather causes a worker to be less of a workerand to become something of an artist. A primitive farmer is moreof a worker than the operator of the most highly scientificmachinery. If I can mention Sorel without irritating you, I would741


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recall that for him the object of physics is constituted by a nature oflaboratory, an artificial nature. In highly scientific industry thelaws of nature with which man has to reckon are to aconsiderable extent laws of artificial nature, of man-made nature,of things brought about by the restricted but indomitablecreativeness of human art. In advanced technology work comescloser to the idea of art as free creation and in the same measureundergoes a transformation which removes it from the basic formsof work. At the limit of a process whose direction is indicated bythe evolution of technology, the distinct reality of work woulddisappear into the independent creativeness of art. In Marx'sterminal description of the rational society where work is free fromall constraint we have not only a revolutionary picture ofemancipation from social power but also a technical and scientificdream of a substitution of free rules of art for the laws of nature.And here is a question that I like to submit to you: in spite of allstatements about the determination of social forms and ideologiesby the technological substructure, I suspect that M arx also believesthat the behavior of nature can be modified by the forms of sociallife. Among the Utopian socialists whom Marx despises but towhom he owes so much, one went far in this direction: accordingto Fourier there is such connection between the natural and thesocial realms that disorder in society brings about disturbances innature; conversely whenharmony the 8th and last of the phasesof human evolution is brought about by the phalansterianorganization of production and life, nature is going to work outunprecedented wonders. Fourier has no inhibitions and goes on todescribe the helpful animis which will then contribute to theenjoyment of life by man reconciled with each other as well aswith mother nature. Stripped of romanticism and put in scientificlanguage, this story boils down to the proposition thatrevolutionary change in society entails, on the part of physicalnature, greater submission to the designs of man. True, I expectmuch from the double consideration that work is a kind of art andyet contains a law of submission to nature which is in sharpopposition to the artistic idea of creation.742


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After this inquiry into manual labor I define a first kind of workof the mind: technical thinking. On this subject I think that my1947 paper is sufficiently clear. I intend to inquire into thefollowing problems: (1) granted that every work is rationallydirected, I wonder whether greater rationality intensifies thecharacter of work, weakens it, or behaves neutrally towards it. Ihardly hesitate to say that greater rationality brings technicalthinking closer to science and makes it less of a work. (2) As Icompare with each other the preceding rem arks, it seems to me thatwe should speak of a joint evolution of technical thinking towardscience and toward art. The world visin of science must bemechanistic and thereby exelude all natures. There is not even onenature in the world of Descartes, for extensin is not a nature. Theelimination of natures suits the free creativeness of art. Buttechnology produces an environment where man does notrecognizehimself: this is why we are all crazy about art, meaningthe fine arts. In our mechanistic wilderness we look for anenvironment worthy of man, and since we have lost contact withnature, the best we can do is to seek in the produets of humane artsthe company that we do not find in those of mechanistic arts.I do not have right now anything new to say about what I calledumoral w ork in the 1947 paper. The big mistake of my early essaypage 8 of Trois Legons... was the assumption that diversekinds of work are sufficiently systematized by the polar oppositionof manual work and contemplation. The footnote number 14, page85 of the reprint Work andWorkmenexpresses, by its clumsiness,the unacceptable difficulties entailed by this mistaken attempt at adualistic reduction. This error would have been easily avoided ifonly I had remarked the relevance, for the present subject, ofAristotle's tripartite treatment of the intellectual habitus: there iswork in the rea to which art is relative, and in the rea designatedby science and in the rea designated by prudence. With regardto pur intellectual work , i.e., research directed towardcontemplation, I intend to maintain my positions in spite of the iraroused among my intellectual friends: pur intellectual work isleast of a work and it is the highest kind of work. My intellectual

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RODRIGOMUOZfriends make an assumption that I do not grant, viz., that workalone grounds respectability and a title to a ration card. It is notwithout interest to remark that even in the contemplation mindedcircles where I live, no one wants to be described as a non-worker.With regard to the social-ethical characteristics of work, mybiggest question concerns: legal fulfillment . I feel sure that workcannot be described as necessarily painful or irksome, and I feelequally sure that the definition of work must express the permanentfoundation of pain at work. Mr. Maritain, who was writing onrelated topics at the time when I wrote Trois Legons... stronglyobjected to the feature of legal fulfillment ; he said that anythingof relevance conveyed by this expression is better conveyed byreference to social utility. In the last few years I have often beentempted to rally to M. Maritain5s view. However, the pardalcontrast between work and art is now attracting my attention,revives my interest in the characteristic of legal fulfillment. I amundecided but I think that I know where to find a decisin. Theanswer should result from a comparison between the necessityembodied in the rules of art and the necessity embodied in thissubjection to nature w hich, by the preceding description, sets workin pardal opposition to art. I am not clear enough about the rules ofart to dar a conclusin. What I suspect is that the rules of art, bythe very fact that they are not the forms of existent things but thoseof free creations admit of a free expansin which, in the social-ethical context, contrasts with the feeling of obligation, restrictionand even constraint which accompanies the experience of workwith such striking steadiness. Although the characteristic of socialutility does account for many of the facts to which I refer when I

speak of legal fulfillment , I shall retain the latter expression if Ican show convincingly that it has a foundation in the kind ofnecessity subjection to nature which sets work in pardalopposition to art. Considered from the social-ethical standpoint,work speaks of discipline as loudly as art of liberty. Can it be saidthat this contrast is sufficiently accounted for by social utility? Canit be said that work is socially useful by essence and that art is not?These are for me, at the present point, unanswered questions.744


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Perhaps some light can be derived from the remark whichconcludes my 1947 paper: work is the domain of precisin andhonesty, where cheating means failure. Clearly, when the questionis to protect society against the sophistry conveyed by oursophisticated notion of culture, the pattern set by the worker ismore reliable than the one set by the artist. Whether this is a mereaccident should be decided by a comparison between the disciplineprocured by the rules of art and that procured by the workman'ssubmission to nature. Of course, we shall not disregard thepresence of a work component in the activity of the artist: lemtier.With regard to the notion of authority suggested in page 70 ofTrois Legons... I wish to cali your attention to the confession oferror in footnote 15, page 25 and footnote 23 , page 61 ofPhilosophy ofDemocraticGovernment, assuring unity of action isnot the most essential function of authority although it is, underdefinite circumstances, a function of essential character.I am thankful to you for having prompted me to new inquiryinto the subject of work. But I am not sure that the reading of this

long letter will not be for you a total waste of time.Please give my regards to Mr. Blcher.With all best wishes, I amRespectfully yours,P.S. As my secretary was typing with a few mistakes thisletter it occurred to me that the social ethical characteristics of

work include a specification of the general idea of action uponnature. Something must be said of the purpose of such action. Therelevant divisin is that into action aimed at survival and actionsaimed at the nobler forms of life. Let us compare, again, theworker and the artist with each other: both act upon physicalnature, but the worker who acts more directly for survival is moreof a worker and the artist who works more directly for the noblerways of life is more of an artist and less of a worker. This remarkmay throw some light upon the problem of social utility versus745


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RODRIGOMUOZlegal fulfillment . If work is, in some primary fashion, an actionupon nature for the survival of man, the notion of work would becompletely realized in the case of a hermit who cultivates hisvegetable garden and reference to society would not be absolutelynecessary. Moreover, as we consider the worker in society, we mayremark that activities for survival are properly the business oflower social organizations in Aristotle, the family. On thecontrary, the community where art thrives is the most complete andperfect of all: the state, the republic, the human community. Werewe to elabrate on the contrast between work and art, social utilitywould not yield much. The contrast between survival and higher

forms of life would be more fruitful. Now, between survival andlegal fulfillment , on the one hand, nobler forms of life and 'freeexpansin ' on the other hand, connections are obvious. Q.E.D.

6. Carta de H. Arendt a Y . SimnHannah ArendtJuly 13, 1953Dear Mr. Simn:Your letter was a great joy and stimulation and I wanted toreply immediately, still in the Schwung of our conversation andunder the spell of your letter. Then I postponed to read first theannounced publications; they arrived all except the Philosophy ofDemocratic Government. Thanks very much; they helped me inmany ways and are carefully annotated. Yet: in the meantime wewent into vacations and here I am, like two months ago, only withyour letter to which I shall reply in bad order. I wished we couldtalk; there are so many points which I'd like to raise with you, and

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the written word, especially in letters where it is so manifestly asubstitute for the spoken word, is always in one's way.I am of course glad that you hold out against our intellectualfriends who want to be recognized as laborers, which they soobviously are not. But the fact that they want it, is characteristicand noteworthy. It indicates not merely the older puritan-protestantconnection between work and self-respect, but the newer and muchlarger self/interpretation of all our society as a society of labor. Theemphasis has shifted from the product to the laboring activity

itself.You know that I make a distinction between labor and work; letme try it out by comparing and arguing with your propositions.You enumrate the chief characteristics of labor as utility,transitivity, mobility and rationality plus dependence upon natureas underlying material, hypokeimenon. I would not directly denyany of them, except the rationality (this was an idea of Marx forwhom eventually all characteristics of man animal rationale aswell as homofaber sprang from his being an animal laborans,which in turn was defined as the specifically human modus of themetabolism with nature, necessary for every living being), but Iwould add that they all are on the basis of coercin: labor is never afree activity, not only or primarily because it depends on matter,but because it is necessitated by our body, whose needs have aquality of coercin which no other human need has. Labor asnecessitated by daily life and therefore daily repeated does notnecessarily result in any lasting product. It exhausts itself in theactivityitself;its products are consumed imm ediately.Work on the contrary is concentrated in the product which issupposed to last longer even than the life of the worker. Theproduct is not consumed but used. There is an element of sheerlabor in all work, but not vice versa. It is characteristic that theGreek used their slaves for domestic duties, which are labor parexcellence, because nothing is ever achieved except thecontinuation of life itself. They also used them for work in themines which was itself not yet work strictly speaking, but produced

the matter necessary for it. Works, the products or working, but not747


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RODRIGOMUOZlaboring, activity erect together the human artifice with whichwemake ourselves at home on the earth. Every worker addssomethingofhisown to itwhichissupposedto besomehow morethanhe and hislife.Labor becomes work for the first time in agriculture, notbecauseofthe surplus whichtheearth grantsus butbecauseof thecultivated soil which is the lasting product of agricultural work.This is likea symbol of making oneself at homeon theearthandthe beginningofthe erectionofthe human artifice.

The great errorofM arxas I see it is first thathemisinterpretedlabor as though it were work, thathe thought that labor itself asmetabolism with nature, could ever become productive.Inthis,hefollowed the tradition whichwas interested onlyin man ashomofaber, because theGreekshad eliminated labor from the free lifethrough the institution of slavery, and were philosophicallyinterested only in the activities of free men techne and poiesis,politeuein andphilosophein. Marx' greatness isthatheunderstoodthe decisive difference betweenour and allprevious agesto lie inthe political equality of laborers; he proceeded to the greatestdignification and justification oflabor ever conceived.Butevenhedid not dar to break entirely with the tradition and ended bymisrepresenting laboras productive workin the od Greek sense.His second error seems to me to be only a consequence of this,although it presents itself formally as a contradiction in Marx'swork itself. Marx hoped of course that labor one day would beabolishedand thepathosofhis revolutionisnourishedbythis hopemore than by anything else. This hope seems to me entirelyunwarranted and very dangerous. This, more than the classlesssociety,is theutopian elementinM arxism.

Art seems to me still to belong to the realm of the humanartifice and tohavea little moreto do with work thanyouimply.But fundamentally Iagree withyou especiallyon theliberationofmodern art. (Sorel doesnotirrtateme in theleast;of course,thenatureofphysicsis anatureoflaboratory,anartificial nature).I thinkourreal difference is thefollowing:You say aprimitivefarmer is more of a worker then the operator of scientific748


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CORRESPONDENCI INDIT Y R. SIMN H. ARENDTmachinery. I do not think, first, that the latter has anything incommon with the artist, because creativity is even more obviouslylacking in the operator than in the primitive farmer. Perhaps anoperator, a mere operator, is neither a worker or a laborer, but hehas more in common with the laborer; And I think, second, that inour society where everybody wants to be a worker , engaged inthe activity of laboring, there is the great danger that we do theopposite of what Marx did: namely interpret and pervert all workinto mere labor. There are quite a few possible demonstrations tothis first of all the fact that we have become a consumer'ssociety as distinguished from a user's society: we consumeeverything, even things which are made in order to be used. Laborhas taken its revenge. When we hoped to eliminate it altogetherthrough technology, which is never possible simply because wehave a body, it started to invade all other activities. Second ourattitude to what we are doing: we work in order to live instead ofonly laboring for the conservation of life. We refuse hard labor,and rightly so, but do all our work as though it were labor.

Third: if our friends insist that they are workers, they do notmean that they are adding their own work to the human world, butthat they fit and function well in society by their activity,regardless of products. It is not the pride of the craftsman whichmakes them say they are workers, but the eagerness offunctionaries who pretend that their activity is indispensable in thedivisin of a gigantic labor process.

Contemplation: I was always struck by a curious similaritybetween contemplation and sheer labor, and that is that both arepur activities which neither aim at or have any tangible results. Itis as though labor belonged to the process of physical life in asimilar way as contemplation belongs to the process of a livingsoul.

One more remark: You insist repeatedly on art acting uponphysical nature, though in a different way than work and fordifferent purposes. What do you do with poetry the originator orall art? W ords are not nature. What does he act upon?749


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RODRIGOMUOZIf Marx believed that nature can be modified through theorganization of society? This is a very interesting question which

I am a bit afraid to answer. He himself nowhere says so. Manfor him is a natural being, his humanity being his nature; thelaboring forc is a natural forc according to him. Still, I thinkyour suspicion is somehow right and the influence of Fourierundeniable.One final remark: What you cali action for survival asdistinguished from action for the nobler forms of life, I would calilabor; and I would agree that labor itself and from itself is notsocia l , which is one of the reasons why people w ho wereexclusively engaged in it were not admitted in society. Work isalways social: it presupposes a commonly built and commonlyinhabited world. G oethe once said: M an weicht der welt nichtsicherer aus ais durch die Kunst und man verknuepft sich nichtsicherer mit ihr ais durch d ie K unst . This is a paradox inappearance only; what he meant was: M an weicht derGesellschaft nicht sicherer aus ais durch die Kunst und manverknuepft sich der Welt nicht sicherer ais durch die Kunst . This,I think, is true for all work. Labor, on the other hand, performed forstrictly prvate purposes and in this sense a-social does not needany isolation from others, so that a divisin of labor becomespossible, a kind of socialization. But this does not make labor anymore social in the sense in which you use the word: these are allprvate individuis who labor together for prvate purposes,whereas the most isolated artist works for the common world or thecommon good.

I do hope that you will show yourself soon again in New York.I am writing this letter in some disorder, disturbed by playing(nicely playing) children and beautiful hot sun. I trust you willforgive this.I enjoyed your pupil who is not quite so little as his adoptedfather thinks he is. Will you give him my regards?All good wishes for the summer

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CORRESPONDEN CIA INDITA Y. R. SIMN H. ARENDT

Cordially yours,Hannah ArendtRodrigo MuozUniversidad de NavarraFacultad de TeologaE-31080 [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

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