Die Entscheidungsfindung des Homo Faber

Abstract

This essay primarily engages with three works: The Human Condition by philosopher Hannah Arendt, The Road to Serfdom by economist Friedrich A. Hayek, and the essay “Tradition without Convention” from the compilation Freedom and the Arts by musicologist Charles Rosen. The Human Condition provides the foundation of the essay in which Arendt’s historical narrative traces the public and private realm as they existed and were defined in Greek antiquity to its various distortions in modernity. The change is primarily understood as a result of the fluctuating ratios of the human condition itself, which Arendt thoroughly categorizes as labor (animal laboran), work (homo faber), and action (vita activa). Within this context, we examine two main ideas: the incentives of decision-making and scopes of competence; and modern realms for excellence, contemplation, and peer equality that can thrive in the present day. At hand is a two-part discussion: the decision-making capacity within an eroded private realm; and the costs to the highest aspect of the human condition if the promise of the public realm and its requirements for entry are no longer afforded within modernity’s egalitarian standards. In F.A. Hayek’s compelling confrontation of central planning, the impossibility of its competence, and the moral decay from when decisions and responsibilities are outsourced, provide a useful and constructive framework for observing and guarding against the trappings of an invaded private realm. Rosen, with his stunning analysis of convention in early eighteenth-century classical music, provides an enlightening paradigm to not only locate a modern public realm, but to recognize conventions, patterns, and practices that contribute to its existence and longevity.