The Vita Activa

Vita Activa means active life.

Arendt uses the Vita Activa to refer to three fundamental human activities: Labor, Work, and Action

 Labor: Activities that support life. "The Human Condition of labor is life itself."
 Work: Activity that corresponds to the 'unnaturalness' of human existence.  It is the production
of artifacts, i.e.  things created by re-shaping the world, that are intended to outlive the maker. 
"The human condition of work is worldliness."
 Action: The only activity that goes on directly between individuals.  Corresponds to Plurality.

According to Arendt, human occupation is always conditioned. The condition for labor is
necessity, which reflects human biological needs and represents the basics of life. The condition for
work is utility, as something persistent and durable is produced. Action is the activity that takes place
between people without the intermediary of things. Similar to occupational science, vita activa is
concerned with human doing but their origins differ.

Example: (SM Sales Ladies/ ** clap sabay “Happy to Serve you!) – Analyze the concept of human
occupation as conditioned. Do they mean what they say? How does their speech correspond with their
action? What’s the impact of that concept to them as workers? To the consumers?

Burkean motion between motion and action

 motion: doing something but not being active, an outside acting force
 action: doing something under one’s own volition

Folk, or folkways, are routine conventions of everyday life. They are the customary ways that
people act: eating, personal hygiene, dressing, and so on. Folkways are actions and customs
that are of little moral significance; they are often matters of personal taste.

Culture is a characteristic of societies, not of individuals.

Folk culture refers to a culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group

living in relative isolation from other groups.

Folk culture and folk customs are the beliefs and traditions, within a group that preserves its
language, and the social order and ways of interpreting the world. They are the accumulated
mores and way of life and learning of particular peoples