Chapter 44

Musing on the inversion of the hierarchy yet again, Arendt expresses some disbelief over the ultimate rise of the animal laborans, contemplating the extent to which that role can be understood as “good” in contrast to the others. In particular, she notes her surprise that even a secular society would embrace the role least like that advocated by Christian theology when Christianity still governs so much of the modern age. Jesus of Nazareth, she reminds the reader, preached action above all else.

Chapter 45

Arendt closes the text with a reflection on the victory of the animal laborans, arguing that its cause must have been the loss of faith stemming from secularization and Cartesian doubt. Secularization, she contends, equates to a loss of immortality, in that a secular life is one without certainty of an afterlife. When a person loses their immortality, they lose confidence in reality itself.

In the book’s final paragraph, Arendt notes that it has often been assumed that conscious thought is the purview of a small minority. It wouldn’t be unreasonable, in her eyes, to suspect that those numbers are dwindling in the modern age.