Vita contemplativa

AN INSPIRING CONTRAST TO HANNAH ARENDT'S VITA ACTIVA OR THE ACTIVE LIFE Inactivity, according to Byung-Chul Han, constitutes the human being. It is the ferment of culture. Where only the scheme of stimulus and reaction, of need and satisfaction, of problem and solution, of goal and action prevails, life withers to survival. Life receives its splendor only from inactivity. If we lose it as a capability, we resemble a machine that only has to function smoothly. True life unfolds at the moment when the misery of sheer living ceases. The ultimate purpose of human effort is inactivity. "The Master of Contemporary Thought - Byung-Chul Han" El País.