Atomic Action in The Human Condition

This article offers a novel reading of the relationship between the capacity for action in The Human Condition and human attempts to replicate otherwise natural nuclear processes. It argues that Arendt presents human initiation of nuclear processes as a form of action, but one that lacks action’s traditional remedies: forgiveness and promise-keeping. While forgiveness prevents actors from being the victims of the un-ending consequences of their actions and promise-keeping allows humans to retain their identities, atomic action lacks these buffers. What I term “atomic action,” on the one hand, is rooted in natality as it starts processes but, on the other hand, the processes it lets loose like nuclear fallout cannot be limited. It shows that atomic action remains continuous and discontinuous with her traditional definition of action. Arendt, therefore, acknowledges the limitations of the categories on which she relies to accommodate for this new phenomenon epitomizing the modern world.