Q0523
“Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it…” — Hannah Arendt (The Human Condition (1958))
Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Human Condition (1958). Theme: responsibility.
English
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to The Human Condition (1958) and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was a German-Jewish political theorist who fled Nazism and wrote in the United States in English and German. A student of Heidegger and Jaspers, she refused the label “philosopher” yet produced lasting works on totalitarianism, revolution, and the vita activa.
How to read this passage
Philosophical debates cover free will, blame, collective responsibility, and duties to distant others. Technology and AI revive the question of who is accountable when systems act. This passage enters that discussion through responsibility, action, time.
Concepts in this quote
- Responsibility
- Responsibility asks what we answer for—our choices, omissions, institutions, and the futures we help create.
- Action
- Action concerns agency: what it is to do something intentionally, and how thought becomes practice.
- Time
- Philosophy of time asks what tense and duration are—and how memory, death, and history shape a human life.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Hannah Arendt. (n.d.). Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0523
MLA: Hannah Arendt. “Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0523.
Chicago: Hannah Arendt. “Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0523.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering…”?
The passage is attributed to Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1958). The archive attributes this English wording to The Human Condition (1958) and files it under Political Phenomenology. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Hannah Arendt mean by responsibility?
Philosophical debates cover free will, blame, collective responsibility, and duties to distant others. Technology and AI revive the question of who is accountable when systems act. This passage enters that discussion through responsibility, action, time.