Homo faber

Latin for "man-made", it’s a philosophical concept coined by Hannah Arendt that refers to the human ability to control the environment through tools. In The Human Condition (1958), Arendt establishes a tripartite division between human activities of labor, work and action. If labour concerns the activity corresponding to the biological processes and needs of human existence, work is the activity that caters to manufacture an artificial world of different things that the one given by nature. Humanity is thus understood as a Homo Faber building walls (both physical and cultural) separating the natural realm from the human realm and creating a context (a "common world") of spaces and institutions where human life can unfold. Builder, architect, craftsman, artist and the legislator would therefore be the stereotype for the Homo Faber, as they construct the public sphere through creative activity.