I intend to examine in this paper a central question to the Arendt’s reflection on the political
modernity: the victory of animal laborans. To accomplish this task, I will perform an analysis
of the semantic variations of arendtian use of this term, whose understanding is central to
her articulation between human condition, the emergence of society and the prevalence of a
mindset tied to life through labor and consumption. We conclude that there are at least three
main uses of the term animal laborans in Hannah Arendt’s work: as a fundamental dimension
of existence conditioned by life; as a product of the atomized society; as mindset and "way of
life" extracted from the conditions of mere living. We think that this is a fundamental step to
understanding of the relationship between economy and politics in modern age. [#]