1,721,025 research outputs found
‘The monument to a crisis': Nietzsche and the industrialization of creativity
No full textFriedrich Nietzsche describes Human, All Too Human, his third book to be published within his own lifetime, as a work of liberation: one that seeks to strip away the increasingly malignant influences – of Richard Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer particularly – that he perceives as infecting his work. In this article, the author argues that it is more than just a rejection of these individual thinkers however, but instead represents a broad critique of the relationship between bourgeois art, Romantic conceptions of creativity and the modernizing demand for productivity. Realizing that the role of the artist increasingly mimics the oppressive, dispiriting temporality of industrialized labour, the author contends that Nietzsche attempts to develop a more moderate conception of artistic culture built in large part upon the philosophy of Epicurus, seeking to identify a mode of creative practice that is not degraded by the exigencies of the industrial tempo of work, and displaying a surprising sympathy toward the working masses incongruous with his output as a whole
The tomb of Bonaparte
No full textMedium: etchingMedium: aquatintprintssigned and dated."The tomb of Bonaparte" [2021.0128.000.000], Sutherland, Thomas, Marryat, Capt FrederickArtist and Role: Sutherland, Thomas,Artist and Role: Marryat, Capt Frederick, ArtistExtent: sheetExtent: sheet (adhered
Peter Sloterdijk and the ‘Security Architecture of Existence’: Immunity, Autochthony, and Ontological Nativism
Full text linkCentred on Foams, the third volume of his Spheres trilogy, this article questions the privilege granted by Peter Sloterdijk to motifs of inclusion and exclusion, contending that whilst his prioritization of dwelling as a central aspect of human existence (drawing in part upon the work of Martin Heidegger) provides a promising counterpoint to the dislocative and isolative effects of post-industrial capitalism, it is compromised by its dependence upon an anti-cosmopolitan outlook that views cultural distantiation as a natural and preferable state of human affairs, and valorizes a purported ontological security attained through defensive postures with respect to perceived foreigners or externalities. Sloterdijk’s conceptualization of culture as a kind of immune system, it is argued, although posited as a rebuke to models of essentialism and ethno-nationalism, provides ontological support to the xenophobic critiques of immigration that are today finding increasing currency
A philosophy of transport: Michel Serres’ recursive epistemology in the Hermes pentalogy
Full text linkFocusing upon the five books of his early Hermes series, this article argues that Michel Serres furnishes an accomplished, unconventional philosophical account of communication and mediation – a structuralist epistemology designed to comprehend the sciences in their complexity and plurality – that, even decades after its first publication, has significant value for media theory. Two key themes within this pentalogy are highlighted: firstly, its emphasis upon motifs of communication, transport, and circulation, attempting to grasp the scientific field in topological terms, as a kind of networked encyclopaedia; and secondly, its attempt to account for the intricate relationship between the formal and the empirical in all theorization
Plato’s prescription: The origin myth of media theory
Full text linkPlato’s Phaedrus, perhaps his most enigmatic and structurally convoluted dialogue, could easily be said to inaugurate a pointed critique of mass media that persists to the present day. Indeed, in certain corners of media theory, the origin myth of writing furnished in the Phaedrus (in which the Egyptian god Theuth presents writing as a gift to King Thamus) has in turn come to serve as a kind of origin myth for media theory: a primaeval pharmacopoeia of media effects. And yet, this is an origin myth that can only underwrite not only its own non-originarity and non-truth, insofar as its very status as a written text ensures that it will never meet the criteria that it itself establishes for a reasoned account of things (logos). It remains perpetually orphaned, unable to defend itself, irrevocably cut off from its ‘father’, the speaking subject, and thus from the vitality of living discourse. But this paradox, I argue, is not a failing of the dialogue, but is a device intended to encourage the reader’s active involvement in the text’s status as medium. The Phaedrus is not just diagnostic, but therapeutic
Speaking philosophically: communication at the limits of discursive reason
No full textWestern philosophy has often claimed for itself not just a distinct sphere of knowledge, but a distinct form of communication, set against ordinary speech. In Speaking Philosophically, I propose that for some philosophers, authentic philosophizing demands a specific manner of speaking or writing, adoption of which enables one to gesture toward truths that propositional speech will never grasp. Drawing on a variety of thinkers (Heraclitus, Plato, Kant, Fichte, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Weil, Foucault, and Irigaray) I argue this emphasis on the form of philosophical communication can function as an exclusionary mechanism, determining who is deemed capable of speaking philosophically
Authoritarian and minoritarian thought
No full textReview of the book A Biography of Ordinary Man by François Laruelle
Film history as media archaeology: tracking digital cinema
No full textReview of the book Film History as Media Archaeology: Tracking Digital Cinema by Thomas Elsaesser
Rewiring intellectual history: Friedrich Kittler on the conversion between letter and spirit
No full textExamining in detail one of Friedrich Kittler’s earliest published pieces of writing, 'Forgetting' (1979), this article characterizes said essay as an unconventional reconfiguration of intellectual history, focusing less upon thinkers’ specific ideas and more upon the historically variable systems by which these ideas are stored and transmitted (or are not, as the case may be). More specifically, it draws attention to Kittler’s critique of hermeneutics, which, in his view, dissimulates its status both as a machine for data storage and processing and as an instrument of power. Hermeneutics’ conceit that it can discover the 'spirit' behind the 'letter' of a text conceals the fact that its prescribed reading practices do not so much discover this spirit as create it – and in doing so, create an ideal of the self qua reader as well. And yet, it goes on to argue, Kittler’s own approach to history is actually not so dissimilar
Technocritique and its limits: Éric Sadin on human dignity in the face of artificial intelligence
No full textExamining the work of French writer, philosopher, and ‘technocritic’ Éric Sadin, with a particular focus on his fears regarding artificial intelligence systems’ infiltration into numerous facets of human affairs, their imposition of a ‘universal technical principle’ upon all aspects of our lives, and their anthropomorphic and alētheic characteristics, this article argues that whilst Sadin’s polemical writings provide a useful corrective to more celebratory accounts of such technological developments, his reliance on an uncritical and largely unexamined humanism detracts from their efficacy. Extolling the virtues of a European tradition of thought centred on an ideal of human agency, mastery, and finitude – in short, self-determination – Sadin posits a benchmark against which any manifestation of the technical (la technique) can only appear as an impediment to the full flourishing of our autonomy
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