scholarly journals A relationship between relativism and nazism. Fact or fiction?

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 625-643
Author(s):  
Volker Böhnigk
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

According to a certain view that is dominant in historical research, the wide-spread racial doctrines of the twenties and thirties of the last century is said to have advanced relativism. It is argued, that relativism then became the foundation of National Socialist ideology. In the last instance, relativism is accused of having contributed to the Nazi doctrine of racial extermination. Relativism has a long philosophical tradition. The aim of this investigation is to find out how many of the philosophers who supported National Socialism actually held relativistic views. I will show that the assumed correlation between Relativism and National Socialism is a momentous fiction, which paved the way for an (intentional) misrepresentation of the relationship between science and National Socialism.

Heideggers Ungebrauch

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 801-817
Author(s):  
Xià Kějūn
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Abstract This essay is concerned with a topic that has been widely discussed in East Asia for decades – the relationship between Martin Heidegger’s thought and Daoism. At the centre of my reflections is a motif that appears in Heidegger’s 1945 “Evening Conversation: In a Prisoner of War Camp in Russia, between a Younger and an Older Man” – a “doing that is a letting” (ein Tun, das ein Lassen ist). Starting from this, I discuss Heidegger’s approach to the Daoist “thinking of the useless” expressed in his Black Notebooks and other texts. In the development of Heidegger’s thought the “turning” (die Kehre) marks an important juncture. I propose speaking of a second or transcultural turning, which begins around 1943. For this transformation in Heidegger’s thought, what has been of outstanding importance is his preoccupation with Daoist texts, and especially his reading of the classical texts Lǎozǐ and Zhuāngzǐ. This is evident in his numerous explicit or implicit references to the Daoist classics. In 1945, in a situation of extraordinary emergency, Heidegger refers to Zhuāngzǐ’s motif of uselessness and the “necessity of the unnecessary”. This can be seen as a personal escape from responsibility, but also, importantly, as a way out of his deep entanglement with National Socialism. Although the way Heidegger proposes is arguably twisted and disturbing, its value lies in its providing a necessary perspective from which to unfold the critical potential of transcultural philosophy.

The Dual State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Fraenkel ◽  
Jens Meierhenrich
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
London School ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
English Edition ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
Parallel Structures ◽  
London School Of Economics ◽  
The Relationship

This text, first published in 1941, provides a comprehensive analysis of the rise and nature of National-Socialism, and is the only such analysis written from within Hitler’s Germany. Its central thesis is that two states co-existed in National-Socialist Germany—hence, Fraenkel’s invention of the concept of the dual state. This was comprised of a normative state (which protected the legal order as expressed in legislation, decisions of the courts, and decisions of administrative bodies) and a prerogative state (governed by the ruling party, and unrestrained by legal guarantees). The relationship and conflict between these states is analyzed through decisions of the German courts and the development of judicial practice. The book is divided into three parts. The first part describes the existing legal order. The second part attempts to show that the parallel structures within Germany radically affected German politics and society. The third part delves into the relationship between the dual Nazi state and German capitalism. It asks whether the rise of the dual state was a consequence of a crisis in capitalism. While this book is primarily a first-hand account and analysis of the dual state’s operation in National-Socialist Germany, it retains its vital relevance for the theory of democracy in the twenty-first century. This republication of the 1941 English edition includes both Fraenkel’s 1974 introduction to the German second edition, never before published in English, and a new introduction by Professor Jens Meierhenrich of the London School of Economics and Political Science that places the book in theoretical and historical context and assesses its lasting legacy.

PHILOSOPHERS AND CITIZENS ON THE AREOPAGUS: LUCIAN'S PROSE TRILOGY

Ramus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-222
Author(s):  
David Blair Pass
Keyword(s):  
Civic Virtue ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Lively Discussion ◽  
Philosophical Writing ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Status ◽  
Civic Community ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

The lively discussion of the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy, the presentation of a theory of writing dialogues that combine elements from different genres and a dramatic frame that presents this theory in an Athenian setting as philosophical schools such as the Stoa and the Academy explain to the citizens their contributions to civic virtue make the Twice Accused not only one of the most important dialogues for understanding Lucian's project but also one of the most important literary treatments of the reception of philosophy in Athens and the status of philosophy in the Imperial period. Because many of the philosophical elements Lucian uses to create his drama—common arguments, well-known attitudes and standard portraits—are conventional, the creativity and originality of the work consists in the combination of these elements and juxtaposition of different scenes and frames; understanding each scene and its significance depends on establishing its relationship to other scenes. This paper will examine the role the Twice Accused plays as part of a trilogy of dialogues together with the Sale of Lives and the Fisherman; the trilogy presents a reflection on the introduction of philosophy and a progressive analysis of the attitudes between citizens and philosophers in the Athenian civic context. Considering the three as a trilogy not only reveals a central tragic intertext but also illuminates the way that the methodological statement at the end of the Twice Accused completes the schema connecting attitudes towards the philosophical tradition to Athenian topography by moderating the extremes of the previous two dialogues and explaining the role of philosophical writing as a mediating force between the demands of philosophy and the needs of the larger civic community.

scholarly journals Selfhood, Place, and Ideology in German Photo Albums, 1933–1945

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maiken Umbach
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Affective States ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Photo Album ◽  
Archival Record ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article explores the significance of photography and photo-album making as practices that many Germans used to record their lives during the Third Reich. Millions of photos not only offer insights into everyday life under National Socialism: mass photography itself had a transformative effect, turning seemingly mundane actions into performances for the camera and into conscious acts of self-representation. The article also considers the relationship between amateur snapshots, on the one hand, and propagandistic and commercial photographs, on the other. Identifying connections between the genres, it argues that these are best understood as two-way processes of borrowing and (re-)appropriation, in which private subjectivity and public ideology constantly commingled. Particularly important in linking the two were photos of emotional or affective states, such as relaxation, exploration, introspection, and even melancholy, which were often defined or underscored by the ways in which both civilians and soldiers positioned themselves in relation to particular landscapes. The photographic archival record is highly varied, but such variation notwithstanding, photos helped cement immersive “experience” as the basis for individual and collective identity; this was central to the ideology of the National Socialist regime, even if it never wholly controlled its meanings.

The Anchorless Postmodern Experience within an Ahistorical Filmic Space: Django Unchained (2012)

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
John White
Keyword(s):  
Real Space ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Gone With The Wind ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Spaghetti Westerns ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter considers the way in which Django Unchained (2012) is specifically positioned by the director within a well-defined historical period but is then constructed very clearly as a cinematic fantasy. It is argued that this film, despite genuine concerns on the part of those involved in its making for the ramifications of slavery, does not look to exist in relation to a real space and time but instead within an intense matrix of film references. The relationship of this film to Hollywood classics, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), as well as to spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation (and sexploitation) movies is examined with reference to specific details from the films. The intense background historical research undertaken by Tarantino is acknowledged. Ultimately, however, the film is seen as a postmodernist text, which because of its ahistorical form is able to escape the need to fully address historical reality.

Anti-Bolshevism and Antisemitism: The Catholic Church in Germany and National Socialist Ideology 1936–1937

1992 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-456
Author(s):  
Gerhard Besier
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
World View ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The People ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Catholic Church

In his essay ‘Judaism and Christianity in the ideology and politics of National Socialism’ Klaus Scholder outlined the basic principles of Hitler's world view and examined his perception of the relationship between Christianity and antisemitism. According to Hitler, there could be no doubt that Christian leaders, given the nature of their beliefs, should be active exponents of antisemitism. He revitalised the old motif of the Jews as ‘Christ killers’ and described Jesus as ‘a leader of the people’ who ‘opposed Jewry’. Because of this he had been murdered on the initiative of the Jews and the Jew Paul ’refined, falsified and exploited the teaching of the Galilean for his own ends’.

The Type of Temperament, Mood, and Strategies of Categorization

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Wytykowska
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Affective Value ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

In Strelau’s theory of temperament (RTT), there are four types of temperament, differentiated according to low vs. high stimulation processing capacity and to the level of their internal harmonization. The type of temperament is considered harmonized when the constellation of all temperamental traits is internally matched to the need for stimulation, which is related to effectiveness of stimulation processing. In nonharmonized temperamental structure, an internal mismatch is observed which is linked to ineffectiveness of stimulation processing. The three studies presented here investigated the relationship between temperamental structures and the strategies of categorization. Results revealed that subjects with harmonized structures efficiently control the level of stimulation stemming from the cognitive activity, independent of the affective value of situation. The pattern of results attained for subjects with nonharmonized structures was more ambiguous: They were as good as subjects with harmonized structures at adjusting the way of information processing to their stimulation processing capacities, but they also proved to be more responsive to the affective character of stimulation (positive or negative mood).

Understanding prescription in language. A corpus-based approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Kibbee ◽  
Alan Craig
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
French Tradition ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

We define prescription as any intervention in the way another person speaks. Long excluded from linguistics as unscientific, prescription is in fact a natural part of linguistic behavior. We seek to understand the logic and method of prescriptivism through the study of usage manuals: their authors, sources and audience; their social context; the categories of “errors” targeted; the justification for correction; the phrasing of prescription; the relationship between demonstrated usage and the usage prescribed; the effect of the prescription. Our corpus is a collection of about 30 usage manuals in the French tradition. Eventually we hope to create a database permitting easy comparison of these features.

On (Not) Translating Lacan: Barbara Cassin's Sophistico-Analytical Performances

Paragraph ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-113
Author(s):  
Michael Syrotinski
Keyword(s):  
Machine Translation ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Barbara Cassin's Jacques the Sophist: Lacan, Logos, and Psychoanalysis, recently translated into English, constitutes an important rereading of Lacan, and a sustained commentary not only on his interpretation of Greek philosophers, notably the Sophists, but more broadly the relationship between psychoanalysis and sophistry. In her study, Cassin draws out the sophistic elements of Lacan's own language, or the way that Lacan ‘philosophistizes’, as she puts it. This article focuses on the relation between Cassin's text and her better-known Dictionary of Untranslatables, and aims to show how and why both ‘untranslatability’ and ‘performativity’ become keys to understanding what this book is not only saying, but also doing. It ends with a series of reflections on machine translation, and how the intersubjective dynamic as theorized by Lacan might open up the possibility of what is here termed a ‘translatorly’ mode of reading and writing.

Klein with Lacan: A Study on the Reception of Lacanian Ideas in Uruguay and Its Effects on Clinical Practices (1955–82)

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-361
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Grau-Pérez ◽  
J. Guillermo Milán
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Clinical Material ◽  
Clinical Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Discursive Approach ◽  
The Way ◽  
Clinical Cases

In Uruguay, Lacanian ideas arrived in the 1960s, into a context of Kleinian hegemony. Adopting a discursive approach, this study researched the initial reception of these ideas and its effects on clinical practices. We gathered a corpus of discursive data from clinical cases and theoretical-doctrinal articles (from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s). In order to examine the effects of Lacanian ideas, we analysed the difference in the way of interpreting the clinical material before and after Lacan's reception. The results of this research illuminate some epistemological problems of psychoanalysis, especially the relationship between theory and clinical practice.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document