Metamorphoses of Form (Goethe)

Forms of Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 123-188
Author(s):  
Andreas Gailus
Keyword(s):  
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Normative Force ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
The One

This chapter discusses Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the metamorphoses of form. Goethe's biological and literary writings of the 1790s radicalize Kant's insights. On the one hand, he emphasizes the “metamorphic” fluidity of both natural forms and human cognition; on the other, he stresses the erotic and social dimension of subjectivity. For Goethe, human life is singularly precarious because it is subject to libidinal investments and the unruliness of the imagination. To develop properly, human life must therefore be regularized by social forms that (re)direct its innate vitality — it must assume a second-order, socialized naturalness. Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship associates the creation of this second nature with liberal forms of governing, depicting liberalism's normative force as a necessary, if at times violent, supplement to human life. With Goethe, vitalism opens itself to biopower.

scholarly journals The Issues of Bio- and Psychopolitics in Pandemic Times as Reminiscences of the Romantic Glorification of Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Józef Bremer
Keyword(s):  
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Short Description ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Friedrich Schiller ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Romantic Era ◽  
The One

The present coronavirus pandemic has confronted each of us individually and our society at large with new existential and theoretical-practical challenges. In the following article I present a look at the pandemic from the point of view of biopolitics (Michael Foucault, Giorgio Agamben) and psychopolitics (Byung-Chul Han). The reflections on biopolitics and psychopolitics, on top of the terms they used, make us aware of the fragility of human life on the one hand, and on the other hand, they encourage us to look for historical equiva­lents to our current struggle with the pandemic. For me, such an equivalent would be the culture of Romanticism: for example, works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Juliusz Słowacki, and Friedrich von Schelling. Starting from a short description of the Romantic era, I proceed to my goal which is to show how, during the pandemic, fundamental questions asked by biotechnology and psychopolitics come to the fore as questions about us, human beings, and our individual and social survival.

The Infinite Specificity of Life (Musil)

Forms of Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 297-351
Author(s):  
Andreas Gailus
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Classical Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
The One

This chapter discusses Musil. Robert Musil's unfinished magnum opus, The Man Without Qualities, analyzes the petrification of the classical model of Bildung under conditions of a heightened biopolitical modernity. Where Goethe presented social forms as stabilizing human life, Musil depicts a world in which calculative reason has absorbed all singularity into statistical patterns of norm and deviation, splitting language and culture into impersonal scientific knowledge on the one hand and vacuous, dilettante chatter on the other. Musil's unfinished novel examines the violent fallout of the resulting inexpressibility of life (nationalism, madness, hypermasculinity) and explores, in its second part, new forms of speaking, thinking, and desiring capable of restoring life to experience and existence.

scholarly journals Two Conceptions of Second Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg W. Bertram
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Open Future ◽  
Second Nature ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
The Open Future ◽  
The One ◽  
First Nature

AbstractThe concept of second nature promises to provide an explanation of how nature and reason can be reconciled. But the concept is laden with ambiguity. On the one hand, second nature is understood as that which binds together all cognitive activities. On the other hand, second nature is conceived of as a kind of nature that can be changed by cognitive activities. The paper tries to investigate this ambiguity by distinguishing a Kantian conception of second nature from a Hegelian conception. It argues that the idea of a transformation from a being of first nature into a being of second nature that stands at the heart of the Kantian conception is mistaken. The Hegelian conception demonstrates that the transformation in question takes place within second nature itself. Thus, the Hegelian conception allows us to understand the way in which second nature is not structurally isomorphic with first nature: It is a process of ongoing selftransformation that is not primarily determined by how the world is, but rather by commitments out of which human beings are bound to the open future.

Under the Volcano: Media, Ecology and the Crisis of Nature

2012 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Lewis ◽  
Belinda Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Human Interventions ◽  
Under The Volcano ◽  
Crisis Conditions ◽  
The One

The 2011 Japanese earthquake and subsequent malfunction at the Fukushima nuclear power plant occurred at the apex of a complex crisis of nature. While some commentators claim that the Fukushima malfunction was the result of a ‘natural disaster’, others situate the event within a broader context of human interventions in ecological and natural systems. Exercised through the global mediasphere, these environmental language wars are formed within crisis conditions and a crisis consciousness that have extensive genealogical roots. This article examines the crisis of nature in terms of contemporary and genealogical language wars that are embedded in a cultural politics of apocalysm. In particular, the article problematises the concept of ‘nature’ in terms of the disaggregation of human and non-human life systems. It argues that this disaggregation confounds the cultural politics of life (-death) systems, leading to excessive violence on the one hand, and Romantic idealisation on the other. The article recommends a reconceptualisation of nature that implicates all humans and human desires across the global mediasphere.

Hegel on the Nature of Scepticism

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 80-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar H. Heidemann
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Philosophical Method ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Knock Down ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Early View ◽  
The One ◽  
Intrinsic Feature

In the Encyclopaedia Logic, Hegel states that ‘philosophy … contains the sceptical as a moment within itself — specifically as the dialectical moment’ (§81, Addition 2), and that ‘scepticism’ as ‘the dialectical moment itself is an essential one in the affirmative Science’ (§78). On the one hand, the connection between scepticism and dialectic is obvious. Hegel claims that scepticism is a problem that cannot be just removed from the philosophical agenda by knock-down anti-sceptical arguments. Scepticism intrinsically belongs to philosophical thinking; that is to say, it plays a constructive role in philosophical thinking. On the other hand, scepticism has to be construed as the view according to which we cannot know whether our beliefs are true, i.e., scepticism plays a destructive role in philosophy no matter what. It is particularly this role that clashes with Hegel's claim of having established a philosophical system of true cognition of the entirety of reality. In the following I argue that for Hegel the constructive and the destructive role of scepticism are reconcilable. I specifically argue that it is dialectic that makes both consistent since scepticism is a constitutive element of dialectic.In order to show in what sense scepticism is an intrinsic feature of dialectic I begin by sketching Hegel's early view of scepticism specifically with respect to logic and metaphysics. The young Hegel construes logic as a philosophical method of human cognition that inevitably results in ‘sceptical’ consequences in that it illustrates the finiteness of human understanding. By doing so, logic not only nullifies finite understanding but also introduces to metaphysics, i.e., the true philosophical science of the absolute.

scholarly journals Universální život a život lidský. K ontologii přírody u Jana Patočky a Maurice Merleau-Pontyho

REFLEXE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (60) ◽  
pp. 29-63
Author(s):  
Martin Rabas
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Inorganic Matter ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

The present article has two objectives. One is to elucidate the philosophical approach presented in the so-called Strahov Systematic Manuscripts of Jan Patočka in terms of consciousness and nature. The other is to compare this philosophical approach with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theses on nature, as elaborated in 1956–1961, and to point out some advantages and limitations of both approaches. In our opinion, Patočka’s philosophical approach consists, on the one hand, in a descriptive analysis of human experience, which he understands as a pre-reflective self-relationship pointing towards the consciousness of the world. On the other hand, on the basis of this descriptive analysis Patočka consequently explicates all non-human life, inorganic matter, and finally the whole of nature as life in its own right, the essence of which is also a certain self-relation with a tendency towards consciousness. The article then briefly presents Merleau-Ponty’s theses on nature, and finally compares them with Patočka’s overall theses on nature. The advantage of Patočka’s notion of nature as against Merleau-Ponty’s is that, in Patočka’s view, nature encompasses both the principle of unity and individuality. On the other hand, the advantage of Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of nature as against Patočka’s lies in the consistent interconnectedness of the infinite life of nature and the finite life of individual beings.

The Philebus

2008 ◽  
pp. 483-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance C. Meinwald
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extended Treatment ◽  
The One

Plato's brainchild, the Philebus discusses the good human life and the claims of pleasure on the one hand and a cluster containing intelligence, wisdom, and right opinion on the other in connection with that life. The article talks about the notions of good human life and the pleasures surrounding it. Plato includes extended treatment of metaphysics and methodology: this is his typical supplement to the procedure of his own Socratic dialogues, which considered human questions in isolation from other issues. Despite several interpretations, the text remains largely elusive. After a long discourse, both Socrates and Philebus arrive at a conclusion that a mixed life, containing both reason and pleasure is what we all should desire and it is the best option for all.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL IDEAS OF CARL DU PREL AND ITS RECEPTION BY RUSSIAN SPIRITUALISTS IN THE LATE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-68
Author(s):  
Tikhon V. Spirin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Perception Threshold ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Core ◽  
The One

The article addresses the core anthropological concepts of Carl Du Prel’s philosophy and explores the significance of those concepts for the Russian spiritualism of the late 19th – early 20th century. The Du Prel’s theory built up upon the concept of Duality of the Human Being. Du Prel insisted on simultaneous co-existence of two subjects – one pertaining to the sensible world and the other related to the extrasensory (‘the transcendental subject’) – that are divided by the ‘perception threshold’. He argued that in dormant and somnambular state the threshold would shift and thus enable the Transcendental Subject to act in the Extrasensory World. Du Prel believed that the human evolution is not over yet. He suggested that one could estimate what the new form of the human life would be judging by the conditions in which the transcendental subject comes out. Like many other spiritualists, Du Prel foretold the upcoming dawn of a new era where the boundary between science and religion on the one part and the Sensible and Extrasensory World on the other part will vanish. Anthropological doctrine of Du Prel correlated well with the views on the future human being held by the Russian spiritualists, and therefore he became one of the most reputable authors for them

AKSES INTERNET DAN PRESTASI HAFALAN ALQURAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Darman Fauzan Dhahir
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Keywords Internet ◽  
Survey Interviews ◽  
The Relationship

The activity of memorizing Quran has been a custom of Muslims since the time of Prophet Muhammad May Peace be upon Him. When the internet developed and became an inseparable part of human life, it was feared to harm the achievement of Quran memorizing. To prove the truth of that concern, this quantitative research was conducted. The research is aimed at measuring the relationship between the duration and variety of internet access with the achievements of hafidz Quran (memorizers). The data are obtained by survey, interviews, and documentation, then analyzed statistically, presented and interpreted descriptively. The results show that internet access’ duration, and its utilization, such as processes, contents, and social forms have significant and positive relationships towards the achievement of the hafidz. On the other hand, the internet use intended for fun or as an escape to release stress does not have a significant relationship with the performance of the hafidz. Keywords: internet access; internet usage; Quran memorization

Misinformation and Ideology

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Scott Timcke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

This chapter applies theoretical insights around misrecognition to better understand the intersection of misinformation and ideology in the United States. It argues that misinformation practices are products of modernity. American modernity is characterized by contradictions between its basic social forms such as the money form, the commodity form, and so on. The contradictions create a bind for rulers. On the one hand, these contradictions mean that their rule is never stable. On the other hand, acknowledging the contradictions risks courting redress that also threatens their minority rule. Due to the imperative to mystify these contradictions, social problems are subsequently treated as anomalies or otherwise externalized; they can never be features of the capitalist political economy itself. Misinformation is a common by-product of this externalization as the capitalist ruling class uses it to weld together pacts and alliances that preserve the social hierarchy. The chapter outlines the broad argumentation offered by securocrats, reactionaries and technologists on Russia-gate. It takes a look at the proof put forward, the ethical reasoning invoked and the emotive appeals employed. It also looks at why these explanations fall short.

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