scholarly journals Make comedy matter: Ernst Cassirer on the politics and morality of humor

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 162
Author(s):  
Jennifer Marra

Many of Ernst Cassirer’s later works are concerned with the dangers of political myth. His analysis speaks at length about the role of philosophy during the rise of the Third Reich, and Cassirer argues that philosophers failed to combat the dominant ideology. Today, philosophers struggle to explain their relevance to greater public and governmental powers that see no intrinsic value. Given the current political situation in the US, we find ourselves at a crossroads as philosophers. We can either retreat and remain within the comforts of academia, or we can take up arms against dangerous and divisive political forces. If we take Cassirer’s prescriptions seriously, we must choose the latter. Fortunately, philosophy has not disappeared from public consciousness completely. An emerging theme in contemporary cultural studies is the exploration of connections between humour and philosophy. I argue we ought to take advantage of the status of the comedian as public philosopher, and for philosophers to take seriously the political power of comedians. To do this responsibly, I analyse a portion of Cassirer’s work that has been widely ignored in scholarship – his understanding of the politics and morality of humour. By analysing these passages in relation to Cassirer’s later works, we are given the tools to understand the power of humour in political discourse, as well as the responsibility of that power. I argue that “joking responsibly”, for Cassirer, means to reveal the motives and values which underlie sophistry, particularly the sort which lends itself to political manipulation.

Author(s):  
Rosamond C. Rodman

Expanding beyond the text of the Bible, this chapter explores instead a piece of political scripture, namely the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. Over the last half-decade, the Second Amendment has come to enjoy the status of a kind of scripture-within-scripture. Vaulted to a much more prominent status than it had held in the first 150 years or so of its existence, and having undergone a remarkable shift in what most Americans think it means, the Second Amendment provides an opportunity to examine the linguistic, racial, and gendered modes by which these changes were effected, paying particular attention to the ways in which white children and white women were conscripted into the role of the masculine, frontier-defending US citizen.


2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 388-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco López-Muñoz ◽  
Cecilio Alamo ◽  
Pilar García-García ◽  
Juan D. Molina ◽  
Gabriel Rubio

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Kater

While in recent years a great deal has been written to clarify Germany's medical past, the picture is not yet complete in several important respects. In the realm of the sociology of medicine, for example, we still do not know enough about physicianpatient relationships from, say, the founding of the Second Empire to the present. On the assumption, based on the meager evidence available, that this relationship had an authoritarian structure from the physician on downward, did it have anything to do with the shape of German medicine in the Weimar Republic and, later, the Third Reich? Another relative unknown is the role of Jews in the development of medicine as a profession in Germany. Surely volumes could be written on the significant influence Jews have exerted on medicine in its post-Wilhelmian stages, as well as the irreversible victim status Jewish doctors were forced to assume after Hitler's ascension to power


Author(s):  
Camilla Tenaglia

Abstract This essay addresses the relations between Pius XII and Germany at the beginning of his pontificate through the role of Vatican Media, especially Vatican Radio. During the interwar period, the Vatican media system (media ensemble) underwent major transformations, including the creation of a radio broadcasting station in 1931. Pacelli was one of the main agents of these improvements: as Secretary of State supporting Guglielmo Marconi’s project, as Pope through his extensive use of the mass media at his disposal, from radio to cinema. At the end of the 30s the difficult diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Third Reich also had an impact on mass media, as shown by the election of Pacelli in March 1939. The role of Vatican Radio in Vatican diplomacy towards Nazi Germany was already clear during the events surrounding the Anschluss in 1938 and it became a tool for unofficial communication to convey more explicit stances on the regime during World War II. The same strategy was employed during the Option in Südtirol in 1939, when Catholics were able to deliver anti-Nazi propaganda thanks in part to radio in the attempt to avoid the voluntary resettlement of German-speaking Italian citizens from the area. The Holy See maintained a neutral position throughout the events, but at the same time Vatican Radio broadcast programmes in German about the condition of the Catholic Church under the Nazi regime. These broadcasts supported the efforts especially of the Archbishop of Trento Celestino Endrici and his clergy, who opposed the resettlement. Once again Vatican Radio proved a crucial tool for conveying unofficial communications while maintaining the neutral stance typical of the Holy See‘s foreign policy.


Rusin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 201-222
Author(s):  
A.I. Kudriachenko ◽  

The paper analyzes the course of events and the international context of Сarpatho- Ukrainian state’s rise and defeat in terms of role and impact of the leading European actors at the end of the 1930’s. Based on an in-depth study of the wide range of literature, documents and relevant archives, the author highlights the role of Carpatho-Ukraine, which for a short period happened to be at the epicenter of the geopolitical interests of the states whose actions or inaction fueled the warmongers. The revival and strengthening of a number of European countries at that historical period deteriorized international relations. The erosion of the Versailles-Washington bases intensified the contradictions in the foreign policy between the victorious and vanquished states. The defeated countries reinforced their positions, since the victors, who were expanding their military might at the expense of Czechoslovak Republic, including Transcarpathia, were becoming more submissive in accommodating territorial claims. This situation largely updated the approaches to the Ukrainian question. The variability of the ways to solve it largely depended on the situational decisions of the Third Reich political leadership.


2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-352
Author(s):  
Pamela M. Potter

The impetus among Germany's cultural elite to mark the end of World War II as a “zero hour” has been analyzed mainly as a German phenomenon, with considerably less attention to the role of the occupying forces in fostering that mentality. Settling Scores offers a long-awaited analysis of the American Military Government's precarious navigation in the music world, one of the most sensitive cultural areas for both the conquerors and the conquered. Most histories of twentieth-century German music and culture suffer from a basic misunderstanding of this tumultuous time and uncritically accept many of the prejudices it engendered. As this study demonstrates, the notion of a musical “zero hour” is one such misconception, for the imperfect projects of denazification and reeducation left the musical world of the post-war period largely indistinguishable from its pre-war existence. Based on thorough archival research, interviews with eyewitnesses, and a wide range of literature, this highly readable and engaging history reveals in detail the successes and failures of the Military Government's ambitious agenda to root out the musical “Führers” of the Third Reich and to transform music from a tool of nationalist aggression to one of democratic tolerance.


Adam alemi ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (86) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
G. Solovieva

Ethical and aesthetic consciousness is considered in the article as a single phenomenon with a priority of the ethical component. The analysis is carried out in comparative studies of two methods: consideration of the topic in the mirror of modern literature of Kazakhstan as a form of public consciousness and study of the same problem in the mirror of sociological material. These approaches complement each other and make it possible to identify two levels of social consciousness in the ethical and aesthetic dimension: the existing and the due. Sociology enables analysis at the first level. Literature combines both the one and the other, emphasizing the level of due, transformation of reality and resolution of the indicated contradictions. As a result, it was found that the key construct of the ethical and aesthetic consciousness of Kazakhstanis is the idea of cohesion and unity of all ethnic groups with the leading role of the Kazakh people. This idea has the deepest moral meaning and at the same time has the status of beauty, i.e. character aesthetic. Discord is always ugly. Whereas, unity in its essence is beautiful, showing a combination of good and beauty.


2021 ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Н.А. Чистякова

В последнее десятилетие резко изменилось отношение российской общественности к предпринимательству с негативного на нейтральное и даже позитивное. Для подтверждения предположения об изменении эмоционального статуса понятия «предпринимательство» автором был произведен соцопрос. Поскольку предположение об изменении статуса понятия «предпринимательство» подтвердилось, автор посредством историко-культурного анализа постарался объяснить причину изменения стереотипа. Акцент был сделан на роль произведений русской классической литературы в формировании общественного сознания. Кроме того, автор конкретизировал отраженный в классической литературе идеал русского предпринимателя. Конкретно, в статье проанализирован образ предпринимателя в русской классической литературе XIX века: разобраны литературные типы работников финансовой сферы, найдены положительные примеры, выявлены социально ответственные принципы подхода к делу. Для обеспечения большей объективности для анализа привлечены как эпические, так и драматические произведения. Автор выясняет, как в русской классической литературе отражаются проблемы личности предпринимателя, актуальные в настоящее время. В статье произведен сравнительный анализ «кодексов чести» предпринимателя – источников XIX и XXI века, – в которых раскрывается тема чести русского финансиста, его морального облика. В исследовании утверждается преемственность традиций в сфере предпринимательства, сформированных основной частью населения страны, жившего по законам Российской Империи, кроме того, обосновывается содержательная связь художественных и документальных источников и доказывается необходимость создания образа современного коммерсанта на основе принципов, отраженных в отечественной классике. In the last decade, the attitude of the Russian public towards entrepreneurship has changed dramatically from negative to neutral and even positive. To confirm the assumption about the change in the emotional status of the concept of «entrepreneurship», the author conducted a social survey. Since the assumption about the change in the status of the concept of «entrepreneurship» was confirmed, the author tried to explain the reason for the change in the stereotype through historical and cultural analysis. The emphasis was placed on the role of works of Russian classical literature in the formation of public consciousness. In addition, the author concretized the ideal of the Russian entrepreneur reflected in the classical literature. Specifically, the article analyzes the image of the entrepreneur in the Russian classical literature of the XIX century: the literary types of financial workers are analyzed, positive examples are found, and socially responsible principles of the approach to business are identified. To ensure greater objectivity, both epic and dramatic works are used for analysis. The author finds out how the Russian classical literature reflects the problems of the entrepreneur's personality that are currently relevant. The article presents a comparative analysis of the «codes of honor» of the entrepreneur-sources of the XIX and XXI centuries-which reveal the theme of the honor of the Russian financier, his moral image. The study confirms the continuity of traditions in the field of entrepreneurship, formed by the main part of the country's population, who lived according to the laws of the Russian Empire, in addition, substantiates the meaningful connection of artistic and documentary sources and proves the need to create an image of a modern merchant based on the principles reflected in the Russian classics.


1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Overy

The role of rearmament within the economic framework has become a theme of recurring interest in twentieth century history. During the century, however, the scope of the problem has broadened considerably, so that historians no longer talk of rearmament as merely the direct preparation of a nation's armed forces with the means of waging war. Instead the idea of‘ total war’ introduces a new dimension, indirect or economic rearmament. This second dimension involves a much broader interpretation of the political disposition of individual countries at different times and under rapidly changing circumstances, as well as an understanding of the quality of service, industry or institution that would materially contribute to the effective waging of war on the home front as well. The danger of this sort of interpretation lies in the fact that it only appears to be necessary to locate the will to war in order to understand economic or social processes of a much more sophisticated and diverse nature.


Author(s):  
Laura Heins

Focusing on German romance films, domestic melodramas, and home front films from 1933 to 1945, this book shows how melodramatic elements in Nazi cinema functioned as part of a project to move affect, body, and desire beyond the confines of bourgeois culture and participate in a curious modernization of sexuality engineered to advance the imperialist goals of the Third Reich. Rather than reinforcing traditional gender role divisions and the status quo of the nuclear family, these films were much more permissive about desire and sexuality than previously assumed. Offering a comparative analysis of Nazi productions with classical Hollywood films of the same era, the book argues that Nazi melodramas, film writing, and popular media appealed to viewers by promoting liberation from conventional sexual morality and familial structures, presenting the Nazi state and the individual as dynamic and revolutionary. Drawing on extensive archival research, this perceptive study highlights the seemingly contradictory aspects of gender representation and sexual morality in Nazi-era cinema.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document