Showing papers in "Thesis Eleven in 1992"
32 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that the period after the Second World War is characterised mainly by the waning of social, political and ideological conflict and the eclipse, after the movements of the 1960s, of the project of autonomy.
Abstract: This article, after periodising history on the basis of the imaginary significations created by and dominating each period, argues that the period after the Second World War is characterised mainly by the waning of social, political and ideological conflict and the eclipse, after the movements of the 1960s, of the project of autonomy. The decadence in the field of spiritual creation, which marks this period, is reflected in the development of post-modernism that simply mirrors and—worse—rationalises the prevailing trends through a high brow apologetics of conformity and banality.
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TL;DR: Even the decision to take the category of "postmodernity" seriously within social philosophy today requires a certain justification: the object area of all theories with this title is unclear, their conceptual framework for an analysis of processes of social change is surely too narrow, and, besides, their individual bearing too self-satisfied, indeed unsympathetic.
Abstract: Even the decision to take the category of the &dquo;postmodern&dquo; seriously within social philosophy today requires a certain justification: the object area of all theories with this title is unclear, their conceptual framework for an analysis of processes of social change is surely too narrow, and, besides, their individual bearing too self-satisfied, indeed unsympathetic. Every fresh concern with the fashionable concept makes all the more dramatically clear those inadequacies which were inherent in it right from the beginning: whether &dquo;postmodernity&dquo; should characterize only a changed constellation in the cultural realm or a new
11 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a general and elusive way of discussing modernity in juxtaposing it to pre-modernity is discussed. But the concept of modernity is not deconstricted in advance; rather, it is given sense to it by using it.
Abstract: In what follows, I will not deconstrict the concept (term) &dquo;modernity&dquo;, but rather &dquo;unload&dquo; it. I will not legitimize the use of the term in advance; rather, I will give sense to it by using it. I thus begin in the most general and elusive way of discussing modernity in juxtaposing it to pre-modernity. The juxtaposition modern/pre-modern seemingly follows the archetypal dichotomy of &dquo;Hellenic versus barbarian&dquo; or &dquo;Christian versus pagan&dquo;. The speakers take the position of their own world, and they define it against the world of the Others. Juxtapositions of this kind are minimum conditions of self-
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TL;DR: In this paper, a political theology of popular sovereignty with deep roots in British and American history is presented as the only available language of resistance to the hegemonic structures of legal authority and disciplinary power.
Abstract: heavily on a political theology of popular sovereignty with deep roots in British and American history. That populist tradition, heavily laced with its characteristic hostility to lawyers and the law, figures in this book as the only available language of resistance to the hegemonic structures of legal authority and disciplinary power. Both as an historical analysis of the disciplinary society constructed in the Australian colonies and as a polemical assault on the invisible state of
TL;DR: One of Heidegger's few recorded references to the Holocaust is a lecture delivered in 1949 as discussed by the authors, where he presents the extermination camps as an expression of technology, and therefore of the humanism that underlies technology.
Abstract: This passage from a lecture delivered in 19491 contains one of Heidegger’s few recorded references to the Holocaust. It presents the extermination camps as an expression of technology, and therefore of the humanism that, in Heidegger’s view, underlies technology. Another reference, in a reply to Marcuse written in 1948, compares the extermination of the Jews to the Allied treatment of East Germans.2 Such comments encapsulate what many readers find particularly disturbmg about Heidegger’s later work: the combination of a radical and wideranging critique of technology with an apparent indifference to the distinctive scale of the Holocaust itself. Even those who are most attracted to the first are
TL;DR: In this paper, the three main forms of vita activct, that is, action, work and labour, have dominated three major periods of European history: in the ancient world action, in the early modern work, and in the contemporary modern world labour.
Abstract: .If so read, it becomes a kind of ITerfallsgeschichte. Each of the three main forms of vita activct, that is, action, work and labour, have dominated three major periods of European history: in the ancient world action, in the early modern work, in the contemporary modern world labour. Labour, as the activity of reproduction, is necessary for survival, whereas work, and especially action, are luxuries. Luxury is not that which is above necessity in terms of consumption, but that which is above the sphere of necessity in general. Put bluntly, the acts of freedom are such luxuries. Political action is free, insofar as it is absolute
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the change of a single aspect of the historical change images of science: the categorical characterization; if you like, the general definition of the very concept of science.
Abstract: This chapter draws attention to the fact that we are inclined to characterize some institutionalised kinds of knowing in a culture as constituting, in a sense, "science" only when they are, in this culture itself, explicitly distinguished from common, everyday cognitive activities as a specific sphere of "learning," and are so distinguished by legitimated claims to a priorised access to truth. The chapter focuses on the change of a single aspect of the historical change images of science: the categorical characterization; if you like, the general definition of the very concept of science. The cognitive semantics of science and the social ethnology of the behaviour of scientists as a group ought be supplemented and mediated by a historically oriented cultural pragmatics of science as a specific form of cultural objectivation.Keywords: historical change images; science; social ethnology
TL;DR: In their preoccupation with the elaboration of anti-foundational metaphilosophical perspectives, postmodernists paradoxically reveal their own continuing reliance on the very intellectual traditions they seek to subvert.
Abstract: plained as arising out of &dquo;intramural debates in professional philosophy&dquo; (26) which have set in motion a critique of metaphysics that is theoretically radical but for the most part politically naive. In their preoccupation with the elaboration of anti-foundational metaphilosophical perspectives, postmodernists paradoxically reveal their own continuing reliance on the very intellectual traditions they seek to subvert. The abstract and somewhat esoteric nature of
TL;DR: To the best of our knowledge, only the Tennis Court Oath of the National Assembly of the French Revolution as mentioned in this paper is the only instance of self-defiance in the history of political self-assertion.
Abstract: to the French Revolution. The gesture of June 17, by which the Estates-General proclaimed itself a National Assembly, was followed on June 20 by the ’Tennis Court Oath, by which the deputies now claiming to represent the Nation promised not to separate until they had given France a constitution. Three days later, by the voice of Mirabeau, they affirmed their political legitimacy: &dquo;Go tell your master [the King] that we are here by the force of the people and that we will leave only by the force of bayonets&dquo;.’ But even before the Street brought new actors to the stage, fissures could be seen in the Assembly’s unity. Mirabeau’s combative self-assertion was seconded by Sieyes: &dquo;Messieurs, we