From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology [2 ed.]

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BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY

ANTHOLOGIES

im

Expanded Second Edition

Edited by

Lawrence Cahoone

odernism An A^Kology Blackweir PubMshfing

^^'

k

From Modernism to Postmodernism

BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY ANTHOLOGIES Each volume in

this

outstanding series provides an authoritative and comprehensive

collection of the essential to

complement the

primary readings from philosophy's main

fields of study.

Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, each

unparalleled resource in

its

own right, and will provide the ideal platform for course use.

1

Cottingham: Western Philosophy:

2

Cahoone: From Modernism

to

3

LaFollette: Ethics in Practice:

4

Goodin and

Pettit:

Designed

volume represents an

An Anthology An Anthology (expanded second edition)

Postmodernism:

An Anthology (second edition) Political Philosophy: An Anthology

Contemporary

An Anthology

5

Eze: African Philosophy:

6

An Anthology An Anthology Lycan: Mind and Cognition: An Anthology (second edition) Kuhse and Singer: Bioethics: An Anthology Cummins and Cimmuns: Minds, Brains, and Computers - The Foundations of Cognitive Science: An Anthology Sosa and Kim: Epistemology: An Anthology Kearney and Rasmussen: Continental Aesthetics - Romanticism to Postmodernism: An

7 8 9 10

11

12

McNeill and Feldman: Continental Philosophy:

Kim and

Sosa: Metaphysics:

Anthology

An Anthology An Anthology Jacquette: Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology Harris, Pratt, and Waters: American Philosophies: An Anthology Emmanuel and Goold: Modem Philosophy - From Descartes to Nietzsche: An Anthology Scharff and Dusek: Philosophy of Technology - The Technological Condition: An Anthology Light and Rolston: Environmental Ethics: An Anthology Taliaferro and Griffiths: Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology Lamarque and Olsen: Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art - The Analytic Tradition: An

13 Martinich

and

Sosa: Analytic Philosophy:

14 Jacquette: Philosophy of Logic: 15

16

17 18 19

20 21

Anthology

22 John and Lopes: Philosophy of Literature - Contemporary and Classic Readings: 23

Cudd and Andreasen:

Feminist Theory:

24 CarroU and Choi: Philosophy of Film:

A Philosophical Anthology

An Anthology

An Anthology

From Modernism to Postmodernism An Anthology

Expanded Second Edition

Edited by

Lawrence Cahoone

^&k ^€/

Blackwell Publishing

/

Editorial material

and organization

BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Maiden,

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This expanded second edition published 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

2008

6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

From modernism p.

cm.

—

to

postmodernism: an anthology

/

edited by Lawrence

Cahoone

—

2nd

ed.

(Blackwell philosophy anthologies; 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.

Postmodernism. L Cahoone, Lawrence

E.,

1954- IL Series.

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5

Contents

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

x

Introduction

1

Part

Modern

I

Civilization

Introduction to Part 1

From

and

its

Critics

1

I

17

Meditations on First Philosophy

19

RENE DESCARTES 2

3

From

A

DAVID

HUME

From

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts

Treatise on

Human

Nature

27

32

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU 4

From The

Theory of Moral Sentiments

38

ADAM SMITH 5

"An Answer From

to the Question:

'What

is

Enlightenment?'

"

45

49

the Preface to Critique of Pure Reason

IMMANUEL KANT 6

From

54

Refections on the Revolution in France

EDMUND BURKE 7

From

Sketch for an Historical Picture of the Progress of the

Human Mind

63

MARQUIS DE CONDORCET 8

"Absolute Freedom and Terror" G.

9

W.

F.

70

HEGEL

"Bourgeois and Proletarians"

75

KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS

CZ)

Contents

Part

II

10

From

Modernity Realized

Introduction to Part 77?^ Origin

83

II

85

of Species

88

CHARLES DARWIN 11

From "The

Modern

Painter of

Life"

96

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE 12

From "How CHARLES

13

Make Our

to

Ideas Clear"

102

PEIRCE

S.

"On Truth and

Lies in a

Nonmoral Sense"

109

"The Madman"

"How

116

the 'True World' Finally

Became

a

Fable"

1

The Dionysian World

17

117

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE 14

"The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism" FILIPPO

15

From

118

TOMMASO MARINETTI

Course in General Linguistics

122

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE 16

From "Science

Vocation"

127

New Architecture

132

as a

MAX WEBER 17

From Towards

a

LE CORBUSIER 18

"Lecture on Ethics"

139

From

143

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN 19

From

Civilization

and

its

144

Discontents

SIGMUND FREUD 20

From The

Crisis

of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology

149

EDMUND HUSSERL 21

From

Dialectic

159

of Enlightenment

MAX HORKHEIMER AND THEODOR ADORNO 22

From

169

"Existentialism"

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE 23

"Letter on

Humanism"

174

MARTIN HEIDEGGER 24

"The Mirror

Stage as Formative of the Function of the

I

as

Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience"

195

JACQUES LACAN 25

From "The Nature and THOMAS KUHN

c^

Necessity of Scientific Revolutions"

200

Contents lU

I'loin

DWIll

Part

lUl.i.

Postmodernism and the Rc-c\aIuaiioii of Modcriiit>

III

Iniioiiuclioii to P.M

27

lthlnstn(tl Stnicty

I he- (^(irninii (ij I*osl

I

IV) 221

111

I'rciich Post-St met lira! ism

224

"'DiJJtruncc''

225

r^ACQl KS DKRRIDA

28

"Nict/schc, Cicncalog)

From

,

I

listory"

241

"'IVulh and Power"

252

MICHEL FOl'CAULT 20

"The Sex Which

is

Not One"

254

LUCE IRIGARAV 30

From The

Postmodern Condition:

A

Report on Knowledge

259

JEAN-FRAN9OIS LYOTARD 31

From

''1227: Treatise

on Nomadology - The

War Machine"

278

DELEUZE and FELIX GLATTARI

Y,>.4l«>**''*-*i

Baudelaire, Charles, from

R W

I'uturism" (trans

.Straus &: (Jirouv, Inc

of Spenes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 19*^6.

ol

Selected Writings (ed. R.

3W 44

from chapter and

not

eilitor's

Toininaso, " Ihe i'ound-

lilippo

Manifesto

M\^.\

xolunu-

this

is

Mini ami Arthur W. (^ippoielli) from Mar-

("Stru;^u;le

and from

section

\larinetti,

ing

Norton \

7.^;

()7

("Recapitulation

14

Niet/sche's,

ifhtti: .>

4, 62 6;

lor lAistence"), pp. 51

fourth

jip

Conip.un,

WW

ol

4 ("Natural Selection"), pp.

sion"), pp. .>7i,

c\;

ilu-

(opxriglii

I*)7S.

from chajMer

l)ar\Nin, Charles,

chapter

edition),

Norton

Inc.

1(1

Tucker (ed),

Reader (second

New

473 S.V

Robert C.

in

lintels

.W

.

Norton

&:

Used by Company,

Inc.;

20

Husserl,

Edmund,

Part One, section 'S-S, pp.

7-14 and Part Two, section 9h-91, pp. 48-59 from The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (trans. David

1967 by Walter

Carr).

Evanston:

Kaufmann. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. * Note that the title given to this

Press,

1970.

Northwestern

Reprinted

by

University

permission

of

Northwestern University Press;

C^

Acknowledgments 21

Max

Horkheimer,

Theodor Adorno,

and

28

ogy, History" (trans.

and Morality," pp. 81-93,

Memory,

Dialectic

in

Enlightenment (trans. John Gumming).

of

New

Ithaca:

Bernard Frechtman)

(trans.

and

Human

New

versity Press; [B]

York: Citadel 1985. Copyright

©

view by Alessandro Fontana and Pasquale

1957,

Pasquino

by

Knowledge:

Publishing

Carol

Writings

Humanism"

Heidegger, Martin, "Letter on

Frank A. Capuzzi, with

David

Farrell Krell, ed.

New

193-242.

pp.

J.

David

&

Row,

&

Row,

C

1977

29

Publishers, Inc. General

©

copyright

1977 by David Farrell

"The Mirror

Selection,

trans,

by

The

Pantheon

Books,

Random

of

division

a

Inc.;

Irigaray,

Luce,

"The Sex Which

is

Not One"

New

from

Claudia Reeder)

French

Courtivron),

New

York: Schoken, 1981, pp.

©

Editions de Minuit,

Alan

30

in

Ecrits:

Sheridan,

Lyotard,

A

Introduction

Jean-Francois,

xxiii-xxv).

Sections 9-11

(pp.

31^7), and

(pp.

Section 14 (pp. 64—7) from The Postmodern

New

Condition:

A

Report

Knowledge

on

(trans.

Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi). Min-

1977, chap-

Minnesota

neapoHs:

Kuhn, Thomas, "The Nature and Necessity

1984. Originally published in France as

of Scientific Revolutions," chapter IX, pp.

condition postmoderne:

92-110, from The Structure of Scientific Revo-

Copyright

Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1962. Copyright sity

©

1962, 1970

uit,

The Univer-

of Chicago. Reprinted by permission of

Daniel,

Bell,

New

York: Basic Books, 1976. Copyright

1976 by Daniel

Bell.

of Basic Books,

La

savoir.

and foreword

1984 by the University of Min-

by permission of the Uni-

Minnesota and by kind permission

of Manchester University Press; 31

Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari, from "1227: Treatise on Nomadology -

©

The War

Machine," chapter 12 of A Thousand Plateaus

Reprinted by permission

a division

©

le

Press,

1979 by Les Editions de Min-

nesota. Reprinted

The

Society, pp. ix-xxii.

©

rapport sur

Paris. English translation

versity of

1976" from

"Foreword:

Coming of Post-Industrial

of

University

copyright

University of Chicago Press;

27

1980 by

ter one, pp. 1-7;

lutions.

26

©

Used by permission of

Press.

99-106. Copyright

Revealed in

as

W.W. Norton & Company,

York:

25

Stage as FormaI

Experience,"

Psychoanalytic

1972, 1975, 1976, 1977 by Michel

Paris;

of the Function of the

tive

Other

Feminisms (ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de

Collins Publishers, Inc.;

Jacques Lacan,

and

Colin Gordon). Copy-

(ed.

Harvester

(trans.

Reprinted by permission of Harper-

Krell.

Interviews

Selected

1972-77

©

House,

introduction and introductions to each selection

Colin Gordon) in Power/

(trans.

Foucault. This collection

Farrell Krell),

1977. English translation copyright

by Harper

right

(trans.

Glenn Gray and

York: Harper

from "Truth and Power,"

pp. 131-3, answer to final question of inter-

1985 by Philosophical Library, Inc. Pubhshed with

1977 Cornell University. Used

in Existentialism

Emotions^ pp. 15-24 and 46-51.

arrangement

Cornell University Press, 1977.

©

by permission of the publisher, Cornell Uni-

from Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings

24

NY:

Inter-

F. Bouchard), pp. 139-64.

"Existentialism"

Group; 23

Donald

Copyright

from

Jean-Paul,

and

Practise: Selected Essays

views (ed.

tinuum Publishing Group; Sartre,

Donald F. Bouchard

and Sherry Simon), from Language, Counter-

The Con-

York: Seabury, 1972. Copyright C

22

Foucault, Michel: [A] "Nietzsche, Geneal-

from "The Concept of Enlightenment," pp. 23-9, and from "Juliette, or Enlightenment

of HarperCollins

(trans.

Brian Massumi), pp. 351-5, 361-2,

Publishers, Inc.;

366-7, 369-71, 380-9, 416-18, 420-3.

Derrida, Jacques, "Differance," pp. 129-60

neapolis:

University

©

Minnesota

of

MinPress,

1987 by the University

in Speech

and Phenomena and Other Essays on

1987. Copyright

HusserVs

Theory of Signs (trans. David B.

of Minnesota Press. Originally published as

Allison). Evanston:

Mille Plateaux, volume 2 of Capita Iisme

Northwestern University

et

Schizophrenic. Copyright

©

Northwestern University Press. This transla-

tions de Minuit,

and Athlone Press,

tion includes the introduction to the original

London;

Press,

1973.

Reprinted

by permission

1968 lecture by Derrida (the graphs);

(^

first five

of

para-

32

Cornel

West,

Paris

1980 by Les Edi-

"A Genealogy

Racism," chapter four of

of

Modern

his Prophesy Deli-

Acknowledgments vcrutm!

In

U>S2, pp. 47

Press,

W est.

by C.ornel

I'oster,

mils:

1WS2

(

W est-

Cultural Poltttis, pp.

115.

New

that

illustrations

New

The

York:

Press, l^S.v

1^)1

Gayatri

C'.hakravori\,

29+-313 from

4,

Marxism and

Speak.'" in Culture

Nelson

Gary

(ed.

the hiterpretatiun

cism

chapter

gies,"

Gornell

141-61

pp.

6,

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Feminism.

in

University

from

The

Ithaca,

NY:

1986 by Gornell University. Published

|:

the

Open

tion of

pp. 97-118 from

43

5

New

York

New

sity

44

of Difference.

5 in Justice

and

45

4"

1990

Giroux, Henry A., "Towards

Postmodernism, Feminism and Cultural

1991. Gopyright

University of

New

Butler,

(

1984 by the University of Ghi-

Jencks, Gharles: [A]

"The Death of Modern

9-10 from The Language

New

York:

Ri/.-

1986; [B] from chapter 2 (pp. 14-20) and

\\ iley

46

New

Reproduced by permission of John

&

Sons Limited;

Haraway, Donna, pp. 190-6, 203-7, and 21233 from "A Manifesto for Gyborgs: Science,

Technology and 1980s"

in

Socialist

Feminism

in

Feminism/ Postmodernism

Linda Nicholson). London and

New York

New

the (ed.

York:

Routledge, 1990. Reprinted by permission of

Press;

39

115-20.

of (>hicago Press;

1986.

to

York. Reprinted by per-

mission of State University of

Postmodern

from chapter 7 (pp. 57 9) of What is PostLondon: Academy Editions,

1991 State

(

A

103-7, and

Modernism?

Politics.,

pp. 45-55. Albany: State University of

Erring:

Rorty, Richard, "Solidarity or Objectivity.-"

zoli,

Postmodern

a

Pedagogy," section of the Introduction

6-13,

of Post-.Modern Architecture.

Princeton

Princeton:

pp.

.Architecture," pp.

the

permission of Princeton University Press;

Press,

mart

la

el

pp. 3-19, from Post- Analytic Philosophy (ed.

by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by

York

()riginall\

John Rajchman and Gomel \\ est). New York: Golumbia University Press, 1985;

Marion, pp. \11-A, 136-48, 152-

University Press, 1990. Gopyright

38

1993.

Editions Gallimard, Paris. Re-

Mark G, from

Taylor,

Gopyright

and the author;

of Identity," chapter

Politics

Ciane

.Mike

Sage Publi-


.S4),

aiul

humanitarian policy, whose abstract grids undercut

Mirror

n/

mechanisms by which urban neighbor-

hoods had traditionally maintained themselves

Then

viable communities.

m

ami Contrudictiim

as

in 1^)6() in his (lomplcxity

Architecture Robert

Venturi

communication requires

insisted that architectural

not simplicity but complexity and even contradiction.

.Modernism's search (or

style

had been summarized by Mies van der Rohe\s

slogan "less "less

is

more,"

is

to

a

simplified uni\ocal

which

\ cnturi replied

come both

bore." In the decade to

a

modernist style and the idea of

through uniform, technocratic, top-down solutions increasingly

fell

out of favor. Alternately, other

architectural theorists, including Peter

and Bernard Tschumi, structuralist

methods

modernism

transcend

to

Eisenman

employed post-

explicitly

while avoiding what they regarded as Venturi's capitulation

the

to

popular building trends of

mass capitalism.

Not

other radical changes almost too numerous to recount: the end of the

colonialism after

last

vestiges of

World War

II,

European

the development

of mass communications and a media culture in the

advanced industrial countries, the rapid modern-

much

ization of

of the non- Western w orld, and the

shrinking of the globe by international marketing,

telecommunications, and intercontinental missiles. In

many

\\ estern

nations there was a significant

delegitimation of authority, most prominently seen in

the

political

explosion of students

around the world, culminating

USA,

Paris, Prague,

ends, to be sure).

among

the

young

virtually

1968

in

in

the

and China (towards different

The

revolt against authority

educated,

about-to-be-

or

educated, classes was profound.

It

was

in

this

highly charged university setting, within an increasingly

ernism

complex

postmod-

social context, that

in the strictest sense

among some younger

was born

professors.

in

The

France

attack of

(lotulttmn:

Richard

Report

I

.

Philosophy and the

Rorty's

not

(l'>79).

I'he

last,

the dexelopments of post-Heideggerian (Continen-

philosophy and post-\\ ittgensteinian analytic

tal

philosophy were converging on

Rorty

anti-foundationalism.

American albeit

kind of pragmatic

a

representati\e

postmodernism,

of

pragmatic garb, giving "postmodern"

in

meaning

seemed

arms, on all

to resonate with the post-structuralist cri-

tradition.

We must

caution, of course, that

not the onl) philosophical

is

istti

postmodernism

recent l\ to rebel

against what might be considered the strains of

In the late 1970s, three books galvanized postas a

movement; Charles Jencks's

dominant

modern thought. As postmodernism de-

veloped, others responded to the problems of late

twentieth-century society and culture with

a call for

This "pre-

a return to traditional cultural forms.

modernism" can be seen in the widespread political conservatism that first emerged in the 1980s, the nity

moral regeneration, for

and

a return to

commu-

re-emergence of nationalism

religion, the

and ethnic tribalism, and religious fundamentalism (especially Islamic,

Hindu, and Christian). Alasdair

Maclntyre put the issue ideals are suspect, then

starkly: if

we

"Nietzsche or Aristotle," a

which

in the

postmodern-

a leap into

West means

either ancient

Greek

Judeo-Christian notions. In political theory, the

'spremodernist" >(.

Enlightenment w ith the choice

reincoporation of premodern principles,

ism or

,xr

are left

elements

of conservatism

-mmunitarianism echoed,

\^ji

global

in

far

and

milder tones,

resurgence of nativism, nationalism,

aitd militant

fundamentalism that began with the

Iranian Revolution of 1980 and was accelerated in

the Balkans and Central Asia after the

Sc

iet

"Nietzsche or Aristotle" reverse

order)

by

McW orld,"

is

theorist

opposition,

Jiirgen

Benjamin

"Jihad

versus

the postmodern global service econ-

omy and mass

modern

of the

thus matched (albeit in

political

Barber's geo-political

like

fall

empire. Maclntyre's philosophical choice

culture versus an anti-modern trad-

fundamentalism, and/or nationalism.

Habermas, continue

to

intellectuals,

defend the

legacy of rationalism and liberal individu-

alism by developing a non-foundational version of

tique of Reason and Authority.

modernism

a

philosophers outside the l,uro|)ean

for

At the same time, of course, other

its

Vietnam,

became an

thereby

the university that was literally one of in

7'he

KnowleJiie,

that

\iitnre

itionalism,

on the American war

1977), Jean-

on

Parisian students on the French government, on

capitalism, and

(

while

call for

mention that society was undergoing

to

Irihitciture

emploNing the term "postmodern," argued

the

reform

social

.

savnir (1979; I'nglish translation:

Pnstnnu/ertt

anti-urban, anti-human impulses of this alleged

the social

MtiJcrn

Francois Fyotard's Im CimJitwn PostmoJeme: rap-

77?^

Enlightenment thought. Their reformed "pro-

modernism" seeks

to obviate either a fearful return

CT)

Introduction to the

premodern past or an impulsive leap

postmodern

Thus ends our

how postmodernism

insist,

what

and

it

means

de-

two separate

are

understand what

first

whose decline postmodernism announces.

must gain some understanding of what

is

it

We

meant

by modernity.

makes the precise

latter

consciousness rather

Modern? derived from the Latin modo,

distinguished from earlier times.

and places

history. It

is still

used in this

current, as

is

has been used

It

to distinguish con-

temporary from traditional ways, and can refer to any sphere of

cares about

science,

is

ma-

expectancy; the rest

life

we should never

is

unimport-

lose sight of these

and material advances. But here

the American sociologist Peter Berger asks the right

simply means "of today" or what

in various periods

modern

chines, industrialization, advanced living standards

we simply

question: are

The term "modern,"

"Who

to say,

What makes modernity modern and expanded

is

definition of the

difficult.

One may be tempted

essential practical

What

dem-

certainly unpreced-

the non-technological components of modernity?

ant." Certainly

II

is

ented, the complex and interpretive nature of the

meaning of

questions. In order to examine the

postmodernism, we must is

industrial production, with capitalism, Hberal

ocracy, individualism, etc.,

brief history lesson. But, as post-

modernists would \eloped

into the

future.

life

in principle

and any period

local,

in

contextual sense,

hence "modern English" and ''modern dance" do

planes.'

That

ancient Egyptians in air-

the sole important shift in

is, is

mod-

ernity a difference in tools and material conditions,

rather than a difference in the selves, their

worldview

,

human

beings them-

their sense of self? If only

the tools matter, then the sole significant difference

betw een a corporate executive in a Boeing 747 and an astrologer in the Pharaoh's court

would imply

the 747. This

is

that the modernization of undevel-

not imply that the historical period of these tw o

oped countries

phenomena

nothing to do with culture and psychology. But,

are the same. Likewise, the invention

of writing was certainly

"modern"

in

comparison

to

pre-literate society. a fixed

reference in contemporary intellectual discussion. the new civilization that developed in

centuries, fully evident

case.

The

oger

lies

to

admits that

is

unique

in

it is

Exactly what makes this civilization some extent uncontroversial. Everyor^e Europe and North America develop }^

and applied

a

new, powerful technique

study of nature, and

new machine

for t^e

technologies

and modes of industrial production that have led to

an unprecedented

ards. It

this

is

this is not the

difference between executive and astrol-

not only in the airplane, but in the hu-

harder to understand and specify than airplanes,

that this civilization

in the non-relative sense that

is

problems arising

social

last several

rise in material living

form of modernity that

stard-

is

tO'

ay

makes the

this recognition

makes modernity modern

human history. unique

having

by the early tw entieth cen-

"Modernity" implies

modern

complex cultural and

affair,

man mind, or, in what might be the same thing, human culture. But because minds and cultures are

Europe and North America over the tury.

purely technical

from modernization have shown,

"Modernity" on the other hand, has It refers to

as the

a

is

The

debate

historical to

is

specification of

what

controversial.

complicated by the question of the

parameters of modernity.

when modernity

question of what

is

second decides the

started

is

The decision as

entangled with the

modernity; your answer to the

first.

Did modernity

in the

West

begin in the sixteenth century with the Protestant reformation, the rejection of the universal power of the

Roman

Catholic Church, and the development

described as "modernization" or simply "develop-

of a humanistic skepticism epitomized by Erasmus

ment"

and Montaigne? Or was

in the

non-Western world. In the West

arguably characterized as well by other

it is

traits: free

tury

with

the

it

scientific

in the seventeenth cen-

revolution

of Galileo,

markets, a largely secular culture, liberal democ-

Harvey, Hobbes, Descartes, Boyle, Leibniz, and

humanism, etc. Whether these traits are unique in human history is more controversial. Many historical societies

Newton?

racy, individualism, rationahsm,

have,

in

a

limited

sphere,

had

relatively

free

markets, respected individuality, engaged in rational planning

and

rational inquiry, created secular

or profane zones of culture, etc. \\ estern combination

(X)

While the modern

of science, technolos^v, and

a

\\"as

it

caused by the

first

development of

market economy in eighteenth-century England?

Or

the republican political theories and revolutions

of the United States and France in the late eight-

eenth century?

What about the industrial revolution

of the nineteenth century?

Much

can be learned

about the pieces of the puzzle from these disparate views.

There

is

no non-circular wav

to

decide

,

Introduction

among ihcm.

!'\)rluiiai(.l>, at least for

pher, there

is

also

question

not.

W hat

is

no need

When

did niodernitN beijin-

some new form

knoNN that

of

lile'

human

Kurope and North America,

Inii,

enouu;h to

is

It

societ\ eNolved

fully eviilent b>

whose \arious pieces had

1^M4,

priniar\

the inner nature, the probable destin\, and

is

the \alidit\ of this ne\N NNa\ of

in

the philoso-

Our

to ileeiile.

mto

,

sa\

positive self-image

has most often given to

Kniightenment, entific

is

of

\\

specific

ture, literal ure aiul music,

ments

thai

thrixeil

nineteenth cenlur\ iwentieth cenlurN

m Msual

where

it

art,

its

architec-

move-

refers to

from the seconil

half

of

the

ihruugh ihe

half

of

ihe

lirsi

As meniioneil abo\c,

saw unjirecetlentetl e\|>erimentalion

ihis period

the arts: in

in

expression of Jackson Pollack; in literature, the

founded on

knowledge of the world and

rational

sci-

know-

premium

and freedom, and believes

such freedom and rationality

that

is

estern culture

picture born in the

a civilization

life

use

painting, from the realism of (iustav (iourbei and

ledge of value, which places the highest

on individual human

common

the impressionism of Claude .\lonel to the abstract

modern

itself, a

mtcd other,

jn^^iction,

is

an active process of exclusion. hierarchtzation.

constructed by,

can never say what

distinct mention,

and

rather than a motivated construction. Thus, the

pendent of all saying. Fourth, what

repression.,

opposition,

medi-

texts, representations,

The worU we know

representations.

it

aiuKsis uhich

modern period; what he meant was that the modern social sciences for the first time made "man" or "humankind" an a

n«it

In another

really at issue.

is

it

form

a

hether or

own normatiNe

consisientK make their clearh unleashes

\N

themselxes cannot

ihis implies that postmotiernisls

postmodernist miiiht produce

a

how

its

political

thought, writing, negotiation, and |>o\\er which

of

produced those ntirmative claims

necessary misreadini;.

'^

be, as already noted, repressed. P^or

examining a

social

a class or ethnic division,

system characterized postmodernists w

ill

discover that the privileged group must actively

produce and maintain

its

position by representing

Beyond obvious cases of the former, like Descartes' mind-body metaphysics, dualism often

or picturing itself- in theory, in literature, in law,

functions in a philosophical system to put the

under-privileged group(s) hy nature, while repre-

means by which we know and judge things outside the things judged, e.g. by making the validity of the

senting those groups as intrinsically lacking the

rules of reason or morality independent of nature or

psyche, the self

human

itself as

odological.

immanence in connorms we use to judge pro-

convention. Normative

trast asserts that the

cesses are themselves products of the processes they judge.

There

is

no access

to an "outside."

For

in irt

-

as not

having the properties ascribed to the

human

properties of the privileged group. In a

may be compelled

to represent

excluding sexual or aggressive feelings,

which, however, cannot simply be obliterated, and so

must be ascribed

to

cratic events (e.g. "I

chance situations, to idiosyn-

was not myself today"),

etc.

In

system, the dualism of "reality" and

example, where most philosophers might use an

a philosophical

idea of justice independently derived from a philo-

"appearance" involves the construction of a kind of

phenomena

sophical argument to judge a social order, postmod-

waste-basket into w hich

ernism regards that idea

does not want to sanctify w ith the privileged term

social relations that

justice

was created

it

and

product of the

serves to judge; the idea of

at a certain

serve certain interests, intellectual

as itself the

is

time and place, to

dependent on

social context, etc.

a certain

Norms

that the

"real" can be tossed ("mere appearances"). this

way can

system

Only

in

the pristine integrity of the idealized or

privileged term be maintained.^

^

are not

independent of nature or semiosis (sign production

and interpretation) or experience or

This leads postmodernists

to

social interests.

respond to the nor-

mative claims of others by displaying the processes

'"^

This strategic mode of analysis

the dialectical

method of the

G. W. F.Hegel (177Q-1831).

great

is

partly inspired

German

by

philosopher

Introduction Metaphorically, this can be expressed by saying that

it

the margins that constitute the

is

postmodernist

text.

The

to the apparently ex-

will attend

cluded or marginalized elements of any system or text,

because therein

Just

as

lies

the key to

psychoanalysis

in

creates neurotic

symptoms

structure.

its

postmodernists

turn

will

their

tion the very distinction of inquiry (e.g. philoso-

away

seldom mentioned,

those lines are crossed or blurred, clear

ent"

meaning of

take as secondary or peripheral to the a text, are read

by postmodernists

a

tries to write in a

no longer

is

postmodern

proposition aiming at

a

way

that

its

a

effects

No one

would be "consist-

with these commitments could

become

and

Once

art.

on the reader, or an aesthetic performance.

who

may

intended to be

is

it

by

a sentence written

practical

and

truth, or a practical utterance offered for

presumably accidental marginalia.

readers

whether

writer

Linguistic tropes, such as metaphors, which other

virtually absent,

from

etc.),

like politics

attention

lying.

is

Indeed, taken far enough their method must ques-

productive disciplines,

marks of the hidden

act of constitutive repression in

writing

all

dreams, and

from the well-known, openly announced themes in a text to discover tell-tale

write while recognizing that

phy, science, history,

seemingly unimportant conversational mistakes,

They must

presence, the ubiquity of difference.

repression

excessive like jokes,

undecidability of meaning, the absence of

ilege, the

help

but

hermeneutic pretzel.

as

crucial to the constitution of the text's privileged

theme. Pulling on these threads deconstructs the text, in

Derrida's famous term. Such deconstruc-

tion

the

is

undermines

making its

is

the text

and sometimes

implicit

This volume

explicit in

unstable, and/or immoral: false in that

sooner or

later

Part

it is

I

presents the reader with a small selection

of some of the most influential statements of mod-

menda-

ernity

be admitted, forcing an accepta fee

from the seventeenth through the nineteenth

centuries, as well as

some of the most famous

most human beings

these centuries

the privileged unit (the "return of the repressed' lin

North America continued

when

it

form of socal

takes the

oppression. Social disenfranchisement, marginalization of sexual

and

and

racial groups, is the

political case of this pattern.

This

is

Some

ics.

had

for the

the world in

at che

enced by the

postmodernists wish to remove such

to live

Europe and

in

and think

thousand years preceding:

as they

in small

towns and agricultural communities, imagining

mo 'al

heart of every postmodernist intervention in polit-

criti-

cisms of that evolving civilization. Throughout

of the excluded factors into the representation«of

Freud); immoral

modern

itself.

is false,

unstable in that the repression insst

lie;

structured chronologically around

West's philosophical evaluation of

kind of analysis through constitutive repression

the claim that the process of exclusion

cious, a

is

three phases in the development of the

own meaning.

Sometimes this

way

explicit of the

Putting Postmodernism in Context

IV

in

more

or less religious terms, uninflu-

scientific

and secular ideas emerging

educated circles in the great

cities.

It

was not

market economy and the

until the beginnings of the

while others, seeing in that wish a

republican political revolutions of the eighteenth

longing for an impossible authenticity, admit that

century that modern ideas had widespread concrete

repression,

there

is

no escape from repression and hope only

render repressive forces more diverse and

to

fluid, so

none becomes monopolistic and hence exces-

that

might, as a postscript,

own up

particularly troublesome feature of

ism, namely,

No

its

(that

is,

is

due

substantive

bound

to the fashions char-

who invented

reason

as

to write in a

just

But there

well.

way

it

happened is

a

more

Postmodernists

that reflects the self-

conscious apphcation of the preceding points to their

own

daily

life

writing.

They must write

while conscious

of constructivism, the disruption of authorial priv-

for

most people

new element of modern

twentieth century. Each

and religious

leaders,

and

whom are included here. that

what we have

under Part

of the location of postmodernism's birth

the Parisians

to write in a difficult style).

are

to a last,

postmodern-

notoriously difficult writing style.

doubt some of this

acteristic

But even then,

continued relatively unchanged until almost the

thought was opposed by cultural

sively onerous.

One

effect.

art,

It is

called

inertia, political

intellectuals, several

of

crucial to understand

modernity was always

attack. II

presents the critical analysis of

society,

modern

and philosophy that came with the

triumph of modernity, the society unique in

full

human history.

establishment of a It is in this

period,

roughly from 1860 to 1950, that Western modernity

ceased to be a primarily intellectual and political

phenomenon and

dramatically remade the every-

day socio-economic world

in

which people

live. It is

Introduction ihf

also

the world. vokccl a

in

pcri()(.l

the

bccaiiH-

uioikiiiiiN

iicopolilital

This actuali/atioii

new reaction from

instigatinu; a

of"

torn-

result inii

aesthetic

and

nioiUrmtN

in

period

a

of"

unprecedented

intellectual experimentation.

modernism

that resulted

both

is

The

influential for later

four selections of Pari

it.

Of the

to the

is

postmodernism. The

II

from

I

art-

a critique of

authors in this section Friedrich Nietzsche

Kuhn, and

pn»-

the

final

leidegger, Lacan,

constitute the historical transition

Hell

postmodern.

The

II

I

kiue

fitting

nuihoilological

dodge

the\

III

are

from the

jiost-

period, and are broken into four

or

Khetoncal

on both

flourishes

standmg, postmodernism to

which philosophy

ments is

philosophical claims.

unbe-

criticism b) a subterfuge

an iiu|uirer siiles

nolwiih-

raises crucial questions

bound by

is

The

to respond.

own commit-

its

charge of self-contradiction

an important one. NeNertheless,

is

it

a

purel\

negative argument that does nothing to blunt the criticisms

quiry. of

postmodernism makes of

The sometimes

is

traditional in-

obscure rhetorical strategies

postmodernism make sense

To

critique of the latter.

ern critique

selections in Part

W orld War

explkii

intellectuals anil artists,

boury:eois modernity and an expression of

most

in

debate over bourgeois values and mass

culture,

istic

W tsltin

which

(.loiiiiii.im

if

one accepts

say then that the

invalid because the kind

produces does not meet the standards or normal inquiry

a rather

is

«)f

its

postmodtheor\

it

of traditional

weak counter-attack.

It

categories: F^rench post-structuralism; critical ap-

says in effect that whatever critique does not ad-

propriations of post-structuralism; postmodernists

vance the interests of normal or traditional inquiry

who move beyond

is

and resistances

to

critique;

and

finally alternatives

postmodernism. These

will all

further discussed in the Introduction to Part

be

III.

invalid.

The same

charge was

made

against the

very patron saint of philosophy, Socrates, whose infernal questioning,

it

was

said in Plato's .Ipo/o'^y,

may be well to conclude this Introduction with a general comment about the validity of postmodernism. Some philosophers dismiss postmodern-

socially

ism for using intentionally elusive rhetoric, in part

mission. So, while the threat of self-contradiction

It

to avoid self-contradiction.

ernists literally jectivity,

this

and

If,

explicitly

they say, postmod-

undermine

truth, ob-

and the univocal meanings of words, then

would undermine

their

own

writing as well,

undercutting their meaning or truth. Postmodernists

would then be

vaHdity of their critics

in the position

own

denials.

To

itself

important

does raise

a serious

one

would

that

regarding

problem

prevent

justify

for

postmodernism,

way

from

traditional phil-

osophies hope to be, that fact does nothing to show that

normal inquiry

is

immune

be so easily dismissed.

convoluted fashion, unwilling to make

undermined

postmodernism

itself as valid in the

avoid

the

practical,

and could not

except for his eccentric claim to a divine

modernism

this,

and

beliefs,

of denying the

continue, postmodernists write in a coy,

ironic, or

led to nothing positive

to its critique. Post-

raises serious challenges

W hether

it

which cannot is

course, another matter, and one that

reader to decide.

n^hf, is

up

is,

of

to the

L

PART Modern

I

Civilization

its Critics

and

L

Introduction to Part

It

is

impossible to recount the dramatic changes

that stimulated

European modernity. Cxrtainly the

voyages of discovery of the

century,

fifteenth

I

hence the individual's autonomous employment of reason

is

human

the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth, and

by using

the scientific revolution of the seventeenth had a

that

profound

on the European mind. By the

effect

momentum

eighteenth century

behind

new

a

new

eventually create a

began

to

gather

of the world, which would

vit'ir

world, the

modern world

of science and industry and business and

cities

and

be encouraged; and that the meaning of

to

be

fulfilled

of truth

of

human

this

all

tury.

is

this set

machines rather than by nature, where the Rights of

Man

would replace the Divine Right of Kings, where

cities

would become home

who had

pragmatic strangers

left their local

to

com-

is

it

remains

imply one another, as

Even bit

if

sour,

if

effective legacy.

with our mother's milk.

some European

intellectuals did almost

critics

from within

and the

meant the

many

fact

we have come to find the milk and demand a more varied diet,

from the printing

It

in

Reason, F'reedom, and social Progress naturally

European modernity

press, the laboratory,

not the sole meaning

most

its

start.

not parents, princes or pulpit.

-

have ever since imbibed the conviction that

munities, where beliefs were increasingly generated

street,

politically

"Enlightenments," many versions of that century's

where the merchant would displace the landed aristocrat,

of ideas

of the Enlightenment - there are

We

be increasingly dictated by

and

largely a product of the eighteenth cen-

While

contribution -

to

to

reconstruction

the

society for the better, materially

rhythm of

was

in

is

enable

will

cosmopolitanism and republicanism, where the life

some measure

this reason to grasp a larger share

existence

its

own

a

as

from the

was never without

house.

The

that a universal naive acceptance of

impression

Enlightenment

beginning of an accelerating process of change

rationalism dominated early modernity, to be upset

whereby modes of

only by the sophistication of the twentieth century,

living that

had altered

little in

thousands of years would eventually be turned

is

upside down.

plain to

Philosophically, the novelty of the age centered

on the idea of reason. that

humans more

It

signified

above

all

the belief

or less universally possess the

faculty of rational thought, less a

body of truths

than a capacity and a method for grasping them,

perhaps endowed to us by

humanity; that

this reason

is

God

as the essence

of

the ultimate and legit-

the result of historical ignorance.

It

was always

anyone with eyes and mind that modernity

meant the exchange of one kind of life for another, hence a very real loss: community, tradition, religion, familiar political authority, customs

ners -

all

were

at

and man-

the very least to be transformed,

if

not displaced. This sense of loss was reflected by

some of the

greatest thinkers of the eighteenth

and

nineteenth centuries.

imate earthly judge of truth, beauty, moral good-

In our brief selection, just as Descartes, Kant,

ness and political right independent of the dictates

Smith, and Condorcet are formulating and cele-

of tradition and authority; that

it

is

at

war with

ignorance and superstition; that, despite versality,

it is

its

uni-

individually possessed and applied,

brating the new rationality, skeptical

Hume

presses

it

to its

conclusions, and Rousseau and Burke

warn against

it.

Then

in the

nineteenth century.

OD

L

Introduction to Part Hegel's objection to

Marx

I

a

one-sided Enlightenment

most

respect, they are entangled in

it

in others.

Such

is

forever the fate of the critics of modernity,

who

of the emerging market economy. But however

oppose

ene-

much

mies must borrow

inspired

to offer the

influential critique

these thinkers criticize modernity in one

a force so

encompassing that even its

power

its

to fight against

it.

From Meditations on

Philosophy

First

Rene Descartes Frenchman Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is modern philosophy. Scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, he

opinions which

recognized the problems raised for traditional

mence

and from that time

of ten considered the father of

for

Scholastic thought - the dominant medieval syn-

I

thesis of Aristotle's logic and science with Chris-

century.

Spending much

of his productive

build

to

wanted

I

to

life in

be

anew

as this enterprise

waited until

I

theology and the

new

science. His aptly

Meditations on First Piiilosophy (1641)

is

named

to

virtually

doubt to the peace of certainty.

In

me

feel

that

for action.

my mind

the

the

all

if

appeared

had attained at

any

execute

my

to delay so long that

was doing wrong were

I

I

to

time that yet remains

in deliberation the

To-day, then, since very oppor-

tunely for the plan

a personal diary tracing his journey from the despair of

should

fitted to

me

design. This reason caused

occupy

I

could not hope that

I

should be better

tion

I

must once

from the fecundation,

But

very great one,

a

later date I

from which he could prove the existence of God. the proper method of science, and the existence of the material world, thereby harmonizing

I

any firm and permanent struc-

to establish

an age so mature that

Holland, he sought an absolutely certain founda-

that

had formerly accepted, and com-

ture in the sciences.

- by the scientific revolution of his

tian theology

was convinced

I

seriously undertake to rid myself of

all

have

I

view

in

I

have delivered

from every care [and am happily agitated

following selection, he begins his Meditations by

by no passions]' and since

I

attempting to doubt

myself an assured leisure

peaceable retirement,

all

his beliefs in order to dis-

shall at last seriously

and

cover whether any are indubitable. He famously

I

found his indubitable starting point

the general upheaval of

in

conscious-

Now

ness, the individual human mind's certainty of its own existence in absolute distinction from matter and from all other minds. The effect was to shift

I

for

this

all

perhaps never arrive

subjectivity to the center of philosophy.

'

I

things which

may

freely address

my

it

is

not necessary that

of these are

at this

myself to

former opinions.

false

-

I

shall

end. But inasmuch as

me that I ought no less mv assent from matters w hich

Passages in square brackets are from a French transla-

tion of the MvJitalioris

Of the

have procured for

reason already persuades carefulh to withhold

Meditation

all

object

should show that

in a

which Descartes himself corrected,

and which the translators from the Latin

text

have in-

he brought within the

cluded for the sake of their greater

clarity.

sphere of the doubtful.

It is

now some

were the

years since

false beliefs that I

youth admitted everything

I

as

true,

I

detected

had from

how many

my

earliest

and how doubtful was

had since constructed on

this basis;

Rene Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditations One and Two, pp. 144-57 from The Philosophical Works of Descartes, vol. (trans. Elizabeth Haldane and G. R. T Ross). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. I

Rene Descartes are not entirely certain

I

am

fmd

able to

and indubitable than from

me

those which appear to

manifestly to be

each one some reason to doubt,

in

this will suffice to justify

my

And

be requisite that

end

for that

examine each

will not

it

false, if

in particular,

rejecting the whole.

should

I

which would be an

endless undertaking; for owing to the fact that the

occasions

I

with

the downfall of the rest of the edifice,

it

which

first

my

all

to the present time

most true and

certain

have accepted as

I

me

to

sometimes

is

it

and

that these senses are deceptive,

it

wiser not to trust entirely to any thing by which

is

we have once been deceived. But it may be that although

the senses sometimes

many others

ceptible, or very far away, there are yet

be met with as to which we cannot reasonably

have any doubt, although we recognise them by

For example, there

their means. I

am

hands and

And how

this

body

sense,

whose

my

ness from sleep that

my

could

persuading

Now

I

deny that these not perhaps

it

and clouded they con-

bile, that

when

they are really quite poor, or that they are clothed in

pumpkins

they are mad, and

were

I

are really without covering, or

that they have an earthenware head or

are nothing but

to follow

I

sleeping,

should not be any the

must remember

in

my

I

am

things, than

moments. the night

do those who are insane

dreamt that

ticular place, that I fire,

moment

head which

deliberately

I

it

less

happened

to

found myself

I

am

am

a

it;

set

is

probable

waking

me

that in

in this par-

I

me

in bed!

that

not asleep, that

purpose that

what happens

And

almost capable of

now dream. we are asleep and that all e.g. that we open our eyes, shake

that

I

us assume that

these particulars,

hands nor our whole body are such us to be. At the same time that the things

false

been formed

at least

which are represented

least, i.e. eyes, a

in this

confess

to us in sleep

which can only have

as the counterparts

and that

true,

appear to

as they

we must

are like painted representations

of something real

way those general things at

head, hands, and a whole body, are

not imaginary things, but things really existent. For, as a matter of

fact, painters,

study with the greatest satyrs

skill to

even when they

represent sirens and

by forms the most strange and extraordinary

I

different animals; or if their imagination

it is

extend

in sleep

it

is

my

is

extrava-

gant enough to invent something so novel that

nothing similar has ever before been seen, and that then their w ork represents a thing purely

and absolutely

false,

it is

colours of which this

And

real.

for the

eral things, to

such

w it,

all

fictitious

the same that the

composed

are necessarily

[a

body], eyes, a head, hands, and

imaginary,

we

are

bound

at the

to confess that there are at least

other objects yet

which are

is

certain

same reason, although these gen-

may be

like,

same time

real

more simple and more

and

true;

and of these

just in the

as with certain real colours, all these

some

universal,

same

images of

things which dwell in our thoughts, whether true

and

real or false

To

myself

looking at this paper; that

appear so clear nor so distinct as does thinkins; over this

I

to

was lying undressed

move

I

and of

hand and perceive

that

in their

does indeed seem to

it

with eyes awake that this

insane

was dressed and seated near the

whilst in reality

this

I

astonishment.

it is

our head, extend our hands, and so on, are but

way

dreams representing

How often has I

less

in the habit of

same things or sometimes even

the

At

I

that consequently

and

made of glass. But

examples so extravagant.

At the same time man, and

or are

lost in

but merely make a certain medley of the members of

stantly assure us that they think they are kings

who imagine

me

am

I

such that

dressing

cerebella are so troubled

when they

let

is

cannot give them natures which are entirely new,

certain persons, devoid of

by the violent vapours of black

purple

astonishment

no certain indica-

clearly distinguish wakeful-

the fact that

hands and other

are mine, were

compare myself to

I

is

fire, attired in a

paper in

this

similar matters.

that

by the

here, seated

gown, having

which we may

tions by

and

deceive us concerning things which are hardly per-

to

dw elling carefully on this reflection

in

delusions; and let us reflect that possibly neither our

have learned either from the

I

senses or through the senses; but

proved

shall

upon

former opinions rested.

up

All that

I

place attack those principles

have in sleep been deceived by similar

see so manifestly that there are

destruction of the foundations of necessity brings

only in the

I

and

illusions,

such a

and

fantastic, are

formed.

of things pertains corporeal

class

nature in general, and

its

extension," the figure of

extended things, their quantity or magnitude and

number,

as also the place in

which they

are, the

time which measures their duration, and so on.

That is possibly why our reasoning is not unjust when we conclude from this that Physics, Astronomy, Medicine and their

all

other sciences which have as

end the consideration of composite things, are

very dubious and uncertain; but that Arithmetic,

Geometry and other

sciences of that kind which

does not

all this.

But in

remind mvself that on manv

" its

"Extension" means the space the thing takes up, size or

volume.

i.e.

Meditations on trc.u ol thiiiiis ih.il arc \ii\

»)nl\

siiii|>k- aiul

\i:v\

general, withoui lakmu; great (rouble lo ascertain

whether they are

some measure

and an element

am awake

1

and three together alwass form

or asleep, two

and the square

fi\e,

can never have more than four sides, and

be suspected

any

t)l

I

uncertaint\

falsit\ |or

does not

it

and apparent can

that truths so clear

Nevertheless

of the

have long had fixed

in

|.

my mind

the belief that an all-powerful Ciod existed by w horn I

have been created such as

that

He

place,

and

ceptions of

me

know

to pass that there

it

that nevertheless

no

is

themselves best,

now

I

sometimes imagine

I

possess the per-

[I

these things and that] they

all

to exist just exactly as

besides, as

know

I

no heaven, no extended body, no magnitude,

earth,

no

has not brought

am. But how do

I

seem

to

see them.' .\nd,

that others deceive

the things which they think they

in

how do

every time that

I

know

I

that

add two and

I

am

not deceived

three, or count the

sides of a square, or judge of things yet simpler,

if

anything simpler can be imagined.' But possibly

God has not desired that I should be thus deceived, for He is said to be supremely good. If, how ever, it is contrary to His goodness to have made me such that I

constantly deceive myself,

it

would

also appear to

be contrary to His goodness to permit

sometimes deceived, and nevertheless doubt that

He

does permit

me I

be

to

than believe that

But

let

a

them

us not oppose

grant that

all

that

is

have arrived

at

make out

to err

is

the state of being that

that

is

it

and deceive oneself

powerful.

To

hom

to reply, but at the that there

is

they assign

end

nothing

to be true, of

I

I

nude

my mind,

iliese

in

long and

custom having given them the

to

right

m\

mind against m> inclination and rendered them almost masters of my belief; nor

occupN

will

I

e\er lose the habit of deferring lo

placing

them

them or of

my confidence in them, so long as

as they really are,

in

time highly probable, so that there

is

ure doubtful, as

haNe

1

consider

I

some measshown, and at the same

opinions

i.e.

just

much more

reason to believe in than to deny them. That

consider that

purpose

set

be acting amiss,

shall not

I

contrary belief,

a

deceived, and for

a certain

w hy

is

allow myself to be

I

all

these

opinions are entirely false and imaginary, until last,

having thus balanced

with

my

latter fso that

I

taking of

if,

time pretend that

my

at

former prejudices

they cannot divert

my

opin-

more to one side than to the other], m> judgment will no longer be dominated by bad usage or ions

turned away from the right knowledge of the truth.

For

I

am

assured that there can be neither peril nor

error in this course, and that

too

much

to distrust, since

I

cannot

am

I

present yield

at

not considering the

question of action, but only of knowledge. I

then suppose, not that

shall

I

that

have

to fate or to

it

by

a

is

my

genius not

evil

employed I

continual

a defect,

it

is

my is

origin the less

God who

is

su-

my

credulity;

some measure

other external things are

all

and dreams of w hich

shall consider

I

idea,

I

and

if

by

this

means

it is

arrive at the

knowledge of any

do what

my power (i.e.

is

in

suspend

my power I

may

be.

But

to

at least

my judgment], to

any

being imposed upon by this arch

however powerful and deceptive he may

this task

is

a laborious one,

certain lassitude leads

And

me

life.

and insensibly

into the course of

suspect that his liberty

giving credence to these opinions than to that

not in truth,

these to this

and w ith firm purpose avoid giving credence

powerful and maturely considered so that hence-

from

all

remain obstinately attached

shall

enjoys an imaginary liberty,

less carefully to refrain

this

myself as having no

yet falsely believing myself to possess

things;

deceiver,

in

and

illusions

hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, nor any senses,

constrained to confess

cannot

deceiving me;

in

genius has availed himself in order to lay traps for

feel

formerly believed

powerful than deceitful, has

shall consider that the heavens, the earth, colours,

false thing, or

I

less

whole energies

his

ordinary

ought not the

.ii

and commonly held opin-

doubt, and that not merely through want of thought

I

hhm

ii>

ha\c

lo

or through levity, but for reasons which are very

forth

dt^m

I

re\ert trequentK to

still

familiar

have certainly nothing

in all that

which

ions

I

these reasons

sutllcient

I'or these ancient

figures, sound,

being so imperfect as to deceive myself ever, as the Author to w

mind.

nought but the

w ill be the probability of

clear that the greater

not

IS

it

and

some other method

succession of antecedents, or by

- since

God

way they suppose

reached - whether they attribute accident, or

But

a fable;

for the present,

here said of a

nevertheless in whatever I

to

so powerful, rather

other things are uncertain.

all

it

premely good and the fountain of truth, but some

this.

God

tal.se,

remarks, we must also be caret ul to keep them

cannot

There may indeed be those who would prefer deny the existence of

maiiitestl\

IS

an\ cerlainiN |in the sciences!

aciuall> existent or not, contain

ot cerlaintN

indubitable. I"or whether

seem possible

which

Philosophy

First

who in sleep when he begins to

just as a captive

is

but a dream, fears to

aw aken, and conspires w ith these agreeable that the deception

a

my

may be

illusions

prolonged, so insensibly

Rene Descartes of

my own

ions,

and

accord

my

back into

I fall

former opin-

dread awakening from this slumber,

I

would

the laborious wakefulness which

lest

follow the

is

them myself? But

not in daylight, but in the excessive darkness of the

body. Yet

w hich have

exist

I

w ithout

II

Human Mind; and

Nature of the

that

it is

did not exist?

I

can resolve them; and, just as

feet

on the bottom, nor can

am

which

I

I

swim and

setting aside

and

false;

I

certain.

is

might draw the it

on

as that

proceed by

shall ever follow in this

I

can do nothing is

Archimedes,

nothing in the

in order that

he

out of its place, and

terrestrial globe

elsewhere,

is

else, until

demanded only

that one

he w ill, he can never cause as I think that I

am

w ell and

reflected

must come

to

proposition:

I

time that

I

am happy enough

if I

only which I

is

certain

suppose, then, that

false;

me.

I

all

my

consider that

fallacious I

are but the fictions of

esteemed is

as true.'

see are

But

am,

different

know there

from those things

sidered, of Is

that

at all,

place

it,

certain that

careful to see that

I

I

clearly

enought what

am; and hence

some God, or some other call it, w ho puts these

being by whatever name we

I

am,

I

must be

do not imprudently take some

other object in place of myself, and thus that

I

not go astray in respect of this knowledge that

hold

be the most certain and most evident of

to I

have formerly learned. That

consider anew w hat

I

I

is

why

I

I

that

all

shall

do

now

believed myself to be before

embarked upon these

last reflections;

shall

withdraw

all

and of that

my

might

even in a small degree be invalidated by the reasons

there

have just brought forward, in order that

I

may be nothing

at all left

beyond what

is

absolutely certain and indubitable.

What

then did

Undoubtedly what

is

a

I

I

formerly believe myself to be?

believed myself to be a man. But

man?

Shall

I

Certainly not; for then

what an animal

is,

say a reasonable animal? I

should have to inquire

and what

into an infinitude of others

slightest

each

mentally conceive

I

not something

have just con-

we

things,

or that

thus from a single question

I

all

exist, is necessarily true

certain.

is

is

unless that

which one cannot have the there not

imagine

What, then, can be

Perhaps nothing

I

I

I

pronounce

do not yet know

I

who am

I

represents

movement and

my mind.

nothing in the world that

But how can

doubt.'

memory

possess no senses;

that body, figure, extension,

there

I

examined

carefully

it.

which

the things that

persuade myself that nothing has ever

I

existed of all that to

one thing

to discover

and indubitable."'

me to be nothing so long

something. So that after having

the definite conclusion that this

former opinions

hopes

and very

other, very powerful

who ever employs his ingenuity in deceiving me. Then without doubt I exist also if he deceives me, and let him deceive me as much as

same way

have the right to conceive high

myself did

I

cunning,

I

shall

of a surety

at all;

thought of something]. But there

I

point should be fixed and immoveable; in the I

not then likewise persuaded that

I

Not

some deceiver or

is

had discovered that

have learned for certain that there

transport

make an

have met with something which

I

certain, or at least, if

world that

my

the least doubt could

exist, just as if I

was absolutely

shall

I

i.e.

w hich

that in

all

be supposed to

road until

of a

so support

shall nevertheless

yesterday entered,

I

all

so discon-

and follow anew the same path

effort

I

I

can neither make certain of setting

myself on the surface.

it

had

if I

deep water,

fallen into very I

was no

persuaded myself of something [or

merely because

certed that

that there

in all the world, that there

exist since I

The Meditation of yesterday filled my mind with so many doubts that it is no longer in my power to forget them. And yet I do not see in what manner sudden

w as persuaded

I

that.^

cannot

I

heaven, no earth, that there were no minds, nor

more easily known than the Body.

I

But

these.'

any bodies: was

Of the

had senses and

I

what follows from

hesitate, for

was nothing

Meditation

myself,

I

Am I so dependent on body and senses that

been discussed.

just

I

have already denied that

I

for

am capable of producing am I not at least something.^

not possible that

it

tranquillity of this repose should have to be spent

difficulties

my mind.' That is not necessary,

reflections into

I

I

should not w ish to w aste the

remaining to

But

these.

I

me

is

reasonable; and

should insensibly

more little

difficult;

fall

and

time and leisure

in trying to unravel subtleties like

shall rather stop here to consider the

thoughts which of themselves spring up in

my

mind, and which were not inspired by anything "'

Greek mathematician

Archimedes

(287-212

bc)

boasted that with a lever long enough and the right place to stand, he could

move

the Earth.

beyond

my ow n nature alone w hen I applied myself of my being. In the first place,

to the consideration

then,

I

considered myself as having

a face,

hands,

Meditations on arms, and

that .system of

all

bones and flesh as seen nated b) 1

name

the

considered that

that

and

felt,

I

corpse which

thought, and

I

actions to the soul: but

what the soul was, or

walked,

I

referred

I

these

all

wind,

a

did stop,

I

imagined that

I

my

As

grosser parts.

body

to

had no

I

manner ofdoubt about

its

nature, but thought

knowledge

of

it;

a very clear

explain

it

formed

of

body

way

from

it;

by

all

that

and which can

By

the

given space in

a

fill

body

by hearing, or by

be excluded

will

is

of feeling or of thinking,

did not

I

I

was rather astonished

to find that facul-

them existed in some bodies. But w hat am I, now that I suppose that there is a certain genius w hich is extremely powerful, and, if ties similar to

I

may

say so, malicious,

me? Can

in deceiving

of

least

w ho employs I

affirm that

those things which

all

pertain to the nature of body? I

revolve

these things in

all

none of which

would be tedious

to stop to

I

is

in

it

have

body

it is

But

also true that

I

mind, and

thought I

I

feel

if

recognised in

my

been experienced here that thought it

it is

is

certain.

is

is

exist.

I

I

Napour,

But have

I

having I

find

I

exist,

think; for

all

do not now admit anything which

necessarily true: to speak accurately

I

am

these were nothing.

position

1

fact that

I

these

find that

I

is

not

not more

at

changing

\\ ithout

am somewhat. But

perhaps

not different from the self w hich

me.

I

whom

the

know

that

know

I

it is

true that

me, are

to

I

know

I

and

exist,

it

But

to exist.

I

am,

very certain that

is

it

not

now;

known

inquire what

I

really

am

I

.

about

shall not dispute

know ledge of my existence taken

in its precise

does not depend on things whose

significance

existence

sup-

that

can only give judgment on things that are

I

can

I

supposed were non-

I

unknown

existent because they are

1

which

all

have assumed that

1

only leave myself certain of the

same things which

sure about this,

the

not a wind, a fire, a

imagine or conceive; because

not yet

is

known

me; consequently

to

does not depend on those which

it

can feign in

I

imagination. .\nd indeed the very term Jft^n in

imagination proves to this if

I

me my

error, for

image myself a something, since

I

really

do

imagine

to

nothing else than to contemplate the figure or

is

image of

a

corporeal thing. But

certain that

I

am, and that

it

already

I

may be

images, and, speaking generally, relate to the nature of body are

have as

I

little

reason to say,

know

that

all

for

these

things that

all

nothing but dreams

[and chimeras]. For this reason

I

see clearly that

shall stimulate

'I

my

imagination in order to know more distinctly what

shall

I

I

if I

were

to say,

'I

is

do not yet perceive

am now and

real

awake, and

true:

distinctly

it

but be-

enough,

go to sleep of express purpose, so that

my

dreams may represent the perception w ith greatest truth and evidence.' .\nd, thus, that nothing of

all

that

I

know

for certain

can understand by means

I

of my imagination belongs to this knowledge which I

have of myself, and that

mind from

this

mode

necessary to recall the

it

may be

able to

know

its

nature w ith perfect distinctness.

But w hat then is

it is

of thought with the utmost

diligence in order that

own

ceased entirely to

should likewise cease altogether to

am

1

breath, nor anything

a

am

I

call

not a subtle air distributed

cause

am, I

am

I

have no

as not

I

body:

through these members,

perceive somewhat that

an attribute that belongs to me;

if I

human

imagination

members which we

collection of

a

my

not something more)

am,' than

of thinking?

But how often? Just when

am

1

I

sensation.

waking moments

What

not

if

I

things during sleep that

might possibly be the case

think, that

I

or a

which arc

thing which thinks.

a

shall exercise

I

any

is

can neither w alk nor take

many

at all.

It

mind

to say a

is

thing and really exist; but

a real

w alking

there

so that

alone cannot be separated from me.

that it

if

without body, and besides

perceived

find

I

pertains to me.

nutrition or

nourishment. Another attribute

one cannot

just said

enumerate them. Let us

me? What of

[the first mentioned]?

possess the

I

pass to the attributes of soul and see

one w hich

pow ers

his

pause to consider,

I

my

can say that

I

all

that

have answered:

I

order to see

in

I

consider to appertain to the nature of body: on the contrary,

I

by

receives

am, however,

I

.\nd what more?

foreign to it

which thinks,

iliinu

what thing?

to

power of self-move-

impressions]: for to have the as also

me.

by

it,

.1

terms whose significance was formerh unknown to

not, in truth,

touched [and from which

is

it

by smell:

taste, or

many w ays

in

but by something which

ment,

had then

I

thus:

it

to

which can be perceived either by touch, or

sight, or

which

had desired

I

which can be defined by

that every other

w hich can be moved itself,

had

I

something w hich can be confined

in a certain place, a

if

should have described

it, I

a certain figure:

such

and

according to the notions that

understand

I

like

flame, or an ether, which was spread

a

throughout

than

soul, or an understanding, or a rca.son,

did not slop to consider

1

if

that

was something extremely rare and subtle

it

ot

desig-

1

bod\. In addition to this

of

was nourished,

1

that

nu-mbcrs composcil

in a

Philosophy

First

a thing

am

I?

A

w hich thinks?

thing which thinks.

It is

a thing

W hat

w hich doubts,

understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills refuses,

which

also imagines

and

feels.

[

Rene Descartes Certainly

who

who

certain things,

who

denies

affirms that one only

who

true,

is

know

desires to

is averse from being deceived, who imagines many things, sometimes indeed despite his will, and who perceives many likewise, as by the inter-

more,

vention of the bodily organs? this

I

easily

be regulated and controlled.

Let us begin by considering the commonest

we touch and

fused, but let us consider one

example,

has has

should always sleep and though he

who

not yet lost the sweetness of the honey which

me

being employed

I

all

his ingenuity in

all

there likewise any one of these

Is

my

which can be distinguished from

take, for

understands, and

no reason here

that there

is

explain

And

it.

so evident of itself that

it is

who

doubts,

who

it is

desires,

add anything

to

to

have certainly the power of im-

I

agining likewise; for although

may happen

it

(as

formerly supposed) that none of the things

imagine are true, nevertheless this power

of imagining does not cease to be really in use, and

forms part of my thought. Finally, that

feels,

see light,

hear noise,

I

dreaming. Let it

seems

it

to

and that

I

speaking

it is

I feel

phenomena

said that these

that

am

the

be

me

so; still

that

feel heat.

what

I

heat.

are false it is

in

me

in this precise sense that

in truth

But

will

it

and that

I

be

am

at least quite certain

see hght, that

That cannot be

is

same

perceives certain

by the organs of sense, since

things, as I

who

to say,

is

I

hear noise

I

false;

properly

called feeling;

and used

no other thing than

is

From little

this

more

time

I

begin to

know what

I

am w ith

a

clearness and distinction than before;

but nevertheless

seems

it still

prevent

myself from

things,

whose images

me, and

to

thinking, are

that

cannot

I

corporeal

framed by thought,

which are tested by the senses, are much more distinctly

known than

that obscure part of

me

which does not come under the imagination. Although

really

it is

very strange to say that

and understand more existence seems to to

me, and which do not belong

in a

to

I

me and which

am

my mind

to

me, than others

convinced, which are

pertain to

word, than myself. But

case stands:

know whose

me dubious, which are unknown

of the truth of which

known

I

distinctly these things

I

my

real nature,

see clearly

loves to wander,

how

the

and cannot

yet suffer itself to be retained within the just limits

of truth. Very good,

let

us once

more

give

it

the

it

colour,

retains

it still

figure, its size are apparent;

its

will

it

in

speak and approach the

taste

becomes

liquid,

and when one

it

hard,

it is

with the

it

the things

all

But notice

it.

that while

what remained of the

fire

destroyed, the size increases,

confess that

strikes

no sound

it,

after this

We

Does must

did

know

I

so distinctly in this

could certainly be nothing of

It

that the senses brought to

things which

emitted.

is

change?

it it,

remains, none would judge other-

it

What then

piece of wax?

one handle

heats, scarcely can

same wax remain

wise.

strike

exhaled, the smell evaporates, the colour

is

alters, the figure is

the

you

if

to cause us distinctly to recog-

met with

nise a body, are I

and

emit a sound. Finally

which are requisite

fall

under

and hearing, are found

my notice,

since

all

taste, smell, sight,

to

all

these

touch,

be changed, and yet the

same wax remains. Perhaps

it

wax was not agreeable

thinking.

this piece

somewhat of the odour of the flowers from which it has been culled; its contains;

finger,

who

in particular.

it

Is

certain that

from myself? For

it

more con-

little

body

it

it is

cold, easily handled,

I

which

not indeed bodies in general, for

see;

thought, or which might be said to be separated

which

to wit, the bodies

these general ideas are usually a

Let us

most

believe to be the

comprehended,

distinctly

of wax:

attributes

I

we

matters, those which

been taken quite freshly from the hive, and

deceiving me?

who

it

even

as true as

is

has given

I

we seize the may the more

afterwards

exist,

which

though

there nothing in

when

freest rein, so that,

proper occasion for pulling up,

nevertheless understands

the others,

all

so

who now doubts

not that being

I

nearly everything,

these things

if all

But why should they not

nature.

Am

pertain?

no small matter

it is

my

pertain to

was what

I

now

think, viz. that this

that sweetness of honey, nor that

nor that particular

of flowers,

scent

whiteness, nor that figure, nor that sound, but

simply a body which a to

me

is

now

as perceptible

little

while before appeared

under these forms, and which

perceptible under others. But what, pre-

cisely, is

it

that

I

imagine when

I

form such con-

ceptions? Let us attentively consider this, and, abstracting from

wax,

all

that does not belong to the

us see what remains. Certainly nothing

let

remains excepting a certain extended thing which is

flexible

flexible

and movable. But what

and movable?

this piece

Is

it

is

the

not that

of wax being round

is

meaning of

imagine that

I

capable of becom-

ing square and of passing from a square to a

angular figure? No, certainly I

imagine

it

changes, and

it

is

tri-

not that, since

admits of an infinitude of similar I

nevertheless do not

compass the infinitude by

my

know how

to

imagination, and

consequently this conception which

I

have of the

Meditations on First Philosophy \\.i\ is

not brought about b\ the l.uuliv ol im.iuni-

atioii

W

now

hat

unknown?

I'or

I

bcconics iircatcr

it

when

nultctl, greater

when

this cxtinsion'

is

the heat increases; anti

clearly

when

wa\

tin-

is

still

should not conceive

1

according to truth what wax

I

not also

it

boiled, anil greater

is

it

Is

we

think that even this piece that

did not

ill

is,

are considering

is

capable of receiving more variations in extension

than 1

I

We must

have ever imagined.

then grant that

coukl not even understand through the imagin-

wax

ation what this piece ol

and

is,

mind alone which perceives it. wax in particular, for as to wax Hut what

clearer.

mv

is

it

in general

yet

is

it

of wax which cannot

this piece

is

that

say this piece of

I

be understood excepting by the [understanding or] mind.'

same

certainly the

is

It

imagine, and finally

always believed

is

have

I

that

is

per-

its

neither an act of vision, nor of touch, nor

of imagination, and has never been such although

may have appeared it

formerly to be so, but only an

mind, which may be imperfect and

intuition of the

confused as

it

was formerly, or

clear

and

my attention

distinct as

perceneil

first

I

In

means

lommon tion

have

been

Hut when

judgment,

when and

consider [the great feebleness of mind]

I

proneness to

its

greatly astonished

fall

[insensibly] into error; for

although w ithout giving expression to I

consider

me

impede

all this

and

in

am

I

my own

if it is

judge that

it is

present,

the

I

we

we see the and not that we simply say that

same from

From

colour and figure.

thoughts

almost deceived by the terms

of ordinary language. For

same wax,

my

mind, words often

this

I

having the same

its

should conclude that

knew the w ax by means of vision and not simply

by the intuition of the mind; unless by chance I

remember

and saying

I

that,

see

when looking from

men who

do not see them, but just as

I

say that

I

a

window

w hat

finally

I

to perceive this piece of

know

ledge above the

And

yet

I

see

what do

I

see

common

judge these to be

by the faculty of judg-

mind,

his

I

my

I

comprehend

that

aim

to raise his

know-

should be ashamed to

of speech invented by the vulgar; I

who

1

do

distinctly,

much more

truth

and certainty, but also w ith much more distinctness and clearness?

is

judge that the wax

P'or if I

fact that

I

see

clearly that

I

am

see

I

not really wax,

it.

it

or that

For

may

exist

I

when

may be

it

also be that

see, or (for

I

of the distinction) when

who

think

exists

am

from the

fact that

it

cannot be

touch

I

see, that

I

I

myself

judge that the wax

if I

the

it,

am; and

I

see

1

do not possess

if I

same thing

my

judge that

some other cause, whatever it persuades me that the wax exists, I shall still

imagination, is,

think

nought. So

will follow, to wit, that

what

that I

much

no longer take account

I I

or exists

myself from

eyes with which to see anything; but that

is

certainly follows

it, it

or

conclude the same. of wax

may be

external to

of me].

me

And

And what I have

applied to

all

here remarked

other things which are

|and which are met with outside

further, if the [notion or] perception

me

had

a

I

many to

clearer

and more

other cau.ses have rendered

it

prefer to pass on

more evident and

distinct,

quite manifest

me, with how much more [evidence] and

dis-

now know myself, since all the reasons which contribute to the knowledge of wax, or any other body whatever, are tinctness

must

it

be said that

I

my

mind!

And

other things in the

mind

itself

yet better proofs of the nature of

eyes.

derive the occasion for doubting from the forms

and consider whether

wax so

myself, not only with

is,

do not admit

I

myself anything but mind.' What then,

not

thus

say of this mind, that

I

of myself, for up to this point

seem

my

in it

not only after the sight or the touch, but also after

saw with it

shall

its

it

certain

be found

still

can nevertheless not perceive

I

human mind.

in

is

of wax has seemed to

see wax.

makes

may

error

it

men,

my

A man who

quite naked,

it

external

had taken from

really

solely

I

I

animals'

its

I

ment which

believed

some

if

of the

wax from

is

men. And similarly

I

It

what

cover automatic machines.' Yet

w hich

can be known.

pass in the street,

infer that

from the window but hats and coats which may

rests in

consider

I

the fact that

am

I

any

bv

But

more

composed.

it

there which might not as well

without a

it,

meantime

by the

present concep-

perception which was

in this first

perceived

that although

directed to the elements which are found in it is

to say

it

the

have most carefully exam-

I

distinguish the

I

vestments,

less

the

knew

I

least b\

at

is

m\

what way

in

forms, and when, just as

from the

in

that

and

What was

or

Yet

now

is,

it

what was there distinct.'

more

and of which

that

is calleil,

it

v\hen

vsas

belRved

I

woulil certainlv be absurd to doubt as to this, I'or

at present,

is

sense as

clearer

is

wax

the

external senses or

of the

ined what

it is

according as

what

ol

ami wIkm

it.

imaginative facultv, or whether

from the beginning. But

w hat must particularly be observed ception

see, touch,

I

same which

the

is

it

to be

it

that

loiueption

perlect

there are so

many

which may contribute

to

nature, that those which

the elucidation of

depend on body such

its

as

these just mentioned, hardly merit being taken into

account.

Rene Descartes But

finally

to the point

me

that

I

here

I

am, having insensibly reverted

desired, for, since

it is

now manifest to

even bodies are not properly speaking

stood,

I

is

the senses or by the faculty of imagin-

to

ation, but

by the understanding only, and since

well that

known from

the fact that they are

seen or touched, but only because they are under-

is

nothing which

is

me to know than my mind. But because it

difficult to rid oneself so

known by

they are not

see clearly that there

easier for

promptly of an opinion

which one was accustomed I

should halt

the length of

imprint on

my

for so long,

it

w ill be

a little at this point, so that

meditation

my memory

this

I

may more

by

deeply

new knowledge.

From A Treatise on Human Nature

IL Hume

David While

and

Descartes

other

"rationalists" held that there

knowledge beyond, "innate

and

some source

taken, and which undoubtedly requires the utmost

of

or prior to, experience (e.g.

modern

ideas"),

"empiricist"

philoso-

phers, starting with John Locke (1632-1704),

mental contents, hence all knowledge, derived solely from experience. Such a insisted that

all

seem tailor made for modern science. Hume (1711-76), member of the Scot-

view might But David tish

Enlightenment and the greatest skeptic of

modern

philosophy, radicalized empiricism to the

point of undermining science is

at least

itself,

as

pressions

is

nothing but a series of im-

among which we can

tions" or correlations. There

note "conjunc-

then no reason, or

is

evidence, for claiming that these impressions "inhere"

in

"substances" that endure

not perceive them, or for belief nection"

among

in

when we do

"necessary con-

impressions. Nothing

in

experi-

ence must be as it is. Hence any prediction of the based on past experience is merely a projection of mental habit or custom, even though, as Hume recognizes, we cannot live without making such predictions. Likewise, there can be no reason or evidence for asserting the necessary existence of something altogether beyond experience, that is, God. The Conclusion to the first part of his future

greatest work,

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739),

most poignant and disturbing expression of skepticism in the history of Western philosophy. is

to

sion.

Methinks

the

which

that voyage,

and industry

art

to

be brought to

am

I

a

1

ha\c under-

happy conclu-

man, who having struck

like a

on many shoals, and having narrowly cscap'd shipwreck to

in

passing a small

put out to sea

in the

and even

vessel,

frith,

has yet the temerity

same leaky weather-beaten

carries his ambition so far as to

think of compassing the globe under these disad-

My memory

vantageous circumstances. errors and perplexities,

it

normally understood. For experience, stripped

of preconceptions,

ponder

epistemological

is

makes me

The wretched

future.

condition, weakness, and

disorder of the faculties, enquiries, encrease

impossibility of ulties,

reduces

my

my the

or correcting these fac-

almost to despair, and makes

resolve to perish on the barren rock, at present, rather

in

And

must employ

I

apprehensions.

amending

me

of past

diffident for the

on which

I

me am

than venture myself upon that

boundless ocean, which runs out into immensity.

This sudden view of melancholy; and as

above

all

feeding

danger strikes usual

others, to indulge

my

flections,

my 'tis

despair, with

itself;

all

that

for I

me

with

passion,

cannot forbear

those desponding re-

which the present subject furnishes

me

with in such abundance. I

am

first

affrighted and

forelorn solitude, in which

I

confounded with

am placM

in

my

that

phil-

osophy, and fancy myself some strange uncouth monster,

who

not being able to mingle and unite

in

David Hume, Conclusion to Book One, pp. 263-74

But before

I

launch out into those immense depths

of philosophy, which inclined to stop a

lie

before me,

moment

in

my

I

fmd myself

present station,

from A Treatise of Human Nature. Book L.

1. Part IV (ed.

A. Selby-Bigge). Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1975.

Hume

David

been expellM

society, has

I

all

human commerce, and

wouM

abandon'd and disconsolate. Fain

left utterly

run into the crowd for shelter and warmth; but

cannot prevail with myself to mix with such deform-

upon others

ity. I call

to join

me,

in order to

make

a

company apart; but no one will hearken to me. Every

immediately present to our consciousness, nor presents us, be ever receiv'd as true pictures of past

upon me from every

myself to the enmity of cians, mathematicians,

can

wonder

I

my

declared

can

I

my

All the

I

must

on

every

I

shouM

they

if

person.-*

have

suffer.' I

express a hatred of

When

look abroad,

I

When

detraction.

I

contradiction,

dispute,

side,

calumny and

eye inward,

metaphysicians, logi-

and even theologians; and

at the insults

be surpriz'd,

foresee

have exposM

I

dis-approbation of their systems; and

mine and of anger,

all

side.

turn

I

my

find nothing but doubt and ignorance.

w orld conspires to oppose and contradict me;

tho' such

is

loosen and

my weakness, that I feel all my opinions

fall

of themselves,

when unsupported by

the approbation of others. Every step hesitation,

take

I

and every new reflection makes

an error and absurdity in

my

is

with

me dread

ing are, therefore,

I

venture upon

such bold enterprizes, when beside those numberless infirmities peculiar to myself,

which are that

common leaving

in

to

I

opinions

established

all

following truth; and by what criterion shall

guish her, even

if

fortune should at

last

I

sure,

am

distin-

I

guide

me on

No wonder follow

M (as

principle,

and

effects;

assent to

it;

and

feel

I

to

me

which instructs

me. Experience

future;

me

another principle,

is

to expect the

make me form

same

for the

certain ideas in a

intense and lively manner, than others, which

are not attended with the this quality,

same advantages. Without

by which the mind enlivens some ideas

beyond others (w hich seemingly little

a principle,

and both of them conspiring to operate upon

the imagination,

more

is

under

in the several conjunctions of

objects for the past. Habit

which determines

shou'd

nothing but a strong propensity

to consider objects strongly in that view,

which they appear

is

so trivial, and so

founded on reason) we couM never assent

to

any argument, nor carry our view beyond those few objects,

which are present

to these objects

to

our senses. Nay, even

we couM never

the

'tis

attribute any exist-

be) in

all its

falla-

implicitely

variations. 'Tis this

same

which convinces

principle,

when absent from

the senses.

But

human mind,

tho' these

two

some circumstances they

yet in

directly contrary, nor

effects,

and

at

same time believe the continu'd existence of

How

matter.

we

then shall

adjust those principles

we

together.' \\ hich of them shall

we

are

possible for us to reason

and regularly from causes and

justly

the

is it

prefer?

Or in

case

prefer neither of them, but successively assent

to both, as

is

usual

title,

we

among

philosophers, with what

afterwards usurp that glorious

w hen we thus know ingly embrace

a manifest

contradiction?

This contradiction wou'd be more excusable, were

compensated by any degree of

solidity

and

satisfaction in the other parts of our reasoning.

But

it

the case

When we

quite contrary.

is

human understanding to its to lead us into all

first

trace

up the

principles,

we find

seem

to turn

such sentiments,

as

our past pains and industry, and to

discourage us from future enquiries. Nothing

more curiously enquir'd

is

by the mind of man,

after

than the causes of every phaenomenon; nor are

we

content with knowing the immediate causes, but

push on our enquiries, before

we

cause, by

quality,

we

arrive at the original

are acquainted with that energy in the

which

it

operates on

w hich connects them in all

till

We wou'd not willingly stop

and ultimate principle.

on which the

tie

depends. This

our studies and reflections:

be disappointed, when we ion, tie, or

energy

its effect;

that tie

together; and that efficacious

lies

is

our aim

And how must we

learn, that this

merely

connex-

in ourselves,

and

is

nothing but that determination of the mind, which is

acquir'd by custom, and causes us to

transition

from an object

to

its

ence, but what was dependent on the senses; and

and from the impression of one

must comprehend them

of the other? Such

entirely in that succession

when

operations be equally natural and necessary in the

into ridicule

why

inconstant and

us of the continu'd existence of external objects,

it

can give no reason

must

it

her foot-steps.^ After the most accurate and exact of I

a principle so

which makes us reason from causes and

my

reasonings,

and understand-

senses,

of them founded on the im-

cious should lead us into errors,

many

find so

human nature? Can I be

all

agination, or the vivacity of our ideas.

confidence can

reasoning.

For with what confidence can

The memory,

perceptions.

one keeps at a distance, and dreads that storm, which beats

memory

cou'd those lively images, with which the

a

hope of ever attaining

Nay farther, even with relation to that succession, we cou'd only admit of those perceptions, which are

say

satisfaction,

vents our very wishes; since desire to

know

it

a

to the lively idea

discovery not only cuts off

of perceptions, which constitutes our self or person.

we

make

usual attendant,

all

but even pre-

appears that

when we

the ultimate and operating

A Treatise on Human Nature pniKiplc, as sonuihiiiu, which

wc

nal object,

ciihci

icsiilcs in ihc c\iii-

ouischcs, or

CDiiit.uhct

i.ilk

without a mcanmu;.

common

not, iiukeil, pcr-

is

nor are we sensible, that

hfe,

in

we

the most usual conjunctions of cause and efteci

are as ignorant ot the ultimate principle, which

them

binils

if

we

This

a \er\ it.

fancy; beside that these suggestions are often contrary to each other; they lead us into

credulity.

dangerous to reason than the

Nothing

at last

of the imagin-

flights

may

whom

among

Men

philosophers.

of bright fan-

be compared to those angels,

in this respect

the scripture represents as covering their

eyes with their wings. This has already appear'd

many

in so

instances, that

we may

upon

the trouble of enlarging

But on the other hand,

any

it

and leaves but

us;

which implies

refin'd

upon ing,

us?

This opinion

The

all

return?

it

for a

influence;

my

present feeling and

manifold con-

human

whose anger must

or what.'

I,

I

and

to

fiivour shall

dread?

\\ hat

that

I

am

and can look

more probable

my existence, Whose

reason has

my brain,

or likely

From what what condiI

court,

and

beings surround

be danger-

me? and on w hom have I any influence, or w ho ha\ e any influence on me? I am confounded with all

consequences.

these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the

have already shewn, that the understanding,

most deplorable condition imaginable, inviron'd

wouM

resolution, if steadily executed,

ous, and attended

it

acts alone,

w ith the most

fatal

and according

to its

principles, entirely subverts itself,

most general

and leaves not

with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every

the lowest degree of evidence in any proposition, either in philosophy or

from

common

this total scepticism

that singular

and seemingly

our-

only by means of

trivial

by which we enter with

We save

life.

property of the

difficulty into

remote

views of things, and are not able to accompany them

we do

with so sensible an impression, as

which are more easy and establish

for a general

it

elaborate reasoning

is

means you cut

those,

natural. Shall we, then,

maxim,

that

no refm'd or

ever to be receiv'd.' Consider

well the consequences of such a principle.

phy:

as

Where am

derive

fancy,

ery

upon

or no influence

belief and reasoning,

I

selves

little

wrought upon me, and heated

ready to reject

\

it.

.scarce forbear retract-

tradictions and imperfections in

I

w hen

can

interne view of these

tion shall

I

I

and condemning from

experience.

it

forgot,

here said, that reflections very

I

causes do

For

quickK

is

or no influence

little

and metaphysical have

a resolution to reject

and more

and e\en where

of;

is

difficulty

manifest contradiction.

makes us take

established properties of the imagination; even this

off entirely

all

You proceed upon one

By

this

science and philoso-

must embrace

And you expresly contradict yourself; maxim must be built on the preceding

of them:

since this

reasoning,

w hich

will

be allow 'd to be sufficiently

member and

iMost fortunately

it

faculty.

happens, that since rea.son

is

incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose,

and cures

me of this

philo-

sophical melancholy and delirium, either by relax-

ing this bent of mind, or by lively

impression of

my

some avocation, and w hich obliterate all

senses,

these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry w ith my friends; and when after three or four hours' amusement, I

wou'd return

to these speculations, they

so cold, and strain'd, and ridiculous, that find in

my

heart to enter into

Here then

singular quality of the

imagination, and by a parity of reason all

a

But what have

so

this

they ought not to have an\

the trivial suggestions of the fancy, and adhere to to the general

that

is,

and yet we do not, and cannot establish

rule, that

than another.

is,

not w hat ought to be

can only obser\e what

small impression behind

a

refin\l reflections ha\e

the consideration of

the understanding, that

i

has once been present to the mind,

upon no opinion even

farther.

know

1

seldom or never thought

is

have, there-

but betwixt a false reason and

part,

if

these instances all

spare ourselves

my

For

We

understanding.

left

commonly done; which

more

is

and nothing has been the occasion of more

mistakes cies

such errors,

and obscurities, that we must

become asham'd of our ation,

human

in the i^resent case,

assent to every trivial suggestion ot the

absurdities,

eniiiel\ the

at all.

to yield to these illusions.

If we we subvert

la\our ot these reasonings,

none

dangerous dilemma, whichever way we answer

For

m

done

very difficult, and reduces us to

is

into the most manitesl absurdities.

II

most unusual and

we ought

far

question

we embrace

II

retin'd reasoning,

we run

Hut this proceeds merel\ from an is,

all

relict

no choice

the imagination; and the question

illusion of

how

.

ami conilemn

his principle,

part\, then, shall

difficulties.'

fore,

toi;ether, as in the

e\traordinar\

we choose among these I

This deficiency in our uleas ceiv'd in

What

relin\l aiul meiaphvsical.

ily

I

determinM

them any

I

appear cannot

farther.

find myself absolutely and necessarto live,

and

talk,

and

act like other

common affairs of life. But notw ithstanding that my natural propensity, and the course of my animal spirits and passions reduce me to this people in the

Hume

David

maxims of the world,

indolent belief in the general

my former disposition, all my books and papers

I still

feel

such remains of

that

am

ready to throw

I

into the fire,

and resolve never more

pleasures of

life

my

humour, which governs

nay

I

me

my

senses and understanding; and in this I

shew most perfectly my sceptical But does

disposition and principles.

it

follow

,

that

I

which

strive against the current of nature,

me

may,

at present. I

yield to the current of nature, in submit-

blind submission

must

and phil-

sentiments in that splen-

etic

ting to

renounce the

for the sake of reasoning

osophy. For those are

must

to

and pleasure; that I must some measure, from the commerce and society of men, which is so agreeable; and that I must torture my brain with subtilities and leads

to indolence

seclude myself, in

sophistries, at the very time that

I

cannot satisfy

and conversation. iosity to

cannot forbear having a cur-

I

be acquainted with the principles of moral

good and

evil,

the nature and foundation of gov-

ernment, and the cause of those several passions

and

am

inclinations,

which actuate and govern me.

uneasy to think

I

disapprove of another;

I

approve of one object, and call

one thing beautiful, and

another deform'd; decide concerning truth and falshood, reason and folly, without

knowing upon

am

concern'd for

what principles

proceed.

I

I

the condition of the learned world, which

under such

deplorable ignorance in

a

ticulars. I feel

all

an ambition to arise in

lies

these par-

me

of con-

tributing to the instruction of mankind, and of

acquiring a ies.

name by my

inventions and discover-

These sentiments spring up naturally

present disposition; and should

I

my

in

endeavour

to

myself concerning the reasonableness of so painful

banish them, by attaching myself to any other

an application, nor have any tolerable prospect of

business or diversion,

arriving

by

means

its

what obligation do time.-*

And

to

at truth

I lie

If

But even suppose shou'd not transport

a fool, as all those

believe any thing certainly are,

my

my

who

inclination, I shall have a

and

resistance;

reason or

follies shall at

Where

be natural and agreeable.

least

against for

my

I

strive

good reason

no more be led

will

a

wandering into such dreary solitudes, and rough passages, as

These lence;

I

have hitherto met with.

are the sentiments of

and indeed

must

I

confess, that philosophy

I

shou'd be a loser in

this curiosity

in its

philosophy; and while the latter contents itself with assigning

new

causes and principles to the phasno-

opens a world of

in the visible world, the

its

and beings, and

scenes,

that narrow circle of objects,

reason and conviction. In

of daily conversation and action,

we ought

only because otherwise. to

warms, or water refreshes,

costs us too

it

Nay

our scepticism. If we

to preserve

still

believe, that fire

if

we

life

much

'tis

pains to think

are philosophers,

ought only

it

be upon sceptical principles, and from an inclin-

ation,

which we that

after

mixes

itself

assented

any

title

feel to the

employing ourselves

manner. Where reason

to.

with some propensity,

Where

to operate

At the time,

it

does not,

upon

it

lively,

is it

ought

tir'd

river-side,

and

am

my I

chamber, or

feel

in a solitary

my mind all

ought to prefer that which able.

all

those subjects, about which

so

many

I

my

and most agree-

philosophy, and shall not scruple to give preference to superstition of every kind or ination.

For

the

it

denom-

as superstition arises naturally

and

more strongly on the mind, and

with

Philosophy on the contrary,

and extravagant,

ments; and

are merely the objects of a cold

reading

it

often

if just,

can

present us only with mild and moderate senti-

a

itself,

is

able to disturb us in the conduct of our lives and

a

view into

my

safest

seizes

have met with

disputes in the course of

is

And in this respect I make bold to recommend

to be

walk by

collected within

naturally inclined to carry

w hich are the subject we ought only to

from the popular opinions of mankind,

amusement and company, and have indulg'd reverie in

to rest, like those of beasts, in

easily

never can have

am

al-

almost impossible

deliberate concerning the choice of our guide, and

actions.

that I

'tis

and

us.

therefore,

mind of man

which are

objects,

.

for the

former

own, and presents us with

more from the returns of a serious goodhumour'd disposition, than from the force of the incidents of

is

systems and hypotheses than

together new Since therefore

all

and ambition

into such enquiries. Tis certain, that superstition

much more bold

has nothing to oppose to them, and expects a victory

my

the origin of

is

me into speculations without the sphere of common life, it w ou'd necessarily happen, that from my very weakness I must be led

mena, which appear

my spleen and indo-

feel

philosophy.

serve either for the

it

I

point of pleasure; and this

my own private interest?

what end can

must be

I

Under

certainty.

of making such an abuse of

service of mankind, or for

No:

and

lation,

if false

and seldom go so

its

opinions

and general specu-

far as to interrupt the

course of our natural propensities.

The Cynics

are an extraordinary instance of philosophers,

w ho

from reasonings purely philosophical ran into

as

A Treatise on Human Nature

spcakinii,

was

c\ci

errors

the

coiuliut as

ot

t'\ira\.ii!;aiuic's

jircat

Denist- ihat

in

\/('///'

or

(iciurall\

aw

religion

in

am

worUI.'

ilu-

dangerous,

those in philosoph) onl\ riilieulous. 1

am

mankind, and

many employM

comprehend

all

that there are in I:n^lunJ, in particu-

domestic

their

in

common

themselves in their thoughts

who being always

gentlemen,

honest

lar,

will not

very

beyond those

which are every day expos'd indeed, of such as these

philosophers, nor do

amusing

or

affairs,

recreations, ha\e carried

little

I

objects,

And

to their senses.

pretend not to make

expect them either to be

I

associates in these researches or auditors of these

They do

discoveries.

them

well to keep themselves in

present situation; and

their

into philosophers,

of refining

instead

wish we cou'd communi-

I

some

in

particulars a diflereni turn to the

speculations o( philosoj^hers, and |>ointing out to

them more

those subjects, where alone

tlistinctly

the> can e\|>ecl assurance

sensible, that these t\No eases ot the strength

and weakness of the niind

gi\mg

b\

Nature

Human

and conxiclion

the only science of man; and vet has been

is

hitherto the most neglected. "Iwill be sufficient for

me,

can bring

iff

hope

it

a little

of this ser\es to

sjileen,

more

and invigorate

it

from

If the reader

himself in the same easy disposition, in

my

future speculations. If not,

his inclination,

and wail the returns

him

follow

let

him

follow

of application

man, who

a

studies philosophy in this careless manner,

than that of one,

himself an inclination to

who

is

more

feeling in

over-whelm'd

yet so

it, is

finds

let

and good humour. The conduct of

truly sceptical

that

which

that indolence,

sometimes prevail upon me.

me

and the

into fashion;

compose m\ temper from

with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject

it.

A

cate to our founders of systems, a share of this gross

true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical

com-

doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction;

earthy mixture, as an ingredient, which they

monly stand much

need

in

of,

and which wou'd

w hich they

serve to temper those fiery particles, of are

composM. While

warm

a

to enter into philosophy,

imagination

is

allow'd

and hypotheses embrac'd

and

never refuse any innocent satisfaction,

will

which

offers itself,

our inclination researches,

never have any steady principles, nor any senti-

ciples, but also that

which

will

suit

with

common

practice

sity,

in general indulge

most elaborate philosophical

in the

merely for being specious and agreeable, we can

ments,

upon account of either of them.

Nor is it only proper we shou'd

notwithstanding our sceptical

we shou'd

which inclines us

to

yield to that

be positive and certain

and experience. But were these hypotheses once

particular points, according to the light, in

remov'd, we might hope to establish

survey them

set of opinions, is

too

much

which

to

if

system or

a

not true (for that, perhaps,

be hop'd for) might

at

be

least

forbear

all

in

any particular

instant. 'Tis easier to

ourselves in so natural a propensity, and guard against that assurance,

chimerical systems, which have successively arisen

cism, but even our modesty too; and

and decay'd away among men, wou'd we consider

such terms as these,

the shortness of that period, wherein these ques-

undeniable;

tions

have

been

Two

the

subjects

and

of enquiry

thousand years with such long

in

which we

examination and enquiry, than to check

human mind, and might stand the test of the most critical examination. Nor shou'd we despair of attaining this end, because of the many satisfactory to the

prin-

propen-

exact and

occasion

full

we

w hich always

arises

from an

On

such an

survey of an object.

arc apt not only to forget our scepti-

which

a

'tis

evident,

due deference

ought, perhaps, to prevent.

I

make use of certain,

'tis

'tis

to the public

may have

fallen into

example of others; but

I

here

interruptions, and under such mighty discourage-

enter a caveat against any objections, which

may

ments are

be offered on that head; and declare that such ex-

reasoning.

a small space

of time to give any tolerable

perfection to the sciences; and perhaps

we are still

in

too early an age of the w orld to discover any principles,

which

posterity.

will bear the

For

contribute a

my

little

part,

to the

examination of the

my only

hope

is,

that

latest I

may

advancement of knowledge.

"Derise" means dervish.

The Cynics were

this fault after the

pressions were extorted from

me by

the present

view of the object, and imply no dogmatical spirit,

nor conceited idea of my sentiments that

and

I

am

a sceptic still less

own judgment, which

sensible can

arc

become no body,

than any other.

an ancient

philosophical school that advocated the violation of .social

conventions.

d^

^

From Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was

among

alone the

great

first

faith in

virtually

eighteenth-century intellectuals,

new Enlightenment A native of his be-

the

critic of

I

men,

appropriate to an honest man

loved Geneva, he led an emotionally complex and life.

Rousseau

felt

uncomfortable

in

the

emerging cosmopolitan world, which he believed made genuine selfhood impossible. He established his reputation

in

1750 by arguing

in

the

essay excerpted here that modern learning does not improve, but on the contrary harms, human morals.

In

a later work, his 0;scourse on the Origins

of Inequality

among Men

(1754), he revealed his

that

is

nothing and

science and progress.

troubled

It will

be

take in this question?

who

thinks no less of himself for

say to the tribunal before which

most learned

societies, praise

Academy, and

respect for the truly learned?

abusing science,

I

that listens to

witty as you are

ment of the

makes one long to go on all fours. it is now some sixty years since I

gave up the practice, impossible

for

me

to

I

feel that

resume

it

it."

is

unfortunately

Voltaire's wit to

the contrary notwithstanding, Rousseau never

argued

for

Has

of right.

to fear?

is

me?

admit

I

What

to the studious.

The enlightenment it;

then

of the assembly

but this

is

owing

to the

speaker. Fair-minded sovereigns have

whose outcomes

are uncertain;

and the position most advantageous

for a just cause

selves in disputes

is

to

have to defend oneself against an upright and

enlightened opponent

To

this

who is

judge in his

motive which heartens

me

own is

case.

joined

another which determines me, namely that, having upheld, according to truth,

whatever

cannot

fail

my

my

natural light, the side of

success, there

to receive; I will find

it

is a

prize

which

within the depths

of mv heart.

the restoration of the sciences and the arts con-

tributed to the purification of mores, or to their

corruption? That

'

I am not am defending virtue

never hesitated to pass judgments against them-

I

IVe are deceived by the appearance

I

composition of the discourse and not to the senti-

an actual return to primitive existence;

rather, he sought a new egalitarian way of life that would be just as authentic in the modern context as was primitive existence in its context.

have seen these points

before virtuous men. Integrit\' is even dearer to good

culture. He was chastised by the great Voltaire, who wrote to Rousseau: "no one has ever been so

read your book

I

told myself;

views of Marx, and roundly condemned modern

Since, however,

ignorance in a famous

of conflict, and they have not daunted me.

I

trying to turn us into brutes: to

can

reconcile contempt for study with

than erudition

in

it.

have to

How

appear.

I

I

dare to blame the sciences before one of Europe's

I

have

foreshadowing the

for social equality,

adapt what

difficult, I feel, to

men

concern

The one, gentlewho knows

side should

Horace,

32^

On

the

is

what

is

to

Art of Poetry,

be examined.

v. 25.

W hich

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp. 3-10 from Part One of "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts in T/ie Basic "

Political Writings of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (trans.

Donald Cress). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Companylnc..l987.

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts It

IS

iHauntuI sight to sec

a ur.uul aiui

somehow from nothing patc, hN

own

b\ his

the hght of his reason, the

which nature had en\eh)ped him;

means of

soar b\

self;

man timruc

ctlotts; chssi-

mind

his

shadows

rise

in

of all the sirtues

this sort of ciNilitx,

|{\

puts on fewer

guished themselves their

grander and more dilticuh, return to himsell

man and know

order to slud\

and

mar\els ha\e been re\i\ed

his end. All ot these

in the past

in

his nature, his duties,

I.urope had relapsed into the barbarism of the ages.

first

few centuries ago the peoples of that

.\

who

part of the world,

worse than ignorance.

lives, lived in a state

Some

nondescript scientific jargon, even more contemptible

than ignorance, had usurped the

knowledge, and posed to its return.

back to

.\

nearly in\incible obstacle

a

common

sense;

among

finally

it

The

us.

came from the

w ho caused them

sweet

served as our rules, able from the

to be

letters.

government and the laws see

pleasant.

to the safety

being of assembled men, the sciences, the arts, less despotic and perhaps

virtue, if

our maxims

true philosophy were insepar-

of philosopher! Hut so

many

man

too rarely found in combination,

of

taste.

'The heallh\ and robust

recognized by other signs.

is

in the rustic

gilding of the courtier that one will find bodily

-

which

a

It is

clothing of the fieldw orker and not underneath the

strength and vigor. Einery

The

no

is

less alien to virtue,

the strength and vigor of the soul. 'The

is

is

He

is

who enjoys competing

an athlete

contemptuous of

all

in the

those vile orna-

ments w hich w ould impair the use of

his strength,

most of which were invented merely

to conceal

some deformity. our passions to speak an affected language, our

mores were

rustic but natural, and, differences in

While the

behavior heralded,

at

first

glance, differences of

and well-

character. At base,

human

nature was no better,

letters

and

more powerful,

spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains with

w hich they are burdened,

if

To

foundations of society; it

Outer

Before art had fashioned our manners and taught

needs, as does the body.

make

title

all

man

elegance a

with works worthy of their mutual approval.

latter are the

if

such great pomp.

desire to please one another

the needs of the former

us,

wealthy man, and

nude.

needs of the

among

a

only too natural.

its

were

dispositions, if decency

good man

has

to live

in

may seem strange, but And the chief advantage of commerce with the Muses began to be felt, namely, that of making men more sociable by

The mind

panlomine.

Italian

in social interaction.

would be

it

from

of the taste acquired by good

fruits

appearances were always the likeness of the heart's

which perhaps

them the

times and

engaging, equally remoNcd

yet

rusticity as

schooling and perfected

sequence of events that

inspiring in

all

Expensive finery can betoken

the art of w riting w as joined the art of thinking

is

of

and virtue seldom goes forth

Greece. France in turn was enriched by these pre-

Soon the sciences followed

da>s

our ceniurs

it

least

of the throne of Con-

fall

\i\

qualities are

stantinople" brought into Italy the debris of ancient

cious spoils.

These are the

How

it

men

was the stupid Moslem, the

It

eternal scourge of letters,

reborn

name of

revolution was needed to bring

expected quarter.

manners natural

today live such enlightened

much \aunted

the

in

doubtlessU sur|>ass

ill

as

\ jihilosophic tone without pedantrN,

peoples.

from Teutonic

tew generations.

more agreeable

magnificence ami splendor

ami our nation w all

without having an>

the

all

.\thens and R(»me once distin-

airs,

regions; tra\erse, hke the sun, the \ast expanse of

even

relationships

apjHarances

the uniserse with giant steps; and, what

is

wlmh make

mores

in

so cordial and easy; in a word, (he

above him-

into the hea\enl\

uibaniiN

thai

among \ou

but

men found

w hich

their safety in the ease with

they saw through each other, and that advantage,

w hich we no longer value, spared them many

vices.

Today, when more subtle inquiries and

more

them the sense of which they seem to have

refined taste have reduced the art of pleasing to

been born, make them love their slavery, and turn

established rules, a vile and deceitful uniformity

that original liberty for

them

into

what

is

stitle in

called civilized peoples.

up thrones; the sciences and the

raised

arts

Need have

reigns in our mores, and

been cast

in the

liteness

and protect those who cultivate them!' Civilized

without ceasing,

them

that delicate

Happy

and refined

slaves,

taste

you owe

on w hich you

pride yourselves; that sweetness of character and

never one's

The

capital of the

Roman) Empire

fell

Byzantine (formerl\ the Eastern

to the

Turks

in 1453.

own

seem what one straint, the

society

do

all

minds seem

to have

ceasing, po-

makes demands, propriety gives orders;

strengthened them. Earthly powers, love talents

peoples, cultivate them!

all

same mold. Without

a

w ill,

the

common customs are followed, lights. One no longer dares to

really

is;

and

in this perpetual

men who make up if

this

herd we

concall

placed in the same circumstances,

same things unless stronger motives deter

them. Thus no one

will ever reallv

know those with

.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

whom

he

friend,

deahng. Hence

is

occasions, that

What

too

it is

for these very occasions that

it is

essential to

one's

to wait for critical

to wait until

is,

know

order to

in

would be necessary

it

it

since

late,

would have been

know him.

a retinue

No more

more unvaryingly subjected

waters have not been to the star

which provides us with

night, than has the fate of mores

of vices must attend

this incerti-

no more

Consider Egypt, that

sincere friendships,

cions, offenses, fears, coldness, reserve, hatred, be-

w ill unceasingly hide under

and

that uniform

under that much

of politeness,

veil

vaunted urbanity that we owe to the enlightenment

The name

of our century.

of the master of the

universe will no longer be profaned with oaths; rather

No

our scrupulous ears being offended by them.

one

will boast

of his

own

merit, but will disparage

No

one

will

that of others.

enemy, but

crudely wrong his

him. National

will skillfully slander

hatreds will die out, but so will love of country.

Scorned ignorance

a

dangerous

famous country from which Sesostris" departed long ago to conquer the world. She became the

mother of philosophy and the

fine arts,

and soon

was conquered by Cambyses,' then by

thereafter

Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and finally Turks.

Consider Greece, formerly populated by heroes

who

twice conquered Asia, once at

Troy and once

on their own home ground. Nascent

letters

had not

yet brought corruption into the hearts of her inhab-

but the progress of the

itants;

the dissolution

arts,

of mores and the Macedonian's yoke followed closely

upon one another; and Greece, ever

learned,

nothing in her revolutions but changes of masters.

men

the sobriety of the wise I

places.

all

vices held in dishonor, but others will be

who wish extoll

have them or affect them. Let those

as

times and in

school of the universe,

ever voluptuous, and ever the slave, experienced

adorned with the name of virtues. One must either

part,

all

first

excesses will be forbidden,

Pyrrhonism.'"

some

be replaced by

will

Some

in

that climate so fertile beneath a brazen sky, that

be insulted with blasphemies without

will

it

arts. \ irtue

on our horizon, and the same phenom-

light rose

esteem, no more well-founded confidence. Suspi-

deceitful

during the

has been seen taking flight in proportion as their

enon has been observed

trayal

and the

to the progress of the sciences

real

tude!

light

and integrity been

see in

it

merely

unworthy of my

Such

is

a

of the present. For

my

the purity that our mores have acquired.

Thus have we become decent men.

It is

for letters,

body which luxury and the

arts

had ener-

vated.

refinement of intemperance

praise as their artful simplicity."

Demosthenes could never

All the eloquence of

revive a

It is at

the time of the likes of Ennius and Ter-

ence' that '

Rome, founded by

shepherd and made

a

famous by fieldworkers, began

to degenerate.

But

Hkes of Ovid, Catullus, Martial,"' and that

after the

the sciences, and the arts to claim their part in so

crowd of obscene writers whose names alone offend

wholesome an achievement.

add but one

modesty, Rome, formerly the temple of virtue,

w ho

became the theater of crime, the disgrace of nations,

thought: an inhabitant of

I

some

will

distant lands

sought to form an idea of European mores on the

among

basis of the state of the sciences

us, the

perfection of our arts, the seemliness of our theatri-

performances,

cal

manners, the

the

affability

of our

quality

civilized

of our speech, our perpetual

and the plaything of barbarians. Finally, that of the world

tion of men of every age to night,

and circumstance who, from

seem intent on being obliging

one another; that foreigner,

mores

to

I

say,

was the eve of the day when one of her given the

no

is

effect, there is

no cause

But here the

real,

and our souls have become corrupted

is

are.

to seek

be said that

it

A

"

age.'

in pro-

The

daily rise

and

of

Roman

ca.

'"

No, gentlemen,

An 34:

location,

seemed

fall

of the ocean's

ancient school of skeptical philosophers.

in 6th century

Bc

poetry, and Publius Terentius Afer (ca. 190-

159 BC) was a

Roman

playwright.

Publius Ovidus Naso (93 greatest

(ca. 8-1—ca.

\'alerius

Roman

54 bc) was

writers. a

Martialis (ca.

bc-ad

18)

was one of

Gains \'alerius Catullus

famous Roman

40^a. ad

lyric poet.

Marcus

104) was a

Roman

satirist. ^'"

'"

its

Quintus Ennius (239-ca. 170 bc) was the father

this is a

the evils caused by our vain curiosity are as old as the world.

Taste.'"'

about that capital of the Eastern

legendary pharoah.

King of Persia

'

the

misfortune peculiar to our

Good

fall

was

destined to be the capital of the entire world, that

certain, the depravation

portion as our sciences and our arts have advanced

toward perfection. Will

of Arbiter of

Empire, which, by virtue of

^'

out.

effect

title

\\ hat shall I say

citizens

would guess our

be exactly the opposite of what they

Where there

to

capital

under the yoke which she had

imposed on so many peoples, and the day of her

displays of goodwill, and that tumultuous competi-

morning

falls

Tacitus claims that the

the idler Petronius

(d.

ad

Roman Emperor Nero made Good Taste."

66) "Arbiter of

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts rctugc ol the scifiKfs

than barbarism

ihc arts UaiiislKcl liom

.iiul

more perhaps

the rest of Kuropf

All that

oiii o(

most shamclul about

is

tkbaialurN and corruption; blackest assassinations,

wisiloiii

in bctraNals,

ami poisons; most atrocious

coexistence ot every sort of crime: that

in

the

what

is

constitutes the fabric of the historN of Constantinople.

I'hat is

the pure source

whence

radiates to us

not out ol stupidits that these people ha\e

IS

It

h)rms

preterreil other

men

other lamls idle

spent

their

and

virtue,

highest

the

praises,

peoples under the contemptuous ians,

learned to disdain their teaching.^

remote times proofs of

in

eyes' In .Vsia there

acknowledgement

an immense country where

is

in the field of letters leads to the

highest offices of the state. If the sciences purified

mores,

they taught

if

men

to

shed their blood for

name

forget that

I

Greece

that

famous

for her

was

it

happ\ ignorance

of her laws, that republic

men, so superior seem.'

O

bosom of

in the very

there was seen to arise that city as

humanit\ did

to

Sparta! Kternal

shame

While the

if

there

is

not a single vice that does not

have mastery over them; not unfamiliar to them;

if

crime that

a single

is

neither the enlightenment of

empire have been able

to shield her

from the yoke of

the ignorant and coarse Tartar, what purpose has

her learned

all

men

What

served.'

benefit has been

by the fine

of

The

event confirmed this difference.

became the abode of

country of orators and philosophy.

this

number of peoples who, protected

virtues brought about their

the

against

contagion of vain knowledge, have by their

model

for other nations.

learned just as science

is

us,

which subju-

the distinction of having the history of

its

insti-

taken for a philosophical novel."' Such

were the Scythians, about

whom we

have been

left

such magnificent praises. Such were the Germans, whose simplicity, innocence, and virtues a pen -

weary of tracing the crimes and

atrocities of an

educated, opulent and voluptuous people - found relief in depicting.

Such had been Rome

herself in

the times of her poverty and ignorance. finally,

Such,

for her

courage which adversity

could not overthrow, and for her faithfulness which

example could not corrupt.

'"

Education

of

w here.

The

"There,"

ments worth Athens has

Some

is left

less to

\

and

irtue."

to us except the

of their heroic actions. Are such

monu-

us than the curious marbles that

left us.'

wise men,

it is

true,

had resisted the gen-

and protected themselves from vice

eral torrent

in

the abode of the Muses. But listen to the judgement that the first

learned

and unhappiest of them made of the

men and

artists

of his time.

"I have," he says, "examined the poets, and I

view them as people whose talent makes an im-

pression on

them and on others who claim to be to be such, and w ho are nothing

w ise, w ho are taken of the sort.

"From to artists.

poets," continues Socrates, "I

moved on

No one knew

than

less

about the

one w as more convinced that

artists

especially fine secrets. Still,

I

"*

Probably Xenophon's (430-354 bc)

Cyrus.

less brilliant.

the very air of the country seems to inspire

has that rustic nation show n herself to this

day - so vaunted

is

Nothing of her inhabitants

among

to be seen ever\

said the other peoples, ''men are born virtuous,

gated Asia so easily, and w hich alone has enjoyed

tutions

Lacedaemon

memory

which virtue was

elegance

serve as models in every corrupt age.

picture of

Such were the

Persians, a singular nation in

The

those astonishing works that

own happiness and first

Athens

taste, the

Marble and canvas, animated by the hands of the

will

the small

arts

of her buildings paralleled that of the language.

From Athens came

Contrast these scenes w ith that of the mores of

and good

civility

Could

men?

tyrant

the sciences and scientists.

artists,

most capable masters, were

be to be peopled by slaves and wicked

a

you drove out from your walls the

poets,''

and

derived from the honors bestowed upon them.^ it

intruded

arts,

there gathered so carefully the works of the prince

the ministers, nor the alleged w i.sdom of the laws,

nor the multitude of the inhabitants of that vast

led

\irtues

their

to a vain doctrine!

themselves together into .\thens, while

vices,

wisdom

as for the

demi-gods rather than

of

peoples of China should be wise, free and invin-

But

barbar-

of

their country, if they enlivened their courage, the

cible.

other

groufK-d

liowexer, the\ consiilered their mores and

Could

a truth

which we ha\e existing evidence before our

debating

bestowing on

that arrogant reasoners,

themselves

itself.

Hut \vh> seek

thai in

(act

li\es

about the sovereign g(M)d, about vice and about

the enliiihienment on which our century prides

for

those ol the

of evercise to

IIkn were iml unaware of the

miiul

"^

Peisistratus (ca.

collection of

arts

I;

no

possessed some

perceived that their

600-527 bc) allegedly directed the

Homer's works.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau condition

no better than that of the poets, and

is

under the same preju-

that they are both laboring

Because the most

dice.

among them

skillful

excel in

their specialty, they view themselves as the wisest

To my way

of men.

of thinking, this presumption

this

it

follows that, as

put myself in the place of

I

be what

I

am

answered myself and God:

what

I

would prefer

the true, the good, and the beautiful.

between

something.

however,

I,

not in doubt about

am

I

- what

all

believe they

What

plicity.^

know

know nothing, at least Thus all that superiority the oracle, reduces to

ignorant of what

I

do not

fatal

the wisest of men in the judgment of

the gods, and the most learned of Athenians in the

opinion of

Greece, Socrates, speaking in praise

all

is

this strange speech.''

Roman simWhat are these

effeminate mores?

What

meaning of these

the

is

these paintings, these buildings? Fools,

statues,

what have you done? You, the masters of nations, have you made yourselves the slaves of the frivolous

men you Was it to

conquered?

Do

rhetoricians govern you?

enrich architects, painters, sculptors, and

you soaked Greece and Asia with your

blood? Are the spoils of Carthage the prey of a flute

Romans make

player?

these paintings; drive out these slaves gate you and

He would

not aid in

down

haste to tear

these amphitheaters; shatter these marbles; burn

among us, our learned men and our artists would make him change his mind.-^ No, gentlemen, this just man would continue to hold our vain sciences in contempt.

her

roofs and those rustic

of ignorance! Does anyone believe that, were he to

be reborn

all

splendor has follow ed upon

What

actors that is

saved by your arm and

become of those thatched

is

know."

Here then

Rome

hearths where moderation and virtue once dwelt.^

is

if I it.

wisdom accorded me by

being convinced that

I

But there

that although these

us:

people know^ nothing, they

been your misfortune to be

it

you had seen the pompous coun-

life,

honored more by your good name than by has

do not know - neither the sophists, nor the

this difference

had

if,

returned to

conquests? "Gods!" you would have said, "what

remain

to

poets, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor

in

thought,

want

am.

"We

am

to

it.

O Fabricius!"'" What would your great soul have

tenance of that

I I

study

know what they know nothing.

or what they are, to

have learned or to know that I

I

their

From

has completely tarnished their knowledge.

the oracle and ask myself whether

men have begun to appear in our midst," own philosophers said, "good men have vanished." Until then the Romans had been content to practice virtue; all was lost when they began to learned

whose

who

subju-

corrupt you. Let

fatal arts

others achieve notoriety by vain talents; the only talent

worthy of

Rome

is

that of conquering the

world and making virtue reign

in

it.

When Cineas""'

the enlargement of that mass of books which inun-

took our Senate for an assembly of kings, he was

date us from every quarter, and the only precept he

dazzled neither by vain

would leave

gance.

is

the one

left to his disciples

descendants: the example and the virtue.

Thus

is it

and

memory

to

our

of his

Rome

to rail against those artful

who seduced

nor by studied elethat frivolous elo-

quence, the focus of study and delight of

futile

men. What then did Cineas see that was so majes-

noble to teach men!

Socrates had begun in Athens, Cato"' the Elder

continued in

pomp

There he did not hear

and

tic?

O

citizens!

riches nor

all

He saw

your

arts

a sight

which neither your

could ever display; the most

the virtue and ener-

beautiful sight ever to have appeared under the

vated the courage of his fellow citizens. But the

heavens, the assembly of two hundred virtuous

subtle Greeks

sciences, again.

and

the arts,

Rome was

dialectic

prevailed once

with philosophers and

filled

orators; military discipline

The

sacred

names of liberty,

homeland

disinterest-

in

Rome and

of

governing the earth."

But

was neglected, agricul-

ture scorned, sects embraced, and the forgotten.

men, worthy of commanding

let

us leap over the distance of place and time

and see what has happened before our eyes; or rather,

our countries and

in

let

us set aside odious

edness, obedience to the laws were replaced by the

pictures that offend our delicate sensibilities, and

names of Epicurus, Zeno,

spare ourselves the trouble of repeating the same

Arcesilaus.'"'

"Ever since

things under different names. ""

Marcus Porcius Cato "the Elder" (243- 149 bc) was

highly respected for simplicity ""

Roman

I

summoned

I

make

a

general and statesman, famous

It

was not

in vain that

the shade of Fabricius; and

that great

man

say that

I

w hat did

could not have

of virtue.

Epicurus (341-270 bc), founder of Epicureanism;

Zeno of Citium (336-264 bc), founder of Stoicism; and Arcesilaus (316-241 bc), a famous Skeptic.

^"'

Caius Fabricius Luscinus

Roman general. "'^ An ambassador

(d.

250 bc) was

a great

of the Thessalian king Pyrrhus.

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts platcil

tlu-

111

Anions

us,

l.ouis \ll oi

inouili ol is

ii

drunk the hemlock; but he woukl from

more

a cu|>

and scorn

hitler

still:

Uih\

I\

noi

li.ivi

-

chunk

h.i\f

the msultinu; ridicule

limes worse than

are a luiiuheil

that

I

woiiUI

Soir.iii-s

iiik-,

death.

how lu\ui\,

IS

ha\e

(.lissolulion aiul sl.i\er\

times been the punishment lor the arrogant

we ha\e made

et forts that

happy ignor-

to lea\e the

ance where eternal w isilom had jilaced

heavy

us.

with which she had co\ered

veil

all

Hut

worse

is

would be cNcn

the\

had the misfortune

hail

of

being

born learned. low humiliating are these refleiiioiis

manity!

How

lui

lui-

mortified our pride must be! What!

be the daughter of ignorance.' Sci-

(!oulil probit)

ence and \irtue incompatible.' What consequences

might not be drawn from these prejudices? But to

her

reconcile these apparent

for vain inquiries.

there even one of her lessons from which

need merely examine

at

points of conflict, one

close range the \anity

the emptiness of those proud

power us and which we so

titles

and

which oxer-

gratuitousl)

bestow

we have neg-

upon human knowledge. Let us then consider the

w ith impunity? Peoples, know then once and

sciences and the arts in themselves. Let us see what

we have lected

had not destined us

ihe least ol her kiml-

noi

per\erse,

are

thev

it

is

The

operations seemed to give us sufficient warning that she

Men

nesses.

the ili(fuuli\ \ou fmil in

ih.ii

leaching Nw/'//V use of his reason enjoys unlimited freedom to use his own reason and to speak in his own person. For to maintain that the guardians of

may "

A

for his

diet

is

own

and

A man

person, and even then only for a

a legislative assembly.

Immanuel Kant limited period, postpone enlightening himself in

know

matters he ought to

about. But to renounce

such enlightenment completely, whether for his

own person means

more

so for later generations,

and trampling underfoot the sacred

mankind. But something which

rights of

may

or even

violating

not even impose upon

imposed on

by

it

a

can

itself

monarch;

his uniting the

own. So long

collective will of the people in his

he sees to

it

that

all

be

less

for his legislative

upon

authority depends precisely

people

a

still

true or imagined

as

improvements

are compatible with the civil order, he can otherwise

leave his subjects to for this salvation,

do whatever they find necessary

which

is

none of his business. But

anyone forcibly hindering

his business to stop

it is

others from working as best they can to define and

promote majesty

their salvation. It indeed detracts

if

he interferes in these

from

his

the writings in which his subjects attempt to clarify their religious ideas to

governmental supervision.

This applies if he does so acting upon his own exalted opinions

-

which case he exposes himself

in

reproach: Caesar non

who

This

are not restricted

of freedom

spirit

even where

it

by any

also spreading abroad,

is

has to struggle with outward obstacles

imposed by governments which misunderstand

own

their

now may

function.

For such governments can

how freedom

witness a shining example of

without in the

exist

least jeopardising public

concord and the unity of the commonwealth.

own

will of their

out of barbarism so long as

measures are

artificial

not deliberately adopted to keep them in

it.

have portrayed matters of religion as the focal

I

point of enlightenment,

from

of man's emergence

i.e.

This

his self-incurred immaturity.

is firstly

because our rulers have no interest in assuming the role of guardians over their subjects so far as

the arts and sciences are concerned, and secondly,

despotism of a few tyrants

because religious immaturity

is

the most pernicious

and dishonourable variety of all. But the attitude of

mind of a head of state who

now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened age, the answer is: No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment. As things are at present, we still have a long way to go before men as a whole can

arts

be in

on better ways of drawing up laws, even

If it is

can even be put into a position)

own understanding

of using their

confidently and

ises that there is

being cleared for them to work freely in this

and that the obstacles

direction,

immaturity,

incurred

fewer. In this respect our age

is

self-

becoming

gradually

are

the age of enlight-

We

prince

who

does not regard

to say that he considers

it

it

have before us

whom we now

to

as

beneath him

his duty, in religious

matters, not to prescribe anything to his people,

a brilliant

But only

pay

who

a ruler

himself enlightened and

to say:

Argue

like,

likewise has at

as

much

as

we

shall

you

like

and

but obeyl This reveals to us a

strange and unexpected pattern in

(such as

always find

if

human

affairs

we consider them

in is

but to allow them complete freedom, a prince

who

the widest sense, in which nearly everything

thus even declines to accept the presumptuous

title

paradoxical).

of tolerant,

man who (as far as

men

himself enlightened.

is

be praised by

a grateful present

first

liberated

government

free to use their

is

He

deserves to

and posterity

as the

mankind from immaturity concerned), and

own

reason in

all

who left all matters of

A

advantageous to it

also sets

high degree of civil freedom seems a people's intellectual

up insuperable

a lesser degree of civil

freedom enough room extent.

Thus once

^'

"Caesar

is

not above the grammarians."

Again, Frederick the Great.

to think freely shell,

it

the

barriers to

freedom, yet

it.

Conversely,

freedom gives to

expand

to

intellectual its

fullest

germ on which nature has

- man's inclination and vocation - has developed within this hard gradually reacts upon the mentality of the

lavished most care ^

to

may say what no republic

guarantee public security,

about whatever you

who

numerous army

well-disciplined and

a

this

tribute.

is

has no fear of phantoms, yet

hand

example of

which no monarch has yet surpassed the

would dare

enment, the century, of Frederick.^'

A

one

to universal en-

lightenment, to man's emergence from his

if this

entails forthright criticism of the current legisla-

kind, in

now

for he real-

to his legislation if

reason and to put before the public their thoughts

tion.

is

no danger even

he allows his subjects to m^k^ public use of their own

well in religious matters, without outside guidance.

way

favours freedom in the

and sciences extends even further,

But we do have

distinct indications that the

Men

accord gradually work their way

within his state against the rest of his subjects.

a position (or

all

official duties.

- but

much more so if he demeans his high authority so far as to support the spiritual

and

their verdicts

these deviate here and there from

if

orthodox doctrine. This applies even more to others

in

and publicly submit

judgement of the world

to the

opinions, even

may

official duties,

their capacity as scholars freely

to the

supra Grammaticos^

est

his rule, ecclesiastical dignitar-

notwithstanding their

ies,

by subjecting

affairs

Under

conscience.

Critique of Pure

who

people,

thus

btioim-

^r.ulu.ills

able to act freely. KNeimi.ilK,

iiillueiues

which

uoNeniinenis,

principles of

the

iiu ii-.ismiilN

eseii

ti

ih.M

tiiul

ihemseKes

iheN ean

Reason

l)\ trealuig nun, who is manner appropriate to his

profit

more than a muihifu\

in a

liimiiiN

Author's Note 1

I

read todaN on the .U)th Septeniher in Huscliing's

\\

oihcntlutu-

eoneernini!:

Suihruhtai of 13th September month's

this

a notice

Momilssihn/i.

licilniisilu-

The notice mentions Mendelssohn's answer

same question

which

as that

ha\e answered.

1

not yet seen this iournal, otherw ise

hack the aho\e reflections.

onl\ as a

means of finding out by comparison how

may

thoughts of two individuals I

Moses Mendelssohn (1729 was

"«/»fr Jie Frage:

(Question:

What

is

far

the

coincide by chance.

86) published an essay,

("On

heisst Auflclarung?''^

Enlightenment"),

moderns have thought

the

in 17(S4.|

objects (idealism, scepticism, etc.), or atuhmpoA^,£,'/ idea of the

nbiained

through

except

.Siinilarlv,

what

in

chemistry

is

sometimes entitled the

experiment of reJtulion, or more usuall\ the synthetic process.

The

iittu/ysis

of the metaphysician separates

b\

distinction,

(

the fundamental laws of the nu>tions of the

Copernicus had

and (the

at

the

at first

same lime

Newtonian The

together.

undiscovered

v

assumed onlv

latter

to

what

as an hv (xithesis,

ielded pr«M>f Of the inv isible force

which holds the universe

attraction),

would have remained

if (Opernicus

had not dared,

in a

for ever

manner

contradictory of the senses, but vet true, to seek the

in the spectator.

to

alxive

the

Ixidies gave established certaintv

heavenlv

observed movements, not

ity

demanded

which must therefore Ik accepted

the correctness of this distinction. a great similar-

KwJi/iof/tJ

harmon> can never be

reaMin, and finds that this

able self-conflict, the experiment decides in favour of

This experiment of pure reason bears

////t

Reason

gous to Critique,

this hypothesis, I

first

heavenlv bodies, but

in point

which

is

of view, analo-

expounded

in the

put forward in this preface as an hypothesis

only, in order to

these

in the

The change

draw attention

attempts

at

such

a

to the character

of

change, which are always

pure a priori knowledge into two very heterogeneous

hypothetical. But in the Critique itself it

elements, namely, the knowledge of things as appear-

apodeictically not hypothetically, from the nature of

ances, and the dialectic

know ledge of things

combines these two again,

in themselves; his in

harmony with

w ill be proved,

our representations of space and time and from the elementary concepts of the understanding.

From Reflections on the Revolution France

in

Edmund Burke The French Revolution seemed to many to embody the new ideals of modern, Enlightened it threatened a new barbarEdmund Burke (1729-97), Irish by birth and a member of the English Parliament, provides us

He

the Revolution Society in this political

tells

sermon

that this iMajesty "is almost the only lawful

culture, while to others

king in the world because the

ism.

crown to the choice ofhis people"". As to the kings of the

with the

most famous

critique of revolutionary

modernity. His Reflections on the Revolution

in

France (1790), a letter to a French correspondent,

was

inspired by several events: the arrest of the

mob

royal family of France by a

on October

6,

1789; the seizure of all Church property by the French republic; and closer to home, a sermon by

an Englishman, Dr Richard Price of the Revolution Society, endorsing the principles of the French

Revolution for England.

(All

of this

was years

before the worst revolutionary violence the

"Terror.") Critical of

the

in

France,

modern attempt

to re-

place traditional social arrangements with abstract

equality

and individual

work remains the

classical source

principles

rights, Burke's

like

of true conservatism. But his traditionalism is

simple authoritarianism; Burke supported

no

Irish

and American independence from Great Britain because he felt that the Crown had abused the traditionally recognized rights of Ireland and the American colonies. He likewise approved the

world,

of

all

whom

ofjly

one who owes

his

(except one) this archpontiff of

the rights ofmen, with

all

the plenitude and with more

than the boldness of the papal deposing power in

its

meridian fervor of the twelfth century, puts into one

sweeping clause of ban and anathema and proclaims usurpers by circles of longitude and latitude, over the whole globe,

it

behooves them

to consider

how

they admit into their territories these apostolic missionaries

who

are to

not lawful kings. That a

their subjects they are

tell

is

their concern. It

is

ours, as

domestic interest of some moment, seriously

upon

to consider the solidity of the only principle

which these gentlemen acknowledge a king of Great Britain to be entitled to their allegiance.

This doctrine,

as applied to the prince

British throne, either

is

neither true nor false, or

founded, dangerous, position.

According

ics, if his

now on the

nonsense and therefore it

illegal,

affirms a

most un-

and unconstitutional

to this spiritual doctor of poht-

Majesty does not owe his crown

choice of his people, he

is

no lawful

to the

king.

Now

1688 revolution of the English Parliament against James

II

as a conservative revolution aimed at

storing the traditional distribution of

re-

power which

theKinghaddisturbed.

But

I

may say of our preacher

''utinam migls tota

ilia

'

''Would that he had devoted

to trifles all the

spent in violence." Juvenal, Satires, IV,

Dr

time he

150—1.

The

Richard Price.

preacher

is

Edmund

Burke, a selection of

unmarked sections,

in

fulminating bull are not of so innoxious a tendency.

each case separated by space in the text, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (ed. J. G. A. Pocock), pp. 12-19, 25-6, 29-31, 51-2, 76-7, 216-18. India-

His doctrines affect our constitution in its vital parts.

napolis: Hackett

dedisset

tempora

saevitiae'".^

-

All things in this his

PublishingCompany Inc., 1987.

Reflections on the Revolution nolhinir can be

more

this kinjitlom

so held by his MajestN

you follow

is

iiniruc ih.ui

ih.it .

remote period,

the ctonmi oI

iloms ot liurope were,

Therefore,

with more or fewer limitations

their rule, the kiui; of (ire.it lintain,

it

who

at a

in

France

elective,

the ob)ecls of

in

But whatever kings might have been here

choice

most eertainl) does not oue

his high

ottke to anv

or elsewhere a thousand years ago, or in whatever

form of popular election,

no respect better than

nianiur the ruling dynasties of Kngland or I'rance

is in

who

the rest of the jjang of usurpers rob,

reign, or rather

over the face of this our miserable world

all

without any sort of right or

qualified,

the allegiance of

title to

The policy of this general doctrine, so

their people.

evident enough.

is

The propagators of

hopes that their abstract

this political gospel are in

principle (their jirinciple that a popular choice

is

nuiN has e

begun, the king of (ireal Britain

da\, king by a

Wwd

is, at

this

rule of succession according to

the laws of his c(»untr\; and whilst the legal conditions of the

compact

performed

of sovereignl) are

h\

him

in

contempt of the choice of the Revolution

(as the\ are

who have

el\,

performed), he holds his crown .Soci-

not a single vote for a king amongst

necessary to the legal existence of the sovereign

them, either individually or collectively, though

magistracy) would be overlooked, whilst the king

make no doubt

of Great Britain was not affected b\

In the

it.

mean-

time the ears of their congregations would be gradually habituated to

it,

as if

it

were

a first principle

admitted without dispute. For the present only operate as

compotio quue

et

this policy,

and

ments, so

Thus these is

opinion

it

common

has in

it

far as

which

is

politicians proceed

soothed with

with is

all

w hilst

examined upon the plain meaning of and

equivocations into play.

When

govern-

taken away. little

taken of their doctrines; but w hen they

and the direct tendency of

notice

come

their

to be

words

their doctrines, then

slippery

constructions

come

and

is

therefore the only

lawful sovereign in the world, they will perhaps

mean

to say

crown with the same contempt of his

tell

no more than that some of the

that his

his

Thus, by

Majesty (though he holds

people to choose; w hich right

and tenaciously adhered

ition

and are referable

this interpretation,

election differ

And how Brunswick

how does

in this

propos-

Lest the foundation of

title

should pass for

a

mere

lie

all

w hich, w ith him, com-

together in one short sen-

we have acquired

a right:

frame

a

them

for

misconduct.

government

for ourselves.

For if you

their idea of

This new and hitherto unheard-of though made

from our idea of inheritance.^

in the

name of

bill

of rights,

the whole people,

does the settlement of the crow n in the

belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only.

from James the First come

The body of the people of England have no share in it. They utterly disclaim it. They will resist the

line derived

to legalize our

monarchy

rather than that of any of

the neighboring countries? At

some time

or other,

practical assertion of it

w ith

their lives

and fortunes.

There

They are bound to do so by the law s of their country made at the time of that very Revolution w hich is

ground enough

for the opinion that

all

the king-

appealed to in favor of the fictitious rights claimed

"I concoct and

compound what soon

I

may bring

to be sure,

all

chosen by those is

directly maintained

choose our ow n governors.

to

admit

dec-

a

3

fense, since they take refuge in their folly.

is

bottom

it.

three fundamental rights,

for their of-

asylum they seek

full explicit

the Revolution, the people of England have acquired

to cashier

to the

concurrence

ceeds dogmatically to assert that, by the principles of

to

welcome

to

the king's exclusive legal

1

are

in

rant of adulatory freedom, the political divine'" pro-

2

nugatory.

in ex-

All the oblique insinu-

to.

ations concerning election

They

it

it

people, yet nothing can evade their

miserable subterfuge, they hope to render their proposition safe by rendering

to the

with the wishes) owes his crown to the choice of his

tence, namely, that

and therefore he ow es

come

plaining aw ay the gross error offuil, w hich supposes

by some

sort of choice,

will

their choice with

Majesty has succeeded to that he wears.

pose one system and

to the choice of his people.

to give

Whatever may be the success of evasion

king's predecessors have been called to the throne

crown

and order,

cessors, each in his time

w hich

were ripe

His Majesty's heirs and suc-

laration concerning the principle of a right in the

they say the king owes his crown

to the choice of his people

us they

a

has no claim, the

security,

is

into an electoral college if things effect to their claim.

by for future use.

mox depromere possim" By

favor, to

its

which

security

laid

w hilst our government

reservation in

would

theory, pickled in the preserving

a

juices of pulpit eloquence,

Con Jo

it

I

they would s(K)n erect themselves

the beginners of dynasties were

who

called

them

to govern.

by the Society which abuses

forth." Horace, Epistles,

I,

1, 12.

'"

Dr

Price.

its

name.

Edmund Burke These gentlemen of the Old Jewry, in all their reasonings on the Revolution of 1688," have a revolution which happened in England about and the

forty years before

much

so

late

French revolution,

before their eyes and in their hearts that

It is

We

must

it

was

a certainty in

which the subjects may

the succession thereof, to

have recourse for their protection." Both

safely

the three to-

these acts, in which are heard the unerring,

separate what

biguous oracles of revolution policy, instead of

recall their erring fancies

countenancing the delusive, gipsy predictions of a

Revolution which we revere, for

to the acts of the

them "to maintain

equally urgent on

all

necessary that

they confound.

and security of the realm," and that

we should

they are constantly confounding gether.

was absolutely necessary "for the peace,

First),

quiet,

unam-

demwisdom of the

"right to choose our governors," prove to a

how

the discovery of its true principles. If the principles of

onstration

the Revolution of 1688 are anywhere to be found,

nation was from turning a case of necessity into a

is

in the statute called the Declaration

that

rule of law.

most wise, sober, and considerate declaration,

drawn up by

great law yers and great statesmen, and

warm and

not by

one word

said,

is

inexperienced enthusiasts, not

nor one suggestion made, of

general right "to choose our ier

it

of Right. In

them

for misconduct,

own governors,

and

to form a

a

to cash-

government

Unquestionably, there was the person of

This Declaration of Right (the William and Mary,

at

the Revolution, in

a small

and

tempor-

a

ary deviation from the strict order of a regular

hereditary succession; but

against

it is

principles of jurisprudence to

from

a

law

made

sess. 2, ch. 2) is

draw

in a special case

all

genuine

principle

a

and regarding an

act of the 1st of

plum.^ If ever there was a time favorable for estab-

the cornerstone

lishing the principle that a king of popular choice

of our constitution as reinforced, explained, im-

was the only

proved, and in

at the

its

settled. It is called,

fundamental principles for ever

"An Act

for declaring the rights

of the subject, and for

liberties

King William,

individual person. Privilegium non transit in exem-

for ourselves.^''

and

totally adverse the

You

settling the

is

legal king,

Revolution.

Its

without

all

doubt

proof that the nation was of opinion

a

not to be done

at

it

was

not being done at that time

any time. There

is

it

ought

no person so

completely ignorant of our history as not to

know

these rights and this succession are declared in

that the majority in parliament of both parties

were

one body and bound indissolubly together.

so

succession

of the crown."

will

observe that

A few years after this period, a second opportunity

offered for asserting a right of election to the

crown.

On

the prospect of a total failure of issue

little

disposed

anything resembling that

to

principle that at first they were determined to

place the vacant crown, not on the head of the

Prince of Orange, but on that of his wife Mary,

from King William, and from the Princess,

after-

daughter of King James, the eldest born of the issue

wards Queen Anne, the consideration of the

settle-

of that king, which they acknowledged as undoubt-

ment of the crown and of a liberties

lature.

sion

further security for the

of the people again came before the legis-

Did they

for

this

legalizing

second time make any provithe

crown on the spurious

edly

his. It

recall

to

would be

your

to repeat a very trite story, to

memory

which demonstrated that

those circumstances

all

their accepting

liam was not properly a choice; but to

all

King Wilthose

who

They

did not wish, in effect, to recall King James or to

followed the principles which prevailed in the Dec-

deluge their country in blood and again to bring

revolution principles of the Old Jewry.' No.

laration of Right, indicating with

the persons

who were

more

precision

to inherit in the Protestant

line.

This act

also incorporated,

by the same

policy,

our

liberties

and an hereditary succession

in the

same

act.

Instead of a right to choose our

drawn from James the

just escaped,

strictest

it

and

liberties into the peril

was an

they

act of necessity, in the

moral sense in which necessity can be

taken.

own

governors, they declared that the succession in that line (the Protestant line

their religion, laws,

had

In the very act in which for a time, and in a single case, parliament departed

from the

strict

order of

inheritance in favor of a prince who, though not next, was, however, very near in the line of succes-

Dr district

Price's lecture

was delivered

in the

Old Jewry,

of London. In the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688,

Parliament successfully ousted Catholic James stalled

sion,

William

III.

Burke approved

II

and

it is

curious to observe

how Lord Somers, who

a

in-

this revolution as

drew the

bill

called the Declaration of Right, has

comported himself on

that delicate occasion. It

having reinstated the traditional rights of Parliament

which James had threatened.

is

curious to observe with what address this tempor-

^

"A

privilege does not

become

a

precedent."

,

Reflections on the Revolution ary solution of coiimuiiiN whilst

all

that

to

countenance the idea

is

brouiiht

kipi

is

m

could be touiul

an heredilarN succession

ot

made

torward, and fostered, and

man and

most

ol. h\

who

iollowed him. (^uitlinii the

this uieai

Commons

and declare

tall

the

the ieuislature

h\

iinperati\e

ili\,

he makes the

style ot an act ot parliament,

and

ot iKctssii\

i

1

.orils

to a pious, legislative ejaculation

that the\ consider

"as

it

mar\ellous

a

rhe\ knew that

ihc cm-,

lioin

iliis .u

iloubttui

a

title

would but loo nuuh resemble an that

in

France

of succession

and

election,

an election wouUI be ulterK destrucli\e ot

the "unitN, peace, and tranquillii\ ot this nation,"

which they thought

tore, to

tor these objects and, there-

exclude tor ever the Old Jewr\ d(Ktrine

own

"a right to choose our with

a

some

to be considerations ot

moment. To provide

ot

goNernors," thcN follow

clause containing a most solemn pledge,

proN itlence and mercitui goodness ot Ciotl to this

taken from the preceding act ot (|ueen IJi/abeth,

nation to preserxe their said Majesties' rnyal per-

as

sons most happily to reign over us on the

favor of an hereditary succession, and as solenm

thetr ariit'stors, tor

hearts,

they

praises." act

which, from the bottom of their

return

The

throrif of

humblest thanks and

their

legislature plainly

of recognition of the

had

in view the

of (^ueen I^lizabeth,

first

chap. 3rd, and of that of James the First, chap.

1st,

both acts strongly declaratory of the inheritable nature of the crown; and in

with a nearly

many

parts they follow

precision, the

literal

the form of thanksgi\ ing which

words and even

is

found

in these

The two Houses, in the act of King William, did God that they had found a fair opportunity to assert a right to choose their own governors, much less to make an election the only lawful title to the crown. I'heir having been in a condition to

avoid the very appearance of it, as

was by them considered

much as possible,

as a providential escape.

well-w rought

a politic,

veil

over every

circumstance tending to w eaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they

meant

to

this Society

a close

their ancestors, as

it

in the name of all humbly and faithfully heirs and posterities far eier\

their

will

stand to

maintain, and defend their said .Majesties, and also the limitation of the crown, herein specified and

contained, to the utmost of their powers, etc.

right

far is

from being true

it

by the Revolution to

had po.ssesscd

it

elect

before, the tLnglish nation did at

most solemnly renounce and abdicate

that time

for themselves

and

for

it,

their posterity forever.

all

These gentlemen may value themselves

much

as

they please on their whig" principles, but desire to be thought a better

I

as

never

whig than Lord Som-

understand the principles of the Revolu-

ers, or to

whom

by

tion better than those

it

was brought

about, or to read in the Declaration of Right any

unknown engraved

hearts, the

monarchy, and that they

It

those whose penetrating

to

our ordinances, and

in

words and

spirit

in

our

of that immortal law.

true that, aided with the powers derived

is

from force and opportunity, the nation was

appeared in the declaratory

time, in

Elizabeth, in

etc.

we acquired a our kings that, if we that

conformity to the practice of

Queen Mary and Queen

statutes of

a

by

them: The Lords spiritual

promise that they

faithfully

style has

might preserve

to

and do

mysteries

relax the nerves of their

imputed

of the principles

submit themselves,

perpetuate, or w hich might furnish a precedent for

might not

made

in

the people aforesaid, most

any future departure from what they had then settled forever. Accordingly, that they

eser was or can be given

and temporal, and Commons, do,

So

not thank

a pleilge as

renunciation as could be

old declaratory statutes.

They threw

solemn

some

sense, free to take

at that

what course

it

pleased for filling the throne, but only free to do

upon the same grounds on which they might

the next clause they vest, by recognition, in their

so

Majesties all the legal prerogatives of the crow n,

have wholly abolished their monarchy and every

declaring ''that in fully,

and

them they

are

most

fully, right-

entirely invested, incorporated, united,

and annexed." In the clause which follows,

for

preventing questions by reason of any pretended titles to

the crown, they declare (observing also in

this the traditionary language,

itionary policy of the nation, a rubric the

along w

ith

the trad-

and repeating

as

from

language of the preceding acts of EHza-

other part of their constitution. However, they did not think such bold changes within their sion. It

is

indeed

give limits to the

mere

supreme power, such

ment

at that

abstract

as

commis-

perhaps impossible, to

difficult,

competence of the

was exercised by parlia-

compemore indisputably

time, but the limits of a moral

tence subjecting, even in powers sovereign, occasional w

ill

to

permanent reason and

beth and James,) that on the preserving "a certainty in the

SUCCESSION

thereof, the unity, peace,

tranquillity of this nation doth,

depend."

and

under God, wholly

^'

The

of James

\\ higs II

were the party

that advocated the

from the English throne

opposed by the

lories.

in 1688.

removal

They were

Edmund Burke to the steady

maxims of

perfectly binding

upon those who

The House

state.

exercise any autitle, in

of Lords, for instance,

is

morally competent to dissolve the House of

mons, no, nor even cate, if

it

would,

its

and

intelligible

under any name or under any

thority,

and fixed

faith, justice,

fundamental poHcy, are perfectly

obedience.

nor to insult, servant, as this

portion in the legislature of the

under him and owe

The

the

Com-

other persons are individually, and

all

collectively too,

not

nor to abdi-

to dissolve itself,

other person;

the king'";

degree responsible.

goes by the

name of the

abdicate for his

which generally

society,

constitution, forbids such

The

invasion and such surrender.

have

parts,

and not the confused jargon of their Babylon-

law,

engagement and pact of

may

him, but "o«r

calls

and we, on our

learned to speak only the primitive language of the

ian pulpits.^'"

king

a

high magistrate not our

humble divine

own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy. By as strong, or by a stronger reason, the House of Commons cannot renounce its share of authority. The kingdom. Though

to him a legal w hich knows neither to flatter

,

calls this

Lord

sovereign

law

As he

not to obey us, but as

is

we are to obey the made no sort of

law in him, our constitution has

provision tow ard rendering him, as a servant, in any

Our

knows noth-

constitution

ing of a magistrate like the jfusticia of Aragon,"' nor

constituent parts

of any court legally appointed, nor of any process

of a state are obliged to hold their public faith with

legally settled, for submitting the king to the re-

each other and w ith

all

w ho derive any

those

under their engagements,

interest

as

serious

much

as the

sponsibility belonging to

all

servants. In this he

Commons and

not distinguished from the

is

the

w ith separate

Lords, who, in their several public capacities, can

communities. Otherwise competence and power

never be called to an account for their conduct,

w ould soon be confounded and no law be

although the Revolution Society chooses to assert,

w hole

state

is

bound

keep

to

its faith

On

the will of a prevailing force. the succession of the it

now

line

it

is,

left

but

this principle

crown has always been w hat

an hereditary succession by law in the old ;

was

a succession

by the

common

law; in

in direct opposition to

no more than the by

the new, by the statute law operating on the principles of the

common

law

stance, but regulating the

persons.

not changing the sub-

,

mode and

describing the

Both these descriptions of law are of

the same force and are derived from an equal au-

from the

thority emanating

and original compact of the reipuhlicae,^"

and

as

common agreement

state,

communi spomione

such are equally binding on

one of the wisest and most

beautiful parts of our constitution, that "a king

and

it,

Ill

is

servant of the public, created

first

responsible to

it.''

would our ancestors

at the

Revolution have

deserved their fame for w isdom

if

no security

in rendering their

for their

government feeble

freedom but

in its operations,

in its tenure; if they

better

remedy

they had found

and precarious

had been able

to contrive

power than

against arbitrary

confusion. Let these gentlemen state resentative public

is

to

whom

who

no

civil

that rep-

they will affirm the

king and people, too, as long as the terms are

king, as a servant, to be responsible. It will then be

observed and they continue the same body

time enough for

politic.

I

should have considered

all

this as

sort of flippant, vain discourse, in

no more than a w hich, as in an

unsavory fume, several persons suffer the liberty to evaporate, if it

were not plainly

spirit

in

of

support

of the idea and a part of the scheme of "cashiering kings for misconduct." In that light

some

it

is

worth

You

Kings, in one sense, are undoubtedly the ser-

produce

it

as

an entailed inheritance derived to us from our

forefathers, as

this

and

servants; the essence of

the

commands of some

pleasure.

at least),

w hose

anything

situation

is

to

like

kingdom, without any reference whatever

diversity

other and to be removable at

volition of the

its

parts.

We

By

this

to

means

unity in so great a

a

have an inheritable

crown, an inheritable peerage, and

""

Gommonwea 1th."

Perhaps

ceding the '^

common

of

right.

a

House of

obey

But the king of Great Britain obeys no

''Bv the

our posterity

to be transmitted to

an estate specially belonging to the people of

our constitution preserves

sense (by our constitution,

to the

of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties

other rational end than that of the general advan-

not true that they are, in the ordinary

positive

not.

Magna Charta

any other more general or prior

it is

them the is

has been the uniform policy

vants of the people because their power has no

tage; but

to

that he

observe that from

Declaration of Right

-

observation.

will

me to

w hich affirms

statute law

a

fall

reference to the confusion of tongues pre-

of the

Tower of Babel

Chief magistrate of Aragon, an

region of Spain.

in the

Hebrew

historical

Bible.

autonomous

Reflections on the Revolution

Through the same plan

Cloniinons aiul a people iiihcniin^; privileges, fran-

and

chises,

liberties

from

a

This policN appears to

long line of ancest«>rs

me

to

be the result

ot

proiounil reflection, or rather the happy effect of

which

f'ollouing nature, tion,

and above

A

it.

is

wisdom without

spirit of

innovation

is

reflec-

generallN

the result of a selfish temper and confined \ie\Ns

People w

ill

not look forward to posterity,

backward

look

to

ne\er

Hesides,

ancestors.

their

who

people of Kngland well know that the idea

the

of a

conformi(\ to nature

and b\ calling

in

our

of

her unerring ami powerful instincts

artificial institutions,

and feeble contrivances

fallible

France

in

of

Our

in the aid

foriifv the

t

of our

men

of speculation, instead of

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (ad 39-65),

a

Roman who

(1606-84), father of French classical tragic drama.

Reflections on the Revolution fioirrnmt-fil,

lli.it

oppos-

to ti-inptr to'^itlui tlic-sc

is,

aiul icsir.iiiit in

ite ck'iiicnts of lihiTiN

one lonsisi-

cni work, rtquiris iiuKh thouiiht, ikc|) ntktiion, a sagacious, |io\\crtiiI, anil conihinini!; niinil

do not

who

those

I'his

\\

hates er tluN are,

recommend

National AssenihlN. Perhaps the\ are not so niiser-

not,

abl> ck'ficient as they appear.

I

rather belie\e

it.

It

woiiki put iheni below the eoninion le\el ol luinian

Hut when the leaders choose

think, without

I

happN

ity,

their talents, in the construction of the state,

owing

will

be of no service. They of legislators,

instead

guides, oflhe people. to

propose

flatterers

instruments,

not

the

any ofthem should happen

If

scheme

a

the

become

will

of

liberty,

soberly limited

and defined with proper qualifications, he

will

be immediately outbid by his competitors

who

produce something more splendidly popular.

will

own

our

some causes

constitution but to their

owing

at

of

ami complaint, but these the\

to

theniselxes biiklers

owing

situation to the in

standing

whole

of

it,

own

ilo

of

They

owe

not

to their

think our

I

our constitution, but

to

to an\ part singly,

what we have

to

as well as to

what we have altered or superadded.

Our people

will

trul\

employment enough

find

patriotic,

and independent

free,

I

exclude alteration

changed,

it

but

neither,

should be to preserve.

my remedy

by

1

would

even

when

should be led

what

to

and compromise as the prudence of

traitors,

hopes of preserving the credit

in

until,

which may enable him

to

temper and moderate,

on some occasions, the popular leader to

become

at

aimed.

am

I

so unreasonable as to see nothing at

all

that

deserves commendation in the indefatigable labors

do not deny

I

that,

among an

number of acts of violence and folly, some good may have been done. They who destroy everything certainly will remove some grievance. They who make everything new have a chance that infinite

they

may

them

credit for

establish

something

beneficial.

what they have done

To

in virtue

give

of the

men

of France

made them in their

acquired,

it

ruling

principles

tell

us they have got so abundant

under

fallibility

thus

fallible

of mankind.

that

for

had

having

conduct attended to their nature. Let us if

we wish

to deserve their

what they have

please, but let us preserve

if

left;

and, standing on the firm ground of the British constitution, let us be satisfied to admire rather

than attempt to follow

their desperate flights

in

the aeronauts of France. I

have told you candidly

my

sentiments.

they are not likely to alter yours.

must appear

they ought.

same things could

He

rewarded them

fortune or to retain their bequests. Let us add,

we

a

a strong impression of the

crimes by w hich that authority has been that the

our

of

most decided conduct. Not

imitate their caution

authority they have usurped, or which can excuse in the

guarded circum-

being illuminated w ith the light of w hich the gentle-

share, they acted

of this Assembly.^

them

politic caution, a

were among the

ignorance and

But

A

forefathers in their

which he ultimately might have

I

would

spection, a moral rather than a complexional timidity

es-

did.

I

I

the reparation as nearly as possible in the style

of the building.

obliged

tablishing powers that will afterwards defeat any

sober purpose

a great grievance. In

and

is

active in propagating doctrines

make

in

I

guarding what they possess from violation. not

for a

spirit

should follow the example of our ancestors.

cowards,

left

our several reviews and reformations

in

Moderation

be stigmatized as the virtue of

are

apprehension

Suspicions will be raised of his fidelity to his cause. will

of the

In the former,

conduct.

ami not

measure

great

a

rather to

from them

ha\e got an iinaluable treasure.

an auction of popular-

uiulerstanilini!,.

make

impro\einent

for the

tluN

in

fiiul

men

our neighbours the example

to

hrilish consiiiulion than to lake moilels

take the k.ul in the

I

wish in\ count r\

I

France

in

You

are young;

I

I

think

do not know

that

you cannot guide but

not have been accomplished without producing

must

Most assuredly they might, because almost every one of the regulations made by them which is not very equivocal was either in the cession of the king, voluntarily made at the meeting

after they

future

ft)rm

In the

such

a revolution.

of the

states, or in the

orders.

Some

concurrent instructions to the

usages have been abolished on just

grounds, but they were such that as they

were

to all eternity, they

if

they had stood

would

little

from the happiness and prosperity of any

present

The

can hardly remain; but before

it

it

poets says, being",""' fied I

by

their errors fundamental.

in all its

varieties

of untried

transmigrations to be puri-

and blood.

little

to

long observation

'^"

its final

obliged to pass, as one of our

"through great

and

fire

have

may be

recommend my opinions but and much impartiality. They

improvements of the National Assembly are superficial,

But here-

may be of some use to you, in some which your commonwealth may take.

settlement

detract

state.

follow the fortune of your country.

.Addison, Cato, Act V, scene

i.

Edmund Burke come from one who has been no no

flatterer

of greatness; and

who

tool of

does not wish to belie the tenor of his

come from one almost

power,

in his last acts

the whole of

life.

They

whose public

exertion has been a struggle for the liberty of others;

from one

in

whose breast no anger, durable

or vehement, has ever been kindled but by what he

considered as tyranny; and

who

snatches from his

share in the endeavors which are used by good

men

to discredit opulent oppression the hours he has

employed on your

affairs;

and who

in so

doing

persuades himself he has not departed from his

usual office;

they

come from one who

desires

honors, distinctions, and emoluments but

and who expects them not

tempt

for fame,

and no

at all;

who

little,

has no con-

fear of obloquy;

who shuns

contention, though he will hazard an opinion; from

one

who

wishes to preserve consistency, but

who

would preserve consistency by varying his means

to

when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be endangered by overloading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the small weight of his reasons to that which may secure the unity of his end, and,

preserve

its

equipoise.

From Sketch

an

for

Historical Picture

Human

of the Progress of the

IVIind

Marquis de Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, the marquis de Condorcet (1743-94), was one of les philo-

who

sophes. philosophers

ghtenment.

was

He

led the French Enli-

associated

ful

companion

kind

is

seems

superstition,

and the whole

of

man-

plunged once more into darkness, which

as if

it

must

last for ever.

Yet,

little

by

little,

with

that

day breaks again; eyes long condemned to darkness

characteristic Enlightenment project, the

com-

catch a glimpse of the light and close again, then

position of the Encyclopedie of

A journalist and supporter

all

knowledge.

of the initial

phase

it

the French Revolution, he

became

member

a

Assembly during its radical phase, but his constitutional and non-violent views led him publicly to attack the 1793 Jacobin Constitution. He was forced into hiding for nine of the Legislative

months, during which he wrote quently arrested, he died suicide.

become

Condorcet

the canonical self-interpretation of the

modern European and

Subsepresumably a book what would

his Sketch.

in his cell,

distills in his

world,

spurs progress not only politics.

in

in

slowly

of

which rational inquiry

science, but

He foresaw a coming era

in

society

of "reason,

become accustomed

by the natural progress of

we have

civilization;

watched superstition seize upon

and corrupt

it

it,

and tyranny degrade and deaden the minds of men

under the burden of misery and

From

that

happy land

where freedom had only recently kindled the torch

mind of man, its

released

from the

infancy, advances with firm

steps towards the truth.'

But

this

triumph soon

encourages tyranny to return, followed by

barabarism had exiled

We

is

gaze on

it.

have already seen reason

lift

her chains,

shake herself free from some of them, and,

all

the time regaining strength, prepare for and ad-

moment

vance the

of her liberation.

for us to study the stage in

which she

It

remains

finally suc-

ceeds in breaking these chains, and when,

compelled

frees herself

still

drag their vestiges behind her, she

to

from them one by one; when

at last

she can go forward unhindered, and the only

at

every fresh ad\ance because they are

the necessary consequence of the very constitution

of our understanding - of the connection, that

is,

between our means of discovering the truth and the resistance that

it

offers to our efforts.

its

faith-

Belgian provinces to throw off the yoke of Spain

and form

presumably France.

a federal republic. Religious intolerance

alone had aroused the spirit of English liberty,

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, from "The Ninth Stage:

From Descartes to the

Foundationof the French Republic" fromSketc^foran Historical Picture of ttie Progress of the

Human Mind

June Barraclough), pp. 124-37. New York: Hyperion Press, rpt. of 1955 Noonday Press edition.

(trans.

"That happy land"

at last

Religious intolerance had forced seven of the

fear.

nation alone escapes the two-fold influence

of tyranny and superstition.

leading-strings of

and

abroad on the earth, from which fanaticism and

renewed

We have watched man's reason being slowly formed

of genius, the

it,

obstacles in her path are those that are inevitably

tolerance, humanity."

One

to

without flinching; once again genius dares to walk

Marquis de Condorcet which, exhausted by a protracted and bloody

civil

indistinguishable from those of public prosperity,

war, was finally embodied in a constitution that

or because the despot's endeavours to destroy the

was

but

vestiges of feudal or clerical

preservation merely to the superstition

the law a spirit of equality,

for long the admiration of philosophers,

owes

its

of the English nation and the hypocrisy of their

And,

politicians.

finally,

it

was

also

through priestly

have been the desire to establish equality in slavery, but whose effects were often salutary.

We

persecution that the Swedish nation found courage

However,

midst of

in the

which owed

all

these advances,

their origin to theological disputes,

France, Spain, Hungary and Bohemia saw their feeble liberties extinguished, or so at least

would be vain

It

we

it

seemed.

to look, in those countries

call free, for that liberty

which

which infringes none

of the natural rights of man; a liberty which not only allows

him is

man

to exercise

based on

system of positive rights, unequally

a

privileges according to the

the class into

grants

town

in

them

different

which they

live,

w hich they have been born, the means

of which they can dispose, and the profession that they follow.

A

comparative sketch of the curi-

ous inequalities to be found in different countries the best retort that

we can make

to those

who

is

still

uphold their virtue or necessity.

But

in these

not degraded; some

are recognized; he can

man

has

lost the title

had rendered quality of

man had

power

groaned,

of citizen, which inequality

more than

little

man was

a

name, but the

accorded greater respect; royal

despotism saved him from feudal oppression, and

him from

more painful because the awareness of his condition w as constantly kept alive in him by the number and relieved

a state

of humiliation

actual presence of his tyrants.

tended to improve, both stitution

was partly

despots:

in

those

who

and

the

The system

in those states

free,

all

of law s

whose con-

in those ruled

by

the former because the interests of

exercised the real

pow er did not

invari-

ably conflict with the interests of the people; in the latter

commerce which

industry and

and violence

through the

is

spirit

of

inimical to unrest

the natural enemies of wealth,

as

through the sense of horror inspired by the none too distant picture of the barbarism of the preceding stage,

through

wider diffusion of the philosophical

a

ideas of equality and humanity, and, finally, through

the influence, slow but sure, of the general progress

Religious intolerance remains, but

instrument of

human prudence,

popular prejudice, or as

lit,

because the interests of the despot were often

a

more

as an

as a tribute to

precaution against popu-

fury abates; the fires at the stake are

and have been replaced by if it is

often

more

form of

a

arbitrary,

is

less

barbarous; and of recent years the persecutions

have become

much

complacency or

rarer,

habit.

and the

result rather of

Everywhere, and

in every

respect, governmental practice has slowly

and

re-

gretfully followed the progress of public opinion

and even of philosophy.

have more than compensated for their

Man

less violent

through the influence of the

their savagery,

oppression that,

enjoyed by the great mass of the

that the destruction of the virtually arbitrary

loss.

Manners have become

seldom

free.

people had been confined w ithin such narrow limits

to

self-

weakening of the prejudices that had maintained

said to be a

be not truly

greater or less extent, a genuine loss of liberty, the

seems

all

wealth, industry, and education, and sometimes

no longer be

of the aristocracy under which

in earlier ages or in

even to that of liberty.

lar unrest. Its

In those nations where at this time there was, to a

political rights

no precedent

of the causes

kind of despotism

interest, has often contributed to the progress of

of his rights

to

is

a

by enlightenment, tempered by

ion, controlled

at least

though he can be said

slave

which there

Europe

but arbitrary authority, restrained by public opin-

same countries the law guarantees

not there reached a state of perfection, his natural is

for

in

of enlightenment.

individual and civil liberty, so that if

dignity

produced

other parts of the world, a despotism in which an

to possess these rights but allows

them. For the liberty we find there

among men, and

distributed

shall give a detailed exposition

that have

of their rights.

to reclaim a portion

pow er had imparted to w hose inspiration may

Indeed, there to

is

if in

the moral and political sciences

always a large interval between the point

which philosophers have carried the progress of

enlightenment and the degree of enlightenment attained by the average

the

body of

man

beliefs held in

of education (and

common by

such

that constitutes the generally accepted creed as public opinion), those

who

may hold

fate

of the

people, under whatever constitution they their powers, are very far

from

the level of public opinion; they follow

without ever overtaking years behind

manv

know n

direct public affairs

and who immediately influence the

common

it is

men

it

it

its

rising to

advance,

and are always many

and therefore always ignorant of

of the truths that

it

has learned.

Sketch rills sktlill ot

proiiliss

till-

of

ilissciiuii.itioii

lllf

pllllosoplu

t>l

cilliullliiiiiuiil,

.Hill

whose

(ll

iiitm.-

gciKial aiul iiKMc I'Mckiit ctkcls \\c h.i\c .ilrc.uh cxaniincil, bniigs us

up

lo the stage

when

the inllu-

ence of progress upon public opinion,

puhlu

ol

ceases to be a slow, imperceptible atfair, ami pro-

whole order

must one da\

human

inclutle in

its

ol scNeral

the rexolution that

nations, a certain earnest of

scope the whole

of the

race.

h\ \ague or incomplete theories, publicists ha\e

at

last

disco\ered the true rights of nian and how the\

can

all

(I

be deduced from the single truth, that man

is

sentient heme;, capable of reasonins: anil ofaa/nirinii

moral

They have was the

seen that the maintenance of these sole object of

in political societies,

men's coming together

and that the

social art

is

the art

of guaranteeing the preservation of these rights and their distribution in the

was

largest area. It

not abilicate ilecisions theN

.So, in

rules, but

means and

this choice the individual

the

to

see

contract between the people and their lawgisers,

which can be annulled onl\ b\ mutual consent or b\ the defection

ofoneof the

there disappeared the

parlies;

le.ss

absurd opinion according to which ever chained to

its

a nation

no

less

was

for

constitution once this constitu-

had been established

tion

and along with

servile but

as

though the

right to

change it w ere not the guarantee of every other right, and

as

though human

institutions,

w hich are neces-

and capable of perfection

as

men

become more enlightened, could be condemned remain

compelled to abandon that astute and which, forgetful of the truth that

to

.Man was thus

for ever in their infancy.

all

false policy,

men

possess

to

is

the only

will

commerce, and unequally

betw een men, according to profession, and

w hich then

a

man's birth, fortune, or

calls into

being confhci-

balance, measures w hich w ould have been unneces-

w ithout

it,

and

sary

mark of truth

that

impotent

to

Nor

without loss of equality. fact

ditions of its industry and

cannot follow

w ill of the majority

advance

we

the disappearance of the belief in the existence of a

ing interests and opposing forces to restore the

itself;

the

all

to all

the face of such simple prmciples,

for

the society

ow n reason without subjecting others

in

common

to the character or prosperity of a country, the con-

common

his

Each man can

ina\

those rights unequally betw een countries, according

members of

can be accepted by

it

whether the

behalf ilo or ilo not in-

its

«)!i

fringe the rights that are

lo ileciile

of the individual

rights

determine these rules could belong only to the majority of the

authoritv

take

coiisiders

that in every society the

felt

that the authority to choose these

in

its

it

iIk in to the truth, aiul

t

equal rights b\ nature, would seek to apportion

should be submitted to certain

making

loniUu

most equal fashion over the

means of assuring the

in

lo

sarily defective

ideas.

rights

ilouii the |)!i)ceilure thai

l.i\

most likeK

it

After long periods of error, after being led astray

inusi

lli.i!

opinion upon nations or their leaders, suddenK

iluces a re\olution in the

Progress of the Human Mind

for an Historical Picture of the

genuinely bind himself

of the majority which

into

this policy

to control its

did

men any

and w hich are

in

more dangerous

any event

tendencies.

longer dare to divide humanity

two races, the one fated to rule, the other to obey,

the one to deceive, the other to be deceived.

They

then becomes unanimous; but he can bind only

had to recognize that all men have an equal right to be

himself; and he cannot engage even himself towards

informed on

this majority

when

it

fails

to respect the rights

ofthe individual, after having once recognized them.

Here we

see at once the rights of the majority

over society or rights.

its

Here we

members, and the

limits of these

see the origin of that unanimity

which allows the decisions taken by the majority alone to impose an obligation tion

which ceases

change

upon

to be legitimate

all;

an obliga-

when, with

a

in the individuals constituting the majority,

the sanction of unanimity no longer exists. less there are issues

majority

is

likely to

Doubt-

all

that concerns them,

the authorities established by

all;

must decide w hich its

own

These

thority of his

and on which Locke

name, w ere

later

set the

au-

developed by Rous-

seau with greater precision," breadth and energy,

and he deserves renow n

among

the truths that

forget or to combat.

for

it is

Man

having established them

no longer permissible

to

has certain needs and also

which

to satisfv

them; from

political writers: the

English phil-

certain faculties with

be in favour of error and against but

it is still

this majority that

issues are not to be subjected to

direct decision;

more

which the noble Sydney paid

principles,

for with his blood

on w hich the decision of the

it is

reliable than its

own;

it is

it

osopher John Locke (1632-1704); Jean-Jacques Rousseau;

and presumably Algernon Sidney (1622-89),

a

Whig

must

martyr who was exiled during the Restoration of the

considers

English monarchy in 1660, eventually returned to Eng-

the majority that

appoint those persons w hose judgment to be

and that none of over themselves

has the right to hide from them one single truth.

Three republican the interests of

men

the majority

land,

and was executed.

Marquis de Condorcet

The

these faculties and from their products, modified

and distributed

in different ways, there results

an

wealth produced each year provides a por-

tion for disposal

which

is

accumulation of wealth out of which must be met the

either the labour that has

common

required to ensure

needs of mankind. But what are the laws

according to which this wealth tributed, accumulated or

dissipated?

What,

is

produced or

dis-

consumed, increased or governing that

too, are the laws

greater production of wealth.

work; he possesses

which he puts

supply and demand from which

his needs.

in wealth, life

are happier, until a point

increase

is

balance?

follows that, with

reached

with

and well-being of

to the general organization of soci-

make

Hence

out of this available portion of

it is

required for the security of the State, the preserva-

increases,

tion of peace within

its

borders, the protection of

individual rights, the exercise of those powers established for the formation or execution of the law,

and, finally, the maintenance of public prosperity.

There

the frightening complexity of conflicting

one individual

independently of the use to

his faculties in order to provide for

violating anyone's rights, can establish the funds

How, with all the astonishing multifarious-

all

of this

directly to his

any decrease

ness of labour and production, supply and demand,

interests that link the survival

it

when no further

and

in population restores the

fall

The owner

owe

the annual wealth that the public authority, without

easier

becomes harder, suffering

consequent

or the labour

men

becomes

possible; or that, again, with

in wealth, life

until the

is

it

it

it

replacement by an equal or

its

disposable portion does not

general tendency towards an equilibrium between

any increase

not required to pay for

produced

are certain undertakings

which are beneficial it

and institutions

to society in general,

and which

therefore ought to initiate, control and supervise;

dependent on every

these provide services which the wishes and interests

accident of nature and every political event, his pain

of individuals cannot provide by themselves, and

eties, that

his well-being

remotest

which advance the progress of agriculture, industry

corner of the globe, how, with all this seeming chaos,

or trade or the prevention or alleviation of inevitable

and pleasure on what

is it

by

that,

a universal

by each individual on welfare of

demand his own

all,

happening

is

in the

moral law, the efforts made

his

and that the

Up to the stage of which we speak and even for a

interests of society

long time afterwards, these various undertakings

that everyone should understand interests

lie,

and should be able

where

to follow

them without hindrance?

Men, ulties,

therefore, should be able to use their fac-

dispose of their wealth and provide for their

needs in complete freedom.

The common

interest

of any society, far from demanding that they should restrain such activity,

interference with

public order

each

man

is

it;

on the contrary, forbids any and

were

his natural rights

is at

once the whole of

duty of the

social

power, the

left to

chance, to the greed of governments,

to the skill of charlatans or to the prejudices or self-

interest of powerful sections of the

community.

A

famous and

disciple of Descartes, however, the

ill-starred

John de

omy ought

like

Witt,"' felt that political econ-

every other science to submit

to the principles

itself

of philosophy and the rigour of

calculation.

as far as this aspect of

concerned, the guaranteeing to

social utility, the sole

natural hardships or unforeseen accidents.

the

own behalf minister to

Political

economy made

little

progress until the

Peace of Utrecht" gave Europe the promise of lasting

peace.

From

then onwards one notices

an increasing intellectual interest taken in this hith-

and the new science was

only right that the general will can legitimately

erto neglected subject;

exercise over the individual.

advanced by Stewart, Smith^ and more particul-

But

it is

not enough merely that this principle

should be acknowledged by society; the public authority has specific duties to

by law recognized measures

must

it

must

common measure

at least as far as preci-

principles are involved,

one could hardly have hoped

to

a

to

reach so soon after such a long period of

that

indifference.

create a coinage to serve as a

of value and so to

facilitate

that of another, so that having a value

com-

itself, it

can

be exchanged against anything else that can be given one; for without this

must remain confined little

point

its

establish

parison between the value of one article of trade and

very

French economists,

sion and the purity of

for the determination

fulfil. It

of the weight, volume, size and length of all articles of trade;

arly the

common measure

to barter,

activity or scope.

trade

and can acquire

'"

Presumably Johan de Witt (1625-72), Dutch

states-

man. '^

Of 1713, which ended

the

War of the

Spanish Succes-

sion. '

The

Scottish

(1753-1828) and

philosophers

Dugald

Adam Smith (1723-90).

Stewart

Sketch ihis

l)ui

progress

philosopliN

cral

h\

we can

truths NNhich

tlisco\er by

operations ot the hiinian his

impatient

seemed At

to

tor a time

it

w hich reduces them

step by step to other ideas of more immediate origin

or of simpler composition,

being

is

way

the only

to avoid

and indeterminate notions which chance presents to us at

By

we unthinkingly

hazard and

this .same analysis

accept.

he proved that

minds upon

the result of the operations of our

we have

sensations

received, or, to put

more

it

exactly, that they are the combinations of these .sensations presented to us simultaneously

memory

faculty of

no more than

He

a part

show ed that

after analysing

it

we

is

thereby limited to

compound

of such

if

by the

such a w ay that our attention

in

arrested and our perception

is

w ord

attach a

and circumscribing

sensations. to each idea

we

it,

shall

succeed in remembering the idea ever afterw ards a

the motives that

uniform fashion; that

is

to say, the idea will

be formed of the same simple ideas,

it

always

w ill always

be enclosed within the same limits, and

consequence be used

in

it

out any risk of confusion.

word

is

pond

to a determinate idea,

On it

it

can

injustice, ami, finally,

contorming

lor

them,

to

ol

our

constitution.

universal instrument.

methods

to perfect the

throw

light

Men

became

on

Thus

it

ings of the

facts

and

and

was applied

human

a

order

in

it

of the physical sciences, lo

and

their principles

validity of their proofs;

examination of

\irtiiall\

learnt to use

it

examine the

to

was extended of

to the rules

to the

taste.

to all the various undertak-

understanding, and by means of

mind

the operations of the

knowledge were subjected

in

every branch of

and the

analysis,

to

nature of the truths and the kind of certainty

we

can expect to find from each of these branches of It is this

new step

philosophy that has for ever imposed

a barrier

knowledge was thereby revealed. in

between mankind and the errors of barrier that should save

infancy, a

its

from relapsing into

it

its

former errors under the influence of new prejudices, just as

it

should assure the eventual eradica-

tion of those that

should make

it

still

survive unrecognized, and

certain that any that

may

take their

place will exercise only a faint influence and enjoy

only an ephemeral existence. In

Germany, however,

found genius

laid the

a

man

of vast and pro-

foundations of a new doctri-

if a

ne." His ardent and passionate imagination could

does not corres-

not rest satisfied with a modest philosophy and

times

leave unsolved those great questions about the spir-

the other hand,

used in such a way that

ami

we ha\e

from what might be called our moral

sensibility,

can in

chain of reasoning w ith-

in a

which, resulting

moti\es which spring from the very nature

it

ideas are

all

ca|)acit> to leel

determine the necessary and im-

iiuiiable laws of justice

chaos of incomplete, incoherent

lost in that

our

ihis metajihvsical methoil phil-

osophy should be guided; he showed that an exact ideas,

tielmgs, kails to our

ol

ideas,

from the

impos-

pleasure anil pam, the origin o( our moral ideas, the

be led astra\ b\ new errors.

and precise analysis of

om

development

of those general truths

it

will hi-

.il\\.i\ s

Irom these

Locke grasped the thread by which

last,

.mil

IS

I

foundation

obserxinji the

and

it,

lo

had regained her inde-

philosophy

that

pendence onl\

baek

\i

nuisi he cle-

snatched

path that he had traced for

\\ li.ili

know

.Smularlv the .m.iKsis ol

ilu

Soon, howcNer,

niincl.

iniaj;ination

Ignore

sible to

ami e\uleni

it

pninar\

those

Iroin

.iiul l(»

liiulmg, in the

jthilosoplu

brouirht

hail

eiitirel)

u;i-ii-

i.ikc

\\i-

il

reason; for he had iimlerslooil ihai rixecl

m

progn-ss

Ik-

broaikst sense.

latter woril in its

Descartes

I

iiKtapliNsics,

.uul

an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human f\/lind

poliius .mil poliiK.il tion-

in

w.is f.uistil priin.iiils

()iii\

for

at different

human

arouse different ideas in the same person's mind,

ituality or the survival

and

man's freedom or the freedom of God, about the

this is

the most fecund source of error in

finally,

a limit to the

was the

human

first

man w ho dared

know and of the

objects

it

ics

and

to social

it

to

it

can

come

can comprehend.

This method was soon adopted by phers and, by applying

to set

understanding, or rather to

determine the nature of the truths that to

soul, about

existence of pain and evil in a universe governed by

reasoning.

Locke,

of the

all

moral science,

economy, they were able

philosoto polit-

to

make

almost as sure progress in these sciences as they had in the natural sciences.

They were

an all-powerful intelligence whose wisdom, justice

and loving-kindness ought,

it

would seem,

clude the possibility of their existence.

knot which the most

skilful analysis

I

le

to ex-

cut the

would never

have been able to untie and constructed the universe from simple, indestructible, entities equal by their very nature. entities

w ith

all

The

relations of each of these

the others,

w hich w ith

it

form part

able to admit

only proven truths, to separate these truths from

"

whatever as vet remained doubtful and uncertain.

niz (1646-1716).

German

philosopher and mathematician G.

\\

.

Leib-

I

Marquis de Condorcet of the system of the universe, determine those quahties of

whereby

it

The human

it

differs

from every other.

atom of

soul and the least

a block

prejudices of the masses which had for so long

and corrupted the human

afflicted

At

of

last

man

stone are, each of them, one of these monads, and

which

they differ only in the different place assigned to

opinions to his

them

in the universal order.

Out of all

the possible

combinations of these beings an infinite intelligence has preferred one, and could have preferred one

most perfect of

only, the

If that

all.

which

offends us by the misery and crime that is

it

still

explain

shall

adopted, or

at least

amongst them. One

it,

would

which,

system

being

progress of philosophy

entire school of English phil-

osophers enthusiastically embraced and eloquently

defended the doctrine of optimism, but they were subtle and less profound than Leibniz, for

less

whereas he based his doctrine on the belief that an all-powerful intelligence, by the very necessity of its

nature, could choose only the best of all possible

worlds, the English philosophers sought to prove their doctrine

by appealing

which we

particular world in sacrificing

all

to observation of the

and, thereby

live

to

submit

all

reason and to use in the search

instrument for

had not

sort of pride that nature

to base his beliefs

learnt with a

con-

for ever

on the opinions of

others; the superstitions of antiquity

ment of reason before

recognition

its

man

been given. Every

demned him

and the abase-

the transports of supernat-

disappeared from society as from

philosophy.

Soon there was formed

upheld, by Leibniz's compatthe

had been ignored,

own

for truth the only

ural religion

results.

this

has retarded

riots,

see in

true that any other combination

have had more painful

We

we

exists

for so long

that he has

race.

could proclaim aloud his right,

who were concerned

Europe

in

development of the truth than with

men who whilst devoting tracking down of prejudices where the all

a class

of men

with the discovery or

less

its

propagation,

themselves

the

to

in the hiding places

governments and

priests, the schools, the

long-established institutions had gathered and

protected them,

made

their life-work to destroy

it

popular errors rather than to drive back the fronof

tiers

aiding peril,

human knowledge - an

its

nor

indirect

way of

progress which was not less fraught with less useful.

the advantages possessed by this

In England Collins and Bolingbroke, in France

remains abstract and general;

Bayle, Fontenelle, Voltaire, Montesquieu and the

they lost themselves in details, which were too often

schools founded by these famous men,^'" fought on

either revolting or ridiculous.

the side of truth, using in turn

system so long as

it

In Scotland, however, other philosophers find-

ing that the analysis of the development of our actual faculties led to

no principle

that could pro-

vide a sufficiently pure or solid basis for the morality

of our actions, thought to attribute a

to the

human

new

faculty

from but associated

soul,^" distinct

with those of feeling or thinking, a faculty whose existence

they

proved

We

it.

showing

by

only

they could not do without

shall

history of these opinions and shall

that

recount the

show how,

if

all

the weapons with

which learning, philosophy, wit and can furnish reason; using every to pathos, every literary

literary talent

mood from humour

form from the vast erudite

encyclopaedia to the novel or the broadsheet of the day; covering truth with a veil that spared weaker

eyes and excited one to guess what lay beyond skilfully flattering prejudices so as to attack

it;

them

the better; seldom threatening them, and then

always either only one in partially;

its

entirety or several

sometimes conciliating the enemies of

they have retarded the progress of philosophy,

reason by seeming to wish only for a half-tolerance

they have advanced the dissemination of philo-

in religious matters, only for a half-freedom in

sophical ideas.

politics;

Up

now we have shown the progress of philosophy only in the men who have cultivated, till

deepened and perfected

show what have been

how

reason,

while

its it

against the errors into

it.

It

effects

learnt

these two scourges even

on public opinion;

against only their

to

a sure

ing truth; and

at the

same time

tilting

against

when abus-

more

when they seemed

to

be

revolting or ridiculous

safeguard itself

which the imagination and it,

at last

method of discovering and recogniz-

how

when

ing tyranny; yet always attacking the principles of

remains for us to

respect for authority had so often led

found

sparing despotism

the absurdities of religion, and religion

it

destroyed the

""

Philosopher Arthur Collins (1680-1732), statesman

Henry Bolingbroke (1678-1751),

philosopher

Pierre

Bayle (1647-1706), writer Bernard de Fontenelle (16571757), influential Enlightenment intellectual Francois de

Voltaire (1694—1778), and poHtical philosopher Charles

Presumably the faculty of "commonsense."

68~

de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755).

Sketch abuses, aiul l.wiiiu iluir .ixis to

when

these sinisiei trees

ping

ott a lew stra\

the trieiuls of hhertx cible shield

first

nouncing their its

\ci\

roots oi

to In

lop-

llial su|)eistili()ii is

the iiuiii-

behind which despotism shelters ami victim to be sacriliceil,

first

chain to be broken, and somelimes it

power,

secret

ilu-

.i|i|>e.iteil

an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human l\/lind

biaiuhes; soiiuiiines teaehiiig

should therefore be the the

tlux

for

to the ilespols as the real aiul frightening

machinations and

never ceasing to

its

demand

reason and the freedom

of"

them with

enem\

ile-

of

stories of

and the saKation

cisni

ill. It

bore the marks

cajilains, magistrates life;

ence

still

independence

fold;

and

of

the press as the right

tiilcrancc,

in

morals

name

of

matters

all

anil law,

to

show

lasing to their charge, with

spilled

respect for

\ehemence

their |>olicN or their wulilfer-

on the

battlefiekl or

on the scaf-

finally, taking for their battle crN

humantty.

.

.

of

am thing

nature to bid kings,

and priests

and seNcrit), the blood

in-

the crimes of (anati-

tNraniu. harshness or bar-

of

barism, iiuoking the

human

all

pursumg,

iNranin;

aiul

religion, administration,

bloody persecutions;

the

manknul, protesting with

of

iklatiuabli energN against

.

reasati,

G.

W.

The most first

F. Hegel

influential

German

European philosopher of the

nineteenth century

half of the

was

the

thinker Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

(1770-1831). His idealistic system saw all reality as Geist or Spirit developing through a dialectical process of self-opposition and higher incorporation, a process embodied in the actual stages and events of human history. He endorsed Enlightenment ideals - the idea of consciousness as individual freedom, and of the objects of consciousness as value-neutral objects of potential utility - as a necessary but incomplete stage through which the human spirit must pass in its journey to complete self-understanding. In this excerpt from his most beautiful work. Phenomenology of Spirit {1807), Hegel characterizes what is wrong with the Enlightened consciousness: it is one-sided and unbalanced, the freedom of a solipsistic, empty individual who sees others as

mere objects for use. Hence it led to the worst violence of the French Revolution, theTerror of 17934, during which the French ruling "Committee of Public Safety"executed about 40,000 alleged enemies of the fledgling republic. For true freedom. Spirit must await its further development, when it discovers that

achieved

in

real,

concrete freedom can only be

the context of

membership

in

ness does not find itself to possess immediately. Utility

predicate of the object, not itself a

is still a

subject or the immediate and sole actuality of the object. It

when

is

the

same thing

the substance" of the other tion

that appeared before,

being-for-self had not yet show n itself to be

moments,

which would have meant

a

demonstra-

was

that the Useful

directly nothing else but the self of consciousness

and that

this latter

w as thereby

in possession

of

it.

This withdrawal from the form of objectivity of the Useful

has,

principle

however,

and from

already

this

taken

place

in

inner revolution there

emerges the actual revolution of the actual w orld, the

new shape of consciousness,

In fact,

what we have here

absolute freedom. is

no more than

an empty show of objectivity separating consciousness

from possession. For,

self-

partly,

all

members of world and the w orld

existence and validity of the specific

the organization of the actual

of faith'" have, in general, returned into this simple

determination as into their ground and spiritual principle; partly, however, this simple determin-

ation

no longer possesses anything of

its

ow n,

it is

rather pure metaphysic, pure Notion, or a pure

knowing by self-consciousness. That

is

to say, of

a moral

community under the institutions of the State.

"

''Substance" refers to the underlying reality, the true

being, of a thing.

Consciousness has found it is

partly

reason,

still

"Notion"

still

an

object,

its

Notion

and

in Utility.'

But

partly, for that very

"'

The world beyond

the actual world, as pictured by

religious faith.

an End to be attained, which conscious-

refers to the pure,

standing of a thing. Hegel

is

comprehensive under-

claiming that the EnHghten-

ment regards the essence of reality

as

mere

utility.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, "Absolute Freedom and Terror," paras. 582-95, pp. 355-63 from Phenomenology of Spirit (trans. A. V. Miller). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

"Absolute Freedom and Terror" ihc

itst/f ol

the hcinti in jnJ-fftr

consciousness recognizes that

truth a passive

Jt-i'oiJ of st/J, is in

a self for

object,

i/Uii

hini^-m-ttselj^

is

a ht'imi/iir-tin other, beinji-in-itself, as

essentiall)

is

mIuI

L

its

or that which

self,

another sel!" Theobject, however, exists

for consciousness

whose distinctions

are in the pure

lUit ihc hi-ifiii-Jor-si-lf inlo

the

returns,

i.e.

sively to

w hat

form

this abstract

in

for consciousness

bcing-in-ilselt,

imiiiht

Notions.

of

which being-for-an-other

not a self belonging exclu-

self, is

and

called object

is

form

pure

of

pure

is

from the

distinct

"I"; for consciousness, (fua pure insight,

is

not a

which could be confronted by the object

sin^/c .self

ow n, but

as equally having a self of its

the gazing of the self into the

self,

is

pure Notion,

the absolute seeing

of /7.nv// doubled; the certainty of itself is the univerSubject, and

sal

of

all

actuality.

its

not return into

knowing

ow n

its

itself

is

is

it

itself as well as

unity,

now

it

is

and hence was

still

the

movement of universal

those abstract the

self,

self of

of the object and, as universal,

the

is

movement.

comes before us

is

as absolute freedom. It

the essence of

ness alone

resist

its

or siiuc, in truth, conscious-

1

which

sNstem

now

consciousness

W hat made its

or as being absolute!) Notion.

itself,

diremption into separate

when

becomes

the object

longer anything in

negativity has permeated

general

for

will.'

and

all

simply

it

And what

reality is solely spiritual; its

is

own w ill, and

more,

this will

is

this

is

a

not the

empty thought of w ill w hich consists in silent assent, or assent by a representative, but a real general

the will of all individuals as such. For will

is

w ill,

in itself

the consciousness of personality, or of each, and as this

genuine actual

self-conscious essence

will that

it

ought

it is

to be, as the

of each and every personality,

so that each, undivided from the

w hole,

alw ays does

everything, and w hat appears as done by the w hole

is

the direct and conscious deed of each.

all its

ascends the throne of the w orld w ithout any pow er

moments.

Out

consciousness raises

itself

no longer finds

essence and

no

is

It

comes

its

of its allotted

sphere,

work

its

this

in

particular sphere, but grasps itself as the .\olion of will,

grasps

spheres as the essence of this

all

and therefore can only is

work of the w

a

therefore,

all

realize

it.self

in a

will,

work which

hole. In this absolute

social

freedom,

groups or classes which are the

spiritual spheres into

which the whole

is

articulated

are abolished; the individual consciousness that

belonged to any such sphere, and willed and

purpose sal

law

its

,

The

it,

has put aside

the general purpose,

is

something into

its

language univer-

[moment

alien

which was the

The

itself.

were

in the object as if this

from which

it

had

first

on the contrary, the object

itself;

consciousness

have

of] dijference

utility,

being; consciousness does not

all real

movement

its

its

ful-

limitation;

its

work the universal work.

object and the

to return is

for

it

antithesis, consists, there-

fore, solely in the difference

between the mdiiidual

and the universal consciousness; but the individual consciousness

universal consciousness and will. its

ow n eyes

that

antithesis;

it is

itself is directly in its

w hich had only the semblance of an

The beyond o{ xh'ifi

actual existence hovers over the corpse of the

vanished independence of real being, or the being of

faith,

merely as the exhalation of

a stale gas,

of

the vacuous Etre supreme.^'

After

This undivided Substance of absolute freedom

.Notion, there

into existence in such a wa\ that each individual

begin

is

suhsistenl spheres, but a

with a continuing existence;

it

predicate of

spiritual reality,

has collapsed,

the Notion into an existent ohjeit was

and actuality are consciousnesses know ledge of itself.

the world

by

maintained

the individual consciousness conceives

that

supersensible world, or conversely, that essence

all

spiritual

the object as haMiig no other essence than self-

here lost the meaning of

conscious of its pure personahty and therein of

and

organized

is

into 'ma.sses' or spheres

iliNision

'masses', or spheres, of the real as well as of the

It is

which the

in

beings or |iowers ha\e their substance, their entire

the spiritual

all

it

the element

is

filled itself in

self-consciousness which grasps the fact that

certainty of itself

an

ceases to be this. For

the

self-returning unity of this Spirit thus

the essence

moments, an alternation w hich did

object for knowing,

moments,

is

then, the Useful was merely the

If,

alternation of the

conscious .Notion

being able lo

restricted

various

the life

away with,

as

spiritual

spheres

and

the

of the individual have been done well

remains, therefore,

is

as

his

the

two worlds,

all

that

immanent movement of

universal self-consciousness as a reciprocity of self-

Being "in-itself simply '

is;

being "for- another"

is

an

object for consciousness; being "in-and-for- itself" both

and

human

consciousness in the form of universality and of is

is

an object for

A

reference to Rousseau's concept of the general will

itself, as in a

self-aware

being.

personal consciousness: the universal will goes into itself dnd is a single, individual

w ill

to

w hich univer-

of a free society, which was influential during the French Revolution.

Supreme Being.

(JT)

G.

W.

sal

law and work stand opposed. But this individual

Hegel

F.

consciousness

is

as universal will;

no

less directly

it is

aware that

conscious of object

its

is

ing objectivity,

deed

and

it;

in creat-

doing nothing individual, but

it is

carrying out the laws and functions of the state.

This movement with

sciousness

is

which

in

lets

it

nothing

break loose to become a free object standing over against

It

it.

follows from this that

cannot achieve

it

must concentrate

it

self,

w hich

this

of

is

a

only an

is

One. But thereby

all

deed and have only

a limited

share in

so that

it,

the deed would not be a deed of the actual universal self-consciousness. Universal freedom, therefore,

can produce neither a positive work nor a deed; there

or of reality, either of laws and general institutions of

the fury of destruction.

and works of a

One

the

self-consciousness; for the universal will

actual will in a

anything positive, either universal w orks of language

conscious freedom, or of deeds

itself into

individuality and put at the head an individual

other individuals are excluded from the entirety of

thus the interaction of con-

itself

freedom. Before the universal can perform a

this

a law

given by that will and a work accomplished by therefore, in passing over into action

the deeds proper and individual actions of the will of

itself

for

is left

only negative action;

it

But the supreme

free-

reality

and the

merely

it is

which

reality

dom that wills them. The work which conscious freedom might accomplish would consist in that

stands in the greatest antithesis to universal free-

freedom, qua universal suhstuncc, making

that freedom,

itself into

dom,

or rather the sole object that will is

an object and into an enduring being. This otherness

actual self-consciousness itself

would be the moment of difference

ity

divided

in

whereby

it

itself into stable spiritual 'masses'

it

or spheres

which does not

tain itself in an

spheres would be partly the 'thought-things' of a

time creates

power that

is

separated into legislative, judicial, and

movement

executive powers; but partly, they would be the real

over,

we found in the real world of culture, and, looking more closely at the content of universal

itself into

essences

action, they

would be the particular spheres of

let itself

For

that universal-

advance to the

an organic articulation, and whose aim

and into the members of various powers. These

exist for

still

the freedom and individuality of

unbroken continuity, within

a distinction

itself,

is

reality

of

main-

to

the same

at

because

it is

or consciousness in general. And, more-

by virtue of

own

its

abstraction,

it

divides

extremes equally abstract, into

a simple,

and into the

discrete,

inflexible cold universality,

absolute hard rigidity and self-willed atomism of

Now

com-

labour which would be further distinguished as

actual self-consciousness.

more specific 'estates' or classes. Universal freedom, which would have separated itself in this way into its

pleted the destruction of the actual organization of

constituent parts and by the very fact of doing so

sole object, an object that

w ould have made itself into an existent Substance, would thereby be free horn particular individuality,

merely

and would apportion the plurality of individuals

pure and free individual self All that remains of

its

to

various constituent parts. This, however, would

restrict the activity

to a

and the being of the personality

branch of the whole, to one kind of activity and

being; ality

when

placed in the element of being, person-

would have the significance of a

specific per-

the world, and exists

that

has

it

now just for itself, this is its no longer has any content,

possession, existence, or outer extension, but this

knowledge of

the object by which

it

itself as

can be laid hold of is solely

abstract existence as such.

The

is

an absolutely

its

relation, then, of

these two, since each exists indivisibly and absolutely for itself,

and thus cannot dispose of a middle

term which would

link

them

together,

is

one of

self-

wholly unmediated pure negation, a negation, more-

consciousness. Neither by the mere idea of obedi-

over, of the individual as a being existing in the

ence to self-given laws which would assign to

universal.

sonality;

a part

it

would cease

to

be in truth universal

of the w hole, nor by

its

it

only

being represented in

law-making and universal action, does self-consciousness reality

of

let itself

be cheated out of

itself making

reality,

the

the law and accomplishing,

freedom

is

The

sole

work and deed of universal

therefore death, a death too which has

no inner significance or is

the

filling, for

empty point of the

what

more

For where the

or swallowing a mouthful of water.'"

is

merely represented and

present only as an idea, there

it

where

it is

it is

represented by proxy,

is

is

find itself in this universal work of absolute freedom little

does

it

It is

significance than cutting off a head of cabbage

not actual;

not.

Just as the individual self-consciousness does not

qua existent Substance, so

negated

thus the coldest and meanest of all deaths, with no

not a particular work, but the universal work itself self

is

absolutely free self

find itself in

'"

During the Terror thousands died on the

guillotine,

and thousands more on boats that were floated into the Loire river, then sunk. latter reference.

I

thank James Schmidt for the

'Absolute Freedom and Terror' In this

coiuiiionphuc monosvllablc

flat,

wisdom

the

taiiicil

iiittni;4cncc

olthc universal

I'hc jioNcrnnicnt

itscir.

con-

is

of the viovcrniiu-nt, the ahstraii will, in

is itscit

the

liillilluiii ol

noihinu;

Inn the

cist-

of pure thought or ni ah\trail matter, changes round into

The

executes

ijox

the one hand,

from

its

will,

called

anything else but

itself as

government

is

its

government makes

it,

When

[so) guilty.

is

specific

in

its

a faction. \\ hat

being

being

its

conversely, into a faction, the universal will maintains

what the government has actually done it,

is

the government, for

a

its

nothing specific and outwardly apparent

by which the

guilt

of the will opposed to

could be

it

demonstrated; for w hat stands opposed to actual universal will intention.

is

the

a faction lies

overthrow; and

crime committed against part, has

to

it

it

as the

only an unreal pure

is

will,

Being suspected, therefore, takes the place,

that

it

within

has

which

which

moments

its

can utilize

it

are realized;

has

shown

itself to

itual 'masses' or

spheres to which the plurality of

individual consciousnesses are assigned thus takes

shape once more. These individuals

submit

to negation

Out of this tumult.

would be thrown back

Spirit

to its starting-point, to the ethical

In

itself,

w hich

explicitly objective to itself,

it

is

effaces

and self-conis.

just this abstract self-consciousness, all

distinction

distinction within

it.

to itself; the terror

It is

as

and

all

continuance of

such that

of death

is

it is

objective

the vision of this

power of desire to

its

fear of the lord

universal sonality,

w ill

own Notion is

of itself was,

this latter

this self-consciousness

the

know s

w hich,

as

itself in

it

only

Here, however,

pure insight, com-

repeat

the result were only the

of self-consciousness in

w hich

self-

itself,

to

of universal Spirit,

it,

would

not as this particular

universal,

a

would be able

fore, too, reality

find

and there-

endure the objective

a reality

excluding

self-

consciousness qua particular. But in absolute freethere was no reciprocal action between a con-

existence,

or

is

immersed

that

sets

in the complexities

itself specific

of

aims and

thoughts, and a valid external world, whether of reality or

in the

thought; instead, the world was absolutely

form of consciousness

as a universal will,

equally self-consciousness was

and

drawn together out

negative nature

of the whole expanse of existence or manifested

aims and judgements, and concentrated into the

its

pure Thought and

positive

as

and

its

pure Matter -

is

confronted

with the absolute transition of the one into the other as a present reality.

The

universal will, qua abso-

this self-conscious reality

simple self

The culture

action with that essence

and the

last, is

to is,

which

it

attains in inter-

therefore, the grandest

that of seeing

its

pure, simple reality

it

immediately vanish and pass aw ay into empty noth-

heightened to the level

ingness. In the world of culture itself it does not get

lutely positive, actual self-consciousness, is

would

separates the predicateless Absolute

pletely separates

- completely

viz. that

merely the positive essence of per-

and that

positively, or as preserved therein.

as

if

but only as

individual,

sciousness that

its

and master

hearts. Spirit

universal essence acting on

know and

dom

quite different

world of

consciousness, which has experienced the negative

consciousness finds this

its reality

real

anew and continually

traverse

to

negative nature of itself But absolutely free self-

from what

and

which would have been merely refreshed

culture,

and Substance - an interpenetration

sciousness learns what absolute freedom in effect

an

to

substantial reality.

interpenetration

becomes

and return

apportioned and limited task, but thereby to their

complete

freedom

felt

and distinctions, arrange them-

selves in the various spheres,

of necessity

characteristic work, absolute

who have

the fear of death, of their absolute master, again

this cycle

its

own

its

be the negative element for the

cold, matter-of-fact annihilation of this existent self,

In this

has the matter

it

individual consciousness, the organization of spir-

have

its

univer-

determinateness; and in so far as this Substance

the simple inw ardness of intention, consists in the

can be taken away but

general,

in

accordance with

in

w hich has again entered men's

else

ihe

but

in the self-identical

and rejuvenated by the

mere being.

ol

ncgalinn,

the element of subsistence, or the Substance

the external reaction against this reality that

from which nothing

it

contains JiJ/erence

or has the significance and effect, oi being guilty; and lies in

of

develops as an actual difference.

it

pure negativity has

a

merely the viclonoits faction, of

in the very fact

that

that

l'\)r

sal will

to the universal will;

thus

.ind this again

thereby

be

to

itself

ttul in the llnnkniv,

self-ionsciousness

will

means

this

an

(tuts

Ireeilom as pure sell-ideniils

\bsi)hile

uni\ersal

it

absolutely impossible for

is

it

direct necessity of

and

other individuals

all

government

itself" a

consequently,

and

excludes

it

and so stands opposed

exhibit

same

order and action.

and on the other hand,

act,

constitutes

a specific

ami

wills

will tVoni a single point, at the

its

time wills and executes

On

eminent, which

which

that

nncu-ll, or to

sclt-cstablishcil lotus, or the imlixiilualitx, ot the

universal will.

negatise nature ami shows

Its

equall\

because

W.

G.

Hegel

F.

behold

as far as to

negation or alienation in this

its

form of pure abstraction; on the contrary, ation

filled

is

wealth, which

with it

its

neg-

content, either honour or

a

gains in place of the self that

has alienated from

itself;

it

or the language of Spirit

and insight which the disrupted consciousness acquires; or

it is

the heaven of faith, or the Utility of

an immediate

opposite faction; on the contrary, the universal will is its

will

pure knowing and willing and

much more

is

negation

is

the death that

is

without

nothing positive, nothing that

tains

content.

At the same time, however,

in its real existence

neither

the

which the

is

universal

ethical

with a

fills it

this negation

not something alien; inaccessible

dependent; on the contrary,

which

in

necessity

whim

of the

owner on which the disrupted consciousness will

is

world perishes, nor the particular

accident of private possession, nor the

itself

it

it is

sees

the universal

in this its ultimate abstraction has

noth-

ing with

is

immediately one with self-consciousness, or

the pure positive, because

it is

it

it is

the pure negative;

and the meaningless death, the unfilled negativity of the

self,

changes round

in its inner

Notion into

absolute positivity. For consciousness, the immediate unity of itself with the universal will, to

know

itself as this specific

experience.

What

point,

and

this

it

is

quently,

it

itself to

a

it

in that experience

immediacy of that insubstan-

vanished immediacy

versal will itself which far as

point in the universal

vanishes for

abstract being or the

tial

demand

changed round into the absolutely opposite

will, is

is

its

it

pure knowing or pure

knows

is

the uni-

now knows itself to be in so will.

that will to be itself,

Conse-

and knows

be essential being; but not essential being as

it

It is

itself;

than

is

It

does not

that atomic point of con-

thus the interaction of pure know-

pure knowing qua

essential being is the

universal will; but this essential being

is

abolutely

nothing else but pure knowing. Self-consciousness is,

therefore, the pure

knowing of

essential being

qua pure knowing. Further, as an individual self,

it is

only the form of the subject or of real action, a form

which

is

known by

reality, being, is for

reality

it

it

as form. Similarly, objective

simply a

would be something

selfless

that

is

form; for that

not known. This

knowing, however, knows knowing

to

be essential

being.

Absolute freedom has thus removed the antith-

ing positive and therefore can give nothing in

return for the sacrifice. But for that very reason

the universal

pure knowing and willing

lose Itself in that will, for

sciousness.

its

it is

qua this pure knowing and willing.

vanished in the loss suffered by the self in absolute

freedom;

striving to establish an-

archy, nor itself as the centre of this faction or the

the Enlightenment. All these determinations have

meaning, the sheer terror of the negative that con-

not will as revolutionary

existence,

government or anarchy

esis

The its

between the universal and the individual self-alienated Spirit, driven to the

antithesis in

will.

extreme of

which pure willing and the agent of

that pure willing are

still

tithesis to a transparent

itself Just as the

distinct,

reduces the an-

form and therein finds

realm of the

real

world passes

over into the realm of faith and insight, so does absolute freedom leave

its

self-destroying reality

and pass over into another land of self-conscious Spirit where, in this unreal world,

freedom has the

value of truth. In the thought of this truth Spirit refreshes

itself, in

and knows

this

so far as

it is

being which

is

and remains thought, enclosed within

consciousness to be essential being in

its

self-

perfection

and completeness. There has arisen the new shape of Spirit, that of the moral Spirit.

''Bourgeois and Proletarians"

Karl

Marx and

Friedrich Engels

Marxism is the most important criticism of the dominant Western form of economic modernity, capitalism. Among the various forms of socialism and anti-industrialism common in the nineteenth century, the German thinkers Karl Marx (1818-83) and his collaborator Friedrich Engels (1820-95) uniquely devised what they regarded as a "scientific" socialism. Borrowing Hegel's

Freeman and and

comprehensive theory of human history in which capitalism is a necessary but temporary stage whose industrial development would prepare the way for the eventual communist aboli-

They did not object to and secuthe restriction of ownership

tion of private property.

modern

industry, science, technology,

larism, but only to

and benefits to the capitalist or "bourgeois" class. The following excerpt from their famous pamphlet. Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), represents one of the most moving and

modern society. Capitalan ongoing economic revolution that

prescient depictions of

ism

is itself

continually builds and demolishes society,

in

The

history of

all

all

hitherto existing society

is

one another, carried on an uninterrupted,

ition to

now hidden, now open ended, either

contending

everywhere

a

we

find almost

complicated arrangement of

.society

into various orders, a manifold gradation of social

Rome we

rank. In ancient

plebeians, slaves; in the vassals,

guild-masters,

serfs; in

almost

all

have patricians, knights,

Middle Ages, feudal

lords,

journeymen, apprentices,

of these classes, again, subordin-

ate gradations.

The modern

bourgeois society that has sprouted

from the ruins of feudal society has not done aw a> with class antagonisms. classes,

new

It

has but established new

conditions of oppression, new forms of

struggle in place of the old ones.

Our epoch, .sesses,

the epoch of the bourgeoisie, pos-

however,

this distinctive feature:

has sim-

it

whole

plified the class antagonisms: Society as a

more and more

splitting

up

into

two great

is

hostile

camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie

From

and

Proletariat.

the serfs of the

Middle Ages sprang the

and ProCommunist

Karl Marx, with Friedrich Engels, "Bourgeois

In capitalism, the most important classes are the bourthe owners of

of

ruin of the

clas.ses.

In the earlier epochs of history,

letarians," section

is,

common

the

history of class struggles.'

geoisie, that

each time

fight, a fight that

in a revolutionary re-constitution

society at large, or in the

the

non-monetary forms of authority, thereby making class struggle naked and shameless. However abhorrent this capitalism is to the authors, it is hard not to hear in their words a hostile awe at the monumental changes it was working on the human condition. process demystifying

and plebeian, lord

oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant oppos-

notion of dialectical development, they formulated a

slave, patrician

guild-master and journeyman, in a word,

serf,

modern

industry, and the

proletariat, the class of industrial workers.

Party (trans. C.

Tucker

of Manifesto of the

Samuel Moore), reproduced

(ed.),

edition), pp.

1

in

Robert

The Marx-Engels Reader (second

473-83. New

York: Norton, 1978.

Karl

Marx and

Friedrich Engels

chartered burghers of the earhest towns." these burgesses the

From

elements of the bourgeoisie

first

were developed.

The

Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bour-

The

nobility,

an armed and

self-

governing association in the mediaeval commune,'^ here independent urban republic (as in Italy and

discovery of America, the rounding of the

geoisie.

sway of the feudal

East-Indian and Chinese markets, the

Germany), there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy

(as in France), afterwards, in the

period of

manufacture proper, serving either the semi-feudal

monarchy

colonisation of America, trade with the colonies,

or the absolute

means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known,

the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great

and thereby,

the

the increase in the

to the revolutionary

element in the

The

feudal system of industry, under which

was monopolised by closed

now no

guilds,

longer sufficed for the growing

wants of the new markets.

The manufacturing

The

guild-masters were

system took

its

place.

world-market, conquered for

of labour betw een the different cor-

representative

The

sway.

committee

modern

executive of the for

itself,

exclusive

State,

The

bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most

The

bourgeoisie, wherever

hand, has put an end to

has got the upper

it

feudal, patriarchal,

all

idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn

labour in each single workshop.'"

motley feudal

Meantime demand ever

between

Even manufacture no longer

rising.

Thereupon, steam and machinery revolu-

sufficed.

The place of manugiant. Modern Industry,

tionised industrial production.

facture

was taken by the

the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial

millionaires, the leaders of

modern

armies, the

Modern

whole industrial the world-

market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an

opment cation

to

by

commerce,

land.

This development

most heavenly

capital,

and pushed into

the background every class handed

down from

the

ism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.

is

itself the

ment, of

how

product of

a series

a

the

modern bourgeoisie

long course of develop-

able

in the

vance of that

up that single, unconscionfreedom - Free Trade. In one word, for

sions,

development of the bourgeoisie

class.

a

An

corresponding

political

ad-

oppressed class under the

Burghers were the residents of

it

The

by religious and

political illu-

has substituted naked, shameless, direct,

bourgeoisie has stripped of

halo every

its

occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe.

has converted the physician,

It

man

the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the into

its

ily

its

bourgeoisie has torn away from the fam-

sentimental

and has reduced the

veil,

family relation to a mere

The

of science,

paid wage-labourers.

money

relation.

bourgeoisie has disclosed

how

it

came

to

pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle

production and of exchange.

Each step

numberless indefeasible char-

in place of the

tered freedoms, has set

of revolutions in the modes of

was accompanied by

It

has resolved personal worth into exchange value,

The

see, therefore,

fervour, of

chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimental-

Middle Ages.

We

has drowned the

It

ecstasies of religious

brutal exploitation.

extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie its

than naked self-interest,

turn,

its

commerce, navigation, railways

developed, increased

remaining no other nexus

than callous "cash payment."

reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry,

left

exploitation, veiled

has, in

asunder the

to his "natural

man and man

immense develcommuni-

to navigation, to

bound man

ties that

superiors," and has

and

bourgeois.

industry has established

but a of the

revolutionary part.

porate guilds vanished in the face of division of

the markets kept ever growing, the

is

affairs

State

managing the common

the

in

political

whole bourgeoisie.

pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division

in general, the bourgeoisie has at last,

since the establishment of Modern Industry and of

modern

tottering feudal society, a rapid development.

industrial production

monarchies

as a counterpoise against

legally

independent

towns, whose lands (borough) had been freed from the control of the rural, feudal lords, ultimately by a royal

charter granting their freedoms. Later, charters

Ages, which Reactionists so fitting It

complement

has been the

bring about.

It

in the

first to

much admire, found its

most

slothful indolence.

show what man's

activity

can

has accomplished wonders far sur-

passing Egyptian pyramids,

Gothic cathedrals;

it

Roman

aqueducts, and

has conducted expeditions

would

"Commune'' was an

primarily grant trading and commercial rights.

'^

'"

town, unowned bv rural lords.

Guilds were trade associations of medieval craftsmen.

early

term

for the

independent

"Bourgeois and Proletarians" thai put

III

the sh.uli-

all

h)iiiKi

1

At)tlii.scs ol iialioiis

and crusades.

The

the most barbarian, nations into ciMlisalion

The

commodities are the heav\

ariil-

I

cannot exist without constant In

liouig^foisif

heap prices

its

(jI

with which

ler\

down

batters

it

(Chinese walls,

all

forces the barbarians' intenseK ob-

rcxolutionisni^ the instruments of iModuction, anil

with which

thereby the relations ot production, and with theni

stinate halreil ol loreigners lo ia|)i!ulaie

The whole relations of society. CofTservation of the

all

old

modes of production

the contrar\, the

unaltered form, was, on

in

condition ol existence for

first

Constant revolutionising

earlier industrial classes.

of production, uninterrupted disturbance

epoch from

tion distinguish the bourgeois

train

fast-fro/en

fixed,

.\1I

relations,

of

all

all

earlier

with their

of ancient and venerable prejudices and opin-

ions, are swcjit

away,

all

new-formed ones become

antiquated before they can ossify. All that melts into

air, all that is

compelled

at last

conditions of

holy

to face

life,

and

is

profaned, and

is

nations, on

bourgeois

i.e., il

w ith sober senses,

solid

man

is

his real

must

nestle everywhere, settle

everyw here, establish connexions everyw here.

The

the

compels ihem

it

to

colli cnilisation into their midst,

il

become bourgeois ihemseKes.

The

compels

i

iis

own

In

one wonl,

image.

bourgeoisie has subjected the countr> to the

rule ol the towns.

has created

It

enormous

cities,

com-

has greatly increased the urban population as

pared with the rural, and has thus rescued

a

con-

siderable part of the population from the idiocy of rural

life.

Just as

it

on the towns, so barbarian

has it

made the country dependent made barbarian and semi-

has

countries

dependent on the

civilised

ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois,

his relations with his kind.

The need of a constantly expanding market for its It

production;

creates a world afic

the East on the West.

The

products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.

to

It

pain of extinction, to adopt

mode of

introduce what

and agita-

social conditions, everlasting uncertainty

ones.

all

it

bourgeoisie keeps

away with the scattered the

more and more doing

state of the population, of

means of production, and of property.

has

It

exploitation of

agglomerated population, centralised means of pro-

the world-market given a cosmopolitan character to

duction, and has concentrated property in a few

bourgeoisie has through

production and consumption

its

every country.

in

the great chagrin of Reactionists,

under the on which

feet

it

it

To

has drawn from

of industry the national ground

stood. All old-established national in-

dustries have been destroyed or are daily being

destroyed.

They

are dislodged

whose introduction becomes tion

for

civilised

all

by new industries,

a life

and death ques-

itical

necessary consequence of this was pol-

centralisation.

Independent, or but loosely

connected provinces, with separate

interests, laws,

governments and systems of taxation, became

lumped together

into

one nation, with one govern-

ment, one code of law s, one national class-interest,

one frontier and one customs-tariff

The

by industries that

nations,

The

hands.

bourgeoisie, during

its

rule of scarce

hundred

raw material draw n from the remotest zones; indus-

colossal productive forces than have

tries

whose products

home, but

are

consumed, not only

in every quarter

at

of the globe. In place

of the old wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, their

we

satisfaction

new wants,

all

preceding

generations together. Subjection of Nature's forces to

man, machinery, application of chemistry

industry and agriculture, steam-navigation,

to

rail-

requiring for

ways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole contin-

the products of distant lands

ents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole

find

and climes. In place of the old seclusion and self-sufficiency, in

years, has created

one

more massive and more

no longer work up indigenous raw material, but

local

and national

we have

intercourse

every direction, universal inter-dependence of

And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National onenations.

sidedness and narrow-mindedness

become more

and more impossible, and from the numerous na-

populations conjured out of the ground - what

century had even

earlier

a

presentiment that such

productive forces slumbered

the lap of social

in

labour.'

We

see then: the

means of production and of

exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up,

At

a certain

were generated

in

feudal society.

stage in the development of these

there arises a world

means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all

exchanged, the feudal organisation of agriculture

tional

and

local

literatures,

literature.

instruments of production, by the immensely cilitated

means of communication, draws

all,

fa-

even

and manufacturing industry, feudal relations of property

in

one word, the

became no longer com-

OT)

Marx and

Karl

with

patible

forces; they

Friedrich Engels

developed

already

the

became so many

fetters.

The weapons

productive

They had

to

be burst asunder; they were burst asunder.

bourgeoisie

adapted to

political

is

going on before our

bourgeois society with

its

own

that has conjured

up such

no longer able world

whom

many

a

gigantic

is like

means of pro-

the sorcerer,

who

is

powers of the nether

to control the

he has called up by his

For

spells.

decade past the history of industry and

commerce

is

weapons

but the history of the revolt of modern

mention the com-

mercial crises that by their periodical return put on its trial,

each time more threateningly, the existence

the prole-

is

i.e.,

capital, is

the proletariat,

modern working class, developed - a class of w ho live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell labourers,

themselves piece-meal, are a commodity,

like

everj

other article of commerce, and are consequently to all the vicissitudes of competition, to

the fluctuations of the market.

Owing

the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie to

-

the

all

enough

has also called

class

In proportion as the bourgeoisie,

exposed

rule. It is

it

are to wield those

developed, in the same proportion

productive forces against modern conditions of

its

men who

tarians.

production, against the property relations that are

and of

that bring death to itself;

into existence the

relations of

production, of exchange and of property, a society

duction and of exchange,

turned against the

weapons - the modern working

class.

A similar movement Modern

political constitution

and by the economical and

it,

sway of the bourgeois

eyes.

and

a social

now

itself.

But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the

Into their place stepped free competition, ac-

companied by

with which the bourgeoisie felled

feudalism to the ground are

to the extensive use of

division of labour, the

lost all individual character,

charm

for the

machinery and

work of the

to

proletarians has

and consequently,

all

He becomes an appendage

workman.

only the most simple, most

of the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a

of the machine, and

great part not only of the existing products, but

monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is

also of the previously created productive forces, are

required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a

periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks

out an epidemic that, in

all

would

earlier epochs,

it is

workman is restricted, almost entirely,

have seemed an absurdity - the epidemic of over-

and

production. Society suddenly finds itself put back

commodity, and therefore

into a state of momentary barbarism;

its

a famine, a universal

it

appears as

w ar of devastation had cut

if

off

means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why.-* the supply of every

Because there

is

too

much

civilisation, too

much

means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the devel-

opment of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have

become too powerful

for

these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so

soon

as

they overcome these

fetters,

they bring

disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, en-

danger the existence of bourgeois property.

The

conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to

comprise the wealth created by them.

And how

does the bourgeoisie get over these crises?

one hand by enforced destruction of

a

On

the

mass of

for the propagation of his race.

the repulsiveness of the

Nay more,

decreases.

in

work

increases, the

machinery and division of labour increases,

same proportion the burden of

increased speed of the machinery, etc.

Modern

industry has converted the

of the industrial

crowded

for

more extensive and more

destructive crises,

prevented.

crises are

work-

diers.

As

Masses of labourers,

privates of the industrial

placed under the officers

capitalist.

into the factory, are organised like sol-

army they

are

command of a perfect hierarchy of

and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of

the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they

and hourly enslaved by the machine, by

are daily

the over-looker, and, above

all,

by the individual

The more openly

more

way

little

shop of the patriarchal master into the great factory

the

and by diminishing the means whereby

in the

w hether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by

despotism proclaims gain to be

by paving the

wage

toil also increases,

this

to say,

equal to

proportion as the use of

of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitis

is

cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as

bourgeois manufacturer himself.

That

means

But the price of a

also of labour,

productive forces; on the other, by the conquest

ation of the old ones.

to the

of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance,

petty, the

embittering

The plied in

more

hateful

its

end and aim,

and the more

it is.

less the skill

and exertion of strength im-

manual labour,

in other

words, the more

Bourgeois and Proletarians" nioilcni iiuliisir\ Ihioiiks ».k-\il()|Kil,

the labour ot 1

)itfcrciKcs

men

t)t

supcrstilcil

st\

aiul

ajic

ha\c-

arc instruments ot labour,

more

use, according to their age

No

sooner

is

wages

It

no longer ain

esis

and coiulilions

elass

All

or less e\pensi\e to

and se\

than he

in cash,

upon by the other

is set

tion

sum- low

the

tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen

and peasants

all

The growing competition

make

their

ever

lixelihood

collisions

unceasing improvement of ma-

more rapidly developing, makes more and more precarious; the

between individual workmen and indi-

vidual bourgeois take

more and more

cause their diminutive capital does not suffice for

workers

and

swamped

is

carried on,

is

competition with the large

in the

capitalists, partly

Industry

because their specialised

skill is

begin

cla.sses.

torm

to

the character

'['hereupon the

in

order to keep up the rate of wages; the\ tound

permanent associations

in

order to make provision

beforehand tor these occasional

Thus

there the contest breaks out into riots.

is

recruited from

classes of

all

Now

the population.

The

proletariat goes

development. With

its

w ith the bourgeoisie. At

The

not in the immediate result, but in the ever-

first

struggle

its

the contest

carried

is

bourgeois

in

who

w orkers of

against the instruments of production themselves;

all

machinery, they

form more compact bodies,

consequence of their ow n active

order to attain

compelled

and

is

to set the

moreover

its

own

political ends, is

whole proletariat

yet, for a time, able to

stage, therefore, the proletarians

of the same character, into one national struggle classes.

ical struggle.

ians,

But every

And

class struggle

is

motion,

in

do

do not

so.

At

this

fight their

thanks to railw ays, achieve

in a few years.

and consequently into ally

a political party,

being upset again by the competition between

the workers themselves. But stronger, firmer, mightier.

it

It

ever

ri.ses

compels

up again, legislative

recognition of particular interests of the workers,

by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie

Thus

it.self

the ten-hours'

Altogether collisions between the classes of the

many

the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie.

development of the

Thus

finds itself involved in a constant battle.

movement

concen-

is

hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory is

w ith the aristocracy;

ways, the course of

proletariat.

later on,

The

bourgeoisie .\t

first

w ith those portions of

a victory for the bourgeoisie.

But with the development of industry the proletariat

Eng-

bill in

land was carried.'

old society further, in

the whole historical

a class,

continu-

is

remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners,

so obtained

a polit-

which the

that union, to attain

This organisation of the proletarians into

enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the

trated in the

was

local struggles,

highways, required centuries, the modern proletar-

form an incoher-

union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in

just this contact that

numerous

burghers of the Middle Ages, w ith their miserable

broken up by their mutual competition. If anyto

to centralise the

between

ent mass scattered over the whole country, and

where they unite

was

It

that

different localities in contact

by force the

this stage the labourers still

this is not yet the

is

workman of the Middle Ages.

set factories ablaze, they seek to restore

At

lies,

modern industry and

tion that are created by

place the

with one another.

to pieces

of their battles

helped on by the improved means of communica-

needed

destroy imported wares that compete with

real fruit

expanding union of the workers. This union

against the bourgeois conditions of production, but

vanished status of the

and

and then the workers are victorious, but

directly exploits them. TheN- direct their attacks not

smash

lere

birth begins

locality, against the individual

their labour, they

1

only for a time.

of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade,

tfiev

revolts.

through various stages of

on by individual labourers, then by the workpeople one

(Trades

combinations

Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together

rendered worthless by new methods of production. the proletariat

more

the wages ot the workers e\er

The

of collisions between two

Modern

distinctions ot

all

ever> where reduces wages to

le\el.

these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly be-

the scale on which

propor-

eijualised, in

crises,

chinery, the small

within the ranks ot the

more

the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial

keeper, the pawnbroker, etc.

lower strata of the middle class

sirenglh grows,

among

tluctuating.

generally, the handicraftsmen

ot lite

anil

machinery obliterates

as

portions of the bourgeoisie, the laiulloni, the shop-

The

more

|in»letariai are

lis

more. Ihe various inlcr-

teils thai sirenglh

labour, and nearK

an end, that he recedes

tar, at

Ktucinli.Ueil ui urtater masses, .uul

the exploitation ot the labourer b\

the manufacturer, so his

is

uoimii

working

distinctive social validity tor the

in* tic

ilu-

ih.n ol

l)v

not only increases in number;

it

becomes

'

Passed in 1847, the

hours, but only for

bill

limited the

women and

children.

work day

to ten

L

Karl

Marx and

the bourgeoisie

Friedrich Engels

itself,

whose

become

interests have

antagonistic to the progress of industry; at

times,

all

with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In these battles

it

sees itself compelled to appeal to

the proletariat, to ask for it

The

political

words,

weapons

and thus,

it

to drag

bourgeoisie

supplies the proletariat with

elements of other

help,

its

into the political arena.

therefore,

all

itself,

its

own

and general education,

furnishes

the

proletariat

in

with

for fighting the bourgeoisie.

we have

Further, as

already seen, entire sections

of the ruling classes are, by the advance of industry,

In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually

proletarian

swamped. The

without property; his relation to his

and children has no longer anything

wife

common modern

with

bourgeois

the

in

family-relations;

modern

industrial labour,

subjection to

AmerGermany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois intercapital, the ica

as

same

England

in

as in France, in

in

ests.

All the preceding classes that got the

precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least

threatened in their conditions of existence. These

is

upper hand,

sought to fortify their already acquired status by

also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of

subjecting society at large to their conditions of

enlightenment and progress.

appropriation.

when

Finally, in times

the class struggle nears

the decisive hour, the process of dissolution going

on within the ruling

class, in fact

w hole

within the

The

proletarians

cannot become

masters of the productive forces of society, except

by abolishing

own

their

and thereby

priation,

previous

mode

character, that a small section of the ruling class

mode of their own

cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class,

to destroy all previous securities for,

range of society, assumes such a violent, glaring

the class that holds the future in

its

hands. Just

as,

of,

therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility

went over

to the bourgeoisie, so

now

a

portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,

and

in particular, a portion

ideologists, level

who have

raised

of the bourgeois

themselves to the

of comprehending theoretically the historical

movement

Of all

bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone

The

revolutionary class. finally

The

is its

special

lower middle

a really

and

Modern

Industry;

essential product.

class, the small

manufacturer,

the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant,

all

these

fight against the bourgeoisie, to save

from extinc-

tion their existence as fractions of the

middle

class.

They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to

of is

and insurances

individual property.

ments of minorities, or

The

proletarian

movements were move-

in the interests of minorities.

movement

the self-conscious,

is

independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the letariat,

immense

majority.

The

pro-

the lowest stratum of our present society,

stir,

cannot raise

superincumbent sprung into the

Though

other classes decay and

disappear in the face of

the proletariat

is

and

All previous historical

cannot

as a whole.

the classes that stand face to face with the

They have nothing to fortify; their mission

appropriation. to secure

of appro-

also every other previous

itself up,

without the whole

of official

strata

being

society

air.

not in substance,

yet

in

form,

the

struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie at first a national struggle.

country must, of course, with

its

own

The

first

is

proletariat of each

of

all settle

matters

bourgeoisie.

In depicting the most general phases of the de-

velopment of the less veiled civil

up

proletariat,

we

traced the

more

or

war, raging within existing society,

to the point

where

that

war breaks out into

back the wheel of history. If by chance they are

open revolution, and where the violent overthrow

revolutionary, they are so only in view of their

of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway

impending transfer into the

of the proletariat.

roll

proletariat, they thus

Hitherto, every form of society has been based,

defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their

own

standpoint to place them-

The "dangerous layers of old society,

into the

class," the social

life,

scum, that

thrown off by the lowest

may, here and there, be swept

movement by

conditions of

a proletarian revolution; its

however, prepare

we have

already seen, on the antagonism of_

oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to

selves at that of the proletariat.

passively rotting mass

as

it

far

more

the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.

for

oppress a to

it

class, certain

under which

existence.

it

The serf,

conditions must be assured

can, at least, continue

its

slavish

in the period of serfdom, raised

himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism,

managed

to develop into a bourgeois.

The

"Bourgeois and Proletarians" nioilcrii LihoiiriT,

on the comiimin,

with ihf piounss

of"

instc.ul ol

.iiul

deeper below

ihe conditions of existence ol

own

becomes

lie

class,

de\elops more

And i

s

here

it

rapiill)

a

than population anil wealth that the bourgeoisie

unfit any longer to be the ruling to impo se its conditions of

and

society as an over-riding law.

because its

it

is

It

class in society,

existence unfit

is

upon

to rule

incompetent to assure an existence

sla\e within his slavery, because

letnni: liini sink into

his

pauper, ami pauperism

becomes e\ideni,

such a

it

state, that

to

cannot help it

Ihe essintial idiulilion

risiiiv;

intluslry, sinks ikc|Ki

has to feed

lor the

capital

is

sively

on

moter ol

society.

capital;

between

bourgeoisie,

due

is

the formation

condition

the

Wage-labour

of iiulustr),

labourers,

development from under

to

whose

of

for

rests exclu-

labourers.

the

iiiNoluntarv pro-

replaces

the

competition,

isolation

h\

their 1

he

.Modern Industry, therefore, cuts

its feet

the very foundation on which

the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products.

no longer compatible with

of

competition

the

the existeiue, aiul

rcNolutionars combination, due to association.

above

is

is

the

lor

bourgeois class,

wage-labour

Ihe advance

longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, existence

ol the

augmeniaiion

aiul

him, instead of being k\\ by him. Society can no

its

swa\

What all.

the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, Is

its

own

grave-diggers.

Its

fall

and

the victory of the proletariat are equallv ine\ itable.

'Bou/^^s*^*^

c^i^foy^

^V^

^jffofy-J if-

L

PART

II

Modernity Realized

I

Introduction to Part

The

century

from

1860

1950 brought

to

the

triumph of modernity, and simultaneously greatest crises, both intellectual

period that the

in this

new

and

social.

It

is

science and the indus-

revolution actually changed the lives of most

trial

human and

beings living in Europe, North America,

much

indirectly,

bound new

of

world.

the

Peoples

were thrown,

to a local agrarian lifestyle

by choice or necessity, into the

either

and

cities

a

industrial world market. \\ aves of scientific

revolution, in cosmology, physics, geology,

chem-

and biology deeply altered our view

istry,

the world, unleashing

power.

mere

The

fact

new

conditions of

religion

of

technologies of awesome life

changed, and the

of change seemed to

wisdom and life.

its

make

relevant

less

traditional

to

everyday

became widespread, then

Liberal democracy

was challenged by fascism and communism, themselves

modernist

modernity.

Two

reactions

world

against

wars,

closed with the terrifying

first act

a cultural relife,

in

which

some

artists

fluid,

non-traditional environment, while others

and

were revolted by

the

new,

by regarding

reflected

itself as

in

transform-

this crisis.

Many

of

the most important philosophers of the period

claimed that

all earlier

some deep

flaw

thought had suffered from

requiring

break with the past. This tive;

is

radical

revision,

a

historically distinc-

philosophers in every era usually think other

philosophers

are

critique.

When

purview of

a

radicalism appears

few cranks

at

is

it

usually the

the margins, but in

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the

most prominent philosophical schools - analytand

ical

logical philosophy,

existentialism, pragmatism,

phenomenologv and Marxism - radically

rejected the speculative, metaphysical, and quasi-

from

thought

of earlier

tendencies

theological

the Greeks through the mid-nineteenth century. Historically speaking, in twentieth-century philo-

sophy, radicalism became the norm. It is

this period that created

most of the philo-

among

sophical schools and divisions prevalent

Western (and

a large percentage of

non- Western)

philosophers to this day: pragmatism

(in the

work

of Charles Sanders Peirce, George Hebert Mead,

Paul

gaard,

wrong about something, but

Sartre,

Simone

(Edmund

Husserl,

Jean-Paul

Tillich,

de Beauvoir); phenomenology

Martin Heidegger, and .Maurice Merleau-Ponty); logic, logical positivism,

and analytic philosophy

(Gottlob Frege, G. E. .Moore, Bertrand Russell, the early

Ludwig

Wittgenstein, Rudolf Garnap,

Kurt Godel, and Alfred Tarski); ordinary language philosophy (the

it.

Western philosophy ation

embraced

thinkers

was funda-

philosophy

William James, Josiah Royce, and John Dewey),

of the atomic age.

sponse to the new conditions of

past

all

existentialism (Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierke-

Europe and much of the developed world, and

Throughout the period there was

that

of

communications and military technologies, devastated

claim

the

mentally wrong-headed was a particularly radical

new

features

employing

II

W ittgenstein,

later

J.

L. Austin);

and process philosophy (Henri Bergson and Alfred

North Whitehead). In ical

tradition these

each

other,

mented

into

their rejection of philosoph-

movements

leaving

also diverged

from

philosophy

frag-

Western

divergent

styles

or

sub-cultures,

each denying the legitimacy of the others. sure,

some remained

To

be

faithful to the older specula-

tive-metaphysical tradition, but

it

was the new

Introduction to Part

methods

II

that defined

To

the era.

degree we philosophers of the looking back

the

very large

a

new millennium of the

creativity

are

still

late

nineteenth and early twentieth century for

to

inspiration.

early twentieth-century period,

and science were being revolutionized.

was the

in question. Baudelaire

employ the term modernite

first to

new

in describing the

nineteenth-century urban aesthetic.

was

Peirce

the inventor of pragmatism, which would eventu-

form the

ally

During the same art, politics,

non-human

basis

Rorty's postmodernism

for

attempt of more moderate "non-

as well as the

foundationalists"

postmodernism.

counter

to

Modernism in painting initially took the form of a new realism that renounced the idealization of subject matter, but more prominently it was

Through

his radical critique of the idealism of the

Western

tradition,

the age of abstraction, of the liberation of artistic

postmodernism,

imagination by Impressionism, Cubism, Expres-

Deleuze, and Foucault.

sionism, Futurism, Surrealism,

Symbohsm, Dada,

and ultimately Abstract Expressionism. In other arts as well

was

it

of explosive waves

a period

tian)

both moral

and epistemic, Nietzsche crucial

(i.e.

is

Judeo-Chris-

the godfather of

especially

Derrida,

for

De

Saussure's structuralist

linguistics set the stage for

French post-structural-

ism. Marinetti and later

Le Corbusier

extolled

new

forms of literature and architecture, respectively,

Pound and

that reflect the Utopian social theories characteristic

stream of consciousness novels

of the period between the world wars. Weber, one

of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, the existential

of the most influential theorists of modernity,

of experimentation: the poetry of Ezra

T. S.

Eliot, the

of Hemingway;

realism

Albert

the

music

atonal

Schonberg and Alban Berg,

of

non-

the

presented an historically informed, yet incipiently existentialist

account of the modern age. Wittgen-

thematic dissonance of Igor Stravinsky; and the

stein's radical assertion

modernism of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and the Bauhaus school. Simultaneously new forms of social radicalism developed in response to the coming of mass,

became the most prominent form of twentieth-

industrial society: socialism, Marxist-Leninist bol-

whose psychoanalytic theory was hugely

shevism, futurism, syndicalism, fascism, Nazism,

in the

anarchism. Discontents and intellectuals sought

mounting "discontent" inherent

new

civilization.

architectural

alternatives

ization

to

the juggernaut of

and mass culture.

Charles

Scientifically,

Darwin and Sigmund Freud

human beings,

modern-

recast our picture of

while in physics the greatest revolu-

tion in our picture of the universe since the seven-

teenth century was led by Neils Bohr,

Wolfgang Erwin

Pauli,

Max

Planck,

Louis de Broglie, Albert Einstein,

Schrodinger,

Werner

and

Heisenberg,

of the limits of philosophy

century anti-foundationalism, and his later view of

language as pluralistic "language-games" inspired the postmodernism of Rorty and Lyotard. Freud, influential

humanities and social sciences, warned of the in the progress of

Husserl diagnosed the "crisis" of mod-

ernity with his

new philosophy of phenomenology,

which formed the

basis

both

for

Heidegger's

thought and the French post-structuralists' tique.

Adorno's and Horkheimer's

cri-

classic Dialectic

of Enlightenment was crucial for the debate over the fate of modernity, and, with Weber, forms the basis for

Habermas's work. Sartre's existentialism was

Paul Dirac. Particularly important for understand-

an important mid-century response to the problem

ing modernity, the field of sociology established

of

itself in this

largely

period as an independent discipline,

through providing theories of modern-

Marx and Weber, the work of Emile Durkheim, Henry Sumner Maine, Georg Besides

ization.

Simmel, Ferdinand Tonnies, Walter Benjamin, Talcott Parsons and

Arnold Gehlen,

but a few, are central for

later studies

to

name

of modern-

alienation,

following selections illustrate these

ments, and auger the

later shift to

move-

postmodernity.

of species would

Darwin's denial of the

fixity

become

the

paradigm

sciences,

and put the distinction of human and

dominant

for

the

life

and

a

prime target

for

Hei-

The final four selections, which follow World War II, represent the transition to postmodernism. Heidegger's attack on Western humanism and the technological domination of nature by the "subject," a project

with which he believed Western

philosophy to have been complicit,

postmodernism,

ization.

The

modern

degger.

is

crucial to

as well as his willingness to

bend

philosophical language in an attempt to say the

unsayable. Lacan's structuralist version of psychoanalysis

had

a

structuralists.

of scientific

major impact on the French post-

Thomas Kuhn's famous progress

analysis

through revolutions and

Introduction to Part noii-rationaiiltLiMDns, lathci than aiul ciniuilan\i- process,

a

puttiN rahoiial

was crucial

lor KortN aiul

wtll-kiutw n

inosi

\aiHccl.

other anti-r(Hiiulatit)nalists, as well as tor the wule-

were passing out

spread uncertaint\ ahoui the limits

mio

and realism

in science.

I

)aiuel

Hell

ot rationalism

authored the

a

\trsi

life,

howcNtr

\ariatii)ii,

cvcr cause proceeding, able to an

iiuli\ iiliial

if

»)t

liom

slight, aiul

he

it

wh.ii-

anN ilegree pnitit-

in

an> species, in

iis

inlinileK

conii>le\ relations to other orgatuc heinijs aiul to

nature, will leml lo ihe preseivaiion ol

cxleiii.il

ami

that iiuliNuhial,

hetter chance ot sur\ uals of an\ species

thus ha\e

also, will

ing, tor, ot the nian> inili\

i\

sur\i\e.

ha\e

I

itl-

called

We

tion.

tainly

its

relation to

this

produce great

results,

in

man's power of selec-

man by

have seen that

a

slight \ariation, if useful,

preserved, by the term of Natural Selection,

order to mark

a

horn, hut

liich are periotlicalh

which each

principle, h\ is

w

number can

small

he inheriieil In

will iienerall\

The ottspring,

otlsprinu;.

its

selection can cer-

and can adapt organic

beings to his ow n uses, through the accumulation of

him by

slight but useful variations, given to

hand of Nature. But Natural Selection, hereafter see,

and

efforts, as the

We

a

power incessantly ready

immeasurably superior

as

is

is

works of Nature are

now

will

be treated, as

greater length.

the

shall

for action,

man's feeble

The

more detail the my future work this subwell deserves, at

it

much

elder de Candolle and Lyell

have largely and philosophically shown that

all

organic beings are exposed to severe competition.' In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject

w ith more

spirit

and

ability

W.

than

Herbert,

to

Dean

life,

easier than

in

- than constantly Yet unless

am

is

words the truth of the universal struggle or more difficult - at least I have found it so

admit

for

Nothing

it

to bear this conclusion in

be thoroughly engrained

in the

I

convinced that the whole economy of nature,

with every fact on distribution, extinction,

and variation,

will

rarity,

We behold

bright w ith gladness,

we

of food;

we do not

which are

life;

or

we

the face of nature

often see superabundance

see, or

idly singing

insects or seeds,

abundance,

be dimly seen or

quite misunderstood.

we

ing ik|HiuliiHe of one being on another, and in-

how

Two

food and

il

the moisture.

.\

at all

.^ugustin

life

on the edge of a desert

lo be cUpeiuleiit

a

which on an average only one

of

may

be more truly said to

same and other

The

kinds which already clothe the ground.

dependent (m the apple and

is

on

which annualls produces

struggle with the plants of the

toe

is

though

against the drought,

plant

maturity,

to

may be

o( dearth,

each other which shall get

ith

should be saul

thousand seeds,

comes

lime

in a

w

li\e. IJut a |ilan!

struggle for

more propcrK

life

mistle-

few other trees,

a

but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, (or parasites grow

on the same

many

too

if

tree,

it

of these

w ill languish and

Hut several seedling mistletoes, growing close

die.

disseminated by birds, birds;

and

may more truly be said

with each other.

to struggle

it

may

the mistletoe

.\s

is

existence depends on

its

metaphorically be said to struggle

with other fruit-bearing plants,

order to tempt

in

birds to devour and thus disseminate

its

seeds rather

than those of other plants. In these several senses,

which pass into each other,

use for convenience'

I

sake the general term of struggle for existence.

A

struggle for existence inevitably follows from

the high rate at which

all

organic beings tend to

Every being, which during

increase.

lifetime produces several eggs or seeds,

destruction during

some period of

natural

its

must

suffer

and

life,

its

during some season or occasional year, otherwise,

on

the

principle

of

geometrical

numbers would quickly become

increase,

its

so inordinately

great that no country could support the product.

Hence,

as

more

individuals are produced than can

possibly survive, there

must

in

every case be a

another of the same species, or with the individuals

live

largely these songsters, or

by birds in

mind,

though food may be now superabundant,

not so

canine animals

truiN said to struggle

saiil to

not onls the

bui suicess in leaving progeny.

on

round us mostly

and beasts of prey; we do not always bear that

more important)

is

ol ihe iiuli\ uhi.il.

struggle for existence, either one individual with

and are thus constantly destroying

forget

use the term .Struggle tor

I

and metaphorical sense, includ-

forget that the birds

their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed

'

mind.

mind,

|>renns«.- thai

in a large

chidinu (which

of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge."

should

MsiciKc-

together on the same branch,

of Art.

to those

discu.ss in a little

struggle for existence. In ject shall

to

we

as

I

I

it is

seasons of each recurring year.

de Candolle (1778-1841), botanist, and

of distinct species, or w of

life.

It is

conditions

manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable

kingdoms;

for in this case there can

be no

artificial

increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage.'" Although

'"

some

Thomas Robert Malthus

Charles Lyell (1797-1875), whose Principles of Geology

economist,

(1833) influenced Darwin.

human

"

exceed natural resources.

William Herbert (1778-1847), botanist.

ith the physical

the doctrine of Malthus applied with

argued

population

that will

species

may be now

(1766-18.34),

uncontrolled

proceed

a

political

growth

exponentially,

of the

hence

Charles Darwin

more or

increasing,

cannot do

There

all

world would not hold them.

no exception

is

numbers,

less rapidly, in

so, for the

to the rule that every

organic being naturally increases at so high a rate,

would soon be

that if not destroyed, the earth

covered by the progeny of a single

slow-breeding

and

years,

man

Even

pair.

has doubled in twenty-five

at this rate, in a

and

room

progeny. Linnaeus has calculated that plant produced only two seeds

if

- and

- and

all

must

laws; but

trees!

fall

how

Throw up a handful of feathers, ground according

to the

simple

to definite

problem compared

this

is

and animals which have determined,

in the course

of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of

now growing on the old Indian The dependency of one organic

trees

ruins!

being on an-

for his

other, as of a parasite

on

an annual

between beings remote

in the scale of nature.

there

no

is

to

the action and reaction of the innumerable plants

few thousand years,

there would literally not be standing

plant so unproductive as this

growth of the

is

its

prey,

often the case with those which

generally

lies

may

This be

strictly

their seedlings

said to struggle with each other for existence, as in

next year produced two, and so on, then in twenty

the case of locusts and grass-feeding quadrupeds.

would be

years there

phant

is

reckoned the slowest breeder

animals, and

probable

I

The eleof all known

a million plants.'^

have taken some pains to estimate

minimum

rate of natural increase:

be under the mark to assume that

it

breeds

and goes on breeding

it

its

will

when

But the struggle almost invariably

be most

will

severe between the individuals of the same species, for they frequent the

same food, and

same

districts, require the

same dangers.

are exposed to the

In the case of varieties of the

same

species, the

ninety

struggle will generally be almost equally severe,

years old, bringing forth three pair of young in this

and we sometimes see the contest soon decided:

thirty years old,

interval; if this

be

end of the

so, at the

till

fifth

century

there would be alive fifteen million elephants, des-

cended from the

first pair.

.

many

different

checks, acting at different periods of life, and during different seasons or years, probably

come

some one check or some few being all

concur

together,

wheat be sown

and the mixed seed be resown, some of

the varieties which best suit the soil or climate, or

.

In the case of every species,

most potent, but

for instance, if several varieties of

in

into play;

generally the

determining the

are naturally the

most

fertile, will

beat the others

and so yield more seed, and consequently years quite supplant the other varieties. a

mixed stock of even such extremely

in a

few

To keep up

close varieties

as the variously coloured sweet-peas, they

must be

number or even the existence of the species. In some cases it can be shown that widely-different

each year harvested separately, and the seed then

checks act on the same species in different

kinds will steadily decrease in numbers and disap-

average

When we

districts.

look at the plants and bushes clothing an

we are tempted to attribute their proportional numbers and kinds to what we call chance. But how false a view is this! Every one has heard that when an American forest is cut down, a entangled bank,

very different vegetation springs up; but

it

has been

observed that ancient Indian ruins in the Southern

United States, which must formerly have been

diversity

now

display the

same beautiful

and proportion of kinds

as in the sur-

cleared of trees,

rounding virgin

forests.

What

the several kinds of trees

a struggle

between

must here have gone on

during long centuries, each annually scattering

its

seeds by the thousand; what war between insect and insect

- between

insects, snails,

with birds and beasts of prey -

and

crease,

all

and other animals all

striving to in-

feeding on each other or on the trees

mixed pear.

in

due proportion, otherwise the weaker

So again with the

varieties of sheep:

it

been asserted that certain mountain-varieties

has will

starve out other mountain-varieties, so that they

cannot be kept together.

The same

result

has

followed from keeping together different varieties

may even be doubted

of the medicinal leech.

It

whether the

any one of our domestic

varieties of

plants or animals have so exactly the habits,

same

strength,

and constitution, that the original propor-

tions of a

mixed stock could be kept up

dozen generations,

if

for half-a-

they were allowed to struggle

together, like beings in a state of nature, and if the

seed or young were not annually sorted.

As

species

of the same genus have usually,

though by no means invariably, some similarity

in

habits and constitution, and always in structure, the

struggle will generally be

more severe between

same genus, when they come

or their seeds and seedlings, or on the other plants

species of the

which

competition with each other, than between species

first

clothed the ground and thus checked the

of distinct genera. Linnaeus (Carl von Linne, 1708-79), the

modern 'taxonomy',

C90^

who produced

or classification of living things.

We

into

see this in the recent exten-

sion over parts of the United States of one species of

swallow having caused the decrease of another

The Origin of Species ush

TIk' tfciiil iiKitasf ot ilu- iiussclilii

species.

parts ol Scoilaiul has causcil ihc ilitrcase ol soiiijlhrush.

Io\n trci|UcnllN nm'

I

iii

ilu-

hear ol oiu- spceus

another species uiuler the

ot rat takiiiii the place ot

Ms ui(»ui.ipliual range,

(.oiiliius ot

siituiion w

l.ir,

clim.iie aloiK

One

conjiener.

^reai

species ot charlock will supplant

another, and so in other cases.

We

can dinily see

w hy the competition should be most severe between

which

allied forms,

till

nearly the

same place

in the

economy of nature; but probably in no one case could we precisel> sa\ why one species has been victorious over another in the great battle ot corollary ot the highest importance

.\

of c(»n-

we ha\e reason

of

are destroyed bs

ilu\

ih.ii

lines ol

to

lite.

Not

the rigour of the

we reach

until

the extreme con-

the Arctic regions or

111

an utter desert,

will

may be extremely

on the borders

competition cease. The land

cold or dry, \et there will be

competition between some few species, or between the individuals of the or

lite.

dampest I

may be

change

belie\e that only a few plants or animals range so

niost ditterent climates! In Russia the small Asiatic its

a

climate would clearly be an

lo

I

ad\ antage to our plant; but

cockroach has eNer\ where driven betore

it

lespei

III)

we can

lence, also,

animal

is

same

warmest

species, for the

spots.

when

see that

plant or

a

placed in a new countr\ amongst new

deduced trom the foregoing remarks, namely, that

competitors, though the climate ma\ be exaclK the

the structure ot every organic being

same

most

essential yet otten

hidden manner,

other organic beings, w ith w hich petition for tbod or residence, or to escape, or

related, in the

is

on w hich

it

preys.

it

comes

com-

into

from w hich This

of all

to that

it

has

obvious

is

in

the structure of the teeth and talons of the tiger; and

of the legs and claws of the parasite w hich

in that

on the

clings to the hair

and fringed

flattened

seems

at first

If

in the

legs of the water-beetle, the

confined to the elements of air

former home, yet the conditions

changed

generall) be

we wished

to increase

way

to

in

to

modify

we should have

to give

in

tage over a different set of competitors or enemies. It

is

good thus

to

try

in

our imagination to

some advantage over another. Probno single instance should we know what

give any form

ably in

to do, so as to succeed.

It

w ill convince us of our

ignorance on the mutual relations of

doubt stands

beings; a conviction as necessary, as

being

already thickly clothed by other plants; so that the

seeds

may be w idely

distributed and

fall

on unoccu-

pied ground. In the water-beetle, the structure of its

w ell adapted

legs, so

for diving, allow s

with other aquatic insects, to hunt for

and

it

to

its

compete

own

prey,

to escape serving as prey to other animals.

relation to other plants.

But from the strong growth

keep steadily

at

to

to

is

that each organic being

is

some period of its

life,

during some season of the

year, during each generation or at intervals, has to

When we

and

life,

on

reflect

ourselves with the is

to suffer great destruction.

full belief, that

healthy, and the

prompt,

we may console

this struggle,

not incessant, that no fear

and beans), w hen sown

midst of long grass,

organic

seems

striving to increase at a geometrical ratio; that each

generally

in the

mind

in

of young plants produced from such seeds (as peas

I

all it

be difficult to acquire. All that we can do,

struggle for

The store of nutriment laid up w ithin the seeds of many plants seems at first sight to have no sort of

native

its

some advan-

it

and water. Yet the advantage of plumed seeds no in the closest relation to the land

in its

in a different

it

what we should ha\e done

country; for

ot its

an essential manner.

average numbers

its

new home, we should have

body. But in the

plumed seed of the dandelion, and

beautifully

relation

tiger's

as in its

life will

and

that

is

the war of nature that death

felt,

the

vigorous,

is

the

happy survive and multiply.

suspect that the chief use of the nutriment in the

seed

is

to favour the

grow th of the young seedling,

whilst struggling with other plants growing vigor-

ously

Look does

at a plant in the

midst of

its

not double or quadruple

it

We know

that

it

or cold,

where

ranges

it

plant the

range, w hy

numbers?

dampness or dryness,

into

slightly

hotter

or drier districts. In this case

see that if

its

can perfectly well withstand a

more heat

damper

Natural Selection

around.

all

little

for else-

or colder,

we can

clearly

it

low w

ill

the struggle for existence, discussed too

Can is

the principle of selection,

w hich we have seen

so potent in the hands of man, apply in nature.'

think

we

Let

be borne

it

shall see that in

mind

it

in

I

can act most effectually.

what an endless number

in imagination to give the

of strange peculiarities our domestic productions,

in number, we should some advantage over its competitors,

and, in a lesser degree, those under nature, vary;

we wished

power of increasing

have to give

I

briefly in the last section, act in regard to variation.-

or over the animals which preyed on

it.

On

the

and how strong the hereditary tendency domestication,

it

may be

is.

truly said that the

Under whole

Charles Darwin organisation becomes in

be borne in mind the

are

fitting

some degree

Let

plastic.

how infinitely complex and mutual relations of

it

close-

life.

Can

it,

then, be thought improbable, seeing

man

that variations useful to

have undoubtedly

occurred, that other variations useful in to each life,

some way

being in the great and complex battle of

should sometimes occur

in the

course of thou-

sands of generations.'' If such do occur, can

we

We

have reason to believe, as stated in the

chapter, that a change in the conditions of

the conditions of

gone

a

able to natural selection,

would have the best chance of surviving

others,

and of procreating

we may

their

kind.''

On

the other hand,

sure that any variation in the least

feel

by giving

Not

of variability

I

any extreme amount

believe,

necessary; as

is

man

produce great results by adding up

mere individual

direction

Nature, but

far

more

that

any great physical change,

be affected by natural selection, and would be

places for natural selection to

we

see

left a

in

the

species called polymorphic.

We shall best understand

Nor do

I

believe

as of climate, or

any

fill

up by modifying

of each country are strugghng

together with nicely balanced forces, extremely

natural selection by taking the case of a country

slight modifications in the structure or habits

undergoing some physical change, for instance, of

one inhabitant would often give

climate.

ants

The

proportional numbers of

its

would almost immediately undergo

and some species might become

we have

conclude, from what

and complex manner

in

inhabit-

a change,

extinct.

We may

seen of the intimate

which the inhabitants of

each country are bound together, that any change in the numerical proportions of ants,

some of the

inhabit-

independently of the change of climate

would seriously

affect

country were open on certainly immigrate,

many

its

and

itself,

of the others. If the

borders,

new forms would

this also

would seriously

disturb the relations of some of the former inhabitants.

Let

it

ence of a single

been shown of

a

how powerful the influintroduced tree or mammal has

be remembered

to be.

But

in the case

of an island, or

country partly surrounded by barriers, into

which new and better adapted forms could not freely enter,

we should then have

places in the

economy of nature which would assuredly be better filled up, if some of the original inhabitants were in some manner modified; for, had the area been open to immigration, these same places would have been seized

on by intruders. In such

case, every slight

modification, which in the course of ages chanced to arise,

and which

in

any way favoured the indi-

over others; and

still

No

further increase the

still

country can be named in which

the native inhabitants are to

now

each other and to the physical conditions under

which they

live, that

improved; for in

all

so far conquered

none of them could anyhow be countries, the native have been

by naturalised productions, that

they have allowed foreigners to take firm possession

And as foreigners have thus everywhere we may safely conclude

of the land.

beaten some of the natives, that the natives

might have been modified with

advantage, so as to have better resisted such intruders.

As man can produce and a great result

means of

by

selection,

certainly has

what may not Nature

effect.''

Man can act only on external and visible characters: Nature cares nothing far as

they

may be

for appearances, except in so

useful to any being.

She can

act

on every internal organ, on every shade of constitutional difference,

Man

on the whole machinery of life.

selects only for his

that of the being

character

is

own

good; Nature only for

which she tends. Every selected

fully exercised

by her; and the being

many

is

life.

Man

climates in the

same

keeps the natives of

be

produced

methodical and unconscious

his

them

to

all

so perfectly adapted

placed under well-suited conditions of

would tend

of

an advantage

further modifications of the

same kind would often advantage.

it

viduals of any of the species, by better adapting to their altered conditions,

is

and improving some of the varying inhabitants. For as all the inhabitants

the probable course of

could

so

produce new and unoccupied

actually necessary to

element, as perhaps

any given

unusual degree of isolation to check immigration,

Variations neither useful nor injurious would not

fluctuating

in

from having incompar-

easily,

ably longer time at her disposal.

Natural Selection.

can certainly

differences,

preservation of favourable variations and the rejecI call

chance

do occur, natural selection can do

that, as

degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This

tion of injurious variations,

a better

of profitable variations occurring; and unless prof-

nothing.

over

are supposed to have under-

life

change, and this would manifestly be favour-

itable variations

slight,

by

or increases variability; and in the foregoing case

doubt (remembering that many more individuals

however

first

life,

on the reproductive system, causes

specially acting

are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage,

work of improvement.

free scope for the

organic

all

beings to each other and to their physical conditions

of

preserved; and natural selection would thus have

The Origin of Species countrN,

scklom t\fn.iscs each sckcltil

Ik-

ttr in soiiK' peculiar aiul

long and

tittiiii;

quadruped

feeds a

l(H)

much

so, that

on parts of the Cxjntineni ixrsons arc warned not to keep white pigean we wonder, then,

whereas

a

beetle, a curculio,

a

certain disease than yellow

another

disease

attacks

than

plums;

yellow -fleshed

more than those with other coloured

that Nature's productions should be far 'truer' in

peaches

character than man's productions; that they should

flesh.' If,

be infinitely better adapted to the most complex

ences

conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp

several varieties, assuredly, in a state of nature,

of

may

It

metaphorically be said that natural selec-

and hourly scrutinising, throughout

daily

tion

is

the

world,

every

up

that

all

is

even the

variation,

w hich

rejecting that

is

bad, preserving and adding

improvement of each organic being nothing of these slow changes

offers, at the

in relation to its

organic and inorganic conditions of

life.

We

see

in progress, until

hand of time has marked the long lapse of and then so imperfect

ages,

past geological ages, that

of

slightest;

good; silently and insensibly working,

whenever and wherever opportunity

the

life

are

now

different

is

our view into long

we only

see that the forms

from w hat they formerly

Although natural selection can for the

structures, trifling

see

make

trees

trees

and w ith

would

all

the aids of art, these slight differ-

a great difference in cultivating the

would have

which

effectually settle

smooth or downy,

to struggle with other

of enemies, such differences

a host

a yellow or

variety,

act only

through

good of each being, yet characters and

which we are apt

importance,

leaf-eating

to consider as of very

may thus be acted on. When we

insects

green,

and bark-feeders

whether

purple fleshed

In looking at

many

small points of difference

between species, which,

as far as

our ignorance

permits us to judge, seem quite unimportant,

must not

produce .some

slight

and direct

effect. It

is,

tied

through variation, and the modifications are

good of the

for the

being, will cause other modifications, often of the

most unexpected nature.

As we

see that those variations

domestication appear life,

at

which under

any particular period of

tend to reappear in the offspring

at

the

the red-grouse the colour of heather, and the black-

varieties of

believe that

these tints are of service to these birds and insects

them from danger. Grouse, if not some period of their lives, would in-

in preserving

destroyed at

crease in countless numbers; they are suffer largely

known

to

from birds of prey; and hawks are

how-

more necessary to bear in mind that there are many unknown laws of correlation of grow th, w hich, when one part of the organisation is modi-

ever, far

period; - for instance, in the seeds of the

we must

we

forget that climate, food, etc., probably

mottled-grey; the alpine ptarmigan w hite in w inter,

grouse that of peaty earth,

a

fruit,

should succeed.

accumulated by natural selection

were.

and

with

where the

higher w orkmanship.'

far

far

same

many

our culinary and agricultural plants;

in

the caterpillar and cocoon stages of the varieties of the silkworm; in the eggs of poultry, and in the

colour of the

.\ndre\v fruit trees.

down

of their chickens; in the horns of

Downing (1815

52),

.\merican botanist of

L

Charles Darwin our sheep and

cattle

when

nearly adult; - so in a

state of nature, natural selection will

act

on and modify organic beings

at

be enabled to

any age, by the

accumulation of variations profitable

and by it

their inheritance at a

profit a plant to

have

its

at that age,

with weak beaks would inevitably

beaks, for

all

perish: or,

more

shells

might be

being

known

and more

delicate

broken

easily

selected, the thickness of the shell

to vary like every other structure.

.

.

corresponding age. If

more and more

seeds

widely disseminated by the wind,

can see no

I

Recapitulation and Conclusion

greater difficulty in this being effected through

natural selection, than in the cotton-planter in-

down in Natural selection may

As

this

whole volume

is

one long argument,

may

it

creasing and improving by selection the

be convenient to the reader to have the leading facts

the pods on his cotton-trees.

and inferences

modify and adapt the larva of an insect

contingencies, wholly different from those which

concern the mature

no doubt

will

affect,

insect.

These modifications

through the laws of correl-

ation, the structure of the adult;

and probably in the

briefly recapitulated.

That many and

to a score of

serious objections

may be

ad-

vanced against the theory of descent with modification through natural selection,

do not deny.

I

endeavoured to give to them their ing at

full force.

I

have

Noth-

can appear more difficult to believe

first

case of those insects which live only for a few hours,

than that the more complex organs and instincts

and which never

should have been perfected, not by means superior

is

feed, a large part of their structure

merely the correlated result of successive changes

to,

though analogous with, human reason, but by

So, conversely,

the accumulation of innumerable slight variations,

modifications in the adult will probably often affect

each good for the individual possessor. Neverthe-

in the structure of their larvae.

the structure of the larva; but in

all

cases natural

selection will ensure that modifications consequent

on other modifications shall not

became

be in the

least

at a different

period of

degree injurious: for

life,

they

if

they would cause the extinction of the

so,

real if we

-

Natural selection will modify the structure of the in relation to the parent,

and of the parent

in

to

our im-

admit the following propositions, namely,

that gradations in the perfection of any organ or

instinct

which we may consider, either do now

or could have existed, each good of

species.

young

though appearing

less, this difficulty,

agination insuperably great, cannot be considered

all

its

kind,

exist

-

that

organs and instincts are, in ever so slight a

degree,

variable,

- and,

that

lastly,

there

a

is

adapt

struggle for existence leading to the preservation

the structure of each individual for the benefit of the

of each profitable deviation of structure or instinct.

community;

The

relation to the young. In social animals

if

do,

is

species;

found case

What

natural selection cannot

modify the structure of one

to

it

in

to this effect

works of natural history, will bear investigation.

only once in an animal's whole

importance to

by natural

species,

I

cannot find one

might be modified

it,

may be

A structure life,

to

if

truth of these propositions cannot,

disputed.

.

.

I

think, be

.

w ith-

any advantage, for the good of another

and though statements

which

will

each in consequence profits by

the selected change.

out giving

it

used

of high

any extent

selection; for instance, the great jaws

Although

I

am

convinced of the truth of the

fully

view s given in this volume under the form of an abstract,

I

by no means expect

convince experi-

to

enced naturalists whose minds are stocked w ith multitude of facts of years, from mine.

It is

a

all

a

viewed, during a long course

point of view directly opposite to

so easy to hide our ignorance under such

possessed by certain insects, used exclusively for opening the cocoon - or the hard tip to the beak of

expressions as the 'plan of creation', 'unity of

nestling birds, used for breaking the egg.

ation

been

asserted,

that

of the

best

It

has

short-beaked

design', etc.,

and

disposition leads

we

give an explan-

restate a fact.

Any one whose

to think that

when we only

him

to attach

more weight

to

tumbler-pigeons more perish in the egg than are

unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of

able to get out of it; so that fanciers assist in the act

a certain

of hatching. a full-grown

Now,

if

nature had to

make

the beak of

pigeon very short for the bird's

own

theory.

number of

A

flexibility

facts will certainly reject

few naturalists, endowed with of mind, and

who have

already begun to

advantage, the process of modification would be

doubt on the immutability of species, may be

very slow, and there would be simultaneously the

enced by

this

volume; but

I

my

much influ-

look with confidence to

who w ill

most rigorous selection of the young birds within

the future, to

the egg, which had the most powerful and hardest

be able to view both sides of the question with

young and

rising naturalists,

The Origin of Species inipartialiiN

\\hoc\cr

.

arc mutable

\n ill

kvl to

is

do muKl

lHlu\f

that spcciis

scr\ jcc In loiiscicniiouslN

cvprcssini; his conviction; tor onl\ thus can the loail

of prejudice b> which this subject

be removed.

.

.

o\er\\

is

helmed

.

Autht)rs of the highest eminence

seem

to be fullx

.1

secure future

progress towards perfec-

will tenil to

To mv mind it accords we know of the laws impressed

bank, clothed with

production and

It

IS

interesting to contemplate an entangled

many

insects flitting about,

world should have been due

through the

those determining

like

the individual. \\ hen

view

I

birth

the all

and death of

beings not as special

creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few

beings which lived long before the

bed of

first

the Silurian system was deposited, they

seem

to

me

to become ennobled." Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will

transmit

its

unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.

.\nd of the species

now

progeny of any kind the

manner

in

w hich

tinct.

can so

kinds,

claborateK

damp

and with worms crawling

earth,

and

to reflect that these

constructed forms, so different from

each other, and dependent on each other

complex

a

manner, ha\e

laws acting around

us.

all

in

so

been produced by

These laws, taken

in

the

largest sense, being

(irowth with Reproduction;

Inheritance, which

almost implied by reproduc-

tion; \ ariability,

is

from the indirect and direct action

of the external conditions of

life,

and from use and

disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a

to a far distant futurity; for

Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural

organic beings are grouped,

Selection, entailing Divergence of (Character and

all

that the greater

We

many

living very few will transmit

number of species of each genus, and all the species of many genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly exshow s

plants of

with birds singing on the bushes, with various

extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the to .secondary causes,

In ami for

ciulownunis

independent l>

that the

solel\

corporeal and mental

all

tion.

on matter by the Creator,

works

the gocKl of each being,

view that each species has been

created.

whole

some confidence

inappreciable length.

ec]uall\

«>f

the

desolatcil

look with

\iul as natural selection

satisfied with the

better with what

has

lUiue we ma\

worKI lo

cataiKsm

no

ihai

far take a

futurity as to foretell that

it

prophetic glance into

w ill be the common and

the

Extinction

of less-improved

forms.

Thus,

from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which

we

are capable of

conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.

There

is

grandeur

in this

widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and

view of

dominant groups, w hich w ill ultimately prevail and

originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms

procreate living

new and dominant

forms of

life

As

life,

with

or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone

are the lineal descendants of

cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity,

all

from so simple

we may

beautiful and

feel certain that

the ordinary succession

by generation has never once been broken, and

The

several powers, having been

the

species.

those which lived long before the Silurian epoch,

Silurian system

fossil-containing rocks.

its

is

an early Palaeozoic stratum of

a

beginning endless forms most

most wonderful have been, and are

being, evolved.

I

Charles Baudelaire Charles

Baudelaire

(1821-67),

controversial

Parisian poet and critic of the arts,

was the first to

use the term "modernity" (modernite), in the essay "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863). For Baudelaire modernity is the attitude or sensibility of the urban flaneur or idler, the non-productive aesthete who embodies the sensibility of the outdoor cafe, that vantage point from which the passingcarnival of city life can be observed. Most famous for the collection of poems, r/7e Flowers of Evil, for which he was legally charged with offending public morality,

Baudelaire revolutionized

French poetry

with his realistic attention to the disorder and depravity of urban

life, in

which he nevertheless saw

Artist,

Man of the World, Man

M.

draws the

all

is

art,

M. G.

in a

is

and who

own novels, one day London review, much to the who regarded the matter as an

irritation

of the

latter

outrage to his modesty.

when he heard

that

I

And

again quite recently,

was proposing

to

make an

assessment of his mind and talent, he begged me, in a

most peremptory manner,

to suppress his

and

to discuss his

the

works of some anonymous person.

humbly obey proceed

works only

odd

this as

request.

will discuss his

for

which he professes

name,

though they were

The

I

will

reader and

though M. G. did not

we

as

as

exist,

I

and

drawings and his water-colours,

would

a

a patrician's disdain, in the

group of scholars faced with

the task of assessing the importance of a

Crowds, and Child

known,

well

things to do with

illustrations for his

spoke of

same way

of

Thackeray, who, as

very interested in

will

a characteristically modern beauty.

An

incognito, and carries his originality to the point of

modesty.

number of

precious historical documents which chance has

Today I want to talk to my readers about a singular man, whose originality is so powerful and clear-cut that

it is

self-sufficing,

and does not bother

to look

None of his drawings is signed, if by we mean the few letters, which can be so

for approval.

signature

easily forged, that

many

compose

a

name, and that so

other artists grandly inscribe at the bottom

of their most carefree sketches. But

all

his

works are

signed with his dazzling soul, and art-lovers

have seen and liked them

from the description

I

will recognize

them

brought

conscience completely, all

the things

nalist.

my

to reassure

my

readers assume that

have to say about the

artist's

nature,

so strangely and mysteriously dazzling, have been

more

or less accurately suggested by the works in

question; pure poetic hypothesis, conjecture, or

imaginative reconstructions.

who

propose to give of them.

M. Charles Baudelaire, from "The Painter of Modern Life" (trans.

Guys

I

And even let

easily

C. G.' loves mixing with the crowds, loves being Constantin

and the author of which must for

to light,

ever remain unknown.

(1802-92), Parisian painter and jour-

P.

E.

Writings on Art

Charvet)

and

1992, sections 3-4,

in

Baudelaire: Selected

Literature,

pp.

395-406.

London: Penguin,

"The Painter Ci

\1.

an

IS

man.

t)kl

|can-|ati|ius"

l>ci;an

uriting. so thc\ sa\,ai ihcagcot torl\-i\\(> Perhaps

was

it

about that

at

world

M.

aijc that

of iiiiaiics that

obstsscil h\ the

(i.,

up

his niiiul, pluckcil

f'llltil

what goes on \\

uh two

laubourg

the

lage pub-talkers with the

paper. To be honest, he drew like a barbarian, like a

kins

clumsy fmgers and

disobedient

tool.

haNe seen

1

these early scribblings, and

who know what

people

who

claim

number

large

a

admit that most

1

his of

could, without shame, have failed to

to,

dw elt in these obscure M. G., who has discovered

unaided

i'oday,

the

all

little

of the trade, and w ho

tricks

has taught himself, without help or advice, has

become

pow erful master

a

in his

ow n way; of

his

mmds

Thus

that curiosity

this:

is

Do a

\ou remember

this age

and entitled

Mtin

7 he

he happens upon one of these efforts of

manner, he

tears

up or burns

it

w ith

it,

a

most amusing show of shame and indignation. For ten whole years quaintance of

convalescent

is

for a long time

illustrated

in

I

as

ting everything, he

w ants

knew

that he

out into

I

it

had appeared en-

have thus been able to 'read'

and

and daily

a detailed

also

lished (without signature, as before) a large

of compositions by this

tity

ballets

and operas.

saw

once that

I

artist

at

\\ I

hen

artist

at last

I

ran

pub-

quan-

Now

man

context, pray interpret the

'artist' in a

very

narrow sense, and the expression 'man of the world' in a very

broad one. By 'man of the world',

man

of the whole world, a

the

world

and

reasons behind specialist, a soil.

M. G.

man who

the

mysterious

all its

customs; by

man

I

mean

a

understands

and

legitimate

'artist',

I

mean

a

tied to his palette like a serf to the

does not Hke being called an

not justified to a small extent? in everything the

He

artist. Is

he

takes an interest

world over, he wants

to

know,

understand, assess everything that happens on the surface of our spheroid.

even not he "

The

at all, in intellectual

lives in the

artist

and

moves

little,

or

political circles. If

perpetually in the spiritual

artist

key to the character of

But convalescence

The

M. G. return to childhood.

like a

is

convalescent, like the child, enjoys to the

highest degree the faculty of taking a lively interest

us hark back,

of the world. In this

word

imagine an

in things,

w as not dealing exactly w ith an

but rather with a

had

condition of the convalescent, and you will have the

him

ground

sight of,

him. Curiosity had become a

compelling, irresistible passion.

from the new to

the spores and

which he had caught

face,

in a flash fascinated

account, infinitely preferable to any other, of the

Crimean campaign. The same paper had

all

remembers and passionately remember everything. In the end he rushes the crow d in search of a man unknow n to

him whose

have seen a considerable life,

to

all

he has been on the point of forget-

the ac-

mass of these on-the-spot drawings from I

odours of life;

thought with

the shades of death

with delight

a great

gravings from his travel sketches (Spain, Turkey, the Crimea). Since then

in

in

mo\ing around him. He has

come back from

and breathes

make

to

been working for an English

paper and that

only recently

a

enjoying the sight of the passing

is

by nature

wanted

I

who

G.,

and very cosmopolitan.

traveller

had

M.

is

it

»/ the C.rawjy^ Sitting

the thoughts that are

When

first

and looking through the shop window,

in a cafe,

crowd, and identifying himself

his early

the

most powerful pen of

abundant

gift.

(j.,

ma> be con-

picture (for indeed

a

picture!) written by the

what was

to his

man

sidered the starting point of his genius.

needed

add an unexpected spice

vil-

bum|v

bore to the

a

understand W.

to begin to

early artlessness he has retained only to

country

of

becomes

limits, quickly

thing to note

discern the latent genius that

beginnings,

unneccs-

the world, to the spiritual citi/en of the universe.

of the

they are talking about, or

is

Iheir talk, ineMtably enclosed within \ery

narrow ot

it

are, let us face

mere manual labourers,

Ner> skilleil brutes,

couravic t«)cast ink ami colours on to a sheet of white

child, angrily chiding his

Life"

.Sauit-Ciermain.'"

which

or three exceptions,

name, the majorit\ of artists

sar> to it,

in

Modern

of

even the most if

we

trivial in

appearance. Let

can, by a retrospective effort of

our imaginations, to our youngest, our morning impressions, and

we

shall recognize that they

w ere

remarkably akin to the vividly coloured impressions that illness, ties

we

received later on after a physical

provided that

illness left

pure and unimpaired.

thing as a novelty; the child

Nothing

is

more

like

our spiritual facul-

The

w hat we

child sees every-

is

call

always 'drunk'. inspiration than

the joy the child feels in drinking in shape and colour.

I

w ill venture

that inspiration has tion, that

a

more

go even further and declare

to

some connection with conges-

every sublime thought

is

accompanied by

or less vigorous nervous impulse that rever-

berates in the cerebral cortex.

The man

of genius

has strong nerves; those of the child are weak. In

Breda quarter he knows nothing of

Rousseau.

"

A less, and a more, posh quarter of Paris, respectively.

into

By Edgar Allan Poe,

in his

French bv Baudelaire.

Tales (1845), translated

Charles Baudelaire

assumed an important

the one, reason has the

in

whole being. But genius recaptured

mind

sum

the

that

it

to bring order into

animal-like in

its

must be attributed ecstasy, which all

when confronted with something may be, face or landscape, light,

children have

new, whatever

it

watered

colours,

silk,

enchantment of

A

beauty, enhanced by the arts of dress.

mine was

amassed.

involuntarily

joyful curiosity

telling

friend of

me one day how, as a small boy,

he

used to be present when his father was dressing,

and how he had always been ment, mixed with delight,

with astonish-

filled

he looked

as

with a certain dislike of those things that go to

make up

at

the

arm

kingdom of the metaphys-

the intangible

Let us therefore reduce him to the status of

ician.

La

the pure pictorial moralist, like

The crowd

and with the

to express itself,

of experience,

stare,

gilding,

no more than childhood

is

that enables

To this deep and

the

childhood equipped now with

at will,

man's physical means analytical

role;

almost

occupies

sensibiUty

other,

domain,

his

is

and water that of the

bird's,

his profession

is

Bruyere.'

just as the air fish.

is

the

His passion and

merge with the crowd. For the

to

perfect idler, for the passionate observer

it

becomes

an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting

and the

from home and yet

to feel at

To

infinite.

be away

home anywhere;

to

see the world, to be at the very centre of the world,

and yet

be unseen of the world, such are some of

to

the minor pleasures of those independent, intense

and impartial

spirits,

who do

not lend themselves

The

easily to linguistic definitions.

observer

is

a

muscle, the colour tones of the skin tinged with rose

prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes.

and yellow, and the bluish network of the

The

The

beginning to possession

him with

fill

fate

was showing the

was

settled.

famous

Need

tip

and

respect,

to take

Already the shape of

of his brain.

things obsessed and possessed him.

I

veins.

picture of the external world was already

A

precocious

of its nose. His damnation

say that, today, the child

I

is

a

was asking you

just

now

to think of M.

G.

as an

man possessing

think of him also as a man-child, as a

moment

every

words I

the genius of childhood, in other

a genius for

told

you that

whom no edge of life is blunted.

I

was unwilling

to call

and that he himself rejected

artist,

modesty tinged with

him

this title,

aristocratic restraint.

I

a

pure

all

would have

of character and a subtle understand-

the moral

mechanisms of this world;

from another aspect, the dandy aspires

way

M.

but,

to cold de-

who

tachment, and

it is

dominated,

ever anyone was, by an insatiable

if

in this

that

G.,

passion, that of seeing and feeling, parts

trenchantly with dandyism.

Augustine.

'I

Amabam

to be, as a matter of policy

and

art

me when

amare, said St

I

is

M. G.

blase, or affects

class attitude.

hates blase people. Sophisticated

stand

minds

will

M. G. under-

say that he possesses that difficult

of being sincere without being ridiculous.

would

the lover of universal

willingly confer

on him the

pher, to which he has a right for

title

I

of philoso-

more than one

who

are

life

moves

into the

He, the lover of

may

life,

most

plastic form, inspires

him

com-

also be

pared to a mirror as vast as this crowd; to a kaleidoscope endowed with consciousness, which with every one of life,

all

in

its

movements presents compose

the elements that go to

in energies

a pattern of

and the flowing grace of

multiplicity,

all its

more

vivid than

it

one of those

said, in

talks

every

at

life

always inconstant and fleeting. 'Any man',

once

an ego

life. It is

and reflecting

he rendered

itself,

M. G.

mem-

orable by the intensity of his gaze, and by his

eloquence of gesture, 'any

down with

a

faculties,

and who

crowd,

a fool!

is

When,

as

man who

sorrow so searching

A

is

is

as to

not weighed

touch

his

all

bored in the midst of the

fool!

and

he wakes up,

I

despise him!'

M. G. opens

sees the sun beating vibrantly at his

his eyes

and

window-panes,

he says to himself with remorse and regret: 'What an imperative

command! What a fanfare of light! Light

everywhere in sleep!

light that

for several

hours past! Light

I

have

I

off he goes!

in

And And he watches the flow of life move by,

could have seen and have failed

majestic and

dazzling.

He

to!'

admires the eternal

beauty and the astonishing harmony of

'

lost

and endless numbers of things bathed

life

reason; but his excessive love of visible, tangible things, in their

im-

though into an enormous reservoir of

as

electricity.

company

love passion, passionately,'

might willingly echo. The dandy

is

he has found, from

enchanted world of dreams painted on canvas.

Thus

moment

for that

into his

possible to find, just as the picture-lover lives in an

would

word 'dandy' implies

ing of

women

the lovely

all

those that could be found, and those

athirst for the non-ego,

w illingly call him a dandy, and

I

makes the whole world

life

with a

a sheaf of good reasons; for the a quintessence

from

his

crowd

painter.

eternal convalescent; to complete your idea of him,

at

lover of

family, just as the lover of the fair sex creates

Jean La Bruyere (1645-96), French moralist.

in the

"The Painter capital Litiis, a harmoiiN

taiiud in ihc tumult

the landscape ot the

power

the

to

express lIuniseKes

others are sleeping, this

j;rcat cit\,

lanJscapcs of stone,

table, his stead\ ga/e

in the mist,

the sun.

enjoys

le

main-

i

full lace

proud

equipa^;es,

same ga/e

the

un

man a

Modern

of

Life'

now, whilst

\ih1

leaning over his

is

sheet of paper, exactly

as he directed just

now

at

the things

about him, branilishing his pencil, his pen, his

horses, the spit a\u\ polish of the jirooms, the skilful

brush, splashing water from the glass up to the

handling h\ the paire hoNs, the smooth rhythmical

ceiling, wi|)ing his

gait

of the women, the heaut\ of the children,

the joy of

life

and proud

clothes; in short,

peacocks

as

universal.

life

full

of their prett>

If in

if

dethroned by

rosettes,

and chignons have come down of the neck,

become

have been raised and

if waist-lines

fuller,

you may be sure that from

off his eagle's eye will have detected

marches by, maybe on

way

its

and

lively as

it.

skirts

w ay

a long

A

regiment

ends of the

to the

w ith

earth, filling the air of the boulevard airs, as light

born again on the paper, natural and more than

on the nape

a little

its

might escape him, quarrelsome though alone, and

modi-

bonnets have widened

if

shirt, hurried, vig-

driving himself relentlessly on. .\nd things seen arc

and curls have been

clusters of ribbons

pen on his

orous, active, as though he was afraid the images

of

shift

a

fashion, the cut of a dress has been slightly fled,

of

martial

hope; and sure enough

M.

natural, beautiful

and better than beautiful, strange

and endowed with an enthusiastic of

their

The weird

creator.

from nature.

distilled

higgledypiggledy

the

.All

are

been

has

stored

materials,

memory,

by

the soul

life, like

pageant

classified,

ordered, harmonized, and undergo that deliberate

which

idealization,

is

the product of a childlike

perceptiveness, in other words a percepti\eness that

is

acute and magical by

its

very ingenuousness.

G. has already seen, inspected and analysed the

weapons and the bearing of troops.

Harness,

highlights,

whole body of

this

mien, heavy and grim mustachios, flood chaotically into him; and

determined

bands,

Modernity

these details

all

w ithin a few minutes

.And so, walking or quickening his pace, he goes his

poem that comes with it all is virtually composed. And then his soul w ill vibrate w ith the soul of

way, for ever

the regiment, marching as though

him,

the

creature,

proud image of joy and

it

were one living

when

the sky draws

the city lights go on.

The

its

curtains and

gaslight stands out

on the

men

purple background of the setting sun. Honest or crooked customers, w ise or irresponsible,

saying to themselves: 'The day

Good men and bad and each hurries

done

is

all

are

at last!'

turn their thoughts to pleasure,

to his favourite

cup of oblivion. M. G.

will

haunt

be the

to drink the

last to

this solitary

leave any

men, has a

a nobler

for

want of

question.

a better

The aim

his eye

music sounds;

human passion offers a subject to where natural man and conventional man

reveal themselves in strange beauty,

w here the rays

for

We may

have described

the fleeting pleasure for that indefinable

to call 'modernity',

term to express the idea

him

the poetry that resides in

is

its

to extract

in

from fashion

historical envelope, to

we

cast

our

eye over our exhibitions of modern pictures,

we

distil

the eternal from the transitory. If

be struck by the general tendency of our

to clothe all

pulsates,

1

that of the pure idler,

He is looking something we may be allowed

where poetry echoes, a

aim than

of circumstance.

shall

life

of what?

mortal endowed with an active

more general aim, other than

place where the departing glories of daylight linger,

any place w here

in search. In search

assured that this man, such as

imagination, always roaming the great desert of

discipline!

But evening comes. The witching hour, the uncertain light,

rest

manner of subjects in all of them use the

the past. Almost

artists

the dress of

fashions and

the furnishings of the Renaissance, as David used

Roman

fashions and furnishings, but there

is

this

of the dying sun play on the fleeting pleasure of the

difference, that David, having chosen subjects pe-

'depraved animal!'"

culiarly

murmurs

well-known

to

enough genius few

men

all

there, to be sure,

'\\ ell,

well filled,'

a

day

of us; 'each one of us has surely

to

have the

fill

gift

it

in

depraved animal" {Discourse on

Among Men^

the

same way.' No!

of seeing; fewer

Rousseau's phrase: ''The

of Inequality

is

to himself a type of reader

man who the Origin

Part One).

still

meditates

have

is

Greek or Roman, could not do otherwise

than present them in the style of antiquity, whereas the painters of today, choosing, as they do, subjects

of a general nature, applicable to

on dressing them up

all

ages,

will

in the fashion

of the

Middle Ages, of the Renaissance, or of the

East.'"

insist

a

and Foundations

'"

Jacques

Louis

classical painter.

David

(1748-1825),

French

neo-

Charles Baudelaire This

evidently sheer laziness; for

is

much more

it is

convenient to state roundly that everything

hope-

is

ugly in the dress of a period than to apply

lessly

oneself to the task of extracting the mysterious

may be hidden there, however small may be. Modernity is the transient, the

But

Versailles, for example).

extended. In a unity

we

can be yet further

it

call a

nation, the profes-

sions, the social classes, the successive centuries,

introduce variety not only in gestures and manners,

beauty that

but also in the general outlines of

or light

such

it

contingent;

the

fleeting,

one half of

is

it

art,

a nose,

mouth, forehead,

Such and

faces.

be standard for a

will

given interval of time, the length of which

the other being the eternal and the immovable.

not claim to determine here, but which

There was

tainly

form of modernity

a

for every painter

of the past; the majority of the fine portraits that

remain

from former times are clothed

to us

in the

own day. They are perfectly harmoni-

dress of their

shall

I

may

cer-

be a matter of calculation. Such ideas are not

familiar

enough

to portrait painters;

weakness of M. Ingres,

and the great

in particular, is the desire to

impose on every type that

him

sits for

a

more or

less

ous works because the dress, the hairstyle, and even

complete process of improvement, in other words

the gesture, the expression and the smile (each age

despotic perfecting process, borrowed from the

has

and

carriage, its expression

its

its

smile) form a

You have no

right to despise

this transitory fleeting element, the

metamorphoses

whole,

full

of

vitality.

of w hich are so frequent, nor to dispense w ith

you do, you inevitably

fall

and indefinable beauty,

abstract

and only

woman

of the one

like that

nonsense that only

necessarily right, you

is

you are guilty of

substitute another,

can

If

of the time before the Fall. If for

the dress of the day, which

fashion

it.

into the emptiness of an

Thus

excuse.

a piece of

imposed by

a fancy-dress ball

the

goddesses,

the

a

store of classical ideas.

In a matter such as this, a priori reasoning

The

be easy and even legitimate.

between what

ation

called the

body

is

is

a quite satisfactory explanation of

how what is material

or emanates from the spiritual

and w ill alw ays

reflects

and what

called the soul

is

w ould

perpetual correl-

reflect the spiritual force

it

derives from. If a painter, patient and scrupulous

but with only inferior imaginative power, were

commissioned

to paint a courtesan of today, and,

for this purpose,

were

to get his inspiration (to use

nymphs, and sultanas of the eighteenth century

the hallowed term) from a courtesan by Titian or

are portraits in the spirit of their day.

Raphael, the odds are that his work would be

No doubt it is an excellent discipline to study the old masters, in order to learn how^ to paint, but

can be no more than

aim

fraudulent, ambiguous, and difficult to understand.

The

study of a masterpiece of that date and of that

your

kind will not teach him the carriage, the gaze, the

understand the beauty of the present day.

come-hitherishness, or the living representation of

draperies of Rubens or Veronese will not teach

one of these creatures that the dictionary of fashion

is

The

it

to

you how la retne

superfluous exercise

if

to paint watered silk a /'antique, or satin a

or any other fabric produced by our mills,

supported by

a

swaying crinoline, or petticoats of

starched muslin.

same

a

The

texture and grain are not the

as in the fabrics of old Venice, or those

at the

court of Catherine.'"'

cut of the skirt and bodice

We may

is

today give her dress

add that the

absolutely different,

that the pleats are arranged into a finally that the gesture

new

pattern,

and carriage of the

a vitality

worn

and

and

woman of

a character that

woman of former ages. In short, any form of modernity may be worthy

under the

has, in rapid succession, pigeonholed

coarse or light-hearted rubric of unchaste, kept

women,

Lorettes.""

The same remark

applies precisely to the study

of the soldier, the dandy, and even animals, dogs or

and of

horses,

external

life

all

things that go to

of an age.

Woe

make up

betide the

the

man who

goes to antiquity for the study of anything other

than ideal

art, logic

and general method! By im-

mersing himself too deeply

in

it,

he will no longer

are not those of the

have the present in his mind's eye; he throws away

in order that

the value and the privileges afforded by circum-

of becoming antiquity, the mysterious beauty that

stance; for nearly

human

stamp

life

unintentionally puts into

been extracted from

it.

It is this

it

must have

task that

M. G.

particularly addresses himself to. I

have said that every age has

expression,

its

gestures.

its

own

carriage,

its

This proposition may be one

at

Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (168-4—1727).

verify

my

objects other than for

our originality comes from the

upon our

assertions

from

w ho, having to represent

Women

I

could

innumerable

women. What would you

example, of a marine painter

case)

sensibility.

reader will readily understand that

easily

easily verified in a large portrait gallery (the

(l05)

The

all

that time impresses

of suspect "virtue"

(I

say,

take an extreme

the sober and elegant

"The Painter Ih'.iuin of a

m

nioikrii \tsstl, were

itt iin.-

monununial complex

slcrn, ot ships ot hxiioiu- aucs, aiul the

sails aiul riiiiiinu: ol

the sixteenth ceimiiN-

Ancl what woiiUI >oii think ot an

commissioned

to

do the

he were to

were

thorough-

portrait ot a

restrict his studies to

to content

\ou had

at list

bred, celebrated in the solemn annals if

his c\ts

oiii

the sIikIn ot ihc oNcrliMiltil, iwisiiil sli.ipts, the

the

»>t

museums,

himselt with looking

at

turf",

he

it

equine

studies of the past in the picture galleries, in \ an

Dyck, Bourguignon, or

M.

Ci.,

\

an der Meulen.^

a

quite different

\ an der

began b\ looking

been of

a striking

how

at

of

and onl\

life,

onginahtN,

still

remain take on the

an additional pnMilOf obedience to

the impression, of a flatters of truth us,

he

result has

which whatever traces

in

may

Life"

later diil

The

to express life

untutored simplicitN

appearance

Modern

especiall\

for

businessmen,

nature iloes not exist, unless

it

be in

in

I'or

most of

whose eyes

its strict utility

relationship with their business interests, the fantastic reality

are full of

of it

life

becomes strangely blunted. M.

constantly; his

memory and

his eyc-s

it.

|iath.

Seventeenth-century Flemish painters Anthony

Dyck and Adam

le

(i. registers

guided b\ nature, t\ranni/ed o\er b\

circumstance, has followed

I

contri\e to learn

of

\

an

Meulen, with French contem-

porary Jacques Courtois (nicknamed // Bourguignon).

(l0|)

Charles S. Peirce most

America's

philosophic

original

genius,

thought of

grade than the "distinct-

a far higher

ness" of the logicians.

We have there found that^he

pragmatism, America's most famous contribu-

action of thought

excited by the irritation of

was marked

doubt, and ceases

Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914)

is

the inventor of

tion to world philosophy. His career

by brilliance

in

a variety of mathematical, scien-

and by thetragedy

tificand philosophical pursuits,

He was fired from Johns Hopkins University at the age of forty-five, never held another regular academic appointment, and

of unfulfilled promise.

lived his later life in abject poverty. In its critique

of

metaphysics pragmatism

much

of

is consonant with twentieth-century philosophy - like

and phenomenology - but it has more recently served the radical purposes of antifoundationalism and postmodernism. Peirce, however, regarded pragmatism as perfectly compatible with metaphysics and cosmology; his was logical positivism

a truly systematic philosophy.

In

"How

to

Make

my

for

purpose.

1898. In fact, in order from those that James and others were promoting as pragmatism, it

in

how

great,

hand

my

had described the

I

no matter how small or

pull out

I

my

is

I

decide, while

going to the purse, in which way

fare.

To

such

call is

a

as

my

words very

dis-

To

speak of such a

a

temper which

it

must be admitted

the least hesitation as to whether

coppers or the nickel

be, unless

word, yet

I

act

I

as

I

may be

am

Charles S. a clearness

of

pay the

be sure to

from some previously contracted too strong a

is

excited to such small mental activity

necessary to deciding Peirce,

section IV (pp.

that, if there

shall

(as there will

how

principles set forth in the first of these papers'

method of reaching

uncomfort-

is

habit in the matter), though irritation

lead, at once, to a

my pay

causing an irritation which needs to be

matter minutely,

five

The

will

able to the verge of insanity. Yet, looking at the

was "ugly enough

II

I

question Doubt, and

certainly to use

appeased, suggests

"pragmaticism," which, he said,

Section

for instance,

If,

purse and find a five-

proportionate to the occasion.

is

be safe from kidnappers."

as if

cent nickel and five coppers,

of his doctrine to

to

is

and the resolution of it.

in a horse-car,

name

Peirce later changed the

It

starting of any question,

doubt

liam James introduced

attained; so that

phenomena as they appear under a mental microscope. Doubt and Belief, as the words are commonly employed, relate to religious or other grave discussions. But here I use them to designate the

the term, which would not appear to distinguish his views

is

the sole function of

is

thought. All these words, however, are too strong

decision Belief,

Wil-

belief

the production of belief

Our Ideas Clear" (1878) Peirce explains pragmatism for the first time, although he does not use in print until

is

when

section

II

(pp.

297-302) from "How

I

shall act.

289-93) and to

Make Our

Ideas Clear,"second paper of the series 'Illustrations

"The Fixation of November 1877. '

(10|)

Behef,

Popular Science Monthly.

of the Logic of Science," Popular Science Monthly, vol. XII,

January 1878.

New

York: D. Appleton

and Co.

How Most

doubts

Irctiuciitls

hoNNCMT mcmu'iitary,

Inmi sonic

arise

iiulccision,

our action. Sometimes

in

it

is

have, tor example, to wait in a railway-

not so.

I

station,

and

to pass the lime

mcnts on the

walls,

1

and different routes which

ditterent trains

never

I

expect to lake, merely fancying myself to he state of hesitancN, because

am

I

of

in a

bored with haMiiii

nothini; to trouble me. I'eiijned hesiianc), whether

mere amusement or with

feiirned for

a lofty

jnir-

pose, plays a great part in the production of scien-

However the doubt may originate, it the mind to an activity which may be

inquiry.

tific

stimulates

calm or turbulent. Images pass

slight or energetic,

rapidly

through

consciousness,

melting into another, until

-

it

may be

past

Thought

or future.

is

ma\ add

of «)ur sensations.

that just as a piece

«)1

written in parts, each part having

second,

over

an hour, or

in

act

together between the same sensations.

Thought

motives, ideas, or functions.

such sNstem, for is

to

that

produce

sole motiNe, idea,

its

may

it

some other s>stem of relamay incidentally base

to

of thinking

tions. 'The action

other results;

serve to

ure that

dilettanti

it

seems

it is

amuse

them

to vex

w hich takes

a favorite subject out

literary

belief.

sorts of elements

of consciousness, the distinction between which

by means of an

illustration.

In a piece of music there are the separate notes, and is

the air."

A

single tone it

second of that time as

in the

so that, as long as to a sense

it is

may be prolonged

for

exists as perfectly in each

whole taken together;

sounding,

it

from which everything

in the past

was

as

debate

the very debauchery of thought.

is

be

may be

it

made

rest;

and whatever does not refer

of the thought

an orderliness

in the succession

of sounds which

and to perceive it must be some continuity of consciousness which makes the events of a lapse of time present

aware

to belief

at

no part

is

belief? It

is

is

the dcmi-cadence

musical phrase in the symphony of

a

We

three properties: First,

consists in

its

itself.

then,

our intellectual

It

has for

in action

only possible motive the attainment of thought

which only portions of

are played.

toward anything but the

Thought

belief.

occupies a certain time, during the portions of it

it,

voluntarily thwarted, can never

to direct itself

production of

which closes

it

of the arena of

ill-concealed dislike.

from the other elements which accompany though

performance of which

But

it

discovery

a positive

But the soul and meaning of thought, abstracted

And w hat,

itself.

and

met with

is

This disposition

is

completely absent as the future different with the air, the

might be present

w ho

to think that the

words, we have attained

there

example,

questions upon which they delight to exercise

those which occasioned our hesitation. In other

an hour or a day, and

us, for

not rare to find those

finally settled;

under such circumstances

clear

onl) one

is

and function,

and w hatever does not concern

belief,

purpose belongs

may ever get

made

These dif-

ferent systems are distinguished h\ ha\ ing different

as

best be

so

air,

have so perverted thought to the purposes of pleas-

all is

how we should

may

own

various systems of relationship of succession subsist

when

- we find ourselves decided as to

we obser\e two

music may be

its

and among

after long years

In this process

|>orlion of the

thread of melody

a

running through the successuin

We

Clear'

one incessantly

at last,

in a fraction of a

some

present to us, but must cover

read the adNcrtise-

compare the advantages

1

Make Our Ideas

to

life.

of; .second,

it

have seen that

it

is

something

it

has just

that

we

are

appea.ses the irritation of doubt;

involves the establishment in our

strike the ear at different times;

and, third,

there

nature of a rule of action, or, say for short, a habit.

to us.

We certainly only

the separate notes; yet

hear

it,

for

we

perceive the air by hearing

we cannot be

hear only what

is

As

it

appeases the irritation of doubt, which

motive

for thinking,

said to directly

rest for a

present

belief

at

the

it

moment w hen

the

belief is reached. But, since

of which

a rule for action, the application

is

is

thought relaxes, and comes to

instant,

and an orderliness of succession cannot

involves further doubt and further thought, at the

exist in

an instant. These two sorts of objects,

same time

that

it is

a stopping-place,

what we are immediately conscious of and what we

starting-place for thought.

are mediately conscious of, are found in

mitted myself to

sciousness.

Some

completely present last,

all

con-

elements (the sensations) are at

every instant so long as they

while others (like thought) are actions having

thought thinking

is

call

it

That

thought

essentially an action.

is

it is

why

also a

new

I

have per-

at rest,

although

is

The final upshot of

the exercise of volition, and of this

thought no longer forms

a part;

but belief

is

only a

upon our nature

beginning, middle, and end, and consist in a con-

stadium of mental action, an

gruence

due to thought, w hich will influence future thinking.

in the succession

of sensations w hich flow

through the mind. They cannot be immediately

The habit,

"

Melody.

essence of beUef

and different

different

is

effect

the establishment of a

beliefs are distinguished

modes of action

to

which they give

by the rise. If

cm)

Charles S. Peirce

the

do not

differ in this respect, if they

appease

same doubt by producing the same

rule of

beliefs

manner of consciousness of them can make them different action, then

beliefs,

ent keys

no mere differences

any more than playing

in the

a

tune in differ-

playing different tunes. Imaginary dis-

is

tinctions are often differ only in their

drawn between

mode

gling which ensues

is

beliefs

which

of expression; - the wran-

enough, however.

real

To

believe that any objects are arranged as in figure 12.1,

and

to believe that they are arranged as in

figure 12.2, are

one and the same

conceivable that a

ent,

and are among the

One singular deception of this is

to mistake the sensation

produced by our own unclearness of thought character of the object

we

perceiving that the obscurity

fancy that

for a

are thinking. Instead of

we contemplate

is

purely subjective,

a quality

of the object

if

our concep-

form we

same, owing to the absence

of the feeling of unintelligibility. So long as this

deception

lasts, it

obviously puts an impassable bar-

way of perspicuous

rier in the

thinking; so that

it

equally interests the opponents of rational thought to perpetuate

and

it,

adherents to guard against it.

its

Another such deception

to

is

mistake a mere

difference in the grammatical construction of two

words

for a distinction

between the ideas they ex-

when the general mob of much more to words than to is common enough. When I just

press. In this pedantic age,

writers attend so

said that thought

we ought when we are upon

of which

as the

it

things, this error

pitfalls

which often occurs,

do not recognize

as

constantly to beware, especially

we

do

and

essentially mysterious;

is

of beliefs really differ-

false distinctions

as the confusion

metaphysical ground. sort,

it is

man should assert one proposition

and deny the other. Such

much harm

belief; yet

which

tion be afterward presented to us in a clear

an action, and that

is

although

a relation.,

it

consists in

person performs an action but

a

not a relation, which can only be the result of an action, yet there

was no inconsistency

in

what I

said,

but only a grammatical vagueness.

From all these sophisms we shall be perfectly safe we reflect that the whole function of

so long as

thought

produce habits of action; and that

to

is

whatever there

is

irrelevant to

purpose,

its

connected with is

but

a thought,

an accretion to

but

it,

among our sensations which has no reference to how we shall act on a given occasion, as when we listen to a piece of music, why we do not call that thinking. To develop its meaning, we have, therefore, simply to deterno part of

it.

If there be a unity

mine what habits

means

it

produces, for what

simply what habits

is

identity of a habit to act, not

it

involves.

depends on how

it

thing

a

Now,

merely under such circumstances

likely to arise,

the

might lead us as are

but under such as might possibly

how improbable they may be. What the habit is depends on when and how it causes occur, no matter

us to Figure 12.1

As

act.

for the when, every stimulus to action

is

derived from perception; as for the how, every pur-

pose of action

is

to

produce some sensible

Thus, we come down tical, as

to

what

is

result.

tangible and prac-

the root of every real distinction of thought,

no matter how distinction of

subtile

it

meaning so

may

be;

and there

is

no

fine as to consist in any-

thing but a possible difference of practice.

To

see

what

this principle leads to, consider in

the light of it such a doctrine as that of transubstantiation.

The

Protestant churches generally hold

that the elements of the sacrament are flesh

and

blood only in a tropical sense; they nourish our souls as

meat and the

juice of

But the Catholics maintain just that;

Figure 12.2

it

would our bodies.

that they are literally

although they possess

qualities of wafer-cakes

all

the sensible

and diluted wine. But we

How can ha\c no conception of wine except uh.ii

ni.i\

seconti graile, howeser.

mind,

Thai

Nve

beliefs are nolhinii hut selt-notitications that

should, upon occasion, act in regard to such

we

things as

belie\e

be wine according to

to

the qualities which

we

The occasion ofsuch

action

belie\e wine to possess.

perception, the moti\e of

what

would be some sensible produce some sens-

to

Thus our action has exclusive reference

ible result.

to

it

affects the senses,

our habit has the same

bearing as our action, our belief the same as our habit,

our conception the same as our

belief;

and

we can consequently mean nothing by wine but what has certain

upon

effects, direct or indirect,

our senses; and to

of something as having

talk

all

the sensible characters of w ine, yet being in reality

blood,

senseless jargon.

is

Now

it is

,

my object to

not

pursue the theological question; and having used as a logical

example

drop

I

it,

point out

how impossible

it is

it

without caring to

anticipate the theologian's reply.

only desire to

I

that

we should have

anything

we

our idea of

is

its

Our

idea of

sensible effects;

and

if

we have any other we deceive ourand mistake a mere sensation accompanying

fancy that

selves,

the thought for a part of the thought

It is

itself.

absurd to say that thought has any meaning unrelated to

its

only function.

and Protestants

to fancy

It is

foolish for Catholics

themselves in disagreement

about the elements of the sacrament, regard to

all

if

they agree in

their sensible effects, here or hereafter.

appears, then, that the rule for attaining the

It

third

grade of clearness of apprehension

follows:

Consider what

effects,

object of our conception to have.

ception of these effects

is

is

as

which might con-

ceivably have practical bearings,

we conceive

the

Then, our con-

the w hole of our concep-

opposite, fiction.

its

There

reality.

product of

a

is

has such characters as his

That whose characters

it.

how you or

think

I

an external

is

however, phenomena within our

are,

ow n minds, dependent upon our thought, w hich same time

the

at

sense that

real in the

we

are

think

reall\

them. But though their characters depend on how

we think, they do not depend on w hat we think those characters to be. Thus, a a

dream has a real existence as

mental phenomenon,

dreamt

it;

that he

completely subject. fact

so,

was

thinks

independent

On

somebody has

if

dreamt so and

what anybody

on

of

all

peculiarities

really

does not depend dreamt,

but

is

on

opinion

the

the other hand, considering, not the

of dreaming, but the thing dreamt,

by virtue of no other

fact

it

retains

than that

its

was

it

dreamt to possess them. Thus we may define the real

w hose characters are independent of w hat

as that

anybody may think them

to be.

But, however satisfactory such a definition

be found, that

it

them,

would be

makes the

it

Here, then,

a great

of

reality, like

produce.

it

have

is

to

may

mistake to suppose

idea of reality perfectly clear.

us apply our rules, .\ccording to

let

every other quality, consists in

the peculiar sensible effects

The

w hich things partaking

only effect which real things

cause belief,

for

the

all

sensations

which they excite emerge into consciousness

The

the form of beliefs. is

question therefore

is,

in

how

true belief (or belief in the real) distinguished

from

Now

false belief (or belief in fiction).

have seen

,

as

we

former paper, the ideas of truth

in the

in their full

development, appertain

exclusively to the scientific

method of settling opin-

and falsehood,

ion.

A

itions

person

who

which he

method of

Section IV

reason

is

literature

Let us now approach the subject of

logic,

and con-

which particularly concerns

Taking clearness

arbitrarily chooses the

will

propos-

adopt can use the word truth

Of

course, the

tenacity never prevailed

exclusively;

As

men

of the dark ages it.

When

a poetical

for that.

But

we

some fine comment-

find

Scotus Erigena

is

in the

passage in which hellebore

is

does not hesitate to inform the inquiring reader

w ith perfect confidence, never dreaming it.

upon

choice.

Every child

no idea could be clearer than

he does not understand

too natural to

examples of ing

his

spoken of as having caused the death of Socrates, he

uses

this.

it,

to

of famil-

in the sense

iarity, it

figment

\ it

thought impresses upon are independent of

ation to hold on

that oi reality.

h\

only to emphasize the expression of his determin-

tion of the object.

sider a conception

Vet

may perhaps be reached

definition

a

somebodN \ imagination;

an idea in our minds w hich relates to anything but conceived sensible effects of things.

pu/./le

turn ol

considering the points of difference between reality

and

Such

pr«»bablN

of a rellecti\e

to g!\e an abstract defiiution of the real

such

this, thai, or the other, is wiiic; or,

That wine possesses certain j^roperties.

2

wouUI

ii

most men, e\en among those

enter into a beliet, en her

1

Make Our Ideas Clear"

to

that

for clearness in its

that Helleborus

and Scorates were two eminent

Greek philosophers, and

that the

latter

having

(@)

L

Charles S. Peirce been overcome

argument by the former took the

to retract

matter to heart and died of it!'"

disputation

is

of truth could a

What sort of an idea man have who could adopt and

the opinion

w hich is natural

in

teach, without the qualification of a perhaps, an

opinion taken so entirely

who

of Socrates, to

I

at

random? The

real spirit

hope would have been delighted

have been "overcome

in

argument," because he

would have learned something by

in curious

it, is

whom

discussion would seem to have been simply

its

When

philosophy began to awake from

long slumber, and before theology completely

dominated

the practice seems to have been for

it,

each professor to seize upon any philosophical po-

he found unoccupied and which seemed

sition

strong one, to intrench himself in

from time

forth

it,

and

a

to sally

to time to give battle to the others.

Thus, even the scanty records we possess of those disputes enable us to

make out

dozen or more

a

opinions held by different teachers

one time

at

concerning the question of nominalism and realism.

Read the opening part of the "Historia Cala-

mitatum"

of

Abelard,

who was

certainly

as

philosophical as any of his contemporaries, and

For

see the spirit of

combat which

him, the truth

simply his particular stronghold.

When meant

is

method of authority

the

little

more than

breathes.'^

it

one man is not so for

contenting themselves with fixing their

settled. In

own

opinions by a method which would lead an-

man

other

to a different result, they betray their

feeble hold of the conception of what truth

persuaded that the processes of investigation,

fully if

only pushed far enough, will give one certain

which they can be

solution to every question to

One man may

applied.

by studying the

light

investigate the velocity of

Venus and the

transits of

aberration of the stars; another by the oppositions

of Mars and the eclipses of Jupiter's

by the method of Fizeau;

third

and

their faith

their

ponderous

faith in Aristotle

through without finding an argument which

Lissajoux; a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, and a ninth,

may

follow the different methods of comparing the

measures of

They may

statical

and dynamical

each perfects his method and his processes, the results will

move

tined centre.

ent minds

may

toward

steadily together

So with

all scientific

set out

with the most antagonistic

noticeable that where differ-

foreordained goal,

No

is

like the

operation of destiny.

modification of the point of view taken, no

selection of other facts for study,

no natural bent

man

predestinate opinion. This great law

belief

to escape the

they adopt; so completely has the idea of loyalty

in the

conception of truth and reahty.

replaced that of truth-seeking. Since the time of

which

is

Descartes, the defect in the conception of truth has

investigate,

intent

apparent.

on finding out what the

It is

an opinion he laid

strike a

been

facts are,

less

is

defending

down

facts; is

is

their

but show him that

inconsistent with what

elsewhere, and he will be very apt

way

the

But

is

what we mean by the

I

would explain

may be

it

opposed

is

is

said that this view

given of reality, inasmuch as

it

of the real to depend on what

real.

'"

"Hellebore" refers to a plant of the

Socrates actually died from drinking a potion

hemlock; John Scotus Erigena (born

ad

lily

who

That

directly

is

which we have

ultimately thought is

that,

on the

independent, not necessarily of

thought in general, but only of what you or finite

all

and the

makes the characters is

about them. But the answer to this reality is

truth,

the

opinion

by

reality.

to the abstract definition

one hand,

embodied

The

fated ^ to be ultimately agreed to

object represented in this opinion

than on

harmony with

hard to convince a follower of the a

prion method by adducing

he has

sometimes

Still, it will

that the philosophers have

inquiring what belief is most in

system.

des-

a

research. Differ-

upon with contempt even by the party whose

man

electricity.^

obtain different results, but, as

at first

of mind even, can enable a

less

by that of

Foucault; a fifth by the motions of the curves of

ent faiths flourish side by side, renegades are looked

scientific

satellites; a

a fourth

them by a force outside of themselves to one and the same conclusion. This activity of thought by which we are carried, not where we wish, but to a

toward

folios

been

is.

On the other hand, all the followers of science are

the Catholic faith. All the

Church, and one may search

It is

for

views, but the progress of investigation carries

in the

goes any further.

ever to cease; they seem to think that

prevailed, the truth

efforts of the scholastic doctors are directed

harmonizing their

These minds do not seem to believe that

another, and that belief will, consequently, never be

contrast with the naive idea of the glossist, for

a struggle.

it.

number of men may

think about

it;

I

or any

and

that,

family;

made from a me-

810) was

'

Armand-Hippol yte Louis Fizeau

(181 9-96) and Jean-

dieval philosopher.

Bernard-Leon Foucault (1819-68) were French physi-

'"

cists;

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), medieval theologian and

logician.

(Jog)

Jules-Antoine Lissajoux (1822-80) was a French

mathematician.

"How on the other hand, though the object

of the fmal

opinion tlepends on what that opinion

is,

that

opinion

anv

man

does not depend on what you or

is

Our

thinks.

per\ersit\

and

I

oj)!!!-

siKiue the

human

race should

last.

change the nature of the

lonj:;

as the

even that would not

\ et

belief,

which alone could

be the result of investigation carried sufficiently

of our race, another

after the extinction

if,

far;

should arise with faculties and disposition for in-

must be the one

true opinion

that

vestigation,

which they would ultimately come crushed to earth

result

from investigation does

not depend on how anybody

But the

of that which

reality

is

the real fact that investigation last, if

But

I

may be

asked w hat

I

may

actually think.

real

does depend on

is

continued long enough,

minute

"Truth

and the opinion

shall rise again,"

which would fmally

to.

destined to lead, at

to a belief in

please, h«»w

have to say to

the

is

a

meaning.'"

\\ ell,

or not

liant

that

then, after the universe

is

dead (according to the

prediction of some scientists), and forever,

has ceased

not the shock of atoms continue

will

though there I

all life

will

be no mind to know

it.^

To

reply that, though in no possible state of

this

know-

number be great enough to express amount of what rests unthe amount of the known, yet it is

much of

so

when

in

it

is

have

makes very

it

say that a stone on the

complete darkness,

to say, that

is

bril-

makes no

pniluthly

it

that that stone

may at

the bottom of the sea, flowers in the untraveled desert,

about

which,

propositions

are

etc.,

diamond being hard w hen

a

much more

concern

seems

that

the arrangement of our lan-

me, however,

to

like

not pressed,

it is

guage than they do the meaning of our

we

that

ideas.

have, by the

application of our rule, reached so clear an appre-

hension of what we mean by

ical

reality,

rests on, that

making

and of the

we should

fact

not, per-

pretension so presumptuous as

a

singular,

if

we were

to offer a

it

metaphys-

theory of existence for universal acceptance

among

those

fixing belief

much more

who employ

the scientific

However,

metaphysics

as

method of is

a subject

curious than useful, the know ledge of

of a sunken reef, serves chiefly to

like that

it, I w ill not trouble the more Ontology at this moment.

enable us to keep clear of reader with any I

have already been led

path than

much

further into that

should have desired; and

I

I

have given

the reader such a dose of mathematics, psychology,

and

that

all

is

already have

ledge can any

writing

the relation between the

clusively.

known

There

to

is

that

any

is

sol Ned.'

be fished up to-morrow. But that there are gems

w hich,

And

we

remembering always

difference,

would be

hopelessly beyond the reach of our knowledge?

must confess

bottom of the ocean,

haps, be

these things not really exist because they are

1

difference whether

little

buried secrets.

Do

make

h\

a

years you

that only practical distinctions

which the idea

many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

go on for

to

number of

may be objected, "\S

it

covered, to the lost books of the ancients, to the

Full

were

it

possible to saN that there

it

your principle

It

all

if

these remote considerations, especially

it.

of history, forgotten never to be re-

facts

hundred' .\nd

question which nnghl not uliimateh be

But

Clear'

ten thousand \ears, with the acti\it\ ol

l((i

last

million, or a billion, or any

might e\en coiKei\ahl\ cause an arbitrary

it

proposition to be uni\ersally accepted as

and

or

that ol others

niav indetlnileJN postpone the settlenieni ol ion;

what

\v\

Make Our Ideas

to

is

is

most abstruse,

for the I

me, and

left

that

that

I

fear

what

I

he

may

am

now-

compositor and proof-reader ex-

trusted to the importance of the subject.

no royal road

to logic,

and

really valuable

unphilosophical to suppose that, with regard to

ideas can only be had at the price of close attention.

any given question (w hich has any clear meaning),

But

w ould not bring

investigation if it

a

were carried

far

enough.

forth a solution of

it,

Who would have said,

few years ago, that we could ever know of what

substances stars are

been longer has existed.'

know

in a few

would be the

hundred

II,

years.^

I

am

going to return to the easily

not wander from

it

Who can

way can be applied

(1716-71), Elegy Written

53-6.

that in the matter of ideas the public

at the pains

light

guess w hat

result of continuing the pursuit of

Thomas Grey Churchyard,

can be sure

know

may have human race of what we shall not

made whose

in reaching us than the

Who

I

in a

Country

my

prefer the cheap and nasty; and in

shall

The

reader

who

and

has been

of wading through this month's paper,

be rewarded

beautifully

again.

next paper

intelligible,

in the next

one by seeing how

w hat has been developed

in this tedious

to the ascertainment of the rules

of scientific reasoning."'

^" "The Doctrine of Chances," Popular Science Monthy March 1878.

(toT)

L

Charles S. Peirce

We

have, hitherto, not crossed the threshold

of scientific

logic.

know how

make our

to

It

is

certainly

ideas clear, but they

be ever so clear without being

make them

so,

we have

important to

may

How to How to give

true.

next to study.

birth to those vital and procreative ideas

multiply into a thousand forms and diffuse themselves

everywhere,

advancing

making the dignity of man, to rules,

is

an

civilization art

and

not yet reduced

but of the secret of which the history of

science affords

some

hints.

which

Author's Note 1

Fate means merely that which

and can nohow be avoided. suppose that

(@)

a certain sort

It

is

sure to

is

come

true,

a superstition to

of events are ever fated.

and

it

is

another to suppose that the word fate can

never be freed from fated to die.

its

superstitious taint.

We

are

all

and Lies

''On Truth

in

a Nonmoral

Sense"

Madman"

"The

''How the 'True World' Finally a Fable"

Became

The Dionysian World* Friedrich Nietzsche A student

of ancient

"On Truth and

languages by trade and a

sity

in

ill

in

relative

becoming insane eleven years later. Nietzsche's concern was nothing less than the conditions of health, greatness, and sickness in human cultures. He was deeply critical of Judeo-Christian civilization, which he saw as destroying the health of Western humanity by undermining

until

human

nihilistic belief in

through

instincts

a

slavish,

the unreality of this world and

the promise of happiness

in

the next. Nietzsche

was one of the first to foresee the waning of Christianity in

a

health from his only univer-

post aged 34, he wrote feverishly

isolation

in

Nonmoral Sense'"

philosopher by predilection, Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844-1900) was a unique and misunderstood genius. Retiring

Lies

an increasingly secular Europe, and fam-

Once upon

a time, in

that universe '

which

The German term

some out of the way corner of is

dispersed into numberless

in the title translated here as

"non-

moral," aussermoralischen, could be, and has been, also translated as "super-" or "extra-" moral.

Friedrich Nietzsche: [A] "OnTruth

and Lies

in

a Non-

moral Sense." pp. 79-91 from Philosophy and Truth (ed. Daniel Brazeale). New York: Humanities Press,

1979; B] "The Madman" from 7^76 Gay Sc/ence (trans, and ed. Walter Kaufmann), Part Three, section [

ously coined the phrase"God

is

dead."

He pressed

remarkable denial of the very concept of truth - "truthfulness" being a prime

this critique to a

Christian value. Nietzsche's notion of a future

125, pp. 181-2. New York: Vintage. 1974; [C] "How theTrue World Finally Became a Fable." from Twilight of the Idols, reproduced in The Portable Nietzsche

Nietzsche's radical critique of metaphysics, the

and ed. Walter Kaufmann). pp. 485-6. New 1968; [D] The Dionysian World.* para. 1067, pp. 449-50 from The Will to Power (trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. edited with commentary by Walter Kaufmann). New York: Ran-

and of truth, make him the godfather of postmodernism.

fourthsectionisthisvolumeeditor'snot Nietzsche's.

"overman," the authentic individual of the post-

was later embraced by the Nazis (alnothing could be more foreign to

Christian era,

though

Nietzsche than a mass, collectivist movement). unity of the self,

(trans,

York: Viking.

dom

House. 1967.

*

Note that the

title

given to this

L

Friedrich Nietzsche

twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon

beasts of prey. This art of dissimulation reaches

which clever beasts invented knowing. That was

peak in man. Deception,

most arrogant and mendacious minute of

the

"world history," but nevertheless,

was only

it

a

minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the

and congealed, and the clever beasts had

star cooled

- One might invent such

to die.

miserable,

how shadowy and

and arbitrary the human nature.

not

a fable,

would not have adequately

still

There were

intellect, tellect

nothing

transient, intellect

looks within it

did

among men

and pure drive them.

They

- is

are deeply

honest

immersed

in illusions

and

in

this in-

surface of things and see "forms." Their senses

human, and only it so solemnly -

it is

it

its

as

it. But if we we would learn air w ith the same

axis turned within

nowhere lead

merely glide over the

their eyes

on the contrary, they are

to truth;

content to receive stimuli and, as in a groping

man

game on

universe w ithin himself. There

is

nothing so repre-

hensible and unimportant in nature that

not immediately swell up

would

it

a balloon

at

the

power of knowing. And

just

to

like

have an admirer, so even

were, to engage

permits himself to be deceived in his dreams

even make an attempt to prevent

solemnity, that he feels the flying center of the

it

the backs of things. Moreover,

that he likew ise flies through the

wants

how an

have arisen among

for truth could

every night of his

as every porter

almost nothing

is

could communicate with the gnat,

slightest puff of this

for

much the rule and

so

that there

comprehensible than

is less

and

have happened. For

possessor and begetter takes

though the world's

the solitary flame of vanity

which

a role for others

continuous fluttering around

in short, a

dream images;

Rather,

life.

-

the law

a false front,

human

has no additional mission which would lead

beyond human

behind convention, playing oneself

up

borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding

over with the

it is all

will

how

how aimless

during which

eternities

And when

exist.

and yet he

illustrated

talking behind the back, putting living in

its

flattering, lying, deluding,

life.

through sheer

this,

whereas there

men who have stopped snoring power. What does man actually

are supposed to be

know about

His moral sentiment does not

will

himself? Is he, indeed, ever able to

perceive himself completely, as

out in

if laid

a

Does nature not conceal most things from him - even concerning his ow n body lighted display case.^

and lock him within

the proudest of men, the philosopher, supposes that

in order to confine

he sees on

deceptive consciousness, aloof from the coils of the

ically

all

sides the eyes of the universe telescop-

bow els,

focused upon his action and thought.

It is

remarkable that this was brought about by

the intellect, which was certainly allotted to these

most unfortunate, merely

delicate,

and ephemeral beings

as a device for detaining

them

a

minute

the rapid flow of the blood stream, and the

intricate quivering of the fibers!

crack in the chamber of consciousness and then

man

suspect that

would have every reason

his ignorance

quickly as Lessing's son."

knowing and sensing

The pride connected w ith

lies like a

blinding fog over

the eyes and senses of men, thus deceiving

concerning the value of existence. For

them

She threw away the

And woe to that fatal curiosity which might one day have the power to peer out and down through a key.

within existence. For without this addition they to flee this existence as

a proud,

satiable,

is

sustained in the indifference of

by that which

and murderous - as

the back of a tiger.

is pitiless,

greedy, in-

if hanging in

dreams on

Given this situation, w here in the

world could the drive for truth have come from.' Insofar as the individual wants to maintain

this pride

him-

he w ill under natural

contains within itself the most flattering estimation

self against other individuals,

of the value of knowing. Deception

circumstances employ the intellect mainly for dis-

is

general effect of such pride, but even

the most its

particular effects contain within themselves

most

some-

thing of the same deceitful character.

As

a

means which

its

principal

and necessity,

man

same time, from boredom

wishes to exist socially and with

the herd; therefore, he needs to

for the preserving of the individual,

the intellect unfolds

simulation. But at the

pow ers in dissimu-

means by which weaker,

strives accordingly to banish

from

make peace and his

world

at least

the most flagrant helium omni contra omnes.^^^ This

wake something which

peace treaty brings in

its

robust individuals preserve themselves - since they

appears to be the

step toward acquiring that

have been denied the chance to w age the battle for

puzzling truth drive: to wit, that which shall count

existence with horns or with the sharp teeth of

as "truth"

lation,

is

the

less

say, a "

Gotthold

Ephraim

Lessing

(1729-81),

German

first

from now on

(ji5)

That

is

to is

is

invented for things, and this legislation of language

dramatist and philosopher, whose son died the day he

was born.

established.

uniformly valid and binding designation

'"

War

of each against

all.

"On Truth and Lies likewise cstahlislus the

time.

first

I'he liar

.uul lie arises

who

person

a

is

is

example, "I

am

unreal appear to be

when

rich,"

I

le says, lor

misuses

lie

arbitrarx substitu-

What one-sided

(.lillereniialions!

twist itself

worm What

a

lit

this ilesignation

lo

abiltiN

its

couki therelore also

tor this, then

"snake"

ot a

Narious languages placed side h\

with words

is

ii

ne\er

a

him and

being defrauded as

they hale

thereby exclude him.

will

is

is

not so

being harmed by

is

it

Thus, even

fraud.

liar

what

this stage,

at

basically not deception itself, but rather

the unpleasant, hated consequences of certain sorts

of deception.

It is

man now wants

in a similarly restricted sense that

nothing but truth: he desires the

pleasant, life-preserving consequences of truth.

indifferent toward pure

He

know ledge which has no

consequences; toward those truths which arc pos-

harmful and destructive he

And

inclined.

besides,

even hostilely

is

what about these

linguistic

question of truth, neser

Is

lan-

man

only by means of forgetfulness that

can

the least

men, and

tions of things to

To

with truth in the form of tautology, that

he

will not

is

be content w ith empty husks,

image,

time there

ent one.

complete overleaping of one sphere,

is a

right into the

One

middle of an entirely new and

man who

can imagine a

and has never had

a sensation

person will gaze w

a

ith

by "sound."

must know w hat men mean way with all of us concerning

that he

It is this

we believe

we know something about when we speak of trees, snow and flowers; and yet we possess noth-

colors,

that

,

ing but metaphors for things - metaphors which

same w ay

It is

the copy in sound of a nerve

entities. In the

that the

sound appears

as a sand figure, so

X

of the thing in

itself first

stimulus. But the further inference from the nerve

the mysterious

stimulus to a cause outside of us

is

as a nerve stimulus, then as an image,

of a false and

application

unjustifiable

already the result

of the

a

sound.

Thus

any case, and

proceed logically

been the deciding factor

within and with which the

and

if

of language,

the standpoint of certainty had been decisive

for designations, then

"the stone

is

how could we

hard," as

if

still

dare to say

"hard" were something

.stimulation!

We

separate

things

according to gender, designating the tree as mascu-

Hne and the plant assignments!

How

as feminine.' far this

What

arbitrary

oversteps the canons of

"principle of sufficient reason," formulated by

appears

finally as

later

all

the material

of truth, the scien-

work and

build,

is at least

if

not

not de-

rived from the essence of things.

In particular,

let

tion of concepts.

us further consider the forma-

Every word instantly becomes a

concept precisely insofar as

it

is

not supposed to

serve as a reminder of the unique and entirely individual original experience to which origin; but rather, a

The

man

derived from never-never land,

otherwise familiar to us, and not merely a totally subjective

in

and the philosopher

tist,

and

the genesis of language does not

principle of sufficient reason.'^ If truth alone had in the genesis

astonishment

cover their causes in the vibrations of the string and

correspond in no way to the original

word?

deaf

Chladni's sound figures:" perhaps he will dis-

then he will always exchange truths for illusions. a

differ-

totally

is

of sound and music.

What

is

in turn, is

imitated in a sound; second metaphor. .And each

the things themselves

to say, if

transferred into

is

The

metaphor.

first

language:

satisfied

worth

for expressing these

begin with, a nerve stimulus

an image:

"truth" of the grade just indicated. If he

not be

in

relations he lays hold of the boldest metaphors.

ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a will

likewise

is

This creator only designates the rela-

w ill now swear

realities?

in

language and something not striving tor.

Perhaps such

guage the adequate expression of all

The "thing

to the creator of

at

Are designations congruent with things?

a

precisely what the pure truth, apart

is

from any of its consequences, would be)

ucts of knowledge, that

of the sense of truth?

that

something quite incomprehensible

conventions themselves? Are they perhaps prodis,

The

show

ipiestion of adequate expression; otherwise, there

wouUl not be so many languages.

avoid by excluding the

first

thing!

side

itself (which

It

a

and

arbitrary

preferences,

property of

lor that

in a

means of

It is

speak

onK upon

will

W hat men

sibly

louches

he does this

cease to trust

is

We

ieilaiiil\'

and moreover harmful manner, society

tions or even reversals of names.

much

make some-

the pro|ier ilesignation

means of

fixed conventions b\

selfish

real.

woukl he "poor."

tor his condition

here lor ihe

uses the \alul

designations, the words, in oriler to

thing which

lor ihc

l.ius ol liulh

(itsi

miih

contrast between

Sense"

a Nonmoral

in

as

it

w ord becomes

simultaneously has to

fit

a

it

owes

its

concept insofar

countless

more

or less

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), held that every factual truth

must be supported by

Nietzsche

is

referring to the

der assignment of nouns.

a sufficient reason.

German

language's gen-

"

Ernst Chladni,

German

physicist

speed of sound with vibrating rods

who

studied the

in the late eighteenth

centurv.

(lii)

Friedrich Nietzsche similar cases

- which means, purely and simply,

which are never equal and thus altogether

cases

unequal. Every concept arises from the equation

of unequal things. Just as

it is

certain that

never totally the same as another, so the concept "leaf

is

formed by

it is

one

leaf is

certain that

arbitrarily discard-

ing these individual differences and by forgetting the distinguishing aspects. This awakens the idea that, in addition to the leaves, there exists in

the "leaf: the original all

model according

to

to

phors. Thus, to express

man

a

unconsciously and in accordance with habits which

which

this unconsciousness

centuries'

Our

We call a person "honest,"

"why

and

has he behaved so honestly

and

usual answer

"on account of

with the

liar,

excludes.

As

the cause of the leaves.

is

We

know nothing what-

soever about an essential quality called "honesty";

at

the sense that one

is

a third as

"mute," there

The

of truth

utility

arises a

venerability,

something which a

is

person demonstrates for himself from the contrast

his

is,

From

in regard to truth.

and

reliability,

honesty." Honesty! This in turn means that the leaf

today.'*"

and forgetfulness he arrives

obliged to designate one thing as "red," another

moral impulse

ask

and precisely by means of

old;

his sense of truth.

as "cold,"

we

the duty

of course forgets that this

petent hands, so that no specimen has turned out to

then

is

manner binding upon everyone. Now is the way things stand for him. Thus he lies in the manner indicated,

herd and in

be a correct, trustworthy, and faithful likeness of the original model.

morally, this

it

to lie according to a fixed convention, to lie with the

are

- but by incom-

exist:

be truthful means to employ the usual meta-

nature

the leaves were perhaps woven, sketched, meas-

ured, colored, curled, and painted

of the duty which society imposes in order to

whom

no one

and everyone

trusts

a ''''rationar being,

now

he

places his

behavior under the control of abstractions.

no longer

tolerate being carried

He

will

away by sudden

but we do know of countless individualized and

impressions, by intuitions. First he universalizes

consequently unequal actions which we equate by

all

omitting the aspects in which they are unequal and

cepts, so that he can entrust the guidance of his life

which we now designate

and conduct

as

"honest" actions.

we formulate from them a qualitas occulta'^^ which has the name "honesty." We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what Finally

individual and actual; whereas nature

is

ac-

is

quainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an

X

remains inaccessible and undefmable for

which

For

us.

even our contrast between individual and species is

something anthropomorphic and does not origin-

ate in the essence of things; although

presume

pond

we should not

to claim that this contrast does not corres-

to the essence of things: that

dogmatic assertion and,

be

a

as

indemonstrable as

What then

its

truth.''

is

would of course

as such,

would be

just

sum

poetically

of

human

illusions;

relations

which have been

intensified, transferred, after long usage,

seem

which we have forgotten are

they are metaphors that have become

w orn out and have been drained of sensuous

force,

coins which have lost their embossing and are

now

considered as metal and no longer as coins.

We truth

still

do not yet know where the drive

comes from. For so

Occult quality.

112:

to

the animals depends

far

schema, and thus to dissovle an image into cept.

For something

is

for

this

in a

a

con-

possible in the realm of these

schemata which could never be achieved with the vivid

first

impressions: the construction of a

pyramidal order according to castes and degrees, the creation of a

new world of

laws, privileges,

subordinations, and clearly marked boundaries

new

-

a

now confronts that other vivid world of first impressions as more solid, more universal, better known, and more human world, one which

than the immediately perceived world, and thus as

equals and

regularity of a

Whereas each

individual and without all

classifica-

of concepts displays the rigid

Roman

in logic that strength teristic

is

therefore able to elude

is

tion, the great edifice

columbarium^'" and exhales

and coolness which

of mathematics. Anyone

who

is

has

characfelt this

cool breath will hardly believe that even the concept

- which

is

as a die

-

bony, foursquare, and transposable

as is

nevertheless merely the residue of a

metaphor, and that the illusion which in

we have heard only

upon

perceptual metaphors

volatilize

perceptual metaphor

movable host of meta-

be fixed, canonical, and binding.

illusions

ability

the regulative and imperative world.

and rhetorically

Truths are

man from

A

and embellished, and which, to a people to

them. Everything which distin-

to

guishes

opposite.

phors, metonymies, and anthropomorphisms: in short, a

these impressions into less colorful, cooler con-

is

involved

the artistic transference of a nerve stimulus

into images

is,

if

mother of every

Roman

not the mother, then the grand-

single concept.

vault for funeral urns.

But

in this

concep-

"On game

crap

tiuil

"iruiir"

imans using c\ti\

the designated manner, counting

fashioning the right categories, ami ne\er

atel>,

vi»)Ialing the

order of caste and class rank,

Romans and

the

in

ilu-

spots accur-

its

just as

up the heavens

l.truscans cut

with rigid mathematical lines and confineil \Mthin each ot the spaces therel\\ within

hmplum,^^ so e\er\ people has

a

a goil

delimiteil, as a similarl)

uni\ersf as original

man

and

demands within

henceforth

thinks

that each conceptual

Ins

own sphere.

admire man

1

truth

that

who succeeds in piling up an dome of concepts upon an

and takes them

Of

phor can one

ally

si

imagination that

faith

himself

be

spiders' webs: delicate

raises

himself

far

enough

to

enough not

b> the waves, strong

by every wind. As

one constructed

like

be carried along

to

be blow n apart

man

genius of construction

a

above the bee

of

following

in the

way: whereas the bee builds with wax that he

man

gathers from nature,

more

builds with the far

delicate conceptual material

which he

manufacture from himself. In

this

he

is

first

has to

greatly to be

admired, but not on account of his drive for truth or for

pure knowledge of things.

something behind

a

in

hen someone hides

bush and looks

the same place and finds

much to praise is how matters

V\

it

for

is

such seeking and finding. Yet

the definition of a

mammal, and

ing a camel, declare "look, a

indeed brought

is

way, but

to say,

it

it

is

a

and universally vahd apart from man. At

bottom, what the investigator of such truths

into

is

man.

is

only the metamorphosis of the world

He

strives to

something analogous

to

understand the world as

man, and

at

best

he

achieves by his struggles the feeling of assimilation.

Similar to the w ay in

w hich

astrologers considered

a

man

does

but for an instant he could escape from the

would be immediately destroyed.

him

cult thing for

admit

to

to

even

It is

a diffi-

himself that the

insect or the bird perceives an entirely different

world from the one that

man

does, and that the

question of which of these perceptions of the world is

the

this

more

correct one

would have

to

quite meaningless, for

is

have been decided previously

in

accordance w ith the criterion of the correct perception,

which means, is

accordance with a criterion

in

not available.

But

in

any case

it

seems

"the adequate expression of an object ject"

-

is

a

two

to

me

w hich would mean sub-

in the

contradictory impossibility. For be-

tween

That

is

prison walls of this faith, his "self consciousness"

between subject and object, there

have

human

table

ilus

artistically creating subject,

that "the correct perception" -

thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains

seeking

an

window,

l/iis

mammal,"

I

hich origin-

short, only by forgetting that he

this

not a single point which would be "true in itself or really

sun,

l/iis

which

make up

petrification \n

faculty of

then, after inspect-

a truth to light in this

a truth of limited value.

I

mass of images

a

like a fier\ liquid, onls in the invincible

itself, in is

meta-

with any repose, security, and consistency.

live

If

means of the

b\

onl>

not

stand regarding seeking and finding

"truth" within the realm of reason. If

is

again in

it

there as well, there

lie lorgets that

wiih an\ repose, security, and

li\e

reamed from the primal

order to be supported by such a foundation, his

must

he has

ihemseKes.

to be the things

and coagulation of

unstable foundation,

mg thai

measure] imme-

to

mere objects

as

«ine

treat

doing so he

ot all things but in

()nl\ b\ lorgetling this primiti\e world ot

consistencv:

were, on running water.

construction

him

«)1

tu

is

the original perceptual metaphors are metaphors

one may certainly

infmitelv complicated

method

Ills

which he intends

|

dialelx before

truth in

it

measure

ihese things

course, in

and, as

man

god be sought only

lere

might) genius of construction,

as a

as the

muliiphed cop\

mlinitil\

ilie

piiiiire

Sense"

a Nonmoral

in

again proceeils Irom the error ol belicN

mathematicall) divided conceptual heaven above

themselves

Truth and Lies

absolutely

spheres,

different is

no

no correctness, and no expression; there an aesthetic relation:

I

mean,

as

causality,

is,

at

most,

a suggestive transfer-

ence, a stammering translation into a completely

foreign tongue - for which there

is

required, in any

case, a freely inventive intermediate sphere

mediating force. "Apearance"

is

a

word

and

that con-

many temptations, which is why I avoid it as much as possible. For it is not true that the essence tains

of things "appears" in the empirical world. painter without hands

who wished

.\

to express in

song the picture before his mind would, by means

more

the stars to be in man's service and connected

of this substitution of spheres,

with his happiness and sorrow such an investigator

about the essence of things than does the empirical

,

still

reveal

considers the entire universe in connection with

world. Even the relationship of a nerve stimulus to

man: the

the generated image

entire universe as the infinitely fractured

echo of one original sound - man; the entire

A

religiously distinct, e.g. holy, space.

when

is

not a necessary one. But

same image has been generated millions of times and has been handed down for many generations and finally appears on the same occathe

Friedrich Nietzsche sion every time for last

all

mankind, then

same meaning

the

were the

men

for

sole necessary

acquires at

it

would have

it

image and

if

if it

the relation-

ship of the original nerve stimulus to the generated

image were manner,

strictly

causal one.

eternally

repeated

a

an

certainly be felt

and judged

same

In the

dream

would

to be reality.

But the

hardening and congealing of a metaphor guarantees absolutely nothing concerning

necessity and

its

ations has

no doubt

ism of this

is

he has quite clearly

we can

from the telescopic heights is

to

secure, complete, infinite,

How

not contradict each other.

will

some

little

if one

much

chemical processes, coincides properties which

who impress this,

which impresses

movement of

in the

we bring

the stars and in

bottom with those

at

Thus

to things.

it is

we

ourselves in this way. In conjunction

of course follows that the

it

in

artistic

process

if

all

w ithin them. The only way in which the new con-

thus occurs

possibility of subsequently constructing a

ceptual edifice from metaphors themselves can be

explained

is

forms. That

by the firm persistence of these original to say, this conceptual edifice

is

is

an

imitation of temporal, spatial, and numerical rela-

tionships in the

domain of metaphor.

the

does this reif it

were

place where the illusion

and unreality can be divined. Against kind of sense perception -

be able

and

semble a product of the imagination, for

or

things. All that conformity to law,

us so

is

it

most astonishing

is

w ill harmonize with and

things that are discovered

now as a bird,

-

the microscopic

and without any gaps. Science

following must be said:

He

penetrate here

to dig successfully in this shaft forever,

things

number which

begins in us already presupposes these forms and

has concluded that so far as

such, there should be

precisely

bear

deep mistrust of all ideal-

felt a

presence, and infallibility of the laws of nature.

regular,

all

within themselves the laws of number, and

of metaphor formation with which every sensation

sort: just as often as

- everything

comprehend

actually

familiar with such consider-

convinced himself of the eternal consistency, omni-

depths

we

in all things

nothing but these forms. For they must

with

exclusive justification.

Every person who

amazing that

this,

the

each of us had a different

we could only perceive now as a worm, now as a plant, if

of us saw a stimulus as red, another as blue,

We

have seen

how

originally language

it is

works on the construction of concepts, over in later ages by taneously

science.

constructs

Just as the bee simul-

and

cells

which

a labor taken

them with

fills

honey, so science works unceasingly on this great

columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of percepalways building new

higher stories and

while a third even heard the same stimulus as a

tions. It is

sound - then no one would speak of such a regularity

shoring up, cleaning, and renovating the old

of nature, rather, nature would be grasped only as a

above

creation which

towering framework and to arrange therein the

After

all,

what

is is a

subjective in the highest degree.

law of nature as such for us?

are not acquainted with effects,

which means

it

We

in itself, but only with its

in its relation to other laws

of

all, it

takes pains to

entire empirical world,

fill

w hich

,

up

this

cells;

monstrously

to say, the anthro-

is

pomorphic world. Whereas the man of action binds his life to reason

and

its

concepts so that he will not

nature - which, in turn, are known to us only as sums

be swept away and

of relations. Therefore

builds his hut right next to the tower of science so

refer again to others

all

these relations always

and are thoroughly incompre-

we actually know about these laws of nature is what we ourselves bring to them - time and space, and therefore relahensible to us in their essence. All that

tionships of succession and number.

But everything

marvelous about the laws of nature, everything that quite astonishes us therein and seems to

demand our

explanation, everything that might lead us to distrust idealism:

all this is

within

tained

inviolability of

space.

the

completely and solely con-

mathematical

strictness

and

our representations of time and

But we produce these representations

in

and

that he will be able to

exist.

powers which oppose

(TIJ)

ceases to be

scientific

to find shelter

their shields the

The

most varied

in

upon him,

"truth" with com-

pletely different kinds of "truths"

which bear on

sorts of

emblems.

drive toward the formation of metaphors

the fundamental

human

drive

a single instant dispense

w hich one cannot

is

for

with in thought, for one

would thereby dispense with man himself. This drive is not truly vanquished and scarcely subdued constructed as

it

and

And he requires shelter, for there are frightful

by the

things only under these forms, then

it

bulwarks which presently

powers which continuously break

the spider spins. If we are forced to

all

work on

for himself beneath those

from ourselves with the same necessity with which

comprehend

the scientific investigator

lost,

fact that a regular its

and

prison from

products, the concepts.

It

new world is own ephemeral new realm and

rigid its

seeks a

On another

(.haiiiul lor its atiiMiN. .uul

myth Am\

in ttri gcncTalI>

tiiuls this in

it

his ihi\c continually

I

.

and Lies

Truth

metaphors

a Nonmoral Sense'

in

confuses the conceptual catet^ones and cells h\

ilesignates the stream as "the

bringing forwanl new

carries

and metonymies.

It

metaphors,

transferences,

coniinuall\ manifests an ardent

desire to refashion the world which presents to

waking man, so

lar,

that

it

he as colorful, irregu-

will

lacking in results and coherence, charming, and

new

eternally

world ofclreams. Indeed,

as the

man

concepts that the waking

awake; and

clearly sees that he

precisely because of this that

is

it

is

it

web of

only by means of the rigid and regular

is

itself

he sometimes thinks that he must be dreaming

when

this

web of concepts

torn by

is

right in maintaining that if the

we would be

us every night

Pascal

is

same dream came

to

art.

occupied with

just as

it

itself.

is

dreamt

takes

fact,

''I

w ho a

because of the way that myth

granted

for

it

as a king

hours every night that he was

for twelve

workman.''^ In

happy

miracles

that

happening, the waking

life

always

are

of a mythically inspired

people - the ancient Greeks, for instance - more closely resembles a

world

When when

of a

dream than

does the waking

it

disenchanted

scientifically

god

in the

shape of

a bull

in the

team of

- and

horses'"

this

is

moment, and

possible at each

is

a beautiful

what the honest

is

all

it

when

fables as if they

were

theater acts as

it is

more

were, enchanted

it

the rhapsodist true, or

when

him

tells

w ithout

deception, the intellect,

Injuring, that

is free; it is

former slavery and celebrates

its

epic

the actor in the

So long

royally than any real king.

able to deceive

master of

released from Saturnalia.

to

previous conduct,

mark

the

of dis-

clings his

himself

is

whole

it

life

nothing but

most audacious w hen

feats

smashes

into confusion,

this

it.

it is

but

life,

immense frame-

That to

which the needy

long in order to preserve

and toy

a scaffolding

of the liberated

framework

and puts

fashion, pairing the

the closest,

human

be something good and seems

be quite satisfied with

most

in

it

an ironic

and separating

alien things

demonstrating that

.And

throws

to pieces,

back together

it

for the

intellect.

it

has no need of

these makeshifts of indigence and that

it

will

now be

no regular path w hich leads from these

its

It is

stractions.

sees

for these intuitions;

them he grows dumb, or

else

he

speaks only in forbidden metaphors and in un-

heard-of combinations of concepts.

He

does this so

by shattering and mocking the old conceptual

may

at least

correspond creatively to the

impression of the powerful present intuition.

There intuitive

are ages in

man

w hich the

rational

man and

latter is just as irrational as the

former

They both

life:

desire to rule over

know ing how

the

stand side by side, the one in fear of

intuition, the other with scorn for abstraction.

to

meet

his principal

is

The

inartistic.

the former, by

needs by means

of foresight, prudence, and regularity; the

latter,

by

disregarding these needs and, as an "overjoyed hero," counting as real only that

been disguised

tive

throws

There exists no w ord

when man

as

it

intuitions

into the land of ghostly schemata, the land of ab-

never more luxuriant, richer, prouder, more clever pleasure

life

work and planking of concepts

and more daring.

\\ ith creative

its

now does bears

free intellect copies

considers this

barriers he

who w ere merely amusing themselves by men in all these shapes. But man has an invincible inclination to allow

with happiness

The

distortion.

of nature sw arms

deceiving

as

become the master and

simulation, just as that previous conduct did of

the gods,

is,

it

it

face the expression of

its

indigence. In comparison with e\er\ thing that

that

around man as if it w ere nothing but a masquerade of

himself to be deceived and

who covets existence;

search of booty and prey

has

it

dares to wipe from

dream, anything

as in a

in

is

company of Peisistratus driving

Athenian believed - then,

Hut now

for his master. it

w ho goes

nymph,

can drag away

through the market place of Athens w ith

bondage from

guided by intuitions rather than by concepts. There

maidens, w hen even the goddess Athena herself

suddenly seen

of

endeavors, with gl(M>my

it

thinker.

every tree can suddenly speak as a a

At other times

like a servant

man

just as

he would otherwise walk." I'he

now thrown the token

the tools to a poor indi\iilual

hours every night that he was king," said Pascal,

would be

it

moving path which

offkiousness, to show the way and to demonstrate

to

believe that he

man where

intellect has

we are w ith the things that we see every day. "If a workman were sure to dream for twelve straight

as

bound-

into contusion aiul ihsplaces the

ary stones of abstractions, so that, for example,

as illusion

w as perhaps the case

man

life

which has

and beauty. Whenever,

in ancient

Greece, the intui-

handles his weapons more authoritatively

and victoriously than his opponent, then, under " ^'

Blaise Pascal

According

( 1

to

favorable circumstances, a culture can take shape

623 62), Pensees, number 386.

Herodotus,

the

tyrant

Peisistratus

(600-527 Bc) entered Athens accompanied by dressed as the goddess Athena.

a

woman

and

art's

mastery over

life

manifestations of such a this dissimulation, this

can be established. All the

life will

be accompanied by

disavowal of indigence, this

cm)

Friedrich Nietzsche

of metaphorical intuitions, and, in general,

glitter

this

immediacy of deception: neither the house, nor

How

we drink up

the gait, nor the clothes, nor the clay jugs give

this?

the sponge to wipe

seems

It

as if they

were

intended to

all

express an exalted happiness, an Olympian cloudlessness, and, as

The man who

were, a playing with seriousness.

it

is

guided by concepts and abstrac-

tions only succeeds

by such means

in

warding off

misfortune, without ever gaining any happiness for

And

himself from these abstractions. for the greatest possible

intuitive

man, standing

while he aims

freedom from pain, the

in the

midst of

a culture,

already reaps from his intuition a harvest of continually inflowing illumination, cheer,

tion

-

and redemp-

in addition to obtaining a defense against

To

misfortune.

when he

be sure, he suffers more intensely,

suffers;

he even suffers more frequently,

since he does not understand

how

same

into the

sorrow as he

ditch.

is

not be consoled.

who

learns

concepts

is

He

is

then just as irrational in

in happiness:

How

he cries aloud and

differently the stoical

will

man

from experience and governs himself by affected

by the same misfortunes! This

man, who at other times seeks nothing but sincerity, freedom from deception, and protection

truth,

against ensnaring surprise attacks,

now

executes a

him - you and But how did we do

killed

could

away the

Who

the sea?

gave us

What

entire horizon?

were we doing when we unchained

from

this earth

moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging its

sun? Whither

is it

continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in directions? Is there

not

Do we

empty space? Has

the breath of

feel

all

any up or down? Are we

still

not straying as through an infinite nothing?

not

it

become

colder? Is not night continually closing in

on us?

Do we not need to light Do we hear nothing as

morning?

of the gravediggers

who

lanterns in the yet of the noise

God? Do we

are burying

smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?

Gods, dead.

too,

God

decompose.

And we have

killed

God

dead.

is

remains

him.

"How shall we comfort ourselves,

from

to learn

experience and keeps falling over and over again

have

All of us are his murderers.

I.

evidence of having been invented because of a pressing need.

We

cried; "I will tell you.

the murderers

What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we of all murderers?

have to invent? great for us?

not the greatness of this deed too

Is

Must we

become gods

ourselves not

simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater

deed; and whoever

born

is

-

after us

for

masterpiece of deception: he executes his master-

the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher

piece of deception in misfortune, as the other type of

history than

man executes his in times of happiness. He wears no quivering and changeable human face, but, as it were, a

mask with

He does not When a real

cry;

dignified, symmetrical features.

he does not even

alter his voice.

storm cloud thunders above him, he

wraps himself

in his cloak,

walks from beneath

and with slow steps he

at his listeners; at

him

out. "I is

fell silent

and they,

in astonishment.

on the ground, and

it

At

and looked again

were

too,

last

silent

and stared

he threw his lantern

broke into pieces and went

have come too early," he said then;

not yet. This tremendous event

wandering;

still

it.

history hitherto."

all

Here the madman

it

is still

"my time

on

its

way,

has not yet reached the ears of

men. Lightning and thunder require time; the

light

of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, i

i

The Madman"

require time to be seen and heard. This deed

more distant from them than the most - and yet they have done it themselves.''

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright

place,

morning hours, ran

and cried incessantly:

''I

to the

seek God!

God!" - As many of those who did not

market I

seek

believe in

God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost.^ asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding.^ Is

has been related further that on the same day

madman

forced his

and there struck up out to

distant stars

and called

to

way

into several churches

his requiem aeternam deo.^

account,

have replied nothing but:

now if of God?"

these churches

sepulchers

he

is

"What

said

Led

always

after all are

they are not the tombs and

he afraid of us.' Has he gone on a voyage?

emigrated? -

Thus they yelled and laughed. The madman jumped into their midst and

pierced them with his eyes. "Whither

(n^

It

the

still

is still

is

God?" he

'

A

"requiem"

is

a

Latin prayer for the dead, in which

eternal rest {requiem aeternam)

Here

it is

being asked for

God

is

asked for the deceased.

{deo).

How

"How

The Dionysian World

the 'True World' Finally Became a

do

\iul

Fable" lu

I

lisii»r\

ol

.m

i

end,

i»tr

I

know what "the world"

\d

of the circle

unless a ring feels good-will

for all its riddles.-

and nothing

apparent one.

the

a

or there, but rather as

luptuous delight,

it!

(Bright day; breakfast; return of bun sens'" and cheerfulness;

not

out, as a play of torces

eternally," as a

cockcrow of positivism.) 5.

and

torce,

a

torms toward the hottest, most turbulent, most

Nordic, Konigsbergian.)" 4.

definite

something end-

detimte space

in

recurrence, with an ebb and a

a consolation, an obligation, an imperative.

unattained.

wasieil, not

extentled, but set

lessh

the

unpromisable; but the very thought

slrablc,

it

Christian.)'

The true world

whole, of

but likewise without increase or income;

losses,

"empty" here

the sinner xsho repents") it

as a

itself,

i\i*c\

not exfx-nd

enclosed h\ "nothingness" as by a boundary, not

something blurr\ or

the pious, the \irtuous

(Progress ot the idea:

transtorms

but onl>

itselt

iIu(

that

unalterable si/e, a household without expcn.scs or

unattainahle tor now,

insidious, incomprehensible

.V

the

truth ")

tin-

The true \NorUI

pronuseil tor the (*'for

llic sum--,

il, /k* is it

oldest torni ot the idea, relativeh sensible,

simple, ami persiiasi\e

2.

Iincs in

ShjII

THih world, a

magnitude of force

not grow bigger or smaller, that

pious, the \irluoiis

mc'

to

is

mirror^

energv, without hc{(mning,

ot

firm, iron

a

my

is

you,

t(Kj,

you

most power -

intrepid,

the will to

.\nd you yourselves are also this

power - and nothing

besides!

humanity;

INCIPIT ZAR.\TI lUSTRA.)" The

Nict/schc rogarded NNonun as fundamcntalh menda-

"

Kant

Good

title

The DionNsian World

mine, not

Nietzsche's.

cious.

"

lived in Konigsbcrg, Prussia.

''Zarathustra begins," referring to Nietzsche's

book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

.\

reference to Nietzsche's idea of the "eternal recur-

rence," that in our finite material universe

sense.

own

all

events must

be endlessh repeated. "l)ion>sian" below refers to Dion>sus, the Greek god of intoxication and sexuality.

(S>

14

^

'The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism"

Tommaso

Filippo

Marinetti

The cosmopolitan writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) founded the movement of Futurism

in

Futurism"

ism

1909 in

a prime

is

movements

by publishing "The Manifesto of

a Paris newspaper. Marinetti's Futur-

example

of the artistic

that exploded

in

and social

the period between

the world wars. Utopian, modern, intense, Mari-

wants an

netti

can re-make the world by

art that

recognizing the novel possibilities of industrial,

mass nor

is

society. This it

Italian

benign

not a purely aesthetic view,

is

implications. Marinetti urged

in its

involvement

in

World War

I

and

Suddenly we jumped, hearing the mighty noise of the huge double-decker trams that rumbled by outside, ablaze with colored lights, like villages

suddenly struck and uprooted by the

flooding

Po and dragged over

Futurism. Like Mussolini, Marinetti regarded war

Then

the silence deepened.

tened to the old canal muttering

and the creaking bones of

damp

their

We had stayed up all night, my friends and

I,

hanging mosque lamps with domes of

filigreed

under

domes starred like our spirits, shining like them with the prisoned radiance of electric hearts. For hours we had trampled our atavistic ennui into rich oriental rugs, arguing up to the last confines of brass,

and blackening many reams of paper with our

felt

pride was buoying us up, because

ourselves alone at that hour, alone, awake, feet,

like

proud beacons or forward

sentries against an

army of

down

their

at

us

from

hostile stars glaring

celestial

Alone with stokers feeding the

down

in the

hellish

fires

of

who

red-hot bellies of locomotives launched

their crazy courses, alone with

reeling like

wounded

lis-

above

"Let's go!"

I

said.

"Friends, away! Let's go!

Mythology and the Mystic last.

We're about

after, the first flight

Let's go!

Look

Ideal are defeated at

to see the Centaur's birth and,

of Angels!

life, test

there,

dawn! There's nothing

on the to

.

.

.

We

must

the bolts and hinges. earth, the very first

match the splendor of the

sun's red sword, slashing for the

first

time through

our millennial gloom!"

We

went up

to the three snorting beasts, to lay

amorous hands on out on

their torrid breasts.

that threatened

The

I

stretched

my car like a corpse on its bier, but revived at

raging

my

a guillotine blade

stomach.

broom of madness swept us out of

ourselves and drove us through streets as rough and

deep

as the

beds of torrents. Here and there, sick

encampments.

great ships, alone with the black specters

grope

sickly palaces

once under the steering wheel,

frenzied scribbling.

we

we

feeble prayers

under the windows

green beards,

shake the gates of

and on our

But, as its

we suddenly heard the famished roar of automobiles.

soon

as an heroic intensification of life.

An immense

and through

falls

gorges to the sea.

later

became an enthusiastic supporter of Benito Mussolini, arguing that fascism was an expression of

logic

on

holiday

drunkards

birds along the city walls.

Filippo

Tommaso

Marinetti,

"The

Manifesto of Futurism" (trans. R.W.

Founding and Flint

and Arthur

W. Coppotelli) from Marinetti: Selected Writings (ed. R.W. Flint), pp. 39-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1972.

1

"The Founding and Manifesto of Futuntm" lamplight ihc

irusi

glasN Uii^lit

(hll>ll^tl wiiiiloxs

Muthcnuiics

iiciciitiil

u> liis-

iis

our |H-nshin|{

ot

eyes I

w

crictl.

" Ihf siiiu.

ihi-

Mini

.ilmu-

^t^nt

were

mi!

luuicrNtanii'

|)crha(>%'

1(

uho urr^' Wc don't want to Woe to anvonr nho %a\% th\\n

is

or - w hat

based, in principle, on

c«

>lkci

i\

db^hivior

on convention.

amounts to the same thing

though often imbued

involved here were designated by three names, each

Polite formulas, tor instance,

suggesting and opposing the others.

with a certain natural expressiveness as in the case ot

retain the

word

sign to designate the

I

propose to

whole and

replace concept and sounJ-imagc respect ively by

mfteJ and signijur;* the

last

to

.nlN

priscmtJ

MKccssmn,

in

tlu\

ckimnis

I'luir

lt»rin a

chain

This

I

where

facts arc l\pical in this re-

ake the countless instancc\ where aitcralMin

JiincnsuinN, aiuiitor\ signit'icrs ha\c

their coni-

the dislinc-

is

hnguisiu insiiiuiion

ertain iliachronii

(

)

spect

arc

\\[k of fatlh thai

s4ilc

lasses of diffrrcnecs

i

ii\e tuiution of the

\shich can oltcr sinuiitaiu-ous groupings in sc\crjl at

c\en the

IS

It

language has. tor maintaining the piaraikii%ni hc-

obMous

is

it

occasions a comepiual change and that the

guished corresponds

sum

of the ideas distin-

sum

in principle to the

When two words

the

of

feature bcctniH's rcaililx

apparent when they are

distmctise signs

represented

ami the

through phonetic alteration (eg. French Jrcreptt

writing

in

graphic marks

Sometimes

siihstituteil lor

is

the linear nature

When am seems that obxious

accent a

I

I

spatial

the sigmtier

t>t

s\ liable, lor

is

not

instance,

it

concentrating more than one sig-

element on the same point

nificant

of

line

succession in time

Hut this

an

is

illusion, the sNilahle aiul its accent constitute onl\

There

»>ne ph(»national act

no

is

within the

clualitN

act but onl\ ilillerent opposiiionv. tn uli.it

auil

precedes

what follows.

from

and

Jtcrepitui

if

onl\

ha\e s«»mething

the\

wonl mas ha\e and

succeeding

mind

significant but without alwa\s

and two ideas

mind tend

When we compare to this: in

language there are onl\ dilferences.

Kven mt)re important: plies positive

difference generally im-

terms between w hich the difference

is

but in janguai^c there are (ml vdirtjcrcnccs

set up;

without positive

tcrtiis.

\\

hether

we

take the signifieti

language has neither ideas nor

or the signifler,

sounds thaiexisted but

a

bt;^fore

the linguistic system

onK concep tual, and phonic differences that The idea or phonic

have^issued from the system.

substance that a sign contains

is

of

than the other signs that surround

its

because

meaning or

a

its

sound being

affected, solely

is

true only

if

e\ cry thing in

the expression

father and

same with

fitting, for

it

applies

or

tw«)

ideas,

e.g.

the

idea

having

and

a signified

but only

distinct.

(ippositinn.

The

signifler, are not different

Between them there

entire

with which we shall be concerned

on oppositions of

this

is

only

mechanism of language, later, is

based

kind and on the phonic and

conceptual differences that they imply.

A

W hat

is

unit

a

is

ponds

true of value

is

true also of the unit.

segment of the spoken chain

that corres-

both are by nature

to a certain concept;

purely differential.

language

is

.\pp hed to units, the principle of differentiati on

the signified and the signifler

can be stated in this wav: the characteristics o f

when we consider the we have something that is posi-

theun it blend

class.

positive terms

signs

would not be

mother,

as

own

no longer

into the

"father" and the idea "mother"; two signs, each

sign in

tive in its

that are

merge

to

only to the comparing of two sound-images, eg.

are considered separately; its totality,

trial

each other, we can no longer speak of difference;

is

neighboring term has been modified.

Hut the siaiemeni that iie^ative

importance

Proof of this

term may be modified w ithout

that the value of a

either

less

it.

first

conceptual difference perceived

signifier.

F.Nerything that has been said up to this point boils

down

()r a 'chair*

seeks to find expression through a

distinct in the

in Its I'otality

chatu

(cf.

being successful on the

«)r

confused

common.

\n\ nascent difTerence will lend

become

(.on\ersely, any the

in

forms

different

iliuirc 'desk')

invariably to

h\

he Siprn ClonsidcrccJ

from irnpui), the ideas

dturcpi

that the> express will also tend to Ix-come

distinct signifier,

I

arc confu)»cd

A

linguistic

system

is

a series

in

with the unit

itself

any semiological system

,

guishes one sign from the others constitutes

of differences of sound combined with a series of

Differenc e makes character just as

differences of ideas; but the pairing of a certain

and the

same principle

of values; and this system serves as the effective link

commonly

it.

v alue

is this:

in the last analysis

what

referred to as a "grammatical fact"

the definition of the unit, for

within each sign, .\lthough both the signified and

an opposition of terms;

the signifler arc purely differential and negative

the opposition

when considered

formation of

a

makes

.Another rather paradoxical consequence of the

between the phonic and psychological elements

is

it

unit.

number of acoustical signs with as mauN cuts made from the mass of thought engenders a system

separately, their combination

In language,^

whatever distin-

is

it

particular))

German

it

is

fits

always expresses

differs

only in that

significant (e.g. the

plurals of the type Sacht:

(m>

>^

Ferdinand de Saussure Nachte)."^

Each term present

in the

without umlaut or

fact (the singular

position to the plural with umlaut and

When

e)

is

the

Nacht nor Ncichte

is

opposition. Putting

it

isolated, neither

anything: thus everything

op-

consists of

number of oppositions within

the interplay of a

system.

grammatical final e in

Nacht: Nachte, we might ask what are the units involved in

whole lars

it.

Are they only the two words, the

series of similar

and

plurals,

words, a and

a,

or

all

singu-

etc..''

Units and grammatical facts would not be confused

if linguistic

signs were

made up of something

another way, the Nacht: Ndchte relation can be

besides differences. But language being what

expressed by an algebraic formula a/ h in which a

we

and

h are not simple terms but result

relations.

Language,

in a

from

a set

manner of speaking,

is

of a

shall find

nothing simple

tion each other. Putting

Some

form and n ot a

its

oppositions are

the

names

significant than

and grammatical

others; but units

different

more

facts are only

for designating diverse aspects of

same general

fact:

the functioning of linguistic

oppositions. This statement

is

so true that

we might

very well approach the problem of units by starting

from grammatical

Nacht means

facts.

night.

Taking an opposition

like

it

overstressed, for ology,

all

it

substance.

it is,

regardless of our

approach; everywhere and always there

complex equilibrium of terms

type of algebra consisting solely of complex terms. of

in

is

the

same

that mutually condi-

another way, langu age

is

a

This truth could not be

alMhe mist akes

in

our termin -

our incorrect ways of naming th ings tha t

pertain to language, stem from the involuntary

supposition that the linguistic

have substance.

phenomenon must

.

From "Science as a Vocation"

Max

\\ cbcr

Max Weber (1864-1920). giant German sociology, stands

of

Marx as one

of the great

with

age

Freud and

of the quintessential theorists of

modernity. A supporter of liberal republicanism in

imperialist,

arguing ity,

for the

Germany. Weber

quasi-feudal

famously opposed the

need

politicization of science,

for

dispassionate objectiv-

a stance directly connected to his view of

his most and the Spirit of Capitalism, he described Euro-American modernization as an expanding "rationalism." by

modernity.

the

In

Introduction

famous book. The Protestant

of

life

rationalitat).

lation of

order to serve worldly

which nowadays

and by

Does one

mean

it

the conditions ot

American

Lnless he

is

streetcar has

into motion.

belief that sanctified the character traits re-

even

liberty, rational

price:

it

buys

mod-

individual

thought, and material progress

exchange for a "disenchantment of the world." a permanent state of dissatisfaction, and an "iron cage" of bureaucratic alienation. There is no way around this bargain. Weber argued in his marvelous 1918 lecture "Science as a Vocation." He concludes that one must either bear the fate of the times like a man.'or sacrifice rational intelligence and "return [to] the arms of the old churches in

.

There

is

no third option.

and

created

this

science

b\

means

technology,

that we, todax, tor instance, everv-

sitting in this hall,

streetcar,

a

ears

what

first clarify

scientifically oriented

satisfied that

capitalism. For Weber,

\

practically.

The development of Protestantism, he was an example: unlike Catholicism, it announced an individualistic, calculative form of salvation through disciplined work, an innerweltliche Askese or "this-worldly asceticism." Christianity thereby evolved a form of

modern comes at

of

usually judged in such an ex-

rationalization,

intellect ualist

then theorized,

ernity

is

tremely negative way. Let us

goals.

quired by

imj-Mirtant

lite

ha\e

a

greater knowledge ot

under which we

Indian

or

a

exist

Hottentot?'

than has

Hardly.

of

to instrumental rationality {Zweck-

in

most

ha\c been undergoing lor thousands

\vc

an

the analysis, planning, and manipu-

phenomena

Iracrion. the

is a

Iraclion, of the process ol intilltctuali/ation Nshich

to

Ethic

which he meant an increasing subjection

spheres

.ScitntifK progress

a

physicist,

no idea how the car happened to get And he does not need to know He is he may 'count' on the behasiour ot the

and he orients

this expectation; but it

one who rides on the

his

conduct according

takes to produce such a car so that

tools.

When we it

spend money today

does

money

hall,

it

happen

in

bet

that

readiness to the question;

that

one

c-an

daily food

buy something

sometimes more and sometimes

The savage knows what he does

\

I

economy almost every one of them will

hold a different answer

'

can move.

there are colleagues of political

here in the

for

it

sa\age knows incomparably more about his

I'he

How

to

he knows nothing about what

in

less.'

order to get his

and which institutions serve him

in this

southern Xfrican pcdplc

Max Weber, from "Science as

a Vocation." pp.

138-40. 143-9. 155-6 in From Max Weber Essays in Sociology (trans, and ed. H. H. Gerth and C.Wright Mills). New York: Oxford University Press. 1946.

.

Max Weber The

pursuit.

increasing inteilectualization and ra-

do

tionalization

««/, therefore, indicate

an increased

and general knowledge of the conditions under

which one It

or belief that

if

What namely, the knowledge

else,

one but wished one could learn

any time. Hence,

means

it

one can,

play, but rather that

is

things by calculation. This

disenchanted.

in

at

that

come

in principle,

means

service.

all is

means to its devoted disciples. To raise this question

inteilec-

is

and,

in

general,

which science belongs

this

''progress,"

and motive

as a link

do they have any meanings

You

to

force,

beyond the

that go

purely practical and technical.^

will find this

question raised in the most principled form in the works of

to ask for the vocation

life

Leo

Tolstoi."

He came

to raise the

What

of humanity.

Today one

from presuppositions."

It

for

into an infinite "progress," according

own imminent meaning should

its

an end; for there

is

always

never come to

a further step

ahead of

And no

It

founda-

w orld; and,

at least

our special question, these presuppositions are

the least problematic aspect of science. Science further presupposes that what tific

work

this,

our problems. For

we must

is

yielded by scien-

important in the sense that

is

being known." In

it is

"worth

obviously, are contained

this

all

presupposition cannot be

means.

scientific

its

can only be

It

inter-

ultimate meaning, which

reject or accept according to

position tow ards

has none because the individual hfe of civilized

man, placed to

And his man death has no meaning.

meaningful phenomenon.

.

that the rules of logic

tions of our orientation in the

proved by

is a

.

thing.''

valid; these are the general

preted w ith reference to

for civilized

there such a

Is

work presupposes

and method are

question in a peculiar way. All his broodings in-

answ er w as:

total

the value of science.'

usually speaks of science as "free

creasingly revolved around the problem of whether

or not death

of science within the

is

depends upon what one understands thereby. All scientific

process of disenchantment, which

has continued to exist in Occidental culture for millennia,

no longer

is

hence, the problem of what science as a vocation

tualization means. this

meaningful vocation.'

question must be raised. But this

world

calculations

what

a

it is

that goes

master

that the

means and

Has "progress" as beyond the

take.^

meaning

a recognizable

his

thought as the key-

art.

stand should one

technical, so that to serve

The

this

merely the question of man's calling for science,

longer have recourse

This above

w ith

into

order to master or implore the

existed. Technical

perform the

Now,

such

did the savage, for w hom such mysterious

spirits, as

powers

One need no

means

to magical

it

that principally there are

no mysterious incalculable forces

all

novels one meets

note of the Tolstoyan

lives.

means something

Throughout

the imprint of meaninglessness. late

our ultimate

life.

Furthermore, the nature of the relationship of

work and

scientific

presuppositions

its

varies

The

natural

sciences, for instance, physics, chemistry,

and as-

widely according to their structure.

one who stands

in the

man w ho comes

w hile

lies in infinity.

upon the peak which Abraham, or some peasant of the

past, died "old

and

he

not only because with such knowledge one can

in

attain technical results but for its

march of

progress.

to die stands

satiated with life" because

stood in the organic cycle of life; because his

life,

terms of its meaning and on the eve of his days, had

him what

given to

life

had

to offer; because for

him

tronomy, presuppose to

as self-evident that

it is

w orth

know the ultimate law s of cosmic events

far as science

can construe them. This

quest for such knowledge this presupposition

is

to

ow n

is

as

the case

sake, if the

be a "vocation." Yet

can by no means be proved.

there remained no puzzles he might wish to solve;

And

and therefore he could have had "enough" of

the world which these sciences describe

is

worth

has any "meaning," or that

it

makes

Whereas

civilized

man, placed

in the

life.

midst of the

continuous enrichment of culture by ideas, knowledge,

and problems, may become "tired of hfe" but

not "satiated with

life."

minute part of what the ever anew

,

He

life

and what he

seizes

is

always something

provisional and not definitive, and therefore death for

him

death

is

ingless;

is

a

meaningless occurrence.

meaningless, civilized

by

its

life as

very "progressiveness"

And such it

because is

mean-

gives death

less

while, that

it

for the

A

great Russian writer (1828-1910).

12^

it

be proved that the existence of

answers to such questions.

Consider modern medicine,

ogy which

is

a practical

technol-

highly developed scientifically.

The

general "presupposition" of the medical enterprise is

stated trivially in the assertion that medical sci-

ence has the task of maintaining

life as

such and of

diminishing suffering as such to the greatest possible degree.

the medical "

can

sense to live in such a world. Science does not ask

catches only the most

of the spirit brings forth

still

man, even

Yet

this is problematical.

By his means

man preserves the life of the mortally ill

if

the patient implores us to relieve

him

"Science at a Vocation" cM-n

lite,

III

hiN rrlaiixis,

it

worihlcNs jiul

whom

III

IN

Ins

grow imlHaruhic. gram

hiN worthliNs lilc

Irom suttrring

ilcinpiion

wlxun

ii>

Perhaps

4 |XM»r

liiiutu

or noi, wish jiuI iiuisI wish lor his iKaih

prcMip|x>sitions ol niciiicinc,

prcM'iu the plnsicufi Iroin

Whfihir

pculK ctlorts

Njtiir.il

icchnicallN

it

l«)

worth while

is

ilo

ue wish

il

Iea\es i|uite asule.

Icchnicalh

sense

l\\v

iiNing

not jskeil h\ ineiiuine

is

ih)

wlutlur

aiul

master hie

to

assumes

«»r

whether we shouUI ami do w

pur|vises, life

\v\

|H*nal khIi*,

science gises ns an answer to the ijuestion

what we must

tit

ilu

.iiul

i(

ri-liiu|iiishing his tlura-

lite

this question

is

his rr-

rcbtnis, wluilur thi\ .ulmn

inxolxcil. whiisc

jml when

litr

ihc cosIh oI nuinuining

ish to

uliiin.iteK

it

lor its

gnen

is

The

tail

tor aesthetics

to Ciod

and, in

man. Hence, aesthetics shotiU be works of

is

partly

ot

whether there

dcK's not ask

should deplore

it

establishes what

It

to the rules ot

bound by

Mews

in

11

belongs there

To take ami

juristic

logically

is

thought,

compelling and

tions

IS

another

\\

hen speaking

recogni/ed as bind-

helher there should be law ant! uhelher one

legal

such questions

just these rules

jurisprudence does not answer.

our

this result,

It

can only

state:

It

according to the norms ot

thought, this legal rule

means of attaining

is

the appropriate

a

one uses

in

stand

is

such

a

Consider the historical and cultural sciences.

in

literary,

and

phenomena

social

terms of their origins. But they give us no answer

to the question,

cultural

.\nd

whether

whether the existence of these

phenomena has been and

they it

is

worth whi/c.

do not answer the turlher question, is

worth the

etfort

is

an interest

partaking, through this procedure, of the

this interest

is

commu-

the case; and that they

by no means proves that

goes without saying. In fact evident.

in

men." But they cannot prove

"scientifically" that this

presuppose

meet-

one's

come

out clearly

dut\.

The words

damned

meeting are not means of scien-

of contemplatne thought; they

to loosen the soil

swords

are

against

are weapons.

analyzes them

what results

it

is

not

at all

it

self-

words

such

enemies:

the

would be an outrage, however,

It

in

"democracy"

instance,

for

If,

lo

lecture or in the

a

under discussion, one considers

its

is

sarious forms,

the wa\ the\ function, determines

tor the conditions

of

life

has as compared with the other.

the one form

Then one con-

fronts the forms of democracN with non-democratic

forms of

which,

political

order and endeavors to

w here the student may

in

terms of his ultimate

stand. But the true teacher will

from the platform any student, whether let

it is

ideals,

he can take

political position

a

upon the

expressed or suggested. is

political

a

to a

from

beware of im|>osing

the facts speak tor themselves"

way of putting oNcr

come

find the point

"To

the most unfair

position

the

to

student.

W

required to know

them. They presuppose that there

nity of "civilized

one thing,

means of canvassing votes and The) are not plow-shares

analysis but

positi(m

it.

rhe> teach us how to understand and interpret political, artistic,

is

and part) posi-

in a political

personal standpoint; indeed, to

and take

tific

p

for him.

whiih

ilarilv

rather lacilitates this dut>

aiul

new ami genuine

a

tlnall\, will create

sionately for him. After

integrilx.

the

return silenil\, without the usual pubiicit\ build-

up

leitual

lourage to

con-

the person w ho cannot bear the fate of the like

quite « JifTcrmi

matter than the evasion of the plain dut\ of inlcl-

an inner sense, something simi-

result, but

will

man\ monuments ni tries intellectualK to

religions without

prophecN, then,

f>ncii

to torce anil to "in\ent"' a

st>le in art,

are prmluceil as the

ities last

is

like a rirebraiul. weliling tluin

we attempt

It

m«)numental

an unconiliiMinjl

cthiailly

higher than the academic prophecx, which docit not

former times swept through the

in

in la\or ol if

clearb reali/e that in the leciure-riMims ot the uni-

is

pulsating that corres|>onds to the prophetic Wii,*'

ilc\oiion

reliKiouh

intimate ami not

art

within the smallest ami intimate circles,

human

not acci-

It is

Mcnficc

intellectual

acculental that l(Kla\ oiiK

our greatest

that

ilenlal

mitt

i-iihcr

lilc

\N«irlil

b>

ill.

siiMinu- \ahii-s luxe rciri-utcil

4iul iiiDsi

public

Iroin

raimii-

l»\

Ami, aKivr

ali/iition Ani\ inicllci.lU4li/4lion

Kdom

12 "Seir"

is

f sau.

Jacobs

In the t'oilox^ing

another name for

Le Corbusier Charles-Edouard Jeanneret,

a.k.a.

Le Corbusier

(1887-1965), was a Swiss architect whose 1923 collection of magazine articles Vers une Architecture (translated as Towards a

New Architecture)

is

perhaps the most important architectural book of the twentieth-century. Le Corbusier took it as his generation's task fundamentally to rethink architecture's meaning for a new technological and socially egalitarian age.

De-ornamentation and

geometrical simplicity are not only functional

and egalitarian, but they reveal the truth of a building, naked and essential. When his innovative design for the first League of Nations center in Geneva in 1927 was disqualified (because it had not been drawn using India ink!), the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) was formed, largely to defend his kind of avant-garde work. His architectural style was based on a vision of a future society that

would be true to

its

own

by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes

in us,

an order which we

he gives us the measure of

feel to

be in accordance with

that of our world, he determines the various

move-

ments of our heart and of our understanding; then that

we experience

Three Reminders

it is

the sense of beauty.

to Architects

MASS Our

eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms

in light.

Primary forms are beautiful forms because they can be clearly appreciated. Architects to-day no longer achieve these simple

forms.

Working

Industrial nature.

by

engineers

calculation,

employ

geometrical forms, satisfying our eyes by their geo-

The

metry and our understanding by

Engineer's ^Esthetic and

their

work

is

on the direct

line

their mathematics;

of good

art.

Architecture

The

Engineer's ^Esthetic, and Architecture, are

two things that march together and follow one from the other: the one being now the other in an

The

unhappy

at its full height,

state of retrogression.

Engineer, inspired by the law of

Economy

SURFACE A

mass

is

divided up according to the directing and gener-

is

enveloped

in its surface, a surface

ating lines of the mass; and this gives the

which

mass

its

individuality.

and governed by mathematical calculation, puts us in accord with uni\ ersal law.

The realizes spirit;

He achieves harmony.

Architect, by his arrangement of forms,

an order which

is

a

pure creation of his

by forms and shapes he

to an acute degree

affects

and provokes

our senses

plastic emotions;

Le Corbusier, from "Argument," pp. 1-8; inder:

Mass," pp.

Mass," pp.

47-64

in

Towards a

(trans. Frederick Etchells). tions,

1986.

"First

Rem-

29-31; and "Third Reminder:

New

New

Architecture

York: Dover Publica-

Towards a Nt^w ArcNtucturo \rthuccls ciMiNdiucnls

Mv

itHtljN

The grtai

'l"

"'

all Jill

•...ii..iii.

J

surfjcrs

(il

//A7'/

pruhlcins ol

The airplane

inusi huM- J groiiulrKul soluiion I'lircrd

ncciis

cxactU

iif

nuke use

actonljiKc with the slncl

in

cnmnccrs

ilcicrmiiifil coruiitions,

generating ami accusing lines in rela-

(it

forms

to

tion

>%i»rk

III

IheN

/\/s

nuKkiii iunsiiiutiun

create

liinpui

of the airplane lies in the toKic vthich

governed the sialement

the

of

problnn and Us

realization

The problem

ino\ing

.iiui

the prtnlucl o( lUrsc Mrlrttiim

is

The lesson

of

ilu

house has not

liccn

\cl

slated plastic tacts

Nesertheless there

exist

ilo

siandanls fur the

dwelling house

l\

/'/

Ihc

.Machinery contains

Wiihoui

\ou ha\e lack

plan.

a

^m^\,

generator

IM.ui IS the

onUr,

iil

aiul

which makes

The house

machine

a

is

in itself the factor ot

ccun-

for selection for living in.

wilJulness

The IMan hokis

in itself the

pn>hlems

i'he great

collectiNe necessities, put a

essence of sensatitm.

to-morrow,

of

"plan"

tlu- i|iRsti(>ii ot

in

new form. Minlern

\ll()\]()lilLi:S

In

ilictaleil

We

must aim

face the

ilemaiuls. aiul

life

is

waiting

new

tor. a

kind of plan, boih tor the house aiui lor the

the fixing of standards in order to

at

problem

of perfection.

The Parthenon

is a

proiluct of selection applied

to a stanilani

cit\

Architecture operates in accordance with standards. Rc'iiiilaliiii;

,incs

I

Standards are

mailer of Ujgic, analvsis and

a

minute stud>; ihe\ are based on

An

ine\itable element ot ArchiiecUire.

The necessitN

tor ortler.

has been well "stated."

The regulating

guarantee against wilfulness.

line

is a

.\

a

problem which

standard

is

definiteU

established by experiment.

brings satisfaction

It

to the understanding.

The

regulating line

a recipe. Its

given to

is

a

means

are an integral

it

to

an end;

it

is

not

Architecture

choice and the modalities of expression part of

architectural

THE LliSSOX

Ol ROMl.

creation.

The

business of Architecture

tional relationships

Eyes

W hich Do

Not Sec

.Vrchitecture goes

-Architecture

The The

LIXERS' A

epoch has begun.

great

There

exists a

There

exists a

spirit;

it

is

to

new

stifled

in the

of intention

in industrial

The

own

result

animating

ot"

a state

all

the

of mind

special character.

Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style. Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it. liners.

Plan prtK'eeds from within to without; the

exterior

is

the result of an interior.

The elements

of architecture are light and shade,

walls and space.

Arrangement

is

the gradation of aims, the classi-

fication of intentions.

-Man looks eyes,

Ocean

a unit\

sense of relationships; architecture deals

by custom.

a unity of principle

its

of order,

utilitarian needs.

thing

new

lie.

work of an epoch, the which has

beyond

a plastic

Tin: liJA si()\ Ol' PL \\s is

"styles" are a is

emo-

Passion can create drama out ol inert stone.

mass of work conceived

be met with particularly

-Architecture

Style

to establish

with quantities.

spirit.

production.

The

spirit

is

is

by means of raw materials.

at

w hich arc

the creation of architecture w ith his 5 feet

6 inches from the ground-

One

can only deal with aims w hich the eye can appreciate.

Le Corbusier and intentions which take into account architectural

come

elements. If there

into play intentions

do not speak the language of architecture, you

Beautiful also with

which

artist's sensibility

arrive

tioning elements.

the animation that the

all

can add to severe and pure func-

of plans, you transgress the rules of the

at the illusion

Plan through an error in conception, or through leaning towards

a

Architecture or Revolution

empty show.

PURE CREATION OF THE MIND

new problems have prenew tools have been created them. If this new fact be set

In every field of industry,

sented themselves and

Contour and

profile

arc

the touchstone of the

architect.

capable of resolving

against the past, then you have revolution.

Here he reveals himself as artist or mere engineer. Contour

is

There

here no longer any question of custom,

is

free of

all

constraint.

nor of tradition, nor of construction nor of adaptation to utilitarian needs.

Contour and mind; they

the plastic

pure creation of the artist.

Mass-production Houses

new economic

needs, mass-production units have been created

both

mass and

in

detail;

have been achieved both

profile are a

call for

In building and construction, mass-production

has already been begun; in face of

this fact

be

and definite

in detail

set against the past,

and

results

in mass. If

then you have

revolution, both in the

method employed and

the large scale on w hich

it

The

in

has been carried out.

history of Architecture unfolds itself slowly

across the centuries as a modification of structure

A

great epoch has begun.

and ornament, but

There

concrete have brought

exists a

new

spirit.

Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which

on towards

rolls

us with

new

its

destined ends, has furnished

new epoch,

tools adapted to this

mated by the new

Economic law

ani-

inevitably governs our acts and

The problem of the house is a problem of the The equilibrium of society to-day depends

epoch.

Architecture has for

it.

its first

duty, in this

period of renewal, that of bringing about a revision

of values,

a revision

of the constituent elements of

the house.

the index of a greater capacity for construction, and

overturned. If we challenge the past,

no longer

belonging to our

own

is

based on analysis and experi-

period has

Our minds have

Industry on the grand scale must occupy

about; and

The machinery

of Society, profoundly out of between an amelioration, of histor-

gear, oscillates

importance, and a catastrophe.

The

primordial instinct of every

itself

house on

intellectual.

mass-production

basis.

create the mass-production spirit.

of constructing

It is a

mass-production

houses.

The

human

being

is

various classes of

workers in society to-day no longer have dwellings adapted

spirit

come

arisen, consciously or unconsciously.

with building and establish the elements of the

We must

shall learn

consciously or unconsciously

to assure himself of a shelter.

ment.

The

we

exist for us, that a style

apprehended these events and new needs have

ical

Mass-production

a

and

conquests, which are

there has been a Revolution.

our thoughts.

upon

new

of an architecture in which the old codes have been

that "styles"

spirit.

in the last fifty years steel

to their needs;

neither the artizan nor the

question of building which

is at

the root of

the social unrest of to-day: architecture or revolution.

The spirit of living in mass-production houses. The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses. we

If

eliminate from our hearts and minds

dead concepts

in regard to the house,

and look

all

the question from a critical and objective point of

view

,

we

shall arrive at the

"House-Machine," the

mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too)

and beautiful

tools

in the

same w ay

that the

working

and instruments which accompany our

ence are beautiful.

(51$)

First

Reminder: Mass

at

exist-

Architecture

is

the masterly, correct and magnifi-

cent play of masses brought together in light. eyes are

made

to see

forms

in light; light

Our

and shade

reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders

or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the

image of these

is

.

Towards a New Architecture disltiKt

guil\.

and IS

ll

tangihlt- wiihiii u\ Jiul

Hiihout

Jiiibi-

itui reason ihai (hcM: arc hrautiful

liir

formi. ihf mn\t hfiiutiful fo'fti

l.\cr\lxKl>

is ujjrcril

js Id that, the thiUI, the sjNugc aiul (lu- incijplus-

liun

ll

Roman

(irccL or

l.g\|>iian.

arihitccturc

and

kus iPT hate the .imentan grant elrvalon

afe

magmfumt I'lRM -rtl

IT» of ikr ntw

A\«»RI(.AS I.N(il\I.I.R% (IVIRHMII.M

lll>

IIIMK

\\MII SK( III!

ihc \cr\ luiurc ot ihc pbstic arts

IS (it

J

failonei. ike

>

01 R IXHIRISCi

AI.(.tJl.Afl()N.H

(

K»

11

I

An

is

architecture ot prisnis, ciilx-s ami c\lnulers, p\ra-

muls or spheres I. uxor,

\

einple

I

(

not.

Iiiiui.iiiii iil.ilU

i»Iis«.

uiii.

«>t

I

I

.III liitiv till

(.

IN

spheres, cones aiul iNJiiulers

tui

I

expression ol

gcometr>

of

we search

in

it

for

kind tmtside plastic

ol a sub)ecti\e

complex

a

tor that reason that a cathedral

is

an

is

second order (intersectinii arches)

hcautitui and that

not \er\

is

compensations

art.

A

cathedral

interests us as the ingenious solution ot a difficult

problem, but

a

problem

which the

ot

Ki iniiulci

I

i^ostulales

he plan

is

site

impact

gravity, which

The

is

a

drama; a j'l^ht against

is

not a

their

Pyramids, the Towers

ot

Babylon, the Ciates

Samarkand, the Parthenon, the Coliseum, the

t)t

Pantheon,

Mosques

the

Pont

the ot

«.lu

Santa

Ciard,

Stamboul, the Tower

Sophia,

ot Pisa, the

to space

du

do

(^uai d'Orsay, the Cirand Palais

architects

of to-day,

the sterile back-

waters of their plans, their tbiiage, their pilasters

and

their lead r(K)ts,

ha\e ncNcr acquired the

ct)n-

eye trans-

in a large interior, the

multiple

surfaces of walls and vaults; the cupolas detenninc the large spaces; the vaults display their

accordance

comprehensible

with

w hole structure

trom

rises

accordance with

a rule

harmony: is at its

this

its

reasons.

base and

which

is

is

in

The

developed

written on the

is

.\

pr()t«)und pro-

architecture.

basis. V\ ithout plan there c-an

of aim

grandeur

neither

sur-

noble torms, variety of tbrm,

in the plan:

jection of

own

and the walls adjust themselves

taces; the pillars

The plan

lost in

relationship of

the

unity of the geometric principle.

not belong to .\rchiiecture."

The

rhvthm and not an

architecture.

is

The eye observes,

ground

I'he Ciare

if

the dispfjsition of

if

clean

in just pro|>ortion, the

is

If

it

kind and ha\e not been

derives trom these satistactions of a high

the Pont-Royal, the In\alidcs Architecture.

receives the

It

up around

mits to the brain co-ordinated sensations and the

in

these belong to

a

incoherent agglomeratHin,

Cupolas of Brunclleschi and of Michael Angelo, all

a titrmal

the rKcc»-

le\el, the

rcaMin ol their height the same accomnKnlation that has

wum

jiui

ionsiani repairs toexeiulr,

them

(a

labour of Sisyphus) the gas

The Circck mythological character Sisyphus was condemned h\ the gods rcpcaicdb to mil a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down, tor etcmit> "Tubes" refers .

to

subwavs.

(m>

Le Corbusier city.

Here again the plan

is

the generator; without

it

accent running not from top to bottom, but horizontally from

poverty, disorder, wilfulness reign supreme.

Instead of our towns being laid out in massive

This

left to right.

a modification of the first

is

importance

in

quadrangles, with the streets in narrow trenches

the aesthetic of the plan;

walled in by seven-storeyed buildings set perpen-

but we shall be wise to bear this in our minds,

dicular on the

courtyards,

pavement and enclosing unhealthy

airless

and sunless

wells,

our new

has not yet been realized;

it

in considering projects for the extension

of our

towns. *

*

*

layout, employing the same area and housing the same number of people, would show great blocks of

We are living in a period of reconstruction and of

houses with successive set-backs, stretching along

adaptation to new social and economic conditions.

No more

avenues.

arterial

opening on every side not on the

puny

to air

trees of

courtyards, but

and

light,

flats

and looking,

our boulevards of to-day,

In rounding this

Cape Horn the new horizons

before us will only recover the grand line of tradition

by a complete revision of the methods

in

but upon green sward, sports grounds and abun-

vogue and by the fixing of a new basis of construc-

dant plantations of trees.

tion established in logic.

The

jutting

prows of these great blocks would

break up the long avenues

at regular intervals.

The

In architecture the old bases of construction are

dead.

We

shall not rediscover the truths of archi-

various set-backs would promote the play of light

tecture until

and shade, so necessary

ground

to architectural expression.

Reinforced concrete has brought about a revolution in the aesthetics of construction.

By suppress-

ing the roof and replacing

it

concrete

is

new

hitherto

unknown. These set-backs and recessions

leading us to a

are quite possible

and

by

will, in

terraces, reinforced aesthetic of the plan,

the future, lead to a

play of half-lights and of heavy shade with the

A

for

new

bases have established a logical

every

architectural

period of 20 years

manifestation.

beginning which

is

occupied in creating these bases.

A

will

be

period of great

problems, a period of analysis, of experiment,

a

period also of great aesthetic confusion, a period in

which

We tion.

a

new

aesthetic will

must study the

be elaborated.

plan, the key of this evolu-

"Lecture on Ethics" From Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwiu;

\\ ittgcnstcin

philosopher

Austrian

Ludwig

Wittgenstein

(1889-1953) was perhaps the most

influential

Western philosopher of the twentieth century. Brilliant and unhappy. Wittgenstein struggled all his life against the bewitchment" of his mind by philosophical questions. Having studied with

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), his early work on

fundamental issues in the philosophy of mathematics, logic, and the nature of philosophy gave major impetus to logical positivism. Wittgenstein then declared that he had put all philosophical questions to rest and left academia. Years later, after a major change in outlook, he returned and gave rise to "ordinary language" philosophy, presented in his posthumous but hugely influential Philosophical Investigations that

meaning

is

(1953).

Its

notion

determined by social contexts

of

practical activity, or "language-games." later play

Most

an important role

in

would postmodernism.

of the following excerpt is his lesser

"Lecture on Ethics" (1929).

in

known

which he explains

diminished by mentioning them to

The

first

one, N\hich almost

that l.nglish

not

is

m>

>(»u

nati\e tongue and

and

one

talks

to a.sk

you

I

to

stantly be

mar. that

I

you right

in this point

\\

first

to read a

announced the end

of traditional philosoph-

to

I

have

me my and my

thought was that

I

paper to your society,

would

certainly

was

do

it

second thought was that

if

tunity to speak to you

should speak about some-

thing which

I

am

I

I

to

have the oppor-

keen on communicating to you

give you a lecture about, say, logic.

ical reflection.

lecture

And

hen Nour former secretary honoured

me

by asking

is this,

few words

will say a

I

about the reason for choosing the subject chosen:

con-

committing against the Knglish gram-

and

stein

will

1

of mine with slightly wrong expectations. set

my

get at

The second difficulty will mention probably many of you come up to this

to his first book. Tractatus

which Wittgen-

if

can do is make my task easier by tr\ing to meaning in spite of the faults which about a difficult subject. All

inquiry. Following this is the

in

is

ex-

which would be desirable

human

Logico-Philosophicus (1921).

my

jircssion therefore often lacks that prcci.sion

subtle!)

famous conclusion

the limits of

beforehand

need not mention,

I

that

I

should not misuse this opportunity to I

c^ll this

misuse, for to explain a scientific matter to \ou

would need paper.

a

a it

course of lectures and not an hour's

Another alternative would have been

to

give you what's called a popular-scientific lecture, that i i

Lecture on Ethics"

Before

I

begin to speak about

me make have

a

great

my

subject proper

few introductory remarks. difficulties

thoughts to vou and

I

in

think

I

feci

I

communicating

is

a lecture intended to

you understand

let

shall

my

some of them mav be

a

make you

believe that

thing which actualK you don't

Ludwig Wittgenstein: [A] "Lecture on Ethics." The Philosophical Review 74. no. 1 (January 1965). pp. 3-12: [B] from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (trans. D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness). paras. 6.53-6.57. pp. 73-4. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1961.

(@)

Ludwig Wittgenstein understand, and to gratify what

believe to be one

I

about

superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of

actually used in

science.

rejected these alternatives

I

you about

talk to

of general importance, hoping that

up your thoughts about

clear

it

may

My

it).

and

third

is

it

the hearer

this, that

is

led

That

stand

he says, but what on earth

or else he thinks "I see

on earth

incapable of

w hat

it

he driving at"

is

he's driving

but how

at,

he going to get there." All

is

lec-

he either thinks: "I under-

to say:

is

is

if

will say

and the goal w hich

leads to. all

them

and the

one which,

last difficulty is

seeing both the road he

to

(even

I

most lengthy philosophical

in fact, adheres to

tures and

to

help to

this subject

you should entirely disagree with what about

me

to

can do

I

is

these expressions

all

be

and decided

w hich seems

a subject

Now the first thing that strikes one

concerned with.

of the lowest desires of modern people, namely the

senses.

instance

say that this

I

purpose has been previously fixed upon. In

the

word good

coming up

in the relative sense

now

will

into

what

He says:

"Ethics

is

in his

book Prin-

the general enquiry

Now I am going to use the term

good."

is

is

adopt the explanation of that term

which Professor Moore has given cipia Ethica.^

know,

begin. IVly subject, as you

will

I

predetermined standard.

to a certain

similarly if

I

say that

catch cold

I

mean

it

is

important for

say that this

right road relative to a certain

deep problems. But

this

them. Supposing that

me

of you saw

I

part of what

make you

to

is

generally called Aesthetics.

see as clearly as possible

number of more

or less

And

take to

I

a

"You're behaving

want

I

to

preposterous

to say "I to

answered "I know, I'm

could say would be

said

and by enumerating them

I

But suppose

that's all right."

you

each of which could be substituted for the above definition,

man

the other

all

know I behave badly, but then I

you ought

on the same photographic

plate in order to get

the picture of the typical features they

common. And ive

photo

I

as

by showing

could make you see what

say - Chinese face; so

synonyms which I

I

if you

will

is

had

all

you such

to

in

a collect-

the typical

look through the

-

row of

put before you, you

will,

hope, be able to see the characteristic features they

all

have

common and

in

features of Ethics.

Now instead of saying "Ethics is

the enquiry into what

Ethics

what is

is

these are the characteristic

is

good"

the enquiry into what

is

really important, or

I

I

is

life

living.

I

w ill

worth

as to

all

what

to

to

he would say "Well,

J

behave better." Here you have

i

instance was one of a relative judgment.

Every judgment of

ment of

facts

form that

loses

it

relative value

all

is

the right

mere

a

in

es-

this:

state-

such

a

the appearance of a judgment

of value: Instead of saying "This

Granchester,"

is

and can therefore be put

first

The

sence of this difference seems to be obviously

is

the right

way

to

could equally well have said, "This

I

way you have

to

go

if

you want

to get to

valuable, or, into

good runner" simply means that he runs

a certain

way of

these phrases you it is

that Ethics

is

number of etc.

G. E. Moore (1873-1958), English philosopher who,

Now

miles in a certain

what

judgments of

I

w ish

to

a

number of minutes,

contend

relative value

is

is

that,

although

all

can be shown to be

mere statements of facts, no statement of fact can ever be, or imply, a judgment of absolute value. Let explain this: Suppose one of you were an

niscient person

with Bertrand Russell, invented twentieth-century "ana-

ments of

lytic" philosophy.

and that he

(l4g)

want

an absolute judgment of value, whereas the

me '

w ant

man

living, or into the right

rough idea

don't

Granchester in the shortest time"; "This

could have said Ethics

believe if you look at

get a

were

could have said

the enquiry into the meaning of life, or into what

makes

and

I

behave any better," could he then say "Ah, then

that's all right".^ Certainly not;

faces

then

me

to

beast" and then

like a

duced when he took

number of photos of different

"Ah

had told one of

I

and he came up

lie

produce the same sort of effect w hich Galton proa

Ethics uses

don't want to play any better,"

I

put before you

will

I

if

playing and said "Well, you play

synonymous expressions

be the subject matter of Ethics a

w hat

how

not

is

playing badly but

tial

and

life

could play tennis and one

which includes w hat

most essen-

my

I

these expressions don't present any difficult or

pretty badly" and suppose

believe to be the

not to

mean that it's the goal. Used in this way

the right road

is

me

that catching a cold produces

Ethics in a slightly wider sense, in a sense in fact I

fact

simply means

Thus when we say that this man is a good pianist we mean that he can play pieces of a certain degree of difficulty with a certain degree of dexterity. And

I

I

far as

this

certain describable disturbances in

Ethics and

\

that

the chair serves a certain predetermined purpose

and the word good here has only meaning so

end you may see both the way and where

leads to.

If for

means

a good chair this

is

hand

on the other.

ethical or absolute sense

is

will call

I

the trivial or relative sense on the one

again to ask you to be patient and to hope that in the it

them

that each of

is

two very different

all

and therefore knew

all

the

om-

move-

the bodies in the w orld dead or alive also

knew

all

the states of

mind of

all

"Lecture on Elhic*" luiiiuu iH-ings tlui cM-r IimhI, jiuI \up|x»sc this iiuii \Nroic

he knew

all

Uwik, ihcn this UmiL

in j big

woiiUI oiniJin the uholc ilt-Mriplion ol ihc

whji

iiul

want

I

ionitiin ni>thin^

sj\

(i>

woiilil

road

nicnt or jn\ihin^ thai uoiiUI logujllv inipK suth j iiuiutncni

ami

iiions

ami

all

NiamI on

same

the

which,

prop«»sitn)ns

in

the

same was

same

le\el

Ihere are

aiul

you

of

Now

Hamlet's

"\othinvj

w«»rils:

makes

but thinkinu; to a

agree to that aiul

will

vtcmkI

either

\\ hat

I

would

t«)r n«)t

bringing about. .And

leail

a state ot atfairs is a

of the that

is

l^e

the

i«

sense,

absolute

an\

in

are sublime, important, or iri\ial

some

such

absoluteU

were,

it

quite clear to us

i>

illu«irair lhi%

The rnjhi road

an arbiirariK prrdctcrnimcd

leails to

it

go on,

I

sense in talking alxiut the right road apart frtim

lan hv

iUmtiIhiI \souUI, as

level

end and

we louUI

pri>|'M>sitions siaiul «>n the

til

IK)

rcljliM*

.ill

whuh

iruc scuniilu pro|x>s-

in fail all iruc pn»|>oMti(»Ms thai

lUii all the tails

rnailc

lonijin

uoiilil ot «.i>urNc

It

lUiliinH-iUs ol \4lnc

mr. briorr

let

b\ a rather obxions exam|>le

xmuiUI uII jn tlhual luilg-

ih.il \m-

onl\ rrlalivr value ind rrUli%r gtMMi.

is

cU Anil

riKht,

v\orlil,

(his IxMik

ihal

i\,

teiiuil there

common ground

describe this

make you recall so that we may

our investigation.

for

I

believe the best

way of describing

w hen

I

wonder at the existence of the world.

.\nd

am

I

ha\ c

it

/

that

"how extraordinary will

is

to say that

then inclined to use such phrases as

extraordinary

I

it

anything that the

should

"how

exist"

or

world should exist."

mention another experience straight away

(®)

Ludwig Wittgenstein which

know and w hich

also

I

acquainted with:

others of you might be

what one might

is,

it

experience of feeling absolutely state

of mind in which one

safe,

nothing can injure

Now

me

let

I

these expressions seem,

mean

the

similes.

am

whatever happens." experiences,

these

for,

we

believe, they exhibit the very characteristics

I

And

try to get clear about.

have to say

I

there the

give to these experiences

"I

wonder

me

explain this:

something being the

case,

it

means

w onder

to say that

is

I

bigger than anyone

w hich,

or at any thing

word,

say

I

am

has a

to say that I w onder we all understand what

at

at

It

I

good and clear sense

perfectly

is

which

nonsense! If

is

the existence of the world"

at

misusing language. Let

w hich

thing

first

that the verbal expression

is,

we

of a dog

at the size

I

w onder

namely the ordinary wonder.

I

To

say "I

wonder if I

visited

it

for a long time

had been pulled down nonsense to say that world, because

I

of this dog

should not

I

such and such being

at

can imagine

not to be

it

could of course wonder

being as

and has not

meantime. But

at the existence

I

But

wondering

this experience

at is a tautology,

But then

wondering

what

to say that

namely

it's

just

w hat

at the

at a tautology.

I

I

am

safe if

I

therefore get that

it is

I

am

me

a

One

am w ondering

same applies

I

want

seem

in this sense to

ically.

be used as similes or allegor-

For w hen we speak of

when we

God and

that he sees

him

kneel and pray to

etc., etc.

But

ence which

them

is, I

ring to

is

to

I

know what

am

safe in

it's

it

my

nonsense

Again

as the other

to impress

this

example

"existence"

on you

him as a human we try to w in,

to. For the first of w hat people were refer-

have just referred

believe, exactly

when they

God had

said that

created the

world; and the experience of absolute safety has

been described by saying that we

A third

hands of God. is

that of feeling guilty

by the phrase that

Thus

feel safe in the

experience of the same kind

and again

God

this

was described

disapproves of our conduct.

and religious language we seem

in ethical

or that

misuse of our language runs

must

constantly to be using similes. But a simile

And

be the simile for something. fact

by means of a simile

must

I

if I

can describe a

also be able to

the simile and to describe the facts w ithout

drop

Now

it.

our case as soon as we try to drop the simile and

no such

find that there are first

appeared to be

nonsense.

Now

mentioned

seem

to

And

so,

we

it,

what

at

now seems to be mere experiences w hich I have

the three

you (and

I

could have added others)

who have

to those

facts.

a simile

absolute value. But

all

all

this allegory also describes the experi-

I

We

safe whatever happens.

Now

some similarity. And when we say "This man's life was valuable" we don't mean it in the same sense in which we would speak of some valuable jew elry but there seems to be some sort of analogy. Now all religious terms

instance to me, to have in

misuse of the word

"wondering."

it

football

player" there seems to be

have mentioned, the

and therefore

a certain characteristic

good

simply to state the facts which stand behind

be safe essentially means

misuse of the word "safe"

was of

a

is

in

physically impossible that certain things

to say that a

To

again.

"This

in the sentence

it's

have had w hooping cough and cannot it

good fellow,"

am

cannot be run over by an omnibus.

should happen to

is

the

in ordinary life to be safe. I

is.

at

sky being blue or not

Now

experience of absolute safety.

room, when

I

it

I

nonsense to say that one

the other experience w hich

means

when

mean.

I

the sky being whatever

at

might be tempted

blue.

not

that's

I

me

could wonder

the sky being blue as opposed to the case

clouded.

of the

not existing.

it

had

I

while looking into the blue sky,

it

it is

world round

at the

If for instance

it is.

it

and has imagined that

in the

wonder

means

being of great power whose grace

which

cannot imagine

I

something

it's

although the word good here doesn't mean what

elaborate allegory which represents

house w hen one sees

of, say, a

is a

w onder

I

the case. In this sense one can w onder at the exist-

ence

sense,

could conceive

at the size

size, at

the case" has only sense

its trivial

and when we say "This

similar,

our terms and actions seem to be parts of a great and

sense of the

could conceive of a dog of another,

I

not right in

common

extraordinary. In every such case

not to be the case.

is

be just

to

facie,

an ethical sense, although, what we

right in

mean,

prima

seems that when we are using the

it

everything and

something being the case which

because

word

Thus

have ever seen before

I

in the

and religious expressions. All

all ethical

the

inclined to say "I

is

me

consider

safe.

through

call,

experienced them, for

some sense an

w hen I say they

intrinsic,

are experiences,

surely, they are facts; they have taken place then

and there, lasted

a certain definite

quently are describable. said

some minutes ago

so

time and conse-

from what

must admit

it is

have absolute value.

to say that they

make my point

I

And

still

I

have

nonsense

And

more acute by saying

I

will

"It

is

the paradox that an experience, a fact, should

seem

way

to in

have supernatural value."

which

paradox. Let

I

Now

would be tempted

me

first

to

there

meet

consider, again, our

experience of wondering

at the existence

is a

this first

of the

| '

nBetatmLogfco-PNkmophtcM wurlil Jiul

wr

\%j>,

It

(>h\i(iusl\

which wc hj\c ncxcr

t»l

such an c\cnt

\ou sudilenix grew

is

\inipl\ jn c%cni ihr

as cxtraordinar> a thing as

Now wheneNer we

should ha>e re-

c«»^ered trtini t>ur surprise, what

would

m\esligated and

him

would ha\e him

I

at

Tor

group

s\siem.

I

his

is

it

b> this term

is

has not Net Ix-en explained b\

a tact

science which again tailed to

lor hurting

And where would clear that when we

we mean

disap|K-ared, unless what

fnereK that

were not

it

wa> e\er\thing miraculous has

in this

It

it

vivisected.

ihe nuracle have got to? liKik

w«iuUI suggest

I

and ha>e the case scien-

to fetch a doitor

Ih"

nt'ically

\tiw siipfxtNC

\cl seen

Imn's head ami began to roar

j

houUI be

can imagine

wmilil he

litr

lake the case ihjt one ol

Iu|>|h-iu-iI

(xrtiiinly that I

in a >lighll\ ililtctciil

i(

kno\« v^hji in orilmjr\

nurjilc

cdiicil J

like

iiir licsiri^H'

III

all

means

with others

this tact

shows

we ha\e

that

that

in a scientific

absurd to sa\ "Science

is

it

hitherto

has proved that there are no miracles." Ihe truth that the scientific

way tact

to l

he correct method

really

is

what can be

to

in

philosophy would

be the following: to say nothing except

science

be

said,

i.e.

propositions of natural

something

i.e.

do with philosophy

someone

else

wanted

something meta-

Now

6.54

what we mean by our

and religious expressions.

me

I

comes

at

once see

Now when

clearly, as

it

this

were

of light, not only that no description that

I

is

would not be

sat-

he would not

this

method would be

the onlv

.My propositions serve as elucidations

eventually recogni/es

when he

in

who understands them

as

nonsens-

has used them - as steps - to

is

climb up beyond them. (He must, so to

to is

speak, throw away the ladder after he has

climbed up

not yet succeeded in finding the cor-

rect logical analysis of

against

all it

it

the following way: anyone

w hat we mean

by saying that an experience has absolute value that

had

strictly correct one.

certain experi-

ical,

all

that he

have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy

me

that after

him

to certain signs in his

isfying to the other person

perfectly clear to if

meaning

has nothing

that

and then, whenever

to say

propositions. Although

we dnn V mean nonsense,

we have

and

it

to

importance, this simply shows that by these words

that

is

Philosophicus

we cannot express all we say about

Well,

and

it

human mind which

in the

help respecting deepiv

life

says

Tractatus Logico

absolute or ethical value and

just a fact like other facts

it

an\ sense Hut

in

ences constantly tempt us to attribute a quality to

them which we

good, the

What

absolute valuable, can be no science

a

is

as

far

springs fr«)m the desire to say something about

the ultimate

that

seem

this will

of

Religion was to run against the boundaries of lan-

other

at

the absolute miraculous remains nonsense. the answer to

.\1>

tendency

guage. This running against the walls of our cage

failed to give a

I

wanted

ever tried to write or talk Kthics or

language to the expression hy the existence of lanall

I

language

the

physical, to demonstrate to

what we want

had not yet

I

hrynnJ the world and

beN«>nd sigmfiiant

sa\

men who

)ust ///?»/

of the miraculous from an expression hy means of

guage,

hat

I

nonM-nsKal expres-

nonsensical because

whole tendencN

have said by shifting the expression

I

of

that these

do with them was

that

the exist-

some limes and not

at

now

nttt

was

sensicalitN

the existence of

But what then does

aware of this miracle

ftignificainl

found the correct cxprawumft, hut that ihar nun-

now

will

the existence of the world, though

itself.

b> ahMilulr

rvrr>

the experience of

is

not any proposition in language,

language

mean

1

rc)ctl

now

see

say that the right expression in language for the

miracle

see

I

sions were

the w(»rd "miracle" in a I

Hould

1

on the ground

initio,

to sa\

IS

I

and an absolute sense. .\nd

relatiNe

.iA

I

the absolute sense of that term. I'or

nluf

to dciM.ribc

that

description that an\bod> could p(i%%ihl\ %uftKC»(.

not the

is

would do

value, hut

imagine whate\er

of"lcM)king at a fact

as a miracle. l"or

it

is

ol

it.)

ethical

He must

urged

and then he

in a flash

can think

7

transcend these propositions, will see the

world aright.

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Moravian-born

a

Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoana-

other way.

lysis,

isthe most influential psychological theorist

able

of the twentieth century, despite the continuing

He saw unconscious and aggression behind

from

possible

reaction against his work.

in-

stincts of sexuality

all

facts,

culture, including the behavior of

know

human

life

and

its

human

instinctual nature

must always

feel in the

confines of a civilized society. Freud concluded

more well organized society becomes, more discomfort or guilt its members must

that the

the

even

they obey

however, no Utopian; he does not want to unshackle human instincts. Human beings are innately aggressive, and this aggression must be controlled. His account is poignant in its historical context, written as it was during the rise of Nazism, and preceding a period of violence that perhaps even he could not have imagined. Forced as a Jew into feel,

if

emigration by

its strictures.

Hitler's

Freud

which we

for

how we

stand

pretation of life.

(The

annexation of Austria

in

of the existence of an instinct of

death or destruction has met with resistance even in

aware that there

is

a frequent

inclination rather to ascribe whatever

is

dangerous

is

own that

nature. I

To

an original bipolarity in

begin with

put forward the views

it

I

due place

in

our inter-

when

it

ber

my own

tinged with erotism.)

it is

instinct of destruction first

analytic literature, I

became receptive

shown, and surprises

still

to

is

talk

it

in

psycho-

took before

That others should have

it.

iittle

children do not like

of the inborn

own

how hard

quotation from

a

human

made them

in

nobody wants

to

has

perfection; it is

it"

inclination

and destructiveness,

God

to cruelty as well.

able existence of evil

A

remem-

show, the same attitude of rejection

to 'badness', to aggressiveness

be reminded

I

the idea of an

emerged

and how long

me less. For

there

when

defensive attitude

to reconcile the

undeni-

- despite the protestations

poem

of Goethe's.

its

was only tentatively have developed here,

but in the course of time they have gained such

(l45)

it its

desire for destruction

directed inwards mostly eludes our perception, of

course, unless

'

in love to

can no longer under-

I

is,

the image of His

and hostile

I

can have overlooked the ubiquity

can have failed to give

and so

am

work.

scientific

of non-erotic aggressivity and destructiveness and

science."

I

in

and inwards), strongly

instinct (directed outw^ards

alloyed with erotism; but

when

analytic circles;

strive

and masochism we have always

that in sadism

1938, he died in London in exile.The Nazis burned his books as a prime representative of "Jewish

The assumption

standpoint than any other

they provide that simplification,

seen before us manifestations of the destructive

Discontents (1930), he used psychoana-

theory to explore the inherent discomfort

lytic

a theoretical

ones;

without either ignoring or doing violence to the

infants. In a later speculative work, Civilization

and

me that I can no longer think in any To my mind, they are far more service-

hold upon

Sigmund

Freud, chapters

Civilization

and

its

6 and

7,

Discontents

Strachey). NewYork: Norton,

1961.

pp.

64-80 from James

(trans.

CMbation and Its OtoooncanCt ot

(ihnslun Science

Ills

with

The

4ll-mMKlnc\s

Hould be the

m

out js an excuse tor (mhI,

4ll-|M)\*crlulnc\>

li>

I

l>cvil

bciki

ol the

and the

dcMth instinct.'

much

must be c«»nlessed

It

we have uistinct; we

that

greater ditficuliN in grasping that

can onls suspect

as

it,

background behind unless

presence

its

with Kros.

It

in

is

twists the erotic

same time succeed

were, as something

it

and

K.ros,

escapes detection

it

betra>ed h\

is

the

in

being alloxed

its

sadism, where the death instinct

aim

own

sense and yet

at

the

tully satisfies the erotic urge, that

we

in its

obtaining the clearest insight into

in

nature and

its

emerges without an> sexual purpose,

we cannot

tury of destructiveness,

that the satisfaction of the instinct

fail is

to recognize

work

of each against

the hostilits

This aggressive instinct

mam

which we

meaning

the

found alongside of Kros and which

And now,

it

the e\olution

ol

no longer obscure

to us.

and the

out in the life

instinct

human

destruction, as

narcissistic a

moderated and tamed, aim, must, w hen

its

it

is

directed towards objects, pro\ide the ego with the satisfaction of

needs and with control over

its vital

nature. Since the assumption of the existence of the instinct

must

is

mainly based on theoretical grounds, we

also admit that

is

it

not entirely proof against

theoretical objections. Hut this to us

now,

future

in the present state

research

and

may

the struggle for

all

that follows

I

ill

human

of the

this battle of the giants that

my

return to

ciNili/ation

impediment

it

no

will

doubt

I

was

.At

become acquainted w ith

species. .\nd

m

is

an original,

man, and

one point

in

the

led to the idea that

ual instinct

"Eros".

refers

more simply and narrowh

which Freud

is

to the sex-

here interpreting broadh as

What

order U) inhibit to

it,

We

perhaps.'

make

it

ha\e already

few of these methods, but

a

important. This

we can

stud\ in the histor> of the

dexelopment of the indnidual. What hap|x-ns

him

to

in

render his desire for aggression inncKUOus.'

Something Nery remarkable, which we should never

in point

it is,

is

is, il is

is

is

nexertheless quite obviintrojected, internalized;

of fact, sent back to w here directed tow ards his

taken o\ er by

a

ow n

it

came from There il

ego.

portion of the ego, w hich sets itself

over against the rest of the ego as super-ego, which

now

,

in the

form of 'conscience',

action against the ego the that the

ego would ha\e liked to

extraneous individuals.

is

is

called

a

need

satisfy

upon

other,

The tension between the

by us the sense of guilt; for

ready to put into

same harsh aggressiveness

harsh super-ego and the ego that "Libido"

it is

not yet with the one that appears to be the most

- that

decide the matter.

constitutes the greatest

to civilization.

course of this enquiry

all

our nurse-maids try to

emplo>

it,

have guessed and which

adopt the standpoint, there-

view that

itself

what

.Another ipiesiion concerns us more nearl\

means does

ous. His aggressiveness

self-subsisting instinctual disposition in I

is

appease with their lullab\ about llea\en

of our know ledge;

fore, that the inclination to aggression

instinct of

works

therefore be simply descTibed as life

how things appear

retlection

bring further light w hich w In

is

it

This struggle

species.

the aggressiveness which opposes

were, inhibited in

is

must present the struggle

It

consists of, and the evolution of

essentially

civilization

(»f

think,

I

of ci\ilization

between Kros and Death, between the life

civi-

representative of the death instinct

h.i\e

world-domimon with

shares

and uf

all

the deri\ativc

is

harmless, to gel rid of

it

will nut

programme of

fulfilment of the hitter's old wishes for omnipotence.

and, as

arc lo

Necessity

common,

in

The

instinct of destruction,

men

ol

one another

to

accompanied

presenting the ego with

its

it

in the blindest

by an extraordinarily high degree of enjo\ment, owing to

its

e\en where

relation to l.ros. Ikit

Ixuind

against each, op|>oses this

all

the fxiwer ol Kros

ol

ihtf

hold them together. Hut man's natural agfcrevkivc instinct,

it

can once more be

libuU)'"

denote the nunitestations in

moral nature

to the ileepU

Ixiw will

Why

not know, the work of Kro*

nuke

it

i%

itier

and nations, into

These colleitions

preiiseK this

IS

d«»

be hbidinallx

low

and

iiuliMiluaU.

that lamihes, then races, |>eoplcs

has to hap|H-n,

pro-

a

i%

pur|Mnc

whitM:

one grrai unity, the unity of mankind.

t«»

a

that ci\ili/jiion

Lnn..

ol

will Ik- well ailMseil. »>n stmie suitable occasion.

nuinLiml.

under the inllucrmc at

ill

nu\ now add

the

in

nunkiml

a H|H:cial protrHft «khith

undergiicN, and

it

is

subjected to

it,

expresses itself as

punishment. Civilization, therefore,

obtains masterv over the individual's dangerous

(gB>

.

Sigmund Freud desire for aggression by

weakening and disarming

and by setting up an agency within him over

it,

conquered

like a garrison in a

Thus we know of two guilt:

one arising from

to

city.

.

it

watch

The

first insists

origins of the sense of

and

fear of an authority,

upon

renunciation of in-

a

stinctual satisfactions; the second, as well as doing

presses for punishment, since the continuance

this,

of the forbidden wishes cannot be concealed from

is

out; but

was the same

it

suppression in the child

is

At

act of aggression

whose

supposed to be the source

of his sense of

guilt.

surprised

reader were to exclaim angrily: 'So

if the

this point

makes no difference w hether one not - one gets a feeling of guilt

may

should not be

I

it

one's father or

kills

We

in either case!

take leave to raise a few doubts here. Either

it is

not true that the sense of guilt comes from sup-

of the super-ego - the demands of conscience -

pressed aggressiveness, or else the whole story of

be understood.

to

simply

It is

continuation of

a

the severity of the external authority, to which

has succeeded and which

now

see in

it

has in part replaced.

it

We

what relationship the renunciation of

the killing of the father

of primaeval

man

is a

did not

fiction

but a plausible piece of history,

of something

renunciation of instinct was the result of fear of an

expects to happen

guilty because he really has

its

love. If

as

is,

one has carried

were, quits with

it

the authority and no sense of guilt should remain.

But with

fear

of the super-ego the case

Here, instinctual renunciation

w ish

persists

is

all

and cannot be concealed from the

justified.

if it is

not

would be

a

- namely, of

And

a

person feeling

done something which

of this event, which

is

after

an everyday occurrence, psycho-analysis has not

yet given any explanation.'

That

different.

not enough, for

is

cannot be

it

any more

happening which everyone

external authority: one renounced one's satisfactions in order not to lose

and the children

their fathers

often than children do nowadays. Besides,

case

out this renunciation, one

fiction

kill

instinct stands to the sense of guilt. Originally,

the

On that occasion

the sever-

the super-ego. ity

We have also learned how

the kilHng of the father

at

by the brothers banded together.'"

an act of aggression was not suppressed but carried

.

the other, later on, arising from fear of the superego.

complex and was acquired

sion.

true,

is

Nor

is

When one

and we must make good the omis-

there any great secret about the matter.

has a sense of guilt after having commit-

super-ego. Thus, in spite of the renunciation that

ted a misdeed, and because of it, the feeling should

has been made, a sense of guilt comes about. This

more properly be

constitutes a great

economic disadvantage

in the

we may put

erection of a super-ego, or, as

in

it,

the formation of a conscience. Instinctual renunciation

now no longer has

effect; virtuous

continence

with the assurance of love.

unhappiness -

loss

completely liberating

a

is

no longer rewarded

A

threatened external

of love and punishment on the

part of the external authority

- has been exchanged

permanent internal unhappiness,

for a

for the ten-

it presupposes that a conscience - the readiness to feel guilty -

was already

in existence before the

Remorse of this

deed took place.

sort can, therefore, never help us to

discover the origin of conscience and of the sense of guilt in general.

cases

is

What happens

in these

everyday

usually this: an instinctual need acquires the

strength to achieve satisfaction in spite of the conscience,

which

is,

after

all,

limited in

its

strength;

and with the natural weakening of the need owing

sion of the sense of guilt

can also be asserted that

It

called remorse. It relates only to a

deed that has been done, and, of course,

when

a child reacts

to his first great instinctual frustrations with ex-

cessively strong aggressiveness

and with

pondingly severe super-ego, he phylogenetic model and

is

is

a corres-

following

a

going beyond the re-

sponse that would be currently

justified; for the

to

its

having been

power in

is

satisfied, the

former balance of

restored. Psycho-analysis

is

thus justified

excluding from the present discussion the case of

a sense

of guilt due to remorse, how ever frequently

such cases occur and however great their practical importance.

father of prehistoric times was undoubtedly terrible,

and an extreme amount of aggressiveness

may be

attributed to him.

from individual

Thus,

to phylogenetic

if

one

shifts

over

development, the

'"

In the Oedipus complex, cornerstone of Freud's the-

ory of child development, the normal child develops a sexual attachment to the opposite-gender parent, and

competitive anger and fear toward the same-gender par-

differences between the

two theories of the genesis ent.

of conscience are

still

further diminished.

On

the

other hand, a new and important difference makes its

appearance between these two developmental

processes. that

We cannot get away from the assumption

man's sense of guilt springs from the Oedipus

(14§)

The

conflict

is

normally resolved through renunci-

ation of the desire and an identification with the same-

gender parent.

Strictly, the

Oedipal complex refers only to

the development of boys, the analogous phase (and the

analog}

is

complex.

notoriously tortured) for girls being the Electra

.

:

OvmaUon andlts Dtscoments Hill

(it

ihc luiiiun sense ul guill gins bail

it

Lillini;

tit

I

he primal father that v%as aftrr ,

Are

'remorse'

constieiue ami presup|M>setl.

where,

There secret

our

m

no doubt

is

we huxe II

not.

remorse come from? shouUi explain the

that this case

the sense o( «uill to us aiul put an enil lo \nil

ililficullies

was the

I

luiieve

His

lowunls the father him, loo

loNcti

iKcn

satisfied In their act

came

to the fore in their

up the supcr-cgo by

s«>ns

him,

hateil

\lier their hatreil

hail

aggression, their lo\e

«>t

remorse

for the ileeii

It

set

identification uith the t.iilur,

agencx the father's power, as hough as

it

iia\e that

a

punishment

t

tor the

deed

which were intended

And

had

of aggressitin the\

carried out against him. and

the deed.

This remorse

ii«Ks

it

the primonlial ambisalence of

ol

result

hut the>

tions

case

that (al thai lime| j

existence In-fore the ileeiP

in this case. Jul the

«>l

feelinjj

assume

N«e lo

sense ol guilt were not, us

a

ilu

it*

all a

it

results (if

in

whuh

impulsion a

further

a

iniensilicalion

through

What

completed

is

hcinK^ to unite in

can onl\ achiexe ihis aim

il

reinfonrment

e\er-iiu reasing

Jkt\

the sense of guilt

ciNili/ation

human

lauses

ilosel\-kml group,

father

mthmt

the

ot

Since avili/jfion obeyi an micnul crock

guili.

group

lo the

relation

in

If

neiessarx course of development

a

is

of

tn-gan in relation lo the

from the famiK

humanit> as

to

whole, then

a

as

inborn conflitt arising from ambiva-

a result of the

lence, of the eternal struggle In-tween the trends

inextncabK bound up

of lose aiul

death

with

increase of the sense

.u\

It

there

perhaps reach

will

is

heights

One

finds haril

to

great |>oet's

moving arraignment

tolerate.

«if

that is

which

guilt,

the

indixidual

reminded of the of the

'HeaNenly

Powers'

created the restricIhr tuhrt ins

to prevent a repetition of

since the inclination to aggressive-

.chcn uns hinein

I

\rnien schuldig werden,

Ihr lasst ilen

ness against the father was repeated in the following

Dann

generations, the sense of guilt, too, persisted, and

Deiin jede .Schuld racht sich auf Krden."

it

uhcrlasst Ihr ihn

den IVin,

was reinforced once more by every piece of aggressiveness that was suppressed and carried oxer to the

Now,

super-ego.

we can

think,

I

at last

grasp two

.\nd

we ma\

thought that

well is

it

heave

things perfectly clearly: the part pla\ed b\ love in

to salvage without effort

the origin of conscience and the fatal incN itabilii) of

own

the sense of guilt. \\ hether one has killed one's

rest

from doing so

father or has abstained

One

the decisive thing.

bound

is

either case, for the sense of guilt

is

is

not really

is

set

going as soon as

So

long as the community assumes no other form than

itself in the

science VV

Oedipus complex,

and

to

create

hen an attempt

the

same

conflict

dependent on the

is is

the

made

to

and

lo express

to establish the

first

con-

sense of guilt.

w iden the community,

continued

past;

bound

is

it

in is

which the

an expression of

are faced with the task of living together.

that of the family, the conflict

from the whirlp

New

riu- l.iilui'c ot ilu-

Initial

|(i\"

uiih paintul icclings ihui hc

IS (>nl\

Si unci- \tlir

Us

luLiiiluil \1mIi\i-

The ilu-

LnivcrKul Philosufihy Ai\t\ its fniHT Dissnlutmn

nt

lili.il

Pnu

CSS of

tor this r.iilurii

\t)\>

IKW luim.imiN,

tile

It

with suih an ixaiiid

must hjM-

ol the It

biTii Ihi.uisi-

it

dui not hold

its

own,

it

the inspinnu hiliil in

lost

uniMTsal philos«»ph\ mu\

ideal ot a

lis

spirit,

.uiim.iliil aiul I>IinmiI

the scope

in

new methtKl And such, indeed, was the

case.

turned out that this method could hrinv: unques-

tionable successes onl\ in the positive sciences Hut it

was t>therwise

in

metaph\sics,

problems

in

i.e.

he ncccs-sary consequence was a peculiar change in

the whole

problem form

wav of thinking Phili>M»ph\ became [problem

ol the

ol the| (x»ssibilit> ol a

we

ph>sics, anil, tollowing what

concerned implicitly the meaning and possibility of the whole problematics of reason. jxjsitive sciences, at

first

.As

Vet the problem of a jvissible metaphysics also en-

though

sciences, since these had their relational

were not in

lackinir

esen here. I ni\ersal philosophy,

which these problems were related

lo the tactual sciences, UM)k the

unclearlv

tbmi

ot

system-

ipso that

clear in

the eighteenth centur>

at a critically una.ssailable edifice

eticalh

from generation

undisputedly the case

The

tor long.

generation,

to

in the

could not survive

movements

all

beginning of the modern

era,

happened not merely contrast

was

as

universalK admired

belief in the ideal of philo.sophy

method, the guideline of

the

ot arriving

which grew theor-

this conviction

positive sciences

held the

still

proceeding toward unit),

»)t

began

to waver; this

tor the external

became

monstrous

and

since the

motive that

between

the

a

isr

advance

to make w hole historic-al process has

remarkable form, one which becomes \isible only

through an interpretation motivation.

Its

from

is

ot its

hidden, innermost

not that of a smooth develop-

ment, not that of a continual grow th of lasting

concepts,

configurations

in

its

ettect

were

sciences,

as well as scientists,

becoming

fast

experts. But even tilled

on outsiders

the specialized business of the positive

among

those theorists

with the philosophical

interested

unphilosophical

spirit,

precisely in the highest

who were

and thus were metaphysical

questions, a growing feeling of failure set in - and in their case

unclanfied,

against

reigning

the

because the most profound, yet quite

motives protested ever more loudly deeply

ideal.

extending from

rooted

There

Hume

assumptions of the

begins

and Kant

of passionate struggle tor

a

to

long

our

period,

own

a clear, retlective

time,

under-

standing of the true reasons for this centuries-rjr that gc. with I

hi

iU-\N(mIiI

I

\K.inmu-l

mill.

.is ilii

nm

iMileni

nimiitiii

I

\\huh o|Kralrs with

uiu

o| N.iim.il Si

III

.ibsolute truth

Hul now

something

inusi n»»fc

NM-

the highcsi

»>l

iir

is

actualK gixcn through

|H-r-

hlc-worUI

This siihsiitution

passcil

physicists

the siKctciling centuries

all

on

to

his

The

manner

oj

ct»nstructing,

conceptualizing.

proNing.

which operates with

way,

in its

imme-

truly

thinking,

derived

ities

was preceded h\ the

its

which knew nothing

a

has

at

practical art of sur\e\ing,

of idealities. ^ et

geometrical achicNement was

geometry,

idealities,

meaning. The geometry of ideal-

first

for

Thus

the occasional (even "philosophical")

all

which go from technical

reflect u ins

ized nature; they

intuitive

fundament

of idealization; the

latter

a

Immc-

the ensuing peniKl

intuited nature.

of

ami originallx

A\\i\

geo-

remained

this

substitution of idealizeil nature for prescieniil*ic*ally

pure

sources from which the so-called geometrical intuthat

for (ialileo

sources:

ihc

in

diatcK with (ialileo. then, Ix-gins the surreptitious

was already empty

it

removed from the sources of

i.e.

huUlen

ourvUn

for

of the application of

complicated

work back

diate intuition

ition,

has

in

meaning. Kven ancient geonietr> was, zr/vtf"'

meamng

e\en the

nutrv

was no longer original geometrN:

this sort ot"**iniuiti\eness"

ihmLmg

general terms.

that

geonutrv, the inherited

inheritetl

**intuiti\e"

the

siicicssors,

Cialileo N\as hinisell an heir in respect to

geometry

wc have |M>mlcd out above

as

course of our e\|>osiiion of dalileo's ihoughtk

was pronipiU t>f

ness was an diusion

could

Thai lhi\ otY%iouft-

rt-al

ilu-

cmt cxfKricnccil and cxpcncnir-

i\cr\ilaN

ado

applieil without further

a «cH-«uif'M.Mmt,

"(>h\iouHl\"

«»iil\

uUMlitits lor

is

w huh, JH suih

m

subNtriuiiil \sorlil of uorlil

proiluco

il.

iinmcciMici)

and ihc thinking

jIIn

ihc siirrtptilimis subsiiiuliiin ol ihc inallu-inalu

ccption. that

Ih-

ohd

ii>

"inluiiitin"

pntiri

a

such

a

pre-

meaning-fundament

for the great invention

encompassed the inven-

do not

going

radical!),

(

scientific)

meaning alwaxs slop

to its true

back

at ideal-

carr\ crn Utsi

a trjililion .iiul

a ^t/tti, insiitar as this iniircsi

plaxcit a ilctcrinining role at

pnnul

all in its

cstal>-

hshnu'iit K\cr> aitciupt to IcaJ the scientist to such reflections, if

comes

it

non-scientific

scholars,

ol

circle

*inetaph\sical "

Ironi a nonnutheniaiical,

calcil his life to these sciences

seems so obMous

must, after

know

him

to

as

reietleil

is

The professional who has

iUhIi-

all

what he

best

attemptini; ami accomphshini; in his work

Tor

reteni times

readers),

up

iieing caught

Hut the

ii

schtMil'

meaning

that the ititii

)>.

whole dimension which must be inquireil

Mdt seen

at all

ami thus not

with

at all ileali

at least

felt

\ui\ clearK the\ influence, ililfuult, the aii.iKsis of the

(of sciencej

ourseKes

find

in a

unilersianiling of the beginning

son is

ol iirtle

form, lvi»

jii.ijwv

The absorption of

v»\.iii

faclualiiy,

whether into legendars prehistor> or into math-

be iirasped, but on the contrary to conceive

mediated conceptual

as the supcrtlcies, as

to tulfillmeni only

de\elopmeni

ot their stKial, historical,

sijjmificance.

The

the

in

and human

task ot cognition dcK's not consist

mere apprehension,

tion, but in the

huncd unc

ihc riteidificalion of

ematical tormalism, the s>mbolical relation of ihc

moments which come

in

the dving of

auiumn. and c\cn

re|H-aied ilscll c\cr)

W ith

if

gud-

oil o( ihc

s\non>mous with

dire«.ll\

It

laitaahly,

to Icyilimi/c

higiiulU the carr\in|(

i;i\en as

temporal relations oi the tacts which allow them just to

was

nature

ihc mythic

ol

determine the abstract spatio-

approach otkiKJwIediie: toc«»mprehend the such; not

the

suh|ecti\e ratn>nalii\. the subjection ot

p\en. What

(

kuifupping

«kiih ihc

but the same e\er\ time

to loi^ical tormalism.

realiiN

all

which tcnd%

priKcss,

ileiepiion iless

autumn

The uniqucncM

the rc|Kiiiion wa.s noi ihc result uf the

subsirati- ol

Ih* j

riu- i-i|UJiioii ot spirit Jiul worlil

own

'"

Prrscphonr

i|iuhi\ llun lo

enutical apparatus conceals the sanction ol

triumph

the c\clcot npring and i>t

bin ihc ahstnict nuicrul which

arises c\cimull\. Inii onl\ wiih

ollniih sides

him

ol

Ictt

ihink ihut nuisi Jicoinpjnx

/

jhsirjtl

riu-

rccorii-iiukiiig

|H»vscvscs

u

Sul>)c».i aiul tibiixi arc

iu\ iilcjN

all

lulurr lurn> agjinsi the

ii\cr

himscll, noihing

(hinlintc Nubicvt

coniem|>orary to the mythic process in ihc the abstract category in science,

appear as the predetermined, which

«)t

each im-

is

or lo

accordmgU

the old. .Not existence but knowledge

without

is

hope, tor in the pictorial or mathematical symbol

it

appropriates and perpetuates existence as a schema.

and calcula-

classitlcation,

determinate negation

rile

makes ihe new

nnthology has entered

In the enlightened world,

into the protane. In

its

blank purit\, the reality

mediacy. Mathematical tormalism, however, whose

w hich has been cleansed of demons and their con-

medium

ceptual descendants a.ssumes the

is

number, the most abstract tbrm

ot the

immediate, instead holds thinking tlrmly to mere

immediacN.

I'actuality

restricted lo

mere

its

wins the day; cognition

repetition;

tautology.

and thought becomes

more

I'he

thought subjects existence lo its

machiner}

the iiselt",

Hence en-

lightenment returns to myiholog}, which

how

ot

more blind

the

resignation in reproducing existence.

realh knew

is

never

it

to elude. I'or in its figures

myth-

L nder

the

title

of brute

trom which the\ proceed a

is

preserve as the medicine

now

domination

is

demons.

as a.ssuredl) sacred

man was

reason of the protection of his gods. that

to

tacts, the sed by Hades, god of the under-

spirits

economic apparatus, even before

on the individual and

rational ones.

defines himself only as a thing, as a static elem-

.

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno His yardstick

ent, as success or failure.

models established

for

self-pre-

of his function and the

to the objectivity

tion

is

approxima-

servation, successful or unsuccessful

it.

Everything

else, idea

and

crime, suffers the force of the collective, which

monitors

it

from the classroom

But even the threatening

to the trade union.

collective belongs only to

postulated axioms, innate ideas, or higher abstrac-

Logical

tions.

produce the most general

laws

within

relations

them. Unity resides of contradiction

is

and

arrangement,

the

The

agreement.

in

define

resolution

Knowledge

the system in nuce.^

Any

of subsumption under principles.

consists

other than systematically directed thinking

is

unor-

the deceptive surface, beneath which are concealed

iented or authoritarian. Reason contributes only the

the powers which manipulate

idea of systematic unity, the formal elements of

power.

it

as the

instrument of

w hich keeps the individual up

Its brutality,

of

to scratch, represents the true quality as value represents the things

little

sumes. things

men

as

which he con-

The demonically distorted form which and men have assumed in the light of unpre-

judiced

cognition,

domination,

indicates

the

principle which effected the specification of mcina in spirits

and gods" and occurred

magicians and medicine men.

in the jugglery

The

of

by means

fatality

of which prehistory sanctioned the incomprehensibility

of death

is

comprehen-

transferred to wholly

The noontide

sible real existence.

panic fear in

which men suddenly became aware of nature totality has

adays

is

found

ready to break out

at

expect that the world, which

w ill be set on are

fire

by a

totality

every moment: is

as

which now-

in the panic

its like

men

without any issue,

which they themselves

and over which they have no control.

Enlightenment, according to Kant,

is

.

.

"man's emer-

gence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to

use one's understanding w ithout

fixed conceptual coherence.

Every substantial goal

which men might adduce

as an alleged rational

insight

Enlightenment sense, delu-

in the strict

is,

sion, lies or "rationalization,"

even though individ-

ual philosophers try to advance

from

this conclusion

toward the postulate of philanthropic emotion.

Reason

is

the "faculty

.

.

.

of deducing the particular

from the general. "^^ According

to Kant, the

geneity of the general and the particular

is

homo-

guaran-

teed by the "schematism of pure understanding," or the unconscious operation of the intellectual

anism which structures perception with

subjective

The

understanding.

the

impresses the

in

understanding

of the matter (which

intelligibility

judgment discovers there) on

objective quality, before

it

enters into the ego.

it

mech-

accordance

an

as

With-

schematism -

tual perception

in short, w ithout intellec- no impression would harmonize

w ith

and no category with an example;

out such

a

a concept,

and the unity of thought (let alone of system) tow ard

which everything produce

is

directed would not prevail.

this unity is the conscious task

To

of science. If

the guidance of another person.""* "Understanding

"all empirical

w ithout the guidance of another person"

ations of the pure laws of the understanding,"

is

under-

standing guided by reason. This means no more than

by virtue of its own consistency,

must

research

laws

...

are only special determin-

alw ays ensure that the principles are

organizes the

always properly linked with factual judgments.

individual data of cognition into a system. "Reason

"This concurrence of nature with our cognitive

that,

has

... for its

it

object only the understanding and

purposive employment."^ lective unity the

It

makes "a

its

certain col-

aim of the operations of the under-

standing."' and this unity

is

the system. Its rules are

faculty It is

is

an a priori assumption

the "guideline"

"'

.

.

.

of judgment."'"

for organized experience.

The system must be

kept in harmony with

nature; just as the facts are predicted

from the

the indications for a hierarchical construction of

system, so they must confirm

concepts. For Kant, as for Leibniz and Descartes,

belong to practice; they always characterize the

rationality consists of

"completing the systematical

connection, both in ascending to higher genera, and in

descending to lower species."^

ing" of knowledge principle."

thinking

is

is

"its

The

"systematiz-

coherence according to one

In the Enlightenment's interpretation, the creation of unified, scientific order

and the derivation of factual knowledge from principles,

w hether the latter are elucidated

as arbitrarily

".VlflMfl,"

is

alw ays real action

physics, of course, perception

theory

may be proved -

is

and suffering. In

-by means of w hich a

usually reduced to the

electric sparks visible in the experimental apparatus. Its

absence

quence, for

it

is

as a rule

destroys no

w ithout

practical conse-

more than

a theory

-

or

possibly the career of the assistant responsible for

up the experiment. But laboratory condi-

divine or magical force believed to permeate

the world in animistic relicion.

Facts, however,

individual's contact with nature as a social object:

experience

setting '^

it.

In a nut shell.

OMecfic of Em^htenmem (itiiiN

c«>nNliiu(v the rxcrplion

hinking thai vIikn

I

nuke syMcni and perception accord cunllictH \M(h more than iMibicd Msual unpressions, il con-

mil

\«ith

lliiis

prattuf

he i\|Hctcil cxcni

I

M>. bin the unc\(>cilcd e\cni

«K.i.ur.

the drutj

«»r

The spark Nxhich most surely indicates the

ot Wslciiulu ihinkitii;, tlu* \ioljiioti

trunsient |HT«.cpi, Init

muUUd dciih

m

KniighieniDeni has

mind

jogu,

tit

luck

is lui

hcs\su-m the

I

kntm-

the («»rm ot

is

i«>

tn-tur

iI«k-s

ihe hrulgc oillapses. ihe trops wither, kills

IjiIn

Icdgc which ctijKs most pniticicntK with the facts

and sup|xirts the indiMdual must nusterN of nature

its

seit-preserNation Immaturity survive.

The burgher,

i

s

the higical subject ot the

Ihe ihtticuhies b> the tact that

in the

I

pruu

tlie

then the mabihix^ to ot

And administrator,

concept

reason caused

ot

subjects, the possessors ot that

its

very reast)n, contradict one another, are ctinceaied b\

the apparent clarity ot the iudijments ot the

Western l.nliiihtenment. In the

(>//;

(if

other

what he has

ili.in

ti\es

I

Logic

MH..iii-

Reason

knowledge and planning, which impressed the

empirically

i


ses

and makes himself; and, on the other, impossible tor

nothing else but what he makes of himself. first

nothing

Because by the word "will" we generally mean

man

to transcend

The second of these

ity.

Man

is

have planned to be. Not what he

will

a world without guidance

or nature. This heroic subjectivism is

rather than a patch of moss, a piece of gar-

existentialism.

own

self,

wise; but

man

that

it

is

subjectiv-

the essential

meaning of

man

chooses his

sa\ that

we mean that e\er\ one of us does likewe also mean by that that in making this

choice he also ch(M)ses the

is

When we

human

that

we want

all

men. In

to be, there

of our acts w hich does not an image of

man

as

we

at the

is

fact, in

creating

not a single one

same lime

create

think he ought to he.

To

Jean-Paul Sartre, from •Existentialism" (trans. Ber-

nard Frechtman) tions, pp.

in

Existentialism

and Human EmoCitadel 1985.

15-24 and 46-51. New York:

Jean-Paul Sartre choose to be

is to affirm at the same time we choose, because we can never

this or that

the value of what

choose

evil.

We always choose

If,

at

we

we exist and fashion our image same time, the image is valid for

grant that

one and the

everybody and sponsibility

our whole age. Thus, our re-

for

much

is

supposed, because

greater than

involves

it

workingman and choose union rather than be

all

we might have

mankind.

communist, and

a

If

I

am

a

to join a (christian trade-

by being

if

want

to

be resigned for everyone. As a

to

action has involved

dren; even

humanity.

all

individual matter, if

w ant

I

to

To

result,

take a

more

marry, to have chil-

marriage depends solely on

if this

my

my

w ish, I am involvmonogamy and not merely myself. Therefore, I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my ow n choosing. In choosing

ow n circumstances ing

humanity

all

myself,

is

I

or passion or

in

choose man.

conferred upon the

is

evident even w hen

is

You know the story: an Abraham to sacrifice his son; if an angel w ho has come and said, "You

it

w ere

really

Abraham, you shall sacrifice your son," everything would be all right. But everyone might first

are

wonder, "Is

it

really an

someone used

Her doctor asked

give her orders.

who

talks to you.'"

that

an

it's

angel.'

there that they

As you

will see, it's all quite

The existenanguish. What that

anguish.''

man is man who involves

tialists

say at once that

means

is this:

he

mankind

all

as

who

Of

course, there are

we claim

are not anxious; but

who

w ell

can not help escape the feehng of his responsibility.

himself and

not only the person he

is

chooses to be, but also a lawmaker

same time, choosing

is,

at the

as himself,

total

and deep

many

people

many people

believe that

it.

w hen they do

something, they themselves are the only ones involved, and

And

when someone

What

to

impose

my

humanity?

I'll

a pathological

proves that they are addressed to that

have been appointed

I

my

choice and

conception of man on

never find any proof or sign to con-

me of that. If a voice addresses me, it is always me to decide that this is the angel's voice; if I

will

choose to say that

and yet

exemplary as if all

says to them,

"What

if

good one,

acts.

moment I'm

obliged to perform

mankind had

its

eyes fixed on

way.^"

There

is

if

everybody looked

no escaping

this disturbing

except by a kind of double-dealing.

and makes excuses

for

everybody does that,"

is

at things that

thought

A man who

lies

himself by saying "not someone with an uneasy

to say to himself,

way

that

actions?"

And

has the right to act in such a

might guide

itself

by

my

not say that to himself, he

There

is

is

masking

is

here discussing the famous existentialist

theme of anxiety or dread

cm)

(in

German,

Angst).

humanity if

he does

his anguish.

no question here of the kind of anguish

which would lead

to quietism, to inaction. It

matter of a simple sort of anguish that anybody has had responsibihties ple,

w hen

familiar

is

is

a

who

w ith. For exam-

a military officer takes the responsibilit\'

and sends

makes the

a certain

number of men

to

main he alone

choice. Doubtless, orders

come from

above, but they are too broad; he interprets them,

and on

this interpretation

depend the

lives

often or

fourteen or tw enty men. In making a decision he can

"

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55)

discussed the Biblical story of Sartre

him and were

And every man ought "Am I really the kind of man who

guiding itself by w hat he does.

death, he chooses to do so, and in the

one should always ask himself, "What

who

For every man, everything happens

for an attack

really,

it is I

good rather than bad.

not being singled out as an Abraham,

every

at

is a

it is

ders and answer, ''Everyone doesn't act that way."

would happen

it's

hear voices, what proof is

if I

everyone acted that way.'" they shrug their shoul-

But

is it

come from heaven and not from

me? What proof is there

that they are

hiding their anxiety, that they are fleeing from Certainly,

"Who

her,

She answered, "He says

from the subconscious, or

hell, or

condition.-*

Now, I'm

the

hallucinations;

vince

meant by

realizes that

really

God." What proof did she really have that it was God.' If an angel comes to me, w hat proof is there

simple.

who

I

on the telephone and

to speak to her

for

is

am

and

angel,

What proof do I have.'" There was a madw oman w ho had

Abraham.'

consider that such an act

what

itself.

angel has ordered

This helps us understand w hat the actual content

First,

lie.

conceals

the anguish that Kierkegaard called the

is

of such rather grandiloquent w ords as anguish,

forlornness, despair.

it

anguish of Abraham."

a

show that the best thing for man is resignation, that the kingdom of man is not of this world, I am not only involving my own case - I

member I want

Anguish This

all.

on the other hand, existence precedes essence,

if

universal value

the good, and noth-

ing can be good for us without being good for

and

conscience, because the act of lying implies that a

commanding him bling {\S-\3).

to kill his

God

testing

Abraham (by

son Isaac) in Fear and Trem-

'Exittentialiftm'

iKii

lulp (uMiig

the mnirarx.

tin

lor

actUM)

ioiuhimn

the \cr\

is

Icailrrs kixiM

(hriii troni acting,

ol

ihrir

it

it

Kxause

has \ahie onl\

which

shall see that this Linil ot anguish,

Liiul that existentialism ilesirilns.

is

the

explaiiuil, in

is

II

anil

W hen

we

ger was lond ol, exist anil that

The

ot this.

term

we mean onU

we hase

to lace

existentialist

is

that (itnl

all

leuleg-

I

es

certain kind or secular ethics

not

which would

i

a

like to

aUtlish Ciod with the least p«»ssible expense MxKit

some

ISHO,

up

I'rench teachers tried to set

which went something

ethics

a secular

(lod

like this:

is

and costK h>pothesis; we are discarding

useless

a it;

but, meanwhile, in order lor there to be an ethics, a siKiely. a cisili/ation,

is

it

and

values be taken sern)UslN

sidered as having an

essential

thc\

that

prutri existence.

ecause,

free;

is

I

(Condemned,

to be free.

because he did not create himsc-lf,

is

a

jxiwer of

in the

sweeping passion

man

fatally leads a

to

therefore an excuse, lie thinks

responsible tor his passion.

is

man

'Fhe existentialist d

to turn to

scribed in a heaven of ideas, though otherwise

does not

is

to a fixed

excuse iK-hind us, nor )Ustilication Ixhire us

must be

lie,

(mkI d(»es not

il

commands

the consequences

stn>nj;l\ t>pposeil

uan making

lan't

human nature In other words, there \s no man is free, man is Ireeilon) On the

gixen

duct So,

part of action itsell

is

s|H-ak ol lorlornness,'" a

UttVtm,

ileterminism,

or

Irtim actum, hut

w

TX\tx\

exiHirncc rcalK d(ic« precede cMrncc, there

other hand,

not a curtain scpai^ting us

is

Il

He

find an\ thing to cling to

whom

involves.

ii%uli

x.^., ji.vi -^ a

»

e^lusc^ lor himscit

aiKlition, h) a direct res|Hinsibiht> to the other luen It

...

no explaining things awa> b> reference

chosen

is

it

(hkI diK-.

Ikcjusc neither within him nor Hithoui diic^ he

ami when they chiMisc one, lhe\

ol fxivsihihlies,

We

keep

iiuphes that the\ eiiMsjge j luinilH-r

It

reah/e that

ilcjr u|Hin

()uihcr

hunun

i

in the

4 cDnstituent

not in the scnsi* that (mkI

sense ol pavsing iKxontl

the sense that

nun

al\\a\s present in a

is

evistentulisni hununisin

remiml nun

is

clement

tranM.entlent.

and

Ih*-

that there

is

universe,

o(

tuit

siib|ecti\it>, in

imt viosetl in on hinisrlf hul

hunun

is

iini\ersc. the uni-

This connccliun

suh|cili\il\

twccn irjnNct'iuicfKN, as

nun

hunun

ilu

is Ji

There

hijrt, at the center olthis pav%ing-he> onil

is

what ue

is

call

liununisni, because \m

no lau-nuker other than

himself, and that in his lorlornness he will decule h\ himself, because

himself as nun,

we

nt>t in

in seeking outside

jHiint

out that

nun

\mII luiril!

turning low an! himself, but

ofhimsclf a goal which

is

|usi ihis

liberation, iust this particular fulfillment

I'rom these few n«)ihinv:

is

reflections

more uniust than

ii

is

c\Hicnt

ha\e l>een raised

irNing to plunge

c>er\

calls

the obiections that

nun

ilra«»

Christians, then the lis

all

nulh>

ihc cimir-

|M»siiion

into despair at

all

un'l

If

liui

if

one

unbelief des|>air. like the

of

aitituile

n

u% h.xi%tmiuh%m

i{uences of a coherent aiheisiii

word

not (King uurd in

is

original sense

I'Aisieniiahsm isn't mi aiheislic

wears

out showing that (mhJ doesn't

that

It

Rather,

exist

itself it

declares that e\en

if

(lod did exist,

would change nothing. There you've gof our |>oint of view Not that we believe that (iod exists,

that

but

we think

not the issue istic, a

tor

(

their that

a^^ainsi

ing el»c than an jiienipi to

that the

problem

doctrine of action, and

Jinsiiaiis

own

despairing.

of

Mis existence

in this sense existentialism

to

ilespair

make no

it

is

is

is

optim-

plain dishonesty

distinction

ami ours and then

between t«)

call

us

Martin Heidegger Heidegger (1889-1976), Husserl's replacement at the University of Freiburg, took phenomenology in an existentialist direction in his great early work, Being and Time (1927). In it he sought to investigate nothing less than the meaning of Being itself (crucially distinct from Martin

beings or things) through an analysis of the of Being characteristic of

as he called

human being

mode

{Dasein,

an analysis marked by the theme

us),

of resoluteness

in

the face of Being-towards-

death and historical destiny. His philosophy subsequently moved inanincreasinglyanti-humanist direction, for

meant a

which the task of thinking Being

rejection of the subjectivism

and anthro-

pocentrism characteristic of modern thought and

an

The

effect.

according to

actuality of the effect

To

accomplishment.

what already what

can really be accomplished. But

is

above

"is''

all

Being.'

is

Thinking accom-

plishes the relation of Being to the essence of

man.

does not make or cause the relation. Think-

It

ing brings this relation to Being solely as something

handed over

to

it

from Being. Such offering con-

comes

to

the house of Being. In

its

the fact that in thinking Being

sists in

language: Language

home man

dwells.

w ith w ords

is

Those who think and those who are the guardians of this home.

rectorship of the university, and by publicly identi-

cause some effect issues from

fying Hitler and the Nazi Party with Germany's

applied.

Thinking

special destiny. Even after the war Heidegger

action

presumably the simplest and

never recanted these views, but merely ceased to

time the highest, because

written

in

His "Letter on

response to a

philosopher,

is

letter

Humanism

"(1947),

from a young French

is

something into the fulness of its essence, to lead it forth into this fullness - producere. Therefore only

create

speak of them.

valued

accomplish means to unfold

modern technological domination of the world. In 1933 these philosophical themes took embodied form when Heidegger agreed to give his loyalty to the new National Socialist regime by becoming a party member in order to assume the the

is

But the essence of action

its utility.

Their guardianship accomplishes the manifestation of Being insofar as they bring the manifestation to

language and maintain

in

it

speech. Thinking does not

Being

is

to

language through their

become it

acts insofar as

man. But

all

it

action only be-

or because it

thinks. at the

it

is

Such same

concerns the relation of

working or effecting

lies

Being and

is

directed toward beings. Thinking,

Being [Sein)

is

to be contrasted with beings {seiende) or

in

a direct repudiation of Sartre's ex'

humanwhen we abandon

istentialism. Heidegger insists that a true

ism, which can arise only

traditional philosophical thinking,

would under-

entities.

Heidegger's aim, since his early work Being and

Time (Sein und

1927),

Zeit,

to think the

is

Being without reducing Being

meaning of

to beings.

stand man's essence as his "proximity" to Being,

would than

make man

its

the ""shepherd of Being rather

Martin

Heidegger.

engineer or overseer.

on

Humanism" from

Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (trans. Frank A. Capuzzi. with

We are still far from pondering the essence of action decisively enough. We view action only as causing

(JB)

"Letter

"

ed.

David

J.

Glenn Gray and David

Farrell

Krell),

Harper& Row. 1977.

pp.

Farrell Krell,

193-242. New

York:

:

on Humanism"

"Letter in

contrul,

uy

can

Icti

itiMrll

thi» Icltmg I'f-jrt"

Ihinliii);

Ik-ing mi iIui

t>>

ii

rcnuutfmtnt pur ifitf pour

ritre"' Here the

hnguistKulK

is

it

these V'pur" jiui "pour")

(i(

}m\

this

in

is

mil Lnii\« whether

ilo

I

ptivsihlc to vi\ \MiiU

uncc,

^k cbirunl

the iruih of Itcing. Iliinking Mrciimplishrs

pcriciKr

js

saul i»nl\

\k-

I

to ihc dcNiinv ol ck-sisicncc. Thcrclorc ck-sisiciui-

Ihou^ht

ol as a sih-hIk

can also nc\cr

tn*

lixing creature

ainonc tnhcrs

LiiuI ot

man

ijrantiil that

drslincil Ui thiuL the essence

his

«»1

is

Being and not

mcrcl) 10 giNc accounts ot the nature and hislor\ ot his cunsiituiion

and

nun

attribute to

Thus even what we

activities.

afumahtas on the hasis

as

cumparis«>n with "biast"

iirouiuled

itseil

is

The hunun lM>dy

essence ol ck-sistcnce.

IS

bmlogism o\erct»me by

the ern)r ot

human boih,

a soul to the

the existentiell

a

mind

ail

lite

joining

and

on In

to

let

The

distorts existence.

intlexible concepts

its

and

thought

that

Iking

physiolog\

that

tact

ot

and

physiological chemistry can scientifically investi-

man

gate

as an

organism

"organic" thing, that

is,

explained, the essence ot little

no proot

is

in the

man

body

that in this scientillcall>

consists. That has as

validity as the notion that the essence ot'nature

has been discovered in atomic energy.

It

could even

be that nature, in the tace she turns toward man's technical mastery,

Just as

little

is

simply concealing her essence.

as the essence of

man

scnieiKc va>s

n the confrar>. ihc

wa\

thai he

oicum

iVkAn

is

cvM:niull>

the "there", that

Being "" The "licing"

ol the

is.

«uih

in

Da, and onl>

it,

the tundamental character of ck-«i»icncc, ihat

an ecslatie inherence in the truth of licing

which

nun

essence ot

ecstatic

lonsists

ha*

it,

of

'l*hc

ek-sistencc,

in

trom the metaph\sicali> con-

dittereni

IS

j

ihr lighting ot

ceived txulcnlia. Medie\al phih»soph> conceives

Kant represents

the latter as actualilas

exttlentta

ence

the

e\er\ thing relapse into "lite-expencnce," with a

warning that thinking b\

"ol))ctt,

lor

m

some-

is

to the soul,

mind

before singing the praises ot the

disrupts the tlow ot

name

a

AS aclualitN in the sense ot the «)b)ecti\it\ ot exfxrri-

the mind, and then louder than

tt>

a%

ot the

thing essentially other than an animal organism

Nor

icnlur\

intending to exprr%% the rnetaphv»iail ctmcrpi iA the actualiiv ot the actual

vourtr that ilcicrnuncs hin» F.k-M>iciKc

righlrcnih

consists in being

Hegel detines

the sclt-knowing

txislftitui as

Nietzsche grasps cxts-

lilea ot abs«)lute subjectivity.

as the eternal recurrence of the same.

iititia

Here

it

renuins an o|Hn question whether through existrnexplanations ot

liii

in these

first

seem quite

e\cn

as

lite

it

as actuality,

which

at

dilterent

the lk-ing of a stone

«ir

the Being ot

plants and animals

is

adequately thought. In any case li\ing creatures they

as

are

Being

with«)Ut

are

standing outside their

such and within the truth of Iking, pre-

as

serving in such standing the evsential nature of their Being.

Of all

the beings that are, presumably

the most difficult to think about are living creatures, because

way most the

at

on the one hand they are

closely related to us,

same time separated from our

essence by an abyss. However, as

though the essence of divinit)

what

in a certain

and on the other are

is

namely,

it

ek-sistent

might also seem

is

closer to us than

foreign in other living creatures, closer,

an essential distance which however

in

nonetheless more familiar to our ck-

an animal organism can this insuftlcienl definition

distant

of man's essence be overcome or ottset h\ outfitting

sistent essence than

man

conceivable bodily kinship with the beast. Such

with an immortal soul, the power of reason, or

the character of a person. In each instance essence

is

is

reflections cast a strange light

passed over, and passed over on the basis of the

and therefore always

same metaphysical projection.

ot

man

\\ hat

is

or, as

it is

called in the traditional

language of metaphysics, the "essence" of lies in his

this

way

is

ek-sistence.

meaning

Time

this

Dasein

But ek-sisience thought

-

in

not identical w ith the traditional concept

ot exiswniiii,

the

man

which means

sentence

lies

aclualit)

in contrast to

ot essffitiu as possibility. In Bt'im; is italicized:

in its existence."

"The

and

'essence' of

is

not

under consideration, because neither of these metaphysical determinations of Being,

sentence

is

let

alone their

yet in question. Still less does the

contain

a

man

as

still

animitl rationale.

animals are lodged

upon the current

premature designation Because plants and

in their respecti\e

en\ ironments

but are never placed treely in the lighting of Ik-ing

which alone

is

"world," they lack language. But

in

being denied language they are not thereby sus-

pended worldlessly this

in their

environment.

word "environment" converges

puzzling about

living

creatures

In

all its

Still, in

that

is

essence

However, here the

opposition between existcnlia and essentta

relationship,

our appalling and scarcely

is

universal

statement

Dasem^ since the word came into fashion

about in

the

*'"

for

Diiscin, literally

human

being.

It

Heidegger's term are always there,

to the world.

He also describes

indicates that

thrown into and vulnerable this

is

we

"thcrc-hcing,"

"there-ness" (or Da) as Luhiun^,

a

word meaning

both light and a tbresi clearing. Dasein's thcre-ncss

is

a

place where things are lighted or revealed.

(m>

Martin Heidegger language is

it

is

not the utterance of an organism; nor

Nor can correct way

the expression of a Hving thing.

ever be thought in an essentially

it

in

terms

of

even

terms of the character of signification. Lan-

in

guage

symbolic

its

perhaps

character,

not

the lighting-concealing advent of Being

is

think

Ek-sistence, thought in terms of ec stasis, does not

coincide with existentia in either form or content. In

the

means

Existentia

{existence)

adequate execution and completion of thinking that abandons subjectivity

Being and Time the third division of the

"Time and Being," was Here everything

the

is

as

is

question of whether

man

name

it

is

in the destiny

of

in

is.

For

Idea.

man actually is or not; rather,

in the

it

to

posing this question

Who?

we

man is U hat'f we are

ask what

or the

already on the lookout for something like a person

and misconstrues the

essential

unfolding of ek-sistence in the history of Being.

why

the sentence cited from Being and

careful to enclose the

word "essence"

in

quotation marks. This indicates that "essence"

now being

defined from neither

esse existentiae^^^

acter of Dasein.

is

nor

esse essentiae

but rather from the ek-static char-

As

ek-sisting,

in that he takes the

"On

lecture

the Essence of Truth,"

man sustains Da-sein

Da, the lighting of Being, into

Time"

ing of the turning from "Being and

"Time and Being." This

turning

not

is

thinking that was sought

to

change

a

of standpoint from Being and Time, but in

it

the

arrives at the location

first

of that dimension out of which Being and Time experienced, that

By way of

contrast, Sartre expresses the basic

tenet of existentialism in this way: Existence pre-

cedes essence. In this statement he tentia

and

is

taking exis-

according to their metaphysical

essentia

meaning, which from Plato's time on has said that precedes

essentia

Sartre

existentia.

reverses

this

statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical state-

ment remains

a

metaphysical statement.

\\ ith

it

Being. For even

if

philosophy wishes to determine

the relation of essentia and existentia in the sense

"thrown."

had

Being

unfolds essentially in the throw of

as the fateful sending.

But

to explain the sentence

sence as

human

if it

if

one wished

about man's ek-sistent es-

were the secularized transference

to

beings of a thought that Christian theology

is

that this

suiim

esse);"^"^

w hat

es-

is

we understand what Being and Time calls "projection" as a representational positing, we take be an achievement of subjectivity and do not

it still

as esse essentiae

and

Rather than think of the mind

as

knowing or not

knowing Being, Heidegger thinks of Being and concealing

itself

not a passive object for the """ ''''

as revealing

Being grants unconceaiment;

human

it

subject.

essentia

it

is

and

how

it

is

existentia

ness of Being.'

We

ing, let alone

not

the

differentiation

existentia (actuality)

Or

at all a sign

must presume

upon

comes

to

is

the fact

a lesser capacity its

of forgetful-

that this destiny

human

think-

of early West-

essential provenance,

of essentia

(essentiality)

and

completely dominates the des-

is '^'^'

Heidegger

is

describing a major change ("turn") in

"On Time and Being"

God

essay of Heidegger's.

(isg)

of

with the differentiation of

does not rest upon a mere failure of

his thinking.

His being.

esse existentiae

could never be thought.

Essential being and existing being, respectively. is

first

this differentiation

We have yet to consider why the

ern thinking. Concealed in ^'""

remains to ask

question about the destiny of Being w as never asked

and why

est

sential. If

to

Being

appear to thinking!

not the realization of an essence, nor does

{Deus

ek-sistence itself even effect and posit

it

in

some other way,

from what destiny of Being

all

it

medieval controversies, in Leibniz's sense,

for ek-

expresses about sistence

God

in

or in

would be the ultimate error

it

he

stays with metaphysics in oblivion of the truth of

"care." But Da-sein itself occurs essentially as It

is

from the

to say, experienced

is

fundamental experience of the oblivion of Being.

or an object. But the personal no less than the objective misses

The

until 1943, provides a certain insight into the think-

with equal impropriety whether

who he

sics.'''"

The

its

not an answer to the

is

We are accustomed

is

section

thought out and dehvered in 1930 but not printed

responds to the question concerning man's "es-

Time

The

question was held back because thinking failed in

for the realization of

appears in

sentence ''Man ek-sists''

is

held back. reversed.

the adequate saying of this turning and did not

something that

That

is

of

first part,

succeed with the help of the language of metaphy-

the determination of what

or

made

surely

is

fact that in the publication

opposed

truth. Existentia

sence."

by the

difficult

The

this other

possibility as Idea. Ek-sistence identifies

in contrast actualitas, actuality as

mere

to

of Being.

truth

of the "existential analysis"

as the ecstatic relation to the lighting of Being.

terms of content ek-sistence means standing out into

way the "understanding of

the only

in the context

of "being-in-the-world" can be thought - namely

more

itself.^""

in

it

Being"

(below) was

a late

Humanism"

"Letter on tun

Wcilcrn

ol

IusIoin

jiuI nl

IhsIuin

all

ilrlcr-

nuncil b) Kuropc

jUuit

pr«>|HiMiioi)

Sdrlrr*H Lc\

lumc "cxistcntuliMu"

about the rclatH)n ol

and fxisUntta can is

it

As

|ust saul. that

enough What

imla) remains

still

ot nian to the |>oint

that

dimensuin

honor

to the

onl\

Hut e\en

it

happens clunisih ia.scin

man

not,

the

thai

IS

man

the cimcncc ot

reali/e the

profXT

hiichr^i

dctmninaliom fttill do mA

hunianiun

in

man w

di|cnit\ of

o that e%trni

I

humanmean that such thinking aligns itvell against the humane and advocates the mhuman, that ii promotc« the inhumane and

the thinking in Heinf

ism

imr

I

against

Bui this opiMiMiion diH's not

man Humanism

Aiu\ ileprecates the dignilv ol

op|>oseil Iniause

nun high enough Ol man does not consist

course the essential v*orth in his

beings, as the "Subject"

being the substance ol

among them,

may deign

tvrant ol Being he

\\

humanitai ot

d«K*s not set the

it

ol

ness ot Ix-ings into an

tct

question ol

a

still

Irom what we ha\e

become an im|H-tus

apart

tmt no staicnu-ni

I

preparing s«>nKthing precursor\

|H-rhaps

limt

•iw*/

and

f JiCfi/u

be exprcvsetl since there

common

at all in

//r" Mirl

lor a

ol "cxistcniijiisin"

piiontN

tlu

Imwcxcr.

c'lit/cn/iu t»\cr cwtntiti iIiicn.

ihc

implicjiion ol

"thrown" from

rather

is

lieing itsell into

iIk truth ot Being, so that ek-sisting

m

this fashion

he might guarti the truth ol Being, in order that

beings might appear

Man

beings thev are

the light of ik-ing as the

in

decide whether and

iloes not

how beings appear, whether and how (iod and

the

and culture through man's doings might be vindi-

gods or historv and nature come torvsard

the

cated.

lighting ot Being,

however, lor the sake

But

It,

ot the truth ot

we should

tlrst

ot

essential experience

that

man

is

to say this in the

mav

Being

in

make

attain to the

order to ponder

clear

how

to us

when

he ek-sists.

man

dawns

it

we now

\\ ere

language ot the tradition,

run: the ek-sistence ot

Ik'ing

claims him. Such an

it

happens

in that

so that civilization

todav

all

man and how

concerns

on us

we

order thai

in

dimension

(»t

his substance.

in the

sisting has to

man

is

as ek-

guard the truth of Being. .Man

shepherd of Being. Being and Time is

when

thinking

is

is

the

in this direction alone that

It is

ecstatic existence

experienced as "care. ^et Being

thinking that

oiiiiii,

is

a

word

present and

at

is

that

the

same lime, with puzzling ambiguity, usually means itself. If

destinv; tor in accord with this destinv

existence." But "sub-

designates the presence otvvhat

present

the destinv of tking.

essence which corresj^onds to such

would

stance," thought in terms ot the historv ot Being,

is

lies in

and depart

ever a question of finding what

is

it

fitting in his

sentence otten recurs,

already a blanket translation oi

tcim "substance"

man

to presence

"

is

why in ^t'/z/j,' and linic the "The 'substance' ot man is

what

The advent of beings But tor

I'hat is

it

come

int(i

we think

the metaphysical

sense already suggested in

that a

and

what is

to sav

to

it.

Being-

is

"Being

"

cosmic ground. Being

and

itself

It

is

work of art,

or Ciod. Being

is

a

The

not Ciod and not

her than

tart

all

beings

than every being, be

rock, a beast, a

farthest

is

learn to experience

that

is

man

yet nearer to

is

It

come must

machine, be

it

it

a

an angel

the nearest. Vet the near remains

from man. .Man

at first

clings alwavs

when thinking

and

accordance with the "phenomenological destruc-

only

tion" carried out in Being and Time, then the state-

beings as beings

ment "The 'substance' of man

ek-sislcnce" says

In truth, however,

man

such; precisely not, and never. Being as such. The

is

nothing else but that the way that

essence becomes present to Being

herence

in

the truth of Being. '^"

is

in his

proper

ecstatic in-

Through

this

determination of the essence of man the humanistic interpretations of

man

as iinitfuil rationale, as

"per-

to

But

beings. it

no doubt it

relates itself to Iking.

always thinks only of beings as

"question of Iking" always remains about beings.

name

It

indicates:

is

represents

still

not

at

all

a

what

question

its

elusive

the question in the direction of

Being. Philosophy, even

when

it

becomes

"critical"

son," as spiritual-ensoukd-bodily being, are not

through Descartes and Kant, always follows the

declared talse and thrust aside. Rather, the sole

course of metaphysical representation.

from beings back "Truth" (the literal

aUtheia).

for

Heidegger means "unconccalmcnt"

meaning otthc ancient Greek word

tor truth,

It

thinks

to beings with a glance in passing

toward Being. For every departure from beings and every return to them stands already

in

the light of

Being.

V

Martin Heidegger

But

metaphysics

Being either solely in ''outward is

the

recognizes

appearance"

lighting

view of what

as the

of

present

is

(iJea) or critically as

what

seen as a result of categorial representation on the

part of subjectivity. This

Being

means

as the lighting itself

that the truth of

remains concealed for

metaphysics. However, this concealment

yet held before

the treasure of

it,

But the lighting

wealth.

its

own proper

Being. Within

itself is

the destiny of Being in metaphysics the lighting affords

first

comes

view by which what

a

man

so that

touch upon Being

10).

This view

yields

is

present to

it,

himself can in apprehending (noein)

first

It

man, who

into touch with

present

is

such

to

{thigein, Aristotle,

Met. IX,

gathers the aspect to itself

first

when apprehending

aspects

has become a setting-forth-before-itself in the percept

w

of the

taken as the suhiectiim of

res cogitans

But how - provided we really ought to ask such a all - how does Being relate to ek-

question at sistence.^

of Being. But this relation

Being

itself is

the relation to the extent

time, an

is

as

it is

not by reason

of ek-sistence; on the contrary, the essence of eksistence derives existentially-ecstatically from the

essence of the truth of Being.

The one

thing thinking would like to attain and

for the first time tries to articulate in Being

Time

and

something simple. As such, Being remains

is

mysterious, the simple nearness of an unobtrusive

governance.

The

guage

But language

itself

nearness occurs essentially as lanis

not mere speech, inso-

we represent the latter at best as the unity of phoneme (or written character), melody, rhythm, and meaning (or sense). We think of the phoneme far as

and written character

as a verbal

of melody and rhythm as to

do with meaning

as its

its

body

for language,

and whatever has

soul,

We usually think of

mind.

language as corresponding to the essence of represented as animal rationale, that

certttudo.^'''''

first

"ecstatic" relation of the essence of man to the truth

not a

is

defect of metaph\ sics but a treasure withheld from it

sophy, has yet to be thought for the

is,

man

as the unity

of body-soul-mind. But just as ek-sistence - and

through

the relation of the truth of Being to

it

- remains

man

veiled in the humanitas of homo animalis,

Being amid

so does the metaphysical-animal explanation of

beings, gathers to itself and embraces ek-sistence in

language cover up the essence of language in the

Because

history of Being. According to this essence lan-

that

It,

as the location of the truth of

existential,

its

man

as the

that

is,

one who

relation that

ek-sists

comes

Being destines

ecstatically sustains

himself, he at

ecstatic, essence.

it,

that

first fails to

is,

to stand in this

for itself, in that in care takes

that this

is

at the

the nearest.

same time

than the farthest

is

upon

recognize the nearest and

attaches himself to the next nearest.

and

it

he

He

even thinks

But nearer than the nearest

for ordinary thinking farther

nearness itself the truth of

Forgetting the truth of Being in favor of the pressing throng of beings unthought in their esis

what ensnarement means

in

Being and

This word does not signify the Fall of

Time.^^^''

iMan understood at the

the house of Being which

is

from Being and is

in a

"moral-philosophical" and

same time secularized way;

rather,

nates an essential relationship of

man

is

But man

is

sists

is

Being, guarding

So the point not

man

in that

^^"'

something

In the perception of the thinking substance taken as the

subject "'"^

also

of certainty.

Verfallen,

here translated as "ensnarement," has

been translated

as "fallenness.'"

man

what

is

ek-

essential

but Being - as the dimension of the

of ek-sistence.

has been hitherto concealed from philo-

pos-

that in the determination of the

in the all

is

not

familiar sense. Rather,

space-time occur essen-

the dimensionality which Being itself

Thinking attends

is

ecstasis

However, the dimension

spatial

tially in

it

who

he belongs to the truth of

as ek-sistence

everything spatial and

because

this

of man's

it.

is

humanity of man

Being

logical" distinction but rather a relation which,

home

the

the house of Being in which

by dwelling,

desig-

not imply a moral-existentiell or an "anthropo-

as

is,

not only a living creature

it

do

it

sesses language along with other capacities. Rather,

to

in a provisional fashion,

so

essence.

within Being's relation to the essence of man. Ac-

which are used

to pass

And

correspondence to Being and indeed as

its

correspondence, that

cordingly, the terms "authenticity" and "inauthenticity,"

comes

pervaded by Being.

proper to think the essence of language from

language

Being.

sence

guage

is.

to these simple relationships.

them within the grammar of metaphysics. But does such thinking - granted that there is something in a name - still allow itself to It tries

to find the right

word

for

long traditional language and

be described as humanism.' Certainly not so

humanism humanism

far as

thinks metaphysically. Certainly not is

existentialism and

is

if

represented by

what Sartre expresses: precisement nous sommes sur

LAtter

wif

plan

u ituUmfitt Jf\

I'M j/ y

trtmi //finr

hummfs

'rhtiughi

mv

should

/im of

11

sj\.

and iJutiou.sK

gi\cs Ik-ing

itscll

vumc

arc the

/>/«i«

imprinsiK

jiixo"

here "jsncs"

/

coiKruicii

i\

heralded

in

p(Klr\, ^ilhiuil \c« l>cti>iumg nunilcsi as ihc history ol

The world-hisinru al thinking

ilcin){

lloldcrlin thai sjKaks «uii in ihc |XK-m

brjiKc" jiul

more priniordul

ihcrctorc cvscniulK

IS

ot

•Rcincin-

thus more signitkjni lor the tuiurc than thc

mcrc

cosino|xiliianisiu ol (iinthc

the sunic

l"or

rcJMin lloUlcrlin's relation to (ireek ci\ili/ation MMiK-thing eNsi-ntulK other than huinanisin

with

conlronieil

Cicrnuns who knew

held U» I

al>out

Ix"

the t\pual (lernun

lonielcvsncss

wtjrid

I

terms

»»t

lloldcrlin

lenee

it

coming

is

is

to

at

i

Ix-

\S

ilu-

hen

Noiing

and

li\e«.l

what

than

soineihinu other

thttuuht

those

therchire.

ileath.

is

piihlu

homelcssncss

in the

man

This homelcssncss

spccitkalh e\oked trom the

is

melaph>sKs and

dcstin\ ot lieing in the torm ot

through mclaphssics

and covered up

modern man.

ot

simulianeoush entrenched

is

Because Marx by experi-

as such.

non

to

communism and

the dtKlnncs o( tion.

world-historKal s|x-aks out in

"iommumsm" schauung"

who

IS

h\ the term

i

presumablv once

ot a

more than

above

in the tact

tailing

is

dawning

have seen

now

till

Sartre

of

less in the basic traits

attempts to explicate destinN yet, and that

For such dialogue free oneself as well as

it is

product-

a

becomes

possible.

certainly also necessary to

trom naive notions about materialism,

from the cheap refutations

posed to counter docs not consist

it.

that are

sup-

The essence of materialism

in the assertion that

everything

is

expanded

rather

to hunuinitiii

The modern meiaphxsical

Phenom-

metaphysicalK an anthropolarticular lite-

worlil ilestin\

Being now

I

|usi

l.uro|x-

remains Furopean by definition.

whether

i%

takc^

ever more clearly forced consiMs

is

glors

Its

course

that of other histt>rical accounts. Ikit since neither

so far as

shallowK,

The danger into which

\le

Whoever

it

"Americanism" mean, and mean

ilcrogalorilv, nothing

in

of IkinK

only as a "party" or a "Weltan-

thinking

ofhislor), the Marxist \ie\v ot"histor\

Husscrl nor

to their lounda-

pcnencc ot nhal

IS

It

irom the

and gather together what

superior to

a

.No mailer vthuh o(

ot the hisiorv ot Ik-ing

encing estrangement attains an essential dimension is

hmtH

pcnrplihlc

ihr onlv

the \arious |>osiiions one ch«M>scs to ailopi itmard

hiihcrtj) existed

deriNcd from Hegel, as the estrangement ol Its riKits

phase

the destiiu of ilu

nized in an essential and signitkant sense, though

has

and up

disiiiutive

st

What Marx recog-

u

the hiMur> ol mciaphvftic», which

in

mule

necessarN to think that destiin in

the histtirs ot Iking.

A%«tormol iruihirchnoki^v u grounded

maniiokl

man

more than mereh human, "being

a rational

represented as

if this is

creature." ".More" must not be

understood here additively as definition of

rationale.

consists in his being

man were

if

the

traditional

indeed to remain basic,

only elaborated by means of an cxistentiell postscript.

The "more" means: more originally and

therefore

more

essentially in

terms of his essence.

But here something enicrnatic manifests is

in

throvsness.

This

means

that

itself

man,

as

man the

cjH)

Martin Heidegger ek-sisting counter-throw of Being,

more than

is

animal rationale precisely to the extent that he less

bound up with man conceived from

ity.

Man

Man

not the lord of beings.

is

Man

pherd of Being.

is

subjectiv-

the she-

is

truth of Being,

stands safely beyond any danger

it

of shattering against the hardness of that matter.

Thus

to "philosophize" about being shattered

separated by a chasm from a thinking that tered. If

such thinking were to go fortunately for

rather, he gains in that he attains the truth of Being.

man no

misfortune would befall him.

He

receive the only gift that can

loses nothing in this "less";

gains the essential poverty of the shepherd,

whose dignity consists

comes

as the

throw from which the thrownness

of Da-sein derives. In his essential unfolding within the history of Being,

man

is

the being

whose Being

as ek-sistence consists in his dwelling in the near-

ness of Being.

But -

Man

is

the neighbor of Being.

to thinking

But is

also the case that the matter of thinking

it is

not achieved in the fact that talk about the "truth

of Being" and the "history of Being"

is

set in

motion. Everything depends upon this alone, that

come

the truth of Being

to language

and that think-

ing attain to this language. Perhaps, then, language

you no doubt have been wanting to now - does not such think-

as

come

a

He would

from Being.

The

the preservation of Being's truth.

itself into call

being called by Being

in

is

shat-

is

much

requires

precipitous expression than

less

who

rejoin for quite a while

proper silence. But

ing think precisely the hiimanitas oi homo humanusr

imagine that his attempts to think are

Does

the path of silence.' At best, thinking could perhaps

not think humanitas in a decisive sense, as

it

no metaphysics has thought

or can think

it

it.'

Is this

"humanism" in the extreme sense.' Certainly. It a humanism that thinks the humanity of man

what

it

is

easily

from nearness

humanism

essence

in

same time

at the

which not man but man's

stake in

is at

But

to Being.

its

fall

in this

In Being and Time

it

is

the actuality of subjects

other and so in

fundamental contrast

istence^'"

Being.

ecstatic

is

it

man

Neither

is

"Ek-sistence,"

to every existentia

and

''ex-

dwelling in the nearness of

Being. Because there

the care for

is,

something simple

is

this thinking

it

seems quite

to be

difficult to

rare handicraft of

all eternity, even when they come very come at the right time. Whether the realm of the truth of Being is a blind

defined for late still

does.

with and for each

are.

the guardianship, that

It is

thought in

who act

become who they

w riting.

really matter, although they are not

said that every question of

cogito.

now

to the

Things that

game of stakes? So

not the actuality of the ego

would thus be more

and directed

philosophy "recoils upon existence." But existence here

to be thought. It

is

weaned from mere supposing and opining

it is

provenance from the truth

it is

as

historical

of Being. But then doesn't the ek-sistence of also stand or

home on

at

point toward the truth of Being, and indeed toward

not

a

of us today would want to

alley or

dom

whether

conserves

may judge

it is

its

after

the free space in which free-

essence

is

something each one

he himself has tried to go the

designated w ay, or even better, after he has gone a better way, that

is,

a

way

befitting the question.

On

the penultimate page of Being and Time stand the

"The

sentences:

with respect to the inter-

conflict

pretation of Being (that

is,

therefore, not the in-

terpretation of beings or of the Being of

cannot be

settled, because

it

man)

has not yet been kindled.

the representational thought that has been trans-

And

mitted as philosophy. But the difficult

quarrel,' since the kindling of the conflict does

is

not a

in the

end

it is

not a question of 'picking a

matter of indulging in a special sort of profundity

demand some

and of building complicated concepts; rather,

foregoing investigation

concealed in the step back that

lets

into a questioning that experiences

habitual opining of philosophy It is

fall

it is

comment any

further

upon

- and

the days ahead remain as

the

lets

aw ay.

thinking that hazards a few

The

steps in Being

and

Time has even today not advanced beyond that publication.

But perhaps

in the

one respect come farther into

its

meantime

it

has in

ow n matter. How-

end alone the

still

after

hold. Let us also in

The

into

question you pose

helps to clarify the way.

You

Let us not

opinion.

this

w anderers on the w ay

the neighborhood of Being. in

To

under way." Today

tw o decades these sentences

alley.

that

is

thinking enter

everywhere supposed that the attempt

Being and Time ended in a blind

preparation.

Comment redonner un

ask,

sens

au mot

"Humanisme"? ''How can some sense be restored to the

word 'humanism'.'" Your question not only

presupposes a desire to retain the word "human-

ism" but has lost

ever, as long as philosophy merely busies itself with

It

also contains an

its

admission that

this

word

meaning.

has lost

it

humanism

through the insight that the essence metaphysical, which

now means

continually obstructing the possibility of admit-

of

tance into the matter for thinking,

that metaphysics not only does not pose the ques-

i.e.

into the

is

'

on Humanism'

"Latter lion coiKrrniiig ihr truth

«•!

structN thr question. inMiUr

its

into the i|ut-siioiuhU-

UN to thiN insight

Icii

ob-

jl

thlnkln^ itut

liut the sjnic

in the ohli\ ion oi Item); ha.H

lUing but

mrtHii'?i |)cr%iHtH

csMCiKT ol hununisni has hkcN\isc cofU|Kllcil us to

nun more prunonhjIK

think thr rvsctuc ot

arises the possihilitN ol restoring to

humanui there

won! "humanism"

the

meaning

oldest

chronologicailv

not to

is

is

unilersHMKl

Ik-

though the wonl "humanism" were wholK with-

meaning

out

aiul

word

man

is

meant

To restore

|>oints to humaniltis, the

thai the es-

experience the essence of It

demands

also

evscnce in

sence

we show

that

to

is,

from Being

insofar as Being appropriates

first

primordially;

what evient

That

itself

man

we

that

tateful.

ek-sislence.

lies in

that

essentially

man more

own wa> becomes

its

man

ol"

as such.

can only mean to redetme

it

meaning of the word. That requires

but

This

to he taken esseniialU

sense to

a

The

imis^^^'"

word "humanism" has

the sense that the

the

flulus

man. the "-ism" imluates

«»l

sence of

mere

a

'*humunttttr in the

essence

IS

historical si-nse that

a

The restoration

rccktuuvl as

Us

than

oUler

\\ iih

humantuis ol homo

to this nion- csscntui

rr)r>iril

The es-

"Humanism" now means,

itself.

the word, that for

essential

such

a

simpK

the

lui'us

a

we decide

man

the essence of

way that the word does not pertain as such.

So we

we "humanism"

still

.\nd keep

it

it

to

in

man

name

presious

human-

no way adviKates the inhuman.' by sharing

in the

in the

use of the

predominant

in oblivion

of Being.'

Or should

think-

by means of open resistance to "humanism,"

shock that could for the

tirst

time cause

perplexitN concerning the hiimunttaa ol

honm hiimu-

risk a

nus

and

its

rellection

In this

basis.' if

way

it

could awaken

the world-historical

moment

not itself already compel such a rellection thinks not only

about

man

a

did that

but also about

the

"nature" of man, not only about his nature but even more primordially about the dimension

in

which the essence of man, determined by Being

all

than

"logical"

inhuman and

barbaric brutalit\

fication ol

I-

humanism nothing remains

a glori-

or what

more

is

who

somelxHh

for

that

negates

but the alfirinaiion of

inluimamiN

Because we are speaking against belie\e

we

logu

[xople

are ilemanding that the rigor of thinking

be renounced and in

its

drnes and

installed

feelings

Ix-

place the arbitrariness of

and thus

that "irra-

tionalism" be pr teaches an irresponsible

and destrucii\e "nihilism." For what

more

is

"logical" than that whoeNcr roundlx denies what truly in being puts himself

is

on the side of nonbeing

and thus professes the pure nothing as the meaning of realit\

r

\\ hat is

going on

"humanism,"

here.'

"logic,"

People hear

"values,"

talk

about

"world,"

and

They hear something about opposition They recognize and accept these things

"(iod."

But with hearsay

Enipt\ sound.

positive.

A

strictiv deliberate

grove that no light reaches.

name

hetra\ the

Because we are speaking againM "hununinm" pe«»ple lear a defense of the

these.

""

Ihex

same loundation

struiture ami the

liness of

just so that

l

what one believer he kniiH%

ol

Ixlore he reails

alreailN

denies the bevond, and renounces

currents, stilled in metaphysical subjeciiMsm and

ing,

simpK mirrorings

a

that

"'""^^

all

>t

^

are natural reinterpretation% ot what vkas read, or

keep the name "humanism" for

in

li

t

hc*c miMnirrpretation%

more

name we might perhaps swim submerged

I

a

results in a

that contradicts

ism - although

slowlx dissipate'

is

mm ImenJo.

.Should

is

are thinking a curious kind of

"humanism." The word

thinking in

of

ime has hitherto Ixen

are horrified at a philosophy that ostensibly dares to

of Being, specificallN

truth

them

I

issue here,

as ck-sisting for

in case

whiih the path

aiions to

ol |{cing anil let

not rather %ullrr a

Because we are speaking against "values" people

what

guardianship o\er the truth ot Being into this truth

to retain

home Should Me

at

IS

uhile longer ih

Martin Heidegger

what speaks against something negation and that this

And somewhere

destructive.

there

its

Being and Time

in

phenomenological de-

explicit talk of "the

is

automatically

is

"negative" in the sense of

is

With the assistance of logic and ratio - people come to believe that

struction."

so often invoked

whatever it

not positive

is

negative and thus that

is

seeks to degrade reason - and therefore deserves

to be

branded

as depravity.

We

they recoil before the task of simply inquiring into

we wished

the essence of logos} If

which

objections,

of course

is

bandy about

to

fruitless,

we could

with more right: irrationalism, as a denial of rules unnoticed

ground

To

in the defense

of

can eschew meditation on

it

and on the essence of

logos

are so filled with

and uncontested

which believes

"logic,"

say

ratio^

which has

ratio

its

in logos.

think against "values"

is

not to maintain that

"logic" that anything that disturbs the habitual

everything interpreted as "a value" - "culture,"

somnolence of prevailing opinion

"art," "science,"

is

automatically

registered as a despicable contradiction.

We

pitch

"God" -

"human

everything that does not stay close to the familiar

to realize that precisely

and beloved positive into the previously excavated

tion of

of pure negation which negates everything,

pit

ends

nothing, and so consummates nihilism.

in

Following

everything

let

we invented

expire in a nihilism

with the aid of

we

course

logical

this

ourselves

for

logic.

a thinking ad-

But what

let

and conclusively, that

is,

anything else - only

when one

what

without a clear prospect of posits in advance

meant by the "positive" and on

is

This

negative.-^

this basis

makes an absolute and absolutely negative decision about the range of possible opposition to cealed in such a procedure to reflection this

Con-

it.

the refusal to subject

is

presupposed "positive"

in

one believes himself saved, together with

which

its

posi-

and opposition. By continually appealing to the

tion

logical

one conjures up the

illusion

he has disavowed

fact It

he

is

when

in

that

entering straightforwardly into thinking

a thing

Being

in its

tion of

its

in

values

When

To

mean

does not

and

lessness

thinking,

mere

and

ent."

This

"logic."

To

and

illogical

thought the logos and the

dawn of thinking,

the

first

its

mean

to

but simply to trace in

essence w hich appeared in

that

is,

to exert ourselves for

time in preparing for such reflection.

what value if,

founder of

think against "logic" does not

break a lance for the

us

in Aristotle, the

Of

are even far-reaching systems of logic to

without really know ing w hat they are doing.

a

degrada-

for the value-

means

rather to

as

subjectivizing

against

into

reference to "being-in-the-world" as the

The is

of the first

beings

objects.

man

is

merely

a

homo humanus does "worldly" creature

in a Christian sense, thus a creature

turned away from

with meditation on Being

lost in Plato

drum

basic trait of the humanitas of

with the thinking that thinks the truth

of logos w hich w as already obfuscated

is

bring the lighting of the truth of Being before

God and

word could be more

dial essence

-

bizarre ef-

as elsewhere thinking

nullity of beings. It

tation proposes to itself in the generality of the

of Being.? This thinking alone reaches the primor-

The

think against values therefore

"Transcendence." What

is it

where

does not

one proclaims "God"

to beat the

sentation of beings in their Being, which represen-

how

objectivity

the greatest blasphemy imaginable

is

against Being.

understood

is,

when

doing.

God's essence. Here

other vistas.

that

is

not exhausted by

a subjectivizing. It

is

doing.

it is

of the

itself,

is

the altogether "highest value," this

not assert that

concept. But

valued

is

prove the objectivity of values does not

fort to

know what

implies a defense

to be the repre-

what

is

assess-

beings: be. Rather, valuing lets beings: be valid

sition to

"Logic" understands thinking

is

values positively,

The

"humanism" in no way inhuman but rather opens

so valued

is

by the

to say,

is

as a value

solely as the objects of

it.

ought to be somew hat clearer now that oppo-

finally

takes the form of value. Every valuing, even

toward pure negation and the

be sure, happens inevitably

important

"a value" what

worth. That

being an object, particularly

it

to

as

it is

through the characteriza-

admitted only as an object for man's estimation.

vances against ordinary opinion necessarily point

happens - and then,

its

ment of something

its

But does the "against" which

something

robbed of

dignity," "world," and

valueless. Rather,

is

is

so cut loose from

really

meant by

this

clearly called "the transcend-

transcendent

supersensible being.

is

considered the highest being in the sense

first

cause of all beings.

cause.

However,

God is thought as this name

in the

"being-in-the-

world," "world" does not in any way imply earthly as

opposed

to heavenly being,

opposed

to the "spiritual."

not at

signify beings or

all

the openness of Being. as

he

is

any realm of beings but

Man

the ek-sisting one.

openness of Being. Being

nor the "worldly" as

For us "world" does

is,

He

itself,

has projected the essence of

and

is

man,

insofar

stands out into the

which

man

as the

throw

into "care,"

is

as

Humantsm"

"Letter on ihiN

ol ilispaich-

such dispatching

()nl\

is

remains merel> s«)nu-lhing fabricated by

law

human rules

More

reason

man

that

is

wax

This abode

truth of Ik-ing.

than

essential

find the

first

yields the experi-

ence of something we can hold on Ik'ing offers a hold for

instituting

to his aboiie in the

The truth

to.

conduct. "Hold"

all

language means protectne heed. Iking

heed that holds

tecti\e

to the truth of

that

once the house

IS at

human

language.

in

of

guage," which

human

man

what

beings not be

at

home

of

them language becomes

tor their

sundr> preoccupations.

exceeds light in

contemplation because

all

which

it

cares for the

can

a seeing, as tlworta,

first live

it

puts

its

saying of Being into language as the

home of ek-sistence. Thus

thinking

deed that also surpasses

praxis.

all

above action and production,

grandeur of

quence of of

its

its

The

deed. But a

Thinking towers not

through

the

as a conse-

but through the humbleness

its effect,

in

its

sa>ing merel\

to

brings the

be taken quite

itself, to

language.

literally. It is

Such arriving

thought to language in itself is raised into

form

perpeluall\ under

in its

of the unusual,

initiates. .At the

light-

way

to

from

it

which

is

is

its

I'or

we

w«)rld-historical

its

the

in

accessible only to

and

scientific kn»)w ledge

We

search projects.

re-

its

nuasure deeds b\ the impres-

and successful achievements ai praxis. But the

sise

is

beha\

it

is

neither theoretical nor practical,

the conjunction of these

two forms of

ior.

Through

makes

itself

its

simple essence the thinking of Iking

unrecognizable with

acquainted

the

t»)

us.

unusual

simple, then another plight

But

if

Being

falls

of the

immediatelx

befalls

prey to arbitrariness; for

to beings. \\

W hat

thinking of

it

hence does thinking take

law governs

its

cannot cling its

measure.'

deed?

Here the third question of \our entertained:

we become

character

'The suspicion arises that such

ijiic

we

unfolding

same time we conceive of thinking

on the model of

letter

must be

(litmment sauicr /'element Jaicriture

iiimporte toutc recherche sans /aire de la philoso-

phic unc simple aientunercy^'^^'^

poetry now only in passing. the

same question, and

in

It

the

I

is

shall

mention

confronted b\

same manner,

as

thinking. But .Aristotle's words in the Poetics, al-

though they have scarcely been pondered, are that poetic

composition

is

still

truer than explor-

ation of beings.

But thinking

Being comes,

we

to Ix- thought,

ol the essential

name "philosoph)"

to language. is

contmualK has

which has

\alid

usage "bring to language" employed here

language.

IS

a

inconsequential accomplishment.

For thinking

ing

is

achievement and not

unspoken w ord of Being

now

in

lan-

t«»

the extent that

t«)

look tor thinking

and

move. Thinking attends to the lighting of Being that

It

to the extent

prestige uiuler the

us.

what relation does the thinking of

in

inconspicuous

|-'or

simplicity. FreciseU this keeps us

home

Being stand to theoretical and practical behavior.'

of ihe

strange in the thinking of Iking

nor

the

happm% through

language

Itself to

lan-

mere container

a

Iking

\\ hat is

Thus

language, so

in their

that for

But now

is

in the future

base brought something

deed of thinking

can historical mankind and

Kk-

Ikring

retain this thought in the heedfulness of laying is

way of

i»i

the usage "bring

and nothing further,

that

htv-

granted to language, think onl\

vsas

a

Iking and the home

beings. ()nl> because language

of the essence of

essence

such

in

of

our

the pro-

in his ek-sistent

such protectne heed

houses ek-sistence

it

guage

man

is

in

now an example

JUKI

we expressh think

that

capable ol sup|-H»rting and obligating. Otherwise all

at all

ileed of thinking manifested itself

the assignnu'nt e«tntaiiu-il in the ilis|H-nsaiion ol Ik'ing. ()nl\ the assignnu-nt

nothing

if

ul

o( tlujsc tlircctions that nuist

man

as

IS

It

house

in ihr

thoughtful va\mg

Iking can then- come from Iking

not onl\

this

all

c«Mmcc u

rnollrctMin

to

(*»

But

imih

tlu-

rniru%ird

is

which

thai Un|(U4|(c

luli\ inlu il»

sislrmr ihoughttulK dwclU

nuligiuncx

to

Iking

lorual.

In

nun. ck-sisting into

bcctimc law and rule lor

nrman. \omos

I

lliinls lUing,

it

To ihr rxicnl

H4V

l>cr\4Ai\c

has thus liccn brought

grants jsccnt into uran-.

lirst

assignment

Uscll tlu-

\ciltil

nothing

oimpulsion

lis

Onh

is

the cnsciuc ol wlui

is

llciuc Ihcjiisc

ihr noihii)^

iiinc

iIimuwciI hcrv

Jk"

I'hr nihibting in licing (.all

sjim

ihis ilulctiic l»ui ji chc

ihrmigh

is

an aienture not only as

a search

and an inquiry into the unthought. Thinking, essence as thinking of Being,

Thinking

is

related

to

is

Being

in its

claimed by Being. as

what

arrives

turn brings ek-sisting

a saying.

Thus language

the lighting of Being.

Language

onlv in this mvsterious and vet for us alwavs

^^^" I

all

low can

\sc

prcscr\c the cicmcni of adventure that

research contains without making philosoph> into a

mere

adventuress.-

Martin Heidegger {Favcnant). Thinking as such

bound

be said - to what extent,

advent

thought

is

of Being, to Being as advent, Being has already been

moment

of the history of Being, in what sort of

is

dispatched to thinking. Being thinking.

But destiny

tory has already

come

ts

to the

as the destiny of

in itself historical. Its his-

is

to

language in the saying of

bring to language ever and again this advent

of Being which remains, and

man,

for

ought

it

mentioned

in

to

be

said.

an earlier

The

letter is

threefold thing

determined

in its

remaining waits

ness in saying, frugality with words.

the sole matter of thinking. For this

is

It

time to break the habit of overestimating

is

mean the identical. Of course they say it only to him who undertakes to think back on them. Whenever thinking, in historical recollec-

What

that does not

tion, attends to the destiny itself to

destiny.

ous.

To

To

what

is

of Being,

fitting for

it,

it

in accord with

flee into the identical is

not danger-

order to say the

risk discord in

the danger. Ambiguity threatens, and

Same

is

mere quar-

is

needed

philosophy, but literature,

The

has already

in the present

more

fittingness of the saying of Being, as of the

destiny of truth,

is

the

first

the rules of logic which can

- not

law of thinking

thinking that

sophy, because physics - a

it

name

the thinking that

demanded,

become

the basis of the law of Being.

To

rules only

on

attend to the

of thoughtful saying does not only

fittingness

its

much

is

it.

letter.

come is no longer philomore originally than meta-

to

thinks

identical to philosophy. is

of

crisis is less

attentiveness in thinking; less

to

set aside

knowledge. Thinking erty of

world

but more cultivation of the

and become wisdom

reling.

The

in its

the history of Being: rigor of meditation, careful-

philosophy and of thereby asking too

its

what

dialogue with this history, and on the basis of what claim,

reason essential thinkers always say the Same. But

bound

at

cohesion by the law of the fittingness of thought on

thinkers.

To

to

However,

come can no longer, as Hegel the name "love of wisdom" itself in is

the form of absolute

on the descent

to the

pov-

provisional essence. Thinking gathers

language into simple saying. In this way language is

the language of Being, as clouds are the clouds of

the sky.

With

its

saying, thinking lays inconspicu-

imply, however, that

ous furrows in language. They are

what

spicuous than the furrows that the farmer, slow of

is

to be said

is

we contemplate at every turn of Being and how it is to be said. It

equally essential to ponder whether what

is

to be

step,

draws through the

still

more incon-

field.

Author's Notes Cf.

Martin Heidegger, Vom VVesen

des

Grundes (1929)

{The Essence ofReasons^ trans. Terrence Malick (Evanston,

II:

Norweston University

Kant and chill

the

Press, 1969)], p. 8;

Problem of Metaphysics, trans.

J.

Chur-

(Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press,

1962), p. 243; and Being

and Time, section 44,

p.

230.

See the lecture on Holderlin's hymn, "Wie wenn

am

Feiertage ..." in Martin Heidegger, Erlduterungen zu Holderlins Dichtung, fourth,

am Main:

(:@)

expanded edn (Frankfurt

V. Klostermann, 1971), p. 76.

Cf "The

Ister"

third stanza

and "The Journey'" [Die IVanderung],

and ff [In the translations by Michael

Hamburger (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966), pp. 492ff

Cf

Holderlin's

and 392ff ]

poem "Remembrance" [Andenken]

in

the Tubingen Memorial (1943), p. 322. [Hamburger, pp. 488ff ]

Martin Heidegger, Vom Wesen

des Grundes, p.

28

n. 1.

*The Mirror Stage as Formative as Revealed Psychoanalytic Experience"

of the Function of the in

Jacques

I

I

.acan

By applying structural linguistics to psychoana-

cspcciallN

Jacques Lacan (190180) became the most important innovator in French psychoanalysis. Although he was ex-

tion of the /as

theory, psychiatrist

lytic

is

method of the "short session which could be ended by the analyst at any moment - he greatly '

influenced French intellectual heavily

attended

public

life

lectures

through his

1953

from

through 1980. Claiming that the unconscious

in

part

by

of biological

determinism -

making unquenchable

desire,

(or the light

sheds on the forma-

it

it

in psychoanalysis.

It

an experience that leads us to oppose ans phiKv-

Some

you may

(»f

recall that this

conception ori-

ginated in a feature of human behaviour illuminated

by

a fact

of comparative psychology

age

when he

the

chimpanzee

is

for a time,

.

The child, at an

however short, outdone by

instrumental intelligence, can

in

ncNertheless already

recogni/e as such his

own

is

structured like a language, he resisted, on the

one hand, any form

.

we experience

sophy directly issuing from the Cogito.

pelled from the International Psychoanalytic As-

sociation - especially for adopting the clinical

toil.iN

not

image

in a mirror.

the illuminative

This recognition

indicated in

is

mimicry of the. -l/ra-fr/fAnw,' which

Kohler sees as the expression of situational apper-

homeostatic need, the root of psychic phenomena - and on the other, any attempt to strengthen the ego. encouraging the patient to

ception, an essential stage of the act of intelligence

"adapt" to social convention - as practiced by

and found empty, immediately rebounds

"ego psychology."

In his later

work Lacan

distin-

guished three orders of psychic relevance: the imaginary, a projected

image

of self-integration;

This act, far from exhausting

itself,

as in the case

of the monkey, once the image has been mastered

of the child

in

experiences

a

series of gestures in

in play the relation

ments assumed

in the

in the case

which he

between the mo\e-

image and the reflected en-

the symbolic, or the realm of cultural signifiers.

vironment, and between this virtual complex and

governed by a dominant sign, the name of the Father: and the real, which is the presupposed

and the persons and things, around him

unknown resistance to the imaginary and symbolic, most relevant in the form of trauma. In the following essay, a 1949 version of his famous 1936 lecture. Lacan sketches an in-

the reality

it

reduplicates

the child's

own body,

but

the

terpretation of the earliest stage of the imaginative

construction of the

The conception duced

at

our

last

ot the

Ihc " \ha!-t\pcricncf. " rctcrrtd

ti>

b\ \\ olfgang K.(»h-

Icr

(1887 1%7), one of the creators of Gcstalt Psxcholofry.

"

Janus

M

Hakiuin

(1S1

H^.U).

XnuriLan Ps\cholt>-

self.

mirror stage that

I

intro-

congress, thirteen years ago, has

Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the as Revealed in Psychoanalytic I

since tice

become more or

less established in the

of the French group. However,

worthwhile to bring

it

I

prac-

think

it

again to your attention.

Experience.' idan.

in Ecrits:

A

Selection, trans. byAlan Sher-

NewYork:W.W. Norton

& Company.

1977. chap-

ter one. pp. 1-7.

(5?D

Jacques Lacan This event can take

place, as

we have known

since Baldwin," from the age of six months, and its

repetition has often

made me

startling spectacle of the

upon the

reflect

front of the

infant in

mirror. Unable as yet to walk, or even to stand up, tightly as

artificial

(what, in France,

he

is

human

by some support,

and held

we

call a 'trotte-behe''*^^),

order to hold

given

this activity retains the

up

it

meaning

back an

meaning

I

have

months. This

dynamism, which has

hitherto remained problematic, as well as an onto-

with

my

We an

that accords

identification, in the full sense that analysis gives

namely, the transformation that takes

when he assumes an image -

place in the subject

whose predestination

to this phase-effect is suffi-

by the use,

ciently indicated

the ancient term imago.

in analytic theory,

of

^^

the child at the infans stage,

still

sunk

incapacity and nursHng dependence,

in his

motor

would seem

to

exhibit in an exemplary situation the symbolic

form, before tification

stores to

it is

is

precipitated in a primordial

objectified in the dialectic of iden-

with the other, and before language reit,

in the universal, its function as subject.

This form would have

we wished

it

will also

it

be called the Ideal-I,

to

to incorporate

in the sense that

if

into our usual register,

be the source of second-

ary identifications, under which term

I

would place

the functions of libidinal normalization. But the

important point

is

that this

of the ego, before fictional direction,

its

form

situates the

agency

social determination, in a

which

will

always remain irre-

ducible for the individual alone, or rather, which will only rejoin the

coming-into-being

{le

devenir)

of the subject asymptotically, whatever the success of the dialectical syntheses

by which he must

resolve as / his discordance with his

The

movements

form

is

it,

it

and

in a

sym-

with the turbulent

in contrast

that the subject feels are animating

motor

its

style

remains scarcely recognizable - by

these two aspects of

prefigures

its

fact is that the total

which the subject anticipates

own

reaUty.

form of the body by in a

its

appearance, symbolizes the

mirage the mat-

the

/, at

alienating destination;

same time it is still

as

it

preg-

nant with the correspondences that unite the / with

man

the statue in which

phantoms

that

projects himself, with the

dominate him, or with the automa-

ton in which, in an ambiguous relation, the world of

own making

tends to find completion.

Indeed, for the imagos -whose veiled faces

it is

our

privilege to see in outline in our daily experience

and

in the

penumbra of symbolic efficacity' - the mirror-

image would seem world,

if

to be the threshold of the visible

we go by

the mirror disposition that the

imago of one 's own body presents in hallucinations or

dreams, w hether

This jubilant assumption of his specular image by

matrix in which the /

metry that inverts

his

have only to understand the mirror stage as

to the term:

--ry

human world

on paranoiac knowledge.

reflections

it

size {un relief de stature) that fixes

mental permanence of the

to the age of eighteen

discloses a libidinal

logical structure of the

this

be regarded as bound up with the species, though

instantaneous aspect of the image.

For me,

given to him only as Gestalt,

of his support and, fixing

in his gaze, brings

it

is

an exteriority in which

more constituent than constituted, but in appears to him above all in a contrasting

certainly

which

power

to say, in

him. Thus, this Gestalt - whose pregnancy should

in a flutter

his attitude in a slightly leaning-forward position, in

is

of jubilant

he nevertheless overcomes, activity, the obstructions

or

uration of his that

or even

its

it

concerns

individual features,

its

infirmities, or its object-projections; or if

we observe

the role of the mirror apparatus in

w hich psychical

the appearances of the double, in realities,

That

however heterogeneous,

are manifested.

a Gestalt should be capable of formative

effects in the

organism

is

attested

biological experimentation that

the idea of psychical causality that itself to

formulate

its

it is

tion for the maturation of the it

it

a piece

of

so alien to

cannot bring

results in these terms.

nevertheless recognizes that

pigeon that

by

is itself

It

necessary condi-

a

gonad of the female

should see another

member

species, of either sex; so sufficient in itself

condition that the desired effect

may be

of is

its

this

obtained

merely by placing the individual within reach of the field

of reflection of a mirror. Similarly, in the case

of the migratory locust, the transition within generation

from the

solitary

to

the

a

gregarious

form can be obtained by exposing the individual, at a certain stage, to

a similar

ments of a istic

the exclusively visual action of

image, provided

it

is

animated by move-

style sufficiently close to that character-

of the species. Such facts are inscribed in an

order of homeomorphic identification that would '" '^

itself fall

"Baby- walker." "Image", primarily visual but including

feelings.

Lacan imagos are dissimulative. Hence the ego meconnaisiatue (misunderstanding).

is

For

based on

within the larger question of the meaning

of beauty as both formative and erogenic.

But the tive

facts

of mimicry are no less instruc-

when conceived

as

cases of heteromorphic

"The Mirror Stag9" It. ..I.

n|,-,,iit,.

ot

.ti

inn.

.^

Ii

ihc\ raise ihr i>fMl»UiM

1..

ihc li\in^ Mrv;.ir>ism

>r

I

|>s\«.h.

pruic

lingual cLniipls haiilK sccin less

ruliiuioiis jiu-iupts

suprenu'

IXKscill)

to rctjil

\oung,

still

MKioiogKjl

(Uillois

to the

We

oI aiiaptjtion

how Roger

aiui

them

rciliuc

to

Ij\%

whuh

illu-

human

the

has

aiitononn

greater

These

e\en

stage,

win than

ptu de

is

deter-

realitf),

which

the Surrealists, in their restless way, saw reflections lead

me

i«)

as

its

bett)re the social dialectic, the effect in

man of an organic

insuttlciency in his natural reality

any meaning can be gi\en to the word

in so far as

am

1

led, therefore, lu

regard the function of the

niirryr-bta^' a^iji particuldr wase of the function of

of

that

tolaiitN

its

the assum|>tion of the

subject's

/

ttiwilt

L

mwelt.^^^

this relation to nature

dehiscence

a certain

at

is

altered

the heart of the organism,

Discord betra\ed b\

primordial

usually manifests itself in

ment of the

months. The ob)ecti\e notion

the

signs of

of the

anatom-

incompleteness of the pyramidal system and

likewise the presence of certain

humoral residues

of the maternal organism confirm the view

formulated as the hirth in It is

of the Innenwrlt

base

I

dreams when the move-

analysis encounters a certain level of

in the

in

exoscopy, grow ing w ings and

fixed, for

fact

of a

real ipfcijii

I

have

prematunty

»/

all

the very

liosch

has

lime, in painting, in their ascent from

of

to il\c iniJIginar) -.^tnilh this

form

is

even tangiblv

the organic level, in the lines of 'fragi-

at

anatctmy of phantasv, as

lization' that define the

exhibited in the schizoid and spasmodic

svmptoms

of hysteria. Corrclatively, the formation of the / ized in

dreams by

a fortress, or a

is

stadium

symbolits

inner

arena and enclosure, surrounded by marshes and rubbish-tips, dividing

it

into

two opposed

fields

worth noting, incidentally, that

this

is

a fact

recognized as such by embryologisis, by the term

which determines the pre\alence of

foetalization,

the so-called superior apparatus of the neurax, and

of the cortex,

which psycho-surgical

of

contest where the subject flounders in quest of the lofty,

remote inner

castle

whose form (sometimes

juxtaposed in the same scenario) svmboli/es the

man.

especiallv

Hieronvmus

the visionary

that

then

It

form of disjointed limbs, or of those

organs represented

same

alsii

references

of theoretical

aggressive disintegration in the individual.

appears

uneasiness and motor unco-ordination of the neo-

ical

rigid struc-

de\elopmcnt

which term

This fragmented \mk\\

introduced into our system

revealed

natal

its

and.

an alien-

ot

rature of the ego's \erifications

tween the hitunivcll and the

a

armour

generates the inexhaustible quad-

the fifteenth ccnturv

man, howe\er,

form

a

orthopaedic

mental

entire

modern man.'^ Hut

i

a

phantasies that

ol

llius. to break oiM of the circle

into the

t%

in the lure ot spatial

mark with

ating identitN. which will

the

tiage

prccipilalcd friim

and u huh manufac-

up

shall call

I

the organ SOL iind ib reality - or, as the\ sa\, be-

by

ih

fragmented body-image lo

a

the tmagg^ wjiich iiio ct>tablish a relation between

In

Ihr mirmr

taking up arms for intestinal persecutions

'nature*.

±tttVAt\u

\|Hricii» cil as a liiiUH.ral

the suciession

extends from

ture

\t\\t

(111

pro|e(.ls the toriiulion o|

internal thrust

ulentiliiation,

recogni/e

captation manifested in the mirror-

in the spatial

t

the indixidual into hisior>

drama whosi-

lastly, to

in relation to (lu- tielcl ot force

in that 'little reality' (ic

limitation.^'

as

s|>ri>

on these mancrs ilun

\\^\u

shi-iiilin^

l«»i

U

olHrratlotts

in a quite startling

plane,

we

id

way. Similarly, on the mental

find realized the structures of fortified

works, the metaphor of which arises spontaneously, as if issuing

from the symptoms themselves,

to

designate the mechanisms of obsessional neurosis inversion, isolation, reduplication, cancellation

and displacement C^illois gical

was

writer,

a twcntieth-tcnturx

author of

Man

and

Ircnch anthropolin tlu-

Sacrfd (1^3V). ""

"Psychasthcnia" refers to neurosis.

Lacan had

who sought

a

to

strong interest in the surrealist painters

capture

"subjective"

reality.

Inner world and surrounding world.

or

'*imaginar\"

"Foetaiization"

is

retention of infantile features in

adulth(M)d. '^

tic

Hieronvmous Hosch

(

145(>

l.^lfi).

painter of fantas-

scenes of religious symbi)In

tor tiu nu|(>r

lhrt

phciuiinciinn. hkc

ot

uvygcn or X-riys." Scientific revolutions, as wc noicti |jt the cnil of Section \\, nccil

seem reNoJu-

whose puralh^fns

lionjr> oiiK to those

twentieth centur>, seem

rc%oluiions ol the earl\

nomul

juris

t)mcrs.

ti»r

s as a mere

eoiilil

were

adilition to Lnowleilue, tor their paraihi;ms

ununcctcil h\ the existence ot the new railiation

men

But lor

keiMn, CnMikes, and

like

RiKiitjien,

panim

ditterrniT, the

to a rrvolu!tonar\ conflict

ma%» pcr-

liiuJU resiiri to the lnhnii|ur% ol

n)iisl

sujMon, ulten iiuiiidin^ lone have had

a \ital role in

IhouKh re\oluiion%

the c\oluiion ol poliltial

mslituiions. that role depends

upon

ihcir bring

parliall\ extra|>olilicjl or cxlrainsiilutionaj

The renuimler

are jdecleii

To outsulers the\ max, hie the HalLm

h\ ihrni

of SclenUfIc Revolutions"

ol this essax

that the historical stud\ ol

e\mt%

aims to ilcmonsirate

paradigm change rexeaU

\er\ similar characteristics in the exolulion of the sciences. Like the choice cal institutions, that

proses to

Ih-

a

of commumtx choice

between competing

modes

choice between incompatible life.

Ik-cause

it

has that character, the

mereh by

not and cannot be determined

is

politi-

In-tween com|H'ting paradigms

ri'search dealt with radiation theor> or with

the e\aluati\e procedures characteristic of normal

CJlh(Kie ra\ tuln-s, the emervience ot \-raNs neces-

science, for these ilepenti in part ujion a particular

whose

sanl> \i(»lated one parailiirm as 'I'hai

created an«»ther

it

whN these rays could be disco\ered onl\

IS

lhn)U»;h somethinii's

tlrst

eoini: wroni; with nornial

research

and

open

scientific

to doubt.

ot the |iarallel

between

cance ot the

change

tlrst

parallel has,

however, a second signifi-

depends. Political rexoluiions aim

ways

political institutions in

themselves

institutions

politi-

that those

Their success

prohibit.

therefore necessitates the partial relinquishment ol"

in

one

of another, and

set ot" institutions in favor

the interim, society

institutions at

nor tully governed by

is

Initially

all.

is

it

crisis

alone that

attenuates the role of political institutions as

haNe already seen In increasing

it

numbers individuals become

ingly estranged

from

political lite

and more eccentrically within

many of

deepens, selves to

new

institutional

and behave more

is

group uses

commit them-

its

role

is

a

When

issue

debate ab!

pluiumuna

imluateil h\ existing |urailigins

is

ile\elo|>cd

abo\e cannot be maintained

preN alenl

ontem|>«»rarN interpretation ol the nature

whose

and fuiution

\

These are the phenomena to

fhet)n articulation

scientists ilirect their research

imu', but that research aims

ncH ones.

do

OnK when

ot the

the nnention

at

these attempts

encounter

scientists

much

the articulation ot

at

existing paradigms rather than

fail

(nit

the

til

articulation

at

t\pe

third

of

phen«»mena. the recognized anomalies whose charactcnsfic feature

is

their

stubborn refusal to be as-

similated to existing paradigms. gives nse lo

new

phent)mena

except

determined place

But

anomalies

anomalies

with

all

theory-

a

in the scientist's field of vision.

new theories

it

This type alone

Paradigms provide

theories.

are called forth to resolve

an existing theory to

in the relatit)n of

nature, then the successful

new theory must some-

where permit predictions

that are ditfcrenl

from

those deri\ed from

its

could not occur

the two were logically compat-

it

predecessor. That difference

In the process of being assimilated, the second

ible

must displace the

first.

K\en

a

theory like energy

v

theor>

of scientifii

is

the m«i^t

it

accepted Thai

interpretation, closely as-sociated with early Idgieal

positivism and not categoricallv rejected b>

wouUI

cessors,

restrict the

accepteil theors so that

with anN

some

later theor>

coulil not

made

that

possibK conflict

predictions about

same natural phenomena. l*he

the

of

known and

it

conception of

a scientific

theory emerges in discus-

sions ofthe relation between contem|>orary Kinstei-

nian dynamics and the older dvnamical equations

descend from Newton's Primipui.^

that

l-'rom the

viewpoint of this essav these two theories are fundamentallv incompatible

m

the sense illustrated by

the relation ofCUjpernican to Ptolemaic astronomy: F-instein's theory

can be accepted only with the

recognition

Newton's

this

that

remains

a

was

must therefore

examine the most prevalent objections The

gist

Today

wrong.

We

minoritv view."

to

it.

of these objections can be developed as

follows. Relativistic

dynamics cannot have shown

Newtonian dynamics

to

be wrong, for Newtonian

structure that relates to nature only through inde-

engineers and, in selected applications, by

pendently established theories, did not develop

physicists.

without paradigm destruction. Instead,

emerged from

a crisis in

which an

dient was the incompatibility

essential ingre-

between Newtonian

dynamics and some recently formulated consequences

of the caloric theory of heat.

Only

after

the caloric theory had been rejected could energy

become

conservation after

it

could type,

it

part of science.

.\nd only

best-

the strongest case lor this restricted

dynamics

il

suc-

its

range and meaning of an

conservation, which today seems a logical super-

historically

that

the %ubfctl

ol

whose

can Ik umlersiiMKl onlv through further

details

which

c«»nMsis ol those

rr%olulMm%

unfonunairU,

iiKla>,

ihttincN that result are seUioni uccepteil. Invause

seconii class

irtinri.

a hiMorical implau^ibilr

IH

It

is still

used with great success by most

Furthermore, the propriety of

many

this use

of the older theory can be proved from the very theory that has, in other applications, replaced

it.

Einstein's theory can be used to show that predictions

from Newton's equations

our measuring instruments satisfy a small

example,

if

will

be as good as

in all applications that

number of restrictive

.Newtonian theory

is

conditions. For

to provide a gcKni

had been part of science for some time

approximate solution, the

come

bodies considered must be small compared with the

one not

to

seem

a

in conflict

theory of

with

its

a logically

higher

predecessors.

It is

hard to see how new theories could arise without

relative velocities

velocilv of light. Subject to this condition

others,

Newtonian theorv seems

these destructive changes in beliefs about nature.

from Einsteinian, of which

Though

case.

logical inclusiveness

remains a permissible

Hut,

The three anticipations were: the heliocentric cosniol-

the

objection

it

is

and

a

few

be derivable

therefore a special

continues,

possibly conflict with one of

lo

of the

its

no theory can special cases. If

ogA ofthe ancient Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos

(310 2M) B( tion;

and the

ton's

eritics.

);

se\enteenth-century the»)ries of combus-

relativistic

These

historical crises that

view of space adopted by

early

"discoveries"

would only

New-

preceded the

later legitimate

them.

Isaac

Nev^ton's .Mathematual PnttitpUi of Salural

Philosophy (Latin orig., 1687). Hclovv, the sccond-centurv Bc Alexandrian Ptolemy formulated the ge betrayed the standards of science

But the

itions are logically unexceptionable.

of accepting them would be the end of the research

to extraordin-

ary science. If positivistic restrictions on the range

of a theory's legitimate applicability are taken the

ally,

mechanism

munity what problems may lead change must cease occurs, the

dition in

which ence

function.

to

community

something much

which

it

pre-paradigm

members

that

state, a

con-

practice science but in

product scarcely resembles

their gross

at all. Is

fundamental

to

And when

inevitably return to

will

like its

all

liter-

com-

that tells the scientific

really

sci-

any wonder that the price of

significant scientific advance

is

a

commitment

that

runs the risk of being w rong.^

More

important, there

a

is

revealing logical

which acids were formed by the combustion of

lacuna in the positivist's argument, one that will

substances like carbon and sulphur. Also,

reintroduce us immediately to the nature of revolu-

plained the decrease of volume

it

ex-

when combustion

tionary change.

Can Newtonian dynamics really be What would

occurs in a confined volume of air - the phlogiston

derived from relativistic dynamics.^

released by combustion "spoils" the elasticity of

such

the air that absorbed

ments, E\,Ei

elasticity

just as fire "spoils" the

it,

of a steel spring.^ If these were the only

phenomena

that

phlogiston

the

theorists

had

claimed for their theory, that theory could never

have been challenged. fice for

A

applied to any range of

But

argument

phenomena

to save theories in this

application

and

similar

will suf-

any theory that has ever been successfully

must be

restricted to those

to that precision

experimental Carried just

evidence

hand already

in

a step further

be avoided once the

phenomena

of observation with which the "^

deals.

(and the step can scarcely

first is

taken), such a limitation

prohibits the scientist from claiming to speak "scientifically" about

served.

Even

any phenomenon not already ob-

in its present

forbids the scientist to rely

ow n research w henever

form the

upon

restriction

a theory in his

that research enters an area

...

,

Imagine

like.^

a set

of state-

embody

£„, vvhich together

variables

and parameters representing

sition, time, rest

mass,

spatial

From them,

etc.

with the apparatus of logic and mathematics,

is

deducible a whole set of further statements includ-

some

that can be checked

special case,

we must add

statements, like {v/c)^

by observation.

New tonian dynamics

prove the adequacy of

«

To as a

to the ^i's additional 1,

restricting the range

of the parameters and variables. This enlarged set of statements

is

then manipulated to yield a new

iVi,iV2, ...,A^m

which

is

identical in

Newton's laws of motion, the law of so on. Apparently

set,

form with

gravity,

and

Newtonian dynamics has been

derived from Einsteinian, subject to a few limiting conditions.

Yet the derivation

Though

is

AVs

spurious, at least to this

point.

w ith the theory

law s of relativistic mechanics, they are not

no precedent. These prohib-

po-

together

or seeks a degree of precision for which past practice offers

the

laws of relativity theory. These statements contain

ing

at all.

way, their range of

a derivation look

the

are a special case of the

New-

J

"The Nature and Necessity I^WN Or

tun's

Uw»

arc noi unless lh«»sc

IcjNi ihc\

ii

way

arc rcinicrprrtcU in a

would have

ihai

been un|x»vsihlc until alter Kinstem's uorl \ariahlcs

|>jrjnu'(er\ that

ihc l.insicinian

in

reprcNcnicil spatial |xisitiun, tunc, nuss, cti

A.,'s

Mill

jml

the

iKVur

and tho there

in the \,'s.

tlinMrinun space, time, and ma.vs

still

represent

liui the

phwical

no

referents ot these l.insteinian toncepts are h\

means idcntual with those conser\ed, K.insteiman

ol the

in

the

same wax.

be ctuueixed to

same

I niess

)

we change

the

definitions ot the xarublcs in the .\,\, the staic-

mcnis

xve

haxe derixed are

change them, we cann«n

JrnirJ Newton's Laws,

Nexx toman.

n«»i

work

In doing so

automobile drixer

not

it

m

haxe

in acting as

done

to surveyors. XX

hat

it

undertaken onl\

lurthermorc, even

were

a legitimate

that iranslormalion

it

dexicc to emplox in interpreting

the older theory, the result ol

Ik XX

a

theorx so restricted that

it%

application would

it

could onl\ resale

was alreadx known liecause

hat

that restatement xxould

suffice for the

haxe

utility,

ot its

economy,

but

could not

it

guidance of research

Lei us, therefore, now lake

it

for

granted that the

between successixe paradigms are both

tlitferences

necessarx and irreconcilable explicitly

ihai

more rccmi

hindsight, the cxpliiii guidance ol the theorx

unc

t»

the adxanlJKe% ul

x^ilh

(

jn we then

sax

what sorts of differences these

most apparent type has alreadx been Successive paradigms

repeatedlx

more Lhe

are.'

illustrated

us different

tell

things about the population of the umxerse and

Our argument

about that population's behavior. Thex differ, that about such questions as the existence of sub-

IS,

and the

atomic particles, the materialitx of

light,

though he lixed

conservation ot heat or of energx

These are the

ot the

in a

same type

But the argument has

purported to do.

shoxxn Nexvton's Laxvs to be

For

Ih-

li

anx sense ot

used to juslity teaching earth-centered astron-

omy

can

mu%i (k

il

.\nd ihr iran%lormjlMJn

tor the puriXMM:

has iustitled. say, an

Newtonian umxerse. An argument is

we do

Newton's l^x*s exer

has, of course, explained xvhy tt)

If

prt)perix he said to

at least

"derive" noxx generalix recogm/ed.

seemed

oi Its u|>-lf>-iUlr ftUicrftMtr.

ma\ the two be meas-

exen then thex must not

anil

the

Ix"

is

conxertible with enern>.

is

()nl> at low relatixe xelocities

ured

Newtonian con-

name (Newtonian mass

cepts that bear the same

,

of Scientific Revoiutiont'

not

still

It

has not, that

a

limiting case ot

is,

substantive differences between successive para-

di^is, and thex require no further

Hut paradigms differ

in

illustration.

more than substance,

for

they are directed not onlx to nature but alvi back

upon the science

that

produced them. Thex are the

not

source of the methods, problem-field, and stan-

only the tbrms ot the laxvs that have changed.

dards of solution accepted by any mature scientific

Kinsicin's.

in the pa.s.sage to the limit

Simultaneously tal

xve

have had to

is

and familiar concepts

to

is

central to the rexolutionarx

Though

from geocentrism

community

at

any given time.

.\s

to

subtler than

heliocentrism,

the

result,

a

reception of a nexv paradigm often necessitates a

Some

redefinition of the corresponding science.

meaning of established

of Kinstein's theorx.

the changes

fundamen-

composed.

This need to change the

impact

is

which the universe

structural elements ot

which they apply

alter the

it

problems max be relegated

to

old

another science or

declared entirely "unscientific." Others that were prexiouslx non-existent or trivial may, xxith a nexv

paradigm, become the very archetypes of

sivmifi-

from phlogiston to oxygen, or from corpuscles

to

cani scientific achievement. .\nd as the problems

waves, the resulting conceptual transformation

is

change, so, often, does the standard that distin-

destructive of a previously estab-

guishes a real scientific solution from a mere meta-

no

less decisixelx

lished paradigm.

We may

ex

en come to sec

it

as a

physical speculation, xvord game, or mathematical

prototype for revolutionary reorientations in the

play.

The

sciences. Just because

from

a scientific revolution is not onlx

but

often

it

did not involve the intro-

duction of additional objects or concepts, the transition

from Nexvtonian

to Kinsteinian

mechanics

normal-scientific tradition that emerges

actually

incompatible

incommensurable

xvith

that

xvhich has gone before.

illustrates xviih particular clarity the scientific re-

The impact of Nexvton's xvork ui>on the normal

volution as a displacement of the conceptual net-

seveniecnth-centurx tradition of scientific practice

work through xvhich

provides a striking example of these subtler efTects

scientists viexv the xvorld.

These remarks should

suffice

to

shoxv

xvhat

might, in another philosophical climate, have been taken for granted.

.\i least

for scientists,

most of the

apparent differences between a discarded scientific theory and

its

successor are

real.

Though an

out-

of-date theory can alxvays be viexved as a special case

of

paradigm

shift.

bom

Before Nexvton xvas

"nexv science" of the centurx had in rejecting Aristotelian

at last

the

succeeded

and scholastic explanations

expressed in terms of the essences of material bodies.

droxe

it

To

say that a stone

fell

because

its

"nature"

toward the center of the universe had been (26B^j

^

'

'

Thomas Kuhn made

to look a

thing

it

mere

tautological word-play,

some-

had not previously been. Henceforth the

entire flux of sensory appearances, including color, taste,

and even weight, was

of the

size,

to be explained in

shape, position, and motion of the

elementary corpuscles of base matter.

The

tion of other qualities to the elementary

new

science. Moliere caught the

a

doctor

the

ridiculed

opium's efficacy

attribu-

atoms was

and therefore out of bounds

resort to the occult

when he

terms

as a soporific

many

seventeenth century

earlier

work.

scientific

seventeenth

mensely

work in the

problems and standards legitimate

for

science.

same sense

had been. Therefore, while the stan-

last

it

half of the

opium

particles

in

terms

the

commitment

had

that

his

change

from

dency

explanation

number of

fruitful for a

them of problems

that resulted

partially destructive

quality in the

explained

Nevertheless,

new

century's

mechanico-corpuscular

and

a further

every pair of particles of matter, was an occult

of occult qualities had been an integral part of

productive

paradigm

w as

who

explanations

period

from the mechanico-corpuscular world view, the effect of the

for

they moved.

an

direc-

spirit precisely

enabled them to sooth the nerves about which

In

New ton's w ork was

embodied standards derived

Gravity, interpreted as an innate attraction between

scientists preferred to

say that the round shape of the

of

a

by attributing to

dormitive potency." During the

much

Yet, though

ted to problems and

proved

to

im-

to fall"

as the scholastics' "ten-

dards of corpuscularism remained in

effect,

the

search for a mechnical explanation of gravity was

who Newton devoted much attention to it and so did many of his eighteenth-century successors. The only apparent one of the most challenging problems for those accepted the Pnncipia as paradigm.

option was to reject

New ton's

to explain gravity,

and that

theory for

its

failure

alternative, too,

was

widely adopted. Yet neither of these views ultimately

triumphed. Unable either to practice science

without the Pnncipia or to make that work con-

sciences, ridding

form

defied

teenth century, scientists gradually accepted the

generally

to the corpuscular standards of the seven-

accepted solution and suggesting others to replace

view that gravity was indeed innate. By the mid-

them. In dynamics, for example, Newton's three

eighteenth century that interpretation had been

motion are

law s of

less a

product of novel experi-

ments than of the attempt

known

to

reinterpret well-

observations in terms of the motions and

Con-

interactions of primary neutral corpuscles.

almost universally accepted, and the result was a

genuine reversion (which

and repulsions joined

sider just one concrete illustration. Since neutral

motion

corpuscles could act on each other only by contact,

of matter.

the mechanico-corpuscular view of nature directed scientific attention to a

brand-new subject of study,

is

not the same as a retro-

gression) to a scholastic standard. Innate attractions

The

size,

shape, position, and

as physically irreducible

primary properties

resulting change in the standards and prob-

lem-field of physical science

By

w as once again conse-

the alteration of particulate motions by collisions.

quential.

Descartes announced the problem and provided

could speak of the attractive "virtue" of the electric

first

putative

Wallis carried

Huyghens, Wren,

solution. it still

ing with colliding

further, partly

its

and

by experiment-

pendulum bobs, but mostly by

applying previously well-known characteristics of

motion ded

to the

new problem. And Newton embed-

their results in his law

s

of motion.

The

equal

"action" and "reaction" of the third law are the

changes

two

in quantity

of motion experienced by the

parties to a collision.

The same change

of

motion supplies the definition of dynamical force implicit in the second law

.

many

In this case, as in

others during the seventeenth century, the corpuscular paradigm bred both a

new problem and a

large

fluid

the 1740's, for example, electricians

w ithout thereby

did so, electrical

when viewed

itnaginaire

increasingly displayed

as the effects of a

mechanical ef-

fluvium that could act only by contact. In particular,

when

electrical action-at-a-distance

subject for study in

we now

call

its

own

right, the

all,

it

had been attributed

electrical

became

a

phenomenon

charging by induction could be recog-

nized as one of its effects. Previously,

"atmospheres" or

when seen

at

to the direct action of to the leakages inevit-

able in any electrical laboratory.

analysis of the

Le Malade

phenomena

an order different from the one they had shown

The new

view of

inductive effects was, in turn, the key to Franklin's

part of that problem's solution.

In Moliere's play

inviting the ridicule that had

greeted Moliere's doctor a century before. As they

{The Hypo-

Leyden

gence of a new and

jar

and thus

to the

New tonian paradigm

Nor were dynamics and

chondriac), Interlude III (following Act III), see the first

tricity.

response of Bachelierus.

scientific fields affected

emer-

for elec-

electricity the only

bv the legitimization of the

i

'

"The Nature and Necessity search iur

illrL'c^

anil

ImkIx nl

seemed iKtorr

jfliniiics

widrU rcKtird

Ihr iut^v

iniuir to iiuiicr

cit(htrcnih-i:rntury liicmturc

on chrinical

replacement scries alM» ilenxes tri«n ihis \upra-

nuxlunKal a\|Hii

NewlonuniMU

o\

hennsls

(

who

believeil in lliese ilillereniul Jllracliuns Ixlx^een

the

\armuN ilunmal N|Hvies

imdgincil rcaclHinN

expcnmcnis ami

up preMtuisI) un-

sei

scarchcti (or

new

sorts of

the iluia ami the theniical con-

\N iihoiit

cepts ile\eli»|Hil in that pr.

cnces between succevsise paradigms can be retricNeil Irtim the histors

set ot

the event, had

lhc\ transl

ol the

j)f

I

New-

Hul. like

MaxMrll's prii\cd diflkult lodupenM:

dards goxcrning |Hrmiissiblc pniblcms, concepts,

next section

Maxwell^ thf

iKom: rcaMin*

again. In the twentieth century tinstein succeeded

nineteenth-century proponents of the wave theory

in

of light the conviction that light waves must be

planation has returned science to a set of canons

propagated through

and problems

mechanical

a

medium

standard problem for poraries.

medium

support such waves was

many of

his ablest

a

contem-

His own theory, however, the electro-

magnetic theory of a

material ether. Designing a

to

light,

gave no account

able to support light waves, and

made such an account harder

at all it

of

clearly

to pro\ ide than

it

had

explaining grav itational attractions, and that ex-

more

like

that are, in this particular respect,

those of Newton's predecessors than of

his successors.

Or

again, the

development of quan-

tum mechanics has reversed

the methodologic^al

prohibition that originated in the chemical revolution, (.hemists

now attempt, and with

great suc-

cess, to explain the color, state of aggregation,

and

other qualities of the substances used and produced

John Dalton (1766^ 1S44) «a> an physicist.

l.nglish chemist

and

m

their laboratories.

be underway

in

.A

similar reversal

may even

electromagnetic theory. Space, in

(^OT:

Thomas Kuhn contemporary physics,

not the inert and

is

genous substratum employed

in

Maxwell's theories; some of

its

homo-

shifts in

new

both of problems and of proposed solutions.

properties are

we

not unlike those once attributed to the ether;

may someday come placement

By

know what an

to

paradigms change, there are usually significant

both Newton's and

electric dis-

the criteria determining the legitimacy

That observation returns us which

this section began, for

explicit indication of

is.

emphasis from the cognitive

shifting

to the

why

cannot be resolved by the

examples enlarge our understanding of the ways

To the extent,

which paradigms give form Previously,

we had

it

principally

life.

examined the para-

of normal science.

criteria

as significant as

it is

incomplete, that

tw o scientific schools disagree about what

lem and what

is

prob-

a

a solution, they will inevitably talk

a vehicle for scientific theory. In that

through each other when debating the relative merits of their respective paradigms. In the par-

entities that nature

does and does not contain and

about the ways in which those entities behave. That information provides a

map whose

details are elu-

cidated by mature scientific research.

nature

first

com-

the choice between

functions by telling the scientist about the

digm's role as role

to the scientific

provides our

peting paradigms regularly raises questions that

normative functions of paradigms, the preceding in

from

to the point

it

is

And

since

too complex and varied to be explored at

random, that map

is

and

as essential as observation

tially circular

arguments that regularly

paradigm w ill be shown criteria that

it

to satisfy

dictates for itself and to

few of those dictated by

its

result,

more or fall

each

less the

short of a

opponent. There are

other reasons, too, for the incompleteness of logical contact that consistently characterizes paradigm

experiment to science's continuing development.

debates.

For example, since no paradigm ever

Through

solves

the problems

the

they embody, paradigms

theories

prove to be constitutive of the research

They

are also,

how ever,

constitutive of science in

now the point. In parour most recent examples show that para-

other respects, and that ticular,

activity.

digms provide

is

map

all

paradigms leave

the

all

it

defines and since no two

same problems unsolved,

paradigm debates always involve the question:

W hich

problems

is

it

more

significant

to

have

Like the issue of competing standards,

solved.'

that question of values can be

answered only

but also with some of the directions essential for

terms of

of normal science

map-making. In learning

altogether,

not only with a

scientists

a

paradigm the

scientist

acquires theory, methods, and standards together, usuallv in an inextricable mixture. Therefore,

w hen

that

criteria that lie outside

and

in

that recourse to external criteria

it is

most obviously makes paradigm debates

re-

volutionarv

Author's Notes Silvanus P. Thompson, Life of William Thomson Baron Kelvin of Largs (London, 1910), I, 266-81. See, for example, the remarks by P. P.

XXV (1958), p.

Philosophy of Science,

W iener

R. Dugas,

in

I.

Franklin's

For

The fullest and most sympathetic account of

phlogiston

theory's

achievements

Metzger, Nerrton, Stahl, Boerhaave mique (Paris, 1930), Part

Compare

is

by

ferent sort of analysis

by R. B. Braithwaite,

Scientific

in general, see

Marie Boas, "The

Establishment of the .Mechanical Philosophy,"

X (1952), pp. 412 on

541.

taste, see ibid., p.

For the

483.

p. 76.

Osiris,

effect of particle-shape

Work

An

Experimental

in Electricity as

Inquiry into Science

and

an Example Thereof

electricity, see ibid.,

chs

viii-ix.

For chemistry,

Meyerson,

Identity

I.

and Reality (New York, 1930),

ch. X.

10

Explanation (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 50-87, esp.

For corpuscularism

E.

et la doctrine chi-

the conclusions reached through a very dif-

Nevptonian

see Metzger, Xeirton, Stahl, Boerhaave, Part

H.

II.

(Neuchatel,

(Philadelphia, 1956), chs vi-vii.

Short History of Chemistry' (2nd edn; London, 1951),

the

Steele

B. Cohen, Frqnklin and NetPton:

Speculative

298.

James B. Conant, Overthrow of the Phlogiston Theory (Cambridge, 1950), pp. 13-16; and J. R. Partington,.-/ pp. 85-8.

La mecanique au XI IP

1954), pp. 177-85, 284-98, 345-56.

E. T. W'hittaker,

and

Electricity, II

For

a brilliant

scientific

A

History of the Theories of Aether (London, 1953), pp. 28-30.

and entirely up-to-date attempt

development into

this

C. C. Gillispie, The Edge of Objectivity: the Histor\'

to

fit

Procrustean bed, see

An

Essay

in

of Scientific Ideas (Princeton, NJ, 1960).

From The Coming of Post-Industrial Society

Daniel Bell The influential American sociologist Daniel Bell (1919was well known for his controversial environment in analysis of the post-World War The End of Ideology (I960). A decade later he )

II

ventured again into prognostication with the timely.

The Coming of Post-Industrial Society

(1973). While

invented neither the term

Bell

post-Industrial' nor the idea of a post-industrial society, his

book

the

is

for the

If

post-war

to show that the nature of the economy was fundamentally changing,

attempted

and with it. our social arrangements, our culture, and our politics. The idea was later taken up by many writers, including Lyotard. and is now a commonplace of socio-economic analysis. In the following Introduction to his book (written three years after its original publication), he explains that in a post-industrial society knowledge replaces material goods as the most important commodity for production and exchange.

have been

Ihc phrase "post-industrial society" has passed

for better or

worse remains

sense, the reception

Once

it

was

was

logical

be seen. In one

and understandable.

clear that countries with diverse social

systems could be defined societies,"

to

whether

it

commonly

was inevitable

as "industrial

that societies

which

hypothesis about the linea-

bound

to

provoke interest

benelkiar) of fashion,

regret

i

'

it.

is

not a pomt-in-time prediction of the

future but a speculative construct, an as i/bascd

on

emergent features, against which the Mxrioiogical could be measured decades hence, so that,

reality

comparing the two, one might seek

to

determine

the operative factors in effecting s seek to catch a

fashionable wind and twist I

for

it

modish

pur|>oses. for

two

interstitial

and

employed the term "post-industrial"

reasons.

I'irst,

to

emphasize the

transitor) nature of these changes. .\nd second, to

underline

mean

a

major

axial principle, that of

an intel-

technology. Ikit such emphasis does not

lectual

quickly into the sixiological literature

a

a is

indicate in the b determinant

of all other societal changes. e\er exhausts a social

scheme

is

No conceptual scheme Each conceptual

reality.

prism which selects

a

sunu-

features,

rather than others, in order to highlight historical

change

or,

more

specificalb,

answer certain

to

questions.

were primarily extractive rather than fabricating

would be nificant place,

classified as ''pre-industrial," and, as sig-

changes

in the

well.

causUt.

KkKiKi

to

\l\in

)t1li

/ ;./;

character of technolog) took

one could think about ''post-industrial" soci-

eties as

.\

(1970).

Given, too, the vogue of "future

schlock," in which breathless prose

is

mistaken

Daniel Bell. "Foreword: 1976" from The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, pp. ix-xxii.

Books. 1976.

New

York: Basic

Daniel Bell

One can

of capitalists." Equally, contemporary Western cul-

see this by relating the concept of post-

Some

industrial society to that of capitalism.

have argued that post-industrial society

"succeed" capitalism. But

between two

confrontation

schema

post-industrial

dimension of

The

paradoxically, by capitalism

relations

The confusion between the two arose in the first Marx thought that the mode of pro-

Western

tion in

is

society, Marxists

concept to explain

all

economics through

Marx

felt

(i.e.

of produc-

that industrialization as the

production

mode

life.

classes, capitalists

and

would be

"answers"

a

think this

is

not unified entities.

whether

a

nation

is

The

ditions,

pow er

is

society.

by figure

-

Thus,

democratic or not - rests not

in

and the

Democracy cannot be it

we can

Thus,

if

we

get different

between

if one asks: Is

there a

This can be indicated, graphically,

26.1. if

one divides the countries by the hori-

USSR

are industrial societies, whereas

Indonesia and China are not. Yet

which

if

one divides

the countries along the vertical axis of property

concentrated or dispersed throughout the

even when

(or

zontal axis of technology, both the United States

historic tra-

on value systems, and on the way

from the technology

United States? the answer would depend on the

so. Societies are

on the economic "foundation" but on

say

"convergence" between the Soviet Union and the

left

nature of the polity

dif-

One cannot

to the question of the relation

axis specified.

demonstrably not

wide variety of

and the forces of production,

different social systems.

in stark, final confrontation. I

different

is

uncouple the two dimensions,

National dif-

proletariat,

Union

social relations

ferences would disappear, and in the end only the

two

forces of production a

Rather than assume a single linkage betw een the

spread

of production, and

uniformity in the conditions of

same

technology) exist within

Soviet

throughout the world, there would be, ultimately, global uniformity in the

were primar-

chemistry or physics) of the capitalist world.

since

advanced

would

social relations

social

a single

that the technology (or chemistry or physics) of the

realms of social conduct, from

And

The

ferent systems of social relations.

sought to use that

politics to culture.

of capitalist

feature

mode

under

forces of production

technological. Yet the

other dimensions of a society.

the prevailing

promoted,

property relations; the forces of production,

ily

duction (the sub-structure of a society) determines

Since capitalism

and

historical rubric.

place because

^///

is

itself.

For Marx, the mode of production united

economic dimension.

and encompasses

hedonism which

into a materialistic

refers to the socio-technical

society, capitalism to the socio-

a

modernism,

a

economizing mode, that has been

absorbed by a "cultural mass" and transformed

conceptual

different

schemata organized along two different axes.

not the "bourgeois" culture of the eight-

hostile to the

false

a

is

eenth or nineteenth century, but

will not

up

sets

this

ture

critics

easily "discarded,"

relations, there

begins to hobble the economic pow er

States

is a

divergence, in that the United

and Indonesia are

capitalist

w hile the Soviet

Industrial ^.^ 1

Ic

o 0}

U.S

1

U.S.

S.

R

"cs

o

Q) CO

The

axis of technology (horizontal) CD

2.

^

CC

o

^

a>

nuftiinf(

and iiim|>uier\ arc

Iliult

sirategii

manufacture of

lor the

\ |>ost-inilustrial seitor ih

iiiliiiiii.itiiiti

jiwl

knowledge aware

alls

ol the siraiegu role ol

Ikumik ilrumalKenerg\

natural

JkUii

resources as limiting factors of industrial growth,

question

anil the

whether these hmitationik

raised

is

do not mmlity the onset of To

a |X)st-industrial sector

an empirical and

this, there is

theoretical

a

the introduction ol p«»st-

answer, .\sa practical

tact,

industrial elements,

which are

does depend

timing, rate of diffusion, and

in the

capital

on the productivitv

extensi\it\ of use sectors.

The ilevelopment

depends

in

intensive,

of the«)ther

an industrial sector

ot

considerable measure on the economic

surplus of an agrarian sector; yet once industriali/.ation

under way. the pn)ducti\it\ of the agrarian

is

sector

itself is

increased through the use ot fertilizer

and other petro-chemical products. Similar!), the

ture" ot a society

The mt)de ot

An irulu»lumf cncrfy

other rcMnirec«ftiKh«» natural gak(*rtHl

^(nhIs

)

svhcnuu

feudal, cjpiiahsi.

periiHi,

i

aic Uiih "sikuIini"

Chiiu

Vcl ikal cungTurncc ilcmi m>l c\pbii) w In

(

through

is

a single

to read the character

overriding concept,

be capitalism or tota/itananism, and to

introduction of new devices trial

information and prcKcssing

may be delayed by

rising costs in the indus-

sector or lagging productivits

duced the) ma\ be the

\cr\

but once intro-

,

means

ot raising that

productivity.

cm

Theoreticall), «mk s(K*iety

is,

s.in

ihat post-industrial

ditterent

tn principle,

from the other

mislead one as to the complex (overlapping and

two.

even contradictory) features of any modern society,

alism did not derive from an agrarian mode. .\nd

or to assume that there are "laws of social develop-

similarly, the strategic role of theoretical

ment" in which one social system succeeds another by some inexorable necessity. .\ny society, since it

as the

mingles ditterent kinds of economic, technological,

does not derive from the role of energy

.\s a theoretical principle,

new

the idea of industri-

knowledge

basis of technological innovation, or the

role of information in re-creating st>cial processes, in creating a

political,

and cultural systems (some features of

manufacturing or fabricating society,

which are

common

these are, analytically, independent principles.

ical

to

all,

some of which

and idiosyncratic), has

ditterent

one has

\

in

to

are histor-

be analyzed trom

antage points, depending on the question

mind.

My

focus has been on the intlu-

ence of technologx not as an autonomous factor but ,

as an analytical element, in order to see

changes come

in the

social

wake of new technologies, and

what problems the society, and

must then attempt

what

its political

system,

Broadly speaking,

machine

industrial society

is

short,

based on

society

post-industrial

shaped by an intellectual lechnologx .And .

is

if capital

and labor are the major structural features of industrial

society, information

and knowledge are those

of (he post-industrial society.' I'or this reas(»n, the social organization

vastly different

to solve.

if

technology,

in

of a post-industrial sector

from an industrial

sector,

is

and one

can see this by contrasting the economic features of

The concept

"post-industrial"

that of "pre-industrial"

industrial sector

is

is

counterposed

and "industrial."

primarily vxtracttie,

its

.\

to

pre-

economy

based on agriculture, mining, fishing, timber, and

the two. Industrial

and used up,

One buys This

refers to .Max

W eber.

commodities are produced

in discrete,

exchanged and

consumed

identifiable units,

ical

sold,

as are a loaf of bread or an automobile.

the product from a seller and takes phys-

possession of

it.

The exchange

is

governed by

Daniel Bell specific legal rules of contract.

But information and

knowledge are not consumed or "used up." Knowledge

product and the question of

a social

is

costs, price, or value

is

vastly different

from

its

that

In the manufacture of industrial goods, one can

up

''production function,"

a

- roads,

canals, rail, air

movement of people and

goods.

structure has been the energy utilities gas, electricity

-

-

for the

The second oil

infra-

pipeline,

for the transmission of power.

The

third infra-structure has been telecommunications,

of industrial items.

set

transportation

the relative

(i.e.

principally the voice telephone, radio, and television.

But now with the explosive growth of com-

number of

proportions of capital and labor to be employed)

puters and terminals for data (the

and determine the appropriate mix,

terminals in use in the United States went from

of each factor. If capital

costs,

one can

But by

becomes

is

labor,

characterized not

but by a knowledge theory of

directive of innovation. Yet knowledge, it is

created,

by

it is

thus there

remains also with the produ-

sold,

good"

a ''collective

in that,

once

it

character available to

its

has been all,

and

incentive for any single person

is little

185,000 in 1970 to 800,000 in 1976) and the rapid

tion storage, the question of hitching together the

varied ways information

becomes

try

a

transmitted in the coun-

is

major issue of economic and

The "economics

of information"

is

not the same

character as the "economics of goods," and the

by the new networks of

social relations created

information (from an interactive research group

communicating through computer terminals

knowledge unless they can obtain

large cultural homogenization created

proprietary

a

television) are not the older social patterns

increasingly, patents no longer guarantee exclusive-

relations

on research only

lose out

by spending money competitor can

to find that a

quickly modify the product and circumvent the patent; similarly, the question of copyright be-

comes increasingly

difficult to police

when

individ-

Xerox whatever pages they

uals or libraries can

need from technical journals or books, or individuals

and schools can tape music off the

a television

If there

performance on video is

less

and

air or

record

this

- of industrial

society.

- or work

We have here - if

kind of society develops - the foundations of a

vastly different kind of social structure than

less incentive for individual

we have

previously known.

The

post-industrial society, as

I

have implied,

does not displace the industrial society, just as an industrial society has not

done away with the agrar-

economy. Like palimpsests, the

ian sectors of the

new developments overlie the pre\ious some features and thickening the

erasing

disks.

to the

by national

advantage, such as a patent or a copyright. But,

and many firms

social

policy.

or enterprise to pay for the production of such

ness,

data

decrease in the costs of computation and informa-

the codification of knowledge that

is

even when cer. It

embodied

is

a post-industrial society is

a labor theory It

the relative

of a labor theory of value.

talk

value.

at

layers,

texture

of society as a whole. In orienting a reader to the

persons or private enterprises to produce know-

detailed

ledge without particular gain, then the need and

be useful to highlight some of the new dimensions

effort falls increasingly

on some

social unit,

be

it

arguments

in this book, therefore,

it

might

of post-industrial society.

university or government, to underwrite the costs.

And

since there

no ready market

is

test

(how does

one estimate the value of "basic research".') there a challenge to

economic theory

to design a socially

optimal policy of investment in knowledge

how much money search; tion,

w hat

and

for

(e.g.,

should be spent for basic re-

allocations should be

w hat

is

fields; in

made

for educa-

what areas do we obtain

the "better returns" in health; and so on), and to "price" information

how

and knowledge to users.

^

be the develop-

ment of an appropriate "infra-structure" for the developing compmucatwm networks (the phrase is Anthony

Oettinger's) of digital information tech-

nologies that will together.

The

tie

first

the post-industrial society

infra-structure

in

society

ledge,

but only

w hereby

now

on the basis of know-

has there been

a

change

the codification of theoretical knowledge

and materials science becomes the basis of innovations in technology.

new

One

sees this primarily in the

science-based industries - computers, elec-

tronics, optics,

polymers - that mark the

last third

of the century.

In a narrower, technical sense, the major problem for the post-industrial society will

The centraltty of theoretical knowledge. Every

1

society has always existed

is

2

77?^ creation

of a new

intellectual technology'.

Through new mathematical and economic techniques - based on the computer linear programming, Markov chains, stochastic processes and the like

- we can

tools of

utilize

modeling, simulation and other

system analysis and decision theory in

order to chart more efficient, "rational" solutions

TfmComlr^tofPost'lndMirtaiSod&ty 111,

ctt>n«»ini,

Id

iiiMni

.

I

I

I

MIL-

ul

.IK

ii

in the

tcvsioiul clavN

;osi-iiulustrial society this

is

about TOin e\erN

mainly

the sout

ISTO.) in an industrial s«Kiet\, iheserMcesare irans-

and finance, which are auxiliar>

fxirtation utilities,

to the prinJuction ot gcHwis,

and personal service

and so

(beauticians, restaurant emplo\ees,

Hut

human serMces

harismatu

.

in that

methods

credo that knowledge mental ends,

IS

n»)t

anil

messianic

"routini/cd"

Wt

dogmas

itself,

.-i

[xtlitical

life

which men wrest

is

expansion of

I'he

subordination

inquiries

its

t>f

and the "test" of

goals,

some instrumental

game

their li\ing

work

is

a

prc-

a

against nature in

from the

game

soil,

in

the

small

against fabricated

men become dwarfed

as they turn out g»M>ds

industrial world,

work

b\ machines

and things. Hut is

primarily a

in a post-

"game be-

tween persons" (between bureaucrat and

client,

Situses

(IS

persons have to learn how to live with one another. In the histor\ ot

human

new and unparalleled 6

The

role

sector (e.g.

human

is

a

completelv

state of affairs.

of women.

\\

ork

in

orders,

Work

in

women

expanded employment

women. For

the

first

One

or

it

may

well

situ, IcKation), a set

in the

book|

i

be that

of vertic^al

of political

loci

sketch the posi'here are

tour functional situses - scientific, technological (i.e.

applied

skills:

engineering, economics, medi-

universities

complexes

social

centers),

and cultural

and

five insti-

economic enterprises, government and

and the

military.

complexes,

research

hospitals,

(e.g.

.\lv

social-service

argument

is

that

the major interest conflicts will be between the

situses

and

that

the attachments to these

might be sufficiently strong

to prevent the

organization of the new professional groups into a

coherent *^)

cla.ss in society.'

.Meritocracy.

.\

post-industrial scKietv, being

primarily a technical societv, awards place less on

time, one

can say that w omen have a secure base for economic

independence.

cla.sses

«)n

of s(Kiet\ that exist in su-

sible situses of the post-industrial order,

the post-industrial sector (e.g.

services) provides

opportunities for

have been usually ex-

of sociological

attention

w ill be the more important

attachment. (Later

situs groups,

the industrial

the factory) has largely been men's

work, from which cluded.

society, this

new

be crucial for the future

the post-industrial sectors, situsesiirom the Latin

bureaus,

excluded, artifacts are excluded, and

of the

perior subordinate relation to each other. Vet for

Thus

experience of work and the daily rou-

its

strata, horizontal units

tutional snuscs

is

become

a central feature

political units. .Most

research groups, office groups, service groups). in the

science has

the character of the will

has focused

analysis

cine), administrative

nature

on the basis of

of free inquiry and knowledge.'"

doctor and patient, teacher and student, or within

tine,

Now

payofl.

state-directed

to

results

its

social needs. In all this

S

of work. In

groups, subject to the vicissitudes of nature. In an

nature, in which

ha\e

until recentiv, science did not

but with the militar> and with social technol«)gies

waters, or the forests, working usually

industrial society,

has

it

creeds and enforced official

its

(principall\ in health,

constraint on economic

a

religious

mo\ements),

inexiricabK intertwined not only with technology

in the character

industrial world,

Lniike other

(pnncipalK

H) deal with the bureaucratization ol research, the

source of persistent inflation.

change

iegifiniacy

not any specific instru-

comnuimties

charismatic

groups

lis

the goal of science

scientific institutions

5

Miciely. It

from the

dcnvej*

it

putcrs, and systems analysis). a

hunun

has In-en re%olutn»n-

and procedures,

post-industrial society

becomes

in

it

ar> in its quest lor truth aiul o|>en in its

and

a

men

he scieniific ci*m-

I

unique insliluiion

a i

technical services (e.g. research, evaluation, c»)ni-

these services

CionomiialK, on

imuf

ihe

at

education and social services) and professional and

growth and

in

new serNices

in a post-industrial society, the

are prinuiril\

forth).

^*%t earner, ami

munitv, going luck to the sexenteenih ceniur>,

\ear 2(MH), ihc ic1hnK.1l ami prolessioiul class will

in I*>7>

the loul)

|>cr(.cni ol

rcf{ular

ingl\ feel less deiHrndcni.

Hv the

nnlhon |Krsons

lah»r force ol eight

M)

(iioh

the rising iiuulenie ol di\oric a\ Honien increa*-

Siuics this ){rmip,

niii-ii

I

h»

I

(aiiiilics

iu\c more than one

sees this in the steadily rising

curve of women's participation in the labor force, in

'"

Presumabl)

this

sentence means: "In

all this,

a central

feature of the post-industrial society - the character of the

new

scientific institutions - will

be crucial."

L

Daniel Bell the basis of inheritance or property (though these

can

command w ealth or cultural advantage) than on

education and

Inevitably the question of a

skill.

social

system

is

subject to such a causal trajectory.

Yet the very features of post-industrial society indicate that, as tendencies., they are emergent in

all

meritocracy becomes a crucial normative question.

industrial societies,

In this book

appear depends upon a host of economic and pol-

attempt to define the character of

I

and the extent

to

meritocracy and defend the idea of a "just meritoc-

itical factors

racy," or of place based on achievement, through

world power, the

the respect of peers.

to organize effectively for a political

The end oj scarcity? Most

10

and Uto-

socialist

pian theories of the nineteenth century ascribed

almost

the

all

of society to the scarcity of goods

ills

and the competition of men

common

most

In fact, one of the

economics characterized

it

definitions of

as the art of efficient

among competing

allocation of scarce goods

Marx and

for these scarce goods.

redistribution

of "third world" countries

of wealth,

the

and economic

between

tensions

the major powers which might erupt into war or

But

not.

it is

clear that, as a theoretical construct,

the continuing economic growth of

all

these soci-

eties necessarily involves the introduction

of post-

industrial elements.

The two

ends.

other socialists argued that abundance

do with the balance of

that have to ability

which they do

large

dimensions of

a post-industrial

society, as they are elaborated in this book, are the

and claimed,

in

centrahty of theoretical knowledge and the expan-

under socialism there would be no need

to

sion of the service sector as against a manufacturing

just distribution, since

economy. The first means an increasing dependence

there would be enough for everyone's needs. In that

on science as the means of innovating and organizing

was the precondition fact, that

for socialism

adopt normative rules of

sense, the definition of

communism was

tion of economics, or the "material

philosophy. Yet

is

it

always be with us.

I

brings

embodiment" of

quite clear that scarcity will

mean

not just the question of

scarce resources (for this

but that

is

still

scarcities

moot point) by its nature,

a

post-industrial society,

a

new

the aboli-

which nineteenth- and early

twentieth-century writers had never thought

of.

technological change.

scientific

I

out, there will be scarcities of information

and of

time.

And

point

the problems of allocation inevitably

strategic resource in the society. shift in the sociological

science-based industries, are a crescive

not a private, good

by

(i.e.

preferred lest enterprise opolistic.

Yet

it is

clear that a

become a

"comto

is

slothful or

for the optimal social

knowledge, we have to follow eg}- in

In the mar-

between producers

strateg}'

pointed

I

nature a collective,

a property).

keting of individual goods, petitive"

its

be

mon-

investment in

"cooperative" strat-

order to increase the spread and use of know-

ledge in society.

This new problem regarding

information poses the most fascinating challenges to

economists and decision makers

in respect to

both

fact.

The second change - the expansion of services - has been most

the economic sector

United

States, but has occurred in

as well.

in

in

striking in the

Western Europe

In 1960, a total of 39.5 percent of the

were

is

as the

And to that extent a

weight of the sectors within

workers in the enlarged

The economics of information. As

for access to

the advanced societies, and the increasing role of

remain, in the cruder form, even, of man becoming

11

need

knowledge, the organization of research,

homo economicus in the disposition of his leisure time. out earlier, information

the industrial soci-

and the increasing importance of information

The socialists and liberals had talked of the scarcities of goods; but in the post-industrial society, as

Most of

eties are highly sensitive to the

services

Common

Market area

(defined broadly as transport,

trade, insurance, banking, public administration,

personal service). Thirteen years

later, in

proportion had risen to 47.6 percent. this

A

1973, the

change of

The first - the who first described the ago - was a shift to ser-

kind usually goes in two phases.

observation of Colin Clark

phenomenon

thirty years

vices at the expense of agriculture, but with industrial

employment growing

as well.

But

in

Denmark,

Sweden, Belgium and the United Kingdom, the service-oriented sectors have tive

now grown at the rela-

expense of industrial employment (since agri-

culture has reached almost rock-bottom), and this

is

theory and policy in the post-industrial society.

beginning to take place throughout Europe as well.

Most of

is

The the

the examples in this book are taken from

United

whether

States.

other

The

question that arises

industrial

nations

Europe, Japan, and the Soviet Union post-industrial as well. ...

I

in

will

is

Western

become

do not believe that any

Soviet

Union

is

an industrial society, and

likely that post-industrial features will

that country as well. that this book. The ety,

The

it

appear in

striking fact, however,

is

Coming of Post-Industrial Soci-

has been the object of an extraordinary range of

attacks in the Soviet press,

from serious discussions

The Comt^ofP(M in

acjckiMK loiiiiuU, siuh as Pr^hlems

iophw

inirllcitiul wccLlirs

t»r

(lautu,

highl)

accounts

ciinuuiitee

icietilogKal threat

attack

PartN

in

The |>oses

On

an

reas4>ns \ie\s

betwtxn capitalism la>%s of

coinnuinism

central tenet of the faith

Is still a

lor e\|v»rt

a.s

ol

which the "objecti\e

histor> " proxe the ultiiuate \ict«»ry ol

sci|urncr ol ihi>

i%

lo

Hidm the di%|urHli«in hriwcm

mm

the realms, since each

prim

W hen tern,

under aiul

capitalism arose a% a Micu^-ecitnimiic %y%-

had

It

tenuous unity

a

an ethos (individuAl>

ism), a (lohiical philosophy (lilKralism), a culture (j txiurgeois conception ol ulilitv and realism),

character structure (res|Kclability

and the

cation,

like)

w ithered or remain a

.

delayed

and

a

(cralifi-

.Many of these elemenls have

What

as pale ideologies

is left is

technological engine, geared to the idea of func-

and efficiencN. which prcmiises

tional rationalitN

m> mono-

rising standard of living

discussion denies the h.Um that one tan use

of>cratr%

iples that arc lontrarv to the other

at least

iheoretual level,

a

other nu|or realni^ ol MKicial structure (>nc cufi-

woiiUi

It

htMik

il«Klrine

a "hisloric" ctmllict

is

communism

aiul

b\ the Partx's

this

I'nun the Su\iei

are quite clear

there

tt>

lo

nuJc

ul PjrtN

Mil^jar

PrjiJj

in

a iiccision haii txrcn

lileoiogical

anil

«/ Pkiitt

ihc l.ttetan'

nuga/iiu- Komtuuni\t ami

distortcii it

«-h

iilcoloi-u al ixtlt-inus in ihc offli

til

theoretic jl

scent js

luth

Industrial Sodety

way of

A

life.

and promotes

a

a

hedonistic

post-industrial change begins to

concepts such as capitalism or socialism U)

rework the

stratification

explain the complex structure of mcKlern stKieties.

to provide a

more

More

harness science more directly to instrumental pur-

lithic

doctrine bases

directlx, since the l*art\

view of history on the incMtable victory letariat

in the iat"),

(and

of the

its

pro-

justifies the repressive rule of the Parly

name «»f the "dictatorship of the proletarhow can «)ne sustain thai dojjma when the

proletariat

is

no longer the major (Kcupational

class

of a post-industrial society

This was precisely the problem

of a

remarkable

Cnihzutinti al

Science,

Soaal and Human

the

and

Technological Revolution, which appeared durini;

the "Prague Spring," in 1^)67, under the sponsor-

ship of the social-science director In this bi«khI Inlcirc ihc

\ cgas

I. as

ol

uas

alliiuilc

I'his

cMilciil in jrihiiciiurc, jrt,

lirsi

Lncrar>

ciiliiiral

!hal>

llass.ui

embraces the transcemleni heterogemiiN

ol posc-

nuKJern

uhilc

riling,

\>

critic

architectural

in

Charles jencks accepts the "emi garde " a

Donna

jxissihle

the avant-

ol

llarawax turns to cNberneiics for

leniinist

humanism

iheor\

replaceincni

in phil»>soph\

nuKlerms!

btmrgeois

traditional

philt)soph\

tor

philosophical

Luhmann's

radical con-

view

continue more

to

aims

while

accepting

of the postmodernist critique of modern

They argue

metaphvsics.

escaping

for a philosophical

world-

imbibes postmodernism's force while

that its

blanket rejection of traditional philoso-

phical aims.

Thus

1

)aN id

Ra\

(inft'in,

w ho

like

I

lar-

away and Luhmann depend on the "new science," sees

hope

for a

postmodern cosmology. Mark

Taylor employs post-structuralism toward aim, arguing for a Derridean theology.

David Hall shows the extent ('•hinese

modern

abandon the

thought anticipated

to

C

a rare

Lastly,

which prcmodern

much

of the post-

ieidcK](cr

some kind

In a sense, this

%cn%c

cir

is

the great surgical problem of

coniemfxirarv philosophy given that foundational-

ism

we

IS

diseased and must

and what shape

cut,

the surger\

is

p.iiicnl will

be

Ik-

cut out,

how deep must

will the patient

be

in

once

o\er' I'ostmodermsts sav that the ileail.

because the

di.sca.scd li&suc is

vinced that the patient can go on to lead a non-transcendental,

albeit

Luropean

same continental sources nists,

naturalistic

results,

tific

draws on

ethicist.

W illard

\

epistemology,

an (^uine's defense of the

resolution

cognitive

anticipates

.science

and

recent

developments

evolutionary

that claim to avoid the

postmodern problematic.

city of

Lnglightenment, hence the choice between

"Niet/sche or

tic,

approaches. Frederic Jameson offers a neois,

in his view, a politi-

inadequate postmodernism. Jurgen Habermas a

communicative

pragmatism,

to

defend

a

ethics, based partly in

reformed Lnlightenment

modernism. Lastly, Hilary Putnam

offer a small selection of those

who oppose

or

must Thomis-

.\ri.stotle," ethical rationality

return to premodernisl, .Aristotelian and

a

who

in

psychology

.Masdair .Maclntyre argues that given the incapa-

no means do the\ exhaust the manifold

contemporar) philosophers

of the

the use of scien-

claiming immunity to the postmodern assault. Hy

remain uninfluenced by postmodernism, but they

the

as the I'rench fxistmoder-

"problem" of knowledge through

deploys

activity of

full,

Lmmanucl

but refuses to allow semiotics to rule the

ethical relation.

contemporary philosophies

postmodernism and those

I'hus,

life.

Levinas, perhaps the most widely discus.sed twcntieth-centurv

tives," presents both

do

can turn lo

common

and |x»stmiHlern e\cr%%

ing Ixiih toundationalism

cally

that majority of

iiiu%l

unlike the (xnl-

itut

feci that philf»s4iph>

pragmatism or

ot

on

.

naturalism or ex|H-riential melhinl, therebv avoid-

"Resistances and Alterna-

that explicitly critique

•!

that pl>

-Marxisi alternative to what

turn. final

I

.artcMan protect

(

miHlermsts. the>

section,

'I'he

aiul

their philosophiial lineage

patient ali\e. Non-foundalionalists disagree, con-

rejects

p4»st-structuralisni's

time t)ther theorists attempt

much

W iiigensicin,

both

ami

of normative s(KiaI critique. At the same

traditional

Like the |Mi«inMMlcmuu. thc>

so deep as to be inseparable from what kept the

structivism of s tied to phonetic

trom

Milt

can tiinction only

within the sNstem ot phonetic writing and within

able

our\cl%c%

au order that no longer refers to

iilMiiiiMiN

ilu

let

to

Im

ll

ami

ot all

t"irst

ot the

nsibiiitN

SI •

wr muM here

HUggrikiH thai

rel'erred

Ik-

Intlccd, aiikc trtHn iht*

ihr dillrrcncc Ixrfwccn ihc r jnJ ihc a

"dilicranic" cludrn \t\utn and hraring.

happiK

this

no doubi true

t%

|xiini ol

uii onl\ ulk alxuil ihis

I

Thai

mm

ha\e to resort to

sometimes be

resemble

will

practically indiscernible

1

will

from

those

of negative theology.' .Mready we had to note that differance

is

not,

does not

exist,

of being-present (on). .And we

everything

thcil

it

is

not,

and

will

is

not any sort

have to

jxiint

out

and, consequently, that

has neither existence nor essence.

It

behmgs

to

it

no

category of being, present or absent. .And yet what is

thus denoted as differance

e\en

in

the

most

is n»)t

negative

theological, not

order

of negative

reasons, the graphic difference itself sinks into darkness, that

it

never constitutes the fullness of a sens-

ible term, but

draw s out an invisible connection, the

mark of an inappareni

relation

between two spec-

The nu'dicval

\ie\s

that

positively, but only negatively

Cis occu-

is

of this thematics of differance

size that the efficacy

pied with letting a supraessenlial reality go beyond

very well may, and even one day must, be sublated,

the finite categories of essence and existence, that

i.e.,

is,

of presence, and always hastens to remind us

we deny

that, if is

ceivable,

and

mode

ineffable

no question of such

we go

move,

a

Not only

along.

God,

the predicate of existence to

order to recognize him as

in

it

incon-

a superior,

of being. Here there

differance irreducible to

is

every ontological or theological - onto-theological

- reappropriation, but

it opens up the very space in which onto-theology - philosophy - produces its

system and

its

encompasses and

history. It thus

irrevocably surpasses onto-theology or philosophy.

For the same reason, to

mark out

do not know w here

I

what

in question here

is

quirement that there be

from

is

w ill not be developed simply

as a philo-

and definitions and

that

moves according

thing

is a

to the discursive line of a

marking out differance, every-

rational order. In

matter of strategy and

risk. It is a

question

of strategy because no transcendent truth present outside the sphere of w riting can theologically

mand

the totality of this field.

cause this strategy

we

that

say

according to a

domination, tion of

a

It is

hazardous be-

not simply one in the sense

is

that

strategy

final

aim, a

orients

telos

the

or the

tactics

theme of

a

mastery or an ultimate reappropria-

movement and

In the end,

field.

We

strategy without finality.

might

call

tactics or empirical errance, if the value

cism did not

com-

itself

derive

all its

it it

is

a

blind

of empiri-

meaning from

its

opposition to philosophical responsibility. If there is

a certain errance in the tracing-out

it

no longer follow s the

speech or that of posite,

line

of logico-philosophical

integral

its

of differance,

and symmetrical op-

logico-empirical speech.

The concept

of

own

its

replacement,

at

involvement in a series of events w hich

never commanded. This also means that

it

not a theological thematics. I

w ill

say, first of

word nor

a

which

that differance,

all,

concept, seemed to

theme most proper

strategically the

me

is

to be

to think out, if

not master (thought being here, perhaps, held in a certain necessary relation

of mastery), in what

"epoch."

opening

though

"we"

are,

my

always on the basis of differance and

what the

are and

its

we can claim to know who and w here limits of an

Although "differance"

is

"epoch" can

neither a

be.

word nor

a

us nonetheless attempt a simple and

let

approximative semantic analysis which us in view of w hat

We do know verb

from the

even though

not justifiable in the final account, and

is

it is

concept,

structional limits

characteristic of our

start off, then, strategically,

I

"history" that

"we"

w ith the

most

is

place and time in which

sophical discourse that operates on the basis of a principle, of postulates, axioms,

it

not to

itself, if

neither a

responsibility

a

The problem of writing arche.''^ Thus what I put

a principle.

opens by questioning the forth here

the re-

is

commencement,

a de jure

an absolute point of departure, arising

to begin

this assemblage, this graph, of differ-

ance. Precisely

in fact

is

confirmed as

as will be

lend

least to its

dijferre)

will

bring

stake.

is at

that the verb "to differ" (the Latin

has two seemingly quite distinct

meanings; in the Littre dictionary, for example, they are the subject of two separate this sense, the

Latin

differre is

Greek diap herein;

lation of the

articles.

In

not the simple transthis fact will not

be

without consequence for us in tying our discussion

one that passes

to a particular language, less philosophical, less

for being

primordially philosophical,

than the other. For the distribution of sense in the

Greek diapherein does not carry one of the two themes of the Latin postponing until

differre,

later,

namely, the action of

of taking into account, the

taking-account of time and forces in an operation that implies an

economic reckoning,

a detour, a

respite, a delay, a reserve, a representation

the concepts that

I

will

sum up

-

have never used but which could be added to series: temporalizing.

temporalize,

to

"To

resort,

sciously, to the temporal

all

here in a word

differ" in this sense

consciously

or

I

this is

to

uncon-

and temporalizing medi-

accomplishment

play remains beyond this opposition; on the eve

ation of a detour that suspends the

and aftermath of philosophy,

or fulfillment of "desire" or "will," or carries

it

designates the

unity of chance and necessity in an endless calculus.

By

decision and, as

game, then, turning

it

were, by the rules of the

this

thought around,

let

us

desire or will out in a their effect.

temporalizing is

by way of the theme of strategy or strategem. By

ing-spatial,

^'

merely strategic

Fundamental

justification,

principle.

I

want

to

empha-

that annuls or tempers

is

also a temporalization

and spacing,

space's becoming-temporal and time's

introduce ourselves to the thought of differance

this

w ay

We shall see, later, in w hat respects this

and time,

is

as

becom-

"primordial constitution" of space

metaphysics or transcendental phe-

nomenology would call it in the language here criticized and displaced.

that

is

Dtffef&noB* "In dillcr"

sense ot

he t)ihcr

I

aimnutn

Aut\ nu»si

i%

miisi

the

the Mrasc ot noi

iJcnti('i4hlc,

being iclcniu jl, ol iKing ufhcr. ol ^King ilis^crniblc.

whether relcrring

\nil in "ililkrcnis."

cii

ahentN

ot ihssinubrit\ or the aherils ol j|ler|!\ or

ol |Hileinus,

It

ilxnamujllx.

4Clivel>,

(tccur

persexerence

with

.iiul

re|Htmon

in

never reler to ditlering as tem|>«)rjli/ing Icrcntx as f>uUmos.^"

whole complex

immctiiaielv and

trsing

tt»

I

ol its

thing which vmII

am

It is

t»r

to ihl-

this hiss ol sense that iht

)ilterante tan reler to the

meanings

It

it

ile\elop

scune-

when

more easih

supported bv

is

it

(like

somehow

(jtitsell.

Or

the action ol "dilTering" that

is

in progress,

has produced the effect that

is

sical

to

cnch

constituted

as different or resulted in ditference (with an V\ ithin a

at

more immediaieh

trom the present participle and brings us closer

it

a

anv significa-

bv itself than does an\

other vNord: here the u comes

before

I

whole com-

reters to this

It

alreadv doi-s so

dtK-s so

is

it

im|>oriant lor the discourse

language or interpretive context tion), but

once, tor

at

multivalent,

irreducibly Ih-

plex ol meanings not onl>

least

eouUl

r)

dilTerance (with an u) will haxe to scheniatu-

Loin|Hnsate lor

j||\

t).

conceptual system and in terms of clas-

requirements, diffcrance could be said to des-

ignate the productive and primordial constituting causalitv

,

the process of scission and division w hose

dilferings and differences

products or

I

elTects.

low arc ilillerance a% ienip(*riii/ing and differ-

Lei us iKgin with the problem ot Mgn* and

w riling

We

would be the constituted

But while bringing us closer

to

we

since

represent the prcMint place ol the present r«.l

leriain

j

ci>n%tiiutril in

AUKC as spjiing ion|oined'

ne(.essjr\ that inter \4l, ilisunce.

IN

occur among the dilterent elements and

spaiinjf

hem

iimtII

this repression

the

!«•

«nd

ing a certain inininftiii«rnr%», into ihc MTlive

the |u%kivr sttux, and ha»

examine these secondarx and

In attempting to

we

provisional aspects of the substitute,

doubt catch sight of something dilferance. Vet

we could no

ordial or final,

inasmuch

like a

longer even

shall

no

primordial call

it

prim-

as the characteristics

of

origin, beginning, telos, eschaton, etc., have always

denoted presence -

sign,

to

oppose

ousia, parousia, etc.""

To ques-

and provisional character of the

tion the secondary

to a

it

"primordial" difterance,

would thus ha\e the tbllowing con.sequences:

of these terms. But philosophy has perhaps com-

menced by

distributing the middle voice, express-

*'"

Telos

is

end or

coal; eschatnn

culmination of histor> *"

Conflict, war.

being.

;

uua

is

is

"last

times" or the

being; parousia

is

primarx

Jacques Derrida no

can

Differance

1.

longer

mean

always been taken to

As the condition

understood

be

according to the concept of "sign," which has the representation of a

presence and has been constituted in

for signification, this principle

of difference affects the whole

sign, that

is,

The signifying

system (of

aspect

is

the concept, the ideal sense.

thought or language) determined on the basis of

aspect

is

w hat Saussure calls the material

and

(e.g., acoustical)

view of presence.

in

way we question the authority of pres-

In this

2.

ence or

its

We

lack.

a

simple symmetrical contrary, absence or

both the

and the signifying aspects. The signified

signified

enter into

all

Let us only

We

"image."

or physical

do not here have

to

the problems these definitions pose.

cite

Saussure where

it

interests us:

thus interrogate the limit that has always

constrained us, that always constrains us -

we who - to

The

conceptual side of value

is

made up

solely

inhabit a language and a system of thought

of relations and differences with respect to the

form the sense of being

other terms of language, and the same can be

in general as

presence or

said of

absence, in the categories of being or beingness

we

its

Everything that has

material side

been said up

appears that the kind of question-

(ousia). It already

to this point boils

down

to this: in

us say, the

language there are only differences. Even more

Heideggerian kind, and that differance seems to

important: a difference generally implies posi-

lead us back to the ontic-ontological difference.

tive

ing

are thus led back to

But permit

me

postpone

to

let

is,

this reference.

I

only note that between differance as temporalizingtemporalization (which

we can no

terms between which the difference

is

set

up; but in language there are only differences

shall

Whether we

without positive terms.

longer conceive

take the sig-

or the signifier, language has neither

nified

within the horizon of the present) and what Hei-

ideas nor sounds that existed before the linguis-

degger says about temporalization in Sein und Zeit^^

tic

(namely, that as the transcendental horizon of the

ferences that have issued from the system.

question of being itional

it

must be

freed from the trad-

- between these two there

is a

The

idea or phonic substance that a sign contains

and metaphysical domination by the present

or the now)

system, but only conceptual and phonic dif-

of

surround

close, if

is

importance than the other signs that

less

it.'

not exhaustive and irreducibly necessary, intercon-

The

consequence

to

that the signified concept

is

nection.

But

first

of

all,

let

us remain with the semio-

how

logical aspects of the

problem

as temporalizing

conjoined with differance as

is

Most of

spacing.

to see

differance

the semiological or linguistic re-

search currently dominating the field of thought

its

first

genealogy, rightly or wrongly,

common

-

no longer simply

word; that

which is, it is

is

not a concept,

not what

calm and present

concept and sound [phonie].

and the

we know,

these two themes

differential

-

- the

arbitrary

are in his view inseparable.

Arbitrariness can occur only because the system of signs

is

constituted by the differences between the

terms, and not by their fullness. signification function not

force of their cores but itions that distinguish

Xhe

elements of

by virtue of the compact

by the network of oppos-

them and

relate

them

to

one

The

difference

therefore,

is

We

shall later discuss

that

Saussure

speaks

about,

neither itself a concept nor one

word

among others. We can say this a fortiori for differance. Thus we are brought to make the relation between the one and the other Within

A

there are only differences.

can accordingly undertake tical,

and

explicit.

a language, within the system

"are two correlative qualities."

of language,

taxonomic operation

its

systematic, statis-

classificatory inventory. But,

hand, these differences play a Being and Time.

not a mere

is

the consequences of this for the notion of a word.

another. "Arbitrary and differential" says Saussure

'"

conceptual

self-referential unity of a

as the

general semiology and particularly of linguistics. as

-

but the

we represent to ourselves

the dijferential character of signs as principles of

And,

a concept,

of the

of conceptuality,

differance,

It

is

it

by the

system and process in general. For the same reason,

was Saussure

founder.

to other concepts,

systematic play of differences. Such a play, then

of all set forth the arbitrariness ofsigns and

its

necessarily and essentially

is

and

refers to another

possibility

to Saussure as

who

Every concept

role as a generally recognized regulaits

is

itself,

inscribed in a chain or a system, within which

differance

model) traces

tive

be drawn from this never present in

an adequate presence that would refer only to

itself.

own investigations

(whether due to the results of its or due to

in

first

speech as well,

and

in

the

on the one

role in language, in

exchange between

Differance" language

s|H-cih

aiiii

ihc oihir

>n

(

ihcsc

luiul,

The) have in»i thcv arc no more

dillcrcncc* 4rc ihcnvsclvc* f/Jntt.

from the \kN rtad\ nuilc.

fallen

insirilH-i! in a in£o\ mn'iux

in ihf \\a\ ol ilu- l>rain

nut carr> \%i(h

trt»m

he

What

the

\\«»ril

ll

arc prcsintK-i!

"hisiorN"

(hai

sa\

ihrough

aiul

note as Jifftrariif will thus

\M-

something

that

is

simply an activity) these dilTer-

cnces, these elkvts of diOereiKe

mean

that

ences

IS

the

Ik-

"produces" (and not In

that

uhuh

the dilleranie

before them

in a

This

simple and

in itself

and mdilfercn! present I)ilferance

nonfull, nonsimple "origin",

and differing origin

it

nt)t

(.Ijk's

produces differ-

is

imlav. toward the thcor\

ihc rrprcMrnlalion ol

use these terms here, like

from the sk>,

it

a classi-

is

is

clear that

somewhere present and

escapes the play of dilTerence. If such

were implied (quite cept of cause,

an effect without

a

itself

presence

classically) in the general

we would

con-

therefore have to talk about

something

a cause,

would

that

very quickly lead to no longer talking about effects. 1

have tried to indicate

a

No more

"trace" cannot of

an effect than

means of the a

taken outside

itself,

cause,

the

context,

its

sufllce to bring about the required transgression. .\s

there

is

no presence before the semiological

we can extend w hat Sausabout language to si^s in general:

difference or outside

sure writes

"I.^nguage

is

intelligible

and

latter is

it,

necessary in order for speech to be to

produce

all

of

its effects;

but the

necessary in order for language to be estab-

lished; historical!), the fact of speech always

comes

of the

at least

the schema,

if

not the content,

demand formulated by Saussure, we shall movement by

designate by the term Jijjcratut' the

which language, or any code, any system of

refer-

ence in general, becomes "historically" constituted as a fabric

tuted,"

of differences. Here, the terms "consti-

"produced,"

"created,"

"historically," etc., with

be understood only

in

all

the svslem thcv form

ihc jxMni

at

In an\ c\cni, %»c will

decisive

ha\e understJMKi, b\ \irlue of the ver\ circle wc

wrillcn here,

more

up

in, that dilTcrance, a»

no more

is

compleleh

IS

It

to

is

il

than genetic, no

sialic

Nor

structural than historical

\nd

so

is

it

an\ less

miss the point of this it

example, by op|>osing Mime generati\e

for

itions

\iew, or conversely. These opjxisitions do not pertain in the least to differance;

and

what makes thinking about

difficult

"movement,"

they imply, are not to

terms of the language of

metaphysics, from which they are taken.

It

it

this,

no doubt,

we now consider

If

the chain to which "differ-

ance" gets subjected, according

to the context, lo a

number of nonsynonymic substitutions, one ask why we resorted to such concepts as "re-

certain will

serve," "protowriting," "prototrace," "spacing,"

indeed to "supplement" or ^'phamidkon,'" and,

"hymen,"

before long, to

etc.^

\x\ us begin again. DifTerance

movement of element that

is

lets itself

of its relation to less to

what

called the past,

related to

it

on

something other

a is

be hollowed out h\ the mark

future element. This trace relates called the future than to

and

it

constitutes what

present by this very relation to what

what

each

if

but retains the mark of a past element

and already

no

w hat makes the

said to be "present," appearing

is

the stage of presence, tfian itself

is

signification possible only

absolutely

is

not; that

is,

is it

what

is

called the is

not, to

not even to a past

or future considered as a modified present. In order

is

it

to be,

an interval must separate

it

from what

not; but the interval that constitutes

it

it

in the

present must also, and by the same token, divide the present in

itself,

thus dividing, along with the

present, everything that can be conceived on basis, that

every being

is,

in particular, for

its

our

metaphysical language, the substance or subject. Constituting this interval

it.self,

is

dynamically

dividing

becoming-spatial

Phamtdkon

is

itself,

what could be called spuiin^. time's or

space's

becoming-temporal

would

have to be show n w hy the concepts of production.

is

and uncom-

fortable.

for

first.""

Retaining

«»f

now most

apiH-ar to Ik caught

way out of the closure

im|x>sed by this system, namely, b\ "trace."

is

«)rthographicaI impropriety to want lo object n>

produced, but effects that do not ha\e as

is

I

siratqnt convenience and in order to prepare ihc

ileconsi ruction

their cause a subject or substance, a thing in gen-

or a being that

lo l>c encli»scd onU man> other ionccp!%, out

on the basis of the oldest of metaphysical oppos-

the ditVerences hase been produced; they are the

eral,

a%ii\

t«»o far

whith wr seem

the "iinle" in

of

«il

point of view to a siructuralist-taxonomic p«ould

which

siarl

ino\cineni ol pla>

nuKlif'ied

ilul

aloiu-

ilitVcrcnccs

"historiial" thiou^h aiul

Ih* I

iho

ihr ihcnu- ol a final repression ol

wc cuuKI

(JitVcrancx,

couki

it

than

conMiiulion and huiorv. rrtnAin m.-

like ihirsc ol

ccMkoric% in

ambiguously medicine or poison.

Jacques Derrida

And

{temporulizing).

this constitution

is

it

aspect or qualitative variety, which of itself

of the

would be

present as a "primordial" and irreducibly nonsim-

nonprimor-

ple, and, therefore, in the strict sense dial,

(to

synthesis of traces, retentions, and protentions

reproduce here, analogically and provisionally,

pose to

The

latter (is) (both)

this (active)

would suggest some organic

Above

an event.

differentiate," this

we

not, quite

call

it

differ-

some primordial

unity,

up and

all,

take

on difference

as

formed on the verb "to

word would annul the economic

signification of detour, temporalizing delay, "de-

ferring."

owe

I

a

remark

in passing to a recent

reading of one of Koyre's texts entitled "Hegel

at

Jena."' In that text, Koyre cites long passages from

German and

the Jena Logic in

On two occasions

lation.

own

gives his

in Hegel's text

trans-

he encoun-

This

ters the expression ^'dijjerente Beziehung.'"^^

word

(different),

whose root

German and

rare in

relation."

is

Latin,

extremely

is

who

Hegel,

also, I believe, in

Beziehung

Beziehung^' (This relation different

Koyre:

'different'

Writing "differing" or "differance" (with an a)

would have had the

utility

of making

Hegel on precisely

translate

further qualifications

- and

The

point in his text.

word

time and the present. Before coming to Koyre's valuable remark,

here are some passages from

Hegel, as rendered by Koyre:

its

to the self-identical

moments, while the

totality to (itself)

and

-

to the other

moment

it

as a

- the

negative. In

(it is)

but in

relates itself

and negates

moment

presents the

infinite

in itself,

in general, the point or limit;

(action of) negating,

excluding

this, its

own

immediately

The

itself.

limit or

of the present (der Gegen-wart), the

absolute "this" of time or the now,

is

an abso-

lutely negative simplicity, absolutely excluding all is

multiplicity from

and by

itself,

absolutely determined;

it is

whole or quantum within

would

"'

""

in

itself

also

this very fact

not an extended

itself

have an

(and) which

undetermined

guage by another. Naturally,

is

compared

unlike, distinction

and

to

it

first

of

because

all,

it

maintain that the

I

word "differance" can be used

in other ways, too;

denotes not only the activity

of primordial difference but also the temporalizing

detour of deferring.

It has,

however, an even more

important usage. Despite the very profound affinities that

differance thus written has with Hegelian

(as

should be read),

it

it

it,

can, at a certain

but rather work a

sort of displacement with regard to

it.

A

definite

rupture with Hegelian language would make no

would

sense, nor

ment

is

it

be

at all likely;

both infinitesimal and

it

related

terms:

diversity, respectively.

differing,

would be

any brevity

but this displace-

radical. I

have tried

difficult to talk

differance.

But what

other words, what

we

about

it

with

at this point.

Differences are thus "produced"

is

differs,

differance.-"

attain another stage

-

differed

- by

or who differs? In

W ith this question

and another source of the

problem.

What differs.' Who differs.' What is differance? If we answered these questions even before examining them

as questions,

even before going

back over them and questioning their form (even

what seems

to

be most natural and necessary about

we would fall below the level we have now reached. For if we accepted the form of the question in its own sense and syntax ("What?," "What is?," "Who is?"), we would have to admit that them),

differance

"Different Relation." Different

be, as

to indicate the extent of this displacement else-

infinite, in this simplicity is

opposed

would

always should be, the transformation of one lan-

where;

The

possible to

a quite decisive

is

it

it

point with no

this

translation

point, not exactly break with

where he deals with

by

note

taken here in an

is

active sense."

ence Unterschied and qualitative variety VerschieIn the Jena Logic, he uses the

read:

present, as a

another

is

speech

different precisely at the point

following

we can

[the]

is

There

relation).

"The term

could say:

the

Gegenwart, ah eine differente

ist

instead uses verschieden or ungleich, calling differ-

denheit.^"

We

And on

''Diese

of the (production

other confusions, such a word

to be divided

differentiating

movement

and homogeneous unity, that would eventually

come

specifies in a striking note: "Differ-

page, from another text of Hegel,

differance without origin, could

Among

And Koyre

ent relation: differente Beziehung.

spacing (and) temporalizing.

simply and without any neographism, entiation}

pro-

I

protowriting, prototrace, or differance.

call

Given

oO

be revealed as inadequate) that

an absolutely different relation of the simple."*

is

a

phenomenological and transcendental language that will presently

related, indifferently {gletchgiiltig) or

externally to another, but on the contrary, this

is

derived,

supervenient,

controlled,

and ordered from the starting point of

a being-

present, one capable of being something, a force, a

"DtffemnoB* sljlc, or |M)\\rr in ihc worlil, in

Liiuls of luiiK'N

all

suhfiTit,

implKilU

iimlil gi\c

In ihf latlcr lUsc, iioiabK,

Ajtiho

a

wc wmuUI

iKing-prcscni

the

thai

iiilnni

example, as

uhith wc

whui, nr iKing-prrsciir as

a

signs

m

liowii

tis

iiutrual concrpl of

nuiaphwiial pre%up|)«i^

that retains an\

ilHins

iiuompaiible with the ihrnu'

W e might

(lt»r

sclf-prcscn! being or consciousness)

.i

nghi

sctnio|i»f;\

t>e

bccomm

the sub|ccl

J

iftrakitig

*'"

ol dillrrancc

tempted b> an ob|cclion

to be %urc,

Mubjcci imly by

woulil c\i-n(iull\ result in ilinenng in ilelaMng or

ileahng with the sNslcm of hnguisiu ililfercncc%,

"lueil" or "desire."

or again, he Ix'comcs a ngni/yinf sub|ecf (generalK

in iliNeriini; the luirillnicnj

or in ilitlennu troin

wouKI siK h

a

a

«»t

Hiil in

ilsell

Ininu-present

Ih*

none

ol these cases

"lonstitiiteil" In this

we oiue a^aln

it

liitlerenee,

what was

reinincleii us of

ol

()nl>

?

self-c«>nscious)

refer to the semiolnuu.il

the pla\ of linguistic or semiological differance Hut

not

is

function

a

of

the

This implies that the sub|ect sell-klentilN

of

,

of the lan^aia^ e.

onK

He becomes

a

In coiitormini; his speech

"creaiiuu. " e\en in the atore-

in the a toresaul

saul "transgression"

to the

system

of linjiuistic

prescriptions taken as the s\siem of clifterences, or

formmi:

the general law of differance, b\ conlaw

to that

it

If,

can produce

all

word

to

of

effects."^

its

is

ne-

be intelligible and so

by hypothesis, we maintain the

oppos-

be not onl> the pla\ of differences within the

language but the relation of siK-ech to language, the detour by which

I

the silent token

I

must

also pass in order to speak,

must

give,

which holds

well for linguistics in the strict sense as

general semiology;

it

dictates

it

just as

does for

the relations be-

all

the subject before speech or

Such

question therefore supposes that prior to

a

signs and outside them, and excluding cvcr>' trace

and differance, something such as consciousness possible

the distribution of

presence.

to suggest that this difference within

is

fications

of

presence.

And

presentation.

ment

The

of an\ cotlc

draw

at

in

is

consciousness has never

thus means if

scribed

a privilege

it,

accorded to the present; and

transcendental

the is

described

in

temporality

power of synthesis and of the

the

presupposes

a

This privilege

de-limit

also

retention and protention of differ-

in the

is

language

such

of con-

depth, as Husserl de-

is

always accorded

the ether of metaphysics, the

Ncry element of our thought insofar as

which implies

of forms

self-

presence. The privilege accorded to consciousness

up

a pla>

for

called

been able to be evinced otherwise than as

use of language or the employ-

with no determined or invariable substratum

is

not and ne\er has been conceivable

oNSUi, etc., so the subject as

keeping with

another level of his

holds

without reference to presence as hypokeimenon or

to the "living present."

to

modi-

subjecti\e existence in general. Just as the category

of subject

language, forbids the essential dissociation between

wanted

what

consciousness also holds here for what

incessant gathering-up of traces

traditit)n,

in the very

in all its

conceivable only as self-presence, a sclf-

is

language, and in the relation between speech antl

speech and writing that Saussure,

its

What

consciousness.'

form of "meaning"^" consciousness

sciousness

have tried

What then

does "consciousness" mean? .Most often

message and the particular code, I

signs in space and in the

its

world, consciousness can gather itself up in

own

is

supp«)ses, moreoNcr, that, even before

It

e\en

I'.lsewhere

signs, a sub)ecl's

ness-

tween usage and the formal schema, between the etc.

its

self-presence in a silent and intuiti\e consciouv-

perceptiun strict

between speech and language, then difference

ition will

which Saussure

languaire

of

"language without speech." "Language

cessary tor the spoken that

(»f

inscnheil in the laniiuajje, that

"funcpon"

at least to

Kclf-

preseni, insofar as he sjK'aks or signifies, except for

can we not CJinceive of a presence and self-pre»encc

even conscious

is

sptaiim; su bject

calls

entering into the

that Saiissure in particular

it

ilitterences|

(self-ulentical or

cNen

tmU by

In this sense, certainly, ihe

Iha! "lan^^uage (which consists

s|H"akinji suhiect "

he^is g

of differences

speaking or signifying sub|eci would not be

Jillerance

Now

b\ s|H'ech or other signs)

s\stem

a

of

metaph\sics.

closure

it

We

is

caught

can only

today by evoking this

import of presence, which Heidegger has shown to

be the onto-theological determination of being.

ences, a spacing and temporalizing, a play of traces.

This play must be

a sort

of inscription prior to

writing, a protowriting without a present origin,

without an anhJ.

From

crossing-out of the

t/nZ/t-

this

comes the systematic

and the transformation of

^"'

In

Of Crammoti)ln^)\ nerrida argues

attempt to replace the mediac> of written signs with the (imagined) immediate presence of the speaker.

general semiology into a grammaiology, the latter

^"

performing

Jirc (litcrallv, to want-to-sav).

a critical

work upon everything within

that writing has

been reduced by most philosophers to speech, out of an

The French

for

"meaning"

is,

instructively, louloir-

Jacques Derrida Therefore, in evoking this import of presence, by

an examination which would have to be of

a quite

system of reduction or adiaphoristic repression? Follow ing the same logic - logic

-

itself

not exclude the fact that philosophy lives

of this form or epoch of presence in general, that

Jrom differance, that

is,

thereby blinds

it

does

this

pecuHar nature, we question the absolute privilege

and

in

itself to

The same

the

consciousness as meaning [vouloir-dire] in self-

same, which

is

pre-

presence.

cisely differance (with an a), as the diverted

and

We

come

thus

- and,

to posit presence

in par-

ticular, consciousness, the being-next-to-itself

of

consciousness - no longer as the absolutely matrical

form of being but

as a

"effect." Presence

is

within a system which

is

but that of differance; ition

between

it

no longer

that of presence

no more allows the oppos-

and passivity than that be-

activity

tween cause and

"determination" and an determination and effect

a

and

effect or in-determination

not the identical.

is

equivocal passage from one difference to another,

from one term of the opposition could thus take up

which philosophy our language

one of the terms appears as the differance of

the other, the other as "differed" within the sys-

tematic ordering of the same

from the

that even to designate consciousness as an effect or

concept

as

determination - for strategic reasons, reasons that

differing-differed

can be more or

differing

etc.

This system

-

continue to operate

to

is

of such a kind

considered and system-

less clearly

ascertained

atically

is

according to the vocabulary of that very thing to

be de-limited.

gerian, this

and

physis

w as

and Freud's move,

also Nietzsche's

both of whom, as we know, and often in

a very

similar way, questioned the self-assured certitude

of consciousness.

And

is it

differed-differing

the intelligible as

intuition,

mind

matter;

as

-

techne,

-

"same"

as

life

differed-

culture as differed-differing nature;

life;

fiomos, society,

is

other than

freedom, history,

as physis differed or physis differing:

physis in differance).^'' this

(e.g.,

sensible, as sensible differed; the

the terms designating what

all

spirit, etc.

Before being so radically and expressly Heideg-

not in order to see opposition

vanish but to see the emergence of a necessity such that

differing

determination

We

constructed, and from which

is

lives,

to the other.

the coupled oppositions on

all

out of the unfolding of

It is

sameness of

as differance that the

difference and of repetition

presented in the

is

eternal return.

not remarkable that both

In Nietzsche, these are so

many themes

that can

of them did this by starting out with the theme of

be related with the kind of symptomatology that

differance?

alw ays serves to diagnose the evasions and ruses of

This theme appears almost work,

on

at

the

most

this here;

I

crucial places.

literally I

shall not

shall only recall that for

"the important main activity that consciousness

is

in

expand

Nietzsche

unconscious" and

the effect of forces

is

their

whose

essence, ways, and modalities are not peculiar to it.

Now

force itself is never present;

it is

only a play

anything disguised in

differance.

its

Or

again, these

terms can be related with the entire thematics of active interpretation,

which substitutes an inces-

sant deciphering for the disclosure of truth as a

presentation of the thing itself in

W hat results

is

a cipher

system of ciphers that

w ithout is

its

presence, etc.

truth, or at least a

not dominated by truth

which only then becomes

of differences and quantities. There would be no

value,

force in general without the difference between

understood, inscribed, and circumscribed.

forces;

and here the difference

more than the content of absolute magnitude

We

in quantity counts

quantity,

more than

the

(in

a function that

is

shall therefore call differance this "active"

movement) discord of the

different forces

and

of the differences between forces w hich Nietzsche

itself.

opposes to the entire system of metaphysical gramQuantity

itself therefore is

the difference in quantity.

quantity

is

if

we

grant

To

in

difference in

fancy two equal forces,

them opposing

an approximate and crude

dream

The

which

life

is

directions,

is

illusion, a statistical

immersed, but which

chemistry dispels.^

Is

mar, wherever that system controls culture, philosophy, and science.

the essence of force, the relation of

force with force.

even

not separable from

historically significant that this diaphoris-

understood as an energetics or an economy of

up

forces, set

a

to question the

qua consciousness,

is

also

primacy of presence

the major theme of

Freud's thought; in his work we find another diaphoristics,

not the w hole thought of Nietzsche a critique of

philosophy as active indifference to difference, as

It is

tics,

^^

Physis

(that

is,

both in the form of a theory of ciphers or

is

nature; techue

is

art or craft;

social or conventional law).

nomos

is

law

UnWfanCO li.urs .uul uu tiur«riu\

hf

I

aulhoriiN ot ion\iioiiMu-N>

is

t|iii-Nlioiiiiiv;

poiuiiK

llu

i»l

jImjw

Jiul

tirsi

1

he

tN\()

app.irci)(l\ ililtciini

aiKc arc lied together iiisccriuhihiN,

as

.1

onU

shall rciall

I

leie

I

(.oiuuM

In

trace (Spur), ol tai ililalion

ot

{Hahrium;), ot Itincs

laiiliiation arc, as

«>t

we

on the

toiu h

on the \erN enigma

thai

cept I

loleraiion ol unplcaturr a«

iiulimf

loiiw'

rojil

(

luluhuf') to

pleastiK

as ilciour, iULin. rcla\, ri-

I

step on the

j

gainin); %jiiHlactioii

ilcMulion. itiaslcni.

ihsliiulion,

scr\c. ttmponihzin^

ol ililtci

thwrv: dittcnng

in I'rciuhan

ami lU•lcrrm^

$/>4«»\sibiliiirN ol

aiul the lein|xirar\

llTllUl.ll

nun

ot sun.t.ti

III

luiinlH-r ol

ilil-

carK as

we have

We must I

ol

obscurity,

on ho\% the con-

diN ided b> a strange separation.

is

it

|Niint ol greatest

ot ilillerancc.

not hasten to

make

a

decision kmi quickly.

low can we conceive ot ilitlerance as a sNsienutic

the com|H)siHon ol ihc I.nlinirf, mscparahic Irnm

iletour

the concept tililiflercnce/" The origin ol niemory

always aims

which, within the element

ol

the same,

either finding again the pleasure or

at

nieniorv in general (con-

the presence that had Ix-en deterred b\ (conscious

scious or unconscious) can only be described b\

or unconsci(uis) calculation, and, at the same lime,

and

ps\chc as

ol the

faking

intt>

accnuni the ihllerence betueen the

thresholds,

cilitation

There

no

is

a trace

conscious traces ami

{Xit-Jtrsihri/t)

of difTerance, !M>lloN\ing

m

schema

that

described as an ettbrt

ot" lite

And

economy

is

all

the conceptual oppos-

like

one

is

movements

ot a detour,

The one

is

only

the one ditTering from

the

the other in ditterance, the one

the ditterance trom the other. Kvery apparently

rigorous and irreducible opposition (tor example, that

between the secondary and primary)

said to be, at

one time or another,

fiction." In this

way

again, tor

thus

is

a "theoretical

example (but such

the other hanil, conceive of ditter-

impossible presence, as an

.in

expeiuliiure without reserve, as

an

presence,

irreversible

irreparable loss

.\u

wearing-down

energy, or indeed as a death instinct and

that

is

It

evident

it

evidence

is

up

it.self

system and nonsystem, the same and the abso-

lutely other, etc.,

cannot be c«)nceived together. inconceivable factor, must

If ditterance is this

not perhaps hasten to

make

it

quickly dissipate dissipate

we know

mirage character and

since

well

necessity,

its

with the

it

we

evident, to bring

into the philosophical element of evidence,

ity,

of

a relation

to the absolutely other that apparently breaks

any economy.'

is

to protect itselt hy

ot ditTerance.

the other deterred, I'he

the trace

turrow Freudian thought relate each

concept to the other

other.

ot

dangerous investment, by constituting

a reserve {I omit).

within the

guides

continually

movement

itions that

moments

sense ot "placing on reserve."

in the

I'Veud's thinking, the

deferring the

the production

the process ol inscription

in

how can we. on

ance as the relation to

ol

can also be interpreted as

a

la-

e\plicitl\.

without (.liMerencc ami no

All the ditlerences in\ol\ed

2.

saNs

IVeuiI

as

lacilitatioii

dillerence without

ot

a

infallibility

it

and thus illogical-

of the calculus

we have recogni/ed

its

place,

and function within the structure of dif-

ferance? \\ hat would be accounted tor philosophically

here has already been taken into account in the

system of ditterance as I

have tried elsewhere,

indicate

it

here being calculated.

is

in a

reading of Bataille,^ to

w hat might be the establishment of a rigor-

new sense "scientitlc," relating of a economy" one having nothing to do

ous, and in a "restricted

an example covers everything or communicates

with an unreserved expenditure, with death, with

with everything), the ditTerence between the pleas-

being exposed to nonsense,

ure principle and the reality principle

economy"

fcrance

Beyond

as

detour

(Aujuhichcn,

the Pleasure Pntuiple,

is

only dif-

Aufuhuh).

In

Freud w rites:

\\\\M

(>l

the influence of the ego's instincts of

self-preservation, the pleasure principle

placed

by the

reality

principle does not

principle.

demands and

is

re-

latter

abandon the intention of

ultimately obtaining pleasure, but less

This

it

neverthe-

carries into eltect the post-

Freud's EntwurfEiner Psychologies published lish as Project for a Scientific Psycholog)'.

unreserved.^'"

ditterance that fails to

Under

is

in

Kng-

a

-

etc.

to a "general

or system that, so to speak, takes account

is

It

is a

relation

accounted for and

be accounted

tor,

vv

pure presence, without

currence of absolute

loss,

a

between

a

ditterance that

here the establishment of loss, is

one with the oc-

with death. Hv establish-

ing this relation between a restricted and a general

system,

we

shift

and recommence the very project

of philosophy under the privileged heading of Heirelianism.

''"

George

and erotic

Bataille (1897

writer.

1%2), French philosopher

Jacques Derrida no way

zons of modified presents - past or future - but

implies that the deferred presence can always be

with a "past" that has never been nor will ever be

The economic character of differance recovered, that

it

in

simply amounts to an investment

and without

that only temporarily

presentation of presence, that

loss delays the

the perception of

is,

whose "future"

present,

reproduced trace

in the

will

never be produced or

form of presence. The concept of

therefore incommensurate with that of re-

is

gain or the gain of perception. Contrary to the

tention, that of the becoming-past of what

metaphysical, dialectical, and ''Hegelian" inter-

present.

movement of differance, game where whoever loses wins

The

had been - nor,

trace cannot be conceived

- on the

pretation of the economic

therefore, can differance

we must admit

the present or the presence of the present.

a

and where one wins and

somehow

designates (in ways

J

1

particular present remains hidden or

the trace and the enigma of absolute alterity, that

this is

the Other. At least within these limits, and

absent, but because differance holds us in a relation

is,

with what exceeds (though we necessarily

from

fail

to

recognize this) the alternative of presence or ab-

A

sence.

Emmanuel Levinas

that are, to be sure, not those of psychoanalysis)

and irreducibly withheld,

definitively a

past that has never been present: with this

formula

not

diverted presentation continues to be

because

A

loses each time. If the

basis of either

certain alterity

- Freud

gives

-

physical name, the unconscious

is

it

a

meta-

definitively

this point

of view, the thought of differance

implies the whole critique of classical ontologv

And

undertaken by Levinas.

the concept of trace,

of differance, forms - across these differ-

like that

taken away from every process of presentation in

ent traces and through these differences between

which we would demand

traces,

for

be shown forth in

to

it

person. In this context and under this heading, the

unconscious

we know,

not, as

is

and potential self-presence.

no doubt means but also that

it

that

it is

a

hidden, virtual,

differed

It is

- which

woven out of differences,

sends out, that

sentatives or proxies; but there

no chance that the

is

mandating subject "exists" somewhere, that present or

is

and

"itself,"

still

become conscious. In

will

dications) ates

less

-

the network that

sums up and perme-

our "epoch" as the de-limitation of ontology

(of presence).

The

delegates, repre-

it

understood by Nietzsche, Freud, and

as

Levinas (these "authors' names" serve only as in-

ontology of presence

the ontology of

is

beings and beingness. Everywhere, the dominance

by differance -

it

is

of beings

chance that

it

that sollicitare means, in old Latin, to shake

this sense, contrary to

make

to

is

solicited

the whole tremble.

What

is

in the sense all

over,

questioned by

the terms of an old debate, strongly symptomatic of

the thought of differance, therefore,

the metaphysical investments

mination of being in presence, or in beingness.

it

has always as-

sumed, the "unconscious" can no more be classed as a

"thing" than as anything

else;

it is

no more of a

thing than an implicit or masked consciousness.

This

radical alterity,

mode

of presence,

aftereffects,

is

removed from every possible characterized by irreducible

by delayed

order to describe

effects. In

Such

a question

could not arise and be understood

opening up somewhere. The this is that differance

however

present,

transcendent one makes

scious" traces (there are no "conscious" traces), the

any authority.

language of presence or absence, the metaphysical

Not only

speech of phenomenology,

ance

in principle inad-

The

structure of delay {retardement: Nachtrd-

Freud

talks

about indeed prohibits

our taking temporalization (temporalizing) to be simple dialectical

complication

a

of the

present;

the style of transcendental

phenom-

rather, this

is

enology.

describes the living present as a prim-

It

and incessant synthesis that

back upon

sembling tional

itself,

self,

back upon

its

is

constantly led

assembled and as-

by retentional traces and proten-

openings.

With

the

alterity

of

the

"unconscious," we have to deal not with the hori-

ily

consequence of is

not a being-

It is

it.

It

commands

and nowhere does

it

name of

it

a

in us that desires a realm,

Does

this

And

it

is

realm that, believing one

ascend to the capital

wanting

is

threatening and necessar-

dreaded by everything

for

letter.

even the subversion of every realm. This

always in the

it

exercise

there no realm of differance, but differ-

the past or future presence of a realm.

sees

nothing,

it

not marked by a capital

obviously what makes

gltchkeit) that

ordial

is

is

first

not. It

is

excellent, unique, principal, or

rules over nothing,

is

the deter-

without the difference between Being and beings

them, in order to read the traces of the "uncon-

equate.

is

letter,

one can reproach

to rule.

mean, then, that differance finds

its

place within the spread of the ontic-ontological difference, as

it is

ceives itself within

conceived, as the "epoch" conit,

and particularly "across" the

Heideggerian meditation, which cannot be gotten around."'

'

"Dtft^raneB" here

1

no

IS

answer

sinipli-

one pjriuuljr

In

sure, hut

lit

siuh

4

And

he hisioraul jiuI e|>4Kh4i Jfftinymrni ol

I

nurks the woirmtrnl

The a

ut iHih drplovnu-nt

ftmt or iruth of IJeing. the iletennnuiion

wilhm

hon/on

the

ol

ol ihlier-

tlillereme

ance as oniicontol(>uit.al ihllereiue concei\etl

the question ol

AU iMtr.imei.iplu steal cflccf of dilTer-

still

ance' Perhaps the ileploMnent oldiHerance

onh the we must

truth

m

to think this unht-iirJ

trs

which

(the thought ol

Western

log«»s), as

is

Jiitphertin.^^"'

committed ilsell

is

it

thought, this

Heing

of

prmluceil across the

trtu

Here wc

"the hi»tor> of philosophy.**

rigorouK way

lis tullv

can nc\cr present

manifest

mental ontology to phenomenolo)(y ance.

the

trace

presenting

soumled

Ix-comes

it

pyramid

its

iNe traces

as such, only b\ dissimu-

(»f

lating itself in beings; thus, in a particular

strange way, dif'ferance

(is)

m

ellaced.

In

heing

in differance.

movement

of this

metaphvsical speech,

in

contemporary

the

in

i.e

talk

about

the

through the \arious at-

,

at

(Nietzsche, l-'reud, Ixvi-

and particularly

in

Heidegger's work

nas)

The

provokes us to question the essence of

latter

the present, the presence of the present

What

and \er\

"older" than the onto-

I.ikc diflTcr-

.

tempts we have l,

belongs

xs

It

tunda-

ties

dies awav, like the writing ol the a,

It

inscribing

We

itself

can

never presented as such

is

call

of epochality

phenomenon

its

what |>roloundl\

trace that lies Ih*n onil

Then ue could no longer even

an "e|"M>ch," lor the ct>ncept

a trace that

can ne\er 4p|>e4r and

is.

m

such

as

itsell

WscM

\\

it

ne\er be presented, that

especiallN

within histor> undersi(M>d as the histor) of Heing.

%*tc%

M»mrihing that

a irate of

It i»

ilMrIf,

the

is

nhaiorr

the iraic ol

allow

nuist

\\r%icrn %|tccih. and lUA

ol

ol

t>c\oiul the iruth o| Bcin|< lo 4p|>cjr/dicar in

to the (ireco-

onh one epoch

norm

•« the

in (he

\%\\\\

of

dilterence,

onl(»logical

it

itf

not

is

IVrhaps

the e|>4K.halitN ol Iteing

tracing, namely, that the historN

silent

ol

thought that concei\cs the

>el, IS nt»l the

Bcinjf

lo (k

is,

Itcing or ot the oniologuul thlierenee

ihlierance

wrvn

qucsiion

ilillcraiur

rcs|K-ci,

What

is

to

it

conceive the

presence'

its

us consider,

Let

U>gical difference or the truth of Being. In this age

the present.'

is

present in

example, the

for

1*^^ text

entitled "I)er

Spruch des Anaximander."^"* Hei-

longer belongs to the horizon of Being but one

degger there

recalls that

whose sense of

forgets about

it

can be called the play

play;

is a

it

sense and is

is

ik'ing

of traces.

is

It is

borne and bound by

this

no

play of traces or differance that has

not, a play that does not belong.

no support

to

is

beings:

But the point of Being be the Being

set in

play.

this

perhaps

It is

in this

way

itself,

of what

becomes

already

is

in

difference with

lost as a trace in

difficult

determining the

task,

task

only

whose

logos, that

is,

refuses to be stopped and ality

up

to give

nor

examined

as the

of Being and ontological difference,

is it

in

this passage

is

it.

c'tKf

it

and

.Since the

.

.

The

.

des Anwesens),

and

the

of lieint;

IS

metaphysics

But with the

not

the simple relation

(Anwesen und

ytrcsent

dawn,

being-pre.\t'w/ are

pre.\£7/(r

of metaphysics,

it

seems

that prei-

each separately some-

becomes

itself a

essence of presence (Das liesen

and thus the difference between

present,

is

forgotten. The forget tmt^

the Jon;etlini! of the di/Jerenee between

Bemv and hein^s. ^"^ Greet:

Ditfering.

and

fail

reading

wherever

pre.wwtc-

is

prc5f«/.

we must stay within the difficult) of this we must repeat this passage in a rigorous

to

(des

prejfffitv

Aniresen).

thing. Imperceptibly, presence

passage;

contrary,

from

preicw/

dem

epoch-

On

is

form of

essence of this provenance

the

is

.irnrc'St'udi-ni).

through the truth of Being,

to recognize the incessant necessity for

aiis

neither

any way to "crilici/e," "contest," or

Jes Seins)

linguistic

provenance remains hidden (irrAwrefw) Not

between

own

for a difTerance so violent that

the

thought out, but neither

statement has remained nearly inaudible. .\nd to

prepare ourselves for venturing bcNond our

Sache

The

unfolding of these two, the essence (Wesen) of this

a

of

Inwesenden

To think through the ontological difference a

{die

beings.

enigmatic and multivalent genitive desig-

htmft)

itself,

dhipherein as ontological difference.

doubtless remains

mologico-le\ical nature.

The

choice of

word "sustaining use" derives from an ante-

the

cedent /riiWNlation {L'hcrsct/xn) of the thought

attempts to conceive difference

that

ployment of Iking {tm

\S

in the

esen des Seins)

de-

toward

the historical beginning of the forgetting of

The word

Being.

thought

to

the

names

"sustaining use"

in the

apprehension

of Being,

forgetting

trace {Spur) of

a

conceived

in

to

is

toric^al

of Being, in

W estern

unfolding as

of

properl)

what remains

trace that quickls disappears (alihalJ Jcl) into the history

dictated

(Erjahrutii^)

ypzlx

word "sustaining

the

it

prevemc

the ihing's

in ii%

names

mining dillerance and

remains

that

of

(>1j^

mctaph>M

a

om

receives trom

it

when

particularU mi

IS

x\ xut

m» lar as the\ are names, metaphysical

still,

ence

hat there

invoi\e» differance

it

I'or us. dilTcrancc

aiul all the

This

I

also implies that

neither Iking nor truth to thr

is

writing, insofar a*

are

exMrme

at this |>«Mni

anil present

ihe\ s|x-ak ol deter-

as the difference

between pres-

inwe\cn/ \nweienJ), but already

(

m» when, in the m«»st general wa\,

es|H-ciall\

they speak of determining differance

a.s

the differ-

ence between Being and beings

language'

ilillerent

iniu

or lU appeannf, bui

threatens the juthoritv of ihe ai tuth in general,

there II

up

iimtU lu be taken

lumc

its

esMrnce ol dillcraiue

fyfl Jus Lm-).^-

\iul

mH alkm

ii

the 4i niik of

its

be

to

u.se,"

a

"Older" than Being

name

such

lor

that if

it

is

sional;

it

is

a

itself,

unnamable,

this

we

"alread\

know"

simpK

provi-

not

is

have to

in

liial Hp\/iant--^nd tb^'r r^r^f'dly prn-

existence of immobile forms th at precede the e xter-

"In detestorigo.''^

w hich Schopen-

nal w^rld oj accid£JiLaBd-&uc€#ssiQn^Tbk^sei»ch

image of

mask

it

adequate to

its

necessitates the removal of every

to ultimately disclose an original identity.

of the hereafter?

faith in

invention {Erfindung), a sleight-of-hand, an artifice

a primordial truth fully

nature, and

How ever,

belongs, very simply, to an

is

directed to "that which was already there," the

hauer located in a particular metaphysical sentiment It

these w orks had been

that at this point in the

for instance,

where should we seek

Ursprung),

all

tected identities, because this search ass umes the

narrow-minded conclusions. Pudenda

in

of

original basis (Ursprung) of morality,

a foundation sought after since Plato?

Or

It

used in an

also

and deceptive manner. In what,

do we find the

able,

yet, the

Ursprung.^

in opposition to

paragraph of Human, All Too

sought by metaphysics

ironic

And

Nietzsche reverts,

Herkunft.^

The

to designate a

if

the genealogist refuses to extend his

metaphysics,

findsjha t^there

is

if

he listens

t

o history, he

"something altogether differen t"

behi nd things: not a timeless and e ssential secret Foucault

German (genesis);

is

terms:

distinguishing a series of overlapping

Lrspnoig (source, origin);

Herkunft

(descent);

Geburt (birth).

Anfang means "beginning." '

Shameful

Ahkunft (lineage);

and

essence w as fabricated in a piecemeal fashion from alien forms.

learns that

it

Examining the history of reason, he was born

in

origin.

Black magician.

,

but the secret that they have no essence or that their

Entstehung

^"

Hypotheses of descent.

an altogether "reasonable"

.

"NJet/sche. Genealogy. History' triMU chjiKr.^ iIcmiIkhi to irutti Jiul (hi

Ijshuiii

precision ul \c'icniiric mcthiHlH antM: Ironi (hr passion

•>!

siholufN. their rcviprmal hatrcii. then liiut-

ujI aiul iinenihng ihsiuvsKMis, aiul their spirit ol the |K-r\4tnal conthits thji slnwK

com|>ciition tor^cil

|>iiii...

the \\ej|>«»n\ ol reason

lo^al aiuKsis shows

that the

con

\v:

at

an >.\\

>>r

alta chment to ^H•ln^ anti truth

the

-•

-,1

ahK

It

onum.

iheir

not the iiukiI-

is

is

We

"

in the

shadowless

morning

comes

it

before the body, before the world and time; associated with the gods, and

story

its

is

it

always

is

as a theogony. liut historical beginnings are

lowly: not in the sense ol

modest or discreel

like the

steps ol a dove, but derisive and ironic, capable of

"We

undoing every infatuation.

wished to awaken

the feeling of man's sovereignty by

divine birth: this path

monkev stands

is

Man

the entrance.

at

showing

now forbidden,

contradicted on ,

A

we

had

v*e are barely

shadow." when

within hiv-

a histor>

no longer seems

light

g enealog\ of values, moralits, asceticisn i

thei r "origins,

ne\er lontuse "

will

with

itself

On

.

onc e unmasked^

made

is

to go,

1

accompanv

w ill be scrupiiT m ; ^- •

I t

heir jxttv malice

will await

it

of the o ther. Wherever

a s the face it

will not

be reticent

his

ents to escape from a labvrinth where no truth had

ever detained them. The genealogist needs historv

oriirinated

chimeras

lo dispel the

of an error

wi£hjijmm.ii,y o\rr his future de\r| ^)pmcnt: and

Ihe

ii

re|ectedasa useless notion, superfluous,

ti\e, finalh

anil

|xrlection,

I'all.

world where

was gi\en the double roleot cooMjIation and impcra-

from which

light ol a first

in >«hich

to an unattainable

of piei\

Its

the hands ol a

The origin alwa>s precedes the

sung

withdrawn

men

b\

tor\

their greatest

ilMrIf

(initialK nuile aNailable to the wise, then

and

tend to think that

manner

dcvrloprd

snUin-

most precious and essential

m

'

if

no more than

to iaujjh at the

when ihey emerged dazzling from t)r

at

i

exlen^ion whi ch arises from the

(hint^s are

moment «>r hirth Is the moment ol

creator

toinu

'

appropnalr% to rctuir error and op|Misc

to ap|)carancr, the

It

historN

how

the

this

is

t

was hi

il

Moret)\cr, ihc very qursiion ot truth, the

tor>

is

the chssension ol

i'helo ln| >>ri^Mn

orijtin.

ni etaphNsicai

tK-het that

is

it

ha

\S

refuted because

Itc

M>rf ol crrtK thji

unalterable form in the loiiK bakiii.

right

his

ol

r«M»i

lannot

ukm

li\cd JonK cnou|(h fWJt lo he

undoubirdi\ the

\%

i-

dispant >

IS

Ilistorx also teaches

nilicsolthe

the

bcimiuiii^t*!^ things 't

litlur (hi Hi's

at

n.

liul Uitl tlUI-

ila.

)f "a

,..

wr fu\c

truthful,

in."" Truth

is

is

the equivalent of stock or descent,

it

the ancient affiliation to a group, sustained by

the bonds of bIoelie\e, in

turning

in

their

.ilvuii

jn\ esent, that the

and

bfxly obeys the exclusise laws o! physiology that

it

escmiH-s the intluence of historN, but this t«M)

The KkIn

IS false.

regimes; rest,

its

it

niolileil b\ a great

is

rhMhms

broken down In the

is

and holida>s;

it

poisoned by

is

nian\ distinct

work,

ot

t(H>d or \alues,

through eating habits or moral laws;

nioNenirni or

luiural pnKcik»

a

draU with

tory, ho%kc%rr.

"Kllcx-tuc" his-

ocnu

unique iharactrrisi

mtfHi

\n e\eni.

lestjiions

sion, a trejl\

,

lmn%

in

ui ihcir

immI aiulr riuni

(.1*1

not a

t%

.

a reign, or a baiiie,

«:


primor-

of a

not that of a

is

conclusion, for they always appear through the singular randomness of e\ents.

The

spun entircK b>

(Christian world,

inverse

the

()f

a divine spider,

and different from the

w

knows only one kmg-

it

constructs

the world of effective history

resistances.'^ "Ktfective" hisiorv differs

from trad-

dom, without providence or final cause, where there is onK "the iron hand of necessit) shaking

itional history in

in

man

being without constants. Nothing

not even his body

is

sufficiently stable

t«)

serve as the basis for self-recognition or for under-

The

standing other men. constructing

a

traditional devices for

c«»mprehensi\c view of historx and

and continuous

for retracing the past as a patient

development must be systematically dismantled. Necessarily,

encourage

we must dismiss the

consoling

those tendencies that

of recognitions.

play

Knowledge, even under the banner of docs not depend on "rediscovery," and

it

hisior\,

emphatic-

excludes the "rediscovery of ourselves." His-

ally

tory

becomes "effective"

the degree

to

that

introduces discontinuitN into our very being divides our emotions,

as

against

it

itself to

of

life

and nature, and

be transported by

toward a millenial ending. itional

a It

it

will not

uproot

foundations and relentlessly disrupt

tended continuity. This

is

permit

trad-

its

its

because know ledge

pre-

is

not

made for understanding; it is made for cutting. From these observations, we can grasp the particular trails of historical

understood

it

- the

meaning

as Nietzsche

sense w hich opposes

attempt

master chance through

to

but raising the stakes in e\er>

power, and giving chance.

The world we know

'

is

the

to

will

of an even greater

rise to the risk

not this ultimateU

simple configuration where events are reduced to accentuate their essential or their a

initial

and

traits, their final

final \alue.

On

profusion of entangled esents.

meaning,

the contrary, If

it

is

it

appears as

a

"marvelous motley, profound and toialh mc-aningf

ul," this

is

because

it

began and continues

its

secret

ta.sms."'^

voiceless obstinac> will

not simply the

is

lots,

it

fective" history deprives the self of the reassuring stabilit)

Clhance

drawing of

existence through a "host of errors and phan-

"Ef-

itself.

'

it

dramatizes our instincts,

multiplies our body and sets

the dice-box of chance."

"w irklichc

We

want historians

that the present rests

immutable

necessities.

confirms our existence without

a

landmark or

l.tfective history

to

confirm our

belief

upon profound intentions and But the true

historical sense

among count lc*ss a

lost

events,

point of reference.

can also invert the relation.ship

that traditional history, in its

dependence on meta-

ph>sics, establishes between proximity and distance.

The

latter is

distances and

given to a contemplation of

heights:

the

noblest

highest forms, the most abstract individualities.

It

periods,

idc-as,

the

the purest

accomplishes this by getting as

near as possible, placing

itself at

the foot of

its

famous

Historic" to traditional history. I'he former trans-

mountain peaks,

poses the relationship ordinarily established be-

perspective of frogs. Effective historx, on the other

tween the eruption of an event and necessary

hand, shortens

continuity.

.\n

entire historical

logical or rationalistic) lar

aims

at

tradition

(theo-

dissolving the singu-

event into an ideal continuity - as a teleologic-al

at

its

the risk of adopting the

vision to those things nearest to

it

the body, the nervous system, nutrition, digestion,

and energies;

and

if

it

it

unearths the periods of decadence

chances upon

lofty

epochs,

it

is

w iih the

(55)

Michel Foucault suspicion - not vindictive but joyous - of finding a

barbarous and shameful confusion. looking down, so long as

understood that

it is

from above and descends

it

looks

to seize the various per-

spectives, to disclose dispersions

and differences,

leave things undisturbed in their

and

has no fear of

It

to

own dimension

ning that the

manner

furthest from themselves, the grovelling

which they approach the metaphysicians

promising distance

this

who proclaim

afterlife, situated at a

in

(like

the existence of an

distance from this world, as a

The

w ho looks

a doctor

closely,

diagnosis and to state

more

sense has

philosophy; and

in it

approach similar to that of

who plunges

to

difference).

Historical

its

common

make

a

with medicine than

should not surprise us that

Nietzsche occasionally employs the phrase "histor-

and physiologically,"

ically

losopher's idiosyncrasies

is

since a

among

the phi-

complete denial of the

body. This includes, as well, "the absence of histor-

is

to trace their

common

descent (Herkunft) of the historian

equivocal: he history

is

to

of humble birth.

is

be w ithout choice:

A it

un-

is

characteristic of

encourages thor-

ough understanding and excludes quahtative judgments - a sensitivity to all things without distinction, a

antly,

but in an abrupt dispossession, so as

at a distance (an

it

arose simultaneously to follow their

genealogy.

what

closest,

They

flower.

ences.

is

which the symptoms of sickness

in

separate ways, but our task

promise of their reward). Effective history studies

to seize

impure and confused, share

similarly

can be recognized as well as the seed of an exquisite

intensity. It reverses the surreptitious practice

of historians, their pretension to examine things

is

same sign

comprehensive view excluding

Nothing must escape

differ-

more import-

and,

it

nothing must be excluded. Historians argue

that this proves their tact

and discretion. After

what right have they

impose

preferences

when

to

they seek to determine what ac-

occurred in the

tually

all,

and

their tastes

Their mistake

past.-'

to

is

exhibit a total lack of taste, the kind of crudeness

becomes smug

that

in the

presence of the

loftiest

elements and finds satisfaction in reducing them to

The

size.

historian

insensitive to the

is

most

dis-

gusting things; or rather, he especially enjoys those

hatred for the idea of development,

things that should be repugnant to him. His appar-

Egyptianism," the obstinate "placing of conclu-

ent serenity follows from his concerted avoidance

ical sense, a

sions at the beginning," of

"making

last

things

History has a more important task than to

first."

of the exceptional and his reduction of all things to

common

lowest

the

denominator.

Nothing

is

be a handmaiden to philosophy, to recount the

allowed to stand above him; and underlying his

necessary birth of truth and

desire for total

become

final trait

ation of

it

should

heights and degenerations, poisons and

failings,

antidotes. Its task

The

values;

knowledge of energies and

a differential

is

to

become

a curative science.

of effective history

know ledge

is its

What

as perspective. Historians take

And

discourse strongly resembles the demago-

its

"No

gue's refrain:

one

you who are good -

and

place, their preferences in a controversy

time

- the

meticulous erudition,

tive

and acknowledges

perception

is

system of

its

injustice. Its

slanted, being a deliberate appraisal,

affirmation, or negation;

it

reaches the lingering and

It is

not given to a discreet effacement before

the objects

it

observes and does not submit

their processes; nor does

equal weight to

its

own

it

seek laws, since

sight

Through

this historical sense,

to create

its

own

and

itself to it

gives

to its objects.

know ledge

is

allow ed

genealogy in the act of cognition;

and "wirkliche Historic" composes

a

genealogy of

is

ations

greater than you and

to get the better of

is

evil."

The

you -

historian,

who "No

I

will rid

my

you of your infatu-

and transform the grandeur of history into

pettiness, evil,

and misfortune." The historian's

ancestry goes back to Socrates.

This demagogy, of course, must be masked.

poisonous traces in order to prescribe the best antidote.

the plebs.

greater than your present, and, through

past

version of historical sense

explicit in its perspec-

is

To

functions as his double, can be heard to echo:

unavoidable obstacles of their passion. Nietzsche's is

addressed.^

is it

which reveal

in a particular

comes from the

To whom

anyone who presumes

grounding

It

plebs.""'

unusual pains to erase the elements in their work their

his search for the

is

the source of history.^

is

"

affirm-

knowledge

secrets that belittle everything: "base curiosity."

must hide

its

universals.

As the

truth, law

historian facts,

s

It

mahce under the cloak of demagogue is obliged to invoke

singular

of essences, and eternal necessity, the

must invoke

objectivity, the accuracy of

and the permanence of the

gogue denies the body

past.

The dema-

to secure the sovereignty of a

timeless idea and the historian effaces his proper

history as the vertical projection of its position. 6.

In this context, Nietzsche links historical

sense to the historian's history.

They

share a begin-

^"

"Plebs"

for the

lower

is

short for plebians, an ancient

class.

Roman term

"Niet/»che, Genealogy. History" iiuiixulualitN

hiinscll

cumc

own

loricil

mIcikc his pnlcrciurs

l«>

own

ami

ihaiigi

idles reuth^'"

to

commemorate

a

new

genealogy of history,

own

genea-

Hayrcuth was the honif of (icrman composer Rich-

not continue as a form

ard Waijncr trom 1K72 until his death in 1S8.^, and the

in its

did

its

should adopt, the possibilitN of alternate identities,

going

If this fully represents the

use of

metaph\sical and anthropological model, and con-

and the nature of this scene

to represent a theater;

a

connection to memory,

stronger periods refrained from such exhibitions), is

from

suprahistorical history.

modalities of history. The

before us;

is

striciK anti-Plaionic purposes

have bect)me barbarians with respect to those rare

are spread out

it

to genea-

it

()nl\ then will the historical sense free itself is

lor

the popular asceticism of historians what Plato did

view.

Entstehun^ of history

but

mi.

the part ot wisilom ami adopt an ob|ectiNc |>oint ot

The

his

and Plato could have sei/ed

mloubteilK, he was often templed to do

similar in the

stand these lusttul eunuchs ot

the seductions ol an ascetic ideal;

|>ropcrl\ dnMriltcs

long preparation, hut *

t

where ihe\

where thcN lan also

this Snl\

(

the s|K-vilic nature ol the l.nitirhuni;

belief in immortalit\,

ot

whiih

this nio\enieni

is

an

belief in Pnivulence. in final causes

ascetics

It

klAgr'

turned 4Kain%t

Jkrn\

ot

relationships

the

in\erts

historians

a sii|H-rior

his inilividual

*>!

will disclose the

eternal will in hisoh|ect ol siiuh

he

will,

And

«amr

ihr

right, a

of demagogic or religious knowledge.-

How

could

it

center of the cult that surrounded him.

(^4D

Michel Foucault afterlife;

they were free, as well, to be transformed

empty

into street-vendors of

know what

historian, the genealogist, will

He

of this masquerade. enjoy

ade to

will not

on the contrary, he

it;

its

The new

identities.

will

make

to

be too serious to

push the masquer-

and prepare the great carnival of

limit

No

time where masks are constantly reappearing.

longer the identification of our faint individuality

with the solid identities of the past, but our "unrealization"

through the excessive choice of identities

- Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Caesar, Jesus, Dio-

commit

discover the roots of our identity but to

does not seek to define our

itself to its dissipation. It

unique threshold of emergence, the homeland to

which metaphysicians promise

make us.

a return;

it

seeks to

of those discontinuities that cross

visible all

"Antiquarian history," according to the Un-

timely Meditations, pursues opposite goals.

the continuities of

soil,

which our present

is

a delicate tries to

manner

seeks

It

language, and urban

life in

rooted and, "by cultivating in

which existed

that

for

all

time,

it

conserve for posterity the conditions under

nysus, and possibly Zarathustra. Taking up these

which we were born."

masks, revitalizing the buffoonery of history, we

objected to in the Meditations because

adopt an identity whose unreality surpasses that

block creativity in support of the laws of

This type of history was it

tended to fidelity.

the parodic double of what the

Somewhat later - and already in Human, All Too Human - Nietzsche reconsiders the task of the antiquarian, but with an altogether different emphasis. If genealogy in its own right gives rise to

second of the Untimely Meditations called "monu-

questions concerning our native land, native lan-

God who

of

discover a realm where originality as parodists of history

we recognize

this,

we can

started the charade. ''Perhaps,

mental history":

again possible

is

and buffoons of God."

^

In

history given to reestablishing

a

guage, or the laws that govern us,

the high points of historical development and their

to reveal the

maintenance

by the

in a perpetual presence, given to the

recovery of works, actions, and creations through

monogram

the

is

any form of

inhibit the formation of

self,

intention

its

heterogenous systems which, masked

identity.

The

of their personal essence. But in

third use of history

is

the sacrifice of the

1874, Nietzsche accused this history, one totally

subject of knowledge. In appearance, or rather,

devoted to veneration, of barring access to the

according to the mask

actual intensities

of his

last texts

mental history"

and creations of

life.

The parody

serves to emphasize that ''monuis

parody. Genealogy

itself a

is

history in the form of a concerted carnival.

The second

use of history

sociation of identity. This

rather

weak

identity,

under

is

is

necessary because this

support

to

and

to unify

it is

plural; countless spirits dispute its possession;

a

numerous systems

mask,

is

in itself only a parody:

and compete. The

intersect

But

solely to truth.

generally,

will to

knowledge:

And

in

each of

these souls, history will not discover a forgotten identity, eager to be reborn, but a

complex system

of distinct and multiple elements, unable to be

mastered by the powers of synthesis:

"it is a sign

of superior culture to maintain, in a fully conscious

way, certain phases of

men result

its

evolution which lesser

pass through without thought. is

that

we can understand

those

The

initial

w ho resemble

who

are

happy

we

in return,

are able to separate the phases of our

evolution and consider

them

individually."^^

purpose of history, guided by genealogy,

is

own The

not to

finds that

It

all

discovers

in disturbing discoveries.

torical analysis

reveals that

there

is

no

by which humanity protects

know ledge

all

itself,

The

his-

of this rancorous will to know ledge

right, not

rests

upon

injustice (that

even in the act of know ing,

to

truth or a foundation for truth) and that the instinct for

know ledge

opposed greatly

is

to the

malicious (something murderous,

happiness of mankind). Even in the

expanded form

it

assumes today, the

knowledge does not achieve is

will to

a universal truth;

man

not given an exact and serene mastery of nature.

creates dangers in every area;

And

it

encourages the dangers of research

On

cessary and capable of modification.

more

if,

in their ignorance, against the ef-

fective illusions

us as completely determined systems and as repreto say, as ne-

and

instinct, passion, the inquisitor's

sentative of diverse cultures, that

is

and committed

itself

the violence of a position that sides against those

and delights

mortal ones."^^

examines

devotion, cruel subtlety, and malice.

metaphysicians, to possess in oneself not an immor-

many

if it

these forms and transformations are aspects of the

a position that

soul but

bears, historical conscious-

interrogates the various forms of sci-

it

study of history makes one "happy, unlike the

tal

it

neutral, devoid of passions,

is

entific consciousness in its history,

the systematic dis-

which we attempt

ness

the contrary,

sory defences;

it

it

ceaselessly multiplies the risks, it

breaks

down

illu-

dissolves the unity of the subject;

it

releases those elements of itself that are devoted to its

subversion and destruction. Knowledge does

not slowly detach itself from

its

empirical roots,

6 4 7 5

1

"Nietzsche. Genealogy. History" from

ihc milul lucils

«huh

reason.

ilcMl«»pincnt

\\s

noi

is

to

artisc.

it

(Hire siH-culalion suh|cit nnlv to the

Ikhuhc

ilrnunds of

lonsd-

lo ihc

ticti

lution jiul ait'irnuiion ol j tree suhicil, rjthcr. iTcatCN a proijrcsMxc cnsbNcinrni lo

\iolrniT rificc

meniaiion on oiirseKes/' of

he

I

Ictljjc

own

no

e\tincii»>n

It

ma\

fears noihinii but

tualh perish from this passion Utr knowledge

ihrtmgh passmn, then through weakness

We

be prepared lo slate our choice: do we w ish il>

lo

We

end

in fire

and

light or to

now replace the

sh«»uld

ils

II

not

must

human-

end on the sands?"^

tw«) great

philosophs,

nineteenth-centurN

and the

liberty

problems

on

passed

of

by

with the theme that "to perish through

ledge),

"^" basis of being. a critical

ils

all

procedure, that the will to truth of cognition,

sense of limitations and

all

is

limited

but that

it

claim to truth in

unaNoidable sacrifice of the subject of know-

ledge. "Il

idea

may be

that there remains

which might be made

one prodigious

to prevail over every

other aspiration, which might overcome the most victorious: the idea of

seems indisputable

humanity

that

I

)f

courMr. f hi% problem ha% never

MtJitaliont discussed ihe cnlical

nlittirly

n%

history

ireaiment ot the pa»i. lU

|uhI

decisive culling of the rooU, lU re|ection of inui-

sacrificing itself

new constellation

this

if

It

appeared on the horizon, only the desire for truth.

him with other

man

origins than those in

which he prefers lo see himKelf \iei/-whe. hone\er, reproached crilical history for detaching us fr(»m e\er> real Muirce

moNement Somewhat

and

for sacrificing ihe \er\

of life to the exclusive

we have

later, as

longer

a

it

had

onl\

of

judging the past

we can possess

to

in

refuMrd,

ends in the

It

no

is

name

in the present,

who

risking the destruction of the subject

knowledge

for truth

al first

to altogether different

question

a truth that

concern

seen. \ielzsnAiy.

9

Human. All Too Human,

10 1

12

The Wanderer and

The Wanderer and The Dawn, ¥)

his his

Twilight ol the Idols,

rsprung Jer MoruliSiht-ri

Human, All Too Human, aphorism 92 was

6

lf>,

17)

34.

Shadow,

Shadow,

9. 3.

Cay

The

1.^

comes

5

1 1 1 .

Sietzsche contra Wagner, p. 99.

1

II, 6, 8.

4

Satnie, 110,

13

|

in

in-

1

10.

"How

the w«»rld

lor example. The Gay Science,

Gay

The

1

Beyond Good and The Genealogy,

1

35;

The Genealogy,

Science, 348 9;

1

19

and

t)f

truth be-

a fable."

Till, 200, 242, 244;

L'rsprung and

numerous

Science, 265

Beyond Good and I, 5.

Beyond Good and

III,

17.

The

ahi-unfi of feelings of

depression.

20

Twilight, "Rea.sons for philosophv

21

The Dawn,

n

The

2}

Ibid., 200.

Gay

Fill, 260.

Evil, 244.

U:.

Science, 348 9.

24

The Dawn, 42.

25

Beyond Good and

26

TheGniealofr;^,\\\,U.

Evil, Ihl.

"

1

.

Michel Foucault

Gay

The

11

Science, 148.

It

also to an

is

dhism and

of truth

"Truth

Christianity, 347.

28

The Genealug}',

29

Beyond Good and Evil, 260;

economy'

In societies like ours, the 'political

anemia of the

one must attribute the Entitehun^ of Bud-

will that

characterised by five important

is

course and the institutions which produce

I, 2.

cf.

also The (icnealogy,

II,

ment

The Wanderer,

3

The Gay Science, 111.

9.

(the

demand

nomic production

The Genealogy,

33

The Genealogy, Preface,

much

for truth, as

for eco-

as for political power);

it is

the

under diverse forms, of immense diffu-

object,

32

it; it is

subject to constant economic and political incite-

12.

30

traits.

centred on the form of scientific dis-

is

II, 6.

and

7;

1,2.

sion and consumption (circulating through ap-

Beyond Good and

paratuses of education and information whose

Evtl, llA.

broad

34

The Gay Science, 1

extent

35

Ibid.

withstanding certain

36

The Genealogy,

37

The Dawn, 130.

38

The Genealogy,

is

relatively

body, not

in the social

strict limitations);

pro-

it is

II, 12.

duced and transmitted under the control, dom-

II, 12.

economic apparatuses (university, army, writing,

inant

39

Human, All Too Human,

40

Twilight, 44.

41

Twilight,

42

The Wanderer, 188.

43

The Gay Science, 337.

16.

if

media);

not exclusive, of a few great political and

lastly,

it is

the issue of a whole political

debate and social confrontation ("ideological'

"Reason within philosophy,"

1

and

4.

struggles).

44

The Genealogy,

45

Beyond Good and

It

III, 26.

46

The Wanderer (Opinions and Mi.xed Statements),

47

Human, All Too Human, Untimely Meditations,

49

Cf. The

Beyond Good and The Dawn, 50\.

51

Ibid., 429.

52

Beyond Good and

is

that

what must now be taken

a specific position

not the 'bearer

is

it's

the person occu-

- but whose

specificity

linked, in a society like ours, to the general

functioning of an apparatus of truth. In other

II, 3.

Science, 333;

words, the intellectual has a three-fold specifi-

229-30.

city: that

of his class position (whether as petty-

bourgeois' in the service of capitalism or 'organic' intellectual of the proletariat); that of his Evil, 39.

conditions of

The Dawn,

53

Evil,

pying

17.

274.

Dawn, 429 and 432; The Gay

50

me

to

of universal values'. Rather,

Evil, 223.

48

seems

into account in the intellectual

life

and work, linked

to his condi-

-iS.

tion as an intellectual (his field of research, his

place in a laboratory, the political and economic

From "Truth and Power"

demands lastly,

our .

.

.

The important

thing here,

I

believe,

is

myth whose

of free

spirits,

sional or sectoral.

the child of protracted solitude, nor

the privilege of those ating themselves.

who have succeeded

Truth

is

in liber-

thing of this world:

a

And

it

politics'

which

it

its

regime of truth,

of truth: that

is,

its

is

truth; the status of those

to

saying what counts as true.

in

the acquisition of are charged with

so essential to the structure and

"around truth' I

'the

is

it

a battle 'for

being under-

do not mean

"the

to be discovered

ensemble of rules false are

separated and specific effects of power attached to the true',

means

who

is

and accepted', but rather

a

sanctioned; the techniques and

procedures accorded value

truth which

according to which the true and the

accepts and makes function as true; the

by which each

intellectual can operate

the general level of that regime of

ensemble of truths which are

the types of discourse

distinguish true and false statements, the

The

at

stood once again that by truth

"general

mechanisms and instances which enable one

last factor that his

and struggle

truth', or at least

induces regular effects of power.

Each society has

with this

functioning of our society. There

it is

produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint.

And it's

that his local, specific struggle can have effects

reward

isn't the

societies.

and implications which are not simply profes-

history and functions

would repay further study, truth

etc.);

the specificity of the politics of truth in

position can take on a general significance and

that

truth isn't outside power, or lacking in power:

contrary to a

which he submits or against which

to

he rebels, in the university, the hospital,

'

it

being understood also that

it's

not

matter of a battle 'on behalf of the truth, but of

The

""little

bourgeoisie," a Marxist term for small

capitalists, civil servants, professionals, etc.

"Truth and Powef' J

ami ihc ni>-

lutilc jlxiuf ihr sijius ol iruih

luiiiiK iinJ i^iliiical rt>lr

think

i>t

pU>«.

ii

Icriiis o( 'siiciuc' Jiut 'ulc«»lo^\

»>l

'iruih' Jiul *|m\\cr'

the prolcvsionjlisjtion

inic-llc«.liuis

«it

All ihis nuisi I

here

IS

new

in j

a(Hi\e il

linns

seem

jiui

\cr\ tonluscd

put forward

I

mm\

iintcr-

am sasm^ In

amlused, howexer.

a

I

to be

further tested and e\aluaied 'I'ruth'

is

tt»

liir

a

system

and operation

ot

stems

and

is

linkeil

power which

to ettects ot it.

regime

su|XTstructural;

A regime of is it

not

was

relation with

a circular

in

which produce

ol p«»wer

which extend Ihis

mkuIisI countries

a

11'%

iht*

(I

leave

Mhiih

I

know hull) The essential

|Miliiical

problem

lor the intel-

lectual 1% not to criiici»c the idculofcical

his

own

scientitii

practice

ideolog\. but

cjirrect

conimu

l>ossibilit>

of

of

constituting

a

The problem

truth.

accompanied b\

is

that

is

a

ascertaining ihc nev^

of

politics

not changing people's

in what's in their heads

the politiial. economic, institutu.n

but

rcjmK

il

It\ not a matter of eniaiu

c\er> s\stem of

i|>.ii

(.1

m;: iiuin iioiu

power (which would be

mera, lor truth isalread\ power) but

of

the |>ower ol truth from the forms of

statements

s\

iKins. o|>crates in the

of

the prmluction. regula-

tion. distribuii(»n, circulation

'Truth'

And

capiuli»fii

the production of truth

be understcMKl as

ordered procedures

osedl\ linked to science, or to ensure that

to Ik taken as a h>|>othesis

all

and de\rlopmcni

o|H-n here the i|ue>lion ol (hina, alxfUi

thr

\%j>

to be a lillle levs

\\«»uld like to

iii

nuniul labour

nccriJin tiuUiil, ami wlut

order lor

hill

\iul thus ihc i|iusiu»n ol

division bclv^ccn intrllccliul and

can Ik cnMsugnl

',

iion

xne

i

ihc |x»liiK4l problems o( intcllcctiuls not

111

uin

ncvc»Mr>

It t%

anil sustain it

it.

merel)

ideological

operates

The

condition of the forma-

it

is

at

alienated

truth

Nietzsche.

if

the present time

political question, to

illusion,

or

hegemon\.

econ«»mic and cultural, within which

social.

induces and

truth

a chi-

detaching

itself

sum

up.

is

consciousness or

Heme

the

not error, idetWo^v.

importance of

'The Sex Which

Not One"

is

4 Luce

Irigaray

Luce Irigaray (1930-

)

is

a key figure

in

French

feminist thought, which has integrated feminism,

postmodern theories sis.

of signs,

and

the

University

of

Paris

after

Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), she continued to work as a practising psychoanalyst, and remained associated with the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Sclentifique. She argues in the following 1977 essay that female experience, marginalized by traditional philosophical inquiry, registers plurality and difference more deeply than does male experience. Rather than minimize gender difference Irigaray publication of her book.

insists

on

its

importance, denying that the cat-

a substitute to take its

place in giving pleasure.

and psychoanaly-

Expelled from the Paris psychoanalytic as-

sociation

forbidden hand must find

According

to these theorists,

woman's erogenous

zones are no more than a clitoris-sex, which cannot stand up in comparison with the valued phallic organ; or a hole-envelope, a sheath which sur-

rounds and rubs the penis during coition; a nonsex organ or

a

masculine sex organ turned inside out in

order to caress

Woman this is

itself.

and her pleasure are not mentioned

conception of the sexual relationship. Her

one of "lack," "atrophy" (of her

"penis envy,"" since the penis

nized sex organ of any worth. Therefore she

by

egories and ideals of the dominant philosophical

can capture the characteristic experience and thought of women. One effect of this view is a radical denial of the Enlightenment con-

disposal:

ception of universal reason.

those cultural values which are

for herself,

it

by her somewhat

husband capable of giving

all

and

the only recog-

is

appropriate

tradition

genitals),

in

fate

the

means

tries to

at

her

servile love of the fatherit

to her;

a penis-child, preferably male;

by her desire of

by gaining access still

to

"by right"

reserved for males alone and are therefore always

Woman

Female sexuality has always been theorized within

masculine,

masculine parameters. Thus, the opposition "vir-

attempt to possess

ir" clitoral activity/'Teminine" vaginal passivity

male sex organ.

which Freud - and many others - claims are

etc.

at

lives

long

he r desire only as an

last

the e quivalent of the

alter-

All of that seems rather foreign to her pleasure

native behaviors or steps in the process of becoming

however, unless she remains within the dominant

a sexually

normal woman, seems prescribed more

by the practice of masculine sexuality than by anything

else.

For the

penis which

is

clitoris is

thought of as

a little

pleasurable to masturbate, as long as

the anxiety of castration does not exist (for the boy), while the vagina derives

"home" Virile,

it

offers the

masculine.

its

phallic

economy. Thus,

autoeroticism "

is

Freud attributed

having

for

example, woman's

very different from man's. to girls a

He

disappointment over not

a penis.

little

value from the

male penis when the now

Luce

Irigaray,

"The Sex Which

Claudia Reeder) from

New

is

Not One" (trans.

French Feminisms (ed.

Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron), Schoken, 1981, pp. 99-106.

New York:

The Sex Which i\ci-ils Jii

iiistruincni in unlci to toiuli hiniscll

sitiniiljiicin it-i|uircs j

wonun

luiwiin 4itiMtN

(Hin

"toiuhiN

\u>n\an

I" lorhiil

si\

i

iill\

\M>

1

is

Hiil a

uhn ihstmc-

her lo

A

|x>sMhlc

o»nstjntl\

\\nh«»ui

her

iln so, lor

hps which 1-nihr.uc mnlimi-

hus, wiihin hcrNcll she

I

iliMsible into

lH'l«»rc

jnil passi\it\

hcrscU "

am

n«)i

nnniiiuiiu ol 4itiMl\

(oiulus lursrlt h\ uiui within hcrsdl ihr-

wiihmii nunhjiion, anil

iiil\.

his

Anil ihi% scU-

\\(>nun\ gcniulH, lJn^lugc

luiul.

ones

\\h«>

is

hui

alreailv iw«»

stmuilate each oihcr

Ihis aiMtKTiiticisiu, u hich she neeils in tinier

n«)i

her UkI\ lr4M'.

wanlH

(Ac

would have

to dig very

more

tigesof a

also, but not onl\, substi-

auli>cn)ticism possibK be perpetuated in the classic

representatu>n ol se\ualit\

r

Will she not

iiuleeil

be

the impossible choice between defensive \ir-

left

jfinity, fiercely

open

turned back upon

tor penetration,

itself,

or a bod\

which no longer recognizes

in

"hole" of a sex organ the pleasure of retouching

Ihe almost exclusive, and ever so anxious,

itself?

attention accorded the erection in Occidental sexuality

proves to what extent the imaginary'" that

commands

is

it

foreign to everything female. I'or

life

of the

woman's

iiltle girl

sexualitv

arc

is all

undoubtedK

This \er> ancient iivih/ation

would not have the same language, the same alphabet

Won Ian.

.11

,

,

'

been covered o\er b\ the

bo\\ hand, how can woman's

knim. or no

archaic civilization \«hich could gi\e

indication as to what

siiinities

must

jfiNirniijj,

deep inoriler lofind. behind

with the ahsolute other which alwa>s

little

njiiv lor

pleasure, she hiII not %i\ %»hal

hit

same

tute for the

>

i

\loro»\cr. lu

Iimi far

^s

_

_:

Uniu^il

ulu

i>>

i

Nt.itumnls arc luxcr

i

Their ih^lll1^lll^hln^ tiJlurc

touch (upon)

'I'he\

Irom

\nil

when

this neariu-ss, she sitipsuml

procni

indeetl he

uken

is

the maternal o\cr ihr

ol

however, cluKcd

esticm

lor surplus

uniqueness

loses the

ol her pleasure

Tlu\ au

alica».U

meamni;

tUc where than

maehmery where \ou claim prise

l«»

will Ih- clear

in this i!lseursl\e

lake

them

b\ sur-

which does not mean the same

''withm

ihinji as

diminish-

IS

allow

a (.ertain social

c-il

own

with her

reiluceil,

u

»he

lips:

a

mother \l\ih-

a \irgin

is

m

olog\ long ago assigned this role lo her

which she

|iower as long as she

is

complicity, lo sexual impo-

tence

ha\e turneil back withm themseKes,

riicN

ll\

ing herself in \olume, she renounces the pieajkurc

mother ceriainK, bul she

ihe

man in hi% woman

In this rate lor jxiwcr.

derived from the nonsuiure of her

^.l

piMftCMUin of

in u|Min the |ealou»

\aluable priKJuci, and com|Kiing with

tljijherd^re useU'ss joJI'illJ^i?!!!'''" L"''» iij^\ini; anev.ut iletimtion ot what thes mean, to make them (iIuimmKisi

\o

This maiernal wouUI (k phallic in nature

lemale

lis

uni%crK?

mean, imcc

lo

bcifins ajrain Irtmi "zero": her b-sex or)(un.

re|H.ii

AMcmbbfC,

ihcir

xojume raihrr than %urfaic^

pnrogatixe

llu-

ol

Not One"

iiscK (or a\\ ihai ju a

nirss Icnule inia^iiurv

again,

h€i^ ^^ som clhmg.

drpri\riJ

iicrdp%.

wituld

is

Thus iml\

woman's

a

suri^ij^

^^^^

ol hcr.sell t an

Irel dibLuxcr s

of jii^ t >acriljcunt a nv

ntj^'iit^ilit^

,

yoursell." that

iorily

means

in tht

same

do and which perhaps

\t»u

presume

lakenl\

tact.

he\ do not exjXTiencc the

I

the> share.

priiuuy n/

inter-

\oii

mis-

"Withm themselxes"

this silent,

multiple, Jiffust-

Ifyou ask them insistently w hat they are think-

ing about, they can only reply: nothing. Kverythini;.

Thus

the> desire at the

same time nothing

always more and other than this anc

eNcrNthinii.

It is

- of sex, for

example

attribute to

them and which

that

you give them, is

as a sort

which

engulf Nou entireh. While

of insatiable hunger,

question ot another

reall) a

that

a voracity

in fact

auNone is a

it

is

economy which dnerts

gjiot jur^

ofjioi identif> ing with

of ne\er being simply one

in jiarticular,

Nor would

incoherenc).

It

expansion for which no limits

sort of uni\erse in

could be fixed and which, for

that,

all

would not be

be the jK)l\morphic

it

per\ersion of the infant during which

its

enigenous

/ones await their consolidation under the primacy of the phallus.

Woman

you

often interpreted,

and feared, will

anil

of her plcasureb.ly

would always remain multiple, but she

would be protected from dispersion because the other

is

a

pan of

and

her,

That does not

to her.

is

mean

autoerotically familiar that she

priate the other for herself, that she

would approwould make

it

the linearilN of a project, undermines the target-

her property. Properi) and propriety are undoubt-

object of a desire, explodes the polarization

edly rather foreign to

desire

on onl> one pleasure, and disconcerts

of

fidelity

woman,

one discourse

to onl)

a

all

that

female. \x least

is

however,

Seamess,

sexually.

not

is

foreign

to

nearness so close that any identification

I

.Must the mulij£]ejiatiirjijuiiuaiiic U^^ili^

jiDiJ

of one or the other, and therefore any form of

language be underst(K>d as the fragmentary, scat-

properi),

tered remains of a raped or denied sexuality- This

with the other that

not an eas\ question to answer.

The

is

rejection, the

is

impossible is

more than she can

so

Woman

enjoys a closeness

near she cannot possess

possess herself.

it,

any

She constantly

exclusion of a female imaginary undoubtedly places

trades herself for the other without any possible

woman

identification

in

a

position

where she can experience

herself only fragnientarily as waste or as excess in

the

little

structured margins of

dominant ideol-

a

ogy, this mirror entrusted by the (masculine) "subject" with the task of reflecting himself".

Ihe

moreover by

and redoubling

role of "femininity" this

is

prescribed

recuperated only secretly,

in

hiding, and in a

it

it

if

the female imaginary

happened

to

come

happened

indefinitely

current

tempt

economy

to

in that all

a

to unfold,

into play other than as

from

Woman's its

problem

any at-

account for woman's incalculable pleasure

are irremediably destined to

However,

in

order for

fail.

woman

to arrive at the

point w here she can enjoy her pleasure as a a

passage for

computations that

woman,

long detour by the analysis of the various systems

of oppression w hich affect her

disturbing and unpardonable manner.

But

of either one of them.

w hich grows

in/through the other, poses

masculine specula(riza)tion and

corresponds only slightly to woman's desire, which is

pleasure,

sary.

By claiming

is

certainly neces-

to resort to pleasure alone as the

solution to her problem, she runs the risk of miss-

dS?)

Luce

Irigaray

upon

ing the reconsideration ot a social practice

which her pleasure depends.

woman

For

traditionally use-value for

man,

among men." Merchandise,

then.

is

exchange-value

This makes her the guardian of matter whose price

A

'i^'

of

be determined by "subjects": workers, trades-

will

men, consumers, according

to the standard

Women

of their

work and

their need-desire.

phallically

by their fathers, husbands, procurers.

This stamp(ing) determines

commerce.

oman

\\

is

struggle complex and their

demands sometimes

contradictory.

are

marked

their value in sexual

never anything more than the

Their underdeveloped condition stemming from their

submission by/ to a culture which oppresses

them, uses them, cashes \\

on them,

in

except that of their quasi monopoly of masochisti c

slaves.' It is

considerable since thFmaster

well

necessarilv

served

in

enviable objective.

But

sion of mother-earth.

How

can this object of transaction assert a right without extricating

pleasure

to

established commercial system.'

itself

from the

How can

chandise relate to other goods

mer^L

fhr

rriarkrr

How

can raw

^^n

o ther than with aggressive iealo usv.'

this

materials possess themselves without provoking in the

consumer

nourishing

soil.'

fear of the disappearance of his

How can this exchange in nothing-

not .

Therefore, the inversion of the relationship, espec iallv in s evnal er pnomv^ does not

for the posses-

is'

matters of pleasure

men, even when they

competing

The power

pleasure, housework, and reproduction.

of

scene of more or less rival exchange between two are

remains.

still

o men reap no advantage from this situation

women

if

are

seem

preserve

to

to be an

their

eroticism, their homo-sexuality, and let

it

auto-

flourish,

would not the renunciation of heterosexual pleasure simply be another form of this amputation of

power

that

Would

is

traditionally associated with

this renunciation not

new

ation, a

build? Let

cloister that

women

tacitly

women.'

be a new incarcer-

women would go on

strike,

willingly

avoid

men

long enough to learn to defend their desire notably

them discover the

ness that can be defined in ''proper" terms of

by

woman's

women protected from that imperious choice of men which puts them in a position of rival goods,

folly, all

desire not

seem

be pure enticement,

to

system of

A woman's

ical practice

into

however suffice

radical

it

might

then to liberate

Neither political theory nor polit-

have yet resolved nor sufficiently taken

account

Marxism

women

evolution,

would not

desire.

has

this

historical

announced

its

problem,

although

importance.

But

and

their

are not, strictly speaking, a class

dispersion in several classes makes their political

"

Irigaray

is

let

them

forge a social status which

nition, let

values.'

seek to be,

woman's

more sensmore tangible

too quickly covered over by a

discourse and an apparently

ible

their speech, let

employing the Marxist distinction between

value for actual use and value as exchangeable commoditv.

them earn

love of other

demands recog-

their living in order to leave

b ehind their condition of prostitute - These are certainly

indispensable

steps

in

their

effort

to

escape their proletarization on the trade market. But,

if their

even

if

that

goal

w ere

is

to reverse the existing order

possible

-

-

history would^sjmply

repeat itself and return to phallocratism, where neither

women's

language can

sex, their imaginary,

exist.

nor their

From The Postmodern Condition A Report on Knowledge

Jean-Francois

I

.yotard

Professor of philosophy. Jean-Francois Lyotard

science docs not restrict itself to siatmg useful re-

(1926-98) published the most famous philosophical formulation of postmodernism in 1979.

gularities

His short book, actually a report to the Province of

discourse ot legitimation uiih res|Kct to

Quebecs Conseil des Universities, defines postmodernism as "incredulity regarding metanarra-

status, a discourse called philosoph).

tives.grand stories about the world and the place of Inquiry in

it.

Lyotard claims that

in

the postmod-

games" - borrowing Wittgenstein s term - no longer require metanarern era our social "language

ratives to justify the utterances

made

in

1

male the

and seeks the truth, rules of

oun

its

term modern to designate ates itself with re ference

kind making an explicit

it

lmiiu-

is

obliged to lejnt-

1 1

then produces a

oun

iis

\\ ihc

iiiuicr

jxtini

Wilh ihe seumil

narrjiixe

in

ioundll1^, sit\ ot

dillereniK

i|iiile

Iniween

lifNl

li

ap|Hars with the

and IMO.

iStJT

of the

I

nixer-

Itcrhn/ Mhosc intluence on the organization

ol higher

education in the \oung countries ot the

world was to

Ix*

consuierahle in the luneteenth anii

the tune

«»l

the

I

i)i\crsii\s creatmn,

Prussian ministr\ h.ul Intore

it

.i

the

project conceived

bv richte and counterproposals h\ Schleiernucher. \N

ilhelm \(»n Hunilxjldi h.ul to decide the matter

and came down on the side

more

"liberal" option

lloHe%rr, the unilujiMU)

in

indi\|H-nsable

IS

Humhdidt's

ol

i.f

'^

ili>

llic //i.

ti»

.1

.

whiih ion«i%is not

protect,

iraitiitig

till

Mikes

a

III

ii|

Uh

in

leKilinuted %ubfcct of

tull\

mkuix

knowleilge ami

HumNiliJi therefore

(what liehte

a .Spirit

irv-

animated

lalls i.ile),

bv three ambitions, or better, by a »ingle. threefold "that of deriving evervthing fnmi an

aspiration

original principle" (corrcspjinding to siieniific ac-

ot

Schlcicrmacher's

'"

(governing ethical and

and "that

practice),

Idea" (ensuring that the scientific search

true

ftir

causes always coincides with the pursuit ot )ust

m

ends

moral and

political

This ultimate

life)

svnthesis constitutes the legitimate sub|ect.

approach

to the

politics ol

the scientific institution to the famous dictum:

own

mkuI

of unifying this principle and this ideal in a single

Humboldt adds

\

its

thr rrjlm

the a^iuisiiion oi learning b\ inUi\iduaU. hut aImi

Reading lumboldt's report, one nu\ Ik tempted to reduce his entire

"Science tor

miiMdr

iu

kmmlrdgi

tiMt\), "that ot relating e\er\thing to an ideal"

twentieth centuries \t

anuKMs

in the linal

diMourMT b\

leKilinuiion, the

t»l

rebiion biiwecn M.icnic. the nation, and the State de\el»»pN

which

Mricniilk

conirnl itxrr ihr irjining ol the

ilircct

"iHToplc."

ii

sake." Hut this would be to

in pa.ssing that this triple aspir-

ation naturalh inheres in the "intellectual character t)t

the (lerman nation "

Ihis

'

is

a

concession, but a

discreet one, to the other narrative, to the idea that

(misunderstand] the ultimate aim ot his policies,

the subject of knowledge

is

we

this idea is quite distant

from the narrative of the

which

guided by the principle

is

are discussing and

is

macher elucidates

in a

legitimation

one Schlcier-

\er> close to the

more thorough

Humboldt does indeed

own

ot"

declare

science

that

obeys

its

"lives

and continuall\ renews itseltOn

Humboldt, and even Hegel harbor towards

cher,

an indication of

Schleicrmacher

is

narrow nationalism, protectionism,

its

its

liut

con-

element, science, to "the spiritual and ot the nation."^

How

can this Bil-

tarianism, and

authorities in matters of science,

it

is

bec^ause the

principle of science does not reside in those authorities,

even indirectly. The subject of knowledge

not the people, but the speculative spirit.

w hole

ot

embodied,

to

knowledge

for

its

own

them, as Humboldt admits,

Stale,

The

some ways reminiscent of

major con-

the split intro-

as in

France

is

The

great function to be fulfilled h\ the univer-

sities is to

"lay open the whole bod> of learning and

expound both the

and the foundations of

principle's

and

capacitv without the speculative spirit."

a contlict

between

a

language

game made of denotations answerable only to the criterion of truth, and a language game governing ethical, social,

and

political practice that necessarily

involves decisions and obligations, in other words,

utterances expected to be just rather than true and

is

not

language game of

all

is

is

not state-political, but philosophical.

duced by the Kantian critique between knowing it

It

after the Revolution, in a

but in a System.

legitimation

not learning, but "character and action." ad\i.ser thus laces a

utili-

positivism that guide the public

ot

sake.- \\ hat interests

The minister's

this. If

trom the disinterested pursuit

learning.- .\re not the Slate, the nation, the

willing:

Cierman

Schleierma-

tears the

humanity inditterent

flict, in

like

own, with

i/Mntr-cttect result

is

men

that

the State

he adds that the Lniversily should orient

moral training

The suspicion

rules, that the scieniitlc institution

no constraint or determined goal whatsoever."

stituent

legitimation of knowledge advanced b\ idealism.

tashion.

the jx-ople Hut in truth

knowledge."

lation"

is

lM)r

here the

"there

name

is

no creative

"Specu-

given the discourse on the

legitimation of scientific discourse. functional; the University

is

Schtxjls are

speculative, that

say, philosophical.'' Philosophv to learning,

scientific

is

to

must restore unity

which has been scattered into separate

sciences in laboratories and in preuniversity educa-

Three German Gottlieb

(1768

Fichte;

18J>4),

intellectuals:

theologian

and philosopher and

Humboldt (1767-1835).

philosopher

Friedrich

Johann

Schleicrmacher

linguist

W ilhelm

von

tion;

it

can only achieve this in

links the sciences together as

coming in

t)f spirit,

a rational

in

a

language game that

moments

in the

other words, which links

be-

them

narration, or rather mctanarration.

Jean-Frangois Lyotard Hegel's Encyclopedia (1817-27) attempts to realize

which was already

of totalization,

project

this

In this perspective, knowledge

within

itself,

and

first

finds Iegitima(

knowledge that

it is

entitled

is

a

present in Fichte and Schelling in the form of the

say what the State and what Society are.

idea of the System.

only play this role by changing levels, by ceasing

It is

that

mechanism of developing a Life we see a return

here, in the

simultaneously Subject, that

is

of narrative knowledge. There tory" of

universal "his-

is a

and "life"

spirit, spirit is "life,"

is its

own

self-presentation and formulation in the ordered

knowledge of

of

all

empirical sciences. idealism

forms contained

its

The

encyclopedia of

in

life-subject.

Hut what

it

for the story's narrator

produces

is

must not be

in the particular positivity

of

its

metanarrative,

a

a

people mired

traditional

referent - that

know-

ledge, nor even scientists taken as a whole, since

it

referei

its

becoming

in ad


lurn incrcavc wilh the pcrh»rnuntc

h\|M»lheM/e rhai il\ ()(

uus sjkI

iinplemenieil.

iKinjj

•»!

cjpjhilit\ oi ihe presiTihcr

lujtiv

jiini

This

I.uhnunn"

leil

in |)siiiuiusirul siKieiies ihe

repUieil hN the

IS

l«»

nor-

|H-rtortn.iliN \t\ ol

"(4>nie\i cunirnl." in other wortls,

prineiliircs

IKflbmuncc impn>\cnient won

the ev|Kfise

at

corp(irali(m«, anil nationah/rd cfimpanicv in ic-

cordancr with

this logu of

p«mrr tcrowih Krwjrch

set tors that are iiiublr to arj?uc that ihr\

e\rn imhrectlx

fkm of

|)crfornuncr arc abandoned by the

dd verdicts.

and the law on the basis of

ates science

It

legitim-

their effi-

ion of

We

we can

grand narrati\es

dialectic of Spirit nor

humanitN as

tive

neither to the

resort

even to the emancipation of

a validation

postmodern

f«)r

we have

discourse Hut as

remains the quintessential form of imaginative

in\ention, most particularly in science.*^' In add-

of consensus as

ition, the principle

validation

seems

to

be inadequate

between men, defined free wills, is

and

is

labermas. but his con-

I

based on the validit) of the narrative of

ponent of the system, which manipulates

same way

a

self-legitimating, in the

system organized around performance

maximization seems to be.^^ kind of context control that terization of society of

may

an utterance, be

it

Now a

bring.

its

generalized

The

now taking

accessibility,

The ogy

is

tion

compu-

performativity

its

self-legitim-

the route of data storage and

and the operativitv of information.

reversed.

The complexity

of the argumenta-

here, especially because

necessitates greater sophistication in the

obtaining

pr(M)f,

and

maintain and improve

sense. In this case,

ment

it

means of

that in turn benefits perfor-

mativity. Research funds are allocated bv States,

its

is

is

only \alidity

Luhmann,

recent

German

s(K:i()l()gist

radical version of systems theory denied the

whose

need for

It is

the

Luhmann's

as an instrureal goal,

power.

therefore to determine whether

is

on paralog\

Paralogy must be distinguished

.

from innovation: the system, or

efficiency; the

which

is

latter is

at least

former

is

a

mo\e

it

to

command

improve

its

(the importance of

often not recognized until later) played in

the pragmatics of knowledge. reality frequently, is

under the

used h\

The

fact that

it

is in

but not necessarily, the c^sc that

transformed into the other presents no

difll-

culties for the hypothesis.

Returning to the description of Niklas

comorder

possible to ha\e a form of legitimation based

solely

one

is

what legitimates the system

The problem it

its

a in

is it

performance/*'

be used toward achieving the

to

w hich

of the

relationship between science and technol-

becomes relevant

to

object of administrative procedures, in

amount of informa-

referent one has at one's disposal.

Thus the growth of power, and ation, are

precisely this

denotative or prescriptive,

increases proportionally to the tion about

is

it

and

intellects

obtained through dialogue. This

is

the form elaborated bv

ception

of

has two for-

an agreement

is

knowing

as

a criterion

It

emancipation. In the second, consensus

is

scientific

just seen, the little narra-

ciency, and legitimates this efficiency on the basis It

our

for

have recourse to the

longer

n«)

lefcitini-

sufficient

of science and law

.

we ha\e

the facts

nuilalions. In the first, consensus

thoritN.

Power

that

|>oini

knowledge tmlas are

useil as priNit in scienlitic aruiinientation. ot a

this

at

presented concerning the problem of the

e\ulence als«)

i'.ir.ilo^y

lemtinuitKUi

)e tactd

matics, sized.

it

is

now dissension

Consensus

is

that

a horizon that

scientific prag-

must be emphais

never reached.

"legitimation" in contemporary, "dc-ccntcrcd," "func-

Research that takes place under the aegis of a para-

tional" societies.

digm''" tends to stabilize;

it

is

like the exploitation

Jean-Frangois Lyotard of

a technological,

economic, or

someone always comes along "reason."

power

"idea."

artistic

cannot be discounted. But what

is

striking

is

It

that

to disturb the order of

necessary to posit the existence of a

It is

that destabilizes the capacity for explanation,

manifested in the promulgation of new norms for

understanding

new

establish

or, if

one prefers,

proposal to

in a

new

rules circumscribing a

of

field

research for the language of science. This, in the

context of scientific discussion,

Thom

calls

morphogenesis.

the

is

same process

not without rules

It is

(there are classes of catastrophes), but locally

always

it is

determined. Applied to scientific discussion

and placed

in a

temporal framework,

this

property

implies that "discoveries" are unpredictable. In

terms of the idea of transparency, that generates blind spots

This summary makes

it

proposes have

scientific basis whatsoever; science itself

does

not function according to this theory's paradigm of the system, and contemporary science excludes the

such a paradigm to describe

possibility of using society.

In this context, points in

us examine two important

let

Luhmann's argument. On

the one hand,

the system can only function by reducing complexity,

and on the other,

it

must induce the adaptation

of individual aspirations to reduction in complexity the

power

system's

its

own If

capability.

among

could circulate freely

The

ends.

required to maintain

is

all

messages

all

it

individuals, the

its

adherence to

"advantages."

minds and cold

clear

wills;

perfoi

exclude

It

metaphysical discours

a

requires the renunciation of fables; it

it

demanc

replaces the definitio

of essences with the calculation of interactions;

makes the "players" assume

responsibility not on!

for the statements they propose, but also for

rules to

i\

which they submit those statements

order to render them acceptable.

It

seem

extent that they

i

brings the praj

matic functions of knowledge clearly to

light, to t\

to relate to the criterion

(

efficiency: the pragmatics of argumentation, oft!

production of proof, of the transmission of lean

and of the apprenticeship of the imagination

ing,

also contributes to elevating

It

all

language garni

even those not within the

to self-knowledge,

easy to see that systems it

in principle

factor

a

and defers consensus.^'

theory and the kind of legitimation

no

is

it

The

inherently better than their absence.

mativity criterion has

of canonical knowledge.

It

tends to

reali

everydj

jolt

discourse into a kind of metadiscourse: ordinal

statements are self-citation,

now

displaying a propensity

f
ing).

in principle

has no equi\alent in the sciences, consists in the exercise of terror.

It

says: ".Adapt

your aspirations

our ends - or else."'

conditional on performaiivitx

ition ot the

norms of

lite

is

is

in

What

is

the relationship between the antimodel of Is

it

applic-

able lo the vast clouds of language material consti-

tuting a society? learning?

And

Or

if so,

is

limited to the

it

what

respect to the social bond'

of an open communiiN

?

Is

does

role Is

it

it

it

game of

play with

an impossible ideal

an essential compcrtortiuii\ii\

siieiKr

thai

statement

\

alreaiK

lis

thai

jnd ihr«c

proNides the antimodel of

moment

the

support

on the pretext

"We'll ha\e to see,

s\stcm

in

research pn»|eci, or the aspir-

researcher usually

'I*he rcN|x»nsc a

lo the extent

ihcm

lor

in the ik\ftleni.

lead to AU iinproxemeni in

ol

science,

m>l add to the |K'rtormance ot "science" as a u hole.

quest

new lenMonn

result in

we

tit

scientist ernhnlies k.n«»\\le«.l^e or

a researcher,

i>t

is

l>elwern inlrrliMUli»r«. hul what

prmevH Jllractne

this

im|x>sMhlc: in

the pr.inm.ilKs

.11

Icils the "neeils" ot a

Alions

most |H-rtitrnuii\c unil\

Its

i)t

such an uicntiticatutn

that

nukrs

pragnuiics

lih ihi-msclxcs with the s«Kial sNsicin conccixcil us A luulilx

proiniM- ol lihcrali/alion and rnrahnMrni

4

in the inierjclions

tfu iliiisi.in in.iLi rs

i>t

their bliiulrus

\Mul

nut us

.

That this

is

the

particularly evident in the introduction of

telematics technology: the technocrats see in tele-

Rules are not denotative but prescriptive utterances, w hich

we

are better off calling mctaprescrip-

tive utterances to avoid

confusion (they prescribe

Jean-Frangois Lyotard what the moves of language games must be to

The

be admissible).

in

order

function of the differential

the legitimacy of any statement resides in

or imaginative or paralogical activity of the current

pragmatics of science

to point out these

is

meiapre-

scriptives (science's ''presuppositions")'^ to petition the players to accept different ones.

make

legitimation that can

admissible

that

is

will

it

The

only

kind of request

this

generate ideas, in other

It is

Social pragmatics does not have the "simplicity"

of scientific pragmatics.

Habermas's argument against Luhmann. Disku

is

his ultimate

monster formed by

a

It is

classes of utterances (denotative, prescrip-

performative,

tive,

There to

is

no reason

evaluative,

technical,

to think that

it

determine metaprescriptives

these language

is

games or

etc.).

matter of

fact,

of

that a revisable consensus

moment

in the

the totality of

As

in the social collectivity.

- be they

traditional

''modern" (the emancipation of humanity, the

-

ization of the Idea) this belief It

is its

tied to the

is

its

cism of

For

its

or

abandonment of

pretensions to totality, tries

compensate and which

it

expresses in the cyni-

it

We

must thus is

neith(

is

arrive at

a

not linked to th

of consensus.

A

recognition of the heteromorphous nature

language games

i

Th

a first step in that direction.

is

obviously implies a renunciation of terror, whic

so.

The second

step

consensus on the rules defining

"moves" playable within words, agreed on by eventual

to

its

it

tries to

mai

the principle that ar

is

a

game and

tl

must be local, in oth^

present players and subje

The

cancellation.

orientation

the

favors a multiplicity of finite meta-arguments,

which

I

mean argumentation

prescriptives and

is

that concerns

limited in space and time.

This orientation corresponds evolution of social

the

to the course th

interaction

temporary contract

taking; the

\

met

is

current

is

in practice su]

planting permanent institutions in the professions

emotional,

sexual,

cultural,

and

family,

inte

national domains, as well as in political affair

criterion of performance.

this reason,

suspect.

idea and practice of justice that

real-

absence for w hich the ideology of

the "system," with to

a

the contemporary decline of narra-

of legitimation

tives

Consensus has become an outmoded ar

them

all

tl

the argumei

suspect value. But justice as a value

assumes that they are isomorphic and

to

metaprescriptions regulating the totality of state-

ments circulating

**

common

community could embrace

scientific

not.

against the theory of

would be possible

the one in force at a given

like

weapon

The cause is good, but

stable system."

the interweaving of various networks of heteromor-

phous

easy to see what function this recourse pla]

in

outmoded nor

words, new statements.

coi

its

tributing to that emancipation.^^

seems neither possible, nor

This evolution

is

of course ambiguous: the tempo

even prudent, to follow Habermas in orienting our

ary contract

treatment of the problem of legitimation in the

greater flexibility, lower cost, and the creative tu

of

direction

search for universal consensus'

a

through what he

calls Diskurs, in

other words, a

dialogue of argumentation."

first is

that

it

is

to

agreement on which rules or metaprescrip-

to

universally valid

tions are

when

it is

moil of its accompanying motivations -

for

language games,

games

clear that language

are heteromor-

there

know, at

as the 1970s

the

to

come

system:

logue

is

consensus. But as

I

have shown

in the

only a particular state of discussion, not end, on the contrary,

is

its

is

end. Its

paralogy. This double ob-

servation (the heterogeneity of the rules and the

search for dissent) destroys a belief that lies

still

no

w as meant

it

to replace.

We shou

be happy that the tendency toward the temporal

to the goal of the system, yet the

analysis of the pragmatics of science, consensus

all

an attem]

an alternative of that kind would end up resen

bling the system

contract

that the goal of dia-

we

to a close, that

rules. is

of the:

no question here of proposing

is

"pure" alternative

phous, subject to heterogeneous sets of pragmatic

The second assumption

all

i

factors contribute to increased operativity. In ar case,

make two assumptions. The possible for all speakers to come

This would be

favored by the system due to

is

is

ambiguous:

This bears w itness

it is

not totally subordinate

system tolerates

i

to the existence of another go

within the system: knowledge of language games

;

such and the decision to assume responsibility f their rules is

and

precisely

effects.

w hat

Their most significant

effe

validates the adoption of rules

the quest for paralogy.

under-

Habermas's research, namely, that humanity

as

emancipation through the regularization of the

Habermas argued again - communication aimed achieving agreement on the validity of claims - is intrii

"moves" permitted

sically

a collective (universal) subject seeks its

in all

common

language games and that

^

Social philosopher Jurgen

Luhmann

that "discourse"

moral, and

is

the source of social legitimation.

2

The Postmodern CondKton: A Report on Knc¥^9flgB V\r arc

iiK

rcgubtmjj

jiuI

cxtiiulcil to iiuUulc

c\cluM\cl\

Hut

prohUin-

atlci Ih this

Ltmwlulm*

swtcm.

nurlct

the

ami

iImII

}jo\crm-il

the |Hrtornuti\«tN pniuiplc

l>\

In thji

u.se

of terror.

coulil also Jul (troiipN iliscUNsiiig

naiaprc-

^%ouKl itu-Mtjbly involve, the

it

it

mkicIv

j»I

iiuikl bcttimc the "ilrcani" inslruincni lor

It

ci»ntrolhn^

case,

how

in j |M>Miion lo luulcrNiJiul

tiiull>

iJimpulcn/ahon

ihc

\i.ripiiNCN

siippl\ing lluin with

l>\

(hi- iiitorin.tiion

thc\ unujIIn IucL lor makini: knowliiimahii- illu-

The

sions.

line to lollow lor conipuii-n/ation to taLc

two paths

thc scconil ol these

simple

\ trail-

(»l

ihis |x»litiis

(CiRKPII)

la

ti)

lituiul

l>t-

iii

thi-

end

t>f

in the proj^osal h\

the Cirou|Hla

to

teach ol"

de

anil tisi

fixating in a |>«>Mtion of nnniniax ei|uilil>riuni hc-

cjuse

ol

Ixjth the dcsirr inr

"some" philosoph>

7

inexhausiihle

is

in.l

ii|s.li.

tin

This

would re\(Htt

a |>olitiis that

lur

ili >.iri

ol"

seems

11.

Janne, "I

ni\ersitaien

Anhang

SteJJens

f

he

uher das

8

be

"The

the C'.KGKP's in

besoins de

r.-issociution

eine

ncu

Fnhle. Sthletermaiher,

Itesen

).

der

erriihiendc"

zu

i'mirrsilal (Ixipzig.

is

generally rccogni/cd

uni\ersity activity" (ibid

all

,

p

128).

9

Touraine has anal\/ed the con trad id ions in-

.Main

\ol\ed in this transplantation

^)

trans.

la socii-te

in

L'mienite

(Paris: Seuil. 1972).

The Academu Syitem

pp

.>2

et

umele

40 |Kng

imeruan Soiuty (\c^

tn

York: .McGraw-Hill, 1974)]

mternatumaU-

quoted by the Cximmis-

leilan-

(ed

teaching of philosophy

to be the basis of

aux Etats-ims .'L niversite et les

ubi-r

K Spranger

(

deuisihen Smn. nebst

in

1910), p. I26ff

set.

to

.Sthkicrmaiher, "( lelegentlKhc I

ulx-r

(1808). in

starting at

Flammarion, 1977),

Irieilriih

ken

einem

).

contcmporaine," Cahifrs Je

is

present even in the conclusions of Robert Nis-

sion d'etude sur les universites. Document Je consult-

bet.

The Degradation of the Aiade^mu Dogma: The

ation (Montreal, 1978)

L'niverstty

d(s

\

L

mirrsii^s, 10 (1970): 5;

"hard," almost mvstico-military expression of

can be found

de .Mesquita

in Julio

Paramnfo da prtmeno turma dadf de

Filosoj'ia,

Cicmas.

Sao Paulo (25 January

dt-

Disiorso

da

L

mcnt

in the

11

1968).

These dcKuments

1

b\ Helena

("..

(".hamlian

ami .Martha Ramos de

is

70 (lx)ndon: Hcinc-

Sec

G W

V Hegel, .\1

Philosophie des Rechts (1821)

Knox, Hegel's Philosophy of Right

See Paul Ricoeur, l^ Conpit

des interpretations. Essais

North-western

me

Lniversitv

Press,

Georg Gadamer, Wdrheit und Methode, 2d edn (Tubingen: Mohr, 1965) (Kng.

( -ir-

trans. Ciarreit

The documents

Seabur> Press, 1975)]

Miguel Abensour and the

I'rench thanks to

(.ollege de philosophic:

question de I'umversite (Paris: Payot, 1979). tion includes texts

cher,

The

collec-

by Schelling, Fichte, Schleierma-

die inncre

Wilhelm von llumholdt (IVankfurt, 1957), p. 128.

(

statement 2

und aussere Organisation der hohe-

is

1

p. 126.

^Ork:

)

said to be the

Robert, 1978), 14

Harden

(\f:'*>

"The miHin has risen"; (2) Take two statements: "The statement/ The mtwn has risen/is a denotative statement". The syntagm /The moon has risen / in See Josette Re>-DeboNc.

ren wissenschaftlichen Anstalten in Berlin" (1810), in

Ibid,

\?
4ud

iimmJUitm

llilbrrl.

l^»

iraa*

\hjn$

n4iv

ril

Niuihs

I7I)|

Ibiurluki.

llrrnunn. (Paris

i.'.4st»mali»fttr

FniiKT, l**S>)

(New

See Hbnchr,

37

I

38

ni\rr\il4irr>

I

chap

ixiomutitfut,

i.'

Kurt

(iiKlel,

pp

ami

41

\.\

1

>1

(l**3l)|Kng trans

ahU PrupouttuHS

oj

HIet/er.

li

Jran

jdncrc, l^s Limitations inlrmfs

1

I

Alfred trans.

Tarski,

Jes jormalnnKs

lie

60

travail,

quite

1940

).

work are

The to

he found

in the first

l.et)n

Hrunschvicg,

edn

mathematiifue, 3d

42

Thomas kuhn.

A

'

I

he

Hr.Mikv

.S«.

/

prcsi.;

nrKrih«id

too expensive

long-term

techno-

to increase the ci»st of

where

|>oini .

it

Research

.

is

becomes propcrK

activity: rapid acceleration or

prududion

Intellectual

une politique de

la

science.'"

La Recherche,

In .March 1972, K. K. I>a\id, Jr. scientific

adviser to the White House. prop«>sing the idea of a

program of Research Applied

National

to

(R.AN.N), came to similar conclusions

la phtlosuphie

flexible strateg\

for research

a

Needs

brtud and

and more restnctne

development {La Recherche, 21 (1972)

211).

logico-mathcmatical paradoxes

53

This was one of the

l-a/arsfeld's conditions

for

agreeing to found what was to become the .Mass

Mathematics and Other Logical Essays (New ^Ork:

Communication

&

Brace, 1931).

See Aristotle. Rhetoric,

45

The pnihlem

is

historical st»urce: vtsu}

The

2,

1937.

1393a

is

and

I.a/.arsfeld started things

also of the

known from hearsay or ilc made hy Herodotus. See F.

is

et

Gehlen, "Die

U. .Morrison, "The Ik-ginning of .Modem .Mass

Technik

in

der Sichtweise der

(Ham-

socwlot^ie, 19, no. 2 (1978):

54

Andre Leroi-Gourhan, Milieu

et

(Paris: et la

et

la parole.

Mythe

et

pensee chez

Maspero, 1965), especially

sec. 4,

les

"Le

Crecs travail

pensee technique" [Fng. trans. Janet Llo\d,

Myth and

347

59.

States, the funds allocated to research

Society in Ancient Greece (Brighton. Kng:

Harvester Press, 1980)].

coming from prnate

in

capital;

lhe> have been higher since that time (CK.I)K. 1956)

I.

lan^a^e (Paris: Albin-Michel, 1964). \ ernant,

L nited

1956, equal to the funds

technnfues (Paris:

Albin-Michcl, 1945). and /^ Ceste

Jean Pierre

In the

and de\elopment b\ the federal go\ernment were,

burg: Rowohlt. 19f)l)

et

going but finished ni»thing

CU)mmunication Research," Archives cumpeennes df

.Anthropologie," Anthropoloi^ische Eorschuna

Technique

in

things together and hoped they worked " (.Quoted by

arpenteur," Herodote,

9(1977): 55-65.

A

Pnnceton

I^zarsfeld himself said to .Morrison, "I usuall) put

the fact

distinction

Resc-arch (Center at

This produced some tension: the radio indus-

tries refu.sed to in\est in the pr«»iect; pc-ople said that

ff.

that of the witness

Hartog, "Herodote rapstnle

48

been

incompetence.

of

14:611)

(Paris: Presses Lniversitaircs

44

47

H

26

5(>«>

kn«i%»-

siirnlific

c^n he found in F. P. Ramsey, The Foundations of

Harcourt

46

a

tactics for

of

and

Hranihing,

innovation to the

ont-ils

attempts to demon-

Etapes Je

l,es

Hermann,

departure of this

Structure oJ Snentilic Revolutwm.

classification

(I'Hh)

simpU

deal

de France. 1947).

43

.\.\

.\lmlcl of

deceleration impl\ concealed expK-ndilure and a great

Kuclidian ^eometr\.

strate certain "postulates" of

See

Imfor

cannot go be>ond a certain pace" ("Ixs Kiat&-Lnis

points of

distant

"The

speaking

metalinpuistique,"

Elements Jes mathematiques (Paris:

l^i

Siimu

.Mulkav elalxiratcs a flexible model for the rcbii\r

logical

January Fchruary 1977). 41

no 6 (1973): 25 61

to the m(M)n has

(LniNersita di L rhino,

I

Kjilim>," Soitat

the 196estment in research and dcvclopmcni during

H. WcHKljier (Oxford: (Clarendon Press,

J.

1956);

!,:'

I

Faiiur« in ihc

Siicial

Report" ((Kll)K, June 1971), cntici/ing the

Srmantus, MftamathcmaiiiS,

Lojiu.

and

.• .

()

I)

.•\cadem> of Sciences, and coauthor of the "Brooks

nJniJ

(lA)U\ain: K. Nauwclacrts, l*>57).

40

f

of ihc lhr«»f\ ol

Mulka\ and

J

malum.

Renew,

I%2)|.

IJasic IJooks.

M

the Science and Public (>«»mmiltcc of the Naiionai

Pnmipia Malhrmatua and RelaKd

Sysirms {Seym York:

I'.

(irowth

ledgc in

f*hysil\ .>S

On /ormaUy

//.

jit

indei>endence of tc(.hno|og>

PruKipia MathemalKa inui xerwaiullcr S>s-

.'A

K

(Mllinuid.

"(iofpiitivc, 'rrthnical,

iiJfl

Icmc," Mimatshfttf fur Mathtnuiil-. unJ

\ ...t,

.snj

implu alums

studied b>

II). 1%

Ikt liirnul unentsiheull>are Satzc

*'l

-v...

i.,

of ihu. ihr u«c ol

I etkniifuei {\*jin%

A tinking rtampic lo »crif\ irrtain

ilr

I,.hnt.\

ILriouri. Hriic, I96i).

tone Jet 5

itiomuiiit

lUNrrsiljires

I

formalnatum (Paris Presses

ranee. I»>M).

I-

dcr

39

^0

lun-

Mljiuhr.

H kccnc.

li

I

here tolUming RolKri Martin, Lof^tqut tontem

pofairtf ft

dc

I'rcvNcs

.c

\^

Abr4m%, I977)|

Ircc Prcvs olCilcnoK-. I%2)|

Viiri

36

am

Kotxri

I*MH),

trans

ll.nj;

I

Juryu Ikillruwiln. Imimimef km tft, vn HMfir ^rtifuttlU dfi f/felt tmerxtilUut {Vu\% O Prrrin, IMdV) ||^.ng lr»n%

pcmff malhrmu

(irunJi (.'uuranlt Jf la

I.f\

.

(PartN

(\S'N)

i;romrirtr

Jrt

"l.'ifvhilcvlurc ilo nulhcn»4Hquc\," in

lttfu
ljiijl..i

I

slimlm.N

s

70

m1iI>

I'Of 4 |4HU«HN

amJ

I

\JIII|Ml

liftn-raifHt

ikf

.\\

IJtMtkN, l*>74)

M.V

,

1^ .S

1 .» »»

I

I

Siwmt (Nrw

of

I

I'lllilM

I

,

the l-'rriuh iransbiiun |iriMs

(I If >iinflil Jf\ ffrnfraliont {\iTU\c\\c\'

was

"Krlaii\ii\

I''7'>)|.

phwiiiNi

Orwell's pjiuK'x

I

lh\lcur\

surrender

ii»

us,

must Ik

it

n«ir

"Wr jh

When •»!

c\rn

mui

tinalU

own

>(»ur

\%ith

7K

cxprcvsed as

want," and

msUcs oj

"Ik- Iri-e," or a

a

tree will"

Human Communuatton,

paradoxes, sec J

gencNCs

geme,"

pp. 203

7.

.

On

dc I'inconsistant

(.'n/iyM

of

community

tutive of li\ed social experience."

We

consti-

see that b\

el

Prcxs,

l**HO)|,

\S4 i\'>''t\

son objet," dntin,,-

J

Monde

al.,

la

\ic," /*hi z^ro 7.

go\crnmcnt

fn/ormatiifue et lihertef, franvaisc,

1975),

diplomatique,

(.March

.300

these

1979):

traps (pieces) are "the application of the technique

of

'social protlles' to the

management of the mxss of

the population; the logic of securif) produced b\ the

automatization of society." .See in fnter/erences,

I

2

Spring 1975), the theme of which

d the samcaulhor, "Ix Discoun

de Theten^-

Jt- lu stnic-te,

in a ratiorul

Kortian,

(larbis

pt

ot the tensions that

ine\itably

will

be accepted

((

(1W7S); 1155 7.v

mass computerization

v.

rxampk, on p

prrtcn%ion lo

the ikcnuc ihal

/Vii?

Salanskis, "(lencscs 'actuelles'

\\

'seriellcs'

See Nora and Mine's description

French

ct al

ol »hc

rxplait, lor

1%

ci>((nili%c in

liifue

"Want what \ou

anal\/ed b\ Wat/lawuk

is

%ubordinalion

)is«.our%c|

|l

Minuii,

ilo

(/'ASV(\ew ^ork Muruuirt. Hruie. I'M'M. P ^^^) I" Ian(;u4({e ganie lernunologN the paradox would be

12

ll>c

"The nornuiivc

144

|>l»ilAr/70usandP/ateaus (trans. Brian Massumi), pp. that the

Ocean

among Indo-Euro-

pean traditions. (The multiplicit} of references essay

ing

lism.'

stretching from the Pacific

tioner of "comparative mytholog} "

'"

power of States. The war machine is the nomadic dispersal and growth of warrior-herders across open spaces, a violent reproductive process, which only generates war when confronting the limits imposed by sedentary agrarian States. Their work exhibits a rare post-structura//stnatura-

Mongol empire

to the Black Sea.

dualistjc,

"war machine," from the legalistic war-engender-

'

a division

a

"arborial" o r

logica lly hierarchical fashion, presents their Nietz-

schean

though they expressed

351-

361-2. 366-7, 369-71. 380-9. 416-18. 420-3. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1987.

5,

c

1227: TreatiM on Nomadolocy - The War Machine" one anoihcr and conirnstitute a third of their kind. Rather,

pact.

is

the ,

a

h ^ch

bishop

ihc lourt

hc\s

the arc

\

pict.

mo\emeni%,

«iluaiion\,

he> ha%e qualities,

I

pawn

pawn,

a

bishop

a

a a

o l the slalemeni

a subject

like

i»

endowed witlvAXldlLUi

" '

'

'

:

fxiwers iiimbine in a sul

.

;

.

.

.

.

.

.

arithmetic units, and have only an anonymou.s. collective, or third-person function

mo\e. "It" could be elephant

(

man,

a

a

elements

io pieces are

two cases

ver> different in the

a louse,

a

an

ol a n«jnsub)ecti-

ProiHT-

intrir^^ic

Thus the

onl\ siiuaiio njduiics.

makes

**lt"

woman,

machine assemblage with no

ties,

Ituira, the

their

knight remains a knight, a

be irreducible to the State apparatus, to so\ereiiint>

(

il

lonfrontations deri\e

fled

its

played

(iiina

from which

pro|x:rtie\ aiul

in itself.

opposttion to

a nd

of a

l

comes from elsewhere.'

pure

and

and the %p44r in\ol%rd

.Suic. or o(

of

coded. lhe> ha\c an internal nature and iniruuii

the

"sei/es"

ol the

|>irt.r^

game

4

IS

cmiMrror of

CT..

combat

for the

.hevk

them, oixrates T)y

c apture,

all

eiiher_

tion> l>clwrrn the (

ukc chew aful (fu. game pinrt, ihc rcU-

Ixi u%

„jiiir»

:

from the %iand|M>inl

warriors,

t

hut in a w a\ that presupposes a

.

mili tarN function .' It

iliiinn;h w.ir

Icil

neetl ol

magical

immediate,

j

g t its tlis|>«)sal ^

uses ixtlice otticers and )ailers ui place

has no anus and no ^*

S tate has

the

h.imu

.

not containcJ withni

is

of ihr i\u

relations are

milieu

\\ ithin their

of interiorilN, chess pieces entertain biuni\(Kal relations with

one another, and with the adversary's

pieces: their functioning

hand,

a Cio piece

structural (>n the other

is

has onl\ a milieu of exteriont\. or

extrinsic relations with nebulas or constellations,

according to which

it

fulfills

functions of inscnion

or situation, such as bordering, encircling, shattering. .Ml

by

itself, a

Cio piece can destroy an entire

celerity against gravity, secrecy against the public, a

constellation synchronicalK; a chess piece cannot

power

(or can

machine

{puissance) against sovereignly, a

against the apparatus.

He

bears witness to another

kind of justice, one of incomprehensible cruelty

at

times, but at others of unequaled pity as well (be-

cause he unties bonds...).

He

above

with women, with

all,

to other relations

animals, because he sees

all

witness,

bears

things in relations of

do so diachn»nically only

).

Clhess

is

indc*ed a

war, but an insiiiuiionalized, regulated, coded war,

with a front, a rear, battles. But what

Go

is

war without battle

lines,

proper to

is

with neither con-

frontation nor retreat, without battles cNen; pure strategy, whert»as chess

space

is

not

is

a semiology

the same: in chess,

at all

it

Finally, the

.

is a

question

becoming, rather than implementing binary distri-

of arranging a closed space for oneself, thus of going

butions between "stales": a veritable becoming-

from one point

becoming-woman, which

imum number

animal of the warrior, lies

a

outside dualities of terms as well as correspond-

ences between relations. In c\cr\ respect, the war riiachine

is

ot .ino^|yr

stxxKs. another nature, an -

other origin than the State apparatus

Lei us take

a

limited example and

war machine and the Slate apparatus

compare the

in the

context

of occup\ing the max-

of squares

number of pieces.

In

Go,

it is

with a

minimum

the

question of arraying

oneself in an open space, of holding space, of maintaining the possibility of springing

the

.

to another,

movement

is

up

at

an>

{xiint:

not from one point to another, but

becomes perpetual, without aim or destination, without departure or

arrival.

The "smooth"

space

of Go, as against the "striated" space of chess. "Strata" arc constituted la\crs or subs) stems of phe-

nnntos of Cio airainst

nomena. For the author,

realit> is

production,

man

nature industr\ arc continuous, and nothing (subjecti\c, hidden).

Thus ever> thing

thing that produces).

Nomad

duces violent expansion.

life is a

is

a

is

the Stale of

The

nomos

chess,

nature and "interior"

"machine"

machine

(a

that pro-

(ii' IN a

Japanese h)ard game where indistinguishable

pieces surround and capture others; "smtxith"

"striated" state.

is

a grid;

nomos

is

conNcntion, polis

is

open,

is political

Gilles

Deleuze and

against pulis.^^

The

Felix Guattari

difference

and decodes space, whereas

that chess, codes

is

Go proceeds altogether

differently, territorializing or deterritorializing

(make the outside that territory

in space; consolidate

a territor\

by the construction of a second, adja-

enemy by

cent territory; deterritorialize the

from within;

tering his territory

shat-

deterritorialize

oneself by renouncing, by going elsewhere

Another

it

another

justice,

movement,

.

.

.

).

another

space-time. like fate,

ation, or pretext

thing

"'" .

.

.

At any

tends, under certain circumstances, to

seems that

it

Luc de Heusch analyzes a Bantu myth that leads us to the same schema: Nkongolo, an indigenous emperor and administrator of public works,

man of the

to the

hunter iMbidi,

leaves.

Mbidi's son,

man

a

of the

police, gives his half-sisters

who assists him and then a man of secrecy, joins up

with his father, only to return from the outside

He

kills

State. ^

"Be-

with that inconceivable thing, an army.

Nkongolo and proceeds

to build a

new

tween" the magical-despotic State and the

juridical

we see the from w ithout.

State containing a military institution,

war machine, arriving

From the of the man

standpoint of the State, the originality

of war, his eccentricity, necessarily

appears in a negative form: stupidity, deformity,

become con-

fused with one of the two heads of the State appar-

Sometimes

atus.

is

it

confused with the magic

violence of the State, at other times with the State's

For instance, the war machine

certain speed

in-

every morning there are more of them."""

public and a

complicates every-

"In some way that

is

habit-

power of the war machine

that this extrinsic

is

invents speed and secrecy; but there

here they are;

rate,

What

of thinking.

in the habit

we

model, or according to which we are

without reason, consider-

comprehensible they have pushed right into the

flash of the

ually take as a

military institution.

"They come

capital.

pure form of exteriority, whereas the State apparatus constitutes the form of interiority

and

is all

same a

the

a certain secrecy that pertain to

the State, relatively, secondarily.

So there

is a

great

danger of identifying the structural relation be-

tween the two poles of

political sovereignty,

the

dynamic

the

power of war. Dumezil

Roman

two

interrelation of these

kings: there

is a

cites the lineage

Romulus-Numa

of the

relation

that recurs throughout a series, with variants

and an

between these two types of equally

alternation

gitimate rulers; but there

is

le-

also a relation with an

"evil king," Tullus Hostilius, us,""

and

poles, with

Tarquinius Superb-

an upsurge of the warrior as

disquieting and

a

illegitimate character.' Shakespeare's kings could also be invoked:

even violence, murders, and per-

version do not prevent the State lineage from pro-

ducing "good" kings; but Richard

like

III

slips

in,

a disturbing character

announcing from the

outset his intention to reinvent a war machine and

impose

line

its

(deformed, treacherous and traitor-

Dumezil

ous, he claims a "secret close intent" totally differ-

analyzes the three "sins" of the warrior in the

ent from the conquest of State power, and another - an other- relation with women). ^ In short, whenever the irruption of war power is confused with the

madness, illegitimacy, usurpation,

Indo-European

sin.

tradition: against the king, against

the priest, against the laws originating in the State (for

example, a sexual transgression that comprom-

ises the distribution

of

men and women,

or even a

betrayal of the laws of war as instituted State). ^

The

warrior

is

in the position

by the

of betraying

everything, including the function of the military, or of understanding nothing. It torians, both bourgeois

happens that his-

and Soviet,

negative tradition and explain

will follow this

how Genghis Khan

understood nothing: he "didn't understand" the

phenomenon of

The problem machine

is

the city.

is

easy thing to say.

that the exteriority of the

war

of State domination, everything gets muddled;

the war machine can then be understood only

through the categories of the negative, since nothing

that remains outside the State.

left

is

returned to chine

its

milieu of exteriority, the war

it is

ma-

seen to be of another species, of another

is

nature, of another origin. that

But,

One would have

to say

located between the two heads of the State,

between the two

articulations,

and that

it is

neces-

sary in order to pass from one to the other.

"between" the two,

in that instant,

But

even ephemeral,

conceptual-

if only a flash, it proclaims its own irreducibility. The State has no war machi ne of its oivn; it can only

not enough to affirm that the war machine

appropriate one in the form of a military institu-

in relation to the State

where apparent but remains ize. It is

An

line

external to the apparatus.

apparatus

difficult to

It is

is

every-

necessary to reach

the point of conceiving the war machine as itself a

'^

Roman

kings from the seventh and sixth centuries b c

,

respectively. '"

""

Nietzsche's Genealog}' ofMorah,

Franz Kafka,

II, 17.

"An Old Manuscript."

"

Quote

line 158.

is

from Shakespeare, Richard

III, act I,

Scene

i,

)

.

??7: TreatiM on Nomadology - The War Machine'

1

oiK (lui

ii.>u.

ioniiiuulU tjusc

Mill

rhisrxpbins ihr

miliiar\ inslitiitiiuis.

itul the iniliurx iiisiituiiui)

iii

inhcniN an cxirinsu \\m nuihinisense

sc\«it/ has a gtiUTil

isMi Idea

panujl^ appropriate anonhng UsN

m

iiul

an rxhauhiion. 4 p«r»do«inl **ethitifti%T**

Iiniii.

model The %4mc jpphr% to Archimcdran|{r«m)rir\, in

uhich the

Onr

\

Its parall'

or

acurvilii

"*'

maihitit

ill

/

nc (Mitiiifity

«»/

whuh

"tiiitn.ij" in

ptrpctuattini

atul

cxisltnit

the

war

tht

also ulltstfJ to hy tfusttrnnlot^y.

IS

mhmutes

M)N

1

a

of

Ma>

ol drtiruriK

•

'-

It

•'.

'

,
rient

(

Inxomes neiessarx

rigul ajjeni\

iur

not ilui the Stuic-

is

order to

in

Suir

the

diic% mil di%MiciJlc iImtII

capture of iiie>

or

still

a

need

escape xectors StatCN jIwuns have the same n»m-

relatiNe

posiition,

there

it

e\en ime truth

is

within

the essential nioments ot

Itself

States are maile

up not onl\

umi\

a

is

much more

all

Slates, Inn

In the Orient, the

ilisconnectcil, ilis)oine«.I, neccssiiat-

immutahle I'orm

to hold

Asian

formations, "

"desix>tic

«»t

same Jtirlopmcnt nor the components

States ha\c luiihcr ihe

in g g tgreat

hut also ot

ami comnunliiies

ot iumpositmtt

sanie itn'iini:jiii>n are

existence

its

ot |H-ople

wtMKl. tieUls, iiarilens. animals,

There

in the |>ohtKal

that exery Stale carries

is

it

them toge her

or

t

African,

are

rocked by incessant revolts, by secessions and dynastic

changes, which ncNcrtheless do not

immutabiliiN ot the form

I

at

W est, on

n the

led the

th e other

iiul

I

are

\ inlio's thesis is im|>«)rtani.

Is,

al

in.>n.iij:t

o ft

'l lu- v:.uts

lull

barriers,

fillers

pnwrr

i>l

is />»»/it ,

I

I

llu

au.orjsi

such

at all that

the State

dri It

is

•

noi

knows nothing of speed: but

moNcment, exen

requires that

''

the essence of the State

IS

ihc

>i

^r.iiMr\

goods

pacT^.^^ people^ animals, and Hits,

That

when he

rhr State

masses, agamsi the penetration ^r'

^nii

t»

the

detail

in

and objects

ol subfects

that "liu- poliiii th.ii

here

I

speed, rcfculatc circulaiHin,

restrict

moxements

puluc,

it.

a prtM.r%» ol

in wril-ofu-nis pheil U\

phih»soph\ ot llegel,

nuntcnon

the tliiu^ iravcf^inK ihc

be the absolute state of

a

it

the fastest, cca.se to

moxing body loey - The War Machine" I'l

c4w'«

oi'iiiN

bt,

j»riviNcl\ ilu JiCcrnioruli/cil ri-

IS

lliciiUllUU bciil^

;i

-iihI

iht carih, ihis

/aiion. ihji

Uni\ ihr number lu nRirit nuifniludcft account

into

(taking

the

I

O

Mon hN bcvomc N

liiujl tuiUI'HinnN^

|i

i pjLui Uhmttnn;^

luw

cunNiiiuiiiii; J

t

whether

tir

iistll

it

o pri\Jtr m.iiM.lu Jn

(.oinnuiintx

In botli

.1

t»m\

the

«»l

Number

C\en ihoUt'h

arc to

tound

l>c

Ijtiiirs

(III

ill

\\r do not

l>r

indeiKiidrmr or auimi-

liexe that the iondition> ol

.

I

cumpkt

incrraainfl)

melric\ efreiiinit ihc oxmiHlin^)

III

in the State.

lif \

itx.

I

jrr

iiiliii til

ii

prc%eni

I

icconiiiig to the liLr

two

an t>MTHKhn«

of the earth replaces jjeinlew

remain

hneages

cour%c,

|vik-s nt thi* StJtc), soiiKihiii^:

oun

nunihcrN lake on their

muxes

\er\

lo the torerroni

lineage, land, or

segments, whether

number, are taken up hx un

.Ithftufh

n\

but certainly not in the same wav

The archaic

levels,

a

enxelops

State

in

with

ipattum

a

a

space with depth and

ditlerentiaied

and more important,

war and

the battle

war

at

he

itt

may

the

war

ohjed.

its

neceuary

astro

the archaic im|Hrial State ami in motlern States

summit,

ar Jonnnt netetiunty kaif

i\

ohjed.

(under certain conditions J.

iiiult

We

spaic or a fromtlnial extcmion that oxer-

axles them

i/i

"lUthine Joes not neienanly have

a "terriiorial" organi/.i

in

ION l\

I

ihr hatlle at

Hut wh.n

ini|>ortance

lion, in the sense that all the

momual

I'koimim

( )l

ami

ini|x>riant,

whereas modern Slates (bej^inning with the

first,

now come i

w ar the t

obiect"

'

o what extent

succcsmvc prciblcms

to three

" c^

^ the battle the »)t

"

Hut

*

the xxar iiuch me the jibjecl" oj

is

the State apparatus.' The ambiguilv ol the

problems

is

alM»,_i^

Mid finalK.

the

certainly

due

to the

first

two

term "object," but

We

must

(ireek cit\ -state) develop a homoireneous cxtcnsm

implies their de|H-ndenc> on the third

with an immanent center, diMsibie homologous

nevertheless approach these problems graduallv,

and sxmmetrical and reversible

relations.

even

Not only do the two models, the astronomical and

The

parts,

the geometrical, enter

when

the>

int(»

intimate mixes, but even pure, both imply the

are supp«)sedl>

subordination

lineages

ot

metric power, as

and numbers '

spatmrn'^*^ or in the pnlttnal extensio.

the

number, has always had

State apparatus:

to

this

appears either in the imperial

it

this

Arithmetic,

a decisive role in the

so even as earlv

is

the

as

imperial bureaucracy, with the three conjoined o|v erations of the census, taxation,

and

election.

It

is

even truer of modern forms of the State, w hich

in

developing utilized that

were springing up

ematical science and

whole

s(K:ial

the calculation techniques

all

at

the border between math-

stK'ial

technology (there

is

omy, demographw the organization of work,

etc.).

This arithmetic element of the Slate found specific

a

calculus at the basis of political econ-

power

in

the treatment of

all

its

kinds of

if

we

immediate distinction cases: tially

in

multiplvmg examples

are reduced to

question, that of the battle, requires an

first

when

i

made between

be

to

h.ittir is son^rhr, .ind

avoided bv the war

h^n

>\

m achine

it

is

tv%o

essen-

These two

ceases

no wav coincide with the offensive and the de-

fensive.

Hut w ar

conception of se em lo ri lla

sense (according to a

in the stri ^ ^

that

it

culminated

have the battle as

its

in

Foch)^^^ does

object,

whereas guer-

warfare explicitly aims for the nnnhattle.

ever,

movement, and

How-

of war into the war of

the development

into total war. also places the notion

of the battle in question, as

much from

the offensive

as the defensive points of view: the concept of the

nonbattle seems capable of expressing the speed of

and the counterspeed of an immedi-

a flash attack,

ate

response

guerilla

'

Conversely, the development of

warfare

implies

forms under which,

moment when, and

a

must be

a battle

etTectively

matter: primarv matters (raw materials), the sec-

sought, in connection with exterior and intenor

ondary matter of wrought objects, or the ultimate

"support points."

matter constituted by the the

number

human

population.

Thus

has always se rved to ga in mastery o ver

and move ments,

fare

And

it

true that guerrilla war-

is

and war proper are constantiv borrowing each

other's

methods and

that

the

borrowings

run

in

equally in both directions (for example, stress has

other words, to submit them to the spatiotemporal

often been laid on the inspirations land-based guer-

matter, to control

its

variations

tramework of the State a ipatiuni, or the

the

either

imperial

rilla

warfare received from maritime war). All

we

•

modern

ixicnsio/'

territorial principle, or a principle

Space versus extension

The

Stale has a

of detcrriloriali-

{extensio),

the later being

Descanes' name for the essence of matter.

can say

is

tha t the battle and the nonbattle are the

double object of war. according to '"

Ferdinand Foch

.Allied forces in

(1S.>1

France during

\^l^),

a criterion that

commander of

W orld W ar

I.

all

""^

Deleuze and

Gilles

Felix Guattari

And

does not coincide with the offensive and the defensive, or

That asking It is

why we push

is

war

if

not

w e would sav

the question further back,

of the war machine.

itself is the object

at all

is

t

he annihilation or

The

war machine do es

back and

its

between war and the

question of war, in turn,

is

pushed further

subordinated to the relations between

is

a

first to make war: phenomenon one finds in

war, of course,

Nature, as nonspecific violence. But war

the nomad, because

object of States, quite the contrarv

this space,

in its essence the consti-

smooth space, the occupation of

and

veritable positive object {nomas).

desert,

is its

sole

Make

the

the steppe, grow; do not depopulate

quite the contrary. If

wa r

necessarily results,

forces (of striation) opposing

object: from then on, the

enemy the Sta tc^ the cit y, phenomenon, and adopts as nihilation. It

is at

thg

this point that the

The

that counterattacked

is

positive

like

one

t

for itself, in

ination,

and

is:

to the negative object.

say that war

Derrida,

we would

it

It

is

may even

comprehended

a progressive, anxiety-ridden revelation.

will the State

its

conformity with

aims ?

And

\s^ constitute

its size, its

with what risks or ar my,

is

.^

dom(What

not at

all

but the form under w hich

in itself,

appropriated by the State^) In order to grasp

the paradoxical character of such an undertaking,

is

M\\t must recapitulate the hypothesis in

comp letes-'^y

say that war

is

How

he wa r jnachine, that

w-_-__^ ar machine

that this supplementarityTs

through

appropriate

call a military institution,

the "supplement" of the war machine.

happen

of the biggest qu estion s from the poinXof

the

ne ither the condition nor the object of the war

speaking

One

view of universal history

war machine

machine, but necessarily accompanies or it;

fast.

forces of the State,

we would

that the

nomad war machine

sudden annihilation. But the State learns

for their

as its

we

like Aristotle,

wa s

and destroyed the archaic but

Genghis

from the positive object

will see,

powerful States w as one of the mysterious reasons

and^ urban

Attila,^""" or

ar -

most

assume

safe to

It is

intervention of an extrinsic or

clearly illustrates this progression

destroy the State-form.

Spe aking

.state

and prisons ).

poli ce

itsjobJ£Ctive their an-

becomes war: annihilate the

Khan, adventure

its

war machine has

not the

is

T he

machine, and their domination, as we

because the war machine collides with States and ci ties, as

.

based on other agencies (co mprising, rather, th e

it,

it

not

cha ic States do not even seem to have had a war

displacement within this space, and the

corresponding composition of people: this

is

the universality of

have seen that the w ar machine was the invention of

tutive element of

(Yahweh

necessary but "synthetic"

were not the

form of war). But more generally, we

it is

Kant^

like

the war machine and the State apparatus. States

object (for example,

the raid can be seen as another object, rather than as a particular

is

charged

is

necessary for the synthesis)."""""

capitulati on of enemy forces, the

not ne cessarily have war as

that the relation

war machine

obvious, io the extent that war (with

or without the batt le) aims for

who

be Joshua, not Moses,

will

it

with waging war."'"'" Finally, speaking

even with war proper and guerrilla warfare.

( 1 )

The war machine

in fact has

war not

is

that

nomad

its

entirety.

invention that

primary object but as

as its

its

second-order, supplementary or synthetic objective, in

the sense that

it is

determined

as to destroy the State-form

When

in

such

a

way

and city-form with

Such, for example, was the adventure of Moses:

which

leaving the Egyptian State behind, launching into

the war machine, the latter obviously changes in

the desert, he begins by forming a war machine, on the inspiration of the old past of the

nomadic

Hebrews and on the advice of his father-in-law, who came from the nomads. This is the machine of the Just, already

a

not yet have war as

by

little,

war machine, but one that does its

in stages, that

object.

war

is

Moses

realizes, little

the necessary supple-

it

collides. (2)

nature and function, since against the

nomad and

all

the State appropriates

it is

afterward directed

State destroyers, or else

expresses relations between States, to the extent that a State undertakes exclusively to destroy anits aims upon it. (3) It is w ar machine has been appropriated by the State in this way that it tends to take war

other State or impose precisely after the

ment of that machine, because it encounters or must cross cities and States, because it must send

object (and that war tends to take the battle for

ahead spies {armed observation)^ then perhaps take

object). In short,

things to extremes {war oj annihilation).

Then

the

Jew ish people experience doubt, and fear that they are not strong enough; but Moses also doubts, he shrinks before the revelation of this supplement.

for its direct

Attila (406^ 5.^a

d ), King of the Huns.

at

it is

for its "analytic" its

one and the same time that

the State apparatus appropriates a war machine,

xxxii

z^fj^g^

Moses

led

the

Hebrews

in

Exodus from

Egypt, Joshua led them to Canaan. '"""'

""'"

and primary object,

That

machine.

is,

war

is

not logically implicit in the

war

1227: Treattse on Nomadotocy - The War Machine' ttui (tic

war

iiuihiiu- lukis war 4s

Ji

N«

iIn itl>|i-i

to

sub«>riiiiuu-il

hci't)inr%

I

ami

ilui

dI

tlu

jiiiin

ilu-

Suir

dun

\Aiuv time

Jl ttic

ttic

ttUi

ihcrclorr less

is

the jppropruiion ul

war

I

tut

wai as

It

lo c\i)l\c troni a triple |x>int

ln>m

lijfurcs

cncastnu-ni

t»t

ition profXT, going

oh /d

1

It in

from Imutcil

t

"|v»lit -

\iul

it

NtnoT

laiiscs

\ie\%

^llln^

i»t

Itirms

tt»

its

i>>

iciulciu

Suic

upprnpri-

«»r

\%ar \o siH-valleil

uar. .nul translorniing the relation helueen

total

The

aim ami object

war arc closcK

tolal

lo

n

iis tlirct.

same lustmual

i»nc aiul tlu

iiui tunc

State .ippjt Jitis iippmpn

iiu>.tiiiu\ stitxirtliiuiis

icul" Jiwi, aiul uiNcs is

ijic

rijli/ulion nl

ilu-

war

tin-

tai

mrv

y ^nn'* "'' '"

Jo with the in\estnK-nt

equipment,

m.ilr

|h.ii j

Si.iit-

:ipfu!"!lll

to iiintrol.

tainis

I..tij^t4jj

takii

to

ailaptiil

wtmti to

(

order of the words eitlier direction,

adapted

tints a

war

Its

its

enenn

war

total

"center" not

made

tact that this

double investment

tendencN lo de\elop

{political

total war.'''

of the capIt

is

there-

war remains sutiordinated

to

aims and merely realizes the maximal

war machine

conditions of the appropriation of the

by the State apparatus. total

and

onI> under prior conditions of limited

fore true that total

State

not

is

when annihilaonK the enem> arms

illustrates the irresistible character

italist

war

State, but the entire population

cconomx. the

c-an tx'

'^

war)

ot annihilation hut arises

tion takes as

or the

ol

IJut

is

it

war becomes the object

war machine, then

also true that

when

of the a|ipropriated

this lc\el

at

in

the set ol

all

possible conditijins, the object and the aim enter into

new

relations that can reach the point of con-

tradiction.

when he

This explains (.lausewitz's

asserts at

one point

war conditioned by the

a at

another that

it

political

aim of States, and

effect, the

aim remains es-

and determined

State, but the object itself has

We

vacillation

war remains

lends to effectuate the Idea of

unconditioned war. In sentially political

that total

it

cism, which makes wa^ an unlimited

with no other aim than

itself;

that of fas-

movement

but fas cism

is

only a

rough sketch, and the second, postfascist, figure that of a

war machine

that takes peace as

its

is

ob|ect

m\en

the

which the Slates,

t»l

war machine, and having

a

the aim,

of

grow stronger and stronger,

war machine

appropriate-^

is

the

political

highly dut-

as in a science fiction

we have seen it assign as its objecti\e a peace more terrifying than fascist death; we have seen

story; still it

maintain or instigate the most terrible of IcKal

wars as parts of

on

new t\pe

a

e vcn

we ha\e seen

itself;

it

set its sights

enenn, no longer another

of

another regime, bu the ''unspecified t

we ha\e seen

it

put

its

it

the sery conditions that

State or

«ir

;

can be caught h\ surprise once,

into place, so that el

State,

enemy"

counterguerrilla elements

but not twice. \

World war machine

fxissible,

make in

the

other

words, constant capital (resources and equipment)

and human variable unexpected

capital, continuall>

recreate

possibilities for counterattack, unfore-

seen initiati\es determining reNoluiionars, popular, minority, mutant machines.

Unspecified

Knemy

The definition of the

testifies to this:

maneuvering and omnipresent political,

.

oretical

.

of

"multiform, the

moral,

sub\ersive or economic order, etc.," the

element of mportance

ma chine

is

i

man\

pn'iis i'ly htiausc the

rst,

to

ha\e watched the war machine

immense war machine of which they are no longer anything more than the opposable or apposed parts. This w orldwide war mac hine, which in a wav ''reissues " from the Stales. t'l

jt

necessarx to follow the real

is

unassignable material Satioteur or

figures:

|M.iiif

they could he spoken in

the present situation

We

couraging

war

two successi\e

ot

and assumes increasingK wider

direction, or rather thai States tend to unleash,

displays

if

a.s

assuming the most diverse forms.

reconstitute, an

Ilillll

continuation

enough

not

such by the

could say that the appropriation has changed

\\n

IS

become unlimited.

as

A

rtlccti\elv rr\erscd,

to their aims, reimpart a

it

)»»u[>tkss.

I

is

it

the conclusion

at

takes charge

that

functions.

Mciim

as

tiis

I

is

eniiileil to va\ that |>o1iiich is the

Ik-

m

ph>sical ami mental aspects (hoth as war-

iu>*^rd

rarlh

.SMfl,

formula

of war b> other means,

States,

Its

imn


ca«

The

Siirvi\al

r

nmhmmTi

a

to

w.ir

ami the uar econonu. ami

iiuhisir\,

mjihinr reforms

v^ar 1

The qucNlion M jr

dirrcil\. a> ihc peace ol Tcrrtir

has

v anahli' n-latinn tg

human The

l>eserter first thc;-

the fact that the

\aried meanin^is. and this

war maJuthir.ir

tinlj

T he

l\^is

is

an ixirrmi^ly

war machine

is

not uniformlN defined, and comprises something

other than increasing quantities of force. tried to define p(ijc,ji takes

two poles

war

of the

tor its object

\V£ha\e

war machine:

ami forms

at imc

a line

of

destruction prolongable to the limits of the un iverse, liut in

all

of the shapes

it

assumes here -

limited war, total war, worldwide organization -

Deleuze and

Gilles

war represents not

Felix Guattari

at all

the supposed essence of the

war machine but only, whatever the machine's power, either the

of conditions under which

set

displacement.

It is

not the

nomad who

constellation of characteristics;

it is

nomad, and

tion that defines the

defines this

this constella-

same time

at the

the States appropriate the machine, even going so

the essence of the war machine. If guerrilla warfare,

as the horizon of the world, or the

minority warfare, revolutionary and popular war

far as to project

it

dominant order of which the States themselves are

are in conformity with the essence,

now

they take war as an object

only parts. Th e other pole seemed to be the

es sence:

w hen the w ar ma(±ine^with infinitely has as its object not war but The

it is

lo wer "quantities,"

draw ing of a creative

line of

fl ight,

the compositio n

o f a sm()( )tli.sBas£^mij)f t he movement ofpcopkjn.

At

that space.

this other pole, the

machine does

indeed encounter w ar, bu^as^its su££lementar}^or

now

synthetic object,

worldwide axiomatic expressed by

the

against

directed against the State and

thought

possible to assign the invention

it

of the war machine to the nomads. This was done

because

only on the condition that they simultaneously create

something tions.

1

else,

new nonorganic

only

\{

social rela-

ne difference between the two poles

and

great, even,

especially,

is

from the point of view

of death: the line of flight that creates, or turns into a line

of destruction; the plane of consistency that

constitutes

itself,

even piece by piece, or turns into a

plan(e) of organization and domination.

States.

We

is

it

more necessary for being merely "supplementary": they can make war the

all

c onstantly

reminded

that there

is

We

ar^

communicatio n

be tw een these two lines or planes, that each takes

only in the historical interest of demonstrating that

nourishment from the other, borrows from the

the war machine as such was invented, even

other: the worst of the world

displayed from the beginning that caused

to enter into

it

all

it

from the

start.

conformity with the essence, the

in

nomads do not hold scientific, or artistic

war machine, draw s,

of the ambiguity

composition with the

other pole, and swing toward

However,

if it

the secret: an "ideological,"

movement can be

a potential

to the precise extent to

which

in relation to a phylum,''^''' a plane

sistency, a creative line of flight, a

it

of con-

smooth space of

stitutes

earth.

war machines recon-

asmoothspacetosurround and enclose the But the earth

asserts

its

own powers of

deterritorialization, its lines of flight, its

spaces that live and blaze their earth.

The

question

is

way

smooth

new

for a

not one of quantities but of

the incommensurable character of the quantities that confront

one another

in the tw o kinds of

machine, according to the two poles.

war

Wa r machin es

take shape against the apparatuses that appropriat e

the machine and

make war

their affair

and

their

ob ject: they bring connecti ons to bear against the Usually a biological classification, etymologically

a

understood as a biological plateau.

tribe or race, here

great conjunction of the apparatuse s of captu re or

dbmltiation.

Authors' Notes Georges Dumezil, Mitra-Varuna 1947).

On nexum

ulus) operates

machine,

by magic bond,

it

binds, and that

(Mitra, Zeus,

poses upon

it

Numa)

who

is

iMars-Tiwaz

a "jurist of

is

all."

appropriates an

juridical

immediate

is

Its

other pole

army but im-

and institutional rules that

become nothing more than atus: thus

seizure, or

Rom-

does not wage battles, and has no war

it

a piece in the State

appar-

not a warrior god, but a god

war." See Dumezil, Alttra-l aruna,

pp. 113ff, 148ff,202ff

Dumezil, Hiltebeital

1970).

For the

role of the warrior as

The Destiny of the

Dumezil, Aiitra-l'anwa, pp. 124—32. See

also the analysis of furor in the

works of Dumezil.

Luc de Heusch emphasizes

the public nature of

Nkongolo's actions, actions of

trans.

Alf

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

in contrast to the secrecy

of the

his son; in particular, the

former

Mbidi and

eats in public,

meals. Later,

whereas the others hide during their

we w ill

see the essential relation of the

war machine with the

secret,

which

is

as

much

a

matter of principle as a result: espionage, strategy,

diplomacy. this link.

Warrior,

one who "unties" and

opposes both the magic bond and the juridical contract, see

pole of the State (Varuna, Uranus,

first

capture:

Gallimard,

118 124.

tract, .see pp.

"The

(Paris:

and tnutuum, the bond and the con-

Le

Commentators have often underlined rot ivre

ou I'origine de I'Etat (Paris: Galli-

mard, 1972).

For an analysis of the three

sins in the cases of the

Indian god Indra, the Scandinavian hero Starcatherus,

,

"1227: Treatise on Nomadoloey - The War Machirx? jitd ihc Circck jjihJ

lirrvuio, ncc

t^^f,

17

\u\

Scr jImi 7

I

pp

2,

Miira

Dunir/il,

I

ttntHtt,

Mii hrl Scrrok, 1^ l.utKu

Jr

HtintuHt < dt

t'Uuvfi

I

KhaMun

Irum hem

I

I

*>

This

IN

nuki> i^i«mi

ihc ilisiinction I'icrrc lioiiUv

two kiiuK

ol spjcc-iinic in

the nicjsurc

i

jn

niusu

in strutcil space,

irrcgiibr or regular, hiii

Ih-

\S

will "

at

W«w


adapted lor "auioiracv

is

ii

On

his dis|>\al)

ami liwd

nihrf pole

auihi\tiH.

i%

word

lifM-aKr% ilui

riKMi at

slrc\M:% the jl>M-nir ol an\

MIX in the trilul ihirl,

\>>\\\\

!l

points ni\cn in (he ic\«. ihc huirih sciihn

lhi«

niobili/r an t\\*x\\ dc

^''

L pkyu^ur Jam U ic

lurhuUnn-^ (Pans

fi

ScrrcN was thr

I**??)

1^1.

and

hird.

I

nukr* Um

»amr iimr

ihr

at

ha» a Uiiicrrni ntranmit

S4ilidarii\

MhultMUilil

cnnlii inipurr,

Dumr/il jnah/rs

IAS

i*

whrm*

fi

\'H\)

li«llini«rd.

)umr/tl, t'kr Dfttmy «/ ikr

ihr dan^rrx Jiui i4Uscs(il ihr

Mylkf

hiinr/il,

I

IV (Haru

See Ibn khaldun, Ihc to

Mui/iiJi/inuih:

West."

.... In

History, trans. I'ran/ Rosenthal (Princeton, N.J

Princeton University Press, I%7). tial

themes of

this

problem of the

masterpiece

esprit

de corps, and

its

cit\

The

first

aspect of this opposition

is

Its

is

there a secrecv of the bedouin war

ma-

secret solidarity,

first

w hilc

case

"eminence"

in the

is

based on

second case the secret

If)

w(K)l. a soft material, gives

Nomads

pause

at

one

hair, it

(kcu-

nomad

life

the representation of «>f

the space they

W oollv

See W. Montgomery Watt.

MuhammeJ

(London: Oxford Lniversitv Press,

polv-

al

1*^56),

MeJma

pp. 85 6,

242. 17

Kmmanuel I^rcKhe, Hrei

Second, bedouinism brings into pla\ both

"Nem"

purity and a great mobility of the lineages and their

nomads con-

the temporary site

rhe\ leave space to space

subordinated to the demands of s(Kial eminence. a great

tied not to a

morphism."

a is

at

their journeys, not at a figuration

chine, as opposed to the publicitv of the State cit\ dweller, but in the

unitv ....

cross

the

inverted relation between the public and the secret:

not only

no mark

Thus

pies

ethnic group) with sedentarily or

living.

is

an itinerarv. Refusing to take

environment out of w), tor example,

1*1

let tor,

cniliv

fans Junrif

l\innfriius I'.lawfi in

the

xalue

even mpcct 'Vht

ijiikL

hrvjhrr,

I.4iuis (

Mme

lrti»

\iHeiecntk drntury, trans I'rank

ol ihe

|Ni«

nonuiis (srr

l>\

See l.ucicn \luvsel.

(Pans

ihrn)r> oritcmaiin^

aboxr

ihu

fe«j»-

%pni

«alur, artd. in«rr^l«

uralrftK

il«

Speed and

ilul

prolruruns jml nomjils, (.(inipjnng I'jns

to ctjuile

/^AanM


n«»i

hul in Jrlrrriloruli/ril

(|jtt«ir)

fi«m

ian rMi« rrjih an> uihrr, no mjiirr «hrrr

ot ihr Slilr (lhi\ lintr. ihr |miimi oi \irM ol nonutli-

Marx

mt miMi

lu.'

ur nu bmfrr

irairfH %iriintrp(Mnu, %irKr (ri«n »n>

i% willini; or wi^hiiiK lor ihr ilc%lriKtioi)

/jlion jMiwrr) h \rn

UmU}.

'{lutnu',

role of this

rather, to organize a matter;

submits that matter to one or the other

it

of the twt) principal poles. 34

The texts of T K jw rencT, Seien Pillars of It isdom (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1935) and "Ihe I

Science of Ciuerrilla 14th ed

nica,

among fare;

\\ ar," in

(1929), vol

10,

Emyilopedta Britan-

pp 950

3,

remain

the most signiflc-ant works on guerrilla war-

they present themselves as an "anti-Foch"

theory

and elaborate the notion of the nonbattlc.

But the nonbattle has

dependent on

a history

that

is

not entirely

guerrilla warfare: (1) the traditional

distinction between the "battle"

and the "maneuver"

.

Gilles

Deleuze and

in war; see

mon

Aron,

Gallimard, 1976),

(Paris:

way

Run

Felix Guattari

in

Feriser hi guerre. Clausenntz

ob\ iously have a totally different conception of the

pp. 122-31; (2) the

people and domestic policy than Ludendorff). Cer-

vol. 1,

which the war of movement places the

and importance of the

tain authors

role

battle in question (as early as

proletariat

Marshal de Saxe, and the controversial question of

name

recently, the critique of the battle in the

of nuclear arms, which play conventional

forces

now

a deterrent role,

having a

role

\ irilio.

36

and

Guy

BrossoUet, Essaisur

non-hatatlle (Paris: Belin, 1975).

.\s

Speed anJ

Politics,

pp. 38, 40-1, 134-5.

John blric Nef shows,

it

was during the great

la

return to

the notion of the battle cannot be explained simply by

code of war represents

technological factors such as the development of

together the elements of total war: mobilization,

tactical

ations

-

it is

upon

these that the role assigned to the

a

turning point that brought

transport, investment, information, etc.

nuclear arms, but implies political consider-

battle (or nonbattle) in

35

The recent

of military origin, naval in

nomena of concentration, accumulation, and investment emerged - the same phenomena that were later to determine "total war." See War and Human Progress (New York: Norton, 1968). The Napoleonic

in

"testing" or "maneuver"; see the Gaullist conception of the nonbattle,

much

period of "limited war" (1640- 1740) that the phe-

with

onh

as

particular, as of industrial origin; see, for example,

the battle during the Napoleonic Wars); (3) finalh,

more

have convincingly demonstrated that the

is

37

On

this

"transcending" of fascism, and of

Erich Ludendorff, Der totale Krieg (Munich: Luden-

formula, see Virilio's entire analysis in

dorff \ erlag, 1935), notes that the evolution has been

territoire, especially

toward attributing more and more importance to the "people" and "domestic policies" Clausewitz

still

in war,

whereas

puts the emphasis on armies and

foreign policy. This criticism certain texts of Clausewitz.

made by Lenin and

is

total war,

and on the new point of inversion of Clausewitz's

war depends.

true overall, despite

The same criticism

is

also

the Marxists (although they

38

chapter

L 'insecurtte du

1

Guy

BrossoUet, Essai sur la non-bataille, pp. 15-16.

The

axiomatic notion of the "unspecified

enemy"

is

already well developed in official and unofficial texts

on national defense, on international law, and judicial or police spheres.

in the

Critical

Appropriations

Cornel West The prolific and politically active Cornel West (1953- is one of a growing number of contributors to American philosophy from an AfricanAmerican perspective. Heir both to a leftist or "Tolstoyan" Christian heritage and to the classical American philosophical tradition, West has plied a "prophetic pragmatism" oriented toward social and political change, in contrast to Rorty's prag-

account

matic "postmodernist bourgeois liberalism," which largely defends the political-economic

course at

)

psychological needs of the dominant white racial

group. Despite the indispensable role these factors

would play

from

his first book.

In

the

modern racism factors constant

way

in

West employs

a Foucauldian

embedded

its

West,

and focus

Inception

try to hold these

I

on a neglected models - namely, the

solely

dis-

produced forms of rationality,

and objectivity

cultural ideals

to

as well as aesthetic

and

which require the constitution of the

idea of white supremacy. in

modern Western thought. With others in this s ection, he parts company with postmodernism when it seems to eviscerate reyisi^narv ideals

This requirement follows from a

logic

endemic

the very structure of modern discourse. This logic

to is

manifest in the way in which the controlling metaphors, notions, and categories of modern discourse

^"^^

and the potential for social critique.

in the

which the very structure of modern

the following essay

analysis to shed light on the racism

model

emergence and sustenance of

variable in past explanatory

scientificity,

status quo (albeit ironically).

in a full-blown explanatory

for

produce and prohibit, develop and delimit, specific

The

notion that black people are

a relatively

The

new

human

discovery in the

beings

is

modern West.

idea of black equality in beauty, culture, and

intellectual capacity

remains problematic and con-

troversial within prestigious halls of learning

sophisticated intellectual circles.

The

and

Afro- Ameri-

can encounter with the modern world has been

shaped

first

and foremost by the doctrine of white

supremacy, which tices

and enacted

is

in

embodied

in institutional prac-

everyday folkways under vary-

ing circumstances and evolving conditions.

My aim

in this chapter

is

to give a brief

conceptions of truth and knowledge, beauty and character, so that certain ideas are rendered

prehensible and unintelligible.

incom-

suggest that one

such idea that cannot be brought within the epistemological field of the

initial

modern discourse

that of black equality in beauty, culture, lectual capacity.

This

and

is

intel-

act of discursive exclusion, of

relegating this idea to silence, does not simply cor-

respond

to (or

is

not only reflective of) the relative

powerlessness of black people reveals the evolving internal

account

I

at

the time.

It also

dynamics of the struc-

ture of modern discourse in the late seventeenth and

of the way in which the idea of white supremacy

was constituted

as

an object of modern discourse in

the West, without simply appealing to the objective

demands of the

prevailing

political interests

mode

of production, the

of the slaveholding

class, or the

Cornel West, "A Genealogy of Modern

Racism,"

chapter four of his Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-

American Revolutionary Christianity, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1982, pp. 47-65.

'

Modem Racitm"

A C^'nmako^ of righucnih ccnluncs

in

cxiluMon

ucsirrn

Jiul ihc iniclltxtiul

lr\cl, in

•

cllcii% of ihi*

irjio ol

toniinur lo hauni the inoiicrn Wcsl

diM:urM%r

or Juring

l.uri>|>c

The ctmcrclc

ihc l.nlighicnmcni

iHin silriur

on the m»n-

^hrtto \trcris. ami on the

yNn at in

tjcf, ttr «j

A\l

tut (.lull

1

ihr

hiaHifMig»ph>

di'

1

whr

ulr.l ni

ilis-

cuPiivc lc\cl. in mclhtKliilo^ual 4\Minipfn»n\ in the iliwiplincs ot the hiinuniiicx I

ar^nc fhai ihc initul striKliirc

\hjll

nuKUrn

itl

disiOurNC in ihc West "secretes" the ulcj

suprcnucy. ol

"sccmion"

call this

I

m«»dcrn discourse

quence

To put

the authoril>

ihal

modem

the umlcrsulc

a particular logical

it

is

undergirded b\

a

notions, promotes

C Cartesian

and enctiurages the actiMties

ni\

com-

ot obserNinti,

paring, measuring, and ordering the physical characteristics ot

human

appreciation

and appropriation

bodies. CiiNcn the ot

renewed an-

classical

h\ classical

tiquity, these actiMties are regulated

aesthetic

and cultural norms. The cream e tusion

of scientific investigation, Ciartesian epistemology,

and

classical ideals

scientificii),

1

will

produced forms of

rationality,

and objecti\ity which, though

ettlca-

slioM

(

ol certain idea.s.

These powers are subjectlcss

that

Thes ha\e

a transhistorical

/not

v et

and

a lite

is,

they are

human

the indirect prinlucts of the praxis of lects

set jx-rim-

Ixiundaries tor the intelligibilii\.

ilraw

a\ailabilit>,

guided b\ Cireek

phih>s>

•'

"(N)

ami

|osi|uin

f-.l

(ireco. Tin(orctto.

the arts. Montaigne,

\

pePHul

in

Michelangelo

later

\

omiel

music

The

in the

middle

time as objectiv ity ol

first

landel in the

ol the eight-

the lyrics of Holderlin, the tragedies of

Inures,

and prose of I.andor, and the

Mfieri, the verse

music of Haydn and .Mo/art. The Kniightenment revolt against the authority of the

or the

I

eenth centurv, with the paintings of David and

s earch for

l

Racine, Mil-

culminated

In (h e metaphysics ol

was defined

works of

and Bach and

classical revival

movement

neoclassical

in the arts,

in literature,

Har-

in the

1750), as seen in the

h»(H>

(

formed into such certainty of representation. Descartes the existe nt

in

xt\ antes, and .Shakes|Hrarc in

and Rembrandt

elasijue/

and

and the

The revival was s(rengthened

music

oi|iie

The revival nieiloMcd IWM)). as illustraled by

and Maren/io, (labrieh. ami Irescobaldi

literadire. in

(

ihc At\%,

in

rasnuis in hlrraturr, and

IS.^0

(

K4phAcl. Hni-

\ inci.

musu

.assus in

I

.Mannerist era

i

nm^ic

in

MikH Kroai*-

Michelangelo

and

\riosio, Kalx'lais,

in the

Da

with

U)).

nun(e, and the carl>

ton,

This obiectilication ol the existent takes place in a

sance

.i«

Dulav

This rexixal inlrnsificd during the

cncc

KrrutMjncc

in (he l^rl\

l>(N)), principally i%iih

Riicism"

qytdrk

nt .ir:iin.-.l

.

church and the ritu i>>m ltd

tii

a

highlv ch arged recovery of classical antiquity, an d

repr esentation, and truth as certainty of repre-

especially to a

sentation.

of the

new appreciation and appropriation an d cultural heritage of anae nt

artistic

Greece^ Hacon

and

had

Descartes

basic

dillercnces:

our purposes, the

I'( ir

Bacon inducli\e orientation and Descartes the de-

ant because

ducti\e viewpoint; Bacon the empiricist outlook

classical ideals

and Descartes the

ati on

rationalist (mathematical) per-

specti\e. Despite these differences, both of these

propatian dists of

modern

tilic

method pr ovides

and

that obser vation

scientific

a

science a tyreed that scien-

n ew

paradi^

and e vidence

New

method. In The

of knowledge

is at

the center of

Or^unon, Bacon

Natur e, .NLind as Inner Arena with Observe r - dominate modern discourse

In ner

power of

Method,

its

own." In

his Discourse on

"by

a

knowledge

as inner representation, is

tities

modeled on

characteristic that

in

ledged

know ledge." And, in

The

as

D'Alembert acknow-

Encyclopedia,

Descartes "introduced the

both

spirit

Bacon

and

of experimental

science."'*

T he s cribed

last

y

histf^ri.-nl

priicess that

circum -

and determined the metaphors, notio ns,

categories, and

norms of

th e_ class i cal reviv al.

This

modem

discourse

classical revival

-

wa s

in re-

sponse to medieval mediiKrity and religious dog-

would

The creative fusion tesian philosophy,

aesthetic

sical

short,

Kye of the

iew ing representations in order to find

some

testily to their fidelity.

of scientific iniestit^ation,

Greek ocular metaphors, and

and

essential elements

m ;ijor

philo-

and Aristotle's

retinal images, with the

become "the more necessary vance

modern

saddled with the epistemological

intellect (formerly Plato's

Mind

we ad-

in

Nous, now Descartes's Inner Eye) inspecting en-

Descartes set forth as a rule that "observations" the further

its

the \\ est. " Ca)upled with the (Artesian notion of

model of

it

m odcrri^^iscoursc.

as .Mirror of

which

from the llowers of

import -

Kv e of the .Min d, Mind

(ireek ocular metaphors

sophical inquiry

collects "its material

is

of beauty, proportion, andTnodcr-

into the beginnings of

likened his ideal natural philosopher to the bee,

the garden and of the field" and digests

classical revival

Greek ocular metaphors and

infuses

it

cultural

of modem

modern discourse

rests

upon

clas-

constitutes

ideals

discourse

Car-

m a

the

li est.

the

In

conceptj on of

truth and knuwialg^Lgoverned bv an ideal valiie=, free

subject

j.

nuaued

in

observing,

compariri g,

ordering, and measuring in order to arrive

d encc sutticient to

make

at evi-

valid inferences, cojoflrm

C^T)

.

Cornel

West

speculative hypotheses, deduce error-proof conclusionii,

and verity true fepreiienialions of

Lucilio \ anini posited that Ethiopians had apes for

ancestors and had once walked on

reality.

all

fours. Since

theories of the separate origin of races were in

Roman

disagreement with the

Catholic Church,

The Emergence of Modern Racism: The

Bruno and

First Stage

both were burned

at the stake.

based accounts of

racial inferiority flourished,

The

recovery of classical antiquity in the

West produced what

I

shall

a

call

modern

''normative

gaze," namely, an ideal from which to order and

compare observations. This

was drawn

ideal

pri-

underwent similar punishment:

\ anini

Of course,

biblicallv

but

the authority of the church prohibited the proliferation of nonreligious, that

counts of

What

protomodern, ac-

is,

racial inferiority.

is

distinctive about the role

of classical aes-

marily from classical aesthetic values of beauty,

th eticand cultural

norms at the advent of modernity

human form and

that they provided

an acceptable authority for the idea

proportion, and

classical cultural

standards of moderation, self-control, and har-

oj white

mony." The rn|p_nf f'l^ s^iiral aPKr herir and riilfiiral norms in the emergerice of J.he idea of white^supreni acv as an object of modern dismnr«;e ^anno^he

closely linked with the

u nderestimated.

place, let us

These norms were consciously projected and promoted

many

by

whom

and scholars, of

writers, artists,

famous was

Enlightenment

influential

J.

J.

Winckelmann.'" In

read book. History of Ancient Art,

the most

his widely

Winckelmann

portrayed ancient Greece as a world of beautiful

He

bodies.

laid

down

rules

-

that should govern the size of eyes

supremacy, an a cceptoFle^authority t harwas

that

aim of natural history

principal

human

the depth of the ocean always remains calm

however much the surface may be

to

is

bodies (or classes of animals and

bodies) based on

ob-

.

human

especially physic al, charac -

visible,

Th ese chara cteristics permit one to disce rn and

and inequality,

differe nce, equality

be auty and ugliness among^ anuhals and

hum an

bodies.

categories

of natural

are preeminently classificatory categories

As

took

compare, measure, and order animals and

serve,

The governing

eur. In a celebrated passage he wrote:

this linkage

those of natural history.

is,

The

teristics

defined beauty as noble simplicity and quiet grand-

how

examine the categories and aims of

the major discipline that promoted this authority,

identity

He

In order to see

oj SlUn^c.

and eyebrows, of

collarbones, hands, feet, and especially noses.

major authority on truth and

klwu^JiJ'ic hi tJiey'loJern irorld. thimeTy. tJieTustituiion

and aesthetics -

in art

is

history

-

that

is,

they consist of various taxonomies in the form

agitated, so

of tables, catalogs, indexes, and inventories w hich

does the expression in the figures of the Greeks

impose some degree of order or representational

reveal a great and

composed

soul in the midst of

schema on guiding

.\lthough

middle

life,

a

Observation

passions.

Winckelmann

murdered

was

broad a nd

of visible characteristics.

field

differentness

notions

natural

in

are

in

Natural history has as a condition of

of Greek art in Munich), he viewed Greek beauty

bility the

as the ideal or standard against

which

to

measure other peoples and cultures.

W inthrop shown

Jordan and

Thomas Gossett have premodem racist

viewpoints aimed directly and indirectly '

common

affinity of things

guage with representation; but

at

non-

For example,

in

be separate.

It

tance between

must them

close as possible to the observing gaze,

nothing more than the nom-

ination of the visible.

mind

principally

a similar claim,

is

Natural history

but

Jews and Ethiopians. And

and the

things observed as close as possible to words.

Natural history

in

exists as a task

therefore reduce this dis-

1520 Paracelsus held that black and primitive

Bruno made

possi-

and lan-

so as to bring language as

peoples had a separate origin from Europeans. In 1591, Giordano

it

its

only in so far as things and language happen to

that there are noteworthy

white, especially black, people.

had

Foucault

never set foot in Greece, and saw

almost no original Greek art (only one exhibition

and culture

essen tial

the

history.

.

.

.

.

.

covers a series of complex

operations that introduce the possibility of a

constant order into a totality of representations. J. J.

Winckelmann (1717-68), Prussian

and historian of art.

archaeologist

It

constitutes a whole

the

domain of empiricity

same time describable and orderable.'^

as at

"A Genealogy The is

to

initial lusis tor

be found

t

he

whu c sujMcmacN

idcjl oi

lo^TKat the

1

The

emergence

ot the idea ot

modern

discourse.

\\ est

of racism

employed

of

th e

means of classifying

bodies by IVan^ois Hernier, a French phys-

four races:

Lapps. '^

divided humankind into basically

Europeans, Africans, Orientals, and

The

humankind

le

I

first

most preeminent naturalist of

For

Carolus Linnaeus.

century,

number and

kind;

how-

within

The members

a species;

preference.

test for the

variations of kind

the races were a prime example. races:

Homo

Homo

Afer, and

(nor the .\merican and Asiatic woman). significant that in the 1750s

when he

first

also

is

acknow-

w hile restricting such unions

dates,

women

Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon accepted hybridization without question in his

famous Satural

held that white was "the real and natural color of

man." Black people and other o f this natural color yet ,

He

races were variations

somehow not members of a

remained uncertain about the

black skin was caused by hot climate and would that

Linnaeus did

change

was

if

the climate

all

altogether another to arrange

living creation it

and

Although he

he claimed that

unfortunat e negroes are endow ed with e xcel-

and p ossess the seeds of every human

virtue."

in a single great

when Linnaeus undertook

the

of these tasks he w as not thereby forced to In the

colder.

black people h ad "l ittle_genius" and then added,

"The to classify

became

a fervent antislavery advocate,

len t hea rts,

latter.

to black

and male apes.

objective reality of species. Buffon believed that

"one chain of universal being." Jordan

attempt the

woman

It

different species.

states:

first

woman,

but that he said nothing about the l^uropean

Euro-

not subscribe to a hierarchical ranking of races but

hierarchy; and

important to note that he

is

Hom o

^^

Winthrop Jordan has argued

w as one thing

also

It

included some remarks about the .\frican

naeus, viewed races as mere chance variations, he

that

was the

For Linnaeus, there were four

It

the

of a species produced

There were

p aeus. Homo Asiaticus. A mericanus.

rather to

at

History of. Man (1778). Although Buffon, like Lin-

fertile offspring; interfertility

division of species.

terms revealed,

might change

w ere members of a species

appearance.

of evaluative

an implicit hierarchy by means of personal

ledged that hybridization of species occurs, he

influential

Linnaeus, species were fixed in

in

Linnaeus' use

chose black people and apes as the probable candi-

the

in

they were immutable prototypes. Varieties, e\ er,

Negligent. Anoints himself with grease.

joverned bv caprice.

Salural

Systt-m (1735) of the

the eighteenth

Li|is

modest\.

authoritative racial division of

found

is

(

least,

human

ician, in 1684.

of

Breasts give milk abundantly. (!ralt>, indo-

was

as a

matter

lent.

color

first

a

Hair

flat

More

category of race - denoting primarily skin

The

Relaxed

white

category of race in natural his tor>

cl assificatorv

\esl-

modern

the

in

from the appear ance

inse parable

IS

cli»se

.Nose

silky.

Womeirs bosom

tumiil.

specdicalK (and as Ashley .Mo ntagu has tireles sly .irgued), the genealog)

Skin

black, tri/zled.

ha\c called the "normatiNc ga/e" signifies

stage ot the

first

(.o\ered \Mth

i'hlegmatic.

Hlack,

African.

captivity of natural histors

supreniacN as an object ol

Modern Racism'

ments. Cio\erned by customs.

descriptiv e, repre sentatj(>nal, order-imposing aims of natural history.

iinenlne

acute,

and the

in the class i ficatorv categories

of

many

editions of the

The Emergence of Modern Racism: The Second Stage

Systema Naturae he duly catalogued the various kinds

of men,

yet

never

in

a

hierarchic

In the works of Johann F'riedrich

Blumenbach, one

of the founders of modern anthropology, the aes-

manner.'^

thetic criteria

and cultural

ideals of Greece

began

to

evaluated the observable characteristics of the racial

come to the forefront." Like Linnaeus and Buffon, Blumenbach held that all human beings belonged

classes of people,

to the

\et

it

is

quite apparent that Linnaeus implicitly

especially those pertaining to

character and disposition.

For example, compare

that races

were merely

to the claims

by Winthrop

same species and

varieties.

Yet contrary

Thomas

Linnaeus' description of the European with the

Jordan, Ashley Montagu, and

African:

concerning Blumenbach\s opposition to hierarchic

European.

White, Sanguine, Brawny. Hair

abundantly

flowing.

Eyes

blue.

Gentle,

"

Johann Blumenbach (1752

tive anatomist.

1

840),

Gossett

German Compara-

West

Cornel

ranking or irritation

racial

those

at

praised the symmetrical face as

of t

who

use aes-

standards for such ranking, Hlumenhac h

thetic

human

t

he most beautiful

faces precisely because

he "divine" works of Greek

art,

it

ap proximated

and

specificall y

the p roper anatomical proportions found in

Applying the

sculpture. ation

heclaimed

,

more moderate the

that the

mate, th e more beautiful the

smce

w^is tfiat

G reek

ideal

bl ack

Gree k

of moder-

classical ideal

face.

The

cli -

net result

people were farthe st from the

and located

extremely hot climate s,

in

race and racism were trained as artists and writers.

Clamper was

by training and, in fact, won Amsterdam School of Art two

a painter

the gold medal of the

years before he published his

work on the

Johann Kaspar Lavater, the father of physiognomy, explicitly acknowledged that the art of painting was the mother of his new

Moreau, an

discipline.

early editor of Lavater's work, clearly

noted that the true language of physiognomy was painting, because

it

spoke through images, equally

to the spirit. ^^

This new discipline

the y were, by implica tion, inferior in beauty to

to the eye

Eur opeans

linked particular visible characteristics of

.

The second

stage of the

w hite supremacy

modern discourse

and capacities of human beings. This discipline

and physiognomy (the reading^ of

These new

human

bodies, especially those of the face, to the character

primarily occurred in the rise of phr enology (th e

faces).

and

emergence of the idea of

as an object of

rea ding of skulls)

"facial

angle.

-

disciplines

w ith anthropology - served

as

closely connected

an open platform for

openly articulated w hat

many

and anthropologists

ists

of the early natural-

assumed: the

tacitly

clas-

of beauty, proportion, and moderation

sical ideals

regulated the classifying

and ranking of groups of

the propagation of the idea of w hite supremacy not

human

principally because they

w ere pseudosciences, but, more important, because these disciplines acknow-

"normative gaze" into daylight.

ledged the European value-laden charcicter of their

models of beauty. His description of the desirable

observations. This

w as based on

European value-lade n charac ter

classical aesthetic

Pieter CampefTtTie

and cultural

ideals.

Dutch anatomist, made

aes-

thetic criteria the pillar of his chief discovery: the

famous

"facial angle."

"facial angle"

mitted

-

a

Camper claimed

that the

measure of prognathism - per-

comparison of heads of human bodies by

a

way of

cranial

Camper, the

and

facial

measurements.

ideal "facial angle"

was

a

For

100-degree

angle which was achieved only by the ancient

He

Greeks.

formed

to

openly admitted that this ideal con-

Winckelmann's

Follow ing Winckelmann,

classical ideal

Camper

of beauty.

held that Gree k

.

Camper

beauti ful face, beautiful

further held that a

bod y, beautiful n ature,

beautiful character, and beautiful soul were i nsep-

He

arable.

tried to

show

that the "faci al angle" of

specimen - blue eyes, horizontal forehead, bent back, round chin, and short

common Greek

discipline

-

ma ny anthropologists readily

made

it

clear that his

ute to the

aimwasjot simply

Camper

to contrib-

new discipline of anth_ropolo^ but also to

promote the love of arti sts

accept ed

classical antiquity to

young

and sculptor s. As George Mosse has noted,

historians of race theories often overlook the fact that

Camper and many subsequent

theoreticians of

was highly

- and

ners

The

slightly

were the principal

among

influential

scientists

artists.

His close friend, the famous

Goethe, aided him in editing and publishing his

physiognomic formulations and findings and Sir Walter Scott, among others, popularized them

in

his novels.

Lavater's promotion of what

I call

the

"norma-

gaze" consisted no longer of detailed measure-

tive

ments, as was the case with the naturalists, but rather of the visual glance. first

quick impression, for

He it

wrote: "Trust your is

worth more than

usually called observation.

is

""'^

Therefore

it

not surprising that Lavater put forth an elaborate

theory of noses, the most striking face.

Although

though

example, Jean Baptiste Porta, Christian Mei-

for

is

th e "facial angle" as a scientific not ion,"

- resembled

source of this "normative gaze." Lavater's new

black peopFe between 60 and 70 degrees, closer to

human

hair

ideals of beauty,

distorted (to say the least),

what

the measurements of apes and^qgsjhaii to

brown

the beautiful person preferred by Camper.

Europeans measured about 97 degrees and those o f

beings^__

physiognomy brought the

Lavater believed that the Greek statues w ere the

propor tions and stature exemplifie d beauty and e mbodied perfection

bodies. In short,

Neither

sifications tions,

is it

member

of noses, based on Lavater's formula-

associate

Roman and Greek

noses

conquerors and persons of refinement and

The

of the

surprising that subsequent clas-

next and

last

step

we

with

taste.

shall consider in this

genealogy of racism in late-seventeenth- and eight-

eenth-century Europe the

new

discipline

is

the advent of phrenology,

w hich held

that

human character human head.

could be read through the shape of the

I

"A Genealogy Ciall,

|()st|ih

I'raii/

head with

to the classical

In a pairioiic fitoiiioic- he

l>eaiil\

ll

penchant for metaphysical speculation;

a

arched

at

w

ith a

ideals of

wrote

systematized, this new discipline took on a

johann

with

Spur/heim,

Kaspar

aide d in allying

modern

and repressed sexuality

r acism

in

state,

Anders it

form.

When

lo reflect

time shall

ha\e acctunmodated (he constitution

life of its

Retzius, Ciarl Ciustay Clarus, and others;

human

beautN of the

ideology was

racist

m\ couii!r\men

gratils

United States occup\ those latitudes

haye e\er been most favourable to the

that

criminal disposition. In

when

the nineteenth centurN,

ma\ |Hrhaps

that the

the rear with love of fame; and a

skull large at the base

own

ga/e" b\ appealing

ti\e

example, he associateil an arelud fore-

i'or

a skull

(uiiiiaii

workings

could be determined b\ the shape of the

ot the brain skull,

rciiankil

that the inner

hiiihl\

a

17%

physician, argued in

Modern Racism"

of

and cultivation

of its

climate, the beauties of (ireece and (arcasia

be renewed

also

with nationalism

who

already

bourgeois morality.

in

new

have meliorated the

shall

may

.\merica; as there are not a few

rival

those of anv quarter of the

globe.^"

Smith's radical environmentalism (along with

Theoretical Consequences: Restrictive

Powers

in

Modern Discourse

his

adherence to Greek aesthetic

him

ideals) led

adopt the most progressive and sympathetic

to

alter-

native which promotes the welfare of black people

A

major example of the way

in

which the

pow ers of modern discourse delimit and strategic options

ternatiyes

of w hite supremacy

restrictive

theoretical al-

in regard to the idea

seen in writings of radical

is

environmentalists of the period - those one w ould

modern

permissible within the structure of

which

integration

course:

assimilatiojQ^ which ci\\

riage

which

ensures

black

uplifts

^s black peop

l

less

le,

Negroid features

i

dis-

people,

ntermar -

in the next

ge neration For example. Smith wrote: .

expect to be open to the idea of black equality in beauty, culture, and intellectual capacity. Yet even t

hese progressive antislavery advocates remain cap-

tive to the

/Y The

•^

"normative gaze."

were perfectly

The major opponent of predominant forms of a

between the domestic and

great difference

reason to believe that,

field slaves gives

admitted to a

free,

if

they

enjoyed property, and were

liberal participation

of the

.society

hierarchic ranking of races and the outspoken pro-

rank and privileges of their masters, they would

ponent of intermarriage in the United States during

change their African peculiarities

this era,

Sa muel Stanhope Smit h,

captivity. In his

day Smith stood

American academia.

He was

University and an honorary

can Philosophical Society.

at

the pinnacle of

This theoretical alternative was taken

Essays of 1787 (and revised in 1810)

honor-

Smith

argued that humankind constituted one species and variations could be accounted for in

reference to three natural causes: "climate," "state

of society," and "habits of living." colour

sal freckle.

may be

iewpoint tiori t hat

al ways

He

believed

justly considered as an univer -

"^-^

The "normative is

consequence by the distinguished American

writers,

and eminent physician, Benjamin Rush.

in

Smit h's

located, as in Buffon. in the

assum p-

operative

physical, espe ciaHy xaciaU. Yariations^ are

d e generate ones

fro

m

an ideal

state.

For

s kin

color of black people

that the Black Color (As is

Derived

From

called) of the

Negroes

Rush denounced

Then

color of Negroes a disease.'

their efforts

discover a remedy for

let

science and

and endeavor

to

In one bold stroke,

it."

Rush prov ided grounds

for

ism, opposing intermarriage

prom oti ng (who wants

abolit ion-

to

marry

diseased persons!), and sup porting^ the Christia n u'riiTy^'onTu mankind.

and physiognomy of t he

it is

the idea of white supremacy, then stated: "Is the

also

man

In a paper entitled

the Leprosy,"

white people. As Winthrop Jordan notes, "Sjpith treated the complexio n

.

"Observations Intended to Favour a Supposition

Smith, this ideal state consisted of highly civilized

white

was the_e]iniimitioii_pf

logical co nsequence

humanity combine ga ze"

lo-

antislavery advocate, publicizer of talented black

of the Ameri-

the

'th at

its

member

He was awarded

known

'

to

gical

This

human

faster."'

president of Princeton

ary degrees from Harvard and Yale. In his well-

that

much

illustrates this

In his opinion, his viewpoint

maximized the happiness of black and white

people:

not merely as indication of superiority

but as the hallmark of civilization.""^ Smith justified this ideal standard

and legitimized his "norma-

To

encourage attempts

the skin in Negroes,

to cure this disease of

let

us recollect that by

I

.

Cornel West succeeding

in

them, we

produce

shall

They

a large

portion of happiness in the world

Secondly, ness, for

we

shall

add greatly

t

here are

and seemed formed neither

for the advantages nor the abuses of philoso-

to their happi-

however well they appear

fied with their color,

are not capable of any great application or

association of ideas,

phy."

to be satis-

many

pr oofs of

Hume's racism was

their preferring that of the white people."

notorious;

it

served as a

major source of pro-slavery arguments and antiblack education propaganda. In his famous footnote

Racism

in the

Enlightenment

to

''Of National

essay

his

he

Characteristics,"

stated:

The

intellectual legitimacy of the idea of white

supremacy, though grounded

what we now con-

in

sider marginal disciplines (especially in stage),

trated

its

second

was pervasive. This legitimacy can be

illus-

by the extent to w hich racism permeated the

writings of the major figures of the EnUghtenment. It is

^

impor tant

of w hite su-

to note that the idea

premacy not only was accepted by these but,

more important,

figures,

w as accepted b y them withtnjm tjnrwi^rd their awn arfrumfnt

Anglo- .American)

\ia

be

Apart from repressing the ambiguous

s|Hirious.

complicity between essentialism and critiques of

(acknowledged

p()siti\ism

(irammatologv

move

"Of

in

also

it

not a theor\.

is

Once

territorial

debate

no change

again, the position

remains unquestioned. And,

of the investigator

W orld,

)erritia

allows the emergence of a proper name,

essence. Theory.

a positive

this

I

Science"),

implying that iiositi\ism

errs b\

This

b\

Positi\e

a

.\s

toward the

turns

question of method

in the

if

Third to

is

be discerned. This debate cannot take into account

woman

of the

that, in the case

no

as subaltern,

ingredients for the constitution of the itinerary of the trace of a sexed subject can be gathered to locale the possibility of dissemination.

Yet

remain generally sympathetic

I

in aligning

feminism with the critique of positivism and the defetishization of the concrete.

am

I

also far

from

averse to learning from the work of Western theor-

ated with that identity.'"'

sible

sistence of essentialism within the ilialectic was a

feminism both continues and

displaces the battle over the right to individualism

women and men in situations of upward mobility. One suspects that the debate be-

ists,

though

have learned to

I

insist

on marking

Given

their positionality as investigating subjects.

these conditions, and as a literary

critic,

tactically

I

confronted the immense problem of the consciousness of the

problem

woman

in a

as subaltern.

The

reinvented the

What does

object of a simple semiosis.

mean.'

I

sentence and transformed

analogy here

victimization of a

is

into the

it

this

sentence

betw een the ideological

Freud and the

positionality of the

postcolonial intellectual as investigating subject.

As Sarah Kofman has show n, the deep ambiguity

women

of Freud's use of

as a scapegoat

is

a reac-

between

tion-formation to an

class

give the hysteric a voice, to transform her into the

initial

and continuing desire

The

to

tween U.S. feminism and European "theory"

(as

subject

women from

the

ideological formation that shaped that desire into

theory

is

generally represented by

United States or Britain) occupies corner of that very terrain. thetic with the call to

"theoretical."

of the

muted

It

I

am

a significant

generally

sympa-

make U.S. feminism more

seems, however, that the problem

subject of the subaltern

woman,

though not solved by an "essentialist" search for lost origins,

cannot be served by the

call for

more

That

call is

often given in the is

name of a

critique

seen here as identical w ith

"essentialism." Yet Hegel, the

modern inaugurator

of "the work of the negative," was not a stranger to the notion of essences.

'

masculine-imperialist

"the daughter's seduction"

is

part of the

same

formation that constructs the monolithic "third-

world woman." As

am

a

postcolonial intellectual,

our "unlearning" project logical formation

sary

I

influenced by that formation as well. Part of

-

is

to articulate that ideo-

- by measuring

silences, if neces-

into the object of investigation.

Thus, when

confronted with the questions. Can the subaltern

theory in Anglo-America either.

of "positivism," which

of hysteria.'

For Marx, the curious per-

speak.'

and Can the subaltern

(as

our efforts to give the subaltern will

woman)

speak.',

a voice in history

be doubly open to the dangers run by Freud's

discourse.

As

a

product of these considerations,

have put together the sentence "White

men

I

are

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

brown women from brown men"

saving

in a spirit

not unlike the one to be encountered in F'reud's investigations of the sentence ''A child

being

is

beaten.'"'

The

use of Freud here does not imply an iso-

morphic analogy between subject-formation and the behavior of social collectives, a frequent practice,

often accompanied by a reference to Reich,

^"

Hindu

No

Rg-Veda and the Dharmasdstra.

India, the

doubt there

is

also an undifferentiated pre-

originary space that supports this history.

The sentence I have constructed is one among many displacements describing the relationship between brown and w hite men (sometimes brown and white women worked in). It takes its place among some sentences of "hyperbolic admiration" or of

between Deleuze and Foucault.

pious guilt that Derrida speaks of. in connection

So I am not suggesting that "White men are saving brown women from brown men" is a sentence indi-

ship between the imperialist subject and the subject

cating a collective fantasy symptomatic of a collective

of imperialism

in the conversation

There

ive imperialist enterprise.

such an allegory, but

in

the reader to consider

problem

a

it

satisfying

is a

would rather

I

in

sym-

invite

"wild psycho-

analysis" than a clinching solution.'^ Just as Freud's

on making the woman the scapegoat

insistence

"A

child

on imperialist subject-production

occasion for this sentence discloses

Further,

I

am

at least

(The conventional

sacrifice.

of the Sanskrit w ord for the

The early colonial rite

The

century

British

Missionary

offer a case of

the transaction between reader and text tence).

The

To

productive catachresis.

is

am

fascinated, rather,

say that the subject

tence. It

is

in

is

pronounce-

We

homologue of this Freudian

final sen-

are driven to

strategy

impose

a

on the Marxist

narrative to explain the ideological dissimulation of imperialist political

economy and

of repression that produces

a

outline a history

sentence like the one

I

have sketched. This history also has a double origin,

one hidden

in the

the British abolition of

maneuverings behind

widow

sial

Presumably

German

W ilhelm

psychoanalyst

observable material.

Reich (1897-1957), controver-

who

women's voice-consciousness. Such

insisted that libido

was an

not

be

a testi-

ideology-transcendent

or

would have

it

constituted the ingredients for producing a coun-

As one goes down the grotesquely

mistranscribed names of these w omen, the sacrificed

widows,

in the police reports

records of the East India together a "voice."

included in the

Company, one cannot put

The most one

can sense

is

the

immense heterogeneity breaking through even such a skeletal and ignorant account example, are regularly described as

w ith the

(castes, for

tribes).

Faced

dialectically interlocking sentences that are

"White men are saving brown women from brown men" and "The women wanted to die," the postcolonial woman intellectual

constructible as

asks the question of simple semiosis this

mean? - and begins

To mark

sacrifice in 1829,^^

the other lodged in the classical and \'edic past of

""

the

tersentence.

by how Freud predicates

where human and animal w ere ^'^

for lost origins:

"The women actually wanted to die." The two sentences go a long way to legitimize each other. One never encounters the testimony of

"fully" subjective, of course, but

the amnesia of the infant, the other

not yet differentiated.

the Indian nativist argu-

a

lodged in our archaic past, assuming by implication a preoriginary space

is

parody of the nostalgia

mony would

with a double origin, one

a history

a

Mary

to

alternative under-

a

subject.

of repression that produces the

a history

hidden

is a

lit-

no more than

text does not authorize the converse

ment: the verbal text

for

(my sen-

analogy between transference and

erary criticism or historiography

I

model

Registers

Daly - have not produced an standing.^^ Against this

transference-in-analysis as an isomorphic

sati.

The

abolition of this rite by the

ment,

w ill

suttee.)

it

"White men saving brown women from brown men." White women - from the nineteenth-

accounts his patients I

is

was not practiced universally and was not caste-

or class-fixed.

many

mean

widow w ould be

British transcribed

sentence he constructed as a sentence out of the

gave him. This does not

This

as the

my politics.

attempting to borrow the general

substantive

it.

transcription

British has been generally understood as a case of

methodological aura of Freud's strategy toward the

similar

ambiguous.

ascends the pyre of the dead

husband and immolates herself upon

widow

relation-

my

however imperfectly, so

his political interests,

insistence

in

being beaten" and elsewhere discloses

is

is

The Hindu widow

itinerary of sadomasochistic repression in a collect-

metry

The

with the "hieroglyphist prejudice."

the

good society

"^

is

moment w hen

Liberation.

W hat

does

not only a

civil

but a

born out of domestic confusion,

Mary Daly (1928-

Beyond God

-

to plot a history.

the Father:

),

feminist theologian, author of

Toward a Philosophy of Women's

'Can the Subaltern Speak?' singular events that break the letter ol the law lo

women

by

remember

men

often jM-oxiiles such an e\ent. IT

with

noninterlerenee

aiul

custom/law, an m\oeation

ot this

sanctioned trans-

Ml )errett\s remark: "The ver>

I

upon

slation

I

lindu

out the assent ot

named

not

sure

is

Law was

single

a

ma\ be

carried through with-

lindu." The legislation

I

equall\ interesting

is

if one

considers

the implications of the survival of a colonially es-

"good"

tablished

society after decolonization: ''The

recurrence of .w/// in independent India

is

probably

an obscurantist revival which cannot long survive

even

in a very

Whether interests

backward part of the country."

this observation is correct or not,

me

that the protection of

is

the ''third-world

woman") becomes

the establishment of a ^ood society

W estern

woman

what

(today

a significr for

which must,

at

or equity of legal policy. In this particular case,

impact

To many

when

this

II it

is

Hindu law

between the private and the

the

evidently

is

high cul-

to traditional

suit

became an important

to okler

norms

the history of

lost in

humankind

modes

the

power

as

conmiodity, that narrative

production, the transition from

ot"

feudalism via mercantilism to capitalism. Yet the precarious normativity of this narrative

is

sustained

by the putatively changeless stopgap of the ".Asi-

mode

atic"

it

of production,''"' which steps

whenever

the story of capital logic

is

the story of the West,

that imperialism establishes the universality of the

mode

of production narrative, that to ignore the

subaltern today perialist project.

is,

lost in the shuffle

Given

admirable,

willy-nilly, to continue the

im-

my

thus

The

is

origin of

sentence

is

between other, more powerful that the abolition of sati it

still

possible to

was

wonder

tain interventionist possibilities.^

historical narrative, focus-

society

is

marked by the espousal of the woman

own

ance for the criminal antedating the development of

one examine the dissimulation of patriarchal egy,

eighteenth century (PAT,

late

41), his theoretical description

pertinent here:

"The

of the "episteme""^'

episteme

is

the 'apparatus'

which makes possible the separation not of the true but of what

{PK, 197)

may not be characterized - ritual as opposed to

of protection from her

kind.

which apparently grants the woman

as subject} In other words,

move from

how does one make

the

approach

not identical

is

w ith chromatism, or mere prejudice

To

strat-

free choice

"Britain" to "Hinduism".^ Even the

attempt shows that imperialism

of color.

as

How should

criminology in the

scientific"

in

if a

perception of the origin of my sentence might con-

object

as

to

in

might become apparent that

it

ing solely on Western Europe, sees merely a toler-

false,

as

Imperialism's image as the establisher of the good

Although Foucault's

from the

")

historical origin ofiiiy sentence,

first

treeing ot labor ot

public domain.

is

time

at a

work, the story of capitalist expansion, the slow

itself

frontier

to de-

norms had become shaky within."

these

of w hat had been tolerated, know n, or adulated as In other words, this one item in

them

ot

prootOt their conformity

discourses.

jumped the

had come under pressure

.

.

and allegiance

ritual puritN

ture.

the process also allowed the redefinition as a crime

ritual.

.

monstrate, to others as well as lo ihemseKes, their

sustain

such inaugurative moments, transgress mere legality,

dered psychologicalh marginal by their exposure to

tlrst legi-

The next sentence, w here the mea-

here.

named,

is

we

nati\e

gression ot the letter tor the sake ol the spirit

read in

ol

that the British boasteil ot their absolute

toward

eqiiitN

Ihe proteetion

are often in\«)ked.

instill its spirit

against people

this question,

I

will

touch

crime, the one fixed by superstition, the other by

briefly

on the Dharmasdstra (the sustaining scrip-

legal science.

tures)

and the Rg-Veda (Praise Knowledge). They

The clear

from

leap of suttee from private to public has a

and complex relationship with the changeover a mercantile

and commercial

to a territorial

and administrative British presence; followed in correspondence tions, the

among

treatment

My readings are, rather,

my homology is

of

not exhaustive.

an interested and inexpert

examination, by a postcolonial

woman, of the

fabri-

lower and higher courts, the courts of

of woman's consciousness, thus woman's being,

and the

like. (It

from the point of view of

the native "colonial subject," also

emergent from

the feudalism-capitalism transition, sati

is

a signi-

with the reverse social charge: "Groups ren-

Foucault's term for the "discursive regime" or structure of

Of course, my

cation of repression, a constructed counternarrative

interesting to note that,

fier

can be

Freud.

the police sta-

directors, the prince regent's court, is

it

represent the archaic origin in

knowledge characteristic of a

historical period.

thus woman's being good, thus the good woman's desire,

the

thus

woman's

desire.

Paradoxically,

at

same time we witness the unfixed place of

woman

as a signifier in the inscription of the social

individual.

^'"

Marx's term

for

all

"primitive" non-Western means

and relations of production.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

The two moments

am

Dhamiasastra that

in the

and

suicides

of the

nature

the

I

on sanctioned

interested in are the discourse

the

for

rites

F>amed in these two discourses, the selfimmolation of widows seems an exception to the

dead."*'

rule.

The

general scriptural doctrine

reprehensible.

is

Room

is

that suicide

made, however,

is

for cer-

forms of suicide w hich, as formulaic perform-

tain

phenomenal

ance, lose the

The

identity of being suicide.

category of sanctioned suicides arises out

first

ation within the

cide

may be

This suicide that

rite).

knowledge and piety of

place. If the former,

the knowledge in a subject of

if

ality

and mere phenomenality

the

dead

the

sacred places

is

it

now

is

thing as nonphenomenality) of

its

At

identity.

was interpreted

"that you," but even without that, tafca

is

is

not iitvuiohata

(a killing

is

that the strongest assertion of agency, to negate the possibility of agency,

cannot be an example of itself.

Curiously enough, the scM-sacrifice of gods

is

sanc-

tioned by natural ecology, useful for the working of the

economy of Nature and

the Universe, rather

than by self-knowledge. In this logically anterior stage, inhabited

{dtmaghdta and dtmaddna) seem as

sacrifice

distinct

little

male subject, city that

an "interior" (self-knowledge)

as

and an "exterior" (ecolog>

)

where the woman's is

being

terms of this profound ideolog>

is

This philosophical space, however, does not ac-

establish

feli-

status as

its

noted. For the female subject, a sanc-

tioned self-immolation, even as

away the

takes

it

effect of "fall" (J)dtaka) attached to an

unsanctioned

suicide, brings praise for the act of choice

By

other register.

on an-

the inexorable ideological pro-

duction of the sexed subject, such a death can be

understood by the female subject as an exceptional

ow n

signifier of her

rule for a

desire, exceeding the general

w idow 's conduct.

In certain periods and areas this exceptional rule

became the general Ashis

rule in a class-specific way.

Xandy relates its marked

eenth-

and

nal misogyny."*

prevalence in eight-

Bengal

ninteenth-century

early

from population control

factors ranging

sanction.

the felicity of the suicide, a

it is

w ill annul rather than

such, that

by gods rather than human beings,

of this particular chain of displacements, suicide

and

it

all

paradox of free choice comes into play. For the

The

paradox of know ing of the limits of knowledge

It is in

for

burning bed of wood,

ritual,

displaced from herself,

legally

consumed.

metonym

of the displaced place of the female subject that the

knows

of the selO-

exteriorized

a

the ''that"-ness of its identitv'. Its demolition of that identity

the

as

thatness

or quiddity. Thus, this enlightened self truly

dramatized so that

is

as if the

that

subject,

certain point in time, tat tia

as

widow becomes the (non)agent who "acts

out." If the latter,

knowing subject comprehends the

mere phenomenality (which ma> be the same

it is

ow n insubstanti-

example and place of the extinguished subject and

constructed by elaborate

or

its

becomes

husband

of tatiajnana, or the know ledge of truth. Here the insubsiantiality

not sui-

is

read as a simulacrum of both truth-

Certainly

'^

its

to

to

commu-

prevalence there in

commodate the self-immolating woman. For her we look where room is made to sanction suicides

the

that cannot claim truth-knowledge as a state that

property. Thus, what the British see as poor vic-

at

any

rate, easily verifiable

o(sruti (what

and belongs

was heard) rather than

remembered). This exception

is,

in the area

smirtt

(what

is

to the general rule

about suicide annuls the phenomenal identity of self-immolation

if

performed

in

certain

places

previous centuries was because in Bengal,

timized w

omen going

to the slaughter

ideological battleground.

As

sonless

member even

widow of a Hindu family is

same

rights over joint

family

It is

an exterior one (place of pilgrimage).

possible for a

woman

to

perform

this

type of

Yet even

woman

to

this

annul

is

not the proper place for the the

her alone

is

sanctioned self-immolation on a dead

spouse's pyre. (The few male examples cited in

Hindu

her

deceased

husband

must have frequently induced the surviving members to get rid of the w idow by to

at a

and love

.

.

.

most distressing hour

for her

husband"

{HD

to her

II.2,

devotion

635).'""

Yet benevolent and enlightened males were and are sympathetic with the "courage" of the free

the

choice

in

the

matter.

They

woman's

thus

accept

production of the se.xed subaltern subject:

antiquity of self-immolation on another's

pyre, being proofs of enthusiasm and devotion to a

w ould have had

proper name of suicide

through the destruction of her proper self For

which

property

appealing

(non)suicide.

an

in a joint

entitled to practically the

to

in fact

Kane, the great

P. V.

served: "In Bengal, [the fact that] the

rather than in a certain state of enlightenment.

knowledge)

is

inherit

historian of the Dhamiasastra, has correctly ob-

Thus, we move from an

interior sanction (truth-

widows could

unlike elsewhere in India,

master or superior, reveal the structure of domin-

""'

'"

Pandurang

\

aman Kane,

Histor)'

of the Dhamasdstra

(Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1963).

"Can the Subaltern Speak?' "MolIciii India tlocs not )Usti(\ but

warped

a

is

It

and

the cool

women

courage

untaltcrinii

becoming

in

practice of

>

I

address for

Motilal Banarsidass, 1938), p. 156. in

Thompson,

The

I

the status of the proper "

Michel T'oucault, The History

vol

6

|inc-arcerated wife)." A. S.

.\7r/

Altekar, The Position of II Prehistoric

to the high ascetic

were driven

to record that they

From

up

to li\e

them fhrahnnKur^'a/.

ideal prescribed for

\tilaf>hysui,

ork

"mark," see Derrida, "Taking Chances

as

Robert

strength of

sufficient

^

58

58

i

for abdication of the right to

nor had the\

19()|), p.

57

ihai

l>e

howe\er, had not the ci)urage to go through the ordeal;

hilrnduilinn i„

/«

Manheim (New

Ralph

In-

courage, signif\ing subject status:

tier)

Marliii lieiilegger. trans

wiilow-concuhme

presup[x>sitions of the passage might ot

M)

I'he unexarniiuil

ot character."

complete ohiectification

ilu-

"cour-

like

up

issue to a deceased

husband"!

Sunderlal T. Desai, Mulla: Principles of Hindu

(Bombay: N. M. Tripathi, 1982), I

am

Law

College (Hartford, Conn.) for discussing the pas-

Rg-l'eda.

I

is

an expert on the

hasten to add that she would find

situating of the "epistemic subject."

and the "autonomous subject"

vitiated

by

his nonconsideration

of Derrida,

is

who

my

Husserl, The Origin of Geometry, trans. John Leavy

What

(Stony Brook, N.Y.: Nicolas Hays, 1978). his excellent analysis quite apart

from

my

sets

concerns

of course, that the Subject within w hose History

is,

he places Foucault's work

"modernist" (see

Kdmund

his earliest work, the "Introduction" in

ancient historian would find

note 80).

not

second phase of poststructuralism as a whole"

readings as irresponsibly "literary-critical" as the it

is

mine. F'urther, his account of "the impasse of the

has been against the privileging of language from

p. 184.

grateful to Professor Alison Finley of Trinity

sage with me. Professor Finley

tradition"

its

pean tradition (pp. 87,

is

the Subject of the Euro-

94).

(3Ap

35 From "From Feminist Empiricism

•

to Feminist Standpoint

Epistemologies" ^Agm

Sandra Harding To those unfamiliar with the term, "feminist epis-

temology" words, but

may seem an odd combination of it refers to a major movement in con-

temporary philosophy. If feminism is, in its most general sense, the examination of any phenomenon through the lens of gender and the historical

meaning of gender, then traditional notions of knowledge and even scientific method can be critically

analyzed with respect to their possible ex-

pression of and dependence on gender relations

and stereotypes. Philosopher of science Sandra Harding (1935- discusses the development of feminist epistemology and its attempt to explore the extent to which modern ideals of knowledge have embodied particularly male aspirations, and excluded possibleforms of knowing that have traditionally been characterized as female.

challenges those goals (though there are postmodernist strains

An

even in these standpoint writings).

observer of these arguments can pick out five

though related reasons that they offer

different

to

why inquiry from a feminist perspective can

explain

provide understandings of nature and social

tinctive activity

and experience.

shall identify

I

this particular aspect

division of activity,

dis-

each

who has

of these reasons in the writing of one theorist

emphasized

that

life

from the perspective of men's

are not possible

of the gendered

though most of these theorists

)

recognize ences,

I

more than

one.

Whatever

their differ-

think the accounts should be understood as

fundamentally complementary, not competing.

The unity of hand, brain and heart

in craft labor

Hilary Rose's "feminist epistemology for the natural sciences''

The Feminist Standpoint

sis

Epistemologies

is

grounded

in a post-Marxist analy-

of the effects of gendered divisions of

upon

intellectual structures." In

she has developed the argument that

The

feminist standpoint epistemologies ground a

distinctive feminist science in a theory of activity

and

privilege

social experience.

women

gendered

They simultaneously

or feminists (the accounts vary)

epistemically and yet also claim to overcome the

dichotomizing that

is

characteristic of the Enlight-

enment/bourgeois world view and

its

science.

It is

thinking and practices of inquiry

modes

are

labor,"

rather

than

still

the

women

is

in the

scientists

whose "craft

"industriaHzed

labor"

is

done, that

detect the outlines of a distinctively feminist

theory of knowledge.

found

it

characteristically

within which most scientific inquiry

we can

activitv'

two recent papers,

in the

way

its

Its

distinctiveness

is

to be

concepts of the knower, the

useful to think of the standpoint epistemologies, like the

appeals to feminist empiricism, as "succes-

sor science" projects: in significant ways, they aim

modern postmodernism more

Sandra

Harding, "From

Feminist

Empiricism

Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies." chapter

to reconstruct the original goals of

science.

pp.

In contrast, feminist

directly

Ithaca. NY: Cornell University Press.

141-61 from The Science Question

in

1986.

to 6,

Feminism.

t

.

'From Feminist Empiricism to Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies" world to be known,

procfsscs ol

aiul

coiniiiii

lo

large sluii oiii ol the production

iiniticaiion

of niaiuial, imiital,

knowledge, with

anil (.motional ("liantl, brain,

and heart") actiMt\

IS

know rttkvi ihc

women's work more

characteristic of

j;enerall\

This epistemoloijy not only stands in opposition

duahsms

to the Clartesian

both

\s.

bodN, ami

intellect \s.

feehng and emotion

grounds the

also

"more complete

possibility ot a

know ledge" than

materialism, a truer

by either paternal discourse

that provided

(1*)S4, 49).'

The need

tor

such

tor

"bringing caring labor and the knowledge that

a

feminist science "is increasingly acute,"

stems from participation

comes

critical for a

in

to the analysis be-

it

transformative program equally

w ilhin science and w ithin society" nuclear

the

annihilation

and

if

we

are to avoid

deepening

social

misery increasingly possible otherwise (1983, 89).

Rose

starts

by analyzing the insights of post-

Marxist thinking upon which feminists can build.

Sohn-Rethel saw

that

it

manual from mental labor

'

But

more

Marx, Sohn-Rethel

failed to

ask about the effect on science of assigning caring

sociobiology, which argues that

tacitly

woman's destiny

Feminists must explain the relawomen's unpaid and paid labor to women's caring skills have a social gen-

in her genes."

tionship between

not a natural one, and that they "are extracted

from them by also in the

men

primarily w ithin the

home

but

work place" (1983, 83-4).

Rose goes on

those in domestic

life,

and the

by these kinds of activities for

possibilities created

women

to

occupy an

advantaged standpoint as producers of less distorted

and more comprehensive

scientific claims.

A

femi-

epistemology cannot originate in meditations

upon what women do

women women

Rose argues

the

women's moNcment.

biological

In

its

in

that a feminist

the practices of

consideration of such

and medical issues as menstruation, abor-

and self-examination and self-health

tion,

women's movement

fuses "subjective

knowledge

a

such

in

way

care, the

and objective

make new know-

as to

ledge." "Cartesian dualism, biological determinism,

and

when

social constructionism fade

faced with the

necessity of integrating and interpreting the personal experience of [menstrual

bleeding, pain, and

|

tension," Rose declares. "\\ Orking from the experi-

ence of the specific oppression of

women

fuses the

Thus

personal, the social, and the biological."

tional

a

forms" and new projects (1983, 88-9). The

organizational forms of the

women's movement,

unlike those of capitalist production relations and its

science,

resist

dividing mental, manual, and

caring activity

among

And

is

its

project

different classes of persons.

to provide the

knowledge

in laboratories, since the

there are forced to deny that they are in order to survive, yet are

from

women

ledge

this unified activity in the service of self-know is

more adequate than

activity that

is

divided and that

that is

emerging from

performed

still

"by and

for the

purposes of monopolizing profit and social control.

This

first

paper

knowledge/power grounded

in

left a

gap between the kind of

relations possible in a science

women's understandings of our own

bodies and the kind needed

if a

feminist science

is

to

develop sufficient muscle to replace the physics, chemistry, biology, and social sciences

to analyze the relationship of the

conditions of women's activities w ithin science with

nist

In her earlier paper,

epistemologx must be grounded

subject and object of inquiry arc one. Belief emerging

w horn they are vehemently opposed; they

that

to being

post-Marxists such as Sohn-Rethel are

Rose argues that

endorse the ''far-from-emancipatory program of

esis,

from admitting

need to understand and manage our own bodies:

women.

indistinguishable from the sociobiological theorists

show

also

what the> areprimaril\ perceived as being; women.^

in

labor exclusively to

is

knowers and

scientific

emerge from the interplay between "new organiza-

mental and manual labor are assigned to different

to

88).

production

in capitalist

than the mere production of commodities where

this respect,

knowledge" (1983,

feminist epistemology for the natural sciences will

social relations include far

classes of people. Like

ol scientific

was the separation of

that resulted in the mystifying abstractions of bour-

geois science.

not objective

is

s\siem

power lodciine what

ideological

They are prohibited from becoming (masculine)

that underlie i.n-

liilhtenment and e\en Marxist visions olscience but

and what

its

we

have. In

the later paper. Rose inches across this gap by

expanding the domain

in

w hich she thinks we can

identify the origins of a distinctive feminist episte-

mology.

The origins of an epistemology w hich holds

that appeals to the subjective are legitimate, that intellectual

that the

and emotional domains must be united,

domination of reductionism and

linearity

must be replaced by the harmony of holism and complexity, can be detected in w hat Foucault w ould call "subjugated know ledges" - submerged understandings within the history of science (1984, 49).

For textual references of

this

following the author's endnotes.

type, see References

Rose has

in

mind here

the ecological concerns

reported and elaborated by Carolyn Merchant and

Sandra Harding evident in Rachel (Larson's work, and the calls for

originate in nor give expression to any distinctive

moving beyond reductionism toward

social/political experience, they are fated to

holistic

a

"feminization of science" evident in writers such

David

as

Bohm

and

I'Vitjof (lapra.

'

She might

also

mere

intellectual

Greek

curiosities

ideas about

-

like

atoms - awaiting

the

remain ancient

their "social

have cited here Joseph Needham's romantic ideal-

birth" w ithin the scientific enterprise at the hands

more feminized than

of a group which needs such conceptions in order to

ization of

Chinese science

as

Western science/ And then we would have

to think

about the contradictions between (.hina's history of a

"feminized science" and the

far

from emancipa-

tory history of Chinese misogyny. This raises the

troublesome issue of the conflation of gender di-

chotomies

as

metaphor

a

dichotomies

for other

(gender symbolism) with explanations that treat social relations

between the sexes

as a causal influ-

ence on history - a point to be pursued

Furthermore,

later.

of thought leads directly

this line

project onto nature order.

One

its

destiny within the social

cannot help noticing that the notion of

organisms as active participants ation of their

own

in the

determin-

futures "discovers" in "nature"

the very relationship that feminist theory claims has

been permitted only

to

making

social beings.

own

their

women,

men

(dominant group)

should exist as w ell for w omen,

who arc also

but

history-

iMen have actively advanced

futures within masculine domination;

too, could actively participate in the design

toward feminist distrust of men's conceptions of

of their futures within a degendered social order.

the androgyny men desire for themselves. When men want androgyny, they usually intend to appro-

sion, she does argue that the origins of a feminist

priate selectively parts of "the feminine" for their

epistemology for a successor science are to be found

projects,

w hile leaving the

lot

of real

women un-

Within recent

by women in and anthropology - areas

scientific research

psychology,

where "craft" forms of

scientific inquiry are

possible, in contrast to the "industrial"

fronting

women

in

still

forms con-

masculine-dominated labs -

Rose detects the most

significant advances

toward

"a more complete materialism, a truer knowledge." In a

all

in the

to this conclu-

conceptions of the knower, the processes of

knowing, and the world to be known which are

changed.^

biology,

Whether or not Rose would agree

evident in this substantive scientific research.

The

substantive claims of this research are thus to be justified in

and

terms of women's different

social experiences created in the

ision of labor/activity.

As

I

shall ask

activities

gendered div-

of each of these

standpoint theorists, does this epistemology

still

retain too

much

Women

subjugated activity: sensuous, concrete,

of the Enlightenment

vision.'

of these areas, feminist thinking has produced

new comprehension of the

relationships between

organisms, and between organisms and their envir-

onment. The organism

is

's

relational

conceptualized "not in

Nancy Hartsock locates

terms of the Darw inian metaphor, as the passive

Like Rose,

object of selection by an indifferent environment,

the epistemological foundations for a feminist suc-

but as [an] active participant, a subject in the deter-

cessor science in a post-Marxist theory of labor

mination of

its

own

future" (1984, 51). (Keller has

argued that Barbara McClintock's work provides

paradigm of this kind of alternative theory" of Darwinian biology.

Thus Rose proposes tinctive feminist science

found

in

the

social

schemes of feminists

to the

"master

(activity)

and

its

effects

upon mental

life.

For Hart-

sock, too, Sohn-Rethel provides important clues.

But Hartsock begins with Marx's metatheory,

his

"proposal that a correct vision of class society

)

that the

grounds

for a dis-

and epistemology are practices (or

a

political theorist

and

women

craft-organized areas of inquiry.

to

be

conceptual

available

from only one of the tw o major

itions in capitalist society."^"

lived realities of

women's

By

lives,

is

class pos-

starting

we can

from the identify

in

the grounding for a theory of knowledge that should

There women's

be the successor to both Enlightenment and Marx-

inquirers)

socially created conceptions of nature

and

social

ist

epistemologies. For Hartsock as for Rose,

it is

in

understandings that

the gendered division of labor that one can discover

carry emancipatory possibilities for the species.

both the reason for the greater adequacy of feminist

These conceptions

knowledge claims, and the root from which

relations

women

can produce new

are not necessarily original to

scientists: hints

of them can be detected in

the "subjugated knowledges" in the history of science.

However, we can here hazard an observation

Rose docs not make: where these notions neither

(^4$)

a full-

fledged successor to Enlightenment science can

grow However, the feminist successor science w ill .

be anti-Cartesian, for in

it

transcends and thus stands

opposition to the dichotomies of thought and

From Feminist Empiricism practice crcatcil In

manual

which Rose

Wouun's

ence"

(.litlcrcni

lioni ihai

W omen's

"sensuous human

acti\it\

instiiution-

is

contributions

of

child-rearing.

lo

aiul

who

will

.mil

lemmme

want

contributions

to "subsisi-

subsistence

In

producing the food,

to

clothing, and shelter necessary tor the survival ol

perform

to

llartsock fiiuls

The lonsequences

when she exannnes

abstract masculinity,

"men

suffering from

emphasize

masculinitN"

abstract

of

"the separation and opposition

and change" the acti\it\ ot a

work she does

woman

for

in

the

home as

well as the

of social

and natural

immersion

world

in the

I

Thus

the true counter to the bourgeois subjuga-

tions

and mystifications

many-qualitied, changing material processes

more complete than

|a

man's

|.

.And

if

life itself

consists of sensuous activity, the vantage point available to

women on

those

as

in

in concrete,

of use

same oppositions

the

stressed in the .Marxist analysis of bourgeois labor.

ler

w ages keeps her continuallN

contact w ith a world of qualities and change.

the basis of the contribu-

tion to subsistence represents an intensification

not to be found in a

is

science grounded in proletarian experience, this

fundamentally

is

ence;

it is

still a

for

form of men's experi-

grounded

instead to be found in a science

women's experience,

in

for only there can these

separations and oppositions find no

home

(pp.

294-8).

The

and deepening of the materialist world view and

women

conditions under w hich

contribute

humans

consciousness available to the producers of com-

to social life

modities in capitalism, an intensification of class

an effective opposition to androcentric and bour-

consciousness,

(p.

292)

must be generalized

geois political

life

for

all

and science/epistemology

is

to

created. Politically, this will lead to a society

However, w omen's

it

is

in

longer structured by masculinist oppositions in either their bourgeois or proletarian forms; epi-

appears

analysis

most

clearly.

stemologically,

it

will lead to a science that will

both direct and be directed by the

inadequacies of the concept of production as a

interested

activity. One does not human being in anything

women's

(cannot) produce another

way one produces an

the

like

object such as a

Helping another

to develop, the gradual

relinquishing of control,

the experience of the

chair

.

.

.

human

limits of one's action"

are fundamental

characteristics of the child care assigned exclusively

women. "The female experience

in

reproduction

represents a unity with nature which goes beyond the

experience of interchange

proletarian

nature"

with

A

feminist

Nancy show that women are "made, not such a way as to define and experience

locafion

for

which bestow upon

epistemic advantage.

trast,

newborn males

are turned into

men who

sensuous,

women

occupants scientific and subjugation of women's

concrete,

relational

men's characteristic

on men's

reality;

newborn

males

and

females are shaped into the kinds of personalities

life

in

vision based

systematically reverses the

for

substitutes abstract for

it

example,

it

makes death-

human act. Even Simone de Beauvoir think

the paradigmatically

within abstract masculinity: "It

but in risking animal: that

that

from other people and

grounded

risking rather than the reproduction of our species

fundamentally

isolated

social life

both partial and perverse -

it

proper order of things:

in

Not-yet-gendered

and

The

activities.

activities is

"perverse" because

permits

activity

to grasp aspects of nature

that are not accessible to inquiries

define and experience themselves abstractly and as

nature.

an the

its

form of

In con-

is

in

The

early feminists such as

in

("interested"

sense of "engaged," not "biased"), the conditions

Chodorow

themselves concretely and relationally.

standpoint

epistemological

social

object-relations theory of Jane Flax and to

political struggle

for that society.

concrete

(p. 293).

Furthermore, Hartsock draws on the feminist

born"

be

no

inadequacy

''Women also produce/reproduce men (and other women) on both a daily and a long-term basis. This aspect of women's 'production' exposes the deep description of

if

examining the conditions of

activities in child care that the

Marxist

of the

to

vs.

the epistemology and

iioth

the society constructed b\ effects

the adult div-

gender; relational femininity

ision of labor b\

the

that

what

describe are just

theorists

uorkls, of abstract and concrete, of permanence

the species,

is

haracterislic masculine

i

.iin\iiies

ob)ect-relaiions

acti\il\ consists in

two kimls

acti\ities,

Ihiwccii nutii.il .nul

in a \\a\

itlcntifics.

acti\it\, practice." ali/eil in

(.li\isioiis

though

labor,

to Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies"

is

life

why

humanity not which

that

man

is

is

not in giving

life

raised above the

superiority has been accorded

to the sex that brings forth but to

kills".'"

Moreover, men's vision the ruling group can

make

is

not simply

false, for

their false vision

become

Sandra Harding apparently true: ''Men's power to structure social

own image means

relations in their too,

must

fest

and express abstract masculinity"

participate in social relations

The

on women's

men and women

as

merely natural, as merely continuous with the acof female termites or apes

tivities

would have

gists

it),

and thus

(as the sociobiolo-

as suitable objects of

men's manipulations of whatever they perceive purely natural.

The

restriction of formal

mal educational opportunities

women

women makes

appear incapable of understanding the

men move, and

world within which

available

vision

as appropri-

world in men's terms.

ately forced to deal with that

The

for

as

and infor-

to

women "must

be

That

thought necessary.

would be

is,

such an epistemology

a transitional project, as

we transform dom-

ourselves into a culture uncomfortable with ination and thereby

mto peoples whose thought

does not need policing.

makes women's charac-

life

appear to both

teristic activities

which mani(p. 302).

array of legal and social restrictions participation in public

women,

that

Hartsock's grounds for a feminist epistemology

and narrower than Rose's. They

are both broader

are narrower in that

feminist political struggle

it is

and theory ("science") - not simply characteristic women's activities - in which the tendencies toward

epistemology can be

a specifically feminist

detected. analysis,

Lnmediated by feminist struggle and women's distinctive practices and think-

ing remain part of the world created by masculine-

domination.

^

But her grounds are

any feminist inquiry that

starts

also broader, for

from the categories

and valuations of women's subsistence and domes-

struggled for and represents an achievement which

tic

requires both science to see beneath the surface of

engaged) in the struggle for feminist goals provides

the social relations in which pate,

all

are forced to partici-

and the education which can only grow from

struggle to change those relations" (p. 285).

adoption of this standpoint

and

political act

is

fundamentally

a

The

moral

of commitment to understanding

labor and

interested (again in

is

the sense of

the grounding for a distinctive epistemology of a

successor to Enlightenment science. health

movement and

The women's

the alternative understand-

ings of the relationship between organism and en-

vironment that Rose points

to

would provide

examples of such inquiries (insofar

the world from the perspective of the socially sub-

significant

jugated. It constitutes not a switch of epistemo-

they are motivated by the goals of feminist emanci-

and

logical

but a commitment to the transcendence

of gender through

ment

is

commitments from one gender

political

to the other

social

Hartsock

is

and

its

Such

a

commit-

not merely intellectual.

arguing that divisions of labor more

intensive than those

ating political

elimination.

political,

Marx

power and

identified create ally

domin-

perverse knowledge

pation).

But so would any of the natural or

activities as fully social

and

try to explain nature

social life for feminist political purposes.

is still

a significant

tween feminist

social

women's

science inquiries that begin by taking

and

as

There

gap in Hartsock's account be-

activity

and

a

science/epistemology

robust and politically powerful enough to unseat

claims with the perversity of dominating power.

the Enlightenment vision. But in both

Therefore, a science generated out of a transcend-

and narrower aspects, Hartsock's account inches

ence, a transformation, of these divisions and their

yet further across the gap

corresponding dualisms

tion for the successor science to the full array of

will

be a powerful force for

its

broader

by extending the founda-

the elimination of pow er. In an earlier paper. Hart-

feminist political and scientific projects and, at least

sock argued that the concept of power central to the

implicitly, to activities in

history of political theory

is

only one available

women

concept. Against power as domination over others, feminist thinking and organizational practices express the possibility of

energy

to

power

others as well as

as the provision of

self,

and of reciprocal

empowerment. I think this second notion of power and the kind of knowledge that could be "'

allied

with

it

can remove the apparent paradox

which men

as well as

feminists engage.

There

is

an another important difference in the

groundings these tw o theorists identify for the successor epistemology. Hartsock does not directly

focus on the "caring" labor of

women, which Rose

human

missing in

J

the Marxist accounts. For Hartsock, the uniqueness

i

takes to be the distinctive

activity

of women's labor, in contrast to proletarian labor,

more fundamental opposition

is

from her adoption of both successor science and

to

postmodern tendencies. One can

on an epis-

the mental/manual dualities that structure mascu-

the "policing

line/bourgeois thought and activity. For Hartsock,

insist

temology-centered philosophy only

if

of thought" that epistemology entails project

- with the

is

a reciprocal

goal of eliminating the kind of

dominating power that makes the policing of

be found

in its

(men's) proletarian labor

is

transitional

between

bourgeois/masculine and women's labor,

women's

labor

is

to

since

more fundamentallv involved

"From Feminist Empiricism

to Feminist Stc^ndpoint Epistemologies'

between masculine senses

with the sclt-conscious, sensuous processing; ol i)ur

Iarl>

natural/social surroundings in daily

of self, others, and nature and the delinilion olWhat

human

distinctively

labor

is

is

the

women's

Rose,

I'or

acli\it\.

dilterent in kind

lilc

from (masculine) pioletar-

IS

interesting

problematic

'^return a I the n-prt'sst'd" in Ji-niinisl ihcary

not

are

and post-

explicitly describes the successor science

modern tendencies

in

contlictinu;. In the later

epistemology as

feminist

of two papers

I

shall

exam-

she argues for the postmodern direction to

ine,

replace the successor science tendency, yet in both

papers the two tendencies are linked

in a

way

that

evidently appears noncontradictory to her. In a paper written in

1983, Flax calls for a ''successor science''

until

immaneni

human mind and/or

nature but

ol

women,

than for

the

self

defensive infantile need to

a

in

dominate and /or repress others

in

order to retain

individual identity. In cultures where primary

its

child care

assigned exclusiveh to

is

women, male

dilemmas con-

infants will develop unresoKable

cerning the .separation of the infantile first

from

self

its

"other" and the establishment of individual

These

are the very

dilemmas

culine

same

mas-

distinctively

preoccupy

that

philoso-

\\ estern

human

phers in who.se work they appear as "the

dilemma."

project:

Western philosophy problematizes the

The how

jihil-

the

product

ihe

men more

I'or

remains frozen

identity.

though not published

19(S(),

perspec-

this

rather reflect distorted or frozen social relations" (p. 248).

lane l"la\, a jiohtical theorist and psychotherajiist,

IVom

in philoso|)h\.

structure of the riic

tit

"apparent l\ insoluble dilemmas within

ti\e,

osophN

ian/bourgeois labor.

the

is

task of feminist epistemology

is

to

uncover

patriarchy has permeated both our concept

inner and outer, reason and sense; but these rela-

would not need

of knowledge and the concrete content of bodies

tionships

of knowledge, even that claiming to be emanci-

anyone were the core

patory.

\\ ithout

adequate knowledge of the

world and our history w ithin

knowing how

to

more adequate temology

it

sively against

know), we cannot develop a

A

social practice.

women. being

philosophy,

In

feminist epis-

been

has

(ontology)

from knowing (epistemology) and

divorced

both have been separated from either ethics or

theory and a preparation for and a central element of a

to be problematic for

self not always defined exclu-

(and this includes

thus both an aspect of feminist

is

relation-

mind and body,

ships between subject and object,

politics.

more adequate theory of human nature

These

and pohtics.

a

fundamental

principle derived from the structure of itself.

A

Kant

divisions were blessed by

and transformed by him into

mind

consequence of this principle has been

"Feminist philosophy thus represents the return of

the

the repressed, of the exposure of the particular

American philosophy of

enshrining

within

mainstream

Anglo-

a rigid distinction

be-

of all apparently abstract and universal

tw een fact and value which has had the effect of

knowledge. This work could prepare the ground

consigning the philosopher to silence on issues

social roots

for a

more adequate

social theory in

phy and empirical knowledge tually

enriched"

which philoso-

are reunited

of utmost importance to

human

248)

life. (p.

and mu-

Were women

(p. 249).

Flax argues that feminist philosophy should ask

whom

not exclusively the

humans

against

infant males develop their senses of a separ-

such that certain questions and w ays of answering

and individuated self, "human knowledge" would not be so preoccupied with infantile separ-

them become

ation

the question,

Here

"What forms of social

relations exist

constitutive of philosophy.^" (p. 248).

a feminist reading of psychoanalytic object-

becomes

relations theory (see

Chapter

philosophic tool;

directs our attention to the

it

5)"

a useful

distinctively

gendered senses of self, others, nature,

and

among the three

relations

in cultures

that are characteristic

where infant care

sponsibility of

women. For

is

primarily the re-

Flax,

what

is

particu-

ate

and individuation dilemmas. "Analysis reveals

an arrested stage of human development

The Science Qiiestwn

in

Feminism.

.

.

behind

individuation

[of infants

from

their

caretakers]

cannot be completed and true reciprocity emerge if

the 'other' must be dominated and/or repres-

sed rather than incorporated into the self while

simultaneously acknow ledging difference"

Human Of Harding's

.

most forms of knowledge and reason. Separation-

more

knowledge

can

come

to

(p. 269).

reflect

the

adult issues of maximizing reciprocity and

d^T)

Sandra Harding appreciating difference only

the

if

first

"other"

is

"incorporated into the self rather than dominated

sor epistemologv toward

and/or repressed. Flax's point

their time

in the

on psychoanalytic couches (had they

been available) than that philosophy

it

Men

of philosophy would have better spent

history

argument

Flax's

Great

nut that the

is

philosophy.

in writing

Nor

is

nothing but masculine ration-

is

which feminism moves us

all.''

in a

later contrasts sharply

paper written four years with the foregoing argu-

ment. Whereas the earlier paper claims that childrearing practices leave distinctive marks on phil-

osophers as culturally diverse as Plato, Locke,

Hobbes,

Kant,

and

Rousseau,

alization of painful infantile experience. Rather, she

Anglo-American thinkers, the

argues that a feminist exposure of the "normal"

that there can be a single

between

relations

gendering processes

infantile

way

contemporary

later

one

is

permeated thinking. She finds problematic the

and adult masculine thought patterns "reveals fun-

notion of "a feminist standpoint which

damental limitations

true than previous (male) ones."

osophy

to

comprehend women's and

experiences"; in particular,

paradigmatically

masculine

human

children's

reveals the tendency

it

of philosophers to take their

ically

of [men's] phil-

in the ability

own

experience as

rather than merely as typ-

(p. 247).

We

can

move toward

a

feminist epistemology through exposing the infant-

dilemmas repressed by adult men, the

social

ile

feminist standpoint

person w ho

totality

feminine dimensions of experience tend

to disappear in

ground

for

pole of the dualities

transcended."

necessarily be partial.

Each

illuminate

some aspects of the

social

exists except

within a specific set of (already gendered) relations to

'man' and to

many

concrete and different

Here it is feminist theory's affinities with postmodern philosophy that Flax finds most distinctive:

thinking within patriarchies. But

all

women's experience cannot, sufficient

more

"Any

think from the standpoint of

'woman' because no such person

for

women."

The

is

says,

with the dominant view. But none of us can speak

-

and the subject matter of patriarchal epistemol-

She

which have been previously suppressed

"resolutions" of which reappear in abstract and

for

w ill

tries to

women may

universalizing form as both the collective motive

ogy.

skeptical

that patriarchy has

in

itself,

provide

a

As

a type of post

modern philosophy,

feminist

theory, for "as the other

theory shares with other such modes of thought

must be incorporated and

an uncertainty about the appropriate grounding

it

Thus an adequate

feminist philoso-

and methods

for explaining

and/or interpreting

phy requires "a revolutionary theory and practice Nothing less than a new stage of human devel-

human

opment

important metatheoretical questions concerning

.

.

.

is

experience.

join other post

required in which reciprocity can emerge

Contemporary feminists

modern philosophers

in raising

for the first time as the basis of social relations" (p.

the possible nature and status of theorizing

270).

itself.

In this earlier paper. Flax

is

arguing that infantile

dilemmas are more appropriately resolved, problematic, for

women

a larger

gap

between the defensive gendered selves produced in patriarchal rocal,

modes of child

women

known

will

affinity

is

more fundamental, she

argues, than

feminist attempts at successor science projects:

"Despite an understandable attraction to the (ap-

men

ment, feminist theory more properly belongs in the

exist

were

primary caretakers of infants, and

be different for reciprocal selves than

for defensive selves.

This

parently) logical, orderly world of the Enlighten-

women as well as men responsible for public life. The forms and processes of knowing as well as what is

Consensus rules on categorization, ap-

rearing and the recip-

degendered selves that could

as well as

.

less

than for men. This small

gap between the genders prefigures

.

praisal, validity, etc. are lacking.'^

Truly human knowledge and

ways of knowing toward which

a feminist episte-

mology points the way,

less distorted

will

be

and

terrain of post

modern philosophy." And

yet the

substance of this later paper argues for a particular

way of understanding gender

that

Flax thinks

should replace the inadequate and confusing ways it is

conceptualized in both traditional and feminist

social theory. lational;

Gender should be understood

as re-

gender relations are not determined by

more nearly adequate than the knowledge and ways of knowing we now have. And while the concepts of reciprocal know ing must be relational and contextual, and thus w ill no longer enshrine the dualities of

counts and self-understanding of the whole" of

Enlightenment epistemology,

social relations.

it is

indeed a succes-

nature but are social relations of domination, and feminist theorists "need to recover and write the histories of

women and

our

activities into the ac-

Frotn Feniinist Empiricism to Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies"

On

ihc one haml, in cttccl

I'l.ix

has locittil the

feminist successor science tendencies

pan

.is

ol the

projects of the ilefensi\e sell whicli are niosi e\i-

dent

in

men. She

iilentities

Knhghtenment

about the

postmodern

slvejitieism

ensure

ikiahties, \Nhieh

ulHch

infant.)

Smith eschews questions

men's

Western

and

enment duahties

will

be possible for our whole

human dexelopown

culture only after a "re\olution in

ment."

On

self.

the other hand, does not I'lax's

account of the distorted and fro/en social relations

masculine-dominant societies sug-

characteristic of

women

the reasons

of

why men

wutii to iKirtici|)ate in characteristically

masculine and feminine

activity. 'I'hat

not discuss the issue of

how

"animals"

infantile

and

social theory, science,

entering wedge into projects for the reciprocal

mascuhne) l.nhght-

the defensive ab-

infantile experiences of

stractions of

epistemology; anil thus

the (distincti\el>

ol the

«.le\elopmental origins of geniler; of the origins in

the epistemological "pohcing of thought," as the

Overcoming

the gender ol the

ili\uled, ol course, b\

IS

"labormg"

our species interact with

of

environments

their social/physical

she does

is,

androgynous

initiall\

gendered humans we see around

become

to

the

Eike Rose, she

us.

turns to the structure of the workplace for

women

"objective basis for distin-

scientists (sociologists) to locale an enriched notion

guishing between true and false beliefs" and that

of the material conditiims that make possible a

gest both that there

she

is

herself

is

committed

Even though any

ogy.'

standing

available

standpoint")

is

distincti\el\ feminist science.

Where Rose

particular historical under-

feminists

to

partial,

kind of epistemol-

to this

may

feminist

("a

not also be ''more

it

and

focuses on the unity of hand, brain,

common

heart

men The bifurcated consciousness of alienated women

would

it

mean

from the

to construct a sociology that begins

is

Though

her stated con-

sociology, her arguments are generalizable

and natural sciences. In

to inquiry in all the social

the most recent of these papers, she directly articu-

problem of how

lates the

science that w object,

ill

to fashion a successor

transcend the damaging subject -

inner-outer, reason-emotion dualities of

Enlightenment science. "Here,

I

am

concerned

with the problem of methods of thinking which will realize the project

that it

is,

a sociology

of a sociology for women;

which does not transform those

studies into objects but preserves in

analytic

its

procedures the presence of the subject as actor and experiencer. Subject then

is

may be

the sociologist."

Smith thinks

alienation experienced by

possible to carry out

cessor science and

w hat

whose

that knovver

grasp of the w orld

enlarged by the w ork of that the

women I

forms of

inquirers

make

it

have been calling suc-

postmodern projects simultan-

eously and w ithout contradiction.

grounded labor. (It

in a successor to the

is

is

Marxist theory of

perhaps inaccurate to conjoin Flax with

the others in this respect, unless

we

focus on her

discussion of the process through which the infant

becomes

a social

person as the

lates,"

first

human

labor,

it

relieves

fully

them

to

world of abstract con-

in the

men's

shapes,

concepts

administrative forms of ruling.

women perform

into

those

The more

of

success-

work (Hart-

this concrete

sock's "world of sensuousness, of qualities and

change"),

the

more

become

men.

Men w ho

to

own

maintain their

to

where they

exist can

corresponds

invisible

does

bodies and the local places see as real only

abstracted

whom

Like Hegel's master, to

mental

-

will,

men

see

what

world.

the slave's labor

appears merely as an extension of his

and

work

their

are relieved of the need

now

their

to

women's work not

own being

as real activity

self-chosen and consciously willed - but only as

"natural"

as

activity,

labors of love.

instinctual

Women

social,"

human."

women's

their

own

labor

is

its

from

conceptual

actual experience of

incomprehensible and inexpress-

within the distorted abstractions of men's con-

ible

ceptual schemes.

own ize

emotional

"the historical," "the

schemes of "the Finally,

or

are thus excluded

men's conceptions of culture and

Women

are alienated

from

their

experience, for men's conceptual schemes are

also the ruling ones,

Like the other theorists, Smith's epistemology

place,

Second, the labor of women thereby "articu-

cepts.

has explored in a series of papers what

first

the local places where they exist, freeing

inquirers

Canadian sociologist of know ledge Dorothy Smith

characteristic

three other shared aspects

of the need to take care of their bodies or of

immerse themselves

cern

at

of women's work. In the

true than previous (male) ones"?

"standpoint of women."

women's

to

Smith looks

activities.

w hich then define and categor-

women's experience

for

women. (This

is

Hart-

sock's point about ideologies structuring social Ufe for everyone.)

which

For Smith, education

nineteenth-century

for

feminists

women,

for

struggled,

completed the "invasion of women's consciousness" by ruling-class male experts."

Sandra Harding These

characteristics of

women's

activities are a

resource that a distinctively feminist science can

A

use.

"hne of

fault" develops for

between our own experience of our

many women

acti\ ity

and the

perspectives

flicting

relations but because

and

plete

less distorting categories available

experiences.

our experience: the categories of ruling and of

from her

The

quirers.

We

break

is

intensified for

are first of

all

inif

- maintain our

single, childless, or with servants

own

women

women, who - even

bodies and our places of local existence, and

However,

explicit

women's w orld

project explaining the whole world.

its

social experience within conceptual

schemes that

to a feminist science that

She

often admonishes the reader that the experience of

the subject of inquiry (the experience of the

as the final authority.

and explain

difficult to generalize

takes as

dren and men. But when entering the world of are trained to describe

it is

explaining

whose

we

from

assumptions about intepreting/

usually also the bodies and domestic places of chil-

science,

social

would use the more com-

the standpoint of historically locatable subjugated

categories available to us within which to express

science.

on

have

people it

lives the inquirer is explaining)

is

women

be taken

to

But many feminist inquirers

take men's experience as well as

women's

to

be

inadequately interpreted, explained or criticized

cannot recognize the character of this experience.

within the existing "corpus of knowledge": think

Smith

example of time-budget studies,

of all the recent writing on men's war mentality; of

which regard housework as part leisure and part - a conceptualization based on men's experi-

object-relations theory's critical reinterpretation of

ence of wage labor for others

own

cites the

labor

ity.

But

vs. self-directed activ-

wives and mothers, housework

for

neither wage labor nor self-directed activity.

is

An

the masculine experience of gendering; of Smith's

rethinking of men's experiences as sociolo-

gists.

Yet she does not assign ruling-class men's

experience the kind of authority she insists on for

account of housework from "the standpoint of

women's experience; through

women" -

rather

argument shows why we should regard women's

than in the terms of masculine science w ould be a

subjugated experience as starting and ending points

our experience of our

lives

-

all

four papers her

quite different account; the voice of the subject of

for inquiry that are epistemologically preferable to

inquiry and the voice of the inquirer would be

men's experience. (Smith's argument here

would be an example

culturally identifiable.'^ It

of science for w omen rather than about

would seek

women;

it

explain/interpret social relations

to

(human "matter in motion"), and do so in a way that makes comprehensible to women the social relations w ithin which their exrather than behavior

lar to

and

to Flax's focus

what men repress;

tendencies toward interpretation, explanation, and

as the

exposure of

three return to Hegel's pas-

sage about the master and the slave to

make

ends in her account, but

to give to

women

inquirers.

For

counts" in those of the inquirer as an active agent in

Once Smith puts

the authority of the in-

quirer on the same epistemological plane as the authority of the subjects of inquiry

- the woman

it

makes sense of the

origins of the scientific authority she clearly intends

theory in the philosophy of social science.

is

as

her,

both subjects of inquiry and

what feminism should

distrust

not objectivity or epistemology's policing of

thought per se but the particular distorted and

form of objectivity and epistemology

ineffectual

entrenched

in

Enlightenment science. Like Flax,

many

inquirer interpreting, explaining, critically examin-

Smith

women's condition is simultaneously explaining her ow n condition - then issues of absolutism

feminist versions of "reality," for there are

ing

vs. relativism

can no longer be posed. Both abso-

stresses that there will be

different realities in

should

all

less distorting,

the inquirer and subject of inquiry that are not

than can

a

masculine

activity.

when

the two share a subjugated social

which women

live,

different

many

but they

be regarded as producing more complete,

lutism and relativism assume separations between

present

their

points.)

of these discourses locates "authoritative ac-

inquiry.

on feminism all

Interpreting Smith in this w ay leaves a few loose

Smith fuses here what have been incompatible

None

simi-

preferability of the categories of women's activities,

perience occurs.

critical

is

Hartsock's assertion of the epistemological

and

less

perverse understandings

science in alliance with ruling-class

location." I

think Smith

is

arguing that this kind of science

would be "objective," not because categories available from an

it

would use the

"Archimedean,"

dis-

passionate, detached "third version" of the con-

Nerr persons and the hidden hand of history Finally,

it is

historical

changes that make possible

feminist theory and consequently a feminist science

'

From Feminist Empiricism and

cpislcnu)l()g>, as

Here, too,

\Nc

"the great thinkers of the

that

belie\eil

Kniicls

have argued cIscNNhcrc."^

1

can learn from the Marxist anal>sis.

to Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies'

control, undertaken for capitalist and im|)erialisi

World and domestic-

inotiNes of controlling Third all\

There was the decline

coloni/ed populations

in

their pre-

the industrial sector

combined with growth

decessors, go beyond the limits imposed upon them epoch. ""^ He thought that only with the

ser\ice sectors of the

economy, which drew women

emergence

industrialized "proletariat" labor.

Kiilhteenth (.entur\ could, no

more than

by their

in

luneteenth-cenlurN

societies ot a "conflict

and modes

between productive forces

production"

ot

a conflict that "exists,

in fact, objectively, outside us,

and actions even of the

will it

on" - could the

be detected

"Modern

in

under

it,

men

fullness

its

socialism

minds,

independent l\ that

of the

have brought

class structure of earlier societies

is

for

the

time.

first

.urope. There

divorce and

in

families

in

part

men

seduction of

both

was the rapid

brought about

in

females

I

rights

19f)()s in

headed by

b\

capitalism's

and into

out of the famil)

a

where they v\ould con-

fact; its ideal reflection

sume more goods;

in part

by women's increased,

though

still

severely limited, ability to survive eco-

nomically outside of marriage; and no doubt

now can we understand

the fem-

inisms of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as

but "Utopian" feminisms."'

the United States and

increase

the civil

the radicalism of the

lifestyle,

the working class."'

Similarly, only

movement and

"sw inging singles"

of the class directly suffering

first,

hopes created b\

emancipator)

centralily of

There were the

in

nothing but the reflex,

thought, of this conflict in in the

industrializing

wage labor and deteriorated the

into

the

in

The men and women

by an in

availability

olden days was called "philandering"

sive.

in part

of contraceptives that made what less

expen-

There was the increasing recognition of the

feminists of those cultures could recognize the

feminization of poverty (probably also an actual

misery of women's condition and the unnecessary

increase in

character of that misery, but both their diagnoses of

with the increase in divorce and the drawing of

women's

causes and their prescriptions for

its

emancipation show

a failure to

grasp the complex

and not always obvious mechanisms by which masculine

dominance

is

created and maintained. Lib-

women

into

spects

look

women's

which combined

poverty),

wage labor

to

make women's

very different from

women

mothers and grandmothers: now

and should - plan

class could -

life

pro-

those of their

of every

for hves after or

There was the

eral

feminism, Marxist feminism and perhaps even

instead of marriage.

the

more

international hostilities, revealing the clear overlap

cialist

doctrinaire strains of the radical and so-

feminisms of the mid-1970s do not have

between masculine psychic needs

escalation in

for

domination

conceptual schemes rich or flexible enough to cap-

and nationalist domination rhetoric and

ture masculine domination's historical and cultural

No

adaptability, nor

ing

within

its

such

added

gence of feminism and

cultural

hierarchies

More complex and

culture-

sensitive (though not unproblematic) analyses

relations

as

emergence of historical changes

between the genders. These changes have

list

politics.

changes could be

its

successor science and

epistemology.

Thus,

had

in the

to this

social

of preconditions for the emer-

chameleonlike talents for growother

classism and racism."

to await the

doubt other significant

is

to

paraphrase Engels, feminist theory

nothing but the reflex in thought of these con-

flicts in fact, their ideal reflection in

the

minds

first

created a massive conflict between the culturally

of the class most directly suffering under them

favored forms of producing persons (gendered,

women. "'^ Feminist

raced, classed persons) and the beliefs

and actions

of increasing numbers of women and some

do not want

men who

to live out mutilated lives within the

dangerous and oppressive

politics

these archaic

we cannot

moment through

exactly

describe this

an analogy to

and

science and epistemology pro-

products of observation, will pow er,

intellectual brilliance alone

- the

sponsible for advances in knowledge.

historical

a "conflict

betw cen

created by these social changes.''^ Persons activities are still characteristically

why should we have to.^), we can nevertheless see clearly many aspects of the specific economic, pol-

who

and

social

shifts

that

They

have created

this

are exlife

can

be understood by the new kinds of historical persons

productive forces and modes of production" (and

itical,

faculties that

Knlightcnment science and epistemology hold repressions of ways in which nature and social

forms of reproduction encourage. If

jects are not the

also take

on what have

culine projects in public

life,

whose

"womanly,"

traditionally

yet

been mas-

are one such important

group of new persons. This "violation" of

a trad-

moment. There was the development and wide-

itional (at least, in

spread distribution of cheap and efficient birth

division of labor both provides an epistemically

our recent history) gendered

Sandra Harding advantaged standpoint for ject

and

a successor science pro-

standpoint epistemology without this recognition

also resists the continuation of the distort-

of the "role of history in science" (Kuhn's phrase)

ing duaUties of modernism.

Why should we be loath

to attribute a certain degree of, if not historical inevitability,

historical possibility to the

least

at

kinds of understandings arrived

feminist sci-

at in

ence and epistemology? I

is

an important

component of the feminist standpoint epistemolcan identify the shifts in social

ogies:

it

make

possible

I

now

account indicated above retains its

that

life

its

ow n pro-

think that the kind of far too

much

of

Marxist legacy, and thereby also of Marxism's

Enlightenment inheritance.

think a historical account

still

leaves mysterious the preconditions for

duction. However,

torical

It fails

to grasp the his-

changes that make possible the feminist post-

modernist challenges to the Enlightenment vision as well as to

Marxism.

new modes of understanding. A

Author's Notes 1

The

offensively dichotomized categories of labor vs.

leisure,

which appear

ment/bourgeois and Marxist theories, are themselves

the

target

epistemologies;

of criticism

it is

a

16

the parental Enlighten-

in

the

in

theory of

human

in the text.

17

Although she

ation dilemmas, see Flax (1978) for a discussion of

those unfortunate residues of the feminine infantile

dilemma

to

3

Sohn-Rethel (1978).

18

Flax (1986, 37).

Hartsock (1983; 1984) also raises this criticism about

19

Smith (1981,

Sohn-Rethel.

Cf

8

1).

Smith (1979,

See the discussion of Smith's work

& Kegan

the Implicate

Paul,

Order

We

should note that Smith was

have discussed, though her work did not become

The

1980); Fritjof

The Tao of Physics (New York:

143).

writing on these topics earlier than the other theorists

widely

Random

known

clearly

United States

in the

aspects of

women's

and so early

of the other theorists, as

Needham

show.

(1976).

980) on the deradicalization of

21

Smith (1979,

the thought of Rousseau and other French thinkers

22

Cf Harding

that occurred once they recognized that the logic of

23

Smith (1981,

24

Harding (1983). As

See Bloch and Bloch

( 1

arguments was about

direct the social order

women

to lead

them

dir-

good" which should

was identical

154; 1981,3).

(1980). 6).

shall

I

show,

I

now have

my earlier

post-

defenses of the

standpoint epistemologies.

Engels (1972, 606). Engels (1972, 624).

as ch.

27

O'Brien (1981) also makes

in the text refer

28

For an analysis of these four main forms of feminism,

Hartsock (1983, 284). This paper also appears

to the 1983 version.

Chodorow

of their work will

26

Keller (1983).

numbers

identifies so

on the minds

25

do.

10 in Hartsock (1984). Page

until recently.

Smith

a perusal

modernist questions about

to what, in fact,

labor

also appear to be

House, 1975).

ectly to the conclusion that "the

10

20

(New

I

their radical

9

in Stehelin (1976).

David Bohm, Wholeness and (Boston: Routledge

7

dilemma

980); Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

York: Fawcett, 1978, originally published in 1962);

Capra,

for

in\Vestkott(1979).

the discussion of this ( 1

women and

that create tensions within

feminist organizations.

4

Merchant

defensive

and

activity

these papers appear in the text.

5

less

"resolution" of infantile separation and individu-

Rose (1983; 1984). Subsequent page references

6

women's

stresses here

standpoint

social experience they are proposing.

2

Flax (1983, 269). Subsequent page references appear

this point.

see Jaggar (1983).

1

Flax (1983);

12

Simone de Beauvoir (1953,

29

(1978). 58), cited in

Hartsock

See Faderman (1981,1 78-89) for

a valuable analysis

of the similar "causes" for the nineteenth-century

women's movement

(1983,301).

in

England and America.

13

Hartsock (1974).

14

This critique of epistemology-centered philosophy

of analysis in accounts of the breakdown of the

postmod-

medieval division of labor, which permitted the

and

its

policing of thought

ernists. See, e.g., 1

30

is

central to the

Rorty (1979) and Foucault (1980).

Rose would probably agree with

this;

many of

her

other writings would support such an argument. See, e.g.,

the papers in Rose and Rose (1976).

Chapter 9 outlines the precedents

emergence of the new

class

for

this

of craftspeople

kind

who

created experimental observation in the fifteenth

century. (1977).

See

Zilsel

(1942)

and Van den Daele

"From Feminist Empiricism

to Feminist Standpoint Epistemologies"

Author's RcfcTcnccs Hloch, Maurice, aiul

Jem

Nature

Dialectics ol

Thouitht." In \jlurt-.

M

C-ormack and

L

"Woimn

aiul llu-

Ijghteenth (.entur\

I'reneh

Hloch. IWSO.

in

C.tillurt- uttil (ittiihr, eil. (.

Strathern

anihruliie

(

The ReproJuituni

l*^7cS.

nf Moilicrini;.

de Beauvoir, Simonc. Parshley.

J

I"

New

I'^S.V

rhf SeionJ

Sc-x,

H

inms

\1

York: Knopf.

En^ch

New

RctiJcr, ed. R. Tucker.

\ ork:

1981. Surpussitig the Love of

Rotmnitu FnenJship Renaiisance

tin

Autonomy

in

"The

New

Rowman

Allenheld

&:

1983.

l''o\.

Feelmii /or the ()rt;anism

/

San

I'Vancisco: I'reeman.

Ecology and the Scientific Revolution.

Conflict between Nurturance and

New

York: Harper

& Row. 1976. "Histor\ and

Chinese Perspective

for

Human

S. Rose.

A

\ alues:

World Science and Technol-

ogy." In Ideology of/ m the Satural Sciences, ed.

and

Mother- Daughter Relationships and

1 1.

Rose

C^ambridge, .Mass.: Schenkman.

O'Brien, Mary. 1981. The

Politics

& Kegan

York: Routledge

of Reproduction.

New

Paul.

Rorty, Richard. 1979. Philosophy and the .Mirror of .\ature.

2).

and the Patriarchal Un-

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Psychoanalytic Perspective on Epistemol-

Rose, Hilary. 1983. "Hand, Brain and Heart:

.1983. "Political Philosophy

A

the

York: Morrow.

within Feminism." Feminist Studies, 4 (no.

conscious:

Men:

J Love between Women from

to the Present.

Jane. 1978.

Fla.x,

Totowa, NJ:

Needham, Joseph.

Norton. I'aderman, Lillian.

Boston Norlluastern

nixersitN Press.

Merchant, Carolyn. 1980. Fhe Death of \ature: ilomen.

1972. "Socialism: Utopian and Scientitic." In

he Miirx and

Piniti

and

1984. Money, Sex I

Keller, Evel\n

Hcrkelc\: Lnivcrsity ofCalitornia Press.

Knitels,

niiilikka Durdrechi

Jaggar. Alison. 1983. Feminist Politics and llununi Suture.

nivcrsiiN Press

(Ihodorow, NancN.

aiul \l

Reidel

\lac-

( .aiiil>ricliie

S ilarilmg

oj Scienie,Li.\

.\

Feminist

ogy and Metaphysics." In Discovering Reality: Feminist

Epistemolog} for the Natural Sciences." Signs: Journal

Perspectives on Epistemolo^y, Metaphysics. Methodology'

ofiVomen

ed. S.

Harding and M. Hin-

as a Social

Problem: In and For

and Philosophy of Science, tikka. .

Dordrecht: Reidel.

1986.

"Gender

German

Association for American Stud-

New

A History' of Sexuality.

\ ol.

\:

An

Random House. "The Norms of Social Inquiry and Masculine Experience." In PSA, 1980, vol. 2, ed. Introduction.

York:

Harding, Sandra. 1980.

D. Asquith and R. N. Giere, East Lansing, Mich.:

Philosophy of Science Association. .

1983.

X'isible

"Why Has

the

MTT Women's

Reality: Feminist

Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics,

and Philosophy of Science, tikka.

ed. S.

Methodology

Harding and M. Hin-

on Power." Quest:

A

Two

Feminist Qiiarterly,

Reprinted

in

Quest, ed.

Charlotte Bunch.

Perspec1

(no.

1).

Building Feminist Theory: Essays from

New

York: Longman,

1981. .

in

Satural Sciences. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman.

the

"A

The Prism of Sex: Essays ed. J.

Sherman and

Sociology For in the

Women."

In

Sociology of Knowledge,

E. T. Beck. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press. .

1981.

"The Experienced World

as Problematic:

Feminist Method." Sorokin Lecture no.

12.

A

Saskatoon:

Sohn-Rethel, Alfred. 1978. Intellectual and Manual Labor.

London: Macmillan. 1976. "Sciences,

Stehelin, Liliane.

ogy."

In

Ideology

of/in

the

Women

and Ideol-

Natural Sciences, ed.

Steven Rose. Cambridge, Mass.:

Schenkman. \'an

den Daele,

W

1977.

.

"The

Social Construction of

Science." In The Social Production of Scientific ledge, ed. E.

Mendelsohn,

Know-

P. Weingart, R. Whitley.

Dordrecht: Reidel.

"The Feminist

Standpoint: Developing the

for a Specifically

Feminist Historical Materi-

1983.

Ground

.\pril

Rose, Hilary, and Steven Rose (eds). 1976. Ideology of/

Hilary Rose and

Dordrecht: Reidel.

Hartsock, Nancy. 1974. "Political Change: tives

Studies Program,

University of Saskatchewan.

Sex-Gender System Become

Only Now.'" In Discovering

I).

1984.

Smith, Dorothy. 1979.

ies.

Foucault, Michel. 1980.

P.

Culture and Society, 9 (no.

presented to

Feminist Theory.'' American Studies/ Amerika Studien, journal of the

in

1984. "Is a Feminist Science Possible.'" Paper

.

alism." In Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology

and Philosophy

W estkott, Marcia.

1979. "P'eminist Criticism of the Social

Sciences." Harvard Educational Review, 49. Zilsel,

Edgar, 1942.

"The

Sociological Roots of Science."

American Journal of Sociology, 47.

'The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought and the SeventeenthCentury Flight from the Feminine" Susan Bordo Feminist philosopher of culture and especially cultural

(1947-

)

images of the body, Susan Bordo combines a number of themes

common among modernist

postmodernists, but

herself.

is

no post-

She employs psychodynamic

theory to connect the Cartesian and scientific im-

and women. In the following essay, originally published in 1986, she argues that Cartesian modernity is inherently bound to a "flight from the feminine" motivated by a fear of the uncertainty, revulsion, and mortality of the mundane bodily existence with which women have been identified by the same tradition. She thereby gives a feminist cast to the critique of

modern foundationalism led by John

(1929), and

Dewey,

more

in his

that had earlier

The Quest

been

for Certainty

recently by Richard Rorty,

in his

with the universe w ith which

fijfd kind of Cartesian ideal were ever completely fulfilled,

if the whole

i.e.,

of nature were only what

can be explained in terms ofmathematical relationships

-

we would look

then

at the world with that

fearful sense of alienation, with that utter reality with

loss

of

which a future schizophrenic child

looks at his mother.

it

had once shared

soul, so the possibility of objectivity, strikingly,

conceived by Descartes as

own

a is

kind of rebirth, on one's

a

terms, this time.

We

are

all

familiar with the

dominant Cartesian

themes of starting anew, alone, without influence from the past or other people, with the guidance of reason alone.

The product of our original and actual

birth, childhood,

being ruled by the body,

the

is

source of most obscurity and confusion in our thinking.

have

As Descartes all

says in the Discourse,^ "since

been children before being

men

we

... it is

almost impossible that our judgements should be so excellent or solid as they

would have been had we

had complete use of our reason since our had we been guided by

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979),

as a

no longer continuous

decisively separate entity,

pulses of modernity to the repression of external nature, inner nature,

from which the human being emerges

birth,

its

birth,

means alone" (HR,

I,

and 88).

The specific origins of obscurity m our thinking are, as we have seen, the appetites, the influence of our teachers,

and the "prejudices" of childhood. Those

"prejudices"

due

to

all

have a

common

form: the inability,

our infantile "immersion"

in the

body, to

distinguish properly between subject and object.

The

purification of the relation

between knower

A machine cannot give birth.

Karl Stern, The Flight From

Woman

'

Discourse on Method.

"HR"

refers to the

Ross edition of Descartes' work. For

this

Haldane and and similar

references see the author's References after the endnotes.

Philosophical Reconstruction, Anxiety

and Flight If the transition

from Middle Ages

to early

mod-

ernity can be looked on as a kind of protracted

Susan Bordo, "The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought and the Seventeenth-Century Flight from the Feminine." chapter 6. pp. 97-118 from The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1987.

"The Cartesian Masculinization .uul

known

the rcpiuiiaiioii ol ihiklhooil,

rcqiiirt's

which was not uiKoiiuuDn

thciiK'

ot

itlc()l()i;>

childhood as

the liim-

.it

.1

he

I

"innocence/' ami

a tinu-ol

the child as an episteniological tuhtila rasa" hati \et

become popular

to

(Aries, 100

hood was coninionl) ciated

with

it,

Rather, child-

.v>).

ami

animalil),

the

happib, the

can be revoked, through ical reversal of all

and

childhood

state of

and method-

a deliberate

the prejudices acquired within

it,

beginning anew with reason as one's only

a

precisely what the Mci/i tat inns at-

parent. This

is

tempts

The mind

to do.

emptied

is

ot all that

w ith appetite and sense-experience,

and

I'he clear

has

it

The body of infancy, preoccupied

been taught.

regarded as pliN

was

)

a

given in

while

a

transcended.

is

from

distinct ideas are released

obscuring material prison.

The

their

end-result

philosophical reconstruction which secures

boundaries w hich, in childhood (and

is

all

a

the

of

at the start

modern

science and phiiostn

the making. I'or Descartes, the

in

separation ol subject and object

"foumlation"

to

inter-

mw

model

On

dimensions

the intellect

the one haml. a

concenetl,

is

which the |iunt\

in

guaranteed through

is

On

transcend the body.

logical blueprint of the order of things

The

ioned.

spiritual

which share no

distinct substances

is

self

ition to the other. Res cogitans

unexlended thing"; unthinking thing" of

res cogitans

and

conceptualization

w hat

for Descartes

conceived as epistemological threat - "subjectiv-

ity," or the blurring

of boundaries between self and

w orld - w as not conceived

as

such by the medie\ als.

Rather, the medieval sense of relatedness to the

we know from

world, as

its art,

literature,

and phil-

osophy, had not depended on "objectivity" but on continuity betw een the

human and

physical realms,

190).

natural world

front of human experience,

to the fore-

"an extended and

res extensa

made

possible the

of the

res extensa

human

human

objectivity.

the spiritual and the cor-

It

now

medievals had

to speak, as the

done, in anthropocentric terms about nature, w hich for Descartes

pure

is

res extensa, "totally

mind and thought." More important,

it

devoid of

means

that

the values and significances of things in relation to the

human realm must be understood

to

and time, by

oppos-

This mutual exclusion

from the realm of the human."

and world. But

come

in

"a thinking and

of complete intellectual inde-

became inappropriate

reflection of how

locatedness in space

refash-

poreal also established the utter diremption of the

on the interpenetrations, through meanings, of self Descartes's era, had inexorably

is

res extensa is

(I,

The dictotomy between

and world.

is

qualities (other

merging, and are each defined precisely

pendence from the body,

between

to

than being created), permit of interaction but no

being and chief impediment to

crucial to recall here that

ol

and the corporeal are now two

the Meditations) are so fragile: between the "inner"

It is

abilii\

its

the other hand, the onto-

and the "'outer," between the subjective and the objective,

not a

a prnjeit,

is

be disco\ered.

The Cartesian reconstruction has two related

of knowletlge

nivstitlcations of the bodx. I'or Descartes,

what Kant here "discoNcrs" (and what came to be

Descartes asso-

associaietl, as

sensiialitx,

Thought"

of

do with

we

feel

as purely a

about them, having nothing

their "objective" qualities.

"Thus,"

says Whitehead, in sardonic criticism of

and the continuities and

the "characteristic scientific philosophy" of the

interpenetrations w hich had once been a source of

seventeenth century, "the poets are entirely mista-

intellectual

and

spiritual satisfaction

now

presented

themselves as "distortions" caused by personal at-

and

tachment

"perspective."

meaning, became the

human being with

is

embedded

objectivity

it,

issue,

is

Objectivity,

and "so long in

not

as the

nature and united

ically

apprehended.

covers,

and

is

Human

is

object.

The

as unified

own

dis-

phenomena

and connected by the embrace of

"

Blank

distinctness

from the world

it

.

Nature

is

a dull affair, soundless, scentless,

lessly,

meaninglessly" (1925,

p. 54).

For the model

thinking, exploring the various personal or spiritual

Kant

a dis-

crete consciousness, capable of representing to itself its

.

(the sensual or the emotional) nor associational

condition of having an objective to grasp

.

-

intelligence,

is

tion

colourless; merely the hurrying of material, end-

philosoph-

founded on the distinction between subject

world, on the Kantian view,

address their lyrics to themselves,

of know ledge w hich results, neither bodily response

the time of Kant, this "condition" for knowledge

know n -

They should

By

impossible" (Stern, 76).

the separation of know er and

ken.

and should turn them into odes of self-congratula-

grasps.

But

meanings the object has

for us, can tell us

about the object "itself" Gillispie puts

pathy"

it,

(p. 42).

jectivism

is

impersonal,

//

anything

can only be grasped, as

"by measurement rather than symThus, the specter of

overcome by the distanced

infantile sub-

possibility of a cool,

cognitive

relation

to

the

world. At the same time, the nightmare landscape

of the infinite universe has become the well-lighted slate.

laboratory of modern science and philosophy.

Susan Bordo

The conversion is

of nightmare into positive vision

characteristic of Descartes.

Within the narrative

framework of the Meditations, "dreamers, demons, and

madmen"

are exorcised, the crazily fragmented

''enchanted glass" of the

mind

(as liacon called

it) is

transformed into the "mirror of nature," the true reflector of things.

But such transformations,

as

know-

Cartesian "rebirthing" and restructuring of ledge and world as masculine. will

I

begin by exploring the mechanist flight

from the female cosmos (which Carolyn Merchant has called

"The Death

of Nature"). Then,

I

will

focus on the specifically epistemological expression

of the seventeenth-century

from the femi-

flight

Descartes's determinedly upbeat interpretation of

nine: "the Cartesian masculinization of thought."

may be

Both the mechanist reconstruction of the world and

his

own famous nightmare

grounded

-

in defense

in the

suggests,

suppression of an.xiety,

uncertainty, and dread. Certainly, anxiety infuses

the Meditations, as

I

have argued through

my

show

the objectivist reconstruction of knowledge will

then be examined as embodying a

common

psycho-

read-

logical structure: a fantasy of "re-birthing" self and

that

world, brought into play by the disintegration of

Cartesian anxiety was a cultural anxiety, arising

the organic, female cosmos of the Middle Ages and

from discoveries, inventions, and events which

Renaissance. This philosophical fantasy will be

were major and disorienting.

situated

ing of the text.

That

have

I

disorientation,

tried, too,

to

have suggested,

I

is

given

psychocultural coherence via a "story" oi parturition

from the organic universe of the Middle Ages

within

the

context

general

of seven-

teenth-century attitudes toward female generativity, as

number of feminist

chronicled by a

authors.

Finally, the relevance of these ideas to current

and Renaissance, out of w hich emerged the modern

discussions about gender and rationality, and to

categories of "self," "locatedness," and "inner-

current reassessments of Cartesianism, will be con-

ness." This parturition was initially experienced

sidered in a concluding section of this chapter.

as loss, that

is,

as estrangement,

up of a chasm between logically,

self

and the opening

and nature. Epistemo-

that estrangement expresses itself in a

renewal of scepticism, and in an unprecedented

The Death of Nature and

the

Masculinization of Thought

anxiety over the possibility of reaching the w orld as "it"

is.

Spiritually,

it

expresses itself in anxiety

Discussion of "masculinity" and "femininity"

the isol-

new motif in

this study.

ating uniqueness of each individual allotment in

implicit role

all

time and space, and the arbitrary, incomprehen-

whose destruction gave

over the enclosedness of the individual

sible nature

self,

of that allotment by an alien, indiffer-

ent universe.

We may speak here,

meaningfully, of

particular genius of Descartes

philosophically transformed what was

enced as estrangement and

loss

w as

to

first

experi-

have

- the sundering of

the organic ties between the person and world into a requirement for the grow th of

ledge and progress.

And

human knowwe are in a

at this point,

mechanism oi defense Cartesian objectivism and mechan-

better position to flesh out the

involved here. ism,

I

will

propose, should be understood as a

reaction-formation

-

a denial

of the "separation anx-

iety" described above, facilitated intellectual

by an aggressive

from the female cosmos and

flight

was

a

For the medieval cosmos

along.

birth to the

modern

sens-

mother-cosmos, and the soul which

Descartes drained from the natural world was a

female soul. Carolyn Merchant, whose ground-

a cultural "separation anxiety."

The

ibility

is a

Yet gender has played an

breaking interdisciplinary

The Death of

study.

Nature, chronicles the changing imagery of nature

cosmology"

in this period, describes the "organic

which mechanism overthrew Minerals and metals ripened

in the uterus

of the

Earth Mother, mines were compared to her the

human

hastening of the living metal in the

artificial

vagina,

and

womb of the

metallurg\

furnace

.

.

.

Miners offered propiti-

ation to the deities of the

monial sacrifices

.

.

.

was

soil,

performed cere-

sexual abstinence, fasting,

"feminine" orientation towards the world. That

before violating the sacredness of the living

orientation (described so far in this study in the

earth by sinking a mine. (p. 4)

gender-neutral terminology of "participating consciousness") had

still

played

a

formidable role in

medieval and Renaissance thought and culture. In the seventeenth century,

from the dominant

it

was decisively purged

intellectual culture, throusch the

The

notion of the natural w orld as mothered has

sources, for the

and

Western

tradition, in

both Plato

Aristotle. In Plato's Timeaus, the formless "re-

ceptacle" or "nurse" provides the substratum of all

I

'The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought' clclcrnimatc inaici

"space" laclc"

is

.

(It

the

is

also ickiicil lo as

ilialoiiiic.)

"irtcp-

I'lu'

likened to a niotlui because of

its

"stir anil

uiform her."

nature which

is

The

child

the deterniinate

is

formed thnuigh

their union: the

nature (51).

ot

is

not a mother, but

is

of the union of "nurse" and forms. The

itself a child

notion that the earth

itself

mothers things,

lor

large

and respected

which ive

is

the

cuttuncnui,

or

menstrual

material,

"worked upon" and shaped by the

"effect-

and active" element, the semen of the male

(729a-b). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this

a

in the prescient iflc orientation

in general. If the ke>

terms

in the

(Cartesian hierarchy of epistemological values are clarity

and distinctness

which mark each

qualities

from the other and from the knower in this alternative

be designated (follow ing

scheme

the

might

of \alues

(iillispie's contrast here) as

sympathy.

"Sympathetic" understanding of the

object

that

is

"union" with describes it.

it,

it

which

understands

(Stern, 42 3), or, as

through

it

James Ilillman

though "merging w ith" or "marr> ing"

To merge w ith or marry that w hich is to be know n

means, for Hillman, "letting interior movement re-

A "stock description" of biological

place clarity, interior closeness replace objectivity"

generation in nature was the marriage of heaven and earth,

and the impregnation of the (female) earth by

dew and

rain created

by the movements of the

(masculine) celestial heavens (.Merchant, 16).

The

female element here

is

ncitura natunita,^"

of

passivity here connotes receptivity rather than inertness; only a living, breathing earth can be

pregnated.

And

{The Alyth ofAnalysis, 293).

im-

It

value, even (perhaps especially)

contradictory

or

Marcuse

thinking,

suggests,

w hich truly respects the the variety of

its

the world has a soul - a female soul -

w hich perme-

body of the universe. In the

seventeenth century, as Merchant argues,

meanings

that

Barfield's

(p. 74).

and Berman's discussions of medieval sympathy," Jasper's "causality from

"intellectual

called "sympathetic thinking."

This re-visioning of the universe

as a

machine -

- was not the work of Astronomy and anatomy had dominant picture of the move-

often, a clockwork

philosophers alone. already changed the

all

contain elements of what

standing of that w hich

oneself within" the

son puts

it

(at

w as

An emphasis on

it

philosophy, and Descartes in particular, that pro-

by

vided the cosmology that integrated these discov-

But w hereas

eries into a consistent

and unified view of nature.

Descartes's brilliant stroke, nature became delack of affiliation with divinity, with

which

is

God-like or spiritual -

freedom, w ill, and sentience - belong entirely and exclusively to res cngitans. All else

- the

earth, the

this ideal

to

I

have here

deepest under-

be know n comes, each

jective

being of an object, as Bergit

ceases to be an "object"

and allow ing

//

to speak.

the knower's passivity

is

shared

of knowledge and the Cartesian passivity for Descartes (and for

meant yielding

"own"

full

w hich point

in the usual sense),

by the time the Meditations were written. But

is

The

argues, not from analysis of parts but from "placing

ments of the heavens and the processes of the body

its

mode

only

w hich allow s

"participating consciousness," Bergson's notion of

murdered - by the mechanist re-visioning of nature.

All that

is,

to unfold without coer-

cion or too-focused interrogation

w ithin,"

spirit.

"Sympathetic" the

is

object, that

female world-soul died - or more precisely, was

fined by

w hen such response

fragmented.

indeed, for Plato most explicitly,

ates the corporeal

most

means granting per-

sonal or intuitive response a positive epistemological

is

course - passive rather than creative nature. But

By

that cluster ol

account of animal generation was "projected"

onto the cosmos.

the

ileal h, ion, ol

philosophy and.

role in hermetic

might be argued,

toward the world

key term

"stuff:

l\

nine consciousness, anil which apparently plased

ation of the .Aristotelian theory of animal reproduc-

female provides not only

nun

is

epistemological \alues, often associatetl with temi-

object off

tion. In that theory, the

b(iii\

The se\enteenth centurN sau the

example, metals and minerals, required the inspir-

matter as "substratum," but matter as sensible

huniaii

iIk-

another sort of "feminine principle"

It

In this account, the earth

animals,

he.ivens,

mechanicall> interacting matter

leceptn-

the "source or

is

the eternal tbrnis \Nhich "enter" and

spruiv:"

body

in

impression; the lather

to

ity

ialil\

ilmru

to

ideal.

Bacon)

the authority of the object's

nature, for sympathetic thinking, the ob-

and subjective merge, participate

ation of meaning.

The most

in the cre-

inspired and articulate

contemporary advocates of w hat

I

am

here calling

"sympathetic thinking" are Carol Gilligan (1982)

and Evelyn Fox Keller (1985), each of whom speaks Medieval philosophers distinguished nature

as active,

forcefully to the

need for integration of such think-

nature naturing {natiira natiirans), from nature as acted

ing into our dominant conceptions of rationality.

upon, nature natur^^ [natura naturata).

This does not mean

a rejection,

but a re-visioning of

Susan Bordo

of dynamic ob-

"objectivity." Keller's conception jectivity"

especially relevant here:

is

requires. ist

It

also has

doctrine, as

do

share of explicitly misogyn-

its

its

ancient forefathers, Aristotle

and Galen. But the most interesting contemporary

Dynamic

objectivity

of know-

a pursuit

is ...

ledge that makes use of subjective experience ... in

more effective objectivity.

the interests of a

Premised on continuity,

between

self

and other

more

and

deeper

discussions of the "masculinist" nature of

of

recognizes difference

style,

as

an opportunity for a

of

The

kinship.

articulated

is itself

principle

It is a

means

The

and

To

relations."

world that

human

end,

this

form of attention

a

is

world:

the to

guaranteed

form of love.

a

Keller:

set apart

is

from nature, and

...

by setting apart

from what its

which the dichotomy

in

program

(p. 117)

ideal the

seen, has as

is

is

of both the scientific mind and

its

access to knowledge as masculine

is

modes of

indeed sigit

so often

does, autonomy, separation, and distance ... a radical rejection of

for the purification

we have

to

modes of

its

nificant. xMasculine here connotes, as

of the understanding, as

is

autonomy

threatened. In this process, the characterization

In contrast to the conception of "dynamic objectivity," Descartes'

required

is

in the sciences today.

i.e.,

knowing from those

scientist

the natural

like one's ideal attention to the it is

Fox

mind

scientific

be known,

for

divining w hat Poincare calls "hidden harmonies

employs

men and w omen w orking

In the words of Evelyn

cognitive

characteristic

a

an epistemological stance which

a

source of insight - potentially into the nature of

both self and other.

"masculinism":

its

it

struggle to disentangle self from other

modern

science describe a different, though related, aspect

and

its

any commingling of subject

object, (p. 79)

rendering impossible of any such continuity

between subject and

object.

must be cleansed of

all its

the objects

it

tries to

The

scientific

mind

"sympathies" toward

understand.

It

must

cultivate

in this sense that the

It is

dominant

scientific

indeed inaugurated "a truly masculine birth of

absolute detachment. Recognizing the centrality of

time," as Francis Bacon had proclaimed

such ideals to modern science has led writers

rington). Similarly

like

Sandra Harding to characterize modern science

in

and

philosophic culture of the seventeenth century

and

strikingly,

it

(Far-

Henry Olden-

berg, secretary of the Royal Society, asserted in

of rational

1664 that the business of that society was to raise

thought."^ Similarly, Karl Stern has said that

"a masculine philosophy" (Easlea, 152). In her

terms

of a

"[what]

"super-masculinization

we encounter

notion that

modern

modes of thinking

is

penetrating and imaginative study of sexual meta-

The

phors in the history of epistemology, Keller pays

in Cartesian rationalism

the pure masculinization of thought" (p. 104).

science crystallizes masculinist is

theme, too,

a

work of

in the

James Hillman; "The specific consciousness we call scientific, Western and modern," says Hillman, "is the long sharpened tool of the masculine

has discarded parts of 'Eve,' 'female,' sis,

250).

and

its

mind

ow n substance,

'inferior'

Evelyn Fox Keller's

that

calling

it

" {The

Myth ofAnalyReflections On Gender

very serious attention to such historical associations

we might

of gender and "cognitive style," which

have thought to belong to

a peculiarly

ary mentality, but which in fact crop in

contempor-

up frequently

Royal Society debates. As Keller reads them, the

controversies

become an

between

Bacon

explicit contest

and

Paracelsus

between masculine and

feminine principles: head versus heart, domination

and Science systematically explores various per-

over versus merging with the object,

spectives (including developmental perspectives)

versus erotic orientation toward knowledge, and

on the connection between masculinity and modern

so forth (43-65). Bacon's

science.

Keller suggests, were

It

must be

stressed that descriptions of

modern

bivalent than

his

own

purified

deepest attitudes,

more complicated and am-

oft-reproduced and notorious

science as a "masculinization of thought" refer to

images of male seduction, penetration, and rape of

what these authors view

nature

as characteristic cognitive

and theoretical biases of male-dominated science, not the fact of that male ce's

attitudes

toward

dominance

itself,

women. Science

or scienhas,

of

course, a long history of discrimination against

women,

insisting that

women

cannot measure up

to the rigor, persistence, or clarity that science

may

indicate.

But what emerges with

clarity,

despite any subtleties in the attitudes of individual thinkers, line"

is

is

that the notion of science as

"mascu-

hardly a twentieth-century invention or

feminist fantasy.

The

founders of modern science

consciously and explicitly proclaimed the "masculinitv" of science as inaugurating a

new

era.

And

'The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought" ihcv associattil

more

jnircr,

thai

ni.isculiiiilN

more

objcciiNc ami

uidi

iHcaMK- olnious

tpi-

such associations,

mterpreiaiion

was related

It

great cultural achie\ement

stcmological relation to the uorkl.

The emeriience

.Ihe

peaiaiKe and return

ikaiur,

a

(.IisLipliiuil

is,

which lacked our heightened modern conscious-

ual satisfaction)

which he had made

ness of gender as an issue,

is

Thev

remarkable.

"super-masculini/ed"

at a

pomt

certain

not merely, as

is

seventeenth-centurx objectivist turn

would

say,

a turn,

away the object so

many

suppressed

on

Heidegger, and, more recently, Richard

case

nine"

at

a

ihis,

as

Ik-

were, b\

it

Rorty.

his it

profound "flight from the femi-

it

reach

mother

the child's, which was

of

would have

\ou awa\ mNself.

revenge himself

going away from him. In that

for

1

Throwing

...

was 'gone' might

in his actual life, to

then, go away!

in the direction

his

that

a defiant

meaning:

'.\ll

right,

don't need \ou. I'm sending (3.>

5)

the heart of both Cartesian rationalism and

To

Baconian empiricism. of that

sions

an impulse

satisf)

scribed, criticized, and laid to rest b\ \\ hilehcad,

of confronting

tor

the objects within

of

which has already been adequately de-

Bacon's metaphor, rather, urges us

allowing

himself staging the disapjiearance and return

in

some might argue, a new, fashionable way of labelling and condemning the

lime

in

go awa\ without protesting

to

compensated himself

suggest that the contemporary notion that thought heciiftu-

mother

his

.

the nisimctual re-

nunciation (that

in

.

the renunciation ol instinct-

an era

ot

.

to the child's

"flight,"

The

appreciate the dimen-

however, necessitates a

return to the insights of developmental psychology.

of

it

"fort-da"" game and Freud's interpretation

places the Cartesian facility for transforming

anxiety into confidence, loss into mastery, in a

new perspective.

striking

\\ ithin

the context of

the cultural separation anxiety described in this

The Cartesian '"Rebirth'^ and ^'Father of Oneself Fantasy

the

study, Descartes's masculine "rebirthing" of the

world and merely

Descartes envisages for himself a kind of rebirth.

self as decisively separate appears, not

as the articulation

of a positive new epi-

stemological ideal, but as a reaction-formation to

Intellectual salvation comes only to the twice-horn.

the loss of "being-one-with-the-world" brought

Madmen

about by the disintegration of the organic, centered,

Frankfurt, Demons, Dreamers, and

female cosmos of the Middle Ages and RenaisPsychoanalytic theory urges us to examine that

sance.

which we actively repudiate

is

loss

we mourn. Freud,

in

Principle, tells the story of

for the

shadow of

Beyond

the

a

Pleasure

an eighteen-month-old

Cartesian reconstruction of the world

game -

independ-

a defiant gesture of

ence from the female cosmos, a gesture w hich the

boy - an obedient, orderly

little boy, as Freud him - who, although "greatly attached mother,'' never cried when she left him for a

The

a "fort-da"

same time compensation

for a

profound

is

at

loss.

Let us explore the interpretation proposed above

more

turning again to developmental

describes

in

to his

theory for insight.

detail,

The

project of growing

up

is

to

one degree or another (depending on culture and

few hours.

child-raising practice) a project of separation., of

This good

little

boy,

how ever, had an occasional

learning to deal with the fact that mother and

disturbing habit of taking any small objects he

child are

could get hold of and throwing them away from

not always available. Social and personal strategies

him

into a corner,

under the bed, and so on, so

that hunting for his toys

was often quite

and picking them up

a business.

As he did

this

he

no longer one and accomplishing

for the child's

culture no doubt has

gave vent to a loud, long-drawn-out 'o-o-o-o\

that such separation

Psychoanalytic

and

His mother and the writer of the

satisfaction.

present account were agreed in thinking that

mere

this

was not

the

German word

a

interjection but represented 'fort'

('gone').

I

eventually

it was a game and that the only made of any of his toys was to play 'gone' them [T]he complete game [w as] disap-

is

this are varied; every

ow n modes of

facilitating

the separation of mother and child, to the degree

accompanied by an expression of

interest

its

that gratification

is

required by the culture.

focused on internal mechanisms, describing the different responses longing, mourning, denial - that the child may have to separation. ticular

theory

has

The mechanism

interest

for

my

of denial

is

of par-

purposes. Although the

realized that

use he

w ith

.

.

.

"

Da means

"there," meaning the object

"Da!" ("There

it

is!").

is

present, as in

Susan Bordo dream of

total

union can persist throughout

another, contradictor) project

may be

life,

concei\ed,

body - par-

directed against parts of the mother's ticularly

the

against

and

breasts

reproductive

psychoanalytic thinkers have suggested, centered

organs - in the child's effort to achieve such control

around the denial of any longing

(pp. 98-111).

mater-

for the lost

nal union. Instead, the child seeks mastery over the

and lack of

frustrations of separation

gratification

through an assertion of self against the mother and all

that she represents

ency on her. In

this

and

a rejection

way, the pain of separateness

more

assuaged, paradoxically, by an even separation - but one that aggressively pursued.

autonomy

of all depend-

It is

is

definitive

chosen this time and

is

therefore experienced as

rather than helplessness in the fact of the

fantasy of

birthing" the

self,

in

and

Freudian

the ''transitional object"

Such

a

object-relations

concept of

\\ innicott's'

(a

make

makes new psychocul-

holes and corners," etc.^)

Cartesian

the

subtly,

of starting anew

project

through the revocation of one's actual childhood

blanket, toy, or stuffed

from body and nature are keys

ontological)

than sources of anxiety can

trol rather

oneself fantasy on

as a "father of

organic

ties

we have

experienced, as

seen, as epistemological

from the mother), Ross argues that such objects

the

function, symbolically, as the child himself. In cud-

the separation.

dling and scolding the object, the child

new "masculine" theory of knowledge

playing at self-parenting, at being his

control of his or her

own

baby.

child to feel less

mercy of the mother, more

own

in

destiny (1977).

"beoming the

father of

mother

as a fantasy of

oneself (rather than the

helpless child of the mother) (p. 127). Sexual activ-

here (or rather, the fantasy of

ity

means of denying the

it)

becomes

state

body of limited powers, and

of union into

at a

"other," but she

separateness liar

is

is

mercy

much

The

pain of

whom

dependent. Melanie Klein (writing in 1928, earlier

than Brown) emphasizes the aggres-

envious impulses which

the Cartesian "rebirth," a is

delivered,

one

And

which

in

God, the

a

a posi-

new world generativity

all

is

re-

and

spiritual father, rather

than to the female "flesh" of the world. With the

same masterful stroke - the mutual opposition of the spiritual and

the corporeal

-

the formerly

female earth becomes inert matter and the objectivity

of science

is

insured.

"She" becomes

"it"

stood and controlled.

- and

"it" can be under-

Not through "sympathy," of

course, but by virtue of the very object-W\l\ of the "it."

At the same time, the "wound" of separate-

ness

is

healed through the denial that there ever

world

is

dead. There

is

to lament. Indeed, the iety is

or

evoked, not over

suggestion

ational,

nothing to mourn, nothing

"new" loss,

of union\

epistemological anx-

but by the

"memory"

"sympathetic,"

associ-

or bodily response obscures objectivity,

feeling for nature

muddies the

clear lake of the

may be

D. W. Winnicott (1896-1971), British child psych-

iatrist.

Through

w hich detachment from nature acquires

constructed,

" '

being as the engineer and architect of

ne," the female world-soul did not die; rather the

of the child.

thus compensated for by the pecu-

sive, destructive,

chasm betime w ith

a

this

an other whose power has

will

advantages of separateness: the possibility of

is

reenacted,

"was" any union: For the mechanists, unlike Don-

The mother

mastery and control over that person on

one

human

is

is

of the now-alien w ill of the mother.

been harnessed by the

''a

time and place

[one] never chose" (de Beauvoir, 146), at the

still

and w orld -

tive epistemological value.

a

actual passivity of having

been born from that original

self

creativity fall to

Working from a more Freudian framework, Norman O. Brown reinterprets the Oedipal desire to ''sexually" possess the

in

seen

plane.'' The sundering of the between person and nature - originally

tween

actually

con-

but profound,

bolic,

and ultimate mastery over the process of separation

is

to

now be

highly sym-

a

estrangement, as the opening up of

precariously at the

More

tural sense in the context of these ideas.

animal which eases the child's accommodation to

Such self-parenting allows the

man

scruple of entering and penetrating these

nature) and the (re)creation of a world in which

playing the role of active parental

both

to

absolute separateness (both epistemological and

notion of ''rebirthing" or "reparenting" the self figures

and unruly female nature (she must "be

willful

taken by the forelock" and "neither ought a

oneself, of "re-

is

figure rather than passive, helpless child.

frameworks. Building on

of

through the

of such self-assertion

becoming the parent of

imagery

(during which one was "immersed" in body and

discontinuity between self and mother.

One mode

famous Baconian

the

Certainly,

sexual assault and aggressive overpowering of a

English poet, John

omy of the world" demise.

Donne ( 1 572-

1

63 1 ), whose "Anat-

connects his wife's death to the world's

'

"The Cartesian Masculinization The "othcnu'ss" o( nature

niiiul.

allows

to

It

now

is

w

li.it

he known.

who must

the old chaos" and

nature, too (and this

tion with \lelanie klein),

he Scvcntcciilh-ccntiir\

from

I'liiilit

mother but

is

Ihe

connec-

striking, in

no longer the beneficent

is

r.iilur the hmutlct o\

precious metals and

minerals, which must be "searcheil" and "spied

the I'eniinine

out" (Merchant, 169

Ihc

therefore be "re-

strained and kept in order" (Merchant, 171)

womb of 1

of Thought'

philosoi-)hical "nuirticr"

70).

There were the witchhunts themselves, which,

of the living female

more

by the gradual male lakeoser of

earth, explored in the preeeding section as a reac-

aided

tion-formation to the dissolution of the niediexal

birthing,

self-world unit), must be placed in the context of

the healing arts of female midwives.'

other issues in the gender politics of the sixteenth

changes

and seventeenth centuries. 'I'hanks

sive

to the historical

Merchant,

research of such writers as C'>arolyn

politel\

and healing

The resulting which rendered women pas-

in obstetrics,

and dependent birth,

identify

as

purged

in general, virtually

came

process of birth,

in the

Bacon

nature

identified

Brian Kaslea, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dierdre English,

w ith the potentiality of disorder and the need

and Adrienne Rich, we have been enabled

forceful

to recog-

nize the years between 1550 and 1650 as a particularly

gynophobic century.

brought to

light

has been especially

what now appears

is

with

obsession

\\ hat

as a virtual

untamed natural power of

the

female generativity, and

dedication to bringing

a

it

Nightmare

fantasies of female

power over repro-

Kramer

duction and birth run throughout the era.

and Sprcnger's Malleus Maleficariun, the witch-hunter's handbook,

official

''witches"

accuses

of

every imas^inable natural and supernatural crime involving conception and birth.'"

The

failure of

crops and miscarriages were attributed to w itches,

and they are accused both of "inclining

men

to

passion" and of causing impotence, of obstructing fertility in

both

men and women,

of removing the

penises of men, or procuring abortion, and of

newborns

offering

Such

Among

fantasies

to the devil (Lederer, 209).

w ere not limited

the scientific

set,

we

to a fanatic fringe.

find the

image of the

for

So, too, in the seventeenth

century, female sexuality was seen as voracious and

and

insatiable, craft,

motivation behind witch-

a principal

which offered the capacious "mouth of the

womb" the opportunity to copulate with the devil. The ideology of the voracious, insatiable female may

under forceful cultural control.

male control.

to

itself,

not be unique to the sixteenth and seventeenth

But

centuries.

it

is

By

not historically ubiquitous.

the second half of the nineteenth century, medical science had declared

and "not kind"

much

women

(\ icinus, 82). Peter

medical fantasy was

a

(p. 93),

Gay

suggests that this

reaction-formation to that

"pervasive sense of

era's

to be naturally passive

troubled by sexual feeling of any

brought about by

manhood in danger" own particular social

its

disruptions in gender relations and the family.

w ould suggest, along in the

I

similar lines, that key changes

seventeenth-century scientific theory of re-

production functioned

in

though

to

reaction

in

much

same way,

the

threats

different

al-

and

disruptions.

witch, the willful, wanton virago, projected onto

Generativity-, not sexuality,

is

the focus of the

generative nature, whose scientific exploration, as

seventeenth century's fantasies of female passivity.

Merchant points

Mechanist

witch

trial

out,

(169-170).

is

metaphorically likened to a

The

imagined as deliberately and

is

longer necessary to refer to any

women

for

harlot" with "an appetite and

inclination to dissolve the world

and

fall

back into

its

tation (Easlea, 49).

Denied even her

itional Aristotelian role

Kramer (14301505) and Jakob Sprenger (1436- 1495) composed Malleus Maleficarum {The Witch Hammer)^ which became the Inquisition's

guide

One

as

"no

and ges-

limited, trad-

of supplying the (living)

menstrual material (which, shaped by the individuating male

"form"

results in the fetus), the

ary

housing and

incubation

for the

woman

tempor-

of already-formed

Friars Heinrich

for

investigating

(and

torturing)

human

beings, originally placed in

Adam's semen

by God, and parcelled out, over the ages, male descendants.

The

to

all

his

specifics of mechanistic

reproductive theory are a microcosmic recapitula-

witches. '"'

it

at all" in

"scientific" descriptions of conception

becomes instead the mere container The Dominican

made

"concealed" from

slyly

passively receptive to the ordering

"common

("happily," it)

and shaping masculine forms, now becomes, Bacon, a

theory

Brian Easlea sarcastically puts

the scientist (Easlea, 214). Matter, which in the Timeaus'^'^

reproductive

"secrets" of nature are

of Plato's dialogues.

tion of the mechanistic vision

itself,

where God the

Susan Bordo father

is

know, from what now must be seen

as

almost paradigmatic examples of the power of

and men

belief over perception, that tiny horses

were actually ''seen" by mechanist

scientists

exam-

ining sperm under their microscopes. All this

Even

only to scratch the surface of a literature

is

The mechanization of

parallels.

last

decade.

however, yields striking

this brief survey,

theoretically "quieted" the

nature,

we

see,

''common harlot" of

matter (and sanctioned nature's exploitation) as effectively as

so

Baconian experimental philosophy did Mechanistic reproductive theory

practically.

successfully eliminated any active, generative role for the female in the processes of conception

gestation.

And

and

actual control over reproduction

and birth was wrested away from

women by

the

w itch-hunters and the male medical establishment. Something,

it

seems, had

come

to

be

too

felt as all

What

can account for this upsurge of fear of

No

nomic, I

political,

doubt many factors - eco-

and institutional - are

would suggest

that the

And

"otherness"

crucial.

But

themes of "parturition"

and "separation anxiety" discussed

itself

becomes

w hose pow ers have always been mysterious

to

and evocative of the mystery of existence

men, itself.

Like the infinite universe, which threatens to swal-

her strange rhythms, long acknowledged to have their chief affinities with the

(now

in this

study

rhythms of the natural

becomes

alien) world,

a

reminder of how

much lies outside the grasp of man. "The quintessential incarnation" of that w hich appears to man as "mysterious, powerful and not himself," as Dorothy Dinnerstein says,

woman's

fertile

body"

"the

is

Certainly,

125).

(p.

the

mother's body holds these meanings for the infant, according to Klein. If Dorothy Dinnerstein

women

is

right,

woman-as-mother, the

the

(particularly

original "representative" of the natural world, virtually indistinguishable

from

it

all

and

human

for the

infant) are always likely targets for

rage against nature. ^^

powerful and in need of taming.

female generativity.'

Other.

is

dreadful - particularly the otherness of the female,

low the individual "like a speck," the female, with

become quite extensive over the

that has

"She"

the sole creative, formative principle in the

We

cosmos.

later adult

Supporting Dinnerstein's

highly theoretical account are the anthropologist

Peggy Reeves Sanday's cross-cultural mental

male

stress,

over female

findings

and environ-

that in periods of cultural disruption

dominance - particularly - tends to be at its most ex-

social

fertility

can provide an illuminative psychocultural frame-

treme (172-84). In the seventeenth century, with

work within which

the universe appearing to

to situate seventeenth-century

"not-himself

gynophobia.

The

culture in question, in the wake of the

dissolution of the medieval intellectual and imaginative system, had lost a world in

human

being could

feel

oneness, of continuity between infinite universe

which the

nourished by the sense of all

things.

The new

and more devastating

decisively

in her capacity for disorder,

both the mystery of the universe and the mystery of

more definitive "solution" demanded bv the organic world

the female require a

than had been View.

12

The

was an indifferent home, an "alien

project that

fell

will,"

and the sense of separateness from her was

and "rationalism" was

acute.

Not only was she "other," but she seemed a uncontrollable other. During the

Empirical

perverse and

man more

than ever before, more capricious

'

assault

science

to

did

to

both empirical science

tame the female universe. through

this

aggressive

and violation of her "secrets." Rationalism,

we have

tamed the female universe

years 1550-1650, a century that had brought the

as

worst food

through the philosophical neutralization of her

crisis in history, violent

wars, plague,

The

seen,

and devastating poverty, the Baconian imagery of

vitality.

nature as an unruly and malevolent virago was no

insured the revitalization of

paranoid fantasy.

More

important, the cruelty of

the world could no longer be

made

palatable by the

old medieval sense of organic justice justice

with

on the

level

-

that

is,

of the workings of a whole

which one's identity merged and which,

w hile perhaps not

fully

theless to be trusted.

comprehensible, was none-

Now there is no organic unity,

barrenness of matter correlatively

human hope

of con-

quering nature (through knowledge, in this case,

The mystery

rather than through force).

female,

how ever, could not be bent

to

of the

man's control

simply through philosophical means.

More

direct

and concrete means of "neutralization" were quired for that project. that witch-hunting

It

is

re-

within this context

and the male medical takeover

but only "I" and "She" - an unpredictable and

of the processes of reproduction and birth, w hat-

seemingly arbitrary "She," whose actions cannot

ever their social and political causes, can be seen

be understood in any of the old "sympathetic"

to

wavs.

well.

have

a

profound psychocultural dimension as

.

"The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought"

m

ology,

I'hc CA)ntenip()rar> Rc\aliiatioii of the 1

and

cniiniiic

archetypal psvchology,

women

My

next focus will be on the recent scholarly enier-

and revaluation

oi episleniolo^ical

and eth-

perspectives "in a difterent \oice." That xoice,

ical

which

classical

contemporary writers

well as

as

work of

identity as feminine (as, e.g. in the

Sarah Ruddick, and Nancy Chodorow),

Ciilligan,

claims

a

natural foundation for knowledge, not in

detachment and distance, but

"svmpath\ pathy.

It

Clarol

": in

in

w hat

I

have called

closeness, connectedness, and

fmds the

em-

failure of connection (rather than

more

arc

|)hiloscha\i()i

with

rcla\cil,

is

home

at

members

\Nith

m\

impits-

tlus

ikaciiIkIcss lorrcsixmd

r()ughl\

stages in the histor\ of while racism, especialls

family or

the

which

of the iiroiip NNith

m

m

The nineteenth century, espe-

I niteil States.

ciall\

to

the South, saw ilominatiNe racism as the

l^rimary form, w ith strong strains of aversive raci.sm

identify.

between public, respect-

'I'he lived distinction

able

thinks

more cx-

comportments and

more

private,

com-

casual

among

the

claimed

to

Northern

liberal

be free

bourgeoisie

of racism. In the

who

contemporary

portments intersects with the interacti\e d>namics

United States, racism takes primaril) the form of

homophobia, ageism, and able-

a\ersive racism, with the increasing significance of

of racism, sexism,

ism. In "private'' settings,

where people are more

may express devaluing judgments about members of other groups that they repress

metaracism.

The

relaxed, they

in

"public" settings

formal rules and bureau-

of

between dominative and aver-

distinction

mapped onto

si\e racism can be

the shift

I

have

outlined from discursive consciousness to practical

consciousness and basic security system. In nine-

cratic impersonality.

For women, disabled people, Blacks, Latinos,

teenth-century racist culture, along with sexism

gay men, lesbians, and others that continue to be

and heterosexism,

marked out

bodies and character were expressed, and Blacks,

as the Other,

however, there remains

another obstacle to respectability. Even

norms of

cessfully exhibit the

if

they suc-

respectability, their

of,

and,

I

of superior

theories

women, homosexuals, and working people

were constructed

having degenerate or inferior

as

some-

natures that justified their domination by white

have argued, often

bourgeois men. In contemporary society these op-

physical presence continues to be marked,

thing others take note

jews,

explicit

evokes unconscious reactions of nervousness or

pressions exist less in the form of overt domination

aversion in others. In being thus chained to their

than

bodily being they cannot be fully and un-self-

enacted

consciously respectable and professional, and they

oppressed.

Upon

avoidances,

as

by

the

meeting someone

Kovel's project

they must "prove" through their professional

com-

count of racism.

portment that they are respectable, and their

lives

are not so considered.

are constantly

first

dogged by such

which, though

trials,

surely not absent from the lives of w hite

men,

are

is

and separations

aversions,

privileged

to give a

He

relation

in

to

the

psychodynamic ac-

suggests

dominative

that

racism and aversive racism involve different issues

and processes

in the

unconscious of white Western

Dominative racism, he suggests, involves

culture.

primarily oedipal issues of sexual object and con-

less regular.

quest, and the issues of competition and aggression

played out (for men) in the oedipal drama.

The

Xenophobia and Abjection

explicit preoccupation with genitals

In his study of white racism, Joel Kovel (1970)

of this oedipal psyche. Aversive racism, on the

and sexuality

in nineteenth-century racist discourse

distinguishes three ideal types: dominative racism,

other hand, digs

aversive racism, and metaracism. Dominative rac-

anal

ism involves direct mastery that has

pollution.

ous manifestations

its

most obvi-

enslavement and other forms

in

of forced labor, race status rules that privilege whites, and genocide.

Whereas such domination

usually entails frequent, often daily and intimate association

between members of

aversive racism

almost ity

is

a

all

groups,

racism of avoidance and separ-

From what Kovel

ation.

racial

traces of a

calls

metaracism,

commitment

finally,

to race superior-

have been removed, and only the grinding pro-

cesses

of

a

white-dominated

economy

and

moment

with the

a

Kovel finds

spirit

into a preoedipal

this racism

more consonant

of modern capitalist and instrumen-

Modern

scientific

seeks to reduce the self to pure

consciousness

mind

from sensuality and material immersion

Such an urge creates

symptom

of fundamental fantasies of dirt and

rationality.

tal

more deeply

is

abstracted in nature.

for purity in the context of povser

some groups

as scapegoats, representative

of the expelled body standing over against the purified

and abstracted

Oppression

in

subject.

contemporary society

tured by reactions of aversion,

I

as struc-

have suggested,

is

technology account for the continued misery of

not limited to racism, but also describes an aspect of

many

sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ableism. Blacks,

people of color.

While according

Kovel

three types of

Latinos, Asians, gays and lesbians, old people, dis-

racism exist in contemporary American society, he

abled people and often poor people, experience

to

all

J

Iris

Marion Young

nervousness or avoidance from others, even from

its

those whose discursive consciousness aims to treat

and

them with that

oppressed group has that cannot be I

explicated

a specific identity

reduced

to

aspects of oppression, various

five

may

oppressed group is

and history

any other. [In Chapter 2

combinations and instances of which

which

mean

respect as equals. This does not

these group oppressions are the same. Each

all

but none of

experience,

a necessary condition

a particular

One

of oppression.

function of such a plural model of oppression

is

to

avoid reductionism in discussing group oppression. I

believe that

all

named above occupy

the groups

element of their oppression. Below

a crucial

an account of that status, which

ways

similar

to

slice, if

sions of racism, sexism,

you

I

offer

think applies in

these groups.

all

represents only one

I

will,

duce

of such self-baggage. Abjection does not pro-

a subject in relation to objects

rather

moment

the

the ego and

objects. Before desire

its

ment out from

a self to the objects

directed - there that

is

it is

unrepresentable, that exists only as affect.

is

Abjection

the feeling of loathing and disgust

is

the subject has in encountering certain matter,

images, and fantasies - the horrible, to which

it

can only respond with aversion, with nausea and distraction. ing;

The

abject

is

at the

draws the subject

it

abject

is

same time

fascinat-

in order to repel

it.

The

meaningless, repulsive in an irrational,

abject, Julia Kristeva

means of understanding behavior and

inter-

from the primal repression

arises

struggles

infant

that nourishes

tant

struggle

similar to Kovel's account of aversive

is

racism, though not so thoroughly Freudian. In

Powers of Horror (1982), as in Kristeva

quarrels

much

of her other

the

emphasis of

with

Freudian psychoanalysis on ego development, the

development of the capacity

for symbolization

and

representation that signals the emergence of an identical self over against

which stand

resentable, definable, desired,

objects, rep-

and manipulable. In

Kristeva's view psychoanalytic theory has paid too attention to preoedipal processes of drive

schema,

to

and comforts, from the reluc-

establish

mother's body which

For the subject self, it

the mother's

between

to enter language, to

by expelling,

lished only

which

is

infant struggles with

heterogeneous

(Kristeva, 1977). signify, to

aspects

The symbolic

is

of language

the capacity to

make one element stand

for

an absent

and outside

is

is

enced as

a loss, a

reluctant,

grated into,

its

inte-

signification: gesture, tone of voice,

estab-

the mother,

itself.

The

drives in relation to

and the separation experia want.

The moment

of

separation can only be "a violent, clumsy breaking

away, with the constant risk of falling back under

The

on the opposition between conscious and uncon-

w ith, but not

own

wound,

power

(Kristeva, 1982, p. 13).

the heterogeneous, bodily, material, nonsensical

fluidity

the Other, to attain a sense of body control, but the

struggle

the sway of a

aspect of speech always present

rejecting,

an expulsion of its

Symbolic capacity depends on certain repressions,

The semiotic, on the other hand,

sense of a border

the expulsion that creates the border between

other, the possibility of representation, sense, logic.

scious association.

a

only then distinguished from the infant

inside

irreducible,

a

Thus the border of separation can be

Other. ^

structured by the law-giving father.

two

become

of maternal jouissance the infant introjects the

structures affect, as opposed to the oedipal episode

as

the

joyful continuity with

and the other. In the primal

itself;

between the symbolic and the semiotic

its

body and acquire

itself

with

continuity

seeks to incorporate.

must separate from

organization in which the figure of the mother

In other writings Kristeva introduces a distinc-

it

corporeal

separate

a

and

tension

in

which the

in

from the mother's

separate

to

body

is

- the move-

on which

bare want, lack, loss and breach

which

tion

is

formed, that makes possible the relation between

actions that express group-based fear or loathing

little

border

the

unrepresentable way. Kristeva claims that abjection

With the concept of the

work,

- the ego - but

of separation

between the "I" and the other, before an "I"

This account

ableism.

offers a

In the idea of the abject Kristeva locates one

of the oppres-

homophobia, ageism, and

comportment

in

excitation.

mode

a

similar status as despised, ugly, or fearful bodies, as

body expressed

spilled-()\er

as secure as

it

is

shifting"

expelled self turns into a loathsome

because

it

menace

threatens to reenter, to obliterate the

border established betw een

The

separation

loss

and yearns

is

it

and the separated

tenuous, the subject feels

for,

it

self.

as a

while rejecting, a reenclosure

the musicality of speech, arrangement of words, the material aspects of affective

The

all

language that are expressive,

without having definable significance.

speaking self always carries along this shadow.

^

Jouissance

sense

for

means enjoyment, used by Lacan

in a sexual

enjoyment that exceeds Freud's "pleasure

principle," hence brings suffering.

'The Scaling of Bodies and the Politics of Identity' In

tlif

Otiici.

hf clcttnsf

1

iiKMiis ot kccpinj; the

ilif

troiii

ol

ihr si'p.uatiil sell,

honki

rinn,

is

.incisioii

Oilier, rt'inilsioM, for tear ol disiiiligia-

tlu'

lioii.

expressed

is

in reactions of disgust to

matter expelled from the body's

body excretions

insides: blood, pus, sweat,

menstrual

tluid,

The process

these.

excrement, urine, vomit,

and the smells associated with each of lite itself consists in the

expulsion outward ot what

my

sustain and protect

is

lite.

1

me,

in

in

order to

react to the expelled

with disgust because the border of myselt must be

The

kept in place. that

fear

for

1

oo/e through, obliterating the

will

it

must not touch me,

abject

border between inside and outside necessary for

my If

which

life,

leilges

matter, is

come

I

touch the abject

to

react again with the reflex of expelling

I

to be in perpetual danger' (Krisiexa, 1982,

if

jhe abject

9).

the subject from what

otf

on the contrary, abjection acknow-

ii

arises poientiallv

Abjection, then, Kristeva says,

is

prior to the

not

iloes

respect borders, positions, rules" (Knste\a, 1982,

Any border ambiguity may become for the a threat to its own borders. Separation

p. 4).

subject

between

border

and Other

sell

break from

fragile,

is

is

the product of a violent

As constructed, the

prior continuity.

a

because the self experiences this

name

separation as a loss and lack without ence. as the

The

or refer-

subject reacts to this abject with loathing

means of restoring the border separating

self

and other. This account of the meaning of the abject enhances,

I

suggest, an understanding of a

thetic that defines

some groups

members of

body aes-

as ugly or fear

and produces aversive reactions

inside me: nausea.

"whatever

in

What

disturbs identity, system, order

arises in the process of expulsion.

by accident or force

what

ihrealens

p.

Abjection

of"

does not radicalK lUl

in

some

relation

to

homo-

those groups. Racism, sexism,

subject in opposition to an object,

phobia, ageism, and ableism, are partly structured

and makes possible that distinction. The movement

by abjection, an involuntary, unconscious judg-

of abjection makes signification possible by creating

ment of

emergence of

a

a

being capable of dividing, repeating, separating.

The

from the

abject, as distinct

object, does not

stand opposed to the subject, at a distance, definable.

The

abject

other than the subject, but

is

is

only just the other side of the border. So the abject is it,

not opposed to and facing the subject, but next to

ugliness and loathing. This account does

not explain how^ some groups become culturally defined as ugly and despised bodies.

The symbolic

some people and groups w ith death and degeneracy must in every case be explained association of

socially

Even

and

if

historically,

abjection

is

and

is

historically variable.

a result of

any subject's con-

makes

struction, nothing in the subject's formation

too close for comfort:

group loathing necessary. The association between

The "unconscious"

contents remain here ex-

groups and abject matter

cluded but in a strange fashion; not radically

once the link

enough

tion describes

to allow for a secure differentiation be-

tween subject and object, and yet clearly enough for a defensive position to

be established - one

is

how

subject's identities

what

lies just

is

socially constructed;

made, however, the theory of abjecthese associations lock into the

and

anxieties.

As they represent

beyond the borders of the

self,

the

that implies a refusal but also a sublimating

subject reacts with fear, nervousness, and aversion

elaboration. (Kristeva, 1982, p. 7)

to

members of these groups because they

a threat to identity itself, a threat to

The

abject provokes fear

and loathing because

it

calls the

stituted

and

fragile,

and threatens

to dissolve the

subject by dissolving the border. Phobia

name of

this fear,

onto a material to which fascination.

is

the

an irrational dread that latches it

is

drawn

in horrified

Unlike fear of an object, to w hich one

"basic security system.""

Xenophobia

exposes the border between self and other as con-

represent

what Giddens

as abjection

is

present throughout

the history of modern consciousness, structured by a

medicalized reason that defines some bodies as

degenerate.

The

role of abjection

however, with the

shift

from

a

may

increase,

discursive con-

sciousness of group superiority to such group su-

reacts with attempts at control, defense,

and coun-

periority lived primarily at the levels of practical

teraction, phobic fear of the abject

paralyzing

consciousness and the basic security system.

is

a

When racism, sexism,

and vertiginous dread of the unnameable. At the

same time the

abject

is

fascinating, bringing out an

ness, the despised groups are objectified. Scientific,

obsessed attraction. Abjection, Kristeva says,

heterosexism, ageism, and

ableism, exist at the level of discursive conscious-

is a

peculiar experience

of ambiguity. 'Because, while releasing a hold,

it

"

British social theorist

Anthony Giddens (1938-

).

cm)

Iris

Marion Young

medical, moral, and legal discourse construct these

own

groups as objects, having their

and

from and over against the

attributes, different

naming

who

subject,

controls, manipulates,

When

dominates them.

specific nature

and

these group-based claims

heterosexuals.

and heterosexuals except

Homophobia

partners.

gay and straight

consciousness, however, these groups no longer face

able;

dominant subject

as clearly identifiable objects

from and opposed

different

to

itself

Women,

homosexuals, the mad, and the feeble-

Blacks,

minded become more

name

to

difficult

the

as

Others, identifiable creatures with degenerate and inferior natures. In

recede to a

The

murky

without representation.

their choice of sexual

one of the deepest

is

is

at all

fears

way

to

constructed as the most perme-

can become gay, especially me, so

my

defend

why the

people

who have

identity

to turn

is

away

Thus we can understand

with irrational disgust.

fairly successfully

symptoms of racism and sexism

eliminated

nevertheless

often exhibit deep homophobia.

Ageism and ableism iety

repression of sexism, racism, heterosexism,

anyone

the only

xenophobic subjectivity they

affect

diffi-

of difference precisely because the border between

of superiority and inferiority recede from discursive

a

thus becomes increasingly

It

any difference between homosexuals

cult to assert

also exhibit the border anx-

of the abject. For in confronting old or disabled

people

confront

I

my own

death. Kristeva believes

ageism, and ableism from discursive consciousness

that the abject

enhances an ambiguity characteristic of the move-

gration of the subject.

ment of abjection. In many societies there exists a broad-based commitment to principles of equal

ness that old and disabled people evoke, the sense of their being ugly, arises

respect and equal treatment for

of these groups with death.

persons, what-

all

is

ever their group identification. At the same time,

shows

the routines of practical consciousness, forms of

was not linked

identification, interactive behavior, rules of defer-

was the

ence, and so on clearly differentiate groups, privil-

persons

eging some over others. There exists

young

between the group-blind

a

dissonance

egalitarian truisms of dis-

cursive consciousness and the group-focused routines of practical consciousness.

This dissonance

connected with death, the disinte-

The

aversion and nervous-

from the cultural connection

Thomas Cole

(1986)

that prior to the nineteenth century old age to death; indeed, just the opposite

time

case. In a

when death might come

to

any age, and often took children and

at

triumph over

adults, old age represented a

death, a sign of virtue.

During

time of patri-

this

archal family domination, old people were highly

Now, when

regarded and venerated.

has become

it

creates the sort of border crisis ripe for the appear-

increasingly likely that people will live to be old, old

ance of the abject.

age has become associated with degeneracy and

Today the Other is not so different from me as

to

be an object; discursive consciousness asserts that

women, homosexuals, and

Blacks,

But

are like me.

at the level

disabled people

of practical conscious-

death.

situation, those in the despised

groups threaten to

child,

as

name them

completely different (cf Frye, 1983b, pp. 114—

15).

The

do not

face-to-face presence of these others,

act as

though they have

their

own

who

"place," a

which they are confined, thus threatens

status to

aspects of my basic security system,

of identity, and

I

my

basic sense

The

is

the paradigm of such border

construction of the idea of race,

its

connection with physical attributes and lineage, still

makes

that she

is

it

possible for a white person to

know

not Black or Asian. But as homosexuality

become

like that

my death, so my gaze from the old person, or treat her as a

and want to leave her presence

possible.

as

soon as

My relation to disabled people has a simiThe

lar structure.

only difference between myself

and the wheelchair-bound person

is

my

good

luck.

Encounter with the disabled person again produces the ambiguity of recognizing that the person I

project as so different, so other,

is

whom

nevertheless

Hke me.

The

story

I

have told

is

view of privileged groups

Homophobia anxiety.

avert

must turn away with disgust and

revulsion.

to

cannot deny that the old

I

border anxiety

person will be myself, but that means I

cause discursive consciousness will not

when most people can expect

structuring homophobia.

as different. In this

cross over the border of the subject's identity be-

a time

a

marked

ness they are affectively

At

be old, old people produce

in

related

who

from the point of

experience abjection

encountering Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews, gays,

lesbians, old people, disabled people,

women. But

what about the subjectivity of members of these groups themselves.^

It

would be

that this account of abjection

a

mistake to think

presumes

that, for

increasingly deobjectified, no specific

example. Blacks construct white people as an

no physical, genetic, mental, or

abjected Other, and so on. For cultural imperialism

moral "character," marks off homosexuals from

consists precisely in the fact that the subject point of

has

characteristics,

,

.

The Scaling \

lew tor an\ sub)cct, \\hatt\ci" his or lur spiiitk

membership,

iiroiip

eged

is

The form

jjroiips.

of cultural

modern West provides ami

the

uiih

identitieil

iluit ot

pri\il-

imixrialism

insists

in

on onl\ one

Bodies and the

of

respect culturalK jectivity

different

groups,

an

Politics of Identity"

impen.ili/eil groups li\e a sub-

from

A way

homophobia, ageism, and ableism,

members of

the subjectivity of

ity,

periali/.ed

groups tends

culturally im-

to stand in the

as that of the privileged groups.

posedly neutral subject position

same position

From

all

that sup-

these despised

as

and

iliNided, of their subjecti\it\ as fragile

reason identified with while bourgeois men.

the unifying logic of modern reason and respectabil-

privileged

themseKes

of

subject position, that of the unified, disemboilied \\ iihin

b\

li\ed

that

experience

split,

plural.

out of culturally defined racism, sexism,

final section

of this chapter,

to

is

suggest in the

I

push

all

subjects to

an understanding of themselves as plural, shifting,

heterogeneous. But

first

responsibility

oppression

raises.

.

for

shall

I

examine the that

issue of

analysis

this

.

and deviant groups are experienced as the abjecied Other.

Members is,

of culturally imperialized groups, that

Justice

and Cultural Revolution

Saying

that

themselves often exhibit symptoms of fear, aver-

own

toward members of their

sion, or devaluation

groups and other oppressed groups. Blacks, for

actions,

example, not infrequently ha\e

ing,

racist reactions to

other Blacks, as the differentiation between 'Might-

Gay

skinned" and "dark-skinned" Blacks exhibits.

men and

lesbians themselves exhibit

old people denigrate the aged, and

times sexist. Insofar as

homophobia,

women are some-

members of

these groups

assume the position of subjects w ithin the dominant culture, that

is,

they experience

members of their more commonly,

own group abjectly. Even members of culturally imperialized groups fear and despise members of other oppressed groups: Latinos are

sometimes

racist

toward Blacks and vice versa,

Even w hen they do not

strictly

assume the dom-

own

point of view

members of

these groups nevertheless internalize

the cultural

know ledge

selves

and so on should be judged unjust means that

who perform

the people

these actions should be

asked to take responsibility, to bring to their discursive awareness the

meaning and implications of

these habitual actions. But

why

consider this an

issue of social justice rather than simply of individual

moral

[In

action.'

Chapter

IJ

I

argued that

injustice should be defined primarily in terms of

oppression and domination. I

argued,

all

is

social

The

scope of justice,

not limited to distribution, but includes

processes that support or undermine

oppression, including culture.

The

behavior,

com-

fear

to the oppression of bodily

marked groups

pervasive, systemic, mutually generating, and tually reinforcing.

They

cultural practices that

lie

are elements of as the

are

mu-

dominant

normal background

assume the

of our liberal democratic society. Only changing the

dominant subjectivity toward them-

cultural habits themselves will change the oppres-

and loathe them, and position of the

dominant groups

that

unconscious

portments, images, and stereotypes that contribute

both are often deeply homophobic, and so on.

inant subject position as their

and

habitual

certain

manners, forms of response, ways of speak-

to that extent

and other members of the groups w ith which

they identify. But

members of culturally

imperial-

ized groups also live a subjectivity different

from

the dominant subject position, one derived from their positive identification

with others in their group. these two subjectivities

and

The

sions they produce and reinforce, but change in cultural habits can occur only if individuals

social

networks

Culture

between

social choice;

- the point of

view^

of the

as ugly

and

is

cultural revolution.

dialectic

dominant culture which defines them

become

aware of and change their individual habits. This

of culture

is

to a significant degree a matter of

we can choose to change the elements and to create new ones. Sometimes such

change can be

facilitated

by passing laws or estab-

fearsome, and the point of view of the oppressed

lishing policies. Nicaragua has a law against the use

who

of women's bodies for advertising commodities.

experience themselves as ordinary, compan-

ionate, to [in

and humorous - represents w hat

Chapter

2] as

I

referred

double consciousness.'" In

this

A

glossy magazine can establish a policy of having

more

articles,

photographs, and advertisements

that depict Blacks in ordinary

W.

E. B.

Du

Bois' term for the "sense of always

looking at one's self through the eyes of others," namely the oppressing group, in addition to one's

own view

one's self See his The Souls of Black folk (1903).

of

life activities.

Most

by

edict.

cultural change cannot occur, however,

One cannot

pass a law regulating the appropriate

distance people ought to stand from one another, or

whether and how thev should touch. Similarlv,

in

Marion Young

Iris

most situations one does not wish formally

to regu-

expression of fantasy, jokes, and so on,

late the

because the dangers to liberty are too great. While

judgment always

meaning and implications of this

sively the

politics

of asserting positive group difference.

The

process of politicizing habits, feelings, and

carries implicit rules,

expressions of fantasy and desire that can foster

and the project of revaluing some people's bodies

cultural revolution entails a kind of social therapy.

aesthetic

involves changing those rules, aesthetic judgment

cannot be formally regulated.

"be just" no

than

less

a call to

under discussion, that requirements of

and

phenomena of

unconsciousness

them.

to politicize

is,

The

then, concern less the

justice,

cultural rules than providing institu-

means

tional

bring these

consciousness

making of

injunction to

such matters amounts to no more and

in

practical

The

cussion, and

for fostering politicized cultural dis-

making forums and media available

alternative cultural experiment

and

for

fears

and aversions that structure uncon-

scious behavior entails a revolution in the subject

Kristeva's notion of the subject in process

itself.

suggests that the subject

neous (Kristeva, 1977; 23). ity,

The monologic

is

always

split,

heteroge-

Smith, 1988, pp. 117-

cf.

culture of respectable rational-

however, encourages the subject to desire

a unified self, solid, coherent, integrated.

psychology

popular this

our

in

image of the authentic, healthy subject

We

Much

promotes

society

in

ally

have come to

The the

as uni-

common

find

aversions toward others have a source in fears of

may be part

of the problem. For people to become comfortable

may be

they perceive as different,

necessary for them to

personal

is

political,"

become more com-

that "the

experienced as a private, personal problem in fact has political dimensions, as exhibiting an aspect of

power

between men and women. The

relations

Black liberation

movement of

the late 1960s simi-

through personal discussion to displace

larly strove

oppressed people's depression and self-deprecation onto social sources. Aspects of social

which we

able.

interact, along

with the multi-

own group memberships and the identities of others with whom we inter-

make

the heterogeneity of the subject inevit-

The

affirm

and

contexts

of our

multiple act,

live

social

question

is

whether

to repress or to

life

that

appear as given and natural come into question as social constructions

The

to define its

and therefore

as

process by which an oppressed

and

articulate the social

oppression, and to politicize cul-

ture by confronting the cultural imperialism that

has denigrated or silenced ence,

is

a necessary

its

specific

and crucial step

group experi-

in

confronting

and reducing oppression.

Another form of consciousness raising involves actions, reactions, images,

plicity

their experi-

originally

The in

1960s to de-

what was

making the privileged aware of how

and contradictory

movements

They found

that

fortable with the heterogeneity within themselves.

varying

a

some

patterns of oppression structuring

these very personal stories.

group comes

it

in the late

w hich w omen share

scribe a process in

conditions of

have suggested, oppressive fears and

whom

think

I

phrase "consciousness raising" was used by

But

around others

psycho-

"consciousness raising."

call

women's movement

of self we find reproachable, a state to be overcome.

identity loss, then such an urge to unity

strictly

would indeed be

undertaken, however, in the processes of pol-

changeable.

I

scale

iticized personal discussion that social

and appear

as

mass

cultural change toward these ends can be realistic-

enjoin ourselves to get ourselves "to-

if,

a

massive undertaking hard to imagine.

gether"; contradiction or plurality in our sense

fied.

such therapy through

methods on

ences of frustration, unhappiness, and anxiety, and

play.

Cultural revolution that confronts and under-

mines the

Engaging analytic

ute to oppression. Again, this

their habitual

and stereotypes contrib-

my own

experience with

group process of politicizing culture derives

from the women's movement. By the

late 1970s,

the soul-searching generated by angry accusations that the

women's movement was

racist

had engen-

dered forms of discussion concretely addressing

it.

Cultural revolution that challenges the association of

some groups with

volves

the

definitions.

politicization

abject bodies also in-

of

these

group

Despised and oppressed groups chal-

lenge cultural imperialism

dominant norms of

when they question

virtue, beauty,

putting forward their

own

and

6]

I

and

oppression

among women. Women's groups

pro-

vided the structure for intensive, often emotion-

the

laden discussions designed to bring to the discursive consciousness of the participants the feelings,

positive definition of

will discuss

differences

rationality,

themselves as a group and thereby pluralizing

norms. [In Chapter

women's experiences of group

seeking to change relations of group privilege and

more exten-

reactions,

had about

ways

stereotypes,

women

and

assumptions

they

of other groups, as well as the

their behavior

toward these

women might

"The Scaling pariuip.Uc aiul

.uul n.|ii()(.liuf rrl.iiiinis

III

oppression between

cesses can he lieiierali/eil lo an\

selling

s«)eial

lii-

consciousness-raising policies can

stitutionali/eti

forms, of which

take nian\

pn\ikuc-

i»l

Siuh group pro-

tluiii.

two

gi\e just

will

I

Bodies and the

Thus (.onlioiiimg fronting

ha\e

lo

and the ilependence

identit),

on the construction

identilN

nnoKes con-

h()ni()|)h()bia

lUsne

\er\

ilic

Politics of Identity"

a unified,

orderly

such

unified

of

of a

a

bonier that ex-

cludes aspects of subjectivity one refuses to face.

If

through consciousness raising one accepts the pos-

examples.

some enlightened corporations,

In recent \ears

m{)ti\atecl in part also h\ a desire to sta\e off flict

of

con-

sibilitN that

one might become different, be differ-

ent, in sexual orientation,

I

suggest, this loosens the

and lawsuits, have instituted consciousness-

exclusion of others defined as different from one's

male managers and other

self-conception in other ways. Kfforts to undermine

raising

workshops

for

male employees on issues of sexual harrassmcnt.

the oppressions of racism, sexism, heterosexism,

concept of sexual harrassmcnt resulted

ageism, and ableism mutually reinforce one another

I'he very

women

from feminist consciousness raising among no longer willing

and indi-

to accept as inevitable

vidual behavior they found annoying, humiliating,

men

or coercive. Bringing

behavior that

women

to

be able to identify

collectively judge annoying,

not only because these groups have interests

reproduce the oppression of them

more

some common

and certain persons or institutions tend

direct connections

among

all.

There

to

are

these oppressions

of identity and self-protection. Just

in the structure

humiliating, or coercive, however, and explaining

as nineteenth-century stereotyping of these

why women

tended to assimilate them to one another, especial 1\

find

has been no easy task.

so,

it

members of

different

through the mediation of sexual images, so contem-

perpetuated in part by the process

porary discourse can help sub\ ert one group-based

Differential privilege of racial

groups

is

of schooling. as a typical

many

if

If

my

account of unconscious aversion

dynamic of racism

is at

all

accurate,

not most teachers unconsciously behave

differently toward

Blacks or Latinos than they

A

behave toward w hites.

school system committed

fear

by breaking down another.

A

thing about

how

processes of unconscious differential treatment,

Such

their

which teachers

in

own

reflect

behavior and attitudes

toward students of different races.

may be

activity

People

and

some-

dynamics and cultural

will

enough

to

want

change them.

to

cannot take place in the abstract.

be motivated to reflect on themselves

their relations with others only in concrete

social

Consciousness raising about homophobia

interactive

imagery perpetuate oppression, and are committed to social justice

and conduct workshops

presumes

strategy of consciousness raising

that those participating already understand

to racial justice can distribute literature describing

on and discuss

groups

circumstances of cooperation where they rec-

ognize problems - the political group in w hich gays

company

the most important and productive strategy for

and lesbians voice

such a revolution of the subject. As

never seems to promote w omen and therefore loses

I

have

said,

homophobia may be one of the strongest experiences of abjection because sexual identity

ambiguous than other group

identities.

is

more

The border

betw een attraction to persons of the other sex and attraction to those of the

same time, homophobia

is

same sex

is

fluid.

At the

deeply w rapped up w ith

issues of gender identity, for in this society

gender

them,

dissatisfaction, the

school

the

or

neighborhood with

There

is

a step in politicizing culture prior to

the therapeutic, namely, the affirmation of a positive identity

by those experiencing cultural imperi-

Assumptions of the universality of the

alism.

perspective and experience of the privileged are

when

the oppressed themselves expose

dislodged

are considered mutually exclusive opposites that

those

complement and complete one another. Order

difference of their experience.

thus depends on the unambiguous settling of the

own

men must

be

men and women must

women. Homosexuality produces then, because

it

seems

identity, identity.

a special anxiety,

to unsettle this

Because gender identity

is

homophobia seems

be

a core

by

assumptions

expressing

cultural images they shake

about

types

self-identity

gender order.

tural

of everyone's

imperialism

to go to the core of

racial

conflict.

identity continues to be heterosexist: the genders

genders:

that

them.

positive

creating their

up received

Having formed

a

stereo-

positive

through organization and public cul-

expression,

culture

the

By

can

those

then

oppressed confront

by

the

cultural

dominant

with demands for recognition of their

specificity

Iris

Marion Young

Author's References Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Rejlec-

.

\9%\.A Contemporary

tiuns

on the Origin and Spread ofXationalism. London:

alism. Berkeley

New

Left Books.

nia Press.

Brittan, Arthur

and .Mary .\laynard. 1984. Sexism, Racism

and Oppression. Oxford: Blackwell.

Thomas

Cole,

N. Stearns,

R. 1986. 'Tutting Off the Old: Middle

eds..

Old Age

in a

Van Tassel and Peter

Bureaucratic Society.

nist ics

New

Los

A

Psychohistory. 2d ed.

York: Columbia University Press.

Kristeva, Julia. 1977.

"Le

Sujet en Proces." In Polylogue.

New

York: Columbia University Press.

.

White Masks.

du

Seuil.

1982. Powers of Horror:

An

Essay

in Abjection.

New

Marcuse, Herbert. 1964. One-Dimensional Man. Boston:

"On Being V\ hite; Toward a Femi-

Understanding of Race Supremacy." In

77!^ Polit-

of Reality. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing.

Giddens, Anthony.

Kovel, Joel. 1970. White Racism:

Paris: Editions

York: Grove. Frye, Marilyn. 1983b.

1984. The Constitution of Society. Berkeley and

New

York: Greenwood.

Fanon, Frantz. 1967. Black Skin,

of Historical Materi-

.\ngeles: University of California Press.

Class Morality, Antebellum Protestantism, and the

Origins of .Ageism." In David

.

Critique

and Los Angeles: University of Califor-

1976.

Central Problems

Beacon.

Mosse, George. 1985. Nationalism and Sexuality.

New

York: Fertig.

of Social

Theory. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Smith, Paul. 1988. Discerning

the Subject. xMinneapolis:

Universitv of Minnesota Press.

Henry A. Giroux American educational theorist, Henry Giroux (1943proposes a "border pedagogy" that rejects many of the traditional aims of education.

and

Education for Giroux

become more intransigent.

will be straining

is

a political pro-

intrinsically

cess aimed at producing a democratic egalitarian

of low growth and

level

the expense

by their

culture. In the piece that follows Giroux

izes

what are

in

The struggle

of

the disadvantaged

official

sources

summar-

to

and

is

effect the basic principles of a

E. P.

find a not at

poor,

share more equitably the world's re-

to

and

to insure their

renewal - all

Thompson, The Nation, Jimunry

this

long as people are people, democracy In the full

sense ideal.

in

of the word

mill

always be no more than an

One may approach

it

as one

would a horizon,

ways that may be better or worse, but

be fully attained. In this sense,

you

too,

it

peculiar coupling of

human

mass depoliticizing.

Consequently,

29, 1990

can never

an inevitable involvement A. Michnik,

New

to

battling

this

morality and

in politics.

York Times Magazine., xMarch

You have thousands of

approaching democracy.

is its

demoralization and

system requires a conscious appeal

are merely

is

"

A striking character of the totalitarian system As

to

prevent ecological

agenda enough for continuation of "history.

multicultural educational practise.

will

bring

to

control, to

satisfaction that

defend the environment and disasters,

deemed "other"

will certainly sharpen,

and national fundamentalisms

religious

consumer greed within moderate

The primary contemporary obstacle to this end is the marginalization of social groups by racism and sexism. In response, border pedagogy aims to bring students to an experiential undersociety.

standing of those

resources to the very limits.

its

North-South antagonisms

)

11,

1990

problems of all kinds, as other countries do. But

you have one great advantage: You have been approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more

All these quotes stress, implicitly or explicitly, the

importance of

than 200 years.

Vaclav Havel, cited in The

New

the

York

March

first

politics

and ethics

Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, addressing a joint

1990

on earth can these prestigious persons

Washington ramble on

way about

the ''end

of history''? As I look forward

into the twenty-first century

my

their children will live. It

is

in

population as the

of

rise

the globe

's

in

that

democracy

bilities

is

an ideal that

American people

is filled

with possi-

but always has to be seen as part of an

ongoing struggle

for

freedom and human dignity.

I sometimes agonize

about the times in which

expectations

in

their sub-intellectual

in

democracy. In

Times.,

18,

session of Congress reminds the

How

to

quote, the newly elected president of

grandchildren and

not so

much

Henry A. Giroux, "Towards a Postmodern Pedagogy,"

the rise

section of the Introduction to Postmodernism, Fem-

universal material

inism and Cultural Politics, pp. 45-55. Albany: State

huge population that

University of

New

York Press, 1991.

Henry

A. Giroux

As

playwright and

a

former

prisoner,

political

embodiment of such a struggle. In the second quote, E. P. Thompson, the English peace activist and historian, reminds the American

Havel

is

a living

public that history has not ended but needs to be

opened up and

in

many problems

order to engage the

human

possibilities that

beings will have to face

the twenty-first century. In the third quote,

in

Adam

Michnik,

founder of Poland's Workers'

a

Defense Committee and an elected member of the Polish parliament, provides an

one of the

ominous

insight into

of totalitarianism,

features

central

whether on the Right or the Left.

He

taneously reproducing in people a sense of massive

None

the United States and

of these writers are from

all

.some guiding principles in order to rethink the

purpose and meaning of education and

critical

pedagogy within the present

outline

crises.-*

Since

I

the particulars of a postmodern critical pedagogy in

the

chapter of this book,

last

I

want

with some suggestive principles for a

to

conclude

peda-

critical

gogy that emerge out of my discussion of the most important aspects of modernism, postmodernism,

and postmodern feminism.

points to a

society that fears democratic politics while simul-

collective despair.

demand less rather than more of democracy. In some quarters, democracy has actually become subversive. What does this suggest for developing

of them are caught up in

the struggle to recapture the Enlightenment

model

Education must be understood as producing

1.

not only knowledge but also political subjects.

Rather than rejecting the language of

must

pedagogy

ical

politics, crit-

education

public

link

to

the imperatives of a critical democracy (Dewey,

of freedom, agency, and democracy while simul-

1916; Giroux, 1988). Critical pedagogy needs to

w ith the conditions of

be informed by a public philosophy dedicated to

taneously attempting to deal

postmodern world.

a

returning schools to their primary task: places of

All of these statements serve to highlight the inability of the

American public

to grasp the full

significance of the democraticization of Eastern

Europe of our

in

terms of what

own democracy.

where there political

and the

cratic public life is

strong

is a

it

reveals about the nature

Europe and

In Eastern call for

the primacy of the

ethical as a foundation for

w hereas

in the

else-

demo-

United States there

an ongoing refusal of the discourse of politics and

critical

education in the service of creating a public

sphere of citizens over their

who

lives

is a critical

power

are able to exercise

and especially over the condi-

knowledge production and

tions of

This

own

pedagogy defined,

acquisition.

by the

in part,

attempt to create the lived experience of empow er-

ment

for the vast majority. In other words, the

language of

critical

pedagogy needs

to construct

schools as democratic public spheres. In part, this

established parties in the Congress complain that

means educators need to develop a critical pedagogy in which the knowledge, habits, and skills of

American

critical

ethics. Elected politicians

tion,

politics

is

from both

sides of the

about "trivialization, atomiza-

and paralysis." Politicians

Lee

as diverse as

rather than simply good citizenship are

taught and practiced. This means providing stu-

Atwater, the Republican Party chairman, and Walter

dents with the opportunity to develop the

Mondale, former Vice President, agree that we have

capacity to challenge and transform existing social

much

entered into a time in which

of the American

public believes that ''Bull permeates everything .

.

.

[and that] we've got a kind of politics of irrele-

vance" (Oreskes,

77?^

1990, 16). At the

New

York Times, March

same time,

a

number of

18,

polls

indicate that while the youth of Poland, Czechoslovakia,

and East Germany are extending the

frontiers

and

than simply adapt to

political forms, rather

them.

It

skills

they

also

find their

means providing students with the

w ill need

own

to locate themselves in history,

voices,

and provide the convictions

and compassion necessary

for

democratic public forms. In

gogy needs

alive in the twenty-first century. a

model of democracy, the

United States has become indifferent to struggle for the conditions that

to the

need

make democracy

civic

customs, and social relations that are essential to

cerned and largely ill-prepared to struggle for and

Rather than being

exercising

courage, taking risks, and furthering the habits,

of democracy, American youth are both uncon-

keep democracy

critical

to be

grounded

importance of constructing

which

to

effect, critical

in a

peda-

keen sense of the

a political vision

from

develop an educational project as part of a

wider discourse for revitalizing democratic public life.

A

critical

pedagogy

for

democracy cannot be

x^t all

reduced, as some educators, politicians, and groups

the breadth and

have argued, to forcing students to say the Pledge of

depth of democratic relations are being rolled

Allegiance at the beginning of every school day or

a substantive rather

levels of national

back. W'e have

than

lifeless

and daily

become

life,

activity,

a society that

appears to

to speak

and think only

in the

language of dominant

'Towards a Postmodern Pedagogy" Ijitilish (1 lirscli

ilcniocracN

(.Iocs

the ijucstions:

1*^S7).

|r,

ciilual

\

W

W hat

kiiul

1

lor

with

hope

to

postmotlcni

in a

of society do we want to create

in the context ot the present shiltinii

ethnic bonlers?

Init

hat kiiuls ot citi/ciis ilo nnc

produce through pubhc cchication cuUurcr

|Hi.la;4()u;\

not hcijin with list scorts

low can

we

cuhural and

reconcile

tlie

notions

of difference and equahtx with the inipeiati\es

ol

Kthics must be seen as

2.

tempt

concern

a central

of

pedagogy. This suggests that educators at-

understand more

to

hisloiuitN and

categorx

complex sub)ecl positions

student

of

should

experience

1

he be

not

limited pedagogically to students exercising self-

opened up

reflection but

as a

race, gender,

class specific construct to incluile the diverse in

which

and

their experiences

identities have

and

wa>s been

constituted in different historical and social formations.

Second,

critical

pedagogy can focus on how

differences between groups develop and are sus-

ireedoni and justice?

critical

own

how

fully

different dis-

tained around both enabling and disabling sets of relations.

marker

this instance, difference

In

for

understanding how

social

becomes

a

groups are

courses offer students diverse ethical referents for

constituted in ways that are integral to the func-

structuring their relationship to the wider society.

tioning of an\

But

also suggests that educators

it

go beyond the

this context

democratic societ\. Difference

does not focus only on charting

postmodern notion of understanding how student

racial, ethnic, or cultural differences

experiences are shaped w ithin different ethical dis-

lyzes

courses. Educators

and

must

come

also

politics as a relationship

to view ethics

is

not a matter of

individual choice or relativism but a social discourse

grounded

human

in struggles that refuse to

accept needless

suffering and exploitation. Thus, ethics

is

taken up as a struggle against inequality and as a discourse for expanding basic

human

rights.

This

differences

that

but also ana-

manifest them-

selves in public struggles.

As

betw een the self and

the other. Ethics, in this case,

historical

in

spatial,

part of a language of critique, teachers can

make problematic how

different subjectivities are

positioned within a historically specific range of ideologies and social practices that inscribe stu-

dents in modes of behavior that subjugate, infantilize,

and corrupt. Similarly, such

analyze

how

a

language can

differences within and between social

points to a notion of ethics attentive to both the issue

groups are constructed and sustained both within

of abstract rights and those contexts which produce

and outside the schools

particular stories, struggles, and histories. In peda-

subordination, hierarchy, and exploitation. As part

gogical terms, an ethical discourse needs to be taken

of a language of possibility, teachers can explore the

up w ith regards positions,

relativism.

is

justice

which multiple narratives and

tices are

constructed around a politics and pedagogy

activates

an ethical discourse grounded

It is

discourse,

and attentive

in

in

of difference that offers students the opportunity to read the world differently, resist the abuse of power

The is

quality of

not

simply-

but in the issue of how-

out of concrete historical circum-

As Sharon Welch

indicates' critical

pedagogy

needs to focus on the issue of difference ethically challenging

way. There are

work

and construct alternative democratic

privilege,

communities. Difference as

in this case

and

in

an

politically transformative

cannot be seen

simply a politics of assertion, of simply affirming

common

one's voice or sense of the

in

good,

it

must be

w hich differences can

be affirmed and transformed

in their articulation

with categories central to public

life:

democracy,

citizenship, public spheres. In both political

and

at

pedagogical terms, the category of difference must

here. First, difference can be incorporated

be central to the nofion of democratic community.

into a critical

understand ities

and

developed within practices

stances (Shapiro, 1990). 3.

social prac-

to the construction

case,

this

in difference

arises

opportunity to construct know ledge/ power relations in

it

of social relations free of injustice.

grounded

subject

neither an ethics of essentialism nor

social practices

historical struggles

ethical

pow er,

webs of domination,

(Simon,

and

This

1992).

to the relations of

in

at least

two notions of difference

pedagogy

how

as part of an attempt to

student identities and subjectiv-

are constructed in multiple

ways. In this case, identity

is

and contradictory

explored through

its

4.

for

Critical

pedagogy needs

competing

that

do not reduce the

struggle,

and

solidarities

and inequality

a

language that allow s

political vocabularies

issues of power, justice, to a single script, a

master

narrative that suppresses the contingent, historical,

Sharon Welch, "An Ethic of Solidarity and Difference," in Cultural

Henry A. Giroux, Postmodernism, Feminism and Politics:

Redrawing

Educational

Boundaries

(Albany: State University of iNew York, 1991), pp. 83-99.

and the everyday

as a serious object

of study (Cher-

ryholmes, 1988). This suggests that curriculum

knowledge not be treated

as a sacred text but de-

veloped as part of an ongoing engagement w ith

a

Henry

A. Giroux

variety of narratives

read

and

and traditions that can be re-

re-formulated

terms. At issue here

a

different

politically

constructing a discourse of

is

democratic and more

just.

This

is

a struggle that

deepens the pedagogical meaning of the

and the

political

meaning of the pedagogical.

political

In the

power-sensitive and de-

first

instance,

wider analysis of the struggle

how

students and others are constructed as agents

textual authority that

veloped as part of

in

is

over culture fought out

at

the levels of curricula

knowledge, pedagogy, and the exercise of institu-

power (Aronowitz and Giroux,

This

it

important questions about

raises

within particular histories, cultures, and social rela-

Against the monolith of culture,

tions.

it

posits the

is

conflicting terrain of cultures shaped within asym-

not merely an argument against a canon, but one that

metrical relations of power, grounded in diverse

disavows the very category. Knowledge has to be

historical struggles.

tional

constantly re-examined in terms of

body of information

rejected as a

down

be passed

to students.

1991).

its

and

limits

that only has to

As Ernesto Laclau

inequality.

such as

given by what can be judged as a valued tradition

ow n?

What Laclau

act.

is

is

(a

an important political

suggesting

is

the possibility for

students to creatively appropriate the past as part of a living dialogue,

an affirmation of the multiplicity

As

a pedagogical issue, the relationship

between culture and power

(1988) has pointed out, setting limits to the answers

matter of argument also)

Similarly, culture has to be

understood as part of the discourse of power and

"Whose

is

evident in questions

cultures are appropriated as our

How is marginality normalized.^" (Popkewitz.

1988, 77).

To

primacy of culture

insert the

pedagogical and political issue

how

to

is

make

as

a

central

schools function in the shaping of particulai

identities, values,

and

by producing and

histories

of narratives, and the need to judge them not as

legitimating specific cultural narratives and re-

timeless or as monolithic discourses, but as social

sources. In the second instance, asserting the peda-

and

gogical aspects of the political raises the issue of how

historical inventions that can

interests

public

be refigured in the

of creating more democratic forms of

This points

life.

to the possibility for creating

pedagogical practices characterized by the open ex-

change of

of dialogue, and

difference and culture can be taken gogical practices ies.

and not merely

category

the material conditions for the expression of indi-

w orkers have

to

vidual and social freedom.

it

5

.

Critical

pedagogy needs to create new forms of

know ledge through

its

emphasis on breaking dow n

disciplinary boundaries

and creating new spaces

where knowledge can be produced. In critical

pedagogy must be reclaimed

politics

and

a

and

politics

as a cultural

form of counter-memory. This

merely an epistemological ethics,

this sense,

issue,

is

can become

does

mean

it

educators

if

and

as

a

cultural

make know ledge meaningful before

critical

to

and

transformative.''

Or what

engage the tension between beins

correct

theoretically

These

are concerns

and

pedagogically

wrong:

and tensions that make the

rela-

tionship between the political and the pedagogical

both mutually informing and problematic.

not

but one of pow er,

as peda-

For example, how does difference matter

pedagogical

ideas, the proliferation

up

as political categor-

6.

The Enlightenment

be reformulated within

notion of reason needs

a critical

pedagogy.

tc

First,

as a cultural

educators need to be skeptical regarding any notior

points to the necessity of inserting the

of reason that purports to reveal the truth by denying

politics. Critical

pedagogy

struggle over the production and creation of know-

its

ledge as part of a broader attempt to create a public

ciples.

sphere of citizens

who

are able to exercise

pow er

ow n

historical construction

Reason

is

and ideological prin-

not innocent and any viable notior

of critical pedagogy cannot exercise forms of author-

over their lives and the social and political forms

ity

through which society

appear to be beyond criticism and dialogue. This

counter-memory,

is

critical

governed. As a form of

pedagogy

everyday and the particular as it

with

starts

a basis for learning,

reclaims the historical and the popular as part of an

ongoing

effort to legitimate the voices

of those

who

that emulate totalizing forms of reason thai

suggests that

we

reject claims to objectivity in favoi

of partial epistemologies that recognize the historical

and

socially constructed nature

of their

own know-

ledge claims and methodologies. In this way, cur-

have been silenced, and to inform the voices of those

riculum can be viewed as

who have been

introduces students to particular forms of reason

located within narratives that are

monolithic and totalizing. At stake here

gogy that provides the know ledge, for students

enable

them

skills,

and others to read history

is a

peda-

and habits

in

w ays

that

to reclaim their identities in the inter-

ests of constructing

forms of

life

that are

more

which structure Reason

a cultural

specific stories

in this sense implicates

the intersection of power,

Second,

it is

script thai

and ways of

and

is

life,

implicated

know ledge, and

ir

politics,

not enough to reject an essentialist oi

universalist defense of reason. Instead, the limits ol

"Towards a Postmodern Pedagogy' reason in

he cMcrukcl to

iiuist

which people

rccogni/iiij!;

up

or take

Ic.irn

positions. In this case, educators

more

how people

tully

ollur ua\s

particular subject

need

to understanil

learn throuijh concrete social

relations. throu;j;h the \\a\s in

which the bod\

is

positioned (Ciruniet, 1*>SS), through the construction of habit

and

and through the proiluc-

intuition,

and investment of desire and

tion

pedagogy needs

Critical

7.

combining

alternatives by

and

both

its

to construct tions. It

.

to regain a sense ot

language of critique

and

critique of patriarchy

new forms of

identity

and

its

around

search

social rela-

number of considerations.

a

First,

educators need to construct a language of critique

combines the issue of limits with the discourse

that

of freedom

and

In

miiul, this

iiin

represents less a serious critique than a refusal lo ni()\e

beyond the language

pair.

Kssential to de\ eloping a response to this

position

is

a

exhaustion and des-

of

discriminating notion of possibihtN,

one which makes

between

a distinction

a

discourse

characterized as either "dystopian" or Utopian

In

grounded

in a

the former, the a|)peal to the future

.

worth noting that teachers can take up

is

this issue

.

Postmodern feminism exemplifies

possibility.

this in

a

affect.

ami iheielore useless calegors

is

form of nostalgic romanticism, with

more

return to a past, which

Similarly,

in

for a

domination and oppres-

to legitimate relations of sion.

its call

often than not ser\es

(Constance Penley's terms

"dystopian" discourse often "limits

a

itself to solu-

bound

tions that are either individualist or

to a

romanticized notion of guerilla-like small-group resistance.

ation

The

this:

is

true atrophy of the Utopian imagin-

we can imagine

the future but

we

other

cannot conceive the kind of collective political strat-

words, the question of freedom needs to be engaged

egies necessary to change or ensure that future"

one of individual rights but

(Penley, 1989, 122). In contrast to the language of

also as part of the discourse of social responsibility.

dystopia, a Utopian discourse rejects apocalyptic

That

emptiness and nostalgic imperiali.sm and sees his-

social

dialectically not only as

responsibility.

In

whereas freedom remains an essential

is,

category in establishing the conditions for ethical

and

political rights,

be checked

if it is

it

must

also be seen as a force to

expressed in modes of individual

and collective behavior that threaten the ecosystem produce forms of violence and oppression

or

against individuals

and

pedagogy needs

ical

social groups.

to explore in

terms a language of possibility that

Second,

crit-

programmatic is

capable of

thinking risky thoughts, that engages a project of

hope, and points to the horizon of the "not yet."

A

language of possibility does not have to dissolve into a reified

form of utopianism; instead,

it

can

be developed as a precondition for nourishing convictions that

different

summon up

and more

just

the courage to imagine a

world and to struggle for

it.

tory as

is

to

central to responding not only

human

w ith

beings

a politics

who

and

suffer

a set

It

w ith compassion

and agonize but

also

of pedagogical practices

.society

of the "not yet", one

worth struggling

in

is

new relationships fashioned out of

is

is

in the effort to construct

collective resistance based

of both what society

for in the

the language

which the imagination

redeemed and nourished

on

strategies of

a critical recognition

and w hat

it

might become.

Paraphrasing Walter Benjamin, this

is

a discourse

of imagination and hope that pushes history against the grain."

Nancy Fraser

(1989) illuminates this

sentiment by emphasizing the importance of a lan-

guage of possibility for the project of social change: "It allows for the possibility of a radical democratic

pohtics in which

immanent

critique

and transfig-

urative desire mingle with one another" (107).

A language of moral and political possibility is more than an outmoded vestige of humanist discourse.

open and

image of an alternative future. This

8.

Critical

pedagogy needs

to develop a theory of

teachers as transformative intellectuals w ho occupy specifiable

political

and

social

locations.

Rather

than defining teacher work through the narrow-

language of professionalism, a

critical

pedagogy

and change existing narratives of

needs to ascertain more carefully what the role of

domination into images and concrete instances of a

teachers might be as cultural w orkers engaged in the

future which

production of ideologies and social practices. This

that can refigure

There

is a

is

worth fighting

for.

certain cynicism that characterizes the

language of the Left

at

the present

moment. Central

to this position is the refusal of all Utopian images, all

appeals to "a language of possibility." Such

refusals are often

made on

pian discourse"

a strategy

and therefore

is

is

the grounds that "Uto-

is

not a

call for

teachers to

become wedded

to

some

removes them from everyday

life,

them to become prophets of perfection and certainty; on the contrary, it is a call

or one that intends for

for teachers to

undertake social criticism not as

employed by the Right

ideologically tainted. Or, the very

notion of possibility

is

abstract ideal that

dismissed as an impractical

"

Walter Benjamin (1892 1940), Frankfurt School aes-

thetician.

Henry

A. Giroux

who address

outsiders but as public intellectuals

most

social

and

political issues

the

of their neighbour-

hood, nation, and the wider global world. As public

and transformative

intellectuals, teachers

have an

opportunity to make organic connections with the

them and

historical traditions that provide

with

students belonging.

and

history,

voice,

a

It is a

position

marked by

a

their

sense

of

moral cour-

age and criticism that does not require educators to step back from society in the

manner of the "object-

regarding

need

employed

to be

in dialogical contexts that affirm, interrogate,

human

from within,

to

up

develop pedagogical prac-

not only heighten the possibilities for

tices that critical

beings. Teachers need to take

consciousness but also for transformative

Such

live.

but also asserts the importance of offering

identities,

moral and

their

more

creating a

political energies in the service

just

undermines Second,

and

gogical

and equitable

social order,

relations of hierarchy

a politics

political

strategies

that

voice

is

stories that students

affirm

the

collective.

not meant to simply affirm the tell, it is

not meant to simply

glorify the possibility for narration.

would be involved

often degenerates into a

invention of critical dis-

and domin-

primacy of the social, intersubjective, and

To focus on

of

one

of voice must offer peda-

action (Walzer, 1987). In this perspective, teachers in the

a position

students a language that allow s them to reconstruct

that

ish other

and

recognizes that students have several or multiple

ation.

criticism

which they

global contexts in

power

and dimin-

that allow students to speak

extend their understandings of themselves and the

ive" teacher, but to distance themselves from those relations that subjugate, oppress,

what pedagogical practices

questions

Such

a position

form of narcissism,

a

reduced to naming

courses and democratic social relations. Critical

carthartic experience that

pedagogy would represent

anger w ithout the benefit of theorizing in order to

itself as

the active con-

rather than transmission of particular

struction

ways of

life.

More

specifically, as transformative

intellectuals, teachers

can engage in the invention

both understand

means

to

w ork

its

is

underlying causes and what

it

collectively to transform the struc-

of domination responsible for oppressive

tures

of languages so as to provide spaces for themselves

social relations. Raising one's consciousness has in-

and

creasingly

their students to rethink their experiences in

terms that both name relations of oppression and offer

ways

in

w hich

to

overcome them.

serving appeals

Central to the notion of critical pedagogy

9.

politics

become

is

a

of voice that combines a postmodern notion

a pretext for legitimating

hege-

monic forms of separatism buttressed by

What

is

to

self-

primacy of experience.

the

often expressed in such appeals

intellectualism that retreats

an anti-

is

from any viable form of

of difference with a feminist emphasis on the pri-

political

macy of

dress and transform diverse forms of oppression.

the political. This suggests taking

up the

relationship between the personal and the political in a

way

that does not collapse the political into the

The

engagement, especially one willing

call to

to ad-

simply affirm one's voice has increas-

ingly been reduced to a pedagogical process that

A more

is

as

personal but strengthens the relationship between

reactionary as

the two so as to engage rather than withdraw^ from

notion of voice should begin w ith w hat bell hooks

addressing those institutional forms and structures that contribute to racism, sexism,

class exploit-

This suggests some important pedagogical

ation.

interventions. First the self

mary

and

site

must be seen

of pohticization. That

is,

as a pri-

the issue of how

it is

inward looking.

radical

(1989) calls a critical attention to theorizing experi-

ence as part of a broader politics of engagement. In referring specifically

feminist pedagogy,

to

argues that the discourse of confession and

she

memory

can be used to "shift the focus away from mere

the self is constructed in multiple and complex ways

naming of one's experience.

must be analyzed both

tity in relation to culture, history, politics" (110).

as part of a

language of

affirmation and a broader understanding of identities social,

are inscribed in

cultural,

and

how

and between various

historical

formations.

To

engage issues regarding the construction of the self is

to address questions of history, culture,

nity, language, gender, race,

and

commu-

class. It is to raise

For hooks, the

... to talk

about iden-

telling of tales of victimization, or the

expression of one's voice

is

not enough;

it is

equally

imperative that such experiences be the object of theoretical

and

critical analyses so that

they can be

connected rather than severed from broader notions of solidarity, struggle, and

politics.

"Towards a Postmodern Pedagogy"

Author's Rctcrciiccs Ari)in)\\it/., S.

ami

itilion: Politiis,

II.

Minnesota

l'ni\crsi!\ of

olis:

holmes, C.

C".herr\

A. Ciiroux (IWl). Postmodern

Culture and Soi

III!

Cntiiisiti.

I'.ilu

Minneap-

New \m\.

tural Investiiiations in i'.duiatton.

TeaelHrs

College Press.

Dewey,

J.

(U)H)).

Demoiraiy and Education.

New

^ Ork:

Macmillan.

N.

I'raser, sity

nruly Practues. .Minneapolis: Univer-

II.

(1988). Schoolinti

.M.

(1^88).

Bitter

.Massachusetts:

ing.

the

Stru}i;/e

for Public

Milk:

way

as its vision

vol.

CXXXIX,

1990). America's politics loses

changes world. The

.\'ew

No. 48, 178 (Sunday),

I,

Yorh Times,

\h.

(1989). The Tuture of an Illusion: Tilm, Temt-

nism and Psychoanalysis. .Minneapolis: University of

University

of

Popkewitz, T. (1988). Gulture, pedagog\, and power:

Massachusetts

and colonialization

Journal of Education, 170(2), 77 90. Shapiro, S. (1990). Between Capitalism and Democracy.

Westport: Bergin and Garvey Press.

hooks, bell (1989).

Talhing Back.

Boston: South

End

Simon, R. (1992). Teaching against

the Grain: I'exts for a

Pedagogy of Possibility. Westport: Bergin and Garvey.

Press. Jr, E.

Minnesota

of

.Magazine.

issues in the production of values

Honien and Teach-

Press.

Hirsch

ni\ersit\

(.March II, 1990), \ntes on the Revolution.

New York Times Oreskes, M. (March 18,

('..

I

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and

University of Minnesota Press.

Life. .Minneapolis:

Grumet,

.Minnea|)olis:

82.

f).^

The

Penley,

(1^)8^)). L

of Minnesota Press.

Giroux,

Press,

Michnilv, \

Press.

Power and (jituism: Postslrm

(1*)SS).

modernism.

D. (1987). Cultural Literacy: What Every

American Seeds

to

Know. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin.

Laclau, E. (1988). Politics and the limits of modernity. In

A. Ross (ed.). Universal Abandon? The Politics of Post-

Thompson, E. P. (January 29, 1990). History turns on a new hinge. The Nation, 17 22. Walzer, M. (1987). Interpretation and Criticism. Cam1

bridge: Harvard University Press.

i

39 "Contingent Foundations: Feminisnn and tlie Question " of 'Postmodernisnn'

1

Judith Butler (1956-

Judith Butler

)

is

an American philoso-

pher and feminist especially concerned with the political

meaning

of sexual identity, both

as gen-

der and as sexual orientation. Her book Gender Trouble (1994) helped to establish the field of

"queer studies," which takes

all

forms

identity, including heterosexuality, to

of sexual

be social

She famously analyzes gender as

constructions.

practical and aesthetic performance. Butler adapts postmodernism to her constructivist, semiotic analysis of identity in an attempt to undermine the dominant intellectual and political

themes

modern thought. Nevertheless, she postmodernism where it threatens to

of

criticizes

undermine change.

critique

and the legitimation

of social

thefollowingessay, her critical analysis

In

I

know

the term from the

my

usually appears on

way

it is

used, and

following critical formulations: "if discourse there

is

.

," or "if

. .

the subject

is

The

exist ..."

dead

everything ," .

it

horizon embedded in the

. .

is

a text

.

is all

," or "if

. .

of "if real bodies do not

sentence begins as a warning against

an impending nihilism, for

if

the conjured content

of these series of conditional clauses proves to be

and there

true, then,

is

always a then, some set of

dangerous consequences

will

'postmodernism' appears

to

form of

a

fearful

surely

So

follow.

be articulated in the

conditional

or

sometimes

in

the form of paternalistic disdain toward that which is

youthful and irrational. Against this postmodern-

ism, there

is

an effort to shore up the primary

of

premises, to establish in advance that any theory

the

of politics requires a subject, needs from the start to

contemporary American society, in particular 1991 Gulf War against Iraq and its cultural concomitants, exhibits her attempt to deploy a politicized postmodernism.

presume vides.

The

question of postmodernism

tion, for

is

there, after

modernism?

Is

it

all,

something called post-

certain kind of theoretical position,

mean

for a

and what does

term that has described

thetic practice

surely a ques-

an historical characterization,

now

that

one

is

for oneself, or

is it

a

it

all politics,

own

definition? Is

and feminist poHtics

it

the case

in particular,

a certain aes-

and

pro-

founda-

it

is

unthinkable without these prized premises?

it

rather that a specific version of politics

Or

is

to

offers a critique of

the subject, a discursive analysis, or questions the integrity or coherence of totalizing social descriptions?

unthinkable without

that requires that these notions remain unproble-

name that more often a name

when one

is

seek to secure a contingent formation of politics

that

to apply to social theory

called if and

politics

matized features of its

are these postmodernists? Is this a

one takes on

For

a

feminist social and political theory in particular?

Who

subject, the referentiality of language,

without these premises. But do these claims

tion, is

its

the integrity of the institutional descriptions

in

its

is

shown

contingency once those premises are prob-

lematically thematized?

Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism" from Judith Butler and Joan Scott, Feminists Theorize the Political, pp. 3-21. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.

Judith Butler, "Contingent Foundations:

"Contingent Foundations; Feniinism and

To

clanii ihat politics rti|uirts a stable subject

no

to claim that there can be to a

claim,

that

huleeil,

be

informed critique but, rather, an into jeopardy politics as such.

means

ject

and

implies

claim

that

critique ot the subject cannot

I'o

that

which puts

act

feature

essential

the

of

enforces

political,

way

that that

enforcement

The

ical

scrutiny.

the

domain of the

act

is

w hich

To

is

protected from polit-

is,

on the contrary,

together;

process of

its

an

have.'

it

is

odds with

to ask after the

if

which

all

comforting notion to the

ize

all at

the same, to group

w ere the kind of thing that could be the

fully

is all

some kind of monistic

there

is

no

is

dead,

under

them

synthetically

and master-

simple refusal to grant

a single rubric, a

read,

and not

to read closely.'

the term, and

I

if

For

if

Lyotard uses

he can be conveniently grouped

with a set of writers, and

only

reality,

These characterizations

dis-

the specificity of these positions, an excuse not to

as

stuff out of

things are composed; the subject

can never say "I" again; there

is,

who would

critic

once).' Is the effort to colon-

and domesticate these theories under the sign of

of positions are ascribed to postmod-

discourse were

not affirm

matic'

arrived yet at a notion of postmodernism?

bearer of a set of positions: discourse

who does

whom Lyotard is made to stand. Is he paradigDo all these theories have the same structure

for

mean-

pense w ith them

if it

for instance, seriously

is,

the notion of "the postmodern," and with others

al-

(a

ernism, as

it

example of what

into the

that of Derrida,

requirement or presupposition of theory. But have

A number

made

doing.' Lyotard's work at

is

existence does

the rest of the purported postmodernists are

ing and consequentiality of taking the subject as a

we

l)e

Jean-hVan^ois Lyotard champions the term,

but he cannot be

not the same as

construction and the political

What kind of

postmodernism.^

all

negating or dispensing with such a notion

grouped simply under the

ism poses for feminism, but as the question, what

to require a notion is

the avant-garde,

propose that the question of postmodernism

I

summarily silenced.

refuse to assume, that

also right to

read not merely as the question that postmodern-

a

unilaterallx establishes

of the subject from the start

is

category of postmodernism.

authoritarian ruse by which political contest over

the status of the subject

modernism and

ories or writings can be

the

political functions, then, as

Hidd> Martin

which throws some question on whether these the-

political,

boundaries of the domain of the political in such

anil lrigara>.

out that almost allof I'rench feminism adheres

to a notion of high

require the sub-

foreclosure, installed analytically as an

that

)ernda

1

|)oini

a certain

be found between

in textual |)ractices is to

affinitN

politicalls

a

domain of the

to foreclose the

between (jxous and Hernda, although

is

opposition

political

Question of 'Postmodernism'

tfie

if

some problematic

are vari-

quotation can be found in his work, then can that

ously imputed to postmodernism or poststructural-

quotation serve as an "example" of postmodern-

representations.

ism,

which are conflated with each other and

sometimes

conflated

sometimes understood

with

as an indiscriminate

ism, symptomatic of the

But

and

deconstruction,

assem-

blage of French feminism, deconstruction, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Foucaultian analy

sis,

versationalism and cultural studies.

this side

of

w hole.''

understand part of the project of post-

modernism, in

Rorty's con-

On

if I

it

is

to call

into question the

to subordinate

explain.

and erase that which they seek

For the "whole," the

the Atlantic and in recent discourse, the terms

ism

"postmodernism" or "poststructuralism"

duced" by the example w hich

among those

settle the

in its

supposed breadth,

positions in a single stroke,

symptom and exemplar

providing a substantive, a noun, that includes those

the example of Lyotard

differences

many of its modalities or permutamay come as a surprise to some purveyors of

ways

which such "examples" and "paradigms" serve

field

effectively

is is

made

"pro-

to stand as a

of the whole; in effect,

we

think

to

of postmodern-

we have

we have then

if in

a repre-

positions as so

sentation of postmodernism,

tions. It

substitution of the example for the entire field,

forced

a

the Continental scene to learn that Lacanian psycho-

effecting a violent reduction of the field to the one

analysis in France positions itself officially against

piece of text the critic

poststructuralism, that Kristeva denounces post-

w;)Tiich,

modernism," that Foucaultians rarely

is

willing to read, a piece

conveniently, uses the term "postmodern."

and Irigaray are fundamentally

vfc' In a sense, this gesture of conceptual mastery that groups together a set of positions under the

opposed, and that the only tenuous connection be-

postmodern, that makes the postmodern into an

tween French feminism and deconstruction

epoch or

rideans, that Cixous'

relate to

Der-

exists

)

a synthetic whole,

and that claims that

the part can stand for this artificially constructed

French feminist philosophers Julia Kristeva (1941and Helene Cixous (1937-

).

)

whole, enacts a certain self-congratulatory ruse

of power.

It

is

paradoxical, at best, that the act

Judith Butler

"new "

of conceptual mastery that effects this dismissive

a

grouping of positions under the postmodern wants

in the

ward off the

to

some

that

is

representational, that

piece of the text

phenom-

stands for the

it

is

not in

is

some way already implicated

But the point articulated forcefully by some

of political authoritarianism.

peril

For the assumption

that

"old."

recent critics of normative political is

-

philosophy

- hypothetical,

that the recourse to a position

enon, and that the structure of "these" positions

counterfactual, or imaginary

can be properly and economically discerned in the

beyond the play of power, and which seeks

What authorizes such an asstart. From the start we must

structure of the one.

sumption from the

^

believe that theories offer themselves in bundles or in

organized

and that

totalities,

historically a set of

that places itself

relations,

is

perhaps the most insidious ruse of

power. That this position beyond power lays claim to its legitimacy

through recourse to

the ories which are struct urally similar e merge as

implicitly universal

the^rticulation of an histo ricallv specificcorifl"^'^"

circumvent the charge, for what

w ill designate in advance what counts

continues through Adorno, assumes from the start

What form

can be substituted for one

theories

these

that

mon

And

structural preoccupation.

sumption can no longer be made, presumption that start

is

yet, that pre-

argue that

if,

as agreement.-*

of insidious cultural imperialism here

legislates itself

under the sign of the universal?

know about the term "postmodern," but if there is a point, and a fine point, to what I perhaps don't

I

better understand as poststructuralism,

from the

p ower pervades th e verv conceptual ap paratus tjiat seeks to neg otiate its t£r"^s,^includirig"The

to the extent that, the

postmodern

functions as such a unifying sign, then cidedly "modern"" sign, which

is

why

it

there

is is

a de-

some

question w hether one can debate for or against this

postmodernism.

rationalist project

Hegelian

what has come under contest in some of the positions happily uni-

and

To

install

the term as that which

can be only affirmed or negated

occupy one position within

is

criti cisrn in

v ery precondition of a politicallv en gaged critiq ue.

To

establish a set of

or force

is itself

a

norms

that are

beyond power

powerful and forceful conceptual

to

practice that sublimates, disguises

to

ow n pow er play through recourse

And

and extends

to tropes

mative universality.

some more generative scheme.

with foundations, or even to champion

itinng_k_^^-raression

pavilion above. Hut even here the building becomes a

theory

rellecis

it

ollcNcIs

diagram of an oversimplified program abstract

when

the complexities and contradictions ol content and

Clonveniional elements in architecture represent

tloor pedestal, thus separating

them from the open

will

ol

functions"

"pri\ate

examples

and

go beyond the simphcities

the elegant pavilion."

ol the

but abstruse architecture

meamng. .Simultaneous i^erceplion ol a multi|)licity imohes struggles and hesitations for the observer, and makes his perception more \i\id.

louse,

I

tor instance, in contrast to his glass house, IMiilip

Johnson attempted

Most

the spati.il aiul

inherent ni the tloniestie proiiiain

technological possibihiies as well as the neeil

a

can be called the vestigial element parallels

superfluous element because

meaning. This

is

It

is

from

distinct

double

it

contains

a

the result of a

more or

less

am-

biguous combination of the old meaning, called up

.

by associations, with

new meaning created by the

a

modified or new function, structural or program-

Contradictory Levels:

The Phenomenon

of "Both-And'' in Architecture

matic, and the

new

context. I'he vestigial element

discourages clarity of meaning; ness of meaning instead.

.

it

.

.

Clcanth Brooks refers to Donne's

art as

both ways" but, he says, "most of us

day, cannot.' either-or,

We

"having

in this latter

are disciplined in the tradition

and lack the mental

-

agility

to say noth-

ing of the maturity of attitude - which would allow us to indulge in the finer distinctions and the

more

subtle reservations permitted by the tradition of

both-and."^

The

is

tradition "either-or" has charac-

modern

terized orthodox

probably nothing

enclosure; a wall

is

architecture: a sun screen

else; a

support

not violated by

seldom an

is

window pene-

growth

museums w ith new

(like

Even "flowing

or segregated separate pavilions.

space" has implied being outside

when

when

inside,

and

outside, rather than both at the

same

Such manifestations of articulation and

clar-

inside

time.

glass;

an architecture of complexity and

ity are foreign to

uses and scales of

is

a piazza

than an artery to upper

basis

its

several levels of

varying values.

is

hierarchy, which yields

meanings among elements with

It

can include elements that are

both good and awkward, big and open,

continuous

and

structural

and

square,

which includes varying

spatial.

levels of

closed and

little,

articulated,

An

round

and

architecture

meaning breeds

ambiguity and tension.

ever,

is a

vestigial

Philip

a

symbol rather

The

state.

ghost

meaningless vestige rather than

element as

a

a valid transition I

shall

later

w orking between

refer to the

appears in Michelangelo's

it

Pop

archi-

tecture.

The

rhetorical element, like the double-func-

tioning element, If the

is

latter

infrequent in recent architec-

offends through

inherent

its

Modern minimum. But the rhetjustified as a valid if outmoded

rhetoric

orthodox

offends

architecture's cult of the orical

element

is

means of expression. An element can seem orical

from one point of view

another level

it

,

but

rhet-

if it is valid, at

enriches meaning by underscoring.

In the project for a gateway at Bourneville by

Ledoux, the columns

in the arch are structurally

rhetorical if not redundant." Expressively, ever,

they

underscore

as a semicircle

the

abstractness

more than an

how-

of the

arch,

and

buildings by contemporary American architect

Johnson

The

and

York

architecture and in w hat might be called

opening

Two

New

of Dock Street in Philadelphia's Society Hill, how-

ambiguity,

contradiction,

cities

section of Broadway

rather than exclude "either-or." is

movement. The paths

in the nineteenth century; a

ture.

both-and phenomenon

which become

became boulevards

contradiction, which tends to include "both-and"

If the source of the

palazzi

of medieval fortification walls in European

the old and the new.

by

change and

remodeling which

or embassies), and old street patterns

functions are exaggeratedly articulated into wings

totally interrupted

promotes rich-

involves old buildings with new uses both program-

matic and symbolic

element resulting from

is

it

a basis for

in the city as manifest in

program

trations but

It is

in

New

Canaan, Connecticut.

great English poet

John Donne

(1572-1631).

"

Gateway

in Bourneville, France,

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806).

by French architect

.

Robert Venturi they further define the opening as a gateway. As

have said, the stairway

I

emy

at the

Pennsylvania Acad-

of the Fine Arts by Furness

obvious

that

in

actual

practice

It is

two must

the

its

be interrelated. Contradictions can represent the

as a gesture

exceptional inconsistency that modifies the other-

too big in

is

immediate context, but appropriate

ent complexities and contradictions of living.

towards the outside scale and a sense of entry.'"

wise consistent order, or they can represent incon-

The

sistencies

Classical portico

stairs,

The

rhetorical entrance.

is a

columns, and pediment are juxtaposed upon

the

throughout the order as

whole. In

a

the relationship between inconsist-

first case,

the other-scale, real entrance behind. Paul Rudol-

ency and order accommodates circumstantial ex-

ph's entrance in the Art and Architecture Building

ceptions to the order, or

Yale

at

little

is at

door

the scale of the city; most people use the

like the

function of ornament

is

rhetorical

-

use of Baroque pilasters for rhythm, and

anbrugh's disengaged pilasters

\

an order up and then break

at the side in the stair tower.'"'

Much of the

the kitchen court at

the entrance to

Blenheim which

tectural fanfare. ""

The

also structural

rare in

is

at

are an archi-

which

rhetorical element

Modern

is

architecture, al-

make Bernini

down, but break

it

from strength rather than from weakness.

relationship of inconsistency

within the whole

consider a manifestation of

I

"the difficult whole," which

is

discussed in the

chapter [of the original publication].

last

Mies said

refers to a

"by order

we not

Accommodation and the Limitations of Order: The Conventional Element

resist

I

need to "create order out of the

do not mean

Kahn

bemoaning

orderliness.""'

confusion.'

has

Should

Should we not

look for meaning in the complexities and contradictions of our times

of systems.' These, In short, that contradictions must he accepted.

it

have

described this relationship as "contradiction ac-

desperate confusion of our times." But

envious.^

I

commodated." The

though Mies has used the rhetorical I-beam with an assurance that would

juxtaposes particular

it

with general elements of order. Here you build

and acknowledge the limitations I

think, are the

two

justifications

for breaking order: the recognition of variety

and

confusion inside and outside, in program and en-

A

valid order

accommodates the circumstantial

contradictions of a complex reality. dates as well as imposes.

accommo-

It

thereby admits "control

It

vironment, indeed,

at all levels

the ultimate limitation of

man.

all

of experience; and

orders composed by

When circumstances defy order, order should

and spontaneity,'' "correctness and ease" - impro-

bend or break: anomalies and uncertainties give

visation within the whole. It tolerates qualifications

validity to architecture.

and compromise. There are no fixed laws tecture, but not everything will

or a city.

The

architect

subtle evaluations are tions.

He must

work and what what

work

in a building

must decide, and these

among

his principal func-

determine what must be made to it is

will give in,

possible to

compromise with,

and where and how.

Meaning can be enhanced by breaking the order; up the rule. A building with no

in archi-

He

does not

the exception points

"imperfect" part can have no perfect part, because contrast supports meaning.

gencies

all

An

artful discord gives

You can

vitality to architecture.

allow for contin-

over, but they cannot prevail

all

over. If

order without expediency breeds formalism, expe-

ignore or exclude inconsistencies of program and

diency without order, of course, means chaos.

structure within the order.

Order must

I

have emphasized that aspect of complexity and

contradiction which grows out of the

than the program of the building.

medium more

Now

I

shall

emphasize the complexity and contradiction that

can

exist before

whole relevant text.

"There

is

F'urness' (1839-1912)

'^

Contemporary American

Rudolph.

English architect John \'anbrugh's (166+-1726) work

on Blenheim Palace "^

architect Paul

in

Oxfordshire, England.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), great

naissance sculptor.

No artist

characteristics

is

.

a

and con-

system"

is

.

relevant both for the individIt

recognizes the

of our architecture and

its

status in

work

on the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. ^"'

own

and the townscape.

real condition

American architect Frank

to its

Ironic convention ual building

can be broken.

no work of art without

Le Corbusier's dictum.

develops from the program and reflects the inher-

it

of order as a way of seeing a

belittle the role

Italian

our culture. Industry promotes expensive industrial

and electronic research but not architectural experiments, and the Federal government diverts subsidies

toward

"'

American

air transportation,

communication, and

Rearchitect Louis

Kahn

(1901-74).

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture the \ast enterprises oi w.u or, as the\ call

national

it,

security, rather than toward the forces for the ihrect

enhancenuMit

admit

Ihe practicing architect nuist

of life.

the budgets, tech-

In simple terms,

this.

iiologN, \et

and

ilreadeil

But

brutality.

tor

is

potential ilomination

its

not standardization that

it

out a creative use of context that

to be feared

is

niques, antl programs for his buildings must relate

more than standardization

more

to 1S()() than

and circumstance, convention and context

their

modest

Architects should accept

1^)(>().

role rather than disguise

and

it

risk

is

without circumstantial accommodation and with-

itself?

employing standardization

in

The ideas ofOrder

of an unstandard way -

what might be called an electronic expressionism,

apply to our continuing problem of standardization

which might

\ersus variety. Ciiedion has written of

parallel the industrial

Modern

early

would accept

expressionism

who

The architect

architecture.

of

combiner of significant banalities - in new contexts as

his role as

old cliches - valid

his condition within a society that directs

money, and

efforts, its big

its

its

best

elegant technologies

rationality

standardization

so that

master but servant." art as

.-Kalto's

an artful

recognition of the circumstantial and the contextual

and of the inevitable

way

ardization.

true concern for society's inverted scale of

prefer to think of

I

ir-

no longer

is

contradictory rather than irrational

elsewhere, can ironically express in this indirect a

.Aalto's'"'

unique "combination of standardization with

limits of the order of stand-

values.

have alluded to the reasons

I

why honky-tonk

elements in our architecture and tow nscape are here to

especially

stay,

why such

view, and

important short-term

the

in

The Obligation Toward Whole

should be acceptable.

a fate

Pop Art has demonstrated that these commonplace elements are often the main source of the occasional variety

and

vitality

of our

cities,

and that

their banality or vulgarity as elements for the banality or vulgarity

the Difficult

it is

not

which make

of the whole scene, but

.

An

.

.

Toledo {Ohio J was very beautiful.

architecture of complexity and

does not forsake the whole. In

accommodation

fact, I

to a special obligation tow ard the

have referred

w hole because the

And

have empha-

rather their contextual relationships of space and

whole

scale.

sized the goal of unity rather than of simplification

significant implication from Pop Art method in city planning. Architects and planners w ho peevishly denounce the conventional

in

Another

involves

townscape elaborate

for its vulgarity or banality

methods

for

honky-tonk elements

to

or

disguising

in the existing landscape, or,

them from the vocabulary of their But they largely fail either

for excluding

new

abolishing

promote

tovvnscapes.

enhance or

to provide a substitute for the existing

scene because they attempt the impossible.

By

attempting too

much

and

continuing influence as supposed

risk their

experts.

Cannot the

they flaunt their impotence

architect

and planner, by

slight

adjustments to the conventional elements of the townscape, existing or proposed, nificant effects.' tional

By modifying

elements to

still

promote

other conventional elements

they can, by a tw ist of context, gain a

of effect through a

minimum

maximum

of means.

They

can make us see the same things in a different

an art "whose

.

.

.

truth

[is]

I

in its totality."

It is

the difficult unity through inclusion rather than the

easy unity through exclusion. Gestalt psychology

considers a perceptual whole the result

more

than, the

sum

of

its

parts.

of,

and yet

The whole

is

dependent on the position, number, and inherent

A

characteristics of the parts.

complex system

in

Herbert A. Simon's definition includes "a large

number of way."'"

parts

The

that

difficult

interact

whole

in

in

a

non-simple

an architecture of

complexity and contradiction includes multiplicity

and diversity of elements

among

inconsistent or

in relationships that are

the weaker kinds percep-

tually

Inherent

sig-

or adding conven-

difficult to achieve.

is

in

an architecture of opposites

inclusive whole.

The

is

the

unity of the interior of the

Imatra church or the complex

at

VVolfsburg

is

achieved not through suppression or exclusion but

through the dramatic inclusion of contradictory or

circumstantial

parts.

^"'

Aalto's

architecture

way. Finally, standardization, like convention, can be

'"

another manifestation of the strong order. But

""'

unlike convention

it

has been accepted in

Modern

architecture as an enriching product of our tech-

Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898-1976).

Two

projects by

Aalto:

\'ooksenniska church in

Imatra, Finland, and the Cultural Centre, Wolfsburg,

German v.

;>S) or IJcckcit's

Mutp/i) (VK^S)': In an\

Postmodernism includes works b\ writers

case

as

within the acadennc profession, excepting certain linguistic, structuralist,

different as Harlh, arlhelme, ecker, eekeil, ense,

Hut

lanchot, orijes, recht, iirrouiihs,

of

iitor.

it

is

Hut

as

Modern?

it

is

not

is

Rot

hti

I

itself as I^ostinotlern

and hermeneutic schools.

more noisy culture

also true within the

our media.

lime (the Qut-ry:

Paracritical Bibliography"

I he .\eir

)

sections),

literary

limes Hook' Review share

Renew

ork

and

wit or li\eliness, to intelligence really, concealing

more

skeptical in

periods of excess, the culture of the Logos insists

Critics

on old orders

The assumptions malist and

York

certain aspiration to

a

resistance to the new. .Ml the

5

liooL-i,

of

New

I'he

of Modernism elaborated by for-

the

in clever or current gui.scs, and, with

means of communication

hand, inhibits and

at

restrains.

mythopoeic

the

especially, b\

critics

intellectual culture of the first half of the century as a whole,

still

SelJ-Admonition: Beware of glib condemnations

define the dominant perspecti\ e on

of the media. They are playing a national role as

the study of literature.

bold, as crucial, as the

Karl

Exception:

the Fifties.

Shapiro's Beyond

Criticism

''cranky"

and "cantankerous"

empt our

academic

for

some

hiens pensantsr

known

In England as in America, the ferent as they

may seem

in age,

distinction, share the broad

of the

Kermode,

critics, dif-

Levin,

W ilson.

6

critics

who

Bibliography

Here

is a

curious chronology of some Postmodern

criticism:

Winters,

etc.

- of Leavis,

say, or

of Wilson - w hich

1

George

"The Retreat from

Steiner,

Kenyon Review, 23 (Spring

w ill enlighten minds in every age. Yet it was Herbert Read^

cited.

Trilling,

No doubt there are many passages in the writings of these

you

J'"

Pritchett,

Ransom, Rahv, Richards, Schorer, Tate, Warren, W'ellek,

custodians of

publications

[This was written in 1971.

Modernist view: Black-

Leavis,

very

still

Note, too, the rising

persuasion, or

mur. Brooks, Connolly, Empson, Frye, Howe, Kazin,

- they are

selves

collective sanity.

quality

in

be

of public images - w hich pre-

in their creation

Too

In Defence oj Ignorance (1960).

(1953),

Supreme Court played

W illful and arbitrary as they ma\

the

Word,"

1961). See also his

Language and Silence (New York, 1967), and

possessed the most active sympathy for

{Ntw York, 1971). "The Dismemberment of Orpheus," American Scholar, 23 (Summer 1963). See also his Literature of Silence (New York, Extraterritorial

the avant-garde. His generosity of intuition enabled

him to sponsor the new

He

2 ,

rarely

engaged the Postmodern

affinities,

in

his concern

embracing the spirit in his

trivial.

anarchic

the prevalence of

for

Ihab Hassan,

1967). suffering, in his sensuous apprehension of

He

being.

cried:

tion through art

behold the Child!

meant

To

renewed 3

Hugh Kenner, "Art

in

a

Closed Field,"

Learners and Discerners, ed.

Robert Scholes

a salutation to Eros. Believ-

(Charlottesville, \'a., 1964). See also his

ing that the imagination serves the purpose of moral Beckett

good. Read hoped to implicate art into existence so fully

that

their

common

in

him, educa-

substance became

(New York,

Samuel

1961; Berkeley and

Los

Angeles, 1968), and The Counterfeiters (Blooas

mington, Ind., 1968). simple, as necessary, as bread and water. This

sacramental hope,

still

alive

though mute

What

midst, which recalls Tolstoy's

Is

is a

4 in

Art}

Review, 32 (Fall 1965). See also his I

can dren's

hardly think of another several decades,

critic,

younger even by

who might have composed

"The New Mutants," Partisan "The ChilHour; or. The Return of the Vanishing

Leslie Fiedler,

our

Longfellow," in Liberations, ed. Ihab Hassan

that

Conn.,

(Middletown, extraordinary romance. The Green

The

Child.'''

Essays culture of literary criticism

Modernist assumptions. This

is still

ruled by 5

is

{Ntw York,

"

(1893-1968), English poet and

A

work of Herbert Read's.

&

critic. '^^"

and

Collected

Susan Sontag, "The Aesthetics of Silence,"

particularly true

Aspen, nos. 5 '

1971),

1971).

Author's addition.

6 (1967). See also her Against

Ihab

Hassan

Interpretation

6

(New York,

mil{Ntw

Radical

Richard Poirier,

"The

Xew

May

Republic, 20

and Styles of

1966),

York, 1969).

ism.

Literature of Waste,"

"The

1967. See also his

Politics of Self-Parody," Partisan Review, 35

7

(Summer 1968), and 77?^ (New York, 1971). John Barth, "The Literature Atlantic Monthly, in the

And

Performing

Self

of Exhaustion,"

August 1967. See

(New York,

Funhouse

they strain toward an aesthetic of Postmodern-

will;

also his Lost

1968).

here are some leitmotifs of that criticism:

the literary act in quest and question of

itself; self-

We

some way from attaining such an clear that Postmodern art gives high priority to that end. Perhaps we can start by revisioning Modernism as well as revising the pieties we have inherited about it. In Continuities Frank are

still

aesthetic; nor

Kermode

is it

which he

Duchamp. But his him to assimilate Kermode, for instance,

rightly traces back to

preference for continuities tempts

mutations; languages of silence.

current to past things. writes: "Aleatory art elty,

close

A revision of Modernism is slowly taking place, and is

accordingly, for

is

nov-

all its

an extension of past art, indeed the hypertrophy

of one aspect of that art." Does not this statement

Revisions

this

of

critic

between types of

modernism - what he calls "palaeo- and neomodern" correspond perhaps to Modern and Postmodern - and takes note of the new "anti-art,"

subversion or self-transcendence of forms; popular

7

A

cautiously attempts that task.

great civility, he discriminates well

another evidence of Postmodernism. In The

Performing Self, Richard Poirier

between these two movements.

mediate

tries to

We

need to

recall

more

possibilities

than

it

opens? There

"The most important

thing

porary element, because it ourselves, as

we

is

are in it."

is

always the contem-

most purely reflected I

the doctrines of formalist criticism, the canons of

grasp the cultural experience of our insist that the

three decades, to

new

we

think that

classroom and quarterly in the

last

an-

is

other perspective of things that Goethe described:

moment

in

not

will if

we

"marginal developments

arts are

of older modernism," or that distinctions between

savor such statements:

"art" and "joke" are crucial to any future aesthetic.

Three of the

and much used

great

twentieth-century criticism, ses,

Moby

texts of

Dick, Ulys-

The Waste Land, are written in mockery of

system, written against any effort to harmonize discordant elements,

metaphoric scheme.

.

.

.

alism

is

But while

this

Modernism

in

terms

cedure (Kermode), we will end by doing something of both

since

our

enable

analogies,

relations,

thought. xModernism does not suddenly cease so that

Postmodernism may begin: they now

coexist.

New

radic-

every morning open anew. In a certain frame of

of essentially conservative

mind, Michelangelo or Rembrandt, Goethe or

is

radical in

its

treatment of systems,

in the interest

form of

to revalue

essen-

the literary imagination tially parodistic

any mythic or

against

Whether we tend

of Postmodernism (Poirier) or to reverse that pro-

its

lines

emerge from the past because our eyes

Hegel, Nietzsche or Rilke, can reveal to us some-

feelings.

thing about Postmodernism, as Erich Heller inci-

The most

complicated examples of twentieth-

century literature,

like

Ulysses

and

77?^

Waste

dentally shows. Consider this marvelous passage

from The

Artist's

Journey

to the Interior.

Land, the end of which seems parodied by the

end o{ Giles [Goat-Boy by Barth], are more than

contemptuous of

their

own

formal and

stylistic

elaborateness.

Michelangelo spent the whole of his

Pieta

He Certainly

some profound philosophic minds of

which

is

known

as the "Pieta

did not succeed. Perhaps

it

Rembrandt completed

of the material in the service of its

And later writers Norman O. Brown, and

For

intently to the

John Cage,

Elie Wiesel have listened

sounds of silence

in art or politics,

the nature

of stone that he had to leave unfinished what

disease of verbal systems: Heidegger, Wittgenstein, as different as

working

Rondanini."

lies in

our century have concerned themselves with the

Sartre.

last

day, six days before his death, trying to finish the

this sculpture

maker was

in the

much marble

as

in paint: the

seems

employment

own

negation.

to intimate that

end determined was necessary

its

to use only as to

show

that

sex, morality, or religion. In this context the state-

matter did not matter; what alone mattered was

ments of Poirier do not merely display

the pure inward spirit.

(41^

a revisionist

'POSTmodernISM: A I

cm isions,

krc Michchiniiclo

past

stru^'glc

.in\

cMsttiKc,

Willi the obilur.iti- ni.ifcnal ot

a stale

of

consciousness to which wc mas he tciuHnit

tjnostic

\cl can

wc

)iistit'iahl\

him Postniockrn'

call

Where Modern and Postmodern May Meet: or, Make Your Own List

lightenment

To idcntiis and

of unreason, in

umph

for the intellect. In

that

w hich, as

comes

it

isolate the forces

a certain sense,

reinforced

to call

Paracritical Bibliography"

has been a

another sense,

Blake. Sade, Lautreamont, Rimbaud,

2

da Da DA SURrealism

Mallarme. Whitman,

3

etc.

I

would

The Cantos

7

???

jircfci

still

wider

scope, as .Monroe K. Spears, in Dionysus and the (Jil)\

with bias beneath his Apollonian lucidity,

shows. Released as energy from the contradictions of history. Modernism makes contradiction

KAFKA

4 5 6

has

post-modern.

Vet the controversy of .Modernism has

1

tri-

undercurrent

anti-intellectual to the surface,

it

its

own.

For my purpose, let Modernism Stand for X: a window on human madness, the shield of Perseus against which Medusa glances, the dream of some frowning, scholarly muse. offer, instead, some rubrics and spaces. Let readers fill them with their own queries or grimaces. We value what we

FinnegansWake

I

Modernism

8

This

is

no place

of Modernism. \\ oolf,

to offer a

comprehensive definition

From ApoUinaire and Arp to \

and Yeats - 1 seem

to

miss the

letters

alcry,

X and Z

choose.

Urhamsm: Nature put

a.

in

doubt, from Bau-

delaire's ''cite fourmillante''''''"^ to Proust's Paris,

- runs the alphabet of authors who have delivered

Joyce's Dublin, Eliot's London,

themselves memorably on the subject; and the

New York,

weighty work of Richard Ellmann and Charles Fei-

of locale but of presence.

The sanatorium

Magic Mountain and the

village of

delson, Jr., The best

Modern

Tradition^

compendium of that

including

stands as the

still

"large spiritual enterprise

philosophic,

and

social,

scientific

still

ce's

manifestoes, as well as poems, novels, dramas."

threat.

seem

let

superlatively naive. This

is

"On the Modern Element

in

can identify

it

by calling

true

Yoknapatawpha or Lawren-

among stately

Modern

critical

Literature":

the disenchantment

of our culture with culture

itself.

line of hostility to civilization that it

[modern

literature] ...

I

of The

The Castle are

Lionel TrilHng,

is

it

Passos'

Midlands, recognize the City as pervasive

b.

Technologism: City and

Machine make and

remake one another. Extension, I

Dos

not a question

alone of definition,

and distinguished minds, not only rowdy tempers. Here, for instance,

It is

enclosed in an urban spiritual space. Excep-

tions, Faulkner's

thought, and aesthetic and literary theories and

Expectations of agreement,

Doblin's Berlin.

.

.the bitter

runs through

venture

that the idea of losing oneself

up

to

say

to the point

alienation of the

diffusion,

not feature simply as a theme of Modernism; also

a

and

human w ill. Yet technology does

form of

its

artistic

struggle.

Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism. Other

it

is

W itness

reactions to

technology: primitivism, the occult, Bergsonian

of self-destruction, of surrendering oneself to

time, the dissociation of sensibility, etc. (See

experience without regard to self-interest or

Wa lie

Sypher, Literature and Technology.)

conventional morality, of escaping w holly from is an "element" somewhere mind of every modern person.

the societal bonds, in the

To this, Harry Levin counters

in

"What Was Modc.

ernism.'":

Insofar as

we

''Dehumanization'': Ortega y Gasset really

means

we

Elitism, Irony,

and Abstraction {The De-

humanizatwn of Art). Style takes over; are

still

moderns,

are the children of

I

let life

would argue,

Humanism and

the

En-

Swarming

city.

(@)

Ihab Hassan

and the masses fend

"Poetry has

for themselves.

become the higher algebra of metaphor." Instead of \ itruvian man, Leonardo's famous image of the human measure, we have Pica.sso's beings splintered on

human,

just

many

planes.

Not

An Addendum

the human,

(cont.):

renewal of the sense of

sometimes a

superhuman.

the

Rilke's

"Angels." Lawrence's'Fish":

less

And my heart accused

another idea of man.

itself

Thinking:

I

measure This

is

Aristocratic or crypto-fasRilke,

cist:

Proust, Yeats, Primitivisni:

d.

Lawrence,

Eliot,

Pound,

this

God stands

out-

can mask,

Lewis, etc. Irony:

formalcollective

ism. The aloofness of art

but also sly hints of

its

a beast

The

archetypes behind ab-

God.

An

Afri-

slouching toward Bethlehem.

dream of mankind. Cunning palimp-

sests of literary

rad-

incompleteness.

ical

my

Structure as ritual or myth, metaphors from the

complexity,

Play,

side

straction, beneath ironic civilization.

Wyndham

d'Annunzio,

the

not

beyond me,

fish. His

Elitism:

am

of creation

time and space, knowing palin-

genesis of literary souls. Also Dionysus and the

Dr

violent return of the repressed. (See

Faustus and Confessions of

Northrop

Frye, The Modern Century.)

as awareness of Non-being.

Felix Krull. Irony

Abstraction:

Impersonality,

sophistical

reduction

simplicity,

construction, time

posed or Mondrian

spatialized.

on

and

decom-

e.

Thus

Reduction-

revealed

a

universal

erotic but

Mod-

from within.

language of anger or desire; love

necessary to reduce natural forms to the constant elements of form and natural colour to primary colour'.' Gabo on Constructivism: "It has is

it

is

It is

not merely the liberation of the libido, a new-

ism: "To create pure reality plastically,

Eroticism: All literature

ernist sex scratches the skin

now becomes

an intimate of disease. Sadomasochism, solipsism,

nihilism,

anomie. Consciousness seeks

desperately to discharge itself in the world.

new and darker

A

stage in the struggle between

Eros and

Thanatos.'^

"The Fate

of Pleasure," in Beyond Culture.)

Lionel

(See

Trilling,

law

elements of a visual art such as lines, colours, shapes, possess the

that

their

own

sion,

independentof any as-

forces of expres-

f.

Antinomianism:

Beyond

law,

dwelling in

paradox. Also discontinuity, alienation, non ser-

sociation with the external

viam!^

aspects of the world..." The literary equivalent of these ideas may be "spatial time." (See Joseph Frank,

conditions of its excess. lypse.

The

pride of art, of the

own

self,

defining the

grace. Iconoclasm, schism,

Beyond antinomianism, toward apocaTherefore, decadence and renovation.

(See Nathan A. Scott,

Jr.,

The Broken Center.)

Form in Modern Lit-

"Spatial erature,"

in

The Widening

Gyre.)

An Addendum:

There

is

more to "dehuman-

ization" than "another idea

of man," there

is

also an

cipient revulsion against

(^

in-

'^

Eros and Thanatos are Freud's Greek terms for the

opposed I

will

instincts of

not serve.

Love and Death,

respectively.

'POSTmodernISM: A i'.xpcnnuntuliim:

g.

the

brilliance-

New

shapes.

ol

IniioN.itioii,

in

chaiiiic

question in the

Poem, noNel, or

an

of

niiilst

put

tt)

its

of ortler.

miracle to miracle.

artistic

pla> henceforth

of control?

acstluiic

new concepts

laiigiiai;cs,

Also, the \\ ore! beginning

and Dr No's? Engineers of liberation or The promise is conditional on everything that we are. in this our ambiguous state. love's

(.lissoci.uioii, its

all

Paracritical Bibliography"

we

Truly,

can never really

dwell happily

We also dwell

able.

in

could learn to do pushups

bear the same name.

the Unimagin-

at our task: Literature.

a prison

in

I

cell,

but cannot bring myself to'study literature" I

as

the earth were

if

agination.

In those seven rubrics,

seek not so

I

much

to

define .Modernism as to carry certain elements

which

Postmodernism

10

consider crucial, carry them forward

I

Postmodernism may be

toward Postmodernism.

glimpsed only

The Unimaginable

tainly

it is

of

the Sea of Hysteria.

balks

It

lies

all

geographies;

bilks the spirit of the traveler who

passes unwittingly through its space-realm; boggles time. Yet anyone who can return from it to tell

his tale

may also know how

to spell the

destiny of man. I

know the near-infinite resources of man,

and that

his imagination

may

still

serve as

the teleologlcal organ of his evolution. Yet

I

our

I

We

Time and

are,

I

believe,

another Space,

we have

is

all

adequate

learned to

- of that time and space we our own though the globe may have

become minimalists can

call

become our village. That is why it seems bootless to compare Modern w ith Postmodern artists, range "masters" against "epigones." to "zero in the

the best of

no

less

The

latter are closer

bone," to silence or exhaustion, and

them

yields to the

strange Utopia indistinguishable

Knd of Man.

In a sense

reality.

few decades, certainly within half a century, theearth and all that inhabitsit may be wholly other, perhaps ravaged, perhaps on the way

some

rather the Denaturalization of

it is

and we no longer know what response

the void.

from nightmare. have no language to articu-

;

inhabitants of another

am possessed by the feeling that in the next

to

most prophetic moments. Cer-

in its

the Planet and the

to

ob-

Modernism

that

not the Dehumani/ation of the Arts that

concerns us now

somewhere beComplacence and

The unimaginable tween the Kingdom

a response, direct or

Unimaginable

the

to

lique,

9

the orbit of our im-

still in

hope this is Hope.

I

Thus

brilliantly display the resources

of

the verbal omnipotence of Joyce

impotence of Beckett, heir and peer,

genuine, only

more

austere. Yet

moving

into

the void, these artists sometimes pass to the other side of silence.

work

that,

The consummation

remaining

art,

of their art

pretends to abolish

is

a

itself

late this feeling with conviction, nor imagin-

(Beckett,

Tinguely, Robert Morris), or else to

ation to conceive this special destiny.To live

become

indistinguishable

from hour to hour seems as maudlin as to

Rauschenberg, Mailer).

Invoke every hour the Last Things.

the way.

feeling

I

find that

I

am

In this

from

Duchamp

life

(Cage,

coolly pointed

not alone.

The litany of our disasters is all too familand we recite it in the name of that unholy trinity, Population, Pollution, Power (read genocide), hoping to appease our furies, turn our fate inside out. But soon our minds lull themselves to sleep again on this song of abstractions, and a few freak out. The iar,

deathly dreariness of politics brings us ever closer to death. Neither

is

human consciousness

at hand.

the alteration of

And the

great promise of technology? Which tech-

nology? Fuller's? Skinner's? Dr Strange-

Nihilism it

is

a word we often use. when we use

unhistorically, to designate values

we dis-

sometimes applied to the children of Marcel Duchamp. When John Cage, in "HPSCHD" for inlike.

It

is

stance, insists on Quantity rather than Qual-

he does not surrender to nihilism - far, from it- he requires: - affluence and permission of being, generity,

far

osity

- discovery judgment

in

multitude, confusion of prior

(33)

Hassan

Ihab

-mutationof perception, of consciousness, through randomness and diversity

becoming

object

"anx-

ious," then "de-defined"

Cage knows how to praise Duchamp: "The them were artists. Duchamp collects

(Rosenberg). Matter dis-

rest of

appearing into a concept.'

dust."

- The computer

as sub-

stitute consciousness,

have not defined Modernism;

I

Postmodernism

less.

No

doubt,

can define

I

more we all we

the

ness? Will

ponder, the more we will need to qualify say.

Perhaps elisions may serve

or

as extension of consciousit

prove tautoincreasing

logical,

to qualify these

notes.

reliance

on prior orders?

Or

it

will

help to create

novel forms?

Modernist Rubrics

Postmodernist Notes c.

a.

Urban ism

- The City and

also the

Global

(McLu-

Village

and

han)

Spaceship

The

Earth (Fuller).

Cosmos.

as

"Dehumanization" -AntieIitism,antiauthori-

Therefore,

up

blocs,

nations,

tribes,

world

A

and

totalitarianism.''

limit

prison

riots,

the

Brillo

etc.

City:

to

Humanism

to

yields

cosmic humanism, as

in Science Fiction, as in

and

Fuller, Castaneda,

N. O.

Brown, Ursula LeGuin.

All the physical mater-

ials

of the arts changed.

New

media,

art

forms.

"Dehumanization,"

both

in

Modernism

means

The

problematics of the

and Postmodernism,

book

as artifact.

of the old Realism. Increasingly, lllusionism

- Boundless media.

(@)

am-

Cioran's

temptation

infrahumanism or post-

to a

Techno-

Luddites.

-

The

history.

from Concept

humanism. But yields also

of space.

philes vs. Arcadians

is

exist.

from genetic engineering

and

as

range

machine,

and thought control to conquest

novel

bivalent

- Runaway technology,

the

box or soup can,

mental Art (concrete).

Dresden, Auschwitz.

Futurists

as

the

- Warhol's wanting to be a

death camp: Hiroshima,

Technologism

Concreteness:

Art (abstract) to Environ-

Worse,

the City as holocaust or

b.

to the

the nonfiction novel, the

urban crime,

pornography,

Camp.

found object, the signed

urban

- Meanwhile, Dionysus entered

slapstick.

and coming back

New

renewal, health foods, etc.

has

parody

- Abstraction taken

in ecological activism, the

revolution,

black

insane

Negation.

Or to world unification? - Nature recovered partly green

comedy

absurd,

the

humor,

diversity or prelude

self-

play, entropy

of meaning. Also

of

frag-

mentation everywhere.

time. Irony

radical,

consuming

clans, parties, languages,

Anarchy and

Ac-

anarchic.

becomes

untold

into

of

ceptance.

- At the same

breaks

to

Participation.

ego.

optional,

Science Fiction.

new

Diffusion

the

Art becomes communal,

City

- Meanwhile, the world

sects.

tarianism.

dispersal by

The

sensuous

takes

its

finally

place, not only

in art

the end

but also

The media contribute egregiously

in life.

to this

'POSTmodernlSM: A process

in

Postmodern

society. In Act

and

History has

The

kxhI-

of

trial

Lnvcr.

repeal of censorship.

(iroNc

and

Press

liver-

grccu Review. sexuality,

ncv\

riie

from Reichian orgasm

to

polymorphous perversity and

body

I'.salen

The homosexual

of Surrealism

(Burroughs,

con-

ego Langbaum, The

Robert

feminism

to

From

Toward

a

lesbianism.

new

an-

drogyny.'

of Law-

Faulkner, Nin, or the allotropic

nose! \ idal,

Rechy).

Selby,

of consciousness of Joyce, Proust,

(See

ihc

ImiI)' (Jhullerley'a

masks of Yeats, the tradition of Eliot), modes of hyperpersonality (the

rence).

ik'vond

linitntstn

(Breton), by ideas of impersonality in art

by

((

sciousness.

Modernism - by doctrines

stream

Jassroom

(

m.in, Roncrs, {.conard).

Self evidenced:

(the

)|)iii

(

been turned inside out; writing takes place in advance of its occurrence, and every statesman is an author in embryo." Thus the lllusionism of politics matches that of Pop Art or Neo-Realism. An Event need never have happened. The end of the old Realism also affects the sense of the Self. Thus "Dehumanization," both in Modernism and Postmodernism, requires a revision of the literary and authorial

in

iiioMintnt,

I'otiMii.il

the Actor Making the Self. Harold Rosenberg says:

Paracritical Bibliography'

-

Camp

and comic porn-

ography. Sex as solipsist

Modern Spirit, 164-84.)

play. In

Postmodernism - by ref lexiveness,

authorial

self-

/

Antinomianism

phenomen-

Church

nouveau roman (Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet), and the linguistic

Power,

Beat

and

and

discontinuity. Evolutionof radical empiricism in art as

of the

in politics or morality.

-

(Laing),

Zen, Buddhism, Hindu-

Dionysian

ism.

But

taHsm,

and

occult.

Western

also

mysticism,

madness animism

Western

Counter

"ways" or metaphysics,

ego (Brown), Pranksters (Kesey),

from

Energy

psychedelics

the

alienation

culture, accept-

ance of discreteness and

Hip.

ethos,

w hole

existential.

spontaneity

(Leary),

Rebellion and

the mythic,

White Negro (Mailer). - Later, the post-existential

etc.

- Beyond the

the

J.D.L.,

Reaction!

(SeeVivianMercier,r/ieNew/Vove/,3-42.)

toward

Lib,

Black, Red, and Chicano

novel of Tel Quel (Sollers, Thibaudeau).

- Away from

Militants,

Women's

ieties of the

Primitivi

Weathermen,

S.D.S.,

Beckett's fiction of consciousness, var-

d.

otherwise.

Free Speech Movement,

ology (Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty),

Butor,

and

political

by the fusion of fact and fic-

tion (Capote, Wolfe, Mailer),

- The Counter Cultures,

transcenden-

witchcraft,

the

"Primitiv-

(See

- The Hippie movement.

ism" above.) - The widespread

Woodstock,

apocalyptism, sometimes

magic (Castaneda).

and

The

poetry,

rock

music

communes.

as renovation,

culture of The Whole

as

Earth Catalog. Pop.

- The primitive

The

cult of

sometimes

annihilation

-

often

both. Jesus.

new Rousseauism and Dewey ism: Human

g.

Experimentalism

- Open, discontinuous, improvisational,

indetermin-

ate, or aleatorv structures.

Ihab

Hassan End-game

iety than it appeases? Or toward a new gnosticism?

and

strategies

Both

neosurrealist modes.

the tendency

is

minimalist

reductive,

forms and lavish extravaganzas.

general,

In

formalism.

Tomkins,

77?^'

anti-

Bride and

the Bachelors.)

-

Now.

Simultaneism.

The impermanence of (scupture made of dry

art

ice

or a hole in Central Park

with

filled

the

earth),

man.

of

transcience

Absurd time. - Fantasy, play, humor, happening,

parody,

"dreck" (Barthelme). Also, increasing

self-reflexive-

"Dehumanization" above.)

- Intermedia,

the fusion of

forms,

the

realms.

An end

itional

aesthetics

on

the

confusion

work.'

to

focused or

of the

Against

of

trad-

"beauty"

"uniqueness"

The reader, no doubt, will w ant to judge for himself how much Modernism permeates the present and how much the latter contains elements of a new reality. The judgment is not always made rationally; self-love and the fear of dissolution may enter into it as much as the conflict of literary gener-

art

interpret-

ation (Sontag).

precisely because the center

Man's Rage for Chaos, Morse

tended toward Pop. Speculating further, ity

Modernism -

of

rests

on intense,

times of

ition or Yeats's

Such

playing".

And

in

fields,

is

not a

but of role-

The Art of Time, Michael

Kirby says: "Traditional aesthetics asks a particular hermetic attitude or state of mind

thatconcentrates on thesensory perception

work

[Postmodern] aesthetics no special attitude or set, and art is viewed just as anything else in life." When art is viewed like "anything else in life," Fantasy is loosened from its "objective correlatives"; Fantasy becomes supreme. of

the

makes use

.

.

.

of

Is this why Postmodern art, viewed in a Modernist perspective, creates more anx-

Author's Note 1

More

accurately, the quotation appears in a note pre-

ceding the essay. See Harry Levin, Refractions York: 1966), 271-3.

(42^

(New

elitist,

cultural, personal

-

self-generated orders in

of which the

elitist

Hemingway Code

is

Ceremony

amongst

is

is a

kind.

may no longer have a place we are, at the same

threatened as

us,

by extermination and the

more devious

orders, perhaps the last of the world's

Eleusinian mysteries,""

its

category of perceptual

crisis,

we may say that the Author-

artistic,

perhaps the starkest exemplar, and Eliot's Trad-

Peckham

tablished by convention, and that art

no longer held. Post-

modernism has tended toward artistic Anarchy in deeper complicity w ith things falHng apart - or has

instant,

argues"that art is a disjunctive category, es-

already possible to note that

is

it

w hereas Modernism - excepting Dada and Surrealism - created its own forms of artistic Authority

Yet In

Yet

ations.

under

Irony

(See

ness.

Alternatives

1 1

Calvin

(See

totalitarianism.

Anarchy or Pop of Postmodernism, or

somehow more Though my sympathies are

Fantasy, a deeper response,

inward with

destiny.'

cannot believe this to be entirely

in the present,

I

True, there

enhancement of life

is

chies of the spirit, in

so.

in certain anar-

humor and

play, in love

released and freedom of the imagination to over-

reach

itself, in a

cosmic consciousness of various-

ness as of unity.

I

by Postmodern

art,

recognize these as values intended

and see the

latter as closer,

not

only in time, but even more in tenor, to the trans-

formation of hope

itself. Still, I

wonder

if

any

art

can help to engender the motives

we must now

we can long continue

to value an art

acquire; or if

that fails us in such endeavor.

"'

A

mystery cult centered

Eleusis.

in the ancient

Greek City of

From Symbolic Exchange and Death

Jean Baudrillard Controversial

Jean

sociologist

Baudrillard

serves the term value for this second aspect of the

(1929- has produced a unique reflection on contemporary culture, indebted to Marx, to structuralism, and to Marshall McLuhan's work on electronic media. H aving earlier applied a Marxis t a nalysis to the use o f symbols in capitalist mass cult ure, Baudrillard came to regard Marxism itsel f a s such a symbol, or ideology, produced by mod ern culture. The modern image of representa-

system: every term can be related to every other,

)

tion

as rooted

ist

distinction

in

production

between

is

evident

the

in

the Marx-

epiphenomenal

ideology, the "symand the fundamental reality of the "infrastructure" (economy, or material production). But an analysis unprejudiced by this view reveals that in contemporary culture representation or the

"superstructure" (culture, bolic")

symbolic

is

primary. Like a

sociated with Pop Art and

number

Camp

their relativity, internal to the

system and consti-

tuted by binary oppositions. This definition

is

term

relation of every

to

what

it

designates, of each

signifier to its signified, like the relation of every

coin with what

it

can be exchanged against.

The first

aspect corresponds to the structural dimension of

language, the second to

Each dimension say that they

is

its

functional dimension.

separate but linked, which

mesh and

is

to

cohere. This coherence

is

characteristic of the 'classical' configuration of the linguistic sign,

under the rule of the commodity law

of value, where designation always appears as the

of writers as-

finality

of the structural operation of the langue.

Bau-

parallel

between

literature,

op-

posed to the other possible definition of value: the

this 'classical' stage

The

of signification

drillard

and the mechanics of value

views

absolute, as in Marx's analysis: use-value plays the

came to regard his formerly oppositionist of mass culture as untenable. In perhaps

his most pivotal book. Symbolic Exchange and Death (1976), he argues that the culture of elec tr onic media replaces earlier senses of reality

with a

new "hyperreality."

'

"

'

role of the horizon

exchange-values. operation (a

moment

of

and

The

the

in material

finality

is

of the system of

first qualifies

commodity

production

in

the concrete

consumption

parallel to designation in the sign), the

second relates to the exchangeability of any com-

modity (a

The

Structural Revolution of Value

for

any other under the law of equivalence

moment

parallel to the structural organisation of

the sign). Both are dialectically linked throughout

Marx's analyses and define Saussure located two dimensions to the exchange of

a rational configuration

of production, governed by political economy.

terms of the langue, which he assimilated to money.

A

given coin must be exchangeable against a real

good of some value, while on the other hand be possible to relate

it

to all the other

it

must

terms in the

monetary system. More and more, Saussure

re-

Jean Baudrillard, from Symbolic Exchange and Death (trans, lain H. Grant), from chapter 1 (pp. 6-12) and

from chapter 2

Sage

(pp. 50,

55-61, and 70-6). London:

Publications, 1993.

(42^

Jean Baudrillard

A

revolution has put an end to this 'classical'

economics of value,

which into

of value

a revolution

beyond

carries value

its

itself,

commodity form

This revolution consists

in the dislocation

of the

two aspects of the law of value, which were thought and eternally bound

to be coherent

law. Referential value t

and

referential dimension,

.

The

structural

The

is

upon the

instituted

systems of reference for

production, signification, the affect, substance and

equivalence to

this

all

a

this

'utility',

Now

all

the other stage of value has

the upper hand, a total relativity, general tation,

with

- its form of representative equivalence -

over with.

is

content,

'real'

loading the sign with the burden of gravity

commu-

combination and simulation - simulation, in

now

the sense that, from

ju.st

happen

to

(it is

be exchanged agains t

ea ch other, they do so on condition that they are n o lon ger exchanged agai nst the real ).

remove

tion of the sign:

of signification.

it

economy of

the sign'.

however, can only be regarded as makefollowing reasons:

shift, for the

finally

becomes

free,

Does

1

remain

this

question? Yes, in that

it

political-economic

a is

always a question of

value and the law of value. However, the mutation that affects

it

is

so profound

changed,

indeed

and so decisive,

economy

the content of political

annihilated,

so thoroughly

term

the

that

nothing more than an allusion. Moreover, precisely political to the extent that destruction of social relations

it is

nomics

som ething

is

always the

governed by the

rele-

it

hasbeena

entirely different

from ec o-

vant value. For a long time, however,

matter of

is

it

.

The te rm 'sign' has itself onlv an allusive va lue.

2

Since the structural law of value affects signification as

much as it does everything else, its form is not that

of the sign in general, but that of a certain organisation

which is that of the code. The code only governs

certain signs however. Just as the

value does not, at a given

comm odity law o f

moment,

signify just

any

totally indeterminate, in the struc-

dete rminant instaiic e of material production, nei-

combinatory play which succeds the previ-

ther, c onversely, does the structural law of value

indifferent tural or

The emancipa-

this 'archaic' obligation to

designate something and

and

I'his term,

on. signs are exchange d

ag ainst each other rather than against the real not that they

real

indicated this structural revolution of the law of

as if by a natural

dimension becomes autonomous by excluding the

history,

I

annihilated^ ^iviri ji the str uc-

is

ural play of value the upper liarid

death of reference.

sense of the word) of the real of production

value in the term 'political

radical form.

its

literal

and the

ous rule of determinate equivalence.

The same

signify

any pre-eminence of the sign whatever.

Marx

operation takes place at the level of labour power

This

and the production process: the annihilation of any

velope d the one in the shadow of the commodity

goal as regards the contents of production allows

while Sau ssure developed the other in t he shadow of

the latter to function as a code, and the monetary

the linguistic sign. But this illusion

sign, for tion,

example, to escape into infinite specula-

beyond

reference to a real of production, or

all

The

even to a gold-standard.

and

flotation of

signs, the flotation of 'needs'

and ends of pro-

duction, the flotation of labour itself- the ability

and

of every term

is

- no

(and

we

duties, disaffection

chantment; but

this

commut-

accompanied by speculation

a limitless inflation

liberty

money

remains

illusio n derives

tered.

from the

The commodity

fact that

must be

law of value

is

a

de,

shat-

law of

equivalences, and this law operates throughout

every sphere:

it

equally designates the equivalence

in the configuration

an d one signified a referential

of the sign, where one signifier

facilitate the rep:ulated

exchange of

conten t (the other parallel modality

total

being the linearity of the signifier, contemporaneous

and general disen-

with the linear and cumulative time of production).

a

really

have

magic, a sort of

The

classical

law of value then operates simul-

magical obligation which keeps the sign chained

taneously in every instance (language, production,

up

etc.),

to the real, capital has freed signs

'naivety' in order to deliver tion).

Neither Saussure nor

m ent of all this:

thev were

them

Marx had any

still

from

in the

me time the 'classical'

Their

dialectic

is

despite

these

latter

remaining

distinct

according to their sphere of reference.

present i-

golden age of

the dialectic of the sign and the rea l, which sa

this

into pure circula-

Conversely, the structural law of value signifies

the

the indeterminancy of every sphere in relation to

period of cap ital and value.

every other, and to their proper content (also there-

in shreds,

and the

is at

real has died

of

fore the passage

from the determinant sphere of

To

the shock of value acquiring this fantastic auton-

signs to the indeterminacy of the code).

omy. Determinacy

the sphere of material production and that of signs

is

dea cK indeterminacy holds

sway. There has been an extermination (in the

exchange their respective contents

is still

say that

too wide

Symbolic Exchange and Death c)t

the nuuk; tlus

such

clisappc.ir as

lil(.ra [[\

This process, which has for

aiul lose

their specifieiiy aloni; with their tieternunacv, to

more

the henefn of a torni of vahte, of a iD uch

work

(in the so-called 'superstructural'

economy

general assemblage, where designatio nj iiul produ c-

affects the

tion are a nnihilated

frastructural' field.

.

long tinie been

a

ami even

in culture, art, politics,

at

in sexuality

domains), today

the whole so-calletl 'in-

itself,

Here the same indeterminacy

was also con-

holds sway. And, of course, with the loss of deter-

sequent upon an extension ot the commodity law of

mination of the economic, we also lose any possi-

value and

bilitN

The

econoniN

'political

its

ot the sign'

confirmation

the level of signs,

at

whereas the structural configuration

and simultaneously puts an end

of \alue

regimes

to the

of

production, political economy, representation and signs.

W ith

tion.

Strictly

the code,

economy nor

all

simula-

this collapses into

speaking,

neither

the

economy

the political

becoming

The end

of labour.

The end

of production.

which

The

signifler/

accumulation

facilitates the

of knowledge and meaning, the linear syntagma of cumulative discourse.

And

at

the

same time, the end

of the exchange-value/use-value dialectic which

makes accumulation and

the only thing that

production possible.

T he end

of the linear

is

social

dim en-

The end of the Hnear dimension of the co mmodity. The end of the classical era ot the sign. The end of t he era of production sion of disco urse.

.

not the revolution which puts an end to is

it

according to the means of pro-

duc tion, substitutes the structural form

commodity form of

value,

historical

level.

and

In this

for the

and currently controls

ev ery aspect of the system's stratep

every

all

capital itself which ab olishes the determin-

atio n of the social

This

mutation

social

way the

formerly contradictory terms. Everywhere

legible at

is

era of simulation

we

or

opposed

dialectically

see the

the ugly in fashion, of the

same

of the true and the

left

'genesis of

and the right

false in

message, the useful and the useless

cation.

the

and culture

at

in

every media

at the level

whole

every level of signifi-

civilisation

of moral,

judgement are effaced

in

aesthetic

and

our system of

images and signs. Everything becomes undecidable, the characteristic effect of the

of the

code,

which

everywhere

domination

rests

oa the

principle of neutralisation, of indifferenceVyThis is

the generalised brothel of capital,

a

there that

is

it

Marx

important to grasp

is

it

We

are at the

end of production. In the West,

this

form coincides w ith the proclamation of the commodity law of value,

economy.

political

that

to say, with the reign of

is

nothing

First,

everything

strictly speaking:

is

produced,

is

deduced, from the

grace (God) or beneficence (nature) of an agency

w hich ates

releases or

w ithholds

its

riches. \ alue

from the reign of divine or natural

eman-

qualities

(which for us have become retrospectively confused).

The

and labour

Physiocrats

in this

We may

own.'

w ay,

still

as

saw the cycles of land

having no value of their

wonder, then, whether there

genuine law of value, since

this

law

is

without attaining rational expression.

is

a

dispatch

form

Its

cannot be separated from the inexhaustible referential substance to it is,

which

it is

bound.

in contrast to the

If there

commodity

is

law

,

a a

natural law of value.

A mu tation

shakes this edifice of a nat ural distri-

b ution or dispensing of wealth

p roduced, as

its

of equivalence Val ue

is

as

is

is

production or the

The concept

It is

measurable,

surplus-valu^

critique of political

reference. us,

is

law

generalised to everv tvpe of labou r.

and^ in consequence, so

social

its

now^ assigned to the distinct and rational

operation of human (social) labour.

The

soon as value

reference becomes labour, and

.

economy begins w ith

mode

of production as

its

of production alone allow s

by means of an analysis of that unique commod-

ity called

labour power, to extract a surplus

(a

sur-

plus-value) which controls the rational dynamics of capital as well as

its

beyond, the revolution.

Today everything has changed again. Production, the commodity form, labour power, equiva-

brothel

not for prostitution, but for substitution and mutation.

case),

The End of Production

of

All the great humanist criteria of value,

practical

any

the interruption of the code.

is

simulacra': the commutability of the beautiful and

objects, nature

in

law here,

.

announced everywhere by the commutability of

politics,

has been built up around the economic (since

of phantom principle of dissuasion.

signified dialectic

It is

determinant agency.

as the

the sign

of

end of political economy. The end of the

this,

it

'classical'

ceases to exist: they lead a secondary existence, a sort

of conceiving

Since tor two centuries historical determination

simply

com-

'

The

Physiocrats were an eighteenth-century school of

economic thinkers.

Jean Baudrillard lencc and surplus-value, which together formed the

lence,

outline of a quantitative, material and measurable

everyday

now

configuration, are

things of the past. Product-

which,

al-

relations

of

ive forces outlined another reference

though

with

contradiction

in

the

An

both

of production

aspect

unique

now

form

a social

and

called capital

Marxi.sm.

Now,

w hich

commodity law of value to the structural law of value ^and this c oincides with the obli teration ot the"sQcial form kno w n Given this, a re we still witlTm a s production a capitalist mode.^ It may be that w e are in a hypermode, or

or to

some

we

specific

absorbs

to

outcome.''

Oh

dear

capital are staked

the revolution th en

we

is

...).''

If

the

life

staked on the

mode oi

any prospect of a revolution

p roductio n.

domination, then

we

there

is

no

is

a

are always in

its

because the structural law of value

form of

illegible

plus-value.

dominant

It

social

domination,

like sur-

class or a relation offerees,

a

works w ith-

it

to replicate itsel f In the

and surplus-value ex-

capital

where

retained a use-value

it

if

w orker

the

whose

its

and

capital

was shot through with

as senseless repetition.

is

its

finality

absorbed in the pure and

is

it is

Labour revolutionises

very abjection, as

a

not

experienced soci-

commodity

potential always exceeds pure and simple

reproduction of value.

Today this

is

no longer has any references within

Even

precisely

ety through

m ore

the purest,

is

is

true that the process of production

mode of

midst. This

it

to designate the reality of a

simple reproduction of his labour power,

no longer

capital

si nce

on the other hand,

It,

this

its ow n repr oduction: Hphind rhp pmpfy allndnn

expanded reproduction of

anyway -

if

of the social and is

was used

final destruction. It

producti on,

generic production of man, then there

-

it

for the

are within neither capital nor revoluti on. If

this latter consists in a liberation

most

ploited

and death of

"^y^^,

designates,

it

lating wealth.

socialist

on the commodity law of value,

None of

production and a social objective of accumu-

social

haps this metamorphosis of capital under the sign of its

what

past, labour

form of the law of value (perhaps

merely

in the abjection

in the process of

it

the ope ration of th f

are really already within a socialist mode.-* Per-

is

an unremitting desire

of ever y historical or libidinal significance , and_

to the law of value in general,

the structural law of value

fulfils

remains true. Sign-form seizes labour and rids

in a very different ord er. Is the

bound

to play the role of

of value and the rule of capital).

the

.

ot capital

is

it

Lyotard, as the space of the workers' enjoyment

are based on the abolition of the

form

which used

historical prostitution

law of value.

capitalist

is,

no longer even the suffering of

is

commod-

demands

we have passed from

general, that

life in

is

it

becomes

the contrary promise of final emancipation (or, as in

called

N() \v

signs. It

It

revolutionary

critique

ity

framed by

internal

its

Like most practices,

social relations.

only a set of signing operations.

part of contemporary

supports

still

life.

longer a unique, historical 'praxis' giving rise to

production, remained a reference, that of social wealth.

commutable with every other sector of No more or less 'alienated', it is no

is

it

Ug,

l

is

no longer the case sinr ejahour

is

no

onger productive but has become reproductive o f

tRe ass ignation

to

labou r

w hich

is

the general habit of

w hich no longer know s w hether or not

a society

wishes to produce.

No more myths

it

of production

out violence, entirely reabsorbed without any trace

and no more contents of production: national bal-

of bloodshed into the signs which surround us,

ance sheets now merely retrace

operative everywhere in the code in finally holds its purest discourses, lects

w hich

capital

beyond the

dia-

of industry, trade and finance, beyond the

dialects of class

phase -

a

in signs,

even

which

it

held in

its

'productive'

symbolic violence inscribed everywhere in the signs

systems of

referen ce, which can no longer be found in any social

sub stance of production, nor in the certainty

ot a rever sal in

becaus e labour

any truth of labo ur power. This is

not a power,

amon gst man y. Like and consumes

it

s

has become one sign

every other sign,

itself. It is

i

it

produces

exchanged against non-

labour, leisure, in accordance with a total equiva-

(523)

a

numerical and

grow th devoid of meaning, an inflation

of the signs of accountancy over which

we can no

longer even project the phantasy of the collective will.

The

pathos of grow th

one believes any longer

whose

of the revolution.

The structural revolution of value eliminated the basis of the 'Revolution'. The loss of reference fatally affected first the revolutionary

statistical

cence It

final, it

was.

itself is

in the

dead, since no-

pathos of production,

paranoid and panic-stricken tumes-

Today

these codes are detumescent.

remains, however, more necessary than ever to

reproduce labour as

a social ritual as a reflex, as

morality, as consensus, as regulation, as the reality principle.

The

reality principle

of the

code, that

is:

an immense ritual of the signs of labour extends over society in general

matters

more

little

- since

w hether or not

it

reproduces produces. It

itself, is

it

much

by means of rituals and bound energies of production.

effective to socialise

signs than by the

it

Symbolic Exchange and Death Y(Hi arc asked only to bccoiiK- socialised, not to or to excr

j)r odiice

now

viuirseljj^this classiial elhu:

l

Vou

rule ol

I

he g.uiie which

network

network

asked

critical

only to consider value, according to the structural

analyse

definition which here takes on

appearance

arouses suspicion

cance, as one term

instead).

social sig;nili-

its full

in relation to

are

others, to function

as a sijin in the general scenario of production, just

and production now function onh

as labour

as

terms commutable with non-labour, con-

signs, as

sumption, communication,

a

etc.

multiple, inces-

sant, twisting relation across the entire

network

other signs. Labour, once voided of

energy and

its

substance (and generally disinvested),

new all

role as the

sphere of the code

An

it

into

where there was

all

he alea -

this

affairs:

of secondary existence,

th e opacity ot a pr evious

a familiarity a nd

in the traditional process

an intimacy

of labour. E\ -en the con-

cre te reality of exploitation, the violen t sociality of lab our,

is

fam iliar. This has

all

gone now and ,

jue

is

nor so miirh to the tffl'ranve abstraction ofjjhe

afion al tield

dragging

t

s ignification

where

it

of labour into an oper-

becomes

a floating variable ,

he whole imaginary of a previous

alo ng with

buried away forever beneath the

historical illusion of the

producers (and the theor-

The Three Orders of Simulacra There are three orders

life

running paral-

of simulacra,

mutations of the law of value

to the successive

since the Renaissance: -

The

counterfeit

the dominant

is

schema

from the Renaissance

classical' period,

in the

to the In-

dustrial Revolution.

- Production

is

the dominant

schema

is

the dominant

schema

in the

indus-

trial era.

- Simulation

in the

current

code-governed phase.

process of labo ur, so often described, as to the pas -

sage of every

production, the social relations

signiflers of

eticians).

lel

a sort

separated from you by

t

.

unnervingly strange state of

sudden plunge into

life,

cnl-

model of social simulation, bringing

the other categories along with

to ry

its

order to discover the elemen-

in

of

given a

is

the .Marxian categories which

of

the secontl degree of capital,

at

establishes,

it

the logical

(which categories are again only an

it

ual appearance), tar>

to destroN

is

the agencies of capital, anil e\en the

of

The

simulacrum operates on the nat-

first-order

ural law of value, the second-order

simulacrum on

the market law of value, and the third-order simu-

lacrum on the structural law of value.

i t.

Beyond the autonomisation of production

as

mode (beyond the convulsions, contradictions and

The

Industrial

Simulacrum

revolutions inherent in the mode), the code of pro-

duction must re-emerge. This

is

the dimension

A

new generation of

signs and objects arises

things are taking on today, at the end of a 'materi-

the Industrial Revolution

w h ich has succeecfed in authenticating movement of society. (Art, religion and duty have no real history for Marx - only produc-

on

a list' history it

as the real

tion has a history, or, rather, history.

An

it is

history,

it

grounds

incredible fabrication of labour and

-

signs with

tradition that will never have

and which

their status,

counterfeits, since

ucts

on

ficity

known

will

restrictions

never have to be

from the outset they w ill be prod-

The problem

a gigantic scale.

and their origin

is

of their speci-

no longer posed: technics

their origin, they have

model of fulfilment.)

dimension of the industrial simulacrum.

of this religious autonomisation of pro-

duction allows us to see that

all

of this could equally

That

is,

the series: the very possibility of two or n

identical objects.

The

relation

have been produced (this time in the sense of a stage-

longer one of an original and

production and

or reflection, but

a

scenario) fairly recently, with

totally different goals

(that

is,

than the internal

finalities

the revolution) secreted away within pro-

duction.

To

the material evidence of machines, factories, labour time, the product, salaries and

more formal, but equally

money, and the

'objective',

evidence of

surplus-value, the market, capital, to discover the

is

its

between them

tinct simulacra of

men

is

no

counterfeit, analogy

instead one of equivalence and

become

indifference. In the series, objects

objects, of the

analyse production as a code cuts across both

is

meaning only within the

production as historical reason and the generic

The end

w ith

no caste

indis-

one another and, along with that

produce them. The extinc-

tion of the original reference alone facilitates the

general law of equivalences, that possibility

The aside if

is

to say, the very

ofproduction.

entire analysis of production

we

stop regarding

it

as

w ill be sw ept

an original process.

.

Jean Baudrillard of

as the process at the origin

all

the others, but

conversely as a process which reabsorbs every original being

Up

beings.

!

and introduces

to

of identical

a series

we have considered

point,

this

production and labour as potential, as force and historical process, as a generic activity:

an ener-

re-

form and principle of an entirely

new generation of meaning. The mere

is

fact that

- whether

one

basically only

is

it

Black boy seeing two identical books for the time.

producing an

lent

infinite series

of potentially identical

om

fact that

it is

onlv a matter of attaining this indefini te

order,

'natural'

which

a definite challenge to the

is

and ultimately only

order' simulacrum and a

a

That these two technicaTpr oducts

under t he si^n of necessary

'second-

somewhat weak imaginar y

ot the

same object (which

is al so

first

are eguiva-

social labour

important i n the long term than the

technics, indus-

and economics should not hide the

alf^adv a revolu ^

15

one need only think of the stupefaction of the

tidn:

episode in the line of simulacra, that episode of

reproducibility,

less

is

serial repeFiti on

the serial repetit ion

ot individuals as labour power).

Technique

as a

rnedium gains the upper hand not only over the product's 'message'

(its

labour power, which

use-value) but also over

Marx wanted

to turn into

the revolutionary message of production. Benjamin

McLuhan saw more

so lution to the question of world maste ry. In rela-

and

tion to the era of the counterfeit, the double, the

saw that the

mirror and the theatre, games of masks and appear-

reproduction itself Production itself has no meaning:

ances, the serial and technical era of reproduction

its

wV^

basically an e ra of less ambitious scop e (the

is

much more

of

considerable di-

Walter Benjamin,

in

'The Work of Art

Age of Mechanical Reproduction', was draw out the

the

in the first to

essential implications of the principle

He shows

of reproduction."

r eproductio n

that

ab sorbs the process of pr oduction, changes goals,

and

p roducer

.

alt ers

no

its

the status of the product and th e

He shows

this in the fields

and photography, because

opened up

tories are

social finality

lost in the series.

is

it is

of art, cinema

there that

new

in the tw entieth century,

'classical' tradition

terri-

with

of productivity, placed from

in

Simulacra

Moreover, the stage of

reproduction (that

serial

of the industrial mechanism, the production the growth of reproduction, etc.)

mensions).

Marx, they

clearly than

message, the real ultimatum, lay

real

prevail over history.

models and third-

following era of simulation

order simulacra

I

treats), as the

such, in an exemplary double

at bott

!

a

which point the Marxian analysis

force' (at

not

The fabulous energies at work in

'

technology as

must ask ourselves whether production

try

O^''

Benjamin was

.

any given thing can simply be reproduced, as

beings (object-signs) by means of technics.

\

former)

is

McLuhan after him)" to grasp medium rather than a 'productive

We

order of signs

i'^^

capital

getic-economic myth proper to modernity.

rather an intervention, a particular phase, in the

\

w hole process of

also the first (with

is

line,

ephemeral. As

soon as dead labour gains the upper hand over living labour (that

is

to say, since the

tive accumulation), serial

end of primi-

production gives way to

generation through models. In this case

matter of

a reversal

it

is

of origin and end, since

forms change from the

moment

that

a all

they are

no longer mechanically reproduced, but conceived according to their very reproducibility,, their diffraction

from

a generative core called a 'model'.

We are

dealing with third-order simulacra here. Thf^re

i«;

the outset under the sign of reproduction. Today,

n o more counterfeiting of an original, as there was

however, we know that

in the first order,

all

material production

remains within the same sphere. Today we know that

it is

of reproduction (fashion, the

at the level

media, advertising, information and communications networks), at the level of carelessly used to call the

(immense

what Marx rather

faux

historical irony!), that

frais of capital'" is,

i

n the spher e

of simulacra and the code, that the unity of the

were

forms proceed according

Only attiliation

to the

In Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, trans. Harr\

(New York: Schocken, '"

Faux frais means

"

Marshall

1969).

McLuhan

(1911-80), Canadian analyst of

{\9f)l).

Medium

is

the

modulated

all

differe nces

model has any meaning, since its end any

more, but issues instead from the model, the fier

of reference', functioning as

only credible, conclusion.

industrialisation

a

We

'signi-

foregone, and the are dealing with

modern sense of the term, where

is

only

its initial

form. Modulation

more fundamental than serial reproducibility, distinct oppositions more than quantitative equivalences, and the commutation of terms is

incidental expenses.

electronic communications, author of The

Message

Zohn

to

series as th ere

models from whic h

nothing proceeds in accordance with

simulation in the "

and no more pure

in the second; there are

ultimately

more than

the law of equivalences; the structural,

not the market, law of value.

Not onlv do we not

Symbolic Exchange and Death need

to search tor the secrets of the

nique or economies,

il

is

code

iii

tec

h-

on the eontr.UN the \er\

possibihtN of inckislnal procUiciion that

we

nuisi

the genesis of the code and the sinuilacriini.

seek, in

Kvery order subsumes the previous order, just

as

the order of the counterfeit was captured h\ the

order ot

reproduction (look

serial

at

how

art

production

process of toppling into oper-

in the

is

analyses of both Benjamin and

McLuhan

stand on the borders of reproduction and simulation, at the point

where

pears and production analyses

mark

is

a decisive

referential reason disap-

seized by vertigo.

These

advance over Veblen and

Goblot, who, describing, for example, the signs of fashion

refer to a classical configuration

still

where

signs constitute a distinct material having a finality

and are used

for prestige, status

The

tiation.

and

strategy they deploy

social differen-

contemporan-

is

eous with \larx's strategy of profit and commodity,

momen where

at a

t

they could

still

speak ot a u se-

v alue of the sign, or quite simply of economics at all,

|>urel\

till

digital,

programmatic

tun/ \alue,

because therej,yas

still

a

Reaso n of the sign and

a

mand and

control.

this

.\t

le\el,

ihe question of signs and their

rational destinations, their 'real'

and

their 'imagin-

ar>', their repression, rcNcrsal, the illusions the\

fications,

a

parallel signi-

We

completely effaced.

is

seen the signs of the

have alread}

order, complex signs with

first

wealth of illusion, change with the advent of

machines into crude,

industrial, repetitive,

dull,

Th ere

echoless, functional and efficient signs.

more

still

signal s,

which become

pr o^ammatic

and

illegible,

matrices,

'hinlop-ir ar

frorn

the

ev ery

command and

a

for

which no

light

b^ufv

ye ars,

boxes whe re

black

,

lik e

ultimately,

re sponse are in ferment.

End

of the theatre of representation, the space of the conflicts

and silences of the

sign: only the black

box

of the code remains, the molecule emitting signals

our

irradiate us,

networking questions/answers signals,

and continuously

by the programme we have hardwired into

own

cells.

Whether

it is

prison

cells, electronic

we

party cells or microbiological cells

cells,

dealing with,

we

alway'

Jean Baudrillard

human

with which, however,

reason seems to be

aimed

industrial violence that

to

produce

terrified

behaviour and animal obedience. This no longer

incapable of doing without.

has any meaning. Totalitarian, bureaucratic con-

We

couldn't put

determines

its

model on the

more

it

clearly: science itself

generative formula and

discourse

its

basis of a faith in a conventional order

(and moreover not just any order, but the order of a total reduction).

this

But xMonod quickly glosses over

centration

is

schema dating from the

a

The schema

market law of value.

era of the

of equivalences

mposes the form of a general equiva Tand hence th ^ rpntmli^atinn nf a global pro-

effectively

i

Igfvf

T his

cess.

m

an archaic rationality (;-ompnrpd

is

no longer

dangerous hypothesis of 'conventional' iden-

simulation, in which

A

equivalent but a diffraction of models that plays th e

tity.

would serve science

rigid basis

better,

an

'objective' reality for example. Physics will testify

that identity

not only a postulate, but that

is

atoms when they are found quantitative state'. So,

The

reality.'*

any other discourse,

in

an 'absolute identity of two

things, since there is

objective

it is

is

it

truth

be in the same

to

convention or is

is

it

that science, like

organized on the basis of a

is

conventional logic, but, like any other ideological

it is

a single general

no lon ger the form of the general

regulative role:

equivalent , but the form of distinct npposirior\^^

We

pass from injunction to disjunction through the

code, from the ultimatum to solicitation, from obligatory passivity to

models constructed from the

outset on the basis of the subject's 'active response',

and

involvement and

'ludic' partici-

pation, towards a total environment

model made up

this subject's

reference

of incessant spontaneous responses, joyous feed-

within the processes of substance in order to justify

back and irradiated contacts. According to Nicolas

requires

discourse,

it.

'objective'

real,

a

If the principle of identity

even

if this is at

is

any way

in

'true',

the infinitesimal level of two atoms,

then the entire conventional edifice of science

which draws

The

its

from

inspiration

true and cannot be defeated.

DNA

The same

metaphysics. Sci ence explains things

been defined

that 'objectivity'

to.

is

.

is

also

goes for

w hi^'^* cnH

anrj fnrrpalised in ^^v"^"n^

subseque ntly conform all

also 'true'.

is

it

hypothesis of the genetic code

wl^ipj^

ethics that

come

a 'concr etisation of the gener al

is

festival

made up of myriad

stimuli,

and

field

of Participation miniaturised

infinitely divisible question/answers, all

netised

by

models

several great

in the

is

tests,

mag-

luminous

of the code.

Here comes the

^-^^f-

these exjilanatJOBSy^hatls^

The

Schoffer, this

ambience'j_the great

nication,

great Culture of tactile

commu-

under the sign of techno-lumino-kinetic

space and total spatio-dynamic theatre!

A

to

whole imaginary based on contact,

a sensory

sanction this objective knowledge are just systems

mimicry and

of defence and misconstrual that aim to preserve

in its entirety,

this vicious circle.^

verse of operational simulation, multi-stimulation

As

Nietzsche

'Down with

said:

all

hypotheses

that have allowed belief in a real world.'

a tactile

comes

mysticism, basically ecology to

be grafted on to this uni-

and multi-response. This incessant ful adaptation

test

of success-

naturalised by assimilating

is

it

to

animal mimicry ('the phenomenon of animals' adaptation to the colours and forms of their habitat

The Hyperrealism of Simulation

also holds for

man' - Nicolas

to the Indians

We field

have

diffractions

its

and even

magnetic

Tropisms, mimicry and empathy: the ecological

modelled polarisations,

evangelism of open systems, with positive or nega-

just defined a digital space, a

of the code w ith

Schoffer),^'"

with their 'innate sense of ecology'!

and gravitations, w ith the insistent and

be engulfed in

tive feedback, will

this breach,

with

perpetual flux of the smallest disjunctive units (the

an ideology of regulation through information that

question/answer

is

atom of disparity

cell

signification).

between

operates like the cybernetic

We

only the avatar, in accordance with a more flex-

must now measure the

ible rationality,

of control and the trad-

shock

this field

is

of the Pavlov

of mental health.

When

used to correspond to a violence of signification.

tion, desire, etc.,

become

This space was one of reactionary conditioning,

pafamsgg of Force

itional field

inspired

of repression, the police-space which

by

grammed and

the

Pavlovian

apparatus

repetitive aggression

of pro-

which we

also

reflex.

Hence

a pparatuses

.

A

:^ftd

notions of need, percepoperational, then the apfarmin g yielH

generalised,

(@)

propaganda of the

thirties.

A

crafted but

fo

amnienF

mystical ecology of

the 'niche' and the context, a simulated environ-

saw scaled up in 'hard seir advertising and the political

electro-

replaced by body attitude as the condition

^"'

French "electronic" painter (1912-92).

Symbolic Exchange and Death MKMt

cmiiIii.iIIn iiKluclin^ llu-

Aesthetic Rc-animalion'

aiul

(why not?) and the C.entie

liank

which, huih

^iiilrcs lor

'(

lor

ailiur.il

(

lor the

|>l.miK(.l

Sexual

I. tit

.eisiiie,

I

the form ot a breast, will oiler

in

'a

superlative eu|ihoria thanks to a pulsatinij ambience .

.

W orkers

.

troni

all

classes will be able to enter

these stimulating centres.

A

'

spatio-cl\namic fas-

up 'according

cination, just like 'total theatre', set

apparatus turning around

to a h\ perbolic, circular ^ \

No more scenes,

lindrical spindle'.

no more

a

be ilisteriuti

re.uK I

he

jirojeci

erailicaie all

the timtvfuu rntnan.'^

in

Here

to coiislruci a Noid arouiul the real, to

i>

psychologN and subjecliMtv Irom

order to gise

it

a

pure objecti\it\. In

in

it

tact, this is

onl> the objectivity ol the pure ga/e, an objectivity

which merely remains

finalU free of the object, but a bliiul rehiN

ot the

ga/e that scans

It

it.

easy to

is

detect the unconscious trxing to remain hidden in this circular seduction.

cuts,

indeed the impression

I'his is

made by

of meaning

the nou-

no more 'gaze\ the end of the spectacle and the

veaii

spectacular, towards the total, fusional, tactile and

lous but blind reality. Syntax and semantics have

aesthetic (and

ment.

We

dynamic simulation caricature.

environ-

total theatre,

the abject, black-humour

is

Here cruelty

maximum

and

etc.,

of which this spatio-

of Cruelty,

Theatre

his

no longer the aesthetic)

can only think of .Iriaud's

is

minimum

replaced by

'stimulus thresholds', by the inven-

tion of 'perceptual codes calculated

on the basis of

Even the good old

saturation thresholds'.

'catha r-

of the classical theatre of the passions has today

sis'

t)ecome

homeopathy by means

a

it

a wild elision

disappeared: the object

where

the col-

as advertising or

Throu^h^ reprodu ctio n

.

becomes the allegory of death, but strength trom real for its

w hich

is

its

own

own

salce, a

it

^'

vertiginous motion, the vertiginous death oTrepre-

oi

This

'objective'

becommgTRe

tetishism

the lost object

of'

no longer the object of represent ation, but

niination:(the hvperreal.

its

own

sentation within the confines of representation.

The

old illusions of

" "

this tendency.

rhetoric of the real already signals that

status has

its

been radically altered (the golden age of

the innocence of language

where what

is

There

but which

T he

it

said

need

contested,

doubled and ruptured in the imagin-

m uch

become

the object's

1.

The

detailed deconstruction of the real, the

paradigmatic close 'reading' of the object: the

flat-

tening out, linearity and seriality of part-objects. 2.

Abyssal vision:

all

the games of splitting the

object in tw o and duplicating

reduction

is

it

in

every

detail.

This

taken to be a depth, indeed a critical

metalanguage, and doubtless this was true of a reflective configuration of the sign in a dialectics

of the mirror.

From now on

this infinite refraction

nothing more than another type of

which the

it

the gaze has

its

on the sur-

to operate

are several possible modalities of this ver-

was

with the realism

-

begun

tigo of realistic simulation:

is

in solidarity

perspective and depth

molecular code.

not be doubled in an effect of reality). Surrealism still

relief,

perception of the object are over with: optics in

ritual exteV-

)

Realism had already inaugurated

microscopy

draws

destruction,

the ecstasy of denegation and

The

volatile,

also

it

imm a-

incites reality to

gaze.

from one

becomes

into another the rea l

neithe r

is

a successive

nence unde r the law enforcing authority of th e

face of things

photography

Ther e

cross-examination.

remitting

reduplication of the real, preferably through an-

me dium

only appears in court,

metaphor nor metonvmv. only

entirety, scopics, has

medium such

meticu-

scattered fragments are subjected to un-

its

lapse of reality into hyperrealism, the meticulous

other reproductive

now

in a

(both spatial and psychological) bound up with the

ot simulation.'

Ihe end of the spectacle brmgs with

roman,

itself to

real

is

no longer

seriality in

reflected, but folds in

on

the point of exhaustion.

effaces the contradiction

3. The properly serial form (Andy Warhol)." Here the paradigmatic dimension is abolished

of the real and the imaginar y. Irreality no longer

along with the syntagmatic dimension, since there

belongs to the dream or the phantasm, to a beyond

is

or a hidden interiority, but to the hallucinatory

reflexion, only a contiguity of the same: zero degree

ary.

hyperreal representt?

va nced phase insofar as

resemblance of the real

it

to itself.

n

To

the crisis of representation, the real

more ad-

Literally,

"new

this

a flexion

of forms, nor even an internal

Take this erotic photograph of

gain exit from

flexior^ ar|d reflexion

must be

twin sisters w here the fleshy reality of their bodies

off in a pure repetition. Before emerging in

and painterly neo-realism,

no longer

sealed

pop

tendency can

is

al-

invest

novel," referring to the avant-garde

French "antinovels" of the 1950s and 1960s.

^

How

annihilated by their similarity.

art

w hen the beauty of the one

Designer,

painter,

and

is

personality

do you

immediately

Andy Warhol

(1928-87) was the most famous representative of Pop Art.

t^ ;^-

^>

sr

.

;

Jean Baudrillard duplicated in the other?

one

to the other,

This

gaze can only go from all

vision.

means of n\urdering the original, but singular seduction, where the total extent

a subtle

is

also a

it is

The

and these poles enclose

of the object

is

intercepted by

its

infinite diffraction

into itself (this scenario reverses the Platonic

myth

of the reunion of two halves separated by a symbol. In the series, signs subdivide like protozoa). Perhaps this

we

is

the seduction of death, in the sense that, for

sexually differentiated beings, death

not nothingness, but quite simply the

is

perhaps

mode

of re-

production prior to sexual differentiation.

models that generate

The

chains effectively

in infinite

€

So

w e then

are

of art due to a at

the end of the real and the en

at

total

mutual reabsorptio n? No,

the level of simulacra, h vperrealisni

bo th

and the

art

by means of

real ,

sine

the apex

is

mutual

a

change of the privileges and prejudices that four

Th e

them.

hyperreal

beyond represe ntation

is

(c

Jean-Francois Lyotard, 'Esquisse d'une econom

que de I'hyperrealisme', L'Art vivant, rm_K

hy(-,vwp

w hich

it

197.

36,

" ithin ^mulation,

pntirf^ly

1

the barriers of representation rotate crazil

madness which,

a n implosive

centric, keeps

ow n

k

its

from being

far

e

gaze fixed on the centre, on

abyssal repetition

Analogous

.

to the effect

(

an internal distance from the dream, allow ing us

whi ch

say that

r emaining

is

c onfused with

doubtless only a

is

paradoxical limit, however. Binarity and digitality constitute the true generative formula

compasses ised

the others and

all

is,

in a w^ay, the stabil-

.

minimal diff^renre

^

In

secret of surrealism

the minimal

reality

paradigm' that can sustainAhe fiction of

aginary.

rneanmgX.^ combinatory of differentiation internal pamterly object as well as to the consumer

object, this simulation contracts, in

infinitesimal difference that ality

still

contemporary

more than

the point of being nothing

art, to

the

separates hyperre-

from hyperpainting. Hyperpainting claims

exhaust

itself to

to

the point of its sacrificial eclipse in

we know how

the face of the real, but

all

painting's

leaves unalte red ii

ical,

was that the most everydi

could become surreal, but only

common

is

tl

verse manner: today reality itself is hyperrealist. Tl

instants

that

and the perpetuation of

hyperrealism must be interpreted in

fact,

the 'smalle st

,

tl

thatjt^r petuates and

between two

term*;

i

only

is

,

inFfexTon

to the

are dreaming, hyperrealism

dreani becoming an integral part of a coded re alii

which en-

form of the code This does not mean pur e

repeti tion, but

we

pla y of censorship

differe nce.

This pure machinality

4.

being the only

life,

:

i

bring us closer to the generation of protozoa; sex, for us

i

e^

at privilege

w hich again arose out of art and the in Today everyday, political, social, histo

economic,

etc., reality

has already incorporate

the hyperrealist dimension of simulation so that v are

now

living entirely

of reality

cin ation

w ithin

The

.

th e 'aesthetic' halli

slogan

old

stranger than fiction', which

still

'reality

corresponded

the surrealist stage in the aestheticisation of life,

been outrun, since thereis_ no longer anv that

can possibly con front, even as

life

h;

fictic

coi

its

queror.

Reality has passed completely into

painting retreats into the border that separates the

game of

reality.

painted surface and the wall.

cybernetic stage, replaces the hot, phantasmat

prestige

is

revived in this infinitesimal difference:

hides in

also

It

the signature, the metaphysical sign of painting

and the metaphysics of representation

where

it

gaze')

and turns around

takes itself as

its

itself in

phase.

The consummate enjoyment

at the limit,

own model

(the 'pure

the compulsive

i hii\

siiiniflctl.

points bcNo ncl

si gnit'ier

represents

imply,

IcncI prcsujiposcs a ilistinciion htiwccii

and

siiiniticr

As remarks

chapters

tarlicT

to that

itselt

siaiulard

the most part, consciousness regards

the reterent ot the sign can be inteipixTed in difTei^

ent ways.

viewed sign

tends to h e

the signified

trene ral.

or ''idea l.'' Accordingly, a

believed to designate something conceptual,

an idea, image, or mental construct, or

like

to

is

In

a .-TeiTher ''real"

denote an actual object

sense and

r eason ing

mediate ideality and

reality

held

Common

in the world.

based upon

is

frequently try to

it

by insisting

while

that,

every sign carries an ''ideal" meaning^sjgmfied

meaning always points remai ns exframental-

to a "real" referent,

^ his

which

words ap-

analysis of

pears to rest on the assumption that nouns and the activity of

naming

The

language.

are normative for

former

secondary.

which

that to

is

not symmetrical.

The

traditionally regarded as primary, the

is

latter as

uses of

The meaning

refers.

it

grounds (and thus lends weight

The word,

of any word

is

Conversely, the signified to) the signifier.

therefore, remains obediently subservi-

Although not immediately evident, of signification

is

up

tied

this pattern

in the ontotheological

of consciousness. That to which consciousness

points itself

God

in effect, the

is,

"transcendental signified" that grounds the struc-

and

creatisity

within

already

productis-

consciousness

between

analysis of the relationship

and signified oxerturns the traditional

signifier

understanding of signification.

'I'he signified is nei-

ther independent of nor superior to the signifier.

To

the contrary, the signified

is

Con-

a signifier.

sciousness, therefore, deals only with signs and

never reaches the thing itself

More

precisely, the

thing itself is not an independent entity (be or "ideal") to

which

signs refer but

all

"real"

it

is

it.self a

sign.

Armed

with this insight,

it is

possible to reinter-

word "God" refers to the word "word" and that the word "word" refers to the word "God." Although the word is a sign, the pret the claim that the

signified

not independent

is

fied

signifier, the sign

is a

a sign,

is

it is

a sign

word

this

as the signi-

of a sign. Since a

stages a

the interplay of signs.

is

and qualitatively

always about another word. In

different terms, the script

is

of,

Inasmuch

different from, the signifier.

way,

drama whose

When

word

the

is

appears as writing or

it

Simultaneously inside and outside the

traditional structure of signification,

not about something;

and divinity

ture of signification. Since the "sign

the

to

always

is

'I'his

scripture.

Put differently,

(ails

ity

justice

o vertly or covertly to be the final meaning of .

and imposed upon

of,

interpretation of experience

do

understood in

he word

I'Or

its (Criterion

to

network. God, or His substitute, appears eithe r

t

measured.

signs are

all

independent

this

Ikit

itself.

word

ent to the signified.

which

b\

as external lo,

relationship between named/signi-

and name/signifier

fied

all

is

clistinguished from the sigmlier and ser\es as the

it

f

itst'H

The signified

criteTmnj2yjAb't h lo judge iiseK

a

is

ha\e alread\ indicated that

1

not alwass auare of

word

appears to be essentially ostensive or unda-

It

mentallx retereniial.

Though

itself.

actiMtN, consciousn ess a ttempts to tine

which

the signified). Insotar as

(i.e.

A Postmodern A/theology

It s hould

// is

be clear th ai

;

"writing

that something \,v]ririnp-

is

itself.^'

insi^ribes the dis -

have the same place and time of birth," the "age of

appeara nce of the transcendental signified In this

essentially theological."

This does not

way, scripnir e^ em bodies and ennrfs the denrh of

mean, of course, that every sign

refers directly

the sign

is

or even indirectly to is^that is

some

God. The point

be stressed

noti on of the transcendental signifi ed

required bv any referential sy stem that gives

priority to the sig nified

not always explicitly tal

to

ov er the

named God,

signitied juncti ons as the

truthtEat

is

SUppOSed_tp

signifier.

WHTle

the transcenden-

purported locu s"~oT

St^biliyp

all

\x\e^\xy^ivA_^

as the death of fTful ripens

God, even

closer examination of this structure of signifi-

and H

i

I

'^^s^^

w riting The disappearance of the transcendental signified closes the theological age of the sign and .

makes possible the Within the

writing.

tion, ''Logos is a

free

play

of a/theological

economy of significason that would be des-

classical

son

... a

troyed in his very presence without the present

attendance of his father.'" His father

His father who speaks

words.

A

.

Without

for

his father, he

who

answers.

him and answ ers

would be nothing

for him.

but, in

cation discloses inherent contradictions that call into question the signifier sig n

is

and

fundamental opposition between

signified.

Whethe r

the referent of the

taken to be "real" or "ideal." the distinctio n

between

signifier

and signified

i>^

arf

mHy

-^

p»-^^.i^-t

'"

Logos

is

or reason.

began [Logos]

his .

.

the Greek term

It is also

meaning "word," discourse,

the term with which John famously

Gospel ("In the beginning was the

\\

ord

.").

(54J)

\

.

Mark

C. Taylor

fact, writing.

who

says:

At

what

least that is

is

writing would thus be intimately

one

said by the

The

the father's thesis.

it is

specificity of

bound

to the

absence of the father. Such an absence can of course exist along very diverse modalities, distinctly or

have

to

through natural or violent

lost one's father,

death, through

simultaneously:

or

successively

confusedly,

random

By

"

violence or patricide."

enacting the death of the transcendent(al) Father/

word becomes the wayward,

signified, the

ous, errant "son." "Writing, the lost son (itselO: (that) the father

present."'

enc e that

,

who

is

is

word

the incarnate

alone

not, that

.

writes

.

to say,

is

m arks

not also difference. In this

spells the

death of the

God

related to Mitte,

medium.

A

suggestive extension of this word prompts further

"mean" remedy or mediThe French milieu captures various nuances of the German Mitte. Le milieu is the middle, midst, reflection. Mittel cslu also

cine.

medium, and mean. In addition

heart, center,

to

of meanings, milieu refers to one's en-

this cluster

vironment, habitat, or surroundings. Through a curious twist of meaning,

milieu

le

is

sometimes

used to designate the criminal underworld, the

Two

world of gangsters.

Mean

English words closely

and milieu are mean and medium.

related to Mitte

derives from the Latin medianus, which

is

mean

is

defined as "the middle." In this context, that

which

the middle. This intermediate

in

is

God. The death of God, however,

is

position

but

is

"xMean," of course, also designates an intermediary

the birth of the^ivine that alw ays at the

not

is

the closure of all pres-

not aFthe same time absence and

is

the end nf identify that

way

is

The word marks

'

.

rebelli-

Kingdom. Closely

the Middle

Mittel refers to measure, mean, and

same time

not only

is

other.

.

itself

agent,

.

This account of scripture cannot, of course,

who

both

who

one

i.e.

between,

be

can

and

spatial

acts

as

a

temporal.

mediator or go-

intercedes on behalf of one of the

be reduced to the common-place view of writing

parties in a conflict. In view

of issues yet to be

as the simple transcription of antecedent thoughts,

considered,

important to

recall that the sacra-

ideas, or

images from immaterial interior form to

material exterior expression.

of w riting that

negated by the disappearance of

is

the transcendental

word

that

word

is

word.

is

In

writing,

The/A word

is

This play

is a

word

signifier

function of

always marit

a

i*;

its

specificity of

any

entw inement w ithin a differential

network

"the functional condition, the condition

of possibility, for every sign."

Its

"name"

is

Within

a scriptural

economy, writing

ticulation of (the) word(s). joint

To

articulate

is

is

the arto joint.

(where only outlaws and the errant hang

out) joins by separating and separates

This

joint, this threshold, is neither

neither present nor absent. lation there

acts

on objects

sense of the

at a distance, e.g. air or ether.

word

pervading or enveloping substance or element in

which an organism the conditions of

of associations,

medium

is

lives, i.e.

"medium

fund

in the sense of middle, nei-

between

is

extremes,

and

[a]

in the sense of element, ether, matrix,

means.

This milieu marks oughly liminal. At

The margin

itself,

a

middle way that

is

thor-

this threshold, opposites cross.

however,

extremes whose mean

it

is

not reducible to the

forms.

The medium,

in

is

by

joining.

here nor there,

And yet, without articu-

only an inarticulateness, w hich

is

not

caught by any fixed pair of terms. Consequently, the milieu

is

always para-doxical. As

elsewhere, a "thing in 'para'

... is

tween inside and out. the screen which

is

It is also

a

the boundary

.

.

Mitte designates not only center but also middle, midst, mean, and

medium. For example, die goldene mean and das Reich der .Mitte is

the golden

itself,

permeable membrane con-

necting inside and outside.

It

confuses them with

inside out, dividing

.

we have seen

not only simul-

taneously on both sides of the boundary line be-

hinges on scripture.

(4AT)

this

possible to suggest that Mitte,

it is

what

environment or

its

By drawing on

its life.

one another, allowing the outside

is

This

gives rise to the notion of a

merely silence but, simply, nothing. Everything

Alitte

refers to

other words, can never be contained, captured, or

writing.

A

medium

any intervening substance through which a force

ther/nor,

The

itsel f

thing intermediate. Furthermore,

or milieu,

in itself;

mid) likew ise means some-

(medius, middle, midst,

pl^y

complex signifying web. This is

is

play of differences th ^^t forms and

refor ms the is a

is

boundaries

fixed

ments are labeled "the means of grace." "Medium"

forever an interplay.

nothing

wi thin a plav. a plav that

The

and the drama of

writing,

break down. Scripture, therefore,

of signs

embodied

is

forever liminal and eternally playful.

it is

play of the

ginal.

death of the

Since this word enacts absolute pas-

in scripture.

writing

The

signified.

father opens the reign of the

sage,

precisely this view

It is

it is

them and

in,

making the

joining them.

It

also

forms an ambiguous transition betw een one and the other."'''

This paradoxical limen or permeable

membrane can be

described as something like a

A Postmodern A/theology

Erring:

uiultrniining the siniplicit\ ot opjios-

hyttu'ti.^"^ \\\

and distinctions, "the hynicn, the lontusjoii

itions

between the

jiresent

and the noni^resent,

the inililterences

all

opjiosites ...

ol

series

etlecl

of

an operation that both sows confusion

is

It

hctwccti opposites luul stands between opposiles

What counts here

once.'

between-ness

hymen.

the

ot

hymen

I'he

medium

lection.

But

a center."

(lie

this

Mitte

the center as is

its

recol-

of the entre has nothing to

die Mttte

is

not so

much

the milieu. Moreover, this milieu

not restricted to a particular spatial or temporal

everywhere and everytime. The univer-

point.

It is

sality

of the

ate

is

disclosmg the lormatise force

W estern

the

acimenl

medium

implies that w hat

not transitory and that w hat

is

"permanent." Though always betwixt

intermedi-

is

interstitial is

between,

'n'

of negativity,

Through the en-

theological network.

an unending dialectic ol transgression,

ol

the divine milieu effects "a total negation of every-

thing which

manifest and real in consciousness

is

experience as Ciod, so as lo make possible

.uul

Thereby

ence.

a

new form of Ciod appears, but

precisely because

new form

a radically

is

it

name

longer can be given the

writing.

writing

is

manifested as the writing of God. is

opposed

to

speech, origin or orient,

life,

its

The

other (father, sun,

etc.),

once supplements and

at

word incarnate

embodied word, the God of

the

In

no

it

or image of Ciod."

This negation of Ciod ajipears as the in

a

new form of consciousness and experi-

ladicalK

figure of Thoth"

ist itbenill''^

it is

'takes

between desire

place' in the 'inter-,' in the spacing

do with

'at

the between, the in-

is

and tulfillment, between penetration and

U

a

(a

at

terms).

produces the

medium as element enveloping both once; a medium located between the two

medium terms

alonii with

within the whole

entails

it

liy

w riting inverts and subverts the dyadic structure of

but as that which

supplants

Thoth

it.

extends or opposes by repeating or replacing. By the

figure of Thoth takes shape

same token, the

takes

shape from the very thing

its

substitutes for. But into

its

thereby opposes

it

resists

it

other, and this messenger-god

itself]

passes

truly a

is

and

and god

the "eternal" time of the middle neither begins nor

of the absolute passage between opposites. If he had

ends. This universal and eternal milieu marks the

any identity - but he

where the word plays

(para)site

boundless boundary, Scripture is

The

creative/destructive all

that

divine.

milieu embodied in word and in-

scribed in/by writing

and

word appears

this

the divine milieu, and the divine milieu

is

writing.

the

Along

freely.

is

is

divine insofar as

medium

not. Writing, as

it

is

the

also imitates

obeys

it

it,

becomes

and conforms

to

at

and the subversive movement of replacement. The

universally

constitutive.

same time renders possible and

the

if

is

understood as scripture, the divine milieu

"what

by violence

god of writing

He

thus the father's other, the father,

is

thus

is

at

play of differences.""

is

it,

have emphasized,

I

be. Tie

web of

is

sign and representative,

replaces

need

himself.

interrelation

its it,

is

ences." This play of differences or differential

When

precisely the god of non-

of everything that

"structured and differing origin of differ-

the

is

- he would be that cnincidentia oppositorum to which we shall soon have recourse again. In distinguishing himself from his opposite, Thoth identity

It is,

logic

once his father, his son, and

cannot be assigned a fixed spot in the

of course, impossible to masterThoxh by the

of exclusion.

time-space

liminal

the

In

impossible, probable and improbable oppositions

of scripture, hard-and-fast oppositions are shat-

such

tered and every seemingly stable either-or

as"

eternity /time,

being/becoming, good/evil, ginary"

(though

not

infinitude/ fmitude, etc.

original)

Writing

inasmuch

"grounds" or "founds" the differences and deform

identity.

Though

that

"orias

it is

it

form

the divine milieu

never simply present or absent, all

is

is

the medium of

presence and absence. In this complex mean,

opposites, that

do not remain themselves, cross

over mto each other and thus dissolve

all

original

identitv.

petually dislocated.

is

divine milieu

nor absent but

fully present

the extent that

neither

The

nor

not insofar as

it

is

is

not;

it

is.

at the it is

It

is

is

present only to

it

is

not and

is

completely negative but affirms in negating and negates logic,

in

which

identity

partly covering the opening of the

It

not totally positive or

affirming. rests

According

on the

to

traditional

correlative principles of

and noncontradiction, such claims are

not only improper, they are actually absurd.

A membrane

per-

neither

same time absent.

insofar as

is

is

paradoxical divine

miheu presupposes

The

a "logic

of

vagina, broken during heterosexual intercourse. Derrida

"hymen" as a sign for the "between" "The Double Session." The middle is everywhere. uses

in his essay,

^ The Egyptian god, "Hermes" to the Greeks, whose name means "word," was the inventor of writing. Derrida writes of Thoth in his essav, "Plato's Pharmacy."

(@)

Mark

C. Taylor

contamination and the contamination of logic.""

The

medium

eternally errant

tiation

which

in

produced and destroyed cannot be

is

"he")

differen-

all

re-

is

imbibed and inscribed must be "played out

on the boundary which

it

has as

line

between inside and outside,

function ceaselessly to trace and

its

The

presented in distinct categories and clear concepts.

retrace. Intra

For

differences and division, the pharmakos represents

this reason, the divine milieu

not thinkable

''is

within the terms of classical logic but only within the graphics

.

.

.

of the pluirmakon.'""

ease by violating propriety and infecting purity. In

need not be destructive and can

this case, dis-ease

actually be productive. Insofar as w riting ical,

ambiguity lends scripture

pharmacological char-

its

The Greek word from which pharmaco- and

acter.

origin of

he cures - and for that, venerated and cared

- harmful evil - and for for

insofar as he incarnates the that, feared

powers of

and treated w ith caution.

Alarming and calming. Sacred and accursed.

"^^

In the ambiguous figure of the pharmakos, the

parasit-

both nourishing and debilitating. This

is

it

is

tnuros.^"^

both introjected and projected. Beneficial inso-

evil

far as

Transgressive scripture engenders incurable dis-

muros/ extra

intercourse of in the

Terminus and Dionysus

body and blood of the

Crucified

word

the cruciform

is

is

manifest

Crucified.'""

that

is

The

always

al-

pharmakon, which can mean

ready inscribed in the eternally recurring play of

"drug, medicine, or poison." Interestingly enough,

the divine milieu. Scripture marks the via crucis in

the god of w riting

which

all its

is

variants derive

supposed

however,

a

The drug he

prescribes

and

gift

destructive /)/TiTn/)//ow 'ambivalent,'

is

A

medicine man,

always something of

poison - both

makon

god of medicine, w ho

also the

is

to restore health.

is

trickster.

and

is

is

because

die

Mitte

uberall, transitoriness

ist

When

and passage no

medicine

longer need to be repressed. Arising and passing

can be welcomed as "productive and destructive

both

a

upharmakon. ''U the phar-

it is

dismemberment and

This generative/

is

Gift.^'

magician and

a

creation involves

all

every solution presupposes dissolution."'

it

force, as continual

creation.''''

constitutes the

medium in w hich opposites are opposed, the movement and the play that link them among themselves, reverses them or makes one side cross over into the other The pharnmkon is the movement,

The

the locus, and the play: (the production of) differ-

ences that establishes the thoroughgoing relativity

.

ence."

kon

.

.

Though

~

supposed

cannot be fixed.

itself

changing,

it is

its

w hich

drunk,

its

Such

drink,

its

potion,

who knows

Hocus-pocus - Hoc extraordinary

appears as

a

is

the

into

est

it

its

with

its

its

word(s):

himself

physician

the

pharmakos. Like every uncanny guest,

this unsettling trickster is

not also

an unending play of differ-

of all "things." This complex is

same time is

web of interrelations

the divine milieu. Within this nontotalizable

nothing

by

all

things

emerge and fade through the interplay of

forces.

totality,

Insofar as the

is

itself

itself,

embodied word

for

"is the

name of the

is

a kenotic process;

lute self-identity

it

empties everything of abso-

and complete self-presence. In the

eternal play of the divine milieu, nothing a

corpus meum.^" In the(se)

word(s),

is

at the

identity that

marks the death of God. In different terms, writing

medicine,

(of)

difference. Writing

all

inside,

poison.""

magic

absence and the end of

in writing spells the

not

is

eternal perishing of eternal presence,"^^ scripture

be concocted only by

the

word inscribed

presence that

all

is

to penetrate. "[I]t

introduced

a strange potion can

physician

play

marks w ith the hardness of the type,

soon to invade and inundate brew,

always

Like ink, wine, and semen, the

fluid.

first

it

is

medium whose

pharmakon always manages absorbed,

shape

Its

pharma-

form forever reforming. The pharma-

kon seems to be a liquid

completely

to fix, the

incarnate

closure of

never permitted to pass

beyond the threshold. Responsible authorities and

autonomous or causa

solely sovereign.

is

there

fully is

no

antecedent to and the ultimate origin of

sui,^^^

everything

The

else.

divine milieu renders corelative.

Thus

As

a

absolute all

relativity

of the

other things completely

consequence of the eternal cross(-

ing) of scripture, nothing stands alone

and every-

thing "originates" codependently. "Codependent

distinguished authors attempt to keep the pharmakos behind bars.

word

is

For

^"'

Intra muros/extra muros

(e.g.

of a town)/"outside the walls."

^"

Terminus was

this reason, the "site" of the

always marked by an

X

and forever bears

the sign of a cross. Since the pharmakos

is

irreduendings

cibly marginal, the

ceremony

in

which

it

(or rather

of

(e.g.

fertility,

the

means "within the walls"

Roman god

of boundaries and

of the year). Dionysus was the Greek god

wine and sensual ecstasy ("Bacchus"

Romans). ""

German means

"Gift"

in

This

mv

(J45)

is

bodv.

poison.

^" ^^'

Via crucis means

Causa

sui

means

"way of the

cross."

"self-cause."

to the

.

A Postmodern A/theology

Erring:

oritjinalion""

is

nothing; other than the noiioriiiinal

diaiel\

As the nonoriginal

oriijin that

"lounils" the cht-

and sub\erts the notion

inverts

moxement

generati\e

ot

oriijin

scripture

of

itself.

rifts

To

transcendent nor self-derived. the di\ine milieu

is

word

incarnate

i'he

ground nor grounded

characterized by radical codependence. "

is

nothing in the ground thut

ground.'"''

absolute origin.

It

and

not in the

is

sui of

divine milieu cannot be an

must be a nonoriginal "origin" or a

common

grounded "ground." Contrary to

w riting is "founded" by the differences In other words, writing

is

it

sense,

"founds."

always in other words.

never disembodied;

is

ab-

T]ht're

Since writing empties every causa

total self-possession, the

The word

{

not in the grounded^

is

nothing in the grounded that

is

is

in a relation that

is

there

scribed in writing. Since the

it

and

fold

and

is

Like an\

forever in-

word incarnates the

that,

is

according to this parable, the word

"sower, mentioned only

fell.

the sower's seed

.'

fell.

seed that

.

.

'at

the time of

.Mt would also have been consistently: 'and

Instead, he

some of

mentioned

is

The

parable

at is

about seed and about the inevitable polyvalence of failure

and success

in

sowing.

...

Or,

if one

prefers,

about the absence and departure, the necessary

it is

self-negation of the sower."

is

to a primordial, self-contained

be

word. Quite if any

word

The seminal/seminary word

must

wine. Because of

fertile.

this parable

neither accidental nor sec-

the opposite, dissemination to

By negating the sower

'

on the seed,

in order to concentrate

way from the

By

.

the start and thereafter ignored.

flow

is

.

him

easy to have retained

by dissemination.^'" Dissemination inscribes the

seminis, seed)

is

would have been quite

It

him out completely:

possible to leave

sowing, some seed

is

of marks and traces.

many

in

the start of the story,

at

immediately disappears.

alw ays the Logos Spermatikos, endlessly propagated

eternal recurrence of the divine milieu

can be read

important to recognize

is

it

appears with the disappearance of the sower. The

ondary

appears only by disappearing.

This unstoppable interplay shows that the Logos

disseminate" {disseminare:

thirty -

hundredfold."

a

text, these lines

\\a\s. In this context,

and difference,

"To

tell

up and

and brought forth grain,

soil

and

si\t\f()ld

implies that dispersal

to the free play

Other seed

thorns grew

the

yielded no grain. .And other

it

good

coincidence of presence and absence and of identity it

ot soil;

growing up and increasing and \ielding

that,

Ground and

solutely prior or undeniably primal.

grounded are separated and joined

it,

into

had no depth

the conirar\,

a/the grounded ground

differences, neither

choked

neither

is

nonetheless, ''grounds." In writing's unending pla\ of"

thorns and

tell

it

was scorched, and since

it

withereil away.

it

among seeds

all

seemingly immovable foundations and keeps everything in motion,

had no root

It

ferences constitutive ot relatne identity, writinit

'I'he

sprang up, since

It

and w hen the sun rose

origin that erases absolute orij;inalit\.

freely in liquid its

is

media

necessary

like ink, .semen,

fluency, the

and

embodied word

cannot be contained within fixed boundaries or

dis

+ semen.,

to scatter abroad, as in

gen.

sow ing seed.

always dispersed

inscribed in straight lines.

It

and diffused. Furthermore,

this scattering is not a

is

extension, dissemination refers to the action of

temporary aberration, eventually overcome. Dis-

dispersing, diffusing, broadcasting, or promulgat-

semination "can be led back neither to a present of

ing.

When translated into the present context, these

verbal affiliations suggest that the dissemination of

the

word can be understood

as its spreading, scat-

tering, diffusion, or publication.

dissemination of the word

is

The

notion of the

not, of course,

new

Consider, for example, the follow ing parabolic for-

simple origin

By

sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, w here

it

had not much

soil,

and imme-

seed,''

meaning

that

\\ estern tradition as

ation"

is

the

^^

Logos

Logos

is

Spermatikos,''''

or ^^word

usually conceived by the

reproductive (and male). "Dissemin-

name of an

essay,

and

a book,

by Derrida.

nor to an eschatological presence.

and univocacy w ith creative

sterile stability

instability

and equivo-

cacy.

embodied w ord enacts the

the extent that the

identity,

all

it

absolute self-presence and total self-

can be

itself

only in and through the

own self-emptying. Like the transcendent father, the incarnate son must also pass away. Having displaced the Lord of Hosts, word process of

becomes Derrida writes of

.

figuring what cannot return to the father, the

kenosis of

A

.

dissemination of the w ord replaces

To

mulation:

.

marks an irreducible generative multiplicity."^'

It

gressor,

its

host. is at

transgression.

The word, which

itself is a trans-

the same time a victim

The

who

invites

patricidal act of transgression

manifests the host-ility of the word. parasite host; sacrificer

is

Not only is The word

also sacrifice.

(54|)

Mark

C. Taylor

who

turns out to be a hospitable host to sit

down

at his table

and even

asks everyone

offers himself (or

our nourishment.

and drink

my

flesh

drink indeed.

my

food indeed, and

is

He who

my

eats

blood abides in me, and

flesh

blood

is

and drinks

him.

in

I

my

extend the embodiment

to

is

When

divine milieu. the

For

wine

this

of the word and to expand the fluid play of the

word proves

freely enacted, the

to

the incarnation of the divine

is

dissemination of the word the individual

While

the death of God, the

is

the crucifixion of

This dismemberment

self.

drama of

be self-consuming.

inflicts

an

incurable wound, which gives birth to erratic marks

Word becomes

flesh:

body and blood, bread and

wine. Take, eat. Take, drink.

To

anderringtraces.

eat this bread

Author's Notes Jacques Derrida, Positions, trans. A. Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981),

12

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1981),

Gay Science, trans. Walten Kaufman (New York: Random House, 1974), p. 182. Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Descent into Hell: A Study

Jacques Derrida, Speech and Phenomena, and other

of the Radical Reversal of the Christian Consciousness

Essays on Husserl's

Theor)'

(New

Allison, (Evanston,

111.:

Friedrich Nietzsche, The

J.

York: Seabury Press, 1979),

Hillis Millier,

and

p. 77.

Ibid., p. 146.

p. 53.

"Theology and Logology

ian Literature," in Religion

in Victor-

Literature: The

Derrida, Dissemination, J.

American Academy of Religion, 47 (1979): 354.

Bloom

A.

Derrida,

Bass (Chicago:

and

Writing

Difference,

of Signs,

University of Chicago Press,

et

al.,

Critic as Host," in

Deconstruction

and

Derrida, Dissemination,

have drawn definitions

Altizer, Descent into Hell, pp. 56-7.

Derrida, Dissemination, pp. 92-3.

University Press, 1971).

New

Ibid., p. 149.

Nietzsche: Contemporary' Styles of Interpretation, ed.

Ibid., p. 153.

D. B. Allison (New York: Dell, 1977), pp. 142-9.

Ibid., p. 127.

William Blake.

Ibid., p. 152.

in

Robert Scharlemann, "The Being of God

The

W hen God

(New

York: Crossroad, 1982),

kov,

Glyph, 7

&

The Self-Embodiment of God (New

Row,

1979), p. 36.

G

John Dominic Crossan,

Daniel Albright, Repre-

Kafka, Nabo-

Polyvalence

and Schoenberg (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1981), p. 2.

(34§)

in

the Imagination: Beckett,

.

W. F. Hegel, Science of Logic trans. A. \. (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), p. 457. Mark 4: 3-8.

1976), p. 14.

and

.

Nargarjuna.

p. 101.

vak (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,

sentation

Altizer,

York: Harper

Jacques Derrida, OfGrammatology, trans. G. C. Spi-

Samuel Beckett, quoted

," .

Ibid., p. 133.

Thomas J.

Not Being God: Deconstructing the History of Theism," in Altizer et al., Deconstruction and TheIs

ology

(New

(1980): 176-233, p. 225.

(New York: Oxford

"Nomad Thought,"

Harold

p. 212.

and etymologies from the Oxford English Dictionary Gilles Deleuze,

Criticism

p. 219.

Jacques Derrida, "Limited Inc abc I

D. B.

p. 211.

"The

Hillis Miller,

York: Seabury, 1979),

trans.

1978), p. 20.

Unless otherwise indicated,

trans.

Northwestern University,

1973), p. 134.

Con-

vergence of Approaches, supplement lo Journal of the

Jacques

10

Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, trans, B. Johnson (Chicago:

p. 40.

in the

of Fall: Paradox and

Parables ofJesus

road, 1980), p. 50.

31

Cliffs

Derrida, Positions,

p. 45.

Miller

(New York:

Cross-

'

'Solidarity or Objectivity?"

Richard Rorty Philosopher Richard Rorty's (1931-

)

book.

Phil-

one

which they Hve, or another actual one,

in

dis-

osophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), created great controversy in American philosophy by criticizing rece nt analytic philosophy and suggesting

consisting perhaps of a dozen heroes and heroines

that this tradition, with continental philosophy.

way

was converging on pragmatism as a postfou ndat ionalist philosop hi cal method In the succeeding decade Rorty became the most famous Ameri-

tant in time or place, or a quite imaginary one,

crit iq.uje-QJL

philoso phy, a rejecUon"oftTTe traditional philo

sophical^ pursuit

of

transcendenta

ultimate,

is

relation""ro a

immediate

from

fiction or both.

The second

to describe themselyes as standing in

is

dl^e

.

can philosopher to present a radi cal

from history or

selected

nonhnman

real ity

in the sense that

a relation betNveen

imme-

re ar ??>n l

does not deriye

it

such a

tribe, or their nation, or their

This

reality

and

their

imagined band of

-

comrades.

I

say that stories of the former

shall

l.

found ational knowl one

communicate with the public and a architects.

coding was

(.loiihle

tiiis

other

usually

'I'he

double.

itself

architecture had failed to remain credible

communicate

didn't

it

ultimate users

its

which offered technical solutions

would

it

make Thus the

didn't

with the city and history.

effectively

main argument of

the

Post-Modern

7 he Lant^uage of

and partly because

my

.irchitecture

-

effective links

solution

I

per-

ceived and defined as Post-Modern: an architecture that

was professionally based and popular

as

w ell

as

one that was based on new techniques and old

Double coding

patterns.

to simplify

means both

elite/popular and new/old and there are compel-

Today's

ling reasons for these opposite pairings.

Post-Modem

were trained by Modern-

architects

and are committed

ists,

to using

contemporary

technology- as well as facing current social reality.

These commitments

them from

are

enough

to

distinguish

or traditionalists, a point

revivalists

worth stressing since

it

creates their hybrid lan-

guage, the style of Post-Modern architecture.

same

is

The

not completely true of Post-Modern artists

and wTiters w ho may use traditional techniques of narrative

and representation

ward way. Yet

all

in a

the creators

more

who

straightfor-

could be called

Post-Modern keep something of a Modern sensibility - some intention w hich distinguishes their work from parody,

in a vivid

and

tion of the central city

to social

problems

way. The destruc-

was

historical fabric

these popular, social motives should be stressed

partly because

book

u Irmc

did in U)78 as douhle

I

ideology of progress

(usually traditional building) in order

else

ot

I

The 'death' of

estate.

its

almost equally apparent to the populace and again

concerned minority,

Modern

i-t-pt

.Modern architecture and

comhinatwn oJMoJerti techniques with

for architecture to

point

which

this da>

and the alienating housing

that of revivalists

displacement,

- whether this is

complexity,

irony,

eclecticism,

because they aren't quite the same

dance or

film,

'death' of

the

same

i'here

literature,

Modernism

a social

in Post-

Post-.Modern

in

motive for using past

an ironic way. Umberto Kco has described

in

this irony or

modern

is

nor perhaps

one finds

.Modern architecture. But even

forms

painting,

in

similar, vivid

in these fields,

social motivation that

literature there

no

is

double coding:

'I

woman and knows

cultivated

think of the post-

man w ho

attitude as that of a

loves a very

he cannot say to her,

knows

"I love you madly", because he

that she

knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland.'"

Still,

there

is a

At

this

point,

it, I

it is

say,

"As

love you madly".

having avoided

having said clearly that

He can

solution.

Barbara Cartland would put

innocence,

false

no longer possible

to

speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said

what he wanted

to say to the

woman:

that he loves

her, but he loves her in an age of lost innocence. If

the

woman

goes along with

received a declaration of love

of the two speakers will

feel

this, all

she will have

the same. Neither

innocent, both will

have accepted the challenge of the past, of the already said, which cannot be eliminated, both will consciously

of irony

.

.

.

and with pleasure play the game

But both

will

have succeeded, once

again, in speaking of love.'"

Thus Eco underlines the lover's use of PostModern double coding and extends it, of course, to

number of contemporary tactics As I mentioned in the foreword, PostModernism has the essential double meaning: the

of means and ends, writers such as John Barth have

continuation of Modernism and

felt just as restricted as

realism or any

and

goals.

The main motive is

for

obviously the social failure of

ture,

its

its

transcendence.

Post-Modern architecture

Modern

architec-

mythical 'death' announced repeatedly

over ten years. In 1968, an English tower block of housing,

Ronan

Point, suffered

'cumulative collapse' as

an explosion. In 1972,

its

many

By

becoming

the

mid

way

slab blocks of

were intentionally blown up Louis.

what was

floors gave

called after

Faced with

a restrictive

Modernism,

minimalism

a

architects forced to build in

the International Style," or using only glass and steel.

The most

notable, and perhaps the best, use

James

Stir-

ling's addition to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart.

Here

of this double coding in architecture

one can find the fabric of the

museum extended

in

city

amusing and

is

and the existing ironic

w ays. The

housing

at Pruitt-Igoe in

St

1970s, these explosions were

a quite frequent

the novelist's and poet's social use of previous forms.

method of dealing w ith

"'

Dame

wrote over '^

Cartland (1901-2000), "Queen of Romance," six

hundred romance novels.

The dominant

style of

world architecture which grew

the failures of Modernist building methods: cheap

out of the modernism of Walter Gropius,

prefabrication, lack of personal 'defensible' space

van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.

Ludwig Mies

Charles Jencks

L -shaped

palazzo form of the old gallery

and placed on But

traffic.

is

echoed

high plinth, or 'Acropolis', above the

a

is

ironically indi-

the

'fallen', like ruins, to

The resultant holes show the real construc-

ground.

tion - not the thick

marble blocks of the

real

Acrop-

but a steel frame holding stone cladding which

olis,

allows the air ventilation required by law.

on these

false ruins

we

innocence: that

One can sit

and ponder the truth of our

lost

an age which can build

live in

we

with beautiful, expressive masonry as long as

make

it

skin-deep and hang

it

on

number of

pleasure for a

-

'simplicity'

Le Corbusier

and Mies van der Rohe.

Umberto Eco, wants different values.

of the

and

To

to

like

the

lovers

of

communicate more and

signify the

museum, he has used

permanent nature

traditional rustication

forms including an Egyptian cornice,

classical

housing and

city building partly

communicate with

an open-air Pantheon, and segmental arches. These are beautiful in an understated

and conventional

Modernism, has been used Post-Modern

architect

is

deceit.'

visible at

the entry points: a steel temple outline which an-

nounces the steel in.

taxi

drop-off point, and the Modernist

canopies which

tell

to use

Hence

it.

it

the

as a strategy

of commu-

- Robert \ enturi, Hans

use popular

rf;;^/

elitist

signs in their

work

to achieve

quite different ends, and their styles are essentially

To

hybrid.

more

sicism appeals

fit

in

with the

museum -

ble their dayglo hair

is

and red

simplify, at Stuttgart the blue

handrails and vibrant polychromy

they literally resemand anoraks - while the Clas-

This

to the lovers of Schinkel.

very popular building with young and old and

a

when air^^

interviewed people there - a group oi plein

I

painters, schoolchildren

and businessmen -

found their different perceptions and

accommodated and

stretched.

on

here a tangible reality.

of this double coding

who

nicating on various levels at once. \ irtually every

modern material such as reinforced concrete. They say, 'We are beautiful like the Acropolis or Pantheon, but we small distortions, or the use of a

The extreme form

failed to

double coding, the essential definition of Post-

is

on concrete technolog> and

it

understood what

style,

meant or even known how

way, but they aren't revivaHst either because of

are also based

because

inhabitants and users

its

might not have liked the

youth that uses the

by contrast and

Stirling,

it

Graves, Arata Isozaki are the notable examples -

the values and rhetorical tropes

all

taste as

this

'straightforwardness',

celebrated by such Modernists as

do with

this reality has to

HoUein, Charles Moore, Robert Stern, Michael

reasons: 'truth to mater-

consistency',

'logical

ials',

As much of

does with technology. Modernism failed as mass-

A

a steel skeleton.

Modernist would of course deny himself and us

beauty of Post-Modern architecture

'real'

to date.

holds a very real and

this classical base

necessary parking garage, one that cated by stones which have

the most

so often called

This

I

were

tastes

The pluralism which Post-Modernism

to justify

is

not the place to recount the history of

is

Post-Modern ideological

architecture, but

and

want

I

to stress the

w hich underlie

social intentions

this

history because they are so often overlooked in the bitter debate

with Modernists. Even traditionalists '

often reduce the debate to matters of style, and thus

the public where to walk

the symbolic intentions and morality are over-

De

looked. If one reads the writings of Robert \'enturi,

These forms and colours

are reminiscent of

modern language, but

Denise Scott Brown, Christian Xorberg-Schulz, or

they are collaged onto the traditional background.'

myself, one will find the constant notion of plural-

Thus Modernism

ism, the idea that the architect

Stijl,

that quintessentially

confronts Classicism to such an

extent that both Modernists and Classicists would

be surprised,

if

not offended. There

is

not the

simple harmony and consistency of either language or world view

.

It's as if

his hybrid language

we

live in a

Stirling

were saying through

and uneasy confrontations that

complex world where we can't deny and conventional beauty, or the

either the past

different 'taste cultures' (in the ologist

good

tastes

De

Stijl

("The Style") was an Amsterdam group of

most notably represented by

inevitably

Mondrian.

to if

be articulated the architect

Classicism,

as

under

a

He

Free-

do many Post-Modernists

today, but a trace of the pluralism will and should

proper

I

would even argue

style' is

^'

Open

air,

that 'the true

not as they said Gothic, but

between the world wars,

Piet

lead,

pull this heterogeneity together

remain.

abstract painters that thrived

will

follows these hints, towards an eclectic style.

Style

and present, unwilling

and functions that have

and these

Caught between

this past

In any complex building, in any large city

building such as an office, there will be varying

may

our situation, Stirling has produced

for

soci-

Herbert Gans) and for differing views of the

life.

present and current technical and social reality.

to oversimplify

must design

words of the

outdoor.

and

some

What is Post Modernism? cck-clicisin,

ol

toiiii

fiKonipass

cciiLitcK

ami

oiiIn

l>ccaiisi-

(Ik- plur.ilisin

iiK-iapliNsital iialii\

iliis

thai

is

.ul-

»..in

our

social

...

ucrc crusluHJ, on

alter tlu- siudciits

won an extraordinary

.SolulantN

nor the

that neither the\

The feeling

ue

that

point in hislor>

is

are living through a lurning

But this niooil has

witlespreail.

been pervasive for the

two

last

huiulretl \ears, a

period of continuous transition, .\e\ertheless the

more

types of change that affect us seem

and thoroughgoing than deep

social

and

previous years, with

in

consequences. Perhaps the

political

most momentous

of some thirty under way

shift

and centralised economic planning

is

Marxism

the breakup of the Modernist paradigm of

in socialist

were

Eastern Europe

If

is

turned into a neutral zone

and China successfully

(or 'Austrianised'), if Russia

introduce 'market socialism' - a hybridisation typ-

of Post-Modernism - then these changes in

ical

economics and ideology of one third of humanity be the most fundamental

will

The

short-lived

shift in

movement

student

in

shows some of the characteristic changes and

practice.

social justice tially a

Motivated by

China in style

minority appeal for

a

and increased freedom,

was essen-

it

spontaneous, self-organising event depend-

ent on decentralising technologies such as the fax,

two-way

motor-bike,

radio,

These allowed

globally. Its style

TV

and telephone.

communication

instant

locally

and

and content were quintessentially

Mao

hybrid, mixing quotes from

with phrases

Leninist two-step: one back, one forward,

a

had

political

communicated,

seen,

and

analysed

Goddess of Democracy, w as

a

mixture of French

and the American Statue of Liberty, and

Liherte

it

was erected across from the large portrait of Mao on the

Tiananmen

square.

The music during

the long

hours of waiting varied from Chinese singing to

But

for the

there really

if

is

most part

from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony w ith

its

message of global brotherhood.

Whenever an its

international television crew sw

ung

cameras over the crow ds, up went the tw o-fmger

salute of specific

Winston Churchill. (Did

it

have some

Chinese overtone beyond 'V for

Headbands had dual-language

Victory'.^)

slogans: 'Glasnost'

above

its

beam

the instant message around China and the

under way (and the term has been used of Britain like so

it,

ate

at

When

Tiananmen Square

its

the final debacle

impact w as immedi-

throughout the globe because of television, and

it

even had some influence on the vote for democracy that

many

other

turns in direction, will take twenty to thirty years to

The

be completed.

digm -

that

previous shift to a new para-

from the Medieval

to the

Modern - was

very uneven and different for each nation,

hundred

specialisation. years.

And

it

took

This might be the time

it

Post-Modern world, except

shift to a

because of the information

much faster. If we Modern movements

flow

field

of

more than

a

takes to

that today

change

all

is

date the beginning of Postto 1960, then

we might im-

agine the paradigm as a w hole starting to dominate the competing ones - the Traditional and Modern - by the year 2000. But the Modern world

view hangs on tenaciously and,

as

Max

Planck said

of disputes in theoretical physics, one can never

Modernist in

one's opponents, only aim

to convince

backlash

architecture,

against

been

by the RIB A""

led

strong

a

Post-Modernism Britain,

in

Deconstructionsts in America and assorted Neo-

Modernists everywhere, and similar reactions can probably be found in

Many

physicists

all

still

the arts and sciences.""

won't accept the funda-

mental

reality of the uncertainty principle,

theory

and

the

many

manifestations

chaos

of Post-

science. With Einstein, who didn't want up the Modern world view of an ordered,

Modern to give

deterministic and certain cosmos, they insist that

God

doesn't play dice with the universe.

The

pre-

vailing paradigms in the science departments of

Chinese translation (again so T\' could

English-speaking world).

came

positive.^

a shift to 'post-socialism'

since the early eighties) then

broadcasting, on makeshift loudspeakers, the 'Ode to Joy'

so

information world had a feedback effect on the events themselves

to outlive them. Already there has

symbol, the

judged

quickly by the globe. ;\nd this quick reaction of the

manage

its

\e\er

events in these parts of the world been

taken from the French and American Revolutions

Indeed

the

seats

twenty-tour

In

and

their Bills of Rights.

in

it

hundred

a

upper house, the Senate.'"

work and

our time.

()|>en to

W out of

hours the Dictatorship of the Proletariat had taken

coun-

(some of w hich could be called State Capital-

tries ist).

radical

lower house, the Sejm, and in the

(Communist Party

l*olish

hail foreseen: all 161 seats that

VW),

Jiiiic 4,

landslide \ictory

was taking place

in

Poland

at the time.^ Just

'"

Solidarity

against

"" "^

is

the labor union that led the struggle

communist control

The Royal

in

Poland

in the 1980s.

Institute of British Architects.

Deconstruction

is

the

method of critical reading de-

veloped by Jacques Derrida; "Neo-Modernism"

own term

for attempts to

is

Jencks'

modify but retain xModernism.

^T)

Charles Jencks

many

Newtonian

view the w hole of know ledge, or the interconnection

in their highly

of disciplines, and on these rare occasions only

elaborated 'Neo' forms, and such orthodoxies are

imperfectly so. Perhaps in the future with the en-

universities will favour modified

mechanics and Darwinian evolution

bound

to

because they

last

the everyday

adequately,

still

world.

describe, quite

vironmental crises and the increasing globalisation

The

of the economy, communications and virtually

that

fact

Post-Newtonian and Post-Darwinian theories, of a

higher order, can explain a w ider range of phe-

nomena and encompass

the former theories,

is

not

For analogous reasons we can predict on happily

will carry

that

much

for the next

twenty years modernising and following the ideol-

ogy of Modernism. After

ernism

it,

of it, like China,

Post-Mod-

industrialised.

realise the

world

to occur.

developments that lead one

are

w orld might

the year 2000: above

paradigm by

shift to the

the crisis of the ecosphere.

all

If conservative estimates of the

greenhouse effect

by that time much of the world

are right,

will

be

involved in a rearguard action, trying to hold back the unintended consequences of modernisation, in a desperate

- the

pollution. It

to other assumptions.

of long-term warming and

inertia

may

just

attempt to slow dow n - or

be that this

common problem,

the

true,

it

Not only

grows and will

Post-Modern view

it

relates

emphasise

distortion in time, space

equivalent of war'. Conversely dict that the

some

scenarios pre-

may

lead to auto-

greenhouse effect

cratic repression

and war. Either way

Modernism and

will

their cognate practices

all

and culture.

It will

not

embrace an absolute relativism and contend that one as

scientific hypothesis is as

good

as another, or

Jean-Francois Lyotard has argued, a complete

scepticism and an end to beliefs.

Rather,

it

will

or fragmental holism,

all

master narratives and

support relative absolutism,

w hich

insists

on the develop-

ing and jumping nature of scientific growth, and all

propositions of truth are time- and

If the truths of Post-Modernism are culture-de-

pendent and grow

in time, this helps explain the

hybrid nature of its philosophy and world view;

mongrel and

it is

so continuously mixed,

ally

involved with Modernism.

why

dialectic-

Among the thirty or

consciousness of what

so shifts that have the prefix 'post', look at Post-

Post-Modern

science, ecology, has

Fordism. Like

it

been saying now

more than

for

thirty years:

and non-living things on the globe are

connected, or capable of being linked.

Modern scientists have granted such many years, although the paradigm

all

inter-

Indeed

points for

they have

worked w ith - favouring analysis, reductivism and specialisation - has not followed the implications.

Modern

perspectival

its

will force a

Also

that essential

make of modern-

it

the world hyperconscious of the limits

ideas.

moral

called 'the

emphasise the

will

developmental nature of science -

the fact that

them,

epistemology, the under-

according to immutable laws that are eternally

context-sensitive.

cialising

it.

the continuities of nature, but the time-bound,

which some philosophers have

living

in

to pollute

Post-Modern

shifts to the

standing of knowledge and how

or 'enemy', unites the globe in an ethical battle

and

whole are doomed

the world and nature as simply there, working

and post-industrialisation have

to believe the

isation.

a

is

So one of the key world w ill be a change

the various stages of urbanisation, indus-

However, there

reverse

connections betw een a grow ing economy, an ideol-

cultural nature of knowledge. Instead of regarding

trialisation

engaged

be encouraged - even

a stage of growth^ not an anti-Modern and before one country or people can

is

reaction,

reach

and not yet

rural

is still

much

all

will

forced - to emphasise the things which interact, the

ogy of constant change and waste. Those who don't

regarded as particularly significant.

of the world

we

every specialisation,

sciences have triumphed through spe-

on limited parts of reality: extremely few of

like ecology^

and ethology, have been

Modern knowledge problems into

holistic.

has progressed by analysing

their parts,

dividing to conquer,

implicates

its

all

the other 'posties' this concept

forerunner in a complicated way.

It

doesn't contend that Fordism (the large corporation

with central planning and mass-production)

is

dead,

or completely transcended, or unimportant, or no

longer

pow erful. Rather it asserts that a new level of grown - fast-changing, cre-

small businesses has

and networked by computer and an array of communicational systems - which has a compleative,

mentary existence

Post-For-

to large organisations.

may have accounted for more than of the new jobs in Italy and the United

dist enterprises

50 per cent

States during the eighties, and

now they

exist in a

hence the multiple branching of university depart-

symbiotic relationship to transnationals and big

ments and

companies, forming an economy that

hundred

investigative disciplines over the last tw o

years.

Only

a

few

fields,

phy, theology and sociology have

such

as philoso-

made

their pur-

ible

is

more

flex-

and creative than one based simply on the

Modernist and Fordist model.

What is Post-Modernism?

Author's Notes \\\ »)\Mi w riling aiul

on Post-Moilciiusiu

k'«.Iiiriiiji

architi'ctuif startiil in

I*>7.S

aiui 'I "he Rise ol

Moclcrn Architecture' was pubhsheil

and

British niajia/inc, Anlutcitun-

a

Covcnimcnt, l.iiulhoven, July H)75,

No.

Quiirtirl)\

Assiniiilion

tiscnman and Stern 1977

in a

l>«)()k

1989, p

Inner

Towti

Subsequent!)

and b>

I'or a brief history see the

'Footnote on the Term' in The Language of PtntMoJerti Architecture, fourth edition (Academy Edi-

London/Riz/oH,

tions.

L mberto

l",co.

New

Postscript to

(Harcourt Hrace Jovanovich,

67

York 1984),

Name of the Rose New ^Ork, 1984), pp.

The

my own

The Language of Post-Modern Archi-

and Current Architecture (Academy Editions,

London/Rizzoli,

Movements

New

York,

in Architecture,

1982),

and

Modem

second edition (Penguin

Books, Harmondsworth, 1985), see Paolo Portoghesi,

Modern

its

Architecture (Rizzoli,

New

York, 1982),

updated version, Postmodern (Rizzoli,

Ash, 'Revoliiiuin

)tiii:

Reiuir

in

lungars

I

\iimisl

liiiiiL\,

nf

17,

10

of course impossible to accuratel) measure the

feedback effect of the information world on e\ents (;hina anil Poland, but effect

it

in

undoubtedl) had as

can be judged b\ the authorities' attempts to counter-

and

act

distort

it,

especially in (>hina.

It

appears that

the Chinese sought to rea.ssure the international busi-

ness

///

community and convey in all

think

it's

more ob\ious

spread knowledge of the \ole

and

on

turn, have had a restraining effect 1

of normality

a picture

dealing with foreigners

reaction to the televised massacre

sion.

tecture

and

is

\(W/'

and reasonableness

p. 8.

8.

Besides

After

It

(i.uli)n

I'linotliN

Dutch

started using the term

had caught on.

it

.Sic

aiul Polaiul',

anil .Inhittuinrc

1*>75.

4,

in

Posl-

in

their suppres-

that the instant,

in

/)i/r//)'

ma\,

this

wide-

Poland (especiall\

in

Russia) immediately de-legitimised the Polish C>om-

munist Party and led directly

ment on August 24th Mazowiecki,

The

-

to the

change

in

the election of

govern-

Tadeusz

etc.

phrase 'Post-l'^ordist' starts some time

in

the

New

early 1980s in juxtaposition to the large corporation

York, 1983), and Immagini del Post-.Moderno (Edizioni

based on the model of Henry f'ord. For a discussion

Chiva, \ enice 1983). See also Heinrich Klotz, Die

of

Revision der Moderne, Postmoderne Architektur, I96G-

sively argued

1980 and Moderne und Postmoderne Architektur der

David Harvey (Black well, Oxford,

Gegenwart

1960-1980 (Friedr.

Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 1984). his notion

and

Vieweg

We

&

have debated

of Post-Modern architecture as

this has

been published

'fiction'

in Architectural Design,

7/8 (1984), Revision ofthe Modern. See sion of users and abusers of Bataille des etiquettes',

Sohn,

also

my discus-

Post-Modern

in 'La

Nouveaux plaisirs d'architecture

(Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1985), pp. 25-33.

it

within a Post-Modern context see the impres-

discussion of where

critical

and

book The Condition of Post-Modernity,

their percentages

Birch',

John Chase,

new

jobs

1989).

For

a

came from -

- see 'The Disciples of David

Inc.,

January, 1989, pp.

39^5.

Companies with fewer than 100 employees, from 1969 to 1986,

the

new

have jobs

But these

in the

USA created an average of 65"() of

according to the most reliable

statistics

can be questioned.

statistics.

46 From "A Manifesto

for Cyborgs:

Science, Teclinology, and Socialist Fenninism in tine 1980s"* Donna Haraway Inspired by

ogy

is

its

destiny,"

opposition to the notion that "biol-

much

recent feminist theory finds

naturalism, science and to some extent technology to be a threat, tools often used by a patriarchal society to justify female inferiority. The reliance of some feminists on European critical theory and hermeneutics, itself inheriting the antinaturalism and anti-positivism of phenomenology, Heidegger, the Frankfurt School,

and most

post-structuralism, has further motivated this

tendency.

In

contrast,

Haraway (1944biology,

)

anthropology,

cybernetics,

and

the

affiliation bet-

and anti-naturalism. In the following 1985 essay, she embraces posthumanism, like other postmodernists, but from social

chapter

is

sion, with

An

substantially the

same

as the

1985

ver-

minor revisions and correction of notes.

Dream

Ironic

Language

for

of a

Women

Common in the Integrated

Circuit

American feminist Donna

explores a dialogue between

humanities that rejects the usual

ween

where feminists might find provocamaps of the networks of embodied power marked by race, sex, and class. This late capitalism,

tive extraterrestrial

critique

the side of a materialist analysis, arguing for the

This chapter

myth

is

faithful to

ism. Perhaps

an effort to build an ironic

political

feminism, socialism, and material-

more

faithful as

blasphemy

is faithful,

than as reverent worship and identification. Blas-

phemy

has always seemed to require taking things

very seriously.

I

know no

better stance to adopt

from within the secular-religious, evangelical trad-

progressive, feminist potential of a "cybernetic" itions

approach to human being.

of U.S.

socialist

politics,

including the politics of

feminism. Blasphemy protects one from

the Moral Majority within, while * [Author's Note:] This article

Socialist Review, No. 80,

as a response to a

1980s from

was

first

published

in

1985. The essay originated thinking about the

the need for community. tasy.

Irony

is

still

Blasphemy

about contradictions that do not re-

socialist-feminist points of view,

in

solve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about

the tension of holding incompatible things together

because both or

cyborg manifesto tried tofindafeministplacefor con-

strategy and a political method, one

nected thinking and acting

see

its

in

profoundly contradic-

life. It

has proved

impossible to rewrite the cyborg. Cyborg's daughter

have to find

its

own matrix in another essay, start-

immune system

is

the biotechnical body's chief system of differences

in

ing from the proposition that the

(46^

about

all

humor and

are necessary

serious play.

more honored within

and

true. Irony

It is also a

socialist

I

is

rhetorical

would

like to

feminism. At the

publication, this bit of cyborgian

writing has had a surprising half

will

on

not apos-

call for political

hopes of deepeningour political and cultural debates in order to renew commitments to fundamental social change in the face of the Reagan years. The

tory worlds. Since

insisting is

Donna Haraway, pp. 190-6. 203-7, and 212-33 from "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science. Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s in Feminism/ Postmodernism (ed. Linda Nicholson). London and New York: Routledge, 1990. "

A Manifesto ironic

center ot in\

image

hl.isplicnn

ni\

laitli,

ihc

is

,

A cyborg

organism,

a CNbernelic

is

machine and organism,

a

h\brul

Social realit\

fiction.

our most important

lived social relations,

ol

creature ot social reality

a

as well as a creature ot

is

political

construction, a world-changing fiction. I'he inter-

women's movements have constructed

national

"women's experience," covered

experience

I

uncovered or dis-

collective

and

fiction

is a

political kind.

as well as

crucial

this

imagination aiul material

tact ot

This

object.

the most crucial,

on the construction

-iberation rests

ot

the consciousness, the imaginative apprehension, ot

The cyborg

oppression, and so ot possibility.

is

a

ence and politics

tratlition ol the

reproduction ol the

has been

in the late

over

life

twen-

and death,

but the boundary between science fiction and social reality

Contemporary science

fiction

is full

of cyborgs -

creatures simultaneously animal and machine,

who

populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted.

and imagination. This chapter

tor pleasure in the contusion

to

as

pow er that was not generated in the history of sexuality. Cyborg "sex'' restores some of the lovely replicative baroque in an intimacy

and w ith

(such

invertebrates

prophylactics against heterosexism).

colonization of work, a

organic

nice

Cyborg

repli-

dream of cyborg dream that makes the night-

mare of Taylorism seem cyborg orgy, coded by

theory

mode and

and bodily

cyborg

reality

Modern war

is

a

am making

as

an argu-

mapping our

social

premonition of cyborg polit-

end.

The cyborg incarnation is Nor does it mark time on

history.

in oral

lished manuscript

most

culture, Lacklein, the

most promising monsters bodied

in

hybrids of machine and organism; in short,

The

"scientific"

our ontology;

it

we

are

gives us our

condensed image of both

management of

Scientific

Management

.

a different

understand

to

our survival. it

has no truck with bisexuality, pre-Oedipal symbiosis,

unalienated labor, or other seductions to or-

sense, the cyborg has

no origin story

in the

sense; a "final" irony since the cyborg

self untied at last

An

Western

is

also the

from

Taylor

industrial

in his

work

all

dependency,

a

man

in

origin story in the \\ estern humanist

and

mother from

myth of

original unity, full-

terror, represented

whom

task of individual

all

by the phallic

humans must

separate, the

development and of

history, the

tw in potent myths inscribed most powerfully for us in psychoanalysis

theorized by Frederick \\

and perhaps the

cyborg w orlds are em-

The cyborg is a creature in a postgender w orld;

ness, bliss,

a

terrible

in

w hich we need

sense depends on the

chimeras, theorized and fabricated

is

her unpub-

non-Oedipal narratives with

logic of repression, for

in

on Lacan, Klein,'" and nuclear

we

politics.

outside salvation

symbiotic Utopia or post-Oedipal

the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic

is

world

an Oedipal calen-

As Zoe Sofoulis argues

space.

The cyborg The cyborg

a

dar, attempting to heal the terrible cleavages of

very open field."

cyborgs.

perhaps

dominations of abstract individuation, an ultimate

fruitful couplings. Foucault's

a flaccid

all

is

awful apocalyptic telos of the West's escalating

some very

are

nonnaturalist

Utopian tradition of imagining a

an imaginative resource

is

By

postmodernist,

a

the powers of the parts into a higher unity. In a

I

suggesting

time,

an

an S84 billion item in

biopolitics ics, a

al.so

is

It

ganic wholeness through a final appropriation of ail

as a fiction

and

an argument

command-control-com-

1984's U.S. defense budget. for the

in

in the

world without gender, which

like a

idyllic'

C^^I,

munication-intelligence,

ment

a

uncoupled from organic reproduction.

is

Modern production seems

is

of boundaries and for

contribute to socialist-feminist culture

gender

cation

machine

the border war

responsibility in their construction.

apocalypse.

and

in

have been the territories of production, reproduction,

between organism and machine, each conceived

of ferns

from the retlections of the

border war. Ihe stakes

Modern medicine is also full of cyborgs, of couplings coded devices,

the tradition of

culture;

ot

sell

without genesis, but maybe also a world without

an optical illusion.

is

a

mak-

trailition ol progress; the

the relation between organism and

other

and

a struggle

historical

appropriation ot nature as resource

productions

the

tor

what counts as women's experience is

ot

the tradition ot racist,

dominant capitalism, the

eftbrt

This

possibilitv

transtormalion. In the traditions of Western sci-

matter of fiction and lived experience that changes

tieth century.

ihc two jomcil

realils,

an\

structuring

centers

ot the cyborg.

Cyborgs"

for

and Marxism. Hilary Klein has

argued that both Marxism and psychoanalysis, in as

The Principles of

(1911).

their concepts of labor

and of individuation and

gender formation, depend on the plot of original

Foucault's conception of ''bio-power," regimes of

power ical

that articulate

energies.

and control human bodies and phys-

'"

lyst

Jacques Lacan and Austrian-born British psychoana-

Melanie Klein (1882-1960).

(^)

Donna Haraway must be produced

unity out of which difference

and enlisted

drama of

in a

escalating domination

The cyborg

of woman/nature.

skips the step of

guage, tool use, social behavior, mental events.

Nothing of

really convincingly settles the separation

human and

animal.

Many

people no longer

feel

many branches

original unity, of identification with nature in the

the need of such a separation; indeed,

Western sense. This

of feminist culture affirm the pleasure of connection

might lead

promise that

illegitimate

is its

to subversion of its teleology as Star

Wars/^

w ith human and other for

The cyborg

committed

Movements

living creatures.

animal rights are not irrational denials of human

to partiality,

uniqueness; they are clear-sighted recognition of

oppositional,

connection across the discredited breach of nature

No

and culture. Biology and evolutionary theory over

longer structured by the polarity of public and

the last tw o centuries have simultaneously produced

resolutely

is

and perversity.

irony, intimacy,

It is

Utopian, and completely without innocence.

private, the

cyborg defines

based partly on

by the other.

from

relationships for forming wholes

parts,

are at issue in the cyborg world. Unlike

the hopes of Frankenstein's monster, the cyborg its

of knowledge and re-

trace re-etched in ideological struggle or profes-

no longer be the resource

including those of polarity and hierarchical domin-

does not expect

as objects

household. Nature and culture

for appropriation or incorporation

ation,

modern organisms

duced the line betw een humans and animals to a faint

are rew orked; the one can

The

polis

revolution of social relations

a

in the oikos, the

a technological

father to save

ation of the garden, that

is,

it

through

a restor-

through the fabrication

of a heterosexual mate, through

its

finished whole, a city and cosmos.

completion in

a

The cyborg does

sional disputes

Within

this

between

and

life

creationism should be fought as a form of child abuse.

Biological-determinist ideology ition

opened up

meanings of human animality. There ings

breached

of the

appears in

myth

precisely

The cyborg would not recognize the Garden Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream

of

things, cyborgs signal disturbingly

of

tight coupling. Bestiality has a

if cyborgs

want

Enemy. Cyborgs needy

do not

re-

machines could be haunted; there was always the

wary of holism, but

specter of the ghost in the machine. This dualism

- they seem

idealism that was settled by a dialectical progeny

is

The main

have

to

trouble with cyborgs, of

that they are the illegitimate offspring of

But

men-

illegitimate offspring are

often exceedingly unfaithful to their origins. Their fathers, after

all,

w ill return

crucial

to the science fiction of cyborgs at the

boundary

I

want

breakdowns

to signal three

that

make

the

following political fictional (political scientific) analysis possible.

United States,

By

the late twentieth century in

scientific culture, the

tween human and animal, last

is

boundary be-

thoroughly breached.

beachheads of uniqueness have been pol-

luted, if not turned into

called spirit or history, according to taste. sically

machines

The

not

But ba-

self-moving,

self-

They could not achieve man's dream, only mock it. They were not man, designing, autonomous.

an author of himself, but only a caricature of that

amusement parks -

lan-

were otherwise was paranoid. sure. Late twentieth-century

To think they Now we are not so

popular term for the Reagan administration's anti-ballistic missile shield in the 1980s.

machines have made

thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural

and

artificial,

mind and body, self-developing

and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms

Our machines

and machines.

are disturbingly lively,

and we our-

selves frighteningly inert.

Technological determinism logical space

proposed

were

masculinist reproductive dream.

are inessential.

end of the chapter, but now

'^

status in this

structured the dialogue between materialism and

tion state sociahsm.

The

new

cycle of marriage exchange.

The second leaky distinction is between animalhuman (organism) and machine. Pre-cybernetic

militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to

I

living

and pleasurably

united front politics, but without the van-

guard party. course,

are

from other

a natural

for connection

feel for

They

transgressed. Far from

off of people

the

are not reverent; they

the cosmos.

is

name

can subvert the apocalypse of returning to

nuclear dust in the manic compulsion to

member

to see

w ailing

mean-

w here the boundary be-

signaling a

I

arguing the

much room

The cyborg

boundary.

ganic family, this time w ithout the Oedipal project.

w hy

is

for radical political people to contest for the

tween human and animal

is

only one pos-

is

in scientific culture for

not dream of community on the model of the or-

returning to dust. Perhaps that

social sciences.

framew ork, teaching modern Christian

is

only one ideo-

opened up by the reconceptions of

machine and organism which we engage

as

coded

texts

in the play of writing

through

and read-

*A

ing

woiKI." " rcNtiiali/ation"

(Ih-

jiosiniodcrnisi

posisiriKiuialist,

t\cr\thiiiii

«)1

has been

thcor)

tlanincd b> Marxists ami socialist tcininists lor

Utopian tlisrcganl tor

li\c'tl

ground the "play"

that

iii

its

relations of tloniination

of arbitrary readinj;.

cyborg myth, subvert myriad organic wholes

poem, the primitive culture, the

the

(e.g.,

biological or-

ganism). In short, the certainty of what counts as

nature

a

cence

source of insight and a promise of inno-

undermined, probably

is

with

the ontology grounding

it

ogy. Hut the alternative ness, that

is,

is

The

fatally.

scendent authorization of interpretation

W estern

tran-

is lost

and

epistemol-

not cynicism or faithles.s-

some version of abstract

existence, like

the accounts of technological determinism destroy-

"man" by

ing

the ''machine" or "meaningful pol-

"

\\

ho

Hoth chimpan/ccs and

survival.

c\

Cyborgs'

for

borgs w

be

ill

is

the ansNsers are a matter of

ijuestion,

railical

artifacts

ha\c

p(»l-

so \\h\ shoukln't wc'

itics,

The third distinction

It is

'

certainly true that postmodernist strategies, like niy

action" b\ ihe "lt\!

itical

a

Manifesto

is

a subset

of the second:

The boundary between physical and nonphysical is

very imprecise for us.

Pop physics books on

the

consequences of quantum theor\ and the indeter-

minacy principle are equivalent to the radical

They

change

get

it

I

in

a

kind of popular scientific

larlequin romances as a marker of

American white heterosexuality:

w rong, but they are on the

right subject.

.Modern machines are quintessentially microelec-

invisible.

They are everywhere and they are Modern machinery is an irreverent up-

start god,

mocking the Father's ubiquity and

tronic devices:

The silicon

ituality.

chip

is

a surface for

spir-

w riting;

it is

etched in molecular scales disturbed only by atomic * [.Author's Note:]

ment about the

.\

provocative, comprehensive argu-

and theories of postmodernism

politics

is

noise, the ultimate interference for nuclear scores.

Writing, power, and technology are old partners in

made by PVedric Jameson, who argues that postmodernism is not an option, a style among others, but a cultural

Western

dominant requiring

mechanism. Miniaturization has turned out

from within; there that gives

distance.

no longer any place from without

is

meaning

Jameson

radical reinvention of left politics

comforting fiction of

to the

also

makes

clear

critical

why one cannot be

for

or against postmodernism, an essentially moralist move.

My position is that feminists (and others) need continuous cultural reinvention, postmodernist critique, ical

old dominations of white capitalist patriarchy

e.g., into

The

seem nos-

They normalized heterogeneity, man and woman, white and black. "Advanced

innocent now:

and postmodernism release heterogeneity

capitalism"

without a norm, and

we are flattened, without subjectivity,

which requires depth, even unfriendly and drowning Clinic.

The

methods required bodies and works; we have

texts

depths. clinic's

time to write The Death of the

It is

and surfaces. Our dominations don't work by medicaliza-

and normalization anymore; they work by network-

tion

communications

ing,

redesign,

management.

stress

Normalization gives way to automation, utter redundancy.

has changed

about power; small

is

not so

our experience of

much

be

to

beautiful as pre-

eminently dangerous, as in Cruise missiles. Contrast the

TV sets of the 1950s or the news cameras of

the 1970s with the

video cameras

and histor-

materialism; only a cyborg would have a chance.

talgically

stories of the origin of civilization, but

miniaturization

are

made of

now

T\

wristbands or hand-sized

advertised.

Our

sunshine; they are

all

best machines light

and clean

because they are nothing but signals, electromagnetic waves, a section of a spectrum.

These ma-

chines are eminently portable, mobile - a matter of

immense human pain in Detroit and Singapore. People are now here near so fluid, being both material

and opaque. Cyborgs are ether, quintessence.

The

ubiquity and invisibility of cyborgs

is

pre-

why these Sunshine Belt machines are so deadly. They are as hard to see politically as materially. They are about consciousness - or its simulation."* They are floating signifiers moving

cisely

pickup trucks across Europe, blocked more ef-

Michel Foucault's Birth of the Clinic, History ofSexuality, and Discipline and Punish name a form of power at its

in

moment

and so unnatural Greenham women,' who read

of implosion.

The

discourse of biopolitics gives

by the witch-weavings of the displaced

fectively

way

to technobabble, the language of the spliced substan-

the cyborg webs of

well, than

by the

tive;

no noun

militant labor of older masculinist politics,

w hose

their

names,

ledge,

is left

listed

whole by the multinationals. These are

from one issue of Science: Tech-Know-

Genentech,

Genen-cor, Syntex,

Allergen,

Hybritech,

Compupro,

Data, Inter Systems, Cyborg Corp., Statcom Corp.,

Intertec. If

we

are imprisoned

glossia

is

ately, the

enzyme

greatest

"hardest" science

is

about the realm of

boundary confusion, the realm of pure

number, pure

spirit,

CI, cryptography, and

the

by language, then escape

from that prison-house requires language poets, cultural restriction

natural constituency needs defense jobs. Ultim-

Allelix, Agrigenetics Corp., Syntro,

Codon, Repligen; Micro-Angelo from Scion Corp., Per-

com

power very

to cut the code;

one form of radical culture

a

kind of

cyborg hetero-

politics.

\\

omen's groups who staged protests

at

Greenham,

England, against the American airbase there beginning in 1981.

Donna Haraway The new machines

preservation of potent secrets. are so clean

and Hght. Their engineers are sun

worshipers mediating

new scientific revolution dream of post industrial evoked by these clean maa

associated with the night society.

The

diseases

chines are "no

more" than

changes of an antigen

more" than

the minuscule coding

in the

and women's enforced attention

on quite new dimensions might be

a

ural

cyborg

dancing

in

to the small take

world. There

this

in

cyborg Alice taking account of these

new dimensions.

Ironically,

women making

Santa Rita

whose constructed

jail

it

might be the unnat-

chips in Asia and spiral

after

an antinuclear action

unities will guide effective op-

positional strategies.

So

my cyborg myth is about transgressed bound-

aries,

potent fusions, and dangerous possibilities

which progressive people might explore part of needed political work. is

that

most American

One

as

one

practices, symbolic formulations,

and physical

to

arti-

The Death

the analytic resources developed by

progressives have insisted on the necessary ation of technics

as a kind of

and recalled us

that

most

of

technological

fiercely

embody and spew out

form that actually manages

to building a political

to hold together witches, engineers, elders, perverts,

Christians,

enough

to

the

name of the

ity:

related not

and Leninists long

mothers,

disarm the

state.

affinity

Fission Impossible

group

in

my

by blood but by choice, the ap-

avidity.^

...

to an

The Informatics of Domination

domin-

imagined

In this attempt at an epistemological and political position,

I

would

like to

need for unity of people

principles of design.

The frame

w orldw ide I

analogous in

in an its

in the nature

of

we are living through a move-

us to contest for meanings, as well as for other

ment from an

forms of power and pleasure in technologically

morphous, information system - from

mediated

all

perspective, a cyborg world

is

about

planet, about the final abstraction

Star

Wars apocalypse waged

embodied

in the

fense, about the final appropriation of

bodies in

a

masculinist orgy of war.

'

in a

name of dewomen's

From

another

organic, industrial society to a poly-

play, a deadly

and

class, race,

novelty and scope to that created by

industrial capitalism;

the final imposition of a grid of control on the

in

and tech-

emerging system of world order

perverse shift of perspective might better enable

societies.

set

argue for a politics rooted in claims about

more

a slightly

my sketch is

social relations tied to science

and gender

But

for

by the extent and importance of rearrangements

trying to resist worldwide intensification of dominacute.

sketch a picture of possible

unity, a picture indebted to socialist and feminist

of my premises

From one

is

town. (Affin-

peal of one chemical nuclear group for another,

fundamental changes

ation has never been

the tools

committed

and

apocalypse,

nology.

that the

cyborg society, dedi-

cated to realistically converting the laboratories

organic body to integrate our resistance. Another is

hope

and recou-

imagine the Livermore Action

to

LAG,"

hardly

for resistance

social

with high technology and scientific

From One-Dimensional Man

of Nature,

like

I

Group,

we could

circumstances,

more potent myths

for

unities

our present

in

illegitimate;

and feminists see

socialists

machine, idealism and materialism in the

culture.

once

of my premises

deepened dualisms of mind and body, animal and

facts associated

monstrous and

pling.

with dollhouses,

many-headed monsters. Cyborg

vision or are

the old fascination of girls

at

Single vision produces worse illusions than double

political

women,

Anglo-Saxon Victorian

from both perspectives

to see

is

unimaginable from the other vantage point.

bilities

immune system, "no The "nimble"

the experience of stress.

fingers of "Oriental" little

struggle

because each reveals both dominations and possi-

all

work

to

game. Simultaneously material

ideological, the dichotomies

may be

in the following chart of transitions

expressed

from the com-

fortable old hierarchical dominations to the scary

new networks ination:

I

[Note:

have called the informatics of domIn

the

original

the

following

columns appeared together on one page.]

perspective, a cyborg world might be about lived social

and bodily

realities

in

which people are

^'

Anti-nuclear

group,

which protested against the

not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and

United States' nuclear weapons research laboratory, Law-

machines, not afraid of permanently partial iden-

rence Livermore National Laboratory, near Oakland,

tities

and contradictory standpoints. The

political

California.

"A Manifesto Reprt'scnlation

Sinuilaiion

Bourgeois

Science

iioNtl, tcalisni

fiition, |)(»siin()ikrnistn

Oriianisni

Biotic compoiKiii

Depth,

Surface, bouiular\

iiileiiiity

Noise

Heat Biology as clinical practice

Biology as inscription

PhysioIogN

Communications engineering

Small group

Subsystem

Pertection

Optimization

Eugenics

Population Control

Decadence, Mu^^lr Monntdin

Obsolescence, I'ulutr Shod-'"

Hygiene

Stress

Microbiolog), tuberculosis

Immunology, AIDS

Organic division

management

Ergonomics/cybernetics

ot labor

ol labor

Modular construction

Functional specialization

Reproduction

Replication

Organic sex role specialization

Optimal genetic

Biological determinism

Evolutionary inertia, constraints

Community Scientific

strategies

Ecosystem

ecology

Neo-imperialism, United Nations humanism

Racial chain of being

management

in

home/factory

Global factory/electronic cottage

Family /market/ factory

Women

Family wage

Comparable worth

Public/private

Cyborg

Nature/culture

Fields of difference

in the integrated circuit

citizenship

Cooperation

Communications enhancement

Freud

Lacan

Sex

Genetic engineering

Labor

Robotics

Mind

Artificial intelligence

World War II White capitalist patriarchy

Star

This

list

on the right-hand side cannot be

as "natural," a realization that subverts nat-

uralistic

coding for the left-hand side as well.

cannot go back ideologically or materially. just that

"god"

is

dead; so

is

and biotechnological

boundary

constraints,

fellows in jointly

Or both w ith microelecmust think not

rates

of

is

flows,

one kind of reproductive strategy

among many, with

costs

and benefits

corporate executives reading Playboy and

not

systems logics, costs of lowering constraints. Sexual reproduction

ically

anti-porn radical feminists will

terms of essential properties, but in terms of

design,

reasoning will be unmasked as irrational, and iron-

We

politics. In relation to

objects like biotic components, one in

It's

Such

natural objects hke organisms and families.

gies

about

human

make

unmasking the

Likewise for race,

the "goddess."

are revivified in the worlds charged

tronic

Wars

Informatics of domination

suggests several interesting things.*^

First, the objects

coded

for Cyborgs'

racist

and

strange bed-

irrationalism. anti-racist ideolo-

diversity have to be formulated in

terms of frequencies of parameters.

It

is

"ir-

rational" to invoke concepts like primitive and civilized.

For

liberals

and

radicals,

integrated social systems gives tice called

way

the search for to a

"experimental ethnography"

new in

prac-

which

an organic object dissipates in attention to the play

as a function

of the system environment. Ideologies of sexual

^"

reproduction can no longer reasonably

Mountain (1924), versus

call

on

notions of sex and sex role as organic aspects in

Thomas Mann's (1873-1955)

fiction future

Ah in

Shock (1970).

novel.

The Magic

Toffler's (1928-

)

non-

Donna Haraway of writing.

At the

level of ideolog\

we

,

see transla-

and colonialism into languages of

tions of racism

development and underdevelopment, constraints of modernization.

Any

rates

and

public and private, nature and culture,

women,

primitive and civilized are

ideologically.

The actual

all

men and

in question

situation of women

is

their

objects or per-

integration/exploitation into a world system of pro-

sons can be "reasonably" thought of in terms of

duction/reproduction and communication called

disassembly and reassembly; no ''natural" architectures constrain system design. districts in

The

financial

the world's cities, as well as the

all

e.xport-processing and free-trade zones, proclaim this

elementary

fact

of "late capitalism."

universe of objects that can be

must be formulated

known

problems

as

in

The entire

scientifically

communications

engineering (for the managers) or theories of the text (for those

who would

resist).

Both are cyborg

semiologies.

One rates

integrity of natural objects. "Integrity" or "sincer-

ity" of the

Western

self gives

w ay

to decision pro-

cedures and expert systems. For example, control

women's

strategies applied to

birth to

new human beings

be developed in

the languages of population control and maximiza-

achievement for individual decision-

tion of goal

make potent

oppositional international

subsystem, must be localized in ture

w hose

basic

istic, statistical.

a

system architec-

modes of operation

No

are probabil-

objects, spaces, or bodies are

sacred in themselves; any faced with any other

if

component can be

common

dressed

to

technology,

is

through theory and practice ad-

the

The cyborg bled, is

is

a

capitalist

The

kind of disassembled and reassem-

postmodern

collective

language. Exchange in this

Marx

analyzed so well.

pathology affecting

much more

is

The cyborg

is

kinds of

all

stress

- communi-

not subject to

potent field of operations. Dis-

This kind of analysis of ally since

World

self.

This

Communications technologies and biotechnologies are the crucial

These

tools

tions for

women

our bodies.

tools recrafting

embody and

enforce new social rela-

worldwide. Technologies and

sci-

can be partially understood as as frozen

is,

moments, of the

fluid social interactions constituting

them, but they

should also be view ed as instruments for enforcing

meanings.

and

The boundary is permeable betw een tool

myth,

instrument

and

concept,

historical

Indeed,

scientific

myth and

tool

mutually constitute each

other.

Furthermore,

communications

sciences

and

modern biologies are constructed by a common move - the translation of the w orld into a problem of coding, a search for a

common language in which

resistance to instrumental control disappears

all

and

all

heterogeneity can be submitted to disassem-

and exchange.

bly, reassembly, investment,

In communications sciences, the translation of

cursive constructions are no joke.

objects of knowledge

and personal

must code.

the self feminists

of possible bodies, including objects of know ledge.

Foucault's biopolitics; the cyborg simulates politics, a

structuring our imaginations.

the proper standard, the

in this universe

cations breakdown.

systems of

the

systems of social relations and historical anatomies

markets that

privileged

components

of science and

relations

social

including crucially

myth and meanings

world transcends the universal translation effected

by

One

inter-

proper code, can be constructed for processing signals in a

which

important route for reconstructing socialist-femi-

formalizations, that

component or

all

movements

imagine and essential for survival.

difficult to

terms of rates, costs of constraints, degrees of freebeings, like any other

-

infinite,

are very different for different people and

entific discourses

Human

itself

polymorphous ways, with large consequences for others - consequences that themselves

makers. Control strategies will be formulated in

dom.

body

women and

capacities to give

will

The home, work

can be dispersed and interfaced in nearly

nist politics

should expect control strategies to concen-

on boundary conditions and interfaces, on of flow across boundaries - and not on the

trate

the informatics of domination. place, market, public arena, the

and cultural

w hich have appeared

historic-

W ar II prepares us to notice some

the w orld into a problem in coding can be illustrated

by looking

at

cybernetic

(feedback

controlled)

systems theories applied to telephone technology,

important inadequacies in feminist analysis which

computer design, weapons deployment, or data-

has proceeded as

base construction and maintenance. In each case,

if the

organic, hierarchical dualism

ordering discourse in the West since Aristotle ruled.

They have been

(Sofoulis) might put

digested."

cannibalized, or as it,

still

Zoe Sofia

they have been "techno-

The dichotomies between mind and

body, animal and human, organism and machine.

(@)

solution to the key questions rests on a theory of

language and control; the key operation

mining the

rates, directions,

is

deter-

and probabilities of

flow of a quantity called information.

The w orld

is

subdivided by boundaries differentially permeable

.

"A Manifesto iiitormatioii.

to

liitoriiiation

thai

|iist

is

quantifiable clcniciit (iimt, basis ol

kiiul

ol

which

iiiiit\)

allows universal translation and so unhiiukird in-

strumental power (called etleclive connnunication).

The

biggest threat to such

power

interruption ot

is

communication. Any system breakdown tion of stress.

The fundamentals

is

a

func-

of this technology

nical basis ol siimil.ui.i,

ih.ii

is,

ol

Cyborgs'

for

copus wiihoui

originals.

Microelectronics

the

mciliates

translations

word processing,

labor into robotics and

ot

sex into

genetic engineering and reproductive techn»)logies,

and mind into

artificial

new

The

procedures.

intelligence

and decision

biotechnologies

concern

reproduction.

Biology

human

can be condensed into the metaphor C'l, conimand-

more

control-communicat ion-intelligence, the military's

as a

symbol

materials and processes has revolutionary implica-

In

for its operations theor)

modern

into a

biologies, the translation of the world

problem

in

coding can be illustrated by

molecular genetics, ecology, sociobiological evolu-

The organism

tionary theory, and immunobiology.

has been translated into problems of genetic coding a writing technology,

and read-out. Biotechnology,

In a sense, organisms

informs research broadly.

have ceased to exist as objects of knowledge, giving

way

perhaps most obvious today

tions for industry,

of fermentation, agriculture, and energy,

in areas

(.ommunicalions sciences and biology are construc-

which

organism

is

thoroughly blurred; mind, body, and

national" material organization of the production

and reproduction of daily

analogous

organization of the production and reproduction

ecology could be examined by probing

of culture and imagination seem equally implicated.

is,

devices.

life

The

tem. Immunobiology and associated medical prac-

and superstructure, public and

tices are rich

exemplars of the privilege of coding

and

of knowledge, as

I

and recognition systems

as objects

constructions of bodily reality for us. Biology here a

king of cryptography. Research

is

necessarily a

A

kind of intelligence activity. Ironies abound. stressed system goes awry;

cesses break

down;

it fails

its

communication pro-

to recognize the differ-

ence between self and other.

Human

baboon hearts evoke national

ethical perplexity

for animal-rights activists at least as

the guardians of States gay

human

men and

babies with

much

-

as for

disease

boundary-maintaining

ideal never

seemed more

of

images

women

in

through the ogy.'^

a

world

feeble.

name

women

the situation of

intimately

restructured

of science and technol-

use the odd circumlocution, "the social

I

and technology,"

relations of science

we

so

social relations

base

private, or material

have used Rachel Grossman's image of

in the integrated circuit to

that

and the symbolic

are not dealing

minism, but with

upon structured

w ith

a historical

relations

to indicate

a technological deter-

system depending

among

people. But the

In the United

phrase should also indicate that science and tech-

intravenous drug users are the

nology provide fresh sources of power, that we need

purity.

most "privileged" victims of an awful immunesystem

in

and

on very intimate terms. The "multi-

are

tool

machine

between

difference

the

the history and utility of the concept of the ecosys-

is

knowledge

tions of natural-technical objects of

The

components, that

information-processing in

powerful engineering science for redesigning

special kinds of

to biotic

moves

than

marks

that

on

(inscribes

the

fresh

sources of analysis and political action.

Some

of the rearrangements of race, sex, and class

body) confusion of boundaries and moral pollu-

rooted in high-tech-facilitated social relations can

tion.

make

But these excursions

into

communications

sci-

socialist

feminism more relevant

progressive politics.

.

.

to effective

.

ences and biology have been at a rarefied level; there is

a

my

mundane,

economic

largely

support

reality to

claim that these sciences and technologies indi-

fundamental transformations

cate

of the world for us. Communications technologies

depend on national

electronics.

corporations,

Modern military

states,

power,

multiwelfare-

state apparatuses, satellite systems, political pro-

cesses, fabrication of trol

our imaginations, labor-con-

systems, medical constructions of our bodies,

commercial pornography, the international division of labor, and religious evangelism depend intimately

upon

Women in the Integrated

Circuit

in the structure

electronics. Microelectronics

is

the tech-

Let ical

me summarize locations

in

as these positions

through the ogy. If

it

the picture of w omen's histor-

advanced

industrial

societies,

have been restructured partly

social relations

of science and technol-

w as ever possible ideologically

to charac-

women's lives by the distinction of public and private domains - suggested by images of the division of working-class life into factory and home, terize

of bourgeois

life

into

market and home, and of

cm)

Donna Haraway gender existence into personal and

-

realms

political

now a totally misleading ideology, even to show how both terms of these dichotomies conit

is

transfer;

market

intensified

abstraction

Utopian

fective

or

equivalent

cynical

theories

prefer

of community; extreme mobility (abstraction) of

network ideological image, suggesting the profu-

marketing/financing systems; interpenetration of

struct each other in practice a

funds

(commodification) of experience, resulting in inef-

and

in theory.

I

sion of spaces and identities and the permeability of

boundaries

"Networking"

politic.

and

in the personal is

body and

both

body

in the

is

me

let

Continued intense sexual and

Place:

of labor, but considerable growth

racial division

of membership in privileged occupational categor-

for oppositional cyborgs.

So

Work

Paid

a feminist practice

multinational corporate strategy - weaving

a

sexual and labor markets; intensified sexualization

of abstracted and alienated consumption.

return to the earlier image of the

many

for

ies

women and

white

people of color;

informatics of domination and trace one vision of

impact of new technologies on women's work

women's

clerical,

''place'' in the integrated circuit,

touching

in

manufacturing (especially tex-

service,

only a few idealized social locations seen primarily

tiles),

from the point of view of advanced

structuring of the working classes; development

capitalist soci-

Home, Market, Paid Work

eties:

School,

these idealized spaces

is

Place,

and

logically

State,

Each of

and Church.

Clinic-Hospital,

practically

implied in every other locus, perhaps analogous to

agriculture,

electronics;

of new time arrangements to

work economy

(flex

international

home-

facilitate the

part time,

time,

re-

overtime,

no time); homework and out work; increased pressures for two-tiered

wage

structures; significant

impact of the social relations mediated and en-

numbers of people in cash-dependent populations worldw ide w ith no experience or no further hope of

forced by the new technologies in order to help

stable

a

holographic photograph.

I

want

to suggest the

needed analysis and practical work.

formulate

However, there

is

no "place"

for

women

in these

networks, only geometries of difference and contradiction crucial to

how

learn life,

w omen's cyborg

identities. If

w ebs of pow er and

to read these

we

social

we might learn new couplings, new coalitions. is no way to read the following list from a

There

standpoint of ''identification," of

The

issue

The

dispersion.

is

task

a is

unitary

self.

to survive in

ogamy,

\\

omen-headed households,

flight

serial

mon-

women alone, technology home work, reemergence of

of men, old

of domestic work, paid

home

Continued erosion of the welfare

State:

sweatshops, home-based businesses and tele-

commuting, electronic

urban homeless-

cottage,

module

state;

decentralizations with increased surveillance and citizenship

control;

and

political

by

imperialism

telematics;

power broadly

the form of in-

in

formation-rich/information-poor

differentiation;

increased high-tech militarization increasingly op-

posed by many

social groups; reduction of civil

service

a

jobs

as

result

of the growing capital

intensification of office work,

diaspora.

Home:

employment; most labor "marginal" or

"feminized."

for

with implications

women

occupational mobility for

of color;

grow ing privatization of material and ideological life

and culture; close integration of privatization

and militarization, the high-tech forms of bourgeois capitalist personal and public

life;

invisibility

architecture, reinforced

of different social groups to each other, linked to

(simulated) nuclear family, intense domestic vio-

psychological mechanisms of belief in abstract en-

lence.

emies.

ness, migration,

Market: work, new

ly

Women's

continuing

targeted to

buy the profusion of new

production from the new technologies (especially competitive race

as the

among

industrialized and

industrializing nations to avoid dangerous

unemployment

finding ever

mass

needs and public education

at all levels, differenti-

ated by race, class, and gender; managerial classes

involved in educational reform and refunding at the

of remaining

cost

progressive

educational

bigger

democratic structures for children and teachers;

needed commod-

education for mass ignorance and repression in

bimodal buying power, coupled w ith adver-

technocratic and militarized culture; grow ing anti-

numerous

science mystery cults in dissenting and radical

new markets ities);

necessitates

School: Deepening coupling of high-tech capital

consumption

for ever less clearly

tising targeting of the

affluent groups

and neglect of the previous mass markets; grow-

political

ing importance of informal markets in labor and

fic

commodities

color;

parallel to high-tech, affluent

market

structures; surveillance systems through electronic

(@)

movements; continued

illiteracy

relative

scienti-

among white women and people of

growing industrial direction of education

(especially

higher

education)

by

science-based

Manifesto

'A

nuiltin.itioiials (paiiiciil.irls in

catcil,

miimrous

ckclionKs-

companies);

tcchnoloiry-tlcpcnclc-ni

.iiul

hiiilih

hioiilii-

prourcssiMK hnnotlal

clilcs in a

1

Clinic-Hospital:

renegotiations

relations;

machine body

Intensified

public

ot

which channel personal experience particular!)

Marxisms

their

own domination

repr()ducti\e jioiitics in response

tensification of

world historical implications

ot

women's unreal-

ized, potential control of their relation to repro-

duction; emergence of

new

diseases; struggles o\er

meanings and means

historically

specific ot

health in environments pervaded by high-technol-

all

to

remember

in late capitalism.

what

that

the

in

face

otten

is

in

crucial

virulent

naturalized

nostalgically

of current

It is

perhaps especiall>

is lost,

oppression,

of

like

and people's complicitN

from women's points of view, tbrms

have

understanding what can only look

trouble

the body,

immune

lo

domination best and

see

consciousness

system functions, and "stress" phenomena; in-

nlaiioii

lor excellent reasons,

se\ualit\, anil rc|^roiluction.

talse

ot

wonun's

ui\

li-i (.111

metaphors

relation to reproduction,

in

Willi Hi

aspects ol work, culuire, proiluclion of knowledge,

most

socictN

to

laic

Cyborgs"

for

Ambivalence

violation.

toward the disrupted unities mediated by highculture

tech

requires

sorting consciousness

not

into categories of "clear-sighted critique a solid political

grounding

epistemology" versus "manipulated

ogy products and processes; continuing feminiza-

false

tion ot health work; intensified struggle over state

of emerging pleasures, experiences, and powers

responsibility for health; continued ideological role ot

popular health movements as

American

major form of

a

"super-

saver" preachers solemnizing the union of electronic capital fied

and automated

importance

fetish gods; intensi-

of churches

resisting

in

meanings and authority

in religion;

the

women's

militarized state; central struggle over

continued rele-

are

grounds

for

hope

in

and

class, as these

elementary units of

formations.

relations

of hardship experi-

Intensifications

enced worldwide

in

connection with the social

of science and technology are severe.

health, in political struggle.

ently clear, and

only way to characterize the informatics

and

insecurity

common

as a

is

massive intensification of

cultural

impoverishment,

with

failure of subsistence

networks for the

most vulnerable. Since much of

this picture inter-

w eaves with the

social relations

of science and tech-

nology, the urgency of a socialist-feminist politics

addressed to science and technology is

much now

political

work

is

plain.

There

being done, and the grounds for are rich.

For example, the

efforts to

women in SEIU (Service

we

is

not transpar-

lack sufficiently subtle connec-

tions for collectively building effective theories

of experience. Present efforts - Marxist, psychoanalytic, feminist, anthropological

to clarify

am conscious of the odd perspective provided my historical position - a Ph.D. in biology for an

I

by

Irish Catholic girl

was made possible by Sputnik's

impact on U.S. national science-education policy. I

much constructed by the War II arms race and cold war as by the

have a body and mind as

post-World

more grounds

women's movements. There

paid work, like District 925 of the

hope by focusing on the contradictory

priority for

all

tied to technical restructuring

and reformations of working also are providing

prehensive

a high

of us. These efforts are profoundly

kind

of labor processes

classes. The.se efforts

understanding of

a

more com-

of labor organization,

involv-

ing community, sexuality, and family issues never privileged

in

the

largely

white male industrial

unions.

The

structural rearrangements related to the

social relations of science

strong ambivalence.

But

and technology evoke it

is

not necessary to

be ultimately depressed by the implications of

even

"our" experience are rudimentary.

develop forms of collective struggle for

Employees International Union) should be

socialist-

feminist analysis themselves suffer protean trans-

But what people are experiencing

The

the emerging

bases for new kinds of unity across race, gender,

vance of spirituality, intertwined with sex and

of domination

understanding

subtle

with serious potential for changing the rules of the

There fundamentalist

Electronic

but

game.

politics.

Church:

consciousness,"

designed

politics

to

are

produce

loyal

for

effects of

American

technocrats, which as well produced large

numbers

of dissidents, rather than by focusing on the present defeats.

The permanent view

partiality of feminist points

of

has consequences for our expectations of

forms of

political organization

We

do not need

The

feminist

a totality in

and participation.

order to work well.

dream of a common language,

like all

dreams

for a perfectly true language, of a perfectly

faithful

naming of experience,

is

a totalizing

imperialist one. In that sense, dialectics too

dream language, longing

and is

a

to resolve contradiction.

Donna Haraway Perhaps, ironically,

we can

from our fusions

learn

how

with animals and machines

not to be

From

Man,

the

embodiment of Western

logos.

view of pleasure

potent and taboo fusions,

made

in these

the point of

inevitable by the social relations of science

and technology, there might indeed be

a feminist

consciousness of

late capitalism.

In that sense they

But there are

are part of the cyborg world.

also great

riches for feminists in explicitly embracing the

breakdown of clean

possibilities inherent in the

between organism and machine and

distinctions

similar distinctions structuring the It

is

Western

self

the simultaneity of breakdowns that cracks

the matrices of domination and opens geometric possibilities.

A Myth

Cyborgs:

of Political Identity

and

conclude with

to

myth about

a

and boundaries which might inform eth-century political imaginations.

I

Delany, John Varley, James Tiptree, Butler,

and Vonda Mclntyre. exploring what

storytellers

insight into the construction of a potentially helpful

twenti-

cyborg myth: constructions of women of color and

indebted

Joanna Russ, Samuel

in this story to writers like

^

it means

Jr.,

These to

Octavia

our

are

be embodied

in high-tech

w orlds. They

are theorists for cyborgs.

Exploring

conceptions

of

and

boundaries

Mary

anthropologist

the

order,

social

bodily

Douglas"" should be credited with helping us agery

is

to

world view and so to

French feminists Wittig, for

the body, politics

all

how

to

how fundamental body im-

consciousness about

like

Luce

political language.

^^

and Monique know how to w rite

Irigaray

their differences,

weave eroticism, cosmology, and

to

from imagery of embodiment, and espefrom imagery of fragmentation

cially for Wittig,

and reconstitution of bodies.

American

Susan Griffm,

Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich have profoundly affected our political imaginations - and perhaps restricted too

body and

much what we

political language. ^^

organic, opposing

monstrous selves Earlier

I

in feminist science fiction.

suggested that

"women

of color" might

be understood as a cyborg identity, a potent sub-

from

synthesized

jectivity

of outsider

fusions

complex

identities

and

layerings

of Audre Lorde's "biomythography,"

in the

There

Zami.

are material

political-historical

and cultural grids map-

ping this potential. Lorde captures the tone in the title

my

political

the offshore

woman,

of her book Sister Outsider. In

myth, Sister Outsider

whom

is

U.S. workers, female and feminized, are

supposed

to regard as the

threatening

solidarity,

Outsider

is a

potential

identities of women

States, Sister

and ethnic

races

manipulated for division, comin the

same

industries.

of color" are the preferred labor force

for the science-based industries, the real

for

their

Onshore,

security.

amid the

and exploitation

"Women

enemy preventing

their

boundary of the United

inside the

petition,

radical feminists like

texts for their

identity

late

am

learned from personal

two overlapping groups of

briefly at

want

I

What might be

political "technological" pollution? I will look

whom

women

worldwide sexual market, labor

the

allow as a friendly

market, and politics of reproduction kaleidoscope

They

into daily

insist

on the

But

life.

Young Korean women

hired in the

their

sex industry and in electronics assembly are re-

symbolic systems and the related positions of eco-

cruited from high schools, educated for the inte-

feminism and feminist paganism, replete w ith orga-

grated

nicisms, can only be understood in Sandoval's

distinguishes the "cheap" female labor so attractive

terms as oppositional ideologies

to the multinationals.

it

twentieth century.'^

to the technological.

fitting

the late

They would simply bewilder

anyone not preoccupied with the machines and

Literacy,

circuit.

especially

in

English,

Contrary to Orientalist stereotypes of the "oral primitive," literacy color, acquired

is

mark of women of women as well as men

a special

by U.S. black

^'"

through

cultural

teach reading and writing. Writing has a special

Mary Douglas (1921- ), Italian-born American anthropologist. The following women mentioned: Monique Wittig (1935), French feminist novelist;

Susan Griffm (1943

),

feminist poet, dramatist,

and philosopher; Audre Lorde (1934

can-American

writer;

American feminist "^

A

Oakland, CA.

cm)

"Women Respond

Report on the National Women's Studies

to .As-

Third World Organiz-

all

colonized groups. Writing has

of oral and written cultures, primitive and civilized

),

mentalities,

sociation Conference," Center for ing,

significance for

of risking death to learn and to

been crucial to the Western myth of the distinction

poet.

Cuela Sandoval, author of

Racism:

92), lesbian Afri-

and Adrienne Rich (1929-

a history

and more recently

to the erosion of that

distinction in postmodernist theories attacking the

phallogocentrism of the West, with

its

worship of

the monotheistic, phallic, authoritative, and singular

work, the unique and perfect name."

Contests

"A Manifesto tor the lucaniiiiis ot

wntiiiir .irc a m.i|(H

c()iitcniin)r.»r\ political struiiglf. Rcltasiiig

ot writing

is

color

ot

power

writing, about access to the

power

this tinie that

.11

luT innocence, but because ol her abilit\ to li\e on

about

to signit\, Inii

nuist be neither j^hallic nor

innocent. (^Nbori!, writinii nuist not be about the the imagination ot a once-upon-a-time w hole-

I''all,

ncss betbre language, before writing, betbre

Cyborg w riting

is

Man.

about the power to survive not on

the basis of original innocence, but on the basis ot

mark the world

seizing the tools to

them

that

marked

1)1

I'he tools are otten stories, retold stories, versions

and displace the hierarchical dualisms

iiol

the bouiularies, to write without the tounding

olOriginal wholeness, with

Kpse

ol

myth

inescapable apoca-

its

ot linal return to a deathly

oneness that .Man

has imagined to be the innocent and all-powertul

Mother, freed

the

at

appropriation by her b

the 1984 Directory of the

Starting points for

started

all

it

include: Karin Knorr-Cetina,

The Manufacture of Knowledge (Oxford: Pergamon, 1981);

02139. 2

Santa Maria

March 1979, pp. 1026-8. More is claimed than is known about room for contesting productions of sci-

Road, London

Culture), 26 Freegrove

\ ia

h'undamental ap-

ltal>.

with

1984); Radical Science Journal (from 1987, Science as

ence for the People, 897

Rome,

not continue the liberal mystification that

Our Genes (New York: Pantheon,

in

Switzerland, and

2,

York:

Keller, Reflections on

Press, 1985); R. C. Lewontin, Steve Rose,

CA

Information

International

proaches to modern social studies of science that do

Myth (Cambridge, MA:

Convenient

C.\ 94041.

i'rancisco,

Fcmi-

Henifin, Barbara PVied, eds.. Biological

the

Women's

\rw.

San

1986);

Ruth Hubbard,

1981);

ASV.V,

deir \nima 30, 00186

Gould, Mismeasure of

J.

#204, Mountain

,

and Communication Service, P.O. Box 50 (Cornavin),

Fnni-

Pergamon,

York:

Sandra Harding, The Siieme

94104;

W'omfti

ed.,

Si

Proiessed World, 55 Sutter St.,

to hiolo^ical/bio-

aiul

7

Zoe 14,

Sofia,

No.

2,

& Row,

"Exterminating Fetuses,"

Summer

1980).

Diacritics, \o\.

1984, pp. 47-59, and "Jupiter

CJZD

Donna Haraway Space" (Pomona, CA: American Studies Associ-

8

12

Cultural Studies, Vol.1, No.l, 1987, pp. 263-305.

"The

Politics

of Prefigurative

13

Action

Direction

iolent

Movement," The Year Left,

Role of

M. Davis

Women

Sturgeon, qualifying essay on feminism, anarchism,

Kelly, For

We Are

University

NY:

SUNY Press,

bara

Ehrenreich,

(Boston: South

adopting the spaceship earth/whole earth

logo of the planet photographed from space, set off

by the slogan "Love Your Mother," the

Mothers and Others Day action weapons

testing facility in

May

the

at

useful

official

whose

tribe,

territory

ground

the nuclear

weapons

tion

proper

officials,

group

were the trespassers. One

women's

at the

emergence from the

(Albany,

14

"natural-technical

objects

of knowledge"

are

in Post-\\ orld

W ar

Evolutionary Biology," Philosophical Forum., \

15

From

a

Physiology to

Society," Studies

Knowledge:

in

a

A

Spirits

of Resistance and in

Malaysia

1987); Science Policy Research

and Women's Employment

in

is

Bruno Latour, Les Microbes:

Paix, suivi de Irreductions (Paris: Metailie,

et

6,

Political

list

of feminist science fiction under-

Mind of My Mind, Charnas,

Kindred, Survivor, Suzy

Motherlines;

Samuel Delany,

McKee

Tales

of

Dreamsnake; Joanna Russ, Adventures of Aly.x, The

Neveryon;

ed.

Professions,

Female Man; James Tiptree, Jr., Star Songs ofan Old

in Scientific

Violet

Haas and

Stress,

"Why

Stress.^

Primate,

1936-1956," available from the

of the Committee for Responsible GenetSt.,

4th floor, Boston,

Wright, "Recombinant

DNA

MA 02109; Susan

Technology and

Social Transformation, 1972-82," Osiris,

Vol. 2, 1986, pp. 303-60 and

Its

of the World; Joanna

\'arley.

Demon. Purity and Danger (London: Routle-

& Kegan Paul,

1966), Xatural Symbols (London:

Cresset Press, 1970). 17

French feminisms contribute sia.

to

Glass," Feminist Studies, \o\. 1981, pp. 288-306; est

cyborg heteroglos-

Carolyn Burke, "Irigaray through the Looking

Luce

7,

Irigaray,

No.

2,

Ce

se.ve

Summer qui n'en

pas un (Paris: Minuit, 1977); L. Irigaray, Et Tune

Minuit, 1979);

\ew

2nd

series.

ne bouge pas sans

"Recombinant

DNA:

French Feminisms, ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de

Status of Hazards and Controls," Environment,

Edward Yoxen, The Gene Business (New York: Harper & Row, 1983).

July /August 1982;

the Walls

Mary Douglas, dge

at the

CA 95448.

Up

Titan, Wizard,

16

A Look

entry to the biotechnology debate: Genewatch,

Doane

American Studies Association, Pomona, 1984.

abbreviated

Knowledge and

Consequences," Women

author, 4437 Mill Creek Rd., Healdsburg,

a Bulletin

Pleasure of Repetition and the

lying themes of this essay: Octavia Bulter, Wild Seed,

1983,

Michigan Press, 1984), pp. 212-29.

Making of

"The

Socialist-Feminist Perspective on the

E. Rusten Hogness,

The

best example

fornia

Carolyn Perucci (Ann Arbor, MI: University of

ics, 5

in

Anne McCaffery, The Ship Who Sang, Dinosaur Planet; Vonda Mclntyre, Superluminal,

and Engineering

left

SUNY Press,

Katie King,

An

ol.

Cybernetics of Primate

History of Biology, \o\.

Social Construction of Productive

A

in

Reimaginations of the Body after the Cyborg," Cali-

pp. 129-219; "Class, Race, Sex, Scientific Objects of

Some

Gender

Limits of Identification in Feminist Science Fiction:

Nos. 2-3, 1979, pp. 206-37; "Signs of Domin-

ance:

Difference:

1984).

previous efforts to understand biology as a cy-

"The High Cost of Information 13,

The

Guerre

bernetic command-control discourse and organisms

II

Aihwa Ong,

1983);

Factory Workers

Unity, Microelectronics

worm.

as

of

Fernandez-Kelly

P.

Britain (University of Sussex, 1982).

constructed body of a large, nonheterosexual desert

My

Press,

Aihwa Ong,

Capitalist Discipline:

same ground with the

a cyborgian

1980, pp. 29-

I,

Southeast Asia, ed. Shelly Errington and

Press, 1990);

affinity

Surrogate Others, and in solidarity with the crea-

bomb, they enacted

Nash and M.

SUNY

No.

the International Division

Jane Atkinson (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University

action called themselves the

tures forced to tunnel in the

in the Integrated Cir-

and the Cultural Construction of Gender

Island

demonstrators argued that the police and weapons personnel, without authorization from the

Global Factory

the

in

1983), with an especially

West Malaysia, Power and

test

facility

People (Albany,

"Japanese Factories, Malay W^orkers: Industrializa-

Arrested for trespassing, the

in the 1950s.

My

of resources and organizations; Rachael

NY:

(Albany,

was invaded by the U.S. gov-

built

it

Women End Press,

Labor, ed. June

permits to

Fernandez-

Patricia

1983); Annette Fuentes and Bar-

Women and Men and

50;

be on the land from officers of the Western Shoshone

ernment when

and

Sold, I

cuit," Radical America, \ol. 14,

nuclear

Nevada nonetheless took

Demonstrators applied for

list

the

D'Ono(Boulder, CO:

Pfafflin

Maria

Grossman, "Women's Place

1987

account of the tragic contradictions of views of the earth.

M.

Press, 1982);

of California, Santa Cruz, 1986. Without explicit irony,

and

Change

Development, ed. Pamela

in

frio-Flores and Sheila

Westview

politics,

in the integrated

Scientific-Technological

and M. Sprinker (London: Verso, 1987)], and Noel

and nonviolent direct-action

"women

Starting references for circuit":

[\ol. 3 o( Resp/iaping the

U.S. Left: Popuhir Struggles in the J980's,

1

of Signification," in

For ethnographic accounts and poHtical evaluations,

Community: The Non-\

10

An Epidemic

Discourse:

ical

see Barbara Kpstcin,

9

"AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomed-

Paula Treichler,

ation, 1984).

I

'autre (Paris:

Courtivron (Amherst,

MA:

University of Massachu-

setts Press, 1980); Signs, Vol. 7,

special issue

No.

I,

Autumn

on French feminism; Monique

1981,

\\ ittig,

"A Manifesto '/'//f-

1^^75;

Femmtst

1

\x

May

Kcgan &

\ a\

(\c\n

^

ork

\l.i\ini-

Sec cspcciallv

1^7.^).

Duchcn, hcminism

\

and personal

Women and

York: Harper

19

identities.

Row,

&:

Susan

Audre

1*)7S);

dav, 1984).

l.orde. Sister

Of

Grammatology,

G. C. Spivak (Baltimore,

introd.

University Press,

kins

The

1976),

MD:

Criterion Books,

especially

1961),

It

Makes,"

in

"Race,"

W riting

Difference, special issue of Critical Inquiry,

No.

Autumn

1,

tion, ed. attle:

Press, 1985); Walter

A

23

and

women

Black

no voice

An

A

ed.

Marcus,

E.

Politics

eds.. Writing

of Ethnography (Uni-

and

"On EthnoNo. 2

I,

its

applications to

a special irony in monotheistic,

frequently

anti-Semitic

to chant the

Haftorah

culture

allows a bo\ with

at his

bar mitzvah.

Making

a

Post Magazine, Nov. 9, 1986,

the always context-relative social

high-tech has a way of making

human

beings dis-

much autoWars R&D. See John

abled by definition, a perverse aspect of

mated

and the

Critical Evaluation,

imperial-

definitions of "abledness" particularlv clear, military

and Star

battlefield

Noble Welford,

"Pilot's

Helmet Helps Interpret

High Speed World," Xew York

International Literacy Confer-

Writers:

on

and

Hand," Washington

Michigan State University, October 1985;

Women

and

\\ estern

See Vic Sussman, "Personal Technology Lends

Diaspora: Hidden Connections and Extended Ac-

knowledgments,"

for recognition of

Ethnographic .\llegor\,"

when computer-generated speech

Ong, Orality

Woman

Sup-

convention of ideologicallx taming militarized

patriarchal,

War Years (Boston: The sharp relation of

"The

to

46.

ently abled takes

in the

1983).

How

Universitv of

speech and motion problems of the disabled-differ-

\'ol. 12,

of color to writing as theme and politics can

be approached through

Black

The

pp. 45-6.

South End Press,

"On

high technology by publicizing

Feminist Dictionary (Boston: Pandora,

Cherrie Moraga, Loving

ence,

James Clifford argues persuasi\el\

(1983), pp. 118

1985).

21

TX:

graphic .Authority," Representations, Vol.

and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (New York: Methuen, 1982); Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler,

(.Austin,

versity of California Press, 1985)

1985, pp. 1-20; Cultures in Conten-

Comet

Women's Writing

Culture, the Poetics

Douglas Kahn and Diane Neumaier, (Se-

Real

and Susan Gubar,

(New Haven, CT: Yale

in the Attic

James Clifford and George

''The Writing

Lesson"; Henry Louis Gates, "\\ riting 'Race' and the Difference

Madwoman

izing practices; see

John Russell (New York:

Tropiques, trans.

The writing of white women has had

sappearance of those "marked" by

IL

part

(Jlohal, ed.

Is

.\nchor/Double-

continuous cultural reinvention, the stubborn nondi-

Johns Hop-

especially

:

Texas Press, 1983).

11

"Nature, Culture, Writing"; Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes

J

in

of Color, ed.

University Press, 1979); Joanna Russ, press

and

trans,

N\

similar meanings: Sandra Gilbert

Canons without Innocence, Ph.D.

Derrida,

Jacques

Women

Persephone, 1981); Sisterhood

Robin .Morgan ((iarden City,

University of California, Santa Cruz, 1987.

thesis.

20

A

Y(»rk:

W omen on Rate and Sex

Back: Writings by Radical

\\.\

(New

king, "Audre Lorde: Layering Histor) /ConstructPoetry,"

Lerner (.New

ed. (ierda

ork

Cherrie .Moraga and Gloria .Anzaldua (Watertown,

Ow/WtT (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984); Adricnne Rich, Fhe Dream of a Common Language (New York: Norton, 1978). .\udre Lorde, Zami, a Sew Spelling of my .\ame (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 198.?); Katie ing

^

Imeruu:

image, 1973); Paula (iiddings, When and Where

My

Ciriffin,

The Rmninii Inside Her

Saturc:

While

in

Imerica (Toronto: Bantam, 1985); 7 his Bridge Culled

Paul. 1WS(,)

treatment ot themes of lying and erotic, decentered collective

Women

Enter: The Impact oj Blai k

these poets are ver\ complex, not least in

all

Wen (New

long K.uigsl((n, China

Doiumentary History,

MitlrriiriJ (l.omlon:

'dS to

i

1977); liluck

K.no|)(,

Hemimst Soiial and hii

(1^80), and Claire

From

FraiiK":

Hut

A Jounial oj

lisues:

Routlcilpc IS

corps Icshti-n,

Lt-

Thfur)\

itiial III

l).nul

Lfshiutt lind)\ trans

Anoh,

Cyborgs'

for

Times,

}uh

1,

1986,

pp. 21,24.

24

Page DuBois, Centaurs and Amazons (.Ann Arbor,

Mari Evans (Garden City, NY: Doubleday/ Anchor,

MI: University of Michigan

1984); Barbara Christian, Black Feminist Criticism

Daston and Katharine Park, "Hermaphrodites

(New

Renaissance France," ms., n.d.; Katharine Park and

York: Pergamon, 1985); The Third

Woman:

Press, 1982); Lorraine in

Women Writers of the United States, ed. Dexter Fisher (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980);

Lorraine Daston,

several issues of Frontiers, especially vol. 5,

and England," Past and Present, No. 92, August

Minority

"Chicanas en 1983,

el

1980,

Ambiente Nacional" and Vol.

"Feminisms

in

the

Non- Western

7,

W^orld";

"Unnatural Conceptions:

Study of Monsters 1981, pp. 20-54.

with the verb

to

in 16th

The

and 17th Century France

The word

monster shares

its

root

demonstrate.

(JsT)

David Ray Griffin Professor of philosophy of religion, David Griffin

nature of all subjectivity,

(1939- proposes a positive, revisionary postmodernism inspired by scientific developments. With others influenced by the "new sciences" of quantum theory, complexity and chaos, emergent properties of physical systems, and selforganization and mind-body interactions in biology, he believes that the modern dualism of an

Because of

)

allegedly mechanistic, deterministic, objective

"nature"

and

the

indeterminist,

participant-

human

sciences has

interactive "objects" of the

been broken down. responding

philosophy of "organicism" of English-born

that

feeling.

-

qualities that are not thinkable apart

all

These

qualities are legion.

no aims or purposes can

it is

from

Without experience,

exist in natural entities,

no

creativity in the sense of self-determination or final

causation.

With no

ideal possibility,

no

final

some

causation toward

role exists for ideals, possibil-

norms, or values

to play: causation

is

strictly a

matter of efficient causation from the past. With no

denies

the

phil-

characteristic

dualisms of modern thought.

Griffin

contemporary

discarding

science,

in

self-determination ideals,

osopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) from which Griffin hopes to fashion a postmodern

cosmology

all

disqualified

is

experience.

ities,

own framework for developments is the

experience,

Griffin's

these

to

denied

all

this denial, nature

argues that these

notions for holistic, indeterminist alternatives,

is

becoming postmodern.

aimed

the

at

realization

of

no value can be achieved. With no experi-

ence, even unconscious feeling, there can be no

value received: the causal interactions between nat-

no sharing of values.

ural things or events involve

Hence, no

intrinsic value can exist within nature,

no value of natural things unlike the

for themselves. Also,

way our experience

even constituted

in part,

by

is

internally affected,

its

relations with

its

environment, material particles can have no in-

Along with no internalization of

ternal relations.

Modern Science and

the

other natural things, no internalization of divinity

Disenchantment of the World

can occur. Friedrich Schiller,

disenchantment of nature In disenchanting nature, the

nature

led

to

its

modern

science of

own disenchantment. This

happened because the mechanistic, disenchanted

a

who spoke

of the

century before Weber,

used the term Entgottemng, which

literally

means

the dedivinization of nature. Deity, for the founders of the

modern world view, such

as Descartes,

philosophy of nature, which was originally part of a dualistic

and

theistic vision

of reality as a whole,

eventually led to the disenchantment of the whole

world. This

first

What does

section spells out this development.

the

"disenchantment of nature"

mean? Most fundamentallv,

it

means

the denial to

Griffin,

David Ray, from "Introduction: The Reen-

chantment tion 3.

of Science." section 1. pp.

22-30

David Ray

in

2-8 and sec-

The Reenchantment of Science (ed.

Griffin).

York Press. 1988.

Albany: State University of

New

Reenchantment of Science

7"^e

\io\W\ aiul Ncutoii, was the world;

who

world

analogous

ol

laws upon

which

was

It

at

that science at least gives us the truth,

laws which rellect

powers the

means

things

of

disenchantment at

of

distance.

a

''taking the

magic out/'

had any hidden ("occult")

made

magnetism and gravitation very

difficult

to explain).

bereft of

all

feel a

which

the

further

to attract other things (a denial that

phenomena

could

A

societ\.

the heart of the mechanistic vision to deny

natural

that

was

In these ways, nature

w ith which the human

e\en

a

if

meaninglessness.

Much

bleak one

l''or

lime,

recent thought, however,

has concluded that science does not e\en give us that.

The disenchantment

The main

complete.

is

point to emphasize

modern

that

is

thinkers ha\e assumed that this disenchantment

of the world

nu/unrd hy science

is

examples: just as Darwin in the

\

itself.

few

any "caprice"

that

felt

world would make science impossible, so that

human

both divine and free

activity

had to be

eliminated from our worldview," so .Michael Ghiselin, a

contemporary Darwinian, says

that to

deny

spirit

the ideal of predictive determinism by affirming

sense of kinship and of anything from

teleological causation "is to opt out of science al-

qualities

could derive norms.

it

some

in this

man\ held

disenchantment was Entzauher-

literall)

life is

its activities,

must share

in tact central feature of the

un»,

human

all

If

Ironi

nature was the denial of action for

itself.

meaningless, then science, as one of

ai all

sociological

Weber's term

In iliseiichanting science

it

aiul

members of human

habits of the

in

nature were, henee, not

motion

niip(»seil

to

no was iininaiuni

iii

being wHoIIn exiernal to the

a

The laws

without.

and

was

ii

I

luman

was

life

together." Jacques

Monod

.says:

rendered both alien and autonomous. \\

hereas this disenchantment of nature was ori-

ginally carried out (by Galileo, Descartes, Boyle,

&

and Newton

Company)

cornerstone of the scientific method

postulate that nature

is

objective. In other

a

\ht systematic denial that 'true' knowledge can be

a

got at by interpreting

phenomena

finalcauses- that

and hence causal power, the successes of the ob-

postulate of objectivity

jectifying, mechanistic, reductionistic

approach

physics soon led to the conviction that

it

applied to causal

of reality.

all

power beyond

God was

in

should be

at first stripped

of

first said to it

was

real

thinkers,

The human

mind was at be "epiphenomenal," which meant that

declaring

soul or

but only as an effect, not as a cause; later believing

wheels, denied that it

to

nature should have no idle it

science.

.

.

.

is

There

.

.

.

r|he

(

consubstantial with

is

no way

is

terms of

in

to say, of 'purpose'

to

be rid of it, even

tentatively or in a limited area, without departing

from the domain of science

itself.

that of the original creation

of the w orld; later thinkers turned this deism into

complete atheism.

the

framework of

personal deity w ere assigned explanatory functions

all

is

w ords,

which the soul and

in the

dualistic supernaturalism in

The

was

a distinct entity at

all,

be simply one of the brain's emergent

While recognizing

that the objectivist view of the

w orld outrages our values and

Monod

alien world,

must adopt

make

because

it,

us feel at

pose to

it,

home

forces us to live in an

nevertheless insists that all

in

we

"animist" views, which

nature by attributing pur-

are "fundamentally hostile to science."'^

"So-called purposive behavior," said behaviorist

be regarded as a

properties. In those ways, the ''animistic" view-

psychologist Clark Hull,

point, W'hich attributes causality to personal forces,

secondary, epiphenomenal reality, derivative from

was completely

rejected.

"downward caus-

All

"more elementary

is

to

objective primary principles.

ation" from personal to impersonal processes was

Likewise, B.F.

eliminated; the reductionistic program of explain-

must follow physics and biology

ing everything in terms of elementary impersonal

sonified causes," and that to be "natural"

processes was fully accepted.

The world

as a

whole

completely

Skinner argues that psychology^

determined

by

in rejecting

one's

was thus disenchanted. This disenchanted view

From

means

says Skinner, the notion of the

in

that experience plays

no freedom,

There

are

a

only

w hole.

exists in the universe for purposes,

values, ideals, possibilities,

is

real role not

"the natural world" but in the world as

Hence, no role

is

no

and

qualities,

and there

creativity, temporality, or divinity.

no norms, not even

truth,

and everything

ultimately meaningless.

The

ironic conclusion

is

which

"initiates,

modern

science, in

disenchanting nature, began a trajectory that ended

"perto

be

environment.

"autonomous,"

originates and creates,"

He

adds:

analysis of behavior dispossesses

"A

is

the

scientific

autonomous man

and turns the control he has been said

to exert over

environment.'" Whereas this statement sug-

gests that

that

is

the viewpoint of "the science of behavior,"

notion of the "miraculous."

to the

"**

determinism

is

a result

of the application

of the scientific approach. Skinner had earlier revealed that

it

is

a presupposition:

"We

cannot

David Ray

Griffin

apply the methods of science to

matter

This idea that the very nature of science rules out

move about capriciously. The hypothesis that man is not free is essential

the scientific study of anything not understandable

which .

.

.

assumed

is

of scientific method to the study

to the application

of

human

a subject

to

James Alcock,

behavior."

While Hull and Skinner come from

a

previous

generation, and advocated a behaviorist psychology

which

is

now

widely rejected, William Uttal

is a

contemporary psychobiologist.

He

tionism, according to which

the activities of the

mind

are reducible to the

organization of matter,

which

the

built."

To

all

says that reduc-

most elementary ''the

is

levels of

foundation upon

of psychobiology

science

entire

terms has in our century probably

in materialistic

been more prevalent

is

introduce any definition of conscious-

ness that goes beyond the operations used in sur-

mean "a modes of thought."

is

which parapsychology

is

some-

"How

can a science of the spirit

by

its

exist,

from the

and any nonmaterialistic interactions

scientific

account of nature, the dominant

viewpoint has even eliminated temporality. Ilya Prigogine regards the fact that

been nontemporal

and the humanities.

personal causes and

downward

all

causation from

action at a distance,

all

is illus-

trated by the treatment of apparent parapsycho-

phenomena by

logical

John

physicist

Taylor.

After studying several people

who he had come

believe had the psychokinetic

power

without touching

However,

graphs.

to

bend metal

with

after

effects within the scientific

said:

still

"For us believing

between even

past, present

if a

cist, P.

and future

stubborn one."

C.

W.

who

physicists, the distinction

A

^

is

only an illusion,

contemporary physi-

Davies, spells out the implied dual-

ism between objective nature and subjectivity:

The

photo-

supporting

deciding later that no

worldview, he wrote

second book called Science and the Supernatural

Although he

by many twentieth-

century physicists, including Albert Einstein,

is

explanation was to be found for psychokinetic

which he declared

Snow ) of science

P.

he published a book entitled

it,

complete

Siipermimh,

to

science has

This elimination of tempor-

been supported

has

ality

modern

as the root of the cleavage be-

tween the "two cultures" (C.

idea that science requires a reductionistic

is

^

Besides ruling out purpose, freedom, personal causation,

gery and the behavioral laboratory would

The

given that science

very nature materialistic.'"'

total collapse into prescientific

account, and rules out

other than physics.

psychologist, says that a

a contradiction in terms.

"spiritual science,"

times said to be,

in fields

social

a

that

w as good

notion that time flows in a one-way fashion

property of our consciousness.

phenomenon and

jective

a

is

It is a

sub-

property that

simply cannot be demonstrated in the natural

a

world. This

in

modern

no such events can occur.

believed that there

a

is

an incontrovertible lesson from

science. ...

A

flowing time belongs to

our mind, not to nature.

evi-

dence for psychokinetic events, and admitted that he could not explain how the particular events he

A well-read physician, citing several physicists who

had witnessed could have been faked, he concluded

endorse this view, says that we must assimilate

that

all

such reports must be due to hallucination,

trickery, credulity, the fear of death,

''Such an explanation to

fit

in

with

a scientific

and the

like.

the only one which seems

is

view of the world."

The

alistic

terms;

if

coveries prove the meaninglessness of the whole

irrationality.

according to "the scientific viewpoint," in

all

The

explan-

says,

"The more

sible,

the

terms of the four forces of physics.

Therefore, he says,

we must

believe that no

I

must include the

Near the end of

Second,

Third, none of these forces can explain psychokin-

more

it

also

genuine psychokinesis occurs. Taylor concludes by

growing

the

castigating himself and other scientists for having

the argument that

entific education

"phenomena which

their sci-

should indicate are impossible."

"

Steven Weinberg

seems pointless." recital

of evidence to

counter-argument that

a

seriously investigated

and

the universe seems comprehen-

momentarily interrupt the

in

scientists

his popular book.

First Three Minutes, physicist

respond to

esis.

modern

human mind,

universe, which

must be

in

of time."

their science.

ation

ignore what

it,

common

physical science has revealed to us about the nature

terms, then the scientist would have to choose

and

an affront to

As stated earlier, the final disenchantment of modern science is its conclusion that its own dis-

anything, such as the

silence

is

"we cannot

sense, because

could not be explained in quantitative, materialistic

between

it

can only be in materi-

reasoning behind this conclusion was as follows: First, scientific explanation

spite of the fact that

mind of many it is

is

readers.

probably

This

is

not the job of the scientist

qua scientist to deal with the true nature of time

and matter

in

themselves and with the question

The Reenchantment of Science whctlicr the umxcisc tasks,

could be

it

I'hcsc aic llic

is iiKMiiiiiutiil.

whom

ihcolouiaiis, or for potts,

some

accoriling to this argument, no need exists lor a

postmoilern science; out

limitations of science

inherent

the

lall its

hu-

world or to

li\c

existence in

kinil of tragic

universe alien

a

to the lieepesi neeils of its nature."

so

that

known

Heller

is

the following purple passage from

m

"A

I'ree .Man's

this solution

sell

summari/es "the world which Science presents

that the ideal of an "inherently limited science"

tor

our

people

look elsewhere tor answers to these

will

The problem with

larger questions. is

real

com-

be

will

surreiukr what we

only necessary to point

is

it

inankmd

Jclnsiiin,

ii

manitN b) adjusting to the

lenee,

1

thiiti

IH-lkil either to

Shcik'N calkil the

"unaclviioNNlctlgcil legislators of niankiiul."

tninc

IS

ami

tor iiKlaphysiciaiis

aiu;iutl,

does not work only

in practice.

is

all,

means

by "science" culture.

The

what

k'norvledge\

word

is

modern

been to make

scientists the only

legislators" of

humankind, because

loves

"acknowledged

human

Unless science

With

Not only

this brief apologia,

scientists

I

.

that

.

noonday

the

all

the

all

brightness

of

genius, are destined to extinction in the -

...

these

all

beyond dispute, are

yet so

nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects

them can hope

answer, the disenchantment of the world w ill continue.

.

the devotion,

all

the

all

things, if not quite

seen as giving a different

itself is

of atoms;

collocations

fears, his

but the outcome of acci-

vast death of the solar system

add.

to

growth, his hopes and

beliefs, are

inspiration,

worldview

would have anything

poetry

or

the product of causes which had no

labours of the ages,

has ruled out the possibility that metaphysics, theology,

and

dental

science has

its

is

his origin, his

science,

not considered knowledge in our

cultural effect of

Man

prevision of the end they were achieving; that

not vouchsafed

is

belief^':

That

things

but also imperialistic, bent on providing

the only genuine description. 'I'he after

which Ikrtrand Rus-

inherently not

trying to describe the wa\

realistic,

really are,

Science

Worship,"

to stand."'

return to the topic.

The modern

many

themselves but also

consensus then, as reflected

in the

philosophers have supported the view that science

preceding quotations, has been that science and

necessarily disenchants the world, proving that ex-

disenchantment go hand

perience and those qualities that presuppose

hand,

inoperative.

grounds

Temper,

"mental

that

we should be

complete account of man

sico-chemical terms."

Modern

is

nothing but physical states of the

central nervous system," so that

Joseph

man

for thinking that

mechanism,"

a physical

states are, in fact,

to "give a

are

D. M. Armstrong says that we have

^'general scientific

nothing but

it

^

in

able

purely phy-

In his 1956 preface to The

published

originally

1929,

in

Wood Krutch summarized the book's thesis

(with which he had later

come

that

it is

anima or thing

which determines

to

is

remove

all

itself,

least

at

partly,

desire to realize particular values.

its

the other hand,

it is

tion of the scientific

assumed

method

that the applica-

anything confirms

to

the truth of the disenchanted view of

it,

that

it

can be adequately understood in purely impersonal terms, as

to disagree):

To dcanimate

soul, in Plato's sense of a self-moving

terms of

On

the one

which has already been disenchanted, which

means deanimated.

in

On

hand.

in

assumed, science can only be applied to

embodying no

creativity,

no

self-

determination in terms of values or norms, and

The

universe revealed by science, especially the

sciences of biology and psychology,

which the human able

home. That

spirit

spirit

are

in

cannot find a comfort-

breathes freely only in a

universe where what philosophers

Judgements

one

is

of supreme

\'alue

call

importance.

It

needs to believe, for instance, that right and

wrong

are real, that

Love

logical function, that the

is

more than

human mind

is

a bio-

capable

of reason rather than merely of rationalization,

and that

it

has the

pow er

to will

and

to

choose

instead of being compelled merely to react in the

fashion

predetermined

by

its

conditioning.

Since science has proved that none of these

beliefs

nothing that could be considered divine.

The

only way to prevent the disenchantment of

the universe as a whole, on this view line, usually

betw een the

human

,

is

to draw^ a

being as purposive

agent and the rest of nature, above which the scientific

method

is

said to be inapplicable.

essential dualism

the fact that

experience,

is

is

undermined by

human

But any such

several things:

behavior, including

human

subject to a great extent to causal

analysis; the idea that we, like

all

other species,

are products of the evolutionary process; the diffi-

culty of understanding

how

a

human mind, which

operates in terms of reasons, purposes, or final causes, could interact with bodily parts operating

David Ray

Griffin

terms

in

strictly

mechanistic causes; and the

of

One

science into two parts.

split

science spoke

pressure toward a unified approach to

only of efficient causes; the other science (psych-

knowledge. Accordingly, the attempt to prevent

ology) spoke in terms of final causes or purposes.

general

total

disenchantment by means of an essential dual-

ism - between mind and matter, understanding and -

explanation, hermeneutics and science^ cult to maintain intellectually.

Whereas

diffi-

is

people

all

terms of the conviction that they are more

live in

than behaviorism, sociobiology, and psychobiology

and may

allow,

approach to human beings

been extremely

and feelings

disenchanted

feel that the totally

The second form psychology of

tic

the

animal behavior solely in terms of efficient causes

and other

externalistic terms. Eliminative material-

mentioned

difficult to state these convictions

this

way

it

Postmodern organicism holds

in an intellectually defensible way.

individuals are organisms

beyond antihumanitarianism or

some

a

humanitarianism

seems

to alienate us

from our bodies and from

nature in general. Because world,

it

has disenchanted the

many people have become disenchanted

Others, however, have distinguished between

modern such,

iota

hold that

which disenchants, and

science^

which may be open

science as

to reenchantment.

who

that

all

such

visible objects,

all

primary

exercise at least

of purposive causation. But

it

does not

and

as stones

planets, are primary individuals or even analogous to

primary individuals. Rather,

tween two ways be organized:

with science.

extreme version of

earlier, is the

to achieve unity.

Besides thereby seeming to leave no alternative

based on an arbitrary choice, modern science also

internalis-

Psychology, under

name of hehavwrism, was transformed into an human and other

ism,

inappropriate,

by abolishing an

final causes.

attempt to describe and explain

has

is

of the Galilean paradigm tried to

restore unity to science

which an as a

in

distinguishes be-

(1) as a

compound

individual,

all-inclusive subject emerges;

in

and

(2)

nonindividuated object, in which no unifying

subjectivity

is

found. Animals belong to the

class; stones to the is

it

which primary organisms can

first

second. In other words, there

no ontological dualism, but there

is

an organiza-

Postmodern Organicism and the Unity

tional duality

of Science

and obvious distinction that the dualists rightly

which takes account of the important

refused to relinquish. Hence, there are (1) things

The postmodern series has

organicism represented in this

been inspired primarily by the

scientist-

whose behavior can only be understood

own

of both efficient causes and their

in

terms

purposive

turned-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead

response to these causes, and (2) things whose

This postmodern organicism can be considered

behavior can be understood, for most purposes,

a

synthesis

of the Aristotelian,

Hermetic

and

forms),

(both

Galilean

paradigms.

Aristotelian

organicism had a unified science by attributing

purposive or

final

of

rest.

The

Galilean paradigm, in

its

form,

first

reference

However, the

things could be adequate for

(2) those that did

not and could

final

is

tained that a nonteleological explanation of material

a

and

or

a duality within

qualification for most purposes

mary

final causation;

is

important. Whereas the Galilean paradigm main-

distinguished absolutely between two types of pribeings: (1) those that exercised purposive or

purposive

to

science.

causation to everything, most

notoriously saying that a falling stone seeks a state

any

without

causation. In this sense, there

complete understanding,

all

purposes, including

at least in principle, the

postmodern paradigm contends

that

any explan-

consequently be understood completely in terms of

ation devoid of purposive causation will necessarily

receiving and transmitting efficient causation. At

abstract

first,

limiting the beings in the first category to

human minds was is

customary, but that limitation

neither necessary to the dualistic paradigm nor

very credible. ingly,

as

extended

Many

Galilean dualists have accord-

mentioned final

in

the

previous

causation further

kingdom: those who are termed arising with the first

the animal

vita lists see

it

form of Ufe. Wherever the

was drawn, the drawing of ontologically

down

section,

different

a line

as

line

between two

types of primary

beings

from concrete

facts.

Fully to understand

even the interaction between two

billiard balls re-

quires reference to purposive reactions

- not indeed

of the balls as aggregates, but of their constituents.

Because the study of nonindividual objects as well as that

of primary individuals and

compound

indi-

viduals requires, at least ultimately, reference to final as well as efficient causes, there

is

a

unity of

science.

The ation

relation in

between

Whiteheadian

final

and

efficient caus-

postmodern organicism

The Reenchantment of Science tioin

cliltcrciil

is

\i()us loriii

(often

paiicxiKric'iitiahsiii

ahh()uu;h

was

it

Other forms ciKC

prc-

.in\

other lorms

Iroiii

ol

paiips\chism),

calktl

HiuUlhisi thought.

aiiticipalcci in

thought that ha\c attributed cxpcri-

ot

such as that

to all iiuli\ iciuals,

Lcibni/ and

m

iilalioii

tluii

thought, cMii

(»t

Tcilhard

(lottlricil

ol

(.harthn, have

ilc

assumed

the ultimate constituents of the world to be endur-

ing

individuals.

from without

with

From

itself.

enduring

other

terms of purposes or

to each other

was

and

Given

causation

final

but simply

relate,

it

in

cNenls. I'Lxaclly what efficient causation a

An

do not

VNorld

ma\

deflect

received;

it

it

and transform the energy

To

say

the categories of both

that

must

causation

efficient

study of

all

employed

be

ex-

causation

is

irrelevant for almost

nonindividuated

studying

as rocks, stars,

most

part,

my

decision

neurons

However, are

in

no way

in the brain to if

causes

the appropriate

the ultimate individuals of the world

momentary

events, rather than enduring indi-

between

effi-

and

final causation. Efficient

causation

still

and

applies to the exterior of an individual

final

causation to the interior. But because an enduring

is

behavior

the

understandable

just

have received and pass

conform

on

it

lies a

ance of self-determination or creases

in

compound

those normally called living.

and feed into each

moment-

enduring individual originates

especially

i.e.

all

upon more

the evidence

the most important,

determining the experience and

in

behavior of human beings. cient causes,

is

in

becomes increas-

It

ingly important as the study focuses

suggests that final causation

other rather than running parallel. Each

causation in-

final

complex, highly evolved animals;

on our planet,

ary event in an

quantum physics

individuals,

human

exterior and interior oscillate

what they

germ of ontic self-determinacy. The import-

events,

a temporal society of

to

to the future in a

predictable way. But not completely: behind the

momentary

is

individuals

terms of efficient causes

in

They mainly

alone.

minimal. For the

is

of these

individual, such as a proton, neuron, or

psyche,

such

and electrons (or quarks,

epistemic "indeterminacy" of

fire.'

viduals, a positive relation can exist

cient

a drink, if

purposes

objects,

importance of final or purposive

to individuals, the

there be), final causation

a glass follow

all

all

causation will vary enormously. In primary indi-

if such

lift

the

Even with regard

^

and computers.

viduals, such as photons

to

and

for

imply that

beings does nol

actual

final

the two categories will be equally relevant for

why the higher forms of experience have And without appeal to a supernatural coordinator, how can we explain the parallelism between inner and outer; e.g. why should my hand

receives to

it

for evil.)

plain

my

if

simpK transmit to may do this, but it also

evolved.'

mental decision to have

as

final causation.

its

beings. Indeed, as already indicated, an appeal to

mentality makes no difference to an individual's

my

efficient

along

has

allelism raises serious problems. If experience or

right after

is

unJ

some degree or another, before passing it on. ((f> do this to the greatest degree when we return good

when

brain's signal to

run

it

e\ent does not neces.sarily

others what

final

how can we

exerts

run

in relation to materialistic identism, this par-

environment,

Hence, the

causation.

final

the

ol

there were no inentalily with

above

its

own

its

causes

along parallel to each other. However, as discussed

interactions with

it

function both of the efficient causes u|)on

of

lived

it

The common view

difficult.

been that they do not

ithin,

causation.

final

this picture, relating efficient

without,

individuals

terms of efficient causation; from w in

physical

was conscious or

but

mental from within, for interacted

was

individual

.\n

others,

to

an object which everts efficient causation on future

The importance

of effi-

of influence from the past, does

not diminish as one moves toward the higher indi-

through the inrush of efficient causation from the

viduals; indeed, in a sense higher beings are influ-

from previous events, including

enced by more past events than are lower ones. But

past world,

i.e.

members The momentary

the previous events that were

same enduring

individual.

of the subject

then makes a self-determining response to these causal influences; this ation, as the event itself

and

causation ation;

it

aims

final

the

at

moment

of

is is

in a

final

caus-

achieving a synthesis for

for influencing the future.

no way unrelated

This

final

to efficient caus-

purposive response to the efficient

causes on the event. ive

is

causation

When is

this

over,

moment

of subject-

the event becomes

the totality of efficient causes from the past be-

comes

less

and

less

explanatory of experience and

behavior, and the individual's

own

present self-

determination in terms of desired ends becomes

more explanatory.

From this perspective we can understand why a mechanistic, reductionistic approach has been so spectacularly successful

and

so

Galilean

unsuccessful

in

in certain areas

others.

The modern

paradigm was based on the study of

(®)

David Ray

Griffin

nonindividuatcd objects, such as steel balls,

determining their

in

stellar

masses and

which exercise no final causation either

own

behavior or that of their

elementary parts. Absolute predictability and reduction

possible in principle. This paradigm was

is

next applied

low-grade individuals,

very

to

in

contiguous events, events

its

much more

is

on contiguous

influence

powerful. Hence, the effects

of the kind of influence that

is

exerted upon remote

events indirectly via a chain of contiguous events will

much more

be

regular and hence predictable

than the effects of the kind of influence that

is

most pur-

exerted on remote events directly, without the

poses except to the most refined observation. With

intervening chain. Accordingly, because sensory

which the

final

causation

is

negligible for

of be-

perception arises from a chain of contiguous events

the most elementary indi-

(photons and neuron firings in vision) connecting

viduals; the ideal of predictability could be salvaged

the remote object with the psyche, the sensory

this refinement, the absolute predictability

down with

havior broke

only by making

numbers of life,

and

it

statistical

individuals.

and applying

W ith

it

to large

low-grade forms of

with their inherited charac-

in particular

teristics

and certain abstract features of

havior,

Galilean

science

has

their be-

been

still

very

successful, but not completely. Certain features of

even low-grade

life

seemed

intractable to this ap-

proach, just those features which led to the rise of

This paradigm has been even

vitalism.

less success-

with rats than with bacteria. At this

ful

level, vari-

ous problems are virtually ignored, because

chance of success interested

is

little

apparent, and scientists are

applying their method where the

in

perception of external objects

and

produced

in the external

means of

the

body

contiguous causes, whose

many

and

scientists

philosophers of science refuse to think of the socalled social or

human sciences, such as psychology,

sociology, economics, and political science, as sci-

ences at

all.

This pattern of success and fits

exactly

what the post-

predicts.

As one

leaves nonindi-

the Galilean paradigm

modern paradigm

failure of

a chain

of

like that

of

the sensory system, has been perfected over billions

of years of evolution, such effects are reliable than

much more

any psychokinetic effects produced by psyche upon outer

the direct influence of the

objects without the body's mediation. Additionally,

although unconscious extrasensory perception and subtle

and

diffused psychokinetic action occur con-

scious

so miserable that

by

reliability,

method has been less successful yet with humans than with rats. The record of success at is

regular

world by the psyche by

are mediated

tinually (by hypothesis), the

this level

much more

ory perception of them. Likewise, because effects

chances for success are most promising. Finally, the

is

hence predictable, than any extrasens-

reliable,

power

psychokinetic effects on

produce con-

to

and

perception

extrasensory

conspicuous

specific objects is

for the majority of human beings

-

at least

most of the time -

evidently lodged in an unconscious level of experience, which by definition

is

not under conscious

Given these assumptions, the

control.

parapsychology

has

attained

that

fact

repeatability

little

with conspicuous psychokinetic effects and conscious extrasensory perception

is

what should be

viduatcd objects for individuals, and as one deals

expected."' In this way, the element of truth in the

w ith

Hermetic paradigm

increasingly higher individuals, final causation

becomes increasingly important, and

hence predictability become increasingly sible.

and

regularity less

pos-

Hence, nothing but confusion and unrealistic

paradigms.

W hat then is science - what constitutes its unity.'

expectations can result from continuing to regard

The

physics as the paradigmatic science."^

goes," that there

This framework can explain why

it

has been even

anarchistic or relativistic view that "anything

method,

is

is

less possible to

discover regularities and attain re-

function, as indeed

parapsychology

free

than

in

certain

A

event

world must be

hypothesis)

exerts

influence

as well as spatially

directly

and temporally

Modern

physics and

modern

osophy denied the existence of

final

intended,"'' to shake us as

much

looser than the

modern de-

activity properly called science

and any con-

is its

end, purpose, or goal (which need not be conscious or intentional).

as a scientific

serves a useful

scriptions (which were really /jr^scriptions).

Any Aristotle's notion of the ''final cause" of a being

was

it

description of science for a postmodern

science.

(by

it

But

from parochial limitations on what counts

aspects of ordinary psychology. Although every

upon remote

no such thing

surely too strong.

peatability

in

coordinated with the elem-

is

ents of truth from the Aristotelian and Galilean

natural phil-

causation

in

clusions properly called scientific must,

based truth."

on

an

overriding

Other concerns

will

concern

to

first,

be

discover

of course play a

role,

nature, breaking with Scholostic and Arisotelian sci-

but the concern for truth must be overriding, or the

ence.

activitv

and

its

results

would be

better called

bv

The Reenchantment of Science another name, such as

More

particularly,

through

or

uieotof^y,

Second, science involves

politia.'^^

ilata

it

f>rof>(ifitiniIu,

or

ileinonslralioii.

involves testing h>potheses

some sense

or experiences that are in

repeatahle and hence open to confirmation or rilutation b\

tempt

open

peers.

In

to establish

sum, science involxes the

at-

truth through demonstrations

to experiential replication.

\\ hat

out

left

is

how

habits, ihi- i|utsiion of

should not be

shouki follow

hohm

the habits originaicil

off-limits

tleclareil

lor the reasons

tion of theological imposition,

which

particular

(1)

Science

is

st

not restricted to the domain of

things assumed to be wholly physical, operating in

aspects of things, understood as the aspects

knowable

sensory perception or instruments

to

As the impossi-

designed to magnify the senses. bility

makes the sim-

it

ph\sics the ideal, so that

classical

udy of more complex orders

that nature

of behaviorism in

is

t

regarded

is

it

lu-

as

implies

dead and "obedient" rather than

generative and resourceful.

terms of efficient causes alone, or even to the physical

of

"softer" and less fully scientific; and

contingent beliefs.

no longer

is

appropriate but continues to sanction unidirec-

plicitN

an\

of "ortlers,"

the notion of "laws of nature" retains the connota-

tional, hierarchical explanations;

(.>)

nm-

fact,

Kvelyn Im)X Keller has suggested:

particular domain, (2) an\ particular type of repeat-

and demonstration, or

In

'Maws" with the more inclusive notion

of this account of science are limitations (1) to an\

ability

''

replacing the language of

in

experien-

(2) \\ hile science requires repeatable

does not require one particu-

tial

demonstration,

lar

type of demonstration, such as the laboratory

it

Grim

experiment. As Patrick

says:

human and even animal

psychology has shown, science must refer to ex-

Field studies, expeditions, and the appearances

comprehend (and even to predict) animal behavior. Although we cannot see the purposes motivating our fellow humans or

of comets have played

other animals, assuming that such purposes play a

deductive as well as inductive demonstration.

perience and purposes to

causal role

is

not unscientific,

major role

in the history

ematics reflects a willingness to accept a priori

And

hypothesis can

if this

a

of science. Contemporary reliance on math-

there are times

when

the course of science

be publicly demonstrated to account for the observ-

quite properly shifts on the basis of what appear

able behavior better than the opposite hypothesis.

to

And, once deal

with

subjectivity,

principle for

it

there

to suspect that

no

is

reason

in

to limit itself to the objective or

physical side of other things,

if

there

is

good reason

an experiencing side exercising

causation exists. At the very least, even

if

final

we cannot

imagine very concretely what the experience of a

bacterium or

need not

be almost purely philosophical arguments.

explicitly recognized that science can

it is

a

try to

DNA

molecule would be

account for

its

we

like,

observable behavior

on the metaphysical assumption that

it

has no ex-

perience and hence no purposes.

In regard to Grim's

example,

reason for the scientific

community

toward the laboratory experiment

it

to

the realm of actuality.

is

among

Mathematics

ideal entities,

was

able to achieve great consensus; geometry

Descartes

of course

paradigmatic

and for

in the

philosophy

of science has philosophically reflected the materinonecological assumption that things are

essentially

independent of their environments, so

(say)

limit

to reconsider

timate constituents of nature are entirely devoid of

objective side of actual things,

deals with relationships

with both

experience and purpose. xMore generally, the bias

that the scientist abstracts

does not even

have suggested

the metaphysical-scientific hypothesis that the ul-

peers does not limit science to the physical or it

I

difficulties

dualism and materialistic identism provide a good

alistic,

Just as the need for experiential replication by

last

above that the philosophical

removing

cells

from nothing

animals from a jungle to study them in it

reflects the reductionistic

complex things are

essential in

from the human body or

really

a laboratory;

assumption that

all

no more self-determining

science.

than the elementary parts in isolation, so that they

Therefore, the fact that logic, aesthetics, and ethics

should be subject to the same kind of strong labora-

deal with ideal entities does not, in

tory repeatability;

the

itself,

exclude

them from the realm of science.

the

Furthermore, the domain of

scientific

study

should not be thought to be limited to regularities,

trol

'"^

it

reflects the

main purpose of science

is

assumption that

to predict

repeatable phenomena; and

it

and con-

reflects the as-

sumption that the domain of science

is

limited to

no reason why the

the actual, especially the physical. Recognizing the

discussion of the origin of laws should not belong to

wide domain of science means recognizing the ne-

science. If the laws of nature are reconceived as

cessity

or law-like behavior.

There

is

and hence appropriateness of diverse types

'

David Ray

Griffin

of demonstrations, and the

up one type (3)

meaning

presupposed

beliefs that are not inevitably

by human practice, including thought, ence

of

scientific pursuit

not tied to any set of contingent beliefs,

is

For example, science

^'

of explanation.

is

not tied to

principles, taken together, provide the basis for

understanding of the activity of scien-

a scientific tists

nal

themselves

devoid of sentience, intrinsic value, and internal

both cause and

time does not exist for these units,

that

natural

all

phenomena

from the (cur-

result

rently four) forces rooted in these elementary units,

that accordingly

all

causation

freedom and purposive or

ical

forms play no role

mathemat-

in nature, that there is

no

that the universe as a

influence at a distance,'

whole

that

not an organism which influences

is

parts, or that the universe

and

its

fact that science as

such

permanently wedded to these contingent that reigned during the

mean

not

modern period does not

thought,

If beliefs exist that are

human

by

posed

as

such,

then

verbally this

presup-

including

practice,

scientific

Any

thought must presuppose them.

on

is

beliefs

that there are no beliefs that science as such

must presuppose.

human

practice

and

theories that

deny them should therefore be eschewed ground alone. Although any such

beliefs

would transcend perspectivalism, because they by hypothesis would be less

common

of their worldview

to

all

people, regard-

the questions of whether

,

if

so what they are,

are matters not for pontification

from some sup-

there are any such beliefs, and

posedly neutral point of view, because no point of view^

subjected

to

is

human

neutral, but for proposals to be

ongoing public discussion among

show

illustrate the types

of beliefs intended and to

that they are not limited to innocuous,

controversial issues,

candidates.

The

it

affected the

knower before

it

mean

first

The

mean

two principles proffered deal with

final

science's concern for truth. itional principles

These

which are recovered

tradiction,

are the trad-

of correspondence and noncon-

postmodern

in a

context.

The

idea that truth

a

is

correspondence between

a great deal

of criticism.

of this criticism

often while verbally rejecting positivism,

suppose the a

positivistic

to the cal

its

verification.

meaning of "truth," which

is

Much

claims.

let

alone

w ith

of the rejection of the relevance of

the correspondence notion of truth has conflated truth with knowledge and then

assumed

that there

could be no knowledge, in the sense of justified true in

belief,

the absence of adequate evidence to

defend the knowledge-claim."^'^

How ever, much

of the criticism of the notion of

truth as correspondence

is

valid, especially in rela-

tion to naively realistic ideas of a one-to-one cor-

non-

facts.

For one thing, our ideas about physical

objects, insofar as they are based primarily

simplifications,

is

caus-

tactile perception, surely

constructions, and distor-

For another, language in

out of absolute nothingness or out of pure possibilexperience nor any-

wholly determined by

external events; rather, every genuine individual

is

upon

involve enor-

tions of the realities existing independently of our

vague and,

is

The

the question of the justification of knowledge-

mous

it

pre-

not even identi-

w ith the question of knowledge,

three principles relate to the

human

still

equation of the meaning of

statement w ith the means of

and

Second, neither

is

critics,

correspondence notion of truth properly refers only

visual

propose

Much

based upon confusion, inasmuch as the

perception.

(39§)

to

that temporal relations are ultimately unreal.

influenced by other events. This principle rules

thing analogous to

that an event

happened or

out, for example, the idea that the universe arose

ity.

is

This principle rules out the

the notion of "backward causation," and any notion

five principles as

I

crucial issue of causality. First, every event ally

fall

same event

the

respondence between statements and objective

those with diverse worldviews.

To

effect.)

in

statements and objective reality has been subject to

no inherent meaning.

However, the

because

of "precognition" interpreted to

evolution have

its

this principle,

notion of particles "going backwards in time,"

telelogical causation are

that ideal entities other than

'

illusory,

upward and

is

that event temporally.

(Self-determination or self-causation does not

under

relations, that

increasingly seen

is

Third, every event that exerts causal influence

upon another event precedes

the belief that the elementary units of nature are

that the laws of nature for these units are eternal,

terms of a combination of exter-

in

and internal causes, which

to be necessary."^

Sci-

itself.

therefore, not limited to any particular type

is,

partially self-determining. Incidentally, these first

two

Besides not being limited to one domain or

one type of demonstration, the truth

of holding

artificiality

as the ideal.

pond"

any

in the sense

entities.

Language

can correspond to

case,

inherently

is

cannot as such "corres-

of being similar to nonlinguistic aside, the a

way

in

which an idea

physical object

is

not self-

evident, because an idea can onlv be similar to

-

The Reenchantment of Science another idea. Kvcn

many conceptions

ot truth is the

correspondence between one's ideas in

another mind are held

insofar as

it

is

assumed

in

naive ways,

t'alsel\

Manx

is |')ossible.

go on trom these \ahd starting points

critics

argue that the meaning its

uk-.is

that acliie\ing truth, in the

scnseotabsohiie correspondence,

by

ihi

iiul

of a

statement

is

to

exiiausted

relation to other statements, so that language

some other wa\

constitutes a closed s\stem, or in

argue that our statements can

no meaningful

in

sense correspond to an\ nonlinguistic entities. Science, in this extreme view,

is

system

a linguistic

disconnected from an> larger world.

Postmodern organicism

rejects this view of lan-

anything other than language,

expresses and

it

evokes modes of apprehending nonlinguistic reality that can

more or

less accurately

correspond to fea-

lesels of

\ague

is

meaning exist,

and/or because seemingly contradictory assertions

may apply

to diverse features of the referent or to

different stages of

its

There are yet

dexelojiment

other objections to simple-minded aj^plications the principle of noncontradiction, liut after cessar\

and

subtleties

ily

presupposed even

C()rdingl\ all its

,

of

ne-

all

been

ha\e

i|ualifications

added, the principle remains valid and

all

guage. While language as such does not correspond to

uiulerstood. I'his can be because language

ami elusive, because various

necessar-

is

in attemjits to refute

.'\c-

it.

science must aim for coherence between

jirojiositions

and between

its

propositions and

those that are inevitably presupposed in

human

practice and thought in general. (Obtaining such

coherence

is

indeed

method

primary

the

of

checking for correspondence.) All of these principles are in harmony with postmodern organicism. Indeed, they are not epistem-

tures of that reality. ^^ Hence, science can lead to

ically neutral principles

ways of thinking about the world

that can increas-

in regard to their exact formulation, suggested

by

and structures genu-

postmodern organicism. However, the claim

is

ingly approximate to patterns

made

inely characteristic of nature.

The other traditional principle involved

in scien-

is

the principle of noncon-

tradiction. It says that if

two statements contradict

ce's

concern for truth

each other, both cannot be true. This principle has also

been subject

to

much

valid criticism. Certainly

two statements that appear

to contradict each other

may not in reality when one or both are more deeply

that they are,

but ones that are, especially

in

fact,

implicit

human thought

practice, including

of course, in the content of

duced by human thought).

all

in

human

(although not,

the theories pro-

If this claim

is

through widespread conversation, then

sustained

this set

of

beliefs (along with

any others that could prove their

universality in the

same way) should be considered

to

belong to science as such.

Author's Notes 1

Mary Hesse

Robert G. W'eyant

points out that the rejection of action-at-

(eds). Science, Pseudo-Science

and

a-distance in favor of action-by-contact explanations

Society [Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier Univer-

was based on the replacement of

sity Press, 1980],

organismic and

all

145 70, esp. 147, 150). Brian Easlea

psychological explanations by mechanical ones (Forces

has provided convincing evidence that the desire to

and

rule out the possibility of attraction at a distance was,

The Concept of Action at a Distance

Fields:

in the

Adams & makes clear how

main motivation behind the mechanical

History of Physics [Totowa, NJ: Littlefield,

in fact, the

Co, 1965], 98, 291). Richard Westfall

philosophy and

central

Philosophy: the mechanical philosophy also banished tions of any kind.

upon such

.

.

.

denial of all hidden qualities within

An

New

Introduction to Debates of the Scientific

attrac-

Revolution

No

a notion.

its

matter; see his IVitch Hunting, Alagic and the

was the change:

1450-1750

(Atlantic

Highlands,

NJ:

108-15,

121,

scorn was too great to heap

From one end

Humanities Press, 1980),

esp.

93-5,

of the century to 132, 135.

another, the idea of attractions, the action of one

upon another with which anathema.

...

'occult virtue'

An

body 2

it

is

the

not in contact, was Creation

attraction

was an occult

virtue,

(Chicago:

University

Problem of

of Chicago

Press,

and 1979), 55-6, 120, 139-40.

was the mechanical philosophy's ultim3

ate

Neal C. Gillespie, Charles Darwin and

term of opprobrium.

Michael Ghiselin, The Economy of Nature and

the

Evolution of Sex (Berkeley: University of California

Westfall reports that Christiaan

Huygens wrote

he did not care whether Newton was

that

a Cartesian ''as

Press, 1974), x, 13.

4

long as he doesn't serve us up conjectures such as attractions"

("The

Newton," Marsha

P.

Influence

of

Alchemy

Hanen, Margaret

J.

An Essay on the (New York:

Natural Philosophy of .Modern Biology

on

Osier, and

Jacques Monod, Chance and Necessity:

Vintage Books, 1972), 21. 5

Ibid.,

172-3, 171.

(49T)

David Ray 6

Griffin

uf Behavior: An Introduction to (New York: Appleton-Century,

modern

C^lark Hull, Principles

especially in the

Behavior

Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield have shown

Theory^

{The Discovery of Time

1943), 29.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New

7

B. F. Skinner,

8

B. F. Skinner, Science

9

\\ illiam R. Uttal,

& Row,

York: Harper

sense of real for the most real type of existent.

and Human Behavior (New

Twen-

tieth-century physics, in speaking of the ultimate unreality of time (largely through the influence of

447.

6,

[New

has seldom, as

it

1965J), been considered to be fundamental, in the

York: Vintage Books, 1972), 12, 191, 196.

York: Free Press, 1965),

period,

The Psychohiology of. Mind (Hills-

NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1978),

the interpretation given to relativity theory by Ein-

10, 27,

stein with his Spinozistic leanings), has thereby not

52-3.

introduced a

10

John G. Taylor, Supermmds (London: Macmillan,

one. For further discussion, see the introduction to

1

John

dale,

9,

G.

Taylor,

and

Science

(London: Panther Books, 1981), 25-30,

Ibid.,

83,

here

issue

13

(which

him

itself led

to

deny

1

Parapsychology (Buffalo,

537-65,

1985),

562.

esp.

A

20

By

.

.

.

[was] laid

Modem

1956,

Book],

1956),

become] the dominant

[has

Krutch himself had

in the

scientific

was

Out of

Einstein's statement,

W.

in a letter,

assuming

rightly

Many

153.

and

that linear time has

would be

a

been

is

that

Western

(as

postmodern

well

as

form of being, be

one side of his thought), the

God

Thomas

The

most Eastern)

for

set forth in

Human

in

is

man

His reasons

for

The Aleasure of

Values, Survival

and

the

Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill,

harmony with the present volume,

Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Dennon York: Simon

22

&

for

.

.

.

all

of us to believe that

product of

"The

any one of

The one is

himself."

that

a

a

"It

man may

is

easy

be 'the

number of external we find it hard to

thing which

what he might be

And Krutch

'the

product of

is

gives one of the reasons why:

idea that [the realm of the subjective] might be

autonomous and the

The

(New

Schuster, 1961), 67.

Krutch says of modern individuals:

believe

thought and experience.

(eds).

Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell 1903-1959

unmoved mover,

Aquinas, or the ultimate par-

W estern

Freedom,

(xiii).

Temper (Indianapolis,

which

'forces'

of modern physics. Although temporality has

been central

or any estimate of

that has appeared in the intervening decades.

21

idea, liber-

of classical theists such as Augustine, Mai-

monides, and ticles

.\ristotle's

change of mind were

Plato's ideas (in

it

life

to

advantage of the historical and scientific evidence

thought has generally held temporality to be unreal for the ultimate

He no

a central

ating us from one of the shackles of modernity.

truth

(xii).

premises upon

as the

must be based"

this

1953),

the assertion of the ultimate unreality of time, vouchsafed by physics,

and

,

free choices are

while not going as far and of course not having the

have wrongly assumed that

evolution^

no escaping the

people,

feature of modernity, especially in the notions of progress

is

make

to

and hence

his future

Modem

Larry Dossey, Space, Time and Medicine (Boulder, 152,

fact

and

Man: On

Davies, The Physics of Time Asymmetry

1982),

power

which any philosophy of

and Rebel (New York: \'iking Press,

Shambhala,

being's

be accepted as

is

(Berkeley: Universit) of California Press, 1976), 151.

Co.:

regarded as "the most preva-

and deterministic conclusions of science do have

.xxvii.

which occurred

1972), 258. P. C.

(xiii).

to reject

longer believed that "the mechanistic, materialistic,

Banesh Hoffman (with Helen Dukas), Albert

cited in

Einstein: Creator

still

merely figments of the imagination"

Man's Sew Dialogue with Xature (New

York: Bantam Books, 1984),

"Social

demonstration that religion, morality

human

the

(562, 555).

Isabelle Stengers, Ord^r

&

of the

that,

religion of today"

Martin Rudwick, and others who show that and

Study

emphasis

meantime come

the view, which he

Chaos:

A

in that final sentence,

lent educated opinion," that "there

Ilya Prigogine

xi;

Krutch had decided

he had reviewed recent writings of Eugene Klaaren,

Newton

Temper:

Engineering rather than Existentialist resignation

down

this

Theory

Identity

67.

upon the foundation of materialism," even though

not true, especially for Isaac

17

Harvest

two options noted

influential philosopher of science of the twenti-

idea that "the path of science

16

ood Krutch, The

added.

most

15

\\

advocated by John

is

Nobel prizewinner, and Karl Popper, the

eth century (558). Also, he repeats the conventional

14

Joseph

[A

nonmateriahstic science

A Modern

and a Confession (New York: Harcourt, Brace

enough,

World

Eccles, a

Mind-Brain

The

(ed.),

Alcock makes his claim even though he realizes that a

York

D. M. Armstrong, "The Nature of Mind," C. V. (London: Macmillan, 1979), 75,

Skeptic's

Interestingly

Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes:

Borst

as a 'Spiritual'

Handbook of NY: Prometheus Books,

Science," Paul Kurtz (ed.),

New

Books, 1977), 154. 19

James A. Alcock, "ParapsychologA

and Process

View of the Origin of the Universe (New York: Basic

his

data.

Ultimate

the

Prigogine,

Press, 1986).

parapsychologists doubt), but only that the

modern worldview by

own

Bohm,

Philosophy (Albany: State Lniversit) of not

is

solid

and

(ed.). Physics

Significance of Time:

6, 69, 108, 164.

The

165-9.

Supernatural

the

whether Taylor's original evidence was

many

idea but simply revitalized an old

David Ray Griffin

1975).

12

new

creative suggests the possibility that

methods which were working e\ervwhere

else

The Reenchantment of Science might not work. iIktc CoiKcrn

\\itl>

and therefore unintelHgent"

tific

(

Cohen

was unscien-

it

W,i«, 254. 117). !.>

l-'or

1

lans-(ieori; (iaila-

and science, see Joel C.

(e.g.

I-Ael\n

einsheimer, (niJjincr's

\\

Truth

tiniiLiishes)

the primary in

the midst of his observation, cannot distinguish this

what

distinction,

is

observed

is

something

that

on the

arises

the person

in

The important cjuestion "eigen\alues"

w hen

turns

its

latent structures

The

kind of

and functions.

200 years.

this type

as the technique itself It

was probably

first

w as placed

into the

it,

alw ays from

domain of the harmless or

the naive; or he w as treated as

out realizing

is

The primary obser-

holier-than-thou perspective.

ver

someone who, with-

had something

to hide.

This holier-

than-thou perspective fed upon suspicion. generalization of the principle of suspicion

sociology

-

to establish

itional credentials in a

And the made it

- from psychoanaly-

possible for whole disciplines sis to

largely

practiced in the

then in the critique of ideology that a

is still

no older than

is

then in the Counter-enlightenment, and

novel,

It

acts

world

and the reasons

does not seem

a

in

-

it

continualK

we

of different

variety

a

in

coincidence that this observa-

at first at

the end of the 18th

during the heyday of Neo-Kantianism. Ap-

names:

others of the postmodern

still

arbitrariness in the

emergence and passage of "di.s-

courses". F'or constructivism this

above

is,

an

tion for the limitations inherent in every act of

cognition

upon

as

a

consequence of

dependence

its

One cannot draw the conclusion that now special "eigenvalues" of

a distinction.

from the theory

the social system will emerge that will be resistant

enlightenment for there

to

under

found and become can

is

no guarantee

that

conditions such "eigenvalues" can be

all

at least

stabilized.

the question

Still,

be raised and observation directed ac-

cordingly.

VI one takes seriously the endeavor

If

constructivist theory of

to set

By

a

paradox

is

meant

a

permissible and meaningful

statement that leads nonetheless to antinomies or

theory of knowledge goes beyond this state of

sibilities for

hundred years

later).

Its

concept

from the prejudice that

latent

a

question becomes shifted: that of the paradoxes.

undecidability (or,

of recursive observation includes the observation

up

knowledge an important

proposition that has such consequences).

it

all,

epistemological question and a kind of compensa-

parently, something had been lacking in transcen-

of latency, freeing

Gotthard

Giinther speaks of ''polycontextuality", others of

dental philosophy. All the same, a constructivist

affairs (again a

method

have, in the absence of an> thing

for his actions.

century and then with particular intensity a century later

observations

its

when

is,

what

is

towards

which everyone

tion of latent structures developed parallel to tran-

scendental theory

this

all

con\erging

themselves with add-

knows, or imagines he knows, the situation

which he

that

"pluralism", and

the kind of ''eigenvalue"

reality,

produced by recursions of

unknow n,

observed observer's

to the

alter

is

\ers cannot observe. Vov the results ol this

better,

now

to

what

observations towards things other obser-

the terms of sociology one could also say that ob-

directed

system

a

direction

of observing

is

in relation lo

extends the recursivity of

it

this

remains unknown to him or incommunicable. In

servation

which he has

(for

is,

observing).

is

in

can llun be obscr\etl

ilist(»rlion

making the claim

be observed as observer, that

he

onK

of second order observation. The

level

claim of itleological

his

observer in his observing. Since this observer,

of Constructivism"

rejected.

dealing

The

more

strictly, a

w ith such

first is

a

demonstrable

Two pos-

problem should be

used in the construction of

formal systems and consists of an ad hoc procedure

of exclusion.

The

paradoxes are eliminated by suit-

structures give a false picture of the world, as

it

able precautionary measures. Structures that lead to

The assumption -

to

paradoxes are forbidden - for example by the w ell-

really

is

and

as science sees

be found above

knowledge -

all

it.

in the classical

sociology of

that latent structures, functions

interests lead to distortions of

blatant errors, can

know ledge,

if

know n but questionable theory of

types.'"

The

and

not to

and must be abandoned.^ The

'"

A

theory developed by Bcrtrand Russell

(in

".Math-

ematical Logic Based on a Theory of Types," 1908) to

impossibility of distinguishing the distinction that

resolve the paradox, which he discovered, that the set of

one distinguishes w ith

all

tion of cognition.

The

is

an unavoidable precondi-

question of whether a given

sets

not a

w hich

are not

members of themselves both is and

member of itself

is

Luhmann

Niklas

cpistemological questionability ot such a procedure

comes from

moreover,

lack of justification;

its

usually has the consequence that

it

excludes more

it

another distinction that he has already begun to

make

new why all

or by continuing with a

This

having ended.

after

is

distinction

projection,

than just paradoxical possibilities for the construc-

or the setting of a goal, every formation of episodes

tion of sentences.

necessitates recursive observation

As

a result, philosophers

means

look for other

have

would

that

felt

compelled

to

lead to a justifiable

thermore, not so

recursive observation

much

and why, fur-

makes possible

the elimination of paradoxes as their

exclusion of paradoxes. .\IacKie, for example, sug-

temporal and social distribution onto different op-

gests returning to a semantic theory of truth that

erations.

would make

communication

possible to say that the supposed

it

objects designated by meaningful paradoxical prop-

do not

ositions

exist.

'

way

this

what

out, since

however, not possible

It is,

for a constructivist theory

of knowledge to accept

is

claimed here as being

all

calls for a

MacKie

grist

is

for

~

the constructivist's

constructivism can view paradox as a problem

machinery of the calculation of calculations, but nonetheless destructive construc-

Should one look the Gorgon

tion.

that

way

for

aware however that

it

is

on -

straight

Medusa

not the deadly

one has before one, but her immortal

and remaining

This remedy

solves, as

it

were, the problem of

the paradoxes by reference to a concrete theory: the

sisters,

work of such operations logicians

will

when how

to observe

satisfying).

science) there

when one forms

system. Even

is

In

such

no oper-

universal propos-

itions that refer to all the operations of the system,

and

also

when one exposes

on the

itions

a point

these universal propos-

basis of the classic Cretan pattern to

is

one includes observation of latency,

find is

ation without reference to other operations of the

self-reference,

observing of observation. This enables one,

hardly

systems (one of which

Stheno (the Mighty) or Eurvale (the Far Springsuggest instead a view from the side, the

as the condition for the

very possibility of this reproduction (a solution

er)?^"'

We

all

an indefinite future.

recursive operations produce and reproduce a net-

This suggestion

as a possible

such integration can only result in the

F'or

for.

paradoxes becoming invisible to

theory of autopoietic systems,'" which by means of

struction and (at least implicit) quantification.

in the

given such conditions, some-

finally

adopting self-referring propositions into the con-

mill:

is,

"construction" of the paradoxical by

the attempts to eliminate them,

even

consensual integration of systems of

thing that should sooner be feared than sought

does not exist for constructivism

non-existent,

anyway. Given that paradoxes re-emerge despite

A

one only produces an operation that

of departure for other operations.

simply claim:

it

is

this

attempt to dispute this

way; and logicians are, in

We who

consequence, pun-

ished by paradoxes.

other observers render invisible the paradoxes that get in their way, for

example the paradox of each of

our binary codes.'

It is,

therefore, not a psycho-

VII

analytical infection or a critical socio-ideological

what understanding of

of

Given

all

the blind spot of the observer in the theory of

reality

does constructivism have.'

frivolity that brings us to include observation

knowledge.

It is

agement

propound values

to

irrational, as

thought.

To

furthermore not simply an encourthat are, in

William James and see

any

case,

Max Weber

had

what others cannot see (and

to

accept that they cannot see what they cannot see) is,

in a

way, the systematic keystone of epistemol-

ogy - taking the place of its It is,

a priori

foundation.

therefore, of importance that every observer

involves himself in a paradox because he has to

found he

is

his observing

on

a distinction.

As

a result,

unable to observe either the beginning or the

ending of

his observing

- unless

it

be by means of

It

that has

may be

been

useful here to review

The

were used, two solutions were offered. Objectivists said that reality

was manifold, which meant that

there was no single observation point from which

(|05)

it

could be seen in toto: what one sees conceals what

one does not

see.

This deficiency can only be coun-

tered by changing the point of observation, that

by working sequentially or by

a division

is

of labor.

Subjectivists could speak instead of a multiplicity

of perspectives each of which makes possible conditioned seeing, but which difficult

at

the

a

same time

the perception of

three Gorgons, monsters of the underworld in

Greek mythology.

classical re-

sponses once again. As far as visual metaphors

makes impossible or ^"'

said,

"Autopoiesis" means self-constituting.

"The Cognitive Program More

the pcrspiMiNc OIK- sees wiih.'^

more emotions:

therefore

postulate in Ihc

It

no longer from

arise

of"

ol sides

a muitiplicit\

of"

product of cognition,

a

is itself

multiplicity of sides

a

is

it

arri\es,

This multiplicity,

units.

at

whether

perspectives,

or perspecti\es,

no longer how one

is

given this situation, regardless

realit\

question ol the difficulties that

a

and the problem

or

(!onstriict-

between cognition and

relationship

is

o/Moru/s^

C't-nt-d/oiiy

aiul

goes beyond these positions h\ radieah/inj^

ivisni

the

e\es

Nietzsche's

w.is

that

resulting from certain types of distinctions, which, as distinctions, are

precisely by

means

instruments

Nonetheless, one

is

not cogni-

in the case

jelly-fish

of

goes limp.

order to recognize that, distinctions are

in

with/without

necessary:

not-limp/limp.

water;

These

distinctions are codifications specific to cog-

nition,

which function independently of the envir-

onment

of stimuli), because there are not and

(i.e.

them

cannot be any equivalents for

in the external

world.

Cognitively

must be constructed by

reality

all

means of distinctions and, struction.

as a result,

The constructed

the reality referred

to.

reality

is,

remains contherefore, not

This too can be recognized,

but recognized only by means of precisely this distinction.

For cognition, only what serves

given case as a distinction

an equivalent of

The

cisely:

is

One

reality.

of

a guarantee

in a

reality,

could say more pre-

source of distinction's guaranteeing

own operative

reality lies in its

meant

which issue from the use

o|)eration of cognition, of distinctions

that

is,

binatorial possibilities

the proliferation of

due

is

requiring an operational closure specific for the

given system. To attain this no "similarities" with the ensironment

can be tolerated.

unity. It

is,

however,

one compares

If

with what has tradition-

this result

been called "idealism'' one can recognize an

ally

important change.

w hich an answer

is

It

affects the basic question to

sought and, therefore, the w hole

theoretical structure.

One had proceeded from knowledge and object and, to face the

problem

means of

this

arrive at

lem

the distinction between as a result,

that could not be

Another way of expressing

this

is

In the final analysis, the prob-

lay then in the unity of the difference

knowledge and

object.

as a result

remains cognitively un-

theories proved to be the adequate form here and

required

any further argument.

hardly

accepts, however, the

conclusion to be draw n from this

is

that the

connection w ith the reality of the external world

itself

only a distinction, that

wound,

to

is

a

ReaHty

ever, that

is

what one does not perceive when

it.""

In no

somew here

way does

in the

this

mean, how-

w orld there are

states

of

If

one

starts

is

In the Geneal()g)\ Nietzsche argued that moral

norms

The

"real"

is

the unobservability of the cognitive

construction of what

is

observed.

is

The

unity of

simply the blind spot used by this distinction,

pro-

from the assumption, however is

as

always a real

process in a real environment, which

is

always

coming from the environ-

ment, what might then be the problem.'

The problem a

system

is

could reside in the question of how

able to transform such /imitations into its own complexity. The nonknow ledge w ould then be nothing

conditions for increasing arhitrariness of

other then the evolutionarily-controlled selectivity

of this process of change.

are constructed to serve worldly purposes like revenge.

one

construction used

dissect, observe the world.

constructivism does - that this

is

established by the blind spot of the cognitive oper-

If

argument suggested above

the distinction between knowledge and object

subject to limitations

approachable to the operation.

betw een

One answer was provided by

the claim of a dialectical relationship. Dialectical

to say that

emerges simultaneously with the

been forced

answered by

how does knowledge

distinction:

its object.'

duces observations and descriptions.

one perceives

of as

VIII

someone who, by means of

ation.

distinc-

devoid of meaning.

which then assumes the function of a guarantor of

The

cognition

must be thought

tions then the final reality

observed - except by means of another distinction

world which

If

demands meaning and meaning demands

this distinction

the operation

com-

instrument

to an

precisely as this unity that the distinction cannot be

reality.

the concrete

the fruits of

that

is

not in the old

being secret. All

of cognition. It is

even

know ledge. Without water the But

IS

all

n.ilure's

of

always dealing with con-

is

determined operations

cretely

one lannot know, above

sense of the essence that

Constructivism"

distinguishing that cognition

of

separates itself from everything that tion.

affairs

of

It

assumes no operations

of the system projecting into the environment, that is,

no know ledge

postulate

in the traditional sense.

instead:

One has to

Everything issuing from

this

process of a transformation of limitations into

Niklas

Luhmann

conditions for the increase of complexity

system

in question,

for the

is,

In contrast with idealism, constructivist cognition neither seeks nor finds a ground.

(when

reflects) the

it

from unity

aware of the

and not forced

affair

reflects

It

in world-orientation

and ends with

to difference. It begins

distinctions, well

own

change

makes allowances

abstraction

fact that this

to this recognition

is its

by an

the

differentiation

into

wide

for the very

domain of the "cognitive sciences", above

knowledge.

disciplines

for

all

biology,

in

psychology and sociology. Observation takes place

when

living systems (cells,

immune systems, brain, own discrimin-

discriminate and react to their

etc.)

ation.

Observation occurs when thoughts that have

been processed through consciousness '^

and

fix

when

dis-

unapproachable outer world. As the unity of the

tinguish something.

drawing of a distinction

unity of the separated,

municable integrable understanding of conveyed information - be it linguistic or non-linguistic - is

what

attained (w hatever psychic processes might occur in

it

can conceive of itself as a

The

symbolic processing.

the mutual suitability of the differentiated,

is

serves as a symbol here. Francisco Varela has con-

We

must

minds of the

the

Given the

sidered this, too, to be an operation or a value and

It

occurs as well

a

com-

participating individuals).

one cannot get

state of research today

leave the

around taking into account the differences between

question open as to whether this leads to an effect-

these empirical realizations of distinguishing and

called

''self-indication"."^^

it

ive calculus.

nize that

On

the other hand,

we are living in

it is

easy to recog-

the world after the

fall.

We

have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

"Distinctions" can only be employed using

The symbol can

"indications".

only be employed

what has been distinguished

diabolically; only

is

designation (or should one perhaps for once say

traditional attribution of cognition to

been done away with.

It is clear

that "constructivism"

is

knowledge,

IX

new theory of

post-humanistic one. This

a

not

is

(in the singular!), as a designa-

and guarantor of the unity of

The

knowledge, must be renounced.

few further thoughts on the matter

The concept

only cursorily.

will

be given

of observing has been

defined extremely formally as a distinguishing de-

We

nonetheless, founding this

reject,

formality "transcendentally". tinguishing, designating

With observing,

dis-

turn,

observable.

is

No

being observed, not even in

its

in its

observer can avoid quality as "subject".

to

is

reality

of cog-

be found in the current operations of the

various autopoietic systems.

The

unity of a struc-

ture of cognition (or the "system" in the sense of

transcendental theory) can only

in the unity of

lie

an autopoietic system which reproduces its

we always mean an empir-

operation that changes the system executing

them - which means an operation which,

own

here, if anywhere,

a completely

"man"

nition

ical

the

has

tion for the bearer

the concept

scription.

this,

"man"

intended maliciously but only to make clear that

integrable.

A

With

here: of discriminative focussing.^).

boundaries,

By

this

its

means the

epistemologies lieved at the

ation

structures and

is

its

itself

w ith

elements.

significance of psychological

considerably reduced, but re-

same time of the unreasonable expectthey

that

provide

should

more

than

individual-psychological knowledge. There

is

no

On

the other hand the formality of the concept

such thing as "man", no one has ever seen him

leaves

open which empirical operations are meant.

and

Which organ -

to speak in these

terms - carries out

the observation.^

The

or

abstraction of the concept

conduct one to

from the

a

Which

fact that the operation

lead to both true

ver

ground.

und

can determine

means of the abstractness

false

who

of the

systems

-

is

grounding

of

concept

its

distinctions

by means of this word

one discovers the communication-

and not, for

false.

The

therefore,

knowledge,

em-

communication.

The

now approximately

system called society. There are 5 billion

psychological systems.

w hich of these

5 billion is

It

intended

system relates concepts such

living systems, systems of con-

systems

interested in the system of observation

knowledge employing

operations' being carried out by very different

sciousness,

is

observes observing by

but only to keep open the possibility of observation

pirical

one

knowledge, as an obser-

concept a

not meant to

results already

of observing can

distinction of true

intended to provide

is

if

that organizes

a

has to be asked

when a theory of

psychological

reference

as observation

cognition to consciousness. If no answer

coming, such

a

and

forth-

is

theory has to be characterized as

practicing socio-communicative observation. x\nd

the suggestion

be better

Up

to

w ould have

if this

to

be made that

it

w ould

practice were reflected upon.

now, constructivism has profited mainly

from research

in

biology,

neurophysiology and

"The Cognitive Program (Maiur.m.i,

psNchoIogN

sersfcld)/" allh()uu:h

of

sociological thcor\

a

know

as coiinition

communication

\im

Piagct,

\.iicl.i,

aciiiall\ taxors

it

the producl of the sNstciii ot

is

where consciousiuss

called society,

plays a permanent but always only fractional role is

It

only in extreme exceptions that one has to know

know

individual persons in order to

Nshat

and these are typical instances

known

is

example,

(for

statements by witnesses in court) in which direct perception plays a central role. Neither in

nor

to validity for

in the evaluation

development

modern

and what

that

it

claim

possibilities

its

society approachable through processes of

consciousness.

world

its

fund of knowledge of

the

is

of

is

is

an artifact of communication -

amazing here

is

as

It is

still

modern

ol as a paih\\.i\

ten

iht

(»bser\mg

it IS

a

usually

assumed

that this

enced as an

by

inaile possible

is

sudden, intuitixe analogs: the other alter ego, as operating like

is

experi-

another

I.

we question, how does this occur.' .\nd further, this phenomenon culturally invariant, independ-

\hil is

The usual answer describes

ent of social structure.'

onl> the result,

is

only another formulation of the

problem and does not explain how

Maturana avoids

this

it

occurs.

problem by shifting

to the

mutually coordinating interaction of two organisms interreact with each other in a sufficiently

that

This makes

comparable area of interaction. possible for

him

to explain the origin of

it

language

that the

as a possibility of consensual coordination of the

science, as

coordination of these interactions despite closure of

communication

possible to pursue

under the conditions of

much

not so

is

constructed by

is

it

directh uislead ol Its observing.^

What wc

kiiowlcdvic.

ot

Cila-

ilcvclopimnt

Constructivism"

of

this construction.

It

is

the

mode

This

of operation of the participating systems. doesn't provide, however, a satisfying

still

obvious that this cannot be explained by some

explanation of how the observation of observing

capacity of consciousness (which oner!) but by the

emerges,

made

possibilities of storage

printing and,

more

available originally

recently,

by

by electronic data

^^

This preference is,

society

for

as

a

referential

system from the

as the choice of a

perspective of which something else

is

environ-

ment) becomes absolutely unavoidable when one takes into consideration the difference

everyday

knowledge and

Whatever

this distinction

ever theory might offer

it,

scientific

between

knowledge.

the

A

third theoretical suggestion (which draws on

And

it

is

only possible

The

distinction

is

is

a

social

only from here that

when one

No

further

recalls the well-

known phenomena of exponential grow th,

able, in

that

to

is,

increas-

information (and not simply as behavior)."^" this distinction

emerges then object.

quires no

a kind

re-

of black-box concept for

the subject and for the object, as far as the distinction operates.

context that

second one: that of subject and

more than

one's

a sociological

a

That communication can be continued

lems of the pace of change. only in

is

between the

communication and information,

ing differentiation and specialization or the prob-

It is, finally,

when an observer

his sphere of perception, to distinguish act of

necessary

Out of - which only remains evolutionarily stable and only reproduces itself as a communication system when it is able to maintain itself- there

psychical systems can be influenced.

necessary

cation

a

is

For communi-

consequence of communication.

cannot be presented

it

psychic types of knowledge.

system of society.

sufficed) can begin with the assumption that the

construction of the other observer

understand communicative acts as the conveying of

consequence of the differentiation of the

is

how observers construct

might mean and what-

convincingly as a distinction between different

argument

is,

sociology, since psychology and biology have not

processing.

system (that

that

objects they have constructed as other observers.

own

As

a participant

one can make use of

constructions, which can then be evalu-

ated during the course of one's participation in the

the ideas on recursive observation and second-

communication. One does not need

order observation

going on "inside" the subject (and of course, could

(i.e.,

the observation of observa-

tion) acquire their full significance.

But why would

an observer observe another observer as observer, as another psychical

system?

system seen simply as nal world, that

is,

a

Why

isn't the

normal object

why

isn't

it

other

in the exter-

simply observed

never know

filling

Psychologists Jean Piaget (1896-1980), prominent

theorist of cognitive feld,

development, and Ernst von Glaser-

contemporary radical constructivist.

and

also does not is

of

know what

is

need to know the

itself infinite): the

necessary for the continuation of

cation suffices.

communi-

How ever, to the degree that systems

of communication, in the course of their ow n evolution,

""

this)

"essence" of things (which

to

become more

sophisticated, differentiated

and complex, more demanding concepts and object are called that

one

for. It is in

finally also learns to

for subject

the course of this

observe others as

(m)

Niklas

Luhmann

observers (even at times they are not communicating)

and

even to observe that others do not

finally

observe what they do not observe while observing.

makes even

Society, finally,

latent observation of

question

why

has not been answered

still

mean

here)

even more sophisticated dis-

tied to

is

This

tinctions.

above

is,

Donald Campbell has

latent structures possible.

The

shouldn't be very difficult to recognize that

It

progress in science (whatever ''progress" might

communication together with

resulting achieve-

its

ments progresses. The answer can only be

that the

all,

the case for what

development in the knowledge" - that is, for the

direction of "distal

called

between knowledge and the knower

distinction

Divorce of the perspectives of compari-

himself.

evolutionary force of a particular distinction - that

son from the interests of the one doing the compar-

between communication and information - has

ing also belongs here.

proven

This can, of course, be claimed of

itself.

everything that exists, and

is still

not an explanation.

Important, however, in the constructivist context outlined above

that this claim has

With

dtstuution.

added

is

this

been made for

a

another distinction has been

to those already

used - system/environment

One

need, moreover, only

think of the use of rigorously formal cognitive

instruments - of logic, mathematics, quantification

-

form of representation of distinction

as a

ity.

This could

still

of ''ideahsm", and

makes

in real-

be dealt with under the concept it is

Husserl

in this context that

of modern, "Galilean" sci-

his criticism

and operation/observation: that of communica-

ence. ^^

tion/information, which

theory of self-referential systems add a new per-

is

of special importance

for the analysis of social systems.

tinction betw een ego

and

and with

as derivative,

alter

The

familiar dis-

ego can be dealt w ith

the whole theory of know-

it

Today

the "cognitive sciences" and the

subsumed under

spective which cannot be

ism" or

criticized as "idealism", that

the operative closure of self-referential systems.

theory of know ledge today that

ledge founded on the concept of intersubjectivity.

"ideal-

insight into

is,

with the

latest

able to bear this

developments

is

A

to be compatible

must be

in science

new perspective.

It is

not surpris-

ing, therefore, that, after a period of

open and

rather irresolute epistemological pragmatism and

The above has made it abundantly clear, we believe, that constructivism does not question the existence

and

reality

of the world - but only constructs. But

even after one has seen gist, still

w hy

ask

this

this,

one can,

as a sociolo-

happens, and w hy precisely

a

period in which highly formalized methodology

as epistemology - after James and Dewey, Baldwin, Rescher, Popper and others -

was presented

constructivism

epistemological

come

into

its

own.'""

today, after both ancient skepticism and idealism

istry

have been overcome, this constructivistic world-

logical relativism

construction

is

of value. If a philosopher were to

this

If the task of epistemology social cognitive

problem of a deeper analysis of Hegelian

logic,

simply to ignore scientific

is

most profound scheme so

the

far

de-

veloped for the processing of distinctions of w hat implied in them with regard to identical and

contrary.

He

make

diffi-

which

is

and neurophysiology,

would be faced with the

ask this question he cult

Quantum

For

a sociologist the

matter

is

simpler.

can take a theory of social evolution as his point

of departure,

founded on

theory obviously, that itself

a

a relevant distinction

-

for example,

constructed on a

Darw inian-scheme of

and

is

selection.

It

possible then to understand

w ith

a highly differentiated

a

problems vistically

arise that

modern

is

to analyze science as a

undertaking one will not be able results.

Constructivism

its

own

extravagances;

it is

the form

is

finally

tion.

But

recognized as the contribution of cogniit

is

form

also the

mislead one to conclude

it

that can

no longer

has nothing to do with

reality.

A society

that increasingly differentiates

important sub-systems

its

in relation to specific

most func-

tions intensifies to a highly improbable degree

its

system of the American pragmatist philosophers William James

(1842 1910) and John

sense, conceptual

can only be solved constructi-

- w hatever one

as historic-socio-

w hich an increasingly improbable distinguishing

sciences.^' In other words, in a society that can in the

w ell

convergence necessary.

in

^"'

produce science

to

the form assumed in reflection on the system of

science facing

variation

constructivism as an epistemology suitable for society

is

is

as

beginning

is

physics, cytochem-

in this society

might nor-

Dewey

James M. Baldwin (1861 Nicholas Rescher (192894),

(1855-1952), psychologist

1934), philosopher of science ),

and Sir Karl Popper (1902-

Viennese-born English philosopher

who developed

mally think about the world in w hich he lives and

"falsificationism" and helped to inspire evolutionary epis-

works, rides the bus and smokes cigarettes.

temology.

'The Cognitive Program of Constructivism' cognitiNc output in the area olsciciuc

on

reflects

one arrives

this situation,

themsehes seem improbable

at

II

oiu iluii

theories that

I'or this reason epis-

temoloiiN cannot provide a founilation lor the sci-

ences.

It

can no longer be understood as

The

theor\ ot the tbundinu; ot knowledge. true:

opposite

It

levels

Press 1981,

authors

level.

See

1..

U)88, p.

129-55. But this

is

upon 9

identity only

become

a tradition, it

concept of God beyond

his

Dybverd, 1936,

where the author demands

London:

it

meets with

little

.Allen

&

A

ation'

op10

Unwin, 1979, passim,

"The

in

publication

recent

the

Sociology of Knowledge and the

The argument

Watzlawick

Die erfundene

p. 3 Iff.

von

Braunschweig:

IVirklichkeit,

1982, esp.

p.

32ff.

(German

translation

v.

J.

die btologischen

Varela,

IVurzeln

See the

critical

discussion precisely this con-

Schmidt

(ed.),

Gla.sersfeld,

IVirklichkeit: Arbeiten

zum

Die Theorie H. R. Maturana und die Notwendigkeit

IVirklichkeit,

ihrer Weiterentwicklung", in Schmidt,

(eds.),

Munich: Olden-

radikalen Konstruktivismus, Frankfurt

kamp, 1987; E.

a

".

temology, in G. Roth, "Autopoiese und Kognition: (ed.)

Einftlhrung in den Konstruktivismus, J.

'situ-

nection between biological systems theory and epis-

presented, however,

Munich: Piper, 1981; H. Gumin/A. Mohler 1985; S.

between

des menschlichen Erkennens, Bern: Scherz, 1987, esp.

shows no progress.

bourg,

distinction

viewed psychologically,

Der Baum der Erkenntnis:

b>

epistemol-

"of the process

between two kinds of 'behavior'

Verkorperiing

Epistemological Status of Science", Thesis Eleven 21

P.

all

from the English); H. R. Maturana/F.

This can be found

(1988), 81-102:

is,

particular p.

that

See H. R. Maturana, Erkennen: Die Organisation und

Vieweg,

for

p. 95.

A. Chalmers,

and 'behavior'

distinction

Social Theory of Know-

wissenschaftliches in

space" of an organism. See

"The common

also p. 105:

to Poin-

distinctions.

all

to description

in the internal functional

Paul, 1983, esp. p.

has become almost reflex.

See D. Bloor, Wittgenstein:

example,

Der Diskurs

des

1987, note 1

am Main: Suhr-

IVissen,

See G. Roth, "Die Entw icklung kognitiver Selbstre-

Baecker,

im

12

Gehirn",

menschlichen

et.al. (eds.),

am Main: Suhrkamp,

radikalen Konstruktivismus,

Der Diskurs,

256-86.

5, p.

ferentialitat

Sprache and

Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1987.

in

D.

Theorie als Passion, Frankfurt

1987, p. 394-422 (4190-

See the contributions of H.

Foerster, Sicht und

v.

See Plato, Theaetetus, 208 C.

Einsicht:

See, for example, C. Buffier, Cours de sciences sur des

Erkenntnistheorie, Braunschweig: \'ieweg, 1985. See

prtncipes

nouveaux

et simples,

Paris 1732, reprint Genf:

Slatkine 1971, p. 800ff. where this concept dealt with at

length in the "Traite des verites de consequences"

(not in the "Traite des premiere verites").

8

it

Verhalten, Oslo:

Social Theory of Know-

Kegan

This "conventionalism" going back

position today as

ledge,

A

&:

h>

See, for example, the "object-psychological" episte-

ogy should be limited ittgenstctu:

exclusion

Their argument corres-

molog) of .\. Naess, Erkenntnis und

from

it.

London: Routledge

and

nus used to found the coincidentia oppositorum and

from

See D. Bloor, W

Brown, the

I'ollowing S.

inclusion

Cognition

103ff.,

care, has

7

41.

the fact that there are other levels that can be reached

119ff.

6

produces science.

ponds, moreover, exactly to the idea Nicolas Cusa-

Scientific Research on

its

()38

p.

distinguish

the act of distinguishing.

a transparent stopgap

solution, sinee a level derives

See

ot

society irritat-

of Lan-

Satural and Cognitive Systems, Dordrecht: Reidel,

5

it

make

using the concept of form in order to distinguish

''Towards System:

Lofgren,

and System: Current Systems -

4

important function

least

ingly aware ot the tact that

typical solution the distinguishing of sc\cral

From Computation to the Phenomenon guage", in M. E. C^arvallo (ed.), Nature,

ledge,

quan-

IouiuI in

1h-

Notes and Ret'erenccs

higher

3

perhaps not the

constructivist episiemology to

with the possibility of "autologie" relationships on the

2

is

no

or biochemistr\

of language or of eognition has been suggested,

a

.A-s

a

as

knowledge today can

ol

analwes the uncertaints of know ledue and

it

.Viithor's

1

tum ph\sics

come

ihereloie should

It

it

no theorx

attain the degree of certaintN to

cannot otter basic principles, arj^uments or

It

e\en certainty.

is

gives reasons lor

surprise that

See in

entary distinction (nothing F. J. Varela,

"Your

is

Inside Is

is

of

excluded) and elem-

included), R. Glanville/

Out and Your Outside

In" (Beades 1968), in G. E. Lasker Systems and Cybernetics, Vol. II,

(ed.).

also F. J. Varela,

A

Middle Path

(ed.). Disorder

International

this regard, as well as for the limiting cases

universal distinction (nothing

Ausgewdhlte Arbeiten zu einer operativen

Is

Applied

New York: Pergamon

toga,

G.

for

\\

ays of Sense-Making:

Neuroscience",

in P.

Symposium (Sept. 14-16, 1981), Sara-

Anma

Libri

1984,

Selbstreferentialitat:

Prinzipien

208-23;

Selhstorganisation:

Organisation

der

fiir

die

zwischen Organismus und Lmwelt", (eds.),

p.

"Selbstorganisation-Selbsterhaltung-

der Lebewesen und ihre Folgen

al.

Livingston

and Order: Proceedings of the Stanford

California:

Roth,

"Living

Beziehungen

in A. Dress, et

Die Entstehung von

Luhmann

Niklas

Ordnung

Natur und Geselhihajt, Munich: Piper,

in

24

1986, p. 149-80, esp. 168ff.; G. Roth, "Erkenntnis

und

Das

Rcalitat:

Gehirn und seine Wirklich-

reale

Schmidt, Der Diskurs, 1987, note

keit", in

natural world has a small or non-existent role

of scientific knowledge",

construction

the

claimed,

by H. Collins, "Stages

e.g.,

Programme of Relativism", 3-10

11 (1981),

would be

work

See

(3).

in the

if

26

There

1985.

one read the

an alternative to them.

as

Empirical

latter

27

claim

and

is

that if

brains, then

it's

The

question

isn't

it

must be language,

D. T. Campell, "Descriptive Epis-

James

Lectures

"Dream",

Serres,

See with regard to

225-39

ston, Disorder

du

closure

and Order, 1984, note "enclosure"

as

verstehen?", in

of the

28

H. Atlan,

lat

5, p.

Duncker

v.

& Humblot

29

There

destroyed.

adapted for the

is

its

environment or

no more or

is

it

less in

of the system either

A

And

,

New

London: Routledge

Einfiihrung,

York:

Kegan

The

National History

& Kegan

Paul, 1974; D. Bloor,

Berlin:

Gesellschaft,

30

C^uite consistently, Marxists learn about the critique

of political economy from Marx; they don't turn to political

Vienna:

economy

for this.

But the

Marx himself seems

solitaire,

result

is

that the

views of the political economy of xMarx's

day are discussed with reference

If.

du promeneur

&

Paul, 1976.

common

reveries

Anthropol-

in Cultural

Knowledge and Social Imagary, London: Routledge

in die verstehende Soziologie,

Rousseau, Les

Citv

an

has been given up today. See, for example, B.

Eine Einleitung

Springer, 1932, p. 11

Handbook of Method

as

Cohen

Barnes, Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theor)',

sich Verstehen

1986, resp. p. 175ff.

to

Marx

like a political

works, that

economist (not

own

and that

Cinquieme promenade, quoted from Oeuvres completes

completed without

(Ed. de

changes in the critique that have occurred over the

la

Pleiade), Vol.

1,

Paris: Gallimard, 1959, p.

Of

course, these are always the statements of an

observation that itself sees

observed system does.

An

more time from extensive

tory Systems. Philosophical,

odological

Foundations,

31

32

Mathematical and Meth-

Oxford:

Pergamon

Press,

is

points to a

33

true for language and this similarity close

evolutionary

York: V erlag, esp.

For greater

J.

34

New

11 If.

L. MacKie, Truth, Probability and Paradox:

J.

L. MacKie, Truth, Probability and Paradox 1973,

As case

studies in this question of N.

Luhmann, Use of the

"The Third

Question:

The

Paradoxes in

Law and

Legal Theory",

Creative

Law and

See R. Glanville, "Distinguished and Exact Lies",

Amsterdam: North-Holland Publications, 1984, Theorie,

Frankfurt

am

in

R. Trappl (ed.). Cybernetics and Systems Research 2,

N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme:

Grundri einer allgemeinen

(§m)

Intelligence,

p. 426f.

detail see

Main: Suhrkamp,

and

50 years are not sufficiently taken into account.

Society Review 15 (1988), 153-65.

and even neuro-

physiological association. See on this question H. Jerrison, Evolution of the Brain

J.

fault)

note 31, p. 273.

1985.

The same

1

See

being his

Press, 1973, ch. 6 in association with ch. 2.

of

analysis

best

this

Studies in Philosophical Logic, Oxford: Clarendon

the

these questions can be found in R. Rosen, Anticipa-

23

system

Press, 1970, p. 51-85.

Foerster,

1040ff(1045).

22

A

autopoiesis in

the affair of an observer and can only be

Garden

A. Schiitz, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt:

J. J.

is

its

Donald, T. Campbell, "Natural Selection

S.

ogy,

27-68.

H. Tenbruck, Geschichte und

is

(eds.),

Subtle analyses of this question are to be found in F.

J.

Ms.

crucial that adaptation can only be pre-

Epistemological Model", in R. Navoll/R.

109-28.

5, p.

H.

see

Gumin and Mohler,

Mohler, 1985, note

21

and

ment

le crista! et la

Seuil, 1979; or,

"Entdecken oder Erfinden. Wie

20

Phylogenetic

observed in an observer.

"Disorder, Complexity and Meaning", in Living-

19

is

113f. or, in greater

Evolution:

this regard, just as the operations

(238).

this systems-theoretic use

futnee, Paris: Editions

18

It is

isn't,

in Livingston (ed.), Disorder 12, p.

concept of redundancy: H. Atlan, Entre

On

1985, note 12,

can take place or can't take place. Every other judge-

and Order, 1984, note

17

Maturana,

R.

processing of

manu-

University, 1977; noted from an unpublished

1987, note 10, p.

cit.,

H.

served, not improved.

Harvard

at

Memory"

is

In Maturana's theory the corresponding concept

1986.

William

"What

v. P'oerster,

Drift through the Conservation of Adaptation,

script.

16

See

detail,

temology. Psychological, Sociological and Evolutionary",

v. Foerster, "What is Memory that it May Have Hindsight and Foresight as Well?", in S. Bogoch (ed.). The Future of the Brain Sciences, NewYork: Plenum Press, 1969, p. 19-64.

See H.

ela, op.

vice versa.

See, for example,

M.

also uses

"Conservation of Adaptation". See Maturana/\ ar-

whether brains or language construct the world; the

15

Maturana

esp. p. 205ff.

works on brain research

in conjunction with

and not

is

H. Collins, Changing

also,

controversy

far less

25

Social Studies of Science,

London: Sage Publications,

Order,

14

Wissen,

presen-

5, in his

ition.

"The in

of Glasersfeld,

such formulations to explain his constructivist pos-

55.

13

formulation

the

is

tation of "radial constructivism".

229-

5, p.

This

Sprache und Wirklichkeit, 1987, note

p.

655-62. 35

N. Rescher expresses ity:

this perspective

on perspectiv-

"Perspectives are diaphanous, and one tends not

"The Cognitive Program to sec tlifiu as

m

siah",

his

///(•

Strije

hssay on the CrouttJs iinJ Impluiittons

36

i>/

Syslrms

In

^

1

to

ilaiion

1'.

\ arcla,

I

"A

See

\. i.uhniann, "Die

in this rciianl

.\.

und

lahn/\

.

Kapp

am Main:

Vuiopoicsis

Siihrkani]-),

iind

is

computers

without

aspect. See

!'.

both

J. \ arela,

is

known

Liidwig von liertelan/fy.

with here is

in

\\

.

\ ol

II,

p

New

1043 57.

(jra>/ .-/

Fest-

York:

Gordon

The

question

the claim that the learning of

is

not possible without reference to things

1

43

itself.

See Luhmann, "Die Autopoiesis", 1984, note 1}, 91

p.

ff.

See here also N. Luhmann, "lntersub)ektivitai

(jder

Kommunikation: Unterschiedliche .\usgangspunkte also held

is

example, E. lichkeit

v.

by

und des

Begriffs der Objektivitat", in 5, p.

See Maturana, Evolution, 1982, note

Wirk-

Gumin

1-26

lizing", instead of "analogy". See, for

der

sozialen

The

example, P.

M.

Konstruktion:

Grundlinien einer konstruktivistischen Sozialtheorie", in

Schmidt, 1987, note

5, p.

303-39.

54(1986),

p.

41-60.

44

See, for example, Campbell, "Natural Selection",

45

See E. Husserl, "Die Krisis der Europaischen

1970, note 28, p. 51-85.

(20f).

10, p. 52ff.

literature that follows uses "parallelion" or "paralle-

"konstruktion

soziologischer Theoriebildung", Archivio di Filosofia

strict constructivists. See, for

Glasersfeld, "Konstruktion der

and Mohler, Einjiihrung 1985, note

Hejl,

Language Learning",

(eds), L'nity 'Through Diversity,

never completely construct reality out of

42

ures.

This

in

1). Ri/.zo

language

from the theoretical

of Cognition: Tnierging Trends, Ms., Paris, 1986. This is also true of logical theories and their truth proced-

for

New

of the external world, which means that language can

inconceivable

The Sciences and Technology

Sec,

Objeit,

(.ampbell, "()stensi\e Instances and

and Breach, 1973,

ottered as cpistcmologN in the

and

1960. See also the less well

I). T.

schrift for

19,S7,

questions.

(^uine, IVord

().

^ork: \\ile>,

dealt

I'urthcrniorc, \\hat

\.

iileas ot

N.

25 94.

context ot the cognitive .sciences

W

l.niiia.

Selhst-

(eels.),

Behenntnis

Selhstzetijinis:

Gestandnis, IVankliirl p.

1

episicmological

ot

example,

Cakuliis lor Scll-Rcfcrcncc",

24.

thematisieritnii

40

well-known attempts Der Dni-iin,

1985, p. 187.

Sec

des Hcwutscins", in

39

noiutlulcss to be ilistinguishcd

ihis, bill

are the

use the |>rocess of learning a language (ot the cluci-

International ^Dtintal of (General Systems 2 (1975),

38

It,

Diversity, Pittsbiiriih: I niMTsit) of Pittsburgh Press,

5

37

KcLiUil lo Iroiu

nj Phi/osophittil

of Constructivism"

\\ is-

senschaften und die transzendentale Phanomenologie", Husserliana, \

ol.

VI,

Den Haag:

Nighoff, 1954.

See also A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern

World (Lowell Lectures 1925), quoted from the edition

New

York: Free Press, 1954.

c®)

49 From "Modern China and the Postnnodern West"

David Hall American comparative philosopher David Hall (1937attempts in this 1989 essay to show that traditional Chinese philosophy contains resources that answer some of the problems represented by the debate over modernity and postmodernism. Indeed, Hall literally claims )

that classical, which

is to say "premodern," Chinese thought is postmodern. In particular, he argues that the Derridean notion of difference (differance), of the primacy of what cannot be

the "thatness" of a thing.

"A

Yes. In addition, "a rose

is.

being that

is

ance,

is

central to both

a rose.

..."

cosmological question; considering

a

an ontological appreciation.

A

rose as its

eco-

system in complex spatiotemporal and biochemical

manners is a cosmological entity That the rose is - its isness - indicates its ontological character. .

Of course,

the contrast of cosmological and onto-

cannot be imagined without the cosmogonic

utter-

Taoism and Confucianism.

is

an item related with the other items in

logical

captured by truth-governed philosophical

is

it is is

rose

..." Asking what a

tradition out of

which

it

For the ontological

arises.

bias of Western philosophy derives

from

its

attitude

toward the chaos of beginnings.

The metaphysical tradition of the \\

est

is

The

implicitly

creation and maintenance of order from out

or explicitly grounded in a "philosophy of pres-

of and over against the threat of chaos

ence" - that

mental

fact

nings.

Speculative philosophy, both as

the desire to

of Being in

presence

terms

is,

beings.

this disposition to

centrism."

The

make present

make

Jacques

the

Derrida

being present "logo-

logocentric bias of Western phil-

osophy motivates thinkers

to attempt to present the

truth, being, essence, or logical structure of that

The

about which they think and discourse. of modernity sketched above

all

had

at their heart

the attempt to characterize the capital

of things.

The

failure of the failure of

failure

a

of that undertaking

is

the

modernity.

philosophy of

the funda-

general

ontology and as universal science, attempts to explain the fundamental fact of order.

asks

the

ontological

question:

beings rather than no being.'"

something rather than nothing

The

ontologist

"Why are Or "Why is

at all.'"

there there

Proponents

ofscientia universalis^ ask the cosmological question:

kinds of things are there.'"

The cosmogonic

tradition in the Hellenic W'est has

determined that

"What

metaphysical speculation must involve the search for beings or

difference.

Our purported

and otherness

most general senses threatens the

entire

in their

metaphys-

project of Western thought.

The most

is

establishes our sense of begin-

principles which, as transcendent

enterprise aims at the develop-

inability to think difference

ical

"T" Truth

philosophy of presence - and the

The postmodern ment of

senses

which

general question of difference con-

cerns the difference between the "whatness" and

'

Universal science.

David Hall, "Modern China and the Postmodern West" from Culture and Modernity: East- West Philosophic

Perspectives

(ed.

Eliot

Deutsch),

fourth

through sixth editions, pp. 57-67. Honolulu: University of

Hawaii Press, 1991.

Modern China and the Postmodern West" sources ot order,

rxpcn-

lor tlic orikr(s)

ac».i>iiiil

and

loilical

oiitologieal

ordered ijround.

questions presuppose an

this, ot

It is

course, \Nhich tietines

the loiiocentric moti\e of \\ esiern philosopliN desire to illumine and

the

the order and

articulate

may seem e\tremel\

and quite

abstract

irrelevant to any discussion ot the modernization ot

China. But

I

think not. There

at stake here. If

ground such

we can

beings,

a

presuming

in

as the essence or

easily lose sight

a

ot

univer-

structure ot

of the particularities

of both our experience of things and of the things

"B"

themselves. Capital ''T" Truth and capital

Beauty and capital ject

"G" Goodness become

the sub-

matters of our discourse instead of the truth,

beauty, and goodness concretely realized by the insistent

claim to

particularities

know

then

generalities, universalities, absolutes,

and essences, but we cities

We

of our world.

lose sight of the brute facti-

of our world.

Any serious claim to objective truth involves us in through our assertions.

insisting that reality shine

«it

prmciples.

values are housed in ilmtrines

propositions that max

be entertained as

beliefs.

Philosophic and scientific principles are rational in

lorm and are iheretore open

ment

of

as

human

to public entertain-

from specitic cultural practices. Tech-

apart

system carries with

rational

a

algorithms of

most serious issue

our most general understandings

our world involve us always sal

is

ol a rational set

cultural

nolog\

structure in things. All this

Our

both ihe eosiuo-

inierpreted,

traditionall)

.\s

portable because the\ represent the grounds and

consequences

ciKcil or observed

replication, requiring a

its

China must modernize, but the

ettects of a

and

enterprise,

free

fragile.

The

upon

a

and values

laws, rules,

commonality

democracy renders quite

liberal

sensibility are

technologies

rational

cultural integrity. China's

its

ritual-based culture depends

of traditions that

mod-

democ-

ernization understood in terms of liberal

cannot but threaten

hinese

C

dilemma.

are contronted with an uncomtbrtable

Chinese

the

intervention.

In their attempts at moderni/alion the

racy,

it

minimum

that define the

immanent within and

rele-

vant to the relatively specific character of the Chi-

The

nese people.

paternalism of the Chinese form

upon the

of government,

its

community over

issues of abstract rights,

stress

solidarity of its

culti-

vation of and response to the psychological need for

dependency

are

all

delicate

enough

characteristics

The very being of things is present in one's theory or ideology. Our age is altogether too suspicious of such claims. The pluralism of doctrines and theories

the self-interest of free enterprise, and the indi-

within a single culture such as ours, as well as the

they might offer, each of these elements of

pluralism of cultures, makes any claim to the truth of

culture leads to a bloating of the private sphere and

things an implicitly political act.

Dogmatism,

tarianism, and narrow intolerance are

connected with unjustified claims to

The philosophy posefully

of presence

and

rationality

course for

and

beliefs,

certainly not purrationality

that generic principles of

may

cultures.

all

from the need

totali-

generate a

common

dis-

Such rationalism was born

to connect diverse, pluralistic ideas,

practices.

Our reason was

the gift of the

ancient city-states, spread from Italy to the Pelo-

and refined

in the various furnaces

of German,

French, and English forms of colonialism.

The is

a

desire to see essential unity

among

function of our missionizing activity expressed

initially

through

Roman and

and now through our

Christian expansion,

rational technologies

by an incipient economic imperialism politely put, an

ponents of

motored

or,

more

expanding market mentality. Pro-

\\ estern values

beheve them to be ex-

modern

modern

Clearly, the problematic of distinctly

Anglo-European philosophy

distinct

is

from that

of classical Chinese philosophy as regards the ques-

For

tion of ''difference."

ciated

a variety

w ith the choices made

of reasons assoof their

at the origins

cultural development, the Chinese find

it

easier to

think difference, change, and becoming than do

most of in the

us.

On

modern

the other hand,

it

has been easier

think in terms of identity,

\\ est to

being, and permanence. I

certainly have not failed to notice the dazzling

my

incongruity that seems to lurk within claim.

most cultures

Whatever benefits

threatens community.

ponnesus, spun through the shuttles of Hebraic

monotheism and Latin conceptions of humurutas

be effaced by the impersonality of technology,

vidualizing ideals of democracy.

directly

final truth.

Enlightenment

pernicious.

emerged from the idea logic

is

all

to

Could

it

identified with cultural continuity, inflexible

tradition,

and

the

most provincial

toward other civilizations of difference.' I

is

intolerance

expert in the philosophy

My answer is - yes, certainly. Though

shall not discuss the

background and significance

of this question in any

detail,

I

do hope

sufficient hints as to the plausibility of tive

central

be the case that the country

really

to provide

my

response in the remarks which follow.

affirma-

David Hall

my somewhat

In defense of

exotic thesis

want

I

to call attention to the evidence for thinking that

and

Confucianism

something insofar as

is

it

Taoism share

philosophical

problematic of postmodernism

like the

shaped by the desire to find

of thinking difference. In paradoxical form

means

a

strongest and most

its

my argument amounts

claim that classical China

is

P'irst,

since

the postmodern critique

which - a

which

IS

name

is

investi-

The fundamental contained

becoming

is

is

the that

and that

becoming-

truth of the Taoist vision

modern world.

terms of

its

China should be

difficult

free to reflect

problems of modernization

own postmodern

Anglo-European thinkers can discover China supplemental resources

and the language which tain of those resources

in

is;

not-

only coming into

articulates that vision.

Cer-

now

shall

may be

Each

polar relationship with

found, as

I

its

opposite can be

particular element in the totality has

its

own intrinsic excellence. The Chinese term is te. Te may be understood as the "particular focus" or "intrinsic excellence" of a thing. The te of an which

it

The

in

accordance with

construes the totality of things from

perspective and thus

for the de-

of cosmological difference

a vision

its

element serves as the means

past.

second benefit of the postmodern connection

velopment of

is

nonbeing. Neither being nor nonbeing abstracted

accommodating

that

there

is,

being which illustrates some mixture of being and

the practical consequences of the

upon the very

That

not.

is

rather obvious that

native strategies for engaging and

classical

is

neither an atavistic nor

it is

finally real.

that

Tao

That which

but mildly ironic send-up of Par-

in this

from

is

for process.

are the polar elements of

not

develop from out of the postmodern impulse alter-

This means

Thus

respectively.

itself.

Luddite enterprise, one can hope that there may

A

"being,"

menides' infamous maxim: Only becoming

may come from such an

benefits

gation as this.

in

and

process of becoming-itself.

eric

the

to

in a very real sense

postmodern.

Two

"nonbeing"

being and nonbeing are abstractions from the gen-

"names" and

concepts of tao and

te

its

creates a world.

may be

together in a polar fashion. Tao-te

is

interpreted best under-

stood in terms of the relationships of field {tao) and focus

{te).

The model

of a hologram

is

helpful, for

attempt to show, in the original Taoist and Confu-

as in a holographic display each

cian sensibilities.

the whole in adumbrated forms, so in the Taoist

element contains

sensibility each item of the totality focuses the totality in its entirety.

Taoism and Cosmological Difference

item establishes

its

ition, the totality as I

have argued elsewhere" that

coherent

understanding

depends upon

of

a recognition

a philosophically

two fundamental metaphysical contrasts of the

Western

tradition

-

that

is,

between "being" and

Taoism

down

in a

is

place," says

is

will

be

at least as

There

are

The

lie

The eel man - but

eel.'""*

uncomfortable as the

for the opposite reason.

man

Chuang Tzu," "he

contracts lumbago. But what of an

zontal.

Taoist totality

is

hori-

no hierarchies; no great chain of

becom-

being or ladder of perfections exists in the Taoist

Being and nonbeing are abstractions from that

cosmology. For the Taoist, the anthropocentrism

In Taoism, the sole fact ing.

possible orders

all

radically perspectival. "If a

damp

"not being" and between "being" and "becoming" helpful in understanding the Taoist sensibility.

environment. In add-

sum of

-

is

particular focus of an

its

adumbrated by each item.

Taoism

classical

that neither of the

The

world,

is

that of process or

implicit in almost every

process.

The

first

rendered in

words of the Tao Te Ching may be this

way:

ethical

{tao) that

constant way.

is

form of Anglo-European

only one of

a

myriad of possible

centrisms.

A The way

system

can be spoken of

is

not the

familiar tale

ening

The name that can be named is The nameless was the

from the Chuang

Tzii

is

enlight-

in this regard:^'

not the constant name.

The emperor

beginning of Heaven and earth.

the

of the South Sea was called Shu,

emperor of the North Sea was

called

Hu,

and the emperor of the central region was called

Throughout the Tao Te Ching, as both nameless

tao

is

characterized

and nameable. Tao per

se

total

process of becoming, becoming-itself.

less

and nameable

(H^

tao

function

is

Name-

analoejouslv

Hun-tun (Chaos). Shu and

Hu

Chuang Tzu (369-286 bc) was

the most important

from time

to

the

to

"

early interpreter of

Taoism.

"Modern China and the Postmodern West" cum-

tiiiH-

toiiitlKT tor a iiKctinu

lliiii-iim,

ot

vcr\

iiciicroiislN

ihcN coiikl

ami

Slui

.

iii

lluM-iuii

.iiul

see, hear,

Hut ilun-tiin alone doesn't

breathe.

ha\e an\. Let's

how

his kiiiihicss. "All nicii," thc>

i\'\\\\

"have seven openinjjs so they can

said,

eat, anil

iIkiii

In disciisscil

1

hormu; him some!" l-ver\

ir\

day hey bored another hole, ami on the sexenth I

da\

1

Taoism proMiles

he ltrnu>r\

I

tif.iucl

logical realms. I'or

dimension

among

Assuming

oritlce-tree

that

is

of

tuo all

Lord Hun-

becoming-itself, and

orders, provides a helpful

Benjamin

to

with

meaninij associated

faceless,

sum

therefore the

response

which harmony

\ision in

a

is

kind ot

has a special the breechless, tun.

It

Schwartz'

provocative

query concerning the meaning of "/«»"

The

in

World of Thought in Ancient China. "How may a word which refers to order,"" he asks, "come to have

a mystical

of tao

meaning?'"

The

mystical meaning

sum

the mystery of chaos as the

lies in

of

all

Tao

not organic in the sense that a single

is

pattern or telos could be said to characterize processes.

order

is

It is

not a whole but

many

wholes.

order

the putatively ontological

philosophy

enough

feat to

beings.

all

presuppose the onto-

rationalitx

But

of presence.

it

a

is

simple-

demonstrate that rational ordering

an anthropocentric notion.

is

the various psycho-

I''or

and physiological uniformities defining the

logical

human

species determine in advance the sorts of

ordering that will be anticipated as defining the

The

natural world.

we presume we may

sorts of beings

ourselves to be define the sorts of orders

recognize and

deem

are recognized only

spective, since to

important. Alternative orders

from our anthropocentric per-

know an order we must discern

pattern regularities, appreciate

realized

its

and establish plausible grounds

formities,

among

its

uni-

for casual

the elements serving to instanti-

ate those uniformities.

The aesthetic ordering of the Taoist presupposes

is

is

a

taHty of existing things.

has as lars

its

subject matter insistently unique particu-

which cannot be discussed

concepts

defining

a totality

grounded

terms of pattern

in

regularities

They can only be considered logical differences

it

is

it

an alternative method of knowing. Such knowledge

consequence of the particulars comprising the to-

This interpretation of tao makes of

up

Its

not rational or logical but aesthetic - that

The

give

its

there can be no transcendent pattern determining

the existence or efficacy of the order.

we

cosmological entities by implicit appeal to

sequences

orders.

(Cosmological dif-

that ultimately conceals the differences

the unity of being shared by

logical

upon order,

.

between cosmological and onto-

the distinction

Reason and

\ision iirounded

a

lor thinking ilitlerence

i.\\i{\:\X'n*:{:

ference can be thought to the extent that

kin-tiin died.

Taoism is not but upon chaos.

model

a

as strictiN cosmological

or

uniformities.

terms of the cosmo-

in

in the particularity

of

each item.

not in the sense of a single-ordered cosmos, but rather in the sense of the orders.

logical

w orld

that

Any

sum

given

of all possible cosmoorder

particular element of the totality.

world

it

is

The

but

selected

But

a

being of this order

cosmological.

Such an

cannot

as

order

serve

ground. In the Taoist sensibility

is

not onto-

abstracted,

fundament or

all differences are

cosmological differences.

Taoism

based upon the affirmation rather than

is

the negation of chaos. In the Anglo-European tradition,

and

chaos

is

is

to be

emptiness, separation, or confusion,

overcome. In Taoism

alone to thrive in

its

it

is

to

be

left

spontaneity, for "the myriad

manage and order themselves."^ Any attempt to make present a ground - the being of beings - is rejected. Chuang Tzu insists that things

"each thing comes into being from reflection

and none can

tell

how

it

its

comes

Confucius and the Language of Deference

as a single

an abstraction from the totality of pos-

sible orders. logical,

an existing

is

construed from the perspective of

is

own

One of the difficulties

in

w hich

communicating

a vision of

we lack a language can adequately accommodate such aesthetic

cosmological difference

understandings. There

is

is,

that

of course, just such a

language in philosophical Taoism and

I

could

quite appropriately attempt to articulate

it

in the

following paragraphs. Instead,

I

w ant

to shift to the

Confucian context to adumbrate the view of language and communication underlying the Analects. I

shall

do

this in

order to demonstrate that, however

great the differences between

Taoism and Confu-

cianism within Chinese culture, judged from the perspective of Western thought they belong to essentially

the

same

family.

This

is

so

because

inner

both Taoism and Confucianism presuppose the

to be so."*^

priority of cosmological difference over ontological

David Hall presence

put another way, the priority of an

or,

aesthetic over a rational

mode

of

understanding and

discourse.

two

In the \\ est

ated the tradition.

sorts of language have

The

first,

is

that

presence,

logicai

postmodern thinkers are

domin-

the language of onto-

which

against

the

employment of language

in a

mystical or mythopoetic way. In this usage, lan-

guage advertises the absence of the referent. This

is

the language of the mystical via negativa or the

language of the poet

who

holds metaphor to be

Language

upon

a

literal

We may

ground.

such

call

which meaning is indefinitely more than an allusive system.

The Saussurean

A

language of presence

possibility of univocal

possibility requires cri-

determining

for

teria

For

proposition.

this

the

be

to

must have precedence over ical

means

language. This

grounded upon the

unambiguous prepos-

or

This

itional expressions.

is

of

literalness so,

literal

a

language

metaphor-

figurative or

that in addition to richly

vague sorts of language associated with images and meaning.

literal

language has most often been

privileged over figurative.

seems

truistic

and almost

And though trivial,

to say this

certainly not

it is

the case that such a preference was

somehow

built

deemed paraThus rhetoric,

In the West, metaphors are usually

upon

insofar as

literal

tied to logic as

If

we

is

The importance

of context to meaning in Chinese

language argues for the play of differences establishing meaning.

may be

flights

activity,

precluding un-

we must

China almost

in

all

that

metaphor may

Anglo-European culture, the word "image"

In

used w ith distinctive connotations in literary

standing in this context (that

is,

is

that an

is

criti-

The best under-

image

is

a sensory

visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory) presen-

tation of a perceptual, imaginative, or recollected

experience.

The form may be

of the perception, memory,

or imagination

distinct

from the mode of its

presentation. For example, the olfactory or visual

experience of a rose

may be imaged

in the

w ords of

a poet.

In such a case, the image

constituted by the

is

poem and may

the

may

or

not re-present the

The most productmanner of insuring some resonance between the

private experience of the poet. ive

expressor of the image and the subsequent experi-

ences of it

is

to reference

them within

a

community

new

images are efficacious in promoting interpersonal

and

social relationships.

This suggests

a real difference

European and Chinese as a

communal

between Anglo-

culture. In China, tradition,

resource for meaning,

more

cer-

tainly disciplines the indefinite allusiveness of the

of the imagination.

are to have a language that evokes differ-

ence, however,

Of course,

said with respect to allusive

be said using the word "image."

rigidly

ground. This serves to discipline

and aesthetic

intellectual

trammeled

significances.

employs the trope, metaphor,

it

may be

literature.

of interpretation. Only communally experienced

into the origins of language.

sitical

interpretation certainK

Chinese language and

word-picture as experienced by the celebrant of

Since Aristotle's still-dominating discussion of

metaphor,

nothing

said to apply to

metaphors, there must be concepts as candidates for univocal

is

deferred,

cism, psychology, and philosophy.

expression the language of "absence."

system

as a

of differences, as a structure or context within

constitutive of discourse rather than merely parasitical

employ something

all

like allusive interpretations.

Be-

in full-scale revolt.

sides the language of presence, however, our tradition also allows the

guage such "myths" as "authorial intent," "textual coherence," or "univocity,"

language. In fact,

it is

meaning and value

tradition as the resource of

sort of

meta-

phor. In place of metaphors which extend the

literal

what seemed originally so paradoxical - namely,

have to employ "allusive

that Chinese culture has an appreciation of differ-

sense of a term,

we

shall

find a

w hich,

metaphors."'" Allusive metaphors are distinct from

ence,

the expressive variety since they are not tied to a

displayed.

literal

or objective signification.

fioating hints

do not

They

and suggestions. They

express.

Their referents are other allusive

metaphors, other things that hint or suggest. All language, at

its

fundamental

more than an undulating Saussurean linguistics

level,

may be nothing

sea of suggestiveness.

and some semiologists

poststructuralists

who would expunge from

lan-

"

in

which images,

as richly

never

boundaries of self

and world. The most desirable circumstance

is

one

vague complexes capable

of a variety of evocations, are communally fixed and ritually protected as images. classical

influenced by Peirce and Saussure, as well as the

historically, \\ estern culture has

Allusiveness requires vague

are free-

allude; they

that serves to render plausible

Chinese, though

cian orthodoxy

w as often

This

it is

is

the aim of the

obvious that Confu-

guilty of providing a too

narrowly fixed meaning for the relevant images. In any case, there

is

nothing behind the language

"Modern China and the Postmodern West' 111

llu' toiiii ol

.1

which

sliiutiiic or loiios lo

Mcaniniis cicnxc troni the

truth.

The (.ontiKi.m

.ippial

he niatlc to csuhhsh the iirtstiuc- of oh)iiii\c

iii.n

.ilhisixf phiN

ot

well

iiaines

trine,

geously misunderstood as

images associateil w

and

fixed

images

ciated with the

the

first

hexagrams

of the

such communally

of

protected

ritualistically

of the "creati\e"

the

ith

good cxamjiles

The

images.

central

Confucianism,

to

a

Such an

of

(

outra-

often

is

concern

lor uni\ocilN,

terms straight and

tor getting the definitions of

proper.

two hexagrams

are

housed

interpretation parodies the intent

.onfucius' doctrine.

l/u-lu asked Confucius, "If the Lord of Wei

in

were waiting tor you

practices associated

with the institutions, ritual practices, music, and

which context uali/e the book

to bring order to his stale,

what would you give

to

(Onfu-

first priority.'"

cius replied, "without question,

otOracles as

it

would be

to

order names properlx."

The concrete experi-

of Chinese culture.

a classic

used

is

and the "receptive" asso-

communal memory and

literature

language

concreteK, e\ocatiNelN, ami allusiveK. This doc-

laii'tiuage.

I'hc

wa\

llu

dittcrcnccs anionu; the words and images of the

/ C7//«(f arc

the rectification of

iloiiiiru- of

ilhisli.iles

ences of the individual consulting the / Clung res-

onate with the repository of significances

communal context. One of the signal consecjuences of

in

language a

is

that there

must be

real

a logocentric

independence of it

charac-

propos-

terizes.

This

entails dualistic relations of

itions

and

states

independence,

in the senses

scendence, nothing

Without

affairs.

such

of dualism and tran-

like logical truth

may be formu-

lated.

presence of transcendent beings and prin-

ciples in the formation of

The

controversial.

Western culture

dualism

is

by

entailed

theologically doctrinaire,

European is

societies.

roles already spelled out

Neither dualism nor transcend-

present in the original Confucian or Taoist

a

delimitable.

strictly

A

ritual

practices

polar sensibility

(li)

husbands, fathers,

- w hose ostensive

tionaries within the society

identity as func-

may be

quite interesting to see

in question.

how

closely related

are the treatments of language in the sayings of

refer,

in the

thought of

a certain

French later. I

of course, to Jacques Derrida. Derrida's well-

rehearsed notion oidijferarue

neologism

differance,

tells

meant

is

^

the story.

The

to suggest that the

differences investigated with respect to language

have both an active and

Meaning

proposition to have a univocal sense, terms

must be

by

Confucius and

Anglo-

is

- establishes coherence between

and the actions of individuals ministers, sons

matching

w hen he

thinker writing twenty-four hundred years

sensibilities.

For

to say, the activity of

calling a father a father

un-

also a well-accepted

is

is

-

func-

is

logical or strictly

this

transcendence, though often discomfiting to the

characteristic of the rational interests of

role

fact a father

in

It is

The

ence

semantic. That

name w ith

names

for the ordering of

and pragmatic, rather than

tional

proposition from the state of affairs

of

The motive

the

larger

is

a passive

always deferred.

in language as structure,

for that omits the

It

dimension.

cannot be present

w hen that

is

the focus

-

meanings associated with the use

precludes such delimitation in any but the grossest

of the language. But focusing upon language as

terms. Thus, the classical Chinese understanding

event, language as constituted

of

)'/«

d.nd

yang

as

complementary concepts cannot

coherently lead to dualistic translations or interpretations. Yin ing-y/w.

The

is

becoming-yaw^; yang

is

becom-

locution "as different as night and

day" would then have

to

mean

"as different as

night-becoming-day from day-becoming-night." In a polar sensibility, terms are clustered with

opposing or complementary alter-terms. Classical

by speech

acts,

does

not solve the problem because, once more, the

supplemental character of language structure

- has been

this

time

its

shifted to an inaccessible back-

ground.

To

resonate most productively with Confucius,

however, Derrida would have to accept an emendation to his notion o{ dijjerance

which would enrich

development of

meaning of the deferring function. If one introduces the homonymic "defer," meaning "to yield,"

univocal propositions for this reason. Without such

then the resultant notion of difference, as connot-

Chinese

may be uncongenial

to the

propositions, semantic notions of truth are ultimately untenable.

And

without a capital

"T" Truth

lurking behind our acts of communication, notions

such as "logocentrism" and "presence" cannot serve as standards for philosophical discourse.

the

ing both active and passive senses of differing and

of deferring, well suits Confucius' rich use of language.

Confucius' language of difference the sense of deference

-

is

grounded

in

a listening, a yielding to the

"works" and

not to be

is

ethics.

It

ethics

is

it.self

The

we have apparently

relationship which

constructed,

not simply constructed.

is

gratuity of action

a gratuity different

mo\es our age even

if

and indicates the

to its height

Our

the orientation.

umph

the indi\ iduals

age

is

just total

from play

may be

not up

free character of

not defined by the

tri-

of technology for the sake of technology, as

not defined by art for the sake of

not defined by nihilism. to

The

come,

It is

and

art,

it

it is

an action for a world

going beyond one's epoch -

a

as

a

going

being-for-beyond-my-death.^^"'

beyond oneself which requires the epiphany of the other - such is the fundamental thesis which

Patience does not consist in the agent betraying

underlies these pages. In the Bouras.sol prison and

computations,

different

is is

from play and from

trace

is

the agent, and

is

future for which such an action acts

from the

result

the idea ot Cjod

in a certain \\a\

it

its

the other haiul,

whose

reabsorb the work in calculations of deficits and

compensations,

c\cn

should show

does not go forth into the \oid, would also lose

of

tor

rclijjion.

by giving himself the time of

his generosity

sonal immortality.

To

renounce being the contem-

porary of the triumph of one's work this

triumph

my

of

horizon

time,

a

time after

is

it

Should

my

sacrifice

aim

many

at this

time beyond

an

eschatology

from

a liberation

time, over and is

beyond the

extrapolating from

is

an

not

cele-

ordinary

my own

dur-

the passage to the time of the other.

what

be called

working

time that would be w ithout me, for

a

thought which ation;

finishing

1941,

I

a

makes

such

passage

possible

any case the possibility of

eternity} In

which goes

a

to the limit of this passage

Leon Blum was,

He

book.^"'

in the present,

December,

in

"We are How

wrote:

not for the present.

times in meetings with the people have

repeated and

commented on

Nietzsche's words:

Let the future and the things most remote be the rule of

all

the present days!"

which Leon Blum

"being for death,"

brated

the Pourtalet Fort

to envisage

at a

in

without hope for oneself, or in

my time. To be for

is

in a time without me, to

world below w ithout me, to aim the

a per-

justifies

The

philosophy with of

this strange force

working, without working for the present,

is

not

here the essential; the force of his confidence

is

incommensurate with the force of his philosophy. 1941! - a hole in history - a year in which all the gods had abandoned

visible really

dead or gone back into

A man

in prison

us, in

which god was

his non-revealedness.

continues to believe in a nonre-

vealed future and invites

men

to

work

in the pre-

discovers the non-inoffensive nature of this ex-

sent for the most remote things, for which the

trapolation: to be for death in order to be for that

present

which

garity

A

is

after

work

me.

as an absolute orientation of the

unto the Other

is

then

the generous impulse.

like

We

a

radical

could

fix

with a Greek term "liturgy," which in

Same

youth of

him w ho

at a loss.

exercises

For the moment

it

a

all

a baseness in

an action that

only for the immediate, that for

our

life.

And

there

is

is,

is

is

a vul-

conceived

in the last analysis,

a very great nobility in the

concept

energy liberated from the hold of the present.

its

primary

act for far-off things at the

not only totally gratuitous, but requires on the

part of

an irrecusable negation. There

its

meaning designates the exercise of a function w hich is

is

and

putting out of funds

meaning drawn from

moment

in

To

w hich Hit-

lerism triumphed, in the deaf hours of this night

without hours - independently of every evaluation of the "forces in presence" -

is,

no doubt, the

summit of nobility.

any positive religion has to be removed from ^"^

Rather than Heidegger's notion ofDasein as "Beingtow ard-Death."

Leon Blum (1872-1950), Jewish French socialist, to communism, sent to Buchenwald by the

resistant

Vichy regime.

Emmanuel Levinas longer have the right to keep anything for myself.

Sense and Ethics

7

The Sense as the arise

of a work does not

liturgical orientation

from need. Needs opens upon

for me\

returns to

it

Even

itself.

such as the need for salvation,

\ need

longing to go back. anxiety of the

form of world

I

for

a

world that

is

sublime need,

a

is still

a nostalgia, a

return

is

the

itself,

egoism, the original

itself,

identification. It

the assimilating of the

is

of self-coincidence, in view of happi-

in view

out,

it

and

as

new hungers. Desire There

but

desire

me

were nourishes

it

with

revealed to be goodness.

is

scene in Dostoievski's Crime and Punish-

a

is

my

does not gratify

desirable

hollows

ment where Sonya Marmaladova looks upon Raskolnikof in his despair, and Dostoievski speaks of

He

"insatiable compassion."

haustible compassion."

from Sonya

sion that goes

does not say "inex-

though the compas-

It is as

Raskolnikof were a

to

hunger which the presence of Raskolnikof nour-

ness.

Columns" Valery speaks

In the "Canticle of the

of a "faultless desire.

"^"^

He is doubtless referring to

ishes

We

prior lack.

Stoic formula

dency

up

are taking

subject turned to is

is

conditioned by no

this

term

desire; to a

which, according to the

itself,

characterized by

to persist in its being, or for

Heidegger's formula, "there

the ten-

o'oj.nf'^'

w hich, according

is

in its existence

question as to this very existence," a subject thus defined by care for

we

which

itself,

in happiness real-

beyond any

saturation, increasing this

hunger

to infinity.

The

Plato who, in his analysis of pure pleasures, dis-

covered an aspiration that

to

Is

the desire for the other an appetite or a generosity?

which we

desire for the other,

live in the

most ordinary

social experience,

movement,

pure transport, an absolute orienta-

a

is

language contem-

tion, sense. In all its analyses of

porary philosophy

the fundamental

and indeed

insists,

rightly,

on

its

hermeneutical structure and on the cultural effort of the incarnate being that expresses

itself.

Has

a

third dimension not been forgotten: the direction

toward the other who

not only the collaborator

is

are opposing the desire for the

and the neighbor of our cultural work of expression

other w hich proceeds from a being already gratified

or the client of our artistic production, but the

and

interlocutor

izes

Ms for

in

itself

desire for

is

neither

Hobbes and Hegel) nor still is

is

individual.

The

it is

my

in Plato's Republic,

something born

"complement,"

which

is

as he

up because

desire for the other, sociality,

born over and beyond

the other in such a

all

way

or,

more

is

exactly,

that can be lacking or

as to

I is

borne toward

compromise the

sovereign self-identification of the is

set

lacking in the subsistence of each

that can satisfy him. In desire the

need

longer

my enemy (as he is in

being that lacks nothing,

in a

who no

recognizable in the need for an other

It is

another w ho

is

the need of him

itself. It is

has needs.

who

sense independent, which does not

this

I,

for

which

but nostalgia, and which the consciousness

The movement toward the completing me and contenting

of need anticipates. other, instead of

me, implicates

me

conjuncture which in

in a

this

when I gaze.^ The

shock

another's

puts

me

empties

passed,

indifferent,

me

resources.

I

under

relationship with the other

into question, empties

me

without end, showing did not know

I

was so

of myself and

me rich,

ever new

but

I

for

no

Paul \alery (1871-1945) important French poet and

writer. '''"

//orwort concurrent

tences but only as larger blocks of theory, then the

is

there

course onl\

That consideration served

a separable

can

it

call

fund of

its

own.

also to account for the

apart from observation sentences, are theoretical.

impossibility of an epistemological reduction of the

This conclusion, conversely, once

sort

seals the fate of

meaning

is

it

embraced,

any general notion of propositional

or, for that matter, state

And

of affairs.

Should the unwelcomeness of the conclusion persuade us to abandon the verification theory of

meaning? Certainly

not.

The sort of meaning that is own

basic to translation, and to the learning of one's

language,

is

necessarily

nothing more.

A

empirical

meaning and

child learns his first

where every sentence

words and

equated to

is

sentence

a

and logico-mathematical terms.

in observational

the impossibility of that sort of epistemological

reduction dissipated the

last

advantage that rational

reconstruction seemed to have over psychology.

Philosophers have rightly despaired of translateverything

ing

observational

into

and

logico-

mathematical terms. They have despaired of

this

even when they have not recognized, as the reason

sentences by hearing and using them in the pres-

for this irreducibility, that the statements largely

ence of appropriate stimuli. These must be external

not have their private bundles of empirical conse-

stimuli, for they

must

act

both on the child and on

the speaker from w horn he socially inculcated

and control turn

is

learning.

is

and controlled; the inculcation

strictly

on the keying of sentences

to shared stimulation. Internal factors Itbttuftr'^

Language

may

vary ad

without prejudice to communication as

long as the keying of language to external stimuli is

undisturbed. Surely one has no choice but to be

quences.

And some

irreducibility the

do

philosophers have seen in this

bankruptcy of epistemology. Car-

nap and the other

logical positivists of the \ ienna

Circle had already pressed the term "metaphysics" into pejorative use, as connoting meaninglessness;

and the term "epistemology" was next. stein

and

residual

his followers,

philosophical

mainly

W ittgen-

Oxford, found

at

vocation

in

therapy:

a in

an empiricist so far as one's theory of linguistic

curing philosophers of the delusion that there

meaning

were epistemological problems.

What

is I

concerned.

have said of infant learning applies

equally to the linguist's learning of a

new language

in the field. If the linguist does not lean

on related

languages for w hich there are previously accepted translation practices, then obviously he has

no data

but the concomitances of native utterance and ob-

But

I

think that at this point

on, though in a

Quine argued

tion" in

Word and

'indeterminancy of transla-

for this Object.

A verification theory, such as that of the \'ienna Circle of Logical Positivists, held that only statements whose verification conditions could

Pierre science, "•

Duhem

(1861

be imagined have meaning.

1916),

French philosopher of

whose holism influenced Quine.

Freely.

new

and

setting

Epistemology, or something

may be more

like

still

goes

a clarified status. it,

simply

falls

into

place as a chapter of psychology and hence of natural science.

a physical ^"'

it

useful to say rather that epistemology

It

studies a natural

human

subject.

phenomenon,

viz.,

This human subject

is

accorded a certain experimentally controlled input

- certain patterns of irradiation cies, for instance - and in the

in assorted

frequen-

fullness of time the

subject delivers as output a description of the three-

dimensional external world and relation tial

its

history.

The

between the meager input and the torren-

output

is

a relation that

we

are

prompted

to

W.

V.

Quine count as observation - the uncon-

study for somewhat the same reasons that always

Which

prompted epistemology; namely,

scious two-dimensional reception or the conscious

how evidence

order to see

in

and

relates to theory,

what ways

in

is

to

three-dimensional

apprehension.'*

the

In

old

one's theory of nature transcends any available

epistemological context the conscious form had

evidence.

priority,

Such

study could

a

include, even, something

still

the old rational reconstruction, to whatever

like

degree such reconstruction

is

im-

practicable; for

aginative constructions can afford hints of actual

psychological processes,

in

much

mechanical simulations can. But

a

way

the

that

conspicuous dif-

ference between old epistemology and the epistemological enterprise in this setting

that

is

new

we can now make

psychological

free use of

The

old epistemology aspired to contain, in a it

would construct

sense data. Epistemology in

its

it

some-

new

set-

contained in natural science, as a

ting, conversely, is

chapter of psychology. But the old containment

remains valid too,

how

human

the

and projects

in

We

way.

its

are studying

subject of our study posits bodies

his physics

from

and we

his data,

appreciate that our position in the world like his.

fore,

Our

is

just

very epistemological enterprise, there-

and the psychology wherein

it is

a

component w herein

chapter, and the whole of natural science

psychology

own

is

a

component book -

all this is

our

construction or projection from stimulations

like those

we were meting out

logical subject.

There

is

to

our epistemo-

thus reciprocal contain-

ment, though containment

justify

trying to

our knowledge of the external world by

What

rational reconstruction.

now can be

tion

Awareness

demanded when we gave up

settled in

of sensory receptors,

to

count as observa-

terms of the stimulation

consciousness

let

fall

where

it

may.

The

Gestalt psychologists' challenge to sensory

in

different

senses:

logy forty years ago,

likewise deactivated."'"

is

are

what favor the forefront of our consciousness, simply the stimulations of our sensory re-

is

it

unconscious

and inference, old problems

data

about chains of inference that would have to

completed

be

threat of circularity, but

it is all

right

now

that

we

have stopped dreaming of deducing science from

and we do

these

no longer

In the old anti-psychologistic days the question

stemologically prior to

What

is

epi-

Are Gestalten prior

what.''

to

sensory atoms because they are noticed, or should

J

we

'

favor

ground.'*

sensory atoms on some more subtle

Now

that

we

are permitted to appeal to

A

physical stimulation, the problem dissolves;

B

\{

A

B to the sensory receptors.

ways

is

Or, what

better, just talk explicitly in

is

causally nearer is

in

some

terms of causal

proximity to sensory receptors and drop the talk of epistemological priority.

Around 1932

there was debate in the Vienna

Circle over what to count as observation sentences,

One

position was that they had

not intend that understanding to be any better than

or Protukolhatze}

the science which

the form of reports of sense impressions. Another

its

is

object.

This attitude

indeed one that Neurath was already urging

Vienna Circle days, w ith

w ho has

his parable of the

is

in

mariner

to rebuild his boat while staving afloat in

One

effect of seeing

logical setting is that

epistemology in a psychoit

resolves a stubborn old

enigma of epistemological are irradiated in

priority.

two dimensions, yet

as three-dimensional

''"

was that they were statements of an elementary about the external world,

Our retinas we see things

without conscious inference.

Philosopher Otto Neurath (1882-1945),

the \'ienna Circle.

member

of

e.g.,

"A

sort

red cube

is

standing on the table." Another, Neurath's, was that they

it."'

i

I

of epistemological priority w as moot.

We are after an understanding of science

as an institution or process in the world,

-

quickly

too

matter.

than reminiscent again of the old

as the input

our cognitive mechanism. Old paradoxes about

to

in epistemology. is

upon

ceptors that are best looked

epistemologically prior to

This interplay

Re-

gardless of whether sensory atoms or Gestalten

epistemology in natural science and natural science

sense data.

our know-

atomism, which seemed so relevant to epistemo-

sense, natural science;

how from

to justify

and that demands awareness.

tion,

ceased to be

empir-

psychology.

ical

we were out

for

ledge of the external world by rational reconstruc-

had the form of reports of relations be-

tween percipients and external things: ''Otto now sees a red cube that there

on the

seemed

the matter: no

to

table."

The

worst of

it

was

be no objective way of settling

way of making

real sense

of the

question.

'^"'

They

held that sensory "wholes" could not be ana-

lyzed into parts w ithout residue.

"Epistemology Naturalized'

Mcu

Lot us now UN to in the

what

ing,

unrcsci"\tdl\

iIk- iiiaitci

context ol the (.xtcrnal worhl \ ajjucly speakNNe

want

ohser\ation sentences

ot

that

is

they be the ones in closest causal proximity to the

sensory receptors

gauged?

how

liul

I'he idea ina\

is

such proxiniit)

to

we

learn

language

ot a

(.listinction

Turning back then

tence

us imagine a sentence

let

queried lor our assent or dissent.

false;

sentence

is

an observation sentence

if

true or

is

it

I'hen the

same

at

a verdict

cannot depend on present stimula-

The

tion to the exclusion of stored information.

very fact of our having learned the language evinces

much

storing of information, and of information

without which we should be in no position to give

however observational. Evi-

verdicts on sentences

dently then

we must

relax our definition of obser-

sentence to read thus: a sentence

vation

observation sentence

verdicts on

if all

it

is

an

depend

tences on which will

to

raises

another problem: how

distinguish between information that

goes into understanding a sentence and information that goes beyond.'^

the criterion of nity?

This

is

the problem of distin-

guishing between analytic truth, which issues from

which depends on more than meanings. long maintained that this distinction

one step toward such

which does make sense:

Now I have

is

illusory.""'

how-

a distinction,

a sentence that

is

true

by mere meanings of w ords should be expected, it is

simple, to be subscribed to by

all

at

fluent

speakers in the community. Perhaps the controver-

one

that

not sensitive to

is

for

this straightforward attribute

of community-wide

This attribute

is

of course no explication of ana-

The community would agree have been black dogs, yet none who talk lyticity.

would

call this analytic.

analyticity notion just

My

that there

of analyti-

rejection of the

means drawing no

line be-

members of

community

the

And what is same commu-

membership

in the

cri-

may

take

some

community

the

studies

more

community of spe-

would not always so count

is

for a

larger

generally no subjectivity in the phrasing

of observation sentences, as

them; they

narrowly

What count

than for others.

as observation sentences for a

will usually

we

are

now conceiving

be about bodies. Since the

distinguishing trait of an observation sentence

is

intersubjective agreement under agreeing stimulation, a corporeal subject

The

matter

is

than not.

likelier

old tendency to associate observation sen-

tences with a subjective sensory subject matter

when we

rather an irony

is

reflect that observation

sentences are also meant to be the intersubjective tribunal of scientific hypotheses.

was due

The

to the drive to base science

old tendency

on something

firmer and prior in the subject's experience; but

dropped

The

we

that project.

dislodging of epistemology from

of epistemological nihilism. This in the

the late Russell

mood

is

old

its

we

status of first philosophy loosed a wave,

somewhat

acceptance.

all

admits of degrees, and indeed we

usefully

notion of analyticity can be dispensed with, in

our definition of observation sentence, in favor of

city

is

Simply general fluency of dialogue. This

terion

the mere meanings of words, and synthetic truth,

sial

same concur-

the

put the point negati\el\, an

agree under uniform stimulation.

There

This formulation

least if

speakers of the language

all

when given

definition the observation sentences are the sen-

the sentence.

is

obser-

This formulation accords perfectly with the

community.

ever,

of ilefinnig

traditional role of the observation sentence as the

information beyond what goes into understanding

There

our task

community.

cialists

we

such

differences in past experience within the speech

on present sensory stimulation and on no stored

are

To

anil

communil\-wide

court of appeal of scientific theories. For by our

the time.

But

\erdicl

observation .sentence

our verdict

depends only on the sensory stimulation present

to

is

gel this: an obserxation sen-

one on which

is

rent stimulation.

information. Thus

we

\ation sentences,

rent sensory stimulation rather than to stored collateral

made between meaning

can be

gi\e the

what else the conuuu-

iloubt that an ob)ecti\e

I

collateral information as

language, are most strongly coiulitioneti to concur-

queried for our \erdict as to whether

aiul

sees e>e-to-eye on,

nilN

be

be rephraseil this wa\: ob-

servation sentences are sentences which, as

senteiues

saw,

reflected

tendency of Polanyi, Kuhn, and

Hanson

to belittle the role

of evi-

dence and to accentuate cultural relativism.^' Hanson

ventured

even

discredit

to

the

idea

of

observation, arguing that .so-called observations

vary from observer to observer with the amount

tween what goes into the mere understanding of the ^'

Quine denied

"Two Dogmas

that distinction in his

of Empiricism."

famous

essay,

Three

philosophers

of

science:

the

Hungarian

Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), and Americans

Kuhn and Norwood

Russell

Hanson (1924-67).

Thomas

W.

Quine

V.

The predicament

of knowledge that the observers bring with them.

The

veteran physicist looks at

sees an x-ray tube.

same

The

some apparatus and

neophyte, looking

place, observes rather "a glass

the

at

and metal

instrument replete with wires, reflectors, screws,

One man's

lamps, and pushbuttons."

observation

of the indeterminacy of trans-

lation has little bearing

The

on observation sentences.

equating of an observation sentence of our

language

an

to

other language eralization;

is

a

is

it

observation

sentence

of

an-

mostly a matter of empirical genmatter of identity between the

The

range of stimulations that would prompt assent to

notion of observation as the impartial and objective

the one sentence and the range of stimulations that

is

another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

source of evidence for science

answer little

to the x-ray

is

bankrupt.

Now my

example was already hinted

while back: what counts as an observation

w idth of community con-

sentence varies with the

But we can

sidered.

also always get an absolute

standard by taking in or most.^

all

It is ironical

speakers of the language,

that philosophers, finding

the old epistemology untenable as a whole, should react

by repudiating

moved

which has only now

a part

in

a

is

good thing,

for the notion

is

remarked upon early

I

to the

in this lecture:

the duality between concept and doctrine, betw een

knowing what whether

is

it

a

sentence means and knowing

true.

The

observation sentence

is

basic to both enterprises. Its relation to doctrine, to

to say that

our knowledge of w hat

true,

is

very

is

much

the

For epistemology remains centered

on

servation sentences are the ones to learn to

understand

field linguists.

first,

have any clear applicability to single

in general to

of utterance or

assent, independently of variations in the past his-

They

afford the

This rubbing out of boundaries could contribute to

progress,

The

observation sentence it is,

as

we

is

the learning of meaning. Also, is

the cornerstone of

just saw,

firmest. Sentences higher

up

it is

fundamental

to

where meaning

in theories

empirical consequences they can

call

have no

their

own;

they confront the tribunal of sensory evidence

only in more or

seems

it

to

me,

philosophically

in

interesting inquiries of a scientific nature.

possible area

begin

the

We

less inclusive aggregates.

linguistic

form the

phenomenon

habit,

in

each as an approximation to one or another of

number of norms - around

so to speak a spoken alphabet. All

The

ob-

Now

fying small deviations.

language also there

is

outside the realm of

probably only a rather limited

alphabet of perceptual norms altogether, toward

which we tend unconsciously tions.

These,

taken

as

if

to rectify all percep-

experimentally identified, could be

epistemological

elements

building

of experience.

and

and wears

it

has an empirical content

on

its

sleeve.

all its

own

the

in part universal.

Again there

is

the area that the psychologist

Donald T. Campbell ogy.

'

calls

In this area there

is

who shows how some

evolutionary epistemol-

w ork by Hiiseyin Yilmaz, structural traits of color

perception could have been predicted from survival

And

more emphatically epistemological

topic that evolution helps to clarify

the minimal verifiable

blocks,

They might

prove in part to be culturally variable, as phonemes are,

value. ^

it

a

thirty altogether

ery of the body scientific, aggregate;

of

hearing the

myriad variations of spoken sounds, of treating

servation sentence, situated at the sensory periphis

One

perceptual norms. Consider, to

is

with,

phonemes.

working

only entry to a language.

semantics. For

merges with

psychology, as well as with linguistics.

sequences of just those thirty elements, thus recti-

we can correlate with observable

tories of individual informants.

epistemology

that

also

in a position

both as children and as

circumstances of the occasion

What is

that meaning,

is

speech in our language can be treated in practice as

For observation sentences are pre-

cisely the ones that

on

ob-

too, since

we are

as always

once we get beyond observation sentences, ceases

- constituting

fundamental

Vienna

semantics.

verification.

is

shock preconceptions

pository of evidence for scientific hypotheses. Its is

and evidence

verification;

likelier to

limited

meaning

now becomes

epistemology

traditional one: observation sentences are the re-

relation to

to the other.''

to the preconceptions of old

evidence, and meaning remains centered as always

fundamental

two connections. These two correspond

duality that

no shock

It is

sentences;

into clear focus.

Clarification of the notion of observation sen-

tence

would prompt assent

a

now

that

a

we

is

induction,

are allowing epistemology the re-

sources of natural science.

i

^

"Epistemology Naturalized'

Autlu)

1

A

|{

\()t


1

1)

(

in

cd..

.?(>).

4 W 1

l.iknmtms

71.4(1 M.^T). .>

{1«>.?2),

in

Today

opment of

this

level

such

such cases

of fluenc)

ot

we define sameness of language.

this note

paper also

and influencing the develin

more

(l')2S

i).

substantial

wa\s

Socratic

W),

1

\\

I

)rel)en

jltic

late of llar\aril

Wunl ami

mis

Hurlon

illgensieiman,

uilliuiilial

Dreben

and Hoston Lni\ersities|.)

Ohjcii,

pp

.^

46, 6K

T. (".ampbell, ".Methodological suggestions from

comparative psychology of knowledge processes," 7////:)'

for occasional (.lc\iants

might be excluded by adjusting the

prompting

nuklxeil lo HuKoii

Cf. (^uine,

28.

^'ork: IJasic IJooks, 1966).

as the insane or the blind, .\lternati\eh,

(I'or

40.

1

204

Philosophy of Stictut-

This qualification allows

dialogue \\hereb\

am and

VHl).

lS.>();l{cikclc>,

1

a

/;;

2 (1959), 152 82.

Iiiseyin

Yilmaz,

"On color

\

ision aiul a

to general perception," in K. K.

new apjiroach

Hernard and

.\l.

R.

Kare, eds., Iholoiitcal Prototypes and Synthetic Systems

(New

\\

by what and

history

a

another

which the characters are

in

The characters

the authors. hterall)

callctl

in

and the Concept

Life,

or of

leliis.

whuh we

ti\c.

the

Human

is

w as

that moral tradition

medieval heirs according

and

Edward Thomas (1878-1917) died in the war; Menelaus, King of Sparta, served Greece in the Trojan War, as did

''"

Odysseus, hero of Homer's Odyssey.

ineliminability of mythical thought.

The

Italian

philosopher Giambattista \"ico (1668-

1744) argued against the rationalism of his day for the

Alasdair Maclntyre

which the telhng of

to

episode in

make

a possible history:

always an

is

would now

I

like to

suggestion about another concept,

a related

that of personal identity.

Derek

and others

Parfit

have recently drawn our attention to the contrast

between the

criteria of strict identity,

which

an

is

all-or-nothing matter {either the Tichborne claim-

ant

is

the

last

Tichborne heir or he

the properties of the or the claimant

is

not the heir - Leibniz's

is

personality which are a matter of

memory,

respect of

More

sponses.'

human is

same man

the

I

at fifty as

I

more

was

or

less.

at forty in

less.)

But what

crucial to

is

I

have been

matter how changed

my

at

am

I

forever

any time for others - and

I

may be now. There

identity

-

or lack of

it

is

I

- no no way it

- on

the

psychological continuity or discontinuity of the

The

self.

self inhabits a character

whose unity

Once again

given as the unity of a character. a crucial

there

Locke or Hume,

tried to

terms of psychological states or events. Analytical

many w ays

philosophers, in so

their heirs as

states

failed to see that a

the lack of which

That background

and events and

as

strict identity

Both have

.

background has been omitted,

makes the problems

insoluble.

provided by the concept of

a

and of that kind of unity of character which

a

is

story requires. Just as a history

not a sequence of

is

actions, but the concept of an action

for

w ell

have wrestled with the connection

understood in terms of Leibniz's Law

moment

in

is

that of a

an actual or possible history abstracted

some purpose from

that history, so the charac-

the concept of a person

from

or

There w as

England that

suicide is

-

that his or

often and per-

haps characteristically complaining that the narrative

of their

that

become

has

life

unintelligible to them,

movement towards

lacks any point, any

it

climax or a

Hence

telos.^'^

one thing rather than another their lives

To

seems

to

such

be the subject of

a

at crucial

junctures in

person to have been

a narrative that

one's birth to one's death

a

the point of doing any

is, 1

remarked

lost.

runs from earlier, to

be accountable for the actions and experiences

to

a narratable

life. It is,

that

be

to

is,

being asked to give a certain kind of account

of w hat one did or what happened to one or what

one w itnessed

at

any

earlier point in one's life

the time at which the question

is

posed.

than

Of course

someone may have forgotten or suffered brain

damage or simply not attended

sufficiently at the

relevant time to be able to give the relevant account. to say of

someone under some one description

same person ently

as

someone characterized quite

is

the

differ-

("The Count of Monte Cristo") is precisely it makes sense to ask him to give an

is

account enabling us to under-

intelligible narrative

stand how he could at different times and different places be one and the

same person and

differently characterized. just that identity

Thus

yet be so

personal identity

is

presupposed by the unity of the

character which the unity of a narrative requires.

Without such unity there would not be subjects of

whom

stories could

be

told.

The other aspect of narrative selfhood is correlative: I am not only accountable, I am one who can always ask others for an account, who can put others to the question. I am part of their story, as they are part of mine. The narrative of any one life part of an interlocking set of narratives.

is

More-

over this asking for and giving of accounts

itself

plays an important part in constituting narratives.

that of a character ab-

Asking you what you did and why, saying what

a history.

a false claim to the

in the nineteenth century;

two things are

commit

meaningless, he or she

did and why, pondering the differences between

I

your account of what "'"

has its ow n peculiar meancomplains - as do some of

of persons, but

ters in a history are not a collection

stracted

my my own

(''The prisoner of the Chateau d'lf ') that he

an account of personal identity solely in

story

life is

is

else's, that

who attempt

those

her

the subject of a history that

When someone

ing.

course of

birth to

to say that

Empiricists, such as

between those

and no one

my

But

disagreement with empiricist or analytical

their critics,

am

in the

is

on the other.

give

from

am what I may

I

is

philosophers on the one hand and with existentialists

I

which compose

any time be called upon to answer for

oi founding

death;

open

respond

the one hand,

living out a story that runs

only the resources of psychoto be able to

On

be taken by others to be

we have

to the imputation of strict identity.

whatever

justifiably

intellectual powers, critical re-

or

that, possessing

at

Law

beings as characters in enacted narratives

logical continuity,

may

all

and the psychological continuities of

applies)^'"

(Am

not; either

heir belong to the claimant

last

the narrative concept of selfhood requires

thus twofold.

is

suggested earlier that "an" action

I

What

stories has a key part in

educating us into the virtues.

Tichborne

estates in

I

did,

and

G. W. Leibniz held

identical only if "indiscernible."

^'^

Goal.

I

did and

my account of what

vice versa, these are essential constituents

"The but

ol all

\ci\ sinipksi aiul h.msi ol nai r.iiisfs.

ilu-

riuis uillioiit

tlu- acc()iiiit.ihilit\

trains ot cxcnis that constitute

and barest

siiiipkst

the-

occur; and with-

ot narratJNcs coultl not

that continuity rec|uireil to

actions that constitute

lack

make both them and

them

the

am

1

Human

a

and the Concept

Life,

coiucplion

ol

not arijuinji

^ood which

///(•

of a Tradition'

enable us to

will

exteiul our inulerstaniling ol the pur|)()se tent

which

and constancy

integrity

define the kind of

tion of a quest

is

is

not

we

that

life,

which

life it

in

quest for the

a

is

at

all

miners search for gold or geologists for

The

concepts

of"

narrative, intel-

and accountability presuppose the applicconcept

ability of the

of personal identity, just as

presupposes their applicabilitx and

it

indeed

just as

each of these three presupposes the applicability of

The

the two others.

presupposition.

relationship

one of mutual

is

does follow of course that

It

all

attempts to elucidate the notion of personal identity

concep-

that of a search for

something already

ligibility

of

initially

clear the medie\al

that the concepts of narrati\e or ot intelligibilitx or

personal identity.

good

///; hut does fu ndamental

it

(Titicism"

impl\ an\ more

.School.

style

and fashion changes deter mined ~F)y an older hj^hmodernist imperative o f sty listic in the re alm

It is

m odifications

in

in nova tion? ,

production are most

all

11^:

fa scinated

denounced

's

.ea\

I

the wa> to

is'

U\

Adornoand

New

the I'ranklurt

i>ostmodernisms base,

in tact,

kitsch, of TN series

and

Digest culture, of advertising

late s how

the ideologues

all

ami the American

been

preciselv bv this whole ''deKr^dt-'d" la nd-

sc ape of schlock er

of architecture ho\Never, that

aesthetic

so passionatelx

ir\

of the modern, from

The lisM iught he

chan^e or_hrcak than tRe periodic

Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"

and the grade-li

called p araliterature, with

H ollNwood

its

and Rea d-

and motels

()f

,

th e

film, of so-

airport paperback c at-

popu lar

dramatically \isihle, and that their theoretical prob-

egories o f the gothic and the romance, the

lems have been most centrally raised and articula-

biography, the murder mvsterv, and the scie n ce

ted;

was indeed from architectural debates

it

my own conception of postmodernism outlined in the following pages

emerge.

More

media,

postmodernist

as

initially

that

be

simply ''quote/ ^s

began

to

done, but incorporate jnto their very substanc e.

architectu re

in

hav e been inseparable from an implacable

critiq ue

of architectural high modernism and of Fran k

W rjcrht

T. lovd (

or thr «\-rA\\pt\ inrprn-niMnal gtylp

Le Corbusier, Mi r*^,

fr''\

w^t^rp

fnrr|-|;]l

rrifir;»;m

an d analysis (of the high-modernist transforma tion

monu -

o f the building into a virtual sculpture, or

me ntal

Nor should

decisively than in the other arts or

positions

''duck/'" as Robert Venturi puts

on e with reconsiderations on the and of the aesthetic

institution.

level

no lon ger

fiction or fantasy novel: materials the\

will

it

are a t

it^

of urb anism

High modernism

is

a

Joyce or

Mahler might have

a

the break in question be thought of

as a purely cultural affair: indeed, theories

postmodern

of the

whether celebrator\ or couched

in

the language of moral revulsion and denunciation

bear a strong family resemblance to

all

those

more

ambitious sociological generalizations which,

much

and inauguration of

arrival

a

whole new type of

most famously baptized

society,

at

same time, bring us the news of the

the

''poslindustrial so-

ciety" (Daniel Bell) but often also designated con-

sumer

media

society,

society, information society,

Such

thus credited with the destruction of the fabric of

electronic society or high tech, and the like.

the traditional city and

theories have the obvious ideological mission of

way of the

ture (by

its

older neighborhood cul-

radical disjunction of the

Utopian high-modernist building from

its

new

demonstrating, to their

sur-

social

rounding context), while the prophetic elitism and authoritarianism of the

modern movement

are re-

laws ot classical capitalism, industrial production

morselessly identified in the imperious gesture of

struggle.

the charismatic Master.

resisted

Postmodernism

enough stage the very

in architecture will

itself as a

title

then logically

kind of aesthetic populism, as

of Venturi's influential manifesto,

Learning from Las Vegas, suggests. However,

may

we

ultimately wish to evaluate this populist rhet-

oric,"

it

tion

to

has at least the merit of drawing our atten-

one

fundamental

feature

of

all

the

own

that

relief,

t

he ne w

formation in question no longer obeys the

name ly,

the prim acN" of

and the omnipresence of class

The Marxist

has

tradition

them with vehemence, with the

therefore signal ex-

ception of the economist Ernest Mandel, whose

book Late Capitalism mize the

sets out not

merely to anato-

new society moment in the

historic originality of this

(which he sees as a third stage or

evolution of capital) but also to demonstrate that is, if

it

anything, a purer stage of capitalism than any

of the

moments

preceded

that

it. I

w ill return

moment

to this

postmodernisms enumerated above: namely, the

argument

effacement in them of the older (essentially high-

pate a point that will be argued fin chapter

modernist) frontier between high culture and so-

namely, that every p osition on postmodernism

in

cu lture - wheth er apologia or stigmatization""^

Is

called

mass or commerical culture, and the emer-

gence of new kinds of texts infused with the forms, categories, "'

Writing.

'^

A

and contents of that very culture indus-

aiul

for the

to antici2],

the_samc time, and nefessanly,' ah

implicitly or exglicitl} political stance

on the nature

of multinational capitalism today.

in his

Learning from Las Vegas.

The term

taken from a photograph of a duck-shaped drive-in on

Long

one

it

category of building-as-sculpture, formulated by

Robert Venturi is

a lso at

later; suffice

Island in Peter Blake's God's

Planned Deterioration ofAmerica

's

Own

Junkyard: The

Landscape.

'

Frank

Leavis

(1895-1978)

evaluated

literature

according to the author's moral standing.

"

Post-World

War

I

critical

school advocating purely

internal analvsis of literarv texts.

Jameson

Fredric

A is

last

preliminary word on method: what follows

not to be read as stylistic description, as the

account of one cultural style or others.

I

movement among

have rather meant to offer

hypothesis, and that

at a

moment

in

a

periodizing

which the very

conception of historical periodization has come to

seem most problematical indeed.

have argued

I

now

only are Picasso and Joyce no longer ugly; they

on the whole,

strike us,

of

this is the result

canonization and academic

a

modern movement gen-

institutionalization of the erally that

and

as rather "realistic,"

can be traced to the

This

late 1950s.

is

surely one of the most plausible explanations for the

emergence of postmodernism

the

since

itself,

the

now confront formerly oppositional modern movement as a

of historical periodization; in any case, the concep-

set

of dead classics, which "weigh like a nightmare

tion of the "genealogy" largely lays to rest trad-

on the brains of the living,"

elsewhere that

isolated or discrete cultural an-

all

always involves a buried or repressed theory

alysis

worries about so-called linear

theoretical

itional

and

history, theories of "stages,"

In

toriography.

present

the

however,

by

a few substantive

Marx once

said in a

As

for the

postmodern

revolt against

all

that,

must equally be stressed that its own offensive features - from obscurity and sexually however,

it

material

explicit

psychological

to

and

squalor

overt expressions of social and political defiance,

remarks.

One

as

will

different context.

teleological his-

context,

lengthier theoretical discussion of such (very real) issues can perhaps be replaced

younger generation of the 1960s

of the concerns frequently aroused by peri-

odizing hypotheses

that these tend to obliterate

is

which transcend anything imagined

at the

that

might have been

most extreme moments of high

difference and to project an idea of the historical

modernism - no longer scandalize anyone and

period as massive homogeneity (bounded on either

not only received with the greatest complacency

by inexplicable chronological metamorphoses

but have themselves become institutionalized and

side

and punctuation marks). This

why

cisely

seems

it

modernism not

to

me

as a style

is,

however, pre-

are

are at one with the official or public culture of

essential to grasp post-

Western

but rather as a cultural

What

society.

has happened

is

that aesthetic production

dominant: a conception which allows for the pres-

today has become integrated into commodity pro-

ence and coexistence of a range of very different,

duction generally: the frantic economic urgency of

yet subordinate, features.

producing fresh waves of ever more novel-seeming

Consider, for example^ the powerful alternative posit ion that postmodernisrn_Jg_itself

little

more

than one more stage of modernism proper

(if

not

indeed, o f the even older romanticism);

it

m ay

indeed be co nceded that

m odernism

1

am

the features of p ost-

all

about

,

to

goods (from clothing rates of turnover,

to airplanes), at ever greater

now

assigns an increasingly es-

sential structural function

and position

necessities

then find recognition in the varied

enumerate can b e

kinds of institutional support available for the

mo d-

new er art, from foundations and grants to museums

detected, full-blow n, in this or t hat preceding

ernism (mcludin g such astonishing genealogjcal

and other forms of patronage.

precursors as Gertmde_ Stein^ Ra^mDnd^Kaussgl^

tecture,

or Marcel right

Duchamp, who may be^on sidered ou t" What has

postm odern ists,^ avantJ^Jgttre)

•

'

not been taken into account by this view however, ,

is

the social position of the older modernism, or

better

still,

its

passionate repudiation by an older

Victorian and post-Victorian bourgeoisie for w its

hom

forms and ethos are received as being variously

ugly,

dissonant,

obscure,

to aesthetic

innovation and experimentation. Such economic

scandalous,

subversive, and generally "antisocial."

immoral,

is

Of all

the arts, archi-

the closest constitutively to the eco-

nomic, with which,

and land values,

it

in the

form of commissions

has a virtually unmediated rela-

tionship. It will therefore 30t^ be jurprising to find

the PYtraordrnary' flowering of JJie.

architecture^grounded national business,

ment I

is

strictly

in the

new

postm^^^''"

patronage^of^multi-

whose expansion and dev elop-

contemporaneous with

will suggest that these

Later

it.

two new phenomena have

be

an even deeper dialectical interrelationship than the

argued here, however, that a mutation in the sphere

simple one-to-one financing of this or that individ-

It will

of culture has rendered such attitudes archaic. Not

ual project.

Yet

this

is

the point at which

remind the reader of the obvious; namely, '"

"Before the word." Gertrude Stein (1874-1946),

American writer and 1933),

French

French

painter.

writer;

poet;

Raymond Roussel (1877Duchamp (1887-1968),

Marcel

whole

global, yet

I

must

that this

American, postmodern culture

is

the internal and superstructural expression of a

whole new wave of American military and eco-

nomic domination throughout the world:

in this

"The Cultural Logic sense, as ihrouvihoiii (.•iilturc is

Tlu'

f'lrsi

if all

(Ik-

mukisulc-

ol

tloniinanee, therefore,

in

that

is

the constitutive features ol postmodern-

ism were identical with and coterminous to those of an older modernism

position

a

onstrabl\ erroneous but which onl\ an e\en ier analysis ot

niodernism proper

two phenomena would in their

meaning and

dem-

be

feel to

I

leii'tith-

coulii dispel

the

social function,

owing

to the

very different positioning of postmodernism in the

economic system

a

and, beyond that, lo

of late capital

a

\

k w

pieseiu histor\ as sheer

ol

forces

host of distinct

whose

elfectivity

un-

is

decidable. At any rale, this has been the political

which the following analysis was devised:

spirit in

some concejition of a new systematic norm and its reproduction in order to more adet|uatel\ on the most effect i\e

to jiroject

cultural reflect

forms of any radical cultural

remain utterly distinct

still

b.uk into

tail

lieterogeneitN, raiuloin iliflerence, a c(K."xislcnce of

ileal h, aiul leiror.

point lo he inaile about the eoneejMion

of jKriocli/ation

even

hisiors,

I.iss

».

blood, toiiuif,

of Late Capitalism"

'I'he

features of the postmodern:

constitutive

which finds

depthle.ssness, in

politics today.

exposition will take up in turn the following

its

contemporary "theory" and

a

new

prolongation both in

whole new

a

the transformation of the very sphere of culture in

culture of the image or the simulacrum; a conse-

contemporary

quent weakening of

This point

society. will

be further discussed

clusion of this book.

must now

I

the con-

at

briefly address a

historicity,

both

in

our

rela-

new forms of

tionship to public History and in the

our private temporality, whose "schizophrenic"

new

different kind of objection to periodization, a con-

structure (following Lacan'^) will determine

cern about

types of syntax or syntagmatic relationships in the

possible obliteration of heterogen-

its

one most often expressed by the Left.

eity,

certain that there

is a

And

it is

strange quasi-Sartrean irony -

- which tends

a ''winner loses" logic

any effort to describe

a

to

surround

"system," a totalizing dy-

movement of What happens is that the

more temporal

all

figure for a

the vision of

some

increasingly

total

system or logic - the Foucault of the prisons

book

is

the obvious example

the reader comes to

-

the

more powerless

Insofar as the theorist

feel.

wins, therefore, by constructing an increasingly

whole new type of emotional call "intensities" - which

w ill

a return to older theories

of

the sublime; the deep constitutive relationships of

contemporary

more powerful

I

can best be grasped by

namic, as these are detected in the society.

arts; a

ground tone - what

w hole new technology, w hich

this to a

after a brief

dering

itself a

account of postmodernist mutations in

the lived experience of built space flections

is

whole new economic world system; and,

on the mission of political

new world

itself,

some

re-

art in the bewil-

space of late or multinational

capital.

closed and terrifying machine, to that very degree

he

loses, since the critical capacity

of his work

is

Now we need

to

complete

this exploratory

thereby paralyzed, and the impulses of negation

of postmodernist space and time with

and

sis

revolt, not to speak

of those of social transform-

ation, are increasingly perceived as vain

in the face of the I

have

felt,

model

and

trivial

it

was only

in the light

of some conception of a dominant cultural logic or

hegemonic norm

that genuine difference could be

measured and assessed. that

all

in the

I

am

The postmodern

I

will

is,

newer

so often to characterize the

cultural experi-

tion

which leaves behind

it

the

desolation

of

Hopper's buildings or the stark Midwest syntax of Sheeler's forms, ^ replacing

them w ith the extraor-

very far from feeling

dinary surfaces of the photorealist cityscape, where

"postmodern"

even the automobile w recks gleam w ith some new

cultural production today

broad sense

analy-

of that euphoria or those intensities which seem

ence. Let us reemphasize the enormity of a transi-

itself.

however, that

account

a final

is

be conferring on this term.

however, the force

field

in

hallucinatory splendor.

new

surfaces

is all

the

The

exhilaration of these

more paradoxical

in that their

which very different kinds of cultural impulses -

essential content - the city itself- has deteriorated

what Raymond Williams has usefully termed "re-

or disintegrated to a degree surely

sidual" and "emergent" forms of cultural produc-

able in the early years of the twentieth century,

- must make their way."" If we do not achieve some general sense of a cultural dominant, then we

can be a delight to the eyes when expressed in

^"'

Ray-

'"

Williams (1922-88) distinguished the emergent (or

"^

tion

Prominent English

mond

critic

and man of the

left,

let

alone in the previous era.

How

still

inconceiv-

urban squalor

French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-81).

American

novel) from the /-o/^Hrt/ (anachronistic) dominant cultural

painter

elements of a given historical period.

(1883-1965),

artists

of stark

who

Edward

Hopper

urban scenes, and

(1882-1967),

Charles

Sheeler

abstractly rendered industrial forms.

(leT)

Jameson

Fredric

how an unparalleled quantum leap in the alienation of daily life in the city can now be experienced in the form of a strange new hallucinatory exhilaration - these are some of the questions that confront us in this moment of our inquiry. Nor should the human figure be exempted commodification, and

from investigation, although

it

seems clear that

for

the newer aesthetic the representation of space

come

has

itself

be

to

felt as

incompatible with the

representation of the body: a kind of aesthetic div-

more pronounced than

ision of labor far

in

any of

human

physical incommensurability of the

organ

ism with Nature but also of the limits of figuratio

and the incapacity of the human mind representation

such enormous

to

forces Burke, in his historical

of the modern bourgeois

to giv

Sue

forces.

moment

the

at

daw

was only able

state,

t

conceptualize in terms of the divine, while eve

Heidegger continues relationship with

to entertain a phantasmati

some organic

precapitalist peas

ant landscape and village society, which

form of the image of Nature

Today, however,

the earlier generic conceptions of landscape, and a

it

our

in

may be

is

own

the

finj

time.

possible to think a

most ominous symptom indeed. The privileged

this in a different

space of the newer art

eclipse of Nature itself Heidegger's "field path"

morphic, as

radically antianthropo-

empty bathrooms of Doug

the

in

is

The ultimate contemporary fetishizahuman body, however, takes a very direction in the statues of Duane Hanson:

after

way,

at

the

moment

of a radic;

by the green revolution, by neocolonial

Bond's work.

late capital,

tion of the

ism and the megalopolis, w hich runs

its

different

ways over the older

lots

what

have already called the simulacrum, whose

I

peculiar function

what Sartre would have

lies in

called the derealization of the

world of everyday

and hesitation

whole surrounding

Your moment of doubt the breath and warmth of these

reality.

as to

polyester figures, in other words, tends to return

upon the

real

human

museum and

the

beings moving about you in

to transform

them

also for the

many dead and flesh-colored own right. The world thereby

briefest instant into so

simulacra in their

momentarily

become

loses

its

depth and

threatens

glossy skin, a stereoscopic illusion, a

a

rush of filmic images w ithout density. But

now

to

this

is

an exhilarating experience.-'

a terrifying or

ences in terms of what Susan Sontag, in an influential

statement, isolated as ''camp."

somewhat

different cross-light

the equally fashionable current

lime," as

it

to

drawing on

theme of the "sub-

Kant; or perhaps one might

yoke the tw o notions together in the form of

something Uke

camp

a

The sublime was

for

ing on terror, the

or "hysterical" sublime."'

Burke an experience border-

fitful

glimpse, in astonishment,

stupor, and awe, of what was so

crush

it,

a

has been rediscovered in the works of

Edmund Burke and want

on

propose

I

human

refined by

sentation

life

Kant

itself,

altogether:

enormous

as to

a description

then

to include the question

of repre-

fields

and vacant

superhigh

and turr

Heidegger's "house of being" into condominium: if

not the most miserable unheated, rat-infeste

tenement buildings. The other of our society that sense

no longer Nature

precapitalist societies, but

we must now I

as

something

it

else

is

show that technology

is

since

se,

here

I

w ill want

itself a

figure

Yet technology may well serve

else.

is

distinction

a

matter of sheer power and of the

between the beautiful and the sublime

traditional in aesthetic theory, the

understood as what as

what

is

t

fc

£

adequate shorthand to designate that enormoi properly

human ality

human and

anti-natural power of dea up in our machinery - a power, what Sartre calls the counterfir

labor stored

of the practico-inert, w hich turns back on an

against us in unrecognizable forms and seems

t

constitute the massive dystopian horizon of ou collective as well as our individual praxis.

Technological development

is

however on

th

Marxist view the result of the development of cap ital

rather than

stance

in

its

some ultimately determining

own

right.

will

It

ir

therefore

b

appropriate to distinguish several generations

c

machine power, several stages of technologic; revolution

w ithin

capital itself

I

here follow Erne;

Mandel, who outlines three such fundament; breaks or

quantum

leaps in the evolution of

ma

chinery under capital:

The fundamental

revolutions in

power technol

ogy - the technology of the production

The

i

whic

so that the object of the sublime

becomes not only

"'

i

was

that this other thing not overhastil

be grasped as technology per

something

at all,

identify.

am anxious

alienated

has proved fruitful to think of such experi-

It

i:

irredeemably and irrevocably destroyed b

all,

is

former often being

well-formed and pleasing, the

awesome, beyond comprehension.

latter

c

motive machines by machines - thus appeal determinant

moment

in revolutions

c

technology as a whole. Machine production

c

as the

steam-driven motors since 1848; machine pre

The Cultural Logic ciuction

the

()(

electric

Ws of the

ami

(.oinlnislioii

l^Mh centiir\

motors

since-

machine production

;

ami

figuration

moment

earlier

motive energies

the

to of

of Late Capitalism'

modernization.

«>f

that

I'he prestige of

of electronic and niiclear-|>o\verecl ajiixiratuses

these great streamlined shapes can be measured

since the 40s of the 2()th centur>

by their metaphorical presence

these are the

three general revolutions in technology engen-

dered by the capitalist

mode of production

since

the "original" industrial re\olution of the later l(Sth

many

Mandel's book IaUc

thesis of

namely, that there

Cii[)itiiliiin\

ha\e been three fundamental moments

in capital-

ism, each one marking a dialectical expansion over the previous stage.

monopoly

These

are market capitalism, the

stage or the stage of imperialism, and our

own, wrongly

what might

called postindustrial, but

better be termed multinational, capital.

I

have

(iorbusier's

upon the urban

gigantic steamship liners

of fascination in the

and

Picabia

like

This periodization underscores the general

\x

scenery of an older fallen earth. ^ .Machinery exerts

another kind

century.'

in

buildings, vast Utopian structures which ride like so

no time

Duchamp,'"'

to consider here; but

completeness' sake, the ways

communist

ary or

artists

reappropriate

to

energy for

a

let

in

works

which revolution-

of the

19.^()s

excitement

this

of artists

whom we have me mention, for also sought

machine

of

Promethean reconstruction

of

human

Fernand Leger and Diego

society as a whole, as in

Rivera.

al-

It

immediately obvious that the technology

is

own moment no

longer possesses this same

ready pointed out that Mandel's intervention in

of our

the postindustrial debate involves the proposition

capacity for representation: not the turbine, nor

consumer

that late or multinational or far

capitalism,

from being inconsistent with Marx's great

even Sheeler's grain elevators or smokestacks, not the baroque elaboration of pipes and conveyor

nineteenth-century analysis, constitutes, on the

belts,

contrary, the purest form of capital yet to have

road train -

emerged,

at rest

hitherto

a prodigious

expansion of capital into

uncommodified

ism of our

own

it

in a tributary

This purer

had hitherto tolerated

One is tempted to new and historically

way. a

- but rather the computer, w hose outer

is,

the destruction of preca-

Third World agriculture by the Green

vertising industry.

At any

my own

stages of realism,

rate,

it

w ill

also

have been

cultural periodization of the

modernism, and postmodernism

both inspired and confirmed by Mandel's tripar-

home

that lates

shell

appliance called television which articu-

nothing but rather implodes, carrying

its flat-

tened image surface within itself

Such machines

and colonization of Nature and

Revolution, and the rise of the media and the ad-

tite

rail-

concentrated

casings of the various media themselves, as with

the Unconscious: that

is

still

time thus eliminates the enclaves of

original penetration

clear that

vehicles of speed

has no emblematic or visual power, or even the

areas.

speak in this connection of

pitalist

all

capital-

precapitalist organization

and exploited

nor even the streamlined profile of the

are indeed machines of repro-

duction rather than of production, and they make very different

demands on our

capacity for aes-

thetic representation than did the relatively

metic

idolatry

of the older machinery

mi-

of the

moment, of some older speed-and-energy Here we have less to do with kinetic energy than with all kinds of new reproductive futurist

sculpture.

processes; and in the weaker productions of post-

scheme.

We may therefore speak of our own period as the Third Machine Age; and

it is

at this

must reintroduce the problem of

point that

we

aesthetic repre-

sentation already explicitly developed in Kant's earlier analysis of the sublime, since

it

would seem

embodiment of such promore comfortably mere thematic representation of content -

modernism

the aesthetic

cesses often tends to slip back into a

into narrati\es

which are about the processes of

reproduction and include movie cameras, video,

only logical that the relationship to and the repre-

tape recorders, the whole technology of the pro-

sentation of the machine could be expected to shift

duction and reproduction of the simulacrum. (The

dialectically

with each of these qualitatively differ-

It is

appropriate to recall the excitement of

chinery in the

moment

shift

from Antonioni's modernist Blow-Lp

DePalma's postmodernist Blowout

ent stages of technological development.

ma-

of capital preceding our

When

matic.)

model

a

is

to

here paradig-

Japanese architects, for example,

building on the decorative imitation of

own, the exhilaration of futurism, most notably, and of Marinetti's celebration of the machine gun

^"

and the motorcar. These are

.Marcel

Duchamp were

realism,

and Dadaism.

still

visible

emblems,

sculptural nodes of energy which give tangibility

F'rench painters Francis Picabia (1879-1953) and associated with abstraction, Sur-

Jameson

Fredric

stacks of cassettes, then the solution

Yet something else does tend to emerge

most energetic postmodernist sense that beyond

seems somehow

all

and

texts,

in the

this

is

the

networks of the repro-

ductive process and thereby to afford us

some

glimpse into a postmodern or technological sub-

whose power or authenticity

lime,

by the success of such works

new postmodern space

documented

is

evoking a whole

in

emergence around

in

have only recently crystallized in a new type of

much

ities as

of global paranoia itself William Gib-

it is

work

his

an exceptional

as

production.

us.

a

glass

I

conception of postmodernism outlined here

cannot stress too greatly the radical distinction

between

the central role of process and reproduction in

(optional) style

among many

postmodernist culture.

one which seeks

to grasp

said,

however,

implication that technology

I

is

want in

to avoid the

any way the "ul-

timately determining instance" either of our pre-

sent-day social

such

a thesis

is,

life

or of our cultural production:

Rather,

I

want

tations of

a

a

view for which the postmodern

it

is

one

others available and

dominant

as the cultural

of the logic of late capitalism: the two approaches in fact generate

izing the

two very different ways of conceptual-

phenomenon

on the one hand,

as a whole:

moral judgments (about which

indifferent

is

it

one with the

whether they are positive or negative), and, on the

postindustrial society.

other, a genuinely dialectical attempt to think our

of course, ultimately

post-Marxist notion of

is

rather than a merely stylistic one.

historical

surface to the other can be taken as paradigmatic of

have

mark

realization

literary

within a predominantly visual or aural postmodern

The

I

fully as

is

an expression of transnational corporate real-

son's representational innovations, indeed,

Architecture therefore remains in this sense the

As

find expres-

first tried to

science fiction, called cyberpunk, which

privileged aesthetic language; and the distorting

and fragmenting reflections of one enormous

which

narratives,

sion through the generic structure of the spy novel,

thematics or content the work

to tap the

Such

at best the-

is

matic and allusive, although often humorous.

at

to suggest that our faulty represen-

present of time in History.

Of some

some immense communicational and

computer network are themselves but

a distorted

ernism

postmod-

positive moral evaluation of

needs to be

little

said: the

complacent (yet

figuration of something even deeper, namely, the

delirious) camp-following celebration of this aes-

whole world system of a present-day multinational

thetic

capitalism.

ety

is

The

technology of contemporary soci-

therefore mesmerizing and fascinating not so

much

in its

some

privileged representational short

grasping

more

a

own

right but because

it

seems

to offer

hand

social

and economic

the slogan of "postindustrial society")

unacceptable, although

it

difficult for

our minds and imaginations to

new decentered

global network of is

a figural

mode

to characterize

w hich the circuits and networks of some putacomputer hookup are narratively mobil-

ized by labyrinthine conspiracies of

fantasies entertained not only

governments

autonomous

-

tuals

by both

in distress but also

left

But

in that case

it

is

only consequent to reject

of

its

essential triviality

when juxtaposed

of the normal reading mind. Yet conspiracy theory

ities

the figuration

of advanced technology - to think the impossible totality

of the contemporary world system.

It is in

terms of that enormous and threatening, yet only

dimly perceivable, other

reality

social institutions that, in

modern sublime can

(|7^

my

of economic and

opinion, the post-

alone be adequately theorized.

mod-

ernisms: judgments one finds both on the Left and

simulacrum, w ith

- through

against

the Utopian "high seriousness" of the great

on the radical Right. And no doubt the

seen as a degraded attempt

more

moralizing condemnations of the postmodern and

agencies in a complexity often beyond the capacity

must be

intellec-

are also essentially of a piece with

but deadly interlocking and competing information

garish narrative manifestations)

and right

by many

vulgar apologias for postmodernism.

is

as "high-tech paranoia"

it

tive global

its

less

nature of high technology, from chips to robots -

of contemporary entertainment literature - one

(and

surely

is

may be somewhat

network of power and control even

process presently best observed in a whole

in

its

obvious that current fantasies about the salvational

the third stage of capital itself This

-

(including

for

grasp: the whole

tempted

new world

dimension, greeted with equal enthusiasm under

its

into television images, does

more than merely

replicate the logic of late capitalism;

and

intensifies

it.

Meanwhile,

which seek actively modify

its

reinforces

it

for political

to intervene in history

otherwise passive

momentum

with a view toward channeling

it

regressive reestablishment of

cannot but be

and

to

(whether

it

into the

some simpler

much

groups

into a socialist

transformation of society or diverting

past), there

logic of the

transformation of older real-

that

is

fantasy

deplorable

"The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism' and

rcprt'hfiisiblf

clictKMi

iii

torm

ciiliui.il

.1

which, by translorininii the

ot

imagf

imo

jiasi

mirages, stereotypes, or texts, cttccti\cl> abolishes

any practical sense

of the collect-

abandoninii the thinking of

thereb\

ive project,

and

ot the future

future change to fantasies of sheer catastrophe and inexplicable cataclysm, from visions of "terrorism"

on the

social level to those of cancer

sonal. \ el

postmodernism

if

on the per-

a historical

is

enon, then the attempt to conceptualize

it

phenomin

terms

of moral or morali/ing judgments must finally be identified as a category mistake. All of

which be-

comes more obvious when we interrogate the position

of the cultural

along with

immersed

all

in

critic

and moralist; the

the rest of us,

now

is

new

its

so deeply

cultural categories,

that the luxury of the old-fashioned

ideological

moral denunciation of the

critique, the indignant

becomes unavailable.

The one

latter,

distinction

canonical

am

I

form

in

it

finds

its

in

the dialectical \iew

form

{Stttlichkeit)}

Marx's demon-

in

most notably

some more genuinely

dialectical

way

to think historical

development and change.

The

topic of the lesson

is,

of course, the historical

development of capitalism

and the deploy-

itself

ment of a specific bourgeois culture. In a known passage Marx powerfully urges us

well-

do

to

the impossible, namely, to think this development

and negatively

is

proposed above; does

and

to

all at

once; to achieve, in

if

we can

there not something ultimately paralyzing

so,

of

de\elopmeni

historical

not tend to demobilize us

it

surrender us to passi\ity and helplessness by

systematically obliterating possibilities of action

under the impenetrable fog of historical ity.'

It

is

inevitabil-

appropriate to discuss these two (related)

some

issues in terms of current possibilities for effective

contemporary cultural

and

politics

for

the construction of a genuine political culture.

To

focus the problem in this w ay

immediately to fate

is,

more genuine

raise the

of course,

issue of the

of culture generally, and of the function of

culture specifically, as one social level or instance,

postmodern

era.

Everything

postmodernism

differentiation

pages of the Manifesto which teach

the hard lesson of

positively

hootl" of postmoilern culture.' .And, even

do

Hegel's

stration of the materialist dialectic, in those classic

some "moment of more evident "moments of false-

in fact identity

truth" within the

in the

and practices

definitive

we

immeiliaie ques-

i\\(j

conclude these reflec-

will

discussion suggests that what

from that w hole very different realm of

collective social values

But

tions. (!an

suggests

itlnrt

which we

proposing here knows

of the thinking of individual morality or moralizing (Aloralitat)

.III

tions, with

postmodernist space, so deeply suf-

fused and infected by

other,

.Such

.ul-

isual

n

able

is

previous calling

inseparable from, and unthink-

w ithout the hypothesis

some fundamental

of,

mutation of the sphere of culture late capitalism,

in the

we have been

w hich includes

fication of its social function.

in the

world of

momentous modi-

a

Older discussions of

the space, function, or sphere of culture (mostly

notably Herbert Marcuse's classic essay

"The Af-

firmative Character of Culture") have insisted on

what

language would

a different

onomy" of the

cultural realm:

pian, existence, for

good or

call

its

ill,

the "semiaut-

ghostly, yet

Uto-

above the practical

world of the existent, whose mirror image

it

throws

back in forms w hich vary from the legitimations of flattering

resemblance to the contestatory indict-

ments of critical

satire or

What we must now

other words, a type of thinking that would be

Utopian pain.

ask ourselves

is

w hether

it is

capable of grasping the demonstrably baleful fea-

not precisely this semiautonomy of the cultural

tures of capitalism along with

sphere which has been destroyed by the logic of

extraordinary

its

and liberating dynamism simultaneously within single thought,

a

and w ithout attenuating any of the

force of either judgment.

We

our minds to a point

which

at

understand that capitalism

is

are

at

somehow is

it

to

lift

possible to

one and the same

late capitalism.

longer

Yet to argue that culture

endowed with

enjoyed

one

as

moments of societies)

is

level

capitalism

ance or extinction.

human

on

race,

and the worst. The lapse from

this

more com-

fortable stance of the taking of moral positions in

inveterate and

the subject

all

too

demands

human: that

still,

effort to think the cultural evolution

ism

dialectically, as catastrophe

together.

the urgency of

we make

at least

some

of late capital-

and progress

all

among (let

Qmlc

is

today no

others

in

it

once

earlier

alone in precapitalist its

disappear-

we must go of an autonomous

the contrary;

to affirm that the dissolution

sphere of culture

is

autonomy

not necessarily to imply

time the best thing that has ever happened to the

austere dialectical imperative into the

the relative

rather to be imagined in terms

of an explosion: a prodigious expansion of culture

throughout the

which - from economic

social realm, to the point at

everything in our social

life

value and state power to practices and

to

the

very structure of the psyche itself - can be said to

have become "cultural" in some original and yet

dTT)

Jameson

Fredric

untheorized sense.

proposition

'I'his

however,

is,

been called the postmodernist "sublime"

moment

which

is

only

substantively quite consistent with the previous

the

diagnosis of a society of the image or the simulac-

most

rum and a transformation many pseudoevents.

of consciousness as a coherent new- type of space in

also suggests that

It

of the "real" into so

and time-honored radical conceptions about the

explicit, has

own

its

some of our most cherished

new

selves

lated.

tions

- which range from slogans of negativity,

ity

- may have been, they

resumed

all

shared a single, fun-

spatial, presupposition,

No

a certain figural at

still

work

con-

most

here,

spatial content

Yet the

is still

dramatized and articu-

postmodern

earlier features of the

which were enumerated above can

all

now be

seen

as themselves partial (yet constitutive) aspects of

the

same general

spatial object.

The argument

for a certain authenticity in these

time-honored formula of

otherw ise patently ideological productions depends

theory of cultural politics

on the prior proposition that w hat we have been

in the equally

"critical distance."

which may be

become

the closest to the surface

- even though is

has

notably in the high-tech thematics in which the

may thereby find themoutmoded. However distinct those concep-

damentally

right

this content

moved

cealment or disguise

nature of cultural politics

opposition, and subversion to critique and reflexiv-

in

current on the Left today has been able to do

calling

postmodern

without one notion or another of a certain minimal

merely

a cultural ideology or fantasy

aesthetic distance, of the possibility of the position-

ine historical (and socioeconomic) reality as a third

ing of the cultural act outside the massive Being of

great original expansion of capitalism

from which

What

(or multinational) space

is

not

but has genu-

around the

the

globe (after the earlier expansions of the national

burden of our preceding demonstration suggests,

market and the older imperialist system, which

however,

each had their

capital,

is

to assault this last.

that distance

general (including

in

"critical distance" in particular) has very precisely

ated

new space of postmodernism.

ics).

been abolished

We are

in the

submerged

modern bodies

and suf-

in its henceforth filled

now

fused volumes to the point where our

post-

are bereft of spatial coordinates and

practically (let alone theoretically) incapable of distantiation;

meanwhile,

it

has already been observed

how the prodigious new expansion of multinational ends up penetrating and colonizing those

capital

very

offer a

new

dynam-

distorted and unreflexive attempts of to explore

and

space must then also, in their

be considered as so sentation of (a

many approaches

new ) reahty

to express

own

fashion,

to the repre-

(to use a

more

quated language). As paradoxical as the terms seem, they

may

ive option, be read as peculiar

for critical effectivity.

The

many

is

for this reason

theoretical basis for under-

standing a situation in which

we

all,

in

one way or

(or at least of the

mimesis of

while at the

reality),

as so

attempts to distract and divert us from that

reality or to disguise its contradictions

them As

may

new forms of realism

same time they can equally well be analyzed

but would now^ seem to

anti-

thus, following a classic interpret-

and

left,

most inadequate

The

newer cultural production this

and gener-

extraterritorial

(Nature

shorthand language of co-optation

omnipresent on the

cultural specificity

the

Unconscious) which offered

Archimedean footholds

own

types of space appropriate to their

and

enclaves

precapitalist

new

and resolve

in the guise of various formal mystifications.

for that reality itself,

however - the

untheorized original space of some

as yet

new "world

another, dimly feel that not only punctual and local

system" of multinational or

countercultural forms of cultural resistance and

space whose negative or baleful aspects are only

guerrilla

warfare but also even overtly political

interventions like those of The

some how

secretly

Clash^^^^

are

all

disarmed and reabsorbed by

a

too obvious

- the

late

capitahsm,

a

dialectic requires us to hold

equally to a positive or "progressive" evaluation

of its emergence, as

Marx

did for the world market

system of which they themselves might well be

as the

considered a part, since they can achieve no dis-

did for the older imperialist global network. For

tance from

neither

it.

What we must now this

horizon of national economies, or as Lenin

Marx nor Lenin was

socialism a matter of

precisely

returning to smaller (and thereby less repressive

whole extraordinarily demoralizing and de-

and comprehensive) systems of social organization;

pressing original

"moment of

new

affirm

is

that

global space

it is

which

truth" of postmodernism.

is

the

rather, the

What

has

own

dimensions attained by capital in their

times w ere grasped as the promise, the frame-

work, and the precondition for the achievement of ^"'

An

English punk-based but mainstream rock band,

active in the late 1970s

and earlv 1980s.

some new and more comprehensive socialism. Is this not the case with the yet more global and

I

"The iku uoikl

space

ihc intcrxcntioii ami elaboration of an

ot

ilu-

sNstcin,

internationalism of a radicalls new type? I'he

ilis-

astrous realiiinment of socialist re\oliition with the

older nationalisms (not onl)

whose

Southeast Asia),

in

results ha\e necessaril\ aroused

ious recent

left

much

reflection, can be aiiduced in

ser-

sup-

Ihit

if

new

with a

cannot, howexer, return lo aesihetu prac-

tices elaborated anil

on the basis of

historical situations

dilemmas which are no longer

Mean-

ours.

while, the conception of space that has been deN

eloped here suggests that

model

a

own

culture appropriate to our

of

political

situation will neces-

ha\e to raise spatial issues as

saril)

organizing concern.

port of this jiosition.

of a

We

which

totali/inii:

demands

Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"

fundamental

its

will therefore provisionally

I

at least

one possible form

define the aesthetic of this new (and hspothelical)

radical cultural politics

becomes e\ident,

cultural

all

this

is

then

so,

final aesthetic

proviso that must quickly be

ping.

.

An

noted. Left cultural producers and theorists - par-

.

form

as

an aesthetic of cogniti\e maj)-

.

aesthetic of cognitixe

mapping

peda-

a

endow

ticularly those

formed by bourgeois cultural trad-

gogical political culture

issuing

from romanticism and valorizing

some new heightened sense of its place in the global system w ill necessarily have to respect this now enormously complex rep-

itions

spontaneous, instinctive, or unconscious forms of "genius,"

but also

obvious historical

very

for

resentational

sequences of political and party interventions

forms

arts -

have often by reaction allowed themselves to

be unduly intimidated by the repudiation,

most notably

geois aesthetics and

in

bour-

high modern-

in

ism, of one of the age-old functions of art - the

The

pedagogical and the didactic.

teaching func-

to

in

and invent radically new

dialectic

order to do

This

justice.

it

not then,

is

some older kind of machinery, some older and more transparent national space, or some more traditional and reassur-

clearly, a call for a return to

ing

or

perspectival

political art (if

it

is

mimetic enclave: possible at

the

will

all)

tion of art was, however, always stressed in classical

hold to the truth of postmodernism, that

times (even though

to

it

there mainly took the form of

moral lessons), while the prodigious and perfectly understood

new and the

work of Brecht

still

im-

reaffirms, in a

formally innovative and original way, for

moment

of modernism proper,

a

complex new

conception of the relationship between culture and

pedagogy. larly

The

cultural

model

I

will

propose simi-

foregrounds the cognitive and pedagogical

dimensions of political

art

stressed in very different

w ays by both Lukacs and

Brecht'^' (for the distinct

modernism,

and culture, dimensions

moments of

realism and

its

is

to say,

fundamental object - the world space of

multinational capital it

new

have to

-

same time

the

at

achieves a breakthrough to

some

as yet

at

which

unimagin-

new mode of representing this last, in which we may again begin to grasp our positioning as

able

individual and collective subjects and regain a cap-

and struggle which

acity to act tralized

by

confusion. if

our

The

there ever

is

spatial

political

any,

as

is

at

well

present neu-

as

our

social

form of postmodernism,

w ill have

as its vocation the

invention and projection of a global cognitive

map-

ping, on a social as well as a spatial scale.

respectively).

The USSR's

the

individual subject w ith

reasons such as Zhdanovism^" and the sorry conin the

which seeks

policy of strict control of the arts

following \\ orld \\ ar

II,

named

after its executor,

.\.

A.

Zhdanov. ^'

Gyorgy Lukacs

who authored an

( 1

885-1 97 1 ), Hungarian philosopher

idealist reinterpretation

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), radical

who employed

of Marxism, and

German

playwright,

"distancing-effects" to prevent suspension

of disbelief.

Author's Notes Robert \ enturi and Denise Scott-Brown, Learning

The

originality of Charles Jencks's pathbreaking

guage ofPost-Modern Architecture {\9~1) lay

nigh dialectical combination of postmodern architecture and

from Las Vegas (Cambridge, Mass., 1972).

Lan-

in its well-

a

certain

kind of semiotics, each being

appealed to to justify the existence of the other. Semiotics

becomes appropriate

as a

mode

of analysis of the

Fredric

Jameson

newer architecture by virtue

of the latter's

which does emit signs and messages ing pubhc," unhke the

popuhsm,

to a spatial

monumentahty of

the high

modern. Meanwhile, the newer architecture thereby validated, insofar as analysis

and thus proves

to

it is

Heinrich Klotz, History of Postmodern Architecture

(Cambridge, Mass.,

"read-

is itself

After 3

accessible to semiotic

be an essentially aesthetic

the high modern).

1

lere, then, aesthetics reinforces

observed

in the

Besides Jencks's

more

will

4

concluding chapter), and vice versa.

many

valuable contributions, see also

Pier

Paolo Portoghesi,

(New York,

1982).

Mandel, Late Capitalism (London,

1978),

See, particularly on such motifs in

Le Corbusier, Gert

Kahler, Architektur als Symholverfa/l: Das Dampfermo-

an

be

Ernest

1988);

Architecture

p. 118.

object (rather than the transaesthetic constructions of

ideology of communication (about which

Modern

tiv in

5

See

der Baukunst (Brunswick, 1981).

my

"Morality and Ethical Substance," in The

Ideologies

of Theory^

vol.

I

(Minneapolis, 1988).

"An Alternative Way Out of the Philosophy of the Subject: Communicative versus Subject-Centered Reason" Habermas

Jiirgen

Former assistant toTheodor Adorno and

heir to

the Frankfurt School legacy, philosopher, Jurgen

Habermas (1929tion to the

)

made a mammoth

contribu-

debate over modernity with his two-

volume Theory of Communicative Action (German original, 1981; English, 1984 and 1987), based largely on his notion of "communicative reason." Weber, Adorno, and Horkheimer had neglected the communicative essence of rationality in

The

aporias' of the theory of

traces

behind

logical historiography,

tled methodological

in

titled a

lecture, "Modernity"

modernity

is

based og thP two

nsights that: (a) rational ty

is

inherently linguis-

ref ormulation of i

1980

i

ti c

and discursive, hence social; and (b) discours e

re quires that interlocutors it

assume thej ossibilspeech This means

y of sincere, truth-governed

that participants

in

.

discourse cannot regard

all

of discourse

as merely a matter of power and

self-interest.

Consequently, Habermas rejects

times. Unset-

em-

in

illuminating critique of the entanglement of the

human

sciences in the philosophy of the subject:

These scienc es

led to the "Dialectic of Enlightenment." For Haber-

not misguided, but "an Unfinished Project." His

modern

Foucault did indeed provide an

deficits.

trv to esc -^pf^

frnm the

.ipf^fptir

by

self-themari/ation

tangles of contradictory

is

of genea-

problems are reflected

favor of the purely instrumental rationality that

mas, as he

leave their

whether of modern penal

procedure or of sexuality

pirical

power

in the selective readings

t

hey become

all

However, Foucault

self-reifications of scientism.

did not think through the aporias of his

proach w ell enough to see

was overtaken by

how

own

his theory of

a fate similar to that

of the

ap-

pow er

human

sciences rooted in the philosophy of the subject.

His theory to a

gets

tries to rise

above those pseudo-sciences

more rigorous objectivity, and in doing so it caught all the more hopelessly in the trap of a

the pessimism of Adorno and Horkheimer, ' as

presentist historiography,

wel as the postmodern denial of the transcen d-

pelled to a relativist self-denial and can give

ence

account of the normative foundations of

l

of

norms: there remains, he claims, "a of uncondltionality," of tr uth and free -

moment in human

do m

th e late In

relations, aesplte the inroads of

modern "system"

of

money and power

the

on a

"subjectivist,"

rationality.

dependence of postmodern critics

traditional

both modern thought and

its

non-social

conception

Apona

is

a

which sees

itself

its

Greek term meanina; an undecidable

comno

own issue.

.

the following selection from 1985, Haber-

mas laments

a

know itself, hi ir i" rising gn the more deeply ensnared in the

subject seeking to

of

Jurgen Habermas, "An Alternative Way out of the Philosophy of the Subject: Communicative versus Subject-Centered

Reason."

pp.

294-326 from The

Philosophical Discourse of Modernity {trans. Frederick

Lawrence). Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1987.

Jurgen Habermas rhetoric.

To

part of the

the palpable

agreement. At these places,

sciences there corresponds a

of self-forgetfulness on

subjectivism

Foucault's

Presentism, relativism, and cryptonormati-

part.

vism are the consequences of his attempt preserve the transcendental

moment proper

to

while driving from

it

to

gen-

a

good idea

fact

to return

this

once

The

remain caught up

likewise

They do not

gave

in

From

a threefold analysis

the

see that

by Kant already drew up

a

basic conceptual aporias of the

of the compulsion to an

shown

that has

itself to

Heidegger and Derrida the

he declares

briefly,

inasmuch

"man"

to

by way of temporalized originary powers,

Things^ were already analyzed

by

Schiller, Fichte,

To

be

sure, the solutions they offer are quite different.

But a

if,

now, the theory of power also

w ay out of this problematic

fails to

situation,

it

provide

behooves

us to retrace the path of the philosophical discourse

of modernity back to

its

starting point

-

in order to

examine once again the directions once suggested the chief crossroads. This these lectures.

You

is

at

the intention behind

will recall that

I

marked the

for the

order of things that the metaphysically isolated

lost

to

Schelling," and Hegel in a similar fashion.

of

put

be nonexistent. But

and structurally overburdened subject

Order of

77?^

as,

unlike them, he no longer attempts to compensate,

philosophy of consciousness, so acutely diagnosed of

power

follows

in the abstract negation

subject,

self-referential

He

be a dead end.

by Foucault

in the final chapter

of

intention

the point where he

subject, Foucault veered off into a theory of

counterreckoning for subjectivity as the principle of modernity.^

paradigm-

time in

accompanied the philosophical discourse of initiated

this

aporetic doubling on the part of the self-referential

the philosophical counterdiscourse which, from the start,

Hegel and Marx did not achieve

sciences

that the successors of

Nietzsche stubbornly ignore.

modernity

ing betw een subjects capable of speech and action.

Ursprungsphilosophie"'

human

through the critique of reason, but awareness of a

to

be replaced by the paradigm of mutual understand-

physics of subjectivity, Heidegger and Derrida

free the genealogist

again to the unmasking of the

full

have already suggested

every trace of subjectivity.

from contradictory self-thematizations.

would be

I

paradigm of the knowledge of objects has

change; in their attempt to leave behind the meta-

This concept of power does not

it

that the

of action oriented to mutual

power

erative performances in the basic concept of

Hence

medium

the objectivism of self-mastery on the

human

renew from

own

its

tries in

vain

forces. In the end, the tran-

scendental-historicist "power," the single constant in the

ups and downs of overw helming and over-

whelmed

discourses, proves to be only an equiva-

lent for the "life" of the

hoary Lebensphilosophie .'"

A

more viable solution suggests itself if we drop the somewhat sentimental presupposition of metaphysical homelessness, and if we understand the fro

between transcendental and em-

modes of

dealing with issues, betw een rad-

hectic to pirical

and

self-reflection

ical

and

an

incomprehensible

where the young Hegel, the young Marx,

element that cannot be reflectively retrieved, be-

and even the Heidegger of Being and Time and

tween the productivity of a self-generating species

Derrida in his discussion with Husserl stood before

and

alternative paths they did not choose.

that

places

With Hegel and Marx,

it

would have been

a

matter of not swallowing the intuition concerning the ethical totality back into the horizon of the selfreference of the explicating

it

knowing and acting

in

subject, but of

accord w ith the model of uncon-

strained consensus formation in a

element prior to

all

production -

when we understand the puzzle of all these doublings for what it is: a symptom of exhaustion. The paradigm of the philosophy of consciousness is exhausted. If this is so, the symptoms of is

to say,

exhaustion should dissolve with the transition to the paradigm of mutual understanding. If we

communication

community standing under cooperative constraints. With Heidegger and Derrida it would have been a

a primordial

can presuppose for a

moment

the

model of

action oriented to reaching understanding that I have

developed elsewhere,^ the objectifying attitude in

matter of ascribing the meaning-creating horizons Philosophy of origins.

of world interpretation not to a Dasein heroically projecting itself or to a background occurrence that

shapes structures, but rather to communicatively

"

though he did not invent the term, German philosopher of the

structured lifewords that reproduce themselves via

Also Philosophie des Lehens, philosophy of Life. Al-

human

sciences

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) most

prominently employed

it

living, historical, cultural

Three German ler

idealist philosophers:

Friedrich Schil-

(1759-1805), Johann Fichte and Friedrich Schelling

(1775-1854).

later applied to

to mean a philosophy of the human subject. The term was

very diverse philosophical movements,

including Bergson's ''process" philosophy and Husserl's

phenomenology.

'An Alternative

which

knouiiiii suhiLCl rcuMicIs iisill as

Ik-

I

the cvuriial woikl

ciililics in

lo the

I'liiulaiiK'nial

standing

is

no

ii

woiilil

loiiiiii |m i\

ikmcl.

imilual uiulcr-

ot

paracliiiiii

rather, the pcrt(»niiati\c attitiulc of par-

is,

who

ticipants in interaction,

coordinate their plans

tor action b\

coniinu, to an understandinii; about

something

the workl.

in

speech act and lo

it,

When up

alter takes

ego carries out

a

with regard

a position

the two parties enter into an interpersonal

relationship. I'he latter

is

structured by the system

of reciprocally interlocked perspectives among spea-

and non-participants who happen

kers, hearers,

be present

at

corresponds

the time. to the

Whoever has been how,

in the

On

the level of

system

grammar,

of personal

to

this

pronouns.

trained in this system has learned

performative attitude, to take up and to

transform into one another the perspectives of the first,

second, and third persons.

Now

this attitude

of participants in linguistically

lioni the pcispccliNc ol those pariKipaiing in dis-

courses and interactions, and

a different re-

toward

that

an

assumes

observer

The transcen-

entities in the external world.

dental-empirical doubling of the relation to self

only unavoidable so long as there this observer perspective; only ject

part

have to view the

to

as

then does the sub-

whole or

a

No

is

alternative to

the dominating counter-

itself as

world

appearing within

no

is

mediation

as

an entity

realm of the intelligible beyond that but is

As soon

I.

as linguistically generated intersubjectivity

and the empirical

shown

is

no longer applicable. As can be

connection with Jean Piaget's genetic

in

structuralism, reconstructive and empirical assumptions can be brought together in

theory.

and-forth between two aspects of self-themaiization that are as inevitable as they are incompatible

ories any

more

himself as a partici-

we do

to close the

gap between the tran-

The same

holds true for the doubling of the

dimension of making the

relation to self in the

unconscious conscious. Here, according to Foucault, the

thought of subject philosophy

oscillates

back and forth between heroic exertions bent on reflectively transforming is

for-itself,

what

is

in-itself into

ground that stubbornly escapes the transparency of

we make

the transition to the

understanding,

these

patible. Insofar as speakers a

and hearers straightfor-

mutual understanding about

in the world, they

zon of their

common

move w ithin

the hori-

lifeworld; this remains in the

background of the participants -

known, unproblematic, and unanalyzable,

objectification inevitable

from the

reflexively ap-

two

aspects of self-thematization are no longer incom-

pant in an interaction from the perspective of alter.

perspective of the participant escapes the kind of

what

and the recognition of an opaque back-

And

indeed this reflection undertaken from the

is

not need hybrid the-

scendental and the empirical.

something

to relate to

one and the same

In this way, the spell of an unresoK ed back-

Then ego

him

a

generated utterances, the

in correctly

wardly achieve

stands within an interpersonal relation-

at

appearances,

ontological separation between the transcendental

gains primacy, this alternative no longer applies.

ship that allows

of

the actually exercised rule-knowledge that

at

deposited

paradigm of mutual

and the intramundane stance of the empirical

analvzing

reconstructive attempts are no longer aimed

self-consciousness. If

tal I

of

and knowing subjects. Hecause such

ing, acting,

tween the extramundane stance of the transcenden-

is

mc.ms

grasp ol rules on the part ol competently speak-

cal

possible be-

it.

l)\

successlul or distorted utterances, the pretheoreti-

lationship of the subject to itself from the sort of attitude

of the Philosophy of the Subject"

broken. Consequently,

mediated interaction makes possible

objectifying

Way Out

background. a

The speech

situation

as an intuitively

is

lifeworkr tailored to the relevant theme;

and furnishes

holistic

the segment of it

both

plied perspective of the observer. Everything gets

forms

frozen into an object under the gaze of the third

cess of mutual understanding.

person, whether directed inwardly or outwardly.

a

The

things taken for granted in the given culture from

first

person,

who

a performative attitude

turns back

upon himself

the second person, can recapitulate the acts carried

In

out.

knowledge

-

place

the

consciousness -

in

from the angle of vision of just

it

of reflectively objectified

knowledge

we have

proper

to

a recapitulating

a context

horizon and

at

the

resources for the pro-

The

same time

lifeworld forms

offers a store of

which communicative participants draw consensual interpretative patterns in their efforts at inter-

pretation.

The

solidarities

of groups integrated

self-

by values and the competences of socialized indi-

recon-

viduals belong, as do culturally ingrained back-

ground assumptions,

struction of knowledge already employed.

What earlier was relegated to transcendental phil-

to

the

components of the

lifeworld.

osophy, namely the intuitive analysis of self-consciousness,

now

gets

adapted

to

reconstructive sciences that try to

the

make

circle

of

explicit.

^

HusserPs notion of the pre-theoretical world of experi-

ence.

Jijrgen

Habermas make

In order to be able to

these kinds of state-

ments, we naturally have to undertake a change perspective:

in

We

can

only

From

insight

get

into

objective illusions, tion.

But

illusions: It

is

course of

life in

perspective of acting subjects oriented to mutual

collective

way of Hfe.

understanding, the lifeworld that

always only

is

''co-given" has to evade thematization. that

makes possible the

As

a totality

and biographical

identities

projects of groups and individuals,

it is

present only

Indeed, the practically employed

prereflectively.

to an experience of reflecis

directed toward single

cannot make transparent the

the straightforward

the lifeworld a tergo.^^

due

liberating force

its

The two

heritages of self-reflection

beyond the

that

and scopes. Rational

subscribes

construction

heightening consciousness, but

is

anonymous totalities.

In contrast, methodically carried out

but not the ever-receding context and the always-

critique

related to totalities,

in-the-background resources of the lifeworld as a

ness that

to

We need a theoretically constituted perspective

be able to treat communicative action as the

medium through which

the lifeworld as a whole

of

directed toward

reconstructed from the perspective of participants,

rule systems

re-

program

the

to

rule-knowledge sedimented in utterances can be

whole.

get

limits of the philosophy of conscious-

ness, have different aims

is

of a

totality

the process of individuation or of a

and does not refer to

and yet

self-

aware-

in the

can never completely illuminate the

it

implicit, the prepredicative, the not focally present

As can be shown

background of the lifeworld.

is

through the example of psychoanalysis, as inter-

reproduced. Even from this vantage point, only

preted in terms of communication theory,^ the

formal-pragmatic statements are possible, state-

two procedures of reconstruction and of

ments related

critique can

in general,

to the structures of the lifeworld

and not

to

framew ork of one and the same theory. These two

Of course,

aspects of self-thematization on the part of the

interaction participants then

w ho master

no longer appear

as

situations with the help of

accountable actions, but as the products of the traditions in

which they stand, of the solidary

groups to which they belong, and of the socialization processes within

self-

be brought together within the

determinate lifeworlds in

their concrete historical configurations.

originators

still

which they grow up. This

is

knowing subject

are also not irreconcilable; in this

overcome contra-

respect, too, hybrid theories that

dictions by force are superfluous.

Something

similar

holds

true

of the

third

doubling of the subject as an originally creative actor simultaneously alienated from

its

origin. If

to say that the lifeworld reproduces itself to the

the formal-pragmatic concept of the lifeworld

extent that these three functions, which transcend

going to be

the perspectives of the actors, are fulfilled: the

theory,

propagation of cultural traditions, the integration

usable concept and integrated with the concept of a

of groups by norms and values, and the socialization of succeeding generations.

into view in this

manner

But what comes

are the properties of com-

municatively structured lifew orlds

Whoever wants

to

become

in general.

reflectively

aware of

it

made

fruitful for the

is

purposes of social

has to be transformed into an empirically

self-regulating system into a two-level concept of society.

Furthermore,

a careful separation

problems of developmental opmental dynamics and

tion

social

is

logic

between

and those of devel-

necessary so that social evolu-

history

can

be

methodically

the individual totality of any individual biography or

discriminated from each other and related to each

of a particular w ay of life has to recur to the perspec-

other. Finally, social theory has to remain aware of

tive

of the participants, give up the intention of

rational reconstruction,

and simply proceed histor-

Narrative tools can,

ically.

if

necessary, be stylized

into a dialogically conducted self-critique, for

which

the context of its in the

own emergence and

of its position

contemporary context; even basic concepts

that are starkly universalist have a temporal core.

If,

w ith the

in

aid of these operations,

one succeeds

the analytic conversation between doctor and pa-

steering betw een the Scylla of absolutism and the

model. This self-critique,

Charybdis of relativism,' we are no longer faced

eliminating pseudo-nature, that

with the alternatives of the conception of world

made up of unconsciously

history as a process of self-generation (whether of

tient offers a suitable

which is,

is

aimed

at

the pseudo-aprioris

motivated perceptual barriers and compulsions to

the spirit or of the species), on the one hand, and, on

related to the narratively recollected entir-

the other hand, the conception of an impenetrable

action,

is

ety of a course of

life

or

way of

life.

The

analytic

dissolution of hypostatizations, of self-engendered

dispensation that makes the power of lost origins

I ^'

A

tergo

means

''from the rear."

felt

through the negativity of w ithdraw al and deprival. cannot go into these complicated interconnec-

tions here.

I

only wanted to suggest

how

a para-

"An Alternative Way Out tligni-chaiigc can rtiultT ohittlkss ihosc ilikinmas

aries in w

out of which Foucauli explains the perilous ilynain-

up

beni on know ledge aiul

ics of" a subjectivity that is falls

prey to pseudo-sciences. The change ol para-

digm

from

subject-centered

coninuinicatixe

to

Ik

I

Im

h

of the Philosophy of the

he iranscciuling iliscourse ihai ailds

I

can operate

bill

critique of reason

far-reaching

hohme

This further radicalized

would ha\e

to postulate a

and cnmprehemnr reason.

brothers do not

reason also encourages us to resume once again

cIcmI b\

the counterdiscourse that accompanied modernity

see in the transition

from the beginning. Since Niet/sche's

the

radical cri-

Subject"

more

Hut

the

intend lo cast out

the

lieel/ebub; instead, with Foucault, the\

Kantian

from an e\chisi\e reason

mold)

to

(in

comprehensiNe reason

a

tique of reason cannot be consistently carried out

merel) "the completion of the power-technique of

along the lines of a critique of metaphysics or of a

exclusion by the power-technique of permeation."

theory of power,

we

are directed toward a different

way out of the philosophy of the

subject. Perhaps

If

own

they were lo be consistent, their

lion of the other of reason

would have

in\estiga-

occupy

to

a

the grounds for the self-critique of a modernitN in

position utterl\ heterogeneous to reason

collapse can be considered under other premises

does consistency count tor

such that wc can do justice to the motives, virulent

inaccessible to rational discourse."* In this text, the

since Nietzsche, for a precipitous leavetaking of

paradoxes repeatedly played out since Nietzsche

modernity.

must be made

It

of pure reason

is

clear that the

not resurrected again in

purism

communi-

in a place that is a priori

behind no recognizable traces of unrest.

leave

This methodological enmity toward reason may have something to do with the type of historical

cative reason.

innocence with which studies of

During the

last

decade, the radical critique of reason

A

has become fashionable.

Gemot Bbhme, who rise

take

study by Hartmut and

up Foucault's idea of the

of the modern form of knowledge in connection

with the work and biography of Kant, in

theme and execution. In the

style

is

exemplary

move

social

history, the authors take a look, so to speak, at

in the

and

Reason suppresses

The

latter

osophy

as

discourse set out from Kantian phil-

an unconscious expression of the modern

age and pursued the goal of enlightening the En-

lightenment about

w hom Kant

is

supposed

to

have recognized

They

his dark twin, his repressed counterimage.

pursue these motives into the sphere of the personal, into the, as

were, abstract conduct (turned away

it

from everything sexual, bodily, and imaginative) of a scholarly life ness,

marked by hypochondria,

crotcheti-

and immobility. The authors marshal before

our eyes the "costs of reason" in terms of psycho-

They undertake

am

I

trying to recall in these lectures.

The New

Sweden-

of

coun-

terdiscourse inherent in modernity itself which

pure and of practical reason. For example, they

the debate with the spiritual clairvoyant,

The New Oitique

fiction.

that almost 2{)0-year-old

what goes on behind the back of the critique of seek the real motives for the critique of reason in

today

this kind

no-man's-land between argumenta-

tion, narration,

of a historiog-

raphy of science expanded by cultural and

borg, in

but what

own narrow-mindedness.

its

Critique of Reason denies the continuity

with this counterdiscourse, w ithin which theless

still

stands:

"No

longer can

it

be

a

it

never-

matter of

completing the project of modernity (Habermas); it

has to be a matter of revising

it.

the En-

.\lso,

lightenment has not remained incomplete, but un-

The

enlightened."'"

intention

Enlightenment w ith the very

enment

is,

from the the

of revising

however, what united the

start

-

Schiller

the

tools of the Enlightcritics

of Kant

w ith Schlegel, Fichte with

Tubingen seminarians. Further on we

read:

account-

"Kant's philosophy was initiated as the enterprise

ing ingenuously with psychoanalytic arguments and

of drawing boundaries. But nothing was said about

document

the fact that drawing boundaries

history.

this cost/benefit

with historical data, though without

it

being able to specify the place

at

ments could claim any weight they are concerned with

Kant had reason's

is

which such argu-

if

indeed the thesis

supposed

to

make

sense.

carried out his critique of reason

own

perspective, that

to say, in the

is

this

made

clear,

we

dynamic

abandoned other

means

areas, that

self-inclusion

drawing boundaries

and exclusion of others." At

we saw how Hegel,

the start of our lectures,

form

along with Schelling and Holderlin, saw

If,

self-confming

reason (which places anything metaphysical off Hmits) are to be

a

from

of a rigorously argued self-limitation of reason.

now, the production costs of

is

process, that reason retreated to firm ground and

require a horizon

of reason reaching beyond this drawing of bound-

many

so

as

provocations the philosophy of reflection's

achievements of delimitation - the opposition of faith

and knowledge, of

infinite

and

finite,

the

separation of spirit and nature, of understanding

and

sensibility,

of duty and inclination.

We

saw

Jurgen Habermas

how

they tracked the estrangement of an overblown

subjective reason from internal and external nature right

the "positivities" of the demolished

into

Stttlichheit^''

Indeed,

of everyday political and private

legel

I

saw the vanishing of the power of

from the

reconciliation

life.

It is

he interpreted the boundaries drawn by sub-

in

is

touch w ith history and nature.

the dichotomized society itself that exacts the

repression of death, the leveling of historical consciousness, and the subjugation of both internal and

external nature.

of mankind as the

life

source of an objective need for philosophy. At any rate,

social practices

Within the context of the philosophy of history,

young Marx has the model of dir-

the praxis philosophy of the

significance of disconnecting Hegel's

ject-centered reason not as exclusions from but as

emption from an

dichotomies w ithin reason, and ascribed to philoso-

incorporated even the other of reason in

phy an access

The

to the totality that encompasses within

subjective reason and

/V^^//

distrust

"Whatever reason

tinue:

clear as long as

its

other

Our authors' when they con-

other.

however, remains un-

is,

is

not thought along with

take itself to be the

itself,

it

For reason can be deceived

(in its irreducibility).

about

its

directed against this,

is

w hole (Hegel), or

pretend to comprehend the totality."

This ians

is

just the objection that the

once made good against the

brought

the other of reason, w hat

supposed right.

The

to

is

which

alw ays prior to

be rehabilitated in

it,

w as

own proper

its

concept of a situated reason issued from

this process

of desublimation;

its

nevertheless

remains tied to

it

reason - in the form of a

insofar as

realizes that

it

relationship to

Whoever

From such

the spirit.

Hegelian theory is

also effective

is still

Horkheimer and Adorno. Their

name of a

totality is

was defined neither by inclusion nor by exclusion,

when

powers that takes place under conditions "not

tices in

w hich reason

is

is

portrayed as prac-

embodied. This praxis takes

place in the dimension of historical time;

it

medi-

ates the inner nature of needful individuals with

horizon of a surrounding cosmic nature. This social practice

the place where a historically situated,

is

bodily incarnated reason, confronted by external nature,

concretely

is

Whether

this

depends on

its

mediated with

mediating

practice

internal constitution,

is

other.

its

successful

on the degrees

of bifurcation and of reconciliation in the socially institutionalized context of Hfe.

What was called

system of egoism and divided ethical Schiller

and Hegel

is

transformed by

the

totality in

Marx

into a

society split into social classes. Just as in Schiller

young Hegel, the

bond -

and

in the

the

community-forming and solidarity-building

social

that

is,

force of unalienated cooperation and living together - ultimately decides whether reason embodied in

Communitv

mores or customs.

came

it

to real reason.

other."

the

is

no compre-

learned from

that reason does

other and that

- functionally

becomes necessary

in virtue

of this

Bohme

brothers

call to

it

^^

W ith mind

its

takes

still

was always disputed

There

One should have

not exist apart from

considered -

critique

which the intention of

Freud or even from Nietzsche

this assertion, the

the place where Nietzsche, having recourse to

Romantic

heritage, once set a totalizing critique

of reason in opposition to an intrinsically dialectical

Enlightenment.

The

dialectic

w ould indeed only have played

of enlightenment itself

out

if

reason

were robbed of any transcendent force and, virtual impotence,

remained confined,

in the

in

mad-

ness of its autonomy, to those boundaries that Kant

had defined

on

based

for understanding

understanding:

and

"That

for

the

any

state

subject

of reason w ants to ow e no one and nothing outside itself

Only

if

is

its

ideal

reason show s

and

its

insanity at once."

itself to

be essentially nar-

- an identifying, only seemingly universal bent upon self-assertion and particular self-

cissistic

pow er,

aggrandizement, subjugating everything around as

^"

it

to

conceded, though

hensive reason.

an

external nature objectified by labor, within the

"where reason

superior reason, namely, the

comprehensive reason,

themselves chosen." Society

perspective,

restricted

a

criticized as instrumental, repressive, narrow: in

nature, to the decentered subjectivity of internal

tial

be closed to

to

evident in Marx,

is

the Hegelian defect attending the birth of post-

nature, and to the material character of society

of projecting and developing essen-

- without

can be had without paying the price of abolutizing

place in the

a praxis

reason - as

fastens obstinately

Hegelian insight, w hich, as

the historicity of time, to the facticity of external

but by

theory -

could not identify the

it

in bourgeois social relations

transcending them.

this

comprehen-

a

critical social

historical limits of subject-centered

embodied

its totality.

understood as

is

upon the model of exclusion has

Young Hegelmaster. They

suit against absolute reason in

a

reason of praxis philosophy

finite;

sive

concept of reason that

inclusive

its

it

an object - can the other of reason be thought for part as a spontaneous, creative

power

that

is

at

"An Alternative Way Out the iirouiui

1)1

Ikinij;, a

power

and unpcrspicuous,

\ital

atecl b\

ihat

thai

is

simuliaiKoush

no longer

is

illuniin-

an\ spark ol reason. OiiIn reason as reikieeii

ami nprtssed

split-olt

sorts

«)l

Philosophy of the Subject"

of ttie

sul))ecli\e nature,

|)lRii(»iuena rediscovered

it

is

the

by Romanticism

dreams, fantasies, madness, orgiastic excitement, the aesthetic, bod\ -centered experi-

to the subjectiNe taciili> o! unilersiamlinii: aiul |nir-

ecstacN

posivc acti\ity corresponds to the iniage ot an

ences of a decentered subjectivity that function as

i/nsivf reason that further

uproots

more

the

itself

t.vit

sirises triumphally for the heights, until, withered, it

falls

victim to the power of

geneous origin. in

which the

concealed hetero-

its

dynamism

I'he

of self-destruction,

secret of the dialectic of enlightenment

supposedly comes to

can only function

light,

reason cannot produce anything from

itself"

if

except

IS

It

To be

the placeholders for the other of reason. early

Romanticism

the form of a

midst

in the

sure,

wanteil lo establish art, in

still

new nnthologN,

as a public institution

of social life;

wanted

it

to ele\ate the

excitement radiating from this into an equivalent

power of

for the unifying

the

first

Nietzsche was

religion.

excitement

to transfer this potential for

into the

beyond of modern

provide an alternative, namely the unforced force

overall.

The modern origin of aesthetic experience

of a better insight.

heightened

naked power

that

which

to

it

actually hopes to

This move explains, moreover, the drastic

level-

ing of Kant's architectonic of reason that results

from the Nietzsche-inspired reading of Kant;

to obliterate the connection of the critiques of

and

practical reason with the critique of

has

it

pure

judgment,

in

an

a\

ant-garde fashion remains con-

cealed.

The

potential for excitement, stylized into the

other of reason, becomes

external nature and the latter to a theory of domination over internal nature.

enchanting reminiscence,

Whereas the diremptwn model of reason

distin-

guishes solidary social practice as the locus of a

w hich the threads of

historically situated reason in

at

once esoteric and

pseudonymous; it comes up under names - as Being, as the heterogeneous,

The cosmic God of the

so as to reduce the former to a theory of alienated,

and of history

society

different as

power.

nature of the metaphysicians and the

philosophers become blurred into an a

moving remembrance

on the part of the metaphysically and isolated subject.

The

religiously

order from which this subject

has emancipated himself- which

is

to say, internal

form -

outer nature, inner nature, and society converge, in

and external nature

the exclusion model o( reason the space opened up by

appears now only in the past tense, as the archaic

Utopian thought gets completely

origin of metaphysics for Heidegger, as a turning

filled in

with an

irreconcilable reason reduced to bare power. social practice only serves as the stage

disciplinary

haunted by

power a

finds ever

upon w hich

scenarios.

It is

reason denied the power to gain

access, without coercion, to its

new

Here

what

is

prior to

it.

In

in their unalienated

point in the archeology of the

Foucault - and

human

somew hat more

also,

sciences for

fashionably, as

from the body, whose

follows: "Separated

libidin-

ous potencies could have supplied images of happiness,

separated

from

maternal nature, which

a

putative sovereignty, reason that has evaporated

embraced the archaic image of symbiotic wholeness

becomes the plaything of unmedi-

and nurturing protection, separated from the femi-

into subjectivity

ated forces working ally

-

upon

forces of the internal

it,

as

it

were, mechanic-

and external nature that

have been excluded and rendered into objects.

The

other of this self-inflated subjectivity

is

no

primarily in the avenging

reciprocities

and

pow er of destroyed

in the fateful causality

communicative relationships,

of distorted

as well as

through

suffering from the disfigured totality of social

jective reason that

is

socially divided

torn away from nature ated:

"The

is

a

sub-

and thereby

peculiarh de-differenti-

other of reason

is

nature, the

human

body, fantasy, desire, the feelings - or better: this insofar as reason has not

ate it."^^

Thus,

it is

to the primal

all

images generated only

a

a

reason

grandiose

consciousness of the superiority in principle of the intelligible

over nature and over the low liness of the

body and the woman.

.

.

.

Philosophy attributed to

reason an omnipotence, infinity, and future perfection,

whereas

the lost childlike relationship to nature "^

life,

from alienated inner and outer nature. In the model of exclusion, this complicated structure of

which belonged

images of happiness - the philosophy of

robbed of

longer the dirempted totality, which makes itself felt

nine, mingling with

all

been able to appropri-

directly the vital forces of a

did not appear."

Nonetheless, these recollections of origins by the

modern

subject serve as points of reference for

responses to the question that the more consistent

among

Nietzsche's followers did not try to evade.

As long as we speak

in narrative

reason (whatever

might be

this

factor

that

it

is

form of the other of

called),

and

as long as

heterogeneous to discursive

thought comes up in portrayals of the history of

Jurgen Habermas philosophy and science as a name without any

We have seen that this elaboration of the paradox

further quahfications, the pose of innocence cannot

by no means amounts to

make up

underseUing of the critique of

withdraw n into the special status of extraordinary

reason inaugurated by Kant. In Heidegger and

discourse. Just as meditative thought pertains to a

Foucault, subjective nature as the placeholder for

mystified

for this

the other has disappeared, because

it

be declared the other of reason once

can no longer

brought

it is

into scientific discourse as the individual or collective

unconscious in the concepts of Freud or Jung,

its

solution; the paradox

genealogy

Being,

Meditative thought

pertains

supposed

is

power.

to

open up

to

is

a

privileged access to metaphysically buried truth;

genealogy

is

supposed

to take the place of the ap-

human sciences. Whereas Hei-

parently degenerate

of Lacan or Levi-Strauss."" Whether in the form of

degger remains reticent about the kind of privilege

meditative thought or of genealogy, Heidegger and

that

Foucault want to

of his

initiate a special discourse

that

claims to operate outside the horizon of reason with-

To be sure,

out being utterly irrational.

this

merely

Reason

supposed

is

to

be criticizable in

its

ultimate act of self-reflection that surpasses

and indeed an act of reason

for

to

not sure of how the genre

- Foucault has carried out his work unpretentiously to the very last, in the

aw areness of being unable

to

his methodological aporias.

The

spatial

metaphor of inclusive and exclusive

itself,

of reason remains tied to the presuppositions of the

be occupied

by the other of reason. Subjectivity, as the relation-

knowing and acting

is

reason reveals that the supposedly radical critique

which the place of

would have

the genitivus subjectivus^^

so that one

philosophy could be judged in any sense

an

this requires, then,

it;

-

his-

forms from the perspective of the other that

has been excluded from

his late

dodge

shifts the paradox.

torical

is

philosophy of the subject from which free itself

Only

a reason to

"power of the keys" could

it

wanted

which we ascribe

to a

either include or ex-

repre-

clude. Hence, inside and outside are linked with

sented in the bipolar relationship of self-reflection.

domination and subjugation; and the overcoming of

to-self of the

This figure

retained,

is

subject,

is

and yet subjectivity

is

sup-

posed to appear only in the place reserved for the object.

dox

Heidegger and Foucault elaborate

in a structurally similar

generate what

is

this para-

w ay, inasmuch

into an indeterminate freedom.

reason remains the mirror image of reason in

power. Surrender and letting-be remain as chained

power does to the oppression of power. Those who would like to leave all paradigms behind along with

same time conceals

the paradigm of the philosophy of consciousness,

on and

it

is

the

at

it

ascribes attributes to

borrows from the shattered religious

and go forth into the clearing of postmodernity, just not

cepts of subject-centered reason and

is

sively illustrated topography.

reason and

as its

still

factor, results

related to

from

it

heterogeneous

a radical fmitizing of the abso-

which subjectivity had

As we have

heterogeneous to

falsely substituted

seen, Heidegger chooses time as

will

be able to free themselves from the con-

the other they seek, which

itself

release

Thus, the other of

and metaphysical concepts of order. Conversely,

lute for

breaking

understood as an

This operation

itself In the process,

itself that

with

reversal of the self-idolizing that sub-

jectivity carries

from

linked

to the desire for control as the rebellion of counter-

territory.

unmasking

from

is

its

self-exiling of reason, a banishing of reason

own

as they

heterogeneous to reason by way of a

reason-as-powerholder

open the prison gates and vouchsafing

its

impres-

Since early Romanticism, limit experiences of an aesthetic

and mystical kind have always been

claimed for the purpose of a rapturous transcendence of the subject.

The

mystic

and closes

is

blinded by the

the dimension of fmitizing and conceives the other

light of the absolute

of reason as an anonymous, primordial power, set

ecstasy finds expression in the stunning and dizzy-

aflow temporally; Foucault chooses the dimension

ing effects of (the illuminating) shock. In both

of spatial centering in the experience of one's

body and conceives the other of reason

onymous source of

the

own

as the an-

empowerment of

inter-

actions tied to the bodv.

his eyes; aesthetic

cases, the source of the experience of being

up evades any

shaken

specification. In this indeterminacy,

we can make out only the silhouette of the paradigm under attack - the outline of what has been deconstructed. In this constellation, which persists

from Nietzsche "'"'

Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist, modified

arises

a

to

Heidegger and Foucault, there

readiness

for

proper object; in

'"

which simultaneously

Generating subject.

its

excitement

without any

wake, subcultures are formed

Freud's theory.

allay

and keep

alive their

Way Out

'An Alternative

excitement

the taee ot ruture truths (ol which

111

of the Philosopfiy of the Subject'

Once

tcrminacs

the defenses ot sub)ecl-ceniered

they have been iiotitkil in an iinspecifiecl wax) h\

reason are ra/ed, the logos, which for so long had

means

hekl together an interiorilN

of

cuhic actions without an) cuhic object.

scurrilous jjame with rehgiousl\ and aesthet-

'I'his

ically

toned ecstasy finds an audience especially

who

circles of intellectuals

their samf'uiuni

needs

are prepared to

inlt'/lt'itus^

on the

altar of

in

make

Hut here, too,

when

is

it

neiiated in a lU-lcrmtnatc

diljcn-nt paradijrm, that

when

is,

force

manner by is

it

its

devalued

a

in

power,

itself.

has to be ileli\ered o\cr to

It

other,

its

w hat ever that may be.

A

different, less dramatic, but step-b\-step test-

Western emphasis on logos

able critique of the

paradiijm only loses

a

into

their

of Orientation.

protected h\

hollow within and aggressne without, will collapse

from an attack on the abstractions surround-

starts

ing logos

and

as

itself,

as free of language, as universalis!,

disembodied.

It

conceives of intersubjective

certainly resistant to any

understanding as the telos inscribed into communi-

simple invocation of the extinction of the subject.

cation in ordinary language, and of the logocentr-

Even the furious

ism

an

insit^htfu/

way;

it

is

labor of deconstruction has iden-

Western

of

heightened

thought,

by

the

consequences only when the paradigm of

philosophy of consciousness, as a systematic fore-

self-consciousness, of the relation-to-self of a sub-

shortening and distortion of a potential always al-

know ing and acting in isolation, is replaced by a different one - by the paradigm of mutual under-

everyday

tifiable

ject

standing, that

is,

of the intersubjective relationship

ready operative in the communicative practice of life,

but only selectively exploited.

Occidental

as

views

self-understanding

.\s

long

human

between individuals who are socialized through

beings as distinguished in their relationship to the

communication and reciprocally recognize one an-

world by their monopoly on encountering

other.

Only then does the

critique of the domineer-

ing thought of subject-centered reason emerge in a determinate form

- namely,

"logocentrism,"

which

as a critique

diagnosed

is

of Western

an

not as

excess but as a deficit of rationality. Instead of

overtrumping modernity,

it

up again the

takes

counterdiscourse inherent in modernity and leads it

away from the

battle lines

Nietzsche, from which there

between Hegel and is

no

exit.

This

cri-

tique renounces the high-flown originality of a

return to archaic origins; sive

force of

it

unleashes the subver-

modern thought

the

itself against

paradigm of the philosophy of consciousness that was

from Descartes

installed in the period

The

critique of the

to Kant.

Western emphasis on

logos'"

inspired by Nietzsche proceeds in a destructive

manner.

It

it

draws from

or in terms of linguistic analysis to only one of

The

dimensions. to the ally,

a

world

is

is

reduced to the world of entities as

(as the totality

of objects that can be repre-

sented and of existing states of logically,

its

human being

cognitivistically reduced: Ontologic-

the world

whole

relationship of the

to the capacity to

know

epistemo-

affairs);

our relationship to that world

is

reduced

existing states of affairs or to

bring them about in a purposive-rational fashion; it is reduced to fact-stating discourse which assertoric sentences are used - and no

semantically, in

validity

truth,

claim

which

is

is

admitted besides propositionai

available inforo interna.

Language philosophy - from Plato

"""

to

Popper -

this the conclusion that the

ation that the linguistic function of representing

it

prior,

is

its

in fact

de-

anonymous, and

the dispensation of Being,

the accident of structure-formation, or the generative

reason

has concentrated this logocentrism into the affirm-

pendent upon something

- be

plans,

remains confined ontologically, epistemologically,

own

not master in

is

subject positing itself in knowledge

transsubjective

entities,

making true

objects,

implementing

and

statements,

demonstrates that the embodied, speak-

ing and acting subject

house;

knowing and dealing with

power of some discourse formation. The logos

states

of affairs

is

the sole

human

Whereas human beings share the tive

monopoly."'"

so-called appella-

and expressive functions (Buhler) w ith animals,

only the representative function constitutive of reason.

is

supposed

to

be

However, evidence from w ith

of an omnipotent subject thus appears as a misad-

more recent ethology,

venture of misguided specialization, which

the artificially induced acquisition of language by

rich in consequences as

it

is

is

as

wrongheaded. The

hope awakened by such post-Nietzschean analyses

especially experiments

chimpanzees, teaches us that propositions per

se,

it

is

not the use of

but only the commimicatrce use

has constantly the same quality of expectant inde"" "

Sacrifice of the intellect.

Rational discourse, logic.

Sir Karl Popper, English philosopher. Below, Karl

Buhler (1879-1963) was ^"'

a

German

Before an inner tribunal.

psychologist.

Jurgen Habermas of propositionally differentiated language that

proper to our sociocultural form of

life

and

is

con-

is

fundamental func-

to truth. Correlative to the three

tions of language, each elementary speech act as a

stitutive for the level of a genuinely social repro-

whole can be contested under three different

duction of life. In terms of language philosophy, the

aspects of validity.

equiprimordiality and equal value of the three fun-

ance of a speaker

damental linguistic functions come into view as

of the proposition asserted in

soon as we abandon the analytic level of the judg-

presuppositions of its propositional content), or the

ment or the sentence and expand our speech

acts, precisely to the

analysis to

communicative use of

sentences. Elementary speech acts display a structure in which three

component

component

for taking

act theory, of the

complex

(c)

meant with what

and the expression of one's own sub-

is

meanings - and not

just for the

sions that can be

expanded into

speech

It

acts,

understand

it

lative

and expressive speech

with

validity

Here

I

will

act, that

we

can be accepted as valid.

(b) the ontological

itself.

assertoric sen-

meaning when we know the condi-

(b)

If,

stated).

meaning of expres-

but for any given speech its

under which

tions

is

holds true not only for constative''"

consequences

the concept of rationality

the

is,

validity holds for the entire spectrum of linguistic

com-

presuppositions of the theory of communication,

and

or the truthfulness of

Hence, the internal connection of meaning and

linguistic functions of

meaning,

itself),

the intention expressed by the speaker (that

tences.

jective experiences has far-reaching

for (a) the theory of

presupposed context

the

affairs;

representation, the establishment of interpersonal relationships,

view of the normative

in

context of the utterance (or the legitimacy of the

terms of speech-

clarification, in

truth

(or of the existential

up interper-

ponents that bring the intention of the speaker to

The

speech act

it

agreement of what

sonal relationships; and finally, the linguistic

expression.

hearer can reject the utter-

by either disputing the

for

representing (or mentioning) states of illocutionary

com-

are mutually

propositional

the

bined:

components

rightness of the

The

in toto

however, not

but also regu-

just constative

claims

be connected

acts can

and accepted

or

valid

as

rejected as invalid, the basic, ontological

framework

only point out these consequences to the extent that

of the philosophy of consciousness (which has

they are directly relevant to (d) a nem orientation for

remained normative for

the critique of instrumental reason.

well,

(a)

Truth-condition semantics,""' as

developed from Frege to

it

has been

Dummett and David-

proceeds - as does the Husserlian theory of

son,""'

meaning - from the logocentric assumption

that the

philosophy as

linguistic

with exceptions such as Austin)^""" proves to

be too narrow.

The "world"

to

which subjects can

with their representations or propositions

relate

was hitherto conceived of

as the totality

The

or existing states of affairs.

of objects

objective world

is

truth reference of the assertoric sentence (and the

considered the correlative of all true assertoric sen-

indirect truth reference of intentional sentences

tences.

related to the implementation of plans) offers a

truthfulness are introduced as validity claims analo-

suitable point of departure for the explication of

gous to truth, "worlds" analogous to the world of

the linguistic accomplishment of mutual under-

facts

standing generally. Thus, this theory arrives at

lated interpersonal relationships

the principle that

we know it

a sentence

the conditions under which

understanding tences

we understand

intentional

and

it is

true.

imperative

for

success."

')

The

ternal connection

but

it

it

able subjective experiences

this fix-

validity,

does not reduce this to the validity proper

The

is

for attribut-

we

feel

w hich we

is

atti-

subject-

either disclose or conceal to a public

in the attitude of the first person. act,

w hat

obliged in the

tude of addresses, as well as one for what ive,

for

"objective," which appears to us in the

normative, to which

is

With any speech

the speaker takes up a relation to something in

the objective world, something in a

world, and something in his

The '^'^

and

- a "world" not only

attitude of the third person, but also one for

affirms an in-

between meaning and

have to be postulated for legitimately regu-

sen-

on the fact-mirroring function of language.

Like truth-condition semantics,

normative rightness and subjective

what

pragmatically

expanded theory of meaning overcomes

if

(For

requires a corresponding knowledge of

"conditions

ation

when

But

legacv of logocentrism

own

is still

common

social

subjective world.

noticeable in the

study of the meanings of utterances that are

either true or false. ''^

German logician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925); Dummett and Donald Davidson are contempor-

Michael

ary philosophers of language.

^^' ''^"

J.

L.

Utterances intended to state what

is

true.

Premier Oxford "ordinary language" philosopher

Gohn Longshaw) Austin

(1911-60).

"An Alternative Way Out terminological ditriculix logical

concept

ol

"world"

ot

the oiiio-

txp.iiuliiiii

Heidegirer in particular) of

siews

biased

(elaborateil

a referential

!>>

a

context, a

I'rom

(il)

mstruniental

processes of nuitiial unilersianilinu,

{,m{.\

needs

draw from

behiiul the

expansion.

Participants

consensual pat-

this lijcirorLI not just

terns of interpretation (the background

from which proposiiional contents are

knowledge but also

(ci\),

normati\el> reliable patterns of social relations (the tacitly

presupposed

on which

solidarities

rationalK

illocu-

of the

and

(in the

cognili\e-

moments

that

have been

from the communicative

rendered independent

structures of the lifeworld, that subjecti\ity of relationships of

is,

from the

and relationships of reciprocal recognition.

ing

Subject-centered reason

is

the product nj division

course of which a subordinated

a social

process in the

moment assumes power

the place of the whole, without having the first

instance to the

disposition of speaking and acting subjects to ac-

As long

quire and use fallible knowledge.

inter-

mutual understand-

quired in socialization processes (the background

"Rationality" refers in the

nature

sense of purj)osi\ely rational self-

assertion) are derivative

and usurpation, indeed of

of the speaker's intentions).

in

world.

oxerinflated au-

narcissisticalls

tionary acts arc based) and the competences ac-

(c)

nioti\atcd

expressed

both

perspectise,

this

is

mastery of an object i\aled

society)

tononn

so to speak

in niteraction,

corresponding

a

a

decenlered understanding

lifeworkl. that tornis the uiuiiiestioned context lor

backs of participants

favor of

in

agreement, (omnumicatixe reason

in this w.in

The phcnonicnoloiiical concept

of the Philosophy of the Subject'

to

assimilate the structure of the whole, liorkheimer

and Adorno have,

Foucault, described this

like

as the

process of a self-overburdening and self-reifying

basic concepts of the philosophy of consciousness

subjectivity as a world-historical process. But both

knowledge exclusively

lead us to understand

knowledge of something rationality

is

in

the objective world,

how the

assessed by

as

isolated subject

himself to representational and propos-

orients

Subject-centered reason finds

itional contents.

standards of truth and success that

in

criteria

its

govern the relationships of knowing and purposively acting subjects to the

By

or states of affairs.

world of possible objects

contrast, as soon as

we

sides missed fact that the

had

to

its

deeper irony, w hich consists

in the

communicative potential of reason

first

of modern

life-

be released

in the patterns

worlds before the unfettered imperatives of the

economic and administrative subsystems could react back

on the vulnerable practice of everyday

and could thereby promote the cognitive-in-

life

dimension

strumental

to

domination

suppressed moments of practical reason.

over

the

The com-

conceive of know ledge as communicatively medi-

municative potential of reason has been simultan-

assessed in terms of the capacity

eously developed and distorted in the course of

ated, rationality

is

of responsible participants in interaction to orient

capitalist

themselves in relation to validity claims geared to

The

intersubjective recognition. finds

in the

its criteria

for directly or indirectly ositional

Communicative reason

if

redeeming claims

his opposition

to

prop-

subjective

rightness,

truthfulness, and aesthetic harmony.'^

Thus,

a procedural

worked out

in

pendence of the two processes can only be grasped

argumentative procedures

normative

truth,

modernization.

paradoxical contemporaneity and interde-

the false alternative set

tionality,

that the

concept of rationality can be

terms of the interdependence of

various forms of argumentation, that

is

to say,

is

up by Max Weber, with

between substantive and formal

overcome.

Its

ra-

underlying assumption

is

disenchantment of religious-metaphysical

world views robs rationality, along with the contents of tradition, of

and thereby

strips

it

all

of

substantive connotations its

power

to

have

a struc-

with the help of a pragmatic logic of argumentation.

ture-forming influence on the lifeworld beyond the

This concept

purposive-rational organization of means.

is

which

rationality,

richer

than

that

instrumental dimension, because

of purposive the

to

tailored

is

it

cognitive-

integrates the

posed to

this, I

domains;

cative reason

it

is

an explicitation of the rational pointo

the

This communicative of logos, the

inasmuch

connotations

of

validity

of speech.

basis

rationality recalls older ideas as a

it

brings

along with

noncoercively

consensus-building force of

a

it

unifying,

discourse in w hich

the participants overcome their at

first

subjectively

op-

all

and metaphysical mortgages, communi-

religious

built

.\s

like to insist that, despite its

purely procedural character as disburdened of

moral-practical as well as the aesthetic-expressive

tential

would

is

directly implicated in social life-

processes insofar as acts of mutual understanding take

on the

action.

role of a

The network

mechanism

for coordinating

of communicative actions

nourished by resources of the lifeworld and

is at

is

the

same time the medium by w hich concrete forms of life

are reproduced.

Jurgen Habermas Hence, the theory of communicative action can

process of mediation.

once again subjected to

It is

reconstruct Hegel's concept of the ethical context

the dichotomizing basic concepts of the philosophy

of life (independently of premises of the philosophy

of the subject: History

distinguished from the

jected

is projected and made by who find themselves in turn already proand made in the historical process (Sartre);

destining of Being by reason of its inexorable imma-

society

appears to be an objective network of rela-

of consciousness).

which

causality of fate,

nence.

disenchants the unfathomable

It

is

Unlike the "from-time-immemorial" char-

acter of the

happening of Being or of power, the

pseudo-natural dynamics of impaired communicative life-contexts retains

of

something of the character

destining for which one

a

intersubjective sense, that

is,

tions that

prior mutual understandings (Alfred Schiitz) or

an

subject either finds itself centered in

in the sense of

an

leau-Ponty) or

how-

regarding

ever things stand with individual accountability,

Thought

communicative agents would have

ject

responsibility. It

is

to ascribe to

not by chance that

suicides set loose a type of shock

among

those close

them, which allows even the most hardhearted to

to

is

generated by them, as instrumental orders, in the

in

involuntary product of an entanglement that,

communal

either set, as a normative order, above

is

the heads of subjects with their transcendentally

battle of reciprocal objectifications (Kojeve); the

"at fault" oneself

is

though one can speak of "fault" here only

subjects

body

its

that

as

an

tied to the

is

its

body (Mer-

eccentrically to

related

object

itself,

(Plessner)."^'"

philosophy of the sub-

cannot bridge over these dichotomies but, as

Foucault so acutely diagnosed,

between one and the other

Not even

discover something of the unavoidable communality

leads to a

of such

either

a fate.

is

oscillates helplessly

pole.

the linguistic turn of praxis philosophy

paradigm change. Speaking subjects are

masters or shepherds of their linguistic

make use of language

systems. Either they

in a

In the theory of communicative action, the feed-

way

that

back process by which lifeworld and everyday com-

their

world innovatively, or they are always

municative practice are intertwined takes over the

ready moving around within a horizon of world-

Marx and Western Marxism

mediating role that

had reserved tice,

to social practice. In this social prac-

reason as historically situated, bodily incar-

nated, and confronted by nature was supposed to

be mediated with is

now going

tion, the

its

other. If communicative action

to take over the

same mediating func-

theory of communicative action

is

going to

of meaning,

creative

is

disclosure taken care of for

guage as the

medium

iadis) or as differential

Thanks

to the

event (Heidegger, Derrida).

Cornelius Castoriadis, with his theory of the imaginary institution, can boldly advance praxis phiIn order to give back again to the

losophy.''"'

conceive of rational

them by language itself their backs - lan-

approach of linguistic philosophy,

concept of social practice

task: to

al-

of creative practice (Castor-

praxis philosophy. In fact, both are supposed to

same

disclose

and constantly shifting behind

be suspected of representing just another version of

take care of the

to

its

revolutionary explo-

siveness and normative content, he conceives of

no longer

expressivistically, but poetically-

practice as reason concretized in history, society,

action

body, and language.

demiurgically, as the originless creation of abso-

We

have traced the way praxis philosophy sub-

and then got

stituted labor for self-consciousness

caught in the

The

fetters

of the production paradigm.

praxis philosophy

renewed by phenomenology

and anthropology, which has

at its disposal

the tools

new and unique

lutely

them ing.

patterns,

whereby each of

discloses an incomparable horizon of

The

mean-

guarantee of the rational content of

modernity - or self-consciousness, authentic realization,

and self-determination

self-

in solidarity

-

is

of the Husserlian analysis of the lifeworld, has

represented as an imaginary force creative of lan-

learned from the critique of Marxian productivism.

guage. This, of course, comes uncomfortably close

It

relativizes the status of labor

aporetic attempts to

and

accommodate the

joins in the

to a

Being operating without reason. In the end.

^""

Alexander

externaliza-

tion of subjective spirit, the temporalization, socialization,

and embodiment of situated reason, within

other subject-object relationships.

Inasmuch

as

it

Kojeve

(1902-68),

twentieth-century

French Hegelian philosopher, and three phenomenolo-

makes use of phenomenological-anthropological

gists:

tools of thought, praxis philosophy

Ponty (1908-61), contemporary Helmuth Plessner.

ginality precisely at the point to:

where

renounces oriit

cannot afford

in specifying praxis as a rationally structured

^'^

Alfred

Schutz

(1899-1959),

Maurice Merlau-

Cornelius Castoriadis, contemporary Greek-born

French

political philosopher.

"An Alternative Way Out there

and

fatalistic

Accortlinii; to (.astoriadis,

transcendental

subjectiN

and the generateil, the

whereby

tuted,

it\

)

society

ol

world

\iews.

I'his

(like

split

is

the

generating

and the

institiiting

stream

the

voliin-

"dispensation."

into

as originative otineaning, flows

guistic

between

a rhetorical cliff erence

only

IS

taristic "institution"

insti-

imaginary,

the

mto changing

lin-

creation

ontological

of absolutely new, constantly different and unique of meaning occurs

totalities

like

a

dispensation

of Being; one cannot see how this demiurgic

set-

concerning conditions

entl\

what they can learn from their practical

of

whether

this metahistorical

world views

guistic

Autonomy and heteronomy

is

matter

conceived of as Being, differ-

endowed with connotations of

a

it

is

mystical experi-

ence of salvation, of aesthetic shock, of creaturely pain, or of creative intoxication:

concepts have

language

realizing individuals.

\o

transformation of lin-

power, or imagination, and whether

ance,^^'

ling of the

self-

in

mdepend-

dealings with anything in the world.

posed into the revoluttonar}' project proper to the

autonomous,

world interpreted

in the

the light of this preunderstanding, and

ttng-tn-action of historical truths could be trans-

practice of consciously acting,

of the Philosophy of the Subject"

What

these

all

the peculiar uncoup-

is

horizon-constituting productivity of

from

mundane

common

in

consequences of an

the

practice that

linguistic system.

Any

intra-

wholly prejudiced by the

is

interaction between world-

arc ultimately supposed to be assessed in terms

disclosing language and learning processes in the

of the authenticity of the self-transparency of a

world

society that does not hide

its

neath extrasocietal projections and knows as

explicitly

self-instituting

a

society.

itself

But who

the subject of this knowledge.^ C.astoriadis ac-

is

knowledges no reason

for revolutionizing reified

is

excluded.

In this respect, praxis philosophy had distin-

imaginary origin be-

guished

itself

historicism.

It

sharply from every kind of linguistic

conceived of social production as the

self-generative process of the species, and the trans-

formation of external nature achieved

through

society except the existentialist resolve: "because

labor as an impulse to a learning self-transform-

we

ation of our

will it."

asked if

Thus, he has

who this "we"

to allow himself to be

of the radical willing might be,

indeed the socialized individuals are merely "in-

by the "social imaginary." Castoriadis

stituted"

own

nature.

The world

formed nature, changes

historically

their transformative activity.

phie.''''

innerworldly praxis results

from the concept of language Cas-

borrows from hermeneutics

toriadis

as well as

from

- as do Heidegtheir own ways -

structuralism. Castoriadis proceeds ger, Derrida,

and Foucault,

in

from the notion that an ontological difference

exists

in light

a prcgiven,

in turn as a

w ith By no means does this

function of the learning processes connected

ends where Simmel began: with Lehensphiloso-

This

of ideas,

of which socialized producers interpret

owe

its

world-building effects to a

mechanical dependence of the suprastructure upon the basis, but to two simple facts: ideas

what

is

The world

makes possible determinate

first

terpretations of a nature that

worked upon; but

it

is

of in-

then cooperatively

affected in turn by the

is

between language and the things spoken about,

learning processes set in motion by social labor.

between the constitutive understanding of the

Contrary to linguistic historicism, which hyposta-

world and what

tizes the world-disclosing force

difference

is

means

constituted in the world. This

that language discloses the hori-

zon of meaning w ithin w hich knowing and acting subjects interpret states of affairs, that

is,

encounter

things and people and have experiences in dealing

with them.

guage

is

The

world-disclosing function of lan-

conceived on analogy with the generative

ical

pragmatism and genetic structuralism) relationship that

make intermundane

hand,

and,

deposited

prescinding, naturally, from the sheerly formal

structures.

world view

guistic priori;

it

is

a

latter.

The

fixes interpretative perspectives that are

substantive and variable and that cannot be gone

behind.

This

constitutive

world-understanding

practice possible by

in

on

the

the

other,

means

sic

connection

between

processes

learning

transformation

of world-view

This reciprocal causality goes back

lin-

concrete and historical a

a dialectical

between the world-view structures

of a prior understanding of meaning, on the one

accomplishments of transcendental consciousness,

and supratemporal character of the

of language, histor-

materialism takes into account (as do, later on,

to

an intrini-

meaning and

validity,

which nevertheless does not eliminate the

differ-

ence between the two. Meaning could not exhaust validity.

Heidegger

jumped

to

conclusions

in

changes independently of what subjects experience '''"

'^''

Georg Simmel (1858-1918), German

sociologist.

Derrida's term for the differing-deferring intrinsic to

all signs.

Jurgen Habermas the

identifying

of meaning-horizons

disclosure

with the truth of meaningful utterances;

only

is

it

now from

the other side.

meaning, which

The

potency to create

our day has largely retreated

in

the conditions for the validity of utterances that

into aesthetic precincts, retains the contingency of

change with the horizon of meaning - the changed

genuinely innovative forces.

understanding of meaning has to prove

itself in

experience and in dealing with what can

come up

within

And

horizon.

its

unable to exploit the superiority

paradigm of production

it

it

we have

this respect, because, as

There

possesses in

scending force of universalistic validity claims do

seen, with

its

screens out of the validity

not reestablish an idealism that

Does not

duced only

learned

is

innerworldly practice can only accumulate in the

development of the forces of production. With

this

conceptual strategy, the normative

content of modernity can no longer be grasped;

can

at

most be

tacitly

used to circle about a purpos-

ive rationality that has

grown

into a totality in the

a lifeworld that

via the

supposed

is

medium

to be repro-

of action oriented to

mutual understanding get cut off from life

processes? Naturally, the lifeworld

its

material

materially

is

reproduced by way of the results and consequences of the goal-directed actions with which

its

members

intervene in the world. But these instrumental actions are interlaced with

communicative ones

of an accusatory negative dialectics.

insofar as they represent the execution of plans

This unfortunate consequence may be what

that are linked to the plans of other interaction

e.xercise

moved

Castoriadis to entrust the rational content

of socialism (that to

it

incompatible w ith

is

the naturalistic insights of historical materialism.

truth and efficiency. Accordingly, what

productivist

whether the

serious question:

concepts of communicative action and of the tran-

spectrum of reason every dimension except those of

in

more

a

is

is

yet praxis philosophy

is,

of a form of Ufe that

make autonomy and

is

supposed

self-realization in solidarity

participants by

way of common

definitions of situ-

and processes of mutual understanding.

ations

Along these paths, the solutions

to

problems

in

demiurge creative of meaning, which

the sphere of social labor are also plugged into the

brushes aside the difference between meaning and veri-

medium of action oriented by mutual understanding. The theory of communicative action takes into

A totally different perspec-

account the fact that the symbolic reproduction of

possible) to a

validity

and no longer

relies

fication of its creations. tive results

w hen we

from labor

to

upon the profane

transfer the concept of praxis

communicative

action.

Then we

rec-

the lifeworld and

its

material reproduction are in-

ternally interdependent.

ognize the interdependences between world-dis-

It is

not so simple to counter the suspicion that

and intramundane

with the concept of action oriented to validity

learning proceses along the entire spectrum of val-

claims the idealism of a pure, nonsituated reason

closing systems of language

idity:

Learning processes are no longer channeled

and the dichotomies between the

slips in again,

only into processes of social labor (and ultimately

realms of the transcendental and the empirical are

into cognitive-instrumental dealings with an ob-

given

As soon as we drop the paradigm of production, we can affirm the internal connection

between meaning and

reservoir of

meaning - not

validity for the just for the

meaning of linguistic expressions assertoric

less

which requires taking yes/no pos-

on claims of Tightness and truthfulness no

than reactions to claims of truth and efficiency,

the background

know ledge of the

mitted to an ongoing test across

To

segment of

that play a role in

and intentional sentences. In communi-

cative action, itions

whole

lifew orld

its

is

sub-

entire breadth.

this extent, the concrete a priori of world-dis-

closing language systems

is

exposed - right dow n to

their widely ramifying ontological presuppositions

-

to

an indirect revision in the light of our dealings

with the intramundane.

This does not mean tion

new

There

jectified nature).

life

is

between meaning and

validity

is

to

that

its

linguistic is

by

very nature incarnated in contexts of communi-

and

cative action

in structures

of the lifeworld.

To the extent that the plans and actions of different actors are interconnected in historical time

across

and

space through the use of speech

social

oriented toward mutual agreement, taking yes/

no positions on

criticizable validity claims,

however

implicitly, gains a key function in everyday practice.

Agreement tion,

recognition a

arrived

which

is

of validity

networking of

contexts.

at

Of

through

^^"

A Roman

communica-

measured by the intersubjective claims,

makes

social interactions

possible

and lifeworld

course, these validity claims have a

As

claims, they transcend any local

connec-

be undone

might don

clothing only in the second place. Reason

Janus"""' face: that the internal

in another form.

no pure reason

god with two

faces.

"An Alternative Way Out context;

the s.uik' tiiuc, thcN \\a\v to he raised

at

here aiul now aiul he

facto recogiii/eil

ile

ihe\ aie

i(

h.ne

iranscenclent

moment

initviisti/ \alulii\

oi

a

lonti'xt-hound e\er>day

Inasmuch

reciprocally

aijents

jiotential

moment

uncnntlifionulily

o\'

grounds.

assailahle

of

a

the foundation of an existing consensus. ity

a

distinguished from the social currency of

is

The

as

it

valid-

claimed for propositions and norms transcends

spaces and times,

claim

''blots

out" space ami time; but the

always raised here and now, in specific

is

contexts, and

either accepted or rejected with

is

speaks in

way about

suggestive

a

the entwinement

of the real communication communitv with an ideal one.

20

it

mdicated

that

a

The

task of

other words, the criiu|iie

in

of

from the perspective

of

cannot ultimately be separateil from

genetic consideration that issues in an ideolog) carried out from a third-person perspec-

critique tive

- of the mixing of power claims and of philosophy

history

has

two opposed impulses: One the

power

transcendent

validity

and Democritus,^^'" the

claims. Ever since Plato

been dominated

by

relentlessly elaborates

of

reason

abstractive

and the emancipatory unconditionality of the whereas the other

telligible,

strives

in-

unmask

to

the imaginary purity of reason in a materialist fashion.

In contrast, dialectical thought has enlisted the

subversive power of materialism to undercut false alternatives. It

the.se

does not respond to the ban-

ishment of everything empirical from the realm of

The communicative as

a i^articipant,

consequences for action. Karl-Otto Apel

factual

1

ne\er utterh severed

or,

\alidit\ claims carried out

the validity laid

de facto established practice and yet serves

is

as

huilt \n\o factual pro-

is

cesses of mutual understanding

claim to

Hence,

and genesis, justification,

claims with their sjieech acts, the\ are relying on the

the end of the filth lecture,

of

validity

raise

.\t

cation and contexts of discovery, between \alidit\

accepted \alidit\ claims renders them carriers

communicati\e

with "impuril'ieir' dis-

hursts

of

practice.

the Subject"

the internal connection between contexts of justifi-

moment

e\erN jiroN incialil\ asunder; the ohhgator\

to tnake ilo

ei|uall\

of

The

neeileil for etfecti\e cooiuration.

is

Philosophy

course

lioing to hear the aiireenuiit of interaction particil^ants that

of tfie

were, reflected in

practice of everyday

life is,

This "reflection"

itself.

is

no

longer a matter of the cognitive subject relating to itself in

an objectivating manner.

The

stratification

of discourse and action built into communicative action takes the place of this prelinguistic

and

isol-

ideas merely by scornfully reducing relationships of validity to the

they can be worked out and in

some

cases resolved.

This argumentative debate about hypothetical validity claims

can be described as the reflective form

of communicative action:

a

relation-to-self that

their

regards the dialectic of knowing and not knowing as

embedded within

the dialectic of successful and

unsuccessful mutual understanding.

Communicative reason makes

ated reflection. For factually raised validity claims

point directly or indirectly to arguments by which

powers that triumph behind

back. Rather, the theory of communicative action

binding

itself felt in the

of intersubjective

force

understanding

and reciprocal recognition. At the same time, circumscribes the universe of a life.

Within

common form

this universe, the irrational

it

of

cannot be

separated from the rational in the same way

as,

does without the compulsion to objectification

according to Parmenides, ignorance could be sep-

found

concepts of the philosophy of

arated from the kind of knowledge that, as the

of pro-

absolutely affirmative, rules over the "nothing."

in the basic

the subject.

That

is

to say, the "vis-a-vis"

ponents and opponents reproduces level that basic

at a reflective

form of intersubjective relationship

which always mediates the

self-relation

of the

speaker through the performative relation to an addressee.

and the

The

tense interconnection of the ideal

real is also,

in discourse itself

and especially

Once

clearly, manifest

participants enter into

argumentation, they cannot avoid supposing, in

a

reciprocal way, that the conditions for an ideal

speech situation have been sufficiently met.

tively "purified" of the

that have

been

violation of claims to truth, correctness, ity affects

reason. few^

we can do discourse, we

little as

without the supposition of a purified

who

is

bond of

no escape and no refuge

for the

are in the truth and are supposed to take

their leave of the

''^"

As

the whole permeated by the

There

The

and sincer-

many who

stay behind in the

And """"

filtered out.

and decep-

of manifestation of the inversion of reason.^""'

never defini-

is

Isaac Luria, Schelling

tions are not simply without reason; they are forms

motives and compulsions

yet they realize that their discourse

Bohme and

Following Jacob

correctly insisted that mistakes, crimes,

Greek Atomist philosopher (ca.460-ca.370 bc). Jacob

philosopher; mystic).

Bohme Isaac

(1575-1624),

Luria

German mystic and

(1534-72),

cabalist

(Jewish

Jurgen Habermas darkness of their blindness, as the day takes leave of

Any

the night. life

violation of the structures of rational

together, to which

equally. This

is

claim, affects everyone

all lay

what the young Hegel meant by the

ethical totality that

is

disrupted by the deed of the

criminal and that can only be restored by insight into the indivisibility of suffering

The same

due

to alienation.

idea motivates Klaus Heinrich in his

confrontation of Parmenides with Jonah.''"'

and avenging

dialectic of betrayal

the covenant with

God

breaking this covenant

keep

with

faith

Being itself-

germ of the

Israel, there is the

God

is

in oneself

the symbol of fidelity;

is

is

to

"Keeping

force:

the

To

model of betrayal.

keep

faith

with life-giving

and others.

To deny

it

in

any domain of being means breaking the covenant

God and

with .

.

betraying one's

Thus, betrayal of another

.

trayal of oneself; is

the other at the

that each being

is

foundation.

simultaneously be-

and every protest against betrayal

not just protest in one's

name of

is

own

own name,

same

time.

.

but in the .

.

The

idea

potentially a 'covenant partner' in

who

the fight against betrayal, including anyone

betrays himself and me,

is

the only counterbalance

by

against the stoic resignation already formulated

Parmenides when he made

know and

a cut

between those who

the mass of the ignorant.

'enlightenment' familiar to us

is

have

to

The concept

of

unthinkable with-

this reason,

life

stand under the structural restrictions

communicative reason

a

The

reason operating in communicative action

not only stands under, so to speak, external, situational constraints;

historical

own

its

conditions of possibility

branching out into the dimensions of

its

time, social space, and body-centered

That

experiences.

of speech

to say, the rational potential

is

interwoven

is

with

any particular given lifeworld. the lifeworld

the resource function,

fulfills

and

holistic

problematic

ation to philosophical status in the

sensus theory of truth and

of society. joins

itself

The

a

a

confeder-

form of

con-

a

communication theory

theory of communicative action

with this pragmatist tradition;

Hegel

in his early

ment,

it,

like

fragment on crime and punish-

too, lets itself

be guided by an intuition

that can be expressed in the concepts of the

Testament

Old

as follows: In the restlessness of the real

conditions of life, there broods an ambivalence that

due

is

to the dialectic of betrayal

and avenging

we can by no means

often, fulfill those

positions from

always, or even only

improbable pragmatic presup-

which we nevertheless

set forth in

day-to-day communicative practice - and, in the

- and

in this respect

not represent "knowledge" in any

tions, solidarities,

and

constitutes

tion

Parmenides, the ancient Greek philosopher

(b.

515

BC), and the Biblical Jonah, swallowed and regurgitated

by ^^^'

does

it

sense of

strict

amalgam of background assump-

the word. This

skills

bred through socializacounterweight

conservative

a

against the risk of dissent inherent in processes of

reaching understanding that work through validity claims.

As

from which interaction

a resource

partici-

pants support utterances capable of reaching consensus,

the

lifeworld

an equivalent

constitutes

for

what the philosophy of the subject had

bed

to consciousness in general as synthetic

Now,

of

course,

To

this extent, concrete

forms of

scendental consciousness in

generative

the to the

form but

its

replace tran-

life

function of creating

embodied self-understandings,

unity. In culturally intuitively present

ascri-

accom-

mutual understanding.

to the content of possible

group

solidarities,

and the com-

petences of socialized individuals that are brought into play as

know-how, the reason expressed

communicative action itions,

is

social practices,

in

mediated with the trad-

and body-centered com-

plexes of experience that coalesce into particular totalities.

These

particular forms of

nected with each other only through resemblances;

life,

which

American

exhibit

tures are only

a

web of family

structures

stamped on particular

medium

common

But these universal struclife

forms

of action oriented to mutual

understanding by which they have to be reproduced. This explains

why

the importance of these

universal structures can increase in the course of

a whale.

(1863-1931).

they

to lifeworlds in general.

through the ""^

has

it

only emerge in the plural, are certainly not con-

force.2^

In fact,

of

knowledge, which cannot be made at will

plishments.

motif of

resources

the extent that

the character of an intuitive, unshakeably certain,

accomplishments are related not

first to raise this religious

the

To

ation against betrayal. "^^ Peirce and

the

and

at once claimed

denied.

out the concept of a potentially universal confeder-

Mead""" were

sociocultural

forth.

forms of of

For

set

necessitate

made by Yahweh

In the idea of the convenant

w ith the people of

we

sense of transcendental necessity, from which

philosopher

George

Herbert

Mead

historical processes of differentiation.

This

is

also

the kev to the rationalization of the lifeworld and to

.

'An Alternative the siKccssi\c ick'.isc ot the tained

potent i.il con-

r.iiioii.il

This

eoinimiiiieali\e action.

in

historical

lor the norniati\e content ol

temiencN can account

Way Out

a nioiieiintN

of the Philosophy of the Subject'

ihtealeneil

ot hislor\

uiihoul

scll-ilesiructioii

l)\

drawing upon the consirui tions

philosoplu

ol the

.

Author's Notes Sec the unique lecture delivered h\ I'oueault in 1*>S,^ on Kant's "\\ hat Is Knlightennientr," in I'aul Rahi-

ducted

now

examination

pp.

(ed.),

M

I'fu-

50.

RtaJcr (New ^ork,

/'ouuiull

m\

refer to this in

I

1*>84),

evocation in the

/ ti

name

in the

humans; or better t

still,

the

the

interioritN

of

go forward into the cool,

computer arsenals of the police gone

G. Seehass and R. 'ruomela

whose

(Dordrecht, 1985), pp. 151 78.

(cds). Social Action

which displaced

into

trial

h\gienic interrogation rooms and the silent, elegant

jurgen Hahernias," Remarks on he C Concept ofClomin

lo recur to the Protestant

of conscience,

model of the witch

z

(2Jul> !*)S4)

munieative Action,"

of the moral law with regard to

maxims, one would ha\c

ideal

scientific,

the un-

the categorical imperative

is

Jurgen Hahermas, "Interpretive Social Science and

interrupted apprehension and control of everything

Hermeneuticism,"

particular and resistant, right into the interiority of

in

N. Haan, R. Bellah,

now, and W. Sullivan

P. Rabi-

(eds). Social Science as

Imimry (New York, 1983), pp. 251

Moral

Jurgen Hahermas,

"A

Human

Philosophy of Social Science, 3

Interests'\

157-89.

(1973):

the

Postscript to Knoivledge and

Also

Dahmer,

H.

Ibid., p. 23.

chlichen Sprache. Die philosophische 'I'ragwcite der

versity," in J. Bleicher (ed.), Contemporary'

Jurgen Hahermas, Theorie delns, vol. 2 (Frankfurt,

Theor\'

1980), pp. 181

des

A

Critique

to

Uni-

Hermen-

Sprechakttheorie" (1984), manuscript. 17

211.

kommunikativen Han-

vol. 2:

18

aesthetic truth, as

means be reduced, without

System and

city or sincerity:

see his

Beyond Objectivism and

19

Bohme and G. Bohme, Das Andere

a

can b\ no

called

further ado, to authenti-

"Truth, Semblance and

H. Hamann, "Metakritik

20

See the excursus following lecture \

to

1 1

in

Hahermas:

Critical Debates

(eds),

and London, 1982), pp. and Hegel want

to see the

moral

21

idea of self-legislation realized in an aesthetically

disciplinary

the

Bohmes can

power

in

see only the

moral autonomy:

work of "If one

to envision the inner judicial process

con-

K. Heinrich,

I

my

response

(Cambridge,

MA,

276ff.

ersuch iiber die Schwierigheit

sageti (Frankfurt, 1964), p. 20; see also his

nem zu

Parmcnides

und Jona (Frankfurt, 1966).

reconciled society or in the totality of the context of life,

zur Sprache

John Thompson and Da\ id Held

Ibid., p. 19.

Schiller

den Purismus der

1980), pp. 225ff. See also

Mary Hesse

Ibid., p. 18.

Whereas

iiber

(ed.), Schriften

Karl-Otto Apel, Towards a Transformation ofPhiloso-

phy (London,

II.

der Vernunft, p.

Simon

(Frankfurt, 1967), pp. 21 3ff.

der Vernunft

(Frankfurt, 1983), p. 326.

Bohme and Bohme, Das Andere

J.

\ ernunft," in J.

Relativism (Philadelphia, 1983).

wanted

it is

Reconciliation," Telos, 62 (1984/85): 89-115.

1987).

ethical

in die sprachanalytische

Albrecht Wellmer has shown that the harmonx of

work of art

of Functionalist Reason (Boston,

Cf. Richard J. Bernstein,

H.

Ernst Tugendhat, Einfiihrung Philosophic (Frankfurt, 1976).

1981), pp. 589ff. English:

of Communicative Action,

Liferrorld:

(Bohme and Bohme, Das Andere

Karl-Otto Apel, "Die Logosauszeichnung der mens-

Gesellschaft (Frankfurt, 1982), pp. 8ff.

(London and Boston,

being."

Ibid., p. 13.

and

LihiJo

Jurgen Hahermas, "The Hermeneutic Claim

eutics

human

der Vernunft, p. 349).

70.

22

H.

Brunkhorst,

"Kommunikative

\

ernunft

und

rachende Gewalt," Sozialwissenschaftliche Liieratur-

Rundschau,^/9{\9S3y.7-U.

Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?" '1s There

Still

I Hilary

Putnam

American philosopher Hilary Putnam (1926- ) has been a major contributor to the philosophy of mind, language, and knowledge in recent decades. An earlier proponent of a "functionalist" approach to mind and reference, Putnam later argued for an "internal"or "pragmatic realism," influenced by Peirce and James, for which the dependence of reference on humanly constructed theory does not undermine a realist account of truth. As he explains in the following 1985 lecture, for Putnam there can be no truth about the world that holds independent of a conceptual

scheme; but given any such scheme, reference is fixed and not merely "conventional." As such, his opposition to Richard Rorty's postmodernism is instructive. Both reject foundationalism on the basis of pragmatism. For Putnam, however, having abandoned the hope for a "God's eye view" of reality, pragmatism leaves us with a chastened, but still realist and philosophical, account of

table as his example).

and

as tables

ice

cubes (the 'manifest image')

some

at least

image

and

but

the street, Eddington reminded us,

visuahzes a table as 'soHd' - that matter.' is

is,

as mostly solid

But physics has discovered that the table

mostly empty space: that the distance between the

particles

is

immense

in relation to the radius

of the

electron or the nucleus of one of the atoms of which

the table consists.

One

affairs, the reaction

of Wilfrid Sellars,'

that there are tables at

all

reaction to this state of

as

we

them (although he chooses an

is

to

deny

Arthur Stanley Eddington

cist

and astronomer.

( 1

will forgive

me

if I

to

highlight

certain

use

or the

it,

the philosophical features

of

the

First of

all,

Realism with

view

this

illustrates the fact that

a capital 'R' doesn't

what the innocent expect of it. of Realism which

is

wholly legitimate

to the

commonsense

tables

and

chairs,

is

it is

and any philosophy that

-

any appeal the appeal

feeling that of course there are tell

us that

that there are really only sense

slightly crazy. In appealing to this feeling.

always deliver

If there

Realism reminds

me

is more than commonsense

of the Seducer in the

old-fashioned melodrama. In the melodramas of the

1890s the Seducer always promised various things

Innocent Maiden which he

to the

when

failed to deliver

the time came. In this case the Realist (the evil

Seducer) promises

Maiden)

common

sense (the Innocent

that he will rescue her

from her enemies

ordinarily conceive

ice

882

these

philosophical debate about 'realism'.

cube rather than

a

Putnam, "IsThere Still Anything to Say About and Truth." Lecture One, pp. 3-21 from The Many Faces of Realism. LaSalle, III.: Open Court Publishing Inc.. 1987. Hilary

Reality

*

if

not the layman's tables and ice

phenomenon of its appearance on scene,

are real objects

cubes' of the manifest

don't agree with this view of Sellars's,

I

hope he

I

'ice

according to Sellars, even

'picture',

real objects are

cubes).

- there

cognitive value

that the 'tables'

data, or only 'texts', or whatever,

The man on

is

s\img\\ false in Sellars's view (although not without

there really aren't

truth.

The commonsense concep-

tion of ordinary middle-sized material objects such

1

944), British Physi-

-

There

Is

K.miians

(lilcalists, tisls,

aiul

and the fearsome

evaiiipk.

111

intalist"

geomeir\

Otlur pioptrtits, however, the

deprive her of her jjood old

to

cubes and chairs."

ice

I'aced with this ilreadtiil prospect, the lair

Maiden

naturally opts tor the coinpaiiN of the coninionsen-

when

thex ha\e traxelled together

for a little while the 'Scientific Realist' breaks the

news ice

what the .Maiden

that

is

going to get

cubes and tables and chairs. In the Scientific Realist

really is

-

fast

whatever that nia\ be. She

knows Not

note for She

isn't

there

fact, all

will say there

w ith

is left

a

is

promissor)

and the assurance

\\ hat,

till-

which

example, are not treated as

same

No

sense.

property of that

in

all

is

chief

a

(non-dispositional) (or that space

mathematical physics can

along called

its (olor.

dispositional properties.-

claimed that color

ss) want

sical Realist. lUit

Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?'

Still

simply

often

is

It

function of rejlei-

a

of the disposition of an object (or of

is,

the surface of an object) to selectively absorb cer-

wavelengths of incident

tain

But

others.

this doesn't

and

light

reflect

do much

really

for the

there

reality

of colors. Not only has recent research

some DInge an iir/r'" that her 'manifest image' (or her 'folk physics', as some Scientific Realists put it)

shown

that this account

that

even

there aren't tables and chairs,

if

still

are

Some

'picture'.

Thus,

is

it

will say that the lady

name

clear that the

claimed by or given to

at least

has been had.

'Realism' can be

two very

different

we

mere

is

if

not

of the com-

all,

'projection' claims to be a

but so does the philosopher w ho insists that

some of

there really are chairs and ice cubes (and

these ice cubes really are pink), and these two atti-

two images of the world, can lead

to

and

have led to many different programs for philosophy. Husserl" traces the

first

of thought, the

line

line that denies that there 'really are'

objects, back to Galileo,

uniform physical explanation.

commonsense

and w ith good reason. The

way of conceiving

Husserl, on a new the

external thing ticles

way of mathematical is

'external

physics.

An

conceived of as a congeries of par-

some kind of extended

(by atomists) or as

disturbance (in the seventeenth century, a 'vortex',

and

later a collection

table in front of

a table)

is

me

above

all

of

'fields').

may

(or the object that

I

'picture as'

And

this,

he points out,

is

what

came into Western thinking w ith the Gali-

well be an infinite

non-uniform

variables.

And

and location - are

'real'

and shape

Goodman

(1906-98), American philosopher

'"

Thing

in itself

is

very

so

variables

way of thinking

is

- are

treats as

that hues turn out to be

subjective than

we thought.

In fact,

in the green part

of

w ill be classed as 'standard green' by some subject - even if it lies at the extreme 'yellow the spectrum

green' end or the extreme 'blue-green' end.

In sum, no 'characteristic' recognized by this

way of thinking - no 'well-behaved function of the dynamical variables' - corresponds to such a familiar property of objects as reJ or green. that there

is

a property

the

all

same

in

all

cases

green objects have in

in all cases

-

is

a kind

The

idea

red objects have in

all

- and another - the

common

of illusion, on the view

we have come more and more

to take for granted

since the age of Descartes and Locke.

However, Locke and Descartes did give us sophisticated

Nelson

- the dynamical

these

any shade on the color chart

properties, describable, for

and author of Ways of World Making.

'explanation'

simply incapable of being repre-

Another problem

much more

same

size

of other

the 'characteristics' of 'external' objects.

tion 'in itself, consists of mathematical formulas.

its

is

the parametefs that this

property

-

light

sented as a mathematical function of the dynamical

common -

familiar properties of the table

and absorb

lying non-dispositional

lean revolution: the idea of the 'external world' as

important to this way of thinking that certain

physical

A dispositional property w hose under-

wavelengths.

something whose true description, whose descrip-

It is

red star and a red

number of different

reflect (or emit) red light

Either way, the

described by 'mathematical formulas',

as Husserl says.

does not have one

A

conditions which could result in the disposition to

present Western worldview depends, according to

-

determining the colors

itself

for quite different physical reasons. In fact, there

and that much,

objects'

but reflectancy

see),

claims that only scientific objects

who

'really exist'

tudes, these

to play an important role in

apple and a reddish glass of colored water are red

philosopher

'realist',

too simple (be-

The

philosophical attitudes (and, in fact, to many).

monsense world

much

is

cause changes of reflectancy across edges turn out

substitute

for

our

a

pre-scientific

notion of color; a substitute that has, perhaps,

come to

to

seem mere

'post-scientific

common

sense'

most people. This substitute involves the idea of

Putnam

Hilary

a

datum (except

sense

seventeenth and

that, in the

eighteenth century vocabulary, sense data were referred

as

to

sweater (there

or 'impressions').

'ideas'

see

I

not red in the way

is

I

no 'physical magnitude' which

is

ness), but

it

does have a disposition

The

thought

red-

is its

Power,

(a

red

was

it

in the

was not well understood

light

until

much

later).

There are resultant nerve impulses (Descartes knew there was some kind of transmission along the nerves, even if he was wrong about its nature and

not clear

it is

there

we know

its

nature either, since

again debate about the significance of

is

seventeenth and eighteenth century idiom) to affect

chemical, as opposed to electrical, transmissions

me in a certain way - to cause me to have sense data. And these, the sense data, do truly have a simple,

brain,

uniform, non-dispositional sort of 'redness'.

This

the famous picture, the dualistic picture

is

of the physical world and

primary

its

mind and

the one hand, and the

on

qualities,

sense data, on

its

to neuron.) There are events in the some of which we understand thanks to the work of Hubel and Wiesel, David Marr, and others. And then - this is the mysterious part - there is

from neuron

somehow

An

the other, that philosophers have been wrangling

And

over since the time of Galileo, as Husserl says.

-

a 'sense

datum' or a 'raw

This

feel'.

is

an

explanation}

kind

'explanation' that involves connections of a

we do

not understand at

all

("nomological

was the idea of William James, who influenced Husserl - that this picture is

danglers", Herbert Feigl called them^) and con-

disastrous.

theory

it

Husserl's idea

is

as

it

But why should we regard

it

it

by now widely accepted

is

common

What

sense'.

I

obscure than the phenomenon to be explained. As has been pointed out by thinkers as different from

wrong with

this

For one

seem

thing, solidity

is

much the same boat as

in

do not have color

as

no more do they have

to,

seem

'naively'

not really exist at

What

all.

commonsense liquid)

they 'naively'

solidity as they

that leads Sellars to

It is this

to.

commonsense

say that such

typical

objects as ice cubes

object

do

our conception of

is

if

a

not of something

which exhibits certain

solid

(or

What

there really are, in Sellars's scientific meta-

colors.''

physics, are objects of mathematical physics,

one hand, and 'raw

feels',

precisely the picture

I

astrous";

it is

and

The

it is

kind of realism, his realism about

kind. Yet the epistemological role 'sense data'

supposed

to play

by

quired them to be what

traditional philosophy re-

is

'given', to

be what me are

of independently of scientific theory. kind of scientific realism we have inherited

absolutely sure

The

from the seventeenth century has not prestige even yet, but

lost all its

has saddled us with a

it

disastrous picture of the world.

It is

high time we

looked for a different picture.

Intrinsic Properties: Dispositions

me

reply to

'You are

who

(the reply a philosopher

just nostalgic for

is

ob-

an older and

an "inference to the best explanation". it

I

want

suggest that

to

the

as an objection to a

view that

it

We

does

term

problem with the

world

'Objectivist' picture of the

chairs.

cannot regard

liar

are

is

have just described as "dis-

simpler world. This picture works; our acceptance

of

datum story is - theory - and theory of a most pecu-

on the

on the other. This

accepts the post-Galilean picture will make) vious:

William James, Husserl, and John

as

Austin, every single part of the sense

the picture that denies precisely the

common man's tables

one another

supposition

picture.''

color. If objects

the sketch of a

an explanation through something more

was

as 'post-scientific

really

is

is

have already said

as disastrous.' It

once shocking, to be sure, but as

we have not even

cerning which

(to

use Husserl's

for this kind of scientific realism) lies

deeper

than the postulation of 'sense data'; sense data are, so to speak, the visible

disease, like the

The deep

symptoms of a systemic

pock marks

in the case

of smallpox. I

want

to suggest, lies in the notion of an 'intrinsic'

prop-

systemic root of the disease,

property something has

itself,

apart

not preserve everything that laymen once falsely

erty,

believed.'

from any contribution made by language or the

If it

is

an inference to the best explanation,

strange one, however.

planation of red'

go.-"

and

is

The

How

it is

a

does the familiar ex-

w hat happens when

a

mind.

This notion, and the correlative notion of

something

property that

light strikes the object (say, a sweater),

something we

reflected to

retina (Berkeley

my eye. There

I

is

'see

an image on the

knew about images on

and so did Descartes, even

if

the retina,

the wave aspect of

'in

is

a

merely 'appearance', or merely

'project'

onto the object, has proved

extremely robust, judging by

its

appeal to different

kinds of philosophers. In spite of their deep dis-

agreements,

all

the

strains

of philosophy

that

There

Is

acccptfil

I

he sc\tiiicciiili-i(.imir\ c\i\\c ot prob-

lems - subjective

accepted the distinciioii, e\en

materialists

disagreed over

would

its

in

A

application.

saN that there are

and sense data,

and

idealists as nncII as dualists

some

an intrinsic properly

onK

subjeclise

the\

it

iilealist

and

that 'red'

would say the

is

while persist-

ot these objects,

is

'project'; a dualist or a materialist

have persistence as

'external' objects

an intrinsic property, but red

is,

something we

of these philoso-

have

phers

'project'.

the

Hut

all

Even

distinction.

expresses serious doubts about

who

Kant,

in the tirst Cri-

it

argument. What

sohe

will

Putting aside the Berkeleyan view (that there as an

water which

not dissohe.

is

already saturated with

the disposition of sugar to

Is

position.'

This

not a strict disposition; the

al.so

is

counterexample

I

modynamics. Suppose

tirst

mention comes from ther-

shall

drop

I

sugar cube

a

in

water

and the sugar cube dissolves. Consider sugar which but in such a way that while the situ-

in water,

identical with the situation

is

(the sugar

aren't really any external objects at all)"

sugar to dis-

dissolve in chemically pure water, then, a strict dis-

is

second Critique.

ot the disposition ot

sugar (or even with oilier appropriate chemicals)

ation

in the

allow-

not a strict disposition, since sugar which

is

placetl in

"Ding an sich" may be "empty"), makes heavy use it

am

1

in water.'

This is

tique (to the point of saying that the notion of a

of

iioiion

is a

ing the 'scientific realist', at least tor the sake ot

their case,

in

Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?"

cxaniplr illusiraies, bui this

sense data (or minds

versions),

ence (being there even when we don't look)

something we

Still

just

I

produced

dissolved in the water) with respect to

is

the position of each particle, and also with respect

momentum

numerical value of the

to the

momentum

of each

aberrant form of the seventeenth-century view,

particle, all the

we may

opposite directions from the ones they now have.

say

remaining

the

that

philosophers

accept the account of 'redness' and 'solidity'

all

that

I

have been describing; these are not 'intrinsic

but rather

(in

we

solved, simply forms a sugar cube which spontan-

eously leaps out of the water! Since every normal

-

to pro-

state (every state in

in us, or, the materialist

philosophers would say, to produce certain sorts

our brains and nervous systems.

idea that these properties are as

selves,

The

the things them-

'in'

properties,

intrinsic

is

a

spontaneous

Achilles'

disposition.

To

Heel of this story

many

much

first-rate

(I

something has

that

thing no matter what, disposition

conditions', disposition.

I

to

I

-

philosoph-

me

let

shall not introduce

terminology in this lecture,

disposition

A

the notion of a

minds, starting with Charles Peirce's -

introduce a technical term

A

is

indicate the problems that arise

they have preoccupied ical

I

promise!).

to

do some-

shall call a strict disposition.

do something under 'normal

shall call

Perhaps

it

an

'other things being equal'

would be wise

to

give

mass ition;

disposition of bodies with non-zero rest

to travel at sub-light speeds is a strict disposit

is

physically impossible for a

non-zero rest mass to travel

Of

it

'undissolves',

many

that there are infinitely

we

see

physically-possible

conditions in which sugar 'undissolves' instead of staying in solution.

Of course,

which entropy decreases; but

these are

that

is

all

states in

not impossible,

we

Shall

say, then, that sugar has a strict dispos-

ition to dissolve unless the condition

an entropy decrease takes sugar

is

put

in

place.^

water and there

is

one

at

body with

the speed of light.

course, the notion of a 'strict disposition' pre-

supposes the notion of 'physical necessity', as

this

George Berkeley (1685-1753),

Irish philosopher

who

which

is

immediately

if

a

flash freeze, the sugar will not dissolve if the freez-

ing takes place fast enough

The

fact

is

that

what we can say

normal conditions sugar water.

And

various

there

is

is

that

under

will dissolve if placed in

no reason

to think that all the

abnormal conditions (including bizarre

quantum mechanical would not dissolve

summed up

states, bizarre local fluctu-

if

in a closed

which sugar

placed in water could be

formula

in the

language of

fundamental physics.

This

is

exactly the problem

we previously ob-

served in connection with redness and solidity! If the 'intrinsic' properties

the ones that

denied the existence of matter on empiricist grounds.

in

No, because

ations in the space-time, etc.) under

examples.

The

which sugar dissolves) can be

paired with a state in which

only extremely improbable!

'projection'.

The

in the

that the sugar, instead of staying dis-

them

duce certain sense data

'states' in

famous example: what happens

is

things)

ascribe

dispositions to affect us in certain ways

of

a

is

example

the case of external

properties' of the external things to,

This

vectors have the exactly

we can

of 'external' things are

represent by formulas in

the language of fundamental physics, by 'suitable

functions of the dynamical variables', then solubility

Putnam

Hilary

is

also not an 'intrinsic' property of

thing.

And,

being

equal'

similarly, neither

any external

any 'other things

is

The Powers,

disposition.

use

to

is

ence ourselves as living

which

in,

called

over against, and carefully distinguished from, the

called 'realism' in philosophy

'in

themselves'.

reality, to

make

who

Intrinsic Properties: Intentionality

chairs and it.^

Why

should we not say that

real,

dispositions (or at least 'other things being equal' dispositions, such as solubility) are also not 'in the

we

things themselves' but rather something ject'

way

onto those

things.'

Philosophers

who

'pro-

talk this

rarely if ever stop to say wh^ii projection itself is

supposed

thing

Where in the scheme does the mind to 'project' anything onto any-

to be.

of the

ability

come

thinking of something as having

is

we can imag(perhaps because something else we are ac-

properties ine

does not have, but that

it

why Husserl is

deny objective

to

is

simply thought.

It is

the phil-

in

sensations and

electrons are equally

and not the metaphysical

realists.

Today, some metaphysical that

we

would say

realists

don't need a perfected science of psych-

ology to account for thought and intentionality,

because the problem ical

some philosoph-

solved by

is

theory; while others claim that a perfected

'cognitive science' based will solve the

future.

in.'

Projection

it all

is

one way or another stand in the Neo-Kantian tradition - James, Husserl, Wittgenstein - who claim that commonsense tables and

osophers

Well, what of

com-

the effect of what

the Lebenswelt),

it

far as the

concerned (the w orld we experi-

the seventeenth-century language, have to be set

properties the things have

So

the beginning of this lecture.

monsense world

I

problem

on the 'computer model' for us in near or distant

obviously do not have time to examine

these suggestions closely today, but

w hy

briefly

believe that

I

I

shall indicate

none of them

will

with-

stand close inspection.

quainted with really does have them), without

being conscious that this is

what we are doing. It - thought about some-

is

thus a species of thought

thing.

Does the

anything to

us about thought (or, as philoso-

tell

phers say, about 'intentionality', that

is,

about

Descartes

intended

certainly

that

it

should.

His view was that there are tw o fundamental sub-

- mind and matter - not

pondingly sciences:

there

be

should

one, and, corres-

two

fundamental

physics and psychology. But

ceased to think of at all.

And

mind

we have

as a separate 'substance'

a 'fundamental science' of

psychology

which explains the nature of thought (including

how

thoughts can be true or

false,

warranted

or unwarranted, about something or not about

something) never did come into existence, contrary to Descartes' hopes.

So

to explain the features

of the commonsense world, including color, solidity,

causality

-

I

include causality because the

monsense notion of 'projection'

'the cause' of

dispositions

are

com-

something

is

a

'projections';

it

depends on the notion of 'normal conditions'

in

exactly the

The problem, come

if

so Intractable

is

same way -

terms of a mental oper-

in

ation called 'projection'

is

to explain just

about

thought

in a nutshell, is that

to be treated

more and more

by the philosophy that

ahoutness)}

stances

Why Intentionality

familiar 'Objectivist' picture have

seventeenth century.

traces

The

its

reason

itself has

as a 'projection'

pedigree to the is

clear:

we have

not succeeded in giving the theory that thought just a primitive

mind, any content. As Kant pointed out

stance',

in the first Critique,

substance or

its

one. If unlike the

we have no theory of

Kant of the

fundamental

the

the only line

this

powers and no prospect of having first

the Critique of Pure Reason), to

is

property of a mysterious 'sub-

we

Critique (as insist

'Objectivist'

we can then

take

is

I

read

on sticking

assumptions,

that mental phe-

nomena must be highly derived physical phenomena

in

some way, as Diderot and Hobbes had already proposed. tions',

By the 'fundamental Objectivist assumpmean (1) the assumption that there is a

I

clear distinction to be ties

things have

'in

drawn between the proper-

themselves' and the properties

which are 'projected by

us'

and

(2) the

assumption

- in the singular, since status today - tells us what

that the fundamental science

only physics has that

every feature of the commonsense world in terms

properties things have

of thought.

we were to assume, with Wilfrid Sellars, that 'raw feels' - fundamental sensuous quaUties of experi-

But wasn't that what doing? This

is

were accused of

idealists

the paradox that

I

pointed out

at

'in

themselves'. (Even

if

ence - are not going to be reduced to physics, but

'

Is

some

arc in

science

\\a\ goiiiu lo

some

in

he .ukkil to tmul.uiKiiial cencurx,

tuiure

much;

the situation

aft'ecl

There

would

it

nt)t

Seiiars does not antici-

pate that lulcntiothility will turn out to be someth-

we ha\e

ing

but ot

supposes that

rather

words'

is all

Modern

that

a

lheor\

same wa\, the

of

needetl to account for

is

it.)

become Materi-

()bjecti\ism has simjilN

'explaining the emergence of mind'. Hut

plaining the emergence of mind'

Brentano's problem, that

neighborhood' is'

'ex-

means solving

a lot

of cats in the

and what 'remembering where

/v,

etc.,

is,

if

saying in retiuclive

is,

terms what 'thinking there are

Paris

'use

.\nd the central problem for .Materialism

alism. is

to adil to ph>sics in the

why should we now

think that\

possible? If reducing color or solidity or solubility

fundamental physics has proved impossible,

to

why should

more ambitious reduction

this vastly

program prove

widely

The

in the

claim of

I

myself proposed

my

the

name

'Functionalism'.

'Functionalism' was that thinking

beings are compositwnally plastic - that is

no one physical

state or event

(i.e.,

is,

that there

no necessary

and sufficient condition expressible by formula

in the

a

philosophy of mind that has become

known under

a

finite

language of first-order fundamental

physics) for being e\tn

2l

ihis IS

was the iheorN

thai ol a

because

show

1

that

our tuiuiional organi/ation

uring machine.'

What mean b\ this is that physicall\ possible creatures who believe that there are a lot of cats in the neighborhood, or whatever, may have an indejimte

number

of different 'programs'.

there

a

is

presence of

a

just the

and in

way

phenomenalistic terms

organization

to function

allows one to recognize that

sorts of logically possible 'systems' or beings

could be conscious, exhibit mentality and etc., in

exactly the

same sense without having the

same matter (without even consisting of in the sense

affect,

'matter'

of elementary particles and electromag-

netic fields at

all).

physical (and even

For beings of many

different

'non-physical') constitutions

The human

could have the same functional organization. thing

we w ant

insight into

is

the nature of

unrealistic.

is

Such

a

not constructed according to any effective rule, or

even according to

reduced.

state

a

non-effective prescription that

without using the very terms to be

do not believe that even

I

have the same belief different bodies of

all

humans who with

(in different cultures, or

know ledge and

ceptual resources) have in

common

different cona physical

cum

computational feature which could be 'identified

The

with' that belief

'intentional level'

is

simply

not reducible to the 'computational level' any more

than

it is

If this

to the 'physical level'.

then the Objectivist will have to

right,

is

sense.'

all

necessary

condition would have to be infinitely long, and

this suggestion has

a being's mentality, affectivity, etc., as aspects of its

a

is

sufficient condition for the presence of a table

content, or of a feeling of anger, or of a pain, etc.

pointed out that thinking of

unrealistic in

is

that the theory that there

A fortiori,

I

that

given belief in computational (or

'projection'.

this claim,

The hspothesis

computational cum physical) terms

currence of a thought with a given propositional

advanced

.

necessary and sufficient condition for the

conclude that intentionality

I

up

1

'logically possible' or 'metaphysically possible') oc-

ings, are not identical w ith brain states, or even with more broadly characterized physical states. When

this

mental states are not onl\ composiiion-

thai

plastic but also conipiitatinnully plastu

all\

physically possible (let alone

propositional attitudes, emotions, feel-

have given

1

belie\e that there are good arguments to

1

we could

tractable.'

Starting in the late 1950s,

program

Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?"

Still

must be

too

a

mere

But how can any philosopher think

As we saw

even the semblance of making the very notion of 'projection'

,

presupposes intentionality!

Strange to say, the idea that thought projection

osophers of

its

is

being defended by

in the

is

is

The

mere phil-

in spite

strength of the 'Objectivist'

some philosophers will we have about our-

so strong that

abandon the deepest

a

number of

United States and England,

absurdity.

tradition

a

intuitions

-selves-in-the-world, rather than ask (as Husserl

and Wittgenstein did) whether the whole picture is

not a mistake.

Thus

it

is

that in the closing

decades of the twentieth century we have gent

philosophers'

itself is

to

claiming

that

something we project by taking

some

parts of the world (as

if

intelli-

intentionality a 'stance'

'taking a stance'

(and animal) functional organization, not the nature Alan Turing (1912

of a mysterious 'substance', on the one hand, or merely additional physiological information on

the other. I

also

proposed

tion to function

ical decidability,

plication

what our organizahave now given up -

a theory as to is,

one

I

54),

whose attempt

to define a

mechanical method to address the question of mathemat-

called the

ence.

to

"On Computable Numbers

the Entscheidungs Problem"

with an

(1936),

"Turing Machine," founded computer

Aplater sci-

Hilary

Putnam

were not

an intentional notion!), intelligent

itself

philosophers claiming that no one really has prop-

and

ositional attitudes (beliefs

and

phers claiming there

and no such relation

means

'absolutely unprecedented',

answer

is 'no'.

and

intelligent philoso-

as reference, that

as 'truth'

'is

true'

is

we

not just

new

to

of these

-

Richard Rorty - a thinker of great

part, the right

program, even

committed

to rejecting the

(and

thinkers write as

if

they w ere saving realism (in

its

Materialist version) by abandoning intentionahty! It's as if

there

is

about

were

it

all

right to say

an external world;

Come

it'!

Foucault wrote,

I

The

too.

deny that we think

just

to think of

don't deny that

'I

it,

this

is

way

the

than

thinner

anglophone

philosophers

think!

Amusingly enough, the dust-jacket of one of the lattest attacks

siastic

on

psychology' bears an enthu-

'folk

blurb in which a reviewer explains the im-

w ays,

different is

what

and antinomies of metaphysical realism familiar varieties (Brand X: xMaterialism;

all its

Brand Y: Subjective Idealism; Brand Z: Dualism

)

something

is

to

can be both

chairs and ice cubes.

There

are also electrons

and

a realist

Realism (with a small

was

as

said,

and 'r')

a

is

it

a

concep-

has already

view that

commonsense scheme,

our scientific and

artistic

at face value,

without helping

of the thing

'in

itself to

But what

itself.

as well

and other schemes,

is

the notion

conceptual

relativity?

deny

our commonsense realism. There are tables and

pragmatic realism!)

not incompatible with conceptual

is

One

it

bottom, just the insistence

at

is,

takes our familiar as

have called internal real-

I

should have called

been introduced;

into extreme relativism, as

that

in

"The Trail of the Human Serpent is Over

fall

And

surdities

All"

neither to

properly; then there

key to w orking out the program of preservcommonsense realism while avoiding the ab-

tual relativist.

is

shared some-

they too, in their

The ing

that realism

French philosophy has been doing, nor

it

if

believe.

I

relativity.

alley, the solu-

may have

failed to state

Internal realism

Objectivism has led twenti-

may never be com-

something new, something unfinished and

still

saying that most people believe that there are such

If seventeenth-century

in

allow that Husserl and

important to say about reality and truth. ^' is

is,

has not been

if it

thing of the same program, even

ism. (I

eth-century philosophy into a blind

we

Wittgenstein and Austin

portance of the book inside the dust-jacket by

things as beliefs!

to say

for philosophy that

properly worked out yet (and

between relativism

line

franfaise and Analytic Philosophy seems to be

program

pletely 'worked out'); if

suspect the

I

James - something his own time - or, at least,

might have had something 'new'

new to us^

truth. If 'new'

allow that William

a

not just metaphysical realism), but most of these

tion

if

might have had

intuitions that underly every kind of realism

la

But

use to 'raise the level of language'.

is

and

to say, about reality

really

a false theory

-

of this lecture

title

anything to say, anything

still

we

depth - sees that he

a

new

asked - as the is

phrase

just a

One

I

from

no such property

is

only begun.

whether there

desires), that 'belief

'desire' are just notions

called 'folk psychology',

is

Conceptual

sounds

relativity

but has none of the 'there

found

.

.

"true"

.

is

just a

is

name

'relativism',

like

no truth for

what

a

to

be

bunch

space-time regions and prime numbers and people

of people can agree on' implications of 'relativism'.

who

A simple example

are a

menace

to

world peace and moments of

beauty and transcendence and

My

many

old-fashioned story of the Seducer and the

Innocent Maiden was meant as a

other things.

a

double warning,

warning against giving up commonsense realism

sider

the

seventeenth-century

talk

of 'external

world' and 'sense impressions', 'intrinsic properties',

and 'projections',

etc.,

was

in

any way

a

Res-

cuer of our commonsense realism. Realism w ith capital 'R'

is,

realism with a small If this

is

hard to

w hat

I

mean. Con-

like this

w hen we were doing induct-

ive logic together in the early nineteen-fifties), xl,

x2, x3.

How many

Well,

I

objects are there in this

world?

said "consider a world with just three

individuals", didn't objects?

Can

I?

So mustn't there be three

there be non-abstract entities which

are not 'individuals'?

One

a

sad to say, the foe, not the defender, of

will illustrate

world with three individuals' (Carnap often

used examples

and, simultaneously, a warning against supposing that

'a

possible answer

is

'no'.

W^e can identify

'individual', 'object', 'particular', etc.,

and find no

'r'.

see,

it

is

because the task of

" J.

overcoming the seventeenth-century world picture

L. Austin (1911-60), Oxford "ordinary language"

philosopher.

"Is There

worM

absuriiit) in a

arc independent,

with

ihict- objfits nnIiuIi

iiisi

atoms'

'logical

uiiicl.iteil

Hut

there are perfectly gooil logical iloctriius w Im h

points Ml ihc plane

cians,

tor

some

like

Polish logi-

belie\e that for e\er> two particulars there

I

an object which

sum. (This

their

is

is

the basic

is

are the\ 'mere limits', as

\ou

what

same dough', then sou must admit

an abstract entity (say,

and wholes invented by Ix/niewski.)'"

construing points as limits)

I

If

ignore,

1

the so-called 'null object', then

world of 'three individuals'

will find that the

Carnap might have had

it,

at least

(as

w hen he was doing

inductive logic) actualK contains

si'vcn objects:

Hut then you w

-

was of

not, of course, a unique

is

is

convergent spheres

a set of

although there

moment,

that

space, in one \ersion of the facts,

a part of

is

ways of

sa\, in this case, that these are 'two

slicing the

assumption of 'mereology', the calculus of parts

for the

Kaiu

said.'

if

example, that

\re these purls of the pl.uie, as

Or

I.eibni/ thought.'

lead to different results.

Suppose,

Anything to Say about Reality and Truth?'

Still

other version.

in the

have conceded that which entities

ill

which are 'concrete ob-

are 'abstract entities' and

Metaphysical rea-

jects', at least, is version-relative.

day continue to argue about whether

lists to this

points (space time points, nowadays, rather than

W orld

World

1

points in the plane or in three-dimensional space)

2

mere

are individuals or properties, particulars or

xl,x2, x3

xl+ xl

(A world

+

xl, x2, x3, xl

a la

+

+

x2

My

limits, etc.

x3, x2 -f x3,

view

God

that

is

himself,

if

he

consented to answer the question, 'Do points really

x3

exist or are they

mere

would say

limits.'',

know'; not because His omniscience

('Same' world a

Carnap)

x2,

is

'I

don't

limited, but

la

because there

Polish logician)

how

limit to

is a

far

questions

make

sense.

One Some

Polish logicians w ould also say that there

a 'null object'

object. If

w hich they count

we accepted

this individual (call

of every

and added

this suggestion,

O), then

it

as a part

is

we would

say that

Carnap's world contains eight objects.

Now

,

that there

is a

well-known.

is

It is

to say

single world (think of this as a piece of

dough) which we can

w ays. But

way of deal-

slice into pieces in different

this 'cookie cutter'

metaphor founders on

the question, 'What are the "parts" of this dough.'' If the

x2

answer

is

O, xl, x2, x3, xl

that

+ x3, xl + x2 +

then

we have

x3 are

x2, xl

+ x3,

the different 'pieces',

not a neutral description, but rather a

partisan description

Warsaw

all

-(-

logician!

-

just the description

And

it

is

of the

no accident that meta-

physical realism cannot really recognize the phe-

nomenon of conceptual relativity - for that phenomenon turns on the fact that the logical primitives themselves,

and

in particular the notions

and existence, have a multitude of different than one absolute 'meaning

An example which more complex than

is

of object

uses rather

'.

historically important, if

the one just given,

is

the ancient

ean plane. Imagine a Euclidean plane. Think of the Stanislaw Lezniewski (1886-1939),

Lvov-Warsaw school of wicz), parts.

are there?' has an answer,

'How many

of the

namely

objects

'three' in the case

version ('Carnap's World') and 'seven'

first

(or 'eight') in the case of the

second version ('The

Once we make

clear how we are using 'object' (or 'exist'), the question 'Howmany objects exist.'*' has an answer that is not at all a matter of 'convention'. That is why I say that this

example does not support radical cultural

sort of

relativism.

but

it

Our concepts may be

culturally relative,

does not follow that the truth or

everything we say using those concepts

falsity

'decided' by the culture. But the idea that there

an Archimedean point, or the world

many

itself,

objects

a

of

simply

is

is

use of 'exist' inherent in

from which the question 'How

really

exist.**'

makes

sense,

is

an

illusion.

If this

how

it

right,

is

then

it

may be

can be that what

is

in

possible to see

one sense the

'same' world (the two versions are deeply related)

be

can

described

as

consisting

of 'tables

and

chairs' (and these described as colored, possessing

dispute about the ontological status of the Euclid-

^"

leave these examples:

I

Polish Logician's World').

the classic metaphysical realist

ing with such problems

point before

last

given a version, the question,

member

logic (with Tarski

of the

and Lukasie-

and creator of "mereology," the logic of wholes and

dispositional properties, etc.) in one version as

consisting

and

fields,

that

all

sion

is

'Which that

of space-time

etc.,

in

regions,

other versions.

of these must be reducible to to

make

are

the

To

require

a single

ver-

the mistake of supposing that real

objects.''

is

makes sense independently of our

cepts.

and

particles

a

question

choice

of con-

Putnam

Hilary

What

me

I

am

saying

frankly programmatic. Let

is

close by briefly indicating

leads,

and what

Many

I

hope from

where the program

thinkers have argued that the traditional itself

'in

concepts we use to think and talk about given

To mention

up.

only

it

most

the

is 'second class', on similar These thinkers have been somewhat

propositional attitudes

grounds.^'"

it.

dichotomy between the world

perience. Davidson has rejected the idea that talk of

same approach

hesitant to forthrightly extend the

and the

to

must be

what can giving up the spectator view

recent

our moral images of ourselves and the world. Yet

mean

we don't extend

if

in

philosophy

the pragmatic approach to

examples, Davidson has argued that the distinction

the most indispensible 'versions' of ourselves and

between 'scheme' and 'content' cannot be drawn;

our world that we possess.' Like William James

Goodman

(and

has aruged that the distinction between

'world' and 'versions'

is

defended 'ontological

untenable; and Quine has

relativity'.

Like the great

to

like

my

teacher

do exactly that.

illustrate the

Morton White'')

[In the

I

propose

remaining lectures],

I

shall

standpoint of pragmatic realism in

some of our moral images,

pragmatists, these thinkers have urged us to reject

ethics by taking a look at

the spectator point of view in metaphysics and

and particularly

epistemology. Quine has urged us to accept the

democratic value of equality. Although reality and

existence of abstract entities on the ground that

truth are old, and to superficial appearances 'dry',

these are indispensible in mathematics,'*^ and of

topics,

and

microparticles

space-time

points

ground that these are indispensible and what better

justification

an ontology than

its

the

physics;

there for accepting

indispensibility in our scien-

he asks.

tific practice.^

is

in

on

Goodman

has urged us to

I

at

the ones that underlie the central

shall try to

these lectures that

convince you in the course of

it is

the persistence of obsolete

assumptions about these 'dry' topics that sabotages philosophical discussion about

all

topics, not to say the possibility of

the reality and mvsterv of our

the 'exciting'

doing justice to

commonsense world.

take seriously the metaphors that artists use to

restructure our worlds, on the ground that these are an indispensible

way of understanding our ex-

^"'

American philosopher of language Donald Davidson

(1917-

).

Author's Notes Science, Perception,

and Reality, Atlantic Highlands,

Scriven, and Maxwell, MinneapoUs: University of

Minnesota Press, 1958, 370-497.

NJ: Humanities Press, 1963.

The

Crisis

of the European Sciences and Transcendental

This

is

my Representation MA: MIT Press, 1988.

and

argued in

Phenomenology, translated by David Carr, Evanston:

Cambridge,

Northwestern University Press, 1970.

D. C. Dennett, Content and

Consciousness, Atlantic

Objects

Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1969.

Colored?', in Mind, XCIII, No. 22 (October 1964),

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature,

491-500.

Princeton University Press, 1979.

See

C.

Hardin's

L.

The commonsense

'Are

"Scientific"

Stephen Stich, From Folk Psychology

notion of 'solidity' should not be

confused with the physicist's notion of being in 'the solid state'. state'

but

is

For example,

a

sand dune

is

not solid in the ordinary sense of the term,

while a bottle of milk

may be

contents are not in the solid

solid,

but most of

and

the

10

Mind-Body Problem,

II,

ed.

Minnesota Concepts,

by Feigl,

'On What There

Is',

to

Cognitive

Cambridge,

reprinted in

MA:

White has advocated doing ward Reunion

MA:

in Philosophy,

From

a Logical

Harvard 1953.

this early

and

Cambridge,

vard University Press, 1956; IVhat to

Princeton:

1983.

Point of View, Cambridge, 11

in

',

Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. Theories

MIT Press,

its

state.

'The "Mental" and the "Physical"

Science: The Case Against Belief

in the 'solid

Reality,

Is

late

{To-

MA: Har-

and What Ought

Be Done, Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 1981).

Select Bibliography

It

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a

Descombes, Vincent. Modern French Philosophy, Schott-Fox and

comprehensive bibliography of works that deal with postmodernism and

its

and/or modernity. The nature would

make

for an

relation to

topic's

list

M. Harding. New

trans. L.

York: Cambridge

University Press, 1980.

modernism

interdisciplinary

immense

J.

Dews,

of Disintegration: Post-Structuralist

Peter. Logics

New

Thought and the Claims of Critical Theory.

of margin-

York:

Verso, 1987. ally related

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Foster, Hal. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Cul-

ently use the terms "postmodern," "modernity," etc., are

many

included, but that would exclude

Too many different kinds of phenomena and too many disciplines are involved in the subject. The following bibliography aims merely to aid those readers who seek some addi-

ture.

relevant texts).

tional reading. It includes only

works that

I

con-

Port Townsend, Wash.: Bay Press, 1983.

Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity:

New

York: Blackwell, 1989.

Jencks, Charles, The Post-Modern Reader. London: .\cad-

emy

Editions, 1992.

Klotz, Heinrich. The History of Postmodern trans.

sider especially interesting or useful for students,

Radka Donnell. Cambridge,

.-irchitecture,

MA: MIT

Macksey, Richard and Eugenio Donato. The It

is

organized into four parts: the

first

of Man. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,

interest

for tracing the history of the concept of the "post-

1972.

Portoghesi, Paolo. Postmodern, The Architecture ofPostm-

modern" and the related term "post-industrial"; the third, some important works on modernity and/or modernism; and the fourth, the selected in this

by is

titles

dustrial Society, trans. Ellen Shapiro. zoli,

their authors.

A

works

Critical Analysis.

Sciences: Insights,

all

/

Best,

Stephen

and

Douglas

1991.

Kellner.

Postmodern

York: Guilford,

New

and

Intrusions.

Princeton,

York: Routledge, 1999.

Works of Historical

2

New

Inroads,

Sim, Stuart. The Routledge Critical Dictionary' of Postmodern Thought.

Theory: Critical Interrogations.

Cambridge: Cambridge University

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

four.

Works on Postmodernism

Ork: Ri/-

Rosenau, Pauline Marie. Post-Modernism and the Social

relevant to multiple sections appear only once.

Consequently, interested readers ought to peruse

"^

Press, 1991.

For the sake of simplicity there parts;

New

1983.

Rose, Margaret. The Post-Modern and the Post-Industrial:

volume with other relevant works

no redundancy among the four

Structuralist

Controversy: The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences

contains general introductions to or commentaries

on postmodernism; the second, works of

Press,

1988.

and, with rare exceptions, only works available in English.

An En-

Oxford and

quiry into the Origins of Cultural Change.

Bell,

Interest

Bernard Iddings. Religion For Living:

Postmodernists.

1939.

A

Book for

London: The Religious Book Club,

Select Bibliography The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism.

Bell, Daniel.

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Books, 1976. Antologia de

Poesia espanola e his-

la

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Political Processes.

Fiedler, Leslie.

New

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II.

The Collected

in

York: Stein and

Day, 1971, pp. 379 99. Hassan, Ihab. The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature. Madison: University of Wiscon-

Hebdige, Dick. Hiding

New

in the Light:

on Images and Things.

court. Brace

New

The Decline of the New.

York: Har-

and World, 1970, pp. 190-207.

May

Cities.

Random House, 1961. Charles. "The Rise of Post-Modern

Architec-

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Summer,

1976, 7:4, pp. 7-14.

Essays in Comparative Literature.

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New

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C.

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New

Pannwitz, Rudolf. Die Krisis der Europaeischen Kultur.

Hans

Penty, Arthur J. and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Essays

the Future

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Mass

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Marion. Modernization: Latecomers and Sur-

New

York: Basic Books, 1972.

Modernization and the Structure ofSocieties, \o\s.

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and

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Mumford, Lewis. The Myth of the Machine: The Pentagon

New

of Power.

York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich,

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A

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in the

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for

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Cliffs,

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NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966.

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On Cam-

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Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and

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Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press,

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York:

trans.

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1957.

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New York:

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Toynbee, Arnold

We Have Never Been Modern, MA: Harvard

the Dissatisfactions

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Note: Page

numbers

bold type indicate

in

a

main

Antonioni, Michelangelo, 569

Anzaldua, Gloria, 397

reference.

Aalto, Alvar, 407

Apel, Karl-Otto, 589

Abelard, Peter, 106

arbitrariness of signs, 123—4,

abjection

Arcesilaus, 36

230

defined, 376-7

Archimedes, 22, 281, 282, 293n.ll

labor and, 424

architecture

politics

of identity and, 372, 377-9, 397

City of Towers, 136-8

Acconci, Vito Hannibal, 412

complex and contradictory,

Addison, Joseph, 61

Le Corbusier

Adorno, Theodor,

modern,

aesthetics, 129,

86, 159-67, 392, 575, 580, 585

6, 7, 9, 86,

postmodern,

489

7,

403-8

on, 132-8

2,

457-8, 459, 460, 461, 565

6-7, 458-60, 565, 566, 569-70,

573 n.2

aesthetic truth, 591 n. 18

architecture and, 132, 570

Aries, Phihppe, 355, 366 n.l, 368 n. 14

of cognitive mapping, 573

Aristarchus of Samos, 203 Aristotle, 266, 358, 450, 488, 529, 556

ethics and, 140

303-4

Arms, Suzanne, 367 n.7

heightened experience, 581, 582-3

Armstrong, D. M., 485

postmodern,

Aronowitz,

Greek

ideals of beauty, 302,

utility as

6,

420, 567-8, 569

source of beauty, 38

S.,

386

art

ageism, 377, 378

Baudelaire on the

Albers, Joseph, 403

metaphor and, 115

Alcock, James, 484, 492 n.l3, 493 n.35

Alembert, Jean

le

Rond

d',

301

modernist,

Pop

artist,

6, 9, 86,

96-101

414-15

Art, 6, 407, 408

Alexander the Great, 37n.l, 307

postmodern, 420

alienation, 3, 6

realityand, 432, 433, 434n.5

allusive

metaphor, 516-17

subversive, 310-17

Alphandery, Paul, 294 n.25

Artaud, Antonin, 431

Althusser, Louis, 299, 454

Asher, Michael, 311

Ambrose, Stephen, 222

assimilation, 374

analytic truths, 540

Atwater, Lee, 384

98

Anderson, Benedict, 373

Augustine,

Angst, 170-1

Austin, John Longshaw, 85, 562, 584, 594,

Anne, Queen of Great

Britain, 56

antinomianism, 416, 419

St.,

598 autoeroticism, 254—5

I

9

Index avaiit-g.uilf,

(),

41

ik'sicni ami,

12

1

244

fiinalf as Other,

a\frsivc' racism, .>75

5

362

group identity and, 370 75, 377 naLlulaicl, Ciastoii, lUU

Macon, I'rancis,

influenced by history, 245, 247 materiality of sex, 398 40().

niasculinization of ihoii^ht, .^58,

W'lr

Hakl\N in,

.>()(),

M)\, M):

James M., 1%, 508

Benjamin,

BarfieUl,

Bohme, Jacob, 589

212

7,

Owen, 357

Bohr, Niels, 86 Bolingbroke, Henr\ St. John,

Barth, John, 414, 45*) Barthes, Roland, 310, 314, 317 Baselitz,

Georg, 564

Bataille,

Georges,

591 n.l3

Bohnic, llarinuit, 579, 580, 591 n.l3

liantu myth, 280, 292 n.5 IJarbcr,

from, 334

«//; as release

Bohm, David, 289, 344 Bohme, Gemot, 579, 580,

301

OriiiitKiti,

n.

14

\ iscount,

Bond, Doug, 568

2?>t>,

286

Bordo, Susan, 222, 354-69

Baudelaire, Charles, 86, 96-101, 130, 523

Bosch, Hieronymus, 197

BaudriUard, Jean, 22^, 421-33,,479 n.5

Bossuet, Jacques-Benigne, 366 n.l

Bauhaus School,

Boulez, Pierre, 293

86,

458

bourgeoisie, 75-8, 79-80, 81, 164, 167, 566

The, 564

Beauvoir, Simone de, 85, 169, 345, 360 Becket,

n.

Bourbaki group, 267

Bayle, Pierre, 68 Beatles,

Thomas, 555

gender and, 372-3 Bove, Paul, 320

behaviorism, 483-4, 486, 540, 552-3

Bradley, F. H., 5

Being, 539, 581, 586, 587

Brecht, Bertolt, 573

divorced from knowledge, 347

Brentano, Franz, 597

meaning and, 523, 524-6, 528 dtjjerance and, 236, 237-39

Britain

Burke on government, 54—62

Heidegger on, 174-94, 237, 238-9, 240

developments

logocentrism and, 512

rule in India, 321-2, 330, 331,

belief,

Bell,

102-5, 597, 598

in philosophy, 5

Broglie, Louis de, 86

209-15, 565

Broodthaers, Marcel, 311

Benjamin, Walter, 86, 312, 387, 426, 427

Brooks, Cleanth, 405

Bentham, Jeremy, 541, 542

Brooks, H., 275 n.52

Berg, Alban,

Brown, Denise

9,

86

Scott,

460

Brown, Norman O., 360

Berger, Peter, 8

Bergson, Henri, 85, 357, 524, 526, 527, 528

Bruno, Giordano, 302

Berkeley, George, 594, 595

Brunschvicg, Leon, 536

Berlin, University of,

261-2

Brunsw ick, Egon, 502

Berman, Morris, 357

Bryson, Norman, 317

Bernier, Francois, 303

Buber, Martin, 265, 539

Gian Lorenzo, 406 Bhaduri, Bhuvaneswari, 337-8

Buchler, Justus, 544

biology, 470, 471

Buhler, Charlotte, 198

Blake, Peter, 408, 565

Buhler, Karl, 583

Blum, Leon, 531

Buren, Daniel, 311, 317n.6

Bernini,

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc de, 303

Edmund, 54-62,

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, 303-4

Burke,

Blumenberg, Hans, 456

Burroughs, William, 564

n.

16

body, 366 n.2, 401 n.l3, 581 abjection and, 376-7 in art, 313,

333-^

Brittan, Arthur, 371

Bernard Iddings, 2

Bell, Daniel, 87,

68

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 260

315-17, 568

560, 561, 568

Burton, Robert, 367 n.9 Butler, Judith, 222,

390-^00

Butler, Octavia, 477

Being and, 179, 523, 524, 525 childhood and, 354-5, 360

Cage,John, 414, 417-18, 564

cyborgs, 464—79

Caillois,

Descartes on, 22-3

camp,

6,

Roger, 197

568

(®)

Index Campbell, Donald

1'.,

502, 508, 548

Cixous, Helene, 391 Clark, Colin, 214

JZlamper, Peter, 304

Camus,

Clash, The, 572

Albert, 169

Candolle, Aujjustin de, 89

(^anguilhem, Georges, 276

Clastres, Pierre, 294 n. 24

n. 67

capitalism, 4, 372, 467 class struggle and,

75-81

class struggle, 2,

Clausewitz, Karl Philipp Gottlieb von, 281, 291,

75-81

296n.35

culture and, 564—73

Cocteau, Jean, 172

decline of narrative and, 264

cognition, 10, 500-2, 505

end of production, 423-5

Cole,

fascism and, 216 n.

Collier, Arthur,

French, 326

color perception, 593—4

68

communication, 496, 507-8, 525, 588-91

imperialism and, 331

210-15

post-industrial,

Thomas, 378

communications technology, 216

research funding and, 268, 275 n. 55

communism,

4, 85,

Capra, Fritjof, 344

compars model of science, 282-3

Carnap, Rudolf, 85, 542-^, 545, 598, 599

complexity, 10

Carson, Rachel, 344

n. 6,

470-1

214, 216 n. 7, 222

I

403-8

in architecture, 7,

Cartland, Barbara, 459

Comte, Auguste, 172

Carus, Carl Gustav, 305

conceptual

Castoriadis, Cornelius, 586-7, 588

Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat,

Marquis

catastrophe theory, 6

598

relativity,

63-9

de,

Confucianism, 512, 514, 515-18

Catholicism, 104, 166, 245, 302

Cato, Marcus Porcius (the Elder), 36

Connolly, William, 400 n.l

Catullus, Caius Valerius, 34

consciousness, 587

causation, 483-8, 490, 494n.42, 587, 596

Descartes on, 22-6

chaos, 515

Other and, 533-5, 537

Chardin, Teilhard de, 487

as presence,

233—

1-

Charleton, Walter, 367 n.9

consciousness raising, 380-1, 388

Chaudhury,

Constantinople, l^-S

324

Ajit J.,

constructivism, 10-11, 416, 496-509

chemistry, 207, 283

Cherryholmes,

C,

contextual definition, 541-2, 543, 554

385

Coomaraswamy, Ananda,

child care, 345, 347

child development, 195-6,

359-60

childhood, 354-5, 366 n.l, 368

n. 14,

411, 545

China, 35, 210, 211, 288, 344, 513-14

Courbet, Gustav, 9 Crookes, William, 201

Taoism, 514—15

Culler, Jonathan, 329 cultural imperialism, 371, 372, 378-9, 380

Norma, 340

Chladni, Ernst,

cultural revolution, 379-81

n. 32

culture; 5, 85

1 1

Chodorovv, Nancy, 345, 363, 368

n. 13

Christianity, 7, 177, 285, 435

alternative norms, cultural gesture,

450-1

524-6

christology, 440

interpenetrability, 528-9,

Chuang Tzu,

late capitalism

51-^—15

{Congres Intenuitwual d'Archttecture Moderne)^

132, 458

Cicero,

Marcus 1

ullius,

43

4

cyborgs, 465-79

Cynics, 30-1

City of Towers, 136-8

Czechoslovak Academy of Science, 215

262, 263

Burke on, 59-60 civilization,

self and,

cyberpunk, 570

Cineas, 36

civil society,

535-6

and, 564—73

Plato and, 526-7

Churchill, Winston, 452

CIAM

201, 203

cosmological difference, 51-1—15

student movement, 461, 463 n.5

writing, 327

n. 4,

Corneille, Pierre, 60

Confucianism, 515-18

Chinchilla,

'd'h'S

Copernicus, Nicholas, 51, 53

Freud on, 144—8

Dahrendorf, Ralf, 550 Dalton, John, 207

1

1

7

1

Index |)al\.

Man,

.vU)

I

Daruin, Charles, Dcisc-iN,

Ciocl

»>5,

!•;

i:.

275

n. 52,

Loins,

ditferentiation in language, 125 6

Dilthey,

W ilhelm,

576

Dinnersiein, Dorothy, 362, 367 n

\\.,4S4

Dirac, Paul, 86

116, 435

(),

440, 441, 442, 444.

^1')

diremption model of reason, 581

37S

death instinct, 144, 145

disability.

Declaration ot Right, 56, 57

disenchantment

deconstruction, 12, 327-8, 33*)n.2S, 5S3

dispars

of religion, 435, 436, 437-46

o( nature,

model of

482 6

science, 282, 283

dispositional properties, 593

deference, 517-18

dissemination, 445

dehumanization, 415-16, 418 1^

distal

Delany, Samuel, 477

domination, 468-71, 473, 476

delegitimation

dominati\e racism, 375

of knowledge, 264—6

criticized

knowledge, 502, 508

Donne, John, 360, 405

of authority, 7

Deleuze, Gilles,

3, 86,

Dostoievski, Fyodor, 532

278-92

double consciousness, 379

by Spivak, 319, 322, 323, 324, 326, 330,

Douglas, Mary, 474

Downing, Andrew, 93

338

democracy, 85, 210, 383-5, 393, 452

Du

Democritus, 281, 589

dualism, 517, 595

denial,

1

Diogenes Laertius, 50

abjection and, .w8 5,

IS

Taoism and, 512

27()n7)S

*)*>

death, 12K, 531

ofCiod,

59()

(Confucianism and, 512, 517

Jr.,

(.

)ems,

education and, 385, 386

l'>2

Davidson, Donald, 450, 5S4, hOO Davics, P.

I

difference, 512, 513

4, 57()

IS'^

l)a\iil, |aci|uc>

)uki(»I,

dtlJeramc, 10,225 40, 517. 587

\S}

174, 179, ISO, ISl. IS?

and,

mhilation ami, l)a\ul,

88

S(),

359-60

Bois,

W.

E. B., 379

cyborgs and, 478

DePalma, Brian, 569

domination and, 476

derealization, 568

objectivity

Derrett,J. M., 331

postmodern denial

Derrida, Jacques,

4, 86,

341 n.64, 443, 576

deconstruction, 12, 339 n. 28, 435

and

subjectivity, 482, 484, 485-6,

Duchamp, Marcel,

of,

1

311, 317n.4, 414, 566, 569

Cage on, 418 nihilism and, 417

denial of perception, 10 dijjerance concept, 10, 225-40, 517, 586, 587

Dufrenne, Mikel, 523

OfGrammatology, 233, 327-8, 329, 330

Duhem,

on logos and logocentrism, 445, 512

Dumezil, Georges, 278, 280, 292

nothing outside text claim,

Dummett, Michael, 584

1

Pierre, 545

on Other, 327, 328, 338

Durkheim, Emile, 86

postmodernism and, 222, 391

dynamic

Descartes, Rene, 66, 67, 150, 157, 162, 266, 357

objectivity,

n.2,

295 n.33

358

dynamics, 203-^, 204-5, 206

animals as automata, 366 n.2

on childhood, 354-5

Easlea, Brian, 358, 361, 367 n.9, 491 n.l

Discourse on Method, Ibl, 301, 354 extensio,

289

Eco, Umberto, 459 ecology, 462

on God, 21, 502

economic maturity, 217 n.9

masculinization of thought, 354—61

economics of information, 214

Meditations, 19-26, 355-6

Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 592

science and, 206, 300-1, 489, 593-1, 596

education, 260-1, 262, 273 n.l, 349, 472-3

Giroux on, 383-8

descent, 242, 243-5, 248

determinate negativity, 160

India,

determinism, 5-6 deterritorialization, 284-5, 288-9,

De\\ey, John,

Dews,

5,

85, 354, 384,

Peter, 341 n.64

321-2

effective history,

508

295 n.27

246-8

Egypt, 34, 50 Ehrenreich, Barbara, 367 eigenvalue, 502, 503

n.

489

2

1

Index Einstein, Albert, 86, 203-t,

20+5,

207, 461, 484

Kisenbud, Jule, 493 n.35

Farrington, Benjamin, 358 fascism, 85, 118, 164, 172, 216 n.

Eisenman, Peter, 7

fate,

ek-sistence, 178-83, 185-186, 189, 192, 193

Feidelson, Charles,

electricity,

206

eliminati\e materialism, 486

108 n.l Jr.,

415

Feigl, Herbert,

594

feminism,

329, 368-9 n.l8

2, 4,

Eliot,

George, 172

education and, 387, 388

Eliot,

Thomas

epistemologies, 342-52

elitism,

Stearns, 86, 336, 403, 420

Haraway's cyborg manifesto, 464—79

416

Elizabeth

I,

Queen of England, 57

post-Cartesian philosophy and, 364—6

Ellmann, Richard, 415

postmodernism and, 222, 390-400

embedded

revaluation of the feminine, 363-4

narratives, 555-6, 561

emergence, 242, 243, 245-6, 248, 299

Third World, 339^0 n.32

Emperaire, Jose, 294 n.20

see also

empiricism,

5, 6,

27

women

feudalism, 75, 76

Engels, Friedrich, 75-81, 351, 556

Feyerabend, Paul, 449, 450, 451, 455

English, Dierdre, 367 n.7

Fichte,

Enlightenment,

9,

265, 456 n. 16

Johann Gottheb,

n. 10,

493n.28

160, 251, 261, 262, 576, 579

Fiedler, Leslie, 6

FitzGerald, Edward, 336

Hegel on Enlightened consciousness, 70-4

Fizeau, Armand-Hippolyte Louis, 106

Kant on, 45-9, 162-4

Flax, Jane, 345, 347-9, 350

Marx

Foch, Ferdinand, 289

and, 365

narrative of, 259

foetalization, 197

postmodernism and,

2,

349, 352, 451-2

598

folk psychology,

pragmatism and, 454

Fontenelle, Bernard de, 68

racism and, 306-7

Ford Foundation Report

revision attempts, 579, 580

Fordism, 462

self-negating tendencies, 159-67

(1953), 553

forlornness (Verlassenheit), 171 Foster, Hal, 310-17

Ennius, Quintus, 34

Foucault, Jean-Bernard-Leon, 106

Epicurus, 36

epistemology

see

knowledge

Foucault, Michel,

330, 338, 567, 598

4, 86,

Erigena, John Scotus, 105-6

biopoHtics, 465

eroticism, 416, 419

episteme concept, 320-1, 331

essentialism, 329

on genealogy, 241-6, 251, 299 on history, 246-51

ethics, 531

education and, 385

invention of man,

existentialism and, 171-2

language and, 320, 587

ontology and, 190-2

making unseen

physics and, 456 n. 13

on natural

sense and, 532-5, 536

non-Western world

and morality,

utility

38^H

virtue ethics, 550, 551,

Wittgenstein on,

559-63

Europe,

7,

evil, 130,

214, 216 n.9, 249

144-5, 192, 242, 438

visible,

324

history, 302 as Other, 319, 320-1, 322, 323

Order of Things, 576

philosophy of the subject, 397, 575-6, 577, 579,

139^3

Euripides, 448

1

581, 582, 585, 586

postmodernism and, 222, 397 on power, 252-3, 394-5, 397, 575-6 on

sex, 366,

399

exclusion model of reason, 581

subjugated knowledges, 343

existentialism, 3, 4, 6, 85, 86, 185, 550

on third-world

Heidegger on ek-sistence, 178-83, 186, 192 Sartre on, 169-73, 180-1, 182-3

experimentalism, 417, 419-20

on

truth,

labor,

326

252-3

on war, 394, 395, 401 n.8 foundationalism,

3, 10,

223

Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, 329 Fabricius Luscinus, Caius, 36 facial angle,

304

Fanon, Franz, 370, 371

(US)

France, 171,221,326,391,478

developments

in philosophy,

Revolution, 54, 60-1, 70

1,

3^,

5,

6

6

Index (lobloi. l.dmi)iul. 427

siuilcnt ri\»)lt, 7

Ciod. 17, 250

I'runcc, Anatolc, 522, 52.^

covenant with, 590

IVank, Joseph, 416 I'rankfuri,

I

Iarr>,

IVankfurt School, IVankliii,

death

,v5*' 2().>,

Hcnjamin,

cNiland, 130, 144

2(), .vS7

Frederick

1!

4(),

48

Kant on, 46-9,

the

242, 438

Heidegger on, 180, 181, 188, 189

meaning and, 521, 529

171

443

reason and, 150 4, 12, S

llusstrl, Ktlmuiul, S5,

on

kmii

inlluciKc on Putnam, 592, 598, 6IM)

sciisc-clata, 541

skepticism, 27 31, 4'M

on

11.

l.iims, Wilh.ini, 5, 85, 504, 508, 594,

Kierkegaard, Seren, 85, 170, 435

King, Katie, 477 King, Ynestra, 369 n.l Kirby, Michael, 420

460

Klein, Hilary, 465 Klein, Melanie, 360, 361, 362

Jacob, Fran(;()is, 429

Kleist,

Jacobs, Jane, 6-7, 457

knowledge,

Jakobson, Roman, 4

James

I,

King of Great

Bernd Heinrich von, 284 5, 10,

449, 493 n. 30, 494n.43, 589, 590

Bell's definition,

Britain, 42, 55, 56, 57

216

n.

constructivism and, 10-11, 496-509

Index knowledge

meaning and, 522^, 525, 526, 527, 528-9, 532,

{cont'd)

Descartes' doubt, 19-26

535, 545

education and, 385-6

metaphorical, 516

feminist theories of, 342-52

of presence, 516

history and, 250-1

Saussure on, 122-6, 230, 231, 233

Hume's

semiotic/symbolic distinction, 376

skepticism, 27 31

value and, 421-3

Lyotard on legitimation, 259-73 natural sciences and, 540-8

postmodernism and,

language games, 86, 277n.71, 456 n.l legitimation and, 265-7, 268, 270, 271, 272, 273

1

Knovvles, I)om David, 555

Laporte, Roger, 538

293^ n. 17

Kofman, Sarah, 329

Laroche, Emmanuel,

Kohler, Wolfgang, 195

Lasch, Christopher, 4

Kojeve, Alexander, 586

Lavater, Johann Kaspar, 304

Kovel, Joel, 375

Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 201, 207

Koyre, Alexandre, 232

Lawler, Louise, 312-13, 317 n.8

Kramer, Heinrich, 361, 367 nn. 7, 9

Lazarsfeld, Paul, 275 n.53

Kristeva, Julia, 372, 376-7, 378, 380, 391

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard

Kruger, Barbara, 310, 313, 314, 315-17

Krutch, Joseph Wood, 485, 492 nn.20, 22

Leavis, Frank, 565

Kuhn, Thomas,

Lederer, Wolfgang, 361

5,

86-7, 200-8, 450, 451, 547

Jeanneret), 9, 86,

132-8, 404, 406, 458, 565, 569

Ledoux, Claude-Nicolas, 405

Kurtz, Paul, 493 n.35

Leger, Fernand, 569

La Bruyere, Jean de, 98 La Rochefoucault, Francois, Duke

legitimation of knowledge, 260-73 de,

366 n.l

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 162, 166, 487, 599

binary system and God, 427, 428

labour

communicative action and, 588 gendered division

of,

342-7, 349-50, 371, 472, 473

international division of,

325-6

post-industrial change, 213 praxis philosophy and, 580, 586, 588

value of, 423-5

Condorcet on, 67-8

Law

of identity, 558

mathematics and nature, 156

on monads, 365 principle of sufficient reason. 111

Lenin (Vladimir

Lacan, Jacques, 86, 278, 567, 582

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 110

376

on mirror

stage, 195-9,

476

symbolic, 316, 320, 324

Levi-Strauss, Claude,

4,

267, 433, 582

Levin, Harry, 415

Emmanuel,

Laclau, Ernesto, 386, 400 n.l

Levinas,

language

Lewis, C. subversion, 313-17

S.,

223, 226, 238, 265, 521-39

368n.l2

Lezniewski, Stanislaw, 599

Being and, 174, 176-7, 179-80, 182, 183, 186, 193, 194

compared

296 n.35,

Lentricchia, Frank, 327

imaginary, 255, 316 jouissance,

artistic

Ilyich Ulyanov), 295n.31,

572

Liapunov, 428 liberalism,

to city, 265

liberty, 64,

370 243

198,330

concept formation, 111-12, 114

libido, 145, 148 n.2,

Confucianism and, 515-18

Ufeworld, 577-8, 585, 586, 588, 590

correspondence to

reality,

490-1

Husserl on, 153-5, 158, 577, 596

dijferance and, 230-3, 517

Linnaeus, Carolus (Carl von Linne), 90, 303

education and, 385-6, 387, 388

Lissajoux, Jules-Antoine, 106

feminism and,

473^

literacy,

grammar, 175

474

literature

ideal, 5

criticism, 3, 413-14,

inability to express the miraculous, 143

life

linguistics

and genetics converge, 428

logic as metalanguage,

266-7

Maturana's explanation of origin, 507

as narrative,

modernist,

564-5

555-7

6, 9, 86,

412-13, 414-17, 418, 419, 420

nouveau roman, 431, 564

postmodern,

2,

417-20, 459

science fiction, 476-8, 570

(®)

2

5

Index LiNcrmorc

ActiDii Ciioiip (1. \(i), 4()S ()5, ()7,

558,

logic, 5, 85,

540

542, 598 9

2()(),

1,

social |>raclKc, 5K()

valueiheory, 421,422, 434 n

Lotkc, John, 27,

5').^

Marxism,

Heidegger on, 187 8

6, 75, 85,

alienation, 3

421

logical einpiricisni .«r positivism

n.uiiliillard's view,

logoccntrisni, 512, 58.>, 584 5

i.ipiialism

Lorde, Audre, .wO, 474

consciousness and, 324

Lorenz, Kdvvard,

decline ol, 4

Lovibond,

()

conduct, 210

social

461

5,

history and, 185

Lovvith, Karl, ^1}

Lucan (Marcus Annacus

I

,ucaiuis),

knowledge and, 263

()()

neo-Kantianism and, 338

Lucretius, 281

lU,

Niklas,

209, 270, 271, 272, 27f)n.()4,

496-509

n.l

post industrial society and, 565

technology and, 568 9

Lukacs, Gyorgy, 573

war and, 206 n.3

•

women

Luria, Isaac, 589 Lyell, Charles, 89

Lyotard, Jean-Franyois, .V4, 86, 209, 424, 432

on knowledge,

Mary Mary

I,

and, 258, 351 2,473,475 Queen of England, 57

II,

C^ueen of Great Britain, 56

mass-production housing, 134

333

difjeraul,

and

fascism and, 216 n.

Sabin.i, 45()ii.l5

Luhmann,

1

452, 586

7,

259-73

materialism, 185, 589, 595, 597

postmodernism and, 391, 401 n.3

mathematics,

5, 50,

293

n. 10,

489, 540

2,

593, 600

Descartes on, 20-1

Macaulay,

Thomas

mathematization of nature, 153-7, 160

Babinglon, 321

Maturana, Humberto,

Macdonnell, Arthur, 321

Macherey,

324—5

Pierre,

Maynard, Mary, 371

Machiavelli, Nicolo, 164, 368 n. 12

Maclntyre, Alasdair,

MacKie,J.

7,

223, 550-63

McCaffrey, Anne, 476 McClintock, Barbara, 344

L., 504

Maine, Henry Summer, 86

McCollum,

Maki, Fumihiko, 408

Mclntyre, Vonda, 477

Malinche, mistress of Cortes, 475

McLuhan,

Malthus,

Thomas

498, 507

6,

Maxwell, John Clerk, 207, 208

Allan, 312, 313

Marshall, 426, 427

Mead, George Herbert,

Robert, 89

Mandel, Ernest, 565, 568-9

meaning,

Mandelbrot, Benoit, 6

Medawar,

Mandeville, Bernard, 38, 166

medicine, 128-9

Mannheim,

Memmi,

Karl, 365, 496

4, 10, 517,

Peter,

85, 590

5,

521-39, 545, 587-8

276-7 n.69

Albert, 397, 401 n.9

Marcel, Gabriel, 281, 539

Mendelssohn, Moses, 45, 49

Marcuse, Herbert, 357, 373, 571

Merchant, Carolyn, 343, 356-7, 361, 367 nn. 8,

Marinetti, Filippo

Tommaso,

86,

H 8-21,

569

368

n. 12

Marr, David, 594

mereology, 599

Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), 34, 307

meritocracy, 213-14

Martin, Biddy, 391

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice,

Marx, Karl,

3, 159,

576

abundance and socialism, 214 on

class,

metaphor,

on

classics,

allusive,

Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, ill, 324,

557

527, 534

perception and, 524, 525, 586 metanarratives, 260

566

3, 85, 169,

culture and meaning, 526, 528, 533, 535

agency and, 319, 338 n.l 75-81, 210, 295n.27, 344, 580

n.l

12,

521-2, 535, 600

516-17

Nietzsche on, 112-14 metaphysics,

5,

150, 233, 246, 430, 581

essentialism and, 329

a priori knowledge, 51-2

estrangement, 185

Being and, 178-9, 181-2, 183, 185, 186-7

Hegel and,

essence of man, 178-9

humanism

18,

580

and, 177

Greek

origins,

249

materialist dialectic, 365, 571, 572

realism and, 448

production, 210, 260, 331, 425, 426

skepticism about, 152

9,

7

Index Mulvey, Laura, 316

metaphysics (lont'd)

518, 564, 572

thinking and, 189, 194

music,

V ienna Circle and, 545

Mussolini, Benito, 118

mythology, 478, 557

metaracism, 375

Bantu, 280

Michelangelo, 408, 41-1-15

Dumezil on Indo-European, 278-9, 280

Michnik, Adam, 383, 384

Mies van der Rohe, LudNNig,

7, 9, 86,

403, 404, 406,

442^,

Hindu, 337

445, 446

metaphor and, 115

Mill, James, 130 Mill,

Enlightenment and, 159, 161, 165-6 female sexuality and, 257, 337

565 milieu,

6, 9,

John Stuart,

130, 266

5,

Nadin, Peter, 314

Miller, Jacques-Alain, 320

Milovanoff, Anny, 293

Mine, Alain, 276

Naess, Arne, 509 n.9

n. 15

Nandy, Ashis, 332

n. 61

Mink, Louis O., 555, 556

Napoleon, 260

mirror stage of development, 195-9, 476

narrative,

modernism,

nationahsm,

defined, 9

Hassan on

554—9

legitimation of knowledge,

573

13, 86,

literature, 411,

412-13, 414-17, 418-19,

7, 185,

natural history, 302-3 nature, 568

420

postmodern reaction

against, 2-3, 6-7,

resistance to postmodernism,

theology and,

564—7

461-2

438

2,

origin of species, 88-95

Enlightenment and, 165-6, 448 356-7, 360, 362, 367

mathematization

17-18

as

formative influences,

8,

Other of reason, 581-2

natural selection, 88-9,

17

91—J

individualism and, 561

Needham, Joseph, 344

postmodernism and, 2

Nef, John Ulric, 296

Weber on

Neo-Expressionism, 564

price of, 127-31

Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), 206

Mondrian,

581

mythological view, 161, 165

defined, 8-9

W alter,

n. 11,

153-7, 160

of,

mechanistic view, 357, 360-1, 482—6

Baudelaire on, 86, 99-101 critics of,

Darwin on as female,

modernity, 12-13, 85-6

xMondale,

259-64

305, 373, 573

Nero, 34 Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, 285

384

Neurath, Otto, 452, 546

460

Piet, 416,

Monet, Claude, 9

Newton,

Monge, Gaspard, 293 n. 14 Monod, Jacques, 428, 429-30, 434 n.3, 483

Nicaragua, 379

Montagu, Ashley, 303

Isaac, 203-1, 20-^5, 206,

208

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 85, 240, 241, 253, 581

on ancient Greeks, 9

Montaigne, Michel de, 37nn.2,

3

Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron de, 68, 306 Montrose, Marquis

n. 36

of, 561,

562

condemns

universities,

death of God, 116,435

Moore, Charles, 460

dijferance and, 226,

Moore, G.

existentia^

E., 85, 140

265

critique of logocentrism, 583

234

179

genealogy and, lAl-b^ 299

Moraga, Cherrie, 475 morality see ethics

Genealogy of Morals, 280, 505

Moreau, 304

history and, 246-51, 581

Morin, Edgar, 428

influence on postmodernism, 13, 86, 109 nihilism, 2, 264

morphogenesis, 270 Morrison, D., 275

n.

53

Moscovici, Serge, 277

n. 70

Moses, 288, 290

on

objectivity, 365

on

reality,

430

reason and, 579, 580

Mosse, George, 304, 372, 373

religion and, 531

Mouffe, Chantal, 400n.l

on

Mueller, Claus, 276n.57

will to

Mulla, Sir Dinshavv, 335

truth, 109-16, 117,

power,

nihilation,

192-3

1 1

453-^

6

1

5

Index nihilism, 2,

2M,

n«)m.Kl()l(i{?>

,

nominalism,

417, >M)

cosmological/ontological contrast, 512

2S2, 2H3 ), I'H, 441)

cultural diversity anil, 449

15'>

of

Nora, Simon.

27() n

26, '^OO

I

feminist \ie\N, 347 9

Norbcrg-SLluil/, Christian, 4M)

twuvcau

)escartes, 19

i/i/ffnnuf and, 234

i,

Protestantism, 17, 104, 127, 591n.l3 Pruitt-Igoe housing scheme, St Louis, 457-8, 459

461, 463 n.

:>84,

Pseudo-Callisthenes, 307

Michael, 450, 547

Pole, Reginald, 561, 562 politics,

295 n.27

psychoanalysis,

12,86, 129, 391, 400 n.l

education and, 384 -5, 388

on female

Irigaray

Lacan on mirror

201

political revolutions,

7

3, 4, 6,

destructive instinct, 144-7, 198 sexuality, 25-1—8

stage,

195-9

198,330

Pollack, Jackson, 9

libido, 145, 148 n. 2,

Ponge, Francis, 171

object-relations theory, 347-8

Pop

Oedipus complex, 146-7,

Art, 6, 407, 408, 431

Popkewitz, T., 386

separation anxiety, 359-61

Popper, Karl, 455 n.l, 508, 583 positivism,

5,

198, 360, 366 n.6

repression, 12, 330

149, 160, 172, 329,

women

490-1

as scapegoats,

329-30

psychology

Post-Fordism, 462, 463 n.6 post-industrial society, 2-3, 87, 209-15

behaviorism,

postmodernism, 1-2, 86, 169, 221-3

continuity of personality, 558

architecture and, 457,

458-62

God

epistemology and, 543,

and, 435-6

folk psychology,

feminism and, 390-400

Ptolemy, 203

Putnam, Hilary, 223, 449-51, 592-600

and, 564—73

Pynchon, Thomas, 564

Lyotard on, 259-73 of,

545-6

psychobiology, 484

history of, 2-8

meaning

5-14,

598

parapsychology, 484, 488, 493-4n.35

Hassan on, 410-20

late capitalism

486, 540, 552-3

Descartes and, 596

Chinese philosophy and, 51-4—18 death of

483^,

9-12

Pyrrhonism, 34

validity of, 13

post-structuraHsm,

1, 3, 6,

86, 222, 223,

392

quantity, 234

Quine, Willard Van Orman, 223, 450, 540-9, 600

Pound, Ezra, 86 Powell, Colin, 395

power, 346, 392, 396, 493n.30, 575-6, 579, 580-1,

racism, 4, 222, 298-308, 370-1, 375, 470

Raghunandana, 335

582 legitimation by, 268-9

rape,

truth and, 252-3

Rawls, John, 370, 452, 453, 455 n.l2

PPBS

(Planning Programming ^ Budgeting System), ^

429

Read, Herbert, 413 realism, 431, 453, 592-3, 594, 596, 598

^

pragmatism,

399-+00

5, 85, 86,

190, 223, 447, 592

reality,

105-7, 447, 499, 500, 503, 521

ethnocentrism, 448, 449, 452-5

constructivist view, 504—5

Peirce explains, 102-8

hyperrealism and, 431-3, 434

truth and, 448-9

truth and, 10-11, 592-600

praxis philosophy, 580, 586—8

reason

515

pre-industrialism, 211

anthropocentric nature

premodernism, 7

authoritarianism and, 164—7

presence, 512, 513, 531, 539

central to Enlightenment, 17

language

of,

postmodern denial Price,

communicative

516, 518 of,

v.

D.J. deSolla, 274n.27

of,

subject-centered, 575-91

Condorcet on progress

10

n.

of,

63-9

education and, 386-7

Price, Richard, 54, 55, 56

hidden, 154

Prigogine, Ilya, 6, 484

history of, 242

primitivism, 416, 419

Kant on, 49-52,

process philosophy, 85

metaphysics and, 150, 151, 152

production, 425-7, 434

end

of,

n. 2,

588

423-5

professional comportment, 37-1—5

160, 162-4, 581, 582

slave of passions, 365

tradition and, 560-1 recursivitv, 502,

504

I

Index Rcductionisin, 41 Reeves, 362, 36Sn.l2

Rec, Paul, 241, 242

Sandoval,

Rccd, ishni.ul,

Sanskrit. 321

rctlcctant

Reich,

W

\

54

.Sartre,

5*).>

,

rclatiMsm, 44S

/ifini>

UN J

Xoi/iiniincss, 551

127, 130, 473, 52'> 30, 531

existentialism, 169 73, 177, 180

435, 436, 437 46

.\ a use (I, 172, 551,

5,

of,

!uela,

586

illuini, :>M)

religion, 2, 5,

(

intolerance, 63 4

suli/suiur, 330, 331

Kant on, 47, 4S

Saussure, I'erdinand de,

nomadism and, 285-6, 440 Ta) lor on, 435 46

4, 86,

226

434

value, 421,422,

n.l

Scanlon, T. M., 455 n.l 2

Max, 365

Renaissance, 149-51, 301, 364

Scheler,

Schclling, Friedrich

n. 10

Rescher, Nicholas, 493n.31, 4^)4 nn. 36

8, 40,

508,

W

.

J.

von, 262, 576, 579, 589

Schiller, Friedrich, 177, 576, 579, 580, 591 n.l3

Schlegel, August, 579

n. 35

respectability,

372-5

Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 261

responsibility, 560

Schoffer, Nicolas, 430

Retzius, Anders, 305

Schonberg, Albert,

revolutions

Schopenhauer, Arthur, 242

9,

86

cultural,

379-81

Schrodinger, Erwin, 86

political,

201

Schutz, Alfred, 501, 586

Schwartz, Benjamin, 515

200-8, 300

Rey-Debove,

Josette,

Schwartz, Delmore, 411

276 n.66

Rich, Adrienne, 366-7 nn.7,

8,

368

n. 12,

Schwarzkogler, Rudolph, 412

474

science, 5-6

Richta, Radovan, 215 Riley, Terry, 564

cognition and, 114, 496, 508-9

Rimbaud, Arthur, 522

cultural

Rivera, Diego, 569

Descartes on, 20-1

Roentgen, Wilhelm, 201

discursive status, 429-30

Rolling Stones, The, 564

disenchantment of nature, 482-6

DNA

Romanticism, 581, 582

Rome,

34, 36, 37n.4, 75, 177,

Ronan

Point, 459

code, 427-9

feminist epistemologies, 342-52

anti-foundationalism,

7, 87,

postmodern bourgeois Rose, Hilary,

meaning and, 527-8

epistemology and natural science, 540-8

280

Heidegger on, 301

Rorty, Richard, 86, 364, 366, 447-56, 598

342^,

humanity and,

354, 447, 592

liberalism, 223,

3,

4

legitimation of, 259, 260-73, 300-1

298

346, 349

mathematization of nature, 153-7, 160

modernity and, 86

Rose, Margaret, 2

Rosenberg, Harold, 411,419

nomad

Rosovsky, Henry, 216-17

post-industrial society and, 213, 215

n.

science,

281-3

Ross, John, 360

postmodern organicism and, 486-91

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 32-7, 45, 65, 71, 97, 99

reason and, 50^2

Roussel,

Raymond, 566

Royce, Josiah,

5,

resistance to postmodernism,

85

revolutions

in, 85,

461-2

86-7, 200-8, 300-1

Ruddick, Sarah, 363

universal philosophy and, 149-51

Rudolph, Paul, 404, 406

Weber

Rush, Benjamin, 305-6

scientific

Russell, Bertrand, 5, 85, 139, 140, 485, 503,

on, 127-31

science fiction, 476-8, 570

Russ, Joanna, 477

541-2

postmodernism, 5-6

scientism, 450, 451, 454, 575 Scott, Joan, 397

Sade, Marquis de, 159, 164, 165 Said,

550

8

reproduction, 361, 367

scientific,

3,

on language, 122-6, 230, 231, 233

remorse, 146

510-11

182

on Other, 537

222

7,

1,

556

Edward W.,

320, 322, 336

Scott, Sir Walter, 304, 555 scripture, 435, 436,

440-6

7

Index skepticism, 10, 494 n. 43

Scythians, 35

Hume

Sebeok, Thomas, 428 self, 3,

11,394, 576-7

on, 27-31

Skinner, B. F., 454, 483-4, 552

Smith, Adam, 38-44, 66

abstract, 161

authorial/literary,

Smith, Dorothy, 349-50, 352

419

education and, 388

Smith, Paul, 380

father of oneself fantasy, 360

Smith, Samuel Stanhope, 305

gender and, 347-8, 363

Snell,

God

Snow, C.

and, 436

M., 523 484

P.,

mirror stage of development, 195-9

Snowden, Frank, 307

narrative concept of, 551-9

social control,

Other and, 70, 320, 347-8, 476, 532-5 rebirthing of, 356, 359-60

socialism, 4, 214, 572-3, 588

separation from roles, 550-1 social identity,

429

society, 7, 587

alienation from, 3

559-61

structuralist view,

n. 20

209-15

post-industrial, l-li,

sociology, 86

4

596-7

Sellars, Wilfrid, 592, 594,

Socrates, 13, 35-6, 105-6, 249, 448 Sofoulis, Zoe, 465, 470, 477

semantics, 548, 584

semiology, 123-4

Sohn-Rethel, Alfred, 343, 344

semiotics, 428

solidarity, 447, 448, 452,

sense see meaning

Solon, 43

sense data,

5,

593-4, 595

Descartes' doubt

of, 20, 23,

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 4

24-6

Somers, Lord, 56-7

Serres, Michel, 281 set theory, 540, 541,

454

Sontag, Susan, 568

Sophocles, 190

542

sex and sexuality, 145, 337, 366, 373, 399-JOO female, 254—8

Soviet Union,

210-11, 21-1-15, 216 n.8

4,

space, 366

Shakespeare, William, 280

Euclidean, 283

Shapiro, Karl, 413

postmodernism and, 568, 572-3

smooth

Shapiro, S., 385 Shastri,

Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad, 322

Spears,

v. striated,

Monroe

286-8, 293 nn. 9, 15

K., 415

584

Sheeler, Charles, 567

speech

Sheldrake, Rupert, 493 n.32

speech, language and,

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 485

Spencer, Herbert, 429

Sidney, Algernon, 65

Spencer-Brown, G., 499-500

art and,

230

Sprenger, Jakob, 361, 367 nn. 7, 9

Spurzheim, Johann Kaspar, 305

433

George Ernst, 50

dijferance and, 225, 229-32, 233

Stahl,

labor and, 424—5

Stalinism, 4, 263

linearity

of

signifier,

metaphysics of

124-5

DXA

4 Burke on, 54-62

state,

code, 427-30

knowledge and, 260-4, 268, 269, 275 n.54, 276n.59

production and, 426, 427 signified

and

11>1>

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, 222, 319-38, 397

signification, 4, 122-6, 180

arbitrariness of signs, 123-4,

acts,

signifier, 123, 124, 421,

441

Plato and, 43, 528

theology and, 441-2

post-industrial,

of traces, 536-9

reason and authoritarianism, 164—7

472

value and, 421-3, 427

Smith on, 41-4

writing and, 227, 229, 441-2

war machine, 279-92

Simmel, Georg,

86, 587

Stein, Gertrude, 412, 566

Simon, Herbert A., 407

Stendhal (Marie Henri Beyle), 172

simulacra, 423, 425-33, 434 n. 5, 471, 479 n. 5, 567,

Stenger, Isabelle, 6 Stern, Karl, 354, 355, 357, 358, 368 n. 13

568 simultaneity, 501-2

Stern, Robert, 460

Sisyphus, 137

Stevens, Wallace, 564

situses, 213,

216 n.

Stewart, Dugald, 66

Index losnlHi-. ArnoKI.

Siijl, l)c, 4()l)

Stirling,

James, 4V^

trace,

()

284. 294 n IS

2.

556 9

560

Stourtl/c, v., 27()n.()l

irailition,

Stravinsk), Igor.

*),

tragic protagonist, 562

structuralism, 4,

S(),

Sf)

transcendence, 517, 529, 582 3

587

struggle tor existence, SS

2

Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, 45')

560

transitional objects,

*)1 ()()

iVilling, Lionel,

415

truth, 4, 152, 515

subalterns, 51*) 58 H)*)

sublime, the,

5f>S, 5()*),

570, 572

1

leidegger and, 181

knowledge

suicide, 55(S

of Hindu widows

544

c'\|)crience and,

70, 5*^5

subjectivism,

.ur suti/snttee

as justified true beliel,

mathematics and, 540

494 5n.45

1

modernity and, 512

Suppe, Frederick, 4'Hn.45 subjugated knowledges, 545, 544

Nietzsche on, 109-16, 453-4

surrealism, 451, 452

origin and, 245

Swedenborg, Kmanuel, 579

power and, 252-3 pragmatism and, 448, 449, 454, 455

symbols, 124, 526, 557

sympathetic thinking, 557

8,

565, 568 n. 15

pursuit for

own

490

synthetic truths, 540

reality and, 10-11, 448,

systems theory, 496, 499-502

science and, 488, 493 n.30

semantic theory

of,

1,

592-600

504, 517

becomes

true world

Tacitus, 54

n.l

447 8

sake,

fable,

117

Tagore, Rabindranath, 555

truth-condition semantics, 584

Taoism, 512, 514-15, 517

Tschumi, Bernard,

Tarski, Alfred, 85

Turing, Alan, 597

7

Taylor, Frederick W., 465

Taylor,John, 484, 492n.l2 Taylor,

Mark C,

225,

435^6

technology, 185, 267-8, 269, 415, 418, 481 n.25,

568-70

Unimaginable,

the, 410,

417

United States capitalism and, 76, 210

compared with Soviet Union, 210, 216 n.

teleonomic principle, 428

defense budget, 465

temporality, 484, 492 n. 17

developments

Terence (Publius Terentius Afer), 34

involvement

terrorism, 222

political indifference,

in philosophy, 5

in

Indo-China,

4, 7,

221

384

Thackeray, William xVIakepeace, 96

Post-Fordism, 462, 463 n.6

Thales of

post-industrial society, 212, 213, 214

IVliletus,

50

Theatre of Cruelty, 45

racism, 375

theism, 456

research funding, 275 n.54

theological prejudice, 527

third-worldism, 321

theology, 225, 435-46

war with

Iraq, 393,

human

394-6

Third World, 326-7

unity of

Thom, Rene,

universal philosophy, 149-52, 392-3

270

6,

Thomas, Edward, 557 Thompson, E. P., 383 Thompson, Edward, 322,

universality,

life,

550-65

535-6

urbanism, 415, 418, 458 333, 336

TilHch, Paul, 85

utility,

38-9, 70

Uttal, W^illiam,

484

time, 484, 492 n. 17

Tiptree, James,

Jr.,

477

Valery, Paul, 532, 537

Toffler, Alvin, 209

value, 421-5,

Tolstoy, Leo, 128, 535

Van Fraasen, Bas C, 562

Tonnies, Ferdinand, 86

Vanbrugh, John, 406

Torricelli, Evangelista, 50

Vanini, Lucilio, 302

totalitarianism, 585, totality, 524,

584

528

town planning, 136-8, 407

434 n.l

\ arela, Francisco, 498,

Varley, John, 477

Veblen, Thorstein, 427

506

Index Vcnturi, Robert,

7,

223, 403-8, 460, 565

V'icinus,

Virgil,

C:ircle,

266, 542, 545, 546

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 85, 450, 545, 596, 597, 598

on

Virilio, Paul, 287, 288,

293

virtue ethics, 550, 551,

559-63

n. 11,

295nn.29, 31

Voltaire (l'Van(;ois Marie Arouet), 32, 68, 306

Philosophical Investigations,

Walzer, Michael, 388

in art,

war, 278-92, 401 n.8, 465

of color, 474-6

societies,

47 1-^^

feminism and, 397-8 masculinization of thought and, 354—66

431,433

oppression

Weil, Eric, 530

sexuality,

371

of,

254-8

Weinberg, Steven, 484

subaltern, 322, 325,

Welch, Sharon, 385

see also

Woolf, Virginia,

n. 18

328-38

feminism 9,

86

West, Cornel, 222, 298-308

Wren,

Westfall, Richard, 49 In.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 404, 565

1

Whigs, 57

Sir Christopher, 206

writing, 441-6,

White, Morton, 600

474—6

Derrida on, 227-8, 229, 233, 327-8, 339n.28

white supremacy, 298, 299, 302, 303-8

Whitehead, Alfred North,

5,

85, 355, 482, 486, 542

Xenophon, 35

Wiesel, Elie, 414 Wiesel, Torsten, 594

Yeats, William Butler, 420

Wilde, Oscar, 458

Yilmaz, Hiiseyin, 548

III (of

139, 143

315-16

Weber, Max, 86, 127-31, 211, 483, 504, 575, 585

William

5,

213, 379, 380-1

advanced industrial

in

Wellmer, Albrecht, 591

139

Monique, 399, 474

Wallis, John, 206

Iraq-US, 393, 394-6

5,

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,

women,

Wagner, Richard, 249

139-^3

ethics,

language games, 86, 265, 266

Wittig,

6,

304

Witt, Johan de, 66

555

Warhol, Andy,

177, 302,

witches, 361, 366-7 n.7, 367 n.9

Martha, 361

Vico, Giambattista, 557

Vienna

Winckelmann, Johann, Winnicott, D. W., 360

Vernant, Jean-Pierre, 295 n.32

Orange), King of Great Britain, 56, 57

Young,

Iris

Marion, 222, 370-81

Williams, Bernard, 455-6 n. 13

Raymond, 567 Edmund, 412

Williams,

Zeno of Citium, 36

Wilson,

Zhdanovism, 573

Rene Descartes David Hume

most practical, coherent, and accessible way

''The

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William Schroeder, University of

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Karl M, Friedrich hngels

Charles Darwin

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Lawrence Cahoone Holy Cross. He

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Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of the

author of The Dilemma of Modernity: Philosophy,

Anticulture (1989), Civil Society: The Consen/ative

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and

Meaning of Liberal Politics (Blackwell

2002), and The Ends of Philosophy: Pragmatism, Foundationalism, and Postmodernism (Blackwell 2002). Cover '

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