Theme 7 Counter-Modernist Thought Cultural Criticism Readings to

Theme 7. Counter-Modernist Thought: Cultural Criticism Readings to class: F. On the Genealogy of Morals. pp. 1 -54 ØHabermas J. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge (Mass. ): MIT Press, 1987, Lecture IV, pp. 83 -105 ØAntonio R. Nietzsche: Social Theory in the Twilight of the Millennium, in Handbook of Social Theory. Ed. by G. Ritzer and B. Smart. London: SAGE Publications, 2001, Chapter 14, pp. 163 -178 ØNietzsche

Critique of the Modern World-View n Disappointment with industrial economy, liberal democracy, and mass culture n Critique of rationalism, evolutionism, and humanism as foundations of the modern thought n Appeals to archaic forms of culture and biologic origins of human activities n Critique of universality of modern values n Appeals to non-European forms of culture and thought

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 -1900) Ø ‘The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music’ (1872), ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ (1885), ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ (1887), ‘Twilight of the Idols’ (1888) Radical reassessment of values: n ‘Dionysian’ origin vs. ‘Apollonian’ origin n Life vs. Culture n Will to power vs. Humanism n Heroic pessimism vs. Progressivism

Genealogy of Morals n n n Distinction of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is explained by the modern European thinkers (including H. Spenser) in the utilitarian way: ‘good’ is ‘useful’ / ‘functional’ Genealogy of morals is developed against “repressive influence which democratic prejudice in the modern world exercises over all questions of origin” Etymological analysis reveals that initially ‘good’ meant ‘aristocratic’ / ‘noble’ and ‘bad’ meant ‘common’ Jews and early Christians initiated the reverse: “those who suffer are good” European civilization is established and developed on that slave revolt in morality

Modern Morals n European revolutions of 18 th – 19 th centuries are new victories of popular resentment over nobility n Modern moral obligations are rooted in relationships ‘seller – buyer’ and ‘creditor – debtor’ n Basic values of the modern society are disqualified by the ‘aristocrat of spirit’ because they are bourgeois virtues

Overcoming Nihilism n n n Natural human life driven by instinctive will to power (freedom & conquest) was displaced by the illusory world of culture Domination in the modern culture of will to nothingness leads to the rise of pessimism Nihilism denies civilization with its values as the illusory world but it does not create the alternative world Super-human being (Übermensch) of the future will release the humankind from the will to nothingness and from nihilism Super-human being returning to the will to power lives besides framework constituted by distinction of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ Controversy ‘traditional society vs. modern society’ is reformulated as ‘culture vs. civilization’ and dilemma is resolved in the ultra-modernist way: super-humanity beyond current norms and views

Oswald Spengler (1880 -1936) Ø n n n n ‘Decline of the West’ (1918) The entity of humankind and human history fall to pieces of hermetic cultures Pra-phenomenon as an initial life-experience is a core of culture reproduced in all phenomena of culture Organic growth of culture and mechanical increase of civilization Every cultural organism has its own life-cycle (about 1000 years from the birth to the decline) Civilizations: Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, Chinese, Mexican (Mayan), Apollonian (Greek and Roman), Byzantine / Arabian Culture falling into civilization: Faustian (European) … and may be next culture: Russian / Siberian

Europe as the Civilization n n By 1900 Faustian culture became civilization Massification of production, consumption, communications, and communities Mechanization of work and thinking Formalization of rules, activities, and relationships Territorial Expansion resulting in imperialistic wars

Anti-Modernist Current in the Modernist Thought n Existentialist Philosophy (Heidegger, Sartre) n Critical Theory (Horkheimer, Adorno) n Postmodernist Theory (Foucault, Baudrillard) n Common position is ‘Heroic pessimism’ under conditions of ‘Decline of the West’ n Counter-current is a counter-part of rationalist & positivist mainstream