Our competitive, service-oriented societies are taking a toll on the late-modern individual. Rather than improving life, multitasking, "user-friendly" technology, and the culture of convenience are producing disorders that range from depression to attention deficit disorder to borderline personality disorder. Byung-Chul Han interprets the spreading malaise as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. Stress and exhaustion are not just personal experiences, but social and historical phenomena as (...) well. Denouncing a world in which every against-the-grain response can lead to further disempowerment, he draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the stakes of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection. (shrink)

Transparency is the order of the day. It is a term, a slogan, that dominates public discourse about corruption and freedom of information. Considered crucial to democracy, it touches our political and economic lives as well as our private lives. Anyone can obtain information about anything. Everything—and everyone—has become transparent: unveiled or exposed by the apparatuses that exert a kind of collective control over the post-capitalist world. Yet, transparency has a dark side that, ironically, has everything to do with a (...) lack of mystery, shadow, and nuance. Behind the apparent accessibility of knowledge lies the disappearance of privacy, homogenization, and the collapse of trust. The anxiety to accumulate ever more information does not necessarily produce more knowledge or faith. Technology creates the illusion of total containment and the constant monitoring of information, but what we lack is adequate interpretation of the information. In this manifesto, Byung-Chul Han denounces transparency as a false ideal, the strongest and most pernicious of our contemporary mythologies. (shrink)

Die heutige Zeitkrise hängt nicht zuletzt mit der Verabsolutierung der vita activa zusammen. Sie führt zu einem Imperativ der Arbeit, der den Menschen zu einem arbeitenden Tier degradiert. Die Hyperaktivität des Alltags nimmt dem menschlichen Leben jegliche Kraft zum Verweilen und zur Kontemplation. Dadurch wird die Erfahrung erfüllter Zeit unmöglich. Notwendig für die Überwindung der heutigen Zeitkrise sind die Revitalisierung der vita contemplativa und das Wiedererlernen der Kunst des Verweilens.

Sweet cross -- Butterfly dreams -- On luxury -- Satori -- Moral entertainment -- Healthy entertainment -- Being as passion -- A hunger artist -- Serenity before the world -- A meta-theory of entertainment.

Western thinking has long been dominated by essence, by a preoccupation with that which dwells in itself and delimits itself from the other. By contrast, Far Eastern thought is centred not on essence but on absence. The fundamental topos of Far Eastern thinking is not being but 'the way' (dao), which lacks the solidity and fixedness of essence. The difference between essence and absence is the difference between being and path, between dwelling and wandering. 'A Zen monk should be without (...) fixed abode, like the clouds, and without fixed support, like water', said the Japanese Zen master Dōgen. Drawing on this fundamental distinction between essence and absence, Byung-Chul Han explores the differences between Western and Far Eastern philosophy, aesthetics, architecture and art, shedding fresh light on a culture of absence that may at first sight appear strange and unfamiliar to those in the West whose ways of thinking have been shaped for centuries by the preoccupation with essence. (shrink)

Tracing the thread of “decreation” in Chinese thought, from constantly changing classical masterpieces to fake cell phones that are better than the original. Shanzhai is a Chinese neologism that means “fake,” originally coined to describe knock-off cell phones marketed under such names as Nokir and Samsing. These cell phones were not crude forgeries but multifunctional, stylish, and as good as or better than the originals. Shanzhai has since spread into other parts of Chinese life, with shanzhai books, shanzhai politicians, shanzhai (...) stars. There is a shanzhai Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll, in which Harry takes on his nemesis Yandomort. In the West, this would be seen as piracy, or even desecration, but in Chinese culture, originals are continually transformed—deconstructed. In this volume in the Untimely Meditations series, Byung-Chul Han traces the thread of deconstruction, or “decreation,” in Chinese thought, from ancient masterpieces that invite inscription and transcription to Maoism—“a kind a shanzhai Marxism,” Han writes. Han discusses the Chinese concepts of quan, or law, which literally means the weight that slides back and forth on a scale, radically different from Western notions of absoluteness; zhen ji, or original, determined not by an act of creation but by unending process; xian zhan, or seals of leisure, affixed by collectors and part of the picture's composition; fuzhi, or copy, a replica of equal value to the original; and shanzhai. The Far East, Han writes, is not familiar with such “pre-deconstructive” factors as original or identity. Far Eastern thought begins with deconstruction. (shrink)

Zen Buddhism is a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism that originated in China and is strongly focused on meditation. It is characteristically sceptical towards language and distrustful of conceptual thought, which explains why Zen Buddhist sayings are so enigmatic and succinct. But despite Zen Buddhism’s hostility towards theory and discourse, it is possible to reflect philosophically on Zen Buddhism and bring out its philosophical insights. In this short book, Byung-Chul Han seeks to unfold the philosophical force inherent in Zen Buddhism, delving (...) into the foundations of Far Eastern thought to which Zen Buddhism is indebted. Han does this comparatively by confronting and contrasting the insights of Zen Buddhism with the philosophies of Plato, Leibniz, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger and others, showing that Zen Buddhism and Western philosophy have very different ways of understanding religion, subjectivity, emptiness, friendliness and death. This important work by one of the most widely read philosophers and cultural theorists of our time will be of great value to anyone interested in comparative philosophy and religion. (shrink)

The smooth -- The smooth body -- The aesthetics of the smooth -- Digital beauty -- The aesthetics of veiling -- The aesthetics of injury -- The aesthetics of disaster -- The ideal of beauty -- Beauty as truth -- The politics of beauty -- Pornographic theatre -- Lingering on beauty -- Beauty as reminiscence -- Giving birth in beauty.

Au XVIII e siècle, Jeremy Bentham avait imaginé un dispositif carcéral où les détenus seraient surveillés par un gardien omni-voyant. Dans le panoptique digital, nous ne sommes plus de simples détenus, mais participons activement à son façonnement. Personne ne semble s’en émouvoir outre mesure. Il n’y a pas si longtemps encore, en Allemagne les gens montaient sur les barricades contre le recensement démographique d’État : cette époque semble bien lointaine, au vu de notre inclination à partager toutes nos données avec (...) les appareils de capture de l’hypercapitalisme. (shrink)

The logic of power -- The semantics of power -- The metaphysics of power -- The politics of power -- The ethics of power.

Versão integral do v.6, n.1: Caleidoscópio Byung-Chul Han.

The standardization of the display of intimacy implies that transparency is normalized in the information society. Social practices are bringing the idea of emancipation to the technological field. This carries significant but unquestioned socio-political expectations that are associated with powerful cybercompanies. Byung-Chul Han treats these issues in his political texts. He argues that transparency is a neoliberal device which does not help solve the problems of citizenship, and it even involves a “depoliticization”. My intention is to carry out a critical (...) review of his texts, and highlight their convergences with other authors dedicated to the philosophy of technology. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to show how the film Der Himmel über Berlin (Wenders, 1987) allows for a phenomenological reflection on the bonds of human beings with the world. For this purpose, we submit the hypothesis that the thinking of Byung-Chul Han—who has demonstrated a particular interest in this specific film—, functions as a philosophical lens through which such a reading may be advanced. To that end, this paper has three sections: the first section sees Damiel, one of (...) the film’s main characters, as a vehicle to describe the lightness of the world and the angst resulting from not being able to bond with the weight of existence. The second section presents Peter Falk as the main trigger that causes Damiel to decide to enter the world of mortals and live a life exiled from eternity. Finally, we present Marion, Damiel’s romantic interest, as the main motivation for Damiel to renounce being an angel, as she fulfills the role of an Eros capable of triggering in the individual the vital strength to cause the subject to enter into a bond with the world. (shrink)

Byung-Chul Han’s reflections on aesthetics are heavily influenced by Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutic reading of phenomenology and the theses of his Doktormutter, Utte Guzzoni, on the mutual determination of opposites and the intermediate space (Zwischen) that serves as a background for their constitution. Once these foundations have been explored, it can be seen how Hanian approaches to the aesthetic dimension of phenomena are connected with his criticisms of the philosophical development of the West and the problems of its contemporary facet. Therefore, (...) what is analyzed here is not a mere way of looking or relating to objects, but how this peculiar modality of being-in-the-world comes to dominate our understanding of objects and our way of relating to them. Both Heidegger’s account of how this modality of understanding came to be, and Guzzoni’s exploration of Zen Buddhism and haiku poetry are of the utmost relevance in Han’s proposals on the matter. From these premises, as well as from his own reflections on such important concepts as Stimmung, Byung-Chul Han develops a perspective that proposes interesting approaches to the relation between positivity and negativity. This paper will also offer some criticism about Han’s notion of the given which, as it stands, contradicts some basic tenets on phenomenology. (shrink)

Este artículo reseña: Byung-Chul, HAN, Infocracia, la digitalización y la crisis de la democracia., Editorial Taurus, Santiago de Chile, 2022. 91 pp.

The purpose of this paper is to expose the function of the culture and thought of the Far East, expressed in Japanese Zen Buddhism and Chinese Chan (as well as, in general, in Chinese philosophy and culture), within the thought of Byung-Chul Han. This dimension of the Korean's work has not been sufficiently deepened in the analyses that are made of him. This error leads to mistakes such as stating that there is no emancipation proposal in Han or that his (...) work is limited to a pessimistic description of the world. Thus, the investigation that follows the bibliographic-documental research method is divided into three moments; the first exposes the foundations of the philosophy of Zen-chan Buddhism developed by Han; the second delineates the ontology of Hanian falsification and; the third, analyzes the theses on the East within Han's theoretical project. (shrink)

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo analizar los postulados filosófico-políticos presentes en la obra de Byung-Chul Han, con el fin de, por medio de una exégesis de su pensamiento, proponer el concepto de prácticas de amabilidad como un proyecto ético-político, enfocado en desarrollar lo que el autor denomina una “praxis de la demora”, la cual revitalice la vita contemplativa; en contraposición a la racionalidad neoliberal de corte digital que domina la realidad desde un modelo de sociedad basado en el rendimiento (...) y la competencia. Para ello, se divide el trabajo en tres momentos: primero, se delimita conceptualmente la sociedad del rendimiento; seguidamente, se expone la propuesta de rebelión de Han a partir del concepto de la revolución del tiempo para, finalmente, exponer la propuesta práctica de su idea de subversión sistémica. Todo esto desde una sistematización analítica de su obra, para lo cual se recurre al método documentalbibliográfico de investigación. (shrink)

Tento článek se zabývá kritickým shrnutím stěžejních myšlenek a úvah vyjádřených v knize Vyhořelá společnost. Autorem pěti esejů, jež tvoří tuto knihu, je německy píšící filozof pocházející z korejského Soulu Byung-Chul Han. Myšlenky tohoto autora jsou podrobně rozpracovány v eseji Společnost únavy, který byl do knihy logicky zařazen na první místo. Ústřední myšlenkou tohoto pojednání, a vlastně celého souboru autorových úvah, je stávající úbytek negativity, jenž obklopuje současného člověka a jenž ústí do přemíry pozitivity a vzniku společnosti výkonu. Výsledkem této (...) okolnosti je dle Hana fakt, že současný člověk se stává sám sobě vykořisťovatelem. Tento ústřední motiv dále rozvádí následující čtyři eseje. Autor článku se staví kriticky k některým Hanovým tezím a zároveň nachází paralely k Hanovým hlavním myšlenkám v díle Mít či být? Ericha Fromma. Autor především zpochybňuje Hanův konstrukt paradoxní svobody a rovněž rozporuje Hanem ohlašovaný konec virové epochy. (shrink)

En el siguiente artículo se formulan algunas indagaciones en torno a la noción de vida contemplativa como filosofía de la inactividad dentro del pensamiento de Byung-Chul Han, tomando como referencia a Tomás de Aquino, con el objetivo de destacar la vigencia del pensamiento tomista y valorar su innegable influencia en la historia de la filosofía. Asimismo, se busca proponer cómo la vida contemplativa es el fin de la vida humana, logrando integrar, además, un vínculo con el reposo festivo, que es (...) propio de la religión. En virtud de lo mencionado, este artículo se divide en dos apartados: primero, se describe una consideración general acerca de la noción de vida contemplativa desde la visión tomista. Segundo, se muestra la interpretación que realiza Byung-Chul Han de la noción de vida contemplativa de Tomás de Aquino como parte de su fundamento filosófico de la inactividad. (shrink)