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Absence - On the Culture and Philosophy of the Far East by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion
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 ...Show more
Capitalism and the Death Drive by Daniel Steuer (Translator); Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion
What we call growth today is in fact a tumorous growth, a cancerous proliferation which is disrupting the social organism. These tumours endlessly metastasize and grow with an inexplicable, deadly vitality. At a certain point this growth is no longer productive, but rather destructive. Capitalism passed ...Show more
Hyperculture Culture And Globalisation by Han Byung Chul
Category: Philosophy and Religion
In the wake of globalization, cultural forms of expression have become increasingly detached from their places of origin, circulating in a hyper-domain of culture where there is no real difference anymore between indigenous and foreign, near and far, the familiar and the exotic. Heterogeneous cultural c ...Show more
In the Swarm: Digital Prospects by Byung-Chul Han (Professor, Universitat der Kunste Berlin)
Category: Reference | Series: Untimely Meditations
The shitstorm represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication. -- from In the SwarmDigital communication and social media have taken over our lives. In this contrarian reflection on digitized life, Byung-Chul Han counters the cheerleaders for Twitter revolutions and Facebook activism by arg ...Show more
Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy (Firm Sale) by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Social Issue
The tsunami of information unleashed by digitization is threatening to overwhelm us, drowning us in a sea of frenzied communication and disrupting many spheres of social life, including politics. Election campaigns are now being waged as information wars with bots and troll armies, and democracy is deg ...Show more
Non-Things: Upheaval in the Lifeworld by Byung-Chul Han; Daniel Steuer (Translator)
Category: Philosophy and Religion
We no longer inhabit earth and dwell under the sky: these are being replaced by Google Earth and the Cloud. The terrestrial order is giving way to a digital order, the world of things is being replaced by a world of non-things - a constantly expanding 'infosphere' of information and communication which ...Show more
Palliative Society by Han Byung Chul
Category: Philosophy
Our societies today are characterized by a universal algophobia: a generalized fear of pain. We strive to avoid all painful conditions - even the pain of love is treated as suspect. This algophobia extends into society: less and less space is given to conflicts and controversies that might prompt painfu ...Show more
Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion
Beauty today is a paradox. The cult of beauty is ubiquitous but it has lost its transcendence and become little more than an aspect of consumerism, the aesthetic dimension of capitalism. The sublime and unsettling aspects of beauty have given way to corporeal pleasures and 'likes', resulting in a kind o ...Show more
Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese by Philippa (TRN) Byung-Chul; Hurd Han
Category: Reference | Series: Untimely Meditations
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 Sams ...Show more
The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Untimely Meditations
Byung-Chul Han is one of the most widely read philosophers in Europe today, a member of the new generation of German thinkers that includes Markus Gabriel and Armen Avanessian. In The Agony of Eros, a bestseller in Germany, Han considers the threat to love and desire in today's society. For Han, love re ...Show more
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion
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 dis ...Show more
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
Category: Philosophy and Religion
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 dis ...Show more