Günther Anders

I want to try and read Günther Anders in a new context, not atomic war, but dangerous climate change, or, what has been called—incorrectly—the Anthropocene. What happens if we switch out the word “atom” for “climate” in his texts? What does “End times or time of the end” look like when it is not (only) the bomb but pandemics, water scarcity, deforestation, and global heating that pose major threats to a flourishing human civilization? How should we read The Obsolescence of Human Beings today, nearly seventy years after the first volume, in which current technological developments have eclipsed whatever Anders already thought then was a sign of total domination? Do we still experience Promethean shame, or have we now become shameless?

In «Areté. International Journal of Philosophy, Human and Social Sciences», vol. 8, 2023, pp. 223-247, ISSN: 2531- 6249.

This essay tries to articulate a reflection on the limit from a
metaphysical point of view, bringing out the co-implication of the concept of
limit with that of pain. In order for this relationship to be clarified, metaphysical
elucidations on time, temporality and the being of beings have become
necessary. Some of the main itineraries of the history of Western thought
are covered, from Plato to Heidegger, passing through some exponents of
contemporary Italian philosophy, with the aim of problematizing pain as
the most recognizable aspect of limit which guarantees entities to being and
which becomes suffering when associated with the particular entity that we
call human.

In Mechane», 6/2023, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2023, pp. 111-123, ISBN: 9791222312811.

The essay attempts to articulate a reflection on the language-technique relationship, focusing in particular on the negative influence that technique determines on the linguistic essence of human. Our premise is that current times are an era of cultural and spiritual decline, as this linguistic essence is increasingly lacking. To discuss causes, origins and possible escape routes from this trap, here we try to decline a free dialogue with Heidegger's later work, mostly following this argumentation: the concealment of essence of entity carried out by technique; the relationship between word, technique and unveiling; the re-appropriation of entity and lost essence of human through an idea of science and knowledge that is absolutely not subjugated by contemporary technical deployment, which knows how to redeem language and listen to it again.

IT: Il presente contributo si propone di individuare i tratti essenziali di una metafisica della natura nel pensiero di Ernst Jünger. Nella prima parte, il saggio esamina la metafisica dell'Operaio di Jünger elaborata in "Der Arbeiter", dimostrando come la sopravvivenza della natura sia lì legata alla sua subordinazione alla tecnologia. La seconda e la terza parte evidenziano lo sviluppo teorico che porta l'autore ad attribuire un ruolo centrale alla natura, culminando nella formulazione di una vera e propria metafisica centrata sulla trascendenza della Terra. L'ultima sezione dell'articolo giustappone le riflessioni di Jünger ad alcune questioni fondamentali della geofilosofia, interrogandosi se Jünger possa essere considerato un pensatore geofilosofico.

ENG: This paper seeks to identify the essential features of a metaphysics of nature in the thought of Ernst Jünger. In the first part, the essay examines Jünger's metaphysics of the Worker as elaborated in "Der Arbeiter", demonstrating how the survival of nature is there tied to its subordination to technology. The second and third parts highlight the theoretical development that leads the author to attribute a central role to nature, culminating in the formulation of a genuine metaphysics centered on the transcendence of Earth. The last section of the paper juxtaposes Jünger's reflections with some fundamental issues of geophilosophy, questioning whether Jünger can be considered a geophilosophical thinker.

O presente artigo pretende apresentar, a partir da filosofia de Günther Anders, a mudança de nosso estatuto metafísico com o advento do antropoceno, o qual borrou os contornos que distinguiam a história natural e a história humana, em razão das mudanças climáticas. Tornamo-nos seres de um novo gênero, mas, também, apocalípticos de um novo gênero, a saber, apocalípticos profiláticos. O eixo apocalíptico já não é mais aquele da bomba, antes, é o do aquecimento global. A ideia progresso – que no século XX perdeu sua dimensão emancipatória – tornou o desenvolvimento técnico cúmplice da catástrofe, na medida em que o progresso oferece uma compreensão distorcida da história e do tempo. Seria preciso reeducar a nossa imaginação moral para adiar o fim do mundo.

This article is placed within the framework of the role of images of contemporary wars, and in particular addresses the “elective affinities” between the theses of the philosopher Günther Anders and the visual artist Harun Farocki. The starting point is entrusted to the traces Farocki himself offers in his theoretical texts in the 1980s by calling into
question Anders’ theses and denunciations of the “conflict of images” and the “images of conflicts” (from Auschwitz to the atomic threat). From this cue, the paper intends to focus on the issue of vision without gaze and to follow the interpretive thread of the continue and constant “bargaining” between what is inside the image and what is outside.
The instability of the connection between images-but also their being lacunose, missing, imperfect-is the goad to look differently, but also the stimulus not to close one’s eyes to violence “delivered to one's home”.

In response to the catastrophes of the twentieth century, contemporary writers were often led to revolutionize inherited forms of philosophical presentation. And now, in an age of Anthropocene extinction, such experiments have become necessary once again. To comprehend this most recent of disasters, the present essay develops a practice of the philosophical fragment which, by returning to contemporaneous accounts of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Chernobyl, seeks to demonstrate what was both anticipated by and wholly unforeseen from within the perspective of earlier attempts at contending with natural and societal disasters. By tracking the changing status of the skies in such writers as Robert Antelme, Marguerite Duras, Günther Anders, Svetlana Alexievich, and Greta Thunberg, the present essay distinguishes this longer twentieth-century history of destruction from the work of extermination now underway.

ENGLISH: This work sets out to study the conception of philosophy and the method of exaggeration presented by Günther Anders in his two volume work The Obsolescence of Man (1956-1980). If as its subject-matter, the core of the work is the concern for the possible selfdestruction of mankind in the atomic era; Anders also presents another conception of philosophy and her method as an operatory correlate of that possible annihilation. This new conception of philosophy and her method constitute the justification of the philosophical treatment of the possible self-destruction of mankind.//ESPAÑOL: En este trabajo se estudia la concepción de la filosofía y el método de la exageración propuesto por Günther Anders en su obra en dos volúmenes La obsolescencia del hombre (1956-1980). Si temáticamente el centro de la obra es la preocupación por la posible autodestrucción de la humanidad en la época atómica; Anders también propone una comprensión de la filosofía y de su método como correlato operatorio de dicha posible aniquilación. Esta revisión de la filosofía y su método constituyen la justificación del tratamiento filosófico de la posibilidad de la autodestrucción de la humanidad.

Viviamo in un’epoca in cui l’idea di potenza è aborrita, identificata al male e alla violenza. Potenza e dominio costituiscono il cuore del mondo di ieri, contro il quale le istanze radicali del no- stro tempo lottano per far valere una cultura anarchica delle differenze secondo la logica del rovesciamento, per cui solo «capovolgendo le forme della vecchia società» (Nietzsche) l’umanità sarà finalmente capace di muovere dei passi concreti verso una Terra senza il male. Al centro di questo sovvertimento sta l’Europa, come portatrice del valore universale del logos, esso stesso nient’altro che la forma originaria del dominio. Ma agli occhi di un pensiero inattuale, qual è quello di Nietzsche e Guardini, negare la potenza significa disseccare le sorgenti stesse della vita. Di più: è un progetto impossibile. Occorre invece liberare il potere trasfigurante insito nella vita stessa, seguendo la logica di opposizione polare che la pervade, fino alle sue estreme possibilità. «Europa» è appunto il nome di questo tentativo.

The aim of the paper is to examine the ontological relationship between war and peace in Heidegger's thought of technology. Through the analyses of some passages of Overcoming metaphysics and Geschichte des Seins, it tries to show how, in an ontological view, war and peace are the Same [das Selbe]. They are two manifestations of a unique complex phenomenon: the domination of technology as expression of forgetfulness of Being [Seinsvergessenheit]. Crosswise the paper aims to present Heidegger's critical position toward Nazism, considered as manifestation of Western nihilism.

Arturo Andrés Roig (1922-2012) introduces in the text Teoría y crítica del pensamiento latinoamericano (Theory and criticism of Latin American thought) of 1981 the neologism sujetividad in opposition to the term subjetividad (subjectivity); at the same time, starting from the rereading of Kant and Hegel, he defines the category of anthropological a priori as an element necessary for the construction of the Latin American philosophical identity. Articulating these two categories, the Argentine philosopher elaborates his personal critical theory for the construction of objectivity starting from subjectivity, aiming to give a new meaning to words such as experience, temporality, and historicity within a redefined normativity of philosophical practice. Through an in-depth analysis of the historiographical-philosophical passages within Roig's work, this essay analyses the main problematic elements concerning the reflection on the term sujetividad.

In questo contributo intendiamo delineare alcuni tratti fisiognomici del Dasein heideggeriano in re-lazione all’interpretazione sloterdijkiana della nozione di Lichtung. Tenendo conto del fatto che – in forza del domandare ontologico heideggeriano – occorre eludere la formulazione di una teoria del tempo, la domanda che proporremo non riguarda né il ʿchiʾ né il ʿquandoʾ del Dasein, ma il ʿdoveʾ. La categoria centrale del percorso che seguiremo è dunque quella di spazio. A tal fine, Peter Sloter-dijk è la guida ideale. La nozione di sfera rappresenta il modo in cui l’autore si è occupato di questa centrale categoria filosofica.

Étude d'histoire de l'art pour un sujet singulier et particulièrement inscrit dans son siècle, traité au regard d'apports littéraire, philosophique, psychologique et psychanalytique. Mémoire de fin d'étude de Master 2 d'histoire de l'art de Lola Konieczko, sous le tutorat de

In diesem Aufsatz werden die Methoden und Konzepte von Günther Anders‘ Technikphilosophie auf das Phänomen der Digitalisierung angewandt, um so das Potenzial des andersschen Denkens für eine kritische Phänomenologie der digitalen Revolution zu verdeutlichen.
Hierfür wird zunächst in die phänomenologische Methode von Anders, die sogenannte Gelegenheitsphilosophie, eingeführt, um ihren Nutzen für eine solche Untersuchung zu erläutern. Dann werden erste Ergebnisse einer Analyse digitaler Phänomene vor- und zur Diskussion gestellt. Dabei wird das Verhältnis des Individuums zu den von ihm genutzten digitalen Technologien analysiert. Ausgangspunkt ist einerseits Anders‘ negative Anthropologie sowie der ihr inhärente Freiheitsbegriff, in dem diese zum pathologischen Zustand verkommt, andererseits die prometheische Scham. Digitale Technologien zeigen sich so weniger als Werkzeug, sondern vielmehr als übergeordnete innerpsychische Instanz, die ihren Nutzer in einen Zustand der Überforderung führt. Hierdurch offenbart sich nicht nur eine Strukturierung und Durchdringung der Lebenswelt durch digitale Technologien, sondern auch der menschlichen Psyche.
Schlagworte:
Ethik der Digitalisierung, Philosophie der Digitalisierung, Technikphilosophie, Digitale Revolution, Kritische Theorie
Summary
This paper applies the methods and concepts of Günther Anders' philosophy of technology to the phenomenon of Digital Revolution. In doing so, the potential of Anders' thinking for a critical phenomenology of the digital world is clarified.
For this purpose, Anders' phenomenological method, the so-called occasional philosophy, is first introduced in order to explain its usefulness for such an investigation. Then, first results of an analysis of digital phenomena will be presented and discussed. In doing so, the relationship of the individual to the digital technologies he or she uses is analyzed. The starting point is on the one hand Anders' negative anthropology as well as the concept of freedom inherent in it, in which this degenerates into a pathological state, and on the other hand the so called “Promethean shame”. Digital technologies show themselves less as a tool, but rather as a superior inner-psychic instance, which leads its user into a state of excessive demand. This reveals not only a structuring and penetration of the living world by digital technologies, but also of the human psyche.

Hannah Arendt distingue les diverses "choses" fabriquées par l'homme selon leur durée. Les produits de consommation sont les choses les plus éphémères ("transitoires") qui soient, viennent ensuite les actions humaines "conservées par la mémoire et transformées en récit", et enfin les œuvres d'art, supérieures à toutes les autres choses en ce qu'elles durent plus longtemps et tendent vers l'éternité.

Bu sunumda günümüz dünyasında politik felsefenin anlamına ilişkin bir değerlendirme sunmayı deniyoruz. Politik felsefenin odaklanabileceği problemler ve üstlenebileceği girişimler bakımından büyük bir zenginlik taşıdığını not etmek gerekir. Dolayısıyla burada politik felsefenin bugün için yalnızca tek bir anlamı olduğunu ileri sürmüyoruz. Ancak onun günümüzde göz ardı edemeyeceği bir meselenin varolduğunu vurgulamak istiyoruz. Öncelikle bizzat politik felsefenin anlamına ilişkin sorunun nasıl işitilebileceğine dair saptamalar sunuyoruz. Bu çerçeve içinde politik felsefenin kendi çağıyla, kendi buradası ve şimdisi ile olan ilgisini vurguluyoruz. Dünyanın anlamı sorusu da bu bağlamda ortaya çıkıyor. Felsefe tarihi içinde politik felsefe kendi çağını düşünme yükümlülüğü ile karşı karşıya kaldığında kendi çağının aciliyetleri karşısında farklı tutumlar ve kavrayışlar ortaya koymuştur. Bu hat üzerinden çağdaş felsefenin kimi figürlerinden hareketle günümüz dünyasına ilişkin bir kriz saptamasının varlığına dikkat çekiyoruz. Özellikle dijital teknolojilerin muazzam ağıyla birlikte yaşadığımız dünyayı güçlü bir biçimde belirleyen teknolojik karakteristiği ve dönüşümü düşünmenin günümüzde politik felsefenin önemli ödevlerinden biri olduğunu öne sürüyoruz. Tekniğin/teknolojinin zehirleyici ve sağaltıcı çifte etkilerinin aynı anda hesaba katılması gerekliliğine işaret ettiğimiz bu çalışmada, günümüz dünyasında hüküm süren tekno-ekonomik mekanizmanın başka toplum ve birlikte varolma olanakları karşısında taşıdığı kimi risklere ise özellikle dikkat çekiyoruz.

Beginning with Jacob Taubes and Günther Anders on eschatology, apocalypse and political theology, including Saint Paul and Frankfurt School critical theory along with bombs and power plants (energy/climate), this essay parallels a re-reading of Tracy B. Strong’s political reading of Nietzsche on Jesus (and love) with Taubes, Anders and Carl Schmitt on politics (and technology). Highlighted throughout is the politically charged (and inherently esoteric) context of Gnosticism for philosophy and theory for Taubes but also for Anders.

Full text here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01914537231203551

If you need access to the full version of this article and your institution does not offer access, please let me know and I can send you a research pdf.

Dans cet article, nous examinons l'hypothèse selon laquelle la conception de la technique se transforme dans la pensée allemande après la Première Guerre mondiale, en particulier en ce qui concerne la relation entre la technique et l'histoire. À gauche, cette transformation passe par la critique benjaminienne de toute conception progressiste de la technique-critique qui anticipe ce que Günther Anders appellera plus tard le « décalage prométhéen ». La pensée conservatrice allemande se lance quant à elle dans un éloge anti-progressiste du progrès technique (c'est le cas par exemple d'Ernst Jünger et d'Oswald Spengler). Nous cherchons, en même temps, à mettre en évidence la centralité de la guerre et de la technologie militaire pour la théorie critique de la technique.

El presente artículo trata de inscribir el fenómeno de la técnica en el marco de una antropología filosófica que nos permita aproximarnos a una comprensión del momento histórico del siglo XX. Para ello se analiza en primer lugar la noción de técnica propugnada por Friedrich Dessauer, esclareciéndola como un fenómeno totalizador que guarda con el hombre una relación fundamental. Posteriormente se trata la noción de técnica propuesta por Günther Anders, para quien la condición del hombre contemporáneo, inseparable del acontecer técnico, se ha visto sujeta a transformaciones esenciales.

In light of the nuclear threat and the catastrophic effects of human-induced climate change, Günther Anders’ mid-20th century analysis of humanity’s “apocalyptic blindness” takes on renewed resonance. This thesis deals with Anders’ postwar Vienna Diary “Wiedersehen und Vergessen” from 1950 in order to examine the way in which he illustrates prevalent discrepancies between history and experience structuring life in postwar Viennese society. In order to demonstrate how the Vienna diary might be seen as a “propaedeutic” for Anders’ later apocalyptic writings against the atomic bomb, the thesis discusses Anders’ conception of his diaries as collections of “warning images”. Anders’ later apocalypticism takes the form of what he calls a “prophylactic apocalypticism” that anticipates the future dead, laments their end in the present, and is written in such a way as to be proven wrong so that the goal achieved would be identical with the prophecy ultimately becoming false. To refine our understanding of this peculiar form of doom saying and to discuss Anders’ writing explicitly dedicated to warning, the thesis pays attention to Anders’ Japan Diary from 1958 (“Der Mann auf der Brücke”) and the story of Noah that Anders remakes for the contemporary world (“Die beweinte Zukunft”). It will be shown how he attempts to change the reader’s time sense of catastrophe and intervene
within a present that is, according to him, characterized by an overwhelming blindness towards the past and the future. The thesis illustrates the way in which Anders continually sought to find forms of experimental writing in order to achieve more adequate responses to the threats of the present.

RESUMO Explosões atômicas e radiações - os grandes temores da Guerra Fria repropostos com frequência pela literatura e pelo cinema - são temas deste ensaio inspirado pela leitura de Burning conscience (1989; [1961]), coletânea de cartas trocadas entre o filósofo Günther Anders e Claude Eatherly, um dos pilotos responsáveis pela destruição de Hiroshima. Revisito as reflexões de Elsa Morante, João Guimarães Rosa, Albert Camus e Günther Anders, entre outros, sobre as ligações entre tecnologia de guerra e mutações da “alma” humana. A parte central do texto concentra-se na troca de cartas entre Anders e Eatherly e analisa características estilísticas e temáticas dessa correspondência. A parte final do ensaio propõe alguns pontos de reflexão (sobre retórica nacionalista, o tema da guerra na educação, testemunho dos vitimários e tema do perdão) instigados pela leitura de Burning conscience.

The article advances a rereading of H. Arendt's views on history and storytelling highlighting the support they offer to both her theory of 'factual context' and to her standing against teleology, historical determinism and philosophy of history. In what respect does Arendt believe that storytelling can support, as a non-partisan 'shaping' of factual material, the right of human beings to have access to factual truth? My main claim is that Hannah Arendt puts forward an 'inorganic' idea of history, which prevents from considering an historical event as resulting from or produced and determined by growth or development of previous circumstances. Such an idea enhances a (counter-) consideration of singular historical  events as  'crystallized' historical entities having – this is my rereading proposal – the elementary structure of an 'aggregate' consisting of many factual data and aspects, according to which the 'historical storytelling' has to be mainly understood as a crucial means to collect the greatest and most factual elements at disposal to possibly illuminate the event in its 'constellative-truth'. The article  addresses the chosen topic by analyzing several essays authored by Arendt, including Truth and Politics, The Concept of History, Lying in Politics, Arendt's Notebook, but also  comparing her views with Walter Benjamin's suggestions on storytelling and Jacques Derrida's sights on the role of the witness to testify factual truth in a factual context.

Nel presente articolo si analizzerà come, a fronte del paradigma transumanista che opera per una progressiva inclusione dell’uomo nel suo stesso processo di ‘miglioramento’ del mondo, è sempre più pressante la domanda sulla dinamica tra verità (truth) e fiducia (trust) nella relazione uomo-macchina e nella riflessione etica degli enti che orientano gli odierni processi di innovazione bio-tecnologica. Le visioni che emergono – frutto rispettivamente del paradigma transumanista e di un’ecologia umana che restituisce all’uomo il senso della sua storia e del suo vivere in relazione – non sono banalmente antitetiche: poggiano su due visioni dell’uomo scientifico profondamente diverse. Si propone quindi che un modo costruttivo per coniugare verità e fiducia nella nostra società contemporanea, dipenderà sempre più dall’idea di uomo che con la scienza vogliamo servire, coniugando il progresso bio-tecnologico con l’incompletezza biologica che caratterizza l’uomo.In this paper we analyze how,...

The volume I like Rodin collects four studies on the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, which interested four scholars from the German-speaking world during the 20th Century: Rudolf Kassner (1873-1959), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) Georg Simmel (1858-1918) and Günther Stern Anders (1902-1992). These are notes, lecture texts, which investigate the fortune of Rodin's sculpture in literary and philosophical culture, and which show a layered web of similarities and differences in the various readings offered.
The tesserae of which the volume is composed thus offer a sharp and truly topical image of Rodin, illuminating the (also obscure) sides of his works, as well as revealing assonances, elective affinities between Kassner, Rilke, Simmel and Anders, thus providing a contribution that is by no means secondary to the understanding of their texts.