2025/05/13

한병철 - 위키백과, Byung-Chul Han

한병철 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

한병철

위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
한병철
Byung-Chul Han
출생1959년(65~66세)
대한민국
성별남성

한병철(독일어: Byung-Chul Han, 1959년~)은 대한민국 출신으로 독일에서 활동하는 철학자이다.[1] 2012년부터 2017년까지 베를린 예술대학교에서 철학 및 문화연구학 교수를 맡았으며, 현재도 강사로 활동하고 있다.

생애

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한병철은 대한민국 서울특별시에서 태어나 고려대학교에서 금속공학을 전공하였다[2][3]. 22세 때, 그는 한국의 폐쇄적인 사회 분위기 속에서 금속공학이나 공부하는 삶을 피하고자 독일로 가는 비행기에 올랐다[1]. 독일에 도착해 프라이부르크 대학교과 뮌헨 대학교에서 가톨릭 신학, 독일어문학과 철학을 공부한 이후, 1994년에 프라이부르크 대학교에서 하이데거를 주제로 박사학위를 받았다. 2000년에 바젤 대학교에서 데리다에 관한 논문으로 교수 자격을 취득했다. 그 후 바젤 대학에서 철학과 사강사로 재직하며 동시에 독일 및 스위스의 여러 대학에서 강의했다. 2010년에 독일 카를스루에 조형예술대학교의 철학/미디어학 교수로 임용되었으며, 2012년부터 2017년까지 베를린 예술대학교에서 철학 및 문화학 교수로 재직했다. 중점적 연구분야는 18세기-20세기 철학, 윤리학, 사회철학, 현상학, 문화철학, 미학, 종교철학, 미디어철학 등이다.

대한민국에서는 2011년 12월 《권력이란 무엇인가》가 번역돼 출간되면서 처음으로 이름이 알려졌다[4], 2012년 3월에 주 저서인 《피로사회》가 한국어로 번역되어 출판되면서[2] 대한민국에서도 한 달 사이에 1만 5천권[5], 8개월만에 4만 권이 팔리는[6]이례적 현상을 이끌어 냈다.

사상

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그의 사회철학은 고도의 기술이 발전한 현대 자본주의 사회 속의 인간상에 집중한다. 그는 《피로사회》에서 현대의 사회를 우울, 불안, 과로 등의 신경증적인 요소로 가득찬 사회로 특징지으면서 이들이 정신의 결핍에 의해서 발생한다기보다는 오히려 과잉으로 인해 발생하는 것이라고 지적한다. 즉 개개인이 성과를 위해 스스로를 과도하게 착취하고 실패를 두려워하게 되는 것이 피로사회를 유발한다는 것으로 이를 규율이 강제되던 과거의 사회와 대조시키며 규율사회로부터 성과사회로의 전환이 일어났음을 보인다. 따라서 이러한 신자유주의 사회는 더 이상 계급구조만으로는 설명할 수 없다고 주장한다. 또한 《폭력의 위상학》에서 주장하듯 이러한 전환은 과거 사회의 폭력이 모습을 바꾼 것에 불과하다고 말한다.

《시간의 향기》에서는 오로지 노동과 그 준비를 위해서만 탕진되는 현대인의 시간 관념을 '자연스러운 지속성의 부재'라는 새로운 시점에서 해석한다.

《에로스의 종말》에서도 이러한 생각을 발전시켜 각 개인의 자기애와 자기주장이 지배하고 있는 현대사회를 해부한다. 그는 더 나아가 이러한 자기애적 사회에서는 진정한 타자와의 관계가 성립할 수 없으므로 적대와 사랑의 구분이 사라져 에로스와 욕망이 불가능하게 되어 가고 있다고 분석한다.

학술적 평가

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대한민국의 철학계에서는 《피로사회》의 주요 논제인 규율사회에서 성과사회로의 전환이 유효한 것인지에 대한 논의가 진행되었다. 특히 성과사회 속에서의 자기 착취를 해결하기 위한 방안으로 사회적인 연대를 통한 분노의 표출이 도입될 수 없는지에 대한 지적이 다수 있다.[7][8] 또한 개신교 신학적 관점에서 《피로사회》의 후반부에 논의되는 안식일이 부여하는 오순절-사회 개념이 피조물과 생태계의 위기까지 제대로 설명하고 있지 못하다는 의견도 있다.[9]

저서

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  • 『선불교 사상 Philosophie des Zen-Buddhismus』
  • 『권력이란 무엇인가? Was ist Macht?』
  • 『죽음의 종류-죽음에 대한 철학적 연구 Todesarten. Philosophische Untersuchungen zum Tod』
  • 『하이데거 입문 Martin Heidegger』
  • 『죽음과 타자성 Tod und Alterität』
  • 『헤겔과 권력-친절함에 대한 시도 Hegel und die Macht. Ein Versuch über die Freundlichkeit』
  • 『시간의 향기-머무름의 기술에 대한 철학 에세이 Duft der Zeit. Ein philosophischer Essay zur Kunst des Verweilens』[10]
  • 『피로사회 Müdigkeitsgesellschaft』[11]
  • 『폭력의 위상학 Topologie der Gewalt』
  • 『투명사회 Transparenzgesellschaft』
  • 『심리정치 Psycho Politik』
  • 『아름다움의 구원』
  • 『타자의 추방』
  • 『땅의 예찬』

각주

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  1. ↑ 이동:가 나 Byung-Chul, Han (2017년 1월 24일). “Wer ist Flüchtling?” [누가 난민인가?] (독일어). 프랑크푸르터 알게마이네 차이퉁. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  2. ↑ 이동:가 나 신유리 기자 (2012년 3월 8일). “"자기 착취에 빠진 현대인..피로하시죠?"”. 연합뉴스. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  3. ↑ 김계연 기자 (2017년 3월 21일). “'피로사회' 철학자 한병철, 강연회서 '막말' 논란”. 연합뉴스. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  4. ↑ 황병상 기자 (2011년 11월 27일). ““절대권력은 자발적 복종서 기인… 폭력 쓸 필요 없어””. 경향신문. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  5. ↑ 최형원 기자 (2012년 5월 15일). “지친 당신, 어디로 가고 있습니까”. 한겨레. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  6. ↑ 김재일 기자 (2012년 12월 20일). “［한경 올해의 책］ 현실 비판과 대안 찾기”. 한국경제신문. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  7. ↑ 한주연 통신원 (2012년 5월 15일). “한병철 “성과에 집착 스스로 착취” 신진욱 “그 역시 타인에 의한 착취””. 한겨레. 2019년 12월 21일에 확인함.
  8. ↑ 박정호 (2012). “분노와 저항 －대중의 분노는 오늘날 사회적 저항의 동력이 될 수 있는가?”. 《시대와 철학》 (한국철학사상연구회) 23 (4): 137-161.
  9. ↑ 최성수 (2013). “한병철의 피로사회 이론에 대한 기독교 신학적 고찰과 대응방안 모색으로서 안식일 개념에 대한 연구”. 《장신논단》 (장로회신학대학교 기독교사상과 문화연구원) 45 (4): 195-222.
  10. ↑ [저자와의 대화‘시간의 향기’ 낸 베를린예술대 한병철 교수 - 경향신문 2013-03-15]
  11. ↑ “‘새 대통령에게 선물하고 싶은 책’ 1위 철학자 한병철의 ‘피로사회’- 경향신문 2012-11-29”. 2013년 12월 3일에 원본 문서에서 보존된 문서. 2013년 12월 2일에 확인함.





===

Byung-Chul Han

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Korean name, the family name is Han.
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han in 2015
Born1959 (age 66)
Seoul, South Korea
Education
Alma materUniversity of Freiburg
University of Basel
Philosophical work
Era20th- / 21st-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy, Post-structuralism, Deconstruction
Main interests
Notable ideasShanzhai as "Deconstruction in Chinese"
Korean name
Hangul
한병철
Hanja
韓炳哲
Revised RomanizationHan Byeongcheol
McCune–ReischauerHan Pyŏngchŏl
IPA/han pjʌŋt͡ɕʰʌl/

Byung-Chul Han (born 1959) is a South Korean-born philosopher and cultural theorist living in Germany.[1] He was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts and still occasionally gives courses there. His work largely centers around a critique of neoliberalism and its impact on society and the individual. Although he writes in German, his books have been best received in the Hispanosphere.[2]

Biography

[edit]

Byung-Chul Han studied metallurgy at Korea University in Seoul[3] before he moved to Germany in the 1980s to study philosophy, German literature and Catholic theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich. In 1994, he received his doctoral degree at Freiburg with a dissertation on Stimmung, or mood, in Martin Heidegger.[4]

In 2000, he joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Basel, where he completed his habilitation. In 2010, he became a faculty member at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, where his areas of interest were philosophy of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, ethics, social philosophy, phenomenology, cultural theory, aesthetics, religion, media theory, and intercultural philosophy. From 2012 to 2017 he taught philosophy and cultural studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), where he directed the newly established Studium Generale general studies program.[5]

Han is the author of more than thirty books, the most well known are treatises on what he terms a "society of tiredness" (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft) and a "society of transparency" (Transparenzgesellschaft). He also wrote about the concept of shanzhai (山寨), a style of imitative variation, which pre-exist practices known in Western philosophy as deconstructive.[6]

Han's current work focuses on transparency as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces, which he understands as the insatiable drive toward voluntary disclosure bordering on the pornographic. According to Han, the dictates of transparency enforce a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values such as shame, secrecy, and trust.[7]

Personal life

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Through his career, Han has refused to give radio and television interviews and rarely divulges any biographical or personal details, including his date of birth, in public.[8] He is a Catholic.[9]

Thought

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Much of Han's writing is characterised by an underlying concern with the situation encountered by human subjects in the fast-paced, technologically-driven state of late capitalism. The situation is explored in its various facets through his books: sexuality, mental health (particularly burnout, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), violence, freedom, technology, and popular culture.[10]

In The Burnout Society (original German title: Müdigkeitsgesellschaft), Han characterizes today's society as a pathological landscape of neuronal disorders such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline personality and burnout. He claims that they are not "infections" but "infarcts", which are not caused by the negativity of people's immunology, but by an excess of positivity.[11] According to Han, driven by the demand to persevere and not to fail, as well as by the ambition of efficiency, we become committers and sacrificers at the same time and enter a swirl of demarcation, self-exploitation and collapse. "When production is immaterial, everyone already owns the means of production, him- or herself. The neoliberal system is no longer a class system in the proper sense. It does not consist of classes that display mutual antagonism. This is what accounts for the system's stability."[12]

Han argues that subjects become self-exploiters: "Today, everyone is an auto-exploiting labourer in his or her own enterprise. People are now master and slave in one. Even class struggle has transformed into an inner struggle against oneself."[12] The individual has become what Han calls "the achievement-subject"; the individual does not believe they are subjugated "subjects" but rather "projects: Always refashioning and reinventing ourselves" which "amounts to a form of compulsion and constraint—indeed, to a "more efficient kind of subjectivation and subjugation." As a project deeming itself free of external and alien limitations, the "I" subjugates itself to internal limitations and self-constraints, which are taking the form of compulsive achievement and optimization.[13]

In Agonie des Eros ('Agony of the Eros') Han carries forward thoughts developed in his earlier books The Burnout Society (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft) and Transparency Society (Transparenzgesellschaft). Beginning with an analysis of the "Other" Han develops an interrogation of desire and love between human beings. Partly based on Lars von Trier's film Melancholia, where Han sees depression and overcoming depicted, Han further develops his thesis of a contemporary society that is increasingly dominated by narcissism and self-reference. Han's diagnosis extends even to the point of the loss of desire, the disappearance of the ability to devote to the "Other", the stranger, the non-self. At this point, subjects come to revolve exclusively around themselves, unable to build relationships. Even love and sexuality are permeated by this social change: sex and pornography, exhibition/voyeurism and re/presentation, are displacing love, eroticism, and desire from the public eye. The abundance of positivity and self-reference leads to a loss of confrontation. Thinking, Han states, is based on the "untreaded", on the desire for something that one does not yet understand. It is connected to a high degree with Eros, so the "agony of the Eros" is also an "agony of thought". Not everything must be understood and "liked", not everything must be made available.[14]

In Topologie der Gewalt ('Topology of Violence'), Han continues his analysis of a society on the edge of collapse that he started with The Burnout Society. Focusing on the relation between violence and individuality, he shows that, against the widespread thesis about its disappearance, violence has only changed its form of appearance and now operates more subtly. The material form of violence gives way to a more anonymous, desubjectified, systemic one, that does not reveal itself, as it is merging with its antagonist – freedom. This theme is further explored in "Psychopolitics", where through Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Carl Schmitt, Richard Sennett, René Girard, Giorgio Agamben, Deleuze/Guattari, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu and Martin Heidegger, Han develops an original conception of violence. Central to Han's thesis is the idea that violence finds expression in 'negative' and 'positive' forms (note: these are not normative judgements about the expressions themselves): negative violence is an overtly physical manifestation of violence, finding expression in war, torture, terrorism, etc; positive violence "manifests itself as over-achievement, over-production, over-communication, hyper-attention, and hyperactivity." The violence of positivity, Han warns, could be even more disastrous than that of negativity. "Infection, invasion, and infiltration have given way to infarction."[15]

Themes

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Han has written on topics such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline personality disorder, burnout, depression, exhaustion, internet, love, multitasking, pop culture, power, rationality, religion, social media, subjectivity, tiredness, transparency and violence.

Reception

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Han being awarded the Prix Bristol des Lumières [fr] alongside Jacques Attali, Christophe Barbier, Philippe-Joseph Salazar, among others

The Burnout Society has been translated into over 35 languages.[16] Several South Korean newspapers voted it the most important book in 2012.[17] It sold over a hundred thousand copies across Latin America, Korea, and Spain.[18] The Guardian wrote a positive review of his 2017 book Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power,[19] while the Hong Kong Review of Books praised his writing as "concise almost to the point of being aphoristic, Han's writing style manages to distill complex ideas into highly readable and persuasive prose" while noting that "on other occasions, Han veers uncomfortably close to billboard-sized statements ("Neoliberalism is the 'capitalism of' Like), which highlights the fine line between cleverness and self-indulgent sloganeering."[20] The Los Angeles Review of Books described him as "as good a candidate as any for philosopher of the moment."[21]

Der Freitag writer Steffen Kraft criticized him for drawing on anti-democratic and anti-technology philosopher Carl Schmitt, and alleged that he "confuses cause and effect: it is not the hope for more transparency that has turned democracy into technocracy, but the refusal of even progressives to consider the consequences of information technology on the political process." (original quote in German: "Ursache und Wirkung: Nicht die Hoffnung auf mehr Transparenz hat die Demokratie zur Technokratie gemacht, sondern die Weigerung selbst Progressiver, die Folgen der Informationstechnik auf den politischen Prozess zu bedenken.")[22]

In 2025, Han was awarded the Princess of Asturias Awards for his writings on the ills of digital technology and contemporary capitalism.[23]

Works in English

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  • The Burnout Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015) ISBN 9780804795098.
  • The Transparency Society (Stanford: Stanford Briefs, 2015) ISBN 080479460X
  • The Agony of Eros (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2017) ISBN 0262533375
  • In the Swarm: Digital Prospects (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2017), ISBN 0262533367
  • Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power (London & New York: Verso Books, 2017) ISBN 9781784785772
  • Saving Beauty (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017) ISBN 9781509515103
  • The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017) ISBN 1509516050
  • Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2017) ISBN 0262534363
  • The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication Today (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2018) ISBN 1509523065
  • Topology of Violence (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2018) ISBN 9780262534956
  • What Is Power? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2018) ISBN 9781509516100
  • Good Entertainment: A Deconstruction of the Western Passion Narrative (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2019) ISBN 0262537508
  • The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020) ISBN 1509542760
  • Capitalism and the Death Drive (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021) ISBN 9781509545018
  • The Palliative Society: Pain Today (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021) ISBN 9781509547258
  • Hyperculture: Culture and Globalisation (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022) ISBN 9781509546183
  • Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022) ISBN 9781509552986
  • Non-things: Upheaval in the Lifeworld (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022) ISBN 9781509551705
  • The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022) ISBN 9781509545100
  • Absence: On the Culture and Philosophy of the Far East (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2023) ISBN 9781509546206
  • Vita contemplativa: In praise of inactivity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2023) ISBN 9781509558018
  • The Crisis of Narration (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024) ISBN 9781509560431
  • The Spirit of Hope (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024) ISBN 9781509565191

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ Han, Byung-Chul. "Optimismus der Fremden: Wer ist Flüchtling?". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  2. ^ Juan Carlos Galindo (2018-02-10). "El filósofo surcoreano que se hizo viral". El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-02-10. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  3. ^ "[책과 지식] 『피로사회』 저자 한병철, 도올 김용옥 만나다" [(Books and knowledge) 'Society of Tiredness' author Han Byung-Chul and Do-ol Kim Young-oak meet]. JoongAng Ilbo. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  5. ^ "Studium Generale".
  6. ^ Knepper, Steven; Stoneman, Ethan; Wyllie, Robert (2024). Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-1509560981.
  7. ^ Knepper, Steven; Stoneman, Ethan; Wyllie, Robert (2024). Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-1509560981.
  8. ^ "Play more and work less: A visit with Byung-Chul Han in Karlsruhe". Sign and Sight. 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2012-06-09.
  9. ^ Han, Byung-Chul (12 April 2021). "The Tiredness Virus". The Nation.
  10. ^ Knepper, Steven; Stoneman, Ethan; Wyllie, Robert (2024). Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-1509560981.
  11. ^ "'새 대통령에게 선물하고 싶은 책' 1위 철학자 한병철의 '피로사회'". Kyunghyang Shinmun. 2012-11-29. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b Han, "Psychopolitics" (2017), p. 13
  13. ^ Han, "Psychopolitics" (2017), p. 21
  14. ^ Han, Byung-Chul (2017) [2012 in German]. The Agony of Eros. Translated by Butler, Erik. Foreword by Alain Badiou. London: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262533379. LCCN 2016031913.
  15. ^ "Topology of Violence". The MIT Press. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  16. ^ "The Burnout Society". Verlag Matthes & Seitz Berlin. Retrieved 2024-12-12.
  17. ^ "2012년 미디어 선정 올해의 책" [2012 Media Picks for Book of the Year]. Aladin Books. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  18. ^ Elola, Joseba (8 October 2023). "Byung-Chul Han, the philosopher who lives life backwards: 'We believe we're free, but we're the sexual organs of capital'". EL PAÍS English (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  19. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (2017-12-30). "Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  20. ^ Hamilton (2018-05-16). "Psychopolitics". HONG KONG REVIEW OF BOOKS 香港書評. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  21. ^ West, Adrian Nathan. "Media and Transparency: An Introduction to Byung-Chul Han in English". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  22. ^ Kraft, Steffen (7 June 2012). "Klarheit schaffen". der Freitag (in German). Archived from the original on 16 September 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  23. ^ "Philosopher Byung-Chul Han wins Spain's Princess of Asturias prize for humanities". AP News. May 7, 2025. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  24. ^ "Byung-Chul Han - Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 2025". Princess of Asturias Foundation.
[edit]
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==
Spanish

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Byung-Chul Han

This name follows Korean onomastics ; the surname is Han .
Byung-Chul Han

Byung-Chul Han in 2015
Personal information
Full nameByung Chul Han
Native name한병철
Birth1959 Seoul ( South Korea ) View and modify data in Wikidata
ResidenceGermany
NationalitySouth Korean and German
Education
Educated in
Professional information
OccupationPhilosopher , theologian , professor and writer
Employer
MovementsHegelianism , deconstruction .
Literary languageGerman
GenderRehearsal
Notable worksThe society of fatigue
DistinctionsPrincess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities (2025)
[ edit data on Wikidata ]

Byung-Chul Han ( Korean : 한병철 ; also spelled Pyong-Chol Han; Seoul , b. 1959 [ 1 ] ​[ 2 ] ​) is a South Korean philosopher , Catholic theologian, essayist, expert in cultural studies , and professor at the Berlin University of the Arts . He writes in German and is considered one of the most prominent philosophers of contemporary thought for his critique of capitalism , the work society, technology , and hypertransparency. [ 3 ] ​[ 4 ]

Biography

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Byung-Chul Han was born in Seoul . In an interview with the weekly Die Zeit, he said that although he is critical of technology, it particularly interests him, and that as a child he always played with radios and electrical appliances, but in the end he decided to study metallurgy at Korea University . He dropped out of school after causing an explosion in his house while working with chemicals. He arrived in Germany at the age of 22 without knowing German and having read almost nothing about philosophy. [ 3 ] In another interview he explained: [ 5 ]

At the end of my studies [in metallurgy], I felt like an idiot. I actually wanted to study literature, but in Korea I couldn't change my major, and my family wouldn't have allowed it. I had no choice but to leave. I lied to my parents and settled in Germany even though I could barely express myself in German. [...] I wanted to study German literature. I knew nothing about philosophy. I only learned who Husserl and Heidegger were when I arrived in Heidelberg . Being a romantic, I intended to study literature, but I read too slowly, so I couldn't. I switched to philosophy. When studying Hegel, speed isn't important. It's enough to be able to read a page a day.

He studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg and German literature and theology at the University of Munich . In 1994 he received his doctorate from Freiburg with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger. In 2000, he joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Basel , where he completed his Habilitation . In 2010, he became a faculty member at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe , where his areas of interest were 18th- , 19th- , and 20th- century philosophy , ethics , social philosophy , phenomenology , cultural anthropology , aesthetics , religion , media theory , and intercultural philosophy. Since 2012, he has been a professor of philosophy and cultural studies at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), where he heads the newly established Studium Generale , or general studies program. [ 6 ]

Han is the author of over thirty books, the most recent of which are treatises on what he calls the "society of exhaustion" ( Müdigkeitsgesellschaft ), and the "society of transparency" ( Transparenzgesellschaft ), and on his concept of shanzhai , a neologism that seeks to identify modes of deconstruction in the contemporary practices of Chinese capitalism . [ 4 ]

Han's current work focuses on "transparency" as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces , which he understands as the insatiable drive toward the voluntary disclosure of all kinds of information that borders on the pornographic . According to Han, the dictates of transparency impose a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values ​​such as shame, secrecy, and confidentiality. [ 7 ]

Until recently, Han refused to give radio and television interviews and rarely divulges biographical or personal details, including his date of birth, in public. [ 8 ] To rebel against digital capitalism, he has developed his own formula of political resistance: he does not own a smartphone , does not go sightseeing, only listens to analogue music, does not treat his students as clients, and devotes time to cultivating his garden. [ 9 ]

Construction site

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The Transparency Society (2012)

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No other issue dominates public discourse today as much as transparency. According to Han, anyone who refers to it only in terms of corruption and freedom of information ignores its magnitude. It manifests itself when trust has disappeared and society relies on surveillance and control. It is a systemic coercion, an economic imperative, not a moral or biopolitical one. Things become transparent when they are expressed in terms of price and are stripped of their singularity. In his reflection, Han "turns to authors such as Agamben, Barthes, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Kant, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Sennett, Simmel, and Žižek to clear the way for this phenomenon that is destroying the otherness inherent in human essence itself and that acts to tame any trace of resistance against this silent social change [ 10 ] "

The Salvation of Beauty (2015)

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The polished, the smooth, the flawless—these are the hallmarks of our times. They are what Jeff Koons ' sculptures , smartphones, and hair removal all have in common. These qualities highlight the current "excess of positivity" that Han speaks of in other essays, but which he focuses on and develops here in the field of art and aesthetics. [ 11 ]

The Expulsion of the Different (2022)

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The times in which the other existed are over. The other as friend, the other as hell, the other as mystery, the other as desire are disappearing, giving way to the same. The proliferation of the same is what, masquerading as growth, constitutes today's pathological alterations of the social body. What sickens society is not alienation or subtraction, nor prohibition and repression, but hypercommunication , excess information , overproduction and hyperconsumption . The expulsion of the different and the hell of the same set in motion a totally different destructive process: depression and self-destruction . [ 12 ]

Shanzhai

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The art of forgery and deconstruction in China

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" Shanzhai " is a Chinese neologism that refers to the appropriation of a form or idea, dismissing its status as original. A shanzai is a fake, a pirated copy, a parody. Originally applied to counterfeit electronics and clothing brands, the concept now encompasses all aspects of Chinese life: there is shanzhai architecture, shanzhai food, shanzhai deputies, and even shanzhai showbiz stars. While their appeal lies precisely in their functional and ingenious variation, they are much more than mere cheap counterfeits. They are not intended to fool anyone. Their undeniable capacity for innovation is not defined by genius or creation ex nihilo , but by being part of an anonymous and ongoing process of combination and mutation. [ 13 ]

Psychopolitics (2014)

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The philosopher Byung-Chul Han now turns his critical gaze towards the new power techniques of neoliberal capitalism, which give access to the sphere of the psyche, turning it into its greatest force of production. Psychopolitics is, according to Han, that system of domination that, instead of employing oppressive power, uses a seductive, intelligent (smart) power, which gets men to submit themselves to the framework of domination. [ 14 ]

Good entertainment

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In this insightful essay, Byung-Chul Han analyzes and recounts, taking as references Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Luhmann and Raushenberg, the numerous forms of entertainment that have emerged throughout history and shows the roots of leisure in our social system. As entertaining as it is productive, this work poses an original reflection on whether the dichotomy between passion and entertainment can still be maintained. [ 15 ]

Hyperculturality

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In this work, Byung-Chul Han uses the theoretical concept of hyperculturality to distinguish it from normative and misused concepts in current debate, such as multiculturalism and transculturality. Through the thinking of various modern and contemporary philosophers, this book discusses the changing idea of ​​culture and shows to what extent a completely different orientation to the world we inhabit is necessary and possible. Do we finally live in a culture that gives us the freedom to disperse like happy "tourists" throughout the world? If so, are we assimilating this paradigm shift well? [ 16 ]

Absence

[ edit ]

Through a fine analysis of Oriental architecture, arts, language, food, and gestures, Han captures the cultural effects of this discordance. The neither entirely open nor entirely closed specialty of the Buddhist temple, which denies the interior effect of Christian religious architecture; Oriental cuisine, which lacks the weight of a main course and has rice as its main ingredient, empty due to its lack of color and bland flavor; the subjectless event that characterizes the uses of some languages ​​such as Korean and ancient Chinese; the reverence of the Japanese greeting, which avoids direct contact with the gaze of an "I," are all elements that trace the profile of a mysterious culture of emptiness, often incomprehensible to the West, which escapes the determinations of essentialist thought. [ 17 ]

The Society of Fatigue (2010)

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In his work The Burnout Society (original German title: Müdigkeitsgesellschaft ), Han characterizes today's society as a pathological landscape of neural disorders, such as depression , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , borderline personality disorder , and burnout . He claims that these are not " infections " but " heart attacks ," which are not caused by a negative immunological phenomenon in people but by an "excess of positivity." [ 18 ]

The agony of Eros

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The Agony of Eros (original title: Agonie des Eros ) develops the author's thinking already expressed in the book just cited and in The Transparency Society (in German: Transparenzgesellschaft ), also drawing attention to themes such as human relationships, desire, and love. Based on an enlightening analysis of the characters in Lars von Trier 's film Melancholia , in which Han sees depression and overcoming, he develops in his usual discursive form the image of a society increasingly dominated by narcissism and self-reference . This diagnosis of Han's extends even to what he calls "loss of desire ," the disappearance of the capacity to dedicate oneself to the "other," the stranger, the non-self. We revolve around ourselves, we restrict ourselves in our sameness, incapable of building relationships with others. Even love and sexuality are permeated by this shift: socially, sex, pornography, and exhibitionism are displacing love, eroticism, and desire in the public eye. The abundance of positivity and self-reference leads to a loss of interaction. Thought, according to Han, is based on "non-opposition," on the desire for something one doesn't yet understand. It is highly connected to Eros , which is why The Agony of Eros (the title of his work) is also an "agony of thought." Not everything must be understood and "liked," not everything must be available.

Topology of violence

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In Topology of Violence (original title: Topologie der Gewalt ), the author continues his alarming analysis of a society on the brink of collapse that he began with The Society of Fatigue . He focuses on the relationship between violence and individuality, demonstrating that despite the widespread thesis of its disappearance, violence has only changed its form of manifestation and operates in more subtle ways. Violence in the form of war gives way to another, anonymous, "de-subjectified" and systemic violence, which is no longer revealed because it merges with its antagonist, freedom.

Through Sigmund Freud , Walter Benjamin , Carl Schmitt , Richard Sennett , René Girard , Giorgio Agamben , Deleuze / Guattari , Michel Foucault , Michel Serres , Pierre Bourdieu , and Martin Heidegger , Han adopts his own concept of violence, which he defines as functioning in free individuality. Driven by the sole demand to persevere and not fail, as well as by the ambition for efficiency, we become renunciants and sacrificers at the same time, entering a whirlpool of limitation, self-exploitation, and collapse. Han's lucid study of violence offers many unorthodox insights and is not afraid to criticize common sense about the modern conception of society in freedom, individuality, and personal fulfillment, bringing to light the shadow side of the matter.

An article about this author in the newspaper El País includes some of his statements:

However, we must not confuse seduction with purchase. "I think that not only Greece, but also Spain, are in a state of shock after the financial crisis . The same thing happened in Korea after the Asian crisis. The neoliberal regime radically exploited this state of shock . And then comes the devil, who is called liberalism or the International Monetary Fund , and gives money or credit in exchange for human souls. While one is still in a state of shock , a more severe neoliberalization of society takes place, characterized by labor flexibility , cutthroat competition, deregulation , and layoffs." Everything is subject to the criterion of supposed efficiency, of performance. And, in the end, he explains, "we are all exhausted and depressed. Now the tired society of South Korea is in its final, mortal stage." In reality, the whole of social life becomes a commodity , a spectacle. The existence of anything depends on its prior "exposition," on "its exposure value" in the market . And with this, "the exposed society also becomes pornographic . Exposure to excess turns everything into a commodity . The invisible does not exist, so everything is delivered naked, without secrecy, to be devoured immediately, as Baudrillard said ." And most seriously: " Pornography annihilates eros and sex itself." The transparency demanded of everything is a direct enemy of pleasure , which demands a certain concealment, at least a thin veil. Commodification is a process inherent to capitalism, which only knows one use for sexuality : its exposure value as a commodity. [ 19 ]

In relation to the state of permanent malaise of modern man:

"The way to cure this depression is to leave narcissism behind . To look at the other, to realize their dimension, their presence," he maintains. "Because in the face of an external enemy, we can seek antibodies, but we cannot use antibodies against ourselves." To clarify what he suggests, he turns to Jean Baudrillard : the external enemy first took the form of a wolf, then a rat, later a beetle, and finally a virus . Today, however, "violence, which is inherent to the neoliberal system , no longer destroys from outside the individual. It does so from within, causing depression or cancer ." The internalization of evil is a consequence of the neoliberal system , which has achieved something very important: it no longer needs to exercise repression because it has been internalized. Modern man is his own exploiter, driven only by the pursuit of success. This being so, how can we confront the new evils? It's not easy, he says. "The decision to overcome the system that induces depression is not something that only affects the individual . The individual is not free to decide whether or not to stop being depressed. The neoliberal system forces man to act as if he were a businessman, a competitor of the other, to whom only the relationship of competition unites him." [ 20 ]

The society of work and performance

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Han criticizes the widespread pressure on individuals, who are required to be constantly active, and who demand constant activity from themselves, an obligation that ultimately plunges them into depression . The society that embraces human beings then ceases to exist and becomes a society of obligation. The following quote from his work Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Techniques of Power exemplifies his thinking very well:

Those who fail in the neoliberal performance society take responsibility for themselves and feel ashamed, rather than questioning society or the system. This is the special intelligence of the neoliberal regime. (…) In the neoliberal regime of self-exploitation, one directs aggression towards oneself. This self-aggression does not turn the exploited into a revolutionary, but into a depressive. [ 21 ]

In his work The Society of Fatigue , the author points out:

The society of work and performance is not a free society. It produces new obligations. The dialectic of master and slave does not ultimately lead to a society in which everyone capable of leisure is a free being, but rather to a society of work, in which the master himself has become a slave to work. In this society of obligation, everyone carries with them their own labor camp. And the peculiarity of the latter is that there one is both prisoner and guard, victim and executioner. Thus, one exploits oneself, making exploitation possible without domination. [ 22 ]

In relation to this topic, in his article "Why Revolution Is Not Possible Today?" (10/07/2014), he wrote:

It is impossible to explain neoliberalism in a Marxist way . In neoliberalism, there is not even "alienation" from work. Today, we throw ourselves euphorically into work, to the point of burnout syndrome [chronic fatigue, inefficiency]. The first level of the syndrome is euphoria. Burnout syndrome and revolution are mutually exclusive. Thus, it is a mistake to think that the multitude overthrows the parasitic empire and establishes a communist society. [...] And what about communism today? Sharing and community are constantly evoked. The sharing economy must succeed the economy of property and possession. Sharing is caring , says the maxim of the Circler company in Dave Eggers' new novel, The Circle . [...] In the sharing economy, too, the harsh logic of capitalism predominates . Paradoxically, in this beautiful "sharing," no one gives anything voluntarily. Capitalism reaches its peak when communism is sold as a commodity. Communism as a commodity: this is the end of the revolution. [ 23 ]

The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering

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In this work, Byung reflects on the contemporary temporal crisis. He poses the atomization of time as the postmodern problem. We no longer face the acceleration of time, but rather its fragmentation, which the author calls dyssynchrony: each moment is identical, monotonous; there is no sense and/or meaning. Time flees because nothing concludes; everything is ephemeral and fleeting. Not even death concludes; it is simply conceived as another instant. Thus, he invalidates Nietzsche's and Heidegger's vision of death as the consummation of a meaningful unity.

However, he also proposes that the possibility of recovering from this dyssynchrony gives rise to the possibility of a life devoid of theology and teleology , which nevertheless maintains its own "aroma." The crisis of time in postmodernity does not necessarily bring with it a temporal void, but it requires a change, that is, that the active life once again welcomes the contemplative life. [ 24 ]

In the swarm

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In this work, Byung analyzes how the digital revolution , the Internet, and social media have transformed the very essence of society. A new mass has emerged: the "digital swarm": a mass of isolated individuals, soulless, without collective action, meaningless, and without expression. Digital hypercommunication destroys silence, and only perceives incoherent, deafening noise. In this context, questioning the established order is impeded, thus taking on the features of totalitarianism in a barely visible way. [ 25 ]

On power

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In this work, Han confronts the theoretical chaos surrounding the concept of power by searching for a "fundamental form" that allows us to understand its diverse manifestations. He differentiates between coercive power—unstable and with little intermediation with respect to the subjected other—and power that operates from the freedom of the other—much more stable and highly intermedial. However, in both cases, he recognizes a unique form of power characterized by the attempt to continue itself in the other.

The fundamental feature of power is "going beyond itself." But by going beyond itself, the subject of power does not abandon itself or lose itself . To go beyond itself—and this is the way power proceeds —is at the same time to go within itself . [ 26 ]

Concluding this work, he concludes that the only mediation with the other that is radically different from power is provided by kindness . Kindness has the capacity for an "ethicalization of power" in that it allows the self to no longer need to recover itself in the other:

(...) the ethicization of power demands that the place transcend its ipsocentric tendency, that it provide spaces not only for the one, but also for the multiple and the marginal, that it grant stays, that it be moved by an original kindness that arrests this tendency, this will to itself (...) A different movement emanates from kindness than from power. Power as such lacks openness to otherness. (p. 106). [ 27 ]

Capitalism and the Death Drive (2022)

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This book brings together 14 articles and two conversations by Byung-Chul Han about the expansion of capitalism and its consequences.

What we call "growth" today is actually the consequence of an excessive increase in carcinomas that destroy the social organism. These tumors ceaselessly metastasize and multiply with an inexplicable and deadly vitality. At a certain point, this growth is no longer productive, but destructive. Capitalism has long since passed this critical point. Its destructive powers produce catastrophes not only ecological or social, but also mental. The devastating effects of capitalism suggest the existence of a death instinct. Freud initially introduced the notion of the "death drive" with hesitation, but later admitted that he "could not think beyond it" as the idea became increasingly central to his thinking. Today it is impossible to reflect on capitalism without considering the death drive. [ 28 ]

Topics

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He has written, among other topics, about nervous breakdown, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , borderline personality disorder , burnout , the Internet, love, pop culture, power, rationality, religion, mass media, subjectivity, fatigue, asthenia, transparency from a social and behavioral point of view, and violence.

Dataism

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In 2014, Byung stated in his book Psychopolitics regarding dataism :

Big Data must liberate knowledge from subjective discretion. Thus, intuition does not represent a higher form of knowledge. It is merely subjective, a necessary aid that makes up for the lack of objective data. In a complex situation, following this argument, intuition is blind. Even theory falls under the suspicion of being an ideology. When there is sufficient data, theory is superfluous. The Second Enlightenment is the age of purely data-driven knowledge. [...] Dataism reveals itself as digital Dadaism . Dadaism, too, renounces a framework of meaning. Language is completely emptied of meaning: "The events of life have neither beginning nor end. Everything happens idiotically. That is why everything is the same. Simplicity is called Dada." Dataism is nihilism. It completely renounces meaning. Data and numbers are not narrative, but additive. Meaning, on the contrary, lies in a narrative. Data fills the void of meaning. [...] In general, dataism takes on libidinous, even pornographic, aspects. Dataists copulate with data. Thus, we speak of "datasexuals ." They are "inexorably digital" and find data "sexy." The digit is approaching the phallus.
Byung-Chul Han. Psychopolitics , Barcelona, ​​Herder Editorial, 2014, ISBN 978-84-254-3368-9 .

Reception of his work

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He is today considered a star in the field of philosophy [ 29 ] and a distinguished successor to thinkers such as Roland Barthes , Giorgio Agamben and Peter Sloterdijk . [ 30 ]

His work The Fatigue Society (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft) is available in more than a dozen languages. [ 31 ] Some Korean newspapers voted it the most important book published in 2012. [ 32 ]

Selected bibliography

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  • Heideggers Herz. Zum Begriff der Stimmung bei Martin Heidegger . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 1999.
  • Todesarten. Philosophische Untersuchungen zum Tod . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 1999.
    • Spanish edition: Faces of Death: Philosophical Investigations into Death . Barcelona: Herder, 2020.
  • Martin Heidegger . UTB, Stuttgart 1999.
  • Tod und Alterität . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2002.
  • Philosophie des Zen-Buddhismus. Reclam, Stuttgart 2002.
  • Was ist Macht? Reclam, Stuttgart 2005.
  • Hyperkulturalität: Kultur und Globalisierung. Merve, Berlin 2005.
  • Hegel und die Macht. Ein Versuch über die Freundlichkeit . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2005.
  • Gute Unterhaltung. Eine Dekonstruktion der abendländischen Passionsgeschichte . Verlag Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2007.
  • "Abwesen: Zur Kultur und Philosophie des Fernen Osten. Merve, Berlin 2007.
    • Spanish edition: "Absence. On the Culture and Philosophy of the Far East." Buenos Aires, Caja Negra Editora, 2019, ISBN  978-987-1622-72-6
  • Duft der Zeit: Ein philosophischer Essay zur Kunst des Verweilens. Transcript 2009.
    • Spanish edition: The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering. Barcelona, ​​Herder, 2015, ISBN 978-987-254-3392-4
    • Korean edition: 시간의 향기 . Moonji, 2010, ISBN 9788932023960
  • Müdigkeitsgesellschaft Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-88221-616-5
    • Spanish edition: The Society of Fatigue . Barcelona, ​​Herder, 2012, ISBN 978-84-254-2868-5
    • Dutch edition: De vermoeide samenleving . Van Gennep,, 2012, ISBN 9789461640710
    • Danish edition: Træthedssamfundet . Møller, 2012, ISBN 9788799404377
    • Italian edition: La società della stanchezza . nottetempo, 2012, ISBN 978-88-7452-345-0
    • Korean edition: 피로사회 . Moonji, 2011, ISBN 9788932023960
    • Swedish edition: Trötthetssamhället . Ersatz, 2013, ISBN 978-91-87219-62-7
    • Catalan edition: La societat del tiredament. Barcelona, ​​Herder, 2015, ISBN 978-84-254-3675-8
    • Brazilian edition: forthcoming, Vozes.
    • French edition: forthcoming, edition circé.
    • Romanian edition: forthcoming, Humanitas.
    • Taiwanese edition: forthcoming, Locus.
    • Turkish edition: forthcoming, Pinar Yayinlari.
  • Shanzhai 山寨 - Dekonstruktion auf Chinesisch. Merve, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88396-294-8
    • Spanish edition: Shanzhai. The Art of Forgery and Deconstruction in China . Buenos Aires, Caja Negra Editora, 2016, ISBN  978-987-1622-50-4
  • Gewalt Topology. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-495-6 .
  • Transparenzgesellschaft. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-595-3 .
    • Spanish edition: The Transparency Society . Barcelona, ​​Herder Editorial, 2013, ISBN 978-84-254-3252-1
    • Dutch edition: De transparent samenleving . Van Gennep, 2012, ISBN 9789461641892
    • Catalan edition: The society of transparency. Barcelona, ​​Herder, 2015, ISBN 978-84-254-3678-9
    • French edition: forthcoming, Circé.
    • Italian edition: forthcoming, Nottetempo.
    • Korean Edition: Coming Soon, Moonji.
    • Romanian edition: forthcoming, Humanitas.
    • Russian edition: forthcoming, Logos.
  • Agony of Eros. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-973-9
    • Spanish edition: The Agony of Eros . Barcelona, ​​Herder Editorial, 2014. ISBN 978-84-254-3275-0
    • Italian edition: Eros in agonia . Nottetempo, 2013, ISBN 9788874524235 .
    • Dutch edition: forthcoming, Van Gennep,.
    • French edition: forthcoming, Autrement.
    • Korean Edition: Coming Soon, Moonji.
    • Romanian edition: forthcoming, Humanitas.
  • Bitte Augen schließen. Auf der Suche nach einer anderen Zeit. Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2013 ebook, ISBN 978-3-88221-064-4
  • Digital Rationalität und das Ende des communikativen Handelns . Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-066-8
  • Im Schwarm. Ansichten des Digitalen . Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-037-8
    • Spanish edition: In the swarm . Barcelona, ​​Herder Editorial, 2014, ISBN 978-84-254-3368-9
    • French edition: forthcoming, Actes Sud.
    • Italian edition: forthcoming, Nottetempo.
    • Swedish edition: forthcoming, Ersatz.
  • Psychopolitik: Neoliberalismus und die neuen Machttechniken (Essay Collection) . S. Fischer Verlag Frankfurt 2014 ISBN 978-3100022035
  • Die Austreibung des Anderen. Gesellschaft, Wahrnehmung und Kommunikation heute. S. Fischer Verlag 2016
  • Spanish edition: The Disappearance of Rituals . Herder Editorial, 2020. ISBN 9788425444012
  • Spanish edition: Non-things. Bankruptcies of today's world . Taurus Publishing, 2021.
  • Spanish edition: Infocracy. Digitalization and the Crisis of Democracy . Taurus Publishing, 2022.
  • Spanish edition: Contemplative Life. In Praise of Inactivity . Taurus Publishing, 2023.
  • Spanish edition: The Crisis of Narrative . Herder Editorial, 2024.
  • Spanish edition: The Spirit of Hope . Herder Editorial, 2024.

About Byung-Chul Han

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Documentary

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" The Society of Fatigue – Byung-Chul Han in Seoul/Berlin " (2015)

Documentary filmed by visual artist Isabella Gresser , who accompanied the philosopher during his visits to Seoul between 2012 and 2014. Gresser interweaves cinematographic, photographic and drawing observations she made in Korea with spoken text by Byung-Chul Han, lecture fragments and other materials, such as an interview with Korean director and producer Park Chan-Wook or recordings of monks at a Buddhist temple. A central theme of the documentary is that of the walker, and the Berlin section is connected to the film Wings of Desire über Berlin ( Der Himmel über Berlin ), written by Wim Wenders and Peter Handke, in which Byung-Chul Han guides the viewer through the intimacies of his neighborhood and its nostalgic native peculiarities. [ 33 ]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Werner Stegmaier (Hrsg.): Europa-Philosophie. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016900-2 , S. 191 ( online ).
  2. ^ Musik & Ästhetik , Band 1, 1997, ISSN 1432-9425
  3. ↑Jump to:a b "Please close your eyes. In search of a different time." Perspectives. La Vanguardia . July 9, 2016.
  4. ↑Jump to:a b Knepper, Steven; Stoneman, Ethan; Wyllie, Robert (2024). Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction . Cambridge: Polity. ISBN  978-1509560981 .
  5. ↑ Arroyo, Francesc (March 22, 2014). "Collapse Notice" . Retrieved May 15, 2014 .
  6. ↑ «Studium Generale» .
  7. ↑ "Klarheit schaffen" . Friday . June 7, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2012 .
  8. ↑ «Play more and work less: A visit with Byung-Chul Han in Karlsruhe» . Sign and Sight . July 25, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Navarro, Núria (February 6, 2018). "Byung-Chul-Han: Less 'liking' and more picking up the hoe . " elperiodico (in Spanish) . Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Noain-Sánchez, Amaya (June 16, 2016). «Byung-Chul, Han (2013): "The transparency society " » . CIC. Information and Communication Notebooks 21 : 265-266. ISSN  1988-4001 . doi : 10.5209/CIYC.52976 .
  11. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2015). Herder, ed. The Salvation of Beauty . Barcelona: Herder Editorial, SL ISBN  978-84-254-3758-8 .
  12. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2017). Herder, ed. The Expulsion of the Different . Barcelona: Herder Editorial, SL ISBN  978-84-254-3965-0 .
  13. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2016, 2017). Black Box, ed. Shanzhai - The Art of Forgery and Deconstruction in China . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Caja Negra Editora. ISBN  978-987-1622-50-4 .
  14. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2014). Herder, ed. Psychopolitics . Barcelona: Herder Editorial, SL ISBN  978-84-254-3398-6 .
  15. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2018). Herder, ed. Good entertainment . Barcelona: Herder Editorial, SL ISBN  978-84-254-4196-7 .
  16. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2018). Herder, ed. Hyperculturality . Barcelona: Herder Editorial, SL ISBN  978-84-254-4061-8 .
  17. ↑ Han, Byung Chul (2019). Black Box, ed. Absence - On the Culture and Philosophy of the Far East . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Caja Negra Editora. ISBN  978-987-1622-72-6 .
  18. ↑ «'새 대통령에게 선물하고 싶은 책' 1위 철학자 한병철의 '피로사회'» . 경향신문 . November 29, 2012. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2014 .
  19. ↑ Arroyo, Francesc (March 22, 2014). "Collapse warning . " El País newspaper . Retrieved May 13, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Arroyo, Francesc (March 22, 2014). "Collapse warning . " El País newspaper . Retrieved May 15, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Byung-Chul, Han (2014). "Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Techniques of Power" . Herder . Retrieved 26 February 2018 .
  22. ↑ Byung-Chul Han, The Fatigue Society , Herder, 2012, ISBN 978-84-254-2868-5 , p. 48
  23. ↑ Han, Byung-Chul (October 3, 2014). "Why Is Revolution Not Possible Today?" . El País . Retrieved October 4, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Han, Byung-Chul (2015). The aroma of time . Herder. ISBN  978-84-254-3392-4 .
  25. ↑ Han, Byung-Chul (2014). In the Swarm . Herder. ISBN  978-84-254-3368-9 .
  26. ↑ Byung-Chul, Han, (2016). About power . Herder. p. 56. ISBN  9788425438554 . OCLC992050046  .​
  27. ↑ Byung-Chul., Han (2016). About power . Herder. p. 106. ISBN  9788425438554 . OCLC992050046  .​
  28. ↑ Byung-Chul., Han (2022). Capitalism and the Death Drive . Herder. ISBN  9788425445484 .
  29. ↑ «Philosophy Star Han» . ZDF Aspekte . November 23, 2012. Archived from the original on January 9, 2013 . Retrieved December 31, 2012 .
  30. ↑ «Beginning of the Theater Season 2012/13» . Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 14, 2012 . Retrieved December 31, 2012 .
  31. ↑ «Translations» .
  32. ↑ «Korea's Most Important Books 2012» .
  33. ↑ "Byung-Chul Han and the Society of Fatigue | CCCB Veus" . blogs.cccb.org . Retrieved 9 July 2016 .

External links

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==
Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0
Han Byung-Chul
Psychopolitics is Han’s main contribution to political theory. It reflects Han’s rethinking of Bentham’s panopticon and Foucault’s biopower as disciplinary society transitioned into a digital achievement society that defines our contemporary neoliberal globalized world.

한병철 (Han Byung-Chul) is a Korean-German philosopher and cultural theorist. He has written more than two dozen books on various topics related to contemporary culture and society, new technologies, globalization, and neoliberal capitalism. Fourteen of his works have been translated into English as of 2020, and his works have been translated into almost a dozen different languages.

Han studied metallurgy at Korea University as an undergraduate. In graduate school, Han studied philosophy, German literature, and Catholic theology in Freiburg and Munich. He has held academic appointments at the University of Basel’s Department of Philosophy, at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, and he currently teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Han’s work is relevant for politically-engaged theologians and genealogists of Euro-American systems of sovereignty because his surgical interventions in contemporary political theory track new technologies of power deployed increasingly by private enterprise rather than sovereign nation-states and Ideological State Apparatuses. This is particularly germane for liberation, postcolonial, and liberal theologians, for Han’s analysis challenges their optimism in reforming secular liberal democracies and constructing a more equitable institutional cosmopolitanism. Han’s pessimistic portrait reveals that neoliberalism governs freedom, autonomy, and affective economies to reproduce capital and subjugate the post-industrial subject. Thus, politically-engaged theologies that merely seek to create a more diverse, equitable, and religiously inclusive society do not disrupt neoliberal technologies of power; they only accelerate neoliberalism’s growth.

Han is concerned with unpacking the operations of power, violence, subjectivation, politics, and production in contemporary society. On his diagnosis, our society is marked by psychopolitical exploitation, turning humans into consumers and entrepreneurs. Han tracks the transformation of the modes of production and subjectivity in neoliberalism and neoliberalism’s relationship to the proliferation of the digital, virtual, and Big Data. He critiques understandings that see existing models of sociopolitical control and governance according to the older logic of the disciplinary society. Supplanting this is a meritocratic achievement society (Leistungsgesellschaft) – neoliberal society “dominated by the modal verb can” (The Agony of Eros, 9) – which deploys the violence of positivity to exploit freedom and totalizes labor to transform citizen-subjects into consumer-projects endlessly engaged in the processes of optimization and auto-exploitation. Socioeconomic inequality is attributed to personal failure to achieve, rather than to the violence of positivity deployed by neoliberalism. Such transformations make modern political strategies of mass resistance impossible.

Psychopolitics is Han’s main contribution to political theory. It reflects Han’s rethinking of Bentham’s panopticon and Foucault’s biopower as disciplinary society transitioned into a digital achievement society that defines our contemporary neoliberal globalized world. Han argues that digital communication has not ushered in the utopia envisioned by Vilem Flusser’s anthropology of the digital. Instead, it has formed a transparency society of the digital panopticon, where psychopower supplants biopower. Unlike disciplinary biopower, “psychopower…can intervene in psychological processes themselves” (In the Swarm, 78) to anticipate, regulate, and influence behavior via the human psyche by relying upon Big Data’s information collection, predictive algorithms, and aperspectival surveillance (one not reliant on a central repressive optical gaze like in Bentham’s panopticon, but on digital surveillance efficiently logging our digital habitus and unconscious).

Transparency society is promoted by the dictatorship of transparency afforded by digital technology and social media. Netizens are encouraged to voluntarily expose themselves and be in constant communication. The freedom to share and exteriorize one’s interior state produces information and data that is collected by the digital panopticon to accelerate growth and productivity.

Han tracks the transformation of the forms of production and technologies of power to account for the development of psychopolitics in achievement society. Disciplinary society formed at the twilight of sovereign power in Europe at the end of the 17th century. The Industrial Revolution required feudal subjects to be recalibrated into obedience-subjects laboring in machinic production. Disciplinary power exercised as allo-exploitation (exploitation by outsider) and disciplinary technology of the panopticon were used to ensure moral reform and orthopedic calibration of obedience-subjects to be efficient and compliant laborers under industrial capitalism. “Modern disciplinary society continued to be a society of negativity. It was governed by disciplinary compulsion, ‘social orthopedics’. Deformation is its form of violence,” (Topology of Violence, 89). Social orthopedics forces bodies to conform to rules and trains the body to internalize movements apt for industrial production. “Calculated coercion pervades each and every limb and comes to be inscribed even in the automatism of habits,” (Psychopolitics, 16). Such calibrations thus produce an obedience-subject whose body and mind are re-formed into a docile, compliant, and ethical subject.

The transformation from disciplinary society to achievement society was also accompanied by comparable economic transformations. The political economy of achievement society is postindustrial capitalism. Neoliberalism and financial capitalism reconfigure forms of production and the laboring subject. “The neoliberal regime totalizes production, subordinating all areas of life to its dictates,” (The Disappearance of Rituals, 42). Achievement subjects are transformed from laborers to entrepreneurs who voluntarily exploit themselves.

Production has shifted to the generation of the immaterial. The distinction between owners and laborers collapses. The consumer owns the means of production themselves and internalizes the class antagonism of owner/laborer. The capitalist imperative to produce for productivity’s sake supplants the desire to satisfy one’s own needs. Growth, no longer solely calculated on the output of material goods, is measured by quantifying the immaterial such as capital, digital traffic, and likes.

Emotional capitalism compels entrepreneurs to constantly produce and consume not by negative threats, but positive affirmations. “Consumer capitalism operates through the selling and consumption of meanings and emotions…[it] enlists emotions in order to generate more desires and needs,” (Psychopolitics, 33-34). Positive emotions, particularly those related to the free expression of subjectivity, are deployed to motivate the entrepreneur unconsciously. This illusion of freedom from constraint and compulsion drives the achievement-subject to optimize performance and production by turning to doping, fitness, and aesthetic modifications. “The neoliberal imperative of performance, sexiness and fitness ultimately reduces the body to a functional object that is to be optimized,” (The Expulsion of the Other, 7). Success is quantified and measured, blocking the possibility of completion and closure. Functionalist reduction of the body accelerates the proliferation of the Same, eliminating thresholds of difference and otherness that impede unrestricted flow of capital, data, and information.

Smart power differs from disciplinary power by “shedding its negativity and presenting itself as freedom” (Psychopolitics, 10). It is subtle because it evokes positive emotions and encourages self-disclosure to internalize the “imperative to achieve” (The Burnout Society, 10). “Freedom and compulsion coincide” (47) in the consumer who is motivated to achieve, perform, optimize, and accumulate. Of course, Han is not arguing that the state no longer employs sovereign and disciplinary technologies of power. Rather, they are no longer the primary methods of subjugation and coercion.

This shift also reflects the increasing “egoification and atomization of society” (Topology of Violence, 120) that inhibits solidarity and collective resistance against neoliberal capitalism. Privatization erases both the public sphere of political organizing and action and the space where collective struggle, needs, and goals can be identified and articulated. What remains is an increasing isolationism and narcissism; self-referentiality reduces others to being merely a mirror stage of the same.

Another feature of contemporary society that Han identifies is the elimination of otherness in favor of a consumable diversity of sameness. “Foreignness itself is being deactivated into a formula of consumption. The alien is giving way to the exotic” (The Burnout Society, 2). Radical alterity is being eliminated because it impedes the flow of capital. Han suggests that consumable difference is referred to as diversity, “system-compatible differences” (The Expulsion of the Other, 19) that are economically useful and exploitable.

Diversity is commodified for the sake of furthering capitalist consumption practices. “As a neoliberal production strategy, authenticity creates commodifiable differences. It thus increases the diversity of the commodities in which authenticity is materialized. Individuals express their authenticity primarily through consumption” (Ibid., 20). Authenticity here is an inner compulsion reflecting the immaterial mode of producing the self in neoliberalism. “The I as its own entrepreneur produces itself, performs itself and offers itself as a commodity. Authenticity is a selling point” (Ibid., 19). A circular logic of producing an authentic self through consumption of authentic difference makes the achievement-subject both the consumer and product.

A consequence of auto-exploitation is burnout and depression. Life is reduced to “the immanency of vital functions and capacities” (Ibid.,51) to serve capitalist consumption and production. Bare life and labor are absolutized, and achievement-subjects as entrepreneurs of the self are utterly isolated from one another because they can only form relationships that are instrumental or useful for the self. According to Han, the achievement-subject does not become homo sacer due to subjection by an external sovereign. Rather, as homo liber compelled by “the injunction to achieve,” (The Burnout Society, 49) the achievement-subject makes itself homo sacer by “merging of victim and perpetrator, of master and slave, of freedom and violence” (Topology of Violence, 128). This life is barer than Agamben’s homo sacer because it “absolutizes survival” and “is not concerned with the good life” (The Burnout Society, 50). Rather than being banished, achievement-subjects as homo sacer live within the social order, unable to escape the totalization of positivity. “The transparent customer is…the homo sacer of the economic panopticon” (Topology of Violence, 104). The doping culture of the achievement society absolutizes competition within the self. They are the undead, not because they are able to be killed without repercussion or unable to be sacrificed, but because their lives are reduced to the maintenance of life and optimization of performance. As such, the bare life of the achievement-subject is not produced through negative sovereign violence, but by self-exploitation consequent in the compulsion to achieve.

Han, like Mbembe, has supplanted Foucault’s genealogical analysis of the operations of biopower in disciplinary society (itself an alternative to older models of sovereign power). But while Mbembe argues neocolonies are zones of exception sustained by a necropolitics of permanent warfare, Han’s psychopolitics analyzes the re-subjugation of inhabitants of the metropole through non-coercive (but not non-violent) means. Mbembe draws from Fanon’s “spatialization of colonial occupation” (Necropolitics, 79) as an operation of necropower in late modernity and centers the work of death in “the general instrumentalization of human existence and the material destruction of human bodies and populations” (Ibid., 68, emphasis original). Contemporary warfare is the central event for Mbembe, and irregular militias are the war machines employed by market forces who primarily targets civilians who pose obstacles to the extraction of resources. Mbembe tracks the material effects of the digital and algorithmic on migrants, refugees, and undesirables rather than on the achievement-subjects inhabiting the postindustrial metropoles.

Both achievement-society and Mbembe’s death-worlds, “the repressed topographies of cruelty”, are occupied by the living-dead. The superimposition of these two modes of governance sustain what Han calls the “Dictatorship of Capital,” which forecloses the possibility of revolutionary transformation. Mbembe refers to the global hegemony of neoliberalism as crypto-fascism that aggressively dismantles both democracy and replaces knowledge with metadata/information. Han sees neoliberalism as intensifying the privatization and financialization of society, whereas Mbembe argues that the contemporary moment reveals the “direct capture and control of the state by elites with substantial private economic power” (Ibid., 112, emphasis original). Han and Mbembe are pessimistic of European humanism and secular democracy’s capacity to reform. Yet Mbembe’s “ethics of the passerby” and Han’s ethics of “listen[ing] to the Other and respond[ing]” suggests that re-forging relations with the Other, in which the rejection of the logic of neoliberalism is the first step in disentangling relationality from hierarchies of power and domination.

Han’s concepts of psychopolitics and the digital panopticon anticipates and critiques Saul Newman’s assessment of technics as transcendent and “the new site of the sacred, the new source of charismatic and mystical authority in society” (Political Theology: A Critical Introduction, 150). The digital panopticon absolutizes transparency and reduces everything to exhibition value. Auto-exploitation, reinforced by the compulsion to disclose and produce, is not “religious enthusiasm” or “religious psychosis”. Newman interprets voluntary participation and subjugation in the digital panopticon theologically as “worship[ping] the technological god, seek[ing] our salvation in it, and believ[ing] that it can improve our lives and solve the problem of the world.” (Ibid., 152). Han instead attributes it to narcissistic auto-aggression, the internalization of excess positivity and freedom promoted in a post-industrial capitalist society to accelerate productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, Han states “religion is a system of negativity” (Topology of Violence, 90), antithetical to achievement-society’s elimination of negativity in order to increase efficiency and productivity.

Scholars of political theology must examine how contemporary psychopolitics merges the surveillance state and market economy to create digital class societies comprising of economically valuable consumers and ‘banned’ human waste. Those that are waste “stand outside the system or are hostile to it” and are of “low economic value” (Psychopolitics, 46). Mbembe’s zones of exception are thus outside Han’s “island of affluence”; both are sustained through the operation of digital class society as “banopticon”. Naïve optimism heralding the role of social media in organizing the multitude in grassroots movements such as Occupy and Arab Spring is no longer tenable. White nationalists have also used social media to recruit and organize. The George Floyd rebellion of 2020 and Black Lives Matter writ large have been disproportionally targeted by police surveillance of social media, the interception of cell-phone communication, and the proliferation of police drones. Moreover, drone warfare or “dataistic transparent killing” (The Disappearance of Rituals, 75) blurs the boundaries between metropolitan and neocolonial zones of exception.

Considering these developments, scholar of political theology exploring strategies of resistance and liberation must also revisit their ordo salutis and political programs. Liberationist thinkers have depended on Marxist and postcolonial theorists that assumed only disciplinary models of production and subjugation, adopting corresponding liberation programs. Liberal thinkers have shunned colonialism and neoliberal capitalism only to embrace a cosmopolitanism organized around liberal democratic states and the ethical weight of human rights discourse, which as Mbembe has argued, dissolves immediately at the sight of the enemy of the security state.

The impossibility of liberation from the dictatorship of capital today, while pessimistic, also challenges us to envision strategies and ontologies of the wholly Other. Han challenges us to reject positivization, subjectivation, and psychologization and attendant technologies of narcissistic preservation of the self. A return to the political requires a return to interacting with the Other as wholly Other. It demands that we reject the compulsion to domesticate and instrumentalize the Other. Consider the commodification of Buddhism by Catholic theologians and the corporate world and the proliferation of Native American rituals and Indigenous pharmaceuticals for the utility of the Euro-American subject. Han is not suggesting a neo-Kantian ethics that validates universal norms. Instead, he challenges us to move outside the logic and conventions of the system to that which is beyond frantic production, reproduction, and noise of today.

Such a strategy is what Han labels ‘idiotism,’ a rejection of the neoliberal logic of “total communication and total surveillance” (Psychopolitics, 58). Immersion in pure immanence or the void, a negativity that is not annihilating and moves the pathologically fatigued outside of the neoliberal political economy. No longer identifiable via interpellation, the idiot enters “the matrix of de-subjectivation and de-psychologization” (Ibid., 59). The idiot embodies “consent not to be a single being” and preserves opacity. In other words, liberation is immanent in decolonizing epistemologies and materialities such as the Black Brazilian group Olodum.

Annotated Bibliography

Han, Byung-Chul. In the Swarm: Digital Prospects. Translated by Erik Butler. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2017).

Originally published in German in 2013, this text examines the phenomena of digital communication and the massification of the digital swarm. Han covers topics such as the non-narrative, scandalous nature of digital outrage, and he compares organized labor as the masses to the digital swarm. Whereas organized labor as a collective mass has the power and will to enact political struggle, the digital swarm merely participates in temporary performances of outrage to scandals. There is no political power, will, or mass in “online shitstorms.” Han argues that the digital medium and communications increase transparency, conformity, and proliferation of the same. Through de-narrativization, the digital flattens reality into quantifiable information and noise that accelerates communication, consumption, and production. 

———. Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. Translated by Erik Butler. (Brooklyn: Verso, 2017).

Originally published in German in 2014, this text is a collection of essays Han wrote extending the notion of psychopolitics that closed his 2013 In the Swarm. Han relates the exploitation of freedom to the absolutization of capitalism in neoliberalism and to the proliferation of transparency through the formation of the digital panopticon. Han argues that smart power uses freedom, permissiveness, and friendliness as a neoliberal technology of power that encourages subjects to willingly subjugate themselves. Psychopolitics is facilitated by a digital panopticon not controlled by the state but by private enterprise. His proposal to overcome the matrix of subjugation under psychopolitics is a strategy of de-subjectification and de-psychologization: he suggests eschewing the positivity of neoliberal psychopolitics in favor of the negativity found in pure immanence. By becoming the idiot, who fully accesses the wholly Other, one escapes the banality of the Same and the unending imperative of self-optimization and growth that leads to burnout.

———. Topology of Violence. Translated by Amanda Demarco. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018).

Originally published in German in 2011, this text argues for the protean nature of violence and tracks the topological transformation of violence in sovereign, disciplinary, and achievement societies. Such transformations are related to the transformations in political economy and governance. Han’s main claim is that the violence of positivity emerges in achievement society (our late modern present). Such violence is accompanied by the auto-aggressive pathologies of burnout and depression, violence internalized not only on the body but psychologically. The danger of such violence is that it allows freedom and exploitation to coincide within the psyche of the subject, who is not cognizant of this. The positivity of violence is related to the positivity of consensus that arises in a digital economy that promotes absolute transparency and self-disclosure. 

———. The Burnout Society. Translated by Erik Butler. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015).

Originally published in German in 2010, this text examines the emergence of specific neurological illnesses and pathologies in a postimmunological age of history. The immunological age clearly demarcates between the Same and the Other and seeks to protect oneself from the Other. The postimmunological age does not react negatively to the Other. Instead, the category of otherness/foreignness is being supplanted by difference that is commodified: violence now is “immanent in the system itself” rather than stemming from a reaction to the Other. Such accumulation of consumable difference is facilitated by the violence of positivity, driving achievement-subjects to overproduce, overachieve, and overcommunicate until burning out. Multitasking, hyperattention, and the constant stream of communication and information diminishes the ability of contemporary subjects to contemplate, see, and experience life. The forces driving burnout strip life to its vital functions, the pursuit of health without any meaning or purpose. The achievement subject becomes a zombie.

Other Works Cited

———. The Agony of Eros. Foreword by Alain Badiou. Translated by Erik Butler. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2017).

———. The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present. Translated by Daniel Steuer. (Medford: Polity Press, 2020).

———. The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication Today. Translated by Wieland Hoban. (Medford: Polity Press, 2018).

———. The Transparency Society. Translated by Erik Butler. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015).

Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2019)

Newman, Saul. Political Theology: A Critical Introduction. (Medford: Polity Press, 2019).


By Girim Jung
Girim Jung is Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Religion and Contextual Theologies and Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Iliff School of Theology. Dr. Jung specializes in Comparative Religion and Comparative Philosophy with a particular focus on East Asian Buddhism, Black Atlantic traditions, and Decolonial Thought. He is co-host of the Theories in Praxis Podcast with Dr. Philip Butler, which explores interdisciplinary theoretical texts alongside current events and its usefulness in developing strategies of liberation. He is currently working on revising his dissertation for publication, which proposes archipelagic thinking as a transoceanic approach to decolonizing comparative religious and cultural studies. The project links the Black Atlantic and Asian Pacific through recovering histories of political solidarities and tracking resonances between Black Atlantic thought and Huayan Buddhist philosophy.

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