The-Philosophy-Book-DK_345

THE MODERN WORLD 249

See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Gottlob Frege 336 ■ Bertrand Russell 236–39 ■ Rudolf Carnap 257

The solution of “world” and “language”, because Tractatus, meaningful language
the problem of life is he does not use these words in the must consist solely of propositions.
seen in the vanishing everyday sense we might expect. “The totality of propositions,” he
When he talks about language, writes, “is language.”
of the problem. the debt Wittgenstein owes to
Ludwig Wittgenstein the British philosopher Bertrand Knowing a little about what
Russell becomes apparent. For Wittgenstein means by language,
discussion and disagreement is Russell, who was an important we can now explore what he means
based on some fundamental errors figure in the development of by “the world.” The Tractatus
in how we go about thinking and philosophical logic, everyday begins with the claim that “the
talking about the world. language was inadequate for world is all that is the case.” This
talking clearly and precisely about might appear to be straightforward
Logical structure the world. He believed that logic androbustly matter-of-fact, but
For all of their apparent complexity, was a “perfect language”, which taken on its own, it is not entirely
Wittgenstein’s central ideas in excluded all traces of ambiguity, so clear what Wittgenstein means by
the Tractatus are essentially based he developed a way of translating this statement. He goes on to write
on a fairly simple principle, that everyday language into what he that “the world is the totality of
both language and the world are considered a logical form. facts, not of things.” Here we can
formally structured, and that see a parallel between the way that
these structures can be broken Logic is concerned with what are Wittgenstein treats language and
down into their component parts. known in philosophy as propositions. the way he is treating the world. It
Wittgenstein attempts to lay bare We can think of propositions as may be a fact, for example, that the
the structures both of the world assertions that it is possible for us elephant is angry, or that there is
and of language, and then to show to consider as being either true or an elephant in the room, but an
the way they relate to each other. false. For example, the statement elephant just by itself is not a fact.
Having done this, he attempts to “the elephant is very angry” is a
draw a number of wide-reaching proposition, but the word “elephant” From this point, it begins to
philosophical conclusions. is not. According to Wittgenstein’s become clear how the structure
of language and that of the world ❯❯
If we are to understand what
Wittgenstein means when he says
that limits of my language are the
limits of my world, we need to ask
what he means by the words

The ancient Egyptians arranged
symbols and stylized images of objects
in the world, known as hieroglyphs,
into logically structured sequences
to create a form of written language.

250 LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Logic is not
a body of doctrine
but a mirror-image

of the world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

A digital image, although not the
same sort of object as the one it depicts,
has the same “logical form.” Words only
represent reality for Wittgenstein if,
again, both have the same logical form.

might be related. Wittgenstein says means. The sound waves generated Consider the following idea: “You
that language “pictures” the world. by a performance of a symphony, should give half of your salary to
He formulated this idea during the score of that symphony, and the charity.” This is not picturing
World War I, when he read in a pattern formed by the grooves on anything in the world in the sense
newspaper about a court case in a gramophone recording of the meant by Wittgenstein. What can
Paris. The case concerned a symphony all share between them be said—what Wittgenstein calls
car accident, and the events were the same logical form. Wittgenstein the “totality of true propositions”—
re-enacted for those present in states, “A picture is laid against is merely the sum of all those
court using model cars and model reality like a measure.” In this way things that are the case, or the
pedestrians to represent the cars it can depict the world. natural sciences.
and pedestrians in the real world.
The model cars and the model Of course, our picture may be Discussion about religious and
pedestrians were able to depict incorrect. It may not agree with ethical values is, for Wittgenstein,
their counterparts, because they reality, for example, by appearing to strictly meaningless. Because the
were related to each other in show that the elephant is not angry things that we are attempting to
exactly the same way as the real when the elephant is, in fact, very talk about when we discuss such
cars and real pedestrians involved angry. There is no middle ground topics are beyond the limits of the
in the accident. Similarly, all the here for Wittgenstein. Because he world, they also lie beyond the
elements depicted on a map are starts with propositions that are, limits of our language. Wittgenstein
related to each other in exactly by their very nature, true or false, writes, “It is clear that ethics cannot
the same way as they are in the pictures also are either true or false. be put into language.”
landscape that the map represents.
What a picture shares with that Language and the world, then, Beyond words
which it is depicting, Wittgenstein both have a logical form; and Some readers of Wittgenstein,
says, is a logical form. language can speak about the at this point, claim that he is a
world by picturing the world, and champion of the sciences, driving
It is important here to realize picturing it in a fashion that agrees out vague concepts involved in talk
that we are talking about logical with reality. It is at this point that of ethics, religion, and the like. But
pictures, and not about visual Wittgenstein’s idea gets really something more complex is going
pictures. Wittgenstein presents a interesting, and it is here that we on. Wittgenstein does not think
useful example to show what he can see why Wittgenstein is that the “problems of life” are
interested in the limits of language.

THE MODERN WORLD 251

What we cannot was fearless in following his
speak about we argument to its conclusion,
ultimately recognizing that the
must pass answer to such a question must be
over in silence. yes. Anybody who understands the
Ludwig Wittgenstein Tractatus properly, he claims, will
eventually see that the propositions
used in it are nonsense, too. They
are like the steps of a philosophical
ladder that helps us to climb
altogether beyond the problems of
philosophy, but which we can kick
away once we have ascended.

nonsensical. Instead, he believes Change of direction Ludwig Wittgenstein
that these are the most important After completing the Tractatus,
problems of all. It is simply that Wittgenstein concluded that Born into a wealthy Viennese
they cannot be put into words, there were no more philosophical family in 1889, Wittgenstein
and because of this, they cannot problems left to resolve, and so first studied engineering and
become a part of philosophy. abandoned the discipline. However, in 1908 traveled to England
Wittgenstein writes that these over the course of the 1920s and to continue his education in
things, even though we cannot 1930s, he began to question his Manchester. However, he soon
speak of them, nevertheless make earlier thinking, becoming one of developed an interest in logic,
themselves manifest, adding that its fiercest critics. In particular, he and by 1911 had moved to
“they are what is mystical.” questioned his once firmly held Cambridge to study under the
belief that language consists philosopher Bertrand Russell.
All of this, however, has serious solely of propositions, a view that
repercussions for the propositions ignores much of what we do in our During World War I, he
that lie within the Tractatus itself. everyday speech—from telling served on the Russian front
After all, these are not propositions jokes, to cajoling, to scolding. and in Italy, where he was
that picture the world. Even logic, taken prisoner. Around this
one of Wittgenstein’s major tools, Nevertheless, despite all of its time, he began the Tractatus
does not say anything about the problems, the Tractatus remains Logico-Philosophicus, which
world. Is the Tractatus, therefore, one of the most challenging and was published in 1921.
nonsense? Wittgenstein himself compelling works of Western
philosophy—and ultimately one Believing that the Tractatus
of the most mysterious. ■ resolved all the problems of
philosophy, Wittgenstein now
Philosophy demands logical, unambiguous embarked on an itinerant
language. Wittgenstein concludes, therefore, that it career as a schoolteacher,
can only be made up of propositions, or statements gardener, and architect. But
of fact, such as “the cat sat on the mat”, which can after developing criticisms of
be clearly divided into their component parts. his earlier ideas, he resumed
his work at Cambridge in
1929, becoming a professor
there in 1939. He died in 1951.

Key works

+= 1921 Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus
1953 Philosophical
Investigations
1958 The Blue and
Brown Books
1977 Remarks on Colour

252 IN CONTEXT

WE ARE OURSELVES BRANCH
THE ENTITIES Ontology
TO BE ANALYZED
APPROACH
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889–1976) Phenomenology

BEFORE
c.350 BCE Diogenes of Sinope
uses a plucked chicken to
parody Plato’s followers’ claim
that a human being is a
“featherless biped.”

1900–13 Edmund Husserl
proposes his phenomenological
theories and method in Logical
Investigations and Ideas I.

AFTER
1940s Jean-Paul Sartre
publishes Being and
Nothingness, which looks at
the connection between
“being” and human freedom.

1960 Hans-Georg Gadamer’s
Truth and Method, inspired by
Heidegger, explores the nature
of human understanding.

I t is said that in ancient
Athens the followers of
Plato gathered one day to ask
themselves the following question:
“What is a human being?” After
a great deal of thought, they came
up with the following answer:
“a human being is a featherless
biped.” Everybody seemed content
with this definition until Diogenes
the Cynic burst into the lecture
hall with a live plucked chicken,
shouting, “Behold! I present you
with a human being.” After the
commotion had died down, the
philosophers reconvened and
refined their definition. A human
being, they said, is a featherless
biped with broad nails.

THE MODERN WORLD 253

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Diogenes of Sinope 66 ■ Edmund Husserl 224–25 ■ Hans-Georg Gadamer 260–61 ■
Ernst Cassirer 337 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71 ■ Hannah Arendt 272 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

Philosophy has always
asked deep questions

about “Being.”

The question of existence
never gets straightened out
except through existing itself.

Martin Heidegger

We need to ask these Us!
questions by looking at
the being for whom

Being is an issue.

We ourselves are experience of them. For example,
the entities to phenomenology would not look
be analyzed. directly at the question “what is a
human being?” but would instead
This curious story from the history that was strikingly different from look at the question “what is it like
of early philosophy shows the kinds many of his predecessors. Instead to be human?”
of difficulties philosophers have of attempting an abstract definition
sometimes been faced with when that looks at human life from the The human existence
attempting to give abstract, general outside, he attempts to provide a For Heidegger, this constitutes the
definitions of what it is to be human. much more concrete analysis of fundamental question of philosophy.
Even without the intervention “being” from what could be called He was most interested in the
of Diogenes, it seems clear that an insider’s position. He says that philosophical subject of ontology
describing ourselves as featherless since we exist in the thick of (from the Greek word ontos,
bipeds does not really capture much things—in the midst of life—if we meaning “being”), which looks at
of what it means to be human. want to understand what it is to be questions about being or existence.
human, we have to do so by looking Examples of ontological questions
An insider’s perspective at human life from within this life. might be: “what does it mean to say
It is this question—how we might that something exists?” and “what
go about analyzing what it is to be Heidegger was a student of are the different kinds of things
human—that concerned the Husserl, and he followed Husserl’s that exist?” Heidegger wanted use
philosopher Martin Heidegger. method of phenomenology. This the question “what is it like to be
When Heidegger came to answer is a philosophical approach that human?” as a way of answering
the question, he did so in a way looks at phenomena—how things deeper questions about existence
appear—through examining our in general.

In his book, Being and Time,
Heidegger claims that when other
philosophers have asked ontological
questions, they have tended to use
approaches that are too abstract
and shallow. If we want to know
what it means to say that something
exists, we need to start looking ❯❯

254 MARTIN HEIDEGGER

We should raise anew
the question of the
meaning of being.

Martin Heidegger

We try to make sense of the world things, and that is the human being. beings. When we are born, we find
by engaging with projects and tasks In saying that we are ourselves the ourselves in the world as if we had
that lend life a unity. Being human, entities to be analyzed, Heidegger is been thrown here on a trajectory
Heidegger says, means to be immersed saying that if we want to explore we have not chosen. We simply find
in the day-to-day world. questions of being, we have to start that we have come to exist, in an
with ourselves, by looking at what ongoing world that pre-existed us,
at the question from the perspective it means for us to exist. so that at our birth we are presented
of those beings for whom being is with a particular historical, material,
an issue. We can assume that Being and time and spiritual environment. We
although cats, dogs, and toadstools When Heidegger asks about attempt to make sense of this world
are beings, they do not wonder the meaning of being, he is not by engaging in various pastimes—
about their being: they do not fret asking about abstract ideas, but for example, we might learn Latin, or
over ontological questions; they do about something very direct and attempt to find true love, or decide
not ask “what does it mean to say immediate. In the opening pages of to build ourselves a house. Through
that something exists?” But there his book, he says that the meaning these time-consuming projects we
is, Heidegger points out, one being of our being must be tied up with literally project ourselves toward
that does wonder about these time; we are essentially temporal different possible futures; we define
our existence. However, sometimes
we become aware that there is an
outermost limit to all our projects, a
point at which everything we plan
will come to an end, whether finished
or unfinished. This point is the
point of our death. Death, Heidegger
says, is the outermost horizon of our
being: everything we can do or see
or think takes place within this
horizon. We cannot see beyond it.

Heidegger’s technical vocabulary
is famously difficult to understand,
but this is largely because he is
attempting to explore complex
philosophical questions in a concrete
or non-abstract way; he wants to
relate to our actual experience. To
say that “the furthest horizon of our

being is death” is to say something Dying is not an event; THE MODERN WORLD 255
about what it is like to live a human it is a phenomenon to be
life, and it captures some idea of understood existentially. Martin Heidegger
what we are in a way that many
philosophical definitions— Martin Heidegger Heidegger is acknowledged to
“featherless biped” or “political be one of the most important
animal”, for example—overlook. missing. And so we may find philosophers of the 20th
ourselves changing our priorities century. He was born in 1889
Living authentically and projecting ourselves toward in Messkirch, Germany, and
It is to Heidegger that we owe the different futures. had early aspirations to be a
philosophical distinction between priest, but after coming across
authentic and inauthentic existence. A deeper language the writings of Husserl he took
Most of the time we are wrapped Heidegger’s later philosophy up philosophy instead. He
up in various ongoing projects, and continues to tackle questions of quickly became well known as
forget about death. But in seeing being, but it turns away from his an inspirational lecturer, and
our life purely in terms of the earlier, exacting approach to take was nicknamed “the magician
projects in which we are engaged, a more poetic look at the same of Messkirch.” In the 1930s he
we miss a more fundamental kinds of questions. Philosophy, he became rector of Freiburg
dimension of our existence, and to comes to suspect, simply cannot University and a member of
that extent, Heidegger says, we are reflect this deeply on our own the Nazi party. The extent and
existing inauthentically. When we being. In order to ask questions nature of his involvement with
become aware of death as the about human existence, we must Nazism remains controversial,
ultimate limit of our possibilities, we use the richer, deeper language of as is the question of how far
start to reach a deeper understanding poetry, which engages us in a way his philosophy is implicated in
of what it means to exist. that goes far beyond the mere the ideologies of Nazism.
exchange of information.
For example, when a good friend Heidegger spent the last
dies, we may look at our own lives Heidegger was one of the 30 years of his life traveling
and realize that the various projects 20th century’s most influential and writing, exchanging ideas
which absorb us from day to day philosophers. His early attempt to with friends such as Hannah
feel meaningless, and that there is analyze what it means to be Arendt and the physicist
a deeper dimension to life that is human, and how one might live an Werner Heisenberg. He died
authentic life, inspired philosophers in Freiburg in 1976, aged 86.
All being is a “being-towards-death”, such as Sartre, Levinas, and
but only humans recognize this. Our Gadamer, and contributed to the Key works
lives are temporal, and it is only once birth of existentialism. His later,
we realize this that we can live a more poetic, thinking has also had 1927 Being and Time
meaningful and authentic life. a powerful influence on ecological 1936–53 Overcoming
philosophers, who believe it offers Metaphyics
a way of thinking about what it 1955–56 The Principle
means to be a human being of Reason
within a world under threat of 1955–57 Identity and
environmental destruction. ■ Difference

256

THE INDIVIDUAL’S ONLY
TRUE MORAL CHOICE IS
THROUGH SELF-SACRIFICE
FOR THE COMMUNITY

TETSURO WATSUJI (1889–1960)

IN CONTEXT T etsuro Watsuji was one of community, which form a network
the leading philosophers within which we exist; Watsuji calls
BRANCH in Japan in the early part this “betweenness.” For Watsuji
Ethics of the 20th century, and he wrote ethics is a matter not of individual
on both Eastern and Western action, but of the forgetting or
APPROACH philosophy. He studied in Japan and sacrifice of one’s self, so that the
Existentialism Europe, and like many Japanese individual can work for the benefit
philosophers of his time, his work of the wider community.
BEFORE shows a creative synthesis of these
13th century Japanese two very different traditions. Watsuji’s nationalist ethics and
philosopher Do¯gen writes insistence on the superiority of the
about “forgetting the self.” Forgetting the self Japanese race led to his fall from
Watsuji’s studies of Western favor following World War II,
Late 19th centuryFriedrich approaches to ethics convinced him although he later distanced himself
Nietzsche writes about the that thinkers in the West tend to from these views. ■
influence of “climate” on take an individualistic approach to
philosophy; this idea becomes human nature, and so also to ethics.
important to Watsuji’s thought. But for Watsuji, individuals can only
be understood as expressions of
1927 Martin Heidegger their particular times, relationships,
publishes Being and Time. and social contexts, which together
Watsuji goes on to rethink constitute a “climate”. He explores
Heidegger’s book in the light of the idea of human nature in terms
his ideas on “climate”. of our relationships with the wider

AFTER Samurai warriors often sacrificed
Late 20th century Japanese their own lives in battle in order to save
philosopher Yuasa Yasuo the state, in an act of extreme loyalty
further develops Watsuji’s and self-negation that Watsuji called
ethics of community. kenshin, or “absolute self-sacrifice.”

See also: Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 214–21 ■
Nishida Kitaro 336–37 ■ Hajime Tanabe 244–45 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55

THE MODERN WORLD 257

LOGIC IS THE LAST
SCIENTIFIC
INGREDIENT
OF PHILOSOPHY

RUDOLF CARNAP (1891–1970)

IN CONTEXT O ne of the problems for In logic,
20th-century philosophy there are no morals.
BRANCH is determining a role for Rudolf Carnap
Philosophy of science philosophy given the success of the
natural sciences. This is one of the rule out those questions that are,
APPROACH main concerns of German-born strictly speaking, meaningless), and
Logical positivism Rudolf Carnap in The Physical to find ways of talking clearly and
Language as the Universal Language unambiguously about the sciences.
BEFORE of Science (1934), which suggests
1890 Gottlob Frege starts to that philosophy’s proper function— Some philosophers, such as
explore the logical structures and its primary contribution to Willard Quine and Karl Popper, have
of language. science—is the analysis and argued that Carnap’s standards for
clarification of scientific concepts. what can be said meaningfully are
1921 Ludwig Wittgenstein too exacting and present an idealized
writes that philosophy is the Carnap claims that many view of how science operates,
study of the limits of language. apparently deep philosophical which is not reflected in practice.
problems—such as metaphysical Nevertheless, Carnap’s reminder
AFTER ones—are meaningless, because that language can fool us into
1930s Karl Popper proposes they cannot be proved or disproved seeing problems that are not really
that science works by means through experience. He adds that there is an important one. ■
of falsifiability: no amount of they are also in fact pseudo-problems
positive proofs can prove caused by logical confusions in the
something to be true, whereas way we use language.
one negative result confirms
that a theory is incorrect. Logical language
Logical positivism accepts as true
1960s Thomas Kuhn explores only strictly logical statements that
the social dimensions of can be empirically verified. For
scientific progress, Carnap, philosophy’s real task is
undermining some of the therefore the logical analysis of
tenets of logical positivism. language (in order to discover and

See also: Gottlob Frege 336 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51 ■ Karl Popper 262–65 ■
Willard Van Orman Quine 278–79 ■ Thomas Kuhn 293

258

THE ONLY WAY OF
KNOWING A PERSON
IS TO LOVE THEM
WITHOUT HOPE

WALTER BENJAMIN (1892–1940)

IN CONTEXT T he German philosopher In the essay Benjamin does not
Walter Benjamin was an set out a grand theory. Instead
BRANCH affiliate of the Frankfurt he wants to surprise us with ideas,
Ethics School, a group of neo-Marxist in the same way that we might be
social theorists who explored the surprised by something catching
APPROACH significance of mass culture and our eye while on a walk. Toward
Frankfurt School communication. Benjamin was also the end of the essay, he says that
fascinated by the techniques of film “Quotations in my work are like
BEFORE and literature, and his 1926 essay wayside robbers who leap out,
c.380 BCE Plato writes his One-Way Street is an experiment in brandishing weapons, and relieve
Symposium, considered the literary construction. It is a the idler of his certainty.”
first sustained philosophical collection of observations—
account of love. intellectual and empirical—that Illuminating love
apparently occur to him as he walks The idea that the only way of
1863 The French writer down an imaginary city street. knowing a person is to love them
Charles Baudelaire explores hopelessly appears in the middle of
the idea of the flâneur, the The construction of life the essay, under the heading “Arc
“person who walks the city to currently lies far more in Lamp.” In a flare of light, Benjamin
experience it.” the hands of facts than pauses and thinks just this, and no
more—the essay moves immediately
AFTER of convictions. afterward to a new section. We are
1955 Guy Debord establishes Walter Benjamin forced to guess what he means. Is
psychogeography, the study he saying that knowledge arises
of the effects of geography out of love? Or that it is only when
on an individual’s emotions we stop hoping for some outcome
and behavior. that we can clearly see the beloved?
We cannot know. All we can do is
1971 Italian novelist walk down the street alongside
Italo Calvino explores the Benjamin, experiencing the flare of
relationships between light of these passing thoughts. ■
cities and signs in his book
Invisible Cities.

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ Theodor Adorno 266–67 ■
Roland Barthes 290–91

THE MODERN WORLD 259

THAT WHICH IS
CANNOT BE TRUE

HERBERT MARCUSE (1898–1979)

IN CONTEXT A t first glance, nothing harmony of freedom and oppression,
seems to be more irrational productivity and destruction,
BRANCH than Marcuse’s claim that growth and regression.” We assume
Political philosophy “that which is” cannot be true, that the societies we live in are
which appears in his 1941 book, based upon reason and justice,
APPROACH Reason and Revolution. If that but when we look more closely, we
Frankfurt School which is cannot be true, the reader may find that they are neither as
is tempted to ask, then what is? But just nor as reasonable as we believe.
BEFORE Marcuse’s idea is partly an attempt
1820 Georg Hegel writes in to overturn the claim made by the Marcuse is not discounting
his Philosophy of Right that German philosopher Hegel that reason, but trying to point out that
what is actual is rational and what is rational is actual, and also reason is subversive, and that we
what is rational is actual. that what is actual is rational. can use it to call into question the
society in which we live. The aim
1867 Karl Marx publishes Marcuse believes this is a of philosophy, for Marcuse, is a
the first volume of Das Kapital, dangerous idea because it leads us “rationalist theory of society.” ■
setting out his view of the to think that what is actually the
“laws of motion” within case—such as our existing political
capitalist societies, and system—is necessarily rational.
asserting that capitalism is He reminds us that those things
guilty of exploiting humans. we take as reasonable may be far
more unreasonable than we like to
1940s Martin Heidegger admit. He also wants to shake us
begins to explore the problems up into realizing the irrational
of technology. nature of many of the things that
we -take for granted.
AFTER
2000 Slavoj Žižek explores Subversive reason Fast cars are the kind of consumables
the relationship between In particular, Marcuse is deeply that Marcuse accuses us of using to
technology, capitalist society, uneasy with capitalist societies and recognize ourselves; he says we find
and totalitarianism. with what he calls their “terrifying “our soul” in these items, becoming
mere extensions of the things we create.

See also: Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ Martin Heidegger
252–55 ■ Slavoj Žižek 326

260

HISTORY DOES NOT
BELONG TO US BUT
WE BELONG TO IT

HANS-GEORG GADAMER (1900–2002)

IN CONTEXT G adamer is associated in by reading it carefully in the light
particular with one form of of our present understanding. If
BRANCH philosophy: “hermeneutics”. we come to a line that seems strange
Philosophy of history Derived from the Greek word or particularly striking, we might
hermeneuo, meaning “interpret”, need to reach for a deeper level of
APPROACH this is the study of how humans understanding. As we interpret
Hermeneutics interpret the world. individual lines, our sense of the
poem as a whole might begin to
BEFORE Gadamer studied philosophy change; and as our sense of the
Early 19th century German under Martin Heidegger, who said poem as a whole changes, so might
philosopher Friedrich that the task of philosophy is to our understanding of individual
Schleiermacher lays the interpret our existence. This lines. This is known as the
groundwork for hermeneutics. interpretation is always a process “hermeneutic circle.”
of deepening our understanding by
1890s Wilhelm Dilthey, a starting from what we already Heidegger’s approach to
German philosopher, describes know. The process is similar to how philosophy moved in this circular
interpretation as taking place we might interpret a poem. We start fashion, and this was the approach
in the “hermeneutic circle.”
We understand This always takes place within
1927 Martin Heidegger the world through a particular historical era,
explores the interpretation interpretation.
of being, in Being and Time. which gives us particular
prejudices and biases.
AFTER
1979 Richard Rorty uses History does We cannot understand
a hermeneutic approach in not belong things outside of these
his book Philosophy and the to us, but we prejudices and biases.
Mirror of Nature. belong to it.

1983–85 French philosopher
Paul Ricoeur writes Time
and Narrative, examining
the capacity of narrative to
represent our feeling of time.

THE MODERN WORLD 261

See also: Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Jürgen Habermas 306–07 ■
Jacques Derrida 308–13 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

When viewing historical objects think are worth asking, and the and deepen our understanding
we should not view time as a gulf to kinds of answers with which we of our own lives in the present.
be bridged, says Gadamer. Its distance are satisfied are all the product For instance, if I pick up a book by
is filled with the continuity of tradition, of our history. We cannot stand Plato, and read it carefully, I might
which sheds light on our understanding. outside of history and culture, so find not only that I am deepening
we can never reach an absolutely my understanding of Plato, but also
that Gadamer later explored in his objective perspective. that my own prejudices and biases
book Truth and Method. Gadamer become clear, and perhaps begin to
goes on to point out that our But these prejudices should not shift. Not only am I reading Plato,
understanding is always from the be seen as a bad thing. They are, but Plato is reading me. Through
point of view of a particular point in after all, our starting point, and our this dialogue, or what Gadamer
history. Our prejudices and beliefs, current understanding and sense calls “the fusion of horizons”, my
the kinds of questions that we of meaning are based upon these understanding of the world reaches
prejudices and biases. Even if it a deeper, richer level. ■
were possible to get rid of all our
prejudices, we would not find that Because an experience
we would then see things clearly. is itself within the whole
Without any given framework for
interpretation, we would not be of life, the whole of life
able to see anything at all. is present in it too.

Conversing with history Hans-Georg Gadamer
Gadamer sees the process of
understanding our lives and our
selves as similar to having a
“conversation with history.” As
we read historical texts that have
existed for centuries, the differences
in their traditions and assumptions
reveal our own cultural norms and
prejudices, leading us to broaden

Hans-Georg Gadamer Gadamer was born in Marburg Method, was published when
in 1900, but grew up in Breslau, he was 60. It attacked the idea
Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). that science offered the only
He studied philosophy first in route to truth and its publication
Breslau and then in Marburg, brought him wider international
where he wrote a second doctoral fame. A sociable and lively man,
dissertation under the tutelage of Gadamer remained active right
the philosopher Martin Heidegger, up until his death in Heidelberg
who was an enormous influence at the age of 102.
on his work. He became an
associate professor at Marburg, Key works
beginning a long academic career
which eventually included 1960 Truth and Method
succeeding the philosopher Karl 1976 Philosophical Hermeneutics
Jaspers as Professor of Philosophy 1980 Dialogue and Dialectic
in Heidelberg in 1949. His most 1981 Reason in the Age of
important book, Truth and Science

262 IN CONTEXT

IN SO FAR AS BRANCH
A SCIENTIFIC Philosophy of science
STATEMENT SPEAKS
ABOUT REALITY, APPROACH
IT MUST BE Analytic philosophy
FALSIFIABLE
BEFORE
KARL POPPER (1902–1994) 4th century BCE Aristotle
stresses the importance of
observation and measurement
to understanding the world.

1620 Francis Bacon sets
out the inductive methods of
science in Novum Organum.

1748 David Hume’s

Enquiry concerning Human
Understanding raises the
problem of induction.

AFTER
1962 Thomas Kuhn criticizes
Popper in The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions.

1978 Paul Feyerabend, in

Against Method, questions the
very idea of scientific method.

W e often think that science
works by “proving”
truths about the world.
We might imagine that a good
scientific theory is one that we
can prove conclusively to be true.
The philosopher Karl Popper,
however, insists that this is not the
case. Instead, he says that what
makes a theory scientific is that it
is capable of being falsified, or being
shown to be wrong by experience.

Popper is interested in the
method by which science finds out
about the world. Science depends
on experiment and experience, and
if we want to do science well, we
need to pay close attention to what
philosopher David Hume called

THE MODERN WORLD 263

See also: Socrates 46–49 ■ Aristotle 56–63 ■ Francis Bacon 110–11 ■ David Hume 148–53 ■ Rudolf Carnap 257 ■
Thomas Kuhn 293 ■ Paul Feyerabend 297

Scientific understanding This means working from
works by induction. particular observations

(such as “every swan
I see is white”)...

But these principles ... and moving to general Black swans were first encountered
can’t be proved, only principles (such as “all by Europeans in the 17th century.
disproved (such as by the This falsified the idea that all swans
sighting of a black swan). swans are white”). are white, which at the time was held
to be universally true.

In so far as calculate the speed at which the
a scientific statement ball will fall. Nothing about the
speaks about reality, it event is even remotely mysterious.

must be falsifiable. Nevertheless, the question
remains: can we be certain that the
the “regularities” of nature—the fact fall to the ground?” But how do we next time we drop the ball it will
that events unfold in the world in know that this is what will happen fall to the ground? No matter how
particular patterns and sequences when we drop the tennis ball? often we conduct the experiment,
that can be systematically explored. What kind of knowledge is this? and no matter how confident we
Science, in other words, is empirical, become about its outcome, we can
or based on experience, and to The short answer is that we never prove that the result will be
understand how it works we need know it will fall because that is the same in the future.
to understand how experience in what it always does. Leaving aside
general leads to knowledge. chance events, no-one has ever Inductive reasoning
found that a tennis ball hovers or This inability to speak with any
Consider the following statement: rises upward when it is released. certainty about the future is called
“If you drop a tennis ball from a We know it falls to the ground the problem of induction, and it
second-floor window, it will fall to because experience has shown us was first recognized by Hume
the ground.” Leaving aside any that this will happen. And not only in the 18th century. So what is
chance events (such as the ball can we be sure that the ball will fall inductive reasoning?
being snatched away by a passing to the ground, we can also be sure
eagle), we can be fairly sure that about how it will fall to the ground. Induction is the process of
this claim is a reasonable one. It For example, if we know the force of moving from a set of observed facts
would be a strange person who gravity, and how high the window about the world to more general
said, “Hold on, are you sure it will is above the ground, we can conclusions about the world. We
expect that if we drop the ball it
will fall to the ground because, at
least according to Hume, we are
generalizing from innumerable ❯❯

264 KARL POPPER

experiences of similar occasions “It is a fruit.” Given the starting Every solution to a
on which we have found things points “If P then Q” and “P”, then problem creates new
like balls to fall to the ground the conclusion “Q” is necessary, or unsolved problems.
when we release them. unavoidably true. Another example
would be: “If it is raining, the cat Karl Popper
Deductive reasoning will meow (since all cats meow
Another form of reasoning, in the rain). It is raining, therefore untrue, even though the argument
which philosophers contrast with the cat will meow.” itself is valid, the conclusion is
induction, is deductive reasoning. also untrue. Other worlds can be
While induction moves from the All arguments of this kind are imagined in which cats are in fact
particular case to the general, considered by philosophers to be banana-flavored, and for this reason
deduction moves from the general valid arguments, because their the statement that cats
case to the particular. For instance, conclusions follow inevitably from are not banana-flavored is said to
a piece of deductive reasoning might their premises. However, the fact be contingently true, rather than
start from two premises, such as: that an argument is valid does not logically or necessarily true, which
“If it is an apple, then it is a fruit mean that its conclusions are true. would demand that it be true in
(since all apples are fruit)” and For example, the argument “If it is all possible worlds. Nevertheless,
“This is an apple.” Given the nature a cat, then it is banana-flavored; arguments that are valid and have
of these premises, the statement this is a cat, therefore it is banana- true premises are called “sound”
“This is an apple” leads inescapably flavored” is valid, because it follows
to the conclusion “It is a fruit.” a valid form. But most people would
agree that the conclusion is false.
Philosophers like to simplify And a closer look shows that there
deductive arguments by writing is a problem, from an empirical
them out in notation. So the general perspective, with the premise “If it
form of the argument above would is a cat, then it is banana-flavored”,
be “If P then Q; since P, therefore because cats, in our world at least,
Q.” In our example, “P” stands for are not banana-flavored. In other
“It is an apple”, and “Q” stands for words, because the premise is

An example of the Experiment A Experiment B Experiment C
problem of induction is
that no matter how reliably
a tennis ball behaves in
the present, we can never
know for certain how it
will behave in the future.

48° 48° ??
66° 66°

THE MODERN WORLD 265

Science may be described sciences, we still have to rely on Experiments can show that certain
as the art of systematic induction for our premises, and phenomena reliably follow others in
over-simplification. so science is lumbered with the nature. But Popper claims that no
Karl Popper problem of induction. experiment can ever verify a theory,
or even show that it is probable.
arguments. The banana-flavored For this reason, according to
cat argument, as we have seen, Popper, we cannot prove our Popper’s work has not been without
is valid but not sound—whereas theories to be true. Moreover, what its critics. Some scientists claim
the argument about apples and makes a theory scientific is not that that he presents an idealized view
fruit is both valid and sound. it can be proved at all, but that it of how they go about their work,
can be tested against reality and and that science is practiced very
Falsifiability shown to be potentially false. In differently from how Popper
Deductive arguments could be said other words, a falsifiable theory suggests. Nevertheless, his
to be like computer programs—the is not a theory that is false, but idea of falsifiability is still used in
conclusions they reach are only as one that can only be shown to be distinguishing between scientific
good as the data that is fed into false by observation. and non-scientific claims, and
them. Deductive reasoning has Popper remains perhaps the most
an important role to play in the Theories that are untestable (for important philosopher of science
sciences, but on its own, it cannot example, that we each have an of the 20th century. ■
say anything about the world. It invisible spirit guide, or that God
can only say “If this is the case, created the universe) are not part
then that is the case.” And if we of the natural sciences. This does
want to use such arguments in the not mean that they are worthless,
only that they are not the kinds of
theories that the sciences deal with.

The idea of falsifiability does not
mean we are unjustified in having
a belief in theories that cannot be
falsified. Beliefs that stand up to
repeated testing, and that resist
our attempts at falsification, can be
taken to be reliable. But even the
best theories are always open to
the possibility that a new result
will show them to be false.

Karl Popper Karl Popper was born in Vienna, at the University of London.
Austria, in 1902. He studied He was knighted in 1965, and
philosophy at the University of remained in England for the rest
Vienna, after which he spent six of his life. Although he retired in
years as a schoolteacher. It was 1969, he continued to write and
during this time that he published publish until his death in 1994.
The Logic of Scientific Discovery,
which established him as one Key works
of the foremost philosophers of
science. In 1937, he emigrated 1934 The Logic of Scientific
to New Zealand, where he lived Discovery
until the end of World War II, 1945 The Open Society and Its
and where he wrote his study of Enemies
totalitarianism, The Open Society 1957 The Poverty of Historicism
and Its Enemies. In 1946, he moved 1963 Conjectures and
to England to teach, first at the Refutations: The Growth of
London School of Economics, then Scientific Knowledge

266

INTELLIGENCE
IS A MORAL
CATEGORY

THEODOR ADORNO (1903–1969)

IN CONTEXT T he idea of the holy fool has blockhead”, and wants to make the
a long tradition in the West, case that goodness involves our
BRANCH dating all the way back to entire being, both our feeling and
Ethics Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians our understanding.
in which he asks his followers to be
APPROACH “fools for Christ’s sake.” Throughout The problem with the idea of
Frankfurt School the Middle Ages this idea was the holy fool, Adorno says, is that
developed into the popular cultural it divides us into different parts,
BEFORE figure of the saint or sage who was and in doing so makes us incapable
1st century CE Saint Paul foolish or lacked intelligence, but of acting judiciously at all. In reality,
writes about being a “fool who was morally good or pure. judgement is measured by the
for Christ.” extent to which we manage to
In his book Minima Moralia, the make feeling and understanding
500–1450 The idea of the German philosopher Theodor Adorno cohere. Adorno’s view implies that
“holy fool”, who represents an calls into question this long tradition. evil acts are not just failures of
alternative view of the world, He is suspicious of attempts to (as feeling, but also failures of
becomes popular throughout he puts it) “absolve and beatify the intelligence and understanding.
Medieval Europe.
Intelligence Emotion
20th century The global
rise of differing forms of Both are needed for me
mass-media communication to make judgements about
raises new ethical questions. what is right and wrong.

AFTER So to act morally I need to Intelligence is a
1994 Portuguese neuroscientist be able to use my intelligence moral category.
Antonio Damasio publishes
Descartes’ Error: Emotion, as well as my emotions.
Reason, and the Human Brain.

21st century Slavoj Žižek
explores the political, social,
and ethical dimensions of
popular culture.

THE MODERN WORLD 267

See also: René Descartes 116–23 ■ Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■
Slavoj Žižek 326

Adorno was a member of the Lighthearted television is inherently Theodor Adorno
Frankfurt School, a group of dangerous, says Adorno, because it
philosophers who were interested distorts the world and imbues us with Born in 1903 in Frankfurt,
in the development of capitalism. stereotypes and biases that we begin Theodor Adorno’s two
He condemned forms of mass to take on as our own. passions from an early age
communication such as television were philosophy and music;
and radio, claiming that these But in Adorno’s view, we can no his mother and aunt were
have led to the erosion of both more make wise judgements by both accomplished musicians.
intelligence and feeling, and to a abandoning emotion than we can At university Adorno studied
decline in the ability to make moral by abandoning intelligence. musicology and philosophy,
choices and judgements. If we graduating in 1924. He had
choose to switch off our brains When the last trace of emotion ambitions to be a composer,
by watching blockbuster movies has been driven out of our thinking, but setbacks in his musical
(insofar as we can choose at all, Adorno writes, we are left with career led him increasingly
given the prevailing cultural nothing to think about, and the idea toward philosophy. One area
conditions in which we live), for that intelligence might benefit “from in which Adorno’s interests
Adorno, this is a moral choice. the decay of the emotions” is simply converged was in his criticism
Popular culture, he believes, not mistaken. For this reason Adorno of the industry surrounding
only makes us stupid; it also believes that the sciences, which popular culture, demonstrated
makes us unable to act morally. are a form of knowledge that do not in his notorious essay On
make reference to our emotions, Jazz, published in 1936.
Essential emotions have, like popular culture, had a
Adorno believes that the opposite dehumanizing effect upon us. In 1938, during the rise of
error to that of imagining that there Nazism in Germany, Adorno
might be such a thing as a holy fool Unexpectedly, it may in fact be emigrated to New York, and
is imagining that we can judge on the sciences that will ultimately then moved to Los Angeles,
intelligence alone, without emotion. demonstrate the wisdom of where he taught at the
This might happen in a court of Adorno’s central concerns about University of California. He
law; judges have been known to the severing of intelligence and returned to Germany after
instruct the jury to put all emotion feeling. Since the 1990s, scientists the end of World War II, and
to one side, so that they can come such as Antonio Damasio have took up a professorship at
to a cool and measured decision. studied emotions and the brain, Frankfurt. Adorno died at the
providing increasing evidence of age of 66 while on holiday in
The power of judgement the many mechanisms by which Switzerland in 1969.
is measured by the emotions guide decision-making.
cohesion of self. So if we are to judge wisely oreven Key works
Theodor Adorno to judge at all, we mustemploy both
emotion and intelligence. ■ 1949 Philosophy of New Music
1951 Minima Moralia
1966 Negative Dialectics
1970 Aesthetic Theory

268 IN CONTEXT

EXISTENCE BRANCH
PRECEDES Ethics
ESSENCE
APPROACH
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905–1980) Existentialism

BEFORE
4th century BCE Aristotle
asks the question “How should
we live?”

1840S Søren Kierkegaard
writes Either/Or, exploring
the role played by choice in
shaping our lives.

1920S Martin Heidegger
says that what is important
is our relationship with our
own existence.

AFTER
1945 Sartre’s friend and
companion, Simone de
Beauvoir, publishes The
Second Sex, which applies
Sartre’s ideas to the question
of the relationship between
men and women.

S ince ancient times, the
question of what it is to
be human and what makes
us so distinct from all other types
of being has been one of the main
preoccupations of philosophers.
Their approach to the question
assumes that there is such a thing
as human nature, or an essence of
what it is to be human. It also tends
to assume that this human nature
is fixed across time and space. In
other words, it assumes that there
is a universal essence of what it is
to be human, and that this essence
can be found in every single human
that has ever existed, or will ever
exist. According to this view, all
human beings, regardless of their

THE MODERN WORLD 269

See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Martin Heidegger
252–55 ■ Simone de Beauvoir 276–77 ■ Albert Camus 284–85

When we make something There is no God.
we do so for a purpose.

The purpose (or essence) We are not Jean-Paul Sartre
of a made thing comes made by God.
before its existence. Born in Paris, Sartre was just
15 months old when his father
We are not made died. Brought up by his mother
for any purpose… and grandfather, he proved a
gifted student, and gained
…so our existence We have to create our entry to the prestigious École
precedes our purpose for ourselves. Normale Supérieure. There he
essence. met his lifelong companion
and fellow philosopher Simone
circumstances, possess the same through paper, but not so sharp as de Beauvoir. After graduation,
fundamental qualities and are to be dangerous. It needs to be easy he worked as a teacher and
guided by the same basic values. to wield, made of an appropriate was appointed Professor of
For Sartre, however, thinking about substance—metal, bamboo, or Philosophy at the University
human nature in this way risks wood, perhaps, but not butter, of Le Havre in 1931.
missing what is most important wax, or feathers—and fashioned
about human beings, and that is to function efficiently. Sartre says During World War II, Sartre
our freedom. that it is inconceivable for a paper- was drafted into the army and
knife to exist without its maker briefly imprisoned. After his
To clarify what he means by knowing what it is going to be used release in 1941, he joined the
this, Sartre gives the following for. Therefore the essence of a resistance movement.
illustration. He asks us to imagine paper-knife—or all of the things
a paper-knife—the kind of knife that make it a paper-knife and not After 1945, Sartre’s writing
that might be used to open an a steak knife or a paper airplane— became increasingly political
envelope. This knife has been made comes before the existence of any and he founded the literary
by a craftsman who has had the particular paper-knife. and political journal Modern
idea of creating such a tool, and Times. He was offered, but
who had a clear understanding of Humans, of course, are not declined, the Nobel Prize for
what is required of a paper-knife. It paper-knives. For Sartre, there is Literature in 1964. Such was
needs to be sharp enough to cut no preordained plan that makes ❯❯ his influence and popularity
that more than 50,000 people
attended his funeral in 1980.

Key works

1938 Nausea
1943 Being and Nothingness
1945 Existentialism and
Humanism
1960 Critique of Dialectical
Reason

270 JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

us the kind of beings that we are. human craftsmanship—that his atheism. There is no universal,
We are not made for any particular human nature in the mind of God fixed human nature, he declares,
purpose. We exist, but not because is analogous to the nature of the because no God exists who could
of our purpose or essence like a paper-knife in the mind of the ordain such a nature.
paper-knife does; our existence craftsman who makes it. Even
precedes our essence. many non-religious theories of Here Sartre is relying on a very
human nature, Sartre claims, still specific definition of human nature,
Defining ourselves have their roots in religious ways of identifying the nature of something
This is where we begin to see the thinking, because they continue to with its purpose. He is rejecting the
connection between Sartre’s claim insist that essence comes before concept of what philosophers call
that “existence precedes essence” existence, or that we are made for a teleology in human nature—that it
and his atheism. Sartre points out specific purpose. In claiming that is something that we can think
that religious approaches to the existence comes before essence, about in terms of the purpose of
question of human nature often Sartre is setting out a position that human existence. Nevertheless,
work by means of an analogy with he believes is more consistent with there is a sense in which Sartre is
offering a theory of human nature,
The use or purpose of a tool, such by claiming that we are the kinds
as a pair of scissors, dictates its of beings who are compelled to
form. Humans, according to Sartre, assign a purpose to our lives. With
have no specific purpose, so are no divine power to prescribe that
free to shape themselves. purpose, we must define ourselves.

blades Defining ourselves, however, is
to slice effortlessly not just a matter of being able to
say what we are as human beings.
through any Instead, it is a matter of shaping
material. ourselves into whatever kind of
being we choose to become. This
Ergonomically is what makes us, at root, different
designed handles from all the other kinds of being
in the world—we can become
for a firm grip. whatever we choose to make of
ourselves. A rock is simply a rock;
a cauliflower is simply a cauliflower;
and a mouse is simply a mouse. But
human beings possess the ability
to actively shape themselves.

Precision-made First of all man exists,
screw for a smooth turns up, appears on the
scene, and only afterwards
pivoting action.
defines himself.
Jean-Paul Sartre

THE MODERN WORLD 271

Sartre’s idea that we are free to shape
our own lives influenced the students
that took to the streets of Paris in May
1968 to protest against the draconian
powers of the university authorities.

Because Sartre’s philosophy to become a philosopher, then I am Sartre’s ideas were particularly
releases us from the constraint of not just deciding for myself. I am influential on the writings of his
a human nature that is preordained, implicitly saying that being a companion and fellow philosopher
it is also one of freedom. We are free philosopher is a worthwhile activity. Simone de Beauvoir, but they also
to choose how to shape ourselves, This means that freedom is the had a marked impact on French
although we do have to accept greatest responsibility of all. We cultural and daily life. Young people
some limitations. No amount of are not just responsible for the especially were thrilled by his call
willing myself to grow wings, for impact that our choices have upon to use their freedom to fashion
example, will ever cause that to ourselves, but also for their impact their existence. He inspired them
happen. But even within the range on the whole of mankind. And, to challenge the traditionalist,
of realistic choices we have, we with no external principles or rules authoritarian attitudes that prevailed
often find that we are constrained to justify our actions, we have in France in the 1950s and 1960s.
and simply make decisions based no excuses to hide behind for the Sartre is cited as a key influence
upon habit, or because of the choices that we make. For this on the streets protests in Paris in
way in which we have become reason, Sartre declares that we are May 1968, which helped to bring
accustomed to see ourselves. “condemned to be free.” down the conservative government
and herald a more liberal climate
Sartre wants us to break free Sartre’s philosophy of linking throughout France.
of habitual ways of thinking, telling freedom with responsibility has
us to face up to the implications of been labelled as pessimistic, but Engagement with political
living in a world in which nothing he refutes that charge. Indeed, he issues was an important part
is preordained. To avoid falling into states that it is the most optimistic of Sartre’s life. His constantly
unconscious patterns of behavior, he philosophy possible, because changing affiliations, as well as
believes we must continually face despite bearing responsibility for his perpetual movement between
up to choices about how to act. the impact of our actions upon politics, philosophy, and literature,
others, we are able to choose to are themselves perhaps testament
Responsible freedom exercise sole control over how we to a life lived in the light of the idea
By making choices, we are also fashion our world and ourselves. that existence precedes essence. ■
creating a template for how we think
a human life ought to be. If I decide

As far as men go,
it is not what they are that

interests me, but what
they can become.
Jean-Paul Sartre

272

THE BANALITY
OF EVIL

HANNAH ARENDT (1906–1975)

IN CONTEXT I n 1961, the philosopher
Hannah Arendt witnessed the
BRANCH trial of Adolph Eichmann, one
Ethics of the architects of the Holocaust.
In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem,
APPROACH Arendt writes of the apparent
Existentialism “everydayness” of Eichmann. The
figure before her in the dock did
BEFORE not resemble the kind of monster
c.350 St Augustine of Hippo we might imagine. In fact, he
writes that evil is not a would not have looked out of place
force, but comes from a lack in a café or in the street.
of goodness.
A failure of judgement Eichmann committed atrocities
1200s Thomas Aquinas After witnessing the trial, Arendt not through a hatred of the Jewish
writes Disputed questions came to the conclusion that evil community, Arendt suggests, but
on evil, exploring the idea of does not come from malevolence or because he unthinkingly followed
evil as a lack of something, a delight in doing wrong. Instead, orders, disengaging from their effects.
rather than a thing in itself. she suggests, the reasons people
act in such ways is that they fall who commit terrible acts as
AFTER victim to failures of thinking and “monsters”, brings these acts
1971 American social scientist judgement. Oppressive political closer to our everyday lives,
Philip Zimbardo conducts systems are able to take advantage challenging us to consider how
the notorious “Stanford Prison of our tendencies toward such evil may be something of which
Experiment” in which ordinary failures, and can make acts that we are all capable. We should
students are persuaded to we might usually consider to be guard against the failures of our
participate in “evil” acts that “unthinkable” seem normal. political regimes, says Arendt,
would normally be considered and the possible failures in our
unthinkable both to themselves The idea that evil is banal does own thinking and judgement. ■
and to others. not strip evil acts of their horror.
Instead, refusing to see people

See also: St Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■ Thomas Aquinas 88–95 ■
Theodor Adorno 266–67

THE MODERN WORLD 273

REASON LIVES
IN LANGUAGE

EMMANUEL LEVINAS (1906–1995)

IN CONTEXT Levinas’s ideas are most easily out of the face-to-face relationships
understood through looking we have with other people. It is
BRANCH at an example. Imagine that because we are faced by the needs
Ethics you are walking down a street on a of other human beings that we must
cold winter evening, and you see a offerjustifications for our actions.
APPROACH beggar huddled in a doorway. She Even if you do not give your change
Phenomenology may not even be asking for change, to the beggar, you find yourself
but somehow you can’t help feeling having to justify your choice. ■
BEFORE some obligation to respond to this
1920s Edmund Husserl stranger’s need. You may choose
explores our relationship to to ignore her, but even if you do,
other human beings from a something has already been
phenomenological perspective. communicated to you: the fact that
this is a person who needs your help.
1920s Austrian philosopher
Martin Buber claims that Inevitable communication Nothing else in our lives so disrupts
meaning arises out of our Levinas was a Lithuanian Jew who our consciousness as an encounter
relationship with others. lived through the Holocaust. He says with another person, who, simply by
that reason lives in language in being there, calls to us and asks us
AFTER Totality and Infinity (1961), explaining to account for ourselves.
From 1960 Levinas’s work on that “language” is the way that we
relationships influences the communicate with others even
thoughts of French feminist before we have started to speak.
philosophers such as Luce Whenever I see the face of another
Irigaray and Julia Kristeva. person, the fact that this is another
human being and that I have a
From 1970 Levinas’s ideas responsibility for them is instantly
on responsibility influence communicated. I can turn away
psychotherapy. from this responsibility, but I cannot
escape it. This is why reason arises
2001Jacques Derrida explores
responsibility in relation to See also: Edmund Husserl 224–25 ■ Roland Barthes 290–91 ■ Luce Irigaray 320 ■
humanitarian questions such Hélène Cixous 322 ■ Julia Kristeva 323
as political asylum.

274

IN ORDER TO SEE THE
WORLD, WE MUST BREAK
WITH OUR FAMILIAR
ACCEPTANCE OF IT

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908–1961)

IN CONTEXT T he idea that philosophy of our experience. After all, what
begins with our ability to could be more reliable than the
BRANCH wonder at the world goes facts of direct perception?
Epistemology back as far as ancient Greece.
Usually we take our everyday lives French philosopher Merleau-
APPROACH for granted, but Aristotle claimed Ponty was interested in looking
Phenomenology that if we want to understand the more closely at our experience of
world more deeply, we have to put the world, and in questioning our
BEFORE aside our familiar acceptance of everyday assumptions. This puts
4th century BCE Aristotle things. And nowhere, perhaps, is him in the tradition known as
claims that philosophy begins this harder to do than in the realm phenomenology, an approach to
with a sense of wonder. philosophy pioneered by Edmund

1641 René Descartes’ Our experience is Our everyday assumptions
Meditations on First Philosophy filled with puzzles and prevent us from seeing these
establishes a form of mind–
body dualism that Merleau- contradictions. puzzles and contradictions.
Ponty will reject.
We must...
Early 1900s Edmund Husserl
founds phenomenology as a ...put our everyday ...relearn to look at
philosophical school. assumptions to one side. our experience.

1927 Martin Heidegger writes In order to see the world,
Being and Time, a major we must break with our
influence on Merleau-Ponty. familiar acceptance of it.

AFTER
1979 Hubert Dreyfus draws
on the works of Heidegger,
Wittgenstein, and Merleau-
Ponty to explore philosophical
problems raised by artificial
intelligence and robotics.

THE MODERN WORLD 275

See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Edmund Husserl 224–25 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein
246–51 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71

Man is in the world and Cognitive science Maurice Merleau-
only in the world Because he was interested in seeing Ponty
the world anew, Merleau-Ponty took
does he know himself. an interest in cases of abnormal Maurice Merleau-Ponty was
Maurice Merleau-Ponty experience. For example, he believed born in Rochefort-sur-Mer,
that the phantom limb phenomenon France, in 1908. He attended
Husserl at the beginning of the (in which an amuptee “feels” his the École Normale Supérieure
20th century. Husserl wanted to missing limb) shows that the body along with Jean-Paul Sartre
explore first-person experience in cannot simply be a machine. If it and Simone de Beauvoir, and
a systematic way, while putting all were, the body would no longer graduated in philosophy in
assumptions about it to one side. acknowledge the missing part—but 1930. He worked as a teacher
it still exists for the subject because at various schools, until joining
The body-subject the limb has always been bound the infantry during World
Merleau-Ponty takes up Husserl’s up with the subject’s will. In other War II. His major work, The
approach, but with one important words, the body is never “just” a Phenomenology of Perception,
difference. He is concerned that body—it is always a “lived” body. was published in 1945, after
Husserl ignores what is most which he taught philosophy
important about our experience— Merleau-Ponty’s focus on the role at the University of Lyon.
the fact that it consists not just of the body in experience, and his
of mental experience, but also of insights into the nature of the mind Merleau-Ponty’s interests
bodily experience. In his most as fundamentally embodied, have extended beyond philosophy
important book, The Phenomenology led to a revival of interest in his work to include subjects such as
of Perception, Merleau-Ponty among cognitive scientists. Many education and child psychology.
explores this idea and comes to recent developments in cognitive He was also a regular
the conclusion that the mind and science seem to bear out his idea contributor to the journal Les
body are not separate entities— that, once we break with our familiar Temps modernes. In 1952,
a thought that contradicts a long acceptance of the world, experience Merleau-Ponty became the
philosophical tradition championed is very strange indeed. ■ youngest-ever Chair of
by Descartes. For Merleau-Ponty, Philosophy at the College de
we have to see that thought and MRI scans of the brain provide France, and remained in the
perception are embodied, and doctors with life-saving information. post until his death in 1961,
that the world, consciousness, and However, in Merleau-Ponty’s view, no at the age of only 53.
the body are all part of a single amount of physical information can give
system. And his alternative to the us a complete account of experience. Key works
disembodied mind proposed by
Descartes is what he calls the body- 1942 The Structure of
subject. In other words, Merleau- Behaviour
Ponty rejects the dualist’s view that 1945 The Phenomenology
the world is made of two separate of Perception
entities, called mind and matter. 1964 The Visible and the
Invisible

276

MAN IS DEFINED AS
A HUMAN BEING AND
WOMAN AS A FEMALE

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908–1986)

IN CONTEXT F rench philosopher Simone is to be judged. It is for this reason
de Beauvoir writes in her that de Beauvoir says that the Self
BRANCH book The Second Sex that (or “I”) of philosophical knowledge
Ethics throughout history, the standard is by default male, and his binary
measure of what we take to be pair—the female—is therefore
APPROACH human—both in philosophy and something else, which she calls
Feminism in society at large—has been a the Other. The Self is active and
peculiarly male view. Some knowing, whereas the Other is all
BEFORE philosophers, such as Aristotle, that the Self rejects: passivity,
c.350 BCE Aristotle says, “The have been explicit in equating full voicelessness, and powerlessness.
female is a female by virtue of humanity with maleness. Others
a certain lack of qualities.” have not said as much, but have De Beauvoir is also concerned
nevertheless taken maleness as the with the way that women are
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft standard against which humanity judged to be equal only insofar as
publishes A Vindication of the they are like men. Even those who
Rights of Woman, illustrating
the equality of the sexes. Most of those who have
written about human
1920s Martin Heidegger sets nature have been men.
out a “philosophy of existence,”
prefiguring existentialism. Men have taken maleness Men have defined
as the standard against women by how they
1940s Jean-Paul Sartre says differ from this standard.
“existence precedes essence.” which they judge
human nature.
AFTER
1970s Luce Irigaray explores Man is defined as
the philosophical implications a human being and
of sexual difference. woman as a female.

From 1980 Julia Kristeva
breaks down the notions
of “male” and “female” as
characterized by de Beauvoir.

THE MODERN WORLD 277

See also: Hypatia of Alexandria 331 ■ Mary Wollstonecraft 175 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre
268–71 ■ Luce Irigaray 320 ■ Hélène Cixous 322 ■ Martha Nussbaum 339

Representation of the construct. Since any construct is Simone de Beauvoir
world is the work of men; open to change and interpretion, this
means that there are many ways of The existentialist philosopher
they describe it from “being a woman”; there is room for Simone de Beauvoir was born
their own point of view. existential choice. In the introduction in Paris in 1908. She studied
Simone de Beauvoir to The Second Sex de Beauvoir philosophy at the Sorbonne
notes society’s awareness of this University, and it was here
have written on behalf of the fluidity: “We are exhorted to be that she met Jean-Paul Sartre,
equality of women, she says, have women, remain women, become with whom she began a
done so by arguing that equality women. It would appear, then, that lifelong relationship. Both a
means that women can be and do every female human being is not philosopher and an award-
the same as men. She claims that necessarily a woman.” She later winning novelist, she often
this idea is mistaken, because it states the position explicitly: “One explored philosophical themes
ignores the fact that women and is not born but becomes a woman.” within fictional works such as
men are different. De Beauvoir’s She Came to Stay and The
philosophical background was in De Beauvoir says that women Mandarins. Her most famous
phenomenology, the study of how must free themselves both from the work, The Second Sex, brought
things appear to our experience. idea that they must be like men, and an existentialist approach to
This view maintains that each of us from the passivity that society has feminist ideas. Despite initially
constructs the world from within the induced in them. Living a truly being vilified by the political
frame of our own consciousness; we authentic existence carries more right and left, and being placed
constitute things and meanings risk than accepting a role handed on the Vatican’s Index of
from the stream of our experiences. down by society, but it is the only Forbidden Books, it became
Consequently de Beauvoir maintains path to equality and freedom. ■ one of the most important
that the relationship that we have to feminist works of the 20th
our own bodies, to others, and to the century. De Beauvoir was a
world, as well as to philosophy itself, prolific writer, producing
is strongly influenced by whether travel books, memoirs, a
we are male or female. four-volume autobiography,
and political essays over the
Existential feminism The many myths of woman as mother, course of her life. She died at
Simone De Beauvoir was also an wife, virgin, symbol of nature, and so on the age of 78, and was buried
existentialist, believing that we are trap women, claimed de Beauvoir, into in Montparnasse cemetery.
born without purpose and must impossible ideals, while denying their
carve out an authentic existence for individual selves and situations. Key works
ourselves, choosing what to become.
In applying this idea to the notion 1944 Pyrrhus and Cineas
of “woman”, she asks us to separate 1947 The Ethics of Ambiguity
the biological entity (the bodily 1949 The Second Sex
form which females are born into) 1954 The Mandarins
from femininity, which is a social

278

LANGUAGE IS
A SOCIAL ART

WILLARD VAN ORMAN QUINE (1908–2000)

IN CONTEXT Words are …because we become used
meaningful to us… to the ways in which they
BRANCH
Philosophy of language are used by others…

APPROACH The way that language …not because there is
Analytic philosophy is used socially a link between words

BEFORE makes it meaningful. and actual things.
c.400 BCE Plato’s Cratylus
investigates the relationship Language is
between words and things. a social art.

19th century Søren S ome philosophers assert of these people when a rabbit
Kierkegaard stresses the that language is about the appears, and one of the natives
importance of the study of relationship between words says “gavagai.” We wonder if there
language for philosophy. and things. Quine, however, can be a connection between the
disagrees. Language is not about event—the appearance of the
1950s Ludwig Wittgenstein the relationship between objects rabbit—and the fact that the native
writes that there is no such and verbal signifiers, but about says “gavagai.” As time goes on,
thing as a private language. knowing what to say and when to we note that every time a rabbit
say it. It is, he says in his 1968 essay appears, somebody says “gavagai”,
AFTER Ontological Relativity, a social art. so we conclude that “gavagai” can
1980s Richard Rorty suggests be reliably translated as rabbit.
that knowledge is more like Quine suggests the following But, Quine insists, we are wrong.
“conversation” than the thought experiment. Imagine that “Gavagai” could mean all manner
representation of reality. we come across some people— of things. It could mean “oh, look,
perhaps natives of another country— dinner!” for example, or it could
1990s In Consciousness who speak a language we do not mean “behold, a fluffy creature!”
Explained, Quine’s former share. We are sitting with a group
student Daniel Dennett says
that both meaning and inner
experience can only be
understood as social acts.

THE MODERN WORLD 279

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Ferdinand de Saussure 223 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51 ■
Roland Barthes 290–91 ■ Daniel Dennett 339

If we wanted to determine the No word has a fixed meaning, Pet
meaning of “gavagai”, we could try according to Quine. When the
another method. We could point to word “rabbit” is spoken, it may Dinner
other fluffy creatures (or other things mean any one of a number
on the dinner menu) and see if our of things, depending on the
utterance of “gavagai” met with context in which it is said.
assent or dissent. But even if we
were to reach a position where, in Pest
each and every occasion on which
“gavagai” was uttered, we ourselves Animal
would utter the word “rabbit”, we spirit
still could not be sure that this was
an appropriate translation. “Gavagai”
could mean “set of rabbit parts” or
“wood-living rabbit” or “rabbit or
hare”; it might even refer to a short
prayer that must be uttered
whenever a rabbit is seen.

Unsettled language be sure that the other words we of somebody uttering “gavagai”
In attempting to establish the found ourselves using to explain (or, for that matter, “rabbit”), and
precise meaning of this mysterious the meaning of “gavagai” were of this utterance being meaningful
“gavagai”, therefore, we might think themselves accurate translations. comes not from some mysterious
that the solution would be to learn link between words and things,
the language of our informants Quine refers to this problem as but from the patterns of our
thoroughly, so that we could be the “indeterminacy of translation”, behavior, and the fact that we
absolutely sure of the contexts in and it has unsettling implications. have learned to participate in
which the word was spoken. But It suggests that ultimately words language as a social art. ■
this would only result in multiplying do not have meanings. The sense
the problem, because we could not

Willard Van Born in 1908 in Ohio, USA, Quine Navy intelligence. A great
Orman Quine studied at Harvard with Alfred traveler, he was said to be
North Whitehead, a philosopher prouder of the fact that he had
of logic and mathematics. While visited 118 countries than of his
there he also met Bertrand many awards and fellowships.
Russell, who was to become a Quine became professor of
profound influence on his thought. philosophy at Harvard in 1956,
After completing his PhD in 1932, and taught there until his death
Quine traveled throughout Europe, in 2000, aged 92.
meeting many of its most eminent
philosophers, including several of Key works
the Vienna Circle.
1952 Methods of Logic
Returning to teach at Harvard, 1953 From a Logical Point
Quine’s philosophical career was of View
briefly interrupted during World 1960 Word and Object
War II when he spent four years 1990 The Pursuit of Truth
decrypting messages for the US

280

THE FUNDAMENTAL
SENSE OF FREEDOM
IS FREEDOM
FROM CHAINS

ISAIAH BERLIN (1909–1997)

IN CONTEXT Freedom is both
positive and negative.
BRANCH
Ethics Positive: we are free to Negative: we are free from
control our own destiny and external obstacles and
APPROACH domination, or “chains”.
Analytic philosophy choose our own goals.

BEFORE But our individual goals When our own positive
1651 In hthise bLoeovkiaLtheavnia,than, sometimes conflict or lead freedom leads to a decrease
Thomas Hobbes considers to the domination of others. in others’ negative freedom,
the relationship between
freedom and state power. it becomes oppression.

1844 Søren Kierkegaard The fundamental sense
argues that our freedom to of freedom is freedom
make moral decisions is a
chief cause of unhappiness. from chains.

1859 In his book On Liberty, W hat does it mean to be freedom. Although he is not the first
John Stuart Mill distinguishes free? This is the question to draw this distinction, he does so
between freedom from coercion explored by the British with great originality, and uses it to
and freedom to act. philosopher Isaiah Berlin in his expose apparent inconsistencies in
famous essay Two Concepts of our everyday notion of freedom.
1941 Psychoanalyysstt EErriicchh Liberty, written in 1958. Here he
Fromm exploorreessppoossiittiivveeaanndd makes a distinction between what For Berlin, “negative” freedom
negative liibbeerrttyyiinnhhiissbbooookk he calls “positive” and “negative” is what he calls our “fundamental
The Fear of FFrreeeeddoomm.. sense” of freedom. This kind of

AFTER
Present day The development
of new surveillance technology
raises fresh questions about
the nature of freedom.

THE MODERN WORLD 281

See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 154–59 ■ John Stuart Mill 190–93 ■
Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71

For Berlin, the problem is that these Isaiah Berlin
two forms of freedom are often in
conflict. Think, for example, of Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga,
the freedom that comes from the Latvia, in 1909. He spent the
discipline of learning how to play first part of his life in Russia,
the tuba. As a beginner, I can firstly under the Russian
do little more than struggle with empire, and then under the
my own inability to play—but rule of the new Communist
eventually I can play with a kind state. Due to rising anti-
of liberated gusto. Or think of the Semitism, however, and
fact that people frequently exercise problems with the Soviet
their “positive” freedom by voting régime, his family emigrated
for a particular government, to Britain in 1921. Berlin was
knowing that their “negative” an outstanding student at
freedom will be restricted when Oxford University, where he
that government comes to power. remained as a lecturer. He
was a philosopher with broad
Soviet propaganda often depicted The goals of life interests, ranging from art and
workers liberated from capitalism. Berlin points to another problem. literature to politics. His essay
From a capitalist view, however, such Who is to say what a suitable goal Two Concepts of Liberty was
images showed a triumph of negative of “positive” freedom should be? delivered in 1958 at Oxford
freedom over positive freedom. Authoritarian or totalitarian University, and it is often
regimes often have an inflexible considered one of the classics
freedom is freedom from external view of the purpose of human life, of 20th-century political
obstacles: I am free because I am and so restrict “negative” freedoms theory. He is celebrated for
not chained to a rock, because I am to maximize their idea of human being one of the foremost
not in prison, and so on. This is happiness. Indeed, political scholars of liberalism.
freedom from something else. But oppression frequently arises from an
Berlin points out that when we abstract idea of what the good life Key works
talk about freedom, we usually is, followed by state intervention
mean something more subtle than to make that idea a reality. 1953 The Hedgehog and the
this. Freedom is also a matter of Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s
self-determination, of being a Berlin’s response to this is View of History
person with hopes, and intentions, twofold. First, it is important to 1958 Two Concepts of Liberty
and purposes that are one’s own. recognize that the various freedoms 1990 The Crooked Timber of
This “positive” freedom is about we may desire will always be in Humanity: Chapters in the
being in control of one’s own conflict, for there is no such thing History of Ideas
destiny. After all, I am not free just as “the goal of life”—only the goals 2000 The Power of Ideas
because all the doors of my house of particular individuals. This 2006 Political Ideas in the
are unlocked. And this positive fact, he claims, is obscured by Romantic Age
freedom is not exclusively personal, philosophers who look for a universal
because self-determination can basis for morality, but confuse “right
also be desired at the level of the action” with the purpose of life
group or of the state. itself. Second, we need to keep
alive the fundamental sense of
freedom as an absence of “bullying
and domination”, so that we do not
find our ideals turning into chains
for ourselves and for others. ■

282

THINK LIKE
A MOUNTAIN

ARNE NAESS (1912–2009)

IN CONTEXT T he injunction to think like Working as a forester in New
a mountain has become Mexico in the early part of the
BRANCH closely associated with the 20th century, Leopold shot a female
Ethics concept of “deep ecology”—a term wolf on the mountainside. “We
coined in 1973 by the Norwegian reached the old wolf in time to
APPROACH philosopher and environmental watch a fierce green fire dying in
Environmental philosophy campaigner, Arne Naess. He uses her eyes," he wrote. “I realized then,
the term to stress his belief that we and have known ever since, that
BEFORE must first recognize we are part of there was something new to me in
C.1660 Benedictus Spinoza nature, and not separate from it, if those eyes—something known only
develops his philosophy of we are to avoid environmental to her and to the mountain.” It was
nature as an extension of God. catastrophe. But the notion of from this experience that Leopold
thinking like a mountain goes back came to the idea that we should
1949 Aldo Leopold’s The Sand to 1949, when it was expressed by think like a mountain, recognizing
County Almanac is published. American ecologist Aldo Leopold not just our needs or those of our
in The Sand County Almanac. fellow humans, but those of the
1960 British scientist James
Lovelock first proposes his Thinking like
“Gaia hypothesis”, exploring a mountain is…
the natural world as a single,
self-regulating system. …realizing that we are part …realizing our responsibilities
of the biosphere. to all other living things.
1962 American biologist
Rachel Carson publishes We must think about the
Silent Spring, which becomes long-term interests of the
an important influence on
Naess’s thinking. environment as a whole.

AFTER
1984 Zen master and teacher
Robert Aitken Roshi combines
deep ecology with the ideas
of the Japanese Buddhist
philosopher Do¯ gen.

THE MODERN WORLD 283

See also: Laozi 24–25 ■ Benedictus Spinoza 126–29 ■ Friedrich Schelling 335

The thinking for move toward seeing ourselves as The natural world, for Naess, is not
the future has to be part of the whole biosphere. Instead something that we should strive to
of viewing the world with a kind of control and manipulate for our own gain.
loyal to nature. detachment, we must find our place Living well involves living as an equal
Arne Naess in nature, by acknowledging the with all the elements of our environment.
intrinsic value of all elements of the
entire natural world. He implies world we inhabit.
that often we miss the broader
implications of our actions, only Naess introduces the “ecological
considering the immediate benefits self”, a sense of self that is rooted in
to ourselves. To “think like a an awareness of our relationship to
mountain” means identifying with a “larger community of all living
the wider environment and being beings." He claims that broadening
aware of its role in our lives. our identification with the world to
include wolves, frogs, spiders, and
Harmonizing with nature perhaps even mountains, leads to a
Naess takes up Leopold's idea by more joyful and meaningful life.
proposing his “deep ecology.” He
states that we only protect our Naess’s "deep ecology" has had
environment by undergoing the a powerful effect on environmental
kind of transformation of which philosophy and on the development
Leopold writes. Naess urges us to of environmental activism. For
those of us who live in cities, it may
seem hard or even impossible to
connect with an "ecological self."
Nevertheless, it may be possible.
As the Zen master Robert Aitken
Roshi wrote in 1984, “When one
thinks like a mountain, one thinks
also like the black bear, so that
honey dribbles down your fur as
you catch the bus to work.” ■

Arne Naess Widely acknowledged as the rocks by the Mardalsfossen
leading Norwegian philosopher Waterfall in Norway to protest
of the 20th century, Arne Naess against the building of a nearby
became the youngest-ever full dam. Elected as chairperson of
professor at the University of Oslo Greenpeace Norway in 1988, he
at the age of 27. He was also a was knighted in 2005.
noted mountaineer and led a
successful expedition to the Key works
summit of Tirich Mir in northern
Pakistan in 1950. 1968 Scepticism
1974 Ecology, Society
It was only after Naess retired and Lifestyle
from his teaching post in 1970 1988 Thinking Like a Mountain
that he actively developed his (with John Seed, Pat Fleming
thinking about the natural world and Joanna Macy)
and became involved in direct 2002 Life’s Philosophy: Reason
action on environmental issues. In and Feeling in a Deeper World
1970, he chained himself to the

284

LIFE WILL BE LIVED
ALL THE BETTER IF
IT HAS NO MEANING

ALBERT CAMUS (1913–1960)

IN CONTEXT Because we have But we know that
consciousness, we feel that the universe as a whole
BRANCH
Epistemology life is meaningful. has no meaning.

APPROACH To live well, we need to Our lives are
Existentialism overcome this contradiction. a contradiction.

BEFORE We can do this by fully Life will be lived
1849 Søren Kierkegaard embracing the all the better if it
explores the idea of the absurd has no meaning.
in his book, Fear and Trembling. meaninglessness
of existence.
1864 Russian writer Fyodor
Dostoyevsky publishes Notes S ome people believe that Camus’ idea appears in his essay
from the Underground, which philosophy’s task is to The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus
has existentialist themes. search for the meaning of was a Greek king who fell out of
life. But the French philosopher and favor with the gods, and so was
1901 Friedrich Nietzsche novelist Albert Camus thought that sentenced to a terrible fate in the
writes in Will to Power that philosophy should recognize instead Underworld. His task was to roll
“our existence (action, that life is inherently meaningless. an enormous rock to the top of a
suffering, willing, feeling) While at first this seems a depressing hill, only to watch it roll back to
has no meaning.” view, Camus believes that only by the bottom. Sisyphus then had to
embracing this idea are we capable trudge down the hill to begin the
1927 Martin Heidegger’s of living as fully as possible. task again, repeating this for all
Being and Time lays the
ground for the development
of existential philosophy.

AFTER
1971 Philosopher Thomas
Nagel argues that absurdity
arises out of a contradiction
within us.

THE MODERN WORLD 285

See also: Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 214–21 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71

Sisyphus was condemned eternally Camus recognizes that much of what The struggle towards
to push a rock up a hill, but Camus we do certainly seems meaningful, the heights is enough
thought he might find freedom even but what he is suggesting is quite to fill a man’s heart.
in this grim situation if he accepted subtle. On the one hand, we are
the meaninglessness of his eternal task. conscious beings who cannot Albert Camus
help living our lives as if they are
eternity. Camus was fascinated by meaningful. On the other hand, only once we can accept the fact
this myth, because it seemed to these meanings do not reside out that life is meaningless and absurd
him to encapsulate something of the there in the universe; they reside that we are in a position to live fully.
meaninglessness and absurdity of only in our minds. The universe as In embracing the absurd, our lives
our lives. He sees life as an endless a whole has no meaning and no become a constant revolt against the
struggle to perform tasks that are purpose; it just is. But because, meaninglessness of the universe,
essentially meaningless. unlike other living things, we have and we can live freely.
consciousness, we are the kinds of
beings who find meaning and This idea was further developed
purpose everywhere. by the philosopher Thomas Nagel,
who said that the absurdity of life
Recognizing the absurd lies in the nature of consciousness,
The absurd, for Camus, is the feeling because however seriously we take
that we have when we recognize life, we always know that there is
that the meanings we give to life some perspective from which this
do not exist beyond our own seriousness can be questioned. ■
consciousness. It is the result of
a contradiction between our own
sense of life’s meaning, and our
knowledge that nevertheless the
universe as a whole is meaningless.

Camus explores what it might
mean to live in the light of this
contradiction. He claims that it is

Albert Camus Camus was born in Algeria in writing many of his best-known
1913. His father was killed a year novels, including The Stranger.
later in World War I, and Camus He wrote many plays, novels,
was brought up by his mother in and essays, and was awarded
extreme poverty. He studied the Nobel Prize for Literature in
philosophy at the University of 1957. Camus died in a car crash
Algiers, where he suffered the aged 46, having discarded
first attack of the tuberculosis a train ticket to accept a lift
which was to recur throughout his back to Paris with a friend.
life. At the age of 25 he went to
live in France, where he became Key works
involved in politics. He joined the
French Communist Party in 1935 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus
but was expelled in 1937. During 1942 The Stranger
World War II he worked for the 1947 The Plague
French Resistance, editing an 1951 The Rebel
underground newspaper and 1956 The Fall

CONTEM

PHILOSO

1950–PRESENT

PORARY

PHY

288 INTRODUCTION

Frantz Fanon The Vietnam War begins. Thomas Kuhn China’s Great Proletarian
publishes Black The USSR and China publishes The Cultural Revolution
Skin, White Masks. Structure of Scientific
support communist North Revolutions. “purges” China of everything
Vietnam, while the US Western, capitalist,

supports South Vietnam. traditionalist, or religious.

1952 1955 1962 1966
1953 1961 1964 1967

Simone de Beauvoir The Berlin Wall is The Civil Rights Act Jacques Derrida,
publishes her constructed, dividing 1964 becomes law in the founder of
East and West Germany the US, prohibiting deconstruction,
groundbreaking until its fall in 1989. discrimination by race.
feminist work, publishes Writing
The Second Sex. and Difference.

T he closing decades of the of ethnic and religious unrest, this movement was the notion
20th century were notable culminating in the US declaring of “deconstructing” texts and
for accelerating advances a “War on Terror” at the start of the revealing them to be inherently
in technology and the subsequent new millennium. unstable, with many contradictory
improvement in communications meanings. The theory’s principal
of all kinds. The increasing power Elitist philosophies proponents—French theorists Louis
of the mass media, especially Culture in the West went through Althusser, Jacques Derrida, and
television, since the end of World similarly significant changes. The Michel Foucault—linked their
War II had fuelled a rise in popular gap between popular and “high” textual analyses with left-wing
culture with its associated culture widened after the 1960s, as politics, while the analyst Jacques
antiestablishment ideals, and this the intellectual avant-garde often Lacan gave structuralism a
in turn was prompting political and decided to disregard public taste. psychoanalytic perspective. Their
social change. From the 1960s Philosophy followed a similarly ideas were soon taken up by a
onward, the old order was being elitist path, particularly after the generation of writers and artists
questioned in Europe and the US, death of Jean-Paul Sartre, whose working under the banner of
and dissent gathered momentum Marxist existentialism—beloved of “postmodernism”, which rejected
in Eastern Europe. 1960s intellectuals—now had less all possibility of a single, objective
of an audience. truth, viewpoint, or narrative.
By the 1980s, relations between
the East and West were thawing, Continental philosophy was Structuralism’s contribution to
and the Cold War was coming to a dominated in the 1970s and 80s philosophy was not enthusiastically
close; the fall of the Berlin Wall in by structuralism, a movement received by philosophers in the
1989 offered hope for the new that grew from literature-based English-speaking world, who
decade. But the 1990s was a period French philosophy. Central to viewed the work at best with

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 289

Apollo 11 becomes Jean-François Lyotard The World Wide Web Al-Qaeda terrorist
the first successful publishes The Postmodern opens up to home and attacks on New York
manned mission
Condition: A Report personal use. and Washington,
to the moon. on Knowledge. D.C., US, lead to the
“War on Terror.”

1969 1979 1992 2001
1971 1989 1994 2009

The non-government Many European states Henry David Barack Obama
environment agency overthrow their communist Oruka publishes becomes the first
Greenpeace is formed Sage Philosophy. African-American
in Canada, evolving regimes, including Poland, president of the
from peace movements Hungary, East Germany,
and antinuclear groups. Bulgaria, Romania, United States.
and Czechoslovakia.

suspicion, and largely with derision. public, as well as businesses and Continuing in the tradition of
Within a philosophical tradition of governments, wanted more down- Simone de Beauvoir’s existential
linguistic analysis, continental to-earth guidance from philosophy. feminist philosophy, French
structuralism seemed ultimately philosophers such as Hélène
simplistic—although it was often A more practical approach Cixous and Luce Irigaray added
written in impenetrable prose that Though postmodern philosophy a postmodern perspective to
belied its literary roots. may not have found favor with the feminism, but other thinkers on
majority of the general public, some both sides of the Atlantic left
The squabbles of philosophers philosophers of the period chose to postmodernism completely to
did not inspire the popular culture focus on more pressing social, one side. Some, such as American
of the time. This may have been political, and ethical questions philosopher John Rawls and
because postmodernism was largely that had more relevance to people’s Germany’s Jürgen Habermas,
incomprehensible to the general everyday lives. Thinkers in returned to examining important
public. Their most common postcolonial Africa such as Frantz everyday concepts in depth, such
experience of it was postmodern art, Fanon began to examine race, as justice and communication.
which was highly conceptual and identity, and the problems that
accompanied by knowing references were inherent in any struggle for The more practical approach to
by an intellectual elite. It seemed to liberation. Later thinkers, such as philosophy in the 21st century has
deliberately exclude any possibility Henry David Oruka, would begin led to a renewed public interest in
of mass appreciation, and became to amass a new history of African the subject. There is no way of
seen as an abstract philosophy only philosophy, questioning the rules predicting what direction it will
enjoyed by professional academics governing philosophy itself, and take, but philosophy is certain to
and artists, and out of touch with what it should include. continue to provide the world with
the world most people lived in. The thought-provoking ideas. ■

290

LANGUAGE
IS A SKIN

ROLAND BARTHES (1915–1980)

IN CONTEXT The lover’s language All philosophy about love
“trembles with desire.” is addressed toward a
BRANCH
Philosophy of language particular object of desire.

APPROACH When I write or speak
Semiotics about love, my language
“rubs against” the secret
BEFORE
380 BCE Plato’s Symposium object of my desire.
is the first sustained
philosophical discussion Language affects the other Language
of love in the West. like skin-on-skin contact. is a skin.

4th century CE St Augustine The strangest, but most are no characters, and there
of Hippo writes extensively on popular, book written by is nothing in the way of a plot.
the nature of love. philosopher and literary There are only the reflections
critic Roland Barthes is A Lover’s of a lover in what Barthes calls
1916 Ferdinand de Saussure’s Discourse. As the French title, “extreme solitude.”
Course in General Linguistics Fragments d’un discours amoureux,
establishes modern semiotics suggests, this is a book told in At the very beginning of the
and the study of language as fragments and snapshots, somewhat book, Barthes makes clear that a
a series of signs. like the essay One-Way Street by plot is not possible, because the
the German philosopher Walter solitary thoughts of a lover come in
1966 French psychoanalyst Benjamin. A Lover’s Discourse is outbursts that are often contradictory
Jacques Lacan looks at not so much a book of philosophy and lack any clear order. As a lover,
the relationship between as it is a love story; but it is a love Barthes suggests, I might even find
Alcibiades, Socrates, and story without any real story. There myself plotting against myself. The
Agathon in his Écrits. lover is somebody who might be

AFTER
1990s Julia Kristeva explores
the relationship between love,
semiotics, and psychoanalysis.

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 291

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ St Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■ Ferdinand de Saussure 223 ■ Walter Benjamin 258 ■
Jacques Derrida 308–13 ■ Julia Kristeva 323

Every lover simply talks about the world in a Agathon that Alcibiades desires; it
is mad. neutral fashion, but it is something is against Agathon, so to speak, that
that, as Barthes says, “trembles Alcibiades’ language is rubbing.
Roland Barthes with desire.” Barthes writes of how
“I rub my language against the But what of the language that
affectionately described as having other. It is as if I had words instead we use when talking of other
“lost the plot.” So instead of using of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my things? Is only the lover’s language
a plot, or narrative, Barthes arranges words.” Even if I write cool, detached a skin that trembles with hidden
his book like an extraordinary philosophy about love, Barthes desire, or is this also true of other
encyclopaedia of contradictory and claims, there is buried in my types of language? Barthes does
disordered outbursts, any of which philosophical coolness a secret not tell us, leaving us to consider
might serve as the point the reader address to a particular person, an the idea for ourselves. ■
might suddenly exclaim, “That’s so object of my desire, even if this
true! I recognize that scene...” somebody is “a phantom or a The lover’s language is like a skin,
creature still to come.” says Barthes, which inhabits the lover.
The language of love Its words are able to move the
It is in this context that Barthes Barthes gives an example of this beloved—and only the beloved—in
suggests “language is a skin.” secret address (although not, it an almost physical or tactile way.
Language, at least the language should be said, in the context of a
of the lover, is not something that particularly detached philosophical
discussion) from Plato’s dialogue,
The Symposium. This is an account
of a discussion on the subject of
love that takes place in the house
of the poet Agathon. A statesman
called Alcibiades turns up to the
discussion both late and drunk, and
sits down on a couch with Agathon
and the philosopher Socrates. The
drunken speech he gives is full
of praise for Socrates, but it is

Roland Barthes Barthes was born in Cherbourg, pieces that were collected
France, in 1915. He attended the together and published under
University of Sorbonne in Paris the title Mythologies in 1957.
from 1935, graduating in 1939,
but by this time he had already Barthes’ reputation grew
contracted the tuberculosis that steadily through the 1960s, in
would afflict him for the France and internationally, and
remainder of his life. His illness he taught both at home and
made it difficult to acquire abroad. He died at the age of 64,
teaching qualifications, but it when he was run over by
exempted him from military a laundry van after lunching
service during World War II. After with President Mitterrand.
the war, having finally qualified
as a teacher, he taught in France, Key works
Romania, and Egypt. He returned
to live in France full time in 1952, 1957 Mythologies
and there started to write the 1973 The Pleasure of the Text
1977 A Lover’s Discourse

292

HOW WOULD WE
MANAGE WITHOUT
A CULTURE?

MARY MIDGLEY (1919–)

IN CONTEXT I n her book Beast and Man, from other animals and the things
published in 1978, the British that we share with the rest of
BRANCH philosopher Mary Midgley the animal kingdom.
Philosophy of science assesses the impact the natural
sciences have on our understanding One of the questions that she
APPROACH of human nature. It is often claimed tackles is that of the relationship
Analytic philosophy that the findings of the sciences, between nature and culture in
particularly those of palaeontology human life. Her concern is to
BEFORE and evolutionary biology, undermine address the fact that many people
4th century BCE Aristotle our views of what it is to be human. see nature and culture as somehow
defines human beings as Midgley wants to address these opposed, as if culture is something
“political animals”, suggesting fears, and she does so by stressing non-natural that is added onto
that not only are we natural both the things that set us apart our animal natures.
beings, but that the creation of
culture is a part of our nature. We mistakenly cut Midgley disagrees with the
ourselves off from other idea that culture is something of
1st century BCE Roman poet a wholly different order to nature.
Titus Lucretius Carus writes animals, trying not Instead, she wants to argue that
On the Nature of the Universe, to believe we have culture is a natural phenomenon.
exploring the natural roots of an animal nature. In other words, we have evolved to
human culture. Mary Midgley be the kinds of creatures who have
cultures. It could be said that we
1859 Naturalist Charles spin culture as naturally as spiders
Darwin publishes On the spin webs. If this is so, then we
Origin of Species, arguing that can no more do without culture
all life has evolved through a than a spider can do without its
process of natural selection. web: our need for culture is both
innate and natural. In this way,
AFTER Midgley hopes both to account
1980s onward Richard for human uniqueness, and also
Dawkins and Mary Midgley to put us in the larger context of
debate the implications of our evolutionary past. ■
Darwinism for our view of
human nature. See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Aristotle 56–63 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 293

NORMAL SCIENCE
DOES NOT AIM AT
NOVELTIES OF FACT
OR THEORY

THOMAS KUHN (1922–1996)

IN CONTEXT A merican physicist and accumulate until a crisis point is
historian of science reached. Following the crisis, if a
BRANCH Thomas Kuhn is best new theory has been formulated,
Philosophy of science known for his book The Structure there is a shift in the paradigm,
of Scientific Revolutions, published and the new theoretical framework
APPROACH in 1962. The book is both an replaces the old. Eventually this
History of science exploration of turning points in framework is taken for granted,
the history of science and an and normal science resumes—until
BEFORE attempt to set out a theory of how further anomalies arise. An example
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus revolutions in science take place. of such a shift was the shattering
publishes On the Revolutions of the classical view of space and
of the Heavenly Spheres, Paradigm shifts time following the confirmation of
leading to a paradigm shift in Science, in Kuhn’s view, alternates Einstein’s theories of relativity. ■
our view of the solar system. between periods of “normal science”
and periods of “crisis.” Normal Nicolaus Copernicus’s claim that
1934 In The Logic of Scientific science is the routine process by Earth orbits the Sun was a revolution
Discovery, Karl Popper defines which scientists working within in scientific thinking. It led to scientists
“falsifiability” as a criterion a theoretical framework—or abandoning the belief that our planet
for science. “paradigm”—accumulate results is at the center of the universe.
that do not call the theoretical
AFTER underpinnings of their framework
1975 Paul Feyerabend writes into question. Sometimes, of
Against Method, advocating course, anomalous, or unfamiliar,
“epistemological anarchism”. results are encountered, but these
are usually considered to be errors
1976 In Proofs and Refutations, on the part of the scientists
Imre Lakatos brings together concerned—proof, according to
Karl Popper’s “falsificationism” Kuhn, that normal science does
and the work of Kuhn. not aim at novelties. Over time,
however, anomalous results can
Today Rival interpretations
of quantum phenomena yield See also: Francis Bacon 110–11 ■ Rudolf Carnap 257 ■ Karl Popper 262–65 ■
rival paradigms of the Paul Feyerabend 297 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19
subatomic world.

294

THE PRINCIPLES OF
JUSTICE ARE CHOSEN
BEHIND A VEIL
OF IGNORANCE

JOHN RAWLS (1921–2002)

IN CONTEXT We all want to further To do this we need
our own interests. to work together.
BRANCH
Political philosophy Rules that are fair and just This requires
must apply equally to all, rules.
APPROACH
Social contract theory ignoring social status.

BEFORE The principles of justice
c.380 BCE Plato discusses the should be chosen behind
nature of justice and the just
society in The Republic. a veil of ignorance.

1651 Thomas Hobbes sets out I n his book A Theory of Justice, social contract is made. From this
a theory of social contract in first published in 1971, political Rawls establishes principles of
his book Leviathan. philosopher John Rawls argues justice on which, he claims, all
for a re-evaluation of justice in rational beings should agree.
1689 John Locke develops terms of what he calls “justice as
Hobbes’s theory in his Second fairness.” His approach falls into The original position
Treatise of Government. the tradition known as social Imagine that a group of strangers is
contract theory, which sees the rule marooned on a desert island, and
1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau of law as a form of contract that that, after giving up hope of being
writes The Social Contract. individuals enter into because it rescued, they decide to start a new
His views are later adopted yields benefits that exceed what society from scratch. Each of the
by French revolutionaries. they can attain individually. Rawls’ survivors wants to further their
version of this theory involves a own interests, but each also sees
AFTER thought experiment in which people that they can only do so by working
1974 Robert Nozick criticizes are made ignorant of their place in together in some way—in other
Rawls’ “original position” in society, or placed in what he calls words, by forming a social contract.
his influential book Anarchy, the “original position” in which the The question is: how do they go
State, and Utopia.

2001 Rawls defends his views
in his last book, Justice as
Fairness: A Restatement.

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 295

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Thomas Hobbes 112–15 ■ John Locke 130–33 ■
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 154–59 ■ Noam Chomsky 304–05

about establishing the principles parties are ones that genuinely John Rawls
of justice? What rules do they lay honor impartiality, and don’t, for
down? If they are interested in a example, take race, class, creed, John Rawls was born in 1921
truly rational and impartial justice, natural talent, or disability into in Maryland, USA. He studied
then there are countless rules that account. In other words, if I don’t at Princeton University, then
have to be discounted immediately. know what my place in society will joined the army and served in
For example, the rule “If your name be, rational self-interest compels the Pacific during World War II.
is John, you must always eat last”, me to vote for a world in which After the war, in which he
is neither rational nor impartial, everyone is treated fairly. saw the ruins of Hiroshima,
even if it may be to your advantage he resigned from the army
if your name is “John”. Rationality versus charity and returned to studying
It is important to note that for philosophy, earning his PhD
In such a position, says Rawls, Rawls this is not a story about how from Princeton in 1950.
what we need to do is cast a “veil justice has actually arisen in the
of ignorance” over all the facts of world. Instead, he gives us a way Rawls undertook further
our lives, such as who we are, and of testing our theories of justice study at Oxford University,
where we were born, and then ask against an impartial benchmark. If where he met philosopher
what kind of rules it would be best they fail to measure up, his point is Isaiah Berlin, before returning
for us to live by. Rawls’ point that it is our reason, and not simply to the US to teach. After a
is that the only rules that could our charity, that has failed. ■ period at Cornell and MIT, he
rationally be agreed on by all moved to Harvard, where he
wrote A Theory of Justice.
The representation of While at Harvard, he also
justice as a blindfolded taught up-and-coming
lady with a set of scales philosophers Thomas Nagel
expresses the idea that and Martha Nussbaum.
no-one is above the law.
In 1995 Rawls suffered
Lady Justice is the first of several strokes,
blind, and therefore but continued working until
his death in 2002.
impartial.
Key works
The scales of
justice represent 1971 A Theory of Justice
1993 Political Liberalism
equality. 1999 The Law of Peoples
2000 Lectures on the History
Punishment is of Moral Philosophy
the same for all. 2001 Justice as Fairness:
A Restatement

296

ART IS A
FORM OF LIFE

RICHARD WOLLHEIM (1923–2003)

IN CONTEXT T he British philosopher of What we consider art may depend
art, Richard Wollheim, on the context in which we view it.
BRANCH believes that we should Andy Warhol’s 32 Campbell’s Soup
Aesthetics resist the tendency to see art as Cans creates fine art from images
an abstract idea that needs to be usually associated with commerce.
APPROACH analyzed and explained. If we are
Analytic philosophy to fully understand art, he believes, beliefs, histories, emotional
we must always define it in relation dispositions, physical needs,
BEFORE to its social context. By describing and communities—and the world
c.380 BCE Plato’s Republic art as a “form of life”, in Art and that they interpret is a world of
explores the relationship its Objects (1968), he uses a term constant change. For Wollheim, one
between art forms and coined by the Austrian-born implication of this is that there can
political institutions. philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein be no general “artistic impulse” or
to describe the nature of language. instinct for the creation of art
1953 Ludwig Wittgenstein’s For Wittgenstein, language is a that is totally independent of the
Philosophical Investigations “form of life”, because the way we institutions in which it operates. ■
introduces and explores his use it is always a reflection of our
concept of “forms of life.” individual experiences, habits, and
skills. He is attempting to resist the
1964 Arthur Danto publishes tendency of philosophy to make
his philosophical essay simplistic generalizations about
The Artworld, which analyzes language and instead is pointing to
artistic endeavor from an the many different roles language
institutional viewpoint. plays in our lives.

AFTER Social setting
1969 American philosopher Wollheim is making the same point
George Dickie develops further as Wittgenstein, but in relation to
the institutional theory of works of art. Artists, he states, are
artistic creativity in his conditioned by their context—their
essay Defining Art.

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 297

ANYTHING GOES

PAUL FEYERABEND (1924–1994)

IN CONTEXT B orn in Austria, Feyerabend questions and theories about
became a student of Karl knowledge, and Feyerabend’s
BRANCH Popper at the London “anarchism” is rooted in the idea
Philosophy of science School of Economics, but he went that all of the methodologies used
on to depart significantly from in the sciences are limited in
APPROACH Popper’s rational model of science. scope. As a result, there is no such
Analytic philosophy During his time at the University of thing as “scientific method.” If we
California in the 1960s and 1970s, look at how science has developed
BEFORE Feyerabend became friendly with and progressed in practice, the only
1934 In The Logic of Scientific the German-born philosopher “method” that we can discern is
Discovery, Karl Popper defines Thomas Kuhn, who argued that that “anything goes.” Science,
“falsifiability” as a criterion for scientific progress is not gradual, Feyerabend maintains, has never
any scientific theory. but always jumps in “paradigm progressed according to strict
shifts” or revolutions that lead to rules, and if the philosophy of
1962 Thomas Kuhn introduces whole new frameworks for scientific science demands such rules, it
the idea of “paradigm shifts” thinking. Feyerabend goes even will limit scientific progress. ■
in science in The Structure of further, suggesting that when this
Scientific Revolutions. occurs, all the scientific concepts
and terms are altered, so there is no
1960s and early 1970s permanent framework of meaning.
Feyerabend develops his ideas
in discussion with his friend Anarchy in science Science and myth
and fellow philosopher of Feyerabend’s most famous book overlap in many ways.
science, Imre Lakatos. Against Method: Outline of an Paul Feyerabend
Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge,
AFTER was first published in 1975. Here
From 1980s Feyerabend’s he sets out his vision of what he
ideas contribute to the theories calls “epistemological anarchism”.
of the mind proposed by Epistemology is the branch of
American philosophers philosophy that deals with
Patricia and Paul Churchland.

See also: Karl Popper 262–65 ■ Thomas Kuhn 293

298

KNOWLEDGE
IS PRODUCED
TO BE SOLD

JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD (1924–1998)

IN CONTEXT T he idea that knowledge been used by various art critics
is produced to be sold since the 1870s, his book was
BRANCH appears in Jean-François responsible for broadening its range
Epistemology Lyotard’s book The Postmodern and increasing its popularity. His
Condition: A Report on Knowledge. use of the word in the title of this
APPROACH The book was originally written book is often said to mark the
Postmodernism for the Council of Universities in beginning of postmodern thought.
Quebec, Canada, and the use of
BEFORE the term “postmodern” in its title The term “postmodernism”
1870s The term “postmodern” is significant. Although Lyotard has since been used in so many
is first used in the context of did not invent the term, which had different ways that it is now hard
art criticism. to know exactly what it means,

1939–45 Technological Computer technology has
advances in World War II lay changed knowledge into
the ground for the computer
revolution of the 20th century. information that is…

1953 Ludwig Wittgenstein …stored in vast …owned by large
writes in his Philosophical databases. corporations.
Investigations about “language
games”—an idea that Lyotard This information is judged
uses to develop his idea of by its commercial value,
meta-narratives.
not by its truth.
AFTER
1984 American literary critic Knowledge is
Fredric Jameson writes produced to be sold.
Postmodernism, or the Cultural
Logic of Late Capitalism.

From 1990s The World Wide
Web offers unprecedented
access to information.