From 776ab1eb5875093d464df1681ccb296d6d04e0ac Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Silvio Rhatto Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 17:01:05 -0200 Subject: Updates Eros and Civilization --- books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md | 140 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 140 insertions(+) (limited to 'books') diff --git a/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md b/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md index d56aa5d..07c7a77 100644 --- a/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md +++ b/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md @@ -415,6 +415,19 @@ Superego: than ever before. This time there shall be no killing of the father, not even a "symbolic" killing -- because he may not find a successor. + [...] + + Note: 20 In his paper on "The Delay of the Machine Age," Hanns Sachs made an + interesting attempt to demonstrate narcissism as a constitutive element of the + reality principle in Greek civilization. He discussed the problem of why the + Greeks did not develop a machine technology although they possessed the skill + and knowledge which would have enabled them to do so. He was not satisfied with + the usual explanations on economic and sociological grounds. Instead, he + proposed that the predominant narcissistic element in Greek culture prevented + technological progress: the libidinal cathexis of the body was so strong that + it militated against mechanization and automatization. Sachs' paper appeared in + the Psychoanalytic Quarterly, II (1933) , 42off. + ### Repression due to exogenous factors: the central argument Therefore, if the historical process tended to make obsolete the institutions @@ -735,6 +748,133 @@ Superego: would be so small that a large area of repressive constraints and modifications, no longer sustained by external forces , would collapse. +### The Aesthetic Dimension + + Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), written largely + under the impact of the Critique of Judgment, aim at a remaking of civilization + by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function: it is envisaged as + containing the possibility of a new reality principle. + + [...] + + Since it was civilization itself which "dealt modern man this wound," only a + new mode of civilization can heal it. The wound is caused by the antagonistic + relation between the two polar dimensions of the human existence. Schiller + describes this antagonism in a series of paired concepts: sensuousness and + reason, matter and form (spirit), nature and freedom, the particular and the + universal. + + Each of the two dimensions is governed by a basic impulse: the "sensuous + impulse " and the "form-impulse." 20 The former is essentially passive, + receptive, the latter active, mastering, domineering . Culture is built by the + combination and interaction of these two impulses. But in the established + civilization, their relation has been an antagonistic one: instead of + reconciling both impulses by making sensuousness rational and reason sensuous, + civilization has subjugated sensuousness to reason in such a manner that the + former, if it reasserts itself , does so in destructive and "savage" forms + while the tyranny of reason impoverishes and barbarizes sensuousness. The + conflict must be resolved if human potentialities are to realize themselves + freely. Since only the impulses have the lasting force that fundamentally + affects the human existence, such reconciliation between the two impulses must + be the work of a third impulse. Schiller defines this third mediating impulse + as the play impulse, its objective as beauty, and its goal as freedom. + + [...] + + The quest is for the solution of a "political" problem : the liberation of man + from inhuman existential conditions. Schiller states that, in order to solve + the political problem, "one must pass through the aesthetic, since it is beauty + that leads to freedom." The play impulse is the vehicle of this liberation. The + impulse does not aim at playing "with" something ; rather it is the play of + life itself, beyond want and external compulsion -- the manifestation of an + existence without fear and anxiety, and thus the manifestation of freedom + itself. + + Man is free only where he is free from constraint, external and internal, + physical and moral -- when he is constrained neither by law nor by need. 21 But + such constraint is the reality. Freedom is thus, in a strict sense, freedom + from the established reality: man is free when the "reality loses its + seriousness" and when its necessity "becomes light" ( leicht). 22 "The greatest + stupidity and the greatest intelligence have a certain affinity with each other + in that they both seek only the real"; however, such need for and attachment to + the real are "merely the results of want." + + In contrast, "indifference to reality" and interest in "show" (dis-play, + Schein) are the tokens of freedom from want and a "true enlargement of + humanity." 23 In a genuinely humane civilization, the human existence will be + play rather than toil, and man will live in display rather than need. + + These ideas represent one of the most advanced positions of thought. It must be + understood that the liberation from the reality which is here envisaged is not + transcendental, "inner," or merely intellectual freedom (as Schiller explicitly + emphasizes 24 ) but freedom in the reality. The reality that "loses its + seriousness" is the inhumane reality of want and need, and it loses its + seriousness when wants and needs can be satisfied without alienated labor. + Then, man is free to "play" with his faculties and potentialities and with + those of nature, and only by "playing" with them is he free. His world is then + display ( Schein), and its order is that of beauty. + + Because it is the realization of freedom, play is more than the constraining + physical and moral reality: ". . man is only serious with the agreeable, the + good, the perfect; but with beauty he plays." 25 Such formulations would be + irresponsible "aestheticism" if the realm of play were one of ornament, luxury, + holiday, in an otherwise repressive world. But here the aesthetic function is + conceived as a principle governing the entire human existence, and it can do so + only if it becomes "universal." + + [...] + + If we reassemble its main elements, we find: + + (1) The transformation of toil (labor) into play, and of repressive + productivity into "display" -- a transformation that must be preceded by the + conquest of want (scarcity) as the determining factor of civilization. 43 + + (2) The self-sublimation of sensuousness (of the sensuous impulse) and the + de-sublimation of reason (of the form-impulse) in order to reconcile the two + basic antagonistic impulses. + + (3) The conquest of time in so far as time is destructive of lasting + gratification. + + These elements are practically identical with those of a reconciliation between + pleasure principle and reality principle. We recall the constitutive role + attributed to imagination (phantasy) in play and display: Imagination preserves + the objectives of those mental processes which have remained free from the + repressive reality principle; in their aesthetic function, they can be + incorporated into the conscious rationality of mature civilization. The play + impulse stands for the common denominator of the two opposed mental processes + and principles. + + [...] + + Non-repressive order is essentially an order of abundance: the necessary + constraint is brought about by "superfluity" rather than need. Only an order of + abundance is compatible with freedom. At this point, the idealistic and the + materialistic critiques of culture meet. Both agree that nonrepressive order + becomes possible only at the highest maturity of civilization, when all basic + needs can be satisfied with a minimum expenditure of physical and mental energy + in a minimum of time. + + [...] + + Possession and procurement of the necessities of life are the prerequisite, + rather than the content, of a free society. The realm of necessity, of labor, + is one of unfreedom because the human existence in this realm is determined by + objectives and functions that are not its own and that do not allow the free + play of human faculties and desires. + The optimum in this realm is therefore to be defined by standards of + rationality rather than freedom -- namely, to organize production and + distribution in such a manner that the least time is spent for making all + necessities available to all members of society. Necessary labor is a system of + essentially inhuman, mechanical, and routine activities; in such a system, + individuality cannot be a value and end in itself. Reasonably, the system of + societal labor would be organized rather with a view to saving time and space + for the development of individuality outside the inevitably repressive + work-world. Play and display, as principles of civilization, imply not the + transformation of labor but its complete subordination to the freely evolving + potentialities of man and nature. + ### Misc But, again, Freud shows that this repressive system does not really solve the -- cgit v1.2.3