An interesting article by Ales Debeljak.
"The division of the world into “the West and the rest” is a misrepresentation, writes Ales Debeljak. Cultural globalization is not the transplantation of western ideas and technologies across the planet, but the adaptation of these according to local requirements. Hybridity, the product of a longe durée, is at the heart of the contemporary western paradigm."
Click here for the entire piece from “Eurozine”.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The End of History and The Last Man (1992)
This year 2009 recurred the tenth anniversay of the fall of the berlin Wall, 1989 - 2009. We will use this as a 'hook' to talk about 'The End of History and The Last Man' a book by Francis Fukuyama (published in 1992).
The main concept of the American philosopher, recalling Hegel, is the claim that, with the Berlin Wall's fall, we have the definitive affirmation of the liberal ideology as the only possible kind of state policy for the human species. The liberal state is, according to Fukuyama, the final aim reached by humanity, after defeating the totalitarian regimes, last step in the scale of democracy.
Fukuyama's theses will be reviewed in the following years by the same author, in the essay 'The Great Disruption' (1999) since the growing importance of the spreading of the IT language in the society of communication. The 'ideal' liberal democracy' theorized by Fukuyama has to take these problematiques into account, given the speed and the depth of this cultural development, included the possible degenerations. Fukuyama, in a more or less aware way, seems then to be contradictory and problematizes his 'end of history'. This problematization will become more coherent in the work 'Our Posthuman Future' (1992), written exactly ten years after the first one we have aalready talked about.
And it seems that this last book is indeed the most relevant contribution by Fukuyama to epistemology. The thinker reviews his discussion in relation to biogenetics in the post-ideological context he depicted, and appears to be 'scared' of this 'eugenetic' possibility, which he claims, can undermine the liberal state just born especially on the side of ethics. The possibility for the man to intervene on himself physiologically implies changes at the social, demographic, moral and cultural level.
The discussion on Fukuyama's theses is widespread and hard, also because the same writer appears to be sometimes contradictory. His position on the posthuman sensibility is definitely skeptic. Nevertheless, the interesting side of this issue id Fukuyama's attention to the theme of ethics, whose importance in teh context of the discussions on the posthuman are often underestimated.
Alessandro Gandini
The main concept of the American philosopher, recalling Hegel, is the claim that, with the Berlin Wall's fall, we have the definitive affirmation of the liberal ideology as the only possible kind of state policy for the human species. The liberal state is, according to Fukuyama, the final aim reached by humanity, after defeating the totalitarian regimes, last step in the scale of democracy.
Fukuyama's theses will be reviewed in the following years by the same author, in the essay 'The Great Disruption' (1999) since the growing importance of the spreading of the IT language in the society of communication. The 'ideal' liberal democracy' theorized by Fukuyama has to take these problematiques into account, given the speed and the depth of this cultural development, included the possible degenerations. Fukuyama, in a more or less aware way, seems then to be contradictory and problematizes his 'end of history'. This problematization will become more coherent in the work 'Our Posthuman Future' (1992), written exactly ten years after the first one we have aalready talked about.
And it seems that this last book is indeed the most relevant contribution by Fukuyama to epistemology. The thinker reviews his discussion in relation to biogenetics in the post-ideological context he depicted, and appears to be 'scared' of this 'eugenetic' possibility, which he claims, can undermine the liberal state just born especially on the side of ethics. The possibility for the man to intervene on himself physiologically implies changes at the social, demographic, moral and cultural level.
The discussion on Fukuyama's theses is widespread and hard, also because the same writer appears to be sometimes contradictory. His position on the posthuman sensibility is definitely skeptic. Nevertheless, the interesting side of this issue id Fukuyama's attention to the theme of ethics, whose importance in teh context of the discussions on the posthuman are often underestimated.
Alessandro Gandini
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