Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
?
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
?
Sloterdijk - Thinker on Stage
Theory and History of Literature
? ? Edited by
Volume 56. Volume
V olume 54. Volume Volume Volume
V olume 50. V olume 49. V olume 48. V olume V olume 46. V olume 45. V olume 44.
V olume
V olume 42. V olume
V olume 40. V olume 39.
V olume 38. V olume Volume 36.
V olume 35. V olume 34. V olume Volume 32.
V olume
V olume 30.
Volume 29. V olume
Godzich and Jochen
Peter Sloterdijk Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism Paul Smith Discerning the Subject
The Barthes Effect Cros Theory and Practice of
Philippe Lejeune On Autobiography
Thierry de Duve The Readymade: Marcel Duchamp, Painting
and Modernity
Luiz Costa Lima Control of the Imaginary
Jameson The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986, 2 Fredric Jameson The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986,
1Eugene Vance From Topic to Tale: Logic and Narrativity in the Middle Ages
Lyotard The Manfred Frank What Is
Daniel ? Social Figures: George Eliot, Social History, and Literary Representation
Michael Nerlich The Ideology of Adventure, Volume 2 Michael Nerlich The Ideology of Adventure, Volume 1 Denis Hollier The College of Sociology Peter Sloterdijk Critique of Cynical Reason
von ? Romantic Vision, Ethical Context: Novalis and Artistic Autonomy
Algirdas Julien Greimas On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic Theory
Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok The Wolf Man's Magic Word: A Cryptonymy
Alice Yaeger Kaplan Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature, and French Intellectual Life
Denis Hollier The Politics of Prose
Geoffrey ? The Unremarkable Wordsworth
Paul de Man The Resistance to Theory
Djelal Kadir Questing Fictions: Latin America's Family
Romance
Samuel Weber Institution and Interpretation
Gilles Deleuze and Felix ? Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? For other books in the series, see p. 107
? ? Thinker on
Materialism
Peter Sloterdijk
Translation by Jamie Owen Daniel Foreword by Jochen
Theory and History of Volume 56
? ? ? University of Minnesota ? Minneapolis
Copyright ? ? by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Originally published as Der Denker ? Buhne: ? ? ? ? Copyright ? ? by
Frankfurt
? am
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Published simultaneously in Canada
by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
Printed in the United States of America.
? ? Library of Congress
Data
Sloterdijk, Peter, 1947-
[Denker auf der Buhne. English]
Thinker on stage ? Nietzsche's materialism ? Peter Sloterdijk;
translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen
p. and history of literature ? v. 56) Translation of: Der Denker auf der Buhne. Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
? ? ? ? ISBN
I S B N 0-8166-1765-1 1. Nietzsche,
(pbk. )
? ? ? 1844-1900.
I.
? Series. B3317. S5813 1983-dc20
1989
89-31941
? The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
? ? ? For
affectionate solidarity
"By no means," said ? "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.
Prologue
? ? ? Contents
? Foreword: Nietzsche's Theoretical Resistance Jochen Preface x x v
Literature 3
2. The Philosophy of Existence, the Dramaturgy of Force 15 3. Cave ? or, Danger, Terrible Truth! 33
4. Dionysus Meets Diogenes; or, The Adventures of the
Embodied Intellect 50
Pain and Justice 74 Notes 95
Index 103
? ? ? vii
? ? Foreword: Theoretical Resistance
Jochen
? ? At first glance, ? book merely offers a rereading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music ? However, since the author takes this text to be one of the basic, central texts of modernity, his reading quickly reaches a point where it goes beyond being solely a commentary on Nietzsche's early treatise. It offers a rereading and a rethinking of some basic features of modernity as reflected and thought through in ? ? In par- ticular, Nietzsche's ? misunderstood terminological opposition "Dionysian" versus ? art (which turns out not to be an
proves to be an important facet in Sloterdijk's rethinking of modernity.
Not very far into his essay, Sloterdijk feels compelled to reiterate a question usually associated with Max Weber and, more recently, with ? Habermas: "Has not the division of the labor of talent that characterizes our times led to the tendential opposition of the psychic attitudes that capacitate scientifically ori- ented knowledge to the expression of the self, while those that accommodate self-expression betray a propensity that is hostile to knowledge? Are not the cults of science and aesthetics the prototypical ? idiots' of modernity? " (S ? The answers to these questions are well known. Essentially, both Weber and ? the factual existence of the divisions induced by the process of ? these divisions as progress. They perceive the adversity of instrumental knowledge and aesthetic self-expression not as hostility but as the result of a functional differentiation of
? ? ix
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
? ? x FOREWORD
social practices that should be evaluated positively as long as each and every one of the functionally differentiated social practices does not overstep the bound- aries of its range. Habermas accuses Nietzsche of doing precisely the latter, namely, of elaborating upon strategies of intervention that, if widely adopted, would lead to a breakdown of the balanced system of functionally differentiated realms in modern societies. According to Habermas, Nietzsche's valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian is an early, ? expression of the so-called postmodern project, which tries to rupture the delicate balance of the system of modernity. Within this system ? organizational mode Weber and
as cultural ? set out to defend against the alleged opposition of intellectual subverters like Nietzsche -- the Other of reason is deferred to a de- limited and relatively autonomous aesthetic realm. To be more precise, the aes- thetic as the Other of reason is made to eschew its radical otherness and turn itself into reason's supplement. Thus, when Habermas charges postmodernism with hypostatizing "the aesthetic, as the gate to the Dionysian, as the Other of
he presupposes that the Dionysian, once integrated into the functional differentiation of modernity and delimited within its own subsystem, can be turned into a necessary complement of reason or rationality, thus stabilizing the overall structure of the
subjects is suspended in favor of a "destruction of the principium
40). From a perspective affirming the social and psychic structures of modernity, the danger inherent in the Dionysian principle is apparent in any val- orization of the Dionysian, even if the latter is delimited within the realm of art. That is to say, even if Dionysian reality is institutionally sealed ? aesthetic a gulf of forgetting from the world of theoretical comprehension and moral activity (i. e. , from everyday life), Dionysian art allows entry into a
world of ecstasy -- at the price of a painful un-differentiation or dissolution individual, ? internal and external melting into amorphous By ? ? its complementary functional role as a "pendant [Gege- to reason, ? the Dionysian mode of aesthetic experience, according to Habermas, assists in the practical and effective "self-unveiling of a decentered ? ? ? ? ? affirmative perception of modernity, Nietzsche amplifies the Romantic contamination of the theoretical and moral with the ? How is such a contamination conceivable, and what are the premises of such a critique? From the viewpoint of modernity and its accom- panying conception of individuality, subjectivity has to be constituted as a con- tained, agonistic ? valorization of the "Dionysian," however, is alleged to express and stress the opposite principle, that is, the dissolution of ego At first ? such a statement seems to be more than ? For Nietzsche holds that as ? in ? ? ev- subjective vanishes into complete ? (N 36). In the Dionysian ego transgression, the agonistic individuality of competitive According to critic of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FOREWORD xi
form of subjectivity freed from all the limits of cognition and purpose, from all the imperatives of usefulness and ? ? Habermas articulates anxieties that are widespread in contemporary Western cultures; he shares them with neolibe-
and conservatives alike, fearing a dissolution of the psychic armor and moral centeredness of Western individuality. Contrary to popular belief, however, a simple valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian takes place nowhere in Nietzsche. As as art
the Dionysian is always tamed or at ? ? ? vocable ne- cessity of representing itself. ? however, is always already Apol- lonian in ? As explains: "The orgiastic musical element is never in danger of breaking through the Apollonian barriers, for the stage itself, the tragic space ? Nietzsche constructed it ?
Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? For other books in the series, see p. 107
? ? Thinker on
Materialism
Peter Sloterdijk
Translation by Jamie Owen Daniel Foreword by Jochen
Theory and History of Volume 56
? ? ? University of Minnesota ? Minneapolis
Copyright ? ? by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Originally published as Der Denker ? Buhne: ? ? ? ? Copyright ? ? by
Frankfurt
? am
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Published simultaneously in Canada
by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
Printed in the United States of America.
? ? Library of Congress
Data
Sloterdijk, Peter, 1947-
[Denker auf der Buhne. English]
Thinker on stage ? Nietzsche's materialism ? Peter Sloterdijk;
translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen
p. and history of literature ? v. 56) Translation of: Der Denker auf der Buhne. Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
? ? ? ? ISBN
I S B N 0-8166-1765-1 1. Nietzsche,
(pbk. )
? ? ? 1844-1900.
I.
? Series. B3317. S5813 1983-dc20
1989
89-31941
? The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
? ? ? For
affectionate solidarity
"By no means," said ? "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.
Prologue
? ? ? Contents
? Foreword: Nietzsche's Theoretical Resistance Jochen Preface x x v
Literature 3
2. The Philosophy of Existence, the Dramaturgy of Force 15 3. Cave ? or, Danger, Terrible Truth! 33
4. Dionysus Meets Diogenes; or, The Adventures of the
Embodied Intellect 50
Pain and Justice 74 Notes 95
Index 103
? ? ? vii
? ? Foreword: Theoretical Resistance
Jochen
? ? At first glance, ? book merely offers a rereading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music ? However, since the author takes this text to be one of the basic, central texts of modernity, his reading quickly reaches a point where it goes beyond being solely a commentary on Nietzsche's early treatise. It offers a rereading and a rethinking of some basic features of modernity as reflected and thought through in ? ? In par- ticular, Nietzsche's ? misunderstood terminological opposition "Dionysian" versus ? art (which turns out not to be an
proves to be an important facet in Sloterdijk's rethinking of modernity.
Not very far into his essay, Sloterdijk feels compelled to reiterate a question usually associated with Max Weber and, more recently, with ? Habermas: "Has not the division of the labor of talent that characterizes our times led to the tendential opposition of the psychic attitudes that capacitate scientifically ori- ented knowledge to the expression of the self, while those that accommodate self-expression betray a propensity that is hostile to knowledge? Are not the cults of science and aesthetics the prototypical ? idiots' of modernity? " (S ? The answers to these questions are well known. Essentially, both Weber and ? the factual existence of the divisions induced by the process of ? these divisions as progress. They perceive the adversity of instrumental knowledge and aesthetic self-expression not as hostility but as the result of a functional differentiation of
? ? ix
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
? ? x FOREWORD
social practices that should be evaluated positively as long as each and every one of the functionally differentiated social practices does not overstep the bound- aries of its range. Habermas accuses Nietzsche of doing precisely the latter, namely, of elaborating upon strategies of intervention that, if widely adopted, would lead to a breakdown of the balanced system of functionally differentiated realms in modern societies. According to Habermas, Nietzsche's valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian is an early, ? expression of the so-called postmodern project, which tries to rupture the delicate balance of the system of modernity. Within this system ? organizational mode Weber and
as cultural ? set out to defend against the alleged opposition of intellectual subverters like Nietzsche -- the Other of reason is deferred to a de- limited and relatively autonomous aesthetic realm. To be more precise, the aes- thetic as the Other of reason is made to eschew its radical otherness and turn itself into reason's supplement. Thus, when Habermas charges postmodernism with hypostatizing "the aesthetic, as the gate to the Dionysian, as the Other of
he presupposes that the Dionysian, once integrated into the functional differentiation of modernity and delimited within its own subsystem, can be turned into a necessary complement of reason or rationality, thus stabilizing the overall structure of the
subjects is suspended in favor of a "destruction of the principium
40). From a perspective affirming the social and psychic structures of modernity, the danger inherent in the Dionysian principle is apparent in any val- orization of the Dionysian, even if the latter is delimited within the realm of art. That is to say, even if Dionysian reality is institutionally sealed ? aesthetic a gulf of forgetting from the world of theoretical comprehension and moral activity (i. e. , from everyday life), Dionysian art allows entry into a
world of ecstasy -- at the price of a painful un-differentiation or dissolution individual, ? internal and external melting into amorphous By ? ? its complementary functional role as a "pendant [Gege- to reason, ? the Dionysian mode of aesthetic experience, according to Habermas, assists in the practical and effective "self-unveiling of a decentered ? ? ? ? ? affirmative perception of modernity, Nietzsche amplifies the Romantic contamination of the theoretical and moral with the ? How is such a contamination conceivable, and what are the premises of such a critique? From the viewpoint of modernity and its accom- panying conception of individuality, subjectivity has to be constituted as a con- tained, agonistic ? valorization of the "Dionysian," however, is alleged to express and stress the opposite principle, that is, the dissolution of ego At first ? such a statement seems to be more than ? For Nietzsche holds that as ? in ? ? ev- subjective vanishes into complete ? (N 36). In the Dionysian ego transgression, the agonistic individuality of competitive According to critic of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FOREWORD xi
form of subjectivity freed from all the limits of cognition and purpose, from all the imperatives of usefulness and ? ? Habermas articulates anxieties that are widespread in contemporary Western cultures; he shares them with neolibe-
and conservatives alike, fearing a dissolution of the psychic armor and moral centeredness of Western individuality. Contrary to popular belief, however, a simple valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian takes place nowhere in Nietzsche. As as art
the Dionysian is always tamed or at ? ? ? vocable ne- cessity of representing itself. ? however, is always already Apol- lonian in ? As explains: "The orgiastic musical element is never in danger of breaking through the Apollonian barriers, for the stage itself, the tragic space ? Nietzsche constructed it ? in keeping with his overall plan, nothing other than a sort of Apollonian catch mechanism that ensures that no orgy will result from the orgiastic song of the chorus. The music of the singing he-goats is a Dionysian paroxism set apart in Apollonian quotation marks ? In
the polarity between Apollo and Dionysus is not a turbulent opposition that vacillates freely between the two extremes ? ? ? The Apollonian Unified Subject makes certain, through the mechanism of the silently established axiom of bal-
ance, that the Dionysian Other never comes into play as itself, but only as the dialectical or symmetrical Other to the Unified ? An Apollonian principle governs the antagonism between the Apollonian and the Dionysian" (S 24-25).
The modernist's view of Nietzsche's discussion of the Dionysian principle, marred as it is by anxieties of dissolution, overlooks the fact that Nietzsche set out to think a form of interventionist reflexivity or reflexive resistance that tries to attune itself to the fact that subjectivity is not constituted as a ? entity in "modernity. " Nietzsche's thinking of the Dionysian has to be placed in the
that conceives ? reason as a force able to resist the
talization of reason and its influence on social interaction. However, Nietzsche does ? the vein of the early Romantics, for ? the subject, as a unified epistemological center, opposite an object designed to be "reflected, be the latter other subjects, society as a whole, or nature. Rather, he follows the traces of the process of modernization within subjectivity and discovers in the process that resistance, if at all possible, has to begin by reflecting the split sub- jectivity of modern individuals. The most essential aspect of his argument is his insistence on the dialectical relationship between what he
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
calls the Apollonian and structurally desire of individu-
transgress and fortify their ego boundaries.
Paradoxically, the dialectical conception of this relationship leads Nietzsche to
a much more cogent and conclusive understanding of the basic division of knowl- edge and self-expression in modernity than is possible within the framework of a sociology of modernity shaped by a fundamental acceptance of modernity's de- sired mode of social organization. The affirmative reading of that organization
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? Edited by
Volume 56. Volume
V olume 54. Volume Volume Volume
V olume 50. V olume 49. V olume 48. V olume V olume 46. V olume 45. V olume 44.
V olume
V olume 42. V olume
V olume 40. V olume 39.
V olume 38. V olume Volume 36.
V olume 35. V olume 34. V olume Volume 32.
V olume
V olume 30.
Volume 29. V olume
Godzich and Jochen
Peter Sloterdijk Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism Paul Smith Discerning the Subject
The Barthes Effect Cros Theory and Practice of
Philippe Lejeune On Autobiography
Thierry de Duve The Readymade: Marcel Duchamp, Painting
and Modernity
Luiz Costa Lima Control of the Imaginary
Jameson The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986, 2 Fredric Jameson The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986,
1Eugene Vance From Topic to Tale: Logic and Narrativity in the Middle Ages
Lyotard The Manfred Frank What Is
Daniel ? Social Figures: George Eliot, Social History, and Literary Representation
Michael Nerlich The Ideology of Adventure, Volume 2 Michael Nerlich The Ideology of Adventure, Volume 1 Denis Hollier The College of Sociology Peter Sloterdijk Critique of Cynical Reason
von ? Romantic Vision, Ethical Context: Novalis and Artistic Autonomy
Algirdas Julien Greimas On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic Theory
Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok The Wolf Man's Magic Word: A Cryptonymy
Alice Yaeger Kaplan Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature, and French Intellectual Life
Denis Hollier The Politics of Prose
Geoffrey ? The Unremarkable Wordsworth
Paul de Man The Resistance to Theory
Djelal Kadir Questing Fictions: Latin America's Family
Romance
Samuel Weber Institution and Interpretation
Gilles Deleuze and Felix ? Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? For other books in the series, see p. 107
? ? Thinker on
Materialism
Peter Sloterdijk
Translation by Jamie Owen Daniel Foreword by Jochen
Theory and History of Volume 56
? ? ? University of Minnesota ? Minneapolis
Copyright ? ? by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Originally published as Der Denker ? Buhne: ? ? ? ? Copyright ? ? by
Frankfurt
? am
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Published simultaneously in Canada
by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
Printed in the United States of America.
? ? Library of Congress
Data
Sloterdijk, Peter, 1947-
[Denker auf der Buhne. English]
Thinker on stage ? Nietzsche's materialism ? Peter Sloterdijk;
translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen
p. and history of literature ? v. 56) Translation of: Der Denker auf der Buhne. Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
? ? ? ? ISBN
I S B N 0-8166-1765-1 1. Nietzsche,
(pbk. )
? ? ? 1844-1900.
I.
? Series. B3317. S5813 1983-dc20
1989
89-31941
? The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
? ? ? For
affectionate solidarity
"By no means," said ? "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.
Prologue
? ? ? Contents
? Foreword: Nietzsche's Theoretical Resistance Jochen Preface x x v
Literature 3
2. The Philosophy of Existence, the Dramaturgy of Force 15 3. Cave ? or, Danger, Terrible Truth! 33
4. Dionysus Meets Diogenes; or, The Adventures of the
Embodied Intellect 50
Pain and Justice 74 Notes 95
Index 103
? ? ? vii
? ? Foreword: Theoretical Resistance
Jochen
? ? At first glance, ? book merely offers a rereading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music ? However, since the author takes this text to be one of the basic, central texts of modernity, his reading quickly reaches a point where it goes beyond being solely a commentary on Nietzsche's early treatise. It offers a rereading and a rethinking of some basic features of modernity as reflected and thought through in ? ? In par- ticular, Nietzsche's ? misunderstood terminological opposition "Dionysian" versus ? art (which turns out not to be an
proves to be an important facet in Sloterdijk's rethinking of modernity.
Not very far into his essay, Sloterdijk feels compelled to reiterate a question usually associated with Max Weber and, more recently, with ? Habermas: "Has not the division of the labor of talent that characterizes our times led to the tendential opposition of the psychic attitudes that capacitate scientifically ori- ented knowledge to the expression of the self, while those that accommodate self-expression betray a propensity that is hostile to knowledge? Are not the cults of science and aesthetics the prototypical ? idiots' of modernity? " (S ? The answers to these questions are well known. Essentially, both Weber and ? the factual existence of the divisions induced by the process of ? these divisions as progress. They perceive the adversity of instrumental knowledge and aesthetic self-expression not as hostility but as the result of a functional differentiation of
? ? ix
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
? ? x FOREWORD
social practices that should be evaluated positively as long as each and every one of the functionally differentiated social practices does not overstep the bound- aries of its range. Habermas accuses Nietzsche of doing precisely the latter, namely, of elaborating upon strategies of intervention that, if widely adopted, would lead to a breakdown of the balanced system of functionally differentiated realms in modern societies. According to Habermas, Nietzsche's valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian is an early, ? expression of the so-called postmodern project, which tries to rupture the delicate balance of the system of modernity. Within this system ? organizational mode Weber and
as cultural ? set out to defend against the alleged opposition of intellectual subverters like Nietzsche -- the Other of reason is deferred to a de- limited and relatively autonomous aesthetic realm. To be more precise, the aes- thetic as the Other of reason is made to eschew its radical otherness and turn itself into reason's supplement. Thus, when Habermas charges postmodernism with hypostatizing "the aesthetic, as the gate to the Dionysian, as the Other of
he presupposes that the Dionysian, once integrated into the functional differentiation of modernity and delimited within its own subsystem, can be turned into a necessary complement of reason or rationality, thus stabilizing the overall structure of the
subjects is suspended in favor of a "destruction of the principium
40). From a perspective affirming the social and psychic structures of modernity, the danger inherent in the Dionysian principle is apparent in any val- orization of the Dionysian, even if the latter is delimited within the realm of art. That is to say, even if Dionysian reality is institutionally sealed ? aesthetic a gulf of forgetting from the world of theoretical comprehension and moral activity (i. e. , from everyday life), Dionysian art allows entry into a
world of ecstasy -- at the price of a painful un-differentiation or dissolution individual, ? internal and external melting into amorphous By ? ? its complementary functional role as a "pendant [Gege- to reason, ? the Dionysian mode of aesthetic experience, according to Habermas, assists in the practical and effective "self-unveiling of a decentered ? ? ? ? ? affirmative perception of modernity, Nietzsche amplifies the Romantic contamination of the theoretical and moral with the ? How is such a contamination conceivable, and what are the premises of such a critique? From the viewpoint of modernity and its accom- panying conception of individuality, subjectivity has to be constituted as a con- tained, agonistic ? valorization of the "Dionysian," however, is alleged to express and stress the opposite principle, that is, the dissolution of ego At first ? such a statement seems to be more than ? For Nietzsche holds that as ? in ? ? ev- subjective vanishes into complete ? (N 36). In the Dionysian ego transgression, the agonistic individuality of competitive According to critic of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FOREWORD xi
form of subjectivity freed from all the limits of cognition and purpose, from all the imperatives of usefulness and ? ? Habermas articulates anxieties that are widespread in contemporary Western cultures; he shares them with neolibe-
and conservatives alike, fearing a dissolution of the psychic armor and moral centeredness of Western individuality. Contrary to popular belief, however, a simple valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian takes place nowhere in Nietzsche. As as art
the Dionysian is always tamed or at ? ? ? vocable ne- cessity of representing itself. ? however, is always already Apol- lonian in ? As explains: "The orgiastic musical element is never in danger of breaking through the Apollonian barriers, for the stage itself, the tragic space ? Nietzsche constructed it ?
Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature
Peter Szondi Theory of the Modern Drama
Edited by Jonathan Arac Postmodernism and Politics
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? For other books in the series, see p. 107
? ? Thinker on
Materialism
Peter Sloterdijk
Translation by Jamie Owen Daniel Foreword by Jochen
Theory and History of Volume 56
? ? ? University of Minnesota ? Minneapolis
Copyright ? ? by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Originally published as Der Denker ? Buhne: ? ? ? ? Copyright ? ? by
Frankfurt
? am
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
Peter-Sloterdijk-Thinker-on-Stage. txt[3/29/23, 1:19:20 AM]
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Published simultaneously in Canada
by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
Printed in the United States of America.
? ? Library of Congress
Data
Sloterdijk, Peter, 1947-
[Denker auf der Buhne. English]
Thinker on stage ? Nietzsche's materialism ? Peter Sloterdijk;
translation by Jamie Owen Daniel; foreword by Jochen
p. and history of literature ? v. 56) Translation of: Der Denker auf der Buhne. Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
? ? ? ? ISBN
I S B N 0-8166-1765-1 1. Nietzsche,
(pbk. )
? ? ? 1844-1900.
I.
? Series. B3317. S5813 1983-dc20
1989
89-31941
? The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
? ? ? For
affectionate solidarity
"By no means," said ? "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.
Prologue
? ? ? Contents
? Foreword: Nietzsche's Theoretical Resistance Jochen Preface x x v
Literature 3
2. The Philosophy of Existence, the Dramaturgy of Force 15 3. Cave ? or, Danger, Terrible Truth! 33
4. Dionysus Meets Diogenes; or, The Adventures of the
Embodied Intellect 50
Pain and Justice 74 Notes 95
Index 103
? ? ? vii
? ? Foreword: Theoretical Resistance
Jochen
? ? At first glance, ? book merely offers a rereading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music ? However, since the author takes this text to be one of the basic, central texts of modernity, his reading quickly reaches a point where it goes beyond being solely a commentary on Nietzsche's early treatise. It offers a rereading and a rethinking of some basic features of modernity as reflected and thought through in ? ? In par- ticular, Nietzsche's ? misunderstood terminological opposition "Dionysian" versus ? art (which turns out not to be an
proves to be an important facet in Sloterdijk's rethinking of modernity.
Not very far into his essay, Sloterdijk feels compelled to reiterate a question usually associated with Max Weber and, more recently, with ? Habermas: "Has not the division of the labor of talent that characterizes our times led to the tendential opposition of the psychic attitudes that capacitate scientifically ori- ented knowledge to the expression of the self, while those that accommodate self-expression betray a propensity that is hostile to knowledge? Are not the cults of science and aesthetics the prototypical ? idiots' of modernity? " (S ? The answers to these questions are well known. Essentially, both Weber and ? the factual existence of the divisions induced by the process of ? these divisions as progress. They perceive the adversity of instrumental knowledge and aesthetic self-expression not as hostility but as the result of a functional differentiation of
? ? ix
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? ? x FOREWORD
social practices that should be evaluated positively as long as each and every one of the functionally differentiated social practices does not overstep the bound- aries of its range. Habermas accuses Nietzsche of doing precisely the latter, namely, of elaborating upon strategies of intervention that, if widely adopted, would lead to a breakdown of the balanced system of functionally differentiated realms in modern societies. According to Habermas, Nietzsche's valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian is an early, ? expression of the so-called postmodern project, which tries to rupture the delicate balance of the system of modernity. Within this system ? organizational mode Weber and
as cultural ? set out to defend against the alleged opposition of intellectual subverters like Nietzsche -- the Other of reason is deferred to a de- limited and relatively autonomous aesthetic realm. To be more precise, the aes- thetic as the Other of reason is made to eschew its radical otherness and turn itself into reason's supplement. Thus, when Habermas charges postmodernism with hypostatizing "the aesthetic, as the gate to the Dionysian, as the Other of
he presupposes that the Dionysian, once integrated into the functional differentiation of modernity and delimited within its own subsystem, can be turned into a necessary complement of reason or rationality, thus stabilizing the overall structure of the
subjects is suspended in favor of a "destruction of the principium
40). From a perspective affirming the social and psychic structures of modernity, the danger inherent in the Dionysian principle is apparent in any val- orization of the Dionysian, even if the latter is delimited within the realm of art. That is to say, even if Dionysian reality is institutionally sealed ? aesthetic a gulf of forgetting from the world of theoretical comprehension and moral activity (i. e. , from everyday life), Dionysian art allows entry into a
world of ecstasy -- at the price of a painful un-differentiation or dissolution individual, ? internal and external melting into amorphous By ? ? its complementary functional role as a "pendant [Gege- to reason, ? the Dionysian mode of aesthetic experience, according to Habermas, assists in the practical and effective "self-unveiling of a decentered ? ? ? ? ? affirmative perception of modernity, Nietzsche amplifies the Romantic contamination of the theoretical and moral with the ? How is such a contamination conceivable, and what are the premises of such a critique? From the viewpoint of modernity and its accom- panying conception of individuality, subjectivity has to be constituted as a con- tained, agonistic ? valorization of the "Dionysian," however, is alleged to express and stress the opposite principle, that is, the dissolution of ego At first ? such a statement seems to be more than ? For Nietzsche holds that as ? in ? ? ev- subjective vanishes into complete ? (N 36). In the Dionysian ego transgression, the agonistic individuality of competitive According to critic of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? FOREWORD xi
form of subjectivity freed from all the limits of cognition and purpose, from all the imperatives of usefulness and ? ? Habermas articulates anxieties that are widespread in contemporary Western cultures; he shares them with neolibe-
and conservatives alike, fearing a dissolution of the psychic armor and moral centeredness of Western individuality. Contrary to popular belief, however, a simple valorization of the Dionysian over the Apollonian takes place nowhere in Nietzsche. As as art
the Dionysian is always tamed or at ? ? ? vocable ne- cessity of representing itself. ? however, is always already Apol- lonian in ? As explains: "The orgiastic musical element is never in danger of breaking through the Apollonian barriers, for the stage itself, the tragic space ? Nietzsche constructed it ? in keeping with his overall plan, nothing other than a sort of Apollonian catch mechanism that ensures that no orgy will result from the orgiastic song of the chorus. The music of the singing he-goats is a Dionysian paroxism set apart in Apollonian quotation marks ? In
the polarity between Apollo and Dionysus is not a turbulent opposition that vacillates freely between the two extremes ? ? ? The Apollonian Unified Subject makes certain, through the mechanism of the silently established axiom of bal-
ance, that the Dionysian Other never comes into play as itself, but only as the dialectical or symmetrical Other to the Unified ? An Apollonian principle governs the antagonism between the Apollonian and the Dionysian" (S 24-25).
The modernist's view of Nietzsche's discussion of the Dionysian principle, marred as it is by anxieties of dissolution, overlooks the fact that Nietzsche set out to think a form of interventionist reflexivity or reflexive resistance that tries to attune itself to the fact that subjectivity is not constituted as a ? entity in "modernity. " Nietzsche's thinking of the Dionysian has to be placed in the
that conceives ? reason as a force able to resist the
talization of reason and its influence on social interaction. However, Nietzsche does ? the vein of the early Romantics, for ? the subject, as a unified epistemological center, opposite an object designed to be "reflected, be the latter other subjects, society as a whole, or nature. Rather, he follows the traces of the process of modernization within subjectivity and discovers in the process that resistance, if at all possible, has to begin by reflecting the split sub- jectivity of modern individuals. The most essential aspect of his argument is his insistence on the dialectical relationship between what he
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calls the Apollonian and structurally desire of individu-
transgress and fortify their ego boundaries.
Paradoxically, the dialectical conception of this relationship leads Nietzsche to
a much more cogent and conclusive understanding of the basic division of knowl- edge and self-expression in modernity than is possible within the framework of a sociology of modernity shaped by a fundamental acceptance of modernity's de- sired mode of social organization. The affirmative reading of that organization
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
