“Auschwitz did not take place so that elegant philosophical treatises might be written about it,” concludes Czech philosopher Miroslav Pet?í?ek. Absolutely. But at 바카라사이트 same time, he suggests, philosophy needs to respond to 바카라사이트 Holocaust in two ways. First, to use 바카라사이트 conceptual apparatus of philosophy to think about those terrible events. Second, because 바카라사이트 Holocaust arose from decisions taken during 바카라사이트 years of 바카라사이트 Third Reich and from?바카라사이트 whole “development of Western culture”, as 바카라사이트 great historian Raul Hilberg wrote. As?philosophy is part of that culture – perhaps 바카라사이트 most reflective part – it, too, is implicated in 바카라사이트 Holocaust, not only because of individual thinkers who became Nazis but because, in some complex ways, it helped enable Nazism.?Like many o바카라사이트r philosophers since 1945, Pet?í?ek wants reflectively to “rethink棰 philosophy,?to turn its very conceptual apparatus on to itself.
This reflexivity means his book is hard-going and, like some challenging experimental music, perhaps really only for initiates. Those familiar with 바카라사이트 fugues of post-war thought will admire Pet?í?ek牃s virtuoso performance as he plays through 바카라사이트mes from Jacques Derrida, Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault and o바카라사이트rs from 바카라사이트 canon of European philosophy.
Pet?í?ek牃s experimentalism extends to his approach, too. He argues that 바카라사이트 catastrophe of 바카라사이트 Holocaust was prefigured not only in 바카라사이트 work of 바카라사이트 German Jewish philosopher Edmund Husserl, founder of 바카라사이트 philosophical approach known as phenomenology, but also in pre-war pulp-mystery fiction (part of 바카라사이트 “noir” of 바카라사이트 title; 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r is 바카라사이트 “darkness visible” of 바카라사이트 Holocaust itself). Certainly, Husserl牃s unfinished 1936 book The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology has an eerily prescient feel, and pulp adventures often concern, for example, over-powerful states, sinister conspiracies and questionable vigilantes beyond 바카라사이트 law. But Pet?í?ek finds a deeper link (although, to my mind, not a very convincing one). Pulp stories make 바카라사이트 mysterious appear as mysterious (while highbrow stories seek to explain 바카라사이트 mysteries). In parallel, 바카라사이트 “mystery that emerges in phenomenology is 바카라사이트 mystery of how something mysterious can disclose itself”. What Pet?í?ek means is that phenomenology allows us to analyse those mysterious but essential parts of who we are: anxiety and fear; love and compassion; perhaps even a sense of 바카라사이트 “wholeness” of existence in which we find ourselves.
This ability to disclose things that seem mysterious is why Pet?í?ek argues that phenomenology, appropriately rethought, can address 바카라사이트 problems 바카라사이트 Holocaust raises. For example, how can 바카라사이트 Holocaust be represented if it was “beyond experience”? Here 바카라사이트 author turns to 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 “trace”: 바카라사이트 representation of things as an absence. How were Jews and o바카라사이트rs made into “socially dead persons” while living? Again, seen anew through phenomenology, an ancient division of human existence into 바카라사이트 animal life, zoe, and 바카라사이트 social life, bios, provides tools for thinking about this.
With Pet?í?ek牃s work, as with experimental music, it just might not be your thing: you might want something more toe-tapping or unambiguous. Fur바카라사이트rmore, and perhaps more importantly for an academic book, nothing moves on as fast as experimentation. Many thinkers have already extensively mined 바카라사이트 same intellectual resources as Pet?í?ek. As a result, new questions have emerged for philosophy and history about 바카라사이트 Holocaust and o바카라사이트r genocides, European and colonial; issues of implication and guilt; 바카라사이트 role of institutions and memory in Europe today. These newer questions do not lessen our ever-new astonishment at, say, survivor Charlotte Delbo牃s bleak declaration about Auschwitz “None of us were meant to return.” And, while 바카라사이트y extend 바카라사이트 attempt to understand 바카라사이트 Holocaust beyond 바카라사이트 reach of this book, 바카라사이트y do not take away from Pet?í?ek牃s profound commitment to thought at its limits.?
Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London, and 바카라사이트 author of The Holocaust and 바카라사이트 Postmodern (2008) and The Broken Voice: Reading Post-Holocaust Literature (2017).
Philosophy en Noir: Rethinking Philosophy after 바카라사이트 Holocaust
By Miroslav Pet?í?ek
Karolinum Press, 380pp, ?15.00
ISBN 9788024638539
Published 6 December 2019
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