The Re-Enchantment of the World: The Value of Spirit Against Industrial Populism

Description

Bernard Stiegler's work on the intimate relations between the human and the technical have made him one of the most important voices to have emerged in French philosophy in the last decade. At the same time both an accessible summation of that work and a continuation of it, The Re-Enchantment of the World advances a critique of consumer capitalism that draws on Freud and Marx to construct an utterly contemporary analysis of our time. The book explores the cognitive, affective, social and economic effects of the 'proletarianization' of the consumer in late capitalism and the resulting destruction of the consumer's savoir-vivre. Reflecting the collective work of his activist organisation, Ars Industrialis, Stiegler here sets forth an alternative path to that of 'industrial populism', one that appeals to the force of the human spirit. The Re-Enchantment of the World also includes the manifesto of Ars Industrialis and an account of the organisation's 2005 summit in Tunis.

Bernard Stiegler is Director of the Institute of Research and Development at the Georges Pompidou Center, France and Associated Professor at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. He is the author of a prolific and growing body of work, including the three volume Technics and Time. Trevor Arthur is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

Expounding and developing the work of his think tank and pressure group, Ars Industrialis, this book offers a close-up of Stiegler's philosophy in its engagement with our contemporary world. Exposing the toxic short-termism of our runaway economics, Stiegler offers us an alternative: the repurposing of technologies of control and consumption towards an economy of contribution. His analyses ring profoundly true, and his urgency is unparalleled: this is a project we cannot afford to ignore. * Martin Crowley, Reader in Modern French Thought and Culture, Queens' College, University of Cambridge, UK * Stiegler offers penetrating philosophical analyses of our contemporary information society and of the industrial model of consumer capitalism that underpins it. He writes with an urgency and vision that challenges us to reclaim our freedom and knowledge and to recreate a world that would not be subordinated to the exigencies of consumption, production and limitless growth. Stiegler tells us that there can be another way and that there are futures which can be different from the present we have now. His insight and originality make him one of the most important and indispensable philosophers living and writing today. * Ian James, Lecturer in French, Downing College, University of Cambridge, UK * The interventions brought together in The Re-Enchantment of the World work superbly as a point of entry into the increasingly important philosophy of Bernard Stiegler. It is also a major work in its own right, the most strident example of current French philosophy's return to political activism. Stiegler argues that consumer capitalism is deleteriously eroding the processes of sublimation that gives rise to desire, leading to emotional exhaustion, social atomism, apathy and a lethal short-termism. Ars Industrialis offers not just a critique, but a remedy for this demise. By harnessing technology to generate meaningful participation, to create an 'economy of contribution' rather than emotional exploitation, we can invent ourselves a future in which there is an alternative to immiserating acquiescence. * Dr Gerald Moore, Director, MA in Culture and Difference, Lecturer in French, School of Modern Languages & Cultures, Durham University, UK * This small volume functions well as an introduction to [Stiegler's] thought over the last decade -- Christian Lotz * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *