Browsing by Author "Roodt, Vasti"

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    Amor fati, amor mundi : Nietzsche and Arendt on overcoming modernity
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-03) Roodt, Vasti; Van Tongeren, P. J. M.; Esterhuyse, W. P.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    The purpose of this thesis twofold: first, to develop an account of modernity as a “loss of the world” which also entails the “death” of the human as a meaningful philosophical, political or moral category, and second, to explore the possibility of recovering a sense of the world in us and with it, a sense of what it means to be human. This argument is developed by way of a sustained engagement with the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt, whose analogous critiques of modernity centre on the problem of the connection between humanity and worldliness. My argument consists of three parts, each of which spans two chapters. Part one of the thesis sets out the most important aspects of Nietzsche’s and Arendt’s respective critiques of modernity. Chapter one focuses on modernity as a rupture of a philosophical, political and religious tradition within which existence in the world could be experienced as unquestionably meaningful. Following arguments developed by Nietzsche and Arendt, chapter two establishes that the loss of this tradition results in a general crisis of meaning, evaluation and authority that can be designated as “modern nihilism”. The second part of the thesis deals with what may be called the “anthropological grounds” of the critique of modernity developed in part one. To this end, chapter three focuses on Nietzsche’s portrayal of the human as “the as-yet undetermined animal” who is neither the manifestation of a subjective essence nor the product of his own hands, but who only exists in the unresolved tension between indeterminacy and determination. This is followed in chapter four by an inquiry into Arendt’s conception of “the human condition”, which in turn points to the conditionality of being human. What is clearly demonstrated in both cases is that, in so far as the predicament of modernity is incarnate in modern human beings themselves, any attempt at overcoming this predicament would somehow have to involve re-thinking or transcending our present-day humanity. The third part of the thesis examines the way in which the reconceptualisation of the human as advocated by Nietzsche and Arendt transforms our understanding of “world”. The more specific aim here is to demonstrate that both thinkers conceive of a reconciliation between self and world as a form of redemption. In chapter five I explore their respective attempts to resurrect the capacity for judgement in the aftermath of the death of God as the first step in this redemptive project, before turning to a more in-depth inquiry into the “soteriology” at work in Nietzsche’s and Arendt’s thinking in chapter six. This inquiry ultimately makes clear that there is a conflict between the Nietzschean conception of redemption as amor fati (love of fate) and Arendt’s notion of redemption as amor mundi (love of the world). I conclude the thesis by arguing that what is at stake here are two conflicting notions of reconciliation: a worldly – or political – notion of reconciliation (Arendt), and a much more radical, philosophical notion of reconciliation (Nietzsche), which ultimately does away with any boundary between self and world. However, my final conclusion is not that we face an inevitable choice between these two alternatives, but rather that the struggle between these two dispositions is necessary for an understanding of what it means to be human as well as for the world in which our humanity is formed.
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    Arendt, Stiegler en die lewe van die gees
    (Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, 2012-03) Roodt, Vasti
    The founding manifesto of Ars Industrialis commits the members of the association to a new "industrial politics of the spirit". The manifesto makes it clear that "spirit" is meant to refer to Hannah Arendt's conception of "mind", and that Ars Industrialis is concerned with the worldwide threat to what Arendt calls "the life of the mind". This threat is formulated in terms of Bernard Stiegler's philosophy of technology. According to Stiegler, the emergence of new technologies, particularly the digital media, has delivered the spirit over to the oppressive power of global capitalism. These technologies have come to direct and ultimately fabricate human desire, or "libidinal energy", towards consumer products, so as to maintain the capitalist system of production and consumption. Since individuals and groups singularise themselves in and through the working of their libidinal energy, the fabrication of desire by means of technology entails the fabrication of false singularities. The possibilities for individual and social existence are therefore reduced to a limited set of predetermined possibilities. However, while technology mediates our co-ordination within global consumer society, Stiegler also considers technology to be the means of our liberation from the capitalist logic of consumption. This liberation would entail the creative design of new techniques for the constitution of objects of desire that lie outside the demands of the market. In this way, our libidinal energy would be free to manifest itself in new experiences of singularity, and hence new forms of individual and social existence. These new forms of existence would entail a new politics of the spirit that is able to resist the oppressive forces of consumer society. In this article, I take issue with Stiegler's assumption that such a new politics of the spirit would indeed be the realisation or at least an enhancement of what Arendt understands under "the life of the mind". My claim is that Stiegler's conception of the life of the spirit - at least as it is presented in the Ars Industrialis manifesto - does not accord with Arendt's conception of the free activity of the mind, and that Stiegler's vision of political, economic and spiritual liberation cannot be reconciled with either Arendt's view of mind or her conception of political action. I do not deny that there are points of overlap between these two thinkers, nor do I intend to prove Stiegler's entire project wrong. My aim is simply to demonstrate that one of the underlying assumptions of this project - that the new politics of the spirit would entail the liberation of the life of the mind in Arendt's sense - does not hold. To this end, I undertake a systematic inquiry into Arendt's understanding of the life of the mind. I begin by analysing her distinction between mind and psyche, or soul, which reveals one of the fundamental differences between her work and that of Stiegler. I show that, while Stiegler equates mind with "libidinal energy", Arendt explicitly and consistently distinguishes the free activity of mind from our libidinal life, and criticises attempts to derive the former from the latter. Having set out the differences between Arendt and Stiegler on this point, I then turn to Arendt's treatment of the three mental activities that together constitute the life of the mind, namely thinking, willing and judging. I show that she conceives of each of these as a self-reflexive mental activity that is neither a function of our libidinal life nor of an external political or economic order. In light of this analysis, I argue that Stiegler's views are clearly opposed to those of Arendt in a number of ways. First, to the extent that Stiegler equates "mind" with the "libidinal energy", he denies Arendt's distinction between mind and psyche. Second, to the extent that he advocates the liberation of the mind from the domination of market forces, he understands the freedom of the mind (or its absence) as a function of economic forces. Finally, he assumes a direct relationship between the activity of mind/spirit and political action. That is to say, he assumes that the liberation of the mind - understood as libido - would lead to new forms of individual and social existence. Against this, Arendt insists on the distinction between the free activity of the mind and the political freedom that only comes into being in and through collective action. Stated more strongly: she considers political action as free precisely in so far as it is not the necessary outcome of mental operations. I therefore conclude that, while Stiegler's analysis of technology, his critique of the logic of consumption and his call for renewed care for the world should not be discarded out of hand, the conception of the life of the mind that underlies these arguments does not derive from Arendt.
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    The formation of the self : Nietzsche and complexity
    (Philosophical Society of South Africa., 2002) Cilliers, Paul, 1956-; Roodt, Vasti; De Villiers, Tanya
    The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the formation of the self and the worldly horizon within which this self achieves its meaning. Our inquiry takes place from two perspectives: the first derived from the Nietzschean analysis of how one becomes what one is; the other from current developments in complexity theory. This two-angled approach opens up different, yet related dimensions of a non-essentialist understanding of the self that is none the less neither arbitrary nor deterministic. Indeed, at the meeting point of these two perspectives on the self lies a conception of a dynamic, worldly self, whose identity is bound up with its appearance in a world shared with others. After examining this argument from the respective view points offered by Nietzsche and complexity theory, the article concludes with a consideration of some of the political and ethical implications of representing our situatedness within a shared human domain as a condition for self-formation.
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    Of genealogy and identity : the question of justice in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1996) Roodt, Vasti; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of . Dept. of .
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    The world as the "Beyond" in politics
    (Rodopi Pubblishers, 2012-06) Roodt, Vasti; Stoker, Wessel; Van der Merwe, W. L.
    In this essay, I consider transcendence in relation to politics. Following Hannah Arendt, I argue that a necessary condition for politics is a concern with a common world. The world in this sense is the common interest that informs political action, but cannot be reduced to anyone’s particular interest. The world, in this sense, is the “beyond” of politics from which the call goes out for political action, but which can never be fully embodied in any given action or any specific position in the world. This understanding of the world renders a conception of political action as a way of being at home in the world that eschews an exclusive commitment to anyone’s particular place within it. To accept that the world lies beyond our private concerns, while nevertheless making an appeal to us from where we are not, is to accept that politics is predicated on transcendence.