Name: The Palliative Society: Pain Today
Price: 1188.39 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Han, Byung-Chul ; Steuer, Daniel
ISBN: 9781509547234

portada The Palliative Society: Pain Today

Type

Physical Book

Author

Byung-Chul Han

Translated by

Daniel Steuer

Publisher

Polity Press

Year

2021

Language

English

Pages

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

21.2 x 14.4 x 1.0 cm

Weight

0.18 kg.

ISBN13

9781509547234

Edition No.

Synopsis "The Palliative Society: Pain Today"

Our societies today are characterized by a universal algophobia: a generalized fear of pain. We strive to avoid all painful conditions - even the pain of love is treated as suspect. This algophobia extends into society: less and less space is given to conflicts and controversies that might prompt painful discussions. It takes hold of politics too: politics becomes a palliative politics that is incapable of implementing radical reforms that might be painful, so all we get is more of the same. Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, the palliative society is transformed into a society of survival. The virus enters the palliative zone of well-being and turns it into a quarantine zone in which life is increasingly focused on survival. And the more life becomes survival, the greater the fear of death: the pandemic makes death, which we had carefully repressed and set aside, visible again. Everywhere, the prolongation of life at any cost is the preeminent value, and we are prepared to sacrifice everything that makes life worth living for the sake of survival. This trenchant analysis of our contemporary societies by one of the most original cultural critics of our time will appeal to a wide readership.

Byung-Chul Han

(Author)

View Author's Page

Byung-Chul Han (Seoul, South Korea, 1959) studied Philosophy at the University of Freiburg and German Literature and Theology at the University of Munich. In 1994, he earned his doctorate from the first of these universities with a thesis on Martin Heidegger. After his habilitation, he taught philosophy at the University of Basel, from 2010 he was a professor of philosophy and media theory at the Karlsruhe College of Design, and since 2012 he has been a professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. He is the author of more than a dozen titles, most of which have been translated into Spanish by Herder Editorial.

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