Introduction to Antiphilosophy

271 Pages·2012·6.51 MB·English

by  Boris Groys

INTRODUCTION TO
ANTIPHILOSOPHY
•
BORIS GRaYS
Translated by
David Fernbach
VERSO
London • New York
This English-language edition first published by Verso 2012
© Verso 2012
CONTENTS
Translation © David Fernbach 2012
Translation of Chapter 9 © Maria Carlson
First published as EinfUhrung in die Anti-Philosophie
© Cart Hanser Verlag 2009
Chapter 9 was first published in English in Nietzsche and
Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, ed.;
Chapter 10 was first published in English as 'A Genealogy of
Participatory Art', in B. Groys et ai., The Art of Participation
from 1950 to Now, London: Thames and Hudson, 2008
© Cambridge University Press 1994
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted Preface to the English-Language Edition:
Antiphilosophy, or Philosophical Readymades vii
1 3 5 79 10 8 642
Prologue xv
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London WIF OEG 1. S0ren Kierkegaard 1
US: 20 lay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 2. Leo Shestov 33
www.versobooks.com 3. Martin Heidegger 51
4. Jacques Derrida 69
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
5. Walter Benjamin 91
ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-756-6 6. Theodor Lessing 105
7. Ernst Jiinger's Technologies ofImmortality 131
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
8. Three Ends of History: Hegel, Solovyov, Kojeve 145
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
9. Nietzsche's Influence on the Non-OffiCial
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Culture of the 1930s 169
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress 10. A Genealogy of Participatory Art 197
11. Lessing, Greenberg, McLuhan 219
Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed in the US by Maple Vail
Index 243
This English-language edition first published by Verso 2012
© Verso 2012
CONTENTS
Translation © David Fernbach 2012
Translation of Chapter 9 © Maria Carlson
First published as EinfUhrung in die Anti-Philosophie
© Cart Hanser Verlag 2009
Chapter 9 was first published in English in Nietzsche and
Soviet Culture: Ally and Adversary, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, ed.;
Chapter 10 was first published in English as 'A Genealogy of
Participatory Art', in B. Groys et ai., The Art of Participation
from 1950 to Now, London: Thames and Hudson, 2008
© Cambridge University Press 1994
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted Preface to the English-Language Edition:
Antiphilosophy, or Philosophical Readymades vii
1 3 5 79 10 8 642
Prologue xv
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London WIF OEG 1. S0ren Kierkegaard 1
US: 20 lay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 2. Leo Shestov 33
www.versobooks.com 3. Martin Heidegger 51
4. Jacques Derrida 69
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
5. Walter Benjamin 91
ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-756-6 6. Theodor Lessing 105
7. Ernst Jiinger's Technologies ofImmortality 131
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
8. Three Ends of History: Hegel, Solovyov, Kojeve 145
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
9. Nietzsche's Influence on the Non-OffiCial
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Culture of the 1930s 169
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress 10. A Genealogy of Participatory Art 197
11. Lessing, Greenberg, McLuhan 219
Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed in the US by Maple Vail
Index 243
PREFACE TO THE
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION:
Antiphilosophy, or Philosophical
Readymades
This short preface to Introduction to Antiphilosophy
serves the goal of defining more precisely my use of the
term 'antiphilosophy'. This term had already been used by
Lacan, and more recently has been taken up by Alain
Badiou. However, I did not have psychoanalysis in mind
as I decided to use the word 'antiphilosophy' in the title of
this book. Unfortunately, at that time I was unaware of
the book by Badiou, Wittgenstein's Antiphilosophy. The
texts that are collected in this book were written at differ
ent times, for different purposes, in different languages,
and initially they were not intended to be read together.
However, as I prepared the book for publication in 2008,
I realized that all these texts commented on authors who,
in similar ways, brought philosophical practice as such
into question.
Their discursive strategies - being, of course, very
heterogeneous - reminded me namely of certain artistic
practices that, since the appearance of the book by Hans
Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (1964), have often been
characterized as 'anti-art'. The most famous example of
VllI INTRODUCTION TO ANTIPHILOSOPHY PREFACE IX
these practices is the readymades of Duchamp. The
philosophical texts is, unlike the truth of scientific
Duchampian use of readymades was celebrated by some,
texts, not dependent on any empirical verification. T~e
but deplored by others as the end of art. Indeed, if art
self-evidence of traditional philosophical discourse IS
is understood as the production and display of things
supposed to be its inner quality - independent of any
that are different from all the other, ordinary things -
external factors. In this sense, traditional philosophy
namely 'artworks' - then the readymades mark the end
functions, indeed, similarly to traditional art: the abil
of art because they demonstrate that any ordinary object
ity of an individual artwork to generate, emanate,
can be exhibited as a work of art. In the light of this
irradiate the 'aesthetic experience' is generally also
discovery, the whole business of art production, distri
regarded as an effect of its own, inner structure - inde
bution and consumption began to be seen as an
pendent of its relation to the external world.
unnecessary and futile activity that could have only one
Now, the discourses that are able to generate an effect
.
purpose: profit-making by pretending that 'aesthetic
of self-evidence are not rare. But, as a rule, these dIscourses
experience' can be delivered only by exceptional objects,
rely on the common cultural experience that unites the
namely artworks, produced by artists of genius. This
speaker or writer with his or her audience. Thus, one c~n
insight produced the radical critique of art as an institu
say that the majority of self-evident discourse~ re~~m
tion. It seemed that, after the emergence of the practice
situated inside the contexts of limited cultural Identltles
of the readymade, art institutions lost their legitimation
and life horizons. However, philosophy pretends to
and became obsolete. In fact, however, the practice of
produce the universally self-evident discour~es t~at tran
artistic readymades functioned after Duchamp as a
scend the limits of any particular cultural IdentIty. The
continuation of the art tradition - not as its repudiation.
truly philosophical discourse has to be not onl~ ~e.lf­
I will return later to this point, but now I would like to
evident, but also universally self-evident. The pOSSIbIlIty
draw some parallels between 'anti-art' and what I call,
of producing such a universal meta-discourse seems to
by analogy, 'antiphilosophy'.
require a philosopher to take a meta-positio~ in ~elat~on­
The authors I treat in this book can be understood
ship to his or her own cultural identity and lIfe SItuatIOn.
as readymade philosophers, by analogy with the ready
This requirement was very powerfully formulated by
made artists. In an extremely simplified way, philosophy
Husserl. According to Husserl, to become a philosopher,
can be characterized as production, distribution and
a subject has to overcome - by an act of phenomen
consumption of the discourses that generate an effect
ological reduction - his or her ordinary, 'natural' attitude
of universal self-evidence, or a 'truth effect'.
that is dominated by the will to self-preservation, and to
Philosophical texts are supposed to emanate, irradiate
take another, phenomenological, truly philosophical atti
truth as self-evidence - to shine by their own light. Of
tude beyond an interest in one's own survival in the world.
course, in any particular case one can always assert
We have here a secular form of metanoia - the radical
that this light is a false, treacherous light - and, accord
'change of mind' through which a subject rejects every
ingly, that this or that philosopher is in fact a sophist.
thing that connected this subject to the 'old', ordinary,
But the ethical dimension of philosophical discourse
limited life perspective, and opens itself up to a new,
does not affect its basic characteristic: the truth of
universal, infinite perspective of philosophical evidence. It
VllI INTRODUCTION TO ANTIPHILOSOPHY PREFACE IX
these practices is the readymades of Duchamp. The
philosophical texts is, unlike the truth of scientific
Duchampian use of readymades was celebrated by some,
texts, not dependent on any empirical verification. T~e
but deplored by others as the end of art. Indeed, if art
self-evidence of traditional philosophical discourse IS
is understood as the production and display of things
supposed to be its inner quality - independent of any
that are different from all the other, ordinary things -
external factors. In this sense, traditional philosophy
namely 'artworks' - then the readymades mark the end
functions, indeed, similarly to traditional art: the abil
of art because they demonstrate that any ordinary object
ity of an individual artwork to generate, emanate,
can be exhibited as a work of art. In the light of this
irradiate the 'aesthetic experience' is generally also
discovery, the whole business of art production, distri
regarded as an effect of its own, inner structure - inde
bution and consumption began to be seen as an
pendent of its relation to the external world.
unnecessary and futile activity that could have only one
Now, the discourses that are able to generate an effect
.
purpose: profit-making by pretending that 'aesthetic
of self-evidence are not rare. But, as a rule, these dIscourses
experience' can be delivered only by exceptional objects,
rely on the common cultural experience that unites the
namely artworks, produced by artists of genius. This
speaker or writer with his or her audience. Thus, one c~n
insight produced the radical critique of art as an institu
say that the majority of self-evident discourse~ re~~m
tion. It seemed that, after the emergence of the practice
situated inside the contexts of limited cultural Identltles
of the readymade, art institutions lost their legitimation
and life horizons. However, philosophy pretends to
and became obsolete. In fact, however, the practice of
produce the universally self-evident discour~es t~at tran
artistic readymades functioned after Duchamp as a
scend the limits of any particular cultural IdentIty. The
continuation of the art tradition - not as its repudiation.
truly philosophical discourse has to be not onl~ ~e.lf­
I will return later to this point, but now I would like to
evident, but also universally self-evident. The pOSSIbIlIty
draw some parallels between 'anti-art' and what I call,
of producing such a universal meta-discourse seems to
by analogy, 'antiphilosophy'.
require a philosopher to take a meta-positio~ in ~elat~on­
The authors I treat in this book can be understood
ship to his or her own cultural identity and lIfe SItuatIOn.
as readymade philosophers, by analogy with the ready
This requirement was very powerfully formulated by
made artists. In an extremely simplified way, philosophy
Husserl. According to Husserl, to become a philosopher,
can be characterized as production, distribution and
a subject has to overcome - by an act of phenomen
consumption of the discourses that generate an effect
ological reduction - his or her ordinary, 'natural' attitude
of universal self-evidence, or a 'truth effect'.
that is dominated by the will to self-preservation, and to
Philosophical texts are supposed to emanate, irradiate
take another, phenomenological, truly philosophical atti
truth as self-evidence - to shine by their own light. Of
tude beyond an interest in one's own survival in the world.
course, in any particular case one can always assert
We have here a secular form of metanoia - the radical
that this light is a false, treacherous light - and, accord
'change of mind' through which a subject rejects every
ingly, that this or that philosopher is in fact a sophist.
thing that connected this subject to the 'old', ordinary,
But the ethical dimension of philosophical discourse
limited life perspective, and opens itself up to a new,
does not affect its basic characteristic: the truth of
universal, infinite perspective of philosophical evidence. It
......
~~--------------------------
x INTRODUCTION TO ANTIPHILOSOPHY PREFACE XI
is this experience of personal self-evidence that the philos specific cultural and social conditions. This means that all
opher mediates through his or her discourse. According to the self-evident discourses are believed to be particular,
the philosophical tradition, philosophical discourses are relative and uncertain. Thus, the subject is required to
self-evident because they have their origin in the evidence remain cautious towards his or her own self-evidences
that was experienced by their authors - after they had and tolerant towards the self-evidences of others.
been through the act of philosophical metanoia. The second option results in anti philosophy - in other
Now, it is obvious that such an heroic act of self-reduc words, a readymade philosophy that ascribes universal
tion can be accomplished only by exceptional, superior philosophical value to certain already-existing ordinary
personalities - so-called 'great men'. The reason for this is practices, in the same way in which practices of the
simple: philosophical metanoia follows no explicit rules artistic readymade ascribe artistic value to ordinary
and has no explicit models. Here we find a further anal objects. To achieve this goal, the antiphilosopher looks
ogy between philosophy and art. Artistic genius creates for ordinary experiences and practices that can be inter
without and beyond rules. That is why the artworks that preted as being universal - as transcending one's own
are created by an artistic genius shine by their own light. cultural identity. Thus, one can show that the modern
Philosophical discourses also irradiate evidence because economy transcends any cultural borders (Marx), that
they are produced in a way that (unlike scientific theories) the rites of giving and returning the gift are similar for
cannot be formalized and reproduced. The rest of different cultures (Mauss), that will to live (or to die)
mankind is reduced here to the role of consumers of phil moves everybody in the same manner (Nietzsche), that
osophical texts written by great philosophers. angst (Kierkegaard) or boredom (Heidegger) are able to
Of course, this exceptionalism of philosophy and relieve a subject from any cultural determinations, that
philosophers was often criticized during the period of we all share tears and laughter (Bataille, Bakhtin) and
modernity. Philosophical metanoia and the meta-position that we all are united by the electronic media (McLuhan).
were proclaimed to be illusionary - or even consciously In all these cases, a thoroughly ordinary practice substi
deceptive. The philosophical pretension was described as tutes for traditionally 'exclusive' philosophical practices
laughable. Today, we tend to believe that an individual like logic, mathematics and, 'thinking' in general - and
cannot suspend at will his or her cultural identity and life opens the subject up to a possibility of universal self
horizon, that all the 'subjective' forms of self-evidence evidences (of angst, boredom, desire, excess, and so on)
remain specific to particular cultural perspectives, and without an obligation to listen to the teachings of excep
that no universal self-evidences are possible. This scepti tional personalities qua philosophers. As in the case of
cism towards traditional philosophical claims leads to readymade art, readymade (anti)philosophy dispenses
two different theoretical options. One of them results in a with the heroic philosophical act and substitutes it by
cultural relativism that is based on the belief in the impos ascribing philosophical dignity to the practices of ordi
sibility of escaping from one's cultural identity - the nary life. And, most importantly: anti philosophy
impossibility of changing one's mind, of metanoia. Here, dissociates the production of evidence from the produc
the possibility of subjective evidence is not negated, but tion of philosophical discourses. Accordingly, the
any particular evidence is supposed to be determined by production of evidence can use any experience, practice,
......
~~--------------------------
x INTRODUCTION TO ANTIPHILOSOPHY PREFACE XI
is this experience of personal self-evidence that the philos specific cultural and social conditions. This means that all
opher mediates through his or her discourse. According to the self-evident discourses are believed to be particular,
the philosophical tradition, philosophical discourses are relative and uncertain. Thus, the subject is required to
self-evident because they have their origin in the evidence remain cautious towards his or her own self-evidences
that was experienced by their authors - after they had and tolerant towards the self-evidences of others.
been through the act of philosophical metanoia. The second option results in anti philosophy - in other
Now, it is obvious that such an heroic act of self-reduc words, a readymade philosophy that ascribes universal
tion can be accomplished only by exceptional, superior philosophical value to certain already-existing ordinary
personalities - so-called 'great men'. The reason for this is practices, in the same way in which practices of the
simple: philosophical metanoia follows no explicit rules artistic readymade ascribe artistic value to ordinary
and has no explicit models. Here we find a further anal objects. To achieve this goal, the antiphilosopher looks
ogy between philosophy and art. Artistic genius creates for ordinary experiences and practices that can be inter
without and beyond rules. That is why the artworks that preted as being universal - as transcending one's own
are created by an artistic genius shine by their own light. cultural identity. Thus, one can show that the modern
Philosophical discourses also irradiate evidence because economy transcends any cultural borders (Marx), that
they are produced in a way that (unlike scientific theories) the rites of giving and returning the gift are similar for
cannot be formalized and reproduced. The rest of different cultures (Mauss), that will to live (or to die)
mankind is reduced here to the role of consumers of phil moves everybody in the same manner (Nietzsche), that
osophical texts written by great philosophers. angst (Kierkegaard) or boredom (Heidegger) are able to
Of course, this exceptionalism of philosophy and relieve a subject from any cultural determinations, that
philosophers was often criticized during the period of we all share tears and laughter (Bataille, Bakhtin) and
modernity. Philosophical metanoia and the meta-position that we all are united by the electronic media (McLuhan).
were proclaimed to be illusionary - or even consciously In all these cases, a thoroughly ordinary practice substi
deceptive. The philosophical pretension was described as tutes for traditionally 'exclusive' philosophical practices
laughable. Today, we tend to believe that an individual like logic, mathematics and, 'thinking' in general - and
cannot suspend at will his or her cultural identity and life opens the subject up to a possibility of universal self
horizon, that all the 'subjective' forms of self-evidence evidences (of angst, boredom, desire, excess, and so on)
remain specific to particular cultural perspectives, and without an obligation to listen to the teachings of excep
that no universal self-evidences are possible. This scepti tional personalities qua philosophers. As in the case of
cism towards traditional philosophical claims leads to readymade art, readymade (anti)philosophy dispenses
two different theoretical options. One of them results in a with the heroic philosophical act and substitutes it by
cultural relativism that is based on the belief in the impos ascribing philosophical dignity to the practices of ordi
sibility of escaping from one's cultural identity - the nary life. And, most importantly: anti philosophy
impossibility of changing one's mind, of metanoia. Here, dissociates the production of evidence from the produc
the possibility of subjective evidence is not negated, but tion of philosophical discourses. Accordingly, the
any particular evidence is supposed to be determined by production of evidence can use any experience, practice,
,
Xli INTRODUCTION TO ANTIPHILOSOPHY PREFACE XIII
object or attitude - including philosophical attitudes and the origin of the object or the production of the text,
philosophical discourses. The experience of self-evidence but as an effect of their contextualization. Any object
(of truth) is here produced in the same way in which the or text can be put in the limited context of the cultural
'aesthetic experience' is produced in the case of artistic field in which it was 'originally' produced and situated.
readymades: it can be attached to any possible object. But it can also be taken out of this limited context, and
This analogy between artistic and philosophical ready placed in the universal context of philosophical or
mades becomes especially clear in the case of Kierkegaard. artistic comparison, where other criteria of evidence
As I have tried to show in my chapter on Kierkegaard, he are at work. A traditional philosopher is like a tradi
uses the figure of Christ as a proto-readymade. In other tional artist: an artisan producing texts. An
words, he asserts that the figure of Christ cannot be visu antiphilosopher is like a contemporary art curator: he
ally recognized as a divine figure - or, rather, as a figure contextualizes objects and texts instead of producing
of the divine - because the figure of Christ is a thoroughly them. Production of philosophy can be interpreted as
ordinary figure that does not manifest any visual traits an extraordinary, mysterious, 'poetic' process that is
that are culturally codified as signs of the divine - such as accessible only to a chosen few. Antiphilosophy does
wings, proliferation of arms and legs, and so on. not abolish philosophical metanoia, but rather democ
Moreover, the figure of Christ cannot be 'remembered' ratizes it. Evidence becomes an effect not of production
by an act of philosophical anamnesis transcending any but of post-production. It irradiates no longer through
cultural conventions - as was recommended by Plato. the work, but emerges as an effect of different contex
Christ as son of God can be identified neither by an oper tualizations of this work.
ation of verification, nor by the traditionally understood The democratization of metanoia produced in some
experience of self-evidence. If the figure of Christ becomes minds a certain kind of nostalgia towards the good old
situated in the cultural context of his time, then, accord days in which great philosophers and artists lived,
ing to Kierkegaard, there is nothing in this figure that created and were recognized and admired by their
would differentiate it from the ordinary figure of the communities. Thus, one often tends to think that
wandering preacher that was typical of the time. The anti philosophy is only a temporary illness of philosophy
figure of Christ acquires its power of self-evidence only if that will be overcome by the future return of great,
it is placed in a different context - in the context of imper robust, vital philosophical production. However, it
sonations of the divine. Then it becomes clear that this seems to me that this hope is doomed to remain forever
figure is indeed exceptional, precisely because of its ordi futile, because antiphilosophy is the final, absolute stage
nary character - and announces in this way a new era in of philosophy. Indeed, one can speak here about abso
the development of religious consciousness. Here the lute philosophy in the same sense in which Kierkegaard
analogy to Duchamp's 'Fountain' becomes obvious: the spoke about absolute religion. Kierkegaard believed
'Fountain' looks like a completely ordinary urinal in the that Christianity is an absolute religion because, as has
context of a public toilet - but it begins to look excep already been noted, Christianity is not based on any act
tional if it is located within the context of art history. of recognition or comparison, verification or evidence -
The experience of self-evidence emerges here not at and, therefore, cannot be relativized by such an act.