Byung Chul Han it is a philosopher South Korean who dedicated himself to analyzing the structures of society in the 21st century to understand how the production model of the last stage of capitalism it has directly interfered in people's psychological lives. Starting from psychoanalysis, from existentialist philosophy and from sociological analyses, Han tries to understand the link between the psychiatric disorders common in our times, like the burnout syndrome, a depression it's the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with the pace of life that our society demands from people.
See too: Marxism: theory that also criticizes capitalism
Biography
Byung-Chul Han was born in South Korea, in 1959, and studied Metallurgy at the University of Korea. His career as a philosopher began in the 1980s, when he went to study Philosophy, but he also developed studies in German Literature and Catholic Theology at the University of Freiburg, Germany.
![Byung-Chul Han's philosophy intends to understand contemporary capitalism in order to relate it to the problems faced by society in the 21st century. [1]](/f/3b7ef28ae8306bca708928e96a43d1d4.jpg)
In 1994, Han earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Freiburg developing a thesis on the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. His studies led him to understand phenomenology and existentialism, which are currents of Philosophy that seek to understand the relationship between human beings and the world.
In 2000, the philosopher joined the faculty of the University of Basel and, he is currently a professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies of the University of Berlin.
Theoretical frameworks of Byung-Chul Han
The Korean philosopher was mainly influenced by the philosophers of the contemporary continental tradition, a philosophical strand developed mainly in Germany and France in the 20th century and comprising themes like phenomenology, existentialism and postmodernism, currents that clash with the philosophy developed in England, Vienna and the United States, which was dedicated to understanding language as a philosophical problem.
Han's doctoral thesis was on Heidegger, who understands the human being as a “be-there” (designated by the term dasein in German) who lives his mundane, physical life and is faced with a series of misfortunes, as his conscience and rationality, which lead him to realize that he is a finite being doomed to death.
Another theoretical framework that influenced Han's philosophy was the existentialism of the French philosopher Jean-PaulSartre, who admits that the human being does not have a predefined essence, but it builds (it builds its essence) as it lives. For Sartre, existential life precedes any metaphysical essence (non-practical, non-existential, prior to experiences), and this leads the human being to a paradoxical condemnation of freedom, because insofar as he makes himself while he lives, he is made of choices.
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MichelFoucault, a contemporary French philosopher who is considered a postmodernist or poststructuralist, also influenced Han's work. Foucault studied the exercise of power in industrial capitalist societies and realized that power was no longer centralized in the absolutist government, but it was exercised in several institutions (the disciplinary institutions, such as the school, the barracks, the factory, jail and hospital), which confined the individual to instill in him a discipline capable of control it.
GillesDeleuze, another French post-structuralist who influenced Han, realized that the reality of disciplinary institutions was outdated, making use of the concept of "control company", which does not depend on disciplinary institutions or individual confinement. Control actually dissipates across society through communication networks.
THE logic of control is the logic of capitalism neoliberal contemporary, which instills in the individual the notion that he is responsible for what he produces and that he is the artisan of himself. If he is not financially and socially successful, the responsibility is his own. Thus, control is disseminated through an ideology that makes the individual control himself, not requiring a rigid disciplinary system.
Another influence on Han's thinking, this time not theoretical but real, is the internet, hypercommunication and social networks. Han claims that the internet, and especially social networks, is an instrument of contemporary capitalist society that intensifies competition between people for the constant and profound exposure of life. The tendency of social networks is that only the “good” part of life is exposed in a kind of social showcase.
Read more: Contemporary philosophy: period of philosophy that confronts technological advances
Books by Byung-Chul Han
tiredness society
This short essay by Han has been very popular in Brazil recently. Due to the capitalist ideas that account for the human being as a kind of machine capable of producing, 21st century capitalism has abolished individual differences. Everyone is capable of doing and acting. Everyone is able to change their reality and the reality around them. Everyone is an entrepreneur of themselves and is able to do whatever they want, so self-worker.
The problem is that the opportunities are not equal for everyone in the capitalist system neoliberal and not everyone has the same energy to make it happen, so there will always be the excluded. The ideology of the society of tiredness, which makes us believe that the only person responsible for "success" is the individual, creates the need for people to are always active, looking for ways to act, to undertake, resting less and less and getting more and more fissured by the search for the success.
O stressful pace and the relentless pursuit of the enterprise lead to psychological illness. That's why, Han argues, depression and burnout syndrome, a condition that affects people under constant stress and continual fatigue, are common in our society. They are recurrent symptoms in which the burnout syndrome affects insomnia (or excessive sleep without rest) and continuous stress, symptoms that are also recurrent in depression and Panic Syndrome. In this way, the individual no longer has ties that bind him physically, but a system in which he loses his freedom without realizing it.
performance society
With an argument similar to the one developed in Society of Tiredness, Han notes the relentless pursuit of performance in our society. We are created to be the best at everything, establishing a competitive environment that leads the individual to always want more and to always seek to overcome themselves, something that leads them to stress and to illness.
A striking feature of this new society is the focus on quantity. The more an individual can produce, the more prominence he gets. This is the imperative of do it yourself, governed by the logic that we can all do it all.
In a particular interpretation of ours, we risk saying that the new wave of the moment, the training offered by coaches (professionals who specialize in providing training capable of developing a skill in a person through knowledge drawn from psychology and philosophy), gains space on account of that competitive ideology based on entrepreneurship and competition.
in the swarm
The book that bears the subtitle “digital perspectives” makes an accurate analysis of society magnetized by the internet and social networks. That individual mentioned in the works mentioned above, an entrepreneur of himself, an artisan of himself, finds in the social networks, concomitantly, the space to show oneself as a productive individual, owner of their strengths and producer, but also the space to be frustrated when seeing the acclaimed success of the other and never be satisfied with yourself.
THE Internet it is a space that is still very unknown and has many potentials – not yet explored –, which often ends up taking the individual to a psychic ruin.
psychopolitics
This book, subtitled “neoliberalism and new forms of power”, analyzes neoliberal capitalism in the 21st century, permeated by new technologies. The question that we can list as central in the book is: does the infinite possibility of information and connection make us free individuals? The answer is complicated, but necessary to place us in the corporate and social environment of our century.
How did capitalism appropriate the immense and massive communication apparatus that is the internet? How does this affect us? In this book, Han discusses issues based on this problematic contemporary, which is causing the human being to get sick, because of the mental exhaustion resulting from the use of technologies, through a kind of psychopolitics.
It is not necessary for there to be strict control of people for them to produce, because social networks play this controlling role. as they expose patterns that become objects of desire for most people. Such objects of desire are the goal of an endless path, which has as its path the mental exhaustion of those who try to follow it.
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[1] Reproduction: Voices Editor
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher