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Publication Details

Auto-Mobilization and the Post-Metaphysical Myth of Progress

(Original title: Auto-Mobilization and the Post-Metaphysical Myth of Progress)
Filozofia, 70 (2015), 2, 145-155.
Type of work: Reflections
Publication language: English
Abstract

The article deals with the idea of progress which is characterized by its permanent kinetics and motivated by the strive for immortality, even though every living organ- ism is destined to be born, to live and, ultimately, to pass. World-history, as understood by Oswald Spengler and Peter Sloterdijk, is a metaphysical construction – a creation of humans, in which they dwell. Due to globalization processes the spatial and timely dimensions become so constricted that all relations vanish; this is the point at which all oppositions coincide and being becomes one with nothing. At the same time, this is the point of the disenchantment of metaphysics. The lost realm of the numinous is to be replaced by the post-metaphysical auto-mobilization which makes it possible for man to become one with the machine, i.e. the generator, or the (prime) mover that was never as immanent in the world-history as he is in the spacetime of the post-metaphysical era.

Keywords

(Auto-)mobilization, Globalization, Immortality, Kinetic utopia, Progress, Sloterdijk, World-history

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