Vita contemplativa: Ako zostať slobodný vo svete výkonu

Jakub Betinský

Byung-Chul Han (*1959) je juhokórejský filozof a kultúrny teoretik, v súčasnosti pôsobí v Berlíne. Venuje sa témam digitalizácie, moci, slobody, kapitalizmu a vplyvu neoliberálnej spoločnosti na psychiku človeka. Kritizuje súčasnú spoločnosť výkonu, ktorá kladie dôraz na neustálu produktivitu a sebavystavovanie, čím prispieva k vyčerpaniu, depresii a strate schopnosti hlbokej kontemplácie. Jeho myslenie je podnetným mostom medzi západnou a východnou filozofickou tradíciou. Cieľom tohto kurzu je spoločne si prečítať a rozdiskutovať Hanovu nedávku knihu Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity. Knihu vám pošleme poštou, pred začiatkom kurzu. O knihe: "In our busy and hurried lives, we are losing the ability to be inactive. Human existence becomes fully absorbed by activity - even leisure, treated as a respite from work, becomes part of the same logic. Intense life today means first of all more performance or more consumption. We have forgotten that it is precisely inactivity, which does not produce anything, that represents an intense and radiant form of life. For Byung-Chul Han, inactivity constitutes that human. Without moments of pause or hesitation, acting deteriorates into blind action and reaction. When life follows the rule of stimulus-response and need-satisfaction, it atrophies into pure survival: naked biological life. If we lose the ability to be inactive, we begin to resemble machines that simply function. True life begins when concern for survival, for the exigencies of mere life, ends. The ultimate purpose of all human endeavour is inactivity.

In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han shows that the current crisis of our society calls for a very different way of life: one based on the vita contemplativa. He pleads for bringing our ceaseless activities to a stop and making room for the magic that happens in between. Life received its radiance only from inactivity."