Critique of Bored Reason: On the Confinement of the Modern Condition

Dmitri Nikulin

Published by Columbia University Press 2022

Critique of Bored Reason

On the Confinement of the Modern Condition

Dmitri Nikulin

https://doi.org/10.7312/niku18906

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this philosophical study, Dmitri Nikulin explores the concept’s genealogy to argue that boredom is the mark of modernity. Considering such thinkers as Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Kierkegaard, Kracauer, Heidegger, and Benjamin, Critique of Bored Reason places boredom on center stage in the philosophical critique of modernity.

Author / Editor information

Dmitri Nikulin is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of a number of books including Dialectic and Dialogue (2010), Comedy, Seriously (2014), The Concept of History (2017), and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity (2019).

Reviews

William Desmond, author of The Intimate Universal: The Hidden Porosity Among Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Politics:
Ambitious, well-written, and marked by welcome touches of humor, Critique of Bored Reason is distinguished by extraordinary erudition, impressive expository and interpretative powers, and a genuinely constructive impulse that is grounded in a very deep knowledge of the tradition of philosophy.

Rainer Forst, author of The Right to Justification: Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice:
In this powerful historical and systematic philosophical demontage, Dmitri Nikulin analyses the modern condition in a fascinating new way. No book could be more exciting than this learned treatise on boredom, full of wit and novel insights.

Alfredo Ferrarin, author of Thinking and the I: Hegel and the Critique of Kant:
Nikulin's book is an exciting reading, based on impressive scholarship, rigorous analysis, and breadth of vision. It has fascinating pages on boredom in Kracauer and Benjamin, on scandal and radicality. Reason is bored because it is the pure reason of a modern monological subject, intrinsically tragic in its solitary autonomous legislation. By contrast Nikulin appeals to the virtues of a comic reason, decentered and in dialogue with others, to rethink politics and democracy.

Barbara Carnevali, author of Social Appearances: A Philosophy of Display and Prestige:
Critique of Bored Reason is an original and ambitious account of modern subjectivity and autonomy. Nikulin proves the surprising thesis that the experience of boredom was unknown to the ancient world. What some moderns present as a universal attribute of the human condition is thus a form of historical experience, linked to the limits of how modernity has thought about the subject and its relationships with others.

Axel Honneth, author of Freedom's Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life:
As demonstrated by numerous modern novels, be it by Flaubert, Gontscharov, or Sartre, the spread of boredom as the negative experience of being not practically engaged in the world has become one of the social pathologies of our age. Many social-philosophical studies over the last two-hundred years have been dedicated to this topic, trying to figure out the roots, the physiognomy and the effects of modern boredom, but none has to my knowledge so far succeeded in presenting a conclusive inquiry of its inner architectonic and philosophical substance. Exactly this is what Dmitri Nikulin fantastically manages in his new book to achieve: By combining conceptual history and systematic analysis, he lays out the deficiencies of the modern understanding of subjectivity that explain why we are permanently haunted by the anxiety of becoming bored and over-reflexive. Everyone who has an interest in this predicament of our existential situation should certainly read this tremendous book!

Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary:
This profound and powerful book is not only a definitive philosophical treatment of boredom as a modern phenomenon but also a courageous and visionary defense of the dialogical, comic and radically democratic ways of being in our dark times! The scholarship is magisterial, the writing lucid and subtle, and the tone so tender and humble! How rare it is to read such an instant classic with heartfelt joy and hard-earned hope!

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
1. A Conceptual History of Boredom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Boredom and the Flâneur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3. Critique of Bored Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
4. Being and Boredom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
5. The Nonboring Well- Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
6. Scandal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
In Place of a Conclusion: On Method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 9780231548151