The ‘War’ on Error? Violent Metaphor and Words with Capital Letters
Publication Type |
Book Chapter |
Year of Publication |
2010 |
Author |
|
Editor |
Rozelle-Stone, A. Rebecca (Adrian Rebecca) Stone, Lucian |
Book |
The Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Years Later |
Pages |
139-158 |
Publisher |
Continuum |
Place Published |
New York |
Language |
English |
Chapter |
9 |
Keywords |
force |
Annotation |
The authors pose the question ”...is there an ethical-political component, beyond any pragmatic or "technical" concerns, to technological thinking and answering? "(p.140), to which they, respond in the affirmative. In so doing they draw on a number of Weil's ideas as well as those of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Ellul, among others. They identify three characteristics Weil argues to be present in 'technological thinking': ""setting aside", caricature and abstracted language" (p. 147). They go on to consider two possible outcomes of such thinking: "a denigration of dialogue and....a growing support for and promotion of modern sophistry"(p. 147). Important to the discussion of these outcomes is Plato's 'great beast', a concept of central importance in Weil's work. The chapter concludes with an excellent discussion of 'radical language' as an important tool in response to the errors and distortions identified and discussed. |