Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need (...) to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent. (shrink)

Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need (...) to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent. (shrink)

Karoline Reinhardt ABSTRACT: IDiversity matters – theoretically and practically, within philosophy and beyond. It is less clear, however, how we are to conceive of diversity. In current debates it is quite common to discuss diversity as a diversity of social identities. In this paper, I will raise five major concerns with regard to this approach ….

The increasing relevance of AI systems paired with their repeatedly observed opacity gave rise to the field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). Methods of XAI are being developed and evaluated based on whether they overcome said opacity by providing explanations, thereby apparently pursuing an epistemic end. What is commonly sidestepped, however, is the distinction between the ability and the obligation to explain: In which specific cases and under what specific circumstances is there a moral obligation to give an explanation? We (...) address this issue by first arguing that apart from their epistemic virtues, explanations can be ethically relevant and hence subject to moral considerations. Further, we build on Kantian theories to provide a framework that systematizes in which instances there is a moral obligation to explain and in which instances there is none. We relate our framework both to Forst's "right to justification" and to the "right to explanation" as codified in recent legislation. Finally, we show that our framework does not only close a gap in clarifying when explanations of AI systems are required, but that it also paves the way for concrete suggestions regarding the design of XAI methods. (shrink)

Moran and Bar-Anan. The effect of object-valence relations on automatic evaluation. Cognition and Emotion, 27, 743–752) demonstrated that evaluations on...

Due to improvements in medicine, the figures of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) are increasing. Diagnostics of DoC and prognostication of rehabilitation outcome is challenging but necessary to evaluate recovery potential and to decide on treatment options. Such decisions should be made by doctors and patients’ surrogates based on medico-ethical principles. Meeting information needs and communicating effectively with caregivers as the patients´ most common surrogate-decision makers is crucial, and challenging when novel tech-nologies are introduced. This qualitative study aims to (...) explore information needs of informal DoC caregivers, how they manage the obtained information and their perceptions and experiences with caregiver-physician communication in facilities that implemented innovative neurodiagnostics studies. In 2021, we conducted semi-structured interviews with nine caregivers of clinically stable DoC patients in two rehabilitation centers in Italy and Germany. Participants were selected based on consecutive purposeful sampling. Caregivers were recruited at the facilities after written informed consent. All interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated. For analysis, we used reflexive thematic analysis according to Braun & Clarke (2006). Caregivers experienced the conversations emotionally, generally based on the value of the information provided. They reported to seek positive information, comfort and empathy with-in the communication of results of examinations. They needed detailed information to gain a deep understanding and a clear picture of their loved-one’s condition. The results suggest a mismatch between the perspectives of caregivers and the perspectives of medical profession-als, and stress the need for more elaborate approaches to the communication of results of neu-rodiagnostics studies. (shrink)

The idea that democracy is under threat, after being largely dormant for at least 40 years, is looming increasingly large in public discourse. Complex systems theory offers a range of powerful new tools to analyse the stability of social institutions in general, and democracy in particular. What makes a democracy stable? And which processes potentially lead to instability of a democratic system? This paper offers a complex systems perspective on this question, informed by areas of the mathematical, natural, and social (...) sciences. We explain the meaning of the term 'stability' in different disciplines and discuss how laws, rules, and regulations, but also norms, conventions, and expectations are decisive for the stability of a social institution such as democracy. (shrink)

To promote ethical and pro-environmental behavior, hypocrisy sometimes is made salient to individuals: i.e., they are made aware that their past behavior does not conform to expressed norms. The fact that this strategy may backfire and may even reduce the likelihood of individuals performing the desired action has been largely overlooked. This paper develops a theory of how hypocrisy stimulates two opposing heuristic processes: one that favors the former, positive outcome and one that renders hypocrisy non-effective. We test the model (...) and reveal important boundary conditions using the finding of a comprehensive field experiment. Situational and individual factors determine which of the competing mechanisms is activated. The paper contributes a novel understanding to managers and scholars of how hypocrisy operates and illuminates the contingencies of when this strategy is beneficial. (shrink)

Complexity is heterogenous, involving nonlinearity, self-organisation, diversity, adaptive behaviour, among other things. It is therefore obviously worth asking whether purported measures of complexity measure aggregate phenomena, or individual aspects of complexity and if so which. This paper uses a recently developed rigorous framework for understanding complexity to answer this question about measurement. The approach is two-fold: find measures of individual aspects of complexity on the one hand, and explain measures of complexity on the other. We illustrate the conceptual framework of (...) complexity science and how it links the foundations to the practised science with examples from different scientific fields and of various aspects of complexity. Furthermore, we analyse a selection of purported measures of complexity that have found wide application and explain why and how they measure aspects of complexity. This work gives the reader a tool to take any existing measure of complexity and analyse it, and to take any feature of complexity and find the right measure for it. (shrink)

Immanuel Kant's The Dispute between the Faculties (1798) contains a footnote referencing four utopian states — Atlantis, Utopia, Oceana, and Severambia. This passage has largely been overlooked in Kantian scholarship. This paper revisits this neglected passage to explore Kant's engagement with utopian literature and its implications for his philosophy of history and political thought. The footnote, though brief, sheds light on Kant's views regarding the feasibility of ideal states and their connection to revolutionary change. It reveals Kant's nuanced perspective on (...) the role of utopian visions in shaping political ideals and the duties of individuals and governments in realizing such ideals. While Kant acknowledges these utopias as “sweet dreams,” he also questions their practicality and warns against revolutionary approaches to achieving them. This paper examines how Kant's references to these utopian constructs reflect his broader philosophical concerns about progress and reform, emphasizing that progress must occur through gradual, lawful reform rather than through revolutionary upheaval. By analyzing Kant's treatment of these literary fictions, the paper aims to illuminate his complex relationship with utopian thought and its place within his broader theoretical framework. (shrink)

An Ironic Approach to the Absolute: Schlegel’s Poetic Mysticism brings Friedrich Schlegel’s ironic fragments in dialogue with the Dao De Jing and John Ashbery’s Flow Chart to argue that poetic texts offer an intuition of the whole because they resist the reader’s desire to comprehend them fully.

How do social media platforms influence democracy? Karoline Helbig explores how the logics and architectures of these platforms structure communication processes. She begins by collecting and systematising central theoretical concepts from the deliberative systems approach, focussing specifically on those pertaining to the structures of and normative standards associated with deliberative systems. Based on these theoretical foundations and drawing on digitisation research, she then situates social media platforms within society-wide deliberative systems. She offers a nuanced analysis of the specific characteristics (...) of digital communication and of how they affect the qualities of deliberation throughout the system. This study speaks to scholars, policymakers and readers concerned with democracy in the digital constellation. (shrink)

Das Thema Migration wird in Politik, Medien und Offentlichkeit, aber auch in der Philosophie kontrovers diskutiert. Die vorliegende Studie geht von der These aus, dass sich Kants Uberlegungen zum Weltburgerrecht in einer produktiven Disharmonie zu gegenwartig vertretenen philosophischen wie politischen "Lagern" in der Migrationsdebatte befinden. Zur Begrundung dieser These wird zunachst die neuere Debatte um Migration anhand dreier Theoriestrange vorgestellt, die diese massgeblich strukturieren: der Kommunitarismus, der egalitaristische Kosmopolitismus und der liberale Nationalismus. Anschliessend werden die fur die Migrationsdebatte entscheidenden Theoriegange (...) in Kants politischer Philosophie erschlossen. Auf dieser Grundlage wird schliesslich die Produktivitat und systematische Relevanz von Kants Theorie fur die Hauptfragen der gegenwartigen Debatte herausgearbeitet und eine rechtsmoralische Migrationstheorie entworfen. Es werden dabei insbesondere die Themengebiete Asyl, (il-)legitime Abweisungsgrunde, Staatenlosigkeit, der Erwerb der Staatsburgerschaft, das Recht auf Auswanderung und individuelle Hilfspflichten sowie die Frage nach der Notwendigkeit einer "weltburgerlichen Gesinnung" diskutiert. (shrink)

Intersectional theory has been criticised for neglecting religion and for being unable to account for religion’s social complexities. This contribution interrogates this critique by disaggregating different relationships of Muslim women to secular and religious varieties of patriarchy. We argue that what demarcates the challenges of intersectional analysis are the political contestations not around religion, but around women’s pro-patriarchal agency. We do so by discussing intersectional theory’s analytical usefulness and limitations in conceptualising the experiences of Muslim women. We focus on two (...) interrelated dimensions: Muslim women in relation to secular patriarchy, and Muslim women in relation to religious patriarchy. We show that when analysed separately, the first dimension, the subjectivities of Muslim women in secular patriarchal spaces, do not pose a challenge to intersectional theory. We argue that intersectional theory’s limitations regarding the second dimension, Muslim women in relation to religious patriarchy, do not lie in its relation to Islam, but in its programmatic focus on problematising power inequalities. Lastly, in situating Muslim women at the intersection of these two dimensions, we demonstrate how intersectional analysis can reveal not only Muslim women’s marginalisation, but also the analytical marginalisations of Muslim feminisms. (shrink)

Rwanda is often depicted as a success story by policy makers when it comes to issues of gender. In this paper, we show how the problem of gendered inequality in agriculture nevertheless is both marginalized and instrumentalized in Rwanda’s agriculture policy. Our in-depth analysis of 12 national policies is informed by Bacchi’s _What’s the problem represented to be?_ approach. It attests that gendered inequality is largely left unproblematized as well as reduced to a problem of women’s low agricultural productivity. The (...) policy focuses on framing the symptoms and effects of gendered inequality and turns gender mainstreaming into an instrument for national economic growth. We argue that by insufficiently addressing the socio-political underlying causes of gendered inequality, Rwanda’s agriculture policy risks reproducing and exacerbating inequalities by reinforcing dominant gender relations and constructing women farmers as problematic and men as normative farmers. We call for the policy to approach gendered inequality in alternative ways. Drawing on perspectives in feminist political ecology, we discuss how such alternatives could allow policy to more profoundly challenge underlying structural constraints such as unequal gender relations of power, gender norms, and gender divisions of work. This would shift policy’s problematizing lens from economic growth to social justice, and from women’s shortcomings and disadvantages in agriculture to the practices and relations that perpetuate inequality. In the long term, this could lead to transformed gender norms and power relations, and a more just and equal future beyond what the dominant agricultural development discourse currently permits. (shrink)

Environmental politics are in crisis. As the window for mitigating lasting ecological damage closes, eco-emancipatory efforts become increasingly marginalised. This article argues that an investigation through the lens of autonomy can shed new light on the crisis of the eco-emancipatory project (EEP) in today's late-modern, digitally mediated and repoliticised societies. Moving beyond narratives of autonomy's demise in the digital age, the article explores how autonomy has been reconfigured in the digital sphere into what can be termed hyper-autonomy – self-legislation rooted (...) in trivialised authenticity (Taylor) while lacking solidarity and compromise. It concludes that hyper-autonomy reinforces authoritarian positions, aligning more with the exclusionary logic of the far right than with eco-critical calls for collective self-limitation. While this investigation deepens the perception of the EEP as anachronistic, it also offers a platform to rethink the future of autonomy in environmental politics, navigating between adaptation and resistance. (shrink)

Recent research on relational evaluative conditioning (relational EC) suggests that stimulus co-occurrence can have a direct effect on evaluations over and above the particular relation between the co-occurring stimuli. This research is based on a process dissociation approach where co-occurrence effects are demonstrated via attenuated evaluative learning for co-occurring stimuli that are connected by contrastive in comparison to assimilative relations. Instead of attributing such attenuations to an orthogonal influence of stimulus co-occurrence, we investigated whether (a) contrastive relations tend to produce (...) weaker evaluations than their assimilative counterparts and (b) such evaluative differences can inflate evidence for co-occurrence effects on continuous as well as on categorical evaluation measures. A pilot study (N = 85) confirmed notion (a), while a first experiment (N = 42) produced preliminary evidence for notion (b) in the context of multinomial processing tree (MPT) modelling. In a second, high-powered experiment (N = 229), sub-sample MPT analyses (including only CSs with correct memory for the CS-US proposition) demonstrated that evidence for co-occurrence effects can be inflated by evaluative differences between assimilative vs. contrastive relations. The theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Emerging trends in the workforce point to the necessity of facilitating work lives that foster constructive and balanced relationships between professional and private spheres in order to retain employees. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we propose that motivational climate influence turnover intention through the facilitation of work–home spillover. Specifically, we argue that employees working in a perceived mastery climate are less likely to consider voluntarily leaving their employer because of increased positive—and reduced negative—work–home spillover experiences. We further argue (...) that employees working in a perceived performance climate are more likely to consider voluntarily leaving their employer because of reduced positive—and increased negative—work–home spillover experiences. In a cross-lagged survey of 1074 employees in a Norwegian financial-sector organization, we found that work–home spillover partly mediates the relationship between a perceived mastery climate and turnover intention. Specifically, mastery climates seem to facilitate positive—and reduce negative—spillover between the professional and private spheres, which in turn decreases employees’ turnover intention. We discuss implications for practice and future research. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the use of language in the construction of identity in the constitution of an anti-state group, which is a part of the sovereign citizen movement in Austria. The group, called ‘Staatenbund Österreich’, had been active for several years before the government charged them with high treason. The group believes that the government is illegitimate – an assumption which allows them to legitimize their behavior. The movement, which is spreading across the globe, has started in the US (...) in the 1970s, and yet, it is still impossible to estimate the actual danger they pose, even though they have been reported to become increasingly violent. The present paper investigates the constitution of the ‘Austrian Commonwealth’ in order to find out how they manage to create an identity for their group, how they legitimize themselves and their claims, and how their language use compares to other extremist groups. (shrink)

Diversity matters – theoretically and practically, within philosophy and beyond. It is less clear, however, how we are to conceive of diversity. In current debates it is quite common to discuss diversity as a diversity of social identities. In this paper, I will raise five major concerns with regard to this approach from a philosophical perspective. All of them cast doubt on the flexibility and openness to ambiguity of identity-based concepts of diversity. Contrary to an identity-based concept of diversity, I (...) will propose a perspective that stresses ambiguity and fluidity. In pursuing my argument, I will, after an introduction in §1, outline in §2 how the term ‘diversity’ is commonly used and how social identities come into the picture. In §3, I describe the dangers of an identity-based diversity concept. In my critique I will build on Adorno's thoughts on the formation of concepts and on Appiah's reflections on identity. I will illustrate my critique with examples from a growing field of Applied Ethics, data ethics. In §4, I will sketch an alternative understanding of human diversity, taking up considerations by Thomas Bauer on ambiguity and ambiguity tolerance. (shrink)

In the last decades aquaculture is receiving great attention because of its health-related benefits.The objective of this work was to verify the socioeconomic profile and identify the fish consumption of individuals residing in the municipality of Seara, located in the west of Santa Catarina state, as well as the quantity they consume and the reasons that would make them consume more fish. The research has a quali-quantitative, descriptive, and transversal nature. 376 individuals were interviewed, with a questionnaire consisting of 30 (...) objective and subjective questions. This research project was submitted to and approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS). The results showed that as the level of education and income increases, so does the amount of fish consumed by the interviewees. It was noticed that a large part of the population consumes fish, however the amount consumed is below the recommended. Among the reasons that would make the population increase their fish intake are more accessible prices and incentives. (shrink)

The COVID pandemic has sparked fear among many people worldwide and has thus led to the emergence of a variety of conspiracy theories. Individuals believing in these theories come from various social and demographic backgrounds, some of them being mere skeptics, while others are more radical and extreme. The present paper investigates the use of language in a conspiratorial anti-COVID Facebook group with the aim of describing the linguistic features and strategies employed to share and spread conspiracy theories and to (...) form a common identity. The results show that the group uses features typical of extremist groups, such the ideological in- and out-group presentation, the use of agentless passives to create fear, and intertextual references. Further strategies detected in the data are the misrepresentation of scientific knowledge, the use of colloquial language, humor, and irony, among others, which are used to create a bond among the groups’ members and to set themselves apart from the government and the rest of the population, whom they perceive as enemies and oppressors. (shrink)

Dieses Jäckchen (nämlich) des Vogel Greif. Gedichte 2004–2009 erschien zu Mayröckers 85. Geburtstag Ende 2009 und enthält 309 Gedichte, die, so gibt ihre fortlaufende Datierung an, zwischen dem 23.06.2004 und dem 22.03.2009 entstanden sind, darunter auch die 40 Gedichte, die im selben Jahr schon in dem Band Scardanelli veröffentlicht wurden und die sich durch ihren verstärkten Hölderlin-Bezug auszeichnen. Neben Hölderlin referieren die Gedichte auf zahlreiche weitere Dichterinnen und Dichter, vor allem auf Ernst Jandl, der aber in erster Linie als der (...) schmerzlich vermisste verstorbene Geliebte erscheint. Der Trauer ist dabei Jubel über ‚das Unfaßbare unseres Lebens‘ an die Seite gestellt. (shrink)

This empirically oriented contribution focuses on different data- and body-practices in the specific fieldof self-tracking. Based ona phenomenological differentiation between body (Körper in German) and embodiment (Leib in German) following Plessner and Merleau-Ponty, we reflect on the machine-like-body, the cybernetic control loop, the data-like-body and most of all practices of habitualization. In a multi-perspective approach, we do not only examine bodies and body-values, but also the manipulation of the body (e. g. in the field of biohacking), the relation between the (...) body and experiences in epigenetics, as well as the emergence of new bodily perceptions and senses. Thereby, we observe both tendencies towards alienated embodiment and possibilities to gain new accesses to the world by including embodied performances. (shrink)

Literarische Gattungen werden bei Mayröcker vielfach thematisiert und erscheinen sowohl auf der Inhalts- als auch auf der Formebene als äußerst flexible Kategorien, deren Grenzen fast hauptsächlich dem Zweck zu dienen scheinen, über- und durchschritten zu werden. Ihr Gesamtwerk zeichnet ein Wechsel zwischen unterschiedlichen Gattungen aus, und auch innerhalb eines Werkes lenkt die Transgression der Gattungskonventionen den Blick darauf, dass literarische Genres durchaus nicht so leicht zu differenzieren sind, wie die Gängigkeit der Gattungsbegriffe suggeriert. Nicht einmal punktuell verweilen Mayröckers Texte in (...) einem gegebenen generischen Rahmen. Sie erzielen so eine Dynamik, die auf jene der Gattungen selbst verweist, ihr „beständiges Hinausgehen über das Gegebene“ (Zymner) in den Vordergrund stellt und die Gattungen untereinander in einen Dialog treten lässt, in den die Leserinnen und Leser einbezogen sind. (shrink)

Der 1986 erschienene Gedichtband Winterglück enthält 107 Gedichte, die zwischen 1981 und 1985 entstanden sind. Weniger experimentell als noch frühere Gedichte Mayröckers, kommt in ihnen doch die Wirklichkeit als ein Nebeneinander von höchst Disparatem zum Ausdruck, indem sie zwischen Sinneseindrücken, Empfindungen, traumhaft surrealistisch anmutenden Sequenzen, Erinnerungen, Projektionen auf die Zukunft und rein durch phonetische Rekurrenzen motiviert scheinenden Sprachspielen aus Lautwiederholungen und -verschiebungen fluktuieren. Die Fülle der aus der Realität ‚ausgeschnittenen‘ Details fordert dabei immer wieder neue Deutungen heraus, lässt sich in (...) ihrer Heterogenität jedoch nicht zu einer in sich geschlossenen Bedeutung führen. (shrink)

Der Beitrag stellt die exemplarische Untersuchung eines Psychotherapiegesprächs mit Hilfe der »szenisch-narrativen Mikroanalyse« (SNMA) vor. »Jetzt-Momente« (»Now Moments«) und »Begegnungsmomente« (»Moments of Meeting«) im Sinne von Daniel Stern und der Boston Change Process Study Group wurden von unabhängigen geschulten Ratern identifiziert und in einer systematischen, psychoanalytisch interpretierenden Konsentierung evaluiert. Ziel des Verfahrens ist es, durch die Nutzung von Parallelprozessen die Übertragungs-Gegenübertragungs-Bewegung im Therapiedialog zu verdeutlichen und dadurch ein wesentliches Agens in (nicht nur) psychoanalytischen Psychotherapien nachzuweisen.

Vertrauen ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil menschlichen Lebens und menschlicher Interaktionen. Der vorliegende Schwerpunkt untersucht, ob Digitalisierung und Künstliche Intelligenz neue Vertrauensfragen aufwerfen, ob das Konzept des Vertrauens auf digitale Technologien angewandt werden kann und inwiefern es modifiziert werden muss, um den begrifflichen wie praktischen Herausforderungen, die mit dem Einsatz dieser Technologien verbunden sind, gerecht zu werden. Die Einleitung stellt einführend dar, wie Vertrauen bislang in der philosophischen Debatte verstanden wurde und welche neuen Fragen durch digitale Technologien aufgeworfen werden. Es wird (...) herausgearbeitet, dass, obwohl Vertrauen schon lange ein Thema der Philosophie war, insbesondere im Bereich digitaler Technologien Unsicherheit und Verletzbarkeit neue Formen annehmen, die Implikationen für Vertrauensbeziehungen haben und die es philosophisch zu reflektieren gilt. Die Beiträge des Themenschwerpunkts befassen sich dabei gleichermaßen mit übergreifenden Fragen zu Vertrauen im Kontext digitaler Technologien, wie auch mit Fragen des Vertrauens in konkreten Anwendungsfeldern wie der Medizin und Blockchaintechnologien. (shrink)

Based on the notion that time, space, and number are part of a generalized magnitude system, we assume that the dual-systems approach to temporal cognition also applies to numerical cognition. Referring to theoretical models of the development of numerical concepts, we propose that children's early skills in processing numbers can be described analogously to temporal updating and temporal reasoning.

Services offered to children require more and more family resources. The family is becoming not only a beneficiary of services, but also a privileged partner. This transformation tinges relationships between parents and professionals in such a way that each partner must adjust to this new reality. Parental development of empowerment lies within the scope of this transformation in which professional intervention is based on values of partnership and collaboration. The development of empowerment constitutes a conceptual framework for intervention within the (...) family and is defined equally as both process and result. Through this process, the parent develops perception of control and thus uses resources more frequently. This article presents the results of some research conducted on parental experiences which support the development of empowerment. Data was gathered from parents of children that receive services from the Rehabilitation Center for Intellectual Disabilities and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Preliminary analyses indicate that parents often encounter enabling experiences and the relationship between parents and professionals is a determining factor in the development of empowerment within families, which can either harm or help this relationship. (shrink)

This article examines Adorno’s re-conceptualisation of the traditional concept of the sublime, arguing that for Adorno the sublime aesthetic experience foregrounds an awareness of non-identity and the “priority of the object.” For Adorno, tears, shudders, and the emotions of shock and terror remain authentic responses to artworks because they remind the ego of its affinity with nature. Adorno’s treatment of the sublime in modern art and in relation to his theory of the dialectic of enlightenment invites a radical critique of (...) the claim of reason to autonomy and control. His notion of the sublime is illustrated by the performance work of Franko B as a contemporary example of the confrontation with the bodily sublime, which produces a “limit-experience,” a mode of subjective decentring as a result of our exposure to the impossible and the formless. While Adorno’s “negative” sublime is devoid of reconciliatory metaphysical meaning, it calls forth an altered subjectivity that opposes the wit... (shrink)