Digitization is transforming our world economically, culturally, and psychologically. The influx of new forms of communication, networking, and business opportunities, as well as new types of distraction, self-observation, and control into our societies represents an epochal challenge. Following Bernard Stiegler's concept of pharmacology, Felix Heidenreich and Florian Weber-Stein propose to view these new forms as digital pharmaka. Properly dosed, they can enable new self-relationships and forms of sociality; in the case of overdose, however, there is a risk of intoxication. In this essay, Felix Heidenreich, Florian Weber-Stein, and, in a detailed interview, Bernard Stiegler analyze this complex change in our world and develop new skills to use digital pharmaka.
Author(s): Felix Heidenreich, Florian Weber-Stein
Series: Political Science | 135
Edition: 1
Publisher: Transcript Verlag
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 127
Tags: Digitalization; Cultural Theory; Political Theory; Republicanism; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Bernard Stiegler; Politics; Technology; Medicine; Policy; Internet; Political Science
Cover
Contents
Foreword
Part I: Towards a Cura Publica
Chapter 1: Introducing Pharmacology
1.1 The digital onslaught: some basic considerations
1.2 Metaphors / analogies / comparisons: approaches to the concept of “pharmacology”
Chapter 2: Pharmacology on the Threshold of Modernity: Rousseau
2.1 Illness as social pathology
2.2 Rousseau and the genesis of modern self‑medication
2.3 Homeopathic self‐medication: self‑education through writing?
2.4 Culture as a homeopathic remedy: civic education through the theater?
2.5 The limits of homeopathy in Rousseau
Chapter 3: Digital Pharmacology: Stiegler
3.1 Going beyond Rousseau with Rousseau
3.2 Digital Grammatization I or: from the ‘reading brain’ to the ‘twitter brain’
3.3 Digital Grammatization II or: friendship in the ‘digital anthill’
3.4 Digital Grammatization III or: the alphabetization of image consciousness
Chapter 4: Exploring the Limits of Pharmacology
4.1 Homeopathic, allopathic, and heteropathic pharmacology
4.2 How to do political pharmacology: ‘liberal’ or ‘republican’
4.3 The toolbox of digital pharmacology
4.4 A community of learning citizens: towards a cura publica
Part II: An Interview with Bernard Stiegler
Bernard Stiegler: Elements of Pharmacology
Concept, analogy, metaphor, art
No ontology of pharmaka, but savoir‐faire
The subject of pharmacology: auto‐therapy
The writing self and the digital self
A school of pharmacology
Bibliography
Works by Bernard Stiegler
Other cited works
