Abstract

ABSTRACT Walter Benjamin's warning against unphilosophical “astonishment that the things we are experiencing are ‘still’ possible” has new urgency in the face of real estate developer and reality-show host Donald Trump's surprise victory in the presidential election of 2016. Philosopher, sociologist, and cultural theorist Georg Simmel's 1900 magnum opus, the Philosophy of Money, provides valuable orientation at a moment when the expectation that public discourse must be oriented by norms of truth and accuracy is under siege—not least by those who ascended to power openly denigrating the value of expertise and the specialized knowledge long regarded as essential to modern government. Trump has an instinctive grasp of Simmel's decisive insight that “money is the strongest and most immediate symbol” of the cynical truism that “the only absolute is the relativity of things.” Situating philosophy at the limits of disciplinary ways of knowing, the Philosophy of Money develops a modernist, performative strategy of thought that turns relativity into a philosophical resource. It can help us to counter the dissolution of the ideal of veracity in an era of absolutized marketing by disentangling thought from narratives of rational progress that obscure its opposite and interrogating the limitations of the professionalized ordering of knowledge practices in which expertise continues to be produced and maintained. Simmel's strategy for embracing the fragmentation, multiplicity, and uncertainty of human experience may thereby help us address the complexity and ambiguity of a historical situation growing increasingly surreal as techno-scientific progress goes hand in hand with post-truth politics.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2017-11-15
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.50.4.0483
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  3. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  4. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  5. Philosophy & Rhetoric

References (30)

  1. Adorno, Theodor. 1991. Minima Moralia. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
  2. Aristotle. 1984. Rhetoric. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. New York: Modern Library.
  3. Benjamin, Walter. 1974. “Über den Begriff der Geschichte.” In Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 1.2, 691–704. Frankf…
  4. Benjamin, Walter. 1996. Gesammelte Briefe. Vol. 6, 1938–1940. Ed. Theodor W. Adorno Archiv. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
  5. Bitzer, Lloyd F. 1968. “The Rhetorical Situation.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1): 1–14.
Show all 30 →
  1. Brady, Dennis. 2017. “CDC Abruptly Cancels Long-Planned Conference on Climate Change and Health.” Washington …
  2. Cassidy, John. 2017. “Steve Bannon's War on the Press.” New Yorker, Jan. 27. www.newyorker.com/news/john-cass…
  3. Fahri, Paul. 2016. “One Billion Dollars Profit? Yes, the Campaign Has Been a Gusher for CNN.” Washington Post…
  4. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 2010. Wahrheit und Methode. Vol. 1 of Gesammelte Werke. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck.
  5. Gessen, Masha. 2017. “The Reichstag Fire Next Time: The Coming Crackdown.” Harper's, Jul. 2017, 25–30.
  6. Gier, Nicholas F. 1981. Wittgenstein and Phenomenology: A Comparative Study of the Later Wittgenstein, Husser…
  7. Goodstein, Elizabeth S., 2017. Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary. Stanford, CA: Stanford University…
  8. Köhnke, Klaus Christian. 1996. Der junge Simmel in Theoriebeziehungen und sozialen Bewegungen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
  9. Green, Joshua. 2015. “This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America.” Bloomburg Businessweek,…
  10. Grynbaum, Michael. 2017. “Trump Strategist Stephen Bannon Says Media Should ‘Keep Its Mouth Shut.’” New York …
  11. Isaac, Mike. 2015. “Facebook Mounts Effort to Limit Tide of Fake News.” New York Times, 15 Dec. www.nytimes.c…
  12. Lazarus, Moritz. 1856. “Der Humor als Psychologisches Phänomen.” In vol. 1 of Das Leben der Seele in Monograp…
  13. Leck, Ralph Matthew. 2000. Georg Simmel and Avant-Garde Sociology: The Birth of Modernity, 1880–1920. Amherst…
  14. Leonhardt, David, and Stuart A. Thompson. 2017 “Trump's Lies.” New York Times, 21 Jul.
  15. Lichtblau, Klaus. 1996. Kulturkrise und Soziologie um die Jahrhundertwende: Zur Genealogie der Kultursoziolog…
  16. Mičko, Marian. 2010. Walter Benjamin und Georg Simmel. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
  17. Mitchell, Amy, Jeffrey Gottfried, and Katarina Eva Matsa. 2015 “Facebook Top Source for Political News Among …
  18. Simmel, Georg. 1989. Philosophie des Geldes. Vol. 6 of Gesamtausgabe. Ed. David P. Frisby and Klaus Christian…
  19. Simmel, Georg. 1999. Der Krieg und die geistigen Entscheidungen; Grundfragen der Soziologie; Vom Wesen des hi…
  20. Simmel, Georg. 2008a. Briefe, 1880–1911. Vol. 22 of Gesamtausgabe. Ed. Klaus Christian Köhnke. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
  21. Simmel, Georg. 2008b. Briefe, 1912–1919; Jugendbriefe. Vol. 23 of Gesamtausgabe. Ed. Otthein Rammstedt and An…
  22. Snyder, Timothy. 2017. On Tyranny. New York: Penguin-Random House.
  23. Thrust, Glenn, and Maggie Haberman. 2017. “Bannon Is Given Security Role Usually Held for Generals,” New York…
  24. Tumulty, Karen. 2017. “How Donald Trump Came Up with ‘Make America Great Again.’” Washington Post, 18 Jan. ww…
  25. Volcovici, Valerie. 2017. “Trump Administration Tells EPA to Cut Climate Page from Website.” Reuters, 25 Jan.…