On Guenther Anders, Political Media Theory, and Nuclear Violence

Authors

Babette Babich, Fordham UniversityFollow

Comments

“On Günther Anders, Political Media Theory, and Nuclear Violence.” Philosophy & Social Criticism, 44/10 (2018): 1110–1126.

Disciplines

Continental Philosophy | Digital Humanities | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Other Film and Media Studies | Other Philosophy | Philosophy

Abstract

• Guenther Anders was a philosopher concerned with the political and social implications of power, both as expressed in the media and its tendency to elide the citizenry and thus the very possibility of democracy and the political implications of our participation in our own subjugation in the image of modern social media beginning with radio and television. Anders was particularly concerned with two bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II, and he was just as concerned with the so-called ‘peaceful’ uses of nuclear power, i.e., what he named our apocalypse-blindness and the urgency of violence. To make this case I draw on Baudrillard on ‘speech without response’ and Gadamer on conversation.

Recommended Citation

Babich, Babette, "On Guenther Anders, Political Media Theory, and Nuclear Violence" (2018). Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections. 94.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/phil_babich/94