The Uncontrollability of the World (eBook)

Hartmut Rosa is Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, and Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt, Germany. His many books include Social Acceleration and Resonance.

Beyond Control vii

Introduction: On Snow 1

1 The World as a Point of Aggression 5

2 Four Dimensions of Controllability 15

3 The Paradoxical Flipside: The Mysterious Withdrawal of the World 19

4 The World as a Point of Resonance 30

5 Five Theses on the Controllability of Things and the Uncontrollability of Experience 40

6 To Take Control or to Let Things Happen? The Basic Conflict of Modernity at Six Stages of Life 60

7 Control as an Institutional Necessity: The Structural Dimension of the Basic Conflict of Modernity 86

8 The Uncontrollability of Desire and the Desire for the Uncontrollable 102

9 The Monstrous Return of the Uncontrollable 110

Conclusion 117

Notes 118

"A rare combination of erudition, theoretical sophistication and philosophical inventiveness, this magnificent book provides a starting point for any forensic exploration of the cultural dilemmas and political contradictions of our times."
--Achille Mbembe, author of Necropolitics

"The Uncontrollability of the World is a remarkable book, packing a lot of insightful theory as well as analyses of its practical validity into a slim volume that, I hope, will find its way to the reading lists of many courses on social philosophy as well as the tables of fellow academics throughout the world."
--Phenomenological Reviews