Byung-Chul Han

Byung-Chul Han is one of the most important living philosophers, renowned for his critiques of the digital age. In response to the idea that new technological devices expand our freedom, he argues that they lead to burnout and self-absorption and that we must redevelop contemplative practices which slow us down and open us up. He has brought to his thought forms of deep cosmopolitanism developed from both Zen Buddhism and a renewed Romanticism.

This book is the first critical introduction to Han’s body of work. Knepper, Stoneman, and Wyllie explore Han’s rich oeuvre to date and his incisive contributions to a range of disciplines, including critical theory, media studies, political philosophy, and aesthetics. They unpack his key terms and illustrate his concepts with a range of examples, revealing how the critiques of the “achievement society” and burnout, which have earned Han a global audience, build on his earlier accounts of power, violence, and mood. This broader view addresses the most frequent criticisms of Han and makes a compelling case that he is not only an insightful diagnostician of the present moment but one whose interpretation of both Western and Eastern traditions offers wisdom for navigating the now acute problems of modernity.

This lively book is essential reading for anyone getting to grips with Han’s extraordinary work.

“Han’s most striking qualities are his unfailing sense for topicality and his ability to write philosophy ‘for all and none’. This introduction brings coherence to a work that seems to follow the ever-changing buzzwords of the present. The authors reveal the overall ethos in Han’s thought: philosophy as a therapy to survive neoliberal modernity.”
Eva Horn, University of Vienna

“Han expounds with shocking clarity how we are self-manipulated by our supposed freedoms and achievements, exposing how presumably individual choices are generated by digital systems. The authors’ limpid presentations make Han’s brutal revelations accessible and alluring.”
William Franke, Vanderbilt University

Steven Knepper is Associate Professor of English and the Bruce C. Gottwald, Jr. ’81 Chair for Academic Excellence at the Virginia Military Institute.
Ethan Stoneman is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Media at Hillsdale College.
Robert Wyllie is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashland University.

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