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The Scent of Time

By Byung-Chul Han

The Scent of Time book

The Scent of Time

By Byung-Chul Han

0 - Default Title
Description
In his philosophical reflections on the art of lingering, acclaimed cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han argues that the value we attach today to the vita activa is producing a crisis in our sense of time. Our attachment to the vita activa creates an imperative to work which degrades the human being into a labouring animal, an animal laborans. At the same time, the hyperactivity which characterizes our daily routines robs human beings of the capacity to linger and the faculty of contemplation. It therefore becomes impossible to experience time as fulfilling. Drawing on a range of thinkers including Heidegger, Nietzsche and Arendt, Han argues that we can overcome this temporal crisis only by revitalizing the vita contemplativa and relearning the art of lingering. For what distinguishes humans from other animals is the capacity for reflection and contemplation, and when life regains this capacity, this art of lingering, it gains in time and space, in duration and vastness.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
120
Release Date:
2017-09-01
Publication Date:
2017-10-09
Publisher:
Polity Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1509516050
ISBN13:
9781509516056
Weight:
191 g
Height:
142 cm
Width:
211 cm
Thickness:
15 cm
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