Enrico Cerasi

Published in June, 2022

​

The Hell of the Equal. Some Remarks on the Philosophy of Byung-Chul Han

Korean philosopher Byhung-Chul Han is one of the most critical voices on the neo-liberal society. In his view, we live in what he calls “the Hell of the

Same”. Both on a social and intra-psychic level, all forms of negativity, and thus

of contrast, opposition and struggle, have disappeared. We live in a society without prohibitions. This does not mean any emancipation. On the contrary, today’s

dominant power is even more oppressive because each person is convinced that
he or she is a free manager who must valorise himself or herself. We do not
need masters and controllers, because everyone is his own master and controller.
This makes both Agamben’s homo sacer research and Esposito’s immunological
paradigm obsolete. Both made sense in the era of the disciplinary society, which
has now disappeared. There is, however, the doubt that Byhung-Chul Han’s
own critical tools belong to a philosophically and socially determined culture
and time.

Hell of the Same, disciplinary society, negativity, positivity, Agamben, Esposito

DOI

10.53129/gcsi_01-2022-15