Zur (Un)Hintergehbarkeit der Gegenwart
Karsten Berr
Abstract
For some decades now, a present-expansion in the lifeworld as well as in science has led to a present-over-expansion, which can go hand in hand with a subjectification and moral exaltation of, for example, radical individuality in the form of specific lifestyles or different ethnicities or group affiliations in the form of specific identity politics from the political right as well as the political left. This present-over-expansion also leads to forms of historical paternalism towards the past and the future, to utopian thinking about salvation and apocalyptic invocations of approaching doom, to moral self-exaltation and to variants of ethic moralism. The purpose of this article is to introduce and explain, from a philosophical perspective, some crucial concepts and theories that are useful for understanding and assessing the aforementioned development, not least with regard to a self-enlightenment of geographical practice with regard to this complex of issues.