Logocracy
Logocracy (from ancient Greek λόγος lógos "word", but also "reason" (see logos ) and κρατεῖν kratein " rule", thus for example "rule of the word", "rule through the word" or "rule of reason") is a Term that can be understood in terms of state theory or discourse theory and often has a negative connotation. In the work of the philosopher Kurt Hiller it has a special meaning in the sense of a positive “rule of reason” .
Concept history
In the magazine The Port Folio , Joseph Dennie had the figure of the foreigner Mustapha Rub-a-dub Keli Khan call the United States of America “Logocracy” under his pseudonym “Oliver Oldschool” in 1807, meaning that the targeted use of words makes power can exercise over others. Those who master the art of logocracy best are referred to as "slang-whangers", while the Congress is a "blustering, windy assembly" (italics in the original):
“To let thee at once into a secret, which is unknown to these people themselves, their government is a pure unadulterated LOGOCRACY or government of words. The whole nation does every thing viva voce, or, by word of mouth, and in this manner is one of the most military nations in existence [...] In a logocracy thou well knowest there is little or no occasion for fire arms, or any such destructive weapons. Every offensive or defensive measure is enforced by wordy battle, and paper war; he who has the longest tongue or readiest quill, is sure to gain the victory — will carry horrour [sic], abuse, and ink shed into the very trenches of the enemy, and without mercy or remorse, put men, women, and children to the point of the — pen! "
“First of all I want to tell you a secret that these people themselves do not know. Your government is a pure, unadulterated LOGOCRACY or rule of words. The whole nation is doing everything through viva voce or word of mouth, and that is how one of the most militarized nations exists [...] In a logocracy, as you well know, there is little or no opportunity for firearms or any destructive weapon. Any offensive or defensive action is forced through the clash of words and paperwork; he who has the quickest tongue or the most agile pen can count on victory - will carry terror, abuse and ink into the trenches of the enemy, and without mercy or remorse places men, women and children at the head of the - Feather!"
The philosopher Fritz Mauthner also used the term in the second edition of his dictionary of philosophy , published in 1923 . He pointed out that words can have power over other people:
“So by logocracy I understand the not sufficiently well-known fact that the power to which people obey more than any other power is the power of words. Care should be taken that even where people think they live under an aristocracy or under a democracy, these so-called forms of government are only suggestive words that there has never been any rule by the best as there has been any rule by the people. Logocracy can rule under the name of any form of government; by its nature it is mob rule or ochlocracy . "
In the 20th century, other uses of the term can be found, among others, by Hannah Arendt , who described totalitarianism as logocracy, and by Czesław Miłosz , who described the Soviet Union as logocracy, which tries to control the thoughts of its subjects in the form of ideological tyranny.
Logocracy with Kurt Hiller
The publicist Kurt Hiller used the term in his work Logokratie or A World Federation of Spirit, published in 1920, in the sense of a desirable "rule of reason". During the November Revolution , Hiller tried to influence politics as chairman of the Political Council of Intellectual Workers , which he co-founded . This commitment was based on his ideal of a “logocracy”, conceived as a corrective model for democracy , which - following Plato's idea of the “ philosopher kings ” - political rule in the form of a two-chamber system between the elected parliament and a corrective committee of the intellectual elite and thus the intellectuals should share. This "elliptical constitution" should be particularly well balanced by the two centers of the two chambers.
Hiller used the term logocracy as follows (emphasis added):
“Spirit, logos, is not a metaphysical web, not an elaborate concept, not a mystical being that somehow hovers over the individual; it is a characterological category, it designates a certain quality, a certain functional state, a certain power of the soul ... and dwells in people, namely in specimens of a certain type of person. It is true that this power is potentially in everyone, and pedagogy can do a lot here; updated, more precisely: updated beyond a certain threshold, it is updated in a few. The task of a democracy that does not understand itself in an egalitarian way, but in a logocratic way, is to constantly select these few from the broader population and to combine them into a legislative body . "
“Just as freedom and socialism are not mutually exclusive, freedom and spiritual rule are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, only spiritual rule, in a socialist world, would guarantee the individual the measure of freedom that is due to him and that is possible according to the norms of social logic or the laws of social physics. Neither capitalism nor majorityism has brought people anywhere near this possible level. Freedom socialism, socialist aristocratism - that is, with two (misleading, hopefully not misunderstood) catchphrases the program of the logocrats ; and if you want to call it a 'democratic' one, nothing speaks against it - provided that you have cleared the old egalitarian sludge from the old conceptual tube beforehand. "
literature
- Kurt Hiller: Logocracy or a world union of the spirit . In: The goal . Fourth of the target yearbooks. Kurt Wolff, Munich 1920. Published independently by Der Neue Geist Verlag, Leipzig 1921.
- Fritz Mauthner: Dictionary of Philosophy . 2nd edition, Leipzig 1923 (reprinted by Verlag Böhlau 1997, ISBN 3-205-98644-X ).
Web links
- Kurt Hiller Society: Logocracy - Rule of Reason
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oliver Oldschool, in: The Port Folio v. May 16, 1807 (Vol. 3, No. 20), p. 309 ( online ).
- ^ Fritz Mauthner: Dictionary of Philosophy . 2nd edition, Leipzig 1923, Volume 2, p. 305 f. ( online ).
- ↑ Uwe Backes : "Ideokratie" - a concept historical sketch . In: Uwe Backes, Steffen Kailitz (ed.): Ideocracies in comparison. Legitimation - Cooptation - Repression . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-36962-3 , p. 40 ( online ).
- ^ Irena Grudzinska Gross: Captive Mind, The (Miłosz) . In: The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism . 2015, doi : 10.1002 / 9781118663202.wberen431 .