Werner Seppmann

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Werner Seppmann (* 1950 ; † May 12, 2021 ) was a German sociologist and social philosopher .

Life

After completing his second education , Werner Seppmann studied social sciences and philosophy and was awarded a Dr. rer. soc doctorate. Until 2009 Seppmann was a member of the DKP and up to this point co-editor and author of the Marxist papers . He was the author of the daily newspaper Junge Welt . Seppmann was a board member and temporarily chairman of the Marx-Engels-Foundation . Topics of Seppmann's work were among other things the Marxism research, social structure analysis and ideology criticism . He also dealt withSocial Philosophy and Cultural Sociology .

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Werner Seppmann's social science work focuses on the ideological and cultural forms of reproduction of late capitalist societies: how do existing (and economically based) power relations become consolidated? In this context, the question of why the obvious contradictions of social development do not manifest themselves in resistance patterns of attitudes, but why those affected by crisis-ridden upheavals seemingly willingly submit to a supposed "fate" plays a leading role in research. Seppmann demonstrated this willingness to submit to self-submission in his study “ Exclusion and Domination. Precarisation as a class issue ” (2013) as an expression of a new mode of rule that forces adaptation and submission through uncertainty. With this volume, the class-analytical studies are continued, as Seppmann did them in the volume “The denied class. On the Working Class Today ”(2011) .

Criticism of objectivism

Seppmann developed his basic methodological principles in the two monographs S ubjekt und System (2011) and Das Elend der Philosophie , dealing with traditional but also updated forms of dogmatic Marxism (as represented by Louis Althusser 's school of thought ). The focus of the study Misery of Philosophy is the examination of Althusser and his “structural Marxist” point of view. At the same time, this volume represents an attempt to reconstruct the core orientations of Marx's thought: historical materialism , the method of a concrete dialectic , the humanistic horizon of orientation and analytical competence based on alienation theory.

Capitalism as a system context

In the tradition of a critical understanding of Marxism, on the basis of method-critical reflections, Seppmann deals with the question of the tension between theoretical generalizations and detailed social-scientific analysis so that the given possibilities of knowledge can be exhausted. Seppmann emphasizes that critical thinking in the line of tradition of Marx must be philosophically founded, but must always be empirically "reassured" ("Marxism and philosophy") : historical-materialistic science must be equally oriented "logically" and "historically".

A prominent role in Seppmann's investigations is the question of why the thought patterns shaped by the prevailing forms of practice, which convey a distorted social understanding and, as a rule, also contradict the interests of a majority of the population, are nevertheless very popular. ("Critique of Social Consciousness").

When dealing with the ideological mediation processes (which at the subject level increasingly have the character of submission and self-instrumentalization processes), social-psychological analysis instruments are activated, whereby the aim is not to psychologize social processes, but rather the part of the psychic in the social reproductive processes the consolidation of existing power structures to work out. Seppmann emphasizes that an understanding of the behavior of social subjects requires the analysis of psychological structures, individual driving forces, motivations, needs, worries and fears. Due to its reality-scientific character, Seppmann considers Marx's theory to be in principle predestined to be able to grasp and integrate new developments and methods of knowledge.

Dialectic of decivilization

As part of his overall analysis of contemporary capitalism based on social, cultural and ideological theory , Seppmann has presented detailed studies that are based on the work program that he outlined in the book Risk Capitalism . The studies of civilizational regression processes ("Dialectics of decivilization. Crisis, Irrationalism and Violence") , of which the increasing amok attitudes are only the tip of the crisis-ridden developments that have a deep impact on everyday life and have harmful effects on the subject, occupy a special place .

In contrast to what Norbert Elias described, for Seppmann the process of civilization is repeatedly threatened by setbacks. Especially when necessary changes are hindered or socialization instances are damaged, which ensure psychological self-stabilization effects. As “individually” widespread aggressiveness and violence as is often associated with self-destructive tendencies, they ultimately result from competitive social living conditions that produce a permanent experience of insecurity and convey the feeling of existential homelessness, the effects of which are so emphatic because future-oriented ideas are not socio-friendly - have more room for cultural development. According to Seppmann, individuals feel tied to an alienated present through the widespread future pessimism.

Postmodern science destruction

Seppmann diagnoses socio-cultural regression processes, which are also expressed in the fact that current capitalism "produces" subjects with a fragmented identity structure and an anti-social self-reference because it needs "flexible", adaptable and unscrupulous subjects for its continued existence: (Self) For Seppmann, alienation has therefore become a prerequisite for socio-economic functionality, because securing social livelihoods increasingly requires an instrumentalized attitude towards others, but also an obsessive relationship with oneself.

A fundamental perspective uncertainty and constitutive unpredictability of social relations stimulated according Seppmann also intellectual adaptation and Desorientierungsprozesse, through the particular intensity a so-called "Post-modern thinking" is characterized ( "The End of social criticism"?) , From a normative relativism (a decision between good and bad have become obsolete) and any assessment of right and wrong is questioned. Social life no longer has any perspective or a point of orientation, it is “contingent” and has no meaning. Well-perceived socio-cultural contradictions are stylized by postmodern thinking with a gesture of cynical “serenity” as “no alternative”. According to Seppmann's considerations, socio-cultural regression tendencies are stylized with narcissistic complacency to express a refined “modernity”.

Since a future is no longer given positive meaning, according to Seppmann's postulate, all concentration should be directed to the moment and understood as a development space for consistent self-reference. According to the postmodernist understanding, this must be done in the awareness that no one can safely assume to exist with the others in the same world (understood as a socio-cultural living space). Egocentrism is therefore an inevitable point of orientation in times of an alleged "end of utopias".

Crisis without resistance?

In the context of his concrete social analyzes, Seppmann focuses on the processes of subjective crisis processing, which usually lead to uncertainty, adaptation, submission and abstinence from practice ("Crisis without resistance?") . Politicians that want to change society have to deal with those inhibiting factors that make it difficult to expressly represent their own interests. In general, according to Seppmann's view, every political movement that feels committed to the interests of a majority requires the elaboration of reflected knowledge about the character of current capitalism and its development tendencies. The volume “Criticism of Capitalism and Conception of Socialism ”, published in 2013, contains an overall analysis of the practical conditions of progressive politics (with a detailed analysis of the “New Social Movements”, especially the Left Party) . In which society do we live? "

Seppmann's current right-wing radicalism study “There is a ghost about In Europe. Right mobilization between populism and neo-fascism ”(2018) , which is supported by a study on the “ sleep of reason. Right-wing extremism and the failure of the intelligentsia ” should be added.

Criticism of the computer

The focus of the comprehensive study published in 2017 on “Critique of the Computer. Capitalism and Digitalization ” (2017) raises the question of what (problematic) consequences the current computerization processes have on people's feelings, thoughts and actions and through which microelectronic mechanisms and mediation processes capitalism creates the subjects that it uses high-tech development phase is required. Seppmann questions the reality content of the widespread (as well as catastrophic ) ideas about the computer and a supposed "knowledge society": Does digital communication technology actually intensify communicative relationships? Is the Internet a Knowledge Machine? But also: Will the robots rule us and the use of computers destroy adequate employment opportunities?

In preparatory studies for the computer book, which deals with the overall complex “digitization and society”, Seppmann presented a study on the effects of computerization on everyday conditions: “Rule machine or emancipation machine? On Society and Computers ”(2016) .

Concrete class analysis

In 2017, the first volume of a six-volume selection edition of Werner Seppmann's class analysis studies was published: “Capital and Labor: Class Analysis I” . Announced a more extensive class analytical study: "The fragmentarisierte class. Structural changes in the working class ” .

Seppmann's preoccupation with his theoretical reference positions (alongside Hegel , Marx and Engels , above all Georg Lukács , Leo Kofler , Herbert Marcuse and later also Thomas Metscher ) is essentially not motivated by philology ; It is not limited to a “reconstruction” of these “approaches”, but rather focuses on their methodological and contemporary analytical “use value”.

Fonts

  • Marxism and Anthropology. Festschrift for Leo Kofler, (edited together with Ernst Bloch and Dietrich Garstka ), Germinal Verlag, Bochum 1980, ISBN 978-3-88663-102-5 .
  • Structure and Subject 1991.
  • Subject and system. On the criticism of structural Marxism. To Klampen Verlag 1993, ISBN 978-3-9242-4527-6 .
  • Dialectic of decivilization. Crisis, irrationalism and violence. Papyrossa Verlag 1995.
  • The end of social criticism? PapyRossa Verlag 2000.
  • "Failed modernity"? “Postmodern thinking” as a crisis ideology . In: Hermann Kopp and ders. (Ed.): Failed modernity? On the ideological criticism of postmodernism . Neue-Impulse Verlag, Essen 2002.
  • The topicality of the criticism of capitalism. Neue Impulse Verlag, 2002.
  • Exclusion and exploitation. Neue Impulse Verlag, 2004.
  • Project Class Analysis @ BRD, Doubt about the Proletariat - Return of the Proletarity. Contributions to the class analysis vol. I, edited together with Ekkehard Lieberam , Neue Impulse Verlag, Essen 2006, ISBN 978-3-9100-8062-1 .
  • Project class analysis @ BRD, restructuring of the class society. Contributions to the class analysis vol. II, edited together with Ekkehard Lieberam , Neue Impulse Verlag, Essen 2006, ISBN 978-3-9100-8062-1 .
  • Project class analysis @ BRD, social crash. From GDR society to capitalist class society. Contributions to class analysis Vol. III, edited together with Ekkehard Lieberam , Neue Impulse Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-910080-64-5 .
  • Project class analysis @ BRD, more profit - more poverty. Precarization and class contradiction. Contributions to the class analysis vol. IV, edited together with Ekkehard Lieberam , Neue Impulse Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-9100-8066-9 .
  • Contours of a sustainable Marxism. PapyRossa Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8943-8392-3 .
  • Liberated Eros? About capitalism and sexuality. in: Heike Friauf (Ed.): Eros and Politics. Against the alienation of humans. With pictures and graphics by Thomas J. Richter , Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-89144-408-5 .
  • Crisis without resistance? Culture machines 2010.
  • The Denied Class - Working Class Today. Culture machines, 2011.
  • Risk capitalism - crisis processes, experiences of contradictions and perspectives of resistance. PapyRossa Verlag, 2011.
  • Subject and System - The Long Shadow of Objectivism. Laika-Verlag , Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-9422-8195-9 .
  • Marxism and Philosophy: About Leo Kofler and Hans Heinz Holz. Culture machines, 2012.
  • Dialectic of decivilization. Laika Verlag, Hamburg 2012.
  • Exclusion and domination. Precarization as a class issue. Laika Verlag, Hamburg 2013.
  • Aesthetics of Submission. The example of Documenta Laika Verlag, Hamburg 2013.
  • Criticism of capitalism and conception of socialism. What society do we live in? Culture machines, Berlin 2013.
  • Neoliberalism, precarization and the loss of civilization. The long shadow of Hartz IV. pad-Verlag, Bergkamen 2015.
  • Rule machine or emancipation machine? About society and computers. pad-Verlag, Bergkamen 2016.
  • Together Erich Hahn and Thomas Metscher: Critique of Social Consciousness. About Marxism and ideology. Laika Verlag, Hamburg 2016.
  • Together with Peter Rath-Sangkhakorn: Uprising of the masses? Right-wing populist mobilization and left counter-strategies. pad-Verlag, Bergkamen 2017.
  • Criticism of the computer. Capitalism and the digitization of the social. Mangroven Verlag, Kassel 2017, ISBN 978-3-946946-02-1 .
  • Capital and Labor: Class Analysis I. Mangroven Verlag, Kassel 2017, ISBN 978-3-9469-4600-7 .
  • A ghost is haunting in Europe. Right mobilization between populism and neo-fascism. Left alternatives, Kassel 2018, ISBN 978-3-9469-4606-9 .
  • The misery of philosophy. About Louis Althusser . Mangroven Verlag, Kassel 2020, ISBN 978-3-9469-4601-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Faculty of Social Science: Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Science. In: Structure and Subject. On the justification problem of a critical Marxism. Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 1992, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Werner Seppmann as an author at glasnost.de
  3. ↑ Werner Seppmann resigned from the DKP. ( Memento from December 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: KomInform.at from December 20, 2009
  4. ^ Werner Seppmann: Opening of the congress by Werner Seppmann. In: Marxist sheets. Archived from the original on April 14, 2015 ; accessed on August 16, 2019 .
  5. ↑ The everyday culture in the crisis by Werner Seppmann, Marxistische Blätter, edition 01/06  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.neue-impulse-verlag.de  
  6. ↑ Destroyed Future by Werner Seppmann, Junge Welt, June 28, 2010
  7. ↑ Dialectic of Adaptation by Werner Seppmann, Junge Welt, June 26, 2010
  8. ^ Board of Directors of the Marx Engels Foundation, March 2013 ( Memento from March 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Author's website at mangroven-verlag
  10. ^ Laika Verlag: Exclusion and rule. In: Laika Verlag. Laika Verlag, March 2013, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Dr. Ulrich Kobbé: Review. In: Socialnet. socialnet GmbH, November 29, 2011, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Glasnost: The End of Social Criticism? 2000, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Werner Seppmann: There is a ghost in Europe - right-wing mobilization between populism and neo-fascism. In: Mangroven-Verlag. 2018, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Reinhard Jellen : The man who warns against computers. In: Telepolis. Heise online, December 24, 2017, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  15. ↑ LabourNet: rule machine or emancipation machine? About society and computers. In: Labornet Germany. labournet.de eV, July 19, 2016, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Interview with Werner Seppmann: Against the transfigured view of digitization processes and computer use. In: https://www.labournet.de/ . pad-verlag, July 2016, accessed on April 12, 2020 .
  17. ^ Mangroven-Verlag: Klassenanalysen I - Capital and Labor. In: Mangroven-Verlag. 2020, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Failed modernity? Book on the publisher's side. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  19. ↑ Laika Verlag: Aesthetics of Submission - The Documenta Example. Laika Verlag, March 2013, accessed April 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Seppmann, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1950
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2021