Annotation
The aim of the course consists in the identification and the critical assessment of metaphors that the modern thought (since the end of 16th century until the Enlightenment) has established as guiding principles for our self-understanding as well as grounds for our conceptions of Nature, State and Society. These metaphors, such as Body-Machine, Social contract or the Book of Nature written in the language of mathematics, have since become an implicit part of our thinking and they continue ever since to orient – often in an unreflected manner – our worldview.
Our attempt to clarify the origins of these ideas and concepts follows the task formulated by Jacques Derrida with regards to our own cultural tradition: “it is necessary to draw on the heritage and its memory for the conceptual tools that allow one to challenge the limits that this heritage has imposed up to now.“ Following Derrida´s call, we propose to critically discuss some of the constitutive rhetorical figures that are crucial for the birth of European modernity.