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Document Details : Title: Betovering als antropologische conditie in de moderniteit Subtitle: 'Dépossession' en de roep van buitenaf Author(s): VAN BEECK, Evelien Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie Volume: 86 Issue: 2 Date: 2024 Pages: 291-328 DOI: 10.2143/TVF.86.2.3293674 Abstract : Theorists and critics of the narrative of enchantment agree that there is such a thing as the experience of enchantment, and that this experience has philosophical, and even existential value. In this article, I aim to show that the need for and capacity to experience enchantment is an anthropological condition that makes humans, in a proper sense, human. In order to argue for this thesis, I appeal to the classical enchantment theorist Marcel Gauchet, more specifically to the dynamics of dépossession he encounters in human sense-making. History shows that this voluntarily chosen dynamic of dispossession was meaningful/enchanting for human beings until the advent of modernity. Paradoxically, handing over his destiny to a god or gods allowed the human being to appropriate himself. Gauchet teaches us how Christian dynamics drove man towards autonomy. For modern man, however, the path to finding meaning for himself has not been evident. Gauchet remarks that modernity has lost some (classic, religious) heteronomous sources for arriving at meaning. I endeavor to identify other heteronomous sources that remain available for modern individuals, building on enchantment thinkers Jane Bennett and Akeel Bilgrami. They show that the world is still enchanted and rich in external sources of meaning. Moreover, there’s ‘a call from outside’ to find enchantment. If this is the case, would dépossession still be a fruitful path to individual enchantment today? |
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