Letters To My Grandchildren

Reinhold Knoll, Kenneth Quandt

Description

Distinguished Austrian sociologist Reinhold Knoll’s letters to his grandchildren, written daily during the Covid-19 pandemic, evolved into an obituary of European culture, politics, and society. They also embody a gesture of thanks to the United States, which took a different path from Europe and then saved it in World War I and World War II.Like Beethoven’s piano sonatas, some of Professor Knoll’s letters are light and humorous while others plumb the depths of the human psyche. But each brings the past into the present, often enhanced by Viennese ironic wit, with recondite and penetrating observations on enlightenment and revolution, art and music, social thought, the devolution of the museum, the status of the church, migration, fashions in pedagogy, and the role of technology in society. This is the remarkable work of a balanced conscience in troubled times.America owes most of its cultural and spiritual traditions to the erstwhile European stewardship of a legacy that goes back to Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome – the subject, verb, and predicate of our human story, – though Europe now finds itself in a crisis of confidence with profound warnings for the American reader.

Sujets

• Political Science
• PHILOSOPHY
• Western culture
• Sociology
• The Decline of the West
• Modernity
• Decadence
• General officer
• History of Europe
• General
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Academica Press
• Date de parution: 17 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781680538755
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Letters to My Grandchildren
Reinhold Knoll
Translated by Kenneth Quandt
2022
Academica Press
Washington∼London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Knoll, Reinhold (author) | Quandt, Kenneth (translator)
Title: Letters to my grandchildren | Knoll, Reinhold. Kenneth Quandt
Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2022. | Includes references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022941204 | ISBN 9781680538748 (hardcover) | 9781680538755 (e-book)
Copyright 2022 Reinhold Knoll
Table of Contents Foreword Apology of the Translator 1. The First Step in Science 2. How Knowledge Builds 3. The Reality of Nature and the Reality of Society 4. Fruitful Doubt 5. Politics and Philosophy 6. Between Marxism and Phenomenology 7. Consciousness a Creature of Technology 8. What is an Hypothesis? 9. What is a Theory? 10. A Plea for Humor 11. Politics and Philosophy Again 12. What is Luck? 13. Are We Still of Any Use? 14. Non schola sed vita discimus … 15. Who Teaches Us Human Rights? 16. A Sketch of Industrial Culture 17. Enlightenment in a Good Sense 18. Remembrance and Memory 19. Does a Theory of History Exist? 20. On Responsibility 21. Conceptions of Humanity 22. History as a Fantasy 23. What Can Empiricism Resolve? 24. Were the “Good Old Days” Good? 25. Signs of an End Time? 26. Shadows of Modernity 27. A Crisis of Credibility 28. On Language and Speaking 29. De amicitia 30. The Encounter with Painting 31. Who Determines our Social Abilities? 32. The Problem of Comprehensibility 33. Understanding History through Music 34. Portrait of an Aunt 35. Stories about Little Rascals 36. How History Influences Political Philosophy 37. What Does Architecture Tell Us? 38. The Old Relation between Art and Politics 39. State of Mind as a Virtue 40. Pedagogy Offsides 41. “Culture” as a Political Instrument 42. A Refusal to Look? 43. A View on the Sociology of Religion 44. Bruno Kreisky – Politics and Emotion 45. A Glimpse into My Life-World 46. Reconstruction of a Family 47. Cold Feet 48. Schools and Education Policy 49. Thoughts on Music 50. Is Social Integration Failing? 51. Sociology as a Department 52. The Fate of Language 53. Theater and Politics 54. From Cultural Competence to Knowledge 55. An Excursion through European History 56. You Can Always Resist! 57. Can a University be Reformed? 58. Science – the “Second Nature” 59. A Second Gift: Life 60. A Grotesque 61. Is Art Prophetic? 62. What is Consciousness? 63. … if I may start from myself … 64. Remarks on Beethoven 65. On Pitch, Sound, and Silence 66. What is To Be Painted? 67. Language between the Dyslexic and the Infantile 68. Christmas as Rebirth 69. Troubles with Technology 70. An Etymology of Peace 71. The Lodge: a Mysterious Organization 72. Does Information Change Anything? 73. Is It All Meaningless? 74. A Political Miscellany 75. What Can Be Known? 76. A Shock in Washington 77. On the End of Emperors and the Sultan 78. How Rare is Political Virtue? 79. Is There Social Politics After All? 80. Looking Back on a Lecture 81. Does our Present Have Historical Substance? 82. What Kind of a Present Do We Have? 83. Another Look at Vienna 84. How Prussia Became “Germany” 85. Social Reality in a Crime Novel 86. Are Crime Novels Frivolous? 87. Natura naturans, natura naturata 88. Why Property Cannot be Theft 89. The Political Message of Music 90. A Monument for Johann Strauss 91. Sociology as a Department in Decline 92. May One Be a Model Student? 93. Florence 94. The Return of Antiquity and the Gods 95. What Disappears with the Word “modern?” 96. What Does a “Fail” at School Mean? 97. The Messages of Music 98. Thoughts on the Biosphere 99. The Holy Landscapes: Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome 100. On Astonishment 101. “How happy it is still to be a child” – Albert Lortzing 102. What is Politics? Again 103. The Church’s Crisis is Also Our Crisis 104. On the University 105. On Reading 106. Hope Against Hopelessness 107. From Painting to Poetry 108. What is the Significance of Beauty? 109. The Calamity of Aesthetics 110. On the Question of Power 111. A Closing Cadence Afterword Index of Names and Family Tree
Foreword
The pandemic held the year 2021 in a firm grip. Vienna’s respite from the floods of traffic and tourism drew an eerie contrast with the worldwide infection. At the same time the limiting of visits with family and friends was straining. There was nothing left to me than to write my grandchildren: to see them and talk with them I could not do. And so the first letter was addressed to a school child. It was very uppity of me to impose upon Nina the question why 2 x 2 = 4! The circle of addressees soon came to include all the grandchildren, and the topics of the letters became more and more challenging significant.
The original purpose of the project had changed. No longer was I writing in a “child-friendly” way to children. I wrote about my ideas, my experiences, and my observations – the things that have formed my life. In these the socio-historical turning points of my country – 1945, 1955, 1970, 1995, from National Socialism to joining the European Union – played an important role.
With the publication of these letters every reader immediately enters my life. Soon the combining and juxtaposition of subjects becomes evident. The excuse for this is easy: it is a indeed a review of social science and history, art and political observations, music and religion. Every reader will automatically become skeptical: Why should my life be of interest to him, already a life of yesterday? These “documents” are no “memoir” about birth, background, and career. Rather they present a view of an “Austrian” world. And they have much to say to the USA, not just about Mozart and Sigmund Freud!
It says a lot that it was “Americans” who reconstructed Austrian history after 1945 – from Alfred Diamant to Carl E. Schorske, and Charles A. Gulick to William Johnston. The unexpected publication of these letters in the USA is a gesture of my thanks. Publishing them in Austria would in any case be viewed askance. This is how bad things are at present. To this day the aftermath of National Socialism has poisoned all sincerity. Changing the accent of political affiliation and party is powerless against this: we need a broader change of emphasis. It is the overall sense of these letters to give to the next generation a panorama of what has happened, what is needed, and what is possible. And when the propositions of science become arid, it is architecture, painting, music, and literature that provide the complement to the picture. It is a perennial feature of Austria to think in terms of the possible – at least this was the case just before and just after 1918.
From this “panorama” stems an inspiration to defeat the monocularity of the several sciences. Kant once called it “cyclopean.” The objection is against specialization in the sciences. The warning against it is needed now more than ever. To prevent the pictures drawn in the letters lead to a feeling of pessimism humor serves as a necessary antidote. It was retained here on principle: indeed humor was once the distinguishing mark of what is Austrian, in the social criticism from Johann Nestroy to Billy Wilder to Thomas Bernhard.
In the later letters wishes for the future become more and more important. With the current increase in belligerence and aggressiveness around 2020, wishes might seem groundless. These days it is common to anticipate a tendency toward the worse. Wishes have no place in this. So there is a general prejudice against them. It lies with the next generation to contradict the putative “logic” of history. The wish is, “Arise, Abel!”
–Reinhold Knoll, Vienna January 7, 2022.
Apology of the Translator
It appears to be the lot of our species to see the most important things “through a glass darkly.” Attempts to ameliorate this condition rather than submit to its mystery characterize modernity since the Enlightenment, whether by seeking refuge within our own thought horizon all else transcendent, by replacing what is nascently organic with a systematization that makes its living foregone and unnecessary, or by chastening the fancies of our consciousness under the sophomoric schoolmarm of ordinary language. Such attempts have only enslaved us to our weakness. Phenomenology finally rebelled, not with enlightenment or a solution but a cry for authenticity, its strength being in its weakness; yet now we surrender our thought, unbeknownst, to the cybernetic dictates of a computer that knows us only to rob us.
This is the fil directeur running through these letters, an admonition for the future, which the Reader will perforce find obscure. Let him remember that at times even the prophets did not understand what they were saying. I have translated them because of their truth, and could not have been confident of my translation without the extensive help of Professor Knoll’s student, Francesca Bisanti, whose redoubtable linguistic skills have removed most of my errors but whose empathy for their author has succeeded to preserve the texture, paradox, indirect humor, and occasional high tone of his writing.
Kenneth Quandt
San Francisco, March 15, 2022.
1. The First Step in Science
Dear Nina,
I wish you a pleasant day – free of troubles and full of new things. I hope that school will add to your store of facts, and that you can make good use of them. Of course, the things you learn set you a path of their own: they can be strengthened by experiences and at the same time can be corrected and improved by contradictions, which will always come up. The things we learn are not settled forever but have an ongoing life in our thinking.
What I am here writing to you is the beginning of a philosophy of science: Would you be amused just thinking whether your teachers might have some use for it?
All the best, Your R.
2. How Knowledge Builds
Dear Nina,
Last time I wrote you about learning facts, how one takes possession of them or, we migh