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Myths of everyday life

Erika Matsunami

The fact that we cannot manage to achieve more than an unstable grasp of reality doubtless gives the measure of our present alienation: we constantly drift between the object and its demystification, powerless to render its wholeness. For if we penetrate the object, we liberate it but we destroy it; and if we acknowledge its full weight, we respect it, but we restore it to a state which is still mystified. It would seem that we are condemned for some time yet always to speak excessively about reality. This is probably because ideologism and its opposite are types of behaviour which are still magical, terrorized, blinded and fascinated by the split in the social world. And yet, this is what we must seek: a reconciliation between reality and men, between description and explanation, between object and knowledge. (Barthes, 1957/1972)¹

This enigmatic text is a citation from the last paragraph of Necessity and limits of mythology by Roland Barthes. Barthes had written monthly from 1954 to 1956. At the time, he constantly tried to think about some of the myths of everyday French life. I revisit Barthes’s thoughts about his final sentence, which can be found in the excerpt above. It is indirectly related to Hegel’s aesthetics on creativity and its intellectual creation. It has profound implications in the digital age. As in past times of change, the economy is an important social issue in the digital age. However, its relevance as a democratic political issue faces specifically modern challenges. In today’s modern society there are diverse options for global and international communication as well as the enormous amount of information that comes with it. The fact that we cannot do more than perceiving the instability of reality without doubting it, gives us a measure of our current marginalization. Today’s information is a lot more than the belief that we do not perceive, but the understanding of things in context. This picture has pitfalls that briefly explain this complex information society. The picture cannot properly recognize pitfalls. There is a gap between the complex digital information society and the existence of perception. You cannot touch it, you cannot smell it because you cannot perceive the complex digital information society. It is likely that the risk will have to be assessed individually and alone.

Barthes mentions "This is probably because ideologism and its opposite are types of behavior which are still magical, terrorized, blinded and fascinated by the split in the social world.", "ideologism" is based on "symbolism", although Barthes didn't mention towards "idealism". "its opposite are types of behavior which are still magical, terrorized, blinded and fascinated by the split in the social world." (I think that the students' movement in France and in the world.) is biological life and alive, and "And yet, this is what we must seek: a reconciliation between reality and men, between description and explanation, between object and knowledge. " (which are not towards "idealism", that is probably of the process of human (geistig) evolution through the experiences.
Now, in the 21st century, we have a new experience with non-human in our society and informational experiences without physical.
Can we so recognise, as if the informational experience is an intellectual (geistig) experience?

Question on openness, which topic  relates to the enviroment.

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A Nordic night in summer

In einem Festsaal, ein gemeinsames Abendessen in einem Weißen Nacht, lauschen die Stimmen der 'baritone', 'tenor', 'soprano', betonte von forte bis pianissimo durch den Raum – Echodynamik.

Dabei fließen die Wörter in verschiedenen Sprachen, die  alles im Zufall klingen.

Durch den klanglichen Zufall macht es eine zusammenschließende Wörter des nordischen Nachts. – Eine magische Welt öffnet sich.

(In a ballroom, a dinner together on a white night, the voices of the 'baritone', 'tenor', 'soprano' listen, emphasized from forte to pianissimo through the room – echo dynamics.

The words flow in different languages, which all sound random.

By tonal coincidence, it makes a unifying word of the Nordic night. – A magical world opens up.)

White violet in a summer night for us,

that is MA (間)*, an empty space in between,

it is an adoption in between two different spaces of.

– Its mythic expression through the phenomena of Nature.

¹ Mythologies, Roland Barthes, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1957, selected and translated from French by Annette Lavers, London, Paladin, 1972.

 *MA (間)

In traditional Japanese music, ‘Ma’ is similar to jazz ‘after beat’. But it is mute and not an interval or break that is active. The idea is that there is a space and time, which does not appear on the surface. Things consist of the relationship between the space and time behind them and in front or in-between. The wholeness does not consist of rationality, but it is composed of leeway (Spielraum) as a connection. It can be a black hole. However, there is no dualism in this culture. In science, we can study this idea in dynamics as well as in mechanics. The aspect is different from da Vinci’s idea of the body. An example of the transculturality of ‘Ma’ in design is Bauhaus in Germany. Hundred years ago, a group of artists transformed their idea into their designs in the artistic research together with dynamics, mechanics, and mathematics. In doing so, they had created something new. 

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Determinante

Formale Sprache

Abstraktion in der Mathematik

Infinitesimalrechnung

Liste mathematischer Symbole

Liste bedeutender Mathematiker

Die Phänomenologie des Geistes ist das 1807 veröffentlichte erste Hauptwerk des Philosophen Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Es stellt den Ersten Theil seines Systems der Wissenschaft dar. Der „Phänomenologie“ sollte sich die Darstellung der „Realen Wissenschaften“ anschließen – die „Philosophie der Natur“ und die des „Geistes“.

Hegel entwickelt in dieser Wissenschaft von den Erscheinungsweisen des Geistes das Emporsteigen des Geistes von der einfachen, naiven Wahrnehmung über das Bewusstsein, das Selbstbewusstsein, die Vernunft, Geist und Geschichte, die Offenbarung bis hin zum absoluten Wissen des Weltgeistes. Dabei untersucht er das Werden der Wissenschaft als Einheit von Inhalt und Methode sowie die Erscheinungen des Geistes als Verwirklichung unseres Selbst, als Einheit von Sein und Nichts ebenso wie als absolute Ganzheit. Ort der Wahrheit ist dabei der Begriff im wissenschaftlichen System und nicht die Anschauung. Die Erkenntnis der Wahrheit liegt in der Einsicht, dass die Gegensätzlichkeit von Subjekt und Objekt dialektisch auf einem höheren Niveau aufgehoben wird, da das eine nicht ohne das andere existiert, beide also eine Einheit bilden.

Das Werk setzt sich sowohl mit erkenntnistheoretischen als auch ethischen und geschichtsphilosophischen Grundfragen auseinander. Von besonderer Bedeutung ist die Rezeption des Kapitels über das Selbstbewusstsein, das die dialektische Betrachtung von Herrschaft und Knechtschaft enthält und ein wesentlicher Ausgangspunkt für Marx' Beschäftigung mit der Analyse der Klassenverhältnisse in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft war.