تورستن بوتز- بورنشتاين ▪トルステン ボッツ-ボーンシュタイン ▪ 德思腾 博茨-博恩施坦
Béla Tarr
「思惟」の目的は「真理の究明」にあり. 西田幾多郎
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein is a philosopher working on continental philosophy, aesthetics, intercultural philosophy, and comparative philosophy. He holds a Maîtrise from the Sorbonne, a Ph.D. from Oxford University (1993) and a habilitation from the EHESS in Paris (2000). He is Professor of Philosophy at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait, the director of the Global Studies Center (GSC), and the editor of the GSC Newsletter. He is also Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Brill book series “Philosophy of Film” and of the Online Dictionary of Intercultural Philosophy (ODIP). He is also on the editorial board of the Brill Studies in Intercultural Philosophy series. BOTZWANA is the official website of Thorsten Botz-Bornstein.
SUNY Press 2023 ("Translating China" Series), 226 p.
"Intriguing, thought-provoking, and engaging, this book conducts a philosophical analysis of a sensitive political issue. It not only promotes a textual study of Daoist philosophy, but, more importantly, shows how Daoist philosophy can be relevant to understanding the vast ‘language correction project’ of the present moment.”
— Robin R. Wang, author of Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture
THE "ALTERLIBERALISM" TRILOGY:
Foreword by Olivier Roy. Bloomsbury July 2019, xiii + 234 pp.
"This bold and laudably readable defense of the humanities links both the market worship of the neoliberal right and the empty relativism of the left to the abandonment of culture in kitsch. Even more, it offers clever and detailed analyses of a full range of contemporary sensibilities.” Gary Cross, author of The Cute and the Cool
“The book is both an ardent and well–argued defense for the leading role of the humanities in contemporary world and academia—the only reliable way to reculturation.” Mikhail Epstein
"Botz-Bornstein shows that everything is kitsch, from art to ethics or knowledge because everything is the hazardous recomposition of signifiers that refer only to themselves and to the gaze of the spectator who looks for what he has already found: a narcissistic evidence. " Olivier Roy
Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, xv + 201 pp.
“Joyfully tearing down the compartment walls that conventionally separate fascist studies from research into jihadism and gleefully crossing the boundaries between aesthetics and politics, Thorsten Botz-Bornstein challenges—or, rather, provokes—the reader to reconfigure the space that fascist and terrorist destructiveness occupy in the contemporary media, party-political, and historical imaginations." Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University
Brill 2020 (VIBS 353), 201 pp.
What role can philosophy play in a world dominated by neoliberalism and globalization? Must it join universalist ideologies as it did in past centuries? Or might it turn to ethnophilosophy and postmodern fragmentation? Micro and Macro Philosophy argues that universalist cosmopolitanism and egocentric culturalism are not the only alternatives. Western philosophy has created a false dichotomy. A better solution can be found in an organic philosophy that functions through micro–macro interactions. According to biologists, the twentieth century was the century of the gene, while the twenty-first century is destined to be the century of the organic. Micro and Macro Philosophy attempts to establish such a view in philosophy:
Film, Architecture, and the work of Béla Tarr
Berghahn, 2017, 221 pp.
“A magisterial, transdisciplinary contribution and brilliant comparative analysis of a major contemporary filmmaker” Catherine Portuges, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"... has the potential to create a new platform." Studies in Eastern European Cinema
"An impressive multidisciplinary examination of the concept of organicism ." Invisible Culture
"Organic Cinema is blowing new life in the philosophical considerations of contemplation and nature that were once thought to be outdated." Aesthetic Investigations
"A non-standard piece on film with a new suggestions and new readings" The Art(s) of Slow Cinema
Transcultural Architecture:
The Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism
Ashgate/Routledge 2015, xviii, 202 pp.
More about the book
Read review in Fusion Journal
Films and Dreams
Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrik and Wong Kar-Wai
Lexington 2007, xi + 169 pp.
"Films and Dreams contains a great deal of vital argument which ... should provide a great deal of impetus for much needed discussion" Screening the Past
"Botz-Bornstein's cosmopolitanism is not just a matter of research agenda and academic affiliations, but it is what might be called a 'philosophical cosmopolitanism'... Parallax Read review
"A candidate for being your bedside book" Kultur Mafia Video in Spanish
More about the book Download Chapter 1
Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos
The New Feminine Aesthetics
"A unique and seminal work of extraordinary scholarship. ... Very highly recommended for both community and academic library Feminist Studies and Islamic Culture collections." Midwest Book Review
"...an entertaining, informative, unusual, current and well-written book." The Journal of Gender Studies. Read Review
Read review in Corpus Mundi (the book actually has 214 pages though the reviewer says it has only 92)
The Cool-Kawaii
Afro-Japanese Aesthetics and New World Modernity
Lexington 2011, xxii + 184 pp.
"How Afro-Japanese Aesthetics conquers the world..."
"By investigating the rich manifestations of two globalizing aesthetics—cuteness and coolness—Thorsten Botz-Bornstein offers a subtle interpretation that explores the nexus of consumerism, virtual reality, and ethics." — Brian J. McVeigh, University of Arizona.
Vasily Sesemann: Experience, Formalism
and the Question of Being
Author: Thorsten Botz-Bornstein
Rodopi 2006, 144 pp.
"A competent and enlightening description of the complicated philosophical milieu which provided the background to Sesemann's philosophical endeavours. ... Botz-Bornstein's study disentangles the strands with both historical competence and sensitivity." Lithuanian Papers
Aesthetics and Politics of Space in Russia and Japan:
A Comparative Philosophical Study
Lexington 2009, 169 pp.
"An intellectual tour-de-force..." — Michael F. Marra, University of California-Los Angeles.
More about the book
"This erudite, expansive book undertakes a study of convergences between the aesthetic manifestations and political implications of Russian and Japanese philosophies of space." Slavic and East European Journal Read review
Place and Dream:
Japan and the Virtual
Rodopi 2004
E-book from Fachinformationsdienst (FID) and Specialised Information Service (SIS)
II. Edited Volumes:
Tracking
Global
Wokeism
Parasite: A Philosophical Exploration
(On the film Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho)
Brill 2022
Coedited with Giannis Stamatellos
Go to the Brill "Philosophy of Film" Series
봉준호
기생충
Plotinus and the Moving Image:
Co-edited with Giannis Stamatellos. Brill 2017.
"A truly Plotinian attempt to philosophize about cinema." The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition
Preface by Nathan Andersen
The Philosophy of Viagra
Bioethical Responses to the Viagrification of the Modern World
Editor, Rodopi 2011
"It helped me understand how humanities professors have an important place in sexuality studies..." Leonore Tiefer, Clinical Psychologist and Activist. Read review
"Believe it or not, a burgeoning world of Viagra scholarship awaits us out there." The Chronicle of Higher Education Read review
Special Journal Issues:
In preparation:
The Aesthetics and Ethics of the
Toxic
The Polish Journal of Aesthetics
Special issue on a not very new phenomenon. Issue 63: 4, 2022.
Edited by Thorsten Botz-Bornstein and Adrian Mróz
Daruma
Revue international d'etudes japonaises
No 14, 2007-2008
Special issue on Japanese architecture (in French)
Edited by Thorsten Botz-Bornstein
Download PDF
III. Fiction:
2019. 100 pages. ISBN: 9781704928814. $8 on Amazon.
We are in the year 2059. Boubyan Island, which is situated three kilometers off the north shore of Kuwait, is inhabited by five million Chinese. After the slow decline of oil prices, the Kuwaiti and Chinese governments signed contracts assigning the urban development as well as the cyber development of this small oil nation to Chinese companies. China invested massively in real estate but also sold large software packages to all sectors of the Kuwaiti economy. Provocative, funny. A dystopian satire. More
2021. 133 pages. ISBN-13 : 979-8508445263. $9 on Amazon
Basil Hallward, a computer game designer, has incorporated Dorian Gray into a video game playing his own life. Neural implants permit an interconnectivity that confuse dream and reality. Sybil Vane, though dead in reality, continues to live in the game. In Dubai in 2121, all people are interconnected. Dorian assumes his new life as a stockbroker and creates virtual financial empires because his clients’ trust in his innocent face is unlimited. The money is not real, but what is real anyway? Everything is a matter of perception. Can the game go on forever? More
Dorian Gray transferred to Dubai of 2121
See also:
CULTURAL CRITICISM
1. ‘In Praise of Industry: On David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs’ in Philosophy Now 137, 2020.
2. ‘Kuwait: Japanophilia and Beyond: How far does International Culture Penetrate?' in S. Holland and K. Spracklen (eds.), Alternativity and Marginalisation: Essays on Subcultures, Bodies and Spaces. Bingley: Emerald, 2018. 43–60. Preview.
3. ‘Japanese/Korean Popular Culture in Kuwait and Singapore: Resistance and Conservatism’ in the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 9:1, Jan. 2023, 45–63.
4. ‘A Hermeneutic Answer to the Crisis of the Universities: Reflections on Bureaucracy, Business Culture and the Global University’ in K. Gray, S. Keck and H. Bachir (eds.), Eastward Bound: The Politics, Economics and Pedagogy of Western Higher Education in Asia and the Middle East (Lanham: Lexington, 2016), 243–263.
5. 'Science, Culture, and the University' in T. Botz-Bornstein (ed.), The Crisis of the Human Sciences: False Objectivity and the Decline of Creativity (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012), 3–10.
6. 'America against China: Civilization without Culture against Culture without Civilization?' in Culture and Dialogue 2, Sept. 2011, 1–30. Short version: 'America and China as Hyperreal: Jean Baudrillard and Bo Yang' in Baudrillard Now 2 Nov. 2020.
ON INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
7. 'What is the Difference between Culture and Civilization? Two Hundred Fifty Years of Confusion' in Comparative Civilizations Review 66, Spring 2012, pp. 10–28.
8. 'The Conscious and the Unconscious in History: Lévi-Strauss, Collingwood, Bally, Barthes' in Journal of the Philosophy of History 6, 2012, pp. 151–172.
ON VIRTUAL REALITY
9. 'What Would Nietzsche Have Said About Virtual Reality? Dionysus and Cyberpunk' in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 25:1, Feb 2011, pp. 99–109.
10. 'All-Unity Seen Through Perspective or the Narrative of Virtual Cosmology' [on Berdiaev, Gebser and Perspectivism] in Seeking Wisdom 2, 2005 (online).
11. 'From Civilization to Culture: About the Dreamlike Character of Global Civilization' in Sura P. Rath (ed.): Dialogics of Cultural Encounters: New Conversation Among Nations and Nationalities (Delhi: Pencraft International, 2005).
12. 'Virtual Reality and Dream: Towards the Autistic Condition?' in Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11:2, 2004, 43–49.
13. 'The Clony-Virtual Dreamsphere' in CTheory: An International Journal of Theory, Technology and Culture, Nov. 2003 (online).
ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE
14. NEW: ‘From Expansion to Network: Some Reflections on a New Geography in Eastern Europe’ in Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 105: 3, 2023, 105: 3, 235–258.
15. 'A Tale of Two Cities: Hong Kong and Dubai, Celebration of Disappearance and the Pretension of Becoming' in Transcience: A Journal of Global Studies 3: 2, 2012. See abstract.
16. 'European Transfigurations: Eurafrica and Eurasia. Coudenhove-Kalergi and N.S. Trubetzkoy re-visited' in The European Legacy 12:5, 2007.
17. 'Philosophy as Space: Goethe’s Weltliteratur and a Potential "Worldphilosophy"' in T.B.B. (ed.), Re-ethnicizing the Minds? Tendencies of Cultural Revival in Contemporary Philosophy (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006).
18. 'Europe: Space, Spirit, Style' in The European Legacy 8: 2, 2003, 179–187.
19. 'Khora or Idyll: The Space of the Dream' in The Philosophical Forum 33:2 Summer 2002.
ON RELIGION
20. ‘How Would You Dress in Utopia? Raëlism and the Aesthetics of Genes. A Philosophical Analysis’ in Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (ASRR) 8: 1, 2017, 101–125.
21. ‘Believers and Secularists: “Postmodernism,” Relativism, and Fake Reasoning’ in Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 11: 2, 2014, 183–198.
22. 'Kawaii and Kenosis: A Reading of Kawaii through Vattimo's Weak Thought and Feminist Theology' in the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 2:1 (special Issue on "Cute Studies" ed. by Joshua. P. Dale) 2016, 111–124.
23. 'Revelation and Seduction: Baudrillard, Tillich, and Muslim Punk' in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 11:1, Jan 2014.
24. 'Thoughts on Religion, Culture and Civilization: Can Religion be "Interesting"?' in Comparative Civilizations Review 71, Fall 2014.
ON WOMEN / FEMINISM
25.'Veils and Sunglasses' in the Journal of Aesthetics and Culture 5, 2013.
26. 'From the Stigmatized Tattoo to the Graffitied Body: Femininity in the Tattoo Renaissance' in Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 2012, pp. 1-17.
27. 'Barbie and the Power of Negative Thinking: Of Barbies, Eve-Barbies, and I-Barbies' in Kritikos: Journal of Postmodern Cultural Sound, Text and Image 9, 2012.
28. 'Can the Veil be Cool?' in the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 25:2, 2013, pp. 249-263.
29. 'Baudrillard on Cuteness' in International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 7:1, 2010.
ON FILM
30. ‘Parasitism beyond Ethics’ in T. Botz-Bornstein and G. Stamatellos (eds.), Parasite: A Philosophical Exploration (Leiden: Brill, 2022), pp. 7–17.
31. ‘Blade Runner 2049: Reproduction, the Human, and the Organic’ in Film and Philosophy 25, 2021, 69–84.
32. ‘“Cut Away Excess and Straighten the Crooked:” The Simplicity of Contemplative Cinema in the Light of Plotinus’ Philosophy’ in T. Botz-Bornstein & Stamatellos (eds.), Plotinus and the Moving Image: Neoplatonism and Film Studies (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 8–27.
33. 'Metonymy, Mneme and Anamnesis in Wong Kar-wai' in R. Nochimson (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Wong Kar-wai (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), 397– 417. Watch video
34. '"Film Thinks!" What about Dreams? A Reading of Daniel Frampton’s Filmosophy’ in Film and Philosophy 17, 2012, 192–203.
35. 'The Movie as a Thinking Machine: Second Life and Third World' in Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die For (Chicago: Open Court, 2011), ed. T. Botz-Bornstein, 203–216.
36. 'Philosophy of Film (Continental)'. Encyclopedia entry, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, May 2011 (30 pages). In Turkish
37. 'Anti-Freudianism Korean Style: Kim Kiduk's Film "Dream"' in the Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 2:1, 2010, 52–61.
38. 'Identity and Otherness in the Films of Kim Kiduk' in Asian Cinema 20:2, 2009 (online), 83–97.
39. 'Would You Accept a Politics of "Multi-Realism?" Comparing The Matrix with Tarkovsky’s Stalker and Solaris' in Cinemascope 10, special issue on “Falsehood and Cinema” Jan.-June 2008 (archived here).
40. '"My" vs. "Architect."' On My Architect: A Son's Journey by Nathaniel Kahn (USA 2003) Film Review in Kritikos 3, Feb. 2006.
41. 'Doors and Dreams.' On My Blueberry Dreams Dreams by Wong Kar-wai (USA 2007) Film Review on the Rowman and Littlefield website.
42. 'Wong Kar-Wai and the Culture of the Kawaii' in SubStance 116, 37:2, 2008, 94–109.
43. 'From “Ethno-Dream” to Hollywood: Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and the Problem of “Deterritorialisation”' in Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 8:2, August 2007 (online).
44. 'Tarkovsky and Benjamin: Image, Allegory, and Einfühlung' in Film and Philosophy 11, 2006, 15–28.
45. 'Ingmar Bergman and Dream after Freud' in Journal of Symbolism 8, 2006, 29–50.
46. 'Aesthetics and Mysticism: Plotinus, Tarkovsky, and the Question of "Grace"' in Transcendent Philosophy 5:4, Dec. 2004, 219–236. French version: 'Esthetique et mysticisme'.
47. 'Semiotics of Strangeness and Andrei Tarkovsky's "Dream"' in Applied Semiotics 15, article 5, May 2005.
48. 'Realism, Dream, and "Strangeness" in Andrei Tarkovsky' in Film-Philosophy 8: 38, Nov. 2004.
49. 'On the Blurring of Lines: Some Thoughts on Alexander Sokurov' in Cinetext Sept. 2002.
50. 'The Overcoming of Paradigms: From Formalist Film Theory to Andrei Tarkovskij' in L. Moreva & I. Yevlampiev (eds.): Paradigms of Philosophizing (St. Petersburg: Eidos, 1995), 266-272.
51. 'Obituary of Ingmar Bergman' on the Rowman and Littlefield blog. August 2007.
On film see also book reviews [146] [147] [151] [152] [154] [160]
ON ARCHITECTURE
52. ‘Reima Pietilä Revisited’ in R. Fabbri, R. Camacho, S. Saragoça (eds.), Essays, Arguments. Interviews on Modern Architecture in Kuwait (Salenstein: Niggli, 2017), 37–44.
53. 'H-Sang Seung: Design is not Design' [on the Korean architect] in Journal of Aesthetic Education 48: 1, 2014, 109–123.
54. 'Hyperreal Monuments of the Mind: Traditional Chinese Architecture and Disneyland' in Traditional Dwelling and Settlements Review (TDSR) 22: 3 Spring 2012, 7–17.
55. 'WANG Shu and the Possibilities of Critical Regionalism in Chinese Architecture' in The Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 1, 2009, 4–17. [Note: On Feb. 27, 2012 Wang Shu receives the Pritzker Prize. This is the arguably first academic article on Wang Shu.] Link to NJAR
56. 'Cardboard Houses with Wings: The Architecture of Samuel Mockbee' in The Journal of Aesthetic Education 44:3, 2010, 16–22.
57. 'Wittgenstein’s Stonborough House and the Architecture of Tadao Ando.' French version published in Daruma 14, Spring 2007. Engl. version published on the author’s website.
58. 'When the Monumental Becomes Decorative: Thoughts on Contemporary Chinese Architecture' published on the author’s website 2007.
59. '"Magic Internationalism" or the Paradox of Globalization: Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh' in PTAH: Journal of the Alvar Aalto Academy 1: 5, 2005.
60. 'Between "Verfremdung" and "Entfremdung": The Architecture of Alvar Aalto and Reima Pietilä' in DATUTOP Journal of Architectural Theory 21: 2001.