Critique of Bored Reason: On the Confinement of the Modern Condition

Most of the core concepts of the Western philosophical tradition originate in antiquity. Yet boredom is strikingly absent from classical thought. In this philosophical study, Dmitri Nikulin explores the concept's genealogy to argue that boredom is the mark of modernity. Nikulin contends that boredom is a specifically modern phenomenon. He provides a critical reconstruction of the concept of the modern subject as universal, rational, autonomous, and self-sufficient. Understanding itself in this way, this subject is at once the protagonist, playwright, director, and spectator of the staged drama of human existence. It is therefore inevitably monological, lonely, and alone, and can neither escape its own presence nor get rid of it. In other words, it is bored-and this boredom is the fundamental expression and symptom of the modern condition. Considering such thinkers as Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Kierkegaard, Kracauer, Heidegger, and Benjamin, Critique of Bored Reason places boredom on center stage in the philosophical critique of modernity. Nikulin also considers the alternative to the notion of the autonomous subject in the-nonbored and nonboring-dialogic and comic subject capable of shared existence with others.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Abbreviations Acknowledgments 1. A Conceptual History of Boredom 2. Boredom and the Flâneur 3. Critique of Bored Reason 4. Being and Boredom 5. The Nonboring Well-Being 6. Scandal In Place of a Conclusion: On Method Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Dmitri Nikulin is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of a number of books including Dialectic and Dialogue (2010), Comedy, Seriously (2014), The Concept of History (2017), and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity (2019).

Review :
This profound and powerful book is not only a definitive philosophical treatment of boredom as a modern phenomenon but also a courageous and visionary defense of the dialogical, comic and radically democratic ways of being in our dark times! The scholarship is magisterial, the writing lucid and subtle, and the tone so tender and humble! How rare it is to read such an instant classic with heartfelt joy and hard-earned hope! As demonstrated by numerous modern novels, be it by Flaubert, Gontscharov, or Sartre, the spread of boredom as the negative experience of being not practically engaged in the world has become one of the social pathologies of our age. Many social-philosophical studies over the last two-hundred years have been dedicated to this topic, trying to figure out the roots, the physiognomy and the effects of modern boredom, but none has to my knowledge so far succeeded in presenting a conclusive inquiry of its inner architectonic and philosophical substance. Exactly this is what Dmitri Nikulin fantastically manages in his new book to achieve: By combining conceptual history and systematic analysis, he lays out the deficiencies of the modern understanding of subjectivity that explain why we are permanently haunted by the anxiety of becoming bored and over-reflexive. Everyone who has an interest in this predicament of our existential situation should certainly read this tremendous book! Critique of Bored Reason is an original and ambitious account of modern subjectivity and autonomy. Nikulin proves the surprising thesis that the experience of boredom was unknown to the ancient world. What some moderns present as a universal attribute of the human condition is thus a form of historical experience, linked to the limits of how modernity has thought about the subject and its relationships with others. Nikulin's book is an exciting reading, based on impressive scholarship, rigorous analysis, and breadth of vision. It has fascinating pages on boredom in Kracauer and Benjamin, on scandal and radicality. Reason is bored because it is the pure reason of a modern monological subject, intrinsically tragic in its solitary autonomous legislation. By contrast Nikulin appeals to the virtues of a comic reason, decentered and in dialogue with others, to rethink politics and democracy. In this powerful historical and systematic philosophical demontage, Dmitri Nikulin analyses the modern condition in a fascinating new way. No book could be more exciting than this learned treatise on boredom, full of wit and novel insights. Ambitious, well-written, and marked by welcome touches of humor, Critique of Bored Reason is distinguished by extraordinary erudition, impressive expository and interpretative powers, and a genuinely constructive impulse that is grounded in a very deep knowledge of the tradition of philosophy.