The Future without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society (Volume 1) by John Paul Russo (PDF)

Description

In The Future without a Past, John Paul Russo goes beyond currently given reasons for the decline of the humanities and searches out its root causes in the technologization of everyday life. His main premise is that we are undergoing a transformation at the hands of technological imperatives such as rationalization, universalism, monism, and autonomy. The relation between ourselves and nature has altered to such a degree that we no longer live in a natural environment but in a technological one. According to Russo, technological values have actually eroded human values instead of being “humanized” by them. What are the implications of this shift for the humanities, traditionally seen as safeguards of the human? Russo addresses this question by situating the decline of the humanities within the larger social and historical panorama. He explores how technological values have infiltrated the humanities to the point of weakening their instruction and undermining their force; at the same time, he shows how the humanities have confronted these trends and can continue to do so. Russo believes that if we understand how technology “works” and the nature of its powers, we will then know in which realms it must be accepted and where it should be resisted. Russo outlines the components of the technological system and examines their impact on the educational system. He also discusses the loss of historical memory, including the so-called loss of the self and the transformation of the library. He studies the parallels between technological and literary values in criticism and theory, concluding with an analysis of the fiction of Don DeLillo, one of the most prominent contemporary novelists. DeLillo’s exploration of technology in American life, matched by a powerful critique of it from a broadly humanistic and religious perspective, serves to summarize the themes of the book as a whole. The Future without a Past will appeal to scholars and students of literary studies, intellectual and cultural history, philosophy, ethics, media studies, and American studies, as well as to general readers who are seeking deeper insights into today’s cultural debates.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Russo writes with insight, grace, and deep learning about the most pressing issues in contemporary intellectual life, transcending the tired clichés of the decades-long culture wars. To my mind, no one has stated so precisely the consequences of the technological imperative for the great humanistic tradition rooted in classical culture.”—Casey Blake About the Author John Paul Russo is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He is the author of I.A. Richards: His Life and Work and co-editor of the journal Italian Americana.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐In FUTURE WITHOUT A PAST Russo makes a case for why, in this age of technology, we need literary language now more than ever. Russo suggests that because literary language is the very stuff a culture is made on any civilization that ceases to value and practice literature is not simply a civilization that is no longer cultured but a civilization that has ceased to be fully human. Drawing on a long tradition of humanist thinkers who have also contemplated the longterm negative effects of technological dependence, and presenting his own contribution to that tradition with the humbling caveat, ‘it is a fairly well-known constant that books on the future have a terribly short shelf life’ (4), Russo, nonetheless, offers his own assessment of the state of the humanities in the technological age as well as a somewhat grim prognosis for their chances to outlive the current crisis. What Russo sees is a world that is fascinated more by how we do things than why we do them, and this book, among other things, is an attempt to inject some common sense into a civilization that is awed by every new technological gadget that comes onto the marketplace. Surrounded by technological marvels it is impossible to forget all that technology can do, Russo, however, provides us with a reminder of the many things that it cannot do. When it comes to the gathering of information, for instance, technology has proven to be an invaluable research device but when it comes to sitting down and assessing that information technology, which has yet to simulate the fine discrimination required to make evaluative judgements, ceases to be of much use. Furthermore, technology has not yet been able to replicate the subtleties and nuances of art and argument. Technology may provide us with access to the art and arguments created by others but it does not instruct us how to create art or formulate our own arguments, nor does it provide us with any rationale for valuing such activity. In many ways technology teaches us to be, even mentally conditions us to be, passive consumers (existing in a perpetual state of cyber-distraction/ mental torpor)instead of active producers of our social and political worlds and ourselves, and thus technology, though it can be an asset, always poses a potential threat to the quality of both public and private life. Russo sounds a note of caution here, warning that we must learn to manage our technologies instead of allowing them to manage us. This book will strike a chord with readers of all kinds because although Russo is a consummate scholar versed in all things academic he is interested not just in the health of our learning institutions (which, instead of standing at a critical distance from, have, in many ways marched hand in hand with technology and have adapted themselves to the technological age’s valorization, even fetishization, of method and technique) but in the health of our entire way of life. It is Russo’s contention that it is only by forging a lifelong connection with the rich humanist archive of history, philosophy and literature that individuals are able to fully inhabit themselves and manage their civilization; literary language, according to Russo, is the most refined instrument we have to know and to express what we have been and the most refined instrument we have to imagine and to shape what we might become. Russo is one of a vanishing breed of scholars who has never sold the humanities out to any of the reductive (post-)humanist “technologies” that have been all the rage since the coming of New Criticism and its various theoretical offspring; and one of an even rarer breed who has never lost sight of nor ever lost faith in the civilizing mission of the humanities as they have been conceived and practiced by humanist thinkers from Petrarch to Lionel Trilling. A rare treat for the learned and the wise and a great compendium of knowledge for those aspiring to learning and wisdom. This book offers the best argument I’ve yet read for the continued, and increasing, relevance and necessity for humanist thought in the technological age.

⭐This book is a thoughtful and thorough review of the issues facing teachers in the humanities. It is especially useful for the wide range of sources that it uses to trace the history of the current crisis. My sense is that the book is perhaps too focused on an academic audience; the issues here are important for the society as a whole. I would recommend this book to anyone who is trying to get a grip on both practical and theoretical dimensions of rescuing the humanities from contemporary social, political and academic trends.

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