The Victory of Instrumental Reason (Amirhosein Khandizaji)

In his lecture, Amirhosein Khandizaji will introduce variety as one of the most important human needs. Throughout history, the need for variety faced two tragedies, and as a result, has never been completely satisfied. The first tragedy occurred in traditional societies in which, although new and different phenomena were available, because of strict rules, customs, and taboos, people were not allowed to experience them. The second tragedy is happening in today’s world.

Although people have been liberated from most of the traditional limitations and are now allowed to experience new phenomena, because of the domination of instrumental reason in all aspects of life and the growth of standardization and repetition, there are no new or different phenomena to be experienced. In his talk, Amirhosein will present the ideas of theorists whom he calls commentators on the age of standardization and repetition because they are intellectuals who, consciously or unconsciously, refer to the problem of standardization and repetition in their theories.

The last theorist to be introduced as such a commentator is George Ritzer. In the opinion of the lecturer, Ritzer thoroughly explains the age of repetition in his famous theory, “McDonaldization of Society.” We will learn about two discussions about the McDonaldization of sociology and McDonaldization in semi-modern countries. This leads to postmodernism, which, according to the view of Amirhosein, is the result of the spread of standardization and repetition and is also an attempt to satisfy the need for variety by rejecting or criticizing the foundations and principles of modernism.

The lecture is based on the newly published book of Amirhosein Khandizaji titled: "The Victory of Instrumental Reason and Farewell to Variety" (xenomoi, Berlin 2017)

Attention: This talk and the subsequent discussion will be held in English.

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Our talk guest, Amirhosein Khandizaji, received his Ph.D. in sociology from the Free University of Berlin. His doctoral thesis is titled “Baudrillard and Different Aspects of the Culture Industry in Our Age”.