The bureaucratic rationalization. On the “intelligent stupidity”

Focusing on the problem of bureaucracy as a striking example of the ‘necessary stupidity’ that real-life forces us to tolerate, the philosophical meaning of Musil’s «intelligent stupidity» will be discussed. To a closer confrontation with the text, and with passages from (italic) Man Without Qualiti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Marcello Barison
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Firenze University Press 2021-07-01
Series:Aisthesis
Subjects:
Online Access:https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/aisthesis/article/view/12038
Description
Summary:Focusing on the problem of bureaucracy as a striking example of the ‘necessary stupidity’ that real-life forces us to tolerate, the philosophical meaning of Musil’s «intelligent stupidity» will be discussed. To a closer confrontation with the text, and with passages from (italic) Man Without Qualities (/italic) that are particularly relevant to the theme of the relationship between stupidity and bureaucracy, a number of reflections will be anteposed in order to highlight how, by making the concepts of liberalism and bureaucracy react to each other, it is possible to sketch a first outline of that aporetic of stupidity that seems to characterise so substantially the behaviour of modern man.
ISSN:2035-8466