In memory of Jobs

An aspect of Nietzsche’s critique on Modernism as a non unifying culture is his

focus on modern modes of knowledge acquisition and distribution, whereby he argues that modernity did not create a culture, but only a kind of knowledge of culture.

The unchecked and scientifically intensified acquisition of knowledge has led men to fill and overfill themselves with “alien ages, customs, arts, philosophies, religions and knowledge” that turned 

them into “walking encyclopedias.” Such education, according to Nietzsche, does not lead to culturation. In other words, the acquisition of knowledge does not necessarily result in an 

increased degree of civility, as Enlightenment ideology proclaims. In fact, the opposite appears 

to be the case: rationality and sensibility do not prevent barbarism.

On the contrary, the 

disjunction between inside and outside that rationality and sensibility create threaten to make 

modern man more barbaric.

In his book “Why Culture”,

Dirk Baecker presents loss of meaning as a modern (not post-modern) problem. He recognizes the societal function of the concept of culture as creating identity only by offering the possibility for geographical or historical comparison with other 

cultures and cultural traits. The effects of cultural comparison, however, are viewed as daunting. 

The concept of culture does not only hide the 

sense of contingency it creates by attaching value to cultural characteristics (for example, by calling them “achievements”), but that it also functions as an ordering device in a globalizing and 

increasingly complex world.

Dirk Baecker views the concept of culture as a pharmakon

of sorts. It is both, poison and medication for a society that sees itself at odds with its own cultural identity. It is poisonous because it enhances the perception of cultural differences that 

appear to threaten cultural coherence. At the same time it provides a form of medication for the 

very problem it creates by offering a common frame of reference which allows Western society 

to put into perspective the excess of cultural differences it confronts.