Externalization (1): Linguistics

In Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung), Gregor Samsa experiences himself one morning as a “monstrous vermin, bug, or insect” (einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer), enduring isolation, alienation (Entfremdung), and dehumanization.  An Entfremdungseffekt [based on the root word, fremd (strange or alien)] is the creation of perceived estrangement or alienation via the presentation of a person or object without normal context.  Such a presentation (de-familiarization or de-naturalization) may serve as the first step in an attempt to see something anew.  While analyzing the Entfremdungseffekt in theatrical works, Berthold Brecht coined the synonym, Verfremdungseffekt, to indicate an attempt to increase understanding by breaking down the wall between the audience and the actors.  [The prefix ver- typically connotes a transgression of boundaries, as in the example of verlängern (to prolong or exceed a length-boundary).]  An example of the “V-effekt” would be an actor temporarily departing from his script during a play in order to lecture the audience directly.

      Alienation is related to externalization.  For Sartre, subject and object (or self and world) arise in tandem during an externalization of pre-reflexive consciousness: Assuming a primordial, stable self leads only to “bad-faith,” renunciation of freedom, and alienation.  For Hegel, self-development (development of the natural consciousness) occurs in stages: One treats oneself as an objective thing in a process of externalization (Entäuβerung), which is also known as self-alienation (Sich-Entfremdung).  One then proceeds to experience the world objectively, formulate various theses and antitheses, resolve contradictions, synthesize higher levels of insight, and “return to oneself” more fully aware of Truth and Being.  The “return to self” is Hegel’s Zu-Sich-Zurückkehrung.  Externalization is an intellectual process for Hegel, related to losing oneself in one’s object of inquiry and returning to self-consciousness with additional insights; whereas Marx “stood Hegel on his head” by emphasizing economic production as that which may be alienated from an individual.

      Regrettably, the native speaker of English can be led astray by the term Entäuβerung because of the following train of thought: The German verb prefix ent- is sometimes used for the English equivalent of un-, dis-, or de-.  For example, entfesseln means to unchain; entdecken means to discover; and entblättern means to defoliate.  Applying this logic to the verb äuβern (to say, utter, express, or externalize thought in some manner), one might infer that ent + äuβern = un + to externalize = to internalize.  Such an inference would be wrong and would “stand Hegel on his head” in yet another manner!  How might we put this train of thought back on its tracks?

      A more comprehensive review of the German verb prefix ent- reveals that three general areas of meaning exist, pertaining to: (1) the beginning of an activity, (2) the separation or removal of something, and (3) the reversal of a state or process.

      (1) Examples of beginning: The verb entstehen can be thought of as “to begin to stand,” i.e., “to originate or come into existence.”  The verb entbrennen can be construed as “to begin to burn,” or “to flare up.”  An implicit sense of “to begin” also occurs in the meaning of entsprieβen, “(to begin) to sprout from”; of entspringen, “(to begin) to arise or issue from”; and of entleeren, “(to begin) to make empty,” or more simply, “to empty.” 

      (2) Examples of removing: The verbs entfesseln, entehren, entarten, entblättern, and entgiften refer to removing chains, honor, form, leaves, and poison, respectively; are rendered in English by verbs containing the prefix un-, dis-, or de- (unchain, dishonor, deform, defoliate, and detoxify); and do not mean beginning to have chains, honor, form, leaves, or poison.  As another example, compare the verb entrücken (to remove from) to the verb rücken (to move, march, or approach): “die Musik hat sie der Gegenwart entrückt” means “the music removed her from the here and now,” not “the music began to move her in the here and now.”  Finally, the verb entfalten refers to removing folds and is translated as “to unfold” or “to develop”; it does not mean “to begin to fold.”

      (3) Examples of reversing:  The verbs enteilen, entfernen, entfliehen, and entkräften refer to reversing states of unhurriedness, proximity, residence, and strength, respectively; and are rendered in English by the expressions “to hurry away,” “to move far away,” “to flee,” and “to weaken.”  The prefix un-, dis-, or de- may also be used in this case: The verb entdecken, referring to a reversal of a state of ignorance, is translated as “to discover”; while the verb entfremden, referring to a reversal of a state of familiarity, is interpreted as “to de-familiarize” or “to alienate.”  The essential point is not whether the prefix un-, dis-, or de- is used, but whether there is an implicit understanding of reversal.  Hence, we can at last resolve the conundrum from which this investigation began: The verb entäuβern means to reverse a state of inwardness, i.e., to externalize; merely intensifies the verb äuβern (to say, utter, express, or externalize); and can also be rendered as “to renounce, relinquish, divest, dispose, or part with.

      The translator, A. V. Miller, numbered all 808 paragraphs in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (Oxford University Press, 1977).  In one computer-based search of the corresponding German text for the sub-string “entäuβer” (which should find the strings Entäuβerung, entäuβern, and entäuβert), 44 instances were found.  The very first instance occurs in a section on the freedom of the self-consciousness, in Miller’s paragraph 229, where “moments of surrender” enable the consciousness to obtain “the certainty of having truly divested itself of its ‘I’ and of having turned its immediate self-consciousness into a thing, into an objective existence” (“die Gewiβheit, in Wahrheit seines ‘Ich’ sich entäuβert [zu haben], und sein unmittelbares Selbstbewuβtsein zu einem Dinge, zu einem gegenständlichen Sein gemacht zu haben”).

      Thus did an intellectual industry dedicated to the analysis of externalization and alienation come into being!  In next month’s blog post we will consider in more detail the role of externalization in Hegel’s Phenomenology.

Specters Old and New

     In a news item from May 5, 2018 it is reported that the Chinese government has given Karl Marx’ hometown (Trier, Germany) an 18-foot tall statue of Karl Marx to commemorate his 200th birthday anniversary.  While former anti-communists such as Vaclav Klaus believe that the statue makes a mockery of history, mere history cannot compete with economics: The city of Trier has been benefitting from Chinese tourism, and its mayor says that “it’s the right time to deal with Marx in this form.” 

     Judging from the tepid public reaction to the new statue of Marx in Trier, the historical memory of Marx, Engels, and the Communist Manifesto seems to be fading.  Hence, we will mention that the relatively youthful Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels collaborated on writing the Manifesto during the winter of 1847 to 1848, publishing it in London in February 1848 as a 23-page brochure.  At the time, governments across Europe were already tottering for various reasons, and the communists needed an official creed in order to unify their approach to the ongoing crises.  

     The Manifesto introduces the specter of communism as haunting (going around in) Europe: All the powers of old Europe [Pope, Tsar, Metternich (Austrian chancellor), and Guizot (French premier), among others], although failing to define the precise nature of this specter, have created fairy tales (Märchen) about it and have allied themselves in a kind of wild-animal chase (Hetzjagd) after it.  (One thinks of hounds in a fury of bloodlust hunting a fox.)  It is in opposition to these fairy tales and on behalf of the newly formed Communist League that Marx and Engels wrote the Manifesto, including several sections on the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, and the communist version of world history.  The visible ill effects of communism awaited the Russian Revolution, and it took longer still for critics such as Boris Pasternak (Dr. Zhivago) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago) to document those ill effects.

     Having died seventeen years before the Manifesto, Hegel cannot fairly be blamed for its excesses.  Indeed, he had shown the good sense to say that, even if world history is the self-unfolding of Spirit, we cannot predict the details of history.  Post-Hegelian radicals, however, had to make such predictions in order to attract attention.  Some Marxist predictions presupposed that “all social facts can be reduced to economics,” a view that became known as “economism.” 

     Although today’s specter of obsequious statuary is less ominous than 1848’s specter of communism, the contemporary specter of economism could become quite serious.  In the April 2018 edition of First Things, Richard H. Spady focuses on the gradual transformation of what had been convenient and contingent assumptions in economic models into normative goals for social planners.  For example, some economic models assume that trade expansion, mobility of labor and capital, and technological change are always good.  Spady finds that there is countervailing evidence that these economic factors also bring some negative consequences: Recent economic change has brought “widespread despair, resentment, and dysfunction among the lower two-thirds of American society,” consistent with Case and Deaton’s data on “dramatic decreases in life expectancy among white, high-school-educated Americans.”  Spady believes that this new specter of economism, if not explicitly dealt with, will lead to an era of increased societal conflict.

     Concurring with the spirit of Spady’s analysis, albeit without recourse to the terminology of “economism,” the dean of the Columbia Business School recently commented on the problematic nature of trade and immigration: He described a recent field trip that he took with 20 M.B.A. students - - not to the usual, globally-elite destinations such as Hong Kong, London, or Delhi - - but to Youngstown, Ohio in order to observe the specter of real industrial decline.  “Whether it’s Brexit in the U.K. or the debate over trade and immigration in the U.S.,  … [people ask] ‘Why am I supporting something that benefits on average, when this just means [that] Columbia M.B.A.s get it all?’ ”