Open AccessThe bureaucratic rationalization. On the “intelligent stupidity”
Author(s) -
Marcello Barison
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
aisthesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2035-8466
DOI - 10.36253/aisthesis-12038
Subject(s) - stupidity , bureaucracy , rationalization (economics) , sketch , epistemology , theme (computing) , meaning (existential) , philosophy , sociology , political science , computer science , law , artificial intelligence , algorithm , politics , operating system
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.