Toward a Negative Anthropology

Can philosophy say what man is? What is gained or lost by making theoretical assumptions about the human being? This essay examines the “negative anthropology” of the early Frankfurt School by asking how Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno and Ulrich Sonnemann engage with the question “What is man?” Negative anthropology turns out to be more than the critique of philosophical anthropology: By understanding the human being as the ensemble of what it is not, negative anthropology avoids the predicament of spelling out what it could be, while holding on to the idea of man’s self-realization in history. What role does negative anthropology play as a component of critical social theory? To what extent can it count as a theoretical programme? Do certain historical situations demand anthropological assumptions more than others? To address these questions, this essay follows the early Frankfurt School’s altercations with anthropological philosophy.La philosophie peut-elle définir l’essence de l’homme ? Que gagne-t-on – ou perd-on – avec des déclarations métaphysiques sur l’être humain ? Cet essai explore l’ « anthropologie négative » de la première école de Francfort à travers les réponses de Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno et Ulrich Sonnemann à la question : « qu’est-ce que l’homme » ? L’anthropologie négative apparaît alors comme plus qu’une critique de l’anthropologie philosophique. En appréhendant l’homme à travers tout ce qu’il n’est pas, elle évite la situation fâcheuse d’énoncer ce qu’il pourrait être, tout en préservant l’idée d’émancipation. Quel rôle l’anthropologie négative joue-t-elle en tant que composante d’une théorie sociale critique ? A quel point compte-t-elle dans son programme théorique ? Certaines situations historiques exigent-elles des énoncés anthropologiques plus que d’autres ? L’artice présent discute de ces questions en circonscrivant le conflit de la première Ecole de Francfort avec l’anthropologie philosophique.¿Puede acaso la filosofía determinar la esencia del hombre ? ¿Qué se gana o qué se pierde asumiendo determinaciones metafísicas sobre el ser humano ? Este ensayo examina la « antropología negativa » de la primera escuela de Frankfurt indagando el modo en que Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno y Ulrich Sonnemann responden a la pregunta « ¿qué es el hombre? ». La antropología negativa aparece entonces como algo más que la crítica de la filosofía antropológica. Al comprender al hombre a partir de todo de lo que él no es, la antropología negativa evita la difícil situación de detallar lo que él podría ser, manteniendo al mismo tiempo la idea de emancipación. ¿Qué rol juega la antropología negativa en tanto componente de la teoría social crítica? ¿Hasta qué punto puede contar como programa teorético? ¿Acaso ciertas situaciones históricas exigen asumir supuestos antropológicos más que otras? Este ensayo discute tales interrogantes siguiendo el conflicto de la primera escuela de Frankfurt con la antropología filosófica

Across the Fields

This first issue is dedicated to the exploration of the field opened up by the encounter between anthropology and materialism. Situating Walter Benjamin's anthropological materialism within the Frankfurt School tradition of a critique of a positive anthropology, the issue explores social practices (radio making for children), contemporary phenomena (urban phantasmagorias), as well as aesthetic and political philosophical themes such as surrealism and romanticism, the 'weak power' of messianism, and the state as a social relation

Wear protection of deep drawing tools by systematic optimization of highly stressed surfaces

The automotive sector is one of the largest energy consumers in Germany. Requests from politics and industry to significantly reduce emissions require new developments during utilization as well as during production phase. In line with the framework concept "InnoCaT", where more than 60 companies and research facilities from Germany take part, possibilities for producing companies are developed and analyzed to reduce the resource and energy consumption and by this reducing costs along the entire process chain of car body manufacturing. One approach to design car bodies lighter and more efficiently is to use aluminium and high strength steels. By this means weight and sheet thickness are reduced. However higher strengths of the steels and the adhesion affinity of aluminium significantly increase the requirements regarding the used tool steel. Thus grooves or galling appear more frequent at highly stressed surfaces. To assure high lifetimes and by this increase especially the resource efficiency concerning use of material and setting-up times within the press plant, a local optimization at the highly stressed surfaces is necessary. For this a FEM/BEM-tool for a time efficient and exact calculation of the occurring tool loads for complex die profiles is developed. Based on this development of load calculation a shape-optimization is performed at the corresponding areas. After the geometric optimization of the tool a local laser surface treatment for further wear protection is carried out using laser cladding or laser alloying/ -dispersing. By combining the technologies a highly wear resistant surface is achievable, which increases the tool's lifetime as well as the reproducibility within production