Book

Marli Huijer

Discipline

Survival in Surfeit

How discipline fell out of favour and is now making a comeback

In early 2015 Marli Huijer was named Thinker Laureate. The title is a Dutch invention, a philosophical counterpart to the Poet Laureate. As such she was asked to reflect on current issues and to share her thoughts with the public. The honour fell to Huijer partly on the strength of her celebrated book Discipline, a stimulating philosophical discourse on contemporary humankind in a world of unprecedented opportunity.

In her clear and enjoyable book, and with great clarity, Huijer investigates attitudes to discipline over past decades, especially the 1960s, when many forms of authority were overthrown, when parental authority, binding social and sexual norms, and hierarchies in classrooms and workplaces were challenged. We are still plucking the fruits of the freedoms won in those years, but among the consequences were stress, obesity, alcoholism and indecision.

Freedom needs discipline. Based on the theories of such philosophers as Aristotle, Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, Huijer discusses the interaction between

society and individual. She compares Catholic ideology with stricter Protestant structures, acknowledging the rise of capitalism to Protestant discipline. Nevertheless, with capitalism now dominant worldwide, there are renewed calls to discipline our desires. How are we to deal with an abundance of time, information, material goods, food and drink, and with the diversity of love affairs, family structures, education and work opportunities available to us? How are we to know what we want and abide by our choices?

Using intriguing examples – crowd discipline at pop concerts; order in the army and in child-rearing; self-control on a shopping trip – Huijer dissects different forms of discipline in changing times. She closes with an analysis of today’s circumstances, in which the disciplining of our urges is partly delegated to apps that guide our behaviour. Freedom continues to grow and we are expected to keep a grip on our impulses, which can be an immense challenge. Huijer shows how we have sought a new balance time and again, from one era to the next.

Eating too much, drinking too much, internetting too much … it’s become virtually impossible to control ourselves. Philosopher Marli Huijer finds that discipline has flown out of the window, just when we need it most.

Psychologie Magazine

Huijer has chosen an important and topical theme, and she throws light on it from all sides without being dull for a moment. A laudable achievement.

Trouw

Huijer gives short shrift to our prioritizing of freedom.

NRC Handelsblad

Marli Huijer

Marli Huijer (b. 1955) studied Medicine and Philosophy and is Professor of Public Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 2015 to 2017, she was the Philosopher Laureate of the Netherlands. Her research focuses on the public role of philosophy; order and time in human affairs (rhythm…

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Details

Discipline. Leven in overvloed (2015). Non-fiction, 274 pages.
Words: 134,000
Copies sold: 4,500

Themes: philosophy

Publisher

Boom

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Website:
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