Canetti's Counter-image of Society

Abstract

It could be conceivable that society is not an organism, that it has no structure, that it functions only temporarily or seemingly. The most obvious analogies are not the best. The Human Province, p.245 True, he [man] wants to “preserve” himself, but he also simultaneously wants other things which are inseparable from this. Crowds and Power, p. 293 The planning nature of man is a very late addition that violates his essential, his transforming nature. The Secret Heart of the Clock, p. 119 Man, regarding himself as the measure of all things, is almost unknown. His progress in self-knowledge is minimal, every new theory obscures more of him than it illuminates. The Conscience of Words, p. 111