Byung-Chul Han

Byung-Chul Han, born in 1959 in Seoul, is a South Korean-born German philosopher, Catholic theologian and cultural theorist who previously served as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. His scholarly work centers on critiques of neoliberalism and its effects on society and the individual, including his widely discussed treatises on what he calls the society of tiredness and the society of transparency. He argues that contemporary conditions such as depression and burnout arise not from negativity but from an excess of positivity, describing modern subjects as achievement-subjects engaged in self-exploitation, and in 2025 he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities for his writing on digital technology and contemporary capitalism.