Cabinet 68: The End

The question of endings haunts human beings across all their endeavors, which is why the idea of finitude has been a topic of philosophy since its very inception. How to finish a work, how to conclude a relationship, how to die—these are interrelated questions that challenge aesthetics, morality and existence. Cabinet 68, with a special section on “The End,” includes Aaron Schuster on the theoretical framework of the romantic breakup; Jeff Dolven on objects such as pencils or filterless cigarettes that serve as their own handles and can therefore not be used to the very end; and Shireen Brooke on Balzac’s “The Unknown Masterpiece” and the philosophy of the unfinishable. Elsewhere in the issue: Femke Herregraven on how the minute lags produced by the material infrastructure of the internet is exploited in high-frequency trading; Sasha Archibald on the influence of the Technicolor corporation’s Color Advisory Service on the history of cinema; and Benjamin Breen on British mathematician and Futurian Richard Medhurst and his role in debunking the work of the Society for Psychical Research.