Selected Exaggerations: Conversations and Interviews 1993 - 2012

Description

First published in German as Ausgewählte Übertreibungen. Gespräche und Interviews 1993-2012 © Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, 2013. Peter Sloterdijk’s reputation as one of the most original thinkers of our time has grown steadily since the early 1980s. This volume of over thirty conversations and interviews spanning two decades illuminates the multiple interconnections of his life and work. In these wide-ranging dialogues Sloterdijk gives his views on a variety of topics, from doping to doxa, design to dogma, media to mobility and the financial crisis to football. Here we encounter Sloterdijk from every angle: as he expounds his ideas on the philosophical tradition and the latest strands of contemporary thought, as he analyses the problems of our age and as he provides a new and startling perspective on everyday events. Through exaggeration, Sloterdijk draws our attention to crucial issues and controversies and makes us aware of their implications for society and the individual. Always eager to share his knowledge and erudition, he reveals himself equally at home in ancient Babylon, in the channels of the mass media and on the ethical and moral terrain of religion, education or genetic engineering. Appealing both to the seasoned reader of Sloterdijk and to the curious newcomer, these dialogues offer fresh insight into the intellectual and political events of recent decades. They also give us glimpses of Sloterdijk’s own life story, from his early passionate love of reading and writing to his journeys in East and West, his commitment to Europe and his acceptance and enjoyment of the role of a public intellectual and philosopher in the twenty-first century. Peter Sloterdijk Copyright Contents In Place of a Preface 1 The Half-Moon Man 2 Why Are People Media? 3 World Estrangement and Diagnosis of Our Times 4 Uterus on Wheels 5 Fire Your Shrink! 6 Philosophical Retuning 7 We’re Always Riding Down Maternity Drive 8 Tackling the Unspoken Things in Culture 9 On Wealth and Self-Respect 10 Learning Is Joyful Anticipation of Oneself 11 Postmen and Fallen Towers 12 Raising Our Heads 13 Good Theory Doesn’t Complain 14 There Are No Individuals 15 Confused People Spread Confusion 16 Germans Want To Be Compelled 17 Comparatists of Happiness 18 Image and Perspective 19 On Progress 20 A Team of Hermaphrodites 21 Under a Brighter Sky 22 Making the Effort 23 Thus Spoke Sloterdijk 24 Fathers Should Be Kept Out of Brothels and Pubs 25 The Athletics of Dying 26 Do Your Duty To Enjoy! 27 Even a God Can’t Save Us 28 A Plug for Higher Energies 29 Mortgaging the Air 30 Is There a Way Out of the Crisis of Western Culture? 31 Questions of Fate 32 Humans in Repetition 33 With the Babble of Babylon in the Background Bernhard Klein Appendix