Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault
Peter Sloterdijk turns his keen eye to the history of western thought, conducting colorful readings of the lives and ideas of the world's most influential intellectuals. Featuring nineteen vignettes rich in personal characterizations and theoretical analysis, Sloterdijk's companionable volume casts the development of philosophical thinking not as a buildup of compelling books and arguments but as a lifelong, intimate struggle with intellectual and spiritual movements, filled with as many pitfalls and derailments as transcendent breakthroughs.

Sloterdijk delves into the work and times of Aristotle, Augustine, Bruno, Descartes, Foucault, Fichte, Hegel, Husserl, Kant, Kierkegaard, Leibniz, Marx, Nietzsche, Pascal, Plato, Sartre, Schelling, Schopenhauer, and Wittgenstein. He provocatively juxtaposes Plato against shamanism and Marx against Gnosticism, revealing both the vital external influences shaping these intellectuals' thought and the excitement and wonder generated by the application of their thinking in the real world. The philosophical "temperament" as conceived by Sloterdijk represents the uniquely creative encounter between the mind and a diverse array of cultures. It marks these philosophers' singular achievements and the special dynamic at play in philosophy as a whole. Creston Davis's introduction details Sloterdijk's own temperament, surveying the celebrated thinker's intellectual context, rhetorical style, and philosophical persona.
"1113895512"
Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault
Peter Sloterdijk turns his keen eye to the history of western thought, conducting colorful readings of the lives and ideas of the world's most influential intellectuals. Featuring nineteen vignettes rich in personal characterizations and theoretical analysis, Sloterdijk's companionable volume casts the development of philosophical thinking not as a buildup of compelling books and arguments but as a lifelong, intimate struggle with intellectual and spiritual movements, filled with as many pitfalls and derailments as transcendent breakthroughs.

Sloterdijk delves into the work and times of Aristotle, Augustine, Bruno, Descartes, Foucault, Fichte, Hegel, Husserl, Kant, Kierkegaard, Leibniz, Marx, Nietzsche, Pascal, Plato, Sartre, Schelling, Schopenhauer, and Wittgenstein. He provocatively juxtaposes Plato against shamanism and Marx against Gnosticism, revealing both the vital external influences shaping these intellectuals' thought and the excitement and wonder generated by the application of their thinking in the real world. The philosophical "temperament" as conceived by Sloterdijk represents the uniquely creative encounter between the mind and a diverse array of cultures. It marks these philosophers' singular achievements and the special dynamic at play in philosophy as a whole. Creston Davis's introduction details Sloterdijk's own temperament, surveying the celebrated thinker's intellectual context, rhetorical style, and philosophical persona.
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Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault

Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault

Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault

Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault

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Overview

Peter Sloterdijk turns his keen eye to the history of western thought, conducting colorful readings of the lives and ideas of the world's most influential intellectuals. Featuring nineteen vignettes rich in personal characterizations and theoretical analysis, Sloterdijk's companionable volume casts the development of philosophical thinking not as a buildup of compelling books and arguments but as a lifelong, intimate struggle with intellectual and spiritual movements, filled with as many pitfalls and derailments as transcendent breakthroughs.

Sloterdijk delves into the work and times of Aristotle, Augustine, Bruno, Descartes, Foucault, Fichte, Hegel, Husserl, Kant, Kierkegaard, Leibniz, Marx, Nietzsche, Pascal, Plato, Sartre, Schelling, Schopenhauer, and Wittgenstein. He provocatively juxtaposes Plato against shamanism and Marx against Gnosticism, revealing both the vital external influences shaping these intellectuals' thought and the excitement and wonder generated by the application of their thinking in the real world. The philosophical "temperament" as conceived by Sloterdijk represents the uniquely creative encounter between the mind and a diverse array of cultures. It marks these philosophers' singular achievements and the special dynamic at play in philosophy as a whole. Creston Davis's introduction details Sloterdijk's own temperament, surveying the celebrated thinker's intellectual context, rhetorical style, and philosophical persona.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231153737
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 05/28/2013
Series: Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
Pages: 136
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Peter Sloterdijk is professor of aesthetics and philosophy at the Institute of Design in Karlsruhe and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His numerous works include The Art of Philosophy: Wisdom as a Practice; Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation; and the best-selling Critique of Cynical Reason.

Thomas Dunlap is also the translator of Wolfgang Benz's A Concise History of the Third Reich and Michael Stolleis's A History of Public Law in Germany, 1914–1945.

Creston Davis is professor of philosophy at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities in Skopje, Macedonia.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the English Translation, by Creston Davis
Preface
Plato
Aristotle
Augustine
Bruno
Descartes
Pascal
Leibniz
Kant
Fichte
Hegel
Schelling
Schopenhauer
Kierkegaard
Marx
Nietzsche
Husserl
Wittgenstein
Sartre
Foucault
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ward Blanton

Philosophical Temperaments is in fact a creative reworking of the idea of an introduction to philosophy. It invites readers to taste philosophy itself, to somehow catch that elusive sense of what it means to think.

Carl Raschke

Peter Sloterdijk is not only an original thinker but is probably on the way to being one of the world's most prominent 'public philosophers.' In this book, he provides brief, highly charged, and colorful readings of the characters, lives, and ideas of leading Western philosophers.

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