Critique of Cynical Reason

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Critique of Cynical Reason is a book by the

European history.[2]

Content

In the first volume of Critique of Cynical Reason, Sloterdijk discusses his philosophical premises. The second volume builds on these premises to construct a phenomenology of action that incorporates the many facets of cynicism as they appear in various forms of public discourse. In both volumes, the relationship between texts and images is an integral part of the philosophical discussion.

Repeatedly, Sloterdijk points to the

What is Enlightenment?" and Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch
never has existed, Sloterdijk concludes.

Sloterdijk describes the evolution of middle and upper-class

history and from the history of education. He describes World War II as a first climax of a "system of hollowing out the self" (namely, capitalism
) that, "armed to the teeth, wants to live forever."

Sloterdijk's analysis of

Third Reich, and sets them against the "humanist authors" of the time, like Erich Kästner and Erich Maria Remarque, who, he says, stood in the midst of "a rancorous war of all against all
." Passages from the works of these authors, Sloterdijk reveals, clearly point to the cynical atmosphere of their time, and take analyzable, predictable forms that can be fruitfully scrutinized.

Additionally, Sloterdijk attempts to trace the

semiologies
and grand philosophical ambitions. Sloterdijk concludes that, unlike the ancient Greek version, Cynicism no longer stands for values of the natural and ethical kind that bind people beyond their religious and economically useful convictions. Rather, it has become a mode of thought that defines its actions in terms of a "final end" of a purely materialistic sort and reduces the "ought" to an economic strategy aimed at maximizing profit. This contemporary sort of Cynicism remains silent, however, when it comes to social, anthropogenous, and altruistic goals having to do with the "in" and "for" of the "good life" the original Cynics were seeking.

In the final chapter, Sloterdijk points out that he regards a "good life" not simply as an external fact, but as a "being embedded" in a "Whole" that constantly reorganizes itself and renews itself, and that humankind creates out of its own understanding and motivations. He concludes with a precise analysis of Martin Heidegger's magnum opus Being and Time and seeks out clarifications regarding particular acts of creating, especially as they apply to the events and the artistic activity of the time between the two World Wars.

References

  1. ^ ""I Am Not a Man, I Am Dynamite": Peter Sloterdijk on Nietzsche". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  2. ^ "American Cynicism". Boston Review. Retrieved 2023-01-29.

External links

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