Sloterdijk Now

Peter Sloterdijk is one of the most challenging and contentious thinkers currently working within the European tradition. This is the first collection devoted to his work for English-language audiences and will act as an introduction to his work, set an agenda for engagement with his ideas, and relate his writings to a range of political, theoretical and practical contexts. Since his philosophical bestseller Critique of Cynical Reason (1983), Sloterdijk has exercised an important influence over German and other European thought and recently interest in his diverse oeuvre has grown considerably. The past few years have seen a number of his books translated into English, with many more to come. The book seeks to do justice to the breadth of Sloterdijk’s work throughout his career, orientated around the central topics of cynicism, ressentiment, the posthuman, space and world, art and literature, language, social science and his role as a public intellectual. Contributors include Babette Babich, Sjoerd van Tuinen, Eduardo Mendieta, Marie-Eve Morin, Efrain Kristol, Wieland Hoban, Nigel Thrift, Jean-Pierre Couture, and Sloterdijk himself. An explicitly interdisciplinary project, Sloterdijk Now is a crucial introduction to the work of this central thinker, in its complexity, variety and notoriety. It is set to spark debate amongst students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

Acknowledgements vii List of Contributors viii List of Abbreviations xi 1 Worlds, Engagements, Temperaments 1 Stuart Elden 2 Sloterdijk’s Cynicism: Diogenes in the Marketplace 17 Babette Babich 3 From Psychopolitics to Cosmopolitics: The Problem of Ressentiment 37 Sjoerd van Tuinen 4 A Letter on Überhumanismus: Beyond Posthumanism and Transhumanism 58 Eduardo Mendieta 5 The Coming-to-the-World of the Human Animal 77 Marie-Eve Morin 6 A Public Intellectual 96 Jean-Pierre Couture 7 The Language of Give and Take: Sloterdijk’s Stylistic Methods 114 Wieland Hoban 8 Peter Sloterdijk and the Philosopher’s Stone 133 Nigel Thrift 9 Literature in Sloterdijk’s Philosophy 147 Efraín Kristal 10 The Time of the Crime of the Monstrous: On the Philosophical Justifi cation of the Artificial 165 Peter Sloterdijk (translated by Wieland Hoban) Notes 182 Index 203