Peter Sloterdijk (; German: [ˈsloːtɐˌdaɪk]; born 26 June 1947) is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He was a professor of philosophy and media theory at and Rector from 2001 to 2015 of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. He co-hosted the German television show Das Philosophische Quartett from 2002 until 2012.
Biography Sloterdijk's father was Dutch, his mother German. He studied philosophy, German studies and history at LMU Munich and the University of Hamburg from 1968 to 1974. In 1975, he received his PhD from the University of Hamburg. In 1978, he became a disciple of Rajneesh, and lived in his ashram until 1980. In the 1980s, he worked as a freelance writer, and published his Critique of Cynical Reason (German: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft) in 1983. Sloterdijk has since published a number of philosophical works acclaimed in Germany. In 2001, he was named chancellor of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, part of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. His best-known Karlsruhe student and former assistant is Marc Jongen, a member of the Bundestag. In 2002, Sloterdijk began to co-host Das Philosophische Quartett ('The Philosophical Quartet'), a show on the German ZDF television channel devoted to discussing key contemporary issues in-depth.
Philosophical stance Sloterdijk rejects the existence of dualisms—body and soul, subject and object, culture and nature, etc.—since their interactions, "spaces of coexistence", and common technological advancement create hybrid realities. Sloterdijk's ideas are sometimes referred to as posthumanism, and seek to integrate different components that have been, in his opinion, erroneously considered detached from each other. Consequently, he proposes the creation of an "ontological constitution" that would incorporate all beings—humans, animals, plants, and machines.
Philosophical style In the style of Nietzsche, Sloterdijk remains convinced that contemporary philosophers have to think dangerously and let themselves be "kidnapped" by contemporary "hyper-complexities": they must forsake our present humanist and nationalist world for a wider horizon at once ecological and global. Sloterdijk's philosophical style strikes a balance between the firm academicism of a scholarly professor and a certain sense of anti-academicism (witness his ongoing interest in the ideas of Osho, of whom he became a disciple in the late seventies). Taking a sociological stance, Andreas Dorschel sees Sloterdijk's timely innovation at the beginning of the 21st century in having introduced the principles of celebrity into philosophy. Sloterdijk himself, viewing exaggeration as necessary to catch attention, describes the way he presents his ideas as "hyperbolic" (hyperbolisch).
Major works
Critique of Cynical Reason The Kritik der zynischen Vernunft, published by Suhrkamp in 1983 (and in English as Critique of Cynical Reason, 1987), became the best-selling work on philosophy in the German language since the Second World War and launched Sloterdijk's career as an author.
Spheres The trilogy Spheres is the philosopher's magnum opus. The first volume was published in 1998, the second in 1999, and the last in 2004. Spheres deals with "spaces of coexistence", spaces commonly overlooked or taken for granted which conceal information crucial to developing an understanding of humanity. The exploration of these spheres begins with the basic difference between mammals and other animals: the biological and utopian comfort of the mother's womb, which humans try to recreate through science, ideology, and religion. From these microspheres (ontological relations such as fetus-placenta) to macrospheres (macro-uteri such as states), Sloterdijk analyzes spheres where humans try but fail to dwell and traces a connection between vital crises (e.g., emptiness and narcissistic detachment) and crises created when a sphere shatters. Sloterdijk has said that the first paragraphs of Spheres are "the book that Heidegger should have written", a companion volume to Being and Time, namely, "Being and Space". He was referring to his initial exploration of the idea of Dasein, which is then taken further as Sloterdijk distances himself from Heidegger's positions.
Nietzsche Apostle On 25 August 2000, in Weimar, Sloterdijk gave a speech on Nietzsche; the occasion was the centennial of the latter philosopher's death. The speech was later printed as a short book and translated into English. Sloterdijk presented the idea that language is fundamentally narcissistic: individuals, states and religions use language to promote and validate themselves. Historically however, Christianity and norms in Western culture have prevented orators and authors from directly praising themselves, so that for example they would instead venerate God or praise the dead in eulogies, to demonstrate their own skill by proxy. In Sloterdijk's account, Nietzsche broke with this norm by regularly praising himself in his own work. For examples of classical Western "proxy-narcissism", Sloterdijk cites Otfrid of Weissenburg, Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy, each of whom prepared edited versions of the four Gospels: the Evangelienbuch, the Jefferson Bible and the Gospel in Brief, respectively. For Sloterdijk, each work can be regarded as "a fifth gospel" in which the editor validates his own culture by editing tradition to conform to his own historical situation. With this background, Sloterdijk explains that Nietzsche also presented his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra as a kind of fifth gospel. In Sloterdijk's account, Nietzsche engages in narcissism to an embarrassing degree, particularly in Ecce Homo, promoting a form of individualism and presenting himself and his philosophy as a brand. However, just as the Christian Gospels were appropriated by the above editors, so too was Nietzsche's thought appropriated and misinterpreted by the Nazis. Sloterdijk concludes the work by comparing Nietzsche's individualism with that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, as in Self-Reliance.
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