Selected Exaggerations

Peter Sloterdijks 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 Sloterdijks 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 is Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at the Karlsruhe School of Design and the author of many works,including You Must Change Your Life.

1. In Place of a Preface

2. The Half-Moon Man

3. Why are People Media?

4. World Estrangement and Diagnosis of our Times

5. Uterus on Wheels

6. Fire your Shrink!

7. Philosophical Retuning

8. We're Always Riding Down Maternity Drive

9. Tackling the Unspoken Things in Culture

10. On Wealth and Self-Respect

11. Learning Is Joyful Anticipation of Oneself

12. Postmen and Fallen Towers

13. Raising our Heads: Pampering Spaces and Time Drifts

14. Good Theory Doesnt Complain

15. There Are No Individuals

16. Confused People Spread Confusion

17. Germans Want to Be Compelled: Theory for the Year's End

18. Comparatists of Happiness

19. Image and Perspective. An Experiment in Atmospheric Seeing

20. On Progress. The Holy Fire of Dissatisfaction

21. A Team of Hermaphrodites

22. Under a Brighter Sky

23. Making the Effort: The Reader

24. Thus Spoke Sloterdijk

25. Fathers Should Be Kept Away from Brothels and Pubs

26. The Athletics of Dying

27. Do Your Duty to Enjoy!

28. Even a God Cant Save Us

29. A Plug for Higher Energies

30. Mortgaging the Air: The Financial Crisis

31. Is There a Way Out of the Crisis of Western Culture?

32. Questions of Fate: A Novel About Thought

33. Humans in Repetition / The 21st Century will be Acrobatic

34. With the Babble of Babylon in the Background

Editorial Note

Appendix