In a London café, Anja Steinbauer chats with the philosopher who invented the word ‘idiosyncratic’.
I have a deep problem with any official titles and so on. I’m not proud of it. When someone calls me professor I take it automatically as an irony.
A most obvious fact about you is that you are not just a philosopher but a famous philosopher – a rare thing. What does it mean to you to be famous? Is fame important?
First of all, fame is very relative. I have, as you know, many enemies: people who think that I’m just a clown, people who think that beneath my amusing nature there is some evil proto fascist or Stalinist dimension and so on. So I think my so-called fame is basically just a way to keep me at a distance and not engage seriously with what I am doing. What I’m really proud of is, you know my crazy book Less Than Nothing, the one that is almost the length of the Bible? It sold very well. That gives me hope that we nonetheless shouldn’t underestimate the public. The publishers put pressure on me to write a nice best seller on Donald Trump. But why should I? He’s not interesting as a person; he’s a boring idiot.
But are you worried about your books becoming coffee table books? You know, people buy them but don’t actually read them?
Denne historien er fra October/November 2017-utgaven av Philosophy Now.
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Denne historien er fra October/November 2017-utgaven av Philosophy Now.
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Metaphors & Creativity
Ignacio Gonzalez-Martinez has a flash of inspiration about the role metaphors play in creative thought.
Medieval Islam & the Nature of God
Musa Mumtaz meditates on two maverick medieval Muslim metaphysicians.
Robert Stern
talks with AmirAli Maleki about philosophy in general, and Kant and Hegel in particular.
Volney (1757-1820)
John P. Irish travels the path of a revolutionary mind.
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Becky Lee Meadows considers questions of guilt, innocence, and despair in this classic Christmas movie.
"I refute it thus"
Raymond Tallis kicks immaterialism into touch.
Cave Girl Principles
Larry Chan takes us back to the dawn of thought.
A God of Limited Power
Philip Goff grasps hold of the problem of evil and comes up with a novel solution.
A Critique of Pure Atheism
Andrew Likoudis questions the basis of some popular atheist arguments.
Exploring Atheism
Amrit Pathak gives us a run-down of the foundations of modern atheism.