Critique of Cynical Reason  

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Critique of Cynical Reason (1983, Kritik der zynischen Vernunft) is a book by German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk. It discusses philosophical Cynicism and popular cynicism as a societal phenomenon in European history.

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 etymological consonant shift from the "K" of the Greek term kunikos to the "C" of the modern cynic as support for his thesis: The original Greek school of philosophy established itself as a subversion of the Ancient Greek Academy and as an outlet for the disempowered general populace, whereas the Modern industrial and contemporary post-industrial system degrades the concept so it applies primarily to mercantile exchanges of tradable goods, including ideas. One illustration that Sloterdijk employs to make this point is the activity of agents and double-agents, which to him incorporates contemporary cynicism as an incarnation of tactical thinking, pragmatic maneuvering, silencing, and misspeaking. A true Enlightenment in the spirit of Immanuel Kant's essays What is Enlightenment? and Perpetual Peace never has existed, Sloterdijk concludes.

Content

Sloterdijk describes the evolution of middle and upper-class consciousness by employing negative examples, which he draws from European 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 Dadaism as artists practiced it in Berlin accompanies his disclosing of the variations of irony and sarcasm that all the political camps of the time between the two World Wars employed (especially Dadaists, Social Democrats, National Socialists, Communists in their derisive attempts to incite their supporters against those of all other points of view). He analyzes Nazi texts that - Sloterdijk claims - intend to "rhetorically rescue" the 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 Reception History of Kant's three Critiques and their various interpretations up to contemporary times. He attempts to show that Kant's "critical trade" became instrumentalized via the premise of Francis Bacon's aphorism that "knowledge is power," and was finally subverted and neutered by it. Moreover, he uses the ancient Greek Cynicism as a foil for the contemporary, inhumane cynicism that evolved, so Sloterdijk claims, through a combination of middle-class 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 human kind 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.

Table of contents (English edition)

Foreword: The return of Diogenes as postmodern intellectual / Andreas Huyssen --

Preface --

Acknowledgments --

Part one.

Sightings: Five preliminary reflections. 1. Cynicism: the twilight of false consciousness ; 2. Enlightenment as dialogue: critique of ideology as continuation of the miscarried dialogue through other means ; 3. Eight unmaskings: a review of critiques ; 4. After the unmaskings: cynical twilight. Sketches for the self-repudiation of the ethos of enlightenment ; 5. "In search of lost cheekiness"

Part two. Cynicism in world progress

I. Physiognomic main text.

6. Concerning the psychosomatics of the zeitgeist ;

Tongue, Stuck Out; Mouth, Smiling Maliciously, Crooked; Mouth, Bitter, Tight Mouth, Laughing Loudly, Big-Mouthed Mouth, Serene, Still; Eye Gazes, Eye Blinkers; Breasts; Arses; Fart; Shit, Refuse; Genitals

7. The cabinet of cynics --

Diogenes of Sinope, Lucian, Goethe's Faust, The Grand Inquisitor, Heidegger's anyone.

II. Phenomenological main text. 8. The cardinal cynicisms ; 9. The secondary cynicisms --

III. Logical main text. Black empiricism: enlightenment as organization of polemical knowledge ; 11. Transcendental polemic: Heraclitian meditations --

IV. Historical main text. The Weimar symptom: models of consciousness in German modernity ;

12. Weimar crystallization: transition of a period from recollection into history ; 13. Dadaistic chaotology: semantic cynicisms ; 14. The republic-as-if. Political cynicisms I: The struggle goes on ; 15. The front and nothingness. Political cynicisms II: Populist dialectics and the dissolution of the front ; 16. Dead souls without testaments. Political cynicisms III: Looking after war graves in the empty interior ; 17. Conspirators and dissimulators. Political cynicisms IV: Conviction as disinhibition ; 18. Depersonalization and alienation. Functionalist cynicisms I ; 19. Artificial limbs. Functionalist cynicisms II: On the spirit of technology ; 20. Political algodicy: cynical cosmologies and the logic of pain ; 21. Asking for a Napoleon from within. Political cynicisms V: Training for fact people ; 22. "Bright hour": great confessions of a split consciousness ; 23. On the German Republic of impostors: the natural history of deception ; 24. Hey! Are we alive? New matter-of-Fact cynicisms and stories about the difficulties of life ; 25. Postcoital twilight: sexual cynicism and stories of intractable love ; 26. Weimar double decisions, or, Matter-of-factness unto death --

Epilogue. The pleural shock: on the archetype of Weimar laughter --

Conclusion. Under way toward a critique of subjective reason.

Index

Abenteuerliche Herz, Das (The adventurous heart), 463 Abtotungsverfahren, 126 Ad hominem arguments, 18 Adelson, Leslie A., xxiv Adorno, Theodor, xxxiv, xxxvii, 58; and aes�thetic theory, xxxi, 109; and Critical The�ory, xxxiv; and denial of masculine, xxxv; and dialectics, 372-73; and embodiment, 106-7; essay on Heine, xxxvi; and melan�choly science, xv, xviii, xxxvii; and metaphysics, xvii; and Sensitive theory, xxxiv Aired Curtain, The, 44 Alexander the Great, xv, 160-62, 161, 165 Algodicy, 460, 461, 464 All Quiet on the Western Front, 419 Allegoria della Fortuna, 240 Althusser, Louis, 91, 315 Amoralism, 126 Anaximander, 351 Animal Magnetism, 262 Antienlightenment, 10, 17, 178 Anti-Semitism, 115, 411, 426 Anyone, xxii, 195-210 passim Arendt, Hannah, 206 Aristotle, 101, 103, 167, 255 Armament, 131-32 Arse, 147-49 Artificial limb philosophy, 449, 451, 458-59 Artillery. See Weaponry Asceticism, 167, 203 Astronomy, 464 Atomic bomb. See Nuclear holocaust Aujbruch der Nation, 410, 415-16, 420-21 Aujkldrung, xi, xiii, xvii. See also Enlight�enment Auschwitz, 64 Automobiles, 419-20 Avenarius, Ferdinand, 491-93 Baader, Johannes, 391, 395 Bader von Lucca, Die, xxxviii Balzac, Honore de, 115 Bankruptcy, The, 431 Baudouin, 31 Baudrillard, xxii, xxv Bauhaus, 203 Baum, Vicki, 515 Beauty Swings Her Whip over Wisdom, 255 Becher, Johannes R., 477 Been, Doctor, 481 Being, 304 Benjamin, Walter, xxxii, 114, 126, 465-67 551 552 • INDEX Benn, Gottfried, xxv, xxx, 116, 482 Bergler, Edmund 404-8 Beyond Good and Evil, 23, 208 Biberkopf, Franz, 504-6, 505 Bible, 23-25 Billy Budd, 306 Binding, Rudolf G., 461 Bismarck, Otto von, 81 Black empiricism. See Empiricism, black Blind Power, 231 Bloch, Ernst, 125, 384-85 Blue Angel, The, 387 Bohemians, 109, 117, 118 Bomb. See Nuclear holocaust Bourgeois art, 108-9, 311-12, 391, 397 Bourgeoisie, 106, 115, 118, 309, 438 Breasts, 147 Brecht, Bertolt, ix, xvi, xix, xxiii, xxxvi, 306, 422, 434, 441-42, 443, 483, 499, 515, 516-18 "Bright hour." See Split consciousness Broch, Hermann, 132, 419 Bronnen, Arnolt, 515 Brothers Karamazov, The, 182, 183, 187-88 Buback murder, 123 Buergel, Bruno H., 464-65 Burckhardt, Jakob, 115 Camus, Albert, 149 Capital, 314-15, 320 Carnival, 117 Castiglione, Giovanni, 162 Catastrophile complex, 120, 122, 123 Celestial Science, 464 Chaotology, 399 Cheekiness: and Bohemians, 117; and car�nival, 117; and cynicism, 111, 115, 116; defined, 102-3; Diogenes and, 103; future of, 124; Goethe's, 107; history of, 115; andkynicism, 101, 103, 110, 118; and Luther, 116; religious, 110; significance of, 102, 126-27; and universities, 117 Chekov, Anton, xxxii Child-like Question, 302 Christian Love—As Practiced in Spain, 284 Christianity, xxvii, 106, 126, 168, 169-70 Cicero, 303 City of Traffic, 435 Class structure. See Hegemonic power; Super�structure, critique of Clothes Stand, 200 Concentration camp, world as, xiv Concernedness, xxxiii Conservatism, x, xii Cooper, David, 19 Counterpublic sphere, xviii Criminality, 305, 306 Cripples. See Mutilation Crisis, chronic, 124 Critical Theory, xiv, xvii, xxxiii-xxxv, xxxvii, 209, 388 Critique, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxvi, 3, 8, 14, 16, 18, 385. See also Ideology critique Critique of Pure Reason, ix, xxx, xxxi, xxxviii, 455 Cubism, 499 Cynic, xii, 3-4; historical examples of, xvii, 4, 155-56; and knowledge, 142; vs. kynic. xxi; and kynic body, xviii; modern, 4-5; Nietzsche as, xxix; psychoanalysis of, 404-8; theologians as, 25. See also Kynic Cynical laughter. See Laughter Cynical reason, xiii, xxxii, xxxvii, 8, 18, 82 Cynical structure, 8 Cynicism: -analysis, 535, 547; defined, xi, xxii, xxxii, 5, 405; and economics, 315-17, 320; as enlightened false con�sciousness, xii, 5-6; growth of in 1970s, xii; investigation of, xxxvii; vs. kynicism, xvii, xx, xxxix, 124, 127, 193, 194, 218; master, 111, 111-12, 115, 116, 142; mod�ern, 3-4, 20, 111, 118, 187, 193, 385, 462; and Nietzsche, xxix, 386; and psy�choanalysis, 152, 405-8; and realism, xxxii; role of, xi; status, 6; strategies to resist, xi. See also Kynicism Dadaism, 391-92, 402, 443 Dadasophy, 395, 396 Dali, Salvador, 342 Dangerous Vaginas, 341 Daumier, Honore, 284 de Cari, G., 32 De Chirico, 198 de Sade, Marquis, 260 Death, 149, 346-49 Deception, 483-98 Defecating, 103, 104, 149, 149, 151 Deleuze, Gilles, xiii, xix Denn sie wissen, was sie tun, 76 Derrida, Jacques, xvi INDEX • 553 Descartes, Rene, xi, 330 Dessauer, Friedrich, 453-57 Detective stories, 305-6 Devil. See Satan Dialectic of Enlightenment, xi, xiv, xv, xvi, xviii, xix, xxi Dialectics, 367-79 Dietz, Ferdinand, 45 Diogenes, ix, 101-6 passim, 144, 150, 156-69, 157, 161, 162, 209-10; descen�dants of, 193, 194-95; as kynic, 3, 115, 171; kynical gaze of, 145; protest gestures of, xviii, 151; and resistance, xv, xviii Diogenes Looking for Human Beings, 162 Disarmament, 129-30, 132 Discontent, x, xxxii, 3, 88 Discussion, 12 Dissatisfied enlightenment. See Enlightenment Dix, Otto, 517 Doctors. See Medical cynicism Don Quixote, 222, 223 Dore, Gustave, 223 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 182, 185, 187, 188, 192 Dropouts, xi, xxii Du und das Weltall (You and the universe), 464-65 Economics, 315-22 Egoism, critique of, 59-74 Ehringer, G., 163 Eichendorff, J. V., 534 Einbahnstrasse (One-way street), 466-67 Einstein, Albert, 141 Elias, Norbert, xviii Ellenberger, Henry F., 47 Embodiment, 106-7, 118-20, 168 Emigration, 119 Empiricism, 179, 310, 311 Empiricism, black, 329-356 Enlightened false consciousness, xvii, xxii; cynicism as, xii, 5-6, 217; vs. false con�sciousness, 6; and political history, 6. See also Enlightenment; False consciousness Enlightenment: age of, xxx; in antiquity, 164; and cheekiness, 99, 127; and cynicism, xxxvii, 3, 10, 97-99; defined, 177-78; de�velopment of, 83-88; dialogue of, 13; and Diogenes, 102; and disillusionment, xxvii, 6, 153; dissatisfied, 11, 17; embodied, 120; and German history, xi, xxxv-xxxvi, 10, 81; irony of, 542; and Kant, xxx, 455; limits of, 6, 10; as melancholy science, xxxvii; miscarried, 10; modern day, 6, 124, 309, 310; patriarchal, 80; and peace, 13; and physiognomy, 140; as polemical knowledge, 229-31; prevention of, 76-82; and science, 86; and self-doubt, 11; and self-inhibition, 126; and Weimar Republic, 10, 125; and Zen, 130. See also Auf�kldrung Epistemic interests, 331 Epistemology, 357 Erheiterungsarbeit, xviii Erkenntnis. See Knowing Ernst, Max, 279 Escapism, 119-20 Espionage, 331-36 Ethics, 303-4, 439 Eulenspiegel, Till, 115, 116, 142, 149, 178, 254 Existentialism, 101, 168, 196, 420 Eyes, 145-46 Fabian, 76 Faith Healers or the K. V. Machine, The, 272 False consciousness: 3-9, 15, 22; and decep�tion 29; vs. enlightened false conscious�ness, 6; forms of, 15; and Marx 20; as sick consciousness, 19. See also Enlight�ened false consciousness False living, xxxiv-xxxv False logic, 21 False Mirror, The, 146 Falsitas, 45 Farting, 101, 103, 150-51 Fascism: and artistic release, 306; and Auf�kldrung, xi; and automobiles, 420; and cynicism, 8, 242-43, 389; and Dadaism, 395, 400; German, 115, 206, 388, 420, 467; ideology of, 8, 451-52; and JCinger, 462; and Nietzsche, xvii; and technology, 453; and Weimar descendant, 7, 122 Faust, 76, 175-81 passim, 177, 388 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 18 Flake, Otto, xxvi Flaubert, Gustave, 325 Flesh and Iron, 437 Fools, 102 Ford, Henry, 439 554 • INDEX Foucault, Michel, x-xi, xiv, xviii, xxiv Fourth Reich, 455, 457 Fragebogen, Der, 440 Franciscans, 165 Frank, Bruno, 387 Frechheit, xvi Frederick II, 79 Freud, Sigmund, xxxvi, 3, 18, 19, 47, 50, 167,207, 321,404,406 Freudian psychoanalysis, 152 Freyer, Hans, 449-50 Fright, 126 Frohliche Wissenschafi, Die, 329 Fromm, Erich, 120, 126, 164, 304 Gabel, Joseph, 19 Gall, Doctor, 269, 270 Gay Science, xxi-xxii, xxxviii, 176, 179 Geachteten, Die, 439 Gehlen, Arnold, 7, 39 Genitals, 152-53 German Communist Party, 412 Germany, a Winter's Tale, 217 Gesamtausgabe, 436-39 Gesicht unserer Zeit, Das, 313 God. See Religion, critique of Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 107-8, 175, 187 Goya, Francisco de, 166 Grand Inquisitor, 182-95, 206-7 Granit and Herz, 452-53 Great Metaphysician, The, 198 Greek civilization. See Hellenistic civilization Greutzer, Matthias, 16 Grien, Hans Baldung, 254, 255 Grosstheorien, x Grosz, George, 204, 272, 402, 403, 410, 414, 418 Grow, Gretel, 503 Grilnderzeit, xxii Guattari, Felix, xiv Gulbransson, Olaf, 302, 337, 527 Gumbel, Emil Julius, 424-29 Habermas, Jiirgen, xiii, xiv, 113 Haffher, Sebastian, 429 Happiness, xxxv, xxxvii, 126, 512-14 Haussmann, Raoul, 391, 393, 395-96, 397, 400 Heartfield, John, 131 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, ix, 189, 370 Hegel's Holiday, 378 Hegemonic power, 13, 14, 17, 19, 22, 32, 77, 125, 240; and cheekiness, 103, 110; and Christianity, 334-38; cultural, 106; and cynicism, 111, 112-13, 229-50; in East/West competition, 246; and fascism, 242-43; freedom of, 110-11; and Marx�ism, 246-47; and monarchies, 229-30; and political kynicism, 230-33; in Russian his�tory, 243-44; and socialist movements, 241-42. See also Oppositional power Heidegger, Martin, xxii, xxxvi, 124, 195-210 passim, 398, 417 Heine, Heinrich, xxvi, xxxvi, xxxviii, 16, 18, 57, 116, 217 Heine, Thomas Theodor, 112 Hellenistic civilization, 164 Heraclitus, 357, 360, 376 Hermeneutics, 19 Herzfelde, Wieland, 402 High theory, 102 Hippies, 106 Hitler, Adolf, xxii, 411-13, 421-22, 489-93. See also Nazis Hochkeppel, Willy, 106 Hoelz, Max, 506 Hoerle, Heinrich, 23, 456 Hoppla, wir Leben! 499, 508-9, 509, 512 Horkheimer, xiv Hubbuch, Karl, 518 Huelsenbeck, Richard, 391, 392 Hugenberg, Alfred, 453 Human folly, 37 Id, 361, 366-67 Idealism, 104, 396 Ideology critique, x-xiii, xviii, 15-17, 17, 18, 19-21, 22, 30, 329, 385 Illuminating artillery, 353 Industrial Farmers, 84 Industrialism, 436-39, 442, 458 Industry Party, 96 Information industry, 308-10. See also Jour�nalism Irony, 441 Jameson, Frederic, xv-xvi Jaspers, Karl, 417 Jesus, 162 INDEX • 555 Jewish War, 150 Jokes, 305 Josephus, Flavius, 150 Journalism 307-8, 311 Joyful Science, 450 Jung, Franz, 3 Junger, Ernst, 150, 384, 461-64, 462 Kant, Immanuel, ix-xi, xxiv, xxx-xxxi, 455 Kastner, Erich, xxxii, 122, 422-23, 443, 477, 510, 519 Keleman, Stanley, 139 Kierkegaard, Soren, xxxvi Kluge, Alexander, xviii Knowing, xxx, xxxv Knowledge, xxvi-xxix, xxxv, 11, 71, 192, 309-10; cynicism of, 287-98 Koch, Robert, 11 Kracauer, xxiii Kunert, Giinther, 126 Kiinzberg, Privatdozent von, 446-47, 448 Kynic: and cheekiness, 103; vs. cynic, xxi; as dialectical materialist, 105; and dog philos�ophy, 104, 180; and Greek philosophy, 170; and pissing, shitting, etc., 103, 151. See also Cynic Kynicism: 101, 361-62, 365; and art, 109, 386; and bodily functions, 103, 106; as cultural revolution, 106; as current belief, xxix; vs. cynicism, xvii, xx, 124, 127, 193, 194; defined, 217-18; and Diogenes, ix, xv, 3, 103, 104, 167; and empiricism, 179; and Heidegger, 195, 203, 204, 205, 206; and hippies, 106; and idealism, 104, 111, 442; late Roman, 170, 171-72; and Lucian, 170; and Nietzsche, ix, xxviii; and physiognomy, 140; and possessions, 165; role of, xi; and satire, 16. See also Cyni�cism; Neokynicism La Rochefoucauld, 26 Labor, 437-38 Language, speechless, 139 Laughter, 143-44, 529, 529-33 Laing, R. D., 19 Lecture with Doctor Gall, 269 Left, the, xxvii, 209, 397, 450, 461, 465 Legitimation crisis, 113 Leonbuono, Lorenzo, 240 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 149 Lessing, Theodor, xxxvi, 24, 25 Lovers' Death in Jager Street, 518 Low theory, 102 Lucian, 169-74, 175 Liiddecke, Theodor, 450-52 Ludwig, Emil, 471-74 Luther, Martin, 24, 116-17 Lying. See Deception M.A.S.H., 302 Macedonian Empire. See Alexander the Great; Hellenistic civilization Machiavelli, Niccolo di Bernardo, 238-39 Magritte, Rene, 146, 378 Man Ray, 200 Mann, Heinrich, 474-75 Mann, Klaus, 403, 486 Mann, Thomas, xxiii, 467, 487-88, 529-33 Marcuse, Herbert, xiv Marie Antoinette, 112 Marxism, xxxvi, 18, 20, 90-97, 246, 314-15, 317-20, 373-75; vs. anarchism 68; and critique of superstructure, 36-40; and knowledge, 90, 293; and morality, 46-47; as realistic philosophy, 191; and revolu�tion, 324. See also Superstructure, critique of Masken und Metamorphosen des Nihilismus (Masks and metamorphoses of nihilism), 440 Masks, 23 Masturbation, 101, 103, 106 Materialism: and bourgeoisie, 106, 438; di�alectical, 101, 105; existential, 104; and idealism of power, 105; pantomimic, 103; and reality, 102 Media cynicism, 307-8, 313, 509-12 Medical cynicism, 266-75, 343-46 Meditation, 132 Meggendorfer Blatter, 358 Mein Kampf, 411-13, 421-22, 461 Melancholy, 517 Melville, Herman, 306 Mephistopheles, 174-82 passim, 177, 186 Mescalero, 123 Mesmer, Franz Anton, 47 Mesmermania, 48 Metallurgy. See Weaponry Metaphysics, xvi, 34-36, 34, 346 Michel, Karl Markus, 303 556 • INDEX Military cynicism, 219-29. See also Weaponry Military ethics, 129, 323, 324, 384, 435 Mode of Vanity, 16 Monde concentrationnaire, Le. See Concentra�tion camp Money. See Economics Monument to the Unknown Prostheses, 456 Morality, 126, 301, 303, 416, 436 Morality, critique of, 40-47 Mouth, 142-43, 145 Muhsam, Erich, 461 Musil, Robert, xxx Mutilation, 443-46, 444, 446, 447, 448 My Life and Work, 439 Napoleon, 224, 329, 469-74 Narcissism, 127 Narrenschiff (The ship of fools), 757 Nasrudin, Mullah, 160 Natural science: vs. weaponry, 349-55 Naturalism, critique of, 53-59 Nazis, 115, 117, 206, 388, 404, 451-52, 460 Negative futurism, 12 Negt, Oskar, xviii Neokynicism, xxix, 106, 107, 109, 115, 196, 391 Neue Jugend, 406 Neutron bomb. See Nuclear holocaust NewWave, 118, 400 Nietzsche, Friedrich, ix-x, xvi, xxvii-xxix, xxviii, xxxvi; and Apollo, 102; and cyni�cism, xxviii-xxix; and fascism, xxvii; and God, 386; and knowledge, 179, 293; and Marxism, 47; and middle classes, xxvii; and morality, 44-46; and politics, 192; and the Same, xxviii, 396; self�characterization of, xxix; and truth, 329; and Weimar Republic, 10; and will to power, xxvii Nihilism, 192, 194, 196, 403, 415, 440-41 Nobodiness, xviii-xix, xxi, 73-74 Noske, Gustav, 429, 430, 431, 432 Nothingness, 346 Novalis, 169 Nuclear holocaust, xxi, xxii, 126-27, 130-31, 131, 325 Obedience, 141 Objectivity, 5, 6 Odysseus, xviii, xix, xxi, 74 Oedipus Rex, 180 On Perpetual Peace, xxx On the Critique of the Times, 436 On the Proof of the Spirit and of the Power, 24 Ontology, 195, 207 Oppositional power, 103, 112, 337 Pain. See Algodicy Paris Diary, 150-51 Pascal, Blaise, 59 Pasolini, Pier Paolo, xxxvi Pasternak, Boris, 186 Pasteur, Louis, 11 Pastiche, xv, xvi Peregrinus, 171-74 passim Phallogocentrism, xvi Philology, 23-25 Philosophic der Technik (Philosophy of tech�nology), 453-57 Philosophy: analytical, 311; demise of, xxvi; and Diogenes, 102, 158; as interaction of physics and logic, xxxi; and Kantian think�ing, xxxi; resurgence of, xxxviii; and science, 140; and social history, 103; task of, 14; and theoretical fascism, 8; and Turel, 458-59; and Western thought, xxxviii, 130 Philosophy of Money, The (Philosophic des Geldes), 315-16 Physiognomy: of Kant, xxx; of philosophers, xxxi; philosophical. 139, 384 Pineau, L. G., 435 Pissing. See Urinating Platner, Johannes, 161 Plato, 101-4 passim, 168 Playboy, 264 Polemics, 329-56, 357 Police. See Hegemonic power Political cynicism, 410, 414, 419, 424, 431, 469-76 Political Juggling Act, 81 Politics, 106, 120, 159 Politics of the personal, xxi Po/yphem, 73 Power: critique of, 14; of everything, xxiv, 6; and jokes, 103; knowledge as, xxvi; and sensitive theory, xxxiv; of the underling, INDEX • 557 110; will to, xxvii. See also Hegemonic power; Oppositional power Prejudice, 14 Press, the. See Media cynicism Privacy, critique of. See Egoism, critique of Prostitution, 317, 320 Protokynicism, 170 Psychoanalytische Bewegung, 404 Psychopolitical perceptions, 500 Puzzle of Desire, The, 342 Quaero homines, 163 Raddatz, Fritz J., 126 Raphael, 144 Rathenau, Walter, 436-40 Rationalism, 310-11, 324 Rauschning, Hermann, 440 Realism, 4 Regler, Gustav, 502-4 Reich, Wilhelm, 19 Reichsverband, Der (The Reich Association), 444, 445 Reification, xii-xiii, 15, 20, 27 Religion, critique of, 26-34 Religious cynicism, 275-87 passim Remarque, Erich Maria, 414, 419 Republican Automatons, 204 Revelation, critique of, 23-26. See also Bible Reverdy, Pierre, 301 Richet, Charles Robert, 494-95 Riesenprogramm, 219 Right, the, xxvii, 414, 415, 426-28, 450, 461, 466 Rocky Horror Picture Show, 128 Roth, Joseph, 515-17 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, xxxvi, 163 Rowlandson, Thomas, 224 Rubiner, Ludwig, 496-97 Ruhmkorf, Peter, 534 Russian Secret Police, 337 SS Death Head Units, 286 Sachs, Hugo, 115 Salomon, Ernst von, 439-40 Sarcasm, 7 Sartre, Jean-Paul, xiv, 149 Satan, 144, 176-81 passim, 206, 362-65 Satire, 16, 18, 102, 118, 304 Scepter, The, 152 Schalck, E., 81 Schauwecker, Franz, 410, 414, 415-16, 420-21 Scheler, Max, 467-68 Schlafwandler, 132 Schleyer, Hans-Martin, 123 Schlicher, Rudolf, 231 Scholem, Gershom, 458, 459 Scholz, Georg, 84 School of Athens, Diogenes on the Steps, 144 Schopenhauer, Arthur, ix, xxxviii Schuder, Kurt, 452-53 Secret agents, 113-14 Seel, Otto, 169-70 Sein undZeit, 124, 195, 197, 199, 201, 202, 203, 207, 208, 417 Seiwert, Franz Wilhelm, 12 Selbsterfahrung, xvii, xviii, xxi Self-denial, 217 Self-destruction, 8 Self-preservation. See Survival Sensitive theory, xxxiii-iv Sensuousness, xxx-xxxi Serner, Walter, 391, 398-400 Sexual cynicism, 250-66, 262, 515-20 Sexual revolution, the, 153 Sexuality, 106, 153, 168, 305, 340-43 Shame, 168 Shitting. See Defecating Shrove Tuesday, 117 Siemens, William, 11 Simmel, Georg, 315-16, 317 Simplicitas conquers Fraus (Simplicity con�quers fraud), 43 Smile. See Mouth Social democracy, xxvii, xxix, 425, 429-32 Socrates, 103, 104, 109, 171 Soldat Suhren, 416 Sophists, 104 Spengler, Oswald, 384, 460, 469, 471, 473, 475 Split consciousness, 477-82 Stalinism, 114 State cynicism. See Hegemonic power Stoicism, 165, 170 Stolz und Trauer (Pride and sadness), 461 Stranglers, the, 127 Strauss, F. J., 112 Stupidity. See Deception Subjectivity, xiii, xviii-xix, 534-47 558 D INDEX Suicide, 118-19, 398 Superstructure, critique of 36-40 Surrealism, 458 Survival, xx, 8, 25, 113, 128-29, 169, 180, 217, 321, 322, 324-25, 346, 443 Technokratie, Autarkie, Genetokratie, 458 Technology, 448-50, 453-54, 454, 457, 457, 458. See also Industrialism Ten Commandments, 301, 302, 307 Tendenzwende, ix Terror, 102 Terrorism, 123 Theology, 23-26 Theweleit, Klaus, xxiii Thiess, Frank, 313 Third Reich. See Hitler, Adolf; Nazis Third World, 308 Thirty Years'War, 115 Thomas, Karl, 507-8, 511 Threepenny Opera, 152, 306, 387 Tibaldi, Pellegrino, 73 Toller, Ernst, 506-7, 511 Torless, Musil, ix, xxx-xxxi Totalitarianism, xvii Transparency. See Unconsciousness, critique of Treaty of Versailles, 410-11, 425 Truth, xxvii, xxiv, 13, 20, 102, 104, 311, 330, 440 Tucholsky, Kurt, 401-2 Turel, Adrien, 458-59 Two Kings of Terror, The, 224 Unconsciousness, critique of, 47-53 Unhomeliness, 203-4 Uniformity, 309, 314 Universal polemics, 373-75 Universities, 117, 120 Untimely Observations, ix Urfragen, 460 Urinating, 103-7, 104 van der Vring, Georg, 414, 416 van Eestern, C, 435 Vanity, 16 Verratene Revolution 1918/1919, Die, 429 Verschwbrer, 424-29 passim Virgin Disciplines the Christ Child, The, 279 Voltaire, Francois-Marie Arouet de, xiv Wahrhaftigkeit, 461 Walpurgis Night on Henkel's Field, 505 Walser, Martin, 320-21 War: and moral consciousness, 301; and muti�lation, 443-46, 444; and pre-Fascist litera�ture, 121; and psychic mechanisms, 120, 121; senselessness of, 415-16; and sur�vival, 128-29, 323, 419, 420, 434, 443; ultimate, 130 War volunteers, 121 Watt, James, 11 Weaponry, 128, 130, 349-55, 353, 435 Weber, Max, 425 Weill, Kurt, 306 Weimar Republic, xxii-xxiii, 10, 124, 384-86, 387-90, 414-15, 422, 424-25; and Anyone, 199; and catastrophile com�plex, 122; and cynicism, xxiii, 7-8, 10; and disillusionment, 8, 410, 416; double decisions of, 521-28; elements of, 425, 435; as historical mirror, 89; and Hitler's rise, 521; as miscarried enlightenment, 10; and Nietzsche's philosophy, 10; social character of, 500-501 Wilde, Oscar, xxxii, 307 Wilhelminianism, 411-12, 425 Wintermdrchen, 33 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 398 World War I, 121, 121, 122, 128, 202, 386, 392, 410, 419, 434, 461 World War II, 123, 128, 202 Wulffen, Erich, 485-86 Wunde Heine, Die, xxxvi Yesbody, xix, 73 You Will Not Find Him, 166 Zauberberg, Der, 529 Zeitgeist, 139 Zen masters, 130, 157 Zichy, Michael von, 344 Zille, Heinrich, 156, 219 Zola, Emile, xiv Zur geistigen Situation der Zeit (Man in the modern age), 417

See also

• Bodily functions
• Critique
• Cynicism
• Psychosomatics