Die blitzenden Waffen

A brilliant and insightful contribution to the millennia-old debate about essence and form, substance and surface, argument and rhetoric. Why do we love certain cars – often not the most practical ones? Why does a particular artwork move us while others leave us indifferent? In what words must good advice be formulated to have an impact on the recipient? In his new book, philosopher Robert Pfaller examines the function, conditions, and effects of form to uncover its mystery – its power. Quintilian already knew: "A speaker must not only fight with sharp weapons but also with dazzling ones." Robert Pfaller takes it a step further: he explains why only dazzling weapons can be sharp at all. The bestselling author of "Adult Language" and "What Makes Life Worth Living" challenges our notion that we are not deceived by surfaces and can look directly into the depths of things. Instead, Robert Pfaller posits a much more complex web of relationships: the dialectic of form and content.