Geister der Gegenwart

From the hope of thinking for oneself. Which philosophy can still guide us today? "Spirits of the Present" sketches a grand panorama of ideas from the Western post-war period, following in the footsteps of Theodor W. Adorno, Susan Sontag, Michel Foucault, and Paul K. Feyerabend. Wolfram Eilenberger compellingly narrates the emergence of a new enlightenment that leads directly to the fault lines of our time.

Winter 1949: Theodor W. Adorno returns from the USA to the devastated Frankfurt, while Paul K. Feyerabend, war-injured, arrives in Vienna. Prodigy Susan Sontag visits Thomas Mann in Los Angeles. The young Michel Foucault attempts suicide again in Paris. In the aftermath of the catastrophe of World War II, these four independent thinkers seek their way into a new philosophy. Over the following decades, they revolutionize the way we think about our society, culture, and science. Wolfram Eilenberger presents yet another narrative masterpiece that, through the example of these four courageous spirits, proclaims the power of philosophy to find a way out of the confines of the present. Full of surprising insights and liberating impulses for our time of crisis.