Absolute Teacher, Sloterdijk

Philosophical truth is universal; yet, if what is true for all is actually to be understood by all, an educator of unparalleled breadth and flexibility is needed. Peter Sloterdijk, German philosophical writer, cultural critic, operatic jester, with thirty years of national fame and more than thirty-five books, claims to be this educator. The special operations of his total teaching program for an epigonal age are analyzed here in four major lessons from four major books: a methodological lesson about the drawbacks of critique from Critique of Cynical Reason; a morphological lesson about the existential shape of all human experience from the Spheres trilogy; a psychagogical lesson about the continual need for self-development from You Must Change Your Life; and a moral lesson about the world-shifting power of mood from Rage and Time. These lessons are compared to their sources in German philosophy, and their effectiveness is evaluated.