Time of the Magicians
Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy
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2.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“[A] fascinating and accessible account . . . In his entertaining book, Mr. Eilenberger shows that his magicians’ thoughts are still worth collecting, even if, with hindsight, we can see that some performed too many intellectual conjuring tricks.” —Wall Street Journal
A grand narrative of the intertwining lives of Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Ernst Cassirer, major philosophers whose ideas shaped the twentieth century
The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, in search of spiritual clarity. Meanwhile, Heidegger, having managed to avoid combat in war by serving as a meteorologist, is carefully cultivating his career. Finally, Cassirer is working furiously on the margins of academia, applying himself to his writing and the possibility of a career at Hamburg University. The stage is set for a great intellectual drama, which will unfold across the next decade. The lives and ideas of this extraordinary philosophical quartet will converge as they become world historical figures. But as the Second World War looms on the horizon, their fates will be very different.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four intellectuals hash out puzzling new worldviews after WWI in this spirited yet murky historical study. Philosophie Magazin editor Eilenberger (Finnen von Sinnen) follows the evolving thoughts of four German-speaking philosophers through the 1920s: Ludwig Wittgenstein, who dissected the meaning of language (or lack thereof); Walter Benjamin, a philosophy PhD and journalist who theorized about art, technology, and urban experience; Martin Heidegger, whose Being and Time probed the impact of death and anxiety on the soul; and Heidegger's antagonist, Ernst Cassirer, who philosophized about symbols and metaphysics. The author weaves in colorful biographical sketches Wittgenstein gave away a fortune and became a schoolteacher; Benjamin dissipated himself in affairs, drugs, and misfired writing projects but primarily focuses on common themes in their writings, such as the tension between freedom and determinism, and the drive to escape convention and lead an authentic life. In Whiteside's serviceable translation, Eilenberger gamely tries to elucidate his subjects' famously knotty ideas, but the results "Man is the only creature that is open to the experience of nothingness at the ground of being," he writes, paraphrasing Heidegger often confirm just how difficult to parse those concepts were. Still, this comprehensive and well-informed treatment deserves credit for bringing four major philosophers down from the heights of abstraction.
