Think of a few public intellectuals (not just the ones you read about on Big Think) but the ones that you actually see on television or read about in popular magazines. If you are an American you probably listed scientists, maybe one or two philosophers snuck onto your list.
However, if you are a German, you probably listed more than a few popular philosophers, and that might not be a great thing.
Media-friendly philosophers like Richard David Precht and Jürgen Habermas are taking German philosophy out of the ivory tower and into living rooms across Germany, both on Precht’s self-titled television program and in the pages of popular books and articles. The popular approach of Precht has led some philosophers to dismissively call him a “philosophy performer”, or the Andre Rieu of philosophy.
German philosopher Theodor Adorno warned about the risks of popular consumption of ideas when he defined “The culture industry”, arguing…
The post Will TV Popularity Be the End of German Philosophy? appeared first on FeedBox.