Peter Sloterdijk - Infinite Mobilization

1 Dedication Dedication In memory of Jacob Taubes 1923–1987

2 Title page Infinite Mobilization Towards a Critique of Political Kinetics Peter Sloterdijk Translated by Sandra Berjan polity

3 Copyright page

4 Premises Notes

5 1 The Modern Age as Mobilization The Mobilization of the Planet from the Spirit of Self-Intensification Sketches towards an Outline of a Critique of Political Kinetics The Prospect of an Asian Renaissance: Towards a Theory of the Ancient Notes

6 2 The Other Change: On the Philosophical Situation of Alternative Movements Panicked Culture – or: How Much Catastrophe Does a Person Need? The First Alternative: Metaphysics The Second Alternative: Poeisis Notes

7 3 Eurotaoism? Nothingness and Historical Consciousness: A Note on the World History of Life Fatigue The Miscarried Animal and the Self-Birth of the Subject Eurotaoism Notes

8 4 The Fundamental and the Urgent – or: The Tao of Politics Also a contribution to the answer as to why a credible policy currently does not exist Dimensions of the Credibility Gap The Voting Voice and the Body – or: How Politics Participates in the Crisis of Embodiment Metaphysics From an Ethics of Principle to an Ethos of the Urgent Notes

9 5 Paris Aphorisms on Rationality All That is Right Diplomats as Thinkers in Destitute Times Low Theory La chose la mieux partagée du monde Geometry as Finesse Unconcealment and Tolerability Of the Foolishness to Not be an Animal Invent Yourself! Notes

10 6 After Modernity The Age of the Epilogue The Interim – or: The Birth of History from the Spirit of Postponement Truth and Symbiosis: On the Geological Sublation of World History For an Ontology of Still-Being Notes

11 End User License Agreement

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In memory of Jacob Taubes

1923–1987

Peter Sloterdijk

Translated by Sandra Berjan

polity

First published in German as Eurotaoismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Kinetik

© Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1989

This English edition © Polity Press, 2020

Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1847-0

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1848-7 (paperback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sloterdijk, Peter, 1947- author. | Berjan, Sandra, translator.

Title: Infinite mobilization / Peter Sloterdijk ; translated by Sandra Berjan.

Other titles: Eurotaoismus. English

Description: English edition. | Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | “First published in German as Eurotaoismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Kinetik, Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main, 1989.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “One of the world’s leading philosophers shows how our preoccupation with motion and change is a defining feature of our modern, Western way of thinking”-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019045590 (print) | LCCN 2019045591 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509518470 | ISBN 9781509518487 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509518517 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Political psychology--History--20th century. | Political sociology. | Europe--Politics and government--20th century. | Europe--Civilization--History.

Classification: LCC JA74.5 .S5813 2020 (print) | LCC JA74.5 (ebook) | DDC 320.01--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045590

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019

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Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Limited

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The original German title of this book used the cumbersome and speculative word “Eurotaoism.” 1Why was this necessary?

There are three possible answers to this question. First, this could be an instance of those involuntary and nonsensical turns of phrase that I have been shown to let slip rather frequently; if this is true, we might as well assume that the book has already died of its own title as though from an overdose of profundity. Second, what we could have here is an example of combinatorial wit in the style of Friedrich Schlegel’s shotgun weddings of two vastly differing terms; but should such wit truly be in play, we had better leave it unexplained – wit that supplies its own discussion is no longer witty.