Sixth event in the Wittenstein Foundation’s “enter the future” series
01.03.2023
On April 27, 2023, the Wittenstein Foundation will welcome Professor Peter Sloterdijk – the well-known philosopher and also one of the most controversial – to the sixth “enter the future” event, where he will give a critical keynote speech on the general state of our society. The audience will have a chance to contribute their own ideas and enrich the discourse both live at the TauberPhilharmonie in Weikersheim and via a live stream.
For Dr Manfred Wittenstein, initiator and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wittenstein Foundation, it will be a reunion with an old acquaintance: Sloterdijk was previously a guest at the official opening of the WITTENSTEIN Innovation Factory in Igersheim in 2014. The main theme at that special ceremony nine years ago was an intensive exchange between art and business, inspired by the philosopher’s thoughts on the two components consciously chosen for the new building’s name – “innovation” and “factory”. Nearly a decade later, the author of more than 50 globally acclaimed publications is now returning to the Tauber Valley, where he will take a philosophically critical look at the spiritual situation of the time as part of the “enter the future” event series.
Visualizing different power balances
Is it really true that everything around us is becoming more and more complex? Or could it be that complexity is actually the great constant over time, and that it is simply a matter of new challenges regularly taking priority over others? Yet who ultimately decides on these priorities? Politicians? Society? And if so, which society? What do we do, or not do, in order to retain or regain the necessary guidance? Or is this guidance something we never in fact had in the first place and will never be able to have in the future either? It’s a complex subject – in particular given the need for social transformability – to which Professor Peter Sloterdijk will be devoting his attention on April 27. His keynote will be followed by a discussion with the audience, facilitated by Benedikt Hofmann, Editor-in-Chief of MM MaschinenMarkt. All those attending – whether connected in a video conference or there in person – are invited to enrich the evening with their ideas, their thoughts and their contributions.
One of the brightest thinkers of our time
Born in 1947 to a German mother and a Dutch father, he published his first book – “Critique of Cynical Reason”, which became one of the 20th century’s best-selling works on philosophy – in 1983. As co-host of the ZDF’s bi-monthly cultural chat show “Das Philosophische Quartett" (The Philosophical Quartet) together with Rüdiger Safranski, Sloterdijk also discussed key contemporary issues in-depth on German television from 2002 to 2012.
Register now free of charge
As always, the sixth event in the “enter the future” series is open to the public at no cost. Interested persons can obtain admission tickets or access data to the live stream as well as all further information on the event from. Registrations will be accepted up until April 25, 2023.
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© Picture alliance / dpa; Photographer: Henning Kaiser
Speakers: Professor Peter Sloterdijk: German philosopher, cultural scientist and author, taught philosophy and esthetics at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design until 2017.