Critique of Cynical Reason (Theory and History of Literature, Volume 40)

Foreword: The Return Of Diogenes As Postmodern Intellectual / Andreas Huyssen -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part One. Sightings: Five Preliminary Reflections. 1. Cynicism: The Twilight Of False Consciousness ; 2. Enlightenment As Dialogue: Critique Of Ideology As Continuation Of The Miscarried Dialogue Through Other Means ; 3. Eight Unmaskings: A Review Of Critiques ; 4. After The Unmaskings: Cynical Twilight. Sketches For The Self-repudiation Of The Ethos Of Enlightenment ; 5. In Search Of Lost Cheekiness Part Two. Cynicism In World Progress I. Physiognomic Main Text. 6. Concerning The Psychosomatics Of The Zeitgeist ; 7. The Cabinet Of Cynics -- Ii. Phenomenological Main Text. 8. The Cardinal Cynicisms ; 9. The Secondary Cynicisms -- Iii. Logical Main Text. Black Empiricism: Enlightenment As Organization Of Polemical Knowledge ; 11. Transcendental Polemic: Heraclitian Meditations -- Iv. Historical Main Text. The Weimar Symptom: Models Of Consciousness In German Modernity ; 12. Weimar Crystallization: Transition Of A Period From Recollection Into History ; 13. Dadaistic Chaotology: Semantic Cynicisms ; 14. The Republic-as-if. Political Cynicisms I: The Struggle Goes On ; 15. The Front And Nothingness. Political Cynicisms Ii: Populist Dialectics And The Dissolution Of The Front ; 16. Dead Souls Without Testaments. Political Cynicisms Iii: Looking After War Graves In The Empty Interior ; 17. Conspirators And Dissimulators. Political Cynicisms Iv: Conviction As Disinhibition ; 18. Depersonalization And Alienation. Functionalist Cynicisms I ; 19. Artificial Limbs. Functionalist Cynicisms Ii: On The Spirit Of Technology ; 20. Political Algodicy: Cynical Cosmologies And The Logic Of Pain ; 21. Asking For A Napoleon From Within. Political Cynicisms V: Training For Fact People ; 22. Bright Hour: Great Confessions Of A Split Consciousness ; 23. On The German Republic Of Impostors: The Natural History Of Deception ; 24. Hey! Are We Alive? New Matter-of-fact Cynicisms And Stories About The Difficulties Of Life ; 25. Postcoital Twilight: Sexual Cynicism And Stories Of Intractable Love ; 26. Weimar Double Decisions, Or, Matter-of-factness Unto Death -- Epilogue. The Pleural Shock: On The Archetype Of Weimar Laughter -- Conclusion. Under Way Toward A Critique Of Subjective Reason. Peter Sloterdijk ; Translation By Michael Eldred ; Foreword By Andreas Huyssen. Translation Of: Kritik Der Zynischen Vernunft (frankfurt Am Main : Suhrkamp, 1983). Includes Bibliographies And Index. Upon its publication in Germany in 1983, this author's book stirred both critical acclaim and consternation, attracting a wide readership. He finds cynicism the dominant mode in contemporary culture, in personal and institutional settings; his book is both a history of the impulse and an investigation of its role today, among those whose earlier hopes for social change have crumbled and faded away. Theory and History of Literature series, Volume 40