PHILOSOPHY
A Cultural History of the Soul
Critique of Bored Reason
Europe and North America from 1870 to the Present
On the Confinement of the Modern Condition
KOCKU VON STUCKRAD
DMITRI NIKULIN
This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin-de-siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines a fascination spanning philosophy, the sciences, the arts, and the study of religion, and then explores how and why the United States witnessed a flowering of ideas about the soul in popular culture and spirituality in the latter half of the century. He examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements—ranging from Ernest Renan, Martin Buber, and Carl Gustav Jung to the Esalen Institute, deep ecology, and revivals of shamanism, animism, and paganism to Rachel Carson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Harry Potter franchise. KOCKU VON STUCKRAD
is professor of religious studies
at the University of Groningen. He is the author of several books, including Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge (2005).
“Ambitious, well-written, and marked by welcome touches of humor, Critique of Bored Reason is distinguished by extraordinary erudition, impressive expository and interpretative powers, and a genuinely constructive impulse that is grounded in a deep knowledge of the tradition of philosophy.” —William Desmond, author of The Intimate Universal: The Hidden Porosity Among Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Politics
Most of the core concepts of the Western philosophical tradition originate in antiquity. Yet boredom is strikingly absent from classical thought. Dmitri Nikulin explores the concept’s genealogy to argue that boredom is the mark of modernity. Considering such thinkers as Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Kierkegaard, Kracauer, Heidegger, and Benjamin, Critique of Bored Reason places boredom on center stage in the philosophical critique of modernity. DMITRI NIKULIN
is professor of philosophy at the New
School for Social Research. His books include Comedy, Seriously (2014) and The Concept of History (2017).
$30.00 / £25.00 paper 978-0-231-20037-0 $120.00 / £100.00 cloth 978-0-231-20036-3 $29.99 / £25.00 e-book 978-0-231-55357-5 N O V E M B E R 368 pages / 6" x 9" R E L I G I O N / P H I LO S O P H Y
$35.00 / £30.00 paper 978-0-231-18907-1 $140.00 / £115.00 cloth 978-0-231-18906-4 $34.99 / £30.00 e-book 978-0-231-54815-1 J A N U A R Y 360 pages / 6.125" x 9.25"
World English-language Rights: Columbia University Press; All Other
P H I LO S O P H Y
Rights: The Author
All Rights: Columbia University Press
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