Rules for the Human Zoo
This week we will read an essay by Peter Sloterdijk, a contemporary German philosopher who is just beginning to cause a stir in the discipline of architecture. He is well known for his Spheres Trilogy [Sphären], which is composed of Spheres I: Bubble/Blow (1998); Spheres II: Globes (1999); Spheres III: Foam (2004). Only small excerpts from the Spheres trilogy have been translated into English. Bruno Latour, who we read a couple of weeks ago now has recently suggested that “Sloterdijk is the thinker of architecture”, perhaps setting a challenge to architects and others like us to read him and see what we think!
Sloterdijk’s essay, Rules for the Human Zoo, originally appeared in the German newspaper Die Zeit, in 1999, and caused some controversy with respect to the biopolitical implications it seemed to suggest. After Plato, Sloterdijk compares the distinction between those who govern and those who are governed to the difference between the zoo-keeper and his menagerie! Politics, the composition of society, what it is to be human, and how the human creature and her sphere of existence is maintained are all issues that are addressed here, or at least alluded to. Sloterdijk’s essay is also, in part, a response to Martin Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism, which asks whether humanism obscures the task of thinking, and whether it is a concept that needs to be discarded (a complex argument we should also touch upon when we meet!).
We will also read an essay about Hannah Arendt…hopefully Caitlyn can give us a small introduction!
