A time for philosophy …

… Time of the Magicians by Wolfram Eilenberger review – philosophy's great decade? | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Eilenberger appeals to what he calls “the spirit of the 1920s”, which according to him involved bewilderment at the elusiveness of time, anxiety about the dehumanising effects of science, and amazement at “the birth of an age of global communication”. He must be aware, however, that there is scarcely a decade in the last 500 years that could not be described in the same way. He is therefore reduced to tying his magicians together by means of biographical chatter. He cuts rapidly from one life to another, never shying away from sexual speculation, and summarises his results in breezy chapter headings: “Heidegger is spoiling for a fight, Cassirer is beside himself, Benjamin dances with Goethe, and Wittgenstein looks for a human being”, for instance, or “Benjamin mourns, Heidegger begets, Cassirer becomes a star, and Wittgenstein a child”. The word “meanwhile” is worked so hard that it dies of exhaustion half way through.