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Editorial

Philosophers on the Beach

by Anja Steinbauer

The 19th century is a time that is particularly associated with German philosophers spreading out their conceptual beachtowels over the deckchairs of the world. And what an exciting deckchair scramble we can image this to have been: First on the beach is Kant neatly arranging his huge nightsky blue towel over pretty much all the existing deckchairs. But soon Hegel comes running down in his bathing trunks, ready to take the plunge, but not before pulling the towel from underneath the slumbering Kant. However, if Hegel thought he could now rule the beach, he hadn’t counted on Schopenhauer grumpily engaging him in cheeky battle by here and there pushing Hegel’s many towels off the chairs and sitting there himself. When Nietzsche arrived, he assertively put down his towel next to Schopenhauer and – with a grin on his face – amused himself for the rest of the day by throwing sand at Kant and Hegel.

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