14808
Seminar
WiSe 19/20: Asceticism as a Form of Life
Nicola Zambon
Comments
For the period of the Homeric epics, the etymological dictionaries ascribe the word ?s??? (askeo) to the initial meaning of a task that is accomplished with masterly skills. This meaning derives from the term “Asceticism”, though it is subject to change. Thereby, at a later stage, the term is defined as an exercise on oneself that leads to an invulnerable stage of independence and detachment from the world and the community. From the outset, the ascetic is someone who reforms his own life in complete self-reliance. He reaches a form of worldly wisdom that is based on a series of individual practices, which radically and profoundly change his initial character and nature.
Yet, how can the meaning of “Asceticism” be defined in modern times? Is this form of radical renouncement of the world and other human beings a strange form of life that is doomed to remain fossilised in an ancient ideology or can it, in fact, gain a currency in our society? Is it a form of pessimistic world-negation or does it open the possibility to experience and enjoy the world “in a different way”? The course aims to examine these questions through the critical analysis of several fundamental texts and authors of the philosophical and cultural scientific tradition (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Weber, Foucault et al.).
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16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Tue, 2019-10-15 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-10-22 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-10-29 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-11-05 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-11-12 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-11-19 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-11-26 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-12-03 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-12-10 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2019-12-17 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-01-07 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-01-14 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-01-21 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-01-28 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-02-04 12:00 - 14:00
Tue, 2020-02-11 12:00 - 14:00