Book Launch: „Warum es die Welt nicht gibt, aber das Recht“

While it makes us proud that Markus Gabriel’s latest book “Warum es die Welt nicht gibt” (“Why the world does not exist”) has become a best-seller within a short period of time, this alone would not be a sufficient reason for organizing a book launch. It is exciting, however, that the book promises the departure towards a philosophical reflection about us and what we are used to call the world. The book is the result of a joy of thinking, without being playful. It fits into a line of interpretation, where the universal constructivist suspicion, that objects and forms of thought are the result of processes of construction, turns into a certainty of “realities” we live in.

This also concerns our Center „Law as Culture“. Law is not a mere invention of its observers, but it is characterized by an own ontological status. At the conference “Prospects for New Realism” in Bonn 2012 (a publication will follow soon), in the manifesto of new realism by Maurizio Ferraris and the philosophical works by authors like Paul Boghossian or John Searle, we notice the spirit of a new philosophy.

The feuilleton has celebrated the book with the article by Uwe Justus Wenzel (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 11, 2013) and an enthusiastic discussion published in Süddeutsche Zeitung (June 10, 2013). We will join these celebrations. But we will also ask the author whether at least the law exists – if the world does not – and what we can gain from this for a Legal Analysis as Cultural Research. This is the main question of our Center, where Markus Gabriel has finished his book as a fellow and Assistant Director. Even before his contribution on “Law and Representation” will be published by Klostermann as part of our series “Law as Culture”, we want to discuss with him and get inspired by his joy of philosophizing.

Sociologically, the question will be raised by Werner Gephart, director of the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”, whether the world does not at least exist in the catalogue, when the whole world of office chairs and furnishing is presented or even “attitudes to the world” [“Weltverhältnisse”] are proclaimed. After the authors lecture entitled “Why the world does not exist, but the law”, the philosopher Maurizio Ferraris (Turin), who is currently fellow at our Center, will have his philosophical say, alluding to Daniel Defoe with the title: „Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed”.

Due to the high number of participants expected, we kindly ask you to register via e-mail (katja.spranz@uni-bonn.de) until Wednesday, 10 July 2013, if you would like to participate. The event will start at 6 PM. Therefore, all registered persons are kindly requested to notice that the time of admission is from 5:30 to 5:50 PM. Please understand that we are not allowed to exceed the maximum capacity of our rooms for fire safety reasons.

We are looking forward to your registration!