Konrad Paul Liessmann (born 13 April 1953) is an Austrian philosopher, essayist and cultural publicist. He is a university professor for "Methods of Teaching Philosophy and Ethics" at the University of Vienna. He officially retired in 2018, but continued his professorial activities at the University of Vienna on a special contract basis until the end of 2020.
Born in Villach, Liessmann completed his Matura in 1971 at the Peraugymnasium in his hometown. [1] and then studied German language and literature, history and philosophy at the University of Vienna and completed his Magisterium in 1976, receiving his doctorate in 1979 and his habilitation in 1989. In 2011, he was appointed to the professorship for methods of teaching philosophy and ethics at the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Science at the University of Vienna. His love of literature came about through Karl May. [2]
Since 1996 he has been the academic director of the Philosophicum Lech and editor of the book series of the same name published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag. From 2002 to 2006, he was head of the 'Friedrich Heer Working Group' of the Austrian Research Foundation and editor of Friedrich Heer's work at Böhlau Verlag.[ citation needed ]
From October 2004 to October 2008, Liessmann was Director of Studies for philosophy and educational science at the University of Vienna. From 2008 to 2012, Liessmann was vice dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Science. [3] From 2011 to 2015, he was vice president of the "German Society for Aesthetics". From 2014 to 2018, he directed the university course "Philosophical Practice" at the University of Vienna. He retired in 2018. [4] Liessmann has been vice-president of the "Society for Education and Knowledge" since 2010 and founding member and chairman of the "International Günther Anders Society" since 2012.
Liessmann has published numerous academic and essayistic works on questions of aesthetics, philosophy of art and culture, social and media theory, and 19th and 20th century philosophy. He had regular personal contact with Günther Anders in the last decade of his life.[ citation needed ]
Liessmann wrote an article on the occasion of Günther Anders's 80th birthday, in which he describes his first encounter with Anders. Liessmann also organised the first international symposium on Günther Anders in Vienna in 1991 and has been leading a research project to index his estate since 2012. [5]
Since 2016, Liessmann has been a regular guest on the broadcast series Sternstunde Philosophie on Swiss television. On 28 July 2016, he gave the opening speech of the Salzburg Festival.
Liessmann repeatedly participates in public debates. He is a sought-after interview partner on Austrian Broadcasting and in the upmarket Austrian press. Controversial essays and commentaries in the feature pages of the daily newspapers Der Standard , Die Presse and the weekly magazine profil deal with current issues and discourses on socio-political topics. After writing a year-long column for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung from 2016 to 2020. [6] He has been active as a columnist for the Wiener Zeitung since October 2020. [7]
Liessmann is a sharp critic of environmental pollution, especially through car traffic. In The Good Man of Austria, a collection of essays from 1980 to 1995, Liessmann suggested in the essay 'The Auschwitz Principle' "that there is more than a lexical or phonetic connection between the gassing of the Nazis and the gassing of our civilisation. " [8] Like the SS destroyed the Jews, "through our penchant for Volkswagens and motorways," Liessmann argues, "we destroyed the livelihoods of millions of people and thus destroyed them ourselves." [9] Driving a car, locomotion with "a machine that has made man its slavish appendage" [10] is "everyday fascism". [9]
As late as the 1980s, Liessmann wrote in 2001 in the Tagesspiegel , in view of various failures (such as the Challenger Explosion) and accidents (e.g. Bhopal or Chernobyl) based on supposed technical achievements, a general technosceptic mood prevailed. Now the "phobia" had given way to "euphoria" and it was true: "The problems of technology [...] are usually solvable by technology." This, Liessmann said, was surprising, "[t]o be sure, technology has not suddenly become harmless or without danger, but it has changed its shape. It has, as banal as it may sound, above all become smaller and thus more inconspicuous." Even the car illustrates this effect: while many people are afraid of air travels, the same people entrust themselves without hesitation to the demonstrably more dangerous road traffic. When driving a car, there is a kind of fusion of technical device and human being (who often controls the former himself), and the same can be seen with mobile phoness, which are "almost perceived as a part of the body". Liessmann concluded that technologies increasingly determine our behaviour, creating an "illusion of freedom" but de facto signifying subjugation. [11]
Liessmann published his critique of the current education system through the capitalisation of the mind primarily in Theory of Uneducation, The Fallacies of the Knowledge Society and in the polemic Geisterstunde. The Practice of Uneducation. In Geisterstunde Liessmann argues against the Pisa Study and also attacks the education experts Bernd Schilcher , Andreas Salcher, Richard David Precht and Gerald Hüther; their reform proposals would reinforce the errors of the existing education system. Their importance lies less in the quality of their expertise than in the media attention they enjoy. Furthermore, he criticises the "competence orientation" of teaching pushed by the Minister of Education Claudia Schmied instead of the orientation towards pure content and sees a transformation of higher schools into socio-educational institutions. [12] In modern pedagogy and the new campus culture with its microaggressions and trigger warnings, factual knowledge no longer counts for much, but the feelings and sensitivities of those concerned count for everything. [13]
According to Liessmann, populists can be found across the political spectrum. He refuses to attribute the accusation of simplifying complex issues to populists alone; rather, all parties would engage in this. Political messages would generally represent simplifications. [14] The modern type of protest voter does not choose a political preference, but expresses his discomfort with established politics, by which he no longer feels taken seriously. [15] With regard to the US presidential candidate Donald Trump or the Freedom Party of Austria candidate Norbert Hofer for President of Austria, Liessmann said that one could not gather completely different phenomena under the inflationarily used term "right-wing populism". The term would then be an embarrassment that would describe everything that does not fit for various reasons and would then no longer have any analytical power. [16] [17] [18] Barbarians, according to Liessmann, are not to be found on the right-wing fringe, but rather at the "control centres of art and science", in quality media and universities. [19]
On the subject of gender-neutral language, Liessmann joined others in calling for a "return to linguistic normality". Currently, a "minimal percentage of militant language feminists impose their will on the almost 90 percent majority". [20] Liessmann demands to do without "nonsense of gendering", from Binnen-I to slashes and underscores. He says that indented I and Co lead to a tortured and unreadable language without a sense of style. Gendering reaches questionable proportions in the academic milieu. [21]
Liessmann is a critic of Leichte Sprache , which is characterised by a catalogue of prohibitions. Leichte Sprache, he argues, is a pure art product and an attempt at radical reduction, flattening and simplification. "Light language is shallow language." [22] Liessmann is also critical of anglicism. [21]
For his 60th birthday in 2013, a Festschrift was written which refers to Liessmann's professional activities. It contains contributions by Robert Pfaller , Martin Seel , Klaus Albrecht Schröder , Lambert Wiesing , Volker Gerhardt, Andreas Gruschka , Franz Schuh and Barbara Schneider-Taylor among others.
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