This book provides a unique overview of and introduction to the work of the German psychologist and philosopher Ludwig Klages (1872-1956), an astonishing figure in the history of German ideas. Central to intellectual life in turn-of-the-century Munich, he went on to establish a reputation for himself as an original and provocative thinker. Nowadays he is often overlooked, partly because of the absence of an accessible and authoritative introduction to his thought; this volume offers just such a point of entry. With an emphasis on applicability and utility, Paul Bishop reinvigorates the discourse surrounding Klages, providing a neutral and compact account of his intellectual development and his impact on psychology and philosophy. Part 1 offers an overview of Klages’s life, visiting the major stations of his intellectual development. Part 2 examines in turn nine major conceptual ‘tools’ found in Klages’s extensive writings, aiming to clarify Klages’s terminology, to demystify his discourse, and to sift through Klages’s credentials as a psychological thinker. Part 3 consists of extracts from Klages’s writings, thematically oriented; these showcase the aphoristic and lyrical, as well as psychological and philosophical, qualities of Klages’s writing, including his interest in aesthetics. Taken together, all three parts constitute a vitalist ‘toolkit’ — to build a fuller, richer life. Drawing on previous studies of Klages that have only been available in German, Ludwig Klages and the Philosophy of Life provides a non-polemical account of Klages’s life and work, with explanations and commentaries to guide the reader through extracts from his writings. The book accessibly explains the most important ideas and concepts found in Klages’s work, including soul, spirit, character, expression, will, and consciousness, and it reveals Klages to be a serious figure whose thought remains relevant to many disciplines today. It will stimulate interest in his work and create a new readership for his remarkable worldview.

This book provides a unique overview of and introduction to the work of the German psychologist and philosopher Ludwig Klages (1872-1956), an astonishing figure in the history of German ideas. Central to intellectual life in turn-of-the-century Munich, he went on to establish a reputation for himself as an original and provocative thinker. Nowadays he is often overlooked, partly because of the absence of an accessible and authoritative introduction to his thought; this volume offers just such a point of entry. With an emphasis on applicability and utility, Paul Bishop reinvigorates the discourse surrounding Klages, providing a neutral and compact account of his intellectual development and his impact on psychology and philosophy. Part 1 offers an overview of Klages’s life, visiting the major stations of his intellectual development. Part 2 examines in turn nine major conceptual ‘tools’ found in Klages’s extensive writings, aiming to clarify Klages’s terminology, to demystify his discourse, and to sift through Klages’s credentials as a psychological thinker. Part 3 consists of extracts from Klages’s writings, thematically oriented; these showcase the aphoristic and lyrical, as well as psychological and philosophical, qualities of Klages’s writing, including his interest in aesthetics. Taken together, all three parts constitute a vitalist ‘toolkit’ — to build a fuller, richer life. Drawing on previous studies of Klages that have only been available in German, Ludwig Klages and the Philosophy of Life provides a non-polemical account of Klages’s life and work, with explanations and commentaries to guide the reader through extracts from his writings. The book accessibly explains the most important ideas and concepts found in Klages’s work, including soul, spirit, character, expression, will, and consciousness, and it reveals Klages to be a serious figure whose thought remains relevant to many disciplines today. It will stimulate interest in his work and create a new readership for his remarkable worldview.

Some of the first figures the Nazis conscripted in their rise to power were rhetoricians devoted to popularizing the German vocabulary of Leben (life). This fascinating study reexamines this movement through one of its most prominent exponents, Ludwig Klages, revealing the philosophical-cultural crises and political volatility of the Weimar era.

Citations are included in the Editor's note, pages 24-25.

Ludwig Klages' 1922 book, On Cosmogonic Eros (Vom kosmogonischen Eros), delves into the realms of mythology, the esotericism of ancient mystery cults, and the science of consciousness to construct a profound metaphysics of life. At its core, Klages presents Eros as an "Eros of distance," from which springs forth the essence of ecstasy and de-selfing. This intriguing concept suggests that experiencing separation and distance can lead to extraordinary states of transcendent bliss and a dissolution of the self. Furthermore, Klages argues that this ecstatic experience serves as the foundation for the emergence of symbolism, the cult of the dead, ancestor worship, as well as the creation of original poetry and art. Klages' work offers a concise and engaging exploration of these key concepts, intertwining mythology, esoteric knowledge, and the study of consciousness to illuminate the enigmatic nature of life and the transformative power of Eros.

In his masterful treatise The Science of Character, Ludwig Klages surpasses the traditional study of character by moving away from the assumption of rigid character traits and the old doctrine of the four temperaments. Instead, he describes the traits in their dynamic course. Klages distinguishes between the talents and the character in the narrower sense, and meticulously lays out the individual qualities and the structure of the character. The quantity aspects of the talents are to be determined by comparison between different persons. The driving forces, or interests, decide the general direction of our lives and are to be judged by comparison between the expressions of the different interests of a single individual. Klages is opposed to egalitarianism and continually emphasizes that we are born with different gifts and talents. With our nature being based on our interests, he describes the structure of the character in a phenomenological-psychological way, based on his own experience, through introspection and reflection, but also based on observations of expression, as well as literary and other cultural phenomena. He emphasizes the psychological meaning of words and the richness of psychological knowledge captured in language. Klages is able to analyze not just individuals, but entire races, epochs and even buildings. His work anticipates postmodernism.

This book is a selection of aphorisms and reflections excerpted from the voluminous works of the German philosopher and psychologist, Ludwig Klages. He was a fierce critic of what he saw as the lack of quality in the modern world, which he held to be a product of modern ideas and organised Christianity in our era. For Klages, the world is divided between life-affirming beliefs that venerate nature and those anti-natural forces that promote materialism and rationalism. To overcome these anti-life forces, Klages wished to return European consciousness back to its pagan roots and renew the link between man and sacred nature. He opposed technocratic rationalism, illusions of progress, and democracy, which he believed to be antithetical to true culture. His aphorisms defend paganism and a healthy Eros for a renewed future. “A pagan metaphysical system would not be philosophy as one understands that word today, i.e., the hair-splitting rehashing of such life-alien concepts as would be appropriate to the lecture hall; nor would it be characterized by that sort of factitious profundity that seeks to conceal its utter inability to solve the riddles of thought behind a veil of second-rate poetic fables. Neither should a genuine pagan metaphysics resemble that which passes for science in the modern world… Before we can discover truths that go to the very roots, we must possess a greater fund of inwardness than can be discerned in those thinkers who, for at least the last five hundred years, have expended their energies exclusively within the realm of reason.”—p. 143