Michael Hampe – författare

What is the state of philosophy today, and what might it become tomorrow? With What Philosophy is For, Michael Hampe answers these questions by exploring the relationships among philosophy, education, science, and narrative, developing a Socratically inspired critique of philosophical doctrines. Philosophers have generally thought that their distinctive commitment to critical reflection entailed the development of systematic theories that lay out the basic structures of human experience, in order to teach the rest of humanity how to conceive more truly our place in the world. Hampe argues against this line of thinking, positing that the world consists fundamentally of individual things whose nature can never fully be captured by general concepts. As a result, philosophy should strive to challenge the false authority by which established patterns of thought and feeling hold us captive, enable the creative imagination to develop new forms of self-understanding, and thereby restore a sense of individual possibilities that would bring philosophy closer to the practices of literature and the arts. What Philosophy is For is simultaneously an introduction, a critique, and a call to action. Hampe shows how and why philosophy became what it is today, and, crucially, shows what it could be once more, if it would only turn its back on its pretensions to dogma: a privileged space for reflecting on the human condition.

In this original and thought-provoking book philosopher Michael Hampe sets out to help us understand happiness. The right and proper path to a happy life is a topic that has been debated for millennia. There are many theories, from those of ancient philosophy to those of modern neuroscience, but can any one of them ultimately tell us how the objective of a perfectly fulfilled life might be achieved? By telling the story of two friends - the unhappy philosopher Stanley Low and the happy gardener Gabriel Kolk - alongside a presentation of four essays that examine prominent and very plausible theories of happiness, Michael Hampe illustrates that there is no easy answer to our search for unadulterated bliss.Four Meditations on Happiness is an erudite and illuminating investigation into one of mankind's most elusive quests, one that allows us to reconsider what it means to be happy.

Insights into an opera stage director's work from an internationally acclaimed director and teacher.Opera is nowadays performed worldwide. But as an art form it is little understood by performers and audiences alike. The Crafty Art of Opera wants to change that. Here, Michael Hampe brings glimpses of the director's work to a wider audience, uncovering the many techniques and rules that should inform an opera's staging: the need for singers to know their orchestra, the importance of space around singers, the gestures of languages, what we all can learn from Mozart, and the primacy of sense over effect, to name but a few. He shows how stories, through music, become tangible and real.Packed with many anecdotes from the author's luminous career, this book is dedicatedto opera-lovers who want to understand 'how it is done'; to opera-makers who want to better understand their craft; and, last but not least, to those who loathe opera, in order to prove them wrong. Eminently readable, it brings both insight and wit from a life spent in opera as director and teacher.MICHAEL HAMPE is an internationally acclaimed opera stage director. The Crafty Art of Opera was published in German as Opernschule.

Metaphysik und Pragmatismus scheinen sich seit den Arbeiten von Richard Rorty auszuschließen. Deweys „Erfahrung und Natur“ ist der Versuch eines der bedeutendsten Pragmatisten, eine naturalistische und humanistische Metaphysik zu entwickeln, indem er die klassische europäische Metaphysik transformiert und ihr ihre Fixierung auf ewige Notwendigkeiten und absolute Gewissheiten austreibt. Er versucht, eine Metaphysik für eine in seinen Augen „gemischte“ Welt zu schreiben, in der es Zufall und Notwendigkeit, Gefahren und Ungewissheiten, aber auch für bestimmte Zeiträume verlässliche Ordnungen gibt. Dieser „Klassiker Auslegen“-Band verfolgt dieses Projekt nach, indem die zehn Kapitel von Deweys Buch in zehn interpretierenden Essays historisch eingeordnet und systematisch analysiert werden. Dabei wird der ganze Themenhorizont der klassischen Metaphysik abgeschritten: Von dem Problem der Ordnung und Unordnung der Wirklichkeit über das Leib-Seele-Problem bis zu den Themen Wert und Kritik. Das Buch soll Studierenden den Zugang zu Deweys Metaphysik erleichtern und Forschenden in der Philosophie die Aktualität des Deweyschen Denkens wieder ins Gedächtnis zurückrufen.