Jarrad Reddekop

The Mournful Cage: Max Weber As a Hunger Artist Jarrad Reddekop

Many accounts of Max Weber portray him as a theorist of responsibility or "re-enchantment" - as one who can confirm for us the appropriateness of a liberal position given the conditions of life as moderns. This book, instead, uses an encounter with Weber as a starting point for tracing more broadly the contours of our technological era, given shape through intersecting scientific, political, philosophical, and theological problematics. Rooted in a philosophical tradition running from Nietzsche through Heidegger and drawing upon Franz Kafka's image of the "hunger artist", this book is a meditation upon the character of modern nihilism, and upon the Weberian thought of "disenchantment" which glimpses within rationalized life a profound emptiness. It will be of interest especially to those engaged in thinking about the relationships between religion, politics, and technology in the modern world, and the development of these themes within contemporary continental philosophy.