Luther. The Origin of Modern Self-Consciousness

Lectures, Volume 12

Schurmann Reiner

If we are to understand the specifically modern function of self-consciousness, we must first look to the origins of the concept. Among the key thinkers who elaborated on self-consciousness was the German monk and theologian Martin Luther. Reiner Schuermann's writings and lectures on Luther therefore offer an innovative reading of the systematic role of self-consciousness in both premodern and modern cultures.

The twelfth volume in a planned twenty-nine-part series, "Reiner Schuermann: Luther. The Origin of Modern Self-Consciousness" sees Schuermann tracing Luther's conception of the rise of self-consciousness as the subjective reference point. Schuermann then explores this conception in conversation with both the Cartesian cogito and Kantian apperception.

About the Author

Reiner Schurmann (1941-93) was a German philosopher. He was born in Amsterdam and lived in Germany, Israel, and France before immigrating to the United States in the 1970s, where he was professor and director of the Department of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of three books on philosophy: "Heidegger on Being and Acting", "Wandering Joy", and "Broken Hegemonies". Origins is his only work of fiction. He never wrote nor published in his native German.

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