Lions

For distinguished philosopher Hans Blumenberg, lions were a life-long obsession. Lions, translated by Kri Driscoll, collects thirty-two of Blumenberg's philosophical vignettes to reveal that the figure of the lion unites two of his other great preoccupations: metaphors and anecdotes as non-philosophical forms of knowledge.

Each of these short texts, sparkling with erudition and humour, is devoted to a peculiar leonine presence—or, in many cases, absence—in literature, art, philosophy, religion, and politics. From Ecclesiastes to the New Testament Apocrypha, from Henri Rousseau to Aesop and La Fontaine, and from Rilke and Thomas Mann, the extraordinary breadth of Blumenberg's knowledge and intellectual curiosity is on full display. Lions has much to offer readers, both those already familiar with Blumenberg's oeuvre and newcomers seeking an introduction to the thought of one of Germany's most important postwar philosophers.

‘Blumenberg was one of those rare figures, like Robert Burton or Goethe himself, who was able to read widely across disciplines and time periods while maintaining a detailed sense of the internal conflicts and complexities of each particular domain.’ - David Auerbach