Politischer Existentialismus

The attitude of amoral self-commitment, which in the current discussion is attributed solely to Islam, must be put into a larger context. In the form of political existentialism, this recent cause of disconcertment and helplessness is part of our own culture, a part which can look back on a two hundred-year tradition. Michael Großheim describes the philosophical roots of this »eerie, sinister, frightening world of absolute unselfishness« (Hannah Arendt) by analyzing texts and ideas of Friedrich Schlegel's concept of »self-destruction,« Hegel's thoughts on the »abstraction from onself« and Gudrun Ensslin's »holy self-fulfillment.«