Hello everyone.
Unless you’re German – and even then – I assume you’re not familiar with Ulrich Horstmann, as he is virtually unknown outside of Germany. Which is a great pity, considering how important his contributions to pessimistic philosophy are, and how radical the positions voiced in his own works are.
Let me first give you a brief introduction: Who is Ulrich Horstmann?
Ulrich Horstmann (*1949) is a German writer, philosopher and now retired professor of English and American literature at the University of Gießen. Besides his successful academic career, in which he did research on pessimism and the concept of melancholy, he edited a number of works by authors such as Robert Burton and Philipp Mainländer (in fact, Horstmann’s 1989 edition of Mainländer’s Philosophie der Erlösung played a major part in bringing this long-forgotten philosopher back from the dead, so to speak), as well as anthologies of melancholic and suicidal literature. It’s quite clear that Horstmann has a penchant for the darker realms of thinking and philosophy, his favourites include A. Schopenhauer and E. M. Cioran, and this also reflects in his own way of writing and thinking: Being a prolific writer, he published a number of novels, collections of essays, aphorisms, and poems, all of which share his distinctive, masterful style and deeply pessimist, even misanthropic, mindset – a true literary prophet of doom and gloom, as they say!
Ulrich Horstmann is probably most known for his highly controversial 1983 book Das Untier, which I believe should be of particular interest for people who subscribe to “life extinctionist” worldviews, and given how scarce the English-language resources on this work are (here is one of the very few English articles that deal with his philosophy), I thought I could, perhaps, fill this gap.
Das Untier … Well, how do you even translate the title? “Tier” in German means “animal”, and the prefix “Un-” denotes something negative, or horrifying, something inherently evil, or something that should not even exist. So, “Untier” is often translated as “beast” or “monster”. For Horstmann’s book, however, the distinguished antinatalist philosopher Karim Akerma came up with “The Beast That is Not a Beast”. It is precisely this term – “Untier” – which Horstmann uses instead of the euphemism “human”.
His book is an outline of the history of mankind and philosophy, but from a very unique perspective, for which Horstmann coined the term “anthropofugal”, which means the opposite of our common anthropocentric worldview, rejecting any emotionally biased bonds with the species he belongs to. From this perspective, he goes on to describe the development of human thought and actions, especially the violent and destructive aspects, which, he argues, point to mankind’s destiny being its self-destruction.
He then proceeds to describe the development and the power of modern weapons. But while most people back then (keep in mind, this book was written during the Cold War) warned against the destructive potential of these weapons and campaigned for peace, Horstmann did the exact opposite: In his book, he actually argued, openly and unironically, in favour of a total annihilation of the human race, a complete destruction of the planet, and the eradication of every trace of life by means of a final, massive thermonuclear strike in order to end suffering once and for all. This state, the earth having become like a moon after a pasteurization of the entire biosphere, is what Horstmann, as a harbinger of the apocalypse, calls, in grandiose style, the true paradise.
In imagining a world where all life is extinct and no humans – and no philosophers – are left, he takes it upon himself to write a piece of what he calls “Eventualitätsphilosophie”, or, extreme case scenario philosophy. As this cannot be done to retroactively legitimize the actions that would lead to such a scenario, it has to be done beforehand, in advance, so to speak, which, at the same time, places the author well outside of both conventional philosophy and satire. However, it should be noted that the work is not devoid of satirical elements: It is prefaced by a quote of Blaise Pascal (1623–1662): Se moquer de la philosophie c’est vraiment philosopher. (“To mock philosophy is to philosophize truly.”), there are some allusions to Jonathan Swift, and the tone of the book can get somewhat satirical when Horstmann mocks the useless efforts of peace activists, or when he points out flaws in the systems of renowned philosophers (especially Leibniz and Hegel) and describes their obliviousness to mankind’s destructive side and their failure to recognize that humans shouldn’t even be here in the first place. A. Schopenhauer, E. von Hartmann and E. M. Cioran, on the other hand, receive lots of praise, not only for their acknowledgement of suffering in the world, but also for their suggestions as to how mankind could use its destructive forces and resources to end this suffering. (And, I’m sure, so would Mainländer, had Horstmann been acquainted with his philosophy by the time he wrote Das Untier!)
When it was first released, Das Untier caused a major controversy, Horstmann got lots of hate mail and even death threats, but it also won him the Kleist Prize of literature. Today, with nuclear threats being once again on the news every day, it makes a very interesting, and highly relevant, read.
Now, where can you find and read Das Untier? A PDF version is available for free download at Horstmann’s personal website www.untier.de.
Sadly, as far as I know, it has not been translated into English yet. But at least I was able to find an auto-generated translation of the book here, perhaps this could give you an idea. As you might know, right now, I’m working on an English translation of a German antinatalist philosopher who goes by the name of Kurnig (for more information, check this post), whose literary style, however, is much easier to understand and to translate than Horstmann’s. But who knows what the future might bring…
So what what are your thoughts on this? Would you be interested in reading the book, or have you, perhaps, read it already?
Thank you for reading.
originally published on Reddit [2022-08-02]
Also check out my updated presentation of Das Untier on Voidcast #5 (1:14:37–1:20:54).
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