50-year-old Svenja Flaßpöhler is an uncomfortable thinker. She likes to question prevailing narratives, for example during the Corona crisis she clashed with Frank Plasberg, who had placed her as the only guest on “Hart aber fair” against a majority that loudly advocated compulsory vaccination. After years, the moderator surprisingly apologized to her.Even when it comes to the questions she is asked in interviews, she always thinks carefully about whether she can actually do anything with them.

Ms. Flaßpöhler,doesn’t philosophy take place in remote thinking spaces far away from current discussions? How do you reach a large audience with a philosophy festival?

The Philosophy Magazine and the Cologne phil.Cologne already reach a large audience. for Philo.live! We have joined forces as organizers to organize a philosophy festival in the capital. And as the premiere last year showed,with great success. Our aim is to bring philosophy into the public eye, into the agora.Socrates walked thru the market square with the citizens of Athens and discussed pressing questions with them. Therefore the opposite question would be: Why do you think that philosophy is not suitable for this?

Because it may have had a rather dubious reputation in the recent past. There’s that joke about philosophy graduates driving taxis.

The reverse is the case. Since the turn of the millennium, major crises have followed major crises. The public demand for philosophical penetration increased all the more. In addition to our magazine and the successful festivals, there are numerous philosophers who shape the public discourse, get involved and intervene. Think of Richard David Precht. Or to Eva von Redecker, Rüdiger Safranski, Peter sloterdijk, Markus Gabriel, Thea Dorn, Wolfram Eilenberger. In this respect I would contradict your perception. Philosophy can do exactly what is necessary now: do intellectual justice to the complexity of the world. Show that there is not just one plausible view of complex issues.

Dialectical thinking is qu## The Weight of Silence: A Conversation on Conformity and Courage

you once said that certain statements during the Corona crisis were not scandalous, but rather prescient, given that a general vaccination requirement wasn’t implemented. Yet, you’ve also spoken of a self-imposed silence. do you fear being “canceled”?

Looking back,what I said during the Corona crisis is not scandalous at all. On the contrary. The general vaccination requirement, which I spoke out against at the time, among other things, was never implemented, and for good reasons. At that time, though, the mood was extremely heated and a different view was presented in many media. Under such circumstances,one can quickly lose one’s position in the public eye. You then no longer have a relevant voice, but are classified as “crazy” in the team.That would probably have happened to me back then if I hadn’t recognized the moment when there is simply nothing to be gained by persisting and ultimately only temporary silence helps.

you kept silent to save yourself?

The silence was terrible because it meant powerlessness and was close to cowardice. But it was the only possible way to survive socially and medially. For Aristotle, courage is the medium between cowardice and recklessness. To be valiant, you definitely need to be sensitive to possible risks. But the abyss of cowardice is always there. It shouldn’t dictate us. in this way, one bows to pressure to conform that comes not from above but from the sides, and oneself works to narrow the field of discourse. There is a great temptation to conform, especially on social media. You don’t want to get into a shitstorm and you know exactly what the mood is and what your own community thinks. Incidentally, you also lose your own voice. That’s why I withdrew from social media a long time ago.


Wagenknecht Doesn’t See Herself as a Populist

she talks to Julia Reuschenbach about the question: “What is populism?” For Reuschenbach,wagenknecht is clearly one of the populists who construct a unified popular will and criminally reduce complexity. it will be all the more interesting to hear what Wagenknecht responds.

!Sahra Wagenknecht does not see herself as a populist in a discrediting sense,says Svenja Flaßpöhler.