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A Tapestry of Pain

  • Author: Chuanfei Chin
Posted by brb ⋅ January 23, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

The general capacity to feel pain is part of being human, yet it is subject to a number of seeming paradoxes. For one, we alone must endure the pain in our own bodies, yet we readily observe pain in others and expect that they suffer from it as we do. Furthermore, while we fear pain and condemn those who wantonly inflict it, violence in all its forms and meanings fascinates us. It is these, and other, paradoxes that Arne Johan Vetlesen, professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo, discusses in his recent book ‘A Philosophy of Pain’. The diversity of phenomena and contexts through which pain manifests itself inevitably leads to a certain degree of eclecticism. The result, writes reviewer Chuanfei Chin, is less an analysis of pain and a model of its ‘circulation’ in society, but a more or less loosely woven tapestry of observations — one that may not be strong enough to bear the weight of the author’s ambitious project, but one whose patterns nonetheless stimulate the reader.

The Narcissism of the Plagiarist

  • Author: Axel Gelfert
Posted by brb ⋅ February 23, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

German defence minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg finds himself embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. Suspicious passages have now been documented on two thirds of the pages of his PhD dissertation, and at least 19 authors and several institutions have been identified as sources. Why did a successful politician think he could get away with such blatant cheating? The answer, writes The Berlin Review’s editor Axel Gelfert, is a simple as it is worrying: it is a classic case of narcissism.

Letter from the Editor

  • Author: Axel Gelfert
Posted by brb ⋅ November 9, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Dear Readers, It is with great pleasure that I welcome to you the website of The Berlin Review of Books. The goal of the BRB is to publish essays and reviews of the highest quality, in an effort to promote intellectual curiosity and intelligent debate. In pursuing this goal, we are open to global perspectives [...]

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