Book Review
Title: Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy
By: Wolfram Eilenberger
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date: August 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-0525559689
Eilenberger tells four stories in tandem that cover roughly the years 1918 to 1929, culminating at a philosophical conference in Davos, Switzerland. The four main characters are Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Cassier, and Walter Benjamin. Cassier and Heidegger spoke at the Davos conference, which occurs near the end of the book.
The book provides an enjoyable mix of history, biography, philosophy, and novel—four genres that I enjoy individually. So reading a book with all four genres in one made my day—especially one so well written.
The novelistic quality emerges from Eilenberger as a compelling storyteller with a crystal clear style. The story focuses on the most productive periods in the subjects’ lives, when their brilliance shined brightest and their best work was done. This is particularly true for Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Cassier was a little older and farther along in his career. Walter Benjamin doesn’t seem to have done much work at any time, but this is when he generated ideas for which he would later become known. Benjamin’s life as told in the book reads more like soap opera.
The time-travel experience of the book was exciting to me because of my interest in history. I can read “dry” history books all day—reading history with such dynamic characters about whom I already knew a lot—so vividly brought to life—in a period I think is fascinating—thoroughly affirmed my initial impression when I saw the book at a bookstore: I needed to buy it immediately.
Eilenberger delves into some detail of the major works of the four subjects, especially Wittgenstein’s Tractatus logico-philosphicus and Heidegger’s Being and Time.
The author does a great job teasing out the loci of certain philosophical disagreements, such as between Heidegger and Cassier: Cassier’s epistemological neo-Kantian approach to meaning versus Heidegger’s ontological approach, which he viewed as “Kantian” but not “neo-Kantian.” Read the book for more details!
Also between Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle—the disconnect was palpable between the Vienna Circle’s scientific-empirical approach to analyze meaning via philosophy of language (Viz. Schlick: “The meaning of an assertion lies in the method of its verification” [275]), versus Wittgenstein who writes “…if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all” (41), or, ideas such as, the logical form that allows a proposition to represent reality cannot be expressed in language (171). Yet, Wittgenstein was excruciatingly scientific in his study and exposition of philosophical ideas. Wittgenstein drove his Vienna sparring partners batty with his unconventional yet analytically incisive theses. They remained friends but went their separate ways philosophically, and geographically (Wittgenstein ending up at Cambridge).
Why am I so enamored with this book? Because I knew the cast of characters so well. In both undergraduate and graduate studies, I was immersed in Wittgenstein studies under one of the premier authorities on Wittgenstein (Professor Jaakko Hintikka), and I studied Heidegger under an actual colleague of Heidegger’s at Freiburg (Professor William Werkmeister).
Aside: I was in a grad student’s colloquium once, when Dr. Werkmeister contradicted a statement made by the grad student. The student said something like, “I think the evidence in the… “. But Dr. Werkmeister interrupted, “You see the last time I discussed this question with Martin (aka Martin Heidegger!), he said that he meant ….” And so ended the debate. The grad student embarrassed himself but also learned something while experiencing an authentic moment of his own fact of Dasein.
I also studied Cassier, primarily from the angle of the philosophy of mythology. I also studied many of the minor characters in this book: Karl Jaspers, Rudolph Bultmann, Bertrand Russel, Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Gottlob Frege, Maynard Keynes, Frank Ramsey, Rudolph Carnap, Moritz Schlick, and several others in the storyline. So naturally I was excited to see so many familiar names show up in this book. The main gap in my previous knowledge of these figures was Walter Benjamin. His flâneuresque character and desultory intellectual efforts made him more of a distraction and less interesting than the others. In fact the inclusion of Benjamin in the book seemed a bit incongruous.
That incongruity aside, the book is a treasure and a treat for any serious lover of books. It offers delights for just about any taste, and for aficionados of any genre. The philosophical discussions are well developed, and true to the characters. But they are not weighty or dry by any means. Readers will appreciate the author’s clarity and discretion—he gives us just enough to understand what’s happening, and avoids going down any rabbit holes.
Thank you Wolfram Eilenberger for this exceptional reading experience.
Related Book Reviews:
Hintikkas’ Investigation of Wittgenstein
Kant and Critique: New Essays in Honor of W.H. Werkmeister
Georg Henrik von Wright on Wittgenstein
Plato’s Phaedo and Its Theory of Forms: Conversations and Language Games
My philosophy book:
Abstract Objects, Ideal Forms, and Works of Art: An Epistemic and Aesthetic Analysis