Revolitionäre Projekte als thymotische Regungen. Peter Sloterdijk versus Georg Büchner

The paper is an attempt to analyse the drama "Dantons Tod" [Danton’s Death] by Georg Büchner in the light of the reflections of the modern German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk about the thymotic aspirations of the human. ‘Thymos’ is a Greek term for the area in the human soul / psyche which pertains to the need for acknowledgement. The area of thymos is thus responsible for the affects which are necessary to fulfil this need, i.e. pride, indignation, anger, ambition or readiness to fight. These affects became, according to Sloterdijk, largely marginalized under the influence of the Christian morality since they posed a threat to the feudal socio-political hierarchy. The legitimization of the authority based on the notion of ‘the grace of God’ required unconditional obedience of the subjects, as well as the acceptance of the absolutist, that is God’s, order. The ideas of the Enlightenment and ultimately the outburst of the French Revolution meant a re-activation of the thymotic energy and the shaping of the so-called culture of indignation / disagreement for the current system. The bourgeoisie manifested its anger in the great thymotic project which was the French Revolution. Georg Büchner took an active part in the afore-mentioned culture of indignation and propagated it among the oppressed and the humiliated contemporary with him. "Dantons Tod" presents the reflexes of thymos as the basic mechanism shaping human relations.