The great history of measure and self-indulgence
Ralf Konersmann, a cultural philosopher, demonstrates that throughout European history, measure and measurement, ethics and technology, morality and knowledge have been two sides of one and the same coin. It was necessary to be measured not simply here and there – with regard to facts and morals.
Konersmann recounts the great intellectual history of measure: how the reciprocal relationship of measure and measuring was conceived and concolidated, the conditions under which it nevertheless fell apart, and the consequences of this separation of previoulsy connected concepts. Konersmann puts the current omnipresent advance of measuring, counting and calculating into a genealogical perspective, enabling us to really understand it for the first time – and to better understand the current situation.
'Konersmann is able to make unexpected connections sensationally well and points up new ways of reading well-known stories.' Spiegel Online
