Technique and asceticism in Sloterdijk’s colossal space

Abstract

The study discusses the notions of asceticism, spatiality and immunization within the framework of Sloterdijk’s theory of spheres. In this sense, this philosophy –a Nova Scientia of the contemporary world- would describe the physiognomy of a “technical man” in the mode of an existence of the being-with-the-world type. The German’s project, that is, an ontology that defines us as beings called to constitute intersubjective relationships impregnated with affectivity, spirituality and security, necessarily demands our performance as acrobats of technology. Unlike Nietzsche’s axiological asceticism, Sloterdijk’s post-Christian ascetology, should be understood as the variety of a modern theory of secularization. This ascetic practice corroborates the connection between the micro-spaces and macro-spaces that man has constructed for himself in the form, at the same time, of a spiritual and material technology. It is no longer a question, as in Heidegger, of man’s inner space, but of the outer, the colossal.