Alexander Grau (journalist)

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Alexander Jürgen Grau (* 1968 in Bonn ) is a German philosopher , journalist , publicist and book author .

Life

Grau was born in Bonn and grew up there and in Wiesbaden . In 1987 he passed his Abitur at the Gutenberg School in Wiesbaden. From 1988 to 1989 he did military service in Warburg and Dietz / Lahn. From the 1989/90 winter semester he studied philosophy , linguistics and modern history at the Free University of Berlin , with Ernst Tugendhat , Michael Theunissen , Peter Bieri and Holm Tetens , among others . In 1998 he became a circle of circles with his dissertation . Hegel's post-analytical epistemology is doing his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin.

After completing his doctorate, he went to the Institute for Medical Psychology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich on a research grant from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation , where he worked on the rhetoric of imaging processes in brain research.

Grau has been working as a freelance journalist since 2003, mainly for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the magazine Cicero . Since 2015 he has been writing the Saturday column Grauzone for Cicero-online . Articles by Alexander Grau have also appeared in the magazines Brain & Spirit , chrismon , epoc and brand eins . In addition to topics from the fields of politics, culture and science, Grau also deals with aspects of everyday culture, fashion and lifestyle. Since 2015 he has been writing the literature column Bookmarks for Tweed magazine .

For the program Tag für Tag des Deutschlandfunk , he wrote multi-part programs on the history of religious psychology , the theologian Emanuel Hirsch or the work of Ernst Troeltsch . Grau has been working as a freelancer for the voluntary self-regulation television (FSF) since 2005 and since 2007 has been regularly publishing specialist articles on media studies in the magazine tv diskurs - responsibility in audiovisual media . In 2014 he published the anthology Religion , which he edited together with Gerson Raabe . Facets of a controversial term . In 2017 his essay Hypermoral was published. The pleasure in indignation . In 2018 he published his essay Kulturpessimismus. A plea and political kitsch in 2019 . A German specialty .

He is married, has two children and lives in Munich .

Positions

politics

In his weekly column gray area gray representing mainly liberal-conservative positions. He criticizes the formulaic demands for social justice. In the late industrial welfare state, the social is reinterpreted as the right to consumption and thus the fetish of the mass consumer society. He is just as hostile to an unregulated immigration policy as to concepts of a multicultural society. In various articles he has positioned himself against political correctness or ideological language regulations. In the German media landscape there is an inability and unwillingness to endure differences, but all the more so is the determination to condemn the inquisitorial. In various articles, Grau also criticized the euphoria for reform and modernization in education policy and thoughtless digitization.

religion

In various publications, Grau promotes enlightened Protestantism and thus turns against the ruling left-wing Protestantism as well as against representatives of conservative Christianity. The metaphysics of a two thousand year old oriental religion of salvation can no longer be conveyed to the people of the early 21st century, their language and imagery can no longer be plausibly translated. But that is also an opportunity. Because it clears the way for the message of Christianity, which is actually critical of ideology. Against the representatives of a politicized Christianity, Grau argues that Jesus of Nazareth did not preach any political message, on the contrary. Salvation is neither possible in the world nor by means of the world. The kingdom of God is within each individual.

Hyper morality

In his book Hypermoral , Grau takes a critical look at the phenomenon that morality or moral justifications for political and social action in modern Western societies enjoy an unprecedented relevance and reputation. Morality has been given an opinion-forming monopoly, other rational considerations (technical, scientific, economic) are discredited ( Hypermoral, p. 10). Grau blames four historical developments for this: secularization, individualization, the emergence of a mass society and the mass media. The moralization of virtually all social and political questions serves at the core of the emotionalization and thus the mass mobilization in the struggle for public opinion. In addition, morality relieves the burden of thinking. Moral norms formed the "wellbeing pool in which the modern human soul splashes happily, the intellectual wellness area in which the mind sees itself protected from the cold winds of rational reasoning and argumentation" ( Hypermoral. P. 13). Above all, however, morality provides a wonderful rhetorical starting position with which one can nip any counter-arguments in the bud. Political opponents would be discredited and marginalized. Belief in the good is the ultimate certainty of those who no longer believe in anything, morality is our last religion (cf. Hypermoral. P. 14).

Publications (selection)

Audio

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Schulz - The fairy tale of social justice . In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed on February 2, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Result of a world escape agenda. In: Research & Teaching. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018 ; accessed on February 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Gender issues - Am I trans-feminine, cross-gender or inter *? In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed on February 2, 2018]).
  4. ↑ PISA Study - Education in the Post-Educated Age . In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed on February 2, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Die Tagespost: Moralism is the new religion . In: die-tagespost.de . January 31, 2018 ( die-tagespost.de [accessed February 3, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Good Friday - powerlessness as a unique selling point . In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed on February 3, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Die Tagespost: Moralism is the new religion . In: die-tagespost.de . January 31, 2018 ( die-tagespost.de [accessed February 3, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Gray, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gray, Alexander Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, journalist, publicist and book author
DATE OF BIRTH 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn