Beginninglessness

In his book Beginninglessness (published by Hanser in 1992 ) the author Botho Strauss reflects on the knowledge of cosmology and radical constructivism . On the basis of Hoyle's Steady State Theory , Strauss interweaves philosophical, cosmological, ethical, aesthetic and art into an initially confused text product.

But anyone who delves deeper into the underlying issues will encounter their lasting consistency despite the structurelessness of Strauss's highly fragmentary writing: his text itself seems to be beginningless and also endless. It is only held together by a thin but even frame structure that reports on the cognitive state of mind of a nameless male protagonist who desperately tries to grapple with his existence and to process the horror of the realization that there should no longer be an existential beginning. The reader is suddenly surrounded by insoluble questions about being , but then there are again small anchors that lead one from one thought to the next. The networking and condensation of the topics and the leaps of thought hold this unorthodox work together and make it a strongly intellectual and philosophical reading.

With the steady state theory or the theory of a stationary universe, Fred Hoyle tried at the end of the 1960s to refute the big bang theory of the Big Bang . It was not until 1980 that interest in the steady state theory waned, as it was not able to adequately explain the cosmic background radiation . The big bang theory prevailed.

literature

• Botho Strauss: Beginninglessness. Reflections on spot and line. Dtv, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-12358-3