-ismus. Ideologien & Literatur. Arnold Gehlens Konservatismus. Mit Jürgen Kaube und Sandra Richter

The sociologist Arnold Gehlen is considered Adorno's conservative counterpart. But what exactly are the thought patterns that make his thinking appear conservative? Is it Gehlen's anthropology, which conceives of humans as imperfect beings, or in Gehlen's words, as "deficient beings" that must first and foremost be educated? Is it the "need for institutions" that Gehlen asserts? Or does Gehlen's sociology, rather, benefit from a cultural critique that shapes both conservative and "progressive" currents? Given Arnold Gehlen's posthumous papers, black-and-white assessments become difficult, if not impossible. In conversation with Sandra Richter, Jürgen Kaube explores what Gehlen discussed beyond the public debates with such diverse thinkers as Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Ernst Forsthoff, Wolf Lepenies, and Armin Mohler.