In podcast episode 215 (@ZDFheute, October 17, 2025) Richard David Precht speaks with Markus Lanz about the “metaphysical homelessness“Our time – a symptom, as he says, of excessive individualism. Precht's exact words: “Instead of religion, we produce images – and first and foremost, images of ourselves.”
And further: “We have transformed unconditional love for God into unconditional love for ourselves.”
A precise diagnosis of today's ego problem, delivered with a dash of his characteristic sarcasm. But Precht should know: with his debut work, "Who am I – and if so, how many?", he became one of the most widely read philosophers in the German language – and one who succeeded in bringing philosophy out of the ivory tower and into the feuilleton of public discourse.
Interestingly, however, what is missing is also noteworthy: Despite the thematic proximity to the topic of self-referential identity, Precht, to my knowledge, nowhere takes up the Mosaic self-revelation – “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14) – as an epistemological point of reference, even though it is practically begging to be used.
This gap also marks the boundary between the theses of anthropological-philosophical self-reflection and an ontologically based theory of consciousness, as exemplified by the so-called “Sermon on the Mount"is already preconfigured, albeit hidden in the biblical idiom."
