Wearing a black suit and striped tie, Norwegian writer and philosophy professor Lars Svendsen appears contrary to the conservative and often bookish image one imagines of the modern philosopher; instead, he is eloquent, expansive and sociable.
This would be of no surprise to anyone who has ever read his books, however, which infuse pop culture with philosophy classics like Kant, Hegel and Descartes, making for accessible, readable examinations of the many serious issues people face in the modern age.
In titles such as A Philosophy of Boredom (1999), Fashion: A Philosophy (2004), A Philosophy of Fear (2008) (all published in Chinese), Svendsen tries to find a meeting point between modern topics and philosophical study. His books have been accused of being "unprofessional;" his populist tone, and choice of topics such as boredom, have invoked the criticism that such subjects are not worthy of serious academic discussion.
Yet the five books he has written the other two being Work (2008) and A Philosophy of Evil (2010) have been translated into 22 languages and Svendsen has become increasingly popular.
The reason, Svendsen told the Global Times during his book tour around China, is in part because he is "trying to use philosophy as a tool to understand what it means to live a more human and modern life. Philosophy is about something that matters in people's lives.
"A big problem with Western philosophy is that it is so self-indulgent. It simply circles around itself," he explained.
"Western philosophers are too concerned with themselves and not enough with problems of human beings."
Rediscovering fun of philosophy
Specializing in German philosophy, Svendsen once became so bored with philosophy that he had difficulties finding meaning in his job. "I was in a bit of philosophical crisis," he recalled. He started trying to use his learning to understand his sense of ennui, and from this emerged A Philosophy of Boredom. "I found a new approach to philosophy: using to some extent traditional philosophical logic and concepts to understand new and different phenomena."
In A Philosophy of Boredom, Svendsen brings together observations from philosophy, literature, psychology, theology and popular culture, and examines boredom's manifestations from pre-Romantic times to the present day, with elaborations from Pascal to Nietzsche, and 20th-century artists such as Warhol.
In Fashion: A Philosophy, Svendsen offers an engaging and intriguing analysis of fashion and the motivations behind its constant pursuit of the new by citing philosophical musings from Adam Smith to Roland Barthes.
By reading philosophy, "you can gain a deeper understanding of your own life, of who you are and why you do the things you do Ideally, philosophy should contribute to making a person a better person," he noted.
Pop culture and philosophy
Svendson also uses as sources music by the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna, novels by Flannery O' Connor, and 1996 movie Crash.
Pop cultures "are slices of modern life, contributions from slightly different perspectives on modern life," he explained.
For example, fashion is a crucial phenomenon for understanding modernity. "Modernity to a large extend is getting rid of tradition and replacing it with something new."
"If I am to try understand the culture we are living in, then I also have to write about popular culture in midst of all this classical, deep philosophy Then we have pop side-by-side with Hegel," he said, admitting it does seem a bit strange to some philosophers.
Instead of addressing individual problems, the themes Svendsen discusses in his books are more universal, with A Philosophy of Boredom being the most popular across different countries. He was even surprised to learn that an Australian socio-anthropologist is studying boredom among Aboriginals by referring to his book.
"It is a much more global phenomenon than I thought when I wrote the book The process of cultural globalization grows much faster than I realized."
Food for thought
While he started writing his books to clear up his own confusions about certain issues, he sees writing as a collaboration between him and his readers, both of whom have to contribute ideas. "They have to take what I write and relate it to their own lives, try to figure out what relevance it has, whether I'm right or not In any book that is worth reading, there must be worthy leftovers for the reader to complete."
He also refutes the label of self-help books. "I don't give a very clear recipe for how to organize life because I think each of us has to figure out that ourselves," he reasoned. "Philosophy is about self-reflection. It's about doing work with who you are, trying to figure it out. What I can do is to give [readers] some ways of thinking about themselves."