Stupidity and Self-Absorption

Thomas J. Spiegel is full professor of philosophy at Miyazaki International University, Japan. He has published on social epistemology, social ontology, naturalism, applied ethics, and other topics. He has also co-edited the volumes McDowell and the Hermeneutic Tradition (Routledge, 2024) and Social Ontology and Phenomenology (Routledge, 2025) as well as special issues for Topoi (2023) and International Journal for Philosophical Studies (2025). His work has been published in journals such as Synthese, Inquiry, Topoi, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Social Epistemology, and Philosophical Investigations.

• Preface Introduction 1. A Short Philosophical Historiography of Stupidity 2. Stupidity as Self-Absorption 3. The Absorbed Self 4. An Existential Condition 5. Suprapersonal Self-Absorption Conclusion: The Inescapability of Self-Absorption Bibliography Index

“Stupidity is everywhere—and yet incredibly hard to define. Drawing on deep knowledge of both analytic and continental philosophy, Spiegel offers a rich and subtle analysis of this phenomenon and the challenges it poses to all lives.”Sacha Golob, King’s College London, UK“In this work, Spiegel is not confined to philosophy alone, but—given the topic of the book—he has ventured interdisciplinarily into psychology, sociology, political theory, literature and literature criticism. The result is a synthetic piece of scholarship with an interdisciplinary outreach and a solid philosophical foundation. This systematic piece of philosophical analysis and the thesis thereby presented and (I believe, successfully) defended is most impressive.”Dr. Sebastian Luft, Paderborn University"Spiegel’s book is a pioneering study of stupidity and self-absorption. Moreover, by understanding stupidity as self-absorption, Spiegel offers an original perspective on other concepts such as world-openness, attention, resistance to reality and the self. Finally, by placing the tendency to self-absorption at the core of the human condition, he gives us all something to worry about."Dr. Logi Gunnarsson, University of Potsdam“Spiegel has written an original, timely and engaging book that offers the first full-scale philosophical study of stupidity to date. It will generate lively debates and controversies in the fields of both moral and theoretical philosophy, thus becoming the standard work for anyone interested in the topic of stupidity.” Dr. Andrea Sebastiano Staiti, University of Parma & Boston College