Trump and the philosophers
- What can the least philosophical person in history teach us about philosophy
- Lars Fr. H. Svendsen
The true, the good and the beautiful – philosophers have reflected on these concepts for thousands of years. Donald J. Trump embodies none of them. Yet the Trump phenomenon, viewed through the history of philosophy, can tell us a great deal about the times in which we live. Combining the history of ideas with an analysis of contemporary politics, one of today’s best-known popularisers of philosophy, Lars Fr. H. Svendsen, considers how the most important thinkers in the Western tradition might judge Trump, his associates and the political movement he has shaped. In doing so, he also raises broader questions about the crisis of liberal democracy, the erosion of trust in institutions, the place of truth in the public sphere, and the appeal of populist leadership in the 21st century.
In a kind of sequel to On Stupidity, Idiocy and Stupid Idiots, Svendsen draws on the ideas of the great philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle, through Machiavelli and Kant, to Friedrich Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt, to explore the qualities that have traditionally characterised a good ruler and to compare Donald Trump with that ideal. Is Trump the product of a civilisation in which love has lost its proper direction, as Saint Augustine might have argued? Why would Machiavelli have considered him an inept political leader? And in what way does the MAGA movement, according to Simone de Beauvoir, represent an escape from freedom?
Trump and the Philosophers is at once an accessible introduction to political philosophy, a witty and provocative analysis of one of the most influential political phenomena of our time, and an insightful attempt to understand the world in which we live.
- Cover: paperback
- Year of the edition: 2026
- Original title: Trump og filosofene. Hvordan et studium av historiens minst filosofiske mann kan lære deg forbløffende mye om filosofi
- Original language: Norwegian
- Translation: Ante Sičić
Related titles
On Stupidity, Idiocy and Stupid Idiots
On Stupidity, Idiocy and Stupid Idiots (2nd updated edition)
