Jens Sparschuh goes on a fascinating adventure into the twilight zone of reality, memory and imagination and sets out on the trail of a forgotten philosopher: Hans Vaihinger.
“Truth is only the most expedient error.” So claimed Vaihinger in his major work, “The Philosophy of ‘As If.’” A hundred years later, Dr. Anton Lichtenau, a private lecturer in philosophy, wonders how many expedient errors have made up his own life. An unforeseen event on his way to giving a lecture completely throws him for a loop. As his students attempt to interpret Vaihinger’s theses in the final exam, he looks back. Was it a coincidence that he did not study in Leningrad as planned because of his lack of Russian language skills but in Berlin instead? In this other life, the one he hasn’t lived, he would not have met Claudia, who then also could not have left him, and … The deeper Lichtenau delves into the labyrinth of his “what-if” considerations, the less solid his previous certainties become.
