(Prometheus, 1994, 304 pages)

In this stimulating philosophical essay, Maarten Doorman goes against prevailing trends to argue that, in the arts at least, a belief in progress is still relevant and perhaps essential. The radical freedoms of post-modern permissiveness have had a crippling effect. More than ever before, art is in danger of becoming meaningless. The only way a work of art can acquire meaning is through its context, and the concept of progress is ideally suited as the primary criterion for establishing that context.

(Bert Bakker, 2004, 283 pages)

Modernism and postmodernism are the pivotal concepts that Western man uses in his attempts to come to grips with his situation in the early years of this new millennium. But in The Romantic Imperative, philosopher and poet Maarten Doorman shows us that our contemporary way of life is actually influenced more than we may realise by the Romantic revolution of the early nineteenth century. For it was then that people began seeing themselves not as creatures who existed, but as creatures who became, who were in possession of an authentic ‘I’ that was more than the sum of their strict societal roles, and who had received the calling to be creative.

(Prometheus, 2023, 223 pages)

Given that France and Germany played a leading role in the formation and expansion of the European Union together, it is easy to forget that for centuries they were arch-enemies. Today, their close military and economic cooperation appears more crucial than ever — but will it last? Cultural philosopher and poet Maarten Doorman turns to the enduring images of their violent history to understand how their mutual perceptions have informed the subtle balance of power between them since 1945.