Robert Musil's Intellectual Affinities

In German-speaking modernity, Robert Musil may lay the last valid claim to the title of Universalgenie. Trained as a soldier, engineer, philosopher, and psychologist, he did not shy from investigations beyond his accredited purview. His work repurposes the conceptual inventories of literature, philosophy, science, law, medicine, politics, education, etc. to revisit classical questions of beauty, truth, and morality within an ultra-complex modern context. The answers he finds are not conclusive b