ABSTRACT
Relatively independent of his anthropological groundwork in Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch (1928), Helmuth Plessner developed a philosophy of the public sphere in some of his other works. In his social and political works Grenzen der Gemeinschaft (1924), Macht und menschliche Natur (1931), Diesseits der Utopie (1966) and Die Frage nach der Conditio humana (1976), he presents a philosophy of public life as a sphere of social roles, prestige, ceremonial, tact, and diplomacy. Man is regarded as a role player who wears masks. Although Plessner does not develop a complete social, political or legal theory, his work contains important building blocks for other theories in these fields. In my view, social role playing is a key concept for enabling Plessner’s work to contribute something fruitful in these domains. Given this connection, this concept is the central theme of this chapter.
