In 2007 he retired early, disillusioned by academic life and condemning what he saw as the rise of managerialism ("Eine Diktatur der Geschäftigkeit") and decline in respect for academic work.[4]
Pseudonym and work as a writer
As a writer, Bieri used the pseudonym Pascal Mercier, made up of the surnames of the two French philosophers Blaise Pascal and Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Martin Halter, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, criticized Bieri's attempt "to dress up the trite man from Bern in a French philosopher's lace jabot"[5] as a pretentious mannerism. Peter Bieri published five novels. Writing literature was to him a revelation of the writer's soul through moods: "An atmosphere – that is absolutely the most important thing in a book and it will reveal, like nothing else, the author's soul."[6] Reviewers identified “heart, woe and a lot of fate” as “his recipe for success”[7] which Bieri, aiming at “wellness literature”,[8] applied in each of his books with little variation.[9]
Death
Bieri died on 27 June 2023 in Berlin, at the age of 79.[10]
^Manfred Papst, Peter Bieri alias Pascal Mercier hat genug von der Universität. In: NZZ am Sonntag, 27 May 2007 (with quotation from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 May 2007)
^Martin Halter, Die Seele hängt voller Geigen. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30 May 2007
^Peter Bieri, Wie wollen wir leben? 2nd ed., Residenz Verlag, St Pölten 2011, p. 51: "Eine Atmosphäre – sie ist das absolut Wichtigste an einem Buch, und aus ihr spricht wie aus nichts sonst die Seele des Autors."
^Martin Halter, Die Seele hängt voller Geigen. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 30 May 2007: “Herz, Schmerz und viel Schicksal”, “sein Erfolgsrezept”. Similarly Joseph Hanimann, Mit dieser Geige findet sie den Tod. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 16 July 2007: “painting emotion in a way that borders on kitsch” (“an Kitsch grenzende Gefühlsbeschreibung”), and Volker Weidermann, Professor Kitsch. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 10 May 2007.
^Eberhard Falcke, Abgeschmackte Stimmungsmacherei. In: DIE ZEIT. 10 June 2007: “literarische Wellness”.
^Jens Jessen, Monumentale Biederkeit. In: DIE ZEIT. 12 March 2020.
^This is a popular science book on the topic of 'free will'. Marcus von Schmiede claims that Bieri does a good job in making the discussions surrounding determinism accessible to a wider audience; cf. von Schmiede's review of the book in Die Zeit (Hamburg, Germany), 13 December 2001.