Philosophical traditions and schools of thought Books

Book SynopsisThis concise and accessible introduction brings the writings of Marx and Engels and later thinkers in the Marxist tradition including Althusser, Gramsci, the Frankfurt School as well as Liberation Theologians such as Gutierrez and Maduro, into focus in relation to questions of religion, social change and social justice. Marx was a nineteenth century thinker trying to develop a theory that could explain the dramatic social and technological changes that he lived through. Later thinkers modified and developed key elements of Marx' theoretical model, with religion - particularly Christianity - providing a vital point of critical self-reflection for thinkers in the Marxist tradition. This book tracks these modifications and developments to Marx' ideas, and their continuing relevance to contemporary debates about religion, social change and social justice.Table of ContentsPreface Chapter One: Introducing Marx Chapter Two: Marx: Religion, Ideology, Power and Change Chapter Three: Engels: The First Marxist Historian and Anthropologist of Religion Chapter Four: Ideology, Hegemony and Religion: Althusser, Gramsci and the Embrace of Uncertainty Chapter Five: The Frankfurt School: Horkheimer, Habermas and Religion Chapter Six: Marxism and Liberation Theology Chapter Seven: Conclusions Glossary

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Book SynopsisWhat is the contemporary legacy of Gramsci's notion of Hegemony? How can universality be reformulated now that its spurious versions have been so thoroughly criticized? In this ground-breaking project, Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek engage in a dialogue on central questions of contemporary philosophy and politics. Their essays, organized as separate contributions that respond to one another, range over the Hegelian legacy in contemporary critical theory, the theoretical dilemmas of multiculturalism, the universalism-versus-particularism debate, the strategies of the Left in a globalized economy, and the relative merits of post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis for a critical social theory. While the rigor and intelligence with which these writers approach their work is formidable, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality benefits additionally from their clear sense of energy and enjoyment in a revealing and often unpredictable exchange.

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together three major studies from Isaiah Berlin's central intellectual project – to explain the opposition to the excessively scientistic French Enlightenment by getting under the skin of its critics and giving a sympathetic account of their views. The contributions of these particular critics could hardly be more important. Giambattista Vico estabished that the humanties are and must remain crucially different from the sciences: J G Herder – sometimes called the father of European nationalism – originated populism, expressionism and pluralism (an idea which Berlin enriched and made powerfully his own); and the anti-rationalist J.G. Hamann lit the fuse of romanticism, the major movement to arise out of the various currents of hostility to Enlightenment thought. The intellectual tension that existed between Enlightenment advocates and these critics is as crucial today as it was at its inception. With his customary humane understanding, Berlin analyses the ideas of three deeply original but often neglected thinkers, and demonstrates their disturbing relevance to the central issues of today's world.This new edition includes three previously uncollected pieces on Vico, an interesting passage excluded from the first edition of the essay on Hamann, and Berlin's thoughtful letters responding to two reviewers of that same edition.Trade ReviewIt will be a long time before students of either Vico or Herder are able to exhaust their gratitude to Berlin -- Alasdair MacIntyre * Listener *The Magus of the North is a delightful surprise... Berlin at his very best. The prose flows powerfully, at times torrentially, richly saturated in information and ideas -- Michael Rosen * Times Literary Supplement *Brilliant, impressionistic portraits of notable intellectual personalities, great fountains of adjectives and comparisons which bring the totality of their minds to life -- Anthony Quinton

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Book Synopsis'Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.' David Hume David Hume is generally recognized as the United Kingdom's greatest philosopher, as well as a notable historian and essayist and a central figure of the Enlightenment. Yet his work is delicately poised between scepticism and naturalism, between despair at the limited powers of the mind and optimism at the progress we can make by understanding it. This difficult balancing act has given rise to a multitude of different interpretations: reading Hume has never been free of controversy. In this new approach to his writings, Simon Blackburn describes how Hume can be considered one of the earliest, and most successful, evolutionary psychologists, weaving plausible natural accounts of the way we should think of ourselves and of how we have come to be what we are.

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Book SynopsisThe author of the contemporary classic, In the Dust of This Planet, is back with another raw and unsettling look at the human condition. Comprised of aphorisms, fragments, and observations both philosophical and personal, Thacker’s new book traces the contours of pessimism, caught as it often is between a philosophical position and a bad attitude. Reflecting on the universe’s “looming abyss of indifference,” Thacker explores the pessimism of a range of philosophers, from the well-known (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Camus), to the lesser-known (E.M. Cioran, Lev Shestov, Miguel de Unamuno). Readers will find food for thought in Thacker’s handling of a range of themes in Christianity and Buddhism, as well as his engagement with literary figures (from Dostoevsky to Thomas Bernhard, Osamu Dazai, and Fernando Pessoa), whose pessimism about the world both inspires and depresses Thacker. By turns melancholic, misanthropic, and darkly funny, (“Birth is a metaphysical injury — healing takes time — the span of one's life”), many will find Infinite Resignation a welcome antidote to the exuberant imbecility of our times.Trade Review“Belongs on the shelf next to the likes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer . . . Thacker’s voice is quiet, a desperate whisper into the void that is both haunting and heartbreaking.” —Into the Void “When life gives us lemons, Thacker refuses to make lemonade. Rather he adds lemon juice to the ink pot, and proceeds to write with an acerbic clarity—and touches of black humor—about the predicament of being human.” —Dominic Pettman, author of Human Error: Species Being and Media Machines

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Book SynopsisThe Paratrisika (or Paratrimsika) is a short Tantra which has been held in the highest esteem by Kashmir Saivism or Trika. After Somananda, Abhinavagupta has written two commentaries on it, a short one (Laghuvrtti) and an extensive one the present Vivarana which is presented here for the first time in an english translation. The Paratrisika Vivarana is one of the most fascinating but also most difficult texts of the Kashmir Saiva School and of the mystical philosophical literature of India as a whole. It deals with Ultimate Reality (anuttara or para) and with the methods of realization, centred above all in the theory and practice of the mantra. Abhinavagupta displays here his great exegetical genius and presents a penetrating metaphysics of language, of the Word (vak) and its various stages in relation to consciousness. His language reflects in a luminous fashion the mystical experience contained in this text.

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Book SynopsisAn account of feng-shui, a Chinese art providing the ability to live in harmony with nature and at peace. Skinner outlines the history, principles and application of this art, the philosophy of which is that energy flows through "dragon" lines which can promote prosperity, peace and happiness.

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Book SynopsisWhat makes me, me – and you, you? What is this thing called ‘love’? Does life have a point? Is ‘no’ the right answer to this question? Philosophy transports us from the wonderful to the weird, from the funny to the very serious indeed. With the aid of tall stories, jokes, fascinating insights and common sense, Peter Cave offers a comprehensive survey of all areas of philosophy, addressing the big puzzles in ethics and politics, metaphysics and knowledge, religion and the emotions, aesthetics and logic. Replete with a smorgasbord of amusing and mind-boggling examples, The Big Think Book is perfect for anyone who delights in life’s conundrums. Trade Review"Now we can all be philosophers. Engaging and mentally stimulating." * New Scientist on Do Llamas Fall in Love? *"Britain's wittiest philosopher." * Raymond Tallis *

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Book SynopsisTHE YOGA OF JESUS contains a selection of material from the highly praised, two volume work, The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You. This concise book confirms that Jesus, like the ancient sages and masters of the East, not only knew the principles of yoga but taught this universal science of God-realisation to his disciples.Yogananda, who is widely recognised as the father of yoga in the West, explores the role of Jesus as yogi and avatar (divine incarnation). He removes the centuries of dogma and misunderstanding that obscure Christ''s original teachings, and shows that Jesus'' message is not about sectarian divisiveness, but a unifying path by which seekers of all faith traditions can enter the kingdom of God.

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Book SynopsisThough Wittgenstein wrote on the same subjects that dominate the work of other analytic philosophers - the nature of logic, the limits of language, the analysis of meaning - he did so in a peculiarly poetic style that separates his work sharply from that of his peers and makes the question of how to read him particularly pertinent. At the root of Wittgenstein's thought, Ray Monk argues, is a determination to resist the scientism characteristic of our age, a determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of non-scientific forms of understanding. The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed, a poem. Extracts are taken from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and from a range of writings, including Philosophical Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books and Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology.

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Book SynopsisThe Passion of the Western Mind is a complete guide to Western civilisation and the philosophical ideas that have shaped our world view. From Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud, Richard Tarnas described profound philosophical concepts simply, but without simplifying them.Ten years in the making, The Passion of the Western Mind was hailed as an instant classic on publication. In it, Tarnas provides a compelling account of the evolution of the Western mind and its changing conception of reality. Advances on several fronts - in philosophy, psychology, religous studies and the history of science - have shed new light on this remarkable evolution and Tarnas draws together these advances to set forth a new perspective for understanding out culture's intellectual and spiritual history. The result is a complete liberal education in a single volume.Trade ReviewI have never read a book about the ways in which we think that was clearer or more exciting -- John CleeseQuite brilliant * Guardian *[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'West's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay and scholarly readers alike... Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture as if for the first time * San Francisco Chronicle *30,000 years of Western thought distilled into a powerful, enthralling narrative * Sydney Morning Herald *An extraordinary work of scholarship. It not only places the history of Western thought in perspective, but offers new insights concerning the evolution of our thinking and the future of the whole human enterprise -- John E. Mack, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

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Book Synopsis"The Radical Enlightenment" was a set of ideas which helped lay the foundations of the modern world on the basis of equality, democracy, secularism, and universality. This study by cultural historian, Jonathan Israel, shows how Spinoza and his thought set the intellectual current towards the political revolutions of the later 18th century.Trade ReviewThe tributes which Israel has received for Radical Enlightenment are thoroughly merited; this book will become a modern classic upon the subject. * David J. Sturdy, Cultural and Social History 2004-2006 *Deserves to be widely read because it is an example of ground-breaking vastly well-informed and thoroughly new history * David Horspool, The Guardian *The scholarship is breathtaking. Israel has read everything, absorbed every nuance, followed up every byway ... Five years from now, our views of the Enlightenment will have been enormously influenced by Israel. * Peter Watson, New Statesman *There is much to praise in Israel's majestic account of the Enlightenment and his detective work in placing Spinoza at the heart of it. * A.C. Grayling, FT Weekend *Magnificent and magisterial, Radical Enlightenment will undoubtedly be one of truly great historical works of the decade. * John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph *We have gained a much more detailed and fine-grained view of the sheer diversity and intellectual creativity not just amongst those who may have been influenced by Spinoza, but also amongst their critics, and those who may be deemed part of either the moderate Enlightenment or even a Counter-Enlightenment. * Professor Thomas Munck, Reviews in History *Table of ContentsI. THE 'RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT'; II. THE RISE OF PHILOSOPHICAL RADICALISM; III. EUROPE AND THE 'NEW' INTELLECTUAL CONTROVERSIES 1680-1720; IV. THE INTELLECTUAL COUNTER-OFFENSIVE; V. THE CLANDESTINE PROGRESS OF THE RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT 1680-1750

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Book SynopsisAmong the most influential philosophers of modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) declared in this classic study that Greek tragedy achieved greatness through a fusion of elements of Apollonian restraint and control with Dionysian components of passion and the irrational. In Nietzsche''s eyes, however, Greek tragedy had been destroyed by the rationalism and optimism of thinkers like Socrates. Nevertheless, he found in these ancient works the life-affirming concept that existence is still beautiful, however grim and depressing it may sometimes be. These and many other ideas are argued with passionate conviction in this challenging book, called by British classicist F. M. Cornford a work of profound imaginative insight, which left the scholarship of a generation toiling in the rear.

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Book SynopsisThis is one of the few records published by Gurdjieff in which he offers guidance to his ''community of seekers'', the pupils from many countries who joined him in Paris and New York.The first section is mainly autobiographical, relating material crucial to an understanding of the nature and intensity of personal effort required for an all-inclusive work on oneself. This is followed by a series of talks which Gurdjieff gave to his pupils in New York in 1930, and then by a long, but incomplete, essay on ''The Outer and Inner World of Man''.

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Book SynopsisThis classic introduction to one of the most influential modern thinkers, G.W.F. Hegel (1770--1831) has been made even more comprehensive through the addition of four new chapters. * New edition of a classic introduction to Hegel. * Enables students to engage with many aspects of Hegel's philosophy.Trade Review‘This is a sympathetic and very enlightening introduction to Hegel’s thought, which will provide great assistance to those studying his work for the first time, while also being of interest to experts in the field. The new material on the Phenomenology, Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Subjective Spirit adds to what has always been one of the best texts on Hegel’s philosophy as a whole.’ Robert Stern, Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield ‘With the addition of five new chapters Houlgate’s book becomes, hands down, the best introduction to Hegel’s philosophy available. Houlgate is everywhere a lucid and patient guide to the depths and richness of Hegel’s thought. An indispensable book for newcomers to Hegel. Highly recommended.’ J. M. Bernstein, New School for Social ResearchTable of ContentsAcknowledgements to the Second Edition. Acknowledgements to the First Edition. List of Abbreviations. Chronology. Introduction. 1 History and Truth. The Historicity of Thought and Civilization. Comparing Civilizations. Self-consciousness and Historical Progress. History, Truth and Relativism. History and the Absolute. 2 Thinking Without Presuppositions. Thought and Freedom. From Indeterminate to Determinate Thought. The Method of Dialectical Thinking. Logic and Ontology. Logic, Science and History. 3 Phenomenology and Natural Consciousness. Logic and Phenomenology. The Method of Phenomenology. Logic in Phenomenology. The Role of the “We”. Sense-certainty. From Certainty to Truth. Absolute Knowing: The Standpoint of Philosophy. 4 The Path to Absolute Knowing. Self-consciousness and the Master/Slave Relation. Stoicism. The Unhappy Consciousness and Reason. Spirit and Absolute Freedom. Moral Spirit. Conscience. The Beautiful Soul, Evil and Forgiveness. Religion. Absolute Knowing. Phenomenology and Philosophy. 5 Reason in Nature. From Logic to Nature. Nature: The Idea as the “Negative of Itself”. Reason and Nature’s “System of Stages”. Contingency and the Limits of Philosophy. Philosophy and Natural Science. 6 Space, Gravity and the Freeing of Matter. Space and its Dimensions. Time. Place and Motion. Matter and its Gravity. Mass, Inertia and Weight. Falling Bodies and Galileo’s Law. The Solar System. Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion. Hegel and Newton. Hegel and Relativity. 7 Life and Embodied Spirit. The “Ideal” Structure of Life. Chemistry and Life. Plants and Animals. Sensation in Animals. Life, Death and Spirit. Evolution. Embodied Spirit. Intelligence and its Signs. 8 Freedom, Rights and Civility. From Hegel to Hitler?. The Limits of Choice. Rights, Property and Slavery. The Problem with Being Moral. Freedom at Home in the World. Civil Society and Poverty. Freedom and the State. 9 Art and Human Wholeness. Art, Religion and Philosophy. The Function of Art. Beauty and Ideal Character. The Historicity of Art. Symbolic and Classical Art. Christianity, Aesthetic Autonomy and the “Death” of Art. 10 Philosophy and Christian Faith. Philosophy, Reason and Geist. Philosophy and Religious Representation. God as Reason and Love. Faith and Worship. Death, Freedom and New Life. Faith, Interpretation and Philosophy. Philosophy and Faith in History. Notes. Bibliographical Essay. Index

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Book SynopsisThis book will be of interest to anyone-in any discipline-who takes the past as a serious object of study.Trade Review. . . seminal . . .—Dublin Review of BooksTable of ContentsForeword, "All You've Got Is History," by Michael S. RothPreface to the Fortieth-Anniversary EditionPrefaceIntroduction. The Poetics of HistoryPart One: The Received Tradition1. The Historical Imagination between Metaphor and Irony2. HegelPart Two: Four Kinds of "Realism" in Nineteenth-Century Historical Writing3. Michelet4. Ranke5. Tocqueville6. BurckhardtPart Three: The Repudiation of "Realism" in Late Nineteenth-Century Philosophy of History7. Historical Consciousness and the Rebirth of Philosophy of History8. Marx9. Nietzsche10. CroceConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisOne of the most remarkable and influential books of the nineteenth century—Nietzsche's attempt to sum up his philosophy. In nine parts the book is designed to give the reader a comprehensive idea of Nietzsche's thought and style:  they span The Prejudices of Philsophers, The Free Spirit, religion, morals, scholarship, Our Virtues, Peoples and Fatherlands, and What Is Noble, as well as epigrams and a concluding poem.     This translation by Walter Kaufmann has become the standard one, for accuracy and fidelity to the eccentricities and grace of the style of the original.  The translation is based on the only edition Nietzsche himself published, and all variant reading in later editions.  This volume offers an inclusive index of subjects and persons, as well as a running footnote commentary on the text.

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Book SynopsisFrom the philosophy of Aristotle and Confucius, to Thomas Aquinas'' Summa Theologiae, to the paintings of Raphael, Botticelli and many more, fascination with the virtues has endured and evolved to fit a wide range of cultural, religious, and philosophical contexts through the centuries.This Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the various virtues: the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues, as well as the capital vices. It explores the role of the virtues in moral life, their cultivation, and how they offer ways of thinking and acting that are alternatives to mere rule-following. It also considers the relationship of the virtues to our own emotions, desires, and rational capacities.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsList of illustrations 1: Whose virtues, which vices? 2: The moral virtues: feeling good about being good 3: The intellectual virtues: being mindful 4: Whose culture? which virtues? Confucian and Islamic contributions to the virtues 5: The theological virtues: be good, by God! 6: The capital vices: good gone wrong, very wrong 7: Conclusion Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisExcavating Marx’s early writings to rethink the rights of the poor and the idea of the commons in an era of unprecedented privatization The politics of dispossession are everywhere. Troubling developments in intellectual property, genomics, and biotechnology are undermining established concepts of property, while land appropriation and ecological crises reconfigure basic institutions of ownership. In The Dispossessed, Daniel Bensaïd examines Karl Marx’s early writings to establish a new framework for addressing the rights of the poor, the idea of the commons, and private property as a social institution.In his series of articles from 1842–43 about Rhineland parliamentary debates over the privatization of public lands and criminalization of poverty under the rubric of the “theft of wood,” Marx identified broader anxieties about customary law, property rights, and capitalist efforts to privatize the commons. Bensaïd studies these writings to interrogate how dispossession continues to function today as a key modality of power. Brilliantly tacking between past and present, The Dispossessed discloses continuity and rupture in our relationships to property and, through that, to one another.In addition to Bensaïd’s prescient work of political philosophy, The Dispossessed includes new translations of Marx’s original “theft of wood” articles and an introductory essay by Robert Nichols that lucidly contextualizes the essays.Trade Review"In 1842, the young Karl Marx analyzed the consequences of capitalist rural enclosures in Rhineland. Today, patent rights, biotechnologies, and different forms of intellectual property, Daniel Bensaïd convincingly argues, are means of dispossession of human beings exactly as the land enclosures of almost two centuries ago had been a crucial moment in the process of the accumulation of capital. Far from being ‘neutral’ or ‘natural,’ market society was—and still remains—built as a planned dispossession. This is a timely and highly original essay by a towering figure of French critical thought."—Enzo Traverso, author of Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory"Within a single volume, this book makes available to English-language readers for the first time not only fresh translations of Marx’s ‘wood theft articles’ but also Daniel Bensaïd’s lucid and incisive commentary on these pieces. Bensaïd’s short book brings the Marx articles alive for contemporary audiences and demonstrates their enduring relevance for longstanding debates about law, property, and rights."—Samuel A. Chambers, Johns Hopkins University"Bensaïd’s essay, as contextualized in this volume by Nichols, successfully pushes, especially those of a Marxist orientation, to make the idea of dispossession more central to their theoretical and practical work."—Marx & Philosophy Table of ContentsContentsCrisis and Kleptocracy: Bensaïd for Our TimesRobert NicholsNotes on TranslationThe Dispossessed: Karl Marx, the Wood Thieves, and the Right of the PoorI. The Law on the Theft of Wood and the Rights of the Poor“Rural Pauperism” and “Forest Malfeasance”—Hybrid and Uncertain Property—Market versus Popular EconomyII. A Social War of PropertiesThe Right of Necessity versus the Right of Property—“Property Is Theft!”—Possession and Property—Theft or ExploitationIII. The Customary Rights of the Poor to the Communal Goods of Humanity The Privatization of Knowledge—The Privatization of Life—The Common Good and the Freely Given—Inappropriable Goods—Individual and Private Property—The Age of Access?—Enforcing Rights (against Existence)—Who Will Win?Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly, Third Article: Debates on the Law Concerning the Theft of Wood Karl MarxSelected Works by Daniel BensaïdNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisPresents a translation of Frege's philosophical writings. Intended to provide the essential primary texts for students of logic, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mathematics, this work also contains Frege's four papers Function and Concept, On Concept and Object, On Sense and Reference, and Thought.Trade Review"The book aims to be the best single edition available for introductory Frege courses. It is a well organized, reasonably priced one-stop Frege shop. It is too convenient not to be used in introductory courses on Frege; in fact, as a single volume, it has no competition I can think of. The general conception is excellent. It is easily readable by graduates or advanced under graduates. The forty-six page introduction and notes to the translations make it useful also for Frege scholars. The book's virtues are strong. I recommend it for courses on Frege, philosophy of language, philosophy of logic, and analytic philosophy." Jan Dejnozka, History and Philosophy of LogicTable of ContentsPreface. Abbreviations of Works by Frege. Glossary. Introduction. Begriffsschrift (1879): Selections (Preface and Part I). 'Letter to Marty, 29.8.1882'. The Foundations of Arithmetic (1884): Selections (Introduction and 1-4, 45-69, 87-91, 104-9; with summaries of the remaining sections). 'Function and Concept' (1891). 'Letter to Husserl, 24.5.1891': Extract. 'On Sinn and Bedeutung' (1892). 'Comments on Sinn and Bedeutung ' (1892). 'On Concept and Object' (1892). Grundgesetze der Aristmetik, Volume I (1893): Selections (Preface, Introduction, 1-7, 26-29, 32-33). 'Review of E. G. Husserl, Philosophie der Arithmetik I' (1894): Extract. 'Logic' (1897): Extract. 'On Euclidean Geometry' (c.1900). 'Letter to Russell, 22.6.1902': Extract. 'Letter to Russell, 28.12.1902': Extract. Grundgesetze der Aristmetik, Volume II (1903): Selections (55-67, 138-47, Appendix). 'Letter to Russell, 13.11.1904': Extract. 'Introduction to Logic' (1906): Extract. 'A Brief Survey of my Logical Doctrines' (1906): Extract. 'Letters to Husserl, 1906'. 'Logic in Mathematics' (1914): Extract. 'Letter to Jourdain, Jan. 1914': Extract. 'My Basic Logical Insights' (c. 1915). 'Thought' (1918). 'Negation' (1918). 'Notes for Ludwig Darmstaedter' (1919). 'Sources of Knowledge of Mathematics and the Mathematical Natural Sciences' (1924/5): Extract. 'Numbers and Arithmetic' (1924/5). Appendix 1: Chronology of Frege's Life and Works. Appendix 2: Frege's Logical Notation. Appendix 3: Guide to Further Reading. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe literary career of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) spanned less than twenty years, but no area of intellectual inquiry was left untouched by his iconoclastic genius. The philosopher who announced the death of God in The Gay Science (1882) and went on to challenge the Christian code of morality in Beyond Good and Evil (1886), grappled with the fundamental issues of the human condition in his own intense autobiography, Ecce Homo (1888). Most notorious of all, perhaps, his idea of the triumphantly transgressive übermann ('superman') is developed in the extreme, yet poetic words of Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92). Whether addressing conventional Western philosophy or breaking new ground, Nietzsche vastly extended the boundaries of nineteenth-century thought.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most profound thinkers of modern history, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was a central figure of the European Enlightenment. He was also its most formidable critic, condemning the political, economic, theological, and sexual trappings of civilization along lines that would excite the enthusiasm of romantic individualists and radical revolutionaries alike. In this study of Rousseau''s life and works Robert Wokler shows how his philosophy of history, his theories of music and politics, his fiction, educational and religious writings, and even his botany, were all inspired by visionary ideals of mankind''s self-realization in a condition of unfettered freedom. He explains how, in regressing to classical republicanism, ancient mythology, direct communion with God, and solitude, Rousseau anticipated some post-modernist rejections of the Enlightenment as well.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. Life and times of a citizen of Geneva ; 2. Culture, music, and the Corruption of Morals ; 3. Human nature and civil society ; 4. Liberty, virtue and citizenship ; 5. Religion, education, and sexuality ; 6. Vagabond reverie ; Further reading, Index

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Book SynopsisSchopenhauer is the most readable of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinkers including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Schopenhauer''s central notion is that of the will - a blind, irrational force that he uses to interpret both the human mind and the whole of nature. Seeing human behaviour as that of a natural organism governed by the will to life, Schopenhauer developed radical insights concerning the unconscious and sexuality which influenced both psychologists and philosophers.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade Reviewan excellent brief introduction to Schopenhauer's thought - well-written, concise, and pitched at just the right level. * Christopher Norris, University of Wales *Table of Contents1. Schopenhauer's life and works ; 2. Within and beyond appearance ; 3. The world as will and representation ; 4. Will, body, and the self ; 5. Character, sex, and the unconscious ; 6. Art and ideas ; 7. Ethics: seeing the world aright ; 8. Existence and pessimism ; 9. Schopenhauer's influence ; Further reading

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Book SynopsisSimon Critchley''s Very Short Introduction shows that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida, and introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomenology by explaining their place in the Continental tradition.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; Introduction ; 1. The gap between knowledge and wisdom ; 2. Origins of Continental Philosophy - How to get from Kant to German Idealism ; 3. Two Cultures in Philosophy - the need for both spectacles and eyes to see with ; 4. Can philosophy change the world? Critique, praxis, emancipation ; 5. What is to be done? How to respond to nihilism ; 6. A case study in misunderstanding: Heidegger and Carnap ; 7. Scientism versus obscurantism: avoiding the traditional predicament in philosophy ; 8. Sapere aude - the exhaustion of theory and the promise of philosophy ; Further Reading ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisSir Anthony Kenny''s engaging new history of Western philosophy now advances into the modern era. The Rise of Modern Philosophy is the fascinating story of the emergence, from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, of great ideas and intellectual systems that shaped modern thought. Kenny introduces us to some of the world''s most original and influential thinkers, and shows us the way to an understanding of their famous works. The thinkers we meet include René Descartes, traditionally seen as the founder of modern philosophy; the great British philosophers Hobbes, Locke, and Hume; and the towering figure of Immanuel Kant, who perhaps more than any other made philosophy what it is today. In the first three chapters Kenny tells the story chronologically: his lively accessible narrative brings the philosophers to life and fills in the historical and intellectual background to their work. It is ideal as the first thing to read for someone new to the history of modern philosoTable of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Sixteenth-Century Philosophy ; 2. Descartes to Berkeley ; 3. Hume to Hegel ; 4. Knowledge ; 5. Physics ; 6. Metaphysics ; 7. Mind and Soul ; 8. Ethics ; 9. Political Philosophy ; 10. God

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Book SynopsisLife is one of our most basic concepts, yet when examined directly it proves remarkably contradictory and elusive, encompassing both the broadest and the most specific phenomena. The author clears the ground for a new philosophy of life by recovering the twists and turns in its philosophical history.Trade Review"This is a timely, significant, and original work that deepens and enlarges the terms of contemporary philosophical debate over the nature of 'life.' After Life promises to become an indispensable point of reference for future discussions of this topic." - Ray Brassier, American University of Beirut"

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Book SynopsisErnst Bloch is perhaps best known for his subtle and imaginative investigation of utopias and utopianism, but his work also provides a comprehensive and insightful analysis of western culture, politics and society. Yet, because he has not been one of easiest of writers to read his full contribution has not been widely acknowledged. Block developed a complex conceptual framework, and presented this in a prose style which many have found to verge on the impenetrable. In this critical and accessible introduction to one of the most fascinating thinkers of the twentieth century, Vincent Geoghegan unravels much of the mystery of the man and his ideas.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Chapter 1 Life and Concepts; Chapter 2 Culture; Chapter 3 Religion; Chapter 4 Fascism and Marxism; Chapter 5 Natural Law, Utopianism and Nature; Chapter 6 Conclusion;

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Book SynopsisWritten by one of the twentieth century's most significant thinkers, Freedom and Organization, is considered to be Bertrand Russell's major work on political history. It traces the main causes of political change during a period of one hundred years, which he argues were predominantly influenced by three major elements economic technique, political theory and certain significant individuals. In the witty, approachable style that has made Bertrand Russell's works so revered, he explores in detail the major forces and events that shaped the nineteenth century. Table of ContentsPreface Part 1: The Principle of Legitimacy 1. Napoleon’s Successors 2. The Congress of Vienna 3. The Holy Alliance 4. The Twilight of Metternich SPart 2: The March of Mind Section A: The Social Background 5. The Aristocracy 6. Country Life 7. Industrial Life Section B: The Philosophical Radicals 8. Malthus 9. Bentham 10. James Mill 11. Ricardo 12. The Benthamite Doctrine 13. Democracy in England 14. Free Trade Section C: Socialism 15. Owen and Early British Socialism 16. Early Trade Unionism 17. Marx and Engels 18. Dialectical Materialism 19. The Theory of Surplus Value 20. The Politics of Marxism Part 3: Democracy and Plutocracy in America Section A: Democracy in America 21. Jeffersonian Democracy 22. The Settlement of the West 23. Jacksonian Democracy 24. Slavery and Disunion 25. Lincoln and National Unity Section B: Competition and Monopoly in America 26. Competitive Capatalism 27. The Approach to Monopoly Part 4: Nationalism and Imperialism 28. The Principle of Nationality 29. Bismarck and German Unity 30. Imperialism 31. The Arbiters of Europe Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRalph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. This work gives us a portrait of the whole man.Trade Review"Richardson’s 671-page biography of Emerson is a page turner. The adventures are the adventures of a reader. And, of course, a thinker, a writer." * Los Angeles Times *"A worthy addition to the library of books on one of America's foremost thinkers." * New York Times *"Richardson balances the often chilling puritanism of Emerson's writing with a portrait of the man as hungry for friendship, maintaining close relationships with Carlisle, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller; and whose icy doctrine of individualism reflects the loneliness caused by the premature deaths of his beloved first wife, his two younger brothers and numerous friends." * Publishers Weekly *"A captivating account of the originality, creativity, and genius of the American Coleridge." * Library Journal *“An electrifying work . . . a phenomenal piece of portraiture” * New York Newsday *"Emerson: The Mind on Fire is an unusually intelligent and involving book. Richardson himself writes with grace, vigor, acuity, and imagination. No other recent critic of Emerson . . . has written so well. This book is equal to the best American literary biographies we have and is arguably the best single book on Emerson ever written." * Journal of American History *"What Richardson has produced . . . a valuable, perhaps indispensable, paean to the intellectual life: we emerge from a reading of it fairly staggered by Emerson's sustained energy-even through his moments of doubt-and by the uncompromising honesty of Emerson's engagements with himself, with literature, nature, and society." * American Literature *"The Mind on Fire integrates heart and head without ever confusing the two; it presents exciting readings of Emerson's major works; it reveals a productive emotional vitality in ways never before shown; it is learned, accurate, judicious, and comprehensive, crisp in its conclusions, poetic in its language, too respectful of its subject ever to make him stodgy. The book is aptly titled, with its allusion to Emerson's volcanic metaphor for the creative mind, for Richardson's book truly fires the imagination." * New England Quarterly *"One of the great achievements in contemporary American literary studies. . . . Aside from his learning, which is prodigious, Richardson writes a wonderfully fluent, agile prose; he has a poet's sense of nuance and a novelist's grasp of dramatic rhythm; he also displays a positive genius for apt quotation." -- John Banville, * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisSince its publication in 1677, Spinoza's Ethics has fascinated philosophers, novelists, and scientists alike. It is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and contested works of Western philosophy. Written in an austere, geometrical fashion, the work teaches us how we should live, ending with an ethics in which the only thing good in itself is understanding. Spinoza argues that only that which hinders us from understanding is bad and shows that those endowed with a human mind should devote themselves, as much as they can, to a contemplative life. This Companion volume provides a detailed, accessible exposition of the Ethics. Written by an internationally known team of scholars, it is the first anthology to treat the whole of the Ethics and is written in an accessible style.Trade Review'Olli Koistinen's 'companion' to Spinoza's Ethics is exactly what it claims to be. … The methodological breadth of the contributions is impressive.' British Journal for the History of PhilosophyTable of ContentsIntroduction Olli Koistinen and Valtteri Viljanen; 1. The textual history of Spinoza's Ethics Piet Steenbakkers; 2. The geometrical order in the Ethics Piet Steenbakkers; 3. Spinoza's ontology Valtteri Viljanen; 4. Substance monism and identity theory in Spinoza Andreas Schmidt; 5. Spinoza and the Stoics on substance monism Jon Miller; 6. Spinoza on necessity Charles Jarrett; 7. Knowledge in Spinoza's Ethics Diane Steinberg; 8. Spinoza on action Ollie Koistinen; 9. The anatomy of the passions Michael LeBuffe; 10. Freedom, slavery, and the passions Susan James; 11. Spinoza's theory of the good Andrew Youpa; 12. The power of reason in Spinoza Martin Lin; 13. Spinoza on the essence of the human body and the part of the mind that is eternal Don Garrett.

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Book SynopsisIn the first scholarly exposition of Maria Montessori's moral philosophy, Patrick R. Frierson presents an empirically-grounded ethics that takes its start from our tendency to strive for excellence and emphasizes mutual respect, social solidarity, and love. Laying out a compelling, Montessorian approach to ethical life, Frierson constructs an account of human agency based on children, who when attentively at work on self-chosen tasks, have agency worthy of respect. Through this interpretation of children's agency, he introduces the core concept of Montessorian character: in Montessori's ethics, character provides the ultimate value worthy of direct respect, and those with character have a natural tendency to respect others. Character is enhanced through corporate forms of agency that Montessori calls social solidarity. Weaving this educationalist's ethics with theory from Nietzsche, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and Marx, Frierson places Montessori in the context of the history of philoTrade ReviewMaria Montessori revolutionized pedagogy by encouraging the teacher to "follow the child," rather than the other way around. In this detailed reconstruction of her philosophy, Frierson argues that the ideas underlying her practice can revolutionize our understanding of ourselves and our ideals. An original, rigorous, and provocative study that should be of interest to educators and philosophers alike. * Tamar Schapiro, Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. The Moral Sense 2. Character and Agency 3. Respect for Others 4. Solidarity and Obedience 5. Adulthood, Abstraction, and Reflective Deliberation 6. Paternalism 7. Embodied Ethics 8. Love Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisKant's defence of religion and attempts to reconcile faith with reason position him as a moderate Enlightenment thinker in existing scholarship. Challenging this view and reconceptualising Kant's religion along rationalist lines, Anna Tomaszewska sheds light on its affinities with the ideas of the radical Enlightenment, originating in the work of Baruch Spinoza and understood as a critique of divine revelation. Distinguishing the epistemological, ethical and political aspects of such a critique, Tomaszewska shows how Kant's defence of religion consists of rationalizing its core tenets and establishing morality as the essence of religious faith. She aligns him with other early modern rationalists and German Spinozists and reveals the significance for contemporary political philosophy. Providing reasons for prioritizing freedom of thought, and hence religious criticism, over an unqualified freedom of belief, Kant''s theology approximates the secularising tendency of the radical EnlighteTrade ReviewAnna Tomaszewska’s book offers an accurate, original, compelling reassessment of Kant’s thinking about religion, against the background of the radical Enlightenment and its impact on Kant’s mind. This masterly account, which has mastered Kant in many ways, provides fresh food for thought on the relationship between the Enlightenment and religion. * Diego Lucci, Professor of Philosophy and History, American University in Bulgaria, Bulgaria *By examining Kant’s religious thought through the lens of recent debates about the Enlightenment, Tomaszewska offers valuable insight into the relationship between divine transcendence and human autonomy. Impressively grounded in the sources, the work challenges current views concerning Kant’s religious thought and, more broadly, concerning the very idea of secularization. * Gordon E. Michalson, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Humanities, New College of Florida, USA *This book offers a valiant attempt to synthesize traditional interpretations of Kant’s theory of religion, as radically reductionist, and recent readings emphasizing his moderate, affirmative tendencies. Skillfully balancing various divergent interpretations of Enlightenment approaches to religion, Tomaszewska judiciously assesses how Kant’s position relates to those of his forerunners, especially Spinoza. * Stephen R. Palmquist, Independent Scholar (D.Phil., Oxford University), UK *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Towards the Radical Enlightenment: Setting the Stage for a Debate 2. Spinoza’s God in Kant’s Pre-Critical Writings: A Departure from Theistic Metaphysics 3. The Moral Atheist and a Schwärmer. Kant’s Critique of Spinoza 4. The Primacy of the Practical in Kant and Spinoza 5. Kant’s Religious Rationalism and Spinoza 6. The Enlightened Church. Kant’s Contribution to Debates on Secularization 7. The Divinity of Reason in the Opus postumum Concluding Remarks Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisErin McKenna is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, USA. She is the author of many philosophy books including Animal Pragmatism (2004) and Living with Animals (2020) and is co-editor of Pragmatist Feminism and the Work of Charlene Haddock Seigfried (Bloomsbury, 2022).Scott L. Pratt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, USA. He is an expert in American philosophy and is author of books such as Native Pragmatism: Rethinking the Roots of American Philosophy (2002) and co-editor many philosophical volumes including American Philosophies: An Anthology (2002).

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Book SynopsisMarginalized by the scientific age the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution. With The Five Senses Serres traces a topology of human perception, writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience. The fragile empirical world, long resistant to our attempts to contain and catalog it, is disappearing beneath the relentless accumulations of late capitalist society and information technology. Data has replaced sensory pleasure, we are less interested in the taste of a fine wine than in the description on the bottle''s label. What are we, and what do we really know, when we have forgotten that our senses can describe a taste more accurately than language ever could? The book won the inaugural Prix Médicis Essai in 1985. The Revelations edition includes an introductionTrade ReviewFinding a voice that is brilliantly sustained, warm and assured, Margaret Sankey and Peter Cowley meet the challenges of Serres' shifts of register between prose poetry and high-frequency allusions to philosophy and the sciences and literature classical and modern. * Max Deutscher, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Australia *Some may claim that Serres's works are impossible to translate due to their complex word play, neologisms and erratic style. Despite this, Margaret Sankey and Peter Cowley should be commended for their mammoth efforts and superb translation. * Perspectives: International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy *Every page is alive with rich descriptions of feeling, sensing, apprehending, engaging, living... this translation, like all of Serres' work that we have in English, is a banquet, a feast for thought... * New Formations *There are then some wonderfully compelling, suggestive, and exciting passages in this book...a rich plea for a treatment of sensing as an always incomplete mixing of souls and objects. * Senses & Society *Table of ContentsIntroduction, Steven Connor (Birkbeck, University of London, UK) 1. Veils 2. Boxes 3. Tables 4. Visit 5. Joy Index

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Book SynopsisManuel DeLanda provides the first detailed overview of the assemblage theory found in germ in Deleuze and Guattari's writings. Through a series of case studies DeLanda shows how the concept can be applied to economic, linguistic, and military history as well as to metaphysics, science, and mathematics.

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Book Synopsis''Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.'' KantIn today''s increasingly fractured world of oppression and uncertainty, Kant''s moral philosophy is more important than ever before. And never has the need for moral absolutes been more pressing than in this age of doubt, disillusion and cynicism. This is where Kant comes in, as his moral philosophy continues to compel the attention of every serious thinker in the field. Clear, concise - and overwhelmingly convincing - Ralph Walker''s stimulating, highly accessible guide spells out the power and renewed relevance of his thinking: a genuinely objective, absolute basis for a modern moral law.Trade ReviewThe virtue of these deceptively brief books is that they are the real thing * EVENING STANDARD *The books should improve the cultural circulation of philosophy by their style as well as their substance * TES *A promising venture * THE TIMES *Rarely have intellectual sophistication and complexity come so cheap * FINANCIAL TIMES *If you want to acquire some first-hand experience of philosophy and democracy you would do well to read this welcome series * TIMES HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT *

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Book SynopsisThe polysemous German word Geschlecht -- denoting gender, genre, kind, kinship, species, race, and somehow also more -- exemplifies the most pertinent questions of the translational, transdisciplinary, transhistorical, and transnational structures of the contemporary humanities: What happens when texts, objects, practices, and concepts are transferred or displaced from one language, tradition, temporality, or form to another? What is readily transposed, what resists relocation, and what precipitate emerges as distorted or new? Drawing on Barbara Cassin''s transformative remarks on untranslatability, and the activity of philosophizing in languages, scholars contributing to The Geschlecht Complex examine these and other durable queries concerning the ontological powers of naming, and do so in the light of recent artistic practices, theoretical innovations, and philosophical incitements. Combining detailed case studies of concrete category problems in literature, philosophy,Trade ReviewAs someone who has followed untranslatability for many years, it is with great pleasure that Oscar Jansson and David LaRocca have brought this theme to a point of philosophical sophistication in The Geschlecht Complex—a brilliant, bold, and eccentric work. [...]themselves to a single (but impossibly complex) German word, a range of scholars from different fields of inquiry and analysis have nonetheless produced a collection that signals a new maturity in the approach to untranslatability. In that sense, it may (hopefully) be the first of many such works. This is a collection that bravely attempts to overcome the constraints of traditional scholarship in the hope of generating work that lives up to Apter and Cassin’s invocations to ‘philosophize with languages’. The very form of the book itself challenges and expands a series of preconceptions on this topic. It is a brave, well-rounded, and seismically significant publication insofar as it exercises what previous scholars have only prescribed and envisioned. * Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Review *Bristling with intellectual energy, The Geschlecht Complex brings together a number of brilliantly original essays and a carefully curated sample of theoretical excerpts in its exploration of the resonances and affordances of a singularly untranslatable notion. The Geschlecht Complex is many things: it is both syllabus and seminar, both a joyful intellectual exchange and a virtuoso homage to the examples of such thinkers/readers as Cassin, Cavell, Apter, and Derrida. Most of all, it is an exuberant performance of the key inspiration driving the thinking of the untranslatable: the conviction that the untranslatable is at once generated and redeemed by passionate ventures of translation-across genres, media, bodies, languages, and disciplines. In all these transpositions, this volume succeeds marvelously. * Pieter Vermeulen, Associate Professor of American and Comparative Literature, University of Leuven, Belgium *Geschlecht by any other name: that multifarious and ultimately untranslatable German word typifying in this volume a complexity and a syndrome alike -- its cultural semantics both vertical for generational kindred and horizontal for genre or kind; lineage on the one hand, typology on the other; now general species or genus, now specified gender. With this book’s erudite roundtable, we are invited to the second, collectively-edited installment of a productive -- make that generative -- seminar once convened to rethink the ramifications of such irresolvable inner difference: less as a definitional crux than as a blocked crossing, where impasse becomes surplus when confronted at the disciplinary interface of philology and philosophy, rhetoric and ontology. Giving new reach to trans-theory, the performative yield of category-hesitation in these essays is abundant, subtle, and bracing. * Garrett Stewart, James O. Freedman Professor of Letters, University of Iowa, USA, and author of The Deed of Reading: Literature * Writing * Language * Philosophy *The Geschlecht Complex is a rare and undoubtedly important book in that it treats categorization as both problem and necessity for the production of knowledge. Indeed, utilizing and developing the notion of the ‘uncategorizable’ as an analytical tool, it collects a multitude of contemporary problems into a stereoscopic perspective (albeit in a non-unitary manner and necessarily hesitant of its own limits) on the age-old aesthetic problem of the sublime and the monstrous -- and furthermore, on the ontological consequences of those seemingly impossible categories. * Isak Hyltén-Cavallius, Chief Editor, Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap/Swedish Journal of Literary Studies, Lund University, Sweden, and Associate Professor of Literary Studies. Linnæus University, Växjö, Sweden *Table of Contents1. Contending with Untranslatable Categories; or, Inducing the Nervous Condition of the Geschlecht Complex (Oscar Jansson, Lund University, Sweden, and David LaRocca, Cornell University, USA) Appendix I: Unfinished Definitions (Jansson/LaRocca) Apter | Cassin | Cavell | Crépon 2. Antitheatricality as Critical Idiom (Caro Pirri, University of Pittsburgh, USA) 3. The Cruel Beast: Settler Sovereignty and the Crisis of American Zoopolitics (Brian W. Nail, Florida State College at Jacksonville, USA) 4. Between the Body and Language: Narratives of the Moving Subject in Okwui Okpokwasili’s Bronx Gothic (Lauren DiGiulio, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) Appendix II: Indefiniteness, Geschlechtlosigkeit, Undoing (Jansson/LaRocca) Butler | Cassin | Crépon | David-Ménard | Derrida | Deutscher | Heller-Roazen | Irigaray | Malabou | Nancy | Preciado | Sandford | Spillers | Weheliye 5. Collapsing the Gender/Genre Distinction: On Transgressions of Category in Woolf’s Orlando (Oscar Jansson, Lund University, Sweden) 6. Gazing at the Untranslatable Subject: From Velázquez’s Las Meninas to Ellison’s Invisible Man (Richard Hajarizadeh, SUNY Binghamton, USA) 7. From Lectiocentrism to Gramophonology: Listening to Cinema and Writing Sound Criticism (David LaRocca, Cornell University, USA) Appendix III: Genre Unlimited/Genre Ungenred (Jansson/LaRocca) Apter | Barthes | Cavell | Chartier | Crimmins | Croce | Derrida | Jauss | Wells Afterword: Trans-Ontology and the Geschlecht Complex (Emily Apter, New York University, USA) Bibliography Acknowledgments Contributors Index

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