Structuralism and Post-structuralism Books

Book SynopsisRoland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.Trade ReviewOf all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian *Roland Barthes' final book - less a critical essay than a suite of valedictory meditations - is his most beautiful, and most painful * Observer *Profoundly shaped the way the medium is regarded * Guardian *I am moved by the sense of discovery in Camera Lucida, by the glimpse of a return to a lost world * New Society *Of all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhen I first picked up this book, I was looking forward to a leisurely reading on obscurantist Heideggerian bullshit. I was wrong. But once I got over my deep disappointment that the book was, in fact, intelligible and not littered with ramblings about Dasein, I began to appreciate the book for what it was. Critical Theory BlogTable of ContentsTranslator's Introduction In Place of a Preface Introduction Part 1. The Categorial Framework of a Systematic Theory of Social Acceleration 1. From the Love of Movement to the Law of Acceleration: Observations of Modernity 2. What Is Social Acceleration? Part 2. Mechanisms and Manifestations: A Phenomenology of Social Acceleration 3. Technical Acceleration and the Revolutionizing of the Space-Time Regime 4. Slipping Slopes: The Acceleration of Social Change and the Increase of Contingency 5. The Acceleration of the "Pace of Life" and Paradoxes in the Experience of Time Part 3. Causes 6. The Speeding Up of Society as a Self-Propelling Process: The Circle of Acceleration 7. Acceleration and Growth: External Drivers of Social Acceleration 8. Power Part 4. Consequences 9. Acceleration 10. Situational Identity: Of Drifters and Players 11. Situational Politics: Paradoxical Time Horizons Between Desynchronization and Disintegration 12. Acceleration and Rigidity: Attempt at a Redefinition of Modernity Conclusion: Frenetic Standstill? The End of History Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhat makes this book an excellent introduction to metaphysics is its lucid and subtle account of the different versions of 'metaphysics' we encounter within our tradition. In other words, it is an excellent introduction not only to metaphysics in general but also to Parmenides, Aristotle, Duns Scotus, Descartes, Schelling, Heidegger, and more. -- Michael King, University of Reading I know of no other book that gives such a subtle and often original reading of the major moments in the history of metaphysics and does so with the aim of elucidating the nature, scope, and future of metaphysics. -- Francisco J. Gonzalez, University of Ottawa We have no modern historical and reliable introduction to the history and paradoxes of metaphysics: either we have old-fashioned, neo-scholastic handbooks; partial, un-historical essays in the analytical style; or brilliant yet enigmatic 'deconstructionist' essays. We desperately need a sound, scholarly, up-to-date, and lucid approach to this subject: a historical and, at the same time, speculative description of the doctrines and living questions in this field. Jean Grondin's Introduction to Metaphysics is the perfect match for those challenges. -- Jean-Luc Marion This book is directed toward those analytic and continental philosophers who still believe it is possible to think independently of our metaphysical tradition, that is, of Being. Heidegger, Rorty, and Vattimo show us that metaphysics is impossible to overcome yet can only be surpassed, that is, weakened and incorporated into the event of our own thoughts. Given this new task for philosophy, Jean Grondin's text must be studied carefully by anyone who wants to become a philosopher in the twenty-first century. -- Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona Knowledgeable and thought-provoking-Grondin tells us, from a Continental point of view, a compelling story of metaphysics. -- Vittorio G. Hosle, University of Notre Dame Grondin is the best expert on Gadamer and hermeneutic philosophy, and a leading scholar on Kant and Heidegger. For some ten years, he has been publishing on broad issues like religion and the meaning of life. He has now produced a masterly synthesis on metaphysics that makes a powerful case for its present relevance. -- Remi Brague, University of Paris 1-Pantheon-Sorbonne The very first thoroughgoing historical introduction to metaphysics in all of its major permutations over the centuries from the eminent scholar Jean Grondin. Journal of the History of PhilosophyTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Parmenides: The Evidence of Being 2. Plato: The Hypothesis of the Idea 3. Aristotle: The Horizons of First Philosophy 4. The Last Summit of Classical Metaphysics: The Neoplatonic Eruption 5. Metaphysics and Theology in the Middle Ages 6. Descartes: First Philosophy According to the Cogito 7. Spinoza and Leibniz: The Metaphysics of Simplicity and Integral Rationality 8. Kant: Metaphysics Turned Critical 9. Metaphysics After Kant? 10. Heidegger: The Resurrection of the Question of Being in the Name of Overcoming Metaphysics 11. On Metaphysics Since Heidegger Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Further Reading

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Book SynopsisA unique collaboration to map the ontology and epistemology of the human-plant relationship.Trade ReviewThrough Vegetal Being foregrounds the relations that plants enable between humans and other living things, continuing both Michael Marder's work on plant existence and Luce Irigaray's work on sexual difference and the forgetting of the world in the constitution of individual identity. This charming and beautifully written book is a two-person meditation on the philosophy, ontology, and ethics of plant life and our fundamental dependence on it as living beings. -- Elizabeth Grosz, Jean Fox O'Barr Women's Studies Professor at Duke University Through Vegetal Being explores what the vegetal realm can offer to philosophy and the tradition of western metaphysics. The two voices in dialogue-legendary feminist thinker Luce Irigaray and acclaimed philosopher Michael Marder-engage the critique of metaphysics from a perspective that is largely without precedent, thus cross pollinating between such intellectual fields as continental philosophy, environmentalism, gardening, and botany. -- William Egginton, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at the Johns Hopkins University Luce Irigaray and Michael Marder have written an admirable and singular book, where they recover two aspects of philosophy that have been otherwise forgotten. On the one hand, they return to a reflection on our condition as living beings, the context in which and thanks to which we exist. On the other hand, their method is an epistolary dialogue, a genre that has given us some of the most profound and least abstract insights along the history of philosophy. -- Daniel Innerarity, author of Governance in the New Global Disorder Luce Irigaray and Michael Marder surprise us with a moving foray into life in its barest, elemental traits. By tapping into the pulse and silent language shared by all animate beings, they unsettle received philosophical narratives and awaken modes of sensibility both subtle and expanded. The contact with the mystery of vegetal life renews the investigation into human becoming, its potentiality and cultivation. -- Claudia Baracchi, University of Milano-BicoccaTable of ContentsPreface Luce Irigaray Prologue 1. Seeking Refuge in the Vegetal World 2. A Culture Forgetful of Life 3. Sharing Universal Breathing 4. The Generative Potential of the Elements 5. Living at the Rhythm of the Seasons 6. A Recovery of the Amazing Diversity of Natural Presence 7. Cultivating Our Sensory Perceptions 8. Feeling Nostalgia for a Human Companion 9. Risking to Go Back Among Humans 10. Losing Oneself and Asking Nature for Help Again 11. Encountering Another Human in the Woods 12. Wondering How to Cultivate Our Living Energy 13. Could Gestures and Words Substitute for the Elements? 14. From Being Alone in Nature to Being Two in Love 15. Becoming Humans 16. Cultivating and Sharing Life Between All Epilogue Notes Michael Marder Prologue 1. Seeking Refuge in the Vegetal World 2. A Culture Forgetful of Life 3. Sharing Universal Breathing 4. The Generative Potential of the Elements 5. Living at the Rhythm of the Seasons 6. A Recovery of the Amazing Diversity of Natural Presence 7. Cultivating Our Sensory Perceptions 8. Feeling Nostalgia for a Human Companion 9. Risking to Go Back Among Humans 10. Losing Oneself and Asking Nature for Help Again 11. Encountering Another Human in the Woods 12. Wondering How to Cultivate Our Living Energy 13. Could Gestures and Words Substitute for the Elements? 14. From Being Alone in Nature to Being Two in Love 15. Becoming Humans 16. Cultivating and Sharing Life Between All Epilogue Notes Index

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Book Synopsis'Presentist democracy is without a people and without nation. Rather than regimes of borders and migration, its borders are sexism and racism, homo- and transphobia, colonialism and extractivism.'In the midst of the crises and threats to liberal democracy, Isabell Lorey develops a democracy in the present tense; one which breaks open political certainties and linear concepts of progress and growth. Her queer feminist political theory formulates a fundamental critique of masculinist concepts of the people, representation, institutions, and the multitude. In doing so, she unfolds an original concept of a presentist democracy based on care and interrelatedness, on the irreducibility of responsibilities-one which cannot be conceived of without social movements' past struggles and current practices.Trade ReviewThis book is an assembly - a collection of voices from Germany and Spain, Italy, England, France and every country - a colourful and strong intersection of proposals in search for a (transnational and non-identitarian) democracy of the multitude and of difference, of truth and the joy of life. -- Antonio Negri, co-author of EmpireWeaving and unweaving the political philosophy of Rousseau, Derrida, Benjamin, Foucault and Negri, Isabell Lorey assembles a constellation of debates around keywords: democracy, time, sovereignty, commune. She does so in order to systematize the discontinuous struggles that inhabit these words, the possible futures that their meanings open up, and to place them at the disposal of a queer-feminist theory that locates the strike as one of its inspirational practices. Thus an "infinitive present" opens up as a time of becoming, defined by the encounter of bodies, which expands the present through processes of indeterminate differentiation. By highlighting the non-democratic foundations of democracy one by one, the definition of a "Presentist Democracy" emerges. This is woven out of care and debt: collective care and the debts of assuming relations of interdependence. This book is a tool for continuing to nourish the desire to change everything -- Verónica GagoWith great clarity and precision, Isabell Lorey offers a series of readings of major political thinkers to delineate the mobile constellation of democratic potentials in our time. Revisiting basic concepts such as the people, the law, and sovereignty, Lorey derives an account of democracy in the present. Less a utopian manifesto than an experimentation with the means and time of politics, this work shows us in persuasive terms how enduring and persistent experimentation constitutes our present struggle. -- Judith ButlerIn careful and imaginative consideration of the brutal tensions of a liberal democratic ideal poised between imminent collapse and infinite adaptability, Isabell Lorey conceives an alternative in the present tense, broadening and deepening the now with fierce urgency. Democracy in the Political Present is feminist political theory of and for our time. -- Fred MotenInsightfully weaving together the best of European political philosophy (from Rousseau to Negri, from Benjamin to Foucault), queer-feminist thinking about care and debt, and the practices of radical democracy that occupy the streets and the squares in recurring waves, Isabell Lorey convokes a democracy in present tense that is up to the challenges of these turbulent times. Not to be missed. -- Marta Malo, member of Precarias a la derivaEngaging ... [Lorey] offers an elaborate sketch of a form of political organisation that has hitherto been neglected as well as a scathing critique of the representationalist paradigm that needs to be taken into account whenever inclusion is spoken of too frivolously. -- Julius Schwarzwälder * LSE Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Democracy in present tense Ch 1 Rousseau: Assembly instead of representation Ch 2 Derrida: Democracy-to-come Ch 3 Benjamin: Leaps of Now-Time Ch 4 Foucault: infinite presence Ch 5 Negri: Democracy and constituting power Ch 6 Presentist Democracy: Practices of care and queer debts

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Book SynopsisIn this ground-breaking and influential study Fredric Jameson explores the complex place and function of literature within culture. At the time Jameson was actually writing the book, in the mid to late seventies, there was a major reaction against deconstruction and poststructuralism. As one of the most significant literary theorists, Jameson found himself in the unenviable position of wanting to defend his intellectual past yet keep an eye on the future. With this book he carried it off beautifully. A landmark publication, The Political Unconscious takes its place as one of the most meaningful works of the twentieth century.century.Trade Review'Every now and then a book appears which is literally ahead of its time ...The Political Unconscious is such a book ... it sets new standards of what a classic work is.' - Slavoj Zizek

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA heartfelt, pragmatic, and eminently realistic argument about how one might continue to think about--and even dedicate one's life to--God after the 'death' or 'disappearance' of God over the last hundred years or so... Richard Kearney wants to see what is left of God, in the time after God, and he does so superbly well. The New Yorker provides a thought-provoking exchange between the religious and contemporary continental philosophy. -- Robert W.M. Kennedy Symposium As always, Kearney's work is poetic and thoughtful. -- Forrest Clingerman Religious Studies Review This book is the outcome of a rich philosophical journey... I highly recommend this book to readers who wish to move beyond well-trodden paths in the debate between theism and atheism. -- M. Moyaert Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses A heartfelt, pragmatic, and eminently realistic argument about how one might continue to think about-and even dedicate one's life to-God after the 'death' or 'disappearance' of God over the last hundred years or so. -- James Wood Page-Turner blog, The New YorkerTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments One. Prelude Introduction: God After God 1. In the Moment: The Uninvited Guest 2. In the Wager: The Fivefold Motion 3. In the Name: After Auschwitz Who Can Say God? Two. Interlude 4. In the Flesh: Sacramental Imagination 5. In the Text: Joyce, Proust, Woolf Three. Postlude 6. In the World: Between Secular and Sacred 7. In the Act: Between Word and Flesh Conclusion: Welcoming Strange Gods Epilogue Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA bold defense of a neglected concept and its relevance for critical social theory.Trade ReviewThrough a compelling combination of acute analysis and rich phenomenological description, Rahel Jaeggi brings alienation back to the center of political philosophy. She argues alienation concerns a failure to appropriate oneself in the right way, a problem with how one comes to be what one is, rather than an inability to realize some pregiven identity. Jaeggi is not only thoroughly learned in both the continental and analytic traditions. She does what is quite rare: she brings these traditions into a highly productive synthesis. A very impressive achievement. -- Daniel Brudney, University of Chicago With this masterful reconstruction of the concept of alienation, Jaeggi opens fruitful new avenues for critical theory. She also claims her place as a powerful exponent of social philosophy and a thinker of the first rank. Her book is a tour de force of cogent argumentation and rich phenomenological description. -- Nancy Fraser, The New School Alienation, the concept Hegel and Marx made so central to European political and social thought, has receded in importance in recent political philosophy. Like self-deception and weakness of will, it is extremely resistant to analysis even though it continues to be a major theme of modern life and accounts for the features of contemporary life. Jaeggi's great accomplishment is to provide the outlines of a new theory of an old term and thereby show its linkage to major ethical and political concerns. With this book, an entire tradition of political and social philosophy receives a new lease on life. -- Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University Jaeggi's scholarship and writing in this book is excellent, and the resuscitation of the concept of alienation in critical social theory is a welcome event in the literature. -- Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University Alienation is one of the most exciting books to have appeared on the German philosophical scene in the last decade. It not only rejuvenates a lagging discourse on the topic of alienation; it also shows how an account of subjectivity elaborated two centuries ago can be employed in the service of new philosophical insights. -- Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College This insightful and learned book will appeal to anyone interested in social philosophy. Library Journal Rahel Jaeggi's Alienation is an important contribution to - and rejuvenation of - the philosophical literature on the phenomenon of alienation. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books [A]n excellent representative of the work of a new generation of German philosophers who...seem well positioned to reanimate Western philosophy. -- Frederick Neuhouser Review of MetaphysicsTable of ContentsForeword, by Axel Honneth Translator's Introduction, by Frederick Neuhouser Preface and Acknowledgments Part 1. The Relation of Relationlessness: Reconstructing a Concept of Social Philosophy 1. "A Stranger in the World That He Himself Has Made": The Concept and Phenomenon of Alienation 2. Marx and Heidegger: Two Versions of Alienation Critique 3. The Structure and Problems of Alienation Critique 4. Having Oneself at One's Command: Reconstructing the Concept of Alienation Part 2. Living One's Life as an Alien Life: Four Cases 5. Seinesgleichen Geschieht or "The Like of It Now Happens": The Feeling of Powerlessness and the Independent Existence of One's Own Actions 6. "A Pale, Incomplete, Strange, Artificial Man": Social Roles and the Loss of Authenticity 7. "She but Not Herself": Self-Alienation as Internal Division 8. "As If Through a Wall of Glass": Indifference and Self-Alienation Part 3. Alienation as a Disturbed Appropriation of Self and World 9. "Like a Structure of Cotton Candy": Being Oneself as Self-Appropriation 10. "Living One's Own Life": Self-Determination, Self-Realization, and Authenticity Conclusion: The Sociality of the Self, the Sociality of Freedom Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThis long-overdue volume explores Donna Haraway's influence on feminist theory and philosophy, paying particular attention to her more recent work on companion species, rather than her “Manifesto for Cyborgs.”Trade Review...an invaluable tool for student's wishing to further explore Haraway's work. Critical TheoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Adventures with Haraway 2. Natures 3. Knowledges 4. Politics 5. Ethics 6. Stories Sowing Worlds: A Seed Bag for Terraforming with Earth Others Appendix: Some Bibliometric Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of the most gripping and timely accounts of Continental Philosophy... The reader can only come to the end of this book astonished. -- Catherine Keller Modern Theology In all, the book offers a new understanding of an influential sector of twentieth-century philosophy. -- Jonathan Malesic Journal of the American Academy of Religion ...passionately argued and engagingly written. -- Paul A. Macdonald Jr. Scottish Journal of Theology a fun read. -- George Pattison Reviews in Religion and TheologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Wonder and the Births of Philosophy 1. Repetition: Martin Heidegger 2. Openness: Emmanuel Levinas 3. Relation: Jean-Luc Nancy 4. Decision: Jacques Derrida Postlude: Possibility Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAgainst Continuity' is the first book to demonstrate that the beating heart of Gilles Deleuze s philosophy is a systematic ontology of irreducible, singular entities. This requires a radical break with decades of Deleuzian orthodoxy, according to which Deleuze s metaphysics revolves around the dissolution of discrete entities into a continuous world of flows and events

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Everything is in flux, as we are told over and over again. And yet, these are fluxes in which nothing ever really changes... Other thinkers have characterized globalized and financialized capitalism in this way; Neyrat sees it as a dilemma for critical thought as well... In a world where anything can be anyplace, and anything can switch places with anything else, philosophy must insist on its power to be, not everyplace, but noplace. It must never fit in, but always disturb its context, ... maintaining a relation with the very Outside that our dominant social, economic, and intellectual conditions seek to deny or suppress... Above all, Atopias is a work of ethics, exhorting us to recognize and find room for the many forms of existence with whom we share our planet." -- -from Steven Shaviro's ForewordTable of ContentsCritique of pure madness Book I: Toposophy 1.1 The undamaged and the contagious 1.2 Saturated immanence and transcendence x 1.3 Socratic divergence Book II: Theory of the trans-ject 2.1 Being-outside 2.2 Coalitions 2.3 Ab-solved freedom 2.4 Language and dis-joining 2.5 On the subject of animals Book III: The metaphysical proposition 3.1 The transgression of the principle of the excluded middle 3.2 The leap and the loop 3.3 The unlocatable 3.4 The madwoman of the out-of-place 3.5 Science(s), art, politics What cries out

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Book SynopsisThe publication of For Marx and Reading Capital established Louis Althusser as one of the most influential figures in the Western Marxist tradition. On Ideology charts Althusser's critique of the theoretical system unveiled in his own major works, and his developing practice of philosophy as a "revolutionary weapon."Trade ReviewOne reads him with excitement. There is no mystery about his capacity to inspire the intelligent young. -- Eric HobsbawmAlthusser traversed so many lives-so many personal, historical, philosophical and political adventures; marked, inflected, influenced so many discourses, actions and existences by the radiant and provocative force of his thought-that the most diverse and contradictory accounts could never exhaust their source. -- Jacques Derrida

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Book SynopsisOn Extinction takes us on a breathtaking philosophical journey through desperate territory. As we face ‘the end of all things’, Ben Ware argues we must face our apocalyptic future without flinching. In fact, extinction is the very lens through which we should examine our current reality.Radical politics today should not be concerned with merely averting the worst but rather with beginning again at the end. To think about the future in this way is itself a form of liberation that might incubate the necessary radical solutions we need.Combining lessons from Kant, Hegel, Adorno, and Lacan, as well as drawing on popular culture and ecology, Ware recasts the most urgent issue of our times and resolves that we can only consider our collective end by treating it as a starting point.

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Book Synopsis''A brilliant display of fireworks, attacking the widespread and banal notion that in the beginning sexual activity was guilt-free and delicious, being repressed and blighted only by the gloom of Victorianism'' Spectator We talk about sex more and more, but are we more liberated? The first part of Michel Foucault''s landmark account of our evolving attitudes in the west shows how the nineteenth century, far from suppressing sexuality, led to an explosion of discussion about sex as a separate sphere of life for study and examination. As a result, he argues, we are making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase of pleasure. ''A wealth of insights, original conceptualizations and provocative ideas'' The Times Literary SupplementTrade ReviewA wealth of insights, original conceptualizations and provocative ideas -- Peter Oborne * Daily Telegraph *A brilliant display of fireworks, attacking the widespread and banal notion that 'in the beginning' sexual activity was guilt-free and delicious, being repressed and blighted only by the gloom of Victorianism -- Jasper Griffin * Spectator *Foucault is at his polemical best. He brilliantly succeeds in turning commonplaces on their heads -- Hayden White * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisFew philosophers held greater fascination for Jacques Derrida than Martin Heidegger, and in this book we get an extended look at Derrida's first real encounters with him. Delivered over nine sessions in 1964 and 1965 at the cole Normale Sup rieure, these lectures offer a glimpse of the young Derrida first coming to terms with the German philosopher and his magnum opus, Being and Time. They provide not only crucial insight into the gestation of some of Derrida's primary conceptual concerns--indeed, it is here that he first uses, with some hesitation, the word deconstruction--but an analysis of Being and Time that is of extraordinary value to readers of Heidegger or anyone interested in modern philosophy. Derrida performs an almost surgical reading of the notoriously difficult text, marrying pedagogical clarity with patient rigor and acting as a lucid guide through the thickets of Heidegger's prose. At this time in intellectual history, Heidegger was still somewhat unfamiliar to FreTrade Review"Heidegger: The Question of Being and History certainly (re)familiarizes Anglophone readers with the essentially historical orientation of Derrida's philosophical project. Given at the start of his remarkable career, at the age of thirty-four, and originally delivered over the course of nine sessions during the 1964- 1965 academic year at the cole Normale Sup rieure (ENS), Derrida's seminar offers a wealth of insights into the ways his published views on history fundamentally emerged out of a critical engagement with the introduction and the final sections of Martin Heidegger's 1927 Being and Time."--H-France Review "The publication of Derrida's 1964-65 seminar on Martin Heidegger's Being and Time is a philosophical event of great significance. Despite dozens of detailed analyses, Being and Time remains one of the most misread books of the twentieth century. Humanist, anthropological, analytic, and transcendental-mystical readings have occluded the profoundly atheistic, 'ek-sistent' thing that is Dasein. Derrida's penetrating reconstruction of Heidegger's revolutionary 'aporetic style' illuminates Being and Time and the entirety of Derrida's own oeuvre. Although Derrida did not publish this seminar, its traces pervade the issues that dominated his thinking. Derrida's greatest insights into Heidegger's thinking are announced here: being is neither a 'cosmic ground' nor 'the highest being, ' the metaphors for being can never be stabilized by a logic, the 'mystery of Geschehen [originary movement]' marks an absolute temporal concealment, the 'destruction of ontology' is the work of ontology itself, the history of being is history itself. Derrida's focus is on the opening and closing sections of Being and Time, Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, his 'Letter on Humanism', and texts by Hegel, Nietzsche, and Husserl. This brilliantly translated seminar is required reading for students of Heidegger and Derrida. . . . Summing up: Essential." --Choice "For those who are prepared, this text makes for absorbing reading. . . . Because it dates from the early years of Derrida's career and because it is a series of classroom lectures, this book serves as a helpful preparation for reading the more intricate and playful texts that he published in the late 1960s and beyond. It also shows just how indebted Derrida is to Heidegger." --Los Angeles Review of Books

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Book SynopsisTakes on the history of philosophy, viewing it as a history of masculine texts and male problems and questioning its social and legislative conclusions. This work argues that the position of women in philosophy is a question of exclusion by men rather than, as some suggest, of a hypothetically imminent "femininity."Trade ReviewInformally ordered yet tightly argued, Hipparchia's Choice ranges from brief close readings of Aristotle and Husserl to investigation of local 1970s French campaigns for reproductive rights and educational equality, with lengthy (but never self-indulgent) biographical and autobiographical digressions, always in search of the solid ground of shared political realism. -- Meryl Altman Women's Review of Books To see Hipparchia's Choice simply as an excellent feminist text is not enough: the point is that it is also excellent philosophy... Le Doeuff's book is a challenge to what has rapidly become the received wisdom of a large section of Western feminism. -- Toril Moi Times Literary Supplement Hipparchia's Choice is a book to be picked up again and again... it will keep encouraging its readers fully to engage in philosophy, critically and intelligently. -- Marije Altor Literature & Theology A testimony to the continuing importance of Michele Le Doeuff's groundbreaking work... Selous's translation gives a sparkling rendition of the text. -- Margaret Sankey, University of Sydney MLR A rare and inspiring work of philosophy in that it is scrupulous in argumentation and a great pleasure to read. -- Marguerite La Caze Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy

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Book SynopsisExamines the views, outlooks, and attitudes of two distinct cultures: the West and classical India. The author looks at a varied collection of primary sources: the "Rig Veda", the "Upanishads", and texts by the Buddhist philosophers Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu, among others.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Far and Beyond: Transcendence in Two Cultures 2. One Language, Many Things: On the Origins of Language 3. My-Self: Descartes and Early Upani sads on the Self 4. No-Self: Kant, Kafka, and Nagarjuna on the Disappearing Self 5. "It's All in the Mind": Berkeley, Vasubandhu, and the World Out There Notes Bibliographical Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Multivoiced Body is the kind of book that establishes new, more interdisciplinary fields of study in social-political philosophy. -- Robert Drury King Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry Evans' text is a thrilling account that is as performative in its exchanges with other theoretical frameworks, as it is novel in its uses and divergences from those frameworks. Human StudiesTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Part 1 The Dilemma of Diversity 1. The Age of Diversity 2. History of the Dilemma: Cosmos, Chaos. and Chaosmos 3. Society as a Multivoiced Body Part 2 The Primacy of Voices 4. Modernism and Subjectivity 5. Postmodernism and Language 6. The Primacy of Voices 7. Communication and an Ethics for the Age of Diversity Part 3 The Political Dimension of the Multivoiced Body 8. The Social Unconscious 9. Globalization, Resistance. and the New Solidarity 10. Democracy and Justice in the Multivoiced Body Notes Index

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Book SynopsisJean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) was a social and cultural theorist known for his trenchant analyses of media and technological communication. This book offers a look at Baudrillard in relation to the intellectual and political climates in which he wrote. It provides a portrait of the critic's resonant work.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of the most gripping and timely accounts of Continental Philosophy... The reader can only come to the end of this book astonished. -- Catherine Keller Modern Theology In all, the book offers a new understanding of an influential sector of twentieth-century philosophy. -- Jonathan Malesic Journal of the American Academy of Religion ...passionately argued and engagingly written. -- Paul A. Macdonald Jr. Scottish Journal of Theology a fun read. -- George Pattison Reviews in Religion and TheologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Wonder and the Births of Philosophy 1. Repetition: Martin Heidegger 2. Openness: Emmanuel Levinas 3. Relation: Jean-Luc Nancy 4. Decision: Jacques Derrida Postlude: Possibility Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautiful book. -- Frederic Raphael Times Literary Supplement The prodigiously illustrated book is a readable treatment of an important subject. Booklist These four titular mid-20th century Jewish intellectuals from Germany and Austria come back to life with vigor. Library JournalTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface 1. Four Men 2. Four Wives 3. One Angel (by Paul Klee) 4. Four Jews 5. Benjamin's Grip Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Biographical Sketches Illustration Sources

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRainer Forst is the premier political philosopher of his generation in Germany and one of the most innovative and promising in the world today. An extraordinarily impressive feature of his philosophical work is his ability to move expertly and deftly between foundational arguments of an abstract nature and practical considerations having to do with the way that political life actually works. The Right to Justification will have a significant impact on American philosophy. -- Charles Larmore, Brown University, author of The Practices of the Self Rainer Forst's master idea is that people have a right and duty of reciprocal justification in the domain of shared institutions and that testing for the justice of such arrangements means testing for how far they are indeed justifiable. These essays demonstrate the personal signature Forst gives to that idea and the effective manner in which he applies it in different contexts. -- Philip Pettit, Princeton University, author of A Theory of Freedom: From the Psychology to the Politics of Agency Rainer Forst is at the forefront of the exciting encounter between critical social theory and Anglo-American normative philosophy. His work is a worthy successor to the Rawls-Habermas dialogue, which ended all too quickly. This work documents his systematic attempt to build a theory of human rights and democratic justice, beginning with the principle of the right to justification. He writes with grace and wit; this book will be widely read. -- Seyla Benhabib, Yale University Rainer Forst advocates a critical theory of justice grounded on the 'basic right to justification.' In these luminous essays, he elaborates this simple yet powerful idea in relation to a broad range of issues, including the notions of practical reason and human autonomy; political liberty and multicultural toleration; deliberative democracy and the welfare state; and human rights and global justice. The result is a philosophical tour de force and a major new program for refounding critical theory. -- Nancy Fraser, New School, author of Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World Forst's Right to Justification is a tour de force that exhibits both a compelling, unified vision and a wide range of concrete insights. It ought to be read by all those with an interest in moral or political philosophy or in global justice. -- Henry S. Richardson Ethics and International Affairs In his ambitious masterpiece, Toleration in Conflict, Rainer Forst laid the groundwork for an innovative concept, the right to justification. Here he has developed this prolific idea in a systematic manner, establishing a compelling and original political theory. Forst, a brilliant scholar, deserves his reputation as one of the leading political philosophers of his generation. -- Juergen Habermas A brilliant work that cements Forst's place in the top rank of moral and political philosophers. -- William J. Talbott Ethics With penetrating insight and enviable clarity, Forst describes and critiques prominent approaches to designing theories of justice - both national and transnational - and, in turn, constructs a unique and persuasive theory of his own. -- Shaun P. Young Political Studies Review [The Right to Justification] offer[s] sophisticated contributions to our understanding of the theory and practice of democratic politics. -- Mark E. Button Perspectives on Politics Moving well beyond the earlier generation of discursive theories, [Forst] opens up new modalities of politics and provide[s] us with new ways of thinking about them. -- Kevin Olson Constellations Impressive in its scope and ambition. The European LegacyTable of ContentsPreface Translator's Note Introduction: The Foundation of Justice Part 1: Foundations: Practical Reason, Morality, and Justice 1. Practical Reason and Justifying Reasons: On the Foundation of Morality 2. Moral Autonomy and the Autonomy of Morality: Toward a Theory of Normativity After Kant 3. Ethics and Morality 4. The Justification of Justice: Rawls's Political Liberalism and Habermas's Discourse Theory in Dialogue Part 2: Political and Social Justice 5. Political Liberty: Integrating Five Conceptions of Autonomy 6. A Critical Theory of Multicultural Toleration 7. The Rule of Reasons: Three Models of Deliberative Democracy 8. Social Justice, Justification, and Power Part 3: Human Rights and Transnational Justice 9. The Basic Right to Justification: Toward a Constructivist Conception of Human Rights 10. Constructions of Transnational Justice: Comparing John Rawls's The Law of Peoples and Otfried Hoffe's Democracy in an Age of Globalisation 11. Justice, Morality, and Power in the Global Context 12. Toward a Critical Theory of Transnational Justice Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGirgus's book offers fresh, intriguing insights. ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Time, by Film 1. American Transcendence: Levinas and a Short History of an American Idea in Film 2. Frank Capra and James Stewart: Time, Transcendence, and the Other 3. The Changing Face of American Redemption: Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, and Denzel Washington 4. Sex, Art, and Oedipus: The Unbearable Lightness of Being 5. Fellini and La dolce vita: Documentary, Decadence, and Desire 6. Antonioni and L'avventura: Transcendence, the Body, and the Feminine Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGirgus's book offers fresh, intriguing insights. ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Time, by Film 1. American Transcendence: Levinas and a Short History of an American Idea in Film 2. Frank Capra and James Stewart: Time, Transcendence, and the Other 3. The Changing Face of American Redemption: Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, and Denzel Washington 4. Sex, Art, and Oedipus: The Unbearable Lightness of Being 5. Fellini and La dolce vita: Documentary, Decadence, and Desire 6. Antonioni and L'avventura: Transcendence, the Body, and the Feminine Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe essays are uniformly of high quality...highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Jonathan Judaken Part I: (Trans)National Contexts 1. Russian Existentialism, or Existential Russianism, by Val Vinokur 2. German Existentialism and the Persistence of Metaphysics: Weber, Jaspers, Heidegger, by Peter E. Gordon 3. Sisyphus's Progeny: Existentialism in France, by Jonathan Judaken 4. "To Punch Through 'Pasteboard Masks'?": American Existentialism, by George Cotkin 5. Angst Across the Channel: Existentialism in Britain, by Martin Woessner 6. Existentialisms in the Hispanic and Latin American Worlds: El Quixote and its Existential Children Part II: Existentialism and Religion 7. Fear and Trembling and the Paradox of Christian Existentialism, by George Pattison 8. Jewish Co-Existentialism: Being with the Other, by Paul Mendes-Flohr 9. Camus the Unbeliever: Living Without God, by Ronald Aronson Part III: Migrations 10. Anxiety and Secularization: Soren Kierkegaard and the Twentieth-Century Invention of Existentialism, by Samuel Moyn 11. Rethinking the 'Existential' Nietzsche in German: Lowith, Jaspers, Heidegger, by Charles Bambach Charles Bambach 12. Situating Frantz Fanon's Account of Black Experience, by Robert Bernasconi 13. Simone de Beauvoir in her Times and Ours: The Second Sex and its Legacy in French Feminist Thought, by Debra Bergoffen 14. The "Letter on Humanism": Reading Heidegger in France, by Ethan Kleinberg List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIsabelle Thomas-Fogiel provides the first extended analysis of the theme of the end, or 'death,' of philosophy, which has been on the agenda since at least the early nineteenth century. Thomas-Fogiel, one of our most promising young French philosophers, writes clearly, persuasively, and insightfully. She ranges widely over both continental and analytic sources and concentrates well on arguments, weighing and evaluating different interpretations of major figures. This is an important book. -- Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University, author of Kant and IdealismTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Translator's Note Introduction Part I. The End of Philosophy, or the Paradoxes of Speaking 1. Skeptical and Scientific "Post-philosophy" 2. "Saying and the Said": Two Paradigms for the Same Subject 3. The Antispeculative View: Habermas as an Example 4. Kant's Shadow in the Current Philosophical Landscape Part II. Challenging the "Death of Philosophy": The Reflexive A Priori 5. A Definition of the Model: Scientific Learning and Philosophical Knowledge 6. The Model of Self-reference's Consistency 7. The Model's Fecundity 8. Beyond the Death of Philosophy Part III. The End of Philosophy in Perspective: The Source of the Reflexive Deficit 9. The "Race to Reference" 10. The Tension Between Reference and Self-reference in the Kantian System 11. Helmholtz's Choice as a Choice for Reference: The Naturalization of Critique 12. Critique: A Positivist Theory of Knowledge or Existential Ontology? 13. Questioning the History of Philosophy Conclusion Bibliography Notes

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNowhere else does Julia Kristeva provide such a sustained treatment of her views on religion. Kristeva scholars and students will find this book an indispensable text. -- Noelle McAfee, George Mason University A focused and insightful discussion of religious belief... compelling and remarkable. Publishers Weekly In this book, Julia Kristeva analyzes various pressing issues of our time, including the crisis in the Middle East, terrorism, depression, anorexia, and addiction, along with a general crisis of meaning. With her customary brilliance, she argues that belief and faith make it possible to speak but also to question. Provocatively, she describes a vein of Christianity and Catholicism that open up rather than close down that infinite questioning, which she maintains is necessary to delay the death drive. Here, Kristeva uses her incisive psychoanalytic acumen to diagnose the 'culture wars' and the 'clash of religions' that threaten world peace. -- Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University, and editor of The Portable Kristeva A helpful commentary and introduction to Kristeva's major work over the last two decades... recommended. Choice Readers... will be exposed to an impressive... crystallization of [Kristeva's] religious and psychoanalytic thought. -- Elaine P. Zicker Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative LiteratureTable of ContentsThe Big Question Mark (in Guise of a Preface) This Incredible Need to Believe: Interview with Carmine Donzelli From Jesus to Mozart: Christianity's Difference? "Suffering": Lenten Lectures, March 19, 2006 The Genius of Catholicism Don't Be Afraid of European Culture Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNowhere else does Julia Kristeva provide such a sustained treatment of her views on religion. Kristeva scholars and students will find this book an indispensable text. -- Noelle McAfee, George Mason University A focused and insightful discussion of religious belief... compelling and remarkable. Publishers Weekly In this book, Julia Kristeva analyzes various pressing issues of our time, including the crisis in the Middle East, terrorism, depression, anorexia, and addiction, along with a general crisis of meaning. With her customary brilliance, she argues that belief and faith make it possible to speak but also to question. Provocatively, she describes a vein of Christianity and Catholicism that open up rather than close down that infinite questioning, which she maintains is necessary to delay the death drive. Here, Kristeva uses her incisive psychoanalytic acumen to diagnose the 'culture wars' and the 'clash of religions' that threaten world peace. -- Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University, and editor of The Portable Kristeva A helpful commentary and introduction to Kristeva's major work over the last two decades... recommended. Choice Readers... will be exposed to an impressive... crystallization of [Kristeva's] religious and psychoanalytic thought. -- Elaine P. Zicker Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative LiteratureTable of ContentsThe Big Question Mark (in Guise of a Preface) This Incredible Need to Believe: Interview with Carmine Donzelli From Jesus to Mozart: Christianity's Difference? "Suffering": Lenten Lectures, March 19, 2006 The Genius of Catholicism Don't Be Afraid of European Culture Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZabala has given us a book which deserves wide reading and debate. -- David Jasper Literature & Theology An effective reminder of some of the most important developments twentieth-century continental philosophy. -- Richard Polt Parrhesia ...the book offers illuminating characterizations and suggestions. -- Andrew B. Irvine Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsChapter 1: Being Destroyed: Heidegger's Destruction of Being as Presence 1. Retrieving the Meaning of Being 2. Questioning the "Worn-Out" Being Chapter 2: After the Destruction: The Remains of Being 3. Schurmann's Traits of Economical Anarchies 4. Derrida's Treasures of Traces 5. Nancy's Copresences of Singular Plurals 6. Gadamer's Conversations of Language 7. Tugendhat's Meanings of Sentences 8. Vattimo's Events of Weakness Chapter 3: Generating Being Through Interpretation: The Hermeneutic Ontology of Remnants 9. Logics of Discursive Continuities 10.Generating Being "from Within" Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[A] provocative and thoughtful book. -- Christopher Roman Foucault StudiesTable of ContentsPreface: Why We Need Madness Acknowledgments Introduction: Mad for Foucault 1. How We Became Queer First Interlude: Nietzsche's Dreadful Attendant 2. Queer Moralities Second Interlude: Wet Dreams 3. Unraveling the Queer Psyche Third Interlude: Of Meteors and Madness 4. A Queer Nephew Fourth Interlude: A Shameful Lyricism 5. A Political Ethic of Eros Postlude: A Fool's Laughter Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[A] provocative and thoughtful book. -- Christopher Roman Foucault StudiesTable of ContentsPreface: Why We Need Madness Acknowledgments Introduction: Mad for Foucault 1. How We Became Queer First Interlude: Nietzsche's Dreadful Attendant 2. Queer Moralities Second Interlude: Wet Dreams 3. Unraveling the Queer Psyche Third Interlude: Of Meteors and Madness 4. A Queer Nephew Fourth Interlude: A Shameful Lyricism 5. A Political Ethic of Eros Postlude: A Fool's Laughter Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAll revolutions, remarked the novelist Milan Kundera, involve a process of radical forgetting. It is the politics surrounding the cultural forgetting of ideals of the nurturing mother which are at the centre of Julie Stephens's book. Confronting Postmaternal Thinking shows the deeper sources of a new market-driven personal ethos reshaping motherhood via the lens of cultural memory. It offers a perceptive and revealing way of putting our current debates over mothering and feminism into perspective. -- Anne Manne, author of Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? Stephens's challenging analysis of the contemporary context and ideologies repudiating the work of mothering today is exemplary. She is a fine writer and rigorous researcher, skillfully navigating the rising tensions between care and paid work, autonomy and connectedness, to produce a compelling case against the 'postmaternal thinking' undermining any social commitment to the ethics of care intrinsic to creating healthy societies. This book provides a fascinating reframing of one of the most critical issues of the moment. -- Lynne Segal, author of Making Trouble: Life and PoliticsTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Unmothering 2. Feminist Reminiscence 3. Memory and Modernity 4. Maternalism Reconfigured? Conclusion: Toward a New Feminist Maternalism Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAll revolutions, remarked the novelist Milan Kundera, involve a process of radical forgetting. It is the politics surrounding the cultural forgetting of ideals of the nurturing mother which are at the centre of Julie Stephens's book. Confronting Postmaternal Thinking shows the deeper sources of a new market-driven personal ethos reshaping motherhood via the lens of cultural memory. It offers a perceptive and revealing way of putting our current debates over mothering and feminism into perspective. -- Anne Manne, author of Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? Stephens's challenging analysis of the contemporary context and ideologies repudiating the work of mothering today is exemplary. She is a fine writer and rigorous researcher, skillfully navigating the rising tensions between care and paid work, autonomy and connectedness, to produce a compelling case against the 'postmaternal thinking' undermining any social commitment to the ethics of care intrinsic to creating healthy societies. This book provides a fascinating reframing of one of the most critical issues of the moment. -- Lynne Segal, author of Making Trouble: Life and PoliticsTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Unmothering 2. Feminist Reminiscence 3. Memory and Modernity 4. Maternalism Reconfigured? Conclusion: Toward a New Feminist Maternalism Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis long-overdue volume explores Donna Haraway's influence on feminist theory and philosophy, paying particular attention to her more recent work on companion species, rather than her “Manifesto for Cyborgs.”Trade Review...an invaluable tool for student's wishing to further explore Haraway's work. Critical TheoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Adventures with Haraway 2. Natures 3. Knowledges 4. Politics 5. Ethics 6. Stories Sowing Worlds: A Seed Bag for Terraforming with Earth Others Appendix: Some Bibliometric Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA tour de force that should be required reading for theologians, philosophers, and critical, political and economic theorists alike. -- Brent A. R. Hege Radical Philosophy This is a thoughtful, clearly written and challenging book. Philosophy in Review ...this is a valuable work indeed that deserves a wide hearing in theological circles. -- Daniel Liechty Religion Crockett... introduces his concept of radical political theology through an impressive analysis of its relation to the rise of the Religious Right. This capacity to intertwine the theoretical and the everyday is part of the promise of [his] thought... Political TheologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Freedom of Radical Theology After the Death of God 1. The Parallax of Religion: Theology and Ideology 2. Sovereignty and the Weakness of God 3. Baruch Spinoza and the Potential for a Radical Political Theology 4. Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, and the Theo-Political Problem of Liberalism 5. Elements for Radical Democracy: Plasticity, Equality, and Governmentality 6. Law Beyond Law: Agamben, Deleuze, and the Unconscious Event 7. Radical Theology and the Event: St. Paul with Deleuze 8. Plasticity and the Future of Theology: Messianicity and the Deconstruction of Christianity Conclusion: Six Theses on Political Theology Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis translation of Stanislas Breton's A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul was an excellent decision. Breton's book is timely and, as an already established classic, it will without a doubt receive a wide reading. Ward Blanton's introduction also provides a value-added component. -- Todd Penner, coauthor of Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse: Thinking Beyond TheclaTable of ContentsDispossessed Life: Introduction to Breton's Paul Ward Blanton A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul Preface 1. Biographical Outline 2. Hermeneutics and Allegory 3. Jesus the Christ: Faith and the Law 4. The Pauline Cosmos 5. The Church According to Saint Paul 6. The Cross of Christ Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis translation of Stanislas Breton's A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul was an excellent decision. Breton's book is timely and, as an already established classic, it will without a doubt receive a wide reading. Ward Blanton's introduction also provides a value-added component. -- Todd Penner, coauthor of Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse: Thinking Beyond TheclaTable of ContentsDispossessed Life: Introduction to Breton's Paul Ward Blanton A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul Preface 1. Biographical Outline 2. Hermeneutics and Allegory 3. Jesus the Christ: Faith and the Law 4. The Pauline Cosmos 5. The Church According to Saint Paul 6. The Cross of Christ Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe scope, precision, and flow of these interviews, as well as the significance and range of the thinkers, make this volume a valuable contribution to critical theory and the philosophy of culture. -- Alia Al-Saji, McGill University A book full of insights. Ten of the world's most important critical theorists reflect on the intersections of biography, history, and theory and the interviews shed new light both on their thought and on the process of thinking. -- Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences, Director, Institute for Public Knowledge, New York UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller Critical Theory and the Question of Culture 1. Critical Theory Today: Politics, Ethics, Culture Opening Dialogue Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill 2. Concrete Universality and Critical Social Theory Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Seyla Benhabib 3. Global Justice and the Renewal of the Critical Theory Tradition Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Nancy Fraser Critical Perspectives on Cultural Politics 4. Accounting for a Philosophic Itinerary: Genealogies of Power and Ethics of Nonviolence Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Judith Butler 5. The Present in the Light of the Longue Duree Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Immanuel Wallerstein 6. A Prisoner of Hope in the Night of the American Empire Dialogue with Gabriel Rockhill Cornel West Culture as Critique: The Limits of Liberalism? 7. Liberalism: Politics, Ethics, and Markets Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Ronan Sharkey Michael Sandel 8. Cultural Rights and Social-Democratic Principles Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Will Kymlicka Epilogue: Critical Theory and Recognition 9. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and the Theory of Recognition Dialogue with Olivier Voirol Axel Honneth Contributors

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe scope, precision, and flow of these interviews, as well as the significance and range of the thinkers, make this volume a valuable contribution to critical theory and the philosophy of culture. -- Alia Al-Saji, McGill University A book full of insights. Ten of the world's most important critical theorists reflect on the intersections of biography, history, and theory and the interviews shed new light both on their thought and on the process of thinking. -- Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences, Director, Institute for Public Knowledge, New York UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller Critical Theory and the Question of Culture 1. Critical Theory Today: Politics, Ethics, Culture Opening Dialogue Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill 2. Concrete Universality and Critical Social Theory Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Seyla Benhabib 3. Global Justice and the Renewal of the Critical Theory Tradition Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Nancy Fraser Critical Perspectives on Cultural Politics 4. Accounting for a Philosophic Itinerary: Genealogies of Power and Ethics of Nonviolence Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Judith Butler 5. The Present in the Light of the Longue Duree Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Immanuel Wallerstein 6. A Prisoner of Hope in the Night of the American Empire Dialogue with Gabriel Rockhill Cornel West Culture as Critique: The Limits of Liberalism? 7. Liberalism: Politics, Ethics, and Markets Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Ronan Sharkey Michael Sandel 8. Cultural Rights and Social-Democratic Principles Dialogue with Alfredo Gomez-Muller and Gabriel Rockhill Will Kymlicka Epilogue: Critical Theory and Recognition 9. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and the Theory of Recognition Dialogue with Olivier Voirol Axel Honneth Contributors

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Book SynopsisA bold defense of a neglected concept and its relevance for critical social theory.Trade ReviewThrough a compelling combination of acute analysis and rich phenomenological description, Rahel Jaeggi brings alienation back to the center of political philosophy. She argues alienation concerns a failure to appropriate oneself in the right way, a problem with how one comes to be what one is, rather than an inability to realize some pregiven identity. Jaeggi is not only thoroughly learned in both the continental and analytic traditions. She does what is quite rare: she brings these traditions into a highly productive synthesis. A very impressive achievement. -- Daniel Brudney, University of Chicago With this masterful reconstruction of the concept of alienation, Jaeggi opens fruitful new avenues for critical theory. She also claims her place as a powerful exponent of social philosophy and a thinker of the first rank. Her book is a tour de force of cogent argumentation and rich phenomenological description. -- Nancy Fraser, The New School Alienation, the concept Hegel and Marx made so central to European political and social thought, has receded in importance in recent political philosophy. Like self-deception and weakness of will, it is extremely resistant to analysis even though it continues to be a major theme of modern life and accounts for the features of contemporary life. Jaeggi's great accomplishment is to provide the outlines of a new theory of an old term and thereby show its linkage to major ethical and political concerns. With this book, an entire tradition of political and social philosophy receives a new lease on life. -- Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University Jaeggi's scholarship and writing in this book is excellent, and the resuscitation of the concept of alienation in critical social theory is a welcome event in the literature. -- Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University Alienation is one of the most exciting books to have appeared on the German philosophical scene in the last decade. It not only rejuvenates a lagging discourse on the topic of alienation; it also shows how an account of subjectivity elaborated two centuries ago can be employed in the service of new philosophical insights. -- Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College This insightful and learned book will appeal to anyone interested in social philosophy. Library Journal Rahel Jaeggi's Alienation is an important contribution to - and rejuvenation of - the philosophical literature on the phenomenon of alienation. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books [A]n excellent representative of the work of a new generation of German philosophers who...seem well positioned to reanimate Western philosophy. -- Frederick Neuhouser Review of MetaphysicsTable of ContentsForeword, by Axel Honneth Translator's Introduction, by Frederick Neuhouser Preface and Acknowledgments Part 1. The Relation of Relationlessness: Reconstructing a Concept of Social Philosophy 1. "A Stranger in the World That He Himself Has Made": The Concept and Phenomenon of Alienation 2. Marx and Heidegger: Two Versions of Alienation Critique 3. The Structure and Problems of Alienation Critique 4. Having Oneself at One's Command: Reconstructing the Concept of Alienation Part 2. Living One's Life as an Alien Life: Four Cases 5. Seinesgleichen Geschieht or "The Like of It Now Happens": The Feeling of Powerlessness and the Independent Existence of One's Own Actions 6. "A Pale, Incomplete, Strange, Artificial Man": Social Roles and the Loss of Authenticity 7. "She but Not Herself": Self-Alienation as Internal Division 8. "As If Through a Wall of Glass": Indifference and Self-Alienation Part 3. Alienation as a Disturbed Appropriation of Self and World 9. "Like a Structure of Cotton Candy": Being Oneself as Self-Appropriation 10. "Living One's Own Life": Self-Determination, Self-Realization, and Authenticity Conclusion: The Sociality of the Self, the Sociality of Freedom Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDirect and uncompromising in his views, Rockhill sets forward a political philosophy of aesthetics, that is at once sensuous and pragmatic. The research is based on German and French works in their original articulation, and the analyses themselves take up not what is thematic but, better, what is couched in contradiction. The book will be a strong contribution to a practical-both theoretical and historical-appreciation of aesthetics and politics. -- Tom Conley, Harvard University Art feels too impossibly urgent for it not to matter to the shape of our living together; yet locating where the join between life and art is, precisely, has proved elusive. In this invaluable study, Gabriel Rockhill vanquishes the myth that either there is some privileged moment - of form, content, or effect - uniting art and politics or there is none. With subtlety and analytic rigor, Rockhill demonstrates the nexus connecting - or separating - art and politics is always bound to the dense weave of social practices located at concrete historical times in specific geographical locales. Along the way Rockhill provides a scintillating new analysis of the avant-garde, and the most acute analysis of Jacques Ranciere's aesthetic theory I have come across. Anyone interested in the question of art and politics will want to read this book. -- J. M. Bernstein. New School for Social Research Much has been written about the relationship between art and politics. "How may one reunite what was originally separated?" is a question that foregrounds a deep-seated sophism that is the cause of major misunderstandings, for art and politics have never been different entities and one understands nothing about art and politics as long as one thinks of them as self-contained. Gabriel Rockhill argues definitively against the "talisman complex" which is based on our spontaneously essentialist bias and on an ontology which always ends up sidestepping true analysis. As a radical historicist, he is not shy of complexity and chooses to reinstate art and artworks in social life, i.e., where they have meaning and depth. To isolationist theories and concepts he opposes an energetic interventionist strategy that is particularly welcome in the present field of concept formation. -- Jean-Pierre Cometti, University of Provence In this passionate and rigorous meditation on the vexed issue of the politics of art, Gabriel Rockhill examines the theses of Wittgenstein, Sartre, Adorno, Marcuse, Lukacs, Burger and Ranciere to argue that it is as wrong to "politicize aesthetics" as to "aestheticize politics." Since neither art nor politics can be founded ontologically, this lack of transcendence brings a saving grace. Understood as a historical field of collective negotiations, art recaptures its critical edge, its activist agency, and its social relevance. -- Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania In this bold and erudite intervention into twentieth-century controversies surrounding art and politics, Rockhill dissolves a whole series of reifications, essentialisms, and other symptoms of magical thinking in a bath of 'radical historicism.' Art and politics emerge as no longer clearly defined entities but as a host of artistic and political practices, intertwined and interacting in an everchanging, ever-contested constellation of encounters and relations. -- Kristin Ross, New York University We are living in a period when in many fields of humanities history is taken for granted more often than it is taken seriously. Radical History and the Politics of Art thoroughly challenges this attitude by demonstrating the subversive explanatory power of historical analysis. By considering art and politics as entirely immanent in sociohistorical practices, Rockhill argues for their multiform relationship as displayed in various temporal, geographical, and social configurations. Thus, he integrates the disciplinary priorities of a theoretician of art into a style of discourse that offers a powerful philosophical way of reading history. Radical History and the Politics of Art is elegantly written, informative, and never less than provocative. The result is a radical voice long unheard in the field of theoretical discourse on art. -- Adam Takacs, Eotvos Lorand University Budapest Rockhill's book is a polemic against the various theoretical presuppositions and postures, which fatally misconstrue the relevant factors for assessing the actual agency of aesthetic practices. It is also an assertive defence of the 'politicity' of these practices... [His] book is important because it gives exemplary attention to the factors that a competent approach to this area needs to consider. More than this, Rockhill shows that obscurity is the appropriate fate for undisciplined conceptual speculation. Notre Dame Philosophical Review One welcomes [an] ambitious, iconoclastic work like Gabriel Rockhill's Radical History and the Politics of Art. Radical Philosophy Rockhill's ambitious and erudite Radical History and the Politics of Art covers a sizable and variegated terrain. -- Pavel Lembersky H-Socialisms An engagingly written book that is full of insight, and which judiciously and forcefully combines readings of some of the most cited critics on art and politics in the twentieth century. As such, it makes a new, demanding inquiry into the appropriate methodology for rethinking politicized aesthetic practices. -- Sophie Seita Modernism/modernityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Art and Politics in the Time of Radical History Part I. Historical Encounters Between Art and Politics 1. For a Radical Historicist Analytic of Aesthetic and Political Practices 2. Realism, Formalism, Commitment: Three Historic Positions on Art and Politics Part II. Visions of the Avant-Garde 3. The Theoretical Destiny of the Avant-Garde 4. Toward a Reconsideration of Avant-Garde Practices Part III. The Politics of Aesthetics 5. The Silent Revolution: Ranciere's Rethinking of Aesthetics and Politics 6. Productive Contradictions: From Ranciere's Politics of Aesthetics to the Social Politicity of the Arts Part IV. The Social Politicity of Aesthetic Practices 7. The Politicity of 'Apolitical' Art: A Pragmatic Intervention Into the Art of the Cold War 8. Rethinking the Politics of Aesthetic Practices: Advancing the Critique of the Ontological Illusion and the Talisman Complex Conclusion: Radical Art and Politics-No End in Sight Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewI am delighted that Wade Baskin's classic translation is back in print, especially since Saussy and Meisel's judicious updating and summary of recent scholarly discoveries make this an invaluable resource for English readers.Table of ContentsEditors' Preface and Acknowledgments Textual Note Introduction: Saussure and His Contexts Course in General Linguistics Translator's Introduction Preface to the First Edition Introduction Chapter I. A Glance at the History of Linguistics Chapter II. Subject Matter and Scope of Linguistics; Its Relations with Other Sciences Chapter III. The Object of Linguistics Chapter IV. Linguistics of Language and Linguists of Speaking Chapter V. Internal and External Elements of Language Chapter VI. Graphic Representation of Language Chapter VII. Phonology Appendix: Principles of Phonology Chapter I. Phonological Species Chapter II. Phonemes in the Spoken Chain Part One: General Principles Chapter I. Nature of the Linguistic Sign Chapter II. Immutability and Mutability of the Sign Chapter III. Static and Evolutionary Linguistics Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics Chapter I. Generalities Chapter II. The Concrete Entities of Language Chapter III. Identities, Realities, Values Chapter IV. Linguistic Value Chapter V. Syntagmatic and Associative Relations Chapter VI. Mechanism of Language Chapter VII. Grammar and Its Subdivisions Chapter VIII. Role of Abstract Entities in Grammar Part Three: Diachronic Linguistics Chapter I. Generalities Chapter II. Phonetic Changes Chapter III. Grammatical Consequences of Phonetic Evolution Chapter IV. Analogy Chapter V. Analogy and Evolution Chapter VI. Folk Etymology Chapter VII. Agglutination Chapter VIII. Diachronic Unites, Identities, and Realities Appendices to Parts Three and Four Part Four: Geographical Linguistics Chapter I. Concerning the Diversity of Languages Chapter II. Complication of Geographical Diversity Chapter III. Causes of Geographical Diversity Chapter IV. Spread of Linguistic Waves Part Five: Concerning Retrospective Linguistics Chapter I. The Two Perspectives of Diachronic Linguistics Chapter II. The Oldest Language at the Prototype Chapter III. Reconstructions Chapter IV. The Contribution of Language to Anthropology and Prehistory Chapter V. Language Families and Linguistic Types Errata Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewI am delighted that Wade Baskin's classic translation is back in print, especially since Saussy and Meisel's judicious updating and summary of recent scholarly discoveries make this an invaluable resource for English readers.Table of ContentsEditors' Preface and Acknowledgments Textual Note Introduction: Saussure and His Contexts Course in General Linguistics Translator's Introduction Preface to the First Edition Introduction Chapter I. A Glance at the History of Linguistics Chapter II. Subject Matter and Scope of Linguistics; Its Relations with Other Sciences Chapter III. The Object of Linguistics Chapter IV. Linguistics of Language and Linguists of Speaking Chapter V. Internal and External Elements of Language Chapter VI. Graphic Representation of Language Chapter VII. Phonology Appendix: Principles of Phonology Chapter I. Phonological Species Chapter II. Phonemes in the Spoken Chain Part One: General Principles Chapter I. Nature of the Linguistic Sign Chapter II. Immutability and Mutability of the Sign Chapter III. Static and Evolutionary Linguistics Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics Chapter I. Generalities Chapter II. The Concrete Entities of Language Chapter III. Identities, Realities, Values Chapter IV. Linguistic Value Chapter V. Syntagmatic and Associative Relations Chapter VI. Mechanism of Language Chapter VII. Grammar and Its Subdivisions Chapter VIII. Role of Abstract Entities in Grammar Part Three: Diachronic Linguistics Chapter I. Generalities Chapter II. Phonetic Changes Chapter III. Grammatical Consequences of Phonetic Evolution Chapter IV. Analogy Chapter V. Analogy and Evolution Chapter VI. Folk Etymology Chapter VII. Agglutination Chapter VIII. Diachronic Unites, Identities, and Realities Appendices to Parts Three and Four Part Four: Geographical Linguistics Chapter I. Concerning the Diversity of Languages Chapter II. Complication of Geographical Diversity Chapter III. Causes of Geographical Diversity Chapter IV. Spread of Linguistic Waves Part Five: Concerning Retrospective Linguistics Chapter I. The Two Perspectives of Diachronic Linguistics Chapter II. The Oldest Language at the Prototype Chapter III. Reconstructions Chapter IV. The Contribution of Language to Anthropology and Prehistory Chapter V. Language Families and Linguistic Types Errata Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewa worthwhile read...a refreshing way to think 'post-modernity' without the brittleness of the 'post'... -- Jill Petersen Adams Continental Philosophy Review [readers are] richly rewarded by a multifaceted survey of the discourse of modernity. -- Klaus Hofmann MLQ Gerhard Richter's rigorously argued book about what he calls 'afterness'... is the lure to thought whose uncertain traces Richter follows through the twists and turns of an enormously suggestive archive, ranging from the work of Kant to Derrida, and from the intricacies of Holderlin's poems to the mise en abyme of Stefan Moses's photographic portraits... Richter's patient tarrying with Nachheit throws into sharp relief the anxious willfulness of those who triumphantly claim to situate themselves 'after theory,' 'after deconstruction,' or 'after the human.' MLN Richter has coined the term 'afterness' to describe the temporal slipperiness of modern experience-he values philosophers and artists that linger with the ephemeral or marginal remainders left over by institutionalized thought and conceptual determination, and the experimental form of his book seeks to both describe and perform this lingering... Richter values the potential for the aesthetic to imagine new collectivities and forms of shared experience and memory. Qui Parle For Richter, coming after should not be misunderstood as merely derivative, belated, or secondary. Instead, he convincingly argues for the recognition of an 'essential' anachronism inherent in any thought that authentically attempts to understand time and history... Richter convincingly connects lucid close readings of particular passages with larger issues of aesthetics, political theory, and philosophy. German Studies Review [Afterness] is a marvel of breadth of vision, precise detail, and depth of thought that philosophers will welcome... We must continue to follow afterness now that Richter's Afterness has appeared, follow it in the sense of Derrida's suivre. To put it formally, after afterness comes nothing that comes-to-be, is to-come, or ever was. Neither the word nor the thing (as, again, Derrida would have said) called afterness can be abandoned or evaded. And that makes Gerhard Richter's Afterness a philosophical event. I conclude my welcoming of it by expressing the hope that Richter will continue with Afterness-for, after all, Hyperion signs his letters to Bellarmin with Nachstens mehr, "More to come, as soon as possible." Research in PhenomenologyTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Logic of Afterness 1. Afterness and Modernity: A Genealogical Note 2. Afterness and Critique: A Paradigmatic Case 3. Afterness and Aesthetics: End Without End 4. Afterness and Rettung: Can Anything Be Rescued by Defending It? 5. Afterness and Translation: The Politics of Carrying Across 6. Afterness and the Image (I): Unsettling Photography 7. Afterness and the Image (II): Image Withdrawal 8. Afterness and Experience (I): Can Hope Be Disappointed? 9. Afterness and Experience (II): Crude Thinking Rethought 10. Afterness and Experience (III): Mourning, Memory, and the Fictions of Anteriority 11. Afterness and Empty Space: No Longer and Not Yet Afterwards: After-Words Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBadiou resembles Sartre in the versatility, creativity, and energy that make them major literary authors as well as philosophers. It is a measure of Spitzer's talent as a translator that she manages to preserve the literariness of Badiou's language-its difficulty, strangeness, and beauty-while making it vivid and fluid and consistent with the syntactical and grammatical demands of English. -- Joseph Litvak, Tufts University Badiou's work on and in the theatre are considerable contributions not only for their ability to give a sense of what a Badiouian approach to performance and theatre studies might be, but also for their capacity to bring Badiou's deep engagement with theatre to light for English-speaking scholars across a variety of philosophical and political fields. -- Ethan Philbrick TDR: The Drama Review A terse political treatise... [The Incident at Antioch] is a worthwhile read for anyone wanting to gain further insight into, or who would perhaps enjoy walking the country road through the beet field that is, Badiou's undertaking. -- Elisabeth Paquette The European Legacy

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Book SynopsisBadiou and Cassin engage with Lacan's L'Etourdit, exploring how love sheds light on the nature of reality and what counts as truth.Trade ReviewLacan's 'L'Etourdit' is a pivotal yet still underappreciated piece of his corpus. In Badiou and Cassin's concise tour de force, two of France's most important living minds tackle this enigmatic text. Through their combined efforts, Badiou and Cassin render 'L'Etourdit' crystal clear, situating Lacan's later teachings in relation to the history of philosophy and logic starting in ancient Greece. This three-way encounter between Lacan, Badiou, and Cassin, stimulating and surprising to equal degrees, will be enthralling for anyone interested in what philosophy and psychoanalysis have to say to each other. -- Adrian Johnston, University of New Mexico at Albuquerque This is a fascinating and complex little book. Specialists will no doubt spend hours and hours debating the significance of these two lectures for the understanding not only of Lacan but also of the respective projects of his two readers, Badiou and Cassin. -- Bruno Bosteels, Cornell UniversityTable of ContentsAbbreviations of Lacan's Works Cited in the Text Introduction to Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin, There's No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship: Two Lessons on Lacan, by Kenneth Reinhard Authors' Introduction Ab-sense, or Lacan from A to D, by Barbara Cassin Formulas of "L'Etourdit", by Alain Badiou Notes Index

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