Western philosophy from c 1800 Books

Book SynopsisThree years before his death, Michel Foucault delivered a series of lectures at the Catholic University of Louvain. These lectures provide the missing link between Foucault's early work on madness, delinquency, and sexuality and his later explorations of subjectivity in Greek and Roman antiquity. This book presents these lectures.Trade Review"Bringing together themes from two of Foucault's most important works-Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality-this book demonstrates a rethinking of the theoretical underpinnings of the former on the basis of his work on avowal in the latter. An excellent introduction lays out very clearly the background to these texts including insights into Foucault's prisoners' rights activism as well as some of his key differences with Sartre." -Kevin Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara "A stunning set of lectures given by Foucault that focus on the history of 'avowing' one's acts and the truth of who one is. Foucault seeks to understand at what point it became important not only to confess to a crime, but to avow one's act in public. For Foucault, avowal of one's criminality before an established authority becomes a way of reestablishing that authority, and resisting avowal becomes tantamount to civil disobedience. The political implications of his analysis become especially clear in the interviews included here. This is wonderful and arresting read." -Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley "The publication of Foucault's Louvain lectures, Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling, beautifully and rigorously established and commented upon by Fabienne Brion and Bernard Harcourt, is an important event in the contemporary blossoming of Foucault studies. In no way is it redundant with the lectures at the College de France, whose series is now practically complete. With this amazingly rich inquiry, focusing on the mythical, religious, and judiciary dimensions of 'avowal,' we are offered a unique possibility to understand how Foucault's genealogy articulated the order of discourse and the power of institutions." -Etienne Balibar, Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense, author of Politics and the Other Scene "Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling is one of Foucault's most stirring inquiries into what he has named 'the hermeneutics of oneself.' These lectures stage the concept of avowal in performances as varied as Greek tragedy, criminal justice, and confessional practices; and they provide us with some of Foucault's most illuminating observations on the intimate and agonistic relations between sites of enunciation, orders of truth, and investments of power. The subject of avowal is never free of the ethical exigency and the discursive contingency of 'chang[ing] itself, transform[ing] itself, displac[ing] itself, and becom[ing] to some extent other than itself,' and Foucault's genius lies in providing us with critical and genealogical reflections on the worldly practices of avowal. Bernard Harcourt and Fabienne Brion's essential afterword provides both a frame and a ballast to the book. This is a considerable addition to the English archive of the work of Michel Foucault." -Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisPhilosopher Susan Haack deploys her analytic skills on some highly charged cultural and social debates, such as relativism, multiculturalism, feminism, affirmative action, pragmatisms old and new, science , literature, the future of the academy and of philosophy itself.

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Book SynopsisExploring neglected works in 20th-century social thought and philosophy, as well as the work of contemporary writers, this book argues that thought must be framed in a way which encompasses both non-rational forces and critical reason, and it offers an outline here for doing so.Table of Contents1: The Codification of Social Theory 2: Of Life and Social Thought 3: The Cultic Roots of Culture 4: Lewis Mumford's Organic Worldview 5: The Transilluminated Vision of Charles Peirce 6: Jurgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Etherealization 7: The Neopragmatic Acquiescence: Between Habermas and Rorty 8: The Modern Error and the Renewal of Social Thought Notes Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisReveals how the figural Jew can function as a critical mechanism that exposes the political dangers of mythic allegiance, whether couched in universalizing or particularizing terms. This title provides a consideration of Jewish identity, modern Jewish thought, and continental philosophy.Trade Review"In The Figural Jew, Sarah Hammerschlag deftly brings together intellectual history, literary analysis, and philosophical argument in a wonderfully insightful and engaging account of the role the figure of the Jew plays within twentieth-century French philosophy. She also makes a vital philosophical contribution to contemporary debates about ethics, alterity, and politics." - Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School.

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Book SynopsisReveals how the figural Jew can function as a critical mechanism that exposes the political dangers of mythic allegiance, whether couched in universalizing or particularizing terms. This title provides a consideration of Jewish identity, modern Jewish thought, and continental philosophy.Trade Review"In The Figural Jew, Sarah Hammerschlag deftly brings together intellectual history, literary analysis, and philosophical argument in a wonderfully insightful and engaging account of the role the figure of the Jew plays within twentieth-century French philosophy. She also makes a vital philosophical contribution to contemporary debates about ethics, alterity, and politics." - Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School"

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Book SynopsisAlain L Locke, in his famous 1925 anthology The New Negro, declared that 'the pulse of the Negro world has begun to beat in Harlem'. This biography of this extraordinarily gifted philosopher and writer, narrates the untold story of Locke's profound impact on twentieth-century America's cultural and intellectual life.Trade Review"The current neglect of Alain Locke should not make us skeptical of the claim made by [Harris and Molesworth], who call him 'the most influential African American intellectual born between W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr.' They are right." - New Republic "This is the definitive biography of the towering cultural critic and pioneering Afro-American philosopher Alain Locke. The intellectual subtlety and meticulous work of Leonard Harris and Charles Molesworth forever puts Locke on our academic radar screen!" - Cornel West "A superb, eye-opening biography.... Why has it taken so long for a definitive biography of Locke to appear, when works on comparable black intellectuals abound? It's a backstory that sheds light on a practical truth: Fascinating subjects for biographies can be the most difficult to take on." - Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer"

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Book SynopsisAlain L Locke, in his famous 1925 anthology The New Negro, declared that 'the pulse of the Negro world has begun to beat in Harlem'. This biography of this extraordinarily gifted philosopher and writer, narrates the untold story of Locke's profound impact on twentieth-century America's cultural and intellectual life.Trade Review"The current neglect of Alain Locke should not make us skeptical of the claim made by [Harris and Molesworth], who call him 'the most influential African American intellectual born between W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr.' They are right." - New Republic "This is the definitive biography of the towering cultural critic and pioneering Afro-American philosopher Alain Locke. The intellectual subtlety and meticulous work of Leonard Harris and Charles Molesworth forever puts Locke on our academic radar screen!" - Cornel West "A superb, eye-opening biography.... Why has it taken so long for a definitive biography of Locke to appear, when works on comparable black intellectuals abound? It's a backstory that sheds light on a practical truth: Fascinating subjects for biographies can be the most difficult to take on." - Carlin Romano, "Philadelphia Inquirer"

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Book SynopsisFrom the rise of formalist novels that championed the heroism of the individual to the proliferation of abstract art as a counter to socialist realism, the years of the Cold War had a profound impact on American intellectual life. As John McCumber shows in this fascinating account, philosophy, too, was hit hard by the Red Scare. Detailing the immense political pressures that reshaped philosophy departments in midcentury America, he shows just how radically politics can alter the course of intellectual history. McCumber begins with the story of Max Otto, whose appointment to the UCLA Philosophy Department in 1947 was met with widespread protest charging him as an atheist. Drawing on Otto's case, McCumber details the hugely successful conservative efforts that, by 1960, had all but banished the existentialist and pragmatist paradigms not to mention Marxism from philosophy departments all across the country, replacing them with an approach that valorized scientific objectivity and free ma

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Book SynopsisIn this collection of essays, Leszek Kolakowski delves into some of the most intellectually vigorous questions of our time.

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of the major role played by Sartre as both figure and philosopher in the development of political thought in post-colonial Arab countries.

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of the major role played by Sartre as both figure and philosopher in the development of political thought in post-colonial Arab countries.

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Book SynopsisTed Cohen was an original and captivating essayist known for his inquisitive intelligence, wit, charm, and a deeply humane feel for life. For Cohen, writing was a way of discovering, and also celebrating, the depth and complexity of things overlooked by most professional philosophers and aestheticiansbut not by most people. Whether writing about the rules of baseball, of driving, or of Kant's Third Critique; about Hitchcock, ceramics, or jokes, Cohen proved that if you study the world with a bemused but honest attentiveness, you can find something to philosophize about more or less anywhere. This collection, edited and introduced by philosopher Daniel Herwitz, brings together some of Cohen's best work to capture the unique style that made Cohen one of the most beloved philosophers of his generation. Among the perceptive, engaging, and laugh-out-loud funny reflections on movies, sports, art, language, and life included here are Cohen's classic papers on metaphor and his Pushcart Prizewinning essay on baseball, as well as memoir, fiction, and even poetry. Full of free-spirited inventiveness, these Serious Larks would be equally at home outside Thoreau's cabin on the waters of Walden Pond as they are here, proving that intelligence, sensitivity, and good humor can be found in philosophical writing after all.

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Book SynopsisTed Cohen was an original and captivating essayist known for his inquisitive intelligence, wit, charm, and a deeply humane feel for life. For Cohen, writing was a way of discovering, and also celebrating, the depth and complexity of things overlooked by most professional philosophers and aestheticiansbut not by most people. Whether writing about the rules of baseball, of driving, or of Kant's Third Critique; about Hitchcock, ceramics, or jokes, Cohen proved that if you study the world with a bemused but honest attentiveness, you can find something to philosophize about more or less anywhere. This collection, edited and introduced by philosopher Daniel Herwitz, brings together some of Cohen's best work to capture the unique style that made Cohen one of the most beloved philosophers of his generation. Among the perceptive, engaging, and laugh-out-loud funny reflections on movies, sports, art, language, and life included here are Cohen's classic papers on metaphor and his Pushcart Priz

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Book SynopsisIn this work, the author departs from the traditional Western view that moral responsibility is limited to the consequences of overt individual action. He argues that individuals share responsibility for various harms perpetrated by their communities.

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Book SynopsisWhat, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlierand unjustly neglecteddiscussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany. We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or life-philosophy, that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, includingFranz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche's appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Niet

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Book SynopsisWhat, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlierand unjustly neglecteddiscussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany. We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or life-philosophy, that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, includingFranz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche's appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Niet

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Book SynopsisDistinguished literary biographer Robert Zaretsky upends our thinking on Simone Weil, bringing us a woman and a philosopher who is complicated and challenging, while remaining incredibly relevant.Trade Review"Simone Weil was merciless (not least on herself), sometimes alarming, always compelling, and unavoidably significant. This is a beautifully sharp and thoughtful account of her life and work--a fascinating read."--Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others;"Zaretsky's work is unfailingly eloquent, fascinating, and relevant. In treating both her life and her writings, The Subversive Simone Weil displays a subject who, by going too far toward goodness, reminds so many of us that we have not gone far enough. In Zaretsky's hands, her courage stands as a complicated but necessary lesson for us all." --Todd May, author of A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us;"Reading Zaretsky's absorbing and tender intellectual portrait of Simone Weil, I was reminded on every page of her astonishing relevance to our own times. With her demanding vision of the life well lived, in her extreme judgments and through her punishing empathy, Weil emerges here as a figurehead for the intellectual and ethical challenges of the current moment. As he has done so beautifully in his books on Camus, Zaretsky has opened Weil's life and work to our understanding. For readers familiar with Weil's, The Subversive Simone Weil is a valuable synthesis; for those coming to her for the first time, an inspiring primer."--Alice Kaplan, author of Looking for "The Stranger" Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary ClassicTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter One The Force of Affliction Chapter Two Paying Attention Chapter Three The Varieties of Resistance Chapter Four Finding Roots Chapter Five The Good, the Bad, and the Godly Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisRaising questions about what freedom means today, this study seeks to resolve the paradox of Hannah Arendt's ideas. It criticizes Arendt's flawed concept but insists on the urgent reality of the problem that concept was intended to address, thus continuing her enterprise.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Zumhagen-Yekplé’s innovative study connects a great theme of modernist literary works, that of difficulty, with Wittgenstein’s understanding of philosophy and the kinds of difficulty that it presents. A Different Order of Difficulty is enormously illuminating in the connections it makes between philosophical and literary questions—questions that are central in literary modernism and in Wittgenstein’s thought.” -- Cora Diamond, University of Virginia“A Different Order of Difficulty takes the very best in Wittgenstein and applies it expertly, astutely, and with impressive clarity to Woolf, Joyce, Kafka, and Coetzee. The results are both illuminating and inspiring. Instead of being mere vehicles for the transmission of ideas, modernist fictions become events, experiences, instruments of personal transformation; their opacity sets us challenges which can only be met if we change our fundamental attitude to ourselves and to the world. This is an important book, one which will, I hope, shape thinking on modernist fiction—and on Wittgenstein—for years to come.” -- Joshua Landy, Stanford University“What struck me as particularly wonderful about Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé’s new book, A Different Order of Difficulty: Literature after Wittgenstein, was how seriously it takes those promises [of intellectual expansion and the aesthetic enrichment of a daily life] and how earnestly it analyzes the contributions of literature and philosophy to what I want, without irony, to call a practical education. There are not, in fact, many books I know of that put the question of humanistic study’s usefulness quite so boldly or quite so baldly. . . . What Zumhagen-Yekplé is after here is not just an interrogation of how literature can be relevant or 'useful' but, more radically, what the idea of relevance or usefulness can be in the first place. This is why I frame her book in terms of practical education: she is helping us see that what is concretely useful about studying literature is how it expands that very category and shows us ways of finding meaning, wonder, and even transformation in what otherwise looks like opacity, mundanity, and, most broadly, difficulty.” -- John Lurz * Los Angeles Review of Books *“A Different Order of Difficulty makes an important and original contribution to modernist studies by engaging with the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his Tractatus Logico-Philosphicus. . . . Perhaps fittingly, given her title—drawn from the Ithaca chapter of Joyce's Ulysses (1922)—Zumhagen-Yekplé's interdisciplinary approach demands a lot from readers. Yet, as in many of the modernist touchstones she analyzes, the challenges presented by her book are more than justified by the insights at which it arrives: A Different Order of Difficulty is powerfully argued, thoroughly researched, and at times deeply moving. . . . Zumhagen-Yekplé writes that 'difficult texts . . . are designed to train us by cultivating our mental and affective capacities.' A Different Order of Difficulty is itself a valuable addition to this project.” -- Greg Chase * Modernism/modernity *“Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé’s thought-provoking A Different Order of Difficulty: Literature after Wittgenstein joins a burgeoning body of scholarship on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s relationship to modernism. A study at the boundary of literary studies and philosophy, it explores both the literary qualities of Wittgenstein’s philosophy and the philosophical implications of modernist literature. . . . A Different Order of Difficulty provides a compelling and superbly argued account of the synergies between Wittgenstein’s philosophy and modernist literature, showing that the difficulty of modernism requires an imaginative engagement with literature and philosophy deeply connected with ethical transformation.” -- Michael McGillen * German Studies Review *“One of the most valuable (and thrilling) aspects of Zumhagen-Yekplé’s work is the straightforward way she grants that literary texts have implications. Her analysis of fiction is not attentive to what the texts are about, but to what they may do.” -- Johanna Winant * Comparative Literature *“Zumhagen-Yekplé discusses Wittgenstein and the ways in which he can shed new light on literary criticism as well as affinities between Wittgenstein’s writing and the writing of modernist writers. The philosophical issues are not treated separately but are considered as being interrelated in that they are concerns shared by all of the authors discussed. . . . Zumhagen-Yekplé’s book helps to show us that difficult literature and difficult philosophy can provide us with understanding, bring about shifts in our perspective, and help us to live more fully.” -- Robert Vinten * Philosophical Investigations *“There are forms of difficulty that are also clarity. I learned a lot from Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé’s A Different Order of Difficulty on this topic. She says that certain things are difficult in the sense that they’re inviting you to work through something, or to be changed by something, or to go through a process. That kind of difficulty could actually be accompanied by clarity. Here she draws on Cora Diamond. For Diamond it’s reality, not prose, that’s difficult in the first place. You might need to subject yourself to a difficult reality—try to understand it or live with it, that is—and if the prose that results from your working-through is difficult, this isn’t an affectation; it’s a consequence of the subject matter.” -- Emily OgdenTable of ContentsIntroduction Difficulty, Ethical Teaching, and the Yearning for Transformation in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Modernist Literature 1 Wittgenstein’s Puzzle: The Transformative Ethics of the Tractatus 2 The Everyday’s Fabulous Beyond: Nonsense, Parable, and the Ethics of the Literary in Kafka and Wittgenstein 3 Woolf, Diamond, and the Difficulty of Reality 4 Wittgenstein, Joyce, and the Vanishing Problem of Life 5 A New Life Is a New Life: Teaching, Transformation, and Tautology in Coetzee’s Childhood of Jesus Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisOne of the major intellectual figures of the 20th century, Paul Ricoeur has influenced a generation of thinkers. This philosophically informed biography provides an accessible look at both the philosophy of this thinker and the pivotal experiences that influenced his development.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Offers a detailed study of what exactly that connection looked like, adding both breadth and depth through an impressive collection of sources . . . . Pragmatism’s Evolution is about the role of evolution, as a theory, in American pragmatism, as well as the early evolution of pragmatism itself. Although Pearce’s intellectual historical analysis is intentionally held apart from social, cultural, or political considerations, it raises important questions for future projects that might draw on these connections.” * Isis *"The merit of [Pearce's] book lies in the huge amount of historical information and precision he brings to a familiar story. . . . His contextualist approach provides even more substance by drawing attention to correspondence, courses, conversations, institutions and venues in addition to published books. . . . Pearce's book is rich in detail, well-delivered and well-written. It will be invaluable to both scholars of pragmatism and historians of science alike and certainly proves the usefulness of the history of science in increasing our understanding of pragmatist theses, whether in metaphysics or ethics, beyond a vague ritualistic reference to Darwin. . . . Pearce has done a superb job." * Metascience *"[An] important book." * Acta Biotheoretica *"Meticulously researched and convincingly argued. . . . Pearce's method is historical and contextualist in the capacious sense, carefully focusing on how context informs content, and eschewing simply reconstructing a particular thinker's arguments in favor of a more nuanced focus on the diverse way these pragmatist thinkers engaged with biology, including correspondence, lecture notes, minutes from formal and informal clubs, newspaper articles, journal publications, and professional debates. Using a cohort approach based on the year each cluster of thinkers he discusses graduated, Pearce shows how evolutionary ideas were debated and appropriated from one generation to the next. A significant and edifying work, this book will interest students and academics alike, particularly philosophers and historians of biology but also those who appreciate nonreductive applications of evolutionary ideas to philosophy. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"[Pearce] brings a historian's appreciation for, and training in handling, material and textual evidence, along with the philosophical analysis. . . . Pearce's work provides far greater detail than was previously possible. . . . A major contribution to pragmatism and its evolution." * History: Reviews of New Books *"A major contribution to our understanding of the history of pragmatism, the specific influences, developments, and consequences. . . . [It] should be on the reading list of anyone interested in the history of American philosophy." * The Quarterly Review of Biology *"There is much to recommend Pearce's comprehensive and engaging study, which shall provide a valuable resource to all scholars and researchers working on late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century American philosophy. . . . The attention which Pearce gives to the British idealists and to Spencer, in particular, is an especially welcome feature of his excellent monograph. . . . Amongst its many other virtues, then, Pearce's text represents a welcome contribution to efforts at extending the pragmatist canon beyond the familiar trio of Peirce, James, and Dewey—which is not to deny that these figures receive the attention they merit in any history of pragmatism. As such, Pearce's text deserves to be very warmly received amongst scholars of pragmatist philosophy." * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *"Pearce has done something remarkable and all too rare: written a book at the intersection of philosophy, science, and history that is equally excellent in all three respects. Scholarly, path-breaking, and not beholden to any received dogmas of pragmatist scholarship, Pearce goes where the historical evidence, his scientific knowledge, and keen philosophical sense take him. . . . Pearce not only provides an excellent way to unify the historical pragmatist tradition, but also to broaden it beyond the typical list of white male figures. . . . Pragmatism's Evolution should be read by everyone interested in pragmatism, the history and philosophy of biology, and/or late 19th and early 20th century American intellectual and social history. It is an excellent book, in every respect, and pragmatist scholarship must surely adapt to its evolutionary progress—or die." * International Journal of Philosophical Studies *"Trevor Pearce’s Pragmatism’s Evolution proves that there are still new and interesting things to say about a philosophical movement and method often cited as distinctly ‘American’. . . . Pearce provides a detailed overview of pragmatism that takes a fresh look at some well-trodden ground. As such, it will surely engage ‘historians of philosophy . . . [and] historians and philosophers of biology’, no less those claiming an interest in pragmatism more generally." * Philosophy in Review *“When compared with affirmative-genealogical accounts on the history of pragmatism, an exemplary strength of contextualizing comes to light in Pragmatism’s Evolution: genealogical accounts target a specific variant of present pragmatism as the goal of historical narration—subordinating the depiction of past efforts to this goal. But the thoughts of the nineteenth century pragmatists do not have to serve the goal of justifying any specific branch of contemporary pragmatism, as Pearce’s study shows. The result of his investigation is a very differentiated and nuanced mapping of relations, whereby intellectual connections that need to be problematized are also revealed.” * European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy *"This rich study should provide the starting point for future researchers interested in the connections between the early pragmatists and the biological sciences of their day. But it does much more: it places the key pragmatist thinkers within various intellectual contexts and reminds us of the importance of thinkers such as Herbert Spencer and August Weismann for understanding evolutionary theories at the end of the nineteenth century. Whereas most accounts of Pragmatism and evolution focus on Darwin, Pearce reminds us that evolutionary theory was very much a debate during this period, and the terms of the debate shaped Pragmatism in ways that Pearce’s book helps us to better understand." * Dewey Studies *“Pearce provides an important and exhaustive set of facts for future researchers in multiple fields.” * American Journal of Theology and Philosophy *“Pearce’s book is compelling and valuable for a number of reasons. First, the historical analysis is based on a fruitful connection of institutional setting and a variety of documents that provides a deep insight into the different stages of the story. Second, Pearce convincingly points out the importance of British and Continental European sources and the way these were originally elaborated by pragmatists. The different experiences abroad of key figures of American philosophy and the constant flow of texts—of Darwinian thinkers, of neo-Kantian philosophers and psychologists, of British idealists—provides a substantial background for the proper understanding of the rise and original character of American pragmatism. Pearce’s book presents fresh insights concerning this story. Finally, the book wants to investigate ‘a model of how biological ideas, suitably reframed, can ground a nonreductionist evolutionary account of mental and moral life’ and manages to establish a promising background for this future research.” * Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas *“An impeccably researched and insightful exploration of the history of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism in the light of key developments in biology in the late 1800s and early 1900s. . . . Pragmatism’s Evolution provides an original and illuminating introduction to the history of pragmatism and its major figures that is accessible to all levels of readership, from undergraduates to research scholars.” * Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science *“The most rigorous and revealing study ever produced of the multifaceted ways evolutionary-biological considerations were interwoven with the development of classic pragmatism.” * Journal of the History of Philosophy *“Pearce’s book adds a welcome new dimension to discussion of the history of pragmatism. His treatment of the movement’s early years includes an expanded range of characters, some of them fascinating but neglected, others who are recognized as leading figures but not usually linked to pragmatist philosophy. Pearce also shows the influence on pragmatism of an unruly, speculative, and rich collection of ideas about biological evolution and historical change. The book is meticulously researched, very well written, and full of surprises." -- Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science"This book is an important contribution to the history of philosophical discussion of biology. I do not know of any other book that covers the material so thoroughly. It will be invaluable to anyone interested in the history of pragmatism and the influence of biology and evolution on pragmatic thinkers." -- Richard J. Bernstein, The New School for Social ResearchTable of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Abbreviations of Manuscript Sources Abbreviations of Scholarly Editions Note to the Reader Introduction Chapter 1: The Metaphysical Club and the Origin of Species Chapter 2: Products of the Environment: Spencer’s Challenge Spencerian Evolution Spencerian Psychology Spencerian Sociology Chapter 3: Evolution at School: Educating a New Generation Evolution in College Evolution in Graduate School Teaching Evolution Chapter 4: “Hegelianism Needs to Be Darwinized”: Evolution and Idealism Hegel and Evolution The Organism-Environment Dialectic Evolutionary Strivings Chapter 5: Weismannism Comes to America: The Factors of Evolution The Reception of Weismann Peirce and Neo-Lamarckism Dewey and the Spencer-Weismann Debate Chapter 6: Pragmatist Ethics: Evolution, Experiment, and Social Progress Fieldwork in Ethics Organism and Environment in Social Reform Social Science and Social Evolution Eugenics and Civilization Chapter 7: Pragmatist Logic: Evolution, Experiment, and Inquiry The “Natural History” Approach Evolutionary Experimentalism Conclusion Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“An intricate, gripping new book. . . There is a strangeness—an uncanniness, even—to the Descartes emerging from Gadberry’s treatment. It is a reading that is at once convincing and utterly unexpected: Descartes as upside-down, inside-out love poet. . . Cartesian Poetics is a coup all its own. It ought to change the way we read Descartes.” -- Ross Wilson * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Gadberry offers a dazzling reinterpretation of Descartes’s relation to poetry. Written in beautiful and witty prose, this book argues that Cartesian philosophy is underpinned, shaped, and, in important ways, determined by the pressures and forces of literary genre: poetry is a vital form of thinking that is in no way confined to literary texts.. . . . [An] excellent and evocative book." -- Timothy M. Harrison * Critical Inquiry *“Gadberry’s engaging book defends Descartes against the charge of being the evil genius of modernism. . . . What makes reading Gadberry’s book a rewarding experience is not, as one might expect, a literary deconstruction of Descartes’s text. . . It is rather the way in which, by bringing Descartes’s carefully coded feelings to light, it humanizes both the philosopher and the twists and turns of thinking as such.” -- Christopher Braider * French Studies *"In this brilliant book, Gadberry thinks about the poetic forms that shape Descartes’s thinking. Her close attention to form has perhaps led her to give similar consideration to the forms of academic writing, and the result is exemplary within that genre: the book is a pleasure to read. Throughout, Gadberry conducts a conversation with many of the thinkers and scholars who have thought with and against Descartes. . . . Cartesian Poetics offers a compelling new way of understanding an author whose claims—and style—remain provocative today." -- Emma Claussen * H-France Review *“Cartesian Poetics is an original, hard-nosed, gorgeously written, and compelling book. For a book on the aesthetics of thinking, it is suitably beautiful and intelligent. . . . Gadberry’s artful reconstruction and probing of Descartes’s sentences reveal the poetry flowing beneath and within his philosophy.” * Jonathan Kramnick, Yale University *“Cartesian Poetics brilliantly integrates historical sensitivity and speculative boldness. Tracing a ‘literary life of concepts’ through the riddle, the love lyric, the elegy, and the anagram, Gadberry gives us a new history of Descartes’s philosophical coming of age. Her nuanced close readings, which make dazzling use of wit as an engine of literary-critical investigation, awaken us to a conception of poetic form that lives in and between thoughts—that makes ‘thinking,’ in the largest sense, possible.” * Gerard Passannante, University of Maryland, College Park *"Gadberry joins the chorus of recent scholars whose work rehabilitates Descartes from the role of 'the archvillain responsible for all of modernity’s worst impulses.' Cartesian Poetics sits neatly alongside other reevaluations of Cartesian philosophy that take seriously his work on the passions and virtue." * Cleveland Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Resultless Enterprises Chapter One: Common-Sense Envy Chapter Two: Lyric Disposition Chapter Three: Bitter Satisfactions Chapter Four: After Thoughts Epilogue: “A Painful Feeling of Strangeness” Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is thinking? What does it feel like? What is it good for? Andrea Gadberry looks for answers to these questions in the philosophy of René Descartes and finds them in the philosopher's implicit poetics. Gadberry argues that Descartes's thought was crucially enabled by poetry and shows how markers of poetic genres from love lyric and elegy to the puzzling forms of the riddle and the anagram betray an impassioned negotiation with the difficulties of thought and its limits. Where others have seen Cartesian philosophy as a triumph of reason, Gadberry reveals that the philosopher accused of having slashed poetry's throat instead enlisted poetic form to contain thought's frustrations. Gadberry's approach to seventeenth-century writings poses questions urgent for the twenty-first. Bringing literature and philosophy into rich dialogue, Gadberry centers close reading as a method uniquely equipped to manage skepticism, tolerate critical ambivalence, and detect feeling in philosophy. HelpinTrade Review“An intricate, gripping new book. . . There is a strangeness—an uncanniness, even—to the Descartes emerging from Gadberry’s treatment. It is a reading that is at once convincing and utterly unexpected: Descartes as upside-down, inside-out love poet. . . Cartesian Poetics is a coup all its own. It ought to change the way we read Descartes.” -- Ross Wilson * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Gadberry offers a dazzling reinterpretation of Descartes’s relation to poetry. Written in beautiful and witty prose, this book argues that Cartesian philosophy is underpinned, shaped, and, in important ways, determined by the pressures and forces of literary genre: poetry is a vital form of thinking that is in no way confined to literary texts.. . . . [An] excellent and evocative book." -- Timothy M. Harrison * Critical Inquiry *“Gadberry’s engaging book defends Descartes against the charge of being the evil genius of modernism. . . . What makes reading Gadberry’s book a rewarding experience is not, as one might expect, a literary deconstruction of Descartes’s text. . . It is rather the way in which, by bringing Descartes’s carefully coded feelings to light, it humanizes both the philosopher and the twists and turns of thinking as such.” -- Christopher Braider * French Studies *"In this brilliant book, Gadberry thinks about the poetic forms that shape Descartes’s thinking. Her close attention to form has perhaps led her to give similar consideration to the forms of academic writing, and the result is exemplary within that genre: the book is a pleasure to read. Throughout, Gadberry conducts a conversation with many of the thinkers and scholars who have thought with and against Descartes. . . . Cartesian Poetics offers a compelling new way of understanding an author whose claims—and style—remain provocative today." -- Emma Claussen * H-France Review *“Cartesian Poetics is an original, hard-nosed, gorgeously written, and compelling book. For a book on the aesthetics of thinking, it is suitably beautiful and intelligent. . . . Gadberry’s artful reconstruction and probing of Descartes’s sentences reveal the poetry flowing beneath and within his philosophy.” * Jonathan Kramnick, Yale University *“Cartesian Poetics brilliantly integrates historical sensitivity and speculative boldness. Tracing a ‘literary life of concepts’ through the riddle, the love lyric, the elegy, and the anagram, Gadberry gives us a new history of Descartes’s philosophical coming of age. Her nuanced close readings, which make dazzling use of wit as an engine of literary-critical investigation, awaken us to a conception of poetic form that lives in and between thoughts—that makes ‘thinking,’ in the largest sense, possible.” * Gerard Passannante, University of Maryland, College Park *"Gadberry joins the chorus of recent scholars whose work rehabilitates Descartes from the role of 'the archvillain responsible for all of modernity’s worst impulses.' Cartesian Poetics sits neatly alongside other reevaluations of Cartesian philosophy that take seriously his work on the passions and virtue." * Cleveland Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Resultless Enterprises Chapter One: Common-Sense Envy Chapter Two: Lyric Disposition Chapter Three: Bitter Satisfactions Chapter Four: After Thoughts Epilogue: “A Painful Feeling of Strangeness” Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisBy making faith a philosophical rather than a theological matter, this book explores its essence as an awareness of how we relate within mundane reality to all that is beyond the human world. It examines how faith structures a variety of relations from the nature of cults to servitude to God.Table of ContentsForeword by Paul Mendes-Flohr Preface 1: The Approach 2: The Phenomenon of Faith 3: Denominators 4: Characterizations 5: Manifested Guidance 6: Being 7: Entity, Cognition, and Reality 8: Holiness 9: Active Expressions of Faith 10: From Generation to Generation 11: Bondage 12: Reflective Articulation 13: The Core 14: Exposition and Identification 15: Negation and Restrained Affirmation

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Book SynopsisBy making faith a philosophical rather than a theological matter, this book explores its essence as an awareness of how we relate within mundane reality to all that is beyond the human world. It examines how faith structures a variety of relations from the nature of cults to servitude to God.

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Book SynopsisThis volume represents the first sustained effort to relate Derrida's work to the Western philosophical tradition from Plato to Heidegger. Bringing together twelve essays by twelve leading Derridean philosophers and an important paper by Derrida previously unpublished in English, the collection retrieves the significance of deconstruction for philosophy.

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Book SynopsisDemonstrates that ethical and religious concerns inform even the most technical writings on logic and language. This text also shows that, for Wittgenstein, the need to establish clear limitations is both a logical and an ethical demand, revealing a religious view of the world in his philosophy.

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Book SynopsisPublished in 1918, this title is the author's final work. Composed in the years before his death, it was, according to Simmel, his 'testament', a capstone work of profound metaphysical inquiry intended to formulate his conception of life in its entirety.Trade Review"Simmel is the only social theorist one can read anymore." - Max Horkheimer"

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Book SynopsisShows that Leo Strauss' defense of liberal democracy was closely connected to his skepticism of both the extreme Left and extreme Right. It assesses Strauss's attempt to direct teaching of political science away from examination of mass behavior and interest-group politics and toward study of philosophical principles on which politics are based.Trade Review"By returning to the source and examining what Strauss actually wrote, Mr. Smith lets the breeze of reason into the feverish sickroom of ideology. He portrays a Strauss who cherished democracy as the best bulwark against tyranny, and who valued intellectual honesty above all. By the time Mr. Smith is done, nothing is left of the Strauss caricature except the ignorance and malice that fathered it." - Adam Kirsch, New York Sun "Steven B. Smith's admirably lucid, meticulously argued book persuasively sets the record straight on Strauss's political views and on what his writing is really about." - Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review "[Smith's] balance between sympathy and critical distance, lamentably rare in studies of Strauss, contributes to making this book our best introduction to the complex and challenging ideas of this divisive figure." - Damon Linker, New Republic"

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Book SynopsisOffers a comprehensive introduction to the oeuvre of German Jewish writer, philosopher, and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). This title traces the development of Benjamin's thought chronologically through his writings on philosophy, literature, history, politics, the media, art, photography, cinema, technology, and theology.Trade Review"Steiner's dual focus on text and context offers a fruitful and illuminating introduction to Benjamin's challenging writings." - Paragraph "The book offers much to those long familiar with Benjamin's reception, as well as to those looking for a sound introduction." - Monatshefte"

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Book SynopsisSeven decades after his death, German Jewish writer, philosopher, and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) continues to fascinate readers and influence academic writing, both stylistically and conceptually. This title offers a comprehensive and sophisticated introduction to the oeuvre of this perpetually relevant theorist.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Robert Zaretsky’s The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas elegantly captures its subject’s brief life and expansive thought in a schema that pays eloquent tribute to the continuing relevance of both.” -- Rachel Hadas * Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year 2021 *“[Zaretsky] is an admirably fluent and humble guide, who elucidates her writings; yet he doesn’t shy away from confessing that, at times, he’s baffled by her. Often she will make a claim that “compels as powerfully as it repels”, he notes. He grapples with Weil as she demands to be grappled with, not as a purely abstract thinker but as a singular voice demanding that we think and act with integrity.” * Times Literary Supplement *"After an introduction that contextualizes Weil’s short, unusual life, Zaretsky dedicates chapters—each written in an elegant, accessible prose—to five essential columns that brace her philosophy: affliction, attention, resistance, rootedness, and goodness." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"This biography of an exceptional 20th-century thinker traces her inspirational experiences and philosophy. Zaretsky unveils Weil’s depth and seeming contradictions (rationalism and mysticism, revolution and belief) to explain her lasting appeal to readers." * The Bookseller *“Zaretsky guides us through Weil’s complexities with impressive lucidity, keeping it lively and accessible, which is no small feat.” * The Baffler *“In clear, accessible prose, Zaretsky gives some coherence to Weil’s largely fragmentary oeuvre. What emerges is a portrait of a politically unclassifiable thinker who in her life and writings committed herself to be open to the unbearable reality around her.” * Prospect *"This memorable survey delivers a rich portrait of the intellectual currents that shaped a one-of-a-kind thinker. Those curious about Weil’s work will find this to be a welcome place to start." * Publishers Weekly *“It is hard to see how a figure so marvelously intemperate could ever be bridled to the satisfaction of the Anglo-American mainstream. Still, the intellectual historian Robert Zaretsky has made an impressive attempt to win over skeptics in his new book, The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas. Somewhere between biography and philosophical overview, Zaretsky’s study sorts Weil’s views into five central categories. Each of the corresponding chapters integrates discussion of her personal eccentricities with analyses, rehabilitations, and critiques of her thought. . . . Weil may be subversive, but The Subversive Simone Weil is balanced and accessible.” * Hedgehog Review *“Simone Weil was merciless (not least on herself), sometimes alarming, always compelling, and unavoidably significant. This is a beautifully sharp and thoughtful account of her life and work—a fascinating read.” -- Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others"Zaretsky's work is unfailingly eloquent, fascinating, and relevant. In treating both her life and her writings, The Subversive Simone Weil displays a subject who, by going too far toward goodness, reminds so many of us that we have not gone far enough. In Zaretsky's hands, her courage stands as a complicated but necessary lesson for us all." -- Todd May, author of A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us“Reading Zaretsky’s absorbing and tender intellectual portrait of Simone Weil, I was reminded on every page of her astonishing relevance to our own times. With her demanding vision of the life well lived, in her extreme judgments and through her punishing empathy, Weil emerges here as a figurehead for the intellectual and ethical challenges of the current moment. As he has done so beautifully in his books on Camus, Zaretsky has opened Weil’s life and work to our understanding. For readers familiar with Weil’s, The Subversive Simone Weil is a valuable synthesis; for those coming to her for the first time, an inspiring primer.” -- Alice Kaplan, author of Looking for “The Stranger”: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic"An unconventional introduction to the thought of Simone Weil: it is not a biography nor is it a straightforward exposition of her writings. Zaretsky is clearly enchanted by Weil’s philosophy and presents her ideas with clarity. But he also sees her faults, her impracticalities, and her contradictions. . . .Readers will come away with a basic understanding of Weil’s world view but not without wrestling with her ideas and their complications. Recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter One The Force of Affliction Chapter Two Paying Attention Chapter Three The Varieties of Resistance Chapter Four Finding Roots Chapter Five The Good, the Bad, and the Godly Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“By examining the ‘sick’ William James, Sutton reveals an intriguing relation between pain and philosophical outlook in his work. Her analysis not only gives us new understanding of the ‘adorable genius’; it reminds us that philosophy itself often springs from lived experience, and enduring ideas can find their beginnings even in the most inhospitable human circumstances.” * Book Post *“Fabulous . . . Changed everything that I thought I knew about Williams James.” * New Books Network *“Sutton has not provided the world with yet another biography of philosopher and psychologist, William James. Instead, she has used her impressive research and analytical skills to provide important insights regarding the relationship between James’s many physical and psychological challenges and his intellectual output. Sutton argues that James’s experiences of infirmity have direct effects on his philosophical arguments, not as intellectual irritants but as substantive catalysts for leading to deep insights. This book shows just how thoroughly embodied James’s philosophy truly is, and as such, makes an important contribution to Jamesian scholarship.” -- D. Micah Hester, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences“Sutton’s study offers a brilliant new reading of James. Her original approach not only brings new dimensions to issues around illness, pain, health, and medicine—though Sutton performs this with precision—but offers a rare scholarly analysis of his letters, reviews, notebooks, and diaries to provide a fuller picture of his personal life and his intellectual engagements. It shows the vital quality of James’s holistic integration of life and thought and the lived quality of his intellectual concerns around sickness and health. With this work, Sutton shows us that the margins of the archive are as important to Jamesian scholarship as his main works. It is a rich study that roots James’s thinking in the reality of his embodied life and shows that, with a sensitivity to his language, we can see the voice of the physician in his psychology, philosophy, and analysis of religion.” -- Jeremy Carrette, University of Edinburgh“This book changes our perception of James as a philosopher and intellectual. The best extended piece of scholarship on James in a long time.” -- Sarin Marchetti, Sapienza UniversityTable of ContentsList of Figures Introduction: The Public Physician Diagnosing James A Philosophy of Everyday Life 1: Misery and Metaphysics A Dark Business The Problem of Evil Poisoned with Utilitarian Venom The Ethics of Self-Destruction Conscious Automata 2: Health and Hygiene The Laws of Health The Alcohol Question Habit Talks to Teachers Emotions and the Body 3: Religion and Regeneration The Science of Organic Life The Wonder-Mongers The Hidden Self A Wild World 4: Energy and Endurance Mortal Disease, Morality, and God The Divided Self Superhuman Life The Energies of Men 5: Politics and Pathology The Political James Defending the Degenerate Validating the Invalid The Voice of the Sick Therapeutic Campaigns Conclusion: Afterlife Fit to Live Moral Medicine Acknowledgments Notes Archival Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first book to map William James's preoccupation with medical ideas, concerns, and values across the breadth of his work. William James is known as a nineteenth-century philosopher, psychologist, and psychical researcher. Less well-known is how his interest in medicine influenced his life and work, driving his ambition to change the way American society conceived of itself in body, mind, and soul. William James, MD offers an account of the development and cultural significance of James's ideas and works, and establishes, for the first time, the relevance of medical themes to his major lines of thought. James lived at a time when old assumptions about faith and the moral and religious possibilities for human worth and redemption were increasingly displaced by a concern with the medically normal and the perfectibility of the body. Woven into treatises that warned against humanity's decline, these ideas were part of the eugenics movement and reflected a growing social stigma atTrade Review“By examining the ‘sick’ William James, Sutton reveals an intriguing relation between pain and philosophical outlook in his work. Her analysis not only gives us new understanding of the ‘adorable genius’; it reminds us that philosophy itself often springs from lived experience, and enduring ideas can find their beginnings even in the most inhospitable human circumstances.” * Book Post *“Fabulous . . . Changed everything that I thought I knew about Williams James.” * New Books Network *“Sutton has not provided the world with yet another biography of philosopher and psychologist, William James. Instead, she has used her impressive research and analytical skills to provide important insights regarding the relationship between James’s many physical and psychological challenges and his intellectual output. Sutton argues that James’s experiences of infirmity have direct effects on his philosophical arguments, not as intellectual irritants but as substantive catalysts for leading to deep insights. This book shows just how thoroughly embodied James’s philosophy truly is, and as such, makes an important contribution to Jamesian scholarship.” -- D. Micah Hester, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences“Sutton’s study offers a brilliant new reading of James. Her original approach not only brings new dimensions to issues around illness, pain, health, and medicine—though Sutton performs this with precision—but offers a rare scholarly analysis of his letters, reviews, notebooks, and diaries to provide a fuller picture of his personal life and his intellectual engagements. It shows the vital quality of James’s holistic integration of life and thought and the lived quality of his intellectual concerns around sickness and health. With this work, Sutton shows us that the margins of the archive are as important to Jamesian scholarship as his main works. It is a rich study that roots James’s thinking in the reality of his embodied life and shows that, with a sensitivity to his language, we can see the voice of the physician in his psychology, philosophy, and analysis of religion.” -- Jeremy Carrette, University of Edinburgh“This book changes our perception of James as a philosopher and intellectual. The best extended piece of scholarship on James in a long time.” -- Sarin Marchetti, Sapienza UniversityTable of ContentsList of Figures Introduction: The Public Physician Diagnosing James A Philosophy of Everyday Life 1: Misery and Metaphysics A Dark Business The Problem of Evil Poisoned with Utilitarian Venom The Ethics of Self-Destruction Conscious Automata 2: Health and Hygiene The Laws of Health The Alcohol Question Habit Talks to Teachers Emotions and the Body 3: Religion and Regeneration The Science of Organic Life The Wonder-Mongers The Hidden Self A Wild World 4: Energy and Endurance Mortal Disease, Morality, and God The Divided Self Superhuman Life The Energies of Men 5: Politics and Pathology The Political James Defending the Degenerate Validating the Invalid The Voice of the Sick Therapeutic Campaigns Conclusion: Afterlife Fit to Live Moral Medicine Acknowledgments Notes Archival Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the first book-length study of American philosophy at the turn of the century, Daniel J. Wilson traces the formation of philosophy as an academic discipline. Wilson shows how the rise of the natural and physical sciences at the end of the nineteenth century precipitated a crisis of confidence among philosophers as to the role of their discipline. Deftly tracing the ways in which philosophers sought to incorporate scientific values and methods into their outlook and to redefine philosophy itself, Wilson moves between close analysis of philosophical texts and consideration of professional careers of illustrative philosophers, such as Charles Sanders Peirce, John Dewey, and Josiah Royce. The author situates the emergence of professional philosophy in the context of the professionalization of American higher education and articulates, in the case of philosophy, the structures and values of a professional discipline. One of the most important consequences of this transformation was a new

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Book SynopsisCollecting the best of the author's work that was published in the Critical Inquiry journal between 1980 and 2002, this title provides an introduction to the philosopher and the evolution of his thought.Trade Review"Along with Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida... will be remembered as one of the three most important philosophers of the twentieth century. No thinker in the last one hundred years had a greater impact than he did on people in more fields and different disciplines." (New York Times) "Jacques Derrida revolutionised our understanding of words, texts, reading, and authorship.... Each publication is a singular demonstration of a patient response to the contours, rhythms, and turns of the subject being addressed." (Times (UK))"

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Book SynopsisJames Tully is one of the most influential political philosophers at work today. Offering a wide-ranging critical discussion of his work by leading scholars from various fields of study, Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity provides a rich perspective on the full extent of Tully’s contribution.Trade Review“Exploring James Tully’s creative, ambitious, and influential work on public philosophy, this superb volume is an essential companion to the works of one of the most important contemporary political theorists. Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity is a thoroughly illuminating and enjoyable book.” Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge and author of Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire"A significant and challenging contribution to political theory and philosophy. It is accessible to advanced undergraduates and will be of great interest to graduate students and scholars who study contemporary political thought. Highly recommended." Choice

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Book SynopsisJames Tully is one of the most influential political philosophers at work today. Offering a wide-ranging critical discussion of his work by leading scholars from various fields of study, Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity provides a rich perspective on the full extent of Tully’s contribution.Trade Review“Exploring James Tully’s creative, ambitious, and influential work on public philosophy, this superb volume is an essential companion to the works of one of the most important contemporary political theorists. Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity is a thoroughly illuminating and enjoyable book.” Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge and author of Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire"A significant and challenging contribution to political theory and philosophy. It is accessible to advanced undergraduates and will be of great interest to graduate students and scholars who study contemporary political thought. Highly recommended." Choice

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Book SynopsisInterrupting the dialectic by which sovereignty manages to be both the cause of our vulnerabilization and the tool of its prevention, in Being Vulnerable Arne De Boever explores how today’s experiences of vulnerabilization can be translated into a collective human power that dismantles the form of sovereignty that is producing this state of affairs.Trade Review“Arne De Boever has written a truly remarkable book. Being Vulnerable does nothing less than reconsider the entire tradition of thinking about sovereignty and propose a new way of approaching the topic. The skill, erudition, and sheer mastery of the material is exhilarating.” Dimitris Vardoulakis, author of Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy

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Book SynopsisInterrupting the dialectic by which sovereignty manages to be both the cause of our vulnerabilization and the tool of its prevention, in Being Vulnerable Arne De Boever explores how today’s experiences of vulnerabilization can be translated into a collective human power that dismantles the form of sovereignty that is producing this state of affairs.Trade Review“Arne De Boever has written a truly remarkable book. Being Vulnerable does nothing less than reconsider the entire tradition of thinking about sovereignty and propose a new way of approaching the topic. The skill, erudition, and sheer mastery of the material is exhilarating.” Dimitris Vardoulakis, author of Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy

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Book SynopsisThis study offers a close examination of Marx's dialectical method of analysis through the lens of current debates in cultural studies, political economy, and critical sociology. It seeks to reanimate Marx's theoretical reconstruction of the capitalist formation from the point of view of recent social dynamics within advanced consumer economies.Trade Review"Best s approach to rethinking a Marxian dialectical method comes at an extraordinarily appropriate time, one in which, as has so often been said, late capitalism has become an image society and in which aesthetics has in uniquely new historical ways been assimilated into economics. Any Marxism that claims to address the issues and problems of the renewed capitalist and globalized system of today s world must necessarily take some such path as this, which Beverley Best has so productively pioneered." - Fredric Jameson, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University "With her beautifully constructed and critically imaginative thesis, Beverley Best enhances our understanding of several key problems in critical theory: how to read Marx, today; how to read aesthetics politically, and political economy as aesthetics; what to do with cognitive mapping ; and how to deal in a lucid way as academics with an economy of obsolescence in ideas. This book is major contribution to the ethics of criticism as well as to the renewal of aesthetics and the study of Marx s method." - Meaghan Morris, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, and Chair Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong "This is a remarkable book on a topic on which there has been a lot of recent interest: the relevance of Marx and particularly of his method of analysis to the most pressing problems of our time. The author has an excellent grasp of Marx s own writings and of the most important literature dealing with this aspect of his work. The book is a fascinating short course on the history of recent (and not so recent) debates on the history of Marx s dialectical method." - Bertell Ollman, Department of Politics, NYU, and author of Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx s MethodTable of ContentsMarx's Critique of Abstraction * Capitalism's Process of Self-Mystification * Marx's Theoretical Process I: Abstraction and Representation * Marx's Theoretical Process II: Historicizing the Dialectic * Mediation as Allegory: Reading Political Economy Through the Artwork of Geoffrey Farmer * The Aesthetics of Political Economy * Mapping the Collective Subject

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Book SynopsisThis collection brings together the latest work of some of the world's leading Marxist philosophers and new young researchers. Based upon work presented at meetings of the Marx and Philosophy Society, it offers a unique snapshot of the best current scholarship on the philosophical aspects and implications of Marx's thought.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction; A.Chitty & M.McIvor PART I: MARX AND HIS PREDECESSORS 'The Entire Mystery': Marx's Understanding of Hegel; J.McCarney Karl Marx's Philosophical Modernism: Post-Kantian Foundations of Historical Materialism; M.McIvor Marx, the European Tradition, and the Philosophic Radicals; S.Meikle PART II: MARX AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Marx's Theory of Democracy in his Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of the State; G.Daremas Marx and Conservatism; A.Collier Forms of Right, Forms of Value: The Unity of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and Marx's Capital; R.Fine PART III: MARX ON LABOUR, MONEY AND CAPITAL Species-Being and Capital; A.Chitty Labour in Modern Industrial Society; S.Sayers The Concept of Money; C.Arthur Value, Money, and Capital in Hegel and Marx; P.Murray Abstraction and Productivity: Reflections on Formal Causality; W.Roberts PART IV: 20TH CENTURY MARXISM The Subject and Social Theory: Marx and Lukács on Hegel; M.Postone Multiple Returns: Althusser on Dialectics; J.Grant The Rationality of Analytical Marxism; R.Veneziani PART V: MARX AND FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY Marxism and Feminism: Living with your 'Ex'; T.Carver After Postmodernism: Feminism and Marxism Revisited; G.Howie Index

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