Description
Book SynopsisIt is considerably easier to say that modern philosophy began with Descartes than it is to define the modernity and philosophy to which Descartes gave rise. This work examines the roles of discourse and writing in Cartesian method and intuition, and the significance of graphic architectonic form in the genealogy of modern philosophy.
Trade Review“An engaging and original piece of work—a very good book.
Lines of Thought will take a respected place amongst interdisciplinary studies of philosophy.”—Jonathan Ree, Middlesex University
“An excellent, highly disciplined reading; a truly interdisciplinary achievement. One of the most striking qualities of this book is the way in which Brodsky Lacour opens up broader historical, philosophical, and literary perspectives, pertaining particularly to present discussions of Modernity and deconstruction, by strictly pursuing her rigorous reading of Descartes’s and Perrault’s texts. The basis for such a mediation is the author’s excellent literary analyses and her impressive understanding of philosophical and mathematical issues. In thinking through the figures of line and architecture in and as thought and discourse, she unfolds a certain construction of modern subjectivity and contemporary theoretical problems in a highly illuminating way.”—Rainer Nagele, The Johns Hopkins University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viii
Notes on the Text ix
Preface: What Is ModerN? 1
Part 1. Descartes' "Design"
1.
Triaté or
Discours de la méethode 11
2. Autobiographical Discourse: "Fable" as "Tableau" 18
3. The "Discourse" of Thinking: Architectural Design 32
4. The Things a Thinking Thing Thinks 38
Part 2. The Discourse of Method
5. Letters and Lines: Algebra and Geometry in Descartes'
Géométrie 49
6. Writing and Intuition 68
Part 3. Thinking As Line
7. The
Cogito and Architectural Form 87
8. Staircase as Labyrinth: Eudoxe on Method 111
9. Postscript: Architectural Theory after Descartes 117
Epilogue: The Line between Aesthetics and Knowledge 141
Bibliography 151
Index 161
