This collection of essays looks at analytic philosophy in its historical context. It argues that analytic philosophy is in a state of crisis - having to deal with its self-image, its relationship with philosophical alternatives, its fruitfulness and even legitimacy in the general philosophical community. This crisis manifests itself both within analytic philosophy, as we can see with the discussions and debates concerning the interpretation of its origins and key players (such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein), as well as in its evaluation by philosophers of different bents (such as postmodernists and Continental philosophers). This book examines the the crisis with a view to interpreting it. It tells the story of analytic philosophy, presenting its "raison d'etre" and the motivations, methods, and results of its eminent figures.

The work of Gilles Deleuze has had an impact far beyond philosophy. He is, among Foucault and Derrida, one of the most cited of all contemporary French thinkers. This searching collection considers Deleuze's relation to the philosophical tradition and beyond to the future of philosophy, science and technology. In addition to considering Deleuze's imaginative readings of classic figures such as Spinoza and Kant, the essays also point to the meaning of Deleuze on 'monstrous' and machinic thinking, on philosophy and engineering, on philosophy and biology, on modern painting and literature.

This volume is a collection of public writings and insights of the German poststructuralist, Friedrich A. Kittler. It merges the discourse of literature, war and technology into a unified theme. His research results in a vision of the future in which the distinction between mediums is erased. The introduction by John Johnston explicates the theoretical and practical consequences of Kittler's insights into the social and psychological effects of the processes by which metaphor in one medium is made real by another.

This volume is the first of two containing a selection of Antonio Gramsci's political writings from the time of his initial involvement in Italian politics to his imprisonment by Mussolini in 1926. This selection culminates in the 'Red Years' of 1910-20, and also features texts by Bordiga and Tasca from their debates with Gramsci. It traces Gramsci's development as a revolutionary socialist during the First World War, his thoughts on the Russian Revolution and his involvement in the general strike and factory occupations of 1920. Also included are his reactions to the emerging fascist movement, and contributions to the early stages of the debate about the establishment of the Communist Party of Italy

Is violent self-defense ethical? In the history of colonialism, racism, sexism, capitalism, there has long been a dividing line between bodies "worthy of defending" and those who have been disarmed and rendered defenseless. In 1685, for example, France's infamous "Code Noir" forbade slaves from carrying weapons, under penalty of the whip. In nineteenth-century Algeria, the colonial state outlawed the use of arms by Algerians, but granted French settlers the right to bear arms. Today, some lives are seen to be worth so little that Black teenagers can be shot in the back for appearing "threatening" while their killers are understood, by the state, to be justified. That those subject to the most violence have been forcibly made defenseless raises, for any movement of liberation, the question of using violence in the interest of self-defense. Here, philosopher Elsa Dorlin looks across the global history of the left - from slave revolts to the knitting women of the French Revolution and British suffragists' training in ju-jitsu, from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to the Black Panther Party, from queer neighborhood patrols to Black Lives Matter - to trace the politics, philosophy, and ethics of self defense. In this history she finds a "martial ethics of the self": a practice in which violent self defense is the only means for the oppressed to ensure survival and to build a liveable future. In this sparkling and provocative book, drawing on theorists from Thomas Hobbes to Fred Hampton, Frantz Fanon to Judith Butler, Michel Foucault to June Jordan, Dorlin has reworked the very idea of modern governance and political subjectivity. Translated from the French by Kieran Aarons.

What is postmodernity - a cultural breakthrough, or a cultural collapse? And what are its consequences for the arts - a new era of unprecedented creativity, or the state of acute crisis? And above all, is postmodernism a new and revolutionary phenomenon, or is it a radical, logical or misguided, development of modern culture, and particularly of its avant-garde tradition? What are the continuities? What are the discontinuities? These are just some of the questions which this study asks and attempts to answer. It draws upon a wide range of evidence: from the experience of daily life in a consumer society; science and religion; visual arts and literature; film and television; and the most arcane works of contemporary music. The author sets high standards for the notoriously inconclusive, and all too often confused, debate about the cultural significance of postmodernism and postmodernity; he shows how large is the volume of historical and artistic knowledge needed to seriously grapple with the issues involved in any conceivable answer to the query.

The period 1985-1995 saw a new wave of interest, in philosophical and theoretical circles, in the writings of Walter Benjamin, associate of the early Frankfurt School and among the most innovative and uncategorizable of German modernist thinkers. It is against the horizon of the contemporary theoretical scene, combining impulses from post-structuralism, feminism, cultural anthropology, and psychoanalysis, that Sigrid Weigel, one of Germany's leading Benjamin experts, undertakes her re-reading of his work. The subject of this sequence of eleven essays, assembled here for the first time in English translation, is Benjamin as theorist, whereby his work on thinking in images or UBilddnken and the relation of this to 'the first material of human existence ...the body" is taken as constituting the specificity of his philosophy. Arranged in three sections ( "Politics of Images and Body", "Other - Gender - Readings", and "Memory and Writing") the essays provide a passage into Benjamin's thinking in images.

Volume 10 of the Routledge History of Philosophy presents a historical survey of the central topics in twentieth century Anglo-American philosophy. It chronicles what has been termed the 'linguistic turn' in analytic philosophy and traces the influence the study of language has had on the main problems of philosophy. Each chapter contains an extensive bibliography of the major writings in the field.
All the essays present their large and complex topics in a clear and well organised way. At the end, the reader finds a helpful Chronology of the major political, scientific and philosophical events in the Twentieth Century and an extensive Glossary of technical terms.

Contents:
Introduction Stuart Shanker 1. Philosophy of Logic A.D.Irving 2. Philosophy of Mathematics in the Twentieth Century Michael Detlefsen 3. Frege Rainer Born 4. Wittgenstein's Tractatus James Bogen 5. Logical Positivism Oswald Hanfling 6. The Philosophy of Physics Rom Harre 7. The Philosophy of Science Today Joseph Agassi 8. Chance, Cause and Conduct: Probability Theory and the Explanation of Human Action Jeff Coulter 9. Cybernetics K.M.Sayre 10. Descartes' Legacy: The Mechanist/Vitalist Debates Stuart Shanker

In this volume of essays Russell is concerned to combat, in one way or another, the growth of dogmatism, whether of the Left or of the Right, which has hitherto characterised our tragic century.

Combining postmodernism with technoscience, this work considers the viability of public works such as the superconducting supercollider in a postmodern age. Contending that technoscientific projects are contingent upon economic and political support, and not simply upon their scientific feasibility, Sassower illuminates the cultural context of postmodernism vis-a-vis an examination of postmodernism and the philosophy of late 20th-century technoscience. Drawing upon conflicts between Popperians, postmodernists and feminists, Sassower claims that "translation" between competing discourses about technoscience is necessary to avoid cultural collisions and foster fruitful exchange between divergent discourses; also that a discussion of reality, both natural and social, is the common ground for this debate. He emphasizes also the material, political and economic conditions which underlie technoscientific projects, and stresses the indespensible role imagination and art play in teaching the responsible development of technology in the next century.

Heidegger and ethics is a contentious conjunction of terms. Martin Heidegger himself rejected the notion of ethics, while his endorsement of Nazism is widely seen as unethical. This major study examines the complex and controversial issues involved in bringing Heidegger and ethics together.
Working backwards through his work, from his 1964 claim that philosophy has been completed to his first major book, "Being and Time, " Joanna Hodge questions Heidegger's denial that his inquiries were concerned with ethics. She discovers a form of ethics in Heidegger's thinking which elucidates his important distinction between metaphysics and philosophy. Opposing many contemporary views, Hodge proposes that ethics can be retrieved and questions the relation between ethics and metaphysics that Heidegger made so pervasive.

Heidegger and ethics is a contentious conjunction of terms. Martin Heidegger himself rejected the notion of ethics, while his endorsement of Nazism is widely seen as unethical. This major new study examines the complex and controversial issues involved in bringing them together.

By working backwards through his work, from his 1964 claim that philosophy has been completed to Being and Time, his first major work, Joanna Hodge questions Heidegger's denial that his enquires were concerned with ethics. She discovers a form of ethics in Heidegger's thinking which elucidates his important distinction between metaphysics and philosophy. Against many contemporary views, she proposes therefore that ethics can be retrieved and questions the relation between ethics and metaphysics that Heidegger had made so pervasive.

Time, Tradition and Society in Greek Archaeology is an innovative volume which examines the relevance of archaeological theory to classical archaeology. It offers a wideranging overview of classical archaeology, from the Bronze Age to the Classical period and from mainland Greece to Cyprus. Within this framework Spencer examines many of the issues which have become important in the study of archaeology in recent years - time, the `past', gender, ideology, social structure and group identity. The papers in this collection cover such diverse topics as the rural landscape, classical art and scientific methodologies. Over the last century the study of classical archaeology has been orthodox and static. The essays in this collection examine it in the light of current theoretical archaeology and anthropology, making it more relevant and valuable to the study of archaeology in the 1990s. This is a diverse and topical collection, of great value to classicists, ancient historians, anthropologists and everyone interested in new approaches to archaeology.

Veblen is probably one of the most important social philosophers that the United States has yet produced. A fierce and compelling critic of mainstream economic theory and its fundamental assumptions, he constructed an evolutionary history of mankind from primitive times to the machine age. Darwinian notions of evolution pervade Veblen's thought, originating in his view that economic thinking lags hopelessly behind the ever-changing realities of social life. Within this grand design, Veblen also produced many insights into human behaviour including the idea that conspicuous consumption - colloquially known as "keeping up with the Jones'" was a driving force in economic life. Besides this, he wrote on imperialism, explained why the modern German and Japanese states were more warlike than others and predicted a massive crisis for capitalism which came about in the 1930s. Veblen has been neglected in Britain. This selection of work brings together Veblen's unique attempts at understanding the evolution of economic patterns in a wider social context.

The publication in 1957 of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures ushered in the era of what can properly be termed modern linguistics - the science of language. This critical assessment brings together over 100 papers on every area of Chomsky's work, revealing how pervasive his influence has been on all aspects of modern thought, from linguistics to philosophy, psychology, computer science, social theory, political analysis and literary theory. Carlos Otero is one of the world's leading interpreters of Chomsky's ideas and brings together in these volumes papers which provide a comprehensive assessment of his contribution to modern thought.

The publication in 1957 of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures ushered in the era of what can properly be termed modern linguistics - the science of language. This critical assessment brings together over 100 papers on every area of Chomsky's work, revealing how pervasive his influence has been on all aspects of modern thought, from linguistics to philosophy, psychology, computer science, social theory, political analysis and literary theory. Carlos Otero is one of the world's leading interpreters of Chomsky's ideas and brings together in these volumes papers which provide a comprehensive assessment of his contribution to modern thought.

Gilles Deleuze, a major figure in the intellectual history of the late-20th century, inaugurated the radical non-Hegelianism that has marked French intellectual life during the past three decades. Many poststructuralist and postmodernist practices can be traced to Deleuze's 1962 resurrection of Nietzsche against Hegel. Hardt shows how Deleuze's early analysis of Bergson's critique of ontology and determination led him to a conception of a positive movement of differentiation and becoming, which in turn led him to the field of forces, sense, value, and the thematic of power and affirmation in Nietzsche. The theory of power in Nietzsche provided the link for Deleuze to an ethics of active expression in Spinoza: Deleuze's discovery and analysis of Spinoza's cultivation of joy and practice at the center of ontology finally resulted in a complete break from the Hegelian paradigm that had reigned over continental philosophy and history. Michael Hardt is the translator of Antonio Negri's "The Savage Anomaly: the Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics" (Minnesota, 1990), Giorgio Agamben's "The Coming Community" (Minnesota, 1993), and co-author (with Antonio Negri) of "Labor of Dionysu

Now available in paperback, The Quarrel Between Philosophyand Poetry focuses on the theoretical and practical suppositions of the long-standing conflict between philosophy and poetry. Stanley Rosen--one of the leading Plato scholars of our day--examines philosophical activity, questioning whether technical philosophy is a species of poetry, a political program, an interpretation of human existence according to the ideas of 19th and 20th-century thinkers, or a contemplation of beings and Being.

Contents:
Part I. Human Nature and Human Nurture Part II. Political Theory and Social Practice Part III. Value, Conduct and Art Part IV. Nature, Knowledge and Naturalism

Martin Heidegger (1899-1976), born in Baden, Germany, is one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. The one-time assistant of Edmund Husserl, the founder of the phenomenological movement, Heidegger established himself as an independent and original thinker with the publication of his major work "Being and Time" in 1927.
This collection of papers is the most comprehensive and international examination of Heidegger's work available. It contains established classic articles, some appearing in English for the first time, and many original pieces provided especially for this collection. The cross-cultural and political aspects of Heidegger's thought are examined, including his relationship to the Nazi party.
The purpose of this collection is to provide a critical examination of Heidegger's work which evaluates its limits as well as its strengths, and to assess the prospects for the future development of his thought. Since many of the leading themes of contemporary philosophy such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, existentialism, postmodernism and deconstructivism trace their intellectual heritage back to Heidegger, this collection will be an indispensable guide to the issues which are currently being disputed in the field of philosophy.

This book analyses the epistemological problems that Shakespeare explores in Othello. In particular, it uses the methods of analytic philosophy, especially the work of the later Wittgenstein, to characterize these problems and the play.

This book discusses the ethical dimension of the interpretation of texts and events. Its purpose is not to address the neutrality or ideological biases of interpreters, but rather to discuss the underlying issue of the intervention of interpreters into the process of interpretation. The author calls this intervention the "ethical" aspect of interpretation and argues that interpreters are neither neutral nor necessarily activists. He examines three models of interpretation, all of which recognize the role that interpreters play in the process of interpretation. In these models, the question of the truth or validity of interpretation is dependent upon the attitude of interpreters. These three models are: (1) the principle of charity in interpretation in the two different versions defended by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Donald Davidson; (2) the production of truth, as developed by Paul Ricoeur and Michel Foucault; and (3) the regulative principle in interpretation as formal validity claims-as presented by Karl-Otto Apel and Jurgen Habermas-and as benevolence or love as an epistemic virtue-as defended by Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher. The critical discussion of these three models, which brings to the fore the different manners in which interpreters intervene in the process of interpretation as persons, lays the foundations for an ethics of interpretation. The Ethics of Interpretation will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in hermeneutics, 19th- and 20th-century philosophy, literary theory, and cultural theory.

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was one of the most celebrated and influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He was awarded in 1928 the Nobel prize for literature for his philosophical work, and his controversial ideas about time, memory and life shaped generations of thinkers, writers and artists. In this clear and engaging introduction, Mark Sinclair examines the full range of Bergson's work. The book sheds new light on familiar aspects of Bergson's thought, but also examines often ignored aspects of his work, such as his philosophy of art, his philosophy of technology and the relation of his philosophical doctrines to his political commitments. After an illuminating overview of his life and work, chapters are devoted to the following topics: the experience of time as duration the experience of freedom memory mind and body laughter and humour knowledge art and creativity the elan vital as a theory of biological life ethics, religion, war and modern technology With a final chapter on his legacy, Bergson is an outstanding guide to one of the great philosophers. Including chapter summaries, annotated further reading and a glossary, it is essential reading for those interested in metaphysics, time, free will, aesthetics, the philosophy of biology, continental philosophy and the role of European intellectuals in World War I.