Winner - AERA 2011 Outstanding Book Award Jacques Rancire: Education, Truth, Emancipation demonstrates the importance of Rancires work for educational theory, and in turn, it shows just how central Rancires educational thought is to his work in political theory and aesthetics. Charles Bingham and Gert Biesta illustrate brilliantly how philosophy can benefit from Rancires particular way of thinking about education, and go on to offer their own provocative account of the relationship between education, truth, and emancipation. Including a new essay by Rancire himself, this book is a must-read for scholars of social theory and all who profess to educate.

Although there is a significant literature on the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, there are few analyses that address the deconstructive critique of phenomenology as it simultaneously plays across range of cultural productions including literature, painting, cinema, new media, and the structure of the university. Using the critical figures of "ghost" and "shadow"-and initiating a vocabulary of phantomenology-this book traces the implications of Derridean "spectrality" on the understanding of contemporary thought, culture, and experience.This study examines the interconnections of philosophy, art in its many forms, and the hauntology of Jacques Derrida. Exposure is explored primarily as exposure to the elemental weather (with culture serving as a lean-to); exposure in a photographic sense; being over-exposed to light; exposure to the certitude of death; and being exposed to all the possibilities of the world. Exposure, in sum, is a kind of necessary, dangerous, and affirmative openness.The book weaves together three threads in order to format an image of the contemporary exposure: 1) a critique of the philosophy of appearances, with phenomenology and its vexed relationship to idealism as the primary representative of this enterprise; 2) an analysis of cultural formations-literature, cinema, painting, the university, new media-that highlights the enigmatic necessity for learning to read a spectrality that, since the two cannot be separated, is both hauntological and historical; and 3) a questioning of the role of art-as semblance, reflection, and remains-that occurs within and alongside the space of philosophy and of the all the "posts-" in which people find themselves.Art is understood fundamentally as a spectral aesthetics, as a site that projects from an exposed place toward an exposed, and therefore open, future, from a workplace that testifies to the blast wind of obliteration, but also in that very testimony gives a place for ghosts to gather, to speak with each other and with humankind. Art, which installs itself in the very heart of the ancient dream of philosophy as its necessary companion, ensures that each phenomenon is always a phantasm and thus we can be assured that the apparitions will continue to speak in what Michel Serres's has called the "grotto of miracles." This book, then, enacts the slowness of a reading of spectrality that unfolds in the chiaroscuro of truth and illusion, philosophy and art, light and darkness.Scholars, students, and professional associations in philosophy (especially of the work of Derrida, Husserl, Heidegger, and Kant), literature, painting, cinema, new media, psychoanalysis, modernity, theories of the university, and interdisciplinary studies.

This book reflects the most recent research devoted to a systematized perspective and a critical (re)construction of previous theoretical attempts of explaining, justifying and continuing Kuhn's ingenious hypothesis in arts. Hofstadter, Clignet and Habermas revealed to be the most engaged scholars in solving this aesthetic "puzzled-problem". In this context, the structural similarities between science and arts are attentively evaluated, thus satisfying an older concern attributed to the historical Kuhn-Kubler dispute, extensively commented along the pages of this book. How can we track the matter of rationality and truth in art and aesthetics, inspired by scientific perspectives? Are artistic styles similar to scientific paradigms? Are we entitled to pursue paradigms and masterpieces as rational models in science, respectively in arts? On what possible grounds can we borrow from science notions such as progress and predictability, in the study of the evolution of art and its aesthetic backgrounds? Are the historical dynamics of science and art affected by political factors in the same manner? This book will be of interest to philosophers, but also to historians of science and historians of art alike in the reassessment it provides of recent debates on reshaping the art world using Kuhn's "paradigm shift".

The book explores Peirce's non standard thoughts on a synthetic continuum, topological logics, existential graphs, and relational semiotics, offering full mathematical developments on these areas. More precisely, the following new advances are offered: (1) two extensions of Peirce's existential graphs, to intuitionistic logics (a new symbol for implication), and other non-classical logics (new actions on nonplanar surfaces); (2) a complete formalization of Peirce's continuum, capturing all Peirce's original demands (genericity, supermultitudeness, reflexivity, modality), thanks to an inverse ordinally iterated sheaf of real lines; (3) an array of subformalizations and proofs of Peirce's pragmaticist maxim, through methods in category theory, HoTT techniques, and modal logics. The book will be relevant to Peirce scholars, mathematicians, and philosophers alike, thanks to thorough assessments of Peirce's mathematical heritage, compact surveys of the literature, and new perspectives offered through formal and modern mathematizations of the topics studied.

The questions have been with us since the dim, dark dusk of early humanity. Who are we? How did we get here? Who is in charge? In "The Discovery of Everything, the Creation of Nothing, " author Jim Robert Bader communicates his personal philosophy on these age-old enigmas as they apply to modern society.Intended as a primer for the mind of the layman, "The Discovery of Everything, the Creation of Nothing" presents a manifesto of the soul that insists the truth is not only out there, but easily accessible to anyone. Based on years of research and observation, Bader distills the complexities and addresses relevant topics from an "everyman" perspective by pondering the nature of the universe. He reflects on the thoughts and discoveries of others to bring knowledge to the common man.In "The Discovery of Everything, the Creation of Nothing, " Bader offers a new way of understanding the world. He confronts old assumptions, and he challenges the traditional way of thinking to better cope with and comprehend the nature of the world around us.

This monograph offers a new interpretation of Melville's work (focusing on "Moby-Dick", "Pierre" and "Benito Cereno") in the light of scholarship on globalization from critics in 'new' American studies. In "Melville, Mapping and Globalization", Robert Tally argues that Melville does not belong in the tradition of the American Renaissance, but rather creates a baroque literary cartography, artistically engaging with spaces beyond the national model. At a time of intense national consolidation and cultural centralization, Melville discovered the postnational forces of an emerging world system, a system that has become our own in the era of globalization. Drawing on the work of a range of literary and social critics (including Deleuze, Foucault, Jameson, and Moretti), Tally argues that Melville's distinct literary form enabled his critique of the dominant national narrative of his own time and proleptically undermined the national literary tradition of American Studies a century later. Melville's hypercanonical status in the United States makes his work all the more crucial for understanding the role of literature in a post-American epoch. Offering bold new interpretations and theoretical juxtapositions, Tally presents a postnational Melville, well suited to establishing new approaches to American and world literature in the twenty-first century.

This is a unique and much needed book exploring the debt Deleuze owes to Kantian arguments and principles. The way in which we read Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" has profound consequences for our understanding of his thought in relation to the work of other thinkers. "Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics" presents a unified reading of this text in order to respond to the concerns surrounding the method and arguments Kant employs. In showing us how the 'first critique' comes to make greater sense when read as a whole or in terms of its 'architectonic' unity, Edward Willatt breathes new life into a text often considered rigid and artificial in its organisation. On the basis of this reading, Kant's relation to Deleuze is revealed to be much more productive than is often realized. Deftly relating the unifying method of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" with Deleuze's account of experience, and using Kant's concern to secure the conditions that make experience possible to develop Deleuze's attempt to convincingly relate 'the actual' and 'the virtual', this book constitutes an important step in our understanding of Deleuze and his philosophical project. "Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline.

It is widely believed in philosophy of science that nobody can claim that any verdict of science is forced upon us by the effects of a physical world upon our sense organs and instruments. The Quine-Duhem problem supposedly allows us to resist any conclusion. Views on language aside, Quine is supposed to have shown this decisively. But it is just false. In many scientific examples, there is simply no room to doubt that a particular hypothesis is responsible for a refutation or established by the observations. Fault Tracing shows how to play independently established hypotheses against each other to determine whether an arbitrary hypothesis needs to be altered in the light of (apparently) refuting evidence. It analyses real examples from natural science, as well as simpler cases. It argues that, when scientific theories have a structure that prevents them from using this method, the theory looks wrong, and is subject to serious criticism. This is a new, and potentially far-reaching, theory of empirical justification.

This is an important collection of essays examining and promoting Foucault's influence on present-day philosophy, in both the analytic and Continental philosophical traditions."Foucault's Legacy" brings together the work of eight Foucault specialists in an important collection of essays marking the 25th anniversary of Foucault's death. Focusing on the importance of Foucault's most central ideas for present-day philosophy, the book shows how his influence goes beyond his own canonical tradition and linguistic milieu. The essays in this book explore key areas of Foucault's thought by comparing aspects of his work with the thought of a number of major philosophers, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Rorty, Hegel, Searle, Vattimo and Williams. Crucially the book also considers the applicability of his central ideas to broader issues such as totalitarianism, religion, and self-sacrifice. Presenting a fresh and exciting vision of Foucault as a philosopher of enduring influence, the book shows how important Foucault remains to philosophy today.

Wisdom and Philosophy: Contemporary and Comparative Approaches questions the nature of the relationship between wisdom and philosophy from an intercultural perspective. Bringing together an international mix of respected philosophers, this volume discusses similarities and differences of Western and Asian pursuits of wisdom and reflects on attempts to combine them. Contributors cover topics such as Confucian ethics, the acquisition of wisdom in pre-Qin literature and anecdotes of stupidity in the classical Chinese tradition, while also addressing contemporary topics such as global Buddhism and analytic metaphysics. Providing original examples of comparative philosophy, contributors look at ideas and arguments of thinkers such as Confucius, Zhuangzi and Zhu Xi alongside the work of Aristotle, Plato and Heidegger. Presenting Asian perspectives on philosophy as practical wisdom, Wisdom and Philosophy is a rare intercultural inquiry into the relation between wisdom and philosophy. It provides new ways of understanding how wisdom connects to philosophy and underlines the need to reintroduce it into philosophy today.

All five volumes of George Santayana's philosophical masterwork exploring the manifestations of reason in life are united in this superb edition. The Life of Reason begins boldly, with Santayana explaining his concept of reason in great detail. How a mind may embark and progress on applying rational thought to life is explained, and the practical value of such thinking methods are demonstrated. The second volume sees the author questioning whether men can be exhorted to virtuous behaviors without the concept of a creator, heaven, hell or other supernatural concepts. The third volume, Reason in Religion, is an emotional and at times autobiographical account of Santayana's own struggles with faith. Volumes four and five concern science and art, respectively. The basis of artistic expression and its grounding in reasoning is discussed, with chapters dedicated to the visual art of painting and also music.

In our contemporary age aesthetics seems to crumble and no longer be reducible to a coherent image. And yet given the vast amount of works in aesthetics produced in the last hundred years, this age could be defined "the century of aesthetics." "20th Century Aesthetics" is a new account of international aesthetic thought by Mario Perniola, one of Italy's leading contemporary thinkers. Starting from four conceptual fields - life, form, knowledge, action - Perniola identifies the lines of aesthetic reflection that derive from them and elucidates them with reference to major authors: from Dilthey to Foucault (aesthetics of life), from Wolfflin to McLuhan and Lyotard (aesthetics of form), from Croce to Goodman (aesthetics and knowledge), from Dewey to Bloom (aesthetics and action). There is also a fifth one that touches on the sphere of affectivity and emotionality, and which comes to aesthetics from thinkers like Freud, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Lacan, Derrida and Deleuze. The volume concludes with an extensive sixth chapter on Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Brazilian, South Korean and South East Asian aesthetic thought and on the present decline of Western aesthetic sensibility.

This book provides novel reading of the relations between two central philosophical disciplines - metaphysics and ethics. "Pragmatist Metaphysics" proposes a pragmatist re-articulation of the nature, aims and methods of metaphysics. Rather than regarding metaphysics as a 'first philosophy', an inquiry into the world independent of human perspectives, the pragmatist views metaphysics as an inquiry into categorizations of reality laden with human practices. Insofar as our categorizations of reality are practice-laden, they are also, inevitably, value-laden.Sami Pihlstrom argues that metaphysics does not, then, study the world's 'own' categorical structure, but a structure we, through our conceptual and practical activities, impose on the reality we experience and interact with. Engaging with the classical American pragmatists, in particular William James, and neopragmatists, including Hilary Putnam, the author seeks to correct long-held misconceptions regarding the nature of the relationship between metaphysics and pragmatism. He argues that a coherent metaphysical alternative to the currently fashionable realist metaphysics emerges from pragmatism and that pragmatism itself should be reinterpreted in a metaphysically serious manner. Moreover, the book argues that, from a pragmatist perspective, metaphysics must be inextricably linked with ethics.

Genealogies of Speculation looks to break the impasse between the innovations of speculative thought and the dominant strands of 20th century anti-foundationalist philosophy. Challenging emerging paradigms of philosophical history, this text re-evaluates different theoretical and political traditions such as feminism, literary theory, social geography and political theory after the speculative turn in philosophy. With contributions from leading writers in contemporary thought this book is a crucial resource for studying cultural and art-theory and continental philosophy.

This important new book offers the first full-length interpretation of the thought of Martin Heidegger with respect to irony. In a radical reading of Heidegger's major works (from "Being and Time" through the "Rector's Address" and the "Letter on Humanism" to "The Origin of the Work of Art" and the Spiegel interview), Andrew Haas does not claim that Heidegger is simply being ironic. Rather he argues that Heidegger's writings make such an interpretation possible - perhaps even necessary.Heidegger begins "Being and Time" with a quote from Plato, a thinker famous for his insistence upon Socratic irony. "The Irony of Heidegger" takes seriously the apparently curious decision to introduce the threat of irony even as philosophy begins in earnest to raise the question of the meaning of being. Through a detailed and thorough reading of Heidegger's major texts and the fundamental questions they raise, Haas reveals that one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century can be read with as much irony as earnestness. "The Irony of Heidegger" attempts to show that the essence of this irony lies in uncertainty, and that the entire project of onto-heno-chronophenomenology, therefore needs to be called into question.

"Writing and Difference" is widely perceived to be an excellent starting place for those new to Derrida and this "Reader's Guide" is the perfect accompaniment to the study of one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th Century."Writing and Difference" is one of Jacques Derrida's most widely read and studied books. In a collection of essays that engage with literature, history, poetry, dramaturgy, psychoanalysis, ethnology and structuralism, Derrida demonstrates how philosophy and literature might be read, and revolutionises our understanding of writing, difference and life itself.This introduction is the ideal companion to an unprecedented and influential group of texts. Sarah Wood reengages with the original French text and offers guidance on: philosophical and historical context; key themes; reading the text; reception and influence; and, further reading."Continuum Reader's Guides" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to key texts in literature and philosophy. Each book explores the themes, context, criticism and influence of key works, providing a practical introduction to close reading, guiding students towards a thorough understanding of the text. They provide an essential, up-to-date resource, ideal for undergraduate students.

This volume of newly written chapters on the history and interpretation of Wittgenstein's Tractatus represents a significant step beyond the polemical debate between broad interpretive approaches that has recently characterized the field. Some of the contributors might count their approach as 'new' or 'resolute', while others are more 'traditional', but all are here concerned primarily with understanding in detail the structure of argument that Wittgenstein presents within the Tractatus, rather than with its final self-renunciation, or with the character of the understanding that renunciation might leave behind. The volume makes a strong case that close investigation, both biographical and textual, into the composition of the Tractatus, and into the various influences on it, still has much to yield in revealing the complexity and fertility of Wittgenstein's early thought. Amongst these influences Kant and Kierkegaard are considered alongside Wittgenstein's immediate predecessors in the analytic tradition. The themes explored range across the breadth of Wittgenstein's book, and include his accounts of ethics and aesthetics, as well as issues in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, and aspects of the logical framework of his account of representation. The contrast of saying and showing, and Wittgenstein's attitude to the inexpressible, is of central importance to many of the contributions. By approaching this concern through the various first-level issues that give rise to it, rather than from entrenched schematic positions, the contributors demonstrate the possibility of a more inclusive, constructive and fruitful mode of engagement with Wittgenstein's text and with each other.