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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 - > General
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 book is a manuscript that was virtually complete when James W. Cornman died. Most of the chapters were in final form, and all but the last had been revised by the author. The last chapter was in handwritten form, and the concluding remarks were not finished. Swain took charge of the proofreading and John L. Thomas compiled the indices with the assistance of Lehrer. It is our opinion that this manuscript, like the other books Cornman published, is one of exceptional scholarly and philo sophical importance. As do all of his philosophical publications, this work reflects Cornman's great love for philosophy and his commitment to the search for truth. Every serious student and author of epistemology will benefit from and admire the thorough scholarship and rigorous argumentation they will find herein. It has been our privilege to partici pate in the preparation of the manuscript for the philosophical public. KEITH LEHRER MARSHALL SWAIN IX INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION TO EPISTEMOLOGICAL SKEPTICISM Many philosophers try to refute skepticism, but few try to give a precise characterization of the thesis they attack. My first aim, consequently, is to characterize skepticism, or, more precisely, several species of skepticism. Then I shall choose those species I wish to consider and justify my choice. To begin, let me distinguish what I shall call "epistemological skepticism" from the thesis I shall call "ontological nihilism" and from what is believed by someone whom I shall call an "ontological skeptic.""
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.
In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche gives an impassioned analysis of Western religion, specifically Christianity, that confronts its authoritative view of humans and nature. Nietzsche introduces a counterargument that dismisses groupthink or herd mentality and emphasizes a person's "will to power." He demystifies past ideas, encouraging a bold alternative. An honest study of different ideologies and their influence on positive and negative behaviors. With nearly 300 aphorisms, the author criticizes the state of philosophy and its link to conventional wisdom. He also rejects a universal code of ethics as it doesn't account for the distinct characteristics of each individual. Nietzsche suggests every person has a lived experience that affects their outlook on what's right and wrong. Nietzsche is one of the most famous and controversial thinkers of all-time. His works are staples within the intellectual community and are used to discuss identity, nobility and personal growth. He is often a point of reference for other scholars, including psychologists, scientists and political leaders. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Beyond Good and Evil is both modern and readable.
John Dewey was the foremost philosophical figure and public intellectual in early to mid-twentieth century America. He is still the most academically cited Anglophone philosopher of the past century, and is among the most cited Americans of any century. In this comprehensive volume spanning thirty-five chapters, leading scholars help researchers access particular aspects of Dewey's thought, navigate the enormous and rapidly developing literature, and participate in current scholarship in light of prospects in key topical areas. Beginning with a framing essay by Philip Kitcher calling for a transformation of philosophical research inspired by Dewey, contributors interpret, appraise, and critique Dewey's philosophy under the following headings: Metaphysics; Epistemology, Science, Language, and Mind; Ethics, Law, and the Starting Point; Social and Political Philosophy, Race, and Feminist Philosophy; Philosophy of Education; Aesthetics; Instrumental Logic, Philosophy of Technology, and the Unfinished Project of Modernity; Dewey in Cross-Cultural Dialogue; The American Philosophical Tradition, the Social Sciences, and Religion; and Public Philosophy and Practical Ethics.
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.
Felix Guattari: Thought, Friendship, and Visionary Cartography, by Franco Berardi 'Bifo', originates in the author's close personal acquaintance with Felix Guattari's writings and political engagement in the context of Berardi Bifo's activism in Italian autonomist politics and his ongoing collaboration with Guattari in the 1970s and 1980s. This biography gains distinction from its keen insight into Guattari's political practice and from a precise understanding of how this practice relates to the theoretical and conceptual aspects of Guattari's writings, alone and with Gilles Deleuze. Thanks to an approach at once personal and theoretically well informed, Bifo's biography provides a clear and accessible introduction to Guattari's works. This edition also includes a critical introduction and a 2005 interview with Bifo on a range of topics relating Guattari's works to the current political conjuncture.
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.
A collection of essays which explores the significance of Wittgenstein for the Philosophy of Religion. Explorations of central notions in Wittgenstein's later philosophy are brought to bear on the clash between belief and atheism; understanding religious experience; language and ritual; evil and theodicies; miracles; and the possibility of a Christian philosophy.
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.
Alain Badiou was born in 1937 in Rabat and Jean-Claude Milner in 1941 in Paris. They were both involved in the "Red Years" at the end of the Sixties and both were Maoists, but while Badiou was focusing all his attention on China, Milner was already taking his distance from it. Over the years, that original dispute over the destiny of gauchisme was fueled by deep, new differences between them concerning the role of philosophy and politics. In this wide-ranging and compelling dialogue, these two great thinkers explore the role of politics in today's world and consider the need for a formal theory of communist political organization. Whether they are addressing the era of revolutions, and in particular the Paris Commune and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or discussing the infinite, the universal, the name "Jew", violence, capitalism, the left, or Europe, Jean-Claude Milner's dyed-in-the-wool skepticism constantly runs up against Alain Badiou's doctrinal passion. This extraordinary debate ultimately leads to new areas of interrogation and shows that there is no better remedy for the crushing power of media-influenced thinking than the revival of the great disputes of the mind.
The Intellectual Origins of Modernity explores the long and winding road of modernity from Rousseau to Foucault and its roots, which are not to be found in a desire for enlightenment or in the idea of progress but in the Promethean passion of Western humankind. Modernity is the Promethean passion, the passion of humans to be their own master, to use their insight to make a world different from the one that they found, and to liberate themselves from their immemorial chains. This passion created the political ideologies of the nineteenth century and made its imprint on the totalitarian regimes that arose in their wake in the twentieth. Underlying the Promethean passion there was modernity-humankind's project of self-creation-and enlightenment, the existence of a constant tension between the actual and the desirable, between reality and the ideal. Beneath the weariness, the exhaustion and the skepticism of post-modernist criticism is a refusal to take Promethean horizons into account. This book attests the importance of reason, which remains a powerful critical weapon of humankind against the idols that have come out of modernity: totalitarianism, fundamentalism, the golem of technology, genetic engineering and a boundless will to power. Without it, the new Prometheus is liable to return the fire to the gods.
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.
Is there anything sacred that can simultaneously be considered strictly feminine? Two of the leaders of European feminist thought investigate stories of African rites, Catholic saints, Jewish traditions and psychological case studies in an overarching exploration of how women throughout the world cope with forces beyond their control or understanding. In an exchange of letters, they consider a range of emotional dispositions with reference to contemporary figures including Madonna, the late Princess of Wales, Mother Teresa and Eva Peron.
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
This book provides a welcome assessment of the wide-ranging impact of Michel Foucault's work upon a number of disciplines within the social sciences and humanities. It offers close textual readings of Foucault's work along with clear overviews of how his work has been taken up in subjects such as history, philosophy and international relations. It also offers original applications of his work to important topics within feminist theory, political theory, the sociology of race, and socio-legal studies.
This unique and original study analyzes Foucault's interaction with the history of ideas, undertaking a genealogy of the subject that subverts conventional philosophical history to develop a distinctly Foucauldian intellectual history. Through a detailed account of Foucault's work and its relation to the history of ideas, Philip Barker shows how that history can be usefully reconceptualised using Foucault's concepts of genealogy and archaeology. Locating the emergence of self-reflexive consciousness in twelfth century philosophy, and elaborating upon autobiography as a philosophical persona, Barker argues that this extremely productive approach can be used to analyze the relationship between the history of philosophy, psychoanalysis and the transparent subject. |
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