Textures of Light draws on the work of Luce Irigaray, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas to present an outstanding and ground breaking study of the vital importance of light in Western thought. Since Plato's allegory of the cave, light and the role of sight have been accorded a unique position in Western thought. They have stood as a metaphor for truth and objectivity and the very axis of modern rationalism. More recently however, this status has come under significant criticism from continental and feminist thought which has stressed the privileging of subjectivity and masculinity in such a metaphor.

'Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.' - Bertrand Russell
From 1931-1935 Bertrand Russell was one of the regular contributors to the literary pages of the New York American, together with other distinguished authors, such as Aldous Huxley and Vita Sackville-West. Mortals and Others Volume II presents a further selection of his essays, ranging from the politically correct, to the perfectly obscure: from The Prospects of Democracy to Men Versus Insects.
Even though written in the politically heated climate of the 1930s, these essays are surprisingly topical and engaging for the present day reader. Volume II of Mortals and Others serves as a splendid, fresh introduction to the compassionate eclecticism of Bertrand Russell's mind.

""Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.""
--Bertrand Russell
From 1931-1935 Bertrand Russell was one of the regular contributors to the literary pages of the "New York American," together with other distinguished authors, such a Aldous Huxley, Vita Sackville -West and Robert Benchley. "Mortals and Others" Volume II presents a selection of his essays from this journal provocative in content and clear in style. Even though written in the politically heated climate of the 1930s, these essays are surprisingly topical and engaging in the present. This volume, together with Volume I, serves as a splendid introduction to the wide-ranging scope of the mind of this erudite and witty author.

John Dewey was an American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic, and political activist. John Dewey: Science for a Changing World addresses Dewey's contemporary relevance; his life and intellectual trajectory; his basic philosophical ideas, with an emphasis on his philosophy of nature; and his educational theory, which has often been misunderstood. In addition, Dewey's pragmatism and pragmatist ethics are discussed, as are some of the criticisms that can be directed at them. Throughout the book, Dewey's ideas are related to the general history of ideas, but there is also a constant focus on how Dewey may assist us in solving some of the problems that face us in a so-called postmodern era. This book is the first to offer an interpretation of John Dewey's works with particular emphasis on his contribution to psychology. John Dewey distinguished himself by combining a culturalist approach to human life with a naturalistic one. He was an avowed naturalist and follower of Darwin, and Brinkmann shows how his non-reductionist, naturalist psychology can serve as a much-needed correction to contemporary forms of "evolutionary psychology." Dewey's psychology, however, is not an isolated element in his thinking as a whole, so the author also provides an introduction to the philosophical, ethical, and educational ideas that go hand-in-hand with his psychology. In the past couple of decades, there has been a renaissance of pragmatist ideas in philosophy, political theory, and education. Scholars are returning to the writings of William James, Charles Peirce, George Herbert Mead, and John Dewey. This book continues the fine tradition of Transaction's History and Theory of Psychology series.

David Bohm is widely recognized for his significant contributions to the discussion on the relationship between art and science. On Creativity is a collection of essays by Bohm, which are all related directly to the nature of creativity - primarily the latent creativity in the human mind, but interestingly enough, to the creativity in nature and the universe at large as well.
A significant portion of the material draws overtly from Bohm's perceptions as a practising scientist - his notions of what underlies a paradigm shift, or how laws of nature, theories and hypotheses are perceived, rationalized and axiomatized. However, the novelty and appeal of Bohm's views of these processes is the suggestion that the work of the visual artist is remarkably similar to that of the scientist. He explores these similarities at length and even goes so far as to suggest that the creative processes of the scientist and the artist are at work in every person.
On Creativity is a fascinating read for Bohm aficionados and for those interested in exploring the relation between creativity in art and science.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203194713

From Nietsche to the present, the Western philosophical tradition has been dominated by a secular thinking that has dismissed discussion of God as largely irrelevant. In recent years however, the issue of theology has returned to spark some of the most controversial debates with contemporary philosophy. Discussions of theology by key contemporary philosophers such as Derrida and Levinas have placed religion at centre stage.
Post-Secular Philosophy is one of the first volumes to consider how God has been approached by modern philosophers and considers the links between theology and postmodern thought. Fifteen accessible essays present a clear and compelling picture of how the key thinkers including Descartes, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Derrida have made God a central part of their thinking. Each philosopher and how they have approached and criticised theology is placed in a clear historical context.
A key feature of the book is the controversial call for a reconsideration of theology. Post-Secular Philosophy suggests a coherent religiosity is a possible and necessary response to the nihilism dominating Western thinking, providing a considered response to the arguments that religious fundamentalism or esoteric cults are the only alternative.

From Nietzsche to the present, the Western philosophical tradition has been dominated by a secular thinking that has dismissed discussion of God as largely irrelevant. In recent years however, the issue of theology has returned to spark some of the most controversial debates within contemporary philosophy. Discussions of theology by key contemporary philosophers such as Derrida and Levinas have placed religion at centre stage. Post-Secular Philosophy is one of the first volumes to consider how God has been approached by modern philosophers and consider the links between theology and postmodern thought. Fifteen accessible essays present a clear and compelling picture of how key thinkers including Descartes, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Derrida have made God a central part of their thinking. Each philosopher and how they have approached and criticised theology is placed in a clear historical context. Placing the collection in context with Phillip Blond's outstanding introduction, Post-Secular Philosophy presents a fascinating discussion of the alternatives to the relativism and nihilism that dominate Western thinking.

One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the roots of his monumental Tractatus are explored in this imaginative work. Oxaal picks up on themes developed in an earlier work of his on Jews, Anti-Semitism and Culture in Vienna, adding to it special issues concerning Wittgenstein's experiences in Norway in 1913-14, where he worked on ideas that were completed during the war. Oxaal situates the great philosopher in time, place, and attitude, showing how his personal background came to bear on the writing of the Tractatus. Wittengenstein has often been criticized for traces of solipsism and even mysticism, and Oxaal also examines these issues in a volume that integrates ethnography, nationality, and cultural studies. Oxaal sheds new light on the theme of Wittgenstein's Jewishness, and develops a new appreciation of the Wittgenstein family and Wittgenstein's better-known years in Vienna. The author is unsparing in his observations about racism and pessimism in Berlin and Great Britian during the period in which Wittgenstein worked and studied at Cambridge. The writing of the Tractatus spanned the First World War. In the period immediately after its completion, Wittgenstein found himself in The Hague where he was in discussions and disputes with Bertrand Russell. Oxaal covers these problems sensitively and with an appreciation of ambiguities in the life of a great philosopher and the confusions caused by a post-war change in fortunes--personal and familial. This work of an eminent social scientist and historian may not be the final statement on Wittgenstein, but it most certainly must be considered in any serious assessments of an iconic figure of the twentieth century.

Traditionally, Sociology has identified its subject matter as a distinct set - social phenomena - that can be taken as quite different and largely disconnected from potentially relevant disciplines such as Psychology, Economics or Planetary Ecology. Within Sociology and Human Ecology, Smith and Jenks argue that this position is no longer sustainable. Indeed, exhorting the reader to confront human ecology and its relation to the physical and biological environments, Smith and Jenks suggest that the development of understanding with regards to the position occupied by the social requires, in turn, an extension of the component disciplines and methodologies of a 'new' human socio-ecology. Aiming to evoke critical change to the possibility, status and range of the social sciences whilst also offering essential grounding for inter-disciplinary engagement, Sociology and Human Ecology will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Social Theory, Socio-Biology and Ecological Economics.

Who is responsible for the Mahatma's death? Just one single, but determined, fanatic, the whole ideology of Hindu nationalism, the ruling Congress-led government whichfailed to protect him, or a vast majority of Indians and their descendants who considered Gandhi irrelevant? Such questions mean that Gandhi, even after his tragic and brutal death, continues to haunt India - perhaps more effectively in his afterlife than when he was alive. The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi is a groundbreaking and profound analysis of the assassination of the 'father of the nation' and its after-effects. Paranjape argues that such a catastrophic event during the very birth pangs of a new nation placed a huge burden of Oedipal guilt on Indians, and that this is the reason for the massive repression of the murder in India's political psyche. The enduring influence of Gandhi is analysed, including his spectral presence in Indian cinema. The book culminates in Paranjape's reading of Gandhi's last six months in Delhi, where, from the very edge of the grave, he wrought what was perhaps his greatest miracle, the saving of Delhi and thus of India itself from internecine bloodshed. This evocative and moving meditation into the meaning of the Mahatma's death will be relevant to scholars of Indian political and cultural history, as well as those with an interest in Gandhi and contemporary India

This book was first published in 2003.Justice, Humanity and the New World Order offers a refreshing analysis of current jurisprudential concerns regarding the new world order , by examining them in the intellectual context of the late eighteenth-century Enlightenment. After setting the historical context, the author investigates aspects of Enlightenment political culture as well as aspects of the new world order , including international relations, the European Union and human rights. In conclusion, the author introduces the concept of a new humanism , which he suggests, drawing on certain aspects of Enlightenment political philosophy, can complement the new world order .

This title was first published in 2002: Culture and Enlightenment are the two words that best characterise the essence of GyArgy Markus's career, in whose honour this book is published. Markus devoted the last twenty years of research towards a theory of cultural objectivations and their pragmatics, and the great depth of his knowledge of the history of culture and philosophy informs all his teaching and writing. The pursuit of Enlightenment ideals attains reflective self-consciousness in Markus' works; forged in the knowledge of its own historicity, of the embeddedness of rationalities in culture and in an awareness of the paradoxes that cling to the conscious affirmation of ideals which are no longer self evident or beyond questioning. In taking up the challenge of these paradoxes, Markus spans the whole history of modern philosophy and culture with a matchless authority. This book draws together contributions from leading figures in contemporary philosophy, who are also friends, colleagues and former students of GyArgy Markus. The book is divided into two sections: the first presents critical assessments of various aspects of Markus' wide-ranging works; the second presents contributions in celebration of his influence and his wide interests. In their critical assessment of Markus' work and in the demonstration of his influence, the contributors hope to convey something of the breadth and something of the excitement of doing philosophy in the company of GyArgy Markus.

"Feminist Social Thought" brings together key articles by prominent feminist thinkers, offering students sophisticated treatment of the theoretical topics central to feminist social thought. This reader highlights salient concerns in contemporary feminist scholarship and the advances feminist philosophers have made.
The editor's introduction outlines alternative routes through the text, allowing instructors to easily adapt this reader to their particular courses and the interests of their students. Each article is prefaced with a short introduction by the editor placing it in context, highlighting the principle issues and the conclusions reached. Students will find these headnotes helpful when tackling the challenging theoretical issues addressed.
Representing a spectrum of feminist thinking, "Feminist Social" "Thought" is organized around seven topics constructions of gender; theorizing diversity; figurations of women; subjectivity, agency and feminist critique; social identity, solidarity and political engagement; care and its critics; and women, equality and justice. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of feminist philosophy and encouraged to think critically about challenging questions around pivotal subjects including
* How are gender norms instilled, enforced, and perpetuated?
* What are the relationships between gender and other socially demarcated positions such as race, class and sexual orientation?
* What resources do women have at their disposal for recognizing their subordination and resisting it?
* What goals should feminist politics pursue?
* How can social and legal equality be reconciled with difference?

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415915368

This volume brings to the attention of contemporary readers a tradition of psychological thought that has received little attention over the last century. Psychology's history has been unimaginatively presented as a fight between behaviorists and mentalists. A third alternative, the New Realism, which cuts through that dichotomy, has been lost. "The New Realism" was indeed once new. This volume provides a glimpse of how this school of thought attempted to redefine the notion of mental processes, including consciousness, in psychological theorizing. Holt's rejected the nativity of iconoclastic Watsonian behaviorists, and thus the New Realism was thoughtful in ways that behaviorist social engineering was not. The implications of these innovations in psychological theorizing are traced from the beginning of the twentieth century to the contemporary period. The contributors provide these intellectual links, along with efforts to look at the relatedness of the human organism and its world. At their beginning, these ideas are embedded in a reverence for William James's work, particularly his later Radical Empiricism. In contemporary psychology, this legacy has given us the framework of ecological psychology as we know it today, and provides the basis for several modern critiques of cognitive psychology. The present volume opens the door for future historical inquiries. This is an exemplary addition to the series on the History of Psychological Ideas.

Philosophy means 'love of wisdom,' but author Edmond Holmes fears the encroaching dominance of intellect over feeling. In this title, Holmes argues that metaphysics' reliance on intellect and pure reason undermines the study of philosophy. Rather, Holmes suggests a return to intuitional philosophy, combining thought and feeling. First published in 1930, this title will be ideal for students interested in Philosophy and Western Civilisation.

Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy have, in one way or another, focused on the amelioration of the negative. This has only done half the job; the other half being to actively bring Positive Experience into patients' lives. Positive Psychoanalysis moves away from this traditional focus on negative experience and problems, and instead looks at what makes for a positive life experience, bringing a new clinical piece to what psychoanalysts do: Positive Psychoanalysis and the interdisciplinary theory and research behind it. The envelope of functions entailed in Positive Psychoanalysis is an area of Being described as Subjective Well-Being. This book identifies three particular areas of function encompassed by SWB: Personal Meaning, Aesthetics, and Desire. Mark Leffert looks at the importance of these factors in our positive experiences in everyday life, and how they are manifested in clinical psychoanalytic work. These domains of Being form the basis of chapters, each comprising an interdisciplinary discussion integrating many strands of research and argument. Leffert discusses how the areas interact with each other and how they come to bear on the care, healing, and cure that are the usual subjects of psychoanalytic treatment. He also explores how they can be represented in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. This novel work discusses and integrates research findings, phenomenology, and psychoanalytic thought that have not yet been considered together. It seeks to inform readers about these subjects and demonstrates, with clinical examples, how to incorporate them into their clinical work with the negative, helping patients not just to heal the negative but also move into essential positive aspects of living: a sense of personal meaning, aesthetic competence, and becoming a desiring being that experiences Subjective Well-Being. Drawing on ideas from across neuroscience, philosophy, and social and culture studies, this book sets out a new agenda for covering the positive in psychoanalysis. Positive Psychoanalysis will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, neuroscientists and philosophers, as well as academics across these fields and in psychiatry, comparative literature, and literature and the mind.

Recent scholarship has inquired into the socio-historical, discursive genesis of trauma. Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject, however, seeks what has not been actualized in trauma studies - that is, how the necessity and unassailable intensity of trauma is fastened to its historical emergence. We must ask not only what trauma means for the individual person's biography, but also what it means to be the historical subject of trauma. In other words, how does being human in this current period of history implicate one's lived possibilities that are threatened, and perhaps framed, through trauma? Foucauldian sensibilities inform a critical and structural analysis that is hermeneutically grounded. Drawing on the history of ideas and on Lacan's work in particular, John L. Roberts argues that what we mean by trauma has developed over time, and that it is intimately tied with an ontology of the subject; that is to say, what it is to be, and means to be human. He argues that modern subjectivity - as articulated by Heidegger, Levinas, and Lacan - is structurally traumatic, founded in its finitude as self-withdrawal in time, its temporal self-absence becoming the very conditions for agency, truth and knowledge. The book also argues that this fractured temporal horizon - as an effect of an interrupting Otherness or alterity - is obscured through the discourses and technologies of the psy-disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy). Consideration is given to social, political, and economic consequences of this concealment. Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject will be of enduring interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as scholars of philosophy and cultural studies.

The Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity as it emerged during the eighteenth century through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces. Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, the book argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia and heterotopic spatial practice.
The Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and in its relationship to civil society and the public sphere and the early factories of the Industrial Revolution are all seen as heterotopia in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by a social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes and the ambiguous spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies.
The book uses these historical examples to analyse contemporary questions about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance. It will be important reading for sociologists, geographers and social historians as well as anyone who has an interest in modern societies.

IThe Badlands of Modernity offers a wide ranging and original interpretation of modernity. Through an analysis of some of the most important social spaces of the eighteenth century, this book examines contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity, the character of social order and the significance of marginal space in relation to issues of order, transgression and resistance.
Drawing on Foucault's analysis of heterotopia, or spaces of alternate ordering, Kevin Hetherington argues that modernity originates through an interplay between ideas of utopia and heterotopia. Tha Palais Royal during the French Revolution, the masonic lodge and the early factories of the industrial revolution are all analyzed as heterotopia, in which modern social ordering is developed. Rather than seeing modernity as being defined by social order, the book argues that we need to take account of the processes that produce social ordering, their ambiguity and the spaces in which they emerge, if we are to understand the character of modern societies.

In this new collection, Eugene Goodheart, scholar of English literature, essayist, and public intellectual, reveals himself in a way that will interest readers already familiar with his expansive body of work as well as those new to his writing. Rising above the particular, the essays focus on themes of universal importance. The opening essay, "Whistling in the Dark," is a meditation on the gravest of subjects: aging and mortality. The chapters that follow are a series of reflections on teaching, retirement, illness, marriage, fatherhood, friendship, regret, indignation, sports, and writing activities that make up a life. The book wrestles with the question of what constitutes the reality of the self in the present when many writers view the self as an illusion. Each essay alludes to writers of the past and present who have addressed the question of what constitutes the self. Looming largest is Montaigne, the inventor of the modern personal essay. This book focuses on universally important subjects, including an individual's place in a community, family, fatherhood, growing older, being Jewish, and friendship. Written in a vividly accessible manner, this book reaches out to a general audience.

Maurice Blanchot is perhaps best known as a literary critic. His texts on Kafka, Mallarme, Beckett and others make him one of the most influential critics of twentieth century literature. But he is equally influential as an incisive reader of philosophy through his enigmatic interpretations of Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault and Derrida.
Leslie Hill offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to one of the key figures in the development of postmodern thought. He shows how Blanchot questions the very essence of philosophy and literature, and stresses the importance of his political writings and the relationship between writing and history that characterized his later work.

Once seen as synonymous with "anti-feminism" postfeminism i now understood as the theoretical meeting ground between feminism and anti-foundationalist movements such as postmodernism, post-structuralism and post-colonialsm. In this clear exposition of some of the major debates, theorists and practitioners, Ann Brooks shows how feminism is being redefined for the twenty first century. Individual chapters look at postfeminism in relation to feminist epistemology, Foucault, psychoanalytic theory and semiology postmodernism and postcolonialism, cultural politics, popular culture, film and media, and sexuality and identity For all students looking for guidance through the sometimes murky waters of contemporary feminist theory, this book wil provide a reassuring first port of call.

In this clear exposition of some of the major debates, theorists and practitioners, Ann Brooks shows how feminism is being redefined for the twenty-first century.

For centuries, knowledge has been thought to be the key to human progress of all kinds and has dominated Western culture. But what if knowing has now become an impediment to further human development? This text is concerned with the practical consideration of how to reconstruct our world when modernist ideas have been refuted and many social problems appear insoluble. The authors suggest that we should give up knowing in favour of performed activity. They show how to reject the knowing paradigm in practice and present the many positive implications this has for social and educational policy. Over the past two decades, a postmodern critique of the modern conception of knowing and its institutionalized practice has emerged. To many, this is a dangerous threat to the tradition of liberal education, strengthened by recent prestigious voices from the physical and natural sciences. The book challenges even the postmodernists themselves, rejecting the reform of knowing for a totally new performatory form of life. They support their argument with a new reading of Lev Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein.