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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 -
This work examines the rise of postmodernism in management
scholarship and argues that the prevalence of postmodernist thought
reflects a lack of understanding by management researchers of the
core principles upon which Western business endeavour is based. The
author highlights postmodernism's methodological and conceptual
failings, such as disbelief in material progress and economic
advancement, and its denial of generalizable laws to direct
management research. In its place, the author proposes a return to
traditional modernist principles in management research, based on
scientific evidence. This ground breaking, timely work will spark
debate and challenge previously accepted claims of postmodernism, a
nice retort to the anti-business/anti-capitalist literature now
prevalent in academia.
This book explores the work of Thomas Seebohm (1934-2014), a
leading phenomenologist and hermeneuticist. It features papers that
offer a critical and constructive dialogue about Seebohm's analyses
and their implications for the sciences. The net result is an
in-depth study and a helpful overview of Seebohm's general approach
and his specific views on various areas of modern science. The
contributors focus especially upon his final text, History as a
Science and the System of the Sciences. They view this as the
culmination and summary of his historical and phenomenological
investigations into the foundations, nature, and limits of modern
sciences. This includes not just history but the
Geisteswissenschaften more generally, along with the social and
natural sciences as well. The essays in this volume reflect that
range. This volume presents insightful discussions about the nature
and legitimacy of the human sciences as sciences and the unique
character of the social sciences. It will be of interest not just
as a matter of historical scholarship, but also and above all as an
important contribution to phenomenology and to the philosophy of
science and the sciences as such. It deserves attention by scholars
from any philosophical tradition interested in thinking about the
foundations of their disciplines and a philosophy of science that
includes, but is not limited to, the natural sciences.
W.V. Quine and Donald Davidson are among the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Their influence on contemporary philosophy is second to none, and their impact in disciplines such as linguistics and psychology is strongly felt. Questioning some of their basic assumptions, this text includes interesting comparisons of Quine and Davidson with other philosophers, particularly Wittgenstein. The text also offers detailed accounts of central issues in contemporary analytic philosophy.
By the time Martin Heidegger passed away on May 26th, 1976, he had
become the most important and controversial philosopher of his age.
While many of his former students had become important philosophers
and thinkers in their own right, Heidegger also inspired countless
others, like Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Jean-Paul
Sartre. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of
Heidegger's Philosophy is an historical perspective on the
development of Heidegger's thought in all its nuances and facets.
Schalow and Denker cast light on the historical influences that
shaped the thinker and his time through a chronology; an
introductory essay; a bibliography; appendixes that include German
and Greek to English glossaries of terms and a complete listing of
Heidegger's writings, lectures, courses, and seminars; and a
cross-referenced dictionary section offering over 600 entries on
concepts, people, works, and technical terms. This volume is an
invaluable resource for student and scholar alike.
Luce Irigaray: Teaching explores ways to confront new issues in
education. Three essays byIrigaray herself present the outcomes of
her own experiments in this area and develop proposals for teaching
people how to coexist in difference, reach self-affection, and
rethink the relations between teachers and students. In the last
few years, Irigaray has brought together young academics from
various countries, universities and disciplines, all of whom were
carrying out research into her work. These research students have
received personal instruction from Irigaray and at the same time
have learnt from one another by sharing with the group their own
knowledge and experience. Most of the essays in this book are the
result of this dynamic way of learning that fosters rigour in
thinking as well as mutual respect for differences. The central
themes of the volume focus on five cultural fields: methods of
recovery from traumatic personal or cultural experience; the
resources that arts offer for dwelling in oneself and with the
other(s); the maternal order and feminine genealogy; creative
interpretation and embodiment of the divine; and new perspectives
in philosophy. This innovative collaborative project between
Irigaray and researchers involved in the study of her work gives a
unique insight into the topics that have occupied this influential
international theorist over the last thirty years.
The American idealist movement started in St. Louis, Missouri in
1858, becoming more influential as women joined and influenced its
development. Susan Elizabeth Blow was well known as an educator and
pedagogical theorist who founded the first public kindergarten
program in America (1873-1884). Anna C. Brackett was a feminist and
pedagogical theorist and the first female principal of a secondary
school (St. Louis Normal School, 1863-72). Grace C. Bibb was a
feminist literary critic and the first female dean at the
University of Missouri, Columbia (1878-84). American idealism took
on a new form in the 1880s with the founding of the Concord School
of Philosophy in Massachusetts. Ellen M. Mitchell participated in
the movement in both St. Louis and Concord. She was one of the
first women to teach philosophy at a co-educational college
(University of Denver, 1890-92). Lucia Ames Mead, Marietta Kies,
and Eliza Sunderland joined the movement in Concord. Lucia Ames
Mead became a chief pacifist theorist in the early twentieth
century. Kies and Sunderland were among the first women to earn the
Ph.D. in philosophy (University of Michigan, 1891, 1892). Kies
wrote on political altruism and shared with Mitchell the
distinction of teaching at a coeducational institution (Butler
College, 1896-99). These were the first American women as a group
to plunge into philosophy proper, bridging those years between the
amateur, paraprofessional and professional academic philosopher.
Dorothy Rogers's new book at last gives them the attention they
deserve.
Sensitive to the discontinuities in Foucault's thought, neither
critical nor slavishly devotional, On the Use and Abuse of Foucault
for Politics demonstrates how Foucault is relevant for contemporary
democratic theory. Beginning with a discussion of the interrelated
ideas of power and resistance, Brent Pickett provides an
interpretation of Foucault's political philosophy, including a
comprehensive overview of the reasons for various conflicting
interpretations, and then explores how well the different
"Foucaults" can be used in progressive politics. Accessible and
insightful, On the Use and Abuse of Foucault for Politics is
valuable for specialists in Foucault and for students of postmodern
and democratic theory alike.
Human life is susceptible of changing suddenly, of shifting
inadvertently, of appearing differently, of varying unpredictably,
of being altered deliberately, of advancing fortuitously, of
commencing or ending accidentally, of a certain malleability. In
theory, any human being is potentially capacitated to conceive
of-and convey-the chance, view, or fact that matters may be
otherwise, or not at all; with respect to other lifeforms, this
might be said animal's distinctive characteristic. This state of
play is both an everyday phenomenon, and an indispensable
prerequisite for exceptional innovations in culture and science:
contingency is the condition of possibility for any of the arts-be
they dominantly concerned with thinking, crafting, or enacting.
While their scope and method may differ, the (f)act of reckoning
with-and taking advantage of-contingency renders rhetoricians and
philosophers associates after all. In this regard, Aristotle and
Blumenberg will be exemplary, hence provide the framework. Between
these diachronic bridgeheads, close readings applying the nexus of
rhetoric and contingency to a selection of (Early) Modern texts and
authors are intercalated-among them La Celestina, Machiavelli,
Shakespeare, Wilde, Fontane.
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Living Currency
(Hardcover)
Pierre Klossowski; Edited by Daniel W. Smith, Nicolae Morar, Vernon W. Cisney
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'I should have written you after my first reading of The Living
Currency; it was already breath-taking and I should have responded.
After reading it a few more times, I know it is the best book of
our times.' Letter to Pierre Klossowski from Michel Foucault,
winter 1970. Living Currency is the first English translation of
Klossowski's La monnaie vivante. It offers an analysis of economic
production as a mechanism of psychic production of desires and is a
key work from this often overlooked but wonderfully creative French
thinker.
The twenty-first century has seen an increased awareness of the
forms of environmental destruction that cannot immediately be seen,
localised or, by some, even acknowledged. Ecocriticism on the Edge
explores the possibility of a new mode of critical practice, one
fully engaged with the destructive force of the planetary
environmental crisis. Timothy Clark argues that, in literary and
cultural criticism, the "Anthropocene", which names the epoch in
which human impacts on the planet's ecological systems reach a
dangerous limit, also represents a threshold at which modes of
interpretation that once seemed sufficient or progressive become,
in this new counterintuitive context, inadequate or even latently
destructive. The book includes analyses of literary works,
including texts by Paule Marshall, Gary Snyder, Ben Okri, Henry
Lawson, Lorrie Moore and Raymond Carver.
This book offers a sweeping and original look at the development of
continental philosophy, examining the work of several major
figures, including Hegel, Heidegger, Derrida, Gadamer and
Levinas.Continental philosophy has traditionally seen philosophy as
historical, claiming that there are no new beginnings in the
discipline, and that we must revisit the work of earlier thinkers
again and again. Yet, continental philosophers rarely argue
explicitly for their view of philosophy's past, and the discussions
of the topic that exist tend to be riddled with confusion.Here,
Robert Piercey asks why, and explores what the continental
tradition must do to come to terms with this crisis. Piercey traces
the confusion about history back to Hegel, who he argues sends a
mixed message about historical thinking, one that is later adopted
by Heidegger and then passed on to his successors. In addition to
telling the story of this crisis, Piercey offers an account of
historical thinking that does not lead to the difficulties that
currently plague the continental tradition. The result is a highly
original look at the development of continental thought and the
nature of philosophy's historical turn.
This is a collection of interviews in which Cornelius Castoriadis
discusses his key works and ideas. Cornelius Castoriadis
(1922-1997) was a philosopher, social critic, political activist,
practicisn psychoanalyst and professional economist. His work is
widely recognized as one of the most singular and important
contributions to twentieth-century thought. In this collection of
interviews, Castoriadis discusses some of his most important ideas
with leading figures in the disciplines that play such a crucial
part in his philosophical work: poetry, psychoanalysis, biology and
mathematics. Available in English for the first time, these
interviews provide a concise and accessible introduction to his
work as a whole, allowing him to draw on the astounding breadth of
his knowledge (ranging from philosophy and mathematics to political
theory and psychoanalysis). They also render Castoriadis' cutting,
polemical and entertaining style while displaying the originality
and clarity of his primary concepts. Intellectually provoking, this
timely collection shows how Castoriadis' polemics are sharp and
riveting, his conceptual manoeuvres rigorous and original, and his
passion inspiring. This is an excellent introduction to one of
Europe's most important intellectuals.
What is to be learned from the chaotic downfall of the Weimar
Republic and the erosion of European liberal statehood in the
interwar period vis-a-vis the ongoing Europeancrisis? This book
analyses and explains the recurrent emergence of crises in European
societies. It asks how previous crises can inform our understanding
of the present crisis. The particular perspective advanced is that
these crises not only are economic and social crises, but must also
be understood as crises of public power, order and authority. In
other words, it argues that substantial challenges to the
functional and normative setup of democracy and the rule of law
were central to the emergence and the unfolding of these crises.
The book draws on and adds to the rich 'crises literature'
developed within the critical theory tradition to outline a
conceptual framework for understanding what societal crises are.
The central idea is that societal crises represent a discrepancy
between the unfolding of social processes and the institutional
frameworks that have been established to normatively stabilize such
processes. The crises at issue emerged in periods characterized by
strong social, economic and technological transformations as well
as situations of political upheaval. As such, the crises
represented moments where the existing functional and normative
grid of society, as embodied in notions of public order and
authority, were severely challenged and in many instances
undermined. Seen in this perspective, the book reconstructs how
crises unfolded, how they were experienced, and what kind of
responses the specific crises in question provoked.
Adorno notoriously asserted that there is no 'right' life in our
current social world. This assertion has contributed to the
widespread perception that his philosophy has no practical import
or coherent ethics, and he is often accused of being too negative.
Fabian Freyenhagen reconstructs and defends Adorno's practical
philosophy in response to these charges. He argues that Adorno's
deep pessimism about the contemporary social world is coupled with
a strong optimism about human potential, and that this optimism
explains his negative views about the social world, and his demand
that we resist and change it. He shows that Adorno holds a
substantive ethics, albeit one that is minimalist and based on a
pluralist conception of the bad - a guide for living less wrongly.
His incisive study does much to advance our understanding of
Adorno, and is also an important intervention into current debates
in moral philosophy.
Media pervade and saturate the world around us. From the
proliferation of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to
television, radio, newspapers, films, games and email, media is
inescapable. This book, using some of Deleuze's key concepts as its
starting point, offers a new systematic analysis of how media
functions in our lives, and how we function through our media.
While Harper and Savat take Deleuze as the starting point, they
extend and define his concepts, pointing out advances made by
theorists such as Marx, Mumfors, McLuhan and Williams in the
attempt to answer the most Deleuzean of questions, 'what is it that
media do?'
Philosophy, Myth and Epic Cinema looks at the power of cinema in
creating ideas that inspire our culture. Sylvie Magerstadt
discusses the relationship between art, illusion and reality, a
theme that has been part of philosophical debate for centuries. She
argues that with the increase in use of digital technologies in
modern cinema, this debate has entered a new phase. She discusses
the notion of illusions as a system of stories and values that
inspire a culture similar to other grand narratives, such as
mythology or religion. Cinema thus becomes the postmodern
"mythmaking machine" par excellence in a world that finds it
increasingly difficult to create unifying concepts and positive
illusions that can inspire and give hope. The author draws on the
work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Siegfried Kracauer, and Gilles Deleuze
to demonstrate the relevance of continental philosophy to a reading
of mainstream Hollywood cinema. The book argues that our longing
for illusion is particularly strong in times of crisis, illustrated
through an exploration of the recent revival of historic and epic
myths in Hollywood cinema, including films such as Troy, The Lord
of the Rings Trilogy, and Clash of the Titans.
In the last half-century Ludwig Wittgenstein's relevance beyond
analytic philosophy, to continental philosophy, to cultural
studies, and to the arts has been widely acknowledged.
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was published in 1922
- the annus mirabilis of modernism - alongside Joyce's Ulysses,
Eliot's The Waste Land, Mansfield's The Garden Party and Woolf's
Jacob's Room. Bertolt Brecht's first play to be produced, Drums in
the Night, was first staged in 1922, as was Jean Cocteau's
Antigone, with settings by Pablo Picasso and music by Arthur
Honegger. In different ways, all these modernist landmarks dealt
with the crisis of representation and the demise of eternal
metaphysical and ethical truths. Wittgenstein's Tractatus can be
read as defining, expressing and reacting to this crisis. In his
later philosophy, Wittgenstein adopted a novel philosophical
attitude, sensitive to the ordinary uses of language as well as to
the unnoticed dogmas they may betray. If the gist of modernism is
self-reflection and attention to the way form expresses content,
then Wittgenstein's later ideas - in their fragmented form as well
as their "ear-opening" contents - deliver it most precisely.
Understanding Wittgenstein, Understanding Modernism shows
Wittgenstein's work, both early and late, to be closely linked to
the modernist Geist that prevailed during his lifetime. Yet it
would be wrong to argue that Wittgenstein was a modernist tout
court. For Wittgenstein, as well as for modernist art,
understanding is not gained by such straightforward statements. It
needs time, hesitation, a variety of articulations, the refusal of
tempting solutions, and perhaps even a sense of defeat. It is such
a vision of the linkage between Wittgenstein and modernism that
guides the present volume.
"Derrida and Theology" is an invaluable guide for those ready to
ride the leading wave of contemporary theology. It gives
theologians the confidence to explore the major elements of
Derrida's work, and its influence on theology, without 'dumbing it
down' or ignoring its controversial aspects. Jacques Derrida: a
name to strike fear into the hearts of theologians. His thought has
been hugely influential in shaping postmodern philosophy, and its
impact has been felt across the humanities from literary studies to
architecture. However, he has also been associated with the
spectres of relativism and nihilism. Some have suggested he
undermines any notion of objective truth and stable
meaning.Fortunately, such premature judgements are gradually
changing. Derrida is now increasingly seen as a major contributor
to thinking about the complexity of truth, responsibility and
witnessing. Theologians and biblical scholars are engaging as never
before with Derrida's own deep-rooted reflections on religious
themes. From the nature of faith to the name of God, from
Messianism to mysticism, from forgiveness to the impossible, he has
broken new ground in thinking about religion in our time. His
thought and writing style remain highly complex, however, and can
be a forbidding prospect for the uninitiated.This book gives
theologians the confidence to explore the major elements of
Derrida's work, and its influence on theology, without 'dumbing it
down' or ignoring its controversial aspects. It examines his
philosophical approach, his specific work on religious themes, and
the ways in which theologians have interpreted, adopted and
disputed them. "Derrida and Theology" is an invaluable guide for
those ready to ride the leading wave of contemporary theology. "The
Philosophy and Theology" series looks at major philosophers and
explores their relevance to theological thought as well as the
response of theology.
This work explores the philosophical positions of five
postmodern thinkers--Lyotard, Rorty, Schrag, Foucault, and
Derrida--to show how their critiques imply that scholars are unduly
limited by the belief that inquiry is fundamentally about gaining
knowledge of phenomena that are assumed to exist prior to and
independent of inquiry, and to persist essentially unchanged by
inquiry. The author argues that there are good reasons why this
constraint is both unnecessary and undesirable, and he resituates
the disciplines within a more flexible foundation that would expand
what counts as legitimate inquiry. This foundation would emphasize
the inquirer as a cause of reality, not just an observer who aims
to accurately describe and explain phenomena. Mourad proposes an
intellectual and organizational form which he calls
post-disciplinary research programs. These dynamic programs would
be composed of scholars from diverse disciplines who collaborate to
juxtapose disparate disciplinary concepts in order to create
contexts for post-disciplinary inquries.
Shoham presents existentialist and object-relationship
personality theory using mythology as a projection of human
behavior. Through the myth of Don Juan as well as the personality
of Casanova, he highlights the biological parameter of the
personality and the thought of Kierkegaard and Rabbi Nachman of
Bratslav. He concludes by relating the dynamics of personality to
the predisposition of crime and madness.
The present book is the first to undertake a systematic study of
Peirce's conception of historical knowledge and of its value for
philosophy. It does so by both reconstructing in detail Peirce's
arguments and giving a detailed account of the many ways in which
history becomes an object of explicit reflection in his writings.
The book's leading idea may be stated as follows: Peirce manages to
put together an exceptionally compelling argument about history's
bearing on philosophy not so much because he derives it from a
well-articulated and polished conception of the relation between
the two disciplines; but on the contrary, because he holds on to
this relation while intuiting that it can easily turn into a
conflict. This potential conflict acts therefore as a spur to put
forth an unusually profound and multi-faceted analysis of what it
means for philosophy to rely on historical arguments. Peirce looks
at history as a way to render philosophical investigations more
detailed, more concrete and more sensitive to the infinite and
unforeseeable nuances that characterize human experience. In this
way, he provides us with an exceptionally valuable contribution to
a question that has remained gravely under-theorized in
contemporary debates.
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