If, as Walter Benjamin believed, 'historical understanding is to be viewed primarily as an afterlife of that which is to be understood', what are the afterlives of the central concepts of modern European philosophy today? These essays reflect on the afterlives of three such concepts - 'the transcendental', 'the universal' and 'otherness' - as they continue to animate philosophical discussion at and beyond the limits of the discipline. Anthropology, law, mathematics and politics each provide occasions for testing the historical durability and transformative capacity of these concepts.

This book offers an exciting look at the important and often uneasy place of philosophy in cultural theory today. In the United States and Britain, cultural studies has taken a largely non-philosophical form. Yet, in its hostility to disciplinary boundaries and its search for theoretical generality, cultural studies has much in common with a philosophical tradition of totalization from which it has historically distanced itself. Throughout, Osborne shows how and why concepts currently popular in cultural theory have brought philosophical questions to center stage. He discusses many important thinkers who have straddled the philosophy-cultural divide such as Benjamin, Adorno, Jameson, and Clement Greenberg.

This collection explores, in Adorno's description, 'philosophy directed against philosophy'. The essays cover all aspects of Benjamin's writings, from his early work in the philosophy of art and language, through to the concept of history. The experience of time and the destruction of false continuity are identified as the key themes in Benjamin's understanding of history.

Criticism of contemporary art is split by an opposition between activism and the critical function of form. Yet the deeper, more subterranean terms of art-judgment are largely neglected on both sides. These essays combine a re-examination of the terms of judgement of contemporary art with critical interpretations of individual works and exhibitions by Luis Camnitzer, Marcel Duchamp, Matias Faldbakken, Anne Imhof and Cady Noland. The book moves from philosophical issues, via the lingering shadows of medium-specificity (in photography and art music), and the changing states of museums, to analyses of the peculiar ways that works of art relate to time.To give artistic form to crisis, it is suggested, one needs to understand contemporary art's own constitutive crisis of form.

Since 1972, the journal Radical Philosophy has provided a forum for the discussion of radical and critical ideas in philosophy. It is the liveliest and probably the most widely read philosophical journal in Britain. This anthology reprints some of the best articles to have appeared in the journal during the past five years. It covers topics in social and moral philosophy which are central to current controversies on the left, focusing on theoretical issues raised by the socialist, feminist and environmental movements.Topics covered include feminist perspectives on a range of traditional philosophical issues and contemporary problems; theoretical questions involved in the rethinking of socialism and Marxism; and questions about the relation between humanity and nature raised by environmental debates. The pieces included engage with contemporary issues in critical terms, and represent the best of recent philosophical work on the left. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the current state of radical thought.

Philosophy in Cultural Theory boldly crosses disciplinary boundaries to offer a philosophical critique of cultural theory today. Drawing on the legacy of Walter Benjamin, Peter Osborne looks critically at central philosophical debates in cultural theory, such as:
* the relationship between sign and image
* the technological basis of cultural form
* the conceptuality of art
* the place of fantasy in human affairs.
It will appeal to those in philosophy, cultural studies and art theory.

A Critical Sense brings together in a single volume the leading figures of contemporary radical theory. Moving freely between philosophy, politics and cultural studies, it offers a fascinating overview of the lines of thought of today's intellectual left.
Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis and critical theory, literary studies, deconstruction, pragmatism, postcolonial and queer theory are discussed in a series of interviews from the journal Radical Philosophy. Those interviewed are:
Judith Butler
Cornelius Castoriadis
Drucilla Cornell
Axel Honneth
Istvan Meszaros
Edward Said
Renata Salecl
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Cornel West
Slavoj Zizek
For those unfamiliar with the often daunting work of some of today's most important thinkers, ACritical Sense will offer an ideal introduction; for those already acquainted with the writings of the theorists interviewed here, the collection will throw new - and often surprising - light on familiar ground.

A Critical Sense brings together in a single volume the leading figures of contemporary radical theory. Moving freely between philosophy, politics and cultural studies, it offers a fascinating overview of the lines of thought of today's intellectual left.
Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis and critical theory, literary studies, deconstruction, pragmatism, postcolonial and queer theory are discussed in a series of interviews from the journal Radical Philosophy. Those interviewed are:
Judith Butler
Cornelius Castoriadis
Drucilla Cornell
Axel Honneth
Istvan Meszaros
Edward Said
Renata Salecl
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Cornel West
Slavoj Zizek
For those unfamiliar with the often daunting work of some of today's most important thinkers, ACritical Sense will offer an ideal introduction; for those already acquainted with the writings of the theorists interviewed here, the collection will throw new - and often surprising - light on familiar ground.

This collection explores Walter Benjamin's "philosophy directed against philosophy". The essays, from 11 contributors, aim to cover all aspects of Benjamin's writings. Subjects range from his early work in the philosphy of art and language, through his cultural criticism, to his final reflections on the concept of history. The experience of time and the destruction of false continuity are identified as the key themes in Benjamin's understanding of history.

Since 1972, the journal "Radical Philosophy" has provided a forum for the discussion of radical and critical ideas in philosophy. This anthology reprints some of the articles which have appeared in the journal during the past five years. It covers topics in social and moral philosophy which are central to current controversies on the left, focusing on theoretical issues raised by the socialist, feminist and environmental movements. Topics covered include feminist perspectives on a range of traditional philosophical issues and contemporary problems, theoretical questions involved in the rethinking of socialism and Marxism, and questions about the relation between humanity and nature raised by environmental debates. The pieces included engage with contemporary issues in critical terms, and represent the recent philosophical work on the left. The book should be interesting reading for anyone involved in studying the current state of radical thought.

No other single author has so commanding a critical presence across so many disciplines within the arts and humanities, in so many national contexts, as Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). The belated reception of his work as a literary critic (dating from the late 1950s) has been followed by a rapid series of critical receptions in different contexts: Frankfurt Critical Theory and Marxism, Judaism, Film Theory, Post-structuralism, Philosophical Romanticism, and Cultural Studies.
This collection brings together a selection of the most critically important items in the literature, across the full range of Benjamin's cultural-theoretical interests, from all periods of the reception of his writings, but focusing upon the most recent, to produce a comprehensive overview of the best critical literature.

Ulrich describes his 150 grueling missions as a fighter pilot par excellence, until being shot down and captured over England in October 1940.

This exhibition catalogue is published alongside the annual show of the same name. The selectors for the 2011 edition are Pablo Bronstein, Sarah Jones and Michael Raedecker.

If, as Walter Benjamin claimed, "it is the function of artistic form.to make historical content into a philosophical truth" then it is the function of criticism to recover and to complete that truth. Never has this been more necessary or more difficult than with respect to contemporary art. Contemporary art is a point of condensation of a vast array of social and historical forces, economic and political forms and technologies of image production. Contemporary art expresses this condition, Osborne maintains, through its distinctively postconceptual form. These essays-extending the scope and arguments of Osborne's Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art-move from philosophical consideration of the changing temporal conditions of capitalist modernity, via problems of formalism, the politics of art and the changing shape of art institutions, to interpretation and analysis of particular works by Akram Zataari, Xavier Le Roy and Ilya Kabakov, and the postconceptual situation of a crisis-ridden New Music.

On July 22, 1779, one of the most lethal battles of the American Revolution, in terms of the ratio of participants to numbers killed, took place on a hill above Minisink Ford along the Delaware River north of Port Jervis, New York. The Battle at Minisink Ford, New York was a disaster for the American militia units. More than one third of the militiamen perished. This important work reveals primary sources about the battle that have not been seen in more than one hundred and fifty years. So Many Brave Men, the first major work written on the battle in thirty years, will encourage new interest in the battle, and the men who fought there. Many of the veterans of that catastrophe speak to us about that fateful day from the distance of more than 230 years. They also speak of their dedication to the cause of freedom and liberty. 828 Pages, 7" x 10" Indexed, Bibliography, 15 illustrations, 5 maps