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Power is clearly a crucial concept for feminist theory. Insofar as
feminists are interested in analyzing power, it is because they
have an interest in understanding, critiquing, and ultimately
challenging the multiple array of unjust power relations affecting
women in contemporary Western societies, including sexism, racism,
heterosexism, and class
Over a career spanning nearly seven decades, Jurgen Habermas - one
of the most important European philosophers of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries - has produced a prodigious and influential
body of work. In this Lexicon, authored by an international team of
scholars, over 200 entries define and explain the key concepts,
categories, philosophemes, themes, debates, and names associated
with the entire constellation of Habermas's thought. The entries
explore the historical, philosophical and social-theoretic roots of
these terms and concepts, as well as their intellectual and
disciplinary contexts, to build a broad but detailed picture of the
development and trajectory of Habermas as a thinker. The volume
will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of
Habermas, as well as for other readers in political philosophy,
political science, sociology, international relations, cultural
studies, and law.
Does critical theory still need psychoanalysis? In Critique on the
Couch, Amy Allen offers a cogent and convincing defense of its
ongoing relevance. Countering the overly rationalist and
progressivist interpretations of psychoanalysis put forward by
contemporary critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas and Axel
Honneth, Allen argues that the work of Melanie Klein offers an
underutilized resource. She draws on Freud, Klein, and Lacan to
develop a more realistic strand of psychoanalytic thinking that
centers on notions of loss, negativity, ambivalence, and mourning.
Far from leading to despair, such an understanding of human
subjectivity functions as a foundation of creativity, productive
self-transformation, and progressive social change. At a time when
critical theorists are increasingly returning to psychoanalytic
thought to diagnose the dysfunctions of our politics, this book
opens up new ways of understanding the political implications of
psychoanalysis while preserving the progressive, emancipatory aims
of critique.
This volume draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists in
order to illustrate and construct a new feminist conception of
power. Power is clearly a crucial concept for feminist theory.
Insofar as feminists are interested in analyzing power, it is
because they have an interest in understanding, critiquing, and
ultimately challenging the multiple array of unjust power relations
affecting women in contemporary Western societies, including
sexism, racism, heterosexism, and class oppression. In The Power of
Feminist Theory, Amy Allen diagnoses the inadequacies of previous
feminist conceptions of power, and draws on the work of a diverse
group of theorists of power, including Michel Foucault, Judith
Butler, and Hannah Arendt, in order to construct a new feminist
conception of power. The conception of power developed in this book
enables readers to theorize domination, resistance, and solidarity,
and, perhaps more importantly, to do so in a way that illuminates
the interrelatedness of these three modalities of power.
Over a career spanning nearly seven decades, Jurgen Habermas - one
of the most important European philosophers of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries - has produced a prodigious and influential
body of work. In this Lexicon, authored by an international team of
scholars, over 200 entries define and explain the key concepts,
categories, philosophemes, themes, debates, and names associated
with the entire constellation of Habermas's thought. The entries
explore the historical, philosophical and social-theoretic roots of
these terms and concepts, as well as their intellectual and
disciplinary contexts, to build a broad but detailed picture of the
development and trajectory of Habermas as a thinker. The volume
will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of
Habermas, as well as for other readers in political philosophy,
political science, sociology, international relations, cultural
studies, and law.
Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan explores convergences and
divergences in the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and
Jacques Lacan, with a special focus on the implications of their
work for critical theory, broadly construed. The book is
co-authored in the form of a dialogue between Amy Allen, a
prominent representative of Frankfurt School critical theory with
expertise on Klein, and Mari Ruti, a leading Lacanian critical
theorist. Klein and Lacan are among the two most important and
influential psychoanalytic theorists after Freud. Their work has
profound implications for how we understand subjectivity,
intersubjectivity, autonomy, agency, desire, affect, trauma,
history, and the potential for individual and social change. Allen
and Ruti offer distinctive interpretations of Klein and Lacan that
not only bring out their complexities but also highlight productive
points of convergence where most psychoanalytic and critical
theorists see irreconcilable differences. The book is organized
around key themes that cut across and through the work of Klein and
Lacan, culminating in an assessment of the implications of their
theories for thinking about politics.
While post- and decolonial theorists have thoroughly debunked the
idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, imperialist, and
neocolonialist fallacy, many of the most prominent contemporary
thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School-Jurgen Habermas, Axel
Honneth, and Rainer Forst-have defended ideas of progress,
development, and modernity and have even made such ideas central to
their normative claims. Can the Frankfurt School's goal of radical
social change survive this critique? And what would a decolonized
critical theory look like? Amy Allen fractures critical theory from
within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while
retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative, so
eloquently defended by Adorno. Critical theory, according to Allen,
is the best resource we have for achieving emancipatory social
goals. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end
of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future.
Recognition is one of the most debated concepts in contemporary
social and political thought. Its proponents, such as Axel Honneth,
hold that to be recognized by others is a basic human need that is
central to forming an identity, and the denial of recognition
deprives individuals and communities of something essential for
their flourishing. Yet critics including Judith Butler have
questioned whether recognition is implicated in structures of
domination, arguing that the desire to be recognized can motivative
individuals to accept their assigned place in the social order by
conforming to oppressive norms or obeying repressive institutions.
Is there a way to break this impasse? Recognition and Ambivalence
brings together leading scholars in social and political philosophy
to develop new perspectives on recognition and its role in social
life. It begins with a debate between Honneth and Butler, the first
sustained engagement between these two major thinkers on this
subject. Contributions from both proponents and critics of theories
of recognition further reflect upon and clarify the problems and
challenges involved in theorizing the concept and its normative
desirability. Together, they explore different routes toward a
critical theory of recognition, departing from wholly positive or
negative views to ask whether it is an essentially ambivalent
phenomenon. Featuring original, systematic work in the philosophy
of recognition, this book also provides a useful orientation to the
key debates on this important topic.
Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan explores convergences and
divergences in the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and
Jacques Lacan, with a special focus on the implications of their
work for critical theory, broadly construed. The book is
co-authored in the form of a dialogue between Amy Allen, a
prominent representative of Frankfurt School critical theory with
expertise on Klein, and Mari Ruti, a leading Lacanian critical
theorist. Klein and Lacan are among the two most important and
influential psychoanalytic theorists after Freud. Their work has
profound implications for how we understand subjectivity,
intersubjectivity, autonomy, agency, desire, affect, trauma,
history, and the potential for individual and social change. Allen
and Ruti offer distinctive interpretations of Klein and Lacan that
not only bring out their complexities but also highlight productive
points of convergence where most psychoanalytic and critical
theorists see irreconcilable differences. The book is organized
around key themes that cut across and through the work of Klein and
Lacan, culminating in an assessment of the implications of their
theories for thinking about politics.
Recognition is one of the most debated concepts in contemporary
social and political thought. Its proponents, such as Axel Honneth,
hold that to be recognized by others is a basic human need that is
central to forming an identity, and the denial of recognition
deprives individuals and communities of something essential for
their flourishing. Yet critics including Judith Butler have
questioned whether recognition is implicated in structures of
domination, arguing that the desire to be recognized can motivative
individuals to accept their assigned place in the social order by
conforming to oppressive norms or obeying repressive institutions.
Is there a way to break this impasse? Recognition and Ambivalence
brings together leading scholars in social and political philosophy
to develop new perspectives on recognition and its role in social
life. It begins with a debate between Honneth and Butler, the first
sustained engagement between these two major thinkers on this
subject. Contributions from both proponents and critics of theories
of recognition further reflect upon and clarify the problems and
challenges involved in theorizing the concept and its normative
desirability. Together, they explore different routes toward a
critical theory of recognition, departing from wholly positive or
negative views to ask whether it is an essentially ambivalent
phenomenon. Featuring original, systematic work in the philosophy
of recognition, this book also provides a useful orientation to the
key debates on this important topic.
Does critical theory still need psychoanalysis? In Critique on the
Couch, Amy Allen offers a cogent and convincing defense of its
ongoing relevance. Countering the overly rationalist and
progressivist interpretations of psychoanalysis put forward by
contemporary critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas and Axel
Honneth, Allen argues that the work of Melanie Klein offers an
underutilized resource. She draws on Freud, Klein, and Lacan to
develop a more realistic strand of psychoanalytic thinking that
centers on notions of loss, negativity, ambivalence, and mourning.
Far from leading to despair, such an understanding of human
subjectivity functions as a foundation of creativity, productive
self-transformation, and progressive social change. At a time when
critical theorists are increasingly returning to psychoanalytic
thought to diagnose the dysfunctions of our politics, this book
opens up new ways of understanding the political implications of
psychoanalysis while preserving the progressive, emancipatory aims
of critique.
Some critical theorists understand the self as constituted by power
relations, while others insist upon the self's autonomous
capacities for critical reflection and deliberate
self-transformation. Up to now, it has all too often been assumed
that these two understandings of the self are incompatible. In her
bold new book, Amy Allen argues that the capacity for autonomy is
rooted in the very power relations that constitute the self.
Allen's theoretical framework illuminates both aspects of what she
calls, following Foucault, the "politics of our selves." It
analyzes power in all its depth and complexity, including the
complicated phenomenon of subjection, without giving up on the
ideal of autonomy. Drawing on original and critical readings of a
diverse group of theorists, including Michel Foucault, Jurgen
Habermas, Judith Butler, and Seyla Benhabib, Allen shows how the
self can be both constituted by power and capable of an autonomous
self-constitution. Her argument is a significant and vital
contribution to feminist theory and to critical social theory, both
of which have long grappled with the relationship between power and
agency. If critical theory is to be truly critical, Allen argues,
it will have to pay greater attention to the phenomenon of
subjection, and will have to think through the challenges that the
notion of subjection poses for the critical-theoretical conception
of autonomy. In particular, Allen discusses in detail how the
normative aspirations of Habermasian critical theory need to be
recast in light of Foucault's and Butler's account of subjection.
This book is original both in its attempt to think of power and
autonomy simultaneously and in its effort to bring the work of
Foucault and Habermas into a productive dialogue.
Wendy Brown is one of the most prolific and influential political
theorists of her generation. This collection of essays, designed
for the undergraduate classroom, presents an introduction to and
critical assessment of Brown's substantial body of work, with a
particular focus on her contributions to the tradition of critical
theory. Coeditors Amy Allen and Eduardo Mendieta provide an
overview of Brown's work, situating her scholarship in relation to
some of the major thinkers and methodologies of the Frankfurt
School. Brown opens the discussion with a new essay expounding upon
the meaning of freedom and the prospects for emancipation in our
current political moment. Subsequent chapters address different
aspects of Brown's corpus, including her early feminist
interpretation of the history of political theory, her influential
critiques of identity politics and progressive philosophies of
history, and her recent interrogation of the rise of neoliberalism
and the resurgence of authoritarian politics. The volume concludes
with Brown's response to her critics, where she clarifies and
expands upon the implications of her core ideas. In addition to
Brown and the editors, the contributors to this volume include
Robin Celikates, Loren Goldman, Asad Haider, Robyn Marasco, and
Johanna Oksala.
While post- and decolonial theorists have thoroughly debunked the
idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, imperialist, and
neocolonialist fallacy, many of the most prominent contemporary
thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School-Jurgen Habermas, Axel
Honneth, and Rainer Forst-have defended ideas of progress,
development, and modernity and have even made such ideas central to
their normative claims. Can the Frankfurt School's goal of radical
social change survive this critique? And what would a decolonized
critical theory look like? Amy Allen fractures critical theory from
within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while
retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative, so
eloquently defended by Adorno. Critical theory, according to Allen,
is the best resource we have for achieving emancipatory social
goals. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end
of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future.
The wide-ranging work of Rahel Jaeggi, a leading voice of the new
generation of critical theorists, demonstrates how core concepts
and methodological approaches in the tradition of the Frankfurt
School can be updated, stripped of their dubious metaphysical
baggage, and made fruitful for critical theory in the twenty-first
century. In this thorough introduction to Jaeggi’s work for
English-speaking audiences, scholars assess and critique her
efforts to revitalize critical theory. Jaeggi’s innovative work
reclaims key concepts of Hegelian-Marxist social philosophy and
reads them through the lens of such thinkers as Adorno, Heidegger,
and Dewey, while simultaneously putting them into dialogue with
contemporary analytic philosophy. Structured for classroom use,
this critical introduction to Rahel Jaeggi is an insightful and
generative confrontation with the most recent transformation of
Frankfurt School–inspired social and philosophical critical
theory. This volume features an essay by Jaeggi on moral progress
and social change, essays by leading scholars engaging with her
conceptual analysis of alienation and the critique of forms of
life, and a Q&A between Jaeggi and volume coeditor Amy Allen.
For scholars and students wishing to engage in the debate with key
contemporary thinkers over the past, present, and future(s) of
critical theory, this volume will be transformative.
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