This book presents an age of nationalism, imperialism, modernization, industrialism, and great cultural achievement, stretching from 1800, when Europe was awash in the wake of the French Revolution, the reign of terror, and the coming rise of Napoleon, to Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914.

Concise biographical entries provide basic information on the great talents of the era--Beethoven, the Romantic poets, Hegel--as well as leaders in the modernization and industrialization of Western culture. Included are figures who played major roles on the imperialist and nationalist stage, those--such as Darwin and Planck--who made significant contributions to science, and those who struggled for women's rights and Abolition in the United States.

This forward-thinking collection presents new work that looks beyond the division between the analytic and continental philosophical traditions-one that has long caused dissension, mutual distrust, and institutional barriers to the development of common concerns and problems. Rather than rehearsing the causes of the divide, contributors draw upon the problems, methods, and results of both traditions to show what post-divide philosophical work looks like in practice. Ranging from metaphysics and philosophy of mind to political philosophy and ethics, the papers gathered here bring into mutual dialogue a wide range of recent and contemporary thinkers, and confront leading problems common to both traditions, including methodology, ontology, meaning, truth, values, and personhood. Collectively, these essays show that it is already possible to foresee a future for philosophical thought and practice no longer determined neither as "analytic" nor as "continental," but, instead, as a pluralistic synthesis of what is best in both traditions. The new work assembled here shows how the problems, projects, and ambitions of twentieth-century philosophy are already being taken up and productively transformed to produce new insights, questions, and methods for philosophy today.

This forward-thinking collection presents new work that looks beyond the division between the analytic and continental philosophical traditions-one that has long caused dissension, mutual distrust, and institutional barriers to the development of common concerns and problems. Rather than rehearsing the causes of the divide, contributors draw upon the problems, methods, and results of both traditions to show what post-divide philosophical work looks like in practice. Ranging from metaphysics and philosophy of mind to political philosophy and ethics, the papers gathered here bring into mutual dialogue a wide range of recent and contemporary thinkers, and confront leading problems common to both traditions, including methodology, ontology, meaning, truth, values, and personhood. Collectively, these essays show that it is already possible to foresee a future for philosophical thought and practice no longer determined neither as "analytic" nor as "continental," but, instead, as a pluralistic synthesis of what is best in both traditions. The new work assembled here shows how the problems, projects, and ambitions of twentieth-century philosophy are already being taken up and productively transformed to produce new insights, questions, and methods for philosophy today.

This volume is based on the first set of formal conversations which brings together the dynamic philosophies of two eminent thinkers: Judith Butler and Alfred North Whitehead. Each has drawn from a wide palette of disciplines to develop distinctive theories of becoming, of syntactical violence, and creative opportunities of limitation. In bringing together internationally renowned interpreters of Butler and Whitehead from a variety of fields and disciplines philosophy, rhetoric, gender and queer studies, religion, literary and political theory the editors hope to set a standard for the relevance of interdisciplinary philosophical discourse today. This volume offers a unique contribution to and for the humanities in the struggles of politics, economy, ecology, and the arts, by reaching beyond their closed circles toward understandings that may serve as the basis for the activation of humanity today. Considered together, Butler and Whitehead delineate a whole new cadre of approaches to long-standing problems as well as never-before asked questions in the humanities.

A collaborative close reading of 'A Thousand Plateaus' by some of the world's leading Deleuze and Guattari scholarsThis volume brings together a team of international specialists on Deleuze and Guattari to provide in-depth critical studies of each plateau of their major work, 'A Thousand Plateaus'. It combines an overview of the text with deep scholarship and brings a renewed focus on the philosophical significance of their project.'A Thousand Plateaus' represents a whole new way of doing philosophy. This collection supports the critical reception of Deleuze and Guattari's text as one of the most important and influential works of modern theory.Key FeaturesEmphasises the philosophical nature of 'A Thousand Plateaus'Provides detailed coverage of the text as a whole Brings together cutting edge research from some of the leading lights in scholarship on Deleuze and GuattariAn ideal companion to a plateau-by-plateau reading of Deleuze and Guattari's workContributorsMiguel de Beistegui, University of Warwick, UKJeffrey A. Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University, USARonald Bogue, University of Georgia, USARay Brassier, American University of Beirut, LebanonEugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USAEmma Ingala, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ItalySimon O'Sullivan, Goldsmiths, University of London, UKHelen Palmer, Kingston University London, UKPaul Patton, University of New South Wales, AustraliaJohn Protevi, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USADaniel W. Smith, Purdue University, USAHenry Somers-Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKAudrey Wasser, Miami University, USANathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKJames Williams, Deakin University, Australia

This collection of 11 essays form a new examination of Whitehead's Barbour-Page lectures, which were published as the book Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect in 1927. Leading Whitehead scholars give you exciting insights into the contemporary implications of Whitehead's symbolism in an era of new scientific, cultural and technological developments. As a result, Whitehead's philosophy is reinvigorated in the context of contemporary discussions and debates. This volume also serves as a critical point of entry into Whitehead's more lengthy and complex work such as Process and Reality, and to his body of work as a whole.

A collaborative close reading of 'A Thousand Plateaus' by some of the world's leading Deleuze and Guattari scholarsThis volume brings together a team of international specialists on Deleuze and Guattari to provide in-depth critical studies of each plateau of their major work, 'A Thousand Plateaus'. It combines an overview of the text with deep scholarship and brings a renewed focus on the philosophical significance of their project.'A Thousand Plateaus' represents a whole new way of doing philosophy. This collection supports the critical reception of Deleuze and Guattari's text as one of the most important and influential works of modern theory.Key FeaturesEmphasises the philosophical nature of 'A Thousand Plateaus'Provides detailed coverage of the text as a whole Brings together cutting edge research from some of the leading lights in scholarship on Deleuze and GuattariAn ideal companion to a plateau-by-plateau reading of Deleuze and Guattari's workContributorsMiguel de Beistegui, University of Warwick, UKJeffrey A. Bell, Southeastern Louisiana University, USARonald Bogue, University of Georgia, USARay Brassier, American University of Beirut, LebanonEugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USAEmma Ingala, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ItalySimon O'Sullivan, Goldsmiths, University of London, UKHelen Palmer, Kingston University London, UKPaul Patton, University of New South Wales, AustraliaJohn Protevi, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USADaniel W. Smith, Purdue University, USAHenry Somers-Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKAudrey Wasser, Miami University, USANathan Widder, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKJames Williams, Deakin University, Australia

Despite the broad range of resources they draw on - from geology, Riemannian spaces and metallurgy to psychoanalysis, literature and the game Go - Deleuze and Guattari nonetheless consider themselves to be doing philosophy. In What is Philosophy?, Deleuze and Guattari set out to answer precisely that question. Jeffrey A. Bell explores their answer, that it is the 'art of forming, inventing and fabricating concepts'. In so doing, he draws out the issues at play in their other writings.

Despite the fact that time, evolution, becoming and genealogy are central concepts in Deleuze's work there has been no sustained study of his philosophy in relation to the question of history. This book aims to open up Deleuze's relevance to those working in history, the history of ideas, science studies, evolutionary psychology, history of philosophy and interdisciplinary projects inflected by historical problems. The essays in this volume (all by internationally recognised Deleuze scholars) cover all aspects of Deleuze's philosophy and its relation to history, ranging from the application of Deleuze's philosophy to historical method, Deleuze's own use of the history of philosophy, his interpretations of other historical thinkers (such as Hume and Nietzsche) and the complex theories of time and evolution in his work. Contributors include: Paul Patton, Manuel DeLanda, John Protevi, Ian Buchanan, Tim Flanagan, James Williams, Eve Bischoff, Jay Lampert.

This collection of 11 essays form a new examination of Whitehead's Barbour-Page lectures, which were published as the book Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect in 1927. Leading Whitehead scholars give you exciting insights into the contemporary implications of Whitehead's symbolism in an era of new scientific, cultural and technological developments. As a result, Whitehead's philosophy is reinvigorated in the context of contemporary discussions and debates. This volume also serves as a critical point of entry into Whitehead's more lengthy and complex work such as Process and Reality, and to his body of work as a whole.

Beginning with Plato and Aristotle, philosophers throughout history have built their theories around the problem of reconciling a fundamental distinction, as for example, Plato's distinction between knowledge (reality) and opinion (appearance), Descarte's mind/body distinction, and Kant's a priori/a posteriori distinction. This 'problem of difference' is a classic theme in philosophy, and one that has taken especially intriguing turns in recent decades. Jeffrey A. Bell here presents a finely constructed survey of the contemporary continental philosophers, focusing on how they have dealt with the problem of difference.

Bell's work centres around three key figures - Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze. He also considers the positions of such thinkers as Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty, who have called for an end to the traditional response to the problem of difference - an end to the search for any ultimate foundations on which our varied and different experiences of the world might be based - and thus, in effect, an end to traditional philosophy.

In clarifying the relationship between phenomenology and poststructuralism, Bell analyses the role of paradox in both traditions, in particular the role it plays in accounting for difference. Not only philosophers, but also teachers and students in the area of comparative literary they will benefit from this book.