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Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit': A Reader's Guide (Reader's Guides)
by Stephen HoulgateHegel'sPhenomenology of Spirit is probablyhis most famous work. First published in 1807, it has exercised considerableinfluence on subsequent thinkers from Feuerbach and Marx to Heidegger, Kojève,Adorno and Derrida. The book contains many memorable analyses of, for example,the master / slave dialectic, the unhappy consciousness, Sophocles' Antigone and the French Revolution andis one of the most important works in the Western philosophical tradition. Itis, however, a difficult and challenging book and needs to be studied togetherwith a clear and accessible secondary text. Stephen Houlgate's Reader's Guideoffers guidance on:Â Philosophicaland historical contextKeyThemesReadingthe textReceptionand influenceFurtherreading
Historical Redress: Must We Pay for the Past? (Think Now)
by Richard VernonShould the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles to Greece? Should settler societies in North America and Australasia compensate the aboriginal peoples whom they dispossessed? Should Israel have accepted Germany's compensation for Nazi extermination policies? The last twenty years have seen a remarkable surge of political and ethical interest in historical redress - that is, the righting of old wrongs. In this fascinating book, Richard Vernon argues that whatever the kind of redress that's at issue, and whether the wrong is large or small, an important philosophical issue arises. Exploring recent and high profile cases, Vernon focuses on the issue of responsibility. Responsibility isn't something inherited, like property or one's DNA. How, then, can it fall to one generation to make good the wrongs done by another? The book addresses all the main issues and arguments relating to justice, memory, apology and citizenship, and concludes by arguing for a forward-looking approach that focuses on the right of future generations to live just lives.
Utilitarianism: A Guide For The Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed #202)
by Krister BykvistUtilitarianism is the ethical theory advanced by Jeremy Bentham, J.S. Mill, and Henry Sidgwick and has contributed significantly to contemporary moral and political philosophy. Yet it is not without controversy and is a subject that students can often find particularly perplexing. Utilitarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a concise, yet fully comprehensive introduction to utilitarianism, its historical roots, key themes, and current debates. Krister Bykvist provides a survey of the modern debate about utilitarianism and goes on to evaluate utilitarianism in comparison with other theories, in particular virtue ethics and Kantianism. Bykvist offers a critical examination of utilitarianism, distinguishing problems that are unique to utilitarianism from those that are shared by other moral theories. Focusing on the problems unique to utilitarianism, the book provides a well-balanced assessment of where the theory goes astray and is in need of revision. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of utilitarianism, this book serves as an ideal companion to study of this influential and challenging of philosophical concepts.
Gadamer's Poetics: A Critique Of Modern Aesthetics (Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy)
by John ArthosGadamer's writing on art is typically seen as supporting his philosophical theory of truth. Drawing together a coherent theory of the work of art from the corpus of Gadamer's writings, this is the first full-length examination of Gadamer's theory of the work of art in its own right. Close readings of Gadamer's treatment of aesthetics in Truth and Method, as well as his many essays and lectures on art, highlight an approach to art that is not ancillary to historical, philosophical, and linguistic themes. The book establishes Gadamer's position on the criteria for the judgment of art, and the balance between production and reception from a hermeneutic perspective. Offering useful insights to some of the most tantalizing and obscure Gadamerian themes, this not only makes a significant addition to Gadamer scholarship, but provides aesthetics scholars, critics, and interpreters with new ways of thinking about art.
Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener
by David ToopSinister Resonance begins with the premise that sound is a haunting, a ghost, a presence whose location is ambiguous and whose existence is transitory. The intangibility of sound is uncanny – a phenomenal presence in the head, at its point of source and all around. The close listener is like a medium who draws out substance from that which is not entirely there.The history of listening must be constructed from the narratives of myth and fiction, 'silent' arts such as painting, the resonance of architecture, auditory artefacts and nature. In such contexts, sound often functions as a metaphor for mystical revelation, forbidden desires, formlessness, the unknown, and the unconscious. As if reading a map of hitherto unexplored territory, Sinister Resonance deciphers sounds and silences buried within the ghostly horrors of Arthur Machen, Shirley Jackson, Charles Dickens, M.R. James and Edgar Allen Poe, Dutch genre painting from Rembrandt to Vermeer, artists as diverse as Francis Bacon and Juan Munoz, and the writing of many modernist authors including Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce.
The Nietzsche Dictionary (Bloomsbury Philosophy Dictionaries)
by Douglas BurnhamNietzsche is not difficult to read, but he is famously difficult to understand. This is because of the bewildering array of words, phrases or metaphors that he uses. The Nietzsche Dictionary aims to help, by giving readers a road map to Nietzsche's language, and how his terminology and images relate together, forming an overall philosophical picture. The Dictionary also includes synopses of Nietzsche's key works, and short articles on the main philosophical and cultural influences leading up to, and resulting from, Nietzsche.Easy to use and navigate, the book treats all entries thematically and arranges them into seven types: Influences on, or the contemporary context of, Nietzsche; Major influences of Nietzsche; Key concepts; Key metaphors or images; Alternative translations; Other words or phrases found in Nietzsche that are cross-referenced to a main entry; Synopses of major works by Nietzsche.Designed to be a resource that all readers of Nietzsche will find invaluable, this text is an essential tool for everyone, from beginners to the more advanced.
Lev Vygotsky (Bloomsbury Library of Educational Thought)
by René van der VeerLev Vygotsky, the great Russian psychologist, had a profound influence on educational thought. His work on the perception of art, cultural-historical theory of the mind and the zone of proximal development all had an impact on modern education. This text provides a succinct critical account of Vygotsky's life and work against the background of the political events and social turmoil of that time and analyses his cross-cultural research and the application of his ideas to contemporary education. René van der Veer offers his own interpretation of Vygotsky as both the man and anti-man of educational philosophy, concluding that the strength of Vygotsky's legacy lies in its unfinished, open nature.
Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History
by Francis O'GormanWorrying: A Literary and Cultural History suggests a unique approach to the inner life and its ordinary pains. Francis O'Gorman charts the emergence of our contemporary idea of worry in the Victorian era and its establishment, after the First World War, as a feature of modernity. For some writers between the Wars, worry was the “disease of the age.”Worrying examines the everyday kind of worry-the fearful, non-pathological, and usually hidden questioning about uncertain futures. It shows worry to be a natural companion in a world where we try to live by reason and believe we have the right to choose, finding in the worrier a peculiarly contemporary sufferer whose mental life is not only exceptionally familiar, but also deeply strange.Offering an intimately personal account of an all-too-common human experience, and of a word that slips in and out of ordinary conversation so often that it has become invisible in its familiarity, Worrying explores how the modern world has shaped our everyday anxieties.
Hume on God: Irony, Deism and Genuine Theism (Continuum Studies in British Philosophy)
by Timothy S. YoderDavid Hume, one of the most influential philosophers to have written in the English language, is widely known as a skeptic and an empiricist. He is famous for raising questions about the existence of things for which there is insufficient empirical evidence, such as souls, the self, miracles, and, perhaps most importantly, God. Despite this reputation, however, Hume's works contain frequent references to a deity, and one searches in vain to find a positive assertion of atheism. This book proposes a different reading of Hume on God, in which Hume is seen as proposing a 'genuine theism'. Yoder investigates Hume's use of irony and his relationship with the Deists of his era and offers a thorough re-examination of Hume's writings on religion. Yoder concludes that, despite Hume's criticisms of the church, religiously-based ethics and the belief in miracles, he stops well short of a rejection of the existence of God. Always a creative thinker, Hume carves out a unique conception of the divine being.
Adorno: Adorno: A Guide For The Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed #150)
by Alex ThomsonOne of the most influential philosophers and cultural theorists of the twentieth century, Theodor Adorno poses a considerable challenge to students. His works can often seem obscure and impenetrable, particularly for those with little knowledge of the philosophical traditions on which he draws. Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed is an engaging and accessible account of his thought that does not patronise or short-change the reader. Those new to Adorno - and those who have struggled to make headway with his work - will find this an invaluable resource: clearly written, comprehensive and specifically focused on just what makes Adorno difficult to read and understand.Â
Augustine and Roman Virtue (Continuum Studies in Philosophy)
by Brian HardingAugustine and Roman Virtue seeks to correct what the author sees as a fundamental misapprehension in medieval thought, a misapprehension that fuels further problems and misunderstandings in the historiography of philosophy. This misapprehension is the assumption that the development of certain themes associated with medieval philosophy is due, primarily if not exclusively, to extra-philosophical religious commitments rather than philosophical argumentation, referred to here as the 'sacralization thesis'. Brian Harding explores this problem through a detailed reading of Augustine's City of God as understood in a Latin context, that is, in dialogue with Latin writers such as Cicero, Livy, Sallust and Seneca. The book seeks to revise a common reading of Augustine's critique of ancient virtue by focusing on that dialogue, while showing that his attitude towards those authors is more sympathetic, and more critical, than one might expect. Harding argues that the criticisms rest on sympathy and that Augustine's critique of ancient virtue thinks through and develops certain trends noticeable in the major figures of Latin philosophy.
In the Beginning, She Was
by Luce IrigarayIn this new book, crucial for understanding her journey, Luce Irigaray goes further than in Speculum and questions the work of the Pre-Socratics at the root of our culture. Reminding us of the story of Ulysses and Antigone, she demonstrates how, from the beginning, Western tradition represents an exile for humanity. Indeed, to emerge from the maternal origin, man elaborated a discourse of mastery and constructed a world of his own that grew away from life and prevented perceiving the real as it is. To recover our natural belonging and learn how to cultivate it humanly is imperative and needs turning back before the golden age of Greek culture. Another language is, then, to discover, capable of expressing living energy and transforming our instincts into shareable desires.In the Beginning, She Was reworks themes that are central to Irigaray's thought: the limits of Western logic, the sexuation of discourse, the existence of two different subjects, the necessity of art as mediation towards another culture. These themes are approached with a new level of maturity that reconfirms the place of Irigaray as one of the world's most important contemporary thinkers.
Lyotard and the 'figural' in Performance, Art and Writing (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy)
by Kiff BamfordThis original study offers a timely reconsiderationof the work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in relation to art,performance and writing. How can we write about art, whilstacknowledging the transformation that inevitably accompanies translations of both media and temporality?That is the question that persistently dogs Lyotard's own writings on art, andto which this book responds through reference to artists from therecently-formed canon of performance art history, including the myths ofseminal figures Marina Abramovicand Vito Acconci, and the controlled documentation of Gina Pane's actions.Through the unstable, untranslatable element that Lyotard calls the figural, his thought is brought to bearon attempts to write a history of performance art and to question the paradoxicallyprescriptive demand for rules to govern 're-performance'. Kiff Bamford contextualises Lyotard's writings andapproach with reference to both his contemporaries, including Deleuze andKristeva, and the contemporary art about which they wrote, whilst arguing forthe pertinence of Lyotard's provocations today.
Mindful Aesthetics: Literature and the Science of Mind
by Chris Danta Helen GrothIn the last few decades, literary critics have increasingly drawn insights from cognitive neuroscience to deepen and clarify our understanding of literary representations of mind. This cognitive turn has been equally generative and contentious. While cognitive literary studies has reinforced how central the concept of mind is to aesthetic practice from the classical period to the present, critics have questioned its literalism and selective borrowing of scientific authority. Mindful Aesthetics presents both these perspectives as part of a broader consideration of the ongoing and vital importance of shifting concepts of mind to both literary and critical practice. This collection contributes to the forging of a 'new interdisciplinarity,' to paraphrase Alan Richardson's recent preface to the Neural Sublime, that is more concerned with addressing how, rather than why, we should navigate the increasingly narrow gap between the humanities and the sciences.
Exploring the Work of Edward S. Casey: Giving Voice to Place, Memory, and Imagination (Bloomsbury Studies in American Philosophy)
by Azucena Cruz-Pierre Donald A. LandesFrom his initial writings on imagination and memory, to his recent studies of the glance and the edge, the work of American philosopher Edward S. Casey continues to shape 20th-century philosophy. In this first study dedicated to his rich body of work, distinguished scholars from philosophy, urban studies and architecture as well as artists engage with Casey's research and ideas to explore the key themes and variations of his contribution to the humanities.Structured into three major parts, the volume reflects the central concerns of Casey's writings: an evolving phenomenology of imagination, memory, and place; representation and landscape painting and art; and edges, glances, and voice. Each part begins with an extended interview that defines and explains the topics, concepts, and stakes of each area of research. Readers are thus offered an introduction to Casey's fascinating body of work, and will gain a new insight into particular aspects and applications of Casey's research.With a complete bibliography and an introduction that at once stresses each of Casey's areas of research while putting into perspective their overarching themes, this authoritative volume identifies the overall coherence and interconnections of Edward S. Casey's work and his impact on contemporary thought.
Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory: Unfinished Selves (Continuum Studies in Philosophy #35)
by Alison AssiterAlison Assiter argues that the notion of the person that lies at the heart of the liberal tradition is derived from a Kantian and Cartesian metaphysic. This metaphysic, according to her, is flawed and it permeates a number of aspects of the tradition. Significantly it excludes certain individuals, those who are labelled 'mad' or 'evil'. Instead she offers an alternative metaphysical image of the person that is derived largely from the work of Kierkegaard. Assiter argues that there is a strand of Kierkegaard's writing that offers a metaphysical picture that recognises the dependence of people upon one another. He offers a moral outlook, derived from this, that encourages people to 'love' one another. Inspired by Kierkegaard, Assiter goes on to argue that it is useful to focus on needs rather than rights in moral and political thinking and to defend the view that it is important to care about others who may be far removed from each one of us. Furthermore, she argues, it is important that we treat those who are close to us, well.
Civil Disobedience: Protest, Justification and the Law
by Tony MilliganCivil disobedience is a form of protest with a special standing with regards to the law that sets it apart from political violence. Such principled law-breaking has been witnessed in recent years over climate change, economic strife, and the treatment of animals. Civil disobedience is examined here in the context of contemporary political activism, in the light of classic accounts by Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Gandhi to call for a broader attitude towards what civil disobedience involves. The question of violence is discussed, arguing that civil disobedience need only be aspirationally non-violent and that although some protests do not clearly constitute law-breaking they may render people liable to arrest. For example, while there may not be violence against persons, there may be property damage, as seen in raids upon animal laboratories. Such forms of militancy raise ethical and legal questions.Arguing for a less restrictive theory of civil disobedience, the book will be a valuable resource for anyone studying social movements and issues of political philosophy, social justice, and global ethics.
Literature, In Theory: Tropes, Subjectivities, Responses and Responsibilities
by Julian WolfreysJacques Derrida has argued about the difference between literature and theory that despite its institutional status, part of its 'institution' is the right of literature to say anything. Literature cannot be defined as such, and as soon as one seeks to produce a reading of the literary, complications arise. Yet despite its institutional significance, 'theory' remains something many wish would go away; and which, for others, is still not read, is misread, and remains to be read. Like literature, it remains as an enigmatic identity, resistant to definition, but subject to misperceptions and open to general statements that are more or less inaccurate. By examining how 'theory' and 'literature' are concepts and names which touch on one other in complex ways, Julian Wolfreys seeks to understand their intersections and differences. Examining a wide range of authors, from Dickens to Joyce, and engaging directly with a number of major theorists, Wolfreys takes the reader on a journey through the issues and ideas involved in reading literature, in theory.Â
Starting with Derrida: Plato, Aristotle And Hegel (Starting with…)
by Sean GastonHow does one start with Derrida? In this exciting and accessible book, Sean Gaston presents a new kind of introduction to Jacques Derrida, arguably the most important and influential European thinker of the last century. Derrida claimed that 'However old I am, I am on the threshold of reading Plato and Aristotle ... we need to read them again and again and again.' In Starting with Derrida, Gaston introduces all Derrida's major works and ideas by tracing Derrida's reading (and re-reading) of Plato, Aristotle and Hegel throughout his writings. Starting with Derrida argues for the importance of the relationship between philosophy, literature and history in Derrida's work and addresses all the key concepts in Derrida's thought, including his work on time and space, being and the soul, sensation and thought, history and literature, the concept and the name. The book encourages the reader to enter Derrida's varied and complex legacy through the moments in Derrida's work that are concerned with the question of origins and beginnings. By actively engaging with Derrida's ideas in this way, Gaston reveals a new and highly original reading of Derrida's work and provides a useful introduction to his entire corpus. This exciting new book is essential reading for students of philosophy and literary theory and, indeed, anyone interested in the work of this hugely important thinker.
Revisiting Normativity with Deleuze (Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy)
by Rosi Braidotti Patricia PistersThis volume assembles some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Deleuze studies in order to provide both an accessible introduction to key concepts in Deleuze's thought and to test them in view of the issue of normativity. This includes not only the law, but also the question of norms and values in the broader ethical, political and methodological sense. The volume argues that Deleuze's philosophy rejects the unitary vision of the subject as a self-regulating rationalist entity and replaces it with a process-oriented relational vision of the subject. But what can we do exactly with this alternative nomadic vision? What modes of normativity are available outside the parameters of liberal, self-reflexive individualism on the one hand and the communitarian model on the other? This interdisciplinary volume explores these issues in three directions that mirror Deleuze and Guattari's defense of the parallelism between philosophy, science, and the arts. The volume therefore covers socio-political and legal theory; the epistemological critique of scientific discourse and the cultural, artistic and aesthetic interventions emerging from Deleuze's philosophy.
On Zizek's Dialectics: Surplus, Subtraction, Sublimation (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy)
by Fabio VighiOn Žižek's Dialectics explores the theoretical and practical potential of the psychoanalytic method deployed by Slavoj Žižek by investigating its epistemological implications within our contemporary capitalist universe. The book begins by evaluating Zizek's account of the capitalist ideology of enjoyment through the analysis of Lacan's critique of Marx's surplus-value. If the originality of Žižek's wager lies in the claim that enjoyment secretly sustains our ideological space, can we think of surplus-jouissance in a way that not only unmasks the ruse of capitalism but also adumbrates the construction of an alternative social space? The answer to this question is developed in the second part of the book. Arguing that the transformative potential of Zizek's epistemology needs to be fully unravelled if it is to avoid the risk of congealing into mere academic exercise, Fabio Vighi attempts to politicise Žižek's groundbreaking critical method by calling upon the necessity to translate its emphasis on the "indigestible" surplus of knowledge into the drive to think the new. Under the current conditions, this creative moment can no longer be delayed.
Aristotle's Ethics: Moral Development and Human Nature (Continuum Studies in Ancient Philosophy #22)
by Hope MayAristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is devoted to the topic of human happiness. Yet, although Aristotle's conception of happiness is central to his whole philosophical project, there is much controversy surrounding it. Hope May offers a new interpretation of Aristotle's account of happiness - one which incorporates Aristotle's views about the biological development of human beings. May argues that the relationship amongst the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues, and happiness, is best understood through the lens of developmentalism. On this view, happiness emerges from the cultivation of a number of virtues that are developmentally related. May goes on to show how contemporary scholarship in psychology, ethical theory and legal philosophy signals a return to Aristotelian ethics. Specifically, May shows how a theory of motivation known as Self-Determination Theory and recent research on goal attainment have deep affinities to Aristotle's ethical theory. May argues that this recent work can ground a contemporary virtue theory that acknowledges the centrality of autonomy in a way that captures the fundamental tenets of Aristotle's ethics.
Cinema After Deleuze (Deleuze Encounters)
by Richard RushtonCinema After Deleuze offers a clear and lucid introduction to Deleuze's writings on cinema which will appeal both to undergraduates and specialists in film studies and philosophy. The book provides explanations of the many categories and classifications found in Deleuze's two landmark books on cinema and offers assessments of a range of films, including works by John Ford, Sergei Eisenstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais and others. Contemporary directors such as Steven Spielberg, Lars von Trier, Martin Scorsese and Wong Kar-wai are also examined in the light of Deleuze's theories, thus bringing Deleuze's writings on cinema right up to date. Cinema After Deleuze demonstrates why Deleuze is rightly considered today to be one of the great philosophers of cinema. The book is essential reading for students in philosophy and film studies alike.
Reconciling Community and Subjective Life: Trauma Testimony as Political Theorizing in the Work of Jean Améry and Imre Kertész
by Magdalena ZolkosThis is an examination of the difficult interplay between the collective pursuit of justice and reconciliation on one hand and the individual subjective experience of trauma on the other, proposing that it be thought as a potentially productive tension. To do so, Zolkos looks at how texts from Jean Améry and Imre Kertész speak to the question of the politics of the past and, ultimately, to the post-foundational notions of community and justice.The text works with issues of reconciliation at a theoretical level that bring together insights from political theory, trauma studies, holocaust studies, history and literary theory. The book has the greatest relevance for the critical reconciliation theory, as well as for those working on the concept of community within the continental tradition.
Simultaneity and Delay: A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy)
by Jay LampertThrough original speculations on the surprisingly complementary concepts of simultaneity and delay, and new interpretations of the great philosophers of time, this book proposes an innovative theory of staggered time. In the early 20th Century, Bergson and Husserl (following Einstein) made Simultaneity-what it means for events to occur at the same time-a central motif in philosophy. In the late 20th Century, Derrida and Deleuze instead emphasized Delay-events staggered over distant times. This struggle between convergent and staggered time also plays out in 20th Century aesthetics (especially music), politics, and the sciences. Despite their importance in the history of philosophy, this is the first book to comprehensively examine the concepts of simultaneity and delay. By putting simultaneity and delay into a dialectical relation, this book argues that time in general is organized by elastic rhythms. Lampert's concepts describe the time-structures of such diverse phenomena as atonal music, political decision-making, neuronal delays, leaps of memory and the boredom of waiting; and simultaneities and delays in everyday experience and behaviour.