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The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures. Introduction by Thomas McCarthy, translated by Frederick Lawrence.
French philosophy and cultural theory continue to hold a prestigious and influential position in European thought. One of the central themes of contemporary French philosophy is its concern with the theoretical and political status of the subject, a question which has been broached by structuralists and poststructuralists through an analysis of the construction of the subject in and by language, discourse, power and ideology.Contemporary French Philosophy outlines the construction of the subject in modern philosophy, focusing in particular on the seminal work of Althusser, Lacan, Derrida and Foucault. The book interrogates some of the most influential perspectives on the question of the subject to contest those postmodern voices which announce its disappearance or death. It argues instead that the question of the subject persists, even in those perspectives which seek to abandon it altogether.Providing a broad introduction to the field and an original analysis of some of the most influential theorists of the 20th Century, the book will be of great interest to political and literary theorists, cultural historians, as well as to philosophers.
Pure: Modernity, Philosophy, and the One is an experimental work of philosophy in which the author aspires to think his way back to a "premodern" worldview derived from the philosophical tradition of Platonism. To this end he attempts to identify and elucidate the fundamental intellectual assumptions of modernity and to subject these assumptions to a critical evaluation from the perspective of Platonic metaphysics. The author addresses a broad range of subjects - from ethics, politics, metaphysics, and science to the philosophies of Plato, Plotinus, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche - without losing sight of the single aim of formulating a premodern perspective in opposition to modernity. The work...
The development of modern culture along subjectivist lines has led to an analogue of psychological narcissism—to philosophical narcissism—in the culture. The intrinsic value of human cultural activity has been lost, and the intellectual foundation of the modern world-view has been destroyed. Cahoone carefully develops the idea of subjectivity and narcissism using psychological theory, the dialectical theory of the Frankfurt school, and historians. The core of his interpretive argument is developed through careful analysis of Descartes and Kant as well as of Husserl and Heidegger. Cahoone maintains a carefully controlled continuity between the analysis of philosophic positions and what they reveal about culture. In the conclusion, he moves toward a recreation of culture in non-subjectivist naturalism. Insights are drawn from Freud, Fairbairne, Winnicott, Kohut, Sennett, Lasch, Horkheimer, Adorno, Dewey, Cassirer, Kundera, and Buchler.
What happens to a culture when it’s most basic assumptions are questioned and rejected, but no new ones are offered to replace them? This book critically analyzes anti-modernist philosophy, the (perhaps futile) attempt to recover traditional worldviews and belief systems in order to cope with the void of meaning engendered by the upheavals of modernity. The textual focus of this book is interwar Germany, as it provides a dramatic and relatively recent example of cultural crisis, with a rich philosophical literature. The writings of Heidegger, Junger, Spengler, and others are discussed in detail. Key themes will be applied to our contemporary post-modern condition as well. The book examines the dangers of anti-modernism, both past and the present, but also discusses some of its implicit appeals.
Andrew Bowie uses music to question many current ideas about language, meaning and philosophy.
The concepts of modernity and modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. In this intervention, Fredric Jameson—perhaps the most influential and persuasive theorist of postmodernity—excavates and explores these notions in a fresh and illuminating manner. The extraordinary revival of discussions of modernity, as well as of new theories of artistic modernism, demands attention in its own right. It seems clear that the (provisional) disappearance of alternatives to capitalism plays its part in the universal attempt to revive ‘modernity’ as a social ideal. Yet the paradoxes of the concept illustrate its legitimate history and suggest some rules for avoiding its misuse as well. In this major interpretation of the problematic, Jameson concludes that both concepts are tainted, but nonetheless yield clues as to the nature of the phenomena they purported to theorize. His judicious and vigilant probing of both terms—which can probably not be banished at this late date—helps us clarify our present political and artistic situations.
"This book is an augmented and updated translation by the author of Theorie des Subjekts: Subjectiviteat und Identiteat zwischen Moderne und Postmoderne, Teubingen, Francke-UTB, 2010 (3rd ed.)"--Title page verso.
This collection of ten essays offers the first systematic assessment of JürgenHabermas's Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, a book that defended the rational potential of themodern age against the depiction of modernity as a spent epoch. The essays (of which four are newlycommissioned, five were published in the journal Praxis International, and one -- by Habermas --first appeared in translation in New Critique) are divided into two sections: Critical Rejoindersand Thematic Reformulations.An opening essay by d'Entrèves sets out the main issues and orients thedebate between Habermas and the postmodernists by identifying two different senses ofresponsibility: a responsibility to act versu...
Tackling important philosophical questions on modernity – what it is, where it begins and when it ends – Przemyslaw Tacik challenges the idea that modernity marks a particular epoch, and historicises its conception to offer a radical critique of it. His deconstruction-informed critique collects and assesses reflections on modernity from major philosophers including Hegel, Heidegger, Lacan, Arendt, Agamben, and Žižek. This analysis progresses a new understanding of modernity intrinsically connected to the growth of sovereignty as an organising principle of contemporary life. He argues that it is the idea of 'modernity', as a taken-for-granted era, which is positioned as the essential co...