Merleau-Ponty and Modern Politics After Anti-humanism

Merleau-Ponty and Modern Politics After Anti-humanism
Author: Diana H. Coole
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2007
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780742533387

"In this book, Diana Coole shows how existential phenomenology illuminates and enlivens our understanding of polities. With breadth of vision and penetrating insight, Coole demonstrates that political questions were always central to Merleau-Ponty's philosophical project. She also shows how Merleau-Ponty's concern with contingency anticipated arguments by thinkers such as Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze, while sustaining a robust sense of politics as the domain of collective life"--Jacket.

Merleau-Ponty and Contemporary Philosophy

Merleau-Ponty and Contemporary Philosophy
Author: Emmanuel Alloa
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2019-12-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438476914

Assesses the importance of Merleau-Ponty to current and ongoing concerns in contemporary philosophy. Maurice Merleau-Ponty is widely recognized as one of the major figures of twentieth-century philosophy. The recent publication of his lecture courses and posthumous working notes has opened new avenues for both the interpretation of his thought and philosophy in general. These works confirm that, with a surprising premonition, Merleau-Ponty addressed many of the issues that concern philosophy today. With the benefit of this fuller picture of his thought, Merleau-Ponty and Contemporary Philosophy undertakes an assessment of the philosopher’s relevance for contemporary thinking. Covering a diverse range of topics, including ontology, epistemology, anthropology, embodiment, animality, politics, language, aesthetics, and art, the editors gather representative voices from North America and Europe, including both Merleau-Ponty specialists and thinkers who have come to the philosopher’s work through their own thematic interest. “Merleau-Ponty and Contemporary Philosophy offers a rich set of writings by central and rising scholars, spanning various languages and traditions, who together show Merleau-Ponty’s continuing relevance for contemporary thinking on phenomenology, mind and nature, politics and power, and art and creation. This book will advance scholarship and also open new doors for those seeking to find their way into Merleau-Ponty’s ways of thinking.” — David Morris, author of The Sense of Space

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (set)

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (set)
Author: Gregory Claeys
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 943
Release: 2013-08-20
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1506317588

This groundbreaking new work explores modern and contemporary political thought since 1750, looking at the thinkers, concepts, debates, issues, and national traditions that have shaped political thought from the Enlightenment to post-modernism and post-structuralism. Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought is two-volume A to Z reference that provides historical context to the philosophical issues and debates that have shaped attitudes toward democracy, citizenship, rights, property, duties, justice, equality, community, law, power, gender, race, and legitimacy over the last three centuries. It profiles major and minor political thinkers, and the national traditions, both Western and non-Western, which continue to shape and divide political thought. More than 200 scholars from leading international research institutions and organizations have provided signed entries that offer comprehensive coverage of: Thought of regions and countries, including African political thought, American political thought , Australasian political thought (Australian and New Zealand), Chinese political thought, Indian political thought, Islamic political Thought, Japanese political thought, and more Thought regarding contemporary issues such as abortion, affirmative action, animal rights, European integration, feminism, humanitarian intervention, international law, race and racism, and more The ideological spectrum from Marxism to neoconservatism, including anarchism, conservatism, Darwinism and Social Darwinism, Engels, fascism, the Frankfurt School, Lenin and Leninism, socialism, and more Connections of political thought to key areas of politics and other disciplines such as economics, psychology, law, and religion Notable time periods of political thought since 1750 Concepts including class, democratic theory, liberalism, nationalism, natural and human rights, and theories of the state Theorists and political intellectuals, both Western and non-Western including John Adams, Edmund Burke, Mohandas Gandhi, Immanuel Kant, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, George Washington, and Mary Wollstonecraft

The Oxford Handbook of Humanism

The Oxford Handbook of Humanism
Author: Anthony B. Pinn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 825
Release: 2021-07-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190921560

While humanist sensibilities have played a formative role in the advancement of our species, critical attention to humanism as a field of study is a more recent development. As a system of thought that values human needs and experiences over supernatural concerns, humanism has gained greater attention amid the rapidly shifting demographics of religious communities, especially in Europe and North America. This outlook on the world has taken on global dimensions as well, with activists, artists, and thinkers forming a humanistic response not only to traditional religion, but to the pressing social and political issues of the 21st century. With in-depth, scholarly chapters, The Oxford Handbook of Humanism aims to cover the subject by analyzing its history, its philosophical development, its influence on culture, and its engagement with social and political issues. In order to expand the field beyond more Western-focused works, the Handook discusses humanism as a worldwide phenomenon, with regional surveys that explore how the concept has developed in particular contexts. The Handbook also approaches humanism as both an opponent to traditional religion as well as a philosophy that some religions have explicitly adopted. By both synthesizing the field, and discussing how it continues to grow and develop, the Handbook promises to be a landmark volume, relevant to both humanism and the rapidly changing religious landscape.

Merleau-Ponty

Merleau-Ponty
Author: Rosalyn Diprose
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2014-12-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317493036

Having initially not had the attention of Sartre or Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty's work is arguably now more widely influential than either of his two contemporaries. "Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts" presents an accessible guide to the core ideas which structure Merleau-Ponty's thinking as well as to his influences and the value of his ideas to a wide range of disciplines. The first section of the book presents the context of Merleau-Ponty's thinking, the major debates of his time, particularly existentialism, phenomenology, the history of philosophy and the philosophy of history and society. The second section outlines his major contributions and conceptual innovations. The final section focuses upon how his work has been taken up in other fields besides philosophy, notably in sociology, cognitive science, health studies, feminism and race theory.

Edinburgh Companion to Critical Theory

Edinburgh Companion to Critical Theory
Author: Stuart Sim
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2016-02-10
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0748693408

Featuring an international team of specialists on the subject, The Edinburgh Companion to Critical Theory provides a comprehensive analysis of the changing role of critical theory in the new century. Taking note of the many new theoretical and socio-political developments in recent years, the volume conclusively demonstrates critical theory's continuing relevance across disciplines ranging from the arts and social sciences through to the hard sciences. Being theoretically informed is not an optional part of study any more, it is a necessary, central part, and The Companion will bring you up to date with what is happening across the spectrum of critical theory.The volume consists of eleven sections comprising twenty-eight chapters, each covering a particular branch of critical theory from Marxism through to present-day developments such as Cognitive Theory. Every chapter considers the historical development of the theory in question, explaining the main concepts and thinkers involved, before proceeding to assess where it stands in relation to current academic and socio-political concerns and debates. Outlining recent advances in each area, and the emergence of new voices, The Companion offers readers a welcome opportunity to reorient themselves within the history and role of critical theory in its many forms.

Merleau-Ponty's Existential Phenomenology and the Realization of Philosophy

Merleau-Ponty's Existential Phenomenology and the Realization of Philosophy
Author: Bryan A. Smyth
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2013-12-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1780937873

Bringing to light the essential philosophical role of Marxism within Merleau-Ponty's reinterpretation of transcendental phenomenology, this book shows that the realization of this project hinges methodologically upon a renewed conception of the proletariat qua universal class-specifically, that it rests upon a humanist myth of incarnation which, substantiated by Merleau-Ponty's notion of 'heroism', locates an objective historical purposiveness in the habituated organism of the modern subject. Foregrounding the phenomenological priority of history over corporeality in this way, Smyth's analysis recovers the 'militant' character of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology. It thus sheds critical new light on his early thought, and challenges some of the main parameters of existing scholarship by disclosing the intrinsic normativity of his basic methodological commitments.

Transforming Politics with Merleau-Ponty

Transforming Politics with Merleau-Ponty
Author: Jérôme Melançon
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2021-05-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1538153092

The contributors to this book offer productive new readings of Merleau-Ponty’s political philosophy and of other facets of his thought. They each deploy his theories to adopt a critical stance on urgent political issues and contemporary situations within society. Each essay focuses on a different aspect of political transformation, be it at the personal, social, national, or international level. The book as a whole maps out possibilities for thinking phenomenologically about politics without a sole focus on the state, turning instead toward contemporary human experience and existence.

Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression

Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression
Author: Donald A. Landes
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2013-10-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1441134786

Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression offers a comprehensive reading of the philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a central figure in 20th-century continental philosophy. By establishing that the paradoxical logic of expression is Merleau-Ponty's fundamental philosophical gesture, this book ties together his diverse work on perception, language, aesthetics, politics and history in order to establish the ontological position he was developing at the time of his sudden death in 1961. Donald A. Landes explores the paradoxical logic of expression as it appears in both Merleau-Ponty's explicit reflections on expression and his non-explicit uses of this logic in his philosophical reflection on other topics, and thus establishes a continuity and a trajectory of his thought that allows for his work to be placed into conversation with contemporary developments in continental philosophy. The book offers the reader a key to understanding Merleau-Ponty's subtle methodology and highlights the urgency and relevance of his research into the ontological significance of expression for today's work in art and cultural theory.

Subjectivity and the Political

Subjectivity and the Political
Author: Gavin Rae
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-10-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351966227

Despite, or quite possibly because of, the structuralist, post-structuralist, and deconstructionist critiques of subjectivity, master signifiers, and political foundations, contemporary philosophy has been marked by a resurgence in interest in questions of subjectivity and the political. Guided by the contention that different conceptions of the political are, at least implicitly, committed to specific conceptions of subjectivity while different conceptions of subjectivity have different political implications, this collection brings together an international selection of scholars to explore these notions and their connection. Rather than privilege one approach or conception of the subjectivity-political relationship, this volume emphasizes the nature and status of the and in the ‘subjectivity’ and ‘the political’ schema. By thinking from the place between subjectivity and the political, it is able to explore this relationship from a multitude of perspectives, directions, and thinkers to show the heterogeneity, openness, and contested nature of it. While the contributions deal with different themes or thinkers, the themes/thinkers are linked historically and/or conceptually, thereby providing coherence to the volume. Thinkers addressed include Arendt, Butler, Levinas, Agamben, Derrida, Kristeva, Adorno, Gramsci, Mill, Hegel, and Heidegger, while the subjectivity-political relation is engaged with through the mediation of the law-political, ethics-politics, theological-political, inside-outside, subject-person, and individual-institution relationships, as well as through concepts such as genius, happiness, abjection, and ugliness. The original essays in this volume will be of interest to researchers in philosophy, politics, political theory, critical theory, cultural studies, history of ideas, psychology, and sociology.