Author: Gilles Deleuze File Type: pdf Negotiations traces the intellectual journey of a man widely acclaimed as one of the most important French philosphers. A provocative guide to Deleuze by Deleuze, the collection clarifies the key critical concepts in the work of this vital figure in contemporary philosphy, who has had a lasting impact on a variety of disciplines, including aesthetics, film theory, psycho-analysis, and cultural studies.From Library JournalDeleuze (What Is Philosophy?, LJ 41594) is not only one of the most influential of recent French philosophers but one of the most wide-ranging as well. The present volume, which consists mostly of interviews but also includes a few essays, describes his recent concerns. Deleuze gained attention with Anti-Oedipus (LJ 6177), a radical criticism of psychoanalysis, written together with Felix Guattari. After an account of this work, Deleuze discusses his long collaboration with Guattari. Deleuze then shifts gears, and his analysis of the cinema, based on the philosophy of Henri Bergson, occupies center-stage. Deleuzes discussion of Michel Foucault (1926-84), a close friend, comes next and the book concludes with a discussion of power in society, a main theme of Foucaults work. However diverse his interests, Deleuze has always remained a philosopher in the strict sense. The section of Deleuzes latest work that covers the history of philosophy, focusing on Leibniz, brings out this aspect of his thought. Recommended for academic libraries.?David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewWhat unfolds...is the passion of [Deleuzes] ideas and commitments as well as the dazzling originality of his work.(Dorothea E. Olkowski International Studies in Philosophy) Negotiations is perhaps the best short introduction to the thought of one of Frances three most influential poststructuralist philosophers, Gilles Deleuze.(Choice) No one knows what distant posterity will remember of a body of work that contemporaries probably understand only a little. Thought, with Deleuze, is the experience of life rather than reason.(La Monde) Deleuze is not only on of the most influential of recent French philosophers but one of the most wide-ranging as well. The present volume, which consists mostly of interviews but also includes a few essays, describes his recent concerns. Deleuze gained attention with Anti-Oedipus (LJ 6177), a radical criticism of psychoanalysis, written together with Flix Guattari. After an account of this work, Deleuze discusses his long collaboration with Guattari. Deleuze then shifts gears, and his analysis of the cinema, based on the philosophy of Henri Bergson, occupies center-stage. Deleuzes discussion of Michel Foucault (1926-84), a close friend, comes next and the book concludes with a discussion of power in society, a main theme of Foucaults work. However diverse his interests, Deleuze has always remained a philosopher in the strict sense. The section of Deleuzes latest work that covers the history of philosophy, focusing on Leibniz, brings out this aspect of his thought. Recommended for academic libraries.(Library Journal)

Author: Robert Lanier Reid File Type: pdf Nosce teipsum, to know oneself Spenser and Shakespeare both answered this dictum with a comprehensive view of human nature, an epic scope. Yet their characters and plots sprung from radically distinct psychologies. Renaissance psychologies explores this polarity, questioning how we explain these distinct but equally useful concepts and how they are related. Spensers Christian-Platonic emphasis prioritises the souls divine order, dogmatically and encyclopedically conceived. He looks to the past, collating classical and medieval authorities in memory-devices like the figurative house, nobly ordered in mystic numerical hierarchy to reform the ruins of time. Shakespeares sophisticated Aristoteleanism prioritises the bodys immediate experience, with no stable form for its quirky sensations, feelings and thoughts, all subjected to sceptical consciousness. He points to the future, using the witty ironies of popular stage productions to test and deconstruct authority in passional crises that disrupt identity, opening the unconscious to psychoanalysis. Individual chapters in this book address how the poets contrary artistry produced strikingly different results, of a fairy queen, of humour-based passions (notably the primal passion of self-love), of intellect (divergent modes of temptation and moral resolution), of immortal soul and spirit, of holistic plot design, of readiness for final judgement. Renaissance psychologies argues that though some see Spensers art - its psychology, social ideal, and metaphysical vision - as regressively antiquated, it actually provides an on-going complement to Shakespeares early modern creation, which achieved much of its greatness through revisionary integration of Spensers oracular work. This book will be of interest to students and lecturers in Spenser studies, Renaissance poetry and the wider fields of British literature, social and cultural history, ethics and theology.

Author: Tracy McNulty File Type: epub Wrestling with the Angel is a meditation on contemporary political, legal, and social theory from a psychoanalytic perspective. It argues for the enabling function of formal and symbolic constraints in sustaining desire as a source of creativity, innovation, and social change.The book begins by calling for a richer understanding of the psychoanalytic concept of the symbolic and the resources it might offer for an examination of the social link and the political sphere. The symbolic is a crucial dimension of social coexistence but cannot be reduced to the social norms, rules, and practices with which it is so often collapsed. As a dimension of human life that is introduced by languageand thus inescapably other with respect to the laws of naturethe symbolic is an undeniable fact of human existence. Yet the same cannot be said of the forms and practices that represent and sustain it. In designating these laws, structures, and practices as fictions, Jacques Lacan makes clear that the symbolic is a dimension of social life that has to be created and maintained and that can also be displaced, eradicated, or rendered dysfunctional. The symbolic fictions that structure and support the social tie are therefore historicizable, emerging at specific times and in particular contexts and losing their efficacy when circumstances change. They are also fragile and ephemeral, needing to be renewed and reinvented if they are not to become outmoded or ridiculous. Therefore the aim of this study is not to call for a return to traditional symbolic laws but to reflect on the relationship between the symbolic in its most elementary or structural form and the function of constraints and limits.McNulty analyzes examples of experimental (as opposed to normative) articulations of the symbolic and their creative use of formal limits and constraints not as mere prohibitions or rules but as enabling constraints that favor the exercise of freedom. The first part examines practices that conceive of subjective freedom as enabled by the struggle with constraints or limits, from the transference that structures the minimal social link of psychoanalysis to constrained relationships between two or more people in the context of political and social movements. Examples discussed range from the spiritual practices and social legacies of Moses, Jesus, and Teresa of Avila to the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Ranciere. The second part is devoted to legal and political debates surrounding the function of the written law. It isolates the laws function as a symbolic limit or constraint as distinct from its content and representational character. The analysis draws on Mosaic law traditions, the political theology of Paul, and twentieth-century treatments of written law in the work of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Pierre Legendre, and Alain Badiou. In conclusion, the study considers the relationship between will and constraint in Kants aesthetic philosophy and in the experimental literary works of the collective Oulipo.

Author: Yochai Benkler File Type: epub ReviewYochai Benkler is the smartest thinker we have on the effects of the internet on society. In The Penguin and the Leviathan, he lays out the ways that larger, looser, freer collaborations are transforming how we think about work and about the value we give and get from each other.-Clay Shirky, bestselling author of Here Come Everybody and Cognitive SurplusBenkler speaks the truth on every page -- presenting a brighter vision of human nature that we keep insist on denying for no good reason.-Tim Wu, bestselling author of The Master Switch and professor, Columbia Law School.From the Hardcover edition.What do Wikipedia, Zip Cars business model, Barack Obamas presidential campaign, and a small group of lobster fishermen have in common? They all show the power and promise of human cooperation in transforming our businesses, our government, and our society at large. Because today, when the costs of collaborating are lower than ever before, there are no limits to what we can achieve by working together.For centuries, we as a society have operated according to a very unflattering view of human nature that, humans are universally and inherently selfish creatures. As a result, our most deeply entrenched social structures our top-down business models, our punitive legal systems, our market-based approaches to everything from education reform to environmental regulation - have been built on the premise that humans are driven only by self interest, programmed to respond only to the invisible hand of the free markets or the iron fist of a controlling government.In the last decade, however, this fallacy has finally begun to unravel, as hundreds of studies conducted across dozens of cultures have found that most people will act far more cooperatively than previously believed. Here, Harvard University Professor Yochai Benkler draws on cutting-edge findings from neuroscience, economics, sociology, evolutionary biology, political science, and a wealth of real world examples to debunk this long-held myth and reveal how we can harness the power of human cooperation to improve business processes, design smarter technology, reform our economic systems, maximize volunteer contributions to science, reduce crime, improve the efficacy of civic movements, and more. For example, he describes howBy building on countless voluntary contributions, open-source software communities have developed some of the most important infrastructure on which the World Wide Web runsExperiments with pay-as-you-wish pricing in the music industry reveal that fans will voluntarily pay far more for their favorite music than economic models would ever predicMany self-regulating communities, from the lobster fishermen of Maine to farmers in Spain, live within self-regulating system for sharing and allocating communal resourcesDespite recent setbacks, Toyotas collaborative shop-floor, supply chain, and management structure contributed to its meteoric rise above its American counterparts for over a quarter century. Police precincts across the nation have managed to reduce crime in tough neighborhoods through collaborative, trust-based, community partnerships.A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of cooperation in 21st century life, The Penguin and the Leviathan not only challenges so many of the ways in which we live and work, it forces us to rethink our entire view of human nature.From the Hardcover edition.