The Antiphilosophers (American University Studies)

Description

In this volume, author Steven L. Bindeman presents a survey of the key figures in postmodern antiphilosophy. Noting that the main thrust of their work can be found in their need to respond to the threat of nihilism, he is guided by the question, if the path to abstract truth is no longer viable, what then? He shows how the antiphilosophers turn their focus on the complexity of lived experience in place of the search for certainty, which was in their view what previously had guided the dominating discourse of the modernist philosophical tradition. Through close examination of a broad variety of texts, Bindeman illuminates how the antiphilosophers initiate a new way of doing philosophy, one which prefers to examine the question, Does it work? instead of, Is it true? Moreover, Bindeman demonstrates how the antiphilosophers are united in questioning the centrality of the great cornerstones of western metaphysics – time, self, universe, and God – because of their insistence that there is no way to reach beyond any of these words to the actual things to which they refer. Utilizing the exposed, significant fault in the foundation of all philosophical systems, The Antiphilosophers delivers new insight concerning the issue of how we should relate to the resultant chaos. Written with a rare combination of philosophical rigor and clarity of expression, Bindeman’s work will be of interest to students and scholars of postmodern philosophy. Contents Preface: Badiou’s Concept of Antiphilosophy Notes References Acknowledgments Introduction: The Four Central Themes of Antiphilosophy Postmodernism and Antiphilosophy Antiphilosophy and the Four Historical Realizations That Sustain It The Crisis The Lived Experience The Eclipse of Truth Space and Time Notes References 1. Two Responses to Nihilism: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche Introduction Part I: Kierkegaard A Lived Philosophy Irony Nihilism and the Aesthete Anxiety and the Ethicist Silence Fear and Trembling The Unsayable Concluding Remarks Part II: Nietzsche Philosophizing with a Hammer The Threat of Nihilism Creating the Self Will to Power and Eternal Return The Wanderer and the Hermit Truth and Metaphor and the Ancient Greeks Dionysus and Apollo in Ancient Greek Drama Anxiety Before the Beautiful On Truth, Lies, and Values Worlds, Maps, and First Principles Concluding Remarks Notes References 2. The Break with Science: Husserl and Freud Introduction Part I: Husserl Establishing Phenomenology as a New Beginning The Theory of Intentionality The Three Reductions Internal Time-Consciousness Intersubjectivity Phenomenology’s Legacy Concluding Remarks Part II: Freud A Sick Society A New Approach to Abnormal Behavior Sex Drives and the Demands of Culture Part III: Freud after Husserl Freud and Hermeneutics, or Ricoeur on Freud Freud Deconstructed, or Derrida on Freud Freud’s Dominating Discourse, or Foucault on Freud The Structure of Psychic Language, or Lacan on Freud Anti-Oedipus, or Deleuze/Guattari on Freud Concluding Remarks Notes References 3. Silence at the Edge of Language: Wittgenstein and Heidegger Introduction Part I: Wittgenstein Wittgenstein and the Limits of Language Language Games Philosophical Grammar Different Kinds of Seeing Thinking and Meaning Different Kinds of Knowing Concluding Remarks Part II: Heidegger Heidegger and the Transformation of Selfhood Contrasting Notions of Truth Different Kinds of Thinking Silence and Language Self and Language Keeping Silent The Darkness of Nihilism in Heidegger and Beckett Wittgenstein’s Ladder and Giacometti’s Rejection of the Mundane Silence as a Form of Indirect Discourse Concluding Remarks Notes References 4. Reason Under Siege: Benjamin and Horkheimer/Adorno Introduction Part I: Benjamin A Couple of Flâneurs Turn Their Backs on History The Arcades Project Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Concluding Remarks Part II: Horkheimer and Adorno Irrational Reason Homer’s Odyssey de Sade’s Juliette The Culture Industry and Mass Deception A Marxist Reading of Donald Duck The Elements of Anti-Semitism Concluding Remarks Notes References 5. The Lived Experience: Bachelard and Merleau-Ponty Introduction Part I: Bachelard Bringing Science and Art Together Bachelard’s New Approach to Science The Philosophy of No Bachelard’s Turn from Science to Poetic Dreaming The Poetics of Space Bachelard on Nietzsche Concluding Remarks Part II: Merleau-Ponty The Primacy of Perception The Lived Space of Embodiment Intersubjectivity Space and Place Sound and Body Phenomenology and Painting Cézanne Klee Wild Space Art as Indirect Language Concluding Remarks Notes References 6. Strategies of Disruption: Levinas and Derrida Introduction Part I: Levinas A Disruptive Ethical Stance The Face-to-Face Relation The Call of the Other Saying vs. the Said Affectivity as the Pathway to Otherness Language, Truth, and Justice The Trace Conclusion Part II: Derrida Introduction: A Brief History of Deconstruction Derrida’s Deconstruction of Levinas’s Totality and Infinity Overcoming the Violence of Light Moving Beyond the Ego as the Same Beyond Ontology Levinas as Empiricist Concluding Remarks Notes References 7. Exploring the Edge of the Real: Foucault and Deleuze/Guattari Introduction Part I: Foucault Foucault’s Kantian Framework Power and Society The Repressive Hypothesis and Bio-Power Disciplinary Power The Panopticon and the Technology of Power Power Relations and the History of Sex Concluding Remarks Part II: Deleuze and Guattari Introduction Nomad Thought The Breakdown of Selfhood into the Pieces of the Desiring Machine The Schizophrenic Model Metaphor and Metonymy Double Bind Theory A Libidinal Economy of Desire Rhizomes and Plateaus Decentering Strategies Reaching Schizoidal Otherness Concluding Remarks Notes References Conclusion: Philosophy at the Boundaries of Thought Kierkegaard and Nietzsche Husserl and Freud Wittgenstein and Heidegger Benjamin and Horkheimer/Adorno Bachelard and Merleau-Ponty Levinas and Derrida Foucault and Deleuze/Guattari Appendix: Badiou and Žižek Debate Antiphilosophy Badiou and Žižek Debate the Definition of Antiphilosophy Žižek on the Historical Breakthroughs of Antiphilosophy Badiou and Žižek on Antiphilosophical Ethics Žižek’s Critique of Badiou’s Anti-antiphilosophy Notes References