Nature's Metabolism: On Eating in Derrida, Agamben, and Spinoza

2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-217
Author(s):  
Julie Klein
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Transcendental Subjectivity ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis article studies a series of provocative references to Spinoza by Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben. For both contemporary philosophers, the context is discussions of eating, a subject matter that turns out to involve such central issues as subjectivity, nature, ethics, and teleology. Each situates Spinoza in a counter-history of philosophy and suggests that Spinoza constitutes an important resource for contemporary reflections. Through an analysis of the three philosophers' texts about eating, nutrition, and being metabolized, I argue that Spinoza's nonteleological, nonhumanistic conception of nature remains a radical possibility, even in the face of contemporary attempts to think outside the canonical discourses of transcendental subjectivity, technological reason, and teleological ethics. Spinoza's position is, in the end, more uncompromising than that of Derrida or Agamben.

scholarly journals The Aesthetic Dimension of Passion

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 111-133
Author(s):  
Sebastian Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Art And Literature ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophy Of Emotion ◽  
The Aesthetic

AbstractThis paper is stimulated by and indebted to a study by Charles Altieri of the ways in which affect is present and articulated in art and literature, which, he argues, hold significance for the philosophy of emotion. I focus on Altieri's thesis that affective states may have aesthetic qualities and value. I pursue this notion first with reference to Nietzsche's attempt to recruit affect as a means of countering Schopenhauer's pessimism. I then attempt to show the coherence of the (on the face of it problematic) notion that passion may exhibit an aesthetic dimension, drawing on Richard Wollheim's account of certain ideas in psychoanalytic theory, for which I suggest precedents in the history of philosophy.

Religious Philosophy: Hegel's Occasional Perplexity in the Face of the Distinction Between Philosophy and Religion

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bernasconi
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Central Place ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

Hegel is widely recognized as the preeminent philosopher of the history of philosophy. His Lectures on the History of Philosophy are designed in large measure to answer questions about philosophy's apparent futility by reformulating the presentation of the seemingly pointless succession of forms of philosophy so as to show its organic development (Hegel, 1994, 24). To reveal the proper shape of the history of philosophy, what is extraneous to it had to be omitted. Much that had previously been regarded as philosophy was now to be treated under the heading of religion. The distinction between philosophy and religion, the decision as to what was philosophy and what was religion, took on an importance it had previously lacked. Although subsequent historians of philosophy did not always share Hegel's concern to show the organic development of the history of philosophy, his decisions about what was to be included and what excluded from philosophy proved particularly important in respect of the question of the place subsequently given to Indian philosophy. For this reason Hegel deservedly holds a central place in current discussions about the philosophical canon.

The Logic of Chastity: Women, Sex, and the History of Philosophy in the Early Modern Period

Hypatia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

Before women could become visible as philosophers, they had first to become visible as rational autonomous thinkers. A social and ethical position holding that chastity was the most important virtue for women, and that rationality and chastity were incompatible, was a significant impediment to accepting women's capacity for philosophical thought. Thus one of the first tasks for women was to confront this belief and argue for their rationality in the face of a self-referential dilemma.

Platonism and Naturalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd P. Gerson
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intelligible World

In his third and concluding volume, the author presents an innovative account of Platonism, the central tradition in the history of philosophy, in conjunction with Naturalism, the “anti-Platonism” in antiquity and contemporary philosophy. The book contends that Platonism identifies philosophy with a distinct subject matter, namely, the intelligible world and seeks to show that the Naturalist rejection of Platonism entails the elimination of a distinct subject matter for philosophy. Thus, the possibility of philosophy depends on the truth of Platonism. From Aristotle to Plotinus to Proclus, the book clearly links the construction of the Platonic system well beyond simply Plato's dialogues, providing strong evidence of the vast impact of Platonism on philosophy throughout history. The book concludes that attempts to seek a rapprochement between Platonism and Naturalism are unstable and likely indefensible.

scholarly journals Reference, reading, and nonreading: Learning from Bayard (with a grain of salt)

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Evan F. Kuehn
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
History Of

This spring I had the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course on the history of philosophy from René Descartes to William James. On most of our twice-weekly class sessions, I would bring a half-dozen or so books with me beyond the anthology we were working from. My duty as a librarian impelled me—there are riches untold (to freshman, at least) in our stacks, waiting to be unveiled. Usually these books were pulled haphazardly from my office shelves just before class. Sometimes they were checked out from our library, less often requested from elsewhere a week or two ahead of time because I actually knew what I wanted to talk about that far in advance. I would bring secondary literature to recommend for further research, other unassigned works by authors we were reading in the event that a first exposure might have sparked philosophical discipleship, along with living thinkers like Seyla Benhabib or Giorgio Agamben who have fruitfully picked up the threads of the Enlightenment problems we were considering.

Politics as Metaphor: Cardinal Newman and Professor Kuhn

1979 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Vernon
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Structure Of Scientific Revolutions ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

My object in this paper is to compare two texts in the history of ideas which are, on the face of it at least, very different from one another. John Henry Cardinal Newman'sDevelopment of Christian Doctrineremains one of the classic expositions of an evolutionary thesis; T. S. Kuhn'sStructure of Scientific Revolutionsalready ranks as a near-classic statement of a revolutionary case. The contrast is, I think, not quite as stark as may appear at first sight: though Kuhn writes of revolutions, his concern, no less than Newman's, is nevertheless with “development”; and though his subject matter is the history of science, his concern too is, or once was, with “dogma.” What I most want to stress, however, is not this verbal correspondence, which may as it stands be intriguing rather than convincing, but a series of substantive parallels which flow from a mode of argument common to both these texts: the extensive use of political imagery in defining the structures of ideas in question and in explaining the character of their history.

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