Author: Joseph Carew File Type: pdf In Ontological Catastrophe, Joseph Carew takes up the central question guiding Slavoj Zizeks philosophy How could something like phenomenal reality emerge out of the meaninglessness of the Real? Carefully reconstructing and expanding upon his controversial reactualization of German Idealism, Carew argues that Zizek offers us an original, but perhaps terrifying, response experience is possible only if we presuppose a prior moment of breakdown as the ontogenetic basis of subjectivity. Drawing upon resources found in Zizek, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and post-Kantian philosophy, Carew thus develops a new critical metaphysicsa metaphysics which is a variation upon the late German Idealist theme of balancing system and freedom, realism and idealism, in a single, self-reflexive theoretical constructthat challenges our understanding of nature, culture, and the ultimate structure of reality.**About the Author Joseph Carew is a graduate student at the University of McGill. His current work focuses primarily on German Idealism with an emphasis upon the conceptual possibilities and challenges it presents for contemporary philosophy.

Author: Anneke M. Smelik File Type: pdf Since World War II, the biological and technological have been fusing and merging in new ways, resulting in the loss of a clear distinction between the two. This entanglement of biology with technology isnt new, but the pervasiveness of that integration is staggering, as is the speed at which the two have been merging in recent decades. As this process permeates more of everyday life, the urgent necessity arises to rethink both biology and technology. Indeed, the human body can no longer be regarded either as a bounded entity or as a naturally given and distinct part of an unquestioned whole. Bits of Life assumes a posthuman definition of the body. It is grounded in questions about todays biocultures, which pertain neither to humanist bodily integrity nor to the anthropological assumption that human bodies are the only ones that matter. Editors Anneke Smelik and Nina Lykke aid in mapping changes and transformations and in striking a middle road between the metaphor and the material. In exploring current reconfigurations of bodies and embodied subjects, the contributors pursue a technophilic, yet critical, path while articulating new and thoroughly appraised ethical standards. **

Author: Elaine P. Miller File Type: pdf The Vegetative Soul demonstrates that one significant resource for the postmodern critique of subjectivity can be found in German Idealism and Romanticism, specifically in the philosophy of nature. Miller demonstrates that the perception of German Idealism and Romanticism as the culmination of the philosophy of the subject overlooks the nineteenth-century critique of subjectivity with reference to the natural world. This book s contribution is its articulation of a plant-like subjectivity. The vision of the human being as plant combats the now familiar conception of the modern subject as atomistic, autonomous, and characterized primarily by its separability and freedom from nature. Reading Kant, Goethe, Holderlin, Hegel, and Nietzsche, Miller juxtaposes two strands of nineteenth-century German thought, comparing the more familiar animal understanding of individuation and subjectivity to an alternative plantlike one that emphasizes interdependence, vulnerability, and metamorphosis. While providing the necessary historical context, the book also addresses a question that has been very important for recent feminist theory, especially French feminism, namely, the question of the possible configuration of a feminine subject. The idea of the vegetative subject takes the traditional alignment of the feminine with nature and the earth and subverts and transforms it into a positive possibility. Although the roots of this alternative conception of subjectivity can be found in Kant s third Critique and its legacy in nineteenth-century Naturphilosophie, the work of Luce Irigaray brings it to fruition.**ReviewMiller is a careful reader of the tradition who makes an original contribution to the problem of feminine subject formation by the convincing connection she draws between French feminist thought and the analysis of nature. Philosophy Today Kant, Goethe, Holderlin, Hegel, and Nietzsche there are many blossoms in Elaine Millers garden, and all have been culled with keen intelligence and great sensibility. This is one of the finest books in the philosophy of science that I have ever read. David Farrell Krell, DePaul University The vegetative metaphor itself is often unexpected, and the ways in which the text opens up many new instances of it are always intriguing. Connections are made which provide insight and new ways of perceiving the parallels between Nietzsche s thought and Eckhart s, for example, or the tracing of common lines of thought across philosophy, science, and poetry, or the way the text brings Kant and Goethe into dialogue. Karmen MacKendrick, author of Immemorial Silence From the Back Cover The Vegetative Soul demonstrates that one significant resource for the postmodern critique of subjectivity can be found in German Idealism and Romanticism, specifically in the philosophy of nature. Miller demonstrates that the perception of German Idealism and Romanticism as the culmination of the philosophy of the subject overlooks the nineteenth-century critique of subjectivity with reference to the natural world. This books contribution is its articulation of a plant-like subjectivity. The vision of the human being as plant combats the now familiar conception of the modern subject as atomistic, autonomous, and characterized primarily by its separability and freedom from nature. Reading Kant, Goethe, Holderlin, Hegel, and Nietzsche, Miller juxtaposes two strands of nineteenth-century German thought, comparing the more familiar animal understanding of individuation and subjectivity to an alternative plantlike one that emphasizes interdependence, vulnerability, and metamorphosis. While providing the necessary historical context, the book also addresses a question that has been very important for recent feminist theory, especially French feminism, namely, the question of the possible configuration of a feminine subject. The idea of the vegetative subject takes the traditional alignment of the feminine with nature and the earth and subverts and transforms it into a positive possibility. Although the roots of this alternative conception of subjectivity can be found in Kants third Critique and its legacy in nineteenth-century Naturphilosophie, the work of Luce Irigaray brings it to fruition.

Author: S. H. Lin File Type: pdf Among others, chemistry, physics, biology, and material sciences have seen a rapid growth in both experimental and theoretical studies of multi-photon processes and spectroscopy of atoms, ions and molecules. This book is an important addition to an advanced series that contains review papers readable not only by active researchers in these areas, but also by those who are intending to enter the field. Written by experts in the area, the reviews are self-contained to allow readers to grasp the key concepts without much preparation. This volume will be useful to active researchers as well as to scientists in biology, chemistry, material sciences, and physics.**