Author: Stanley Cavell File Type: pdf In Philosophy and Animal Life, Cora Diamond begins with The Difficulty of Reality and the Difficulty of Philosophy, in which she accuses analytical philosophy of evading, or deflecting, the responsibility of human beings toward nonhuman animals. Diamond then explores the animal question in the more general problem of philosophical skepticism. Focusing specifically on J. M. Coetzees The Lives of Animals, she considers the failure of language to capture the vulnerability of humans and animals. Stanley Cavell responds to Diamonds argument with his own close reading of Coetzees work, connecting the human-animal relationship to further themes of morality and philosophy. John McDowell follows with a critique of both Diamond and Cavell, and Ian Hacking explains why Cora Diamonds essay is so deeply perturbing and, paradoxically, favors poetry over philosophy in overcoming her difficulties. Cary Wolfes introduction situates these arguments within the broader context of contemporary continental philosophy and theory, particularly Jacques Derridas work on deconstruction and the question of the animal. **Review This intriguing collection of essays challenges the reader to confront the inherent vulnerabilities and limitations of the human condition and the deflections and avoidances of traditional philosophical argumentation. Taking as their point of departure the insurmountable mysteries that characterize our relationship with nonhuman animals, the authors illuminate the importance of acknowledging human finitude and the irreducibility of reality to definitive philosophical description. These essays make an important contribution to contemporary reflections on philosophical skepticism. (Gary Steiner, John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University) We live at a time in which the human relation to animals is transforming at an astonishing rate. This change has two decisive aspects. On the one hand, in conditions that are often unbelievably appalling, certain animal species are being produced, bred, and slaughtered on an unprecedented industrial scale. On the other hand, there is also a growing and equally unprecedented recognition of the moral status of animal life, and for some people the treatment of animals in the production of food for human consumption has become so cruel and so mechanized that, in its essence, it is strictly comparable to genocide. Today it is more urgent than ever to explore and assess our understanding of animal life not only from a scientific point of view but from a philosophical one. This book is a landmark for such an undertaking. With contributions from the very best and most thoughtful philosophers of our time, it provides a new benchmark for the level at which our thinking must be pitched to do justice to this themeand justice to animals, our most other others. (Simon Glendinning, reader in European philosophy, The London School of Economics and Political Science) About the Author Stanley Cavell is the Walter M. Cabot Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. His books include Philosophy the Day After Tomorrow, The Pursuits of Happiness The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage and The Claim of Reason Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy. Cora Diamond is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Philosophy and professor of law at the University of Virginia and the author of The Realistic Spirit Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind. John McDowell is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Mind and World, Mind, Value, and Reality, and Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality. Ian Hacking is University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Toronto and held the Chair of philosophy and history of scientific concepts at the College de France. His books include The Social Construction of What?, Historical Ontology, and The Taming of Chance (Ideas in Context). Cary Wolfe is Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English at Rice University. His books include Animal Rites American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory, and the edited collection Zoontologies The Question of the Animal. He is the founding editor of the series Posthumanities at the University of Minnesota Press.

Author: Loretta Lees File Type: pdf The Emancipatory City is a wonderful addition to a growing literature on the public culture of the city. In these spaces, tolerance and intolerance, difference and indifference, transgressions, resistances, and playful spontaneity erupt to give texture to urban life. The book broadens our gaze and deepens our understanding of how cities enable people to express themselves and be free - ***Robert A Beauregard, New School University, New York hr hr Who are cities for? What kinds of societies might they most democratically embody? And, how can cities be emancipatory sites? The ambivalent status of urban space in terms of emancipation, democratisation, justice and citizenship is central to recent work in urban geography, `new cultural geography, critical geography and postmodern planning, as well as literature on urban social justice, public space and the politics of identity. Seeking alternative and progressive visions of the emancipatory city through an exploration of the tensions and possibilities between the freedoms and constraints offered by the city, the authors of The Emancipatory City? build on this wealth of current perspectives to present an critical analysis of urban experience. **