The Charmed Circle of Ideology: A Critique of Laclau and Mouffe, Butler and Zizek
Author: Geoff Boucher File Type: pdf Set against the collapse of social theory into a theory of ideological discourse, Geoff Boucher sets to work a rigorous mapping of the contemporary field, targeting the relativist implications of this new form of philosophical idealism. Offering a detailed and immanent critique Boucher concentrates his critical attention on the postmarxism of Laclau and Mouffe, Butler and Zizek. Combining close reading and careful exposition with polemical intent, Boucher links the relativism exemplified in these contemporary theoretical trends to unresolved philosophical problems of modernity. In conclusion Boucher points to intersubjectivity as an exit from postmarxist theorys charmed circle of ideology. **About the Author geoff Boucher a 27 yr old native of Miami and crime_reporter for The Los Angeles Times.
Author: Anna Gasperini
File Type: pdf
This book investigates the relationship between the fascinating and misunderstood penny blood, early Victorian popular fiction for the working class, and Victorian anatomy. In 1832, the controversial Anatomy Act sanctioned the use of the body of the pauper for teaching dissection to medical students, deeply affecting the Victorian poor. The ensuing decade, such famous penny bloods as font face=Segoe UI, serif size=2Manuscripts from the Diary of a Physician, Varney the Vampyre, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of Londonfont addressed issues of medical ethics, social power, and bodily agency. Challenging traditional views of penny bloods as a lowlier, un-readable genre, this book rereads these four narratives in the light of the 1832 Anatomy Act, putting them in dialogue with different popular artistic forms and literary genres, as well as with the spaces of death and dissection in Victorian London, exploring their role as channels for circulating discourses about anatomy and ethics among the Victorian poor.
Author: McKenzie Wark
File Type: pdf
Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, they continue to influence activists, artists and theorists. From the Invisible Committees bestselling The Coming Insurrection to Iain Sinclairs psychogeographic explorations, their work is still found to be rich with possibilities, yet its breadth and diversity is still unexplored. In the first account since Greil Marcuss Lipstick Traces (1989), McKenzie Wark traces the Situationist Internationals beginnings in 1950s bohemian Paris up to the explosive days of May 1968. This account puts the legendary figure of Guy Debord back into the context of the other fascinating figures who made up the movement, including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michele Bernstein and Jacqueline De Jong. It treats them as an international movement of conflicting passions rather than as a Paris coterie. Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, Wark reconnects their work to new practices in communication, built form, and everyday life.
Author: Tony Blackshaw
File Type: pdf
In this provocative new book, Tony Blackshaw argues that Leisure Studies is in a quiet but deep state of crisis. The twenty-first century has brought profound change to all aspects of society, including a plurality of new leisure worlds, and traditional concepts of Leisure Studies fail to capture this richness. This book aims to re-invigorate Leisure Studies by revealing and unpacking these leisure worlds, thereby changing the way we think about leisure and the way we do Leisure Studies. Both trivial and serious in its implications, it is precisely this paradox that makes leisure such a fascinating subject of study. Re-Imagining Leisure Studiespresents a new and radical set of methodological rules for studying leisure trends and cultures in contemporary society. It discusses the critical issues that underpin recent developments in leisure theory and explores the key themes of social class, community, politics, freedom and globalization. Marking a turning point in the reception and understanding of Leisure Studies, this book is vital reading for all students and scholars with a social scientific interest in leisure.
Author: D. S. Wallace-Hadrill
File Type: pdf
This book is a comprehensive survey of the history and, more particularly, of the thought of Antioch from the second to the eighth centuries of the Christian era. Dr Wallace-Hadrill traces the religious background of Antiochene Christianity and examines in detail aspects of its intellectual life the exegesis of scripture, the interpretation of history, philosophy, and the doctrine of the nature of God as applied to an understanding of Christ and mans salvation. The community at Antioch stressed history and literalism, in self-conscious opposition to the tendency to allegorise that prevailed at Alexandria. While insisting on the divinity of Christ, they were equally adamant that no other doctrine should be allowed to compromise their central belief that Jesus was really human.**
Author: Heather Battaly
File Type: epub
What is a virtue, and how are virtues different from vices? Do people with virtues lead better lives than the rest of us? Do they know more? Can we acquire virtues if so, how? In this lively and engaging introduction to this core topic, Heather Battaly argues that there is more than one kind of virtue. Some virtues make the world a better place, or help us to attain knowledge. Other virtues are dependent upon good intentions like caring about other people or about truth. Virtue is an original approach to the topic, which carefully situates the fields of virtue ethics and virtue epistemology within a general theory of virtue. It argues that there are good reasons to acquire moral and intellectual virtues virtuous people often attain greater knowledge and lead better lives. As well as approaching virtue in a novel and illuminating way, Battaly ably guides the reader through the dense literature surrounding the topic, deftly moving from important specific and technical points to more general issues and questions. The final chapter proposes strategies for helping university students acquire intellectual virtues. Battalys insights are complemented by entertaining examples from popular culture, literature, and film, really bringing this topic to life for readers. Virtue is the ideal introduction to the topic. It will be an equally vital resource for students who are encountering the topic for the first time, and for scholars who are deeply engaged in virtue theory. **Review An extremely impressive introduction to the concept of virtue. It addresses both moral virtue and intellectual virtue. And it provides an excellent overview of the key thinkers and scholarly literature on these topics. Battaly moves seamlessly between discussing important philosophical details and offering fun and illuminating examples. The writing is crisp, clear, and engaging throughout. The book is an ideal introduction to virtue and virtue theory for undergraduates and experts alike. **Jason Baehr, Loyola Marymount University ** This is a very attractive and accessible introduction to the philosophy of the virtues, both ethical and epistemological. Michael Slote, University of Miami An excellent introduction to virtue theory by an author who knows the issues thoroughly and presents them lucidly and interestingly. Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University About the Author Heather Battaly is Professor of Philosophy at California State University Fullerton
Author: Bobo Lo
File Type: pdf
The Russian annexation of Crimea was one of the great strategic shocks of the past twenty-five years. For many in the West, Moscows actions in early 2014 marked the end of illusions about cooperation, and the return to geopolitical and ideological confrontation. Russia, for so long a peripheral presence, had become the central actor in a new global drama. In this groundbreaking book, renowned scholar Bobo Lo analyzes the broader context of the crisis by examining the interplay between Russian foreign policy and an increasingly anarchic international environment. He argues that Moscows approach to regional and global affairs reflects the tension between two very different worldsthe perceptual and the actual.The Kremlin highlights the decline of the West, a resurgent Russia, and the emergence of a new multipolar order. But this idealized view is contradicted by a world disorder that challenges core assumptions about the dominance of great powers and the utility of military might. Its lesson is that only those states that embrace change will prosper in the twenty-first century.A Russia able to redefine itself as a modern power would exert a critical influence in many areas of international politics. But a Russia that rests on an outdated sense of entitlement may end up instead as one of the principal casualties of global transformation.
Author: Hans van Maanen
File Type: pdf
While numerous studies over the years have focused on the ways in which art functions in our society, How to Study Art Worlds is the first to examine it in light of the organizational aspects of the art world. Van Maanen delves into the works of such sociologists as Howard S. Becker, Pierre Bourdieu, George Dickie, and Niklas Luhmann, among others, to examine the philosophical debates surrounding aesthetic experienceand then traces the consequences that each of these approaches has had and continues to have on organizations in the art world.ReviewThis study stands on the highest level of commentary in this area and will be taken as a primary source of reference for the study of the art world and sociology of art in general therefore it would be a mandatory purchase for any university that has an arts and humanity faculty and it is also an important individual reference text book for both graduate students and academics.Jonathan Vickery, University of Warwick(Jonathan Vickery ) About the AuthorHans van Maanen is professor of art and society at the University of Groningen.
Author: Sarah Wood
File Type: pdf
Conscience and the Composition of Piers Plowman provides a detailed account of one of the central personified figures in William Langlands Piers Plowman. Previous critical accounts of Conscience either focus on discussions of the faculty conscience in scholastic discourse, or eschew personification allegory as a useful category in order to argue for the figures development or education as a character during the poem. But Conscience only appears to develop as he is re-presented, in the course of Piers Plowman, within a series of different literary modes. And he changes not only during the composition of the various episodes in different modes that make up the single version, but also during the composition of the poem as a series of three different versions. The versions of Piers Plowman form, this book argues, a single continuous narrative or argument, in which revisions to Consciences role in one version are predicated upon his cumulative experiences in the earlier versions. Drawing on a variety of materials in both Middle English and Latin, Sarah Wood illustrates the wide range of contemporary discourses Langland employed as he composed Conscience in the three versions of the poem. By showing how Langland transformed Conscience as he composed the A, B and C texts, Conscience and the Composition of Piers Plowman offers a new approach to reading the serial versions of the poem. While the versions of Piers Plowman have customarily been presented and read in parallel-text formats, Wood shows that Langlands revisions are newly comprehensible if the three versions are read in sequence. **