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Literature, Theory, And Common Sense

by Antoine Compagnon

~~95,40€~~ 85,86€ 10% OFF

 Assessing the accomplishments and failings of literary theory, this work defends the methods and goals of a theoretical commitment tempered by the wisdom of common sense. It is organized not by school of thought but around seven central questions: literariness, the author, the world, the reader, style, history, and value.
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Art Of The Modern Age - Philosophy Of Art From Kant To Heidegger

by Jean-Marie Schaeffer

55,65€ + 10% CARD

 A work of aesthetic theory: a trenchant critique of the philosophy of art as it developed from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century.
ENGLISH

New Social Question - Rethinking The Welfare State

by Pierre Rosanvallon

26,50€ + 10% CARD

 <p><b>How social and intellectual changes undermine our justifications for the welfare state </b><br><br>The welfare state has come under severe pressure internationally, partly for the well-known reasons of slowing economic growth and declining confidence in the public sector. According to the influential social theorist Pierre Rosanvallon, however, there is also a deeper and less familiar reason for the crisis of the welfare state. He shows here that a fundamental practical and philosophical justification for traditional welfare policies—that all citizens share equal risks—has been undermined by social and intellectual change. If we wish to achieve the goals of social solidarity and civic equality for which the welfare state was founded, Rosanvallon argues, we must radically rethink social programs.<br><br>Rosanvallon begins by tracing the history of the welfare state and its founding premise that risks, especially the risks of illness and unemployment, are equally distributed and unpredictable. He shows that this idea has become untenable because of economic diversification and advances in statistical and risk analysis. It is truer than ever before—and far more susceptible to analysis—that some individuals will face much greater risks than others because of their jobs and lifestyle choices. Rosanvallon argues that social policies must be more narrowly targeted. And he draws on evidence from around the world, in particular France and the United States, to show that such programs as unemployment insurance and workfare could better reflect individual needs by, for example, making more explicit use of contracts between the providers and receivers of benefits. His arguments have broad implications for welfare programs everywhere and for our understanding of citizenship in modern democracies and economies.</p>
ENGLISH

The Mechanization Of The Mind - On The Origins Of Cognitive Science

by Jean-Pierre Dupuy

37,10€ + 10% CARD

 <p>In March 1946, some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century--among them John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and Walter Pitts--gathered at the Beekman Hotel in New York City with the aim of constructing a science of mental behavior that would resolve at last the ancient philosophical problem of mind and matter. The legacy of their collaboration is known today as cognitive science. Jean-Pierre Dupuy, one of the principal architects of cognitive science in France, reconstructs the early days of the field here in a provocative and engaging combination of philosophy, science, and historical detective work. He shows us how the ambitious and innovative ideas developed in the wake of that New York meeting prefigured some of the most important developments of late-twentieth-century thought. Many scholars, however, shunned the ideas as crude and resented them for being overpromoted. This rejection, Dupuy reveals, was a tragic mistake and a lost opportunity.<br><br>As Dupuy explains, the founders of cognitive science--or, as they called it, "cybernetics"--drew passion and energy from two convictions: that the mind operates like a machine and that physical laws explain how nature can appear to have meaning. Armed with these convictions, they laid the foundations not only for cognitive science but also artificial intelligence, and foreshadowed the development of chaos theory, complexity theory, and a variety of other major scientific and philosophical breakthroughs. Today, their ideas speak directly to controversies that rage between cognitivists and connectionists, eliminative materialists and Wittgensteinians, functionalists and anti-reductionists. However, despite their genuine achievements, the cyberneticians had too much confidence in the power of their theories and made serious mistakes that led the next generation of thinkers to ignore their work. The development of a scientific theory of mind was thus significantly delayed.<br><br>A profound and beautifully written book, <i>The Mechanization of the Mind</i> brings back to life the intellectual brilliance and excitement that attended the birth of cognitive science more than fifty years ago, and recasts our understanding of the history of the twentieth century thought.</p>
ENGLISH

Mind'S Provisions - A Critique Of Cognitivism

by Vincent Descombes

53,00€ + 10% CARD

 Presents a critique of contemporary cognitivism and develops a philosophy of the mind. Examining American cognitivism and French structuralism, this title offers a general critique of the philosophies that view the mind in strictly causal terms and suppose that the brain - and not the person - thinks.
ENGLISH

Intellectual History Of Liberalism

by Pierre Manent

53,00€ + 10% CARD

 <p>Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics.<br><br><br> The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.</p>
New French Thought - Political Philosophy

55,65€ + 10% CARD

 <p>The past fifteen years in France have seen a remarkable flourishing of new work in political philosophy. This anthology brings into English for the first time essays by some of the best young French political thinkers writing today, including Marcel Gauchet, Pierre Manent, Luc Ferry, and Alain Renaut. The central theme of these essays is liberal democracy: its nature, its development, its problems, its fundamental legitimacy. Although these themes are familiar to American and British readers, the French approach to them--which is profoundly historical and rooted in the tradition of continental philosophy--is quite different from our customary one.<br><br>Included in this collection is a series of reconsiderations of French critics of liberal society (Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Bourdieu) and of classical European liberals (Kant, Constant, Tocqueville). The continuing controversies over the nature of the modern era and the place of religion within it play a central role throughout the collection. The book includes a debate on the foundations of human rights and on the nature of a liberal political order. The concluding section presents some of the new sociological writing on modern individualism, its pleasures and its discontents. An introduction by Mark Lilla provides the historical background to the revival of French political thought about liberalism, and offers an analysis of what American and English readers might learn from it.<br><br>Originally published in 1994.<br><br>The <b>Princeton Legacy Library</b> uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.</p>
The Era Of The Individual - A Contribution To A History Of Subjectivity

by Alain Renaut

59,63€ + 10% CARD

 <p>With the publication of <i>French Philosophy of the Sixties</i>, Alain Renaut and Luc Ferry in 1985 launched their famous critique against canonical figures such as Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan, bringing under rigorous scrutiny the entire post-structuralist project that had dominated Western intellectual life for over two decades. Their goal was to defend the accomplishments of liberal democracy, particularly in terms of basic human rights, and to trace the reigning philosophers' distrust of liberalism to an "antihumanism" inherited mainly from Heidegger. In <i>The Era of the Individual</i>, widely hailed as Renaut's magnum opus, the author explores the most salient feature of post-structuralism: the elimination of the human subject. At the root of this thinking lies the belief that humans cannot know or control their basic natures, a premise that led to Heidegger's distrust of an individualistic, capitalist modern society and that allied him briefly with Hitler's National Socialist Party. While acknowledging some of Heidegger's misgivings toward modernity as legitimate, Renaut argues that it is nevertheless wrong to equate modernity with the triumph of individualism. Here he distinguishes between individualism and subjectivity and, by offering a history of the two, powerfully redirects the course of current thinking away from potentially dangerous, reductionist views of humanity.<br><br>Renaut argues that modern philosophy contains within itself two opposed ways of conceiving the human person. The first, which has its roots in Descartes and Kant, views human beings as subjects capable of arriving at universal moral judgments. The second, stemming from Leibniz, Hegel, and Nietzsche, presents human beings as independent individuals sharing nothing with others. In a careful recounting of this philosophical tradition, Renaut shows the resonances of these traditions in more recent philosophers such as Heidegger and in the social anthropology of Louis Dumont.<br><br>Renaut's distinction between individualism and subjectivity has become an important issue for young thinkers dissatisfied with the intellectual tradition originating in Nietzsche and Heidegger. Moreover, his proclivity toward the Kantian tradition, combined with his insights into the shortcomings of modernity, will interest anyone concerned about today's shifting cultural attitudes toward liberalism.<br><br>Originally published in 1997.<br><br>The <b>Princeton Legacy Library</b> uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.</p>
ENGLISH

Madness And Democracy - The Modern Psychiatric Universe

by Gladys Swain e Marcel Gauchet

53,00€ + 10% CARD

 <p>How the insane asylum became a laboratory of democracy is revealed in this provocative look at the treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century France. Political thinkers reasoned that if government was to rest in the hands of individuals, then measures should be taken to understand the deepest reaches of the self, including the state of madness. Marcel Gauchet and Gladys Swain maintain that the asylum originally embodied the revolutionary hope of curing all the insane by saving the glimmer of sanity left in them. Their analysis of why this utopian vision failed ultimately constitutes both a powerful argument for liberalism and a direct challenge to Michel Foucault''s indictment of liberal institutions.<br><br>The creation of an artificial environment was meant to encourage the mentally ill to live as social beings, in conditions that resembled as much as possible those prevailing in real life. The asylum was therefore the first instance of a modern utopian community in which a scientifically designed environment was supposed to achieve complete control over the minds of a whole category of human beings. Gauchet and Swain argue that the social domination of the inner self, far from being the hidden truth of emancipation, represented the failure of its overly optimistic beginnings.<br><br><i>Madness and Democracy</i> combines rich details of nineteenth-century asylum life with reflections on the crucial role of subjectivity and difference within modernism. Its final achievement is to show that the lessons learned from the failure of the asylum led to the rise of psychoanalysis, an endeavor focused on individual care and on the cooperation between psychiatrist and patient. By linking the rise of liberalism to a chapter in the history of psychiatry, Gauchet and Swain offer a fascinating reassessment of political modernity.</p>
ENGLISH

State And The Rule Of Law

by Blandine Kriegel

42,40€ + 10% CARD

 Blandine Kriegel, at one time a collaborator with Michel Foucault, is one of France's foremost political theorists. This translation of her work "L' Etat et les esclaves" makes available for English-speaking readers her defence of the state.
ENGLISH

The Mind'S Provisions - A Critique Of Cognitivism

by Vincent Descombes

54,08€ + 10% CARD

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 Presents a critique of contemporary cognitivism and develops a philosophy of the mind. Examining American cognitivism and French structuralism, this title offers a general critique of the philosophies that view the mind in strictly causal terms and suppose that the brain - and not the person - thinks.
ENGLISH

Art Of The Modern Age - Philosophy Of Art From Kant To Heidegger

by Jean-Marie Schaeffer

56,78€ + 10% CARD

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 A work of aesthetic theory: a trenchant critique of the philosophy of art as it developed from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century.
ENGLISH

The New Social Question - Rethinking The Welfare State

by Pierre Rosanvallon

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ENGLISH

Moral Disquiet And Human Life

by Monique Canto-Sperber

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 Attempting to steer moral philosophy away from abstract theorizing, Moral Disquiet and Human Life argues that moral philosophy should be a practical, rational, and argumentative engagement with reality, and that moral reflection should have direct effects on our lives and the world in which we live. Illustrating her discussion with vivid examples f
ENGLISH

The Amazons - Lives And Legends Of Warrior Women Across The Ancient World

by Adrienne Mayor

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 Amazons--fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world--were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general
ENGLISH

Literature, Theory, And Common Sense

by Antoine Compagnon

OUT OF STOCK OR NOT AVAILABLE

 Assessing the accomplishments and failings of literary theory, this work defends the methods and goals of a theoretical commitment tempered by the wisdom of common sense. It is organized not by school of thought but around seven central questions: literariness, the author, the world, the reader, style, history, and value.
ENGLISH

Rites And Rank - Hierarchy In Biblical Representations Of Cult

by Saul M. Olyan

OUT OF STOCK OR NOT AVAILABLE

 Melding critical exegesis and contemporary theory, this work considers the prevalence of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their significance for the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel. Focusing on four binary pairs, it shows how these privileged oppositions were used to restrict access to cultic spaces.
ENGLISH

A World Beyond Politics? - A Defense Of The Nation-State

by Pierre Manent

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 We live in the grip of a great illusion about politics, Pierre Manent argues in A World beyond Politics? It's the illusion that we would be better off without politics--at least national politics, and perhaps all politics. It is a fantasy that if democratic values could somehow detach themselves from their traditional national context, we could ent
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Total Cold War - Eisenhower'S Secret Propaganda Battle At Home And Abroad

by Kenneth Osgood

48,86€

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 Chronicles the secret psychological warfare programs America developed at the height of the Cold War. This book also shows that Eisenhower waged his propaganda war not just abroad, but also at home. It also focuses on major campaigns such as Atoms for Peace, People-to-People, and cultural exchange programs.
ENGLISH

Graft - Tales Of An Actor

by Steven Berkoff

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 A collection of autobiographical short stories that chart the author's journey from youthful enthusiasm and success to raging despair, anger and final self-destruction.
ENGLISH

The City Of Man

by Pierre Manent

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 Argues that the West has rejected the laws of God and of nature in a quest for human autonomy. This book contends that, in declaring ourselves free and autonomous, we have, paradoxically, lost a sense of what it means to be human. It offers an analysis of the confusions and contradictions at the heart of the modern condition.
ENGLISH

Moral Disquiet And Human Life

by Monique Canto-Sperber

OUT OF STOCK OR NOT AVAILABLE

 Attempting to steer moral philosophy away from abstract theorizing, this title argues that moral philosophy should be a practical, rational, and argumentative engagement with reality, and that moral reflection should have direct effects on our lives and the world in which we live.
ENGLISH

An Intellectual History Of Liberalism

by Pierre Manent

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 Highlighting social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, this book draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. It argues that the frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose.
ENGLISH

The Empire Of Fashion - Dressing Modern Democracy

by Gilles Lipovetsky

54,08€ + 10% CARD

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 Focusing on clothing, bodily deportment, sex roles, sexual practices, and political rhetoric as forms of "fashion," this work bounds across two thousand years of history, showing how the evolution of fashion from an upper-class privilege into a vehicle of popular expression closely follows the rise of democratic values.

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