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Author: Timothy Bewes
Publisher: Verso
ISBN: 9781859841969
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
In this original and provocative book, Timothy Bewes descends into the modern cynical consciousness with a critical assessment of the preoccupations of contemporary society.
Author: Timothy Bewes
Publisher: Verso
ISBN: 9781859841969
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
In this original and provocative book, Timothy Bewes descends into the modern cynical consciousness with a critical assessment of the preoccupations of contemporary society.
Author: Helen Pluckrose
Publisher: Swift Press
ISBN: 1800750056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387
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Book Description
BOOK OF THE YEAR in The Times, the Sunday Times and the Financial Times Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only white people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed so quickly to challenge the very logic of Western society? Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma behind these ideas, from its origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Today this dogma is recognisable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media pile-ons, as by its assertions, which are all too often taken as read: knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous. As they warn, the unchecked proliferation of these beliefs present a threat to liberal democracy. While acknowledging the need to challenge the complacency of those who think a just society has been fully achieved, Pluckrose and Lindsay break down how often-radical activist scholarship does far more harm than good, not least to those marginalised communities it claims to champion.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
This thesis has three objectives: (i) to offer an anatomization of the concept "cynicism", as it has been historically constituted; (ii) to interrogate its contemporary cultural and political manifestations; (iii) to consider the implications of these usages for the state of political engagement at the close of the 20th century. The work is broken down into four chapters: 1. Cynicism is introduced as a recurrent motif of contemporary political rhetoric, a symptom of its relationship to postmodern theory. Postmodernism may be interpreted as a "blip" in philosophical history, and a mass cultural retreat from the violence entailed in the pursuit of truth, as accounted for in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. 2. A cultural obsession with authenticity has been detectable since the end of the 1980s. I examine this phenomenon with reference both to Jean Baudrillard's critique of millenarianism and the political theory of Hannah Arendt. In the political realm the fetishization of authenticity appears as depoliticization, and as a collapse of the distinction between private and public life. 3. In "postmodernism", superficiality is proposed as a solution to the metaphysical ennui of the modern cynic. An opposition between energy and depth also appears in the cultural relationship between America and Europe, and finds expression in the perceived "collapse" of rationality represented by "Auschwitz". 4. The quest of political discourse in the 1990s is for a "qualified retreat"; that is to say, a realm of authenticity in which effective political action is still possible. Contemporary rhetoric attempts to negotiate this dilemma in the form of a "middle way". I propose, on the contrary, that the most radical and extreme retreat is eo ipso a movement towards total political involvement. An 'Afterword' to the thesis suggests a reassessment of the nature of political engagement as the first step towards embodying the extremes of both 'energy' and 'depth' in political life.
Author: Stephen R. C. Hicks
Publisher: Scholargy Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 9781592476428
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Author: Sharon A. Stanley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107014646
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237
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Book Description
Sharon A. Stanley chronicles the emergence of a recognizably modern form of cynicism during the French Enlightenment, by discussing the work of philosophers such as Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. While recent scholarly and popular commentary has depicted cynicism as a novel, contemporary phenomenon that threatens healthy democratic functioning, this book shows that cynicism has much earlier roots and may contribute to the health of democracies.
Author: Peter K. Fallon
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781589662025
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
"Why do we believe what we believe, and ignore what we don't believe? Why do we believe some things that have no foundation in reality, and refuse to believe in things that are firmly supported by scientific research? Why does it seem that many people believe in nothing at all? And does it matter what we believe, and how we came to that decisive point of belief or unbelief?" "Peter K. Fallon insists that neither the study nor the practice of ethics and metaphysics should be limited to professional academic philosophers and theologians. In The Metaphysics of Media Fallon takes a courageous stand against our hyper-mediated popular culture and the postmodern view of information as a salable commodity. He investigates how and why different media, through different historical eras, have engendered and supported certain concepts of reality - at the expense of others. He begins with a critical discussion of the essential idea of objective reality and truth. Fallon then unfolds the story of the evolution of communication through four major eras and the metaphysical foundation that underlies each era and concludes with a look at the troubling rise of mass ignorance in what we call (without a hint of irony) an "age of information.""--Résumé de l'éditeur.
Author: Ian Cutler
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476604894
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
Cynicism began as a school of philosophy that was largely inspired by Socrates and often decried by popular commentators as a social pathology, a nihilistic rebellion against the foundations of civilization. Modern definitions of the cynic describe an individual who is negative and sarcastic, violently opposed to established authority and social convention, and dedicated to existentialism. This book attempts to vindicate cynicism, arguing that it is both a progressive approach to social dilemmas and an enlightened understanding of the human condition. Chapter One establishes the foundations of classical Greek cynicism, while later chapters illustrate the varied faces of the cynic phenomenon in the persons of such disparate characters as Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Diogenes, the Dadaists, George Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Auberon Waugh, the creators of South Park, and others. Nietzsche is portrayed as the most important representative of both classical and postmodern cynicism, as well as the pivotal link between the two. The book focuses on significant periods of historical change, such as the Renaissance, and the historical cynics responsible for several seminal social ideas, including cosmopolitanism (citizenship of the world), asceticism (personal growth through self-testing), and parrhesia (finding one's voice in the presence of tyrannical forces). The author claims that aspects of Greek cynicism are present in contemporary society, offering a positive strategy for living in a hostile world.
Author: Peter J. Leithart
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1587432048
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
Proposes the book of Ecclesiastes as an interpretive framework for readers wanting to understand and critique postmodernism.
Author: Pauline Marie Rosenau
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400820618
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Post-modernism offers a revolutionary approach to the study of society: in questioning the validity of modern science and the notion of objective knowledge, this movement discards history, rejects humanism, and resists any truth claims. In this comprehensive assessment of post-modernism, Pauline Rosenau traces its origins in the humanities and describes how its key concepts are today being applied to, and are restructuring, the social sciences. Serving as neither an opponent nor an apologist for the movement, she cuts through post-modernism's often incomprehensible jargon in order to offer all readers a lucid exposition of its propositions. Rosenau shows how the post-modern challenge to reason and rational organization radiates across academic fields. For example, in psychology it questions the conscious, logical, coherent subject; in public administration it encourages a retreat from central planning and from reliance on specialists; in political science it calls into question the authority of hierarchical, bureaucratic decision-making structures that function in carefully defined spheres; in anthropology it inspires the protection of local, primitive cultures from First World attempts to reorganize them. In all of the social sciences, she argues, post-modernism repudiates representative democracy and plays havoc with the very meaning of "left-wing" and "right-wing." Rosenau also highlights how post-modernism has inspired a new generation of social movements, ranging from New Age sensitivities to Third World fundamentalism. In weighing its strengths and weaknesses, the author examines two major tendencies within post-modernism, the largely European, skeptical form and the predominantly Anglo-North-American form, which suggests alternative political, social, and cultural projects. She draws examples from anthropology, economics, geography, history, international relations, law, planning, political science, psychology, sociology, urban studies, and women's studies, and provides a glossary of post-modern terms to assist the uninitiated reader with special meanings not found in standard dictionaries.
Author: Dick Keyes
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830833889
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
We live in a cynical age. Cynicism is in the air we breathe; it is a cultural norm; it is the default setting and lens through which many of us view the world. In this book, Dick Keyes explores cynicism in all its manifestations and then looks beyond to alternatives that speak honestly about suspicion, trust and hope.
