Cover ArtThe Twilight of Politics by Mario Tronti

Call Number: Print - University Library Open Collection - 08.45 Tron
ISBN: 9781803093741
A classic work of political theory by a major twentieth-century figure of the Italian Left. Italian political thinker Mario Tronti is most famous for being the author of Workers and Capital, which became the central theoretical formulation of Italian operaismo or workerism, a current of political thought emerging in the 1960s that revolutionized the institutional and extra-parliamentary Left in Italy and beyond. In The Twilight of Politics, written originally in 1998, Tronti argues that modern politics, which reached its apogee in the twentieth century, has ended. Realism and Utopia, Tronti explains, were the foundational qualities of modern politics, which it always tried to clasp together. But behind this highwater mark of politics was a history over the longue durée, encompassing the wars of religion, Hobbes' Leviathan, revolution, great individuals, and popular movements, as well as innovations such as the nation-state and the party-form. Historically, the modern period is also a coming together of the categories of the political and the laws of political economy. At the heart of this book is Tronti's attempt to hold together a view of the course of political history with a critique of the "dictatorship of the present" to help us escape being "chained to the bars of an eternal present . . . which deprives us both of the freedom to look back and to see ahead."
 

Cover ArtCritical Phenomenology: an Introduction by Elisa Magrì; Paddy McQueen

Call Number: Print - University Library Open Collection - 08.25 Magr
ISBN: 9781509541126
Publication Date: 2022
Phenomenology is one of the leading movements in twentieth-century philosophy and continues to exert a strong influence on many contemporary philosophical traditions and investigations. In recent years, phenomenological insights have been increasingly developed in relation to philosophy of illness, disability, race, gender, sexuality, and politics, leading to the emergence of critical phenomenology as a new, prominent field for interdisciplinary research. Magrì and McQueen's Critical Phenomenology: An Introduction is the first book of its kind, addressing the critical questions at the core of both classical and contemporary phenomenology. This book provides a concise, accessible introduction to key areas of phenomenological research, such as intersubjectivity, bodily experience, race, gender, social experience, and political action. In doing so, it demonstrates both the rich history of phenomenology and its continuing philosophical and ethical importance. This textbook will be essential reading for undergraduate philosophy students and academics interested in critical phenomenology.
 

Cover ArtPost-Europe by Yuk Hui

Call Number: Print - University Library Open Collection - 08.25 Hui
ISBN: 9798985423518
Publication Date: 2024
Envisioning a post-European thinking: not through a neutralization of differences nor a return to tradition, but through an individuation of thinking between East and West. With the unstoppable advance of global capitalism, the Heimatlosigkeit (homelessness) which twentieth-century European philosophers spoke of--and which Heidegger declared had become the "destiny of the world"--is set to become ever more pathological in its consequences. But rather than dreaming of an impossible return to Heimat, Yuk Hui argues that today thinking must start out from the standpoint of becoming-homeless.  Drawing on the philosophies of Gilbert Simondon, Jacques Derrida, Bernard Stiegler, and Jan Patočka alongside the thought of Kitaro Nishida, Keiji Nishitani, and Mou Zongsan among others, Yuk Hui envisions a project of a post-European thinking. If Asia and Europe are to devise new modes of confronting capitalism, technology, and planetarisation, this must take place neither through a neutralization of differences nor a return to tradition, but through an individuation of thinking between East and West.
 

Cover ArtThe Fragmentation of Being by Kris McDaniel

Call Number: Print - University Library Open Collection - 08.31 McDa
ISBN: 9780198848080
Publication Date: 2019
The Fragmentation of Being offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions in ontology. There are many kinds of beings but are there also many kinds of being? The world contains a variety of objects, each of which, let us provisionally assume, exists, but do some objects exist in different ways? Do some objects enjoy more being or existence than other objects? Are there different ways in which one object might enjoy more being than another? Most contemporary metaphysicians would answer "no" to each of these questions. So widespread is this consensus that the questions this book addressed are rarely even raised let alone explicitly answered. But Kris McDaniel carefully examines a wide range of reasons for answering each of these questions with a "yes". In doing so, he connects these questions with many important metaphysical topics, including substance and accident, time and persistence, the nature of ontological categories, possibility and necessity, presence and absence, persons and value, ground and consequence, and essence and accident. In addition to discussing contemporary problems and theories, McDaniel also discusses the ontological views of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Aquinas, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Husserl, Kant, Leibniz, Meinong, and many more.