The Neutral
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"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the College de France, just two years before his death. Not published in France until 2002, and(...)
The Neutral
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"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the College de France, just two years before his death. Not published in France until 2002, and appearing in English for the first time, these creative and engaging lectures deepen our understanding of Roland Barthes' intellectual itinerary and reveal his distinctive style as thinker and teacher. "The Neutral" ( le neutre), as Barthes describes it, escapes or undoes the paradigmatic binary oppositions that structure and produce meaning in Western thought and discourse. These binaries are found in all aspects of human society ranging from language to sexuality to politics. For Barthes, the attempt to deconstruct or escape from these binaries has profound ethical, philosophical, and linguistic implications. "The Neutral" is comprised of the prewritten texts from which Barthes lectured and centers around 23 "figures," also referred to as "traits" or "twinklings," that are possible embodiments of the Neutral (sleep, silence, tact, etc.) or of the anti-Neutral (anger, arrogance, conflict, etc.). His lectures draw on a diverse set of authors and intellectual traditions, including Lao-tzu, Tolstoy, German mysticism, classical philosophy, Rousseau, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and John Cage. Barthes' idiosyncratic approach to his subjects gives the lectures a playful, personal, and even joyous quality that enhances his rich insights. In addition to his reflections on a variety of literary and scholarly works, Barthes' personal convictions and the events of his life shaped the course and content of the lectures. Most prominently, as Barthes admits, the recent death of his mother and the idea of mourning shape several of his lectures.
Théorie/ philosophie
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Much orthodox economic theory is based on assumptions which are treated as self-evident : supply and demand are regarded as independent entities, the individual is assumed to be a rational agent who knows his interests and how to make decisions corresponding to them, and so on. But one has only to examine an economic transaction closely, as Pierre Bourdieu does here for(...)
The social structures of the economy
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Much orthodox economic theory is based on assumptions which are treated as self-evident : supply and demand are regarded as independent entities, the individual is assumed to be a rational agent who knows his interests and how to make decisions corresponding to them, and so on. But one has only to examine an economic transaction closely, as Pierre Bourdieu does here for the buying and selling of houses, to see that these abstract assumptions cannot explain what happens in reality. As Bourdieu shows, the market is constructed by the state, which can decide, for example, whether to promote private housing or collective provision. And the individuals involved in the transaction are immersed in symbolic constructions which constitute, in a strong sense, the value of houses, neighbourhoods and towns. The abstract and illusory nature of the assumptions of orthodox economic theory has been criticised by some economists, but Bourdieu argues that we must go further. Supply, demand, the market and even the buyer and seller are products of a process of social construction, and so-called 'economic' processes can be adequately described only by calling on sociological methods. Instead of seeing the two disciplines in antagonistic terms, it is time to recognize that sociology and economics are in fact part of a single discipline, the object of which is the analysis of social facts, of which economic transactions are in the end merely one aspect.
Théorie/ philosophie
The future of the image
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In "The future of the image", Jacques Rancière develops a fascinating new concept of the image in contemporary art, showing how art and politics have always been intrinsically intertwined. Covering a range of art movements, and thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Adorno, Barthes, Lyotard and Greenberg, Rancière argues that contemporary theorists of the image are suffering(...)
The future of the image
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In "The future of the image", Jacques Rancière develops a fascinating new concept of the image in contemporary art, showing how art and politics have always been intrinsically intertwined. Covering a range of art movements, and thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Adorno, Barthes, Lyotard and Greenberg, Rancière argues that contemporary theorists of the image are suffering from religious tendencies. He suggests that there is a stark political choice in art : it can either reinforce a radical democracy, or create a new reactionary mysticism. For Rancière there is never a pure art : the aesthetic revolution will always embrace egalitarian ideals.
Théorie/ philosophie
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Imagine a world without things. There would be nothing to describe, nothing to explain, remark, interpret, or complain about. Without things, we would stop speaking; we would become as mute as things are alleged to be. In nine original essays, internationally renowned historians of art and of science seek to understand how objects become charged with significance without(...)
Things that talk : Object lessons from art and science
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Imagine a world without things. There would be nothing to describe, nothing to explain, remark, interpret, or complain about. Without things, we would stop speaking; we would become as mute as things are alleged to be. In nine original essays, internationally renowned historians of art and of science seek to understand how objects become charged with significance without losing their gritty materiality. True to the particularity of things, each of the essays singles out one object for close attention: a Bosch drawing, the freestanding column, a Prussian island, soap bubbles, early photographs, glass flowers, Rorschach blots, newspaper clippings, paintings by Jackson Pollock. Each is revealed to be a node around which meanings accrete thickly. But not just any meanings: what these things are made of and how they are made shape what they can mean. Neither the pure texts of semiotics nor the brute objects of positivism, these things are saturated with cultural significance. Things become talkative when they fuse matter and meaning; they lapse into speechlessness when their matter and meanings no longer mesh. Each of the nine objects examined in this book had its historical moment, when the match of this thing to that thought seemed irresistible. At these junctures, certain things become objects of fascination, association, and endless consideration; they begin to talk. Things that talk fleetingly realize the dream of a perfect language, in which words and world merge.
Théorie/ philosophie
The culture industry
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The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the(...)
The culture industry
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The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights into Adorno's thoughts on culture. He argued that the culture industry commodified and standardized all art. In turn this suffocated individuality and destroyed critical thinking. At the time, Adorno was accused of everything from overreaction to deranged hysteria by his many detractors. In today's world, where even the least cynical of consumers is aware of the influence of the media, Adorno's work takes on a more immediate significance. "The culture industry" is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture.
Théorie/ philosophie
livres
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Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws(...)
Théorie/ philosophie
décembre 2002, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
The practice of everyday life
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Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws brilliantly on an immense theoretical literature in analytic philosophy, linguistics, sociology, semiology, and anthropology - to speak of an apposite use of imaginative literature.
livres
décembre 2002, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
Théorie/ philosophie
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Dans ce dernier volume de sa trilogie, "Écumes - sphérologie plurielle", Peter Sloterdijk part à la découverte de la structure alvéolaire qui permet aux êtres humains de coexister dans les sociétés modernes. Il y souligne le rôle de l'élément aérien, notamment dans les nouvelles techniques de destruction et d'extermination, développe une théorie des îles et de "(...)
Écumes sphères III - sphérologie plurielle
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Dans ce dernier volume de sa trilogie, "Écumes - sphérologie plurielle", Peter Sloterdijk part à la découverte de la structure alvéolaire qui permet aux êtres humains de coexister dans les sociétés modernes. Il y souligne le rôle de l'élément aérien, notamment dans les nouvelles techniques de destruction et d'extermination, développe une théorie des îles et de " l'insulation " humaine, se penche sur le phénomène de la cohabitation des " machines célibataires " vivant en cellules juxtaposées, ou encore sur le phénomène de la " serre ", fabrication artificielle d'un milieu atmosphérique. En cela, il répond à la question de la nature du lien qui fait tenir le sujet dans ce que la sociologie nomme traditionnellement " société ". Peter Sloterdijk entre avec ce volume dans une phase d'observation de la civilisation contemporaine, dont il rattache l'évolution aux premiers mythes de l'écume, entre autres la naissance d'Aphrodite. Cette forme de pensée sereine - en bulles, en écumes - rend compte de la pluralité des approches et inventions du monde. De même, elle formule une interprétation philosophique et anthropologique de l'individualisme qui, en créant une atmosphère de liberté, dépasse les définitions entendues.
Théorie/ philosophie
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An endling is the last known individual of a species; when that individual dies, the species becomes extinct. These "last individuals" are poignant characters in the stories that humans tell themselves about today’s Anthropocene. In this evocative work, Lydia Pyne explores how discussion about endlings draws on deep traditions of storytelling across a variety of narrative(...)
Endlings: Fables for the anthropocene
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An endling is the last known individual of a species; when that individual dies, the species becomes extinct. These "last individuals" are poignant characters in the stories that humans tell themselves about today’s Anthropocene. In this evocative work, Lydia Pyne explores how discussion about endlings draws on deep traditions of storytelling across a variety of narrative types that go well beyond the science of these species’ biology or their evolutionary history. It provides a useful and thoughtful discussion of species concepts: how species start and how (and why) they end, what it means to be a "charismatic" species, the effects of rewilding, and what makes species extinction different in this era.
Théorie/ philosophie
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Contemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island’s treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn’s creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes, episodes, and illustrated essays,this publication distills the artist’s lifelong experience of Iceland’s natural environment.(...)
Island zombie: Iceland writings
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Contemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island’s treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn’s creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes, episodes, and illustrated essays,this publication distills the artist’s lifelong experience of Iceland’s natural environment. Together, these pieces offer an unforgettable exploration of the indefinable and inescapable force of remote, elemental places, and provide a sustained look at how an island and its atmosphere can take possession of the innermost self.
Théorie/ philosophie
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Les cinq penseurs présentés ici par Patrick Chastenet partagent le même amour de la liberté et de la nature. Trois se réclament de l’anarchisme, deux en sont proches, tous ont profondément enrichi le terreau libertaire de l’écologie politique. L’auteur s’est lié d’amitié avec Jacques Ellul, dont il est un spécialiste reconnu. Il a sympathisé avec Ivan Illich et Bernard(...)
Les racines libertaires de l'écologie politique
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Les cinq penseurs présentés ici par Patrick Chastenet partagent le même amour de la liberté et de la nature. Trois se réclament de l’anarchisme, deux en sont proches, tous ont profondément enrichi le terreau libertaire de l’écologie politique. L’auteur s’est lié d’amitié avec Jacques Ellul, dont il est un spécialiste reconnu. Il a sympathisé avec Ivan Illich et Bernard Charbonneau avant de découvrir les œuvres d’Élisée Reclus et de Murray Bookchin. Son livre, rigoureux et vivant, nous introduit aux pensées de ces précurseurs encore trop méconnues mais dont l’actualité n’a pas fini de nous étonner.
Théorie/ philosophie