Durkheim and postmodern culture

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John D. Caputo

John D. Caputo has a long career as one of the preeminent postmodern philosophers in America. The author of such books as Radical Hermeneutics, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, and The Weakness of God, Caputo now reflects on his spiritual journey from a Catholic altar boy in 1950s Philadelphia to a philosopher after the death of God. Part spiritual autobiography, part homily on what he calls the "nihilism of grace," Hoping Against Hope calls believers and nonbelievers alike to participate in the "praxis of the kingdom of God," which Caputo says we must pursue "without why." Caputo's conversation partners in this volume include Lyotard, Derrida, and Hegel, but also earlier versions of himself: Jackie, a young altar boy, and Brother Paul, a novice in a religious order. Caputo traces his own journey from faith through skepticism to hope, after the "death of God." In the end, Caputo doesn't want to do away with religion; he wants to redeem religion and to reinvent religion for a postmodern time.

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Jann Pasler

"Drawing on a passion for music and a diverse interdisciplinary toolbox, Jann Pasler invites us to read as she writes "through" music, unveiling the forces that affect our sonic encounters. In a collection of historical and critical essays, some appearing for the first time in English, Pasler deconstructs the social, moral, and political preoccupations lurking behind aesthetic taste. Arguing that learning from musical experience is vital to our understanding of past, present, and future, Pasler's work trenchantly reasserts the role of music as a crucial contributor to important public debates about who we can be as individuals, communities, and nations." "The author's approaches to musical biography and history challenge us to rethink our assumptions about important cultural issues including national identity and postmodern musical hybridity, material culture, the economics of power, and the relationship between classical and popular music. Her work uncovers the self-fashioning of modernists such as Vincent d'Indy, Augusta Holmes, Jean Cocteau, and John Cage, and addresses categories such as race, gender, and class in the early twentieth century in ways that resonate with experiences today. She also explores how music uses time and constructs narrative." "In these essays, music - whether beautiful or cacophonous, reassuring or seemingly incomprehensible - comes alive as a bearer of ideas and that offers insights into how we negotiate the world."--Jacket.

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Gernot Böhme

"Gernot Bohme, a distinguished and original contributor to critical theory's philosophy of science project, sets out the main theses of this program in an important volume for science studies scholars. Stressing that science is a necessary aspect of advanced societies, Bohme explores the most fundamental questions about its social, political, and cultural roles in modern society." "In light of the mixed blessings of technical society, Bohme questions whether we can continue to regard the institution of science as the top of a hierarchy of knowledge or as a neutral means of progress, let alone as a benign force for good. Science and its future are too important to be left to the scientists; society, Bohme insists, must take control of its scientific future."--Jacket.

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Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt

With the emergence of "cultural studies" and the blurring of once clear academic boundaries, scholars are turning to subjects far outside their traditional disciplines and areas of expertise. In Higher Superstition scientists Paul Gross and Norman Levitt raise serious questions about the growing criticism of science by humanists and social scientists on the "academic left." As literary theorists deconstruct scientific "texts" and feminists condemn scientific "patriarchy," they argue, principles and practices that underlie 300 years of scientific achievement come under attack from scholars with little actual knowledge of science. Gross and Levitt explore the origins and history of the trend and examine examples of "science bashing" from an array of currently fashionable viewpoints - postmodernism, feminism, radical environmentalism, multiculturalism, and AIDS activism. They find the origins of antiscience attitudes not only in modern discontents but also in a long tradition of Romantic unhappiness with Rationalism. Their concerns, however, are clearly for the present and the future. They question how far the university community should go in validating nonscientific judgments of science. And they warn that the long-term consequences of these trends - for science education and for public judgment of scientific issues - may be infinitely more serious than the "political correctness" wars currently being waged on university campuses