by Pierre Macherey (2014)
"Selon Pierre Macherey, la question de la manière dont les normes opèrent ne doit pas être traitée dans l'abstrait. Il faut la rapporter aux nouvelles structures de socialisation et d'exercice du pouvoir liées au développement, dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, du machinisme et de la révolution industrielle : ce sont ces structures qui définissent encore aujourd'hui la manière dont on devient sujet. Ces structures, ce sont celles dont Marx a analysé la base économique dans Le Capital, et que Foucault, suivant une approche différente mais convergente, du moins sur certains points, a examinées en se servant du concept de "société de normes". Des lectures croisées s'imposent donc. De Marx à Althusser, d'Althusser à Foucault, de Foucault à Fanon, de Fanon à Deligny, et ainsi de suite, Pierre Macherey dresse des ponts entre différents systèmes de pensée et nous invite à une promenade philosophique et politique destinée à mettre au jour les mécanismes idéologiques de cette société de normes."--P. [4] of cover.
Joan Copjec
A collection of essays [written] by theorists in culture and politics. Experts from a variety of fields re-examine the origins of the subject as understood by Descartes, Kant and Hegel, and consider contemporary ideas that revive the subject, including queer theory and national identity. --Publisher description.
Harry M. Clor
The issue of public morality, so often at the center of heated debates about pornography, narcotics, public indecency, violent entertainments, "family values," et cetera, is at once a continuing reality and a persistent dilemma in our liberal society. With Public Morality and Liberal Society, Harry M. Clor makes an important contribution to this perennial and intensely debated theme by considering how public morality can be justified in theory and accommodated in practice within a liberal society. Clor's argument departs from the usual discussions of public morality - which spring from the premises of liberal philosophy and are oriented to an overriding concern with personal liberty or rights - and considers instead the moral interests and claims of the community as a whole. He maintains that a reasonable case can still be made for a publicly supported ethnic of self-restraint, and that this enterprise involves the definition of public morality, the articulation of its philosophic justification, and a consideration of its problems and prospects in the face of the community-weakening tendencies of liberal modernity. By systematically analyzing society's need for public morality and by confronting the major libertarian and egalitarian objections to it, Clor clearly shows that what is at stake in the debates about public decency and liberal society is nothing less than our communal self-understanding, our sense of what a liberal community is about, and our understanding of human well-being.
Slavoj Žižek
Is global emancipation a lost cause? Are universal values outdated relics of an earlier age? In the postmodern world, ideologies of all kinds have been cast in doubt. In this combative new work, renowned theorist Slavoj Žižek takes on the reigning postmodern agenda with a manifesto for several 'lost causes'.
Grant Gillett
"To understand mental illness fully, requires more than a study of biological models of mental processes and pathologies. As intensely social animals, Grant Gillett argues, we need to look for the causes of human mental disorders in our interactions with others; in social rule-following and its role in the organization of mental content; in the power relations embedded within social structures and cultural norms; and in the way that our mental life is inscribed by a cumulative life of encounters with others." "Gillett uses material arising in the study of philosophy of mind, epistemology, postmodern continental philosophy, and philosophy of language to try to elucidate the nature of psychiatric phenomena involving disorders of thought, perception, emotion, moral sense, and action. Within this framework, a series of chapters analyse important psychiatric disorders such as depression, attention deficiency, autism, schizophrenia, and anorexia. Along the way, Gillett explores the nature of memory and identity; of hysteria and what constitutes rational behaviour; and of what causes us to label someone a psychopath or deviant.". "This fascinating book will provide readers with important insights into the causes and nature of psychological disorder. Gillett's arguments have considerable implications for the way in which we understand and treat people suffering from psychiatric disorders. The Mind and its Discontents will be read by researchers and postgraduate students in a range of academic areas, including psychiatry, bioethics, philosophy of mind, social theory, and clinical psychology. It will also be of considerable interest to practising psychiatrists."--BOOK JACKET.