Purely objective reality

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Claudia Moscovici

In From Sex Objects to Sexual Subjects, Claudia Moscovici investigates various historical formulations of subjects and subjectivity as expressed in the works of Rousseau, Diderot and Kant in order to discuss several contemporary feminist and philosophical critiques of these theories. By tracing the continuities and ruptures between these eighteenth-century philosophical doctrines and the modern writings of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and others, Moscovici is able to trace the development of certain central debates that organize both current scholarly work and contemporary social life. Moscovici's reading of these historically disparate claims about subjectivity in conjunction with each other brings together two of the most pressing discussions in current critical feminist theory: the wide-ranging discussion of "post-modern" subjectivities, and the debates about public discourse and shared public spaces. The book offers a well-grounded critique of both masculinist and universalist theories of subjectivity, and also proposes an alternative formulation of "partial" democratic citizenship based upon more egalitarian codes of democratic justice and representation.

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Reiner Schürmann and Simon Critchley

*On Heidegger’s Being and Time* is an outstanding exploration of Heidegger’s most important work by two major philosophers. Simon Critchley argues that we must see *Being and Time* as a radicalization of Husserl’s phenomenology, particularly his theories of intentionality, categorial intuition, and the phenomenological concept of the a priori. This leads to a reappraisal and defense of Heidegger’s conception of phenomenology. In contrast, Reiner Schürmann urges us to read Heidegger 'backward', arguing that his later work is the key to unravelling *Being and Time*. Through a close reading of *Being and Time* Schürmann demonstrates that this work is ultimately aporetic because the notion of Being elaborated in his later work is already at play within it. This is the first time that Schürmann’s renowned lectures on Heidegger have been published. The book concludes with Critchley’s reinterpretation of the importance of authenticity in *Being and Time*. Arguing for what he calls an 'originary inauthenticity', Critchley proposes a relational understanding of the key concepts of the second part of *Being and Time*: death, conscience and temporality. (Source: Routledge)

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Shoshana Dreyfus, Susan Hood and Maree Stenglin

"A systemic functional linguistics study analysing how a wide range of modalities, other than language, make and communicate meaning"--Pub. website.

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Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick

Price and Shildrick bring together over 40 important feminist thinkers to discuss key arguments and issues concerning the body. It includes articles on race, cyberspace, theatre, classics, transsexuality, reproductive technologies, illness, rape, plastic surgery, and disabilities. The articles cover many different areas with a stress on the interdisciplinary links of contemporary feminist thought with philosophy, cultural studies, sociology and queer studies. What unites the various approaches represented is the understanding of the body as a site of contestation, the place where feminism can engage directly with the devaluation of women and move on to mobilize strategies of resistance.