by George A. Panichas (1977)
The immediate and guiding aim of this book is to introduce the contemporary reader to the work and thought of Simone Weil.
Arthur Koestler. --
Janus is both a summing up and continuation of Koestler's work over the past twenty-five years, since he turned from politics to the sciences of life- or more precisely, to the 'evolution, creativity and pathology of the human mind'. The insights gained on that long journey are here assembled in a coherent and comprehensive synthesis, and in the last part of the book, he offers us a tantalizing 'glance through the key-hole' from subatomic physics to metaphysics.
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 Are universal values outdated relics of an earlier age?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'.
Alain Badiou
Twenty years ago, Alain Badiou's first Manifesto for Philosophy rose up against the all-pervasive proclamation of the "end" of philosophy. In lieu of this problematic of the end, he put forward the watchword: "one more step". The situation has considerably changed since then. Philosophy was threatened with obliteration at the time, whereas today it finds itself under threat for the diametrically opposed reason: it is endowed with an excessive, artificial existence. "Philosophy" is everywhere. It serves as a trademark for various media pundits. It livens up cafe s and health clubs. It has its magazines and its gurus. It is universally called upon, by everything from banks to major state commissions, to pronounce on ethics, law and duty. In essence, "philosophy" has now come to stand for nothing other than its most ancient enemy: conservative ethics. Badiou's second manifesto therefore seeks to demoralize philosophy and to separate it from all those "philosophies" that are as servile as they are ubiquitous. It demonstrates the power of certain eternal truths to illuminate action and, as such, to transport philosophy far beyond the figure of "the human" and its "rights". There, well beyond all moralism, in the clear expanse of the idea, life becomes something radically other than survival. -- Cover.
Jean Améry
The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.