Impossible Objects
Subtitle: Interviews
By: edited by Carl Cederström and Todd Kesselman
Publisher: Polity
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780745653211
Description: Impossible objects are those about which the philosopher, narrowly conceived, can hardly speak: poetry, film, music, humor. Such "objects" do not rely on philosophy for interpretation and understanding; they are already independent practices and sites of sensuous meaning production. As Elvis Costello has said, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." We don't need literary theory in order to be riveted by the poem, nor a critic's analysis to enjoy a film. How then can philosophy speak about anything outside of itself, namely all of those things which actually matter to us in this world? In Impossible Objects, Simon Critchley - one of the most influential and insightful philosophers writing today - extends his philosophical investigation into non-philosophical territories, including discussions on tragedy, poetry, humor, and music. In a series of engaging and enlightening conversations, Critchley reflects on his early work on the ethics of deconstruction; the recurring themes of mortality and nihilism; his defense of neo-anarchism; and his recent investigation into secular faith, or "a faith of the faithless". Essential reading for artists, academics, and general readers alike, this book explores the relationship between the philosophical world and those complex and fascinating "impossible objects" which give life meaning. -- Publisher description.
Table of contents: title: Introduction
pagenum: 1; label: 1
title: Early Bedfellows—Levinas, Derrida, and the Ethics of Deconstruction
pagenum: 5; label: 2
title: Keep Your Mind in Hell and Despair Not—Nietzsche and the Question of Nihilism
pagenum: 30; label: 3
title: The State is a Limitation on Human Existence: Gramsci and Hegemony
pagenum: 47; label: 4
title: Infinitely Demanding Anarchism—Marxism and the Political
pagenum: 58; label: 5
title: Action in a World of Recuperation—Cynicism and the Slovenian Hamlet
pagenum: 80; label: 6
title: Language and Murder—Blanchot, Stevens, and the Literary
pagenum: 93; label: 7
title: Confessions of a Punk Rocker—Can, Rhythm, and Transient Joy
pagenum: 111; label: 8
title: Art and Ethics—Transgression, Visibility, and Collective Resistance
pagenum: 127; label: 9
title: Tragedy and Modernity—The Logic of Affect
pagenum: 139; title: List of Works
pagenum: 164; title: Index
pagenum: 166