Phenomenology and the Political

by S. West Gurley (Editor), Geoff Pfeifer (Editor)

Overview

This timely volume brings together a diverse group of expert authors in order to investigate the question of phenomenology’s relation to the political. These authors take up a variety of themes and movements in contemporary political philosophy. Some of them put phenomenology in dialogue with feminism or philosophies of race, others with Marxism and psychoanalysis, while others look at phenomenology’s historical relation to politics. The book shows the ways in which phenomenology is either itself a form of political philosophy, or a useful method for thinking the political. It also explores the ways in which phenomenology falls short in the realm of the political. Ultimately, this collection serves as a starting point for a groundbreaking dialogue in the field about the nature of the relationship between phenomenology and the political. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in phenomenology or contemporary social and political philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783487691
Publisher:	Dutton Penguin Group USA
Publication date:	10/28/2016
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Geoffrey Pfeifer is Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author of The New Materialism: Althusser, Badiou, and Žižek (2015).

S. West Gurley is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sam Houston State University. He is the author of Minding the Gap: What it is to Pay Attention Following the Collapse of the Subject-Object Distinction (2013).

Table of Contents

Introduction, Geoff Pfeifer and S. West Gurley / Part I Phenomenological Politics and Livability/
1. Recovering the Sensus Communis: Arendt’s Phenomenology of Political Affects, Peg Birmingham / 2. Heideggerian Phenomenology and the Postmetaphysical Politics of Ontological Pluralism, Iain Thomson / 3. Phenomenology and the Impasse of Politics, William Koch / 4. The Politics of Spirit and the Self Destruction of the State to Come: Heidegger’s Rectorate in the Black Notebooks, Andrew Mitchell / Part II Race and Anti-Colonialism / 5. Insurgent Subjects: Hegel, Césaire, and the Origins of Decolonial Phenomenology, Chad Kautzer / 6. Incarnate Historiography and the Politics of our Faces, John Drabinski / 7. What Does the Racist See? A Hegelian Reflection on Anti-Racist Tactics, Chioke I’Anson / 8. Native Cognitive Schemas and Decolonizing Democratic Ethics, Shay Welch / Part III The Body and Gender / 9. Varieties of Consciousness Under Oppression: False Consciousness, Bad Faith, Double Consciousness, and se faire objet, Jennifer McWeeny / 10. Can Women’s Compliance With Oppressive Norms Be Self-Interested? Serene J. Khader / 11. The White Gaze, Being-Object, and Intercorporeity: Casting Anew the Ontological Violence of Racism, Helen Ngo / Part IV Situatedness, Culture, and Alienation / 12. Phenomenology, Mental Illness, and the Intersubjective Constitution of the Lifeworld, Anthony Vincent Fernandez / 13. The Politics of Brutality: Phenomenology at the limits of Narco-Culture, Carlos Alberto Sanchez / 14. Attention is Political: How Phenomenology Gives Access to the Inconspicuously Political Act of Attending, S. West Gurley / Part V Place and the Environment /
15. Hannah Arendt and the Ideological Character of Monuments, Janet Donohoe / 16. Phenomenology and an Ethico-Politics of Earthbound Limits, Kelly Oliver / 17. Science, Capital and Care: A Phenomenological Assessment of Climate Justice, Patricia Glazebrook / Part VI Capitalism, Globalism, Solidarity / 18. Marxism contra phenomenology, Agon Hamza/ 19. Of Politics and Pentagons: for whom does phenomenology advance political philosophy? Christian Matheis / 20. Phenomenology, Marxism, and the Problem of the Political, Geoff Pfeifer

Editorial Reviews

An amazingly timely update to phenomenology that shows how it can be socially critical and political! The contributions from scholars who work in post-coloniality, feminism, race, environmentalism, and political philosophy, with phenomenological methods(that often have to be newly crafted and defined), succeed together in creating a coherent, progressive, and original resource within so-called continental philosophy. This collection breaks new groundfrom multipleangles and is a wonderful introduction to and invention of progressive phenomenology.

Naomi Zack

Where much of phenomenology has tended to bracket the political, here twenty cutting-edge philosophers turn their phenomenological gaze to some of the most pressing political issues of our day. Here we have a vital contribution to a new wave of publicly engaged philosophy.

Noëlle McAfee

An important collection of phenomenological engagements with the political, and political engagements with the methods and movement of phenomenology. These essays offer powerful responses to issues such as racism, environmental destruction, and capitalism, while raising fundamental questions about the meaning of the political. A valuable resource for anyone who seeks to understand the possibilities and limits of phenomenology for political theory.

Lisa Noelle Guenther