Lyotard Why Philosophize?

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7456-7995-2
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten, E-Book

Why Philosophize? is a series of lectures given byJean-François Lyotard to students at the Sorbonne embarking ontheir university studies. The circumstances obliged him to be bothclear and concise: at the same time, his lectures offer a profoundand far-reaching meditation on how essential it is to philosophizein a world where philosophy often seems irrelevant, outdated, orinconclusive.
Lyotard begins by drawing on Plato, Proust and Lacan to show thatphilosophy is a never-ending desire - for wisdom, for the'other'. In the second lecture he draws on Heraclitusand Hegel to explore the close relation between philosophy andhistory: the same restlessness, the same longing for a precariousunity, drives both. In his third lecture, Lyotard examines howphilosophy is a form of utterance, both communicative and indirect.Finally, he turns to Marx, exploring the extent to which philosophycan be a transformative action within the world.
These wonderfully accessible lectures by one of the mostinfluential philosophers of the last 50 years will attract a widereadership, since, as Lyotard says, 'How can one notphilosophize?' They are also an excellent introduction toLyotard's mature thought, with its emphasis on the need forphilosophy to bear witness, however obliquely, to a recalcitrantreality.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lyotard, Jean-Francois

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements vi
Editorial note vii
Introduction 1
1 Why desire? 17
2 Philosophy and origin 44
3 On philosophical speech 70
4 On philosophy and action 100

Über Autor(innen)

Jean-François Lyotard is formerly Professor Emeritus ofPhilosophy, University of Paris VIII and Professor, University ofCalifornia at Irvine.