Logics of Disintegration

Poststructuralist Thought and the Claims of Critical Theory

Peter Dews

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781844675746
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789602814
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

Over the last two decades, contemporary French philosophy has exercised a powerful influence on intellectual life, across both Europe and America. Post-structuralist strategies and concepts have played an important role in many forms of social, cultural and aesthetic analysis, particularly on the Left. Despite the widespread reception, however, there has still been comparatively little analysis of the basic philosophical assumptions of post-structuralism, or of the compatibility of many of its central tenets with the progressive political orientations with which it is frequently associated.
In this book, Peter Dews seeks to remedy this situation by setting post-structuralist thought in relation to another, more explicitly critical, tradition in the philosophical analysis of modernity - that of the Frankfurt School, from Adorno to Habermas. Logics of Disintegration will be of interest to readers across a wide range of disciplines, from literary criticism to social theory, which have felt the impact of post-structuralism - and to anyone who wishes to reach a balanced assessment of one of the most influential intellectual currents of our time.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Jacques Derrida: The Transcendental and Difference
• 2. Jacques Lacan: A Philosophical Rethinking of Freud
• 3. Lacan and Derrida: Individuality and Symbolic Order
• 4. Jean-François Lyotard: From Perception to Desire
• 5. Michel Foucault: Power and Subjectivity
• 6. Michel Foucault: Power and Knowledge
• 7. Foucault and Lyotard: The Politics of Truth
• Conclusion: Intersubjectivity and the Logic of Disintegration
• Notes
• Index