Valences of the DialecticAfter half a century exploring dialectical thought, renowned cultural critic Fredric Jameson presents a comprehensive study of a misunderstood yet vital strain in Western philosophy. The dialectic, the concept of the evolution of an idea through conflicts arising from its inherent contradictions, transformed two centuries of Western philosophy. To Hegel, who dominated nineteenth-century thought, it was a metaphysical system. In the works of Marx, the dialectic became a tool for materialist historical analysis. Jameson brings a theoretical scrutiny to bear on the questions that have arisen in the history of this philosophical tradition, contextualizing the debate in terms of commodification and globalization, and with reference to thinkers such as Rousseau, Lukcs, Heidegger, Sartre, Derrida, and Althusser. Through rigorous, erudite examination, Valences of the Dialectic charts a movement toward the innovation of a "spatial" dialectic. Jameson presents a new synthesis of thought that revitalizes dialectical thinking for the twenty-first century. |
Contents
THE THREE NAMES OF THE DIALECTIC | |
Hegel and Reification | |
Hegels Contemporary Critics | |
Marxs Purloined Letter | |
Deleuze and Dualism | |
History and Class Consciousness as an Unfinished Project | |
An Introduction | |
An Introduction | |
Rousseau and Contradiction | |
Actually Existing Marxism | |
Utopia as Replication | |
Globalization as a Philosophical Issue | |
Globalization and Political Strategy | |
THE VALENCES OF HISTORY | |
Making History Appear | |
Peripeteia | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic already analysis Aristotle become bourgeois called characterized collective commodification commodity concept consciousness contemporary contradiction critique cultural cultural revolution deconstruction Deleuze Derrida dialectic distinct dualism economic emergence example existential experience false consciousness function fundamental globalization grasp Hegel Hegelian Heidegger human identified ideology individual intellectual kind labor labor power language late capitalism Lenin logic Lukács Lukács's Marx Marx’s Marxian Marxism matter Meanwhile metaphysical Mille plateaux mode modern movement multiple namely narrative negative notion object older ontological opposition paradox particular perhaps peripeteia phenomenology philosophical political positive possibility post-Marxism postmodern praxis precisely problem production question radical reality reification relationship representation revolution Ricoeur Sartre Sartre's seems semiotics sense situation Slavoj Žižek social social democracy society somehow spatial specific structure temporality theoretical theory things thought totality traditional transformation University Utopian various Western Marxism words