Nathan,
This sounds like interesting work, but I wonder if you could perhaps explain
a couple of points regarding the abstract you sent to the list:
1. You say that you are outlining an ontology of difference. What exactly do
you mean by that and how would you situate yourself with respect to the
major ontologies of difference of the 19th/20th century (I am thinking of
Nietzsche, of Heidegger, of Deleuze and of Derrida just to mention the major
names).
2. How do you conceptualise the relationship between ontology and genealogy?
These are both big terms which are being thrown around all the time today
and I wonder to what extent they are compatible.
3. Aristotle, Augustine, Gnosticism, Duns Scotus, Epicureanism, Foucault,
Deleuze. That's a big project. Have you written a history of philosophy?
What is the connection between these very different strands of thought?
Yves.
On 24/01/02 17:47, "newidder" wrote:
> I hope people won't mind if follow Stuart Elden's lead and plug my forthcoming
> book. Genealogies of Difference (University of Illinois Press, ISBN
> #0252027078) should be available in the next few weeks. It is already on
> Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It can also be ordered directly from the press
> (www.press.uillinois.edu).
>
> This book is my Foucauldian and Deleuzean (admittedly more the
> latter)-inspired romp through Western philosophy, which basically tries to
> outline an ontology of difference by weaving together exploration of Hegel,
> Nietzsche and contemporary critiques of dialectics with excursions into
> ancient, early Christian and medieval philosophy. The aim of the work is to
> show that what the rejection of metaphysical foundations needs to lead to is a
> thinking of difference, and to flesh out what its corresponding ontology would
> be.
>
> Illinois Press is going to be making the book available for free download,
> though I am not sure when this will happen. It's a way, they say, of boosting
> paper sales. In any event, it's a way to increase exposure for the book. So
> feel free to download if you'd prefer, but for those of you who are attached
> to universities, if you could have your libraries order a copy or two I'd be
> very grateful. And, hey, the book is only $29.95, which is I think a pretty
> good price for a hardcover, and if I do say so myself, the cover art and
> layout make it a really beautiful book.
>
> I'm including the table of contents and the stuff from the inside and back
> cover below.
>
> Thanks for the use of your inbox spaces.
>
> Nathan
>
> Dr. Nathan Widder
> Lecturer in Political Theory
> University of Exeter
> Department of Politics
> Exeter EX4 4RJ
> http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/politics/staff/widder/
> MA in Critical Global Studies:
> http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/school/ma/global.php
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Genealogies of Difference combines critical engagements with modern and
> postmodern theories of identity, difference, contingency, and time with
> strategic forays into ancient, early Christian, and medieval philosophy.
> Without losing sight of complex contributions from the past, Nathan Widder
> provides the philosophical underpinnings for a politics and ethics of
> difference crucial to our present day. Lucid and distinctive, this volume is
> an important, in-depth contribution to contemporary debates on pluralism,
> multiplicity, and community.
> This deft study establishes the failure of Hegelian dialectics to adequately
> come to terms with the problem of difference. Drawing from the works of
> Nietzsche, Lyotard, Deleuze, Foucault, and Blanchot, Widder demonstrates the
> need to rethink the nature of difference and the categories of thought that
> have dominated Western philosophy. He then provides a keen exploration of
> major and marginal figures and schools in the history of Western
> thought-including Aristotle, Epicureanism, Augustine, Gnosticism, and medieval
> Scholasticism-to illustrate the relevance and relation of these perspectives
> to contemporary issues and thought.
>
> Widder addresses the substantial body of theoretical discourse on difference
> without neglecting the history of political thought or the contemporary
> criticisms of the tradition. His genealogical endeavor develops a concept of
> difference indispensable to a postmodern world of blurred boundaries and
> hybrid forms that exceed our traditional categories of understanding.
>
> "[Genealogies of Difference] seeks to show that the rejection of metaphysical
> foundations lead neither to a postmodern ironism or skepticism nor to a
> negative theology...A pertinent and instructive contribution to contemporary
> thinking in the area of philosophy and political theory" -- Keith Ansell
> Pearson, author of Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze
>
> "Have you heard that the philosophy of difference is a modern or, even,
> postmodern event? Nathan Widder puts that story to bed. This is genealogy in
> the most productive sense of the word: a disaggregation of nostalgic
> narratives that render the modern world fragmented and lost in order to spurt
> the return to a time that never was" -- William E. Connolly, author of
> Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture, Speed
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> Acknowledgments
> The Quest for Lost Time and Space
>
> Force, Synthesis, and Event
>
> A Question of Limits and Continuity: Aristotle, Epicureanism and the Logic of
> Totality
>
> The One and the Many: Augustine and Gnosticism
>
> Reason and Faith: Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Ockham
>
> The Ethics of a Pluralism Made of Stolen Bits
>
> Notes
>
> Bibliography
>
> Index
>
This sounds like interesting work, but I wonder if you could perhaps explain
a couple of points regarding the abstract you sent to the list:
1. You say that you are outlining an ontology of difference. What exactly do
you mean by that and how would you situate yourself with respect to the
major ontologies of difference of the 19th/20th century (I am thinking of
Nietzsche, of Heidegger, of Deleuze and of Derrida just to mention the major
names).
2. How do you conceptualise the relationship between ontology and genealogy?
These are both big terms which are being thrown around all the time today
and I wonder to what extent they are compatible.
3. Aristotle, Augustine, Gnosticism, Duns Scotus, Epicureanism, Foucault,
Deleuze. That's a big project. Have you written a history of philosophy?
What is the connection between these very different strands of thought?
Yves.
On 24/01/02 17:47, "newidder" wrote:
> I hope people won't mind if follow Stuart Elden's lead and plug my forthcoming
> book. Genealogies of Difference (University of Illinois Press, ISBN
> #0252027078) should be available in the next few weeks. It is already on
> Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It can also be ordered directly from the press
> (www.press.uillinois.edu).
>
> This book is my Foucauldian and Deleuzean (admittedly more the
> latter)-inspired romp through Western philosophy, which basically tries to
> outline an ontology of difference by weaving together exploration of Hegel,
> Nietzsche and contemporary critiques of dialectics with excursions into
> ancient, early Christian and medieval philosophy. The aim of the work is to
> show that what the rejection of metaphysical foundations needs to lead to is a
> thinking of difference, and to flesh out what its corresponding ontology would
> be.
>
> Illinois Press is going to be making the book available for free download,
> though I am not sure when this will happen. It's a way, they say, of boosting
> paper sales. In any event, it's a way to increase exposure for the book. So
> feel free to download if you'd prefer, but for those of you who are attached
> to universities, if you could have your libraries order a copy or two I'd be
> very grateful. And, hey, the book is only $29.95, which is I think a pretty
> good price for a hardcover, and if I do say so myself, the cover art and
> layout make it a really beautiful book.
>
> I'm including the table of contents and the stuff from the inside and back
> cover below.
>
> Thanks for the use of your inbox spaces.
>
> Nathan
>
> Dr. Nathan Widder
> Lecturer in Political Theory
> University of Exeter
> Department of Politics
> Exeter EX4 4RJ
> http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/politics/staff/widder/
> MA in Critical Global Studies:
> http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/school/ma/global.php
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Genealogies of Difference combines critical engagements with modern and
> postmodern theories of identity, difference, contingency, and time with
> strategic forays into ancient, early Christian, and medieval philosophy.
> Without losing sight of complex contributions from the past, Nathan Widder
> provides the philosophical underpinnings for a politics and ethics of
> difference crucial to our present day. Lucid and distinctive, this volume is
> an important, in-depth contribution to contemporary debates on pluralism,
> multiplicity, and community.
> This deft study establishes the failure of Hegelian dialectics to adequately
> come to terms with the problem of difference. Drawing from the works of
> Nietzsche, Lyotard, Deleuze, Foucault, and Blanchot, Widder demonstrates the
> need to rethink the nature of difference and the categories of thought that
> have dominated Western philosophy. He then provides a keen exploration of
> major and marginal figures and schools in the history of Western
> thought-including Aristotle, Epicureanism, Augustine, Gnosticism, and medieval
> Scholasticism-to illustrate the relevance and relation of these perspectives
> to contemporary issues and thought.
>
> Widder addresses the substantial body of theoretical discourse on difference
> without neglecting the history of political thought or the contemporary
> criticisms of the tradition. His genealogical endeavor develops a concept of
> difference indispensable to a postmodern world of blurred boundaries and
> hybrid forms that exceed our traditional categories of understanding.
>
> "[Genealogies of Difference] seeks to show that the rejection of metaphysical
> foundations lead neither to a postmodern ironism or skepticism nor to a
> negative theology...A pertinent and instructive contribution to contemporary
> thinking in the area of philosophy and political theory" -- Keith Ansell
> Pearson, author of Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze
>
> "Have you heard that the philosophy of difference is a modern or, even,
> postmodern event? Nathan Widder puts that story to bed. This is genealogy in
> the most productive sense of the word: a disaggregation of nostalgic
> narratives that render the modern world fragmented and lost in order to spurt
> the return to a time that never was" -- William E. Connolly, author of
> Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture, Speed
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> Acknowledgments
> The Quest for Lost Time and Space
>
> Force, Synthesis, and Event
>
> A Question of Limits and Continuity: Aristotle, Epicureanism and the Logic of
> Totality
>
> The One and the Many: Augustine and Gnosticism
>
> Reason and Faith: Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Ockham
>
> The Ethics of a Pluralism Made of Stolen Bits
>
> Notes
>
> Bibliography
>
> Index
>