Overview

We call sublime those things and experiences supposed to be the very best. But what if the best actually leads to inequality and exploitation? Williams critiques the sublime over its long history and in recent returns to sublime nature and technologies. Deploying a new critical method that draws on process philosophy, he shows how the sublime has always led to inequality. This holds true even where it underpins ideas of cosmopolitan enlightenment, and even when refined by Burke, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and iek. Against the unjust legacies of the traditional sublime, James Williams defends a new, anarchist sublime: multiple, self-destructive and temporary; opposed to any idea of highest value to be shared by all but always imposed on the powerless.

Full Product Details

Author:   James Williams (Honorary Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
Weight:   0.464kg
ISBN:  

9781474439114

ISBN 10:   147443911
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   14 August 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Microcritique and the Sublimei. Between Historical Objectivity and Radical Innovationii. Microhistoryiii. Method and the Problem of Exclusioniv. Patterns of Fragments 3. Nietzsche Against the Egalitarian Sublimei. Only for the Fewii. The sublime as Effectiii. Untimely, Sublimeiv. Sublime Individuals Against Cohesive Communitiesv. Through the Few, but for the Many?vi. Individuals and Masses 4. The Return to the Sublimei. The Search for Valueii. Nostalgic Social Sublimeiii. Diagrams of the Technological Sublimeiv. The Environmental Sublime 5. Sublime Miseriesi. From High to Lowii. Kant: Equality in Universalityiii. Schopenhauer’s Sublime Consolationsiv. Žižek: A Depressing Lesson About Horror and Sufferingv. The Abject and Egalitarian Sublime 6. Defining the Egalitarian Sublimei. The Sublime and Egalitarian Politicsii. Unequal by Definitioniii. Not After the Sublime 7. Conclusion: The Sublime as Crisis BibliographyNotes

Reviews

"In this exceptional work James Williams provides a fresh and wide-ranging examination of the sublime. He provides a series of valuable insights into classical modern theories of the sublime, such as we find in Burke, Kant and Schopenhauer, but he also sheds much light on figurations of the sublime we encounter in provocative thinkers such as Nietzsche and Zizek. With this book Williams demonstrates that he is one of the finest philosophical minds of his generation, a truly original and uniquely critical voice. The book is highly instructive and will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy and across the humanities. I cannot recommend it highly enough.-- ""Keith Ansell-Pearson, University of Warwick"""

In this exceptional work James Williams provides a fresh and wide-ranging examination of the sublime. He provides a series of valuable insights into classical modern theories of the sublime, such as we find in Burke, Kant and Schopenhauer, but he also sheds much light on figurations of the sublime we encounter in provocative thinkers such as Nietzsche and Zizek. With this book Williams demonstrates that he is one of the finest philosophical minds of his generation, a truly original and uniquely critical voice. The book is highly instructive and will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy and across the humanities. I cannot recommend it highly enough.-- ""Keith Ansell-Pearson, University of Warwick""

Author Information

James Williams is Honorary Professor of Philosophy and member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University. He has published widely on contemporary French philosophy and is currently working on a critique of the idea of extended mind from the point of view of process philosophy.

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