Idea of Pure Critique

by MacKenzie, Iain

• ISBN13: 9780826468079
• ISBN10: 0826468071
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

What is required of the idea of critique if it is to overcome indifference? This question addresses core themes in modern, post-Kantian and European philosophy, challenging theory's resignation in the face of contemporary political and economic formations. If indifference is to be overcome, critique must be demarcated in its purity, as an idea of critique in and of itself. For the idea of critique to become pure we must view critique as the construction of difference--only pure critique, as the construction of difference, can overcome our current age of indifference. The Idea of Pure Critique will appeal to students of Kant as well as to the many interested in Deleuze and Guattari's contribution to philosophies of difference. More fundamentally, the book presents a series of political and philosophical challenges to the apathy that pervades modern forms of life.

Author Biography

Iain MacKenzie is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Middlesex University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Preface	x
Introduction	xviii
Chapter One: Kant and the Critique of Indifference	1	(20)
Indifference and the Idea of Critique	1	(10)
Critique, Totality and Immanence	11	(3)
The Return of Indifference	14	(7)
Chapter Two: Philosophy as Pure Critique	21	(36)
Introduction	21	(1)
Partial Criticism, Total Critique and Pure Critique	22	(6)
Philosophy as Constructivism	28	(8)
Philosophy as Pure Critique	36	(19)
Conclusion	55	(2)
Chapter Three: Four Problems with Pure Critique	57	(32)
Introduction	57	(1)
Problem One: The Problem with Ideas	57	(8)
Problem Two: The Problem with Creators and Mediators	65	(8)
Problem Three: The Problem of Immanence	73	(6)
Problem Four: The Problem of Difference	79	(5)
Conclusion	84	(5)
Conclusion: The Idea of Pure Critique	89	(8)
Afterword	97	(1)
Notes	98	(14)
Index	112