Deconstruction and the 'Unfinished Project of Modernity'

by Norris, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780485121599
• ISBN10: 048512159X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Athlone Press

Summary

Deconstruction has been widely and detrimentally misunderstood. In this provocative new book, Christopher Norris challenges the prevalent idea that deconstruction is merely a more specialized offshoot of postmodernism. Through a close engagement with some key thinkers -- among them Derrida, Foucault, de Man, Habermas, Lyotard and Levinas -- Norris argues that deconstruction is part of the "unfinished project of modernity" -- a project whose interests and values deconstruction upholds by continuing to question them in a spirit of enlightened self-critical inquiry. Assessing the impact of postmodernist thought across a range of disciplines, the book presents a lucid analysis and guide to the problems and prospects of critical theory.

Author Biography

Christopher Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at the University of Cardiff

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Deconstruction versus Postmodernism: epistemology, ethics, aesthetics	p. 6
Postmodern Ethics and the Trouble with Relativism	p. 25
Deconstruction and the 'Unfinished Project of Modernity'	p. 48
Deconstruction, Postmodernism and Philosophy of Science	p. 75
'The Idea of the University': some interdisciplinary soundings	p. 103
Ethics, Autonomy and Self-Invention: debating Foucault	p. 119
'The Night in which All Cows are Black': Paul de Man, 'mere reading' and indifference to philosophy	p. 136
Conflict, Compromise or Complementarity: ideas of science in modern literary theory	p. 153
Sexed Equations and Vexed Physicists: the 'two cultures' revisited	p. 175
Notes	p. 202
Bibliography	p. 223
Index	p. 236
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