Adam Kotsko

Sociopaths are pervasive in contemporary television, from high-brow drama all the way down to cartoons -- and of course the news as well. From the scheming Eric Cartman of South Parkto the seductive imposter Don Draper of Mad Men, cold and ruthless characters captivate us, making us wish that we could be so effective and successful. Yet why should we admire characters who get ahead by being amoral and uncaring? In his follow-up to Awkwardness, Adam Kotsko argues that the popularity of the ruthless sociopath reflects our dissatisfaction with a failed social contract, showing that we believe that the world rewards the evil and uncaring rather than the good. By analyzing characters like the serial killer star of Dexter and the cynical Dr. House, Kotsko shows that the fantasy of the sociopath distracts us from our real problems -- but that we still might benefit from being a little more sociopathic.

A Guide to Late Capitalist Television

Why We Love Sociopaths

Argues that the awkwardness of our age is a key to understanding human experience.

Awkwardness

This book argues that neoliberalism must be understood as a system of political theology that claims to be founded on individual freedom but demonizes anyone who falls short of its impossible standards.

On the Political Theology of Late Capital

Neoliberalism's Demons

Creepiness

Colby Dickinson

In this book, Dickson and Kotso examine Agamben’s more recent theologically-focused writing and its implications for philosophical thought.

Finding a New Use for Theology

Agamben's Coming Philosophy

A specter is haunting contemporary television—the specter of creepiness. In our everyday lives, we try to avoid creepiness at every cost, shunning creepy people and recoiling in horror at the idea that we ourselves might be creeps. And yet when we sit down to watch TV, we are increasingly entranced by creepy characters. In this follow-up to Awkwardness and Why We Love Sociopaths, Adam Kotsko tries to account for the strange fascination of creepiness. In addition to surveying a wide range of contemporary examples—from Peep Show to Girls, from Orange is the New Black to Breaking Bad—Kotsko mines the television of his 90s childhood, marveling at the creepiness that seemed to be hiding in plain sight in shows like Full House and Family Matters. Using Freud as his guide through the treacherous territory of creepiness, Kotsko argues that we are fascinated by the creepy because in our own ways, we are all creeps.

Giorgio Agamben has emerged as one of the most perceptive and even prophetic political thinkers of his era. Now that he has completed his career-defining work - the multivolume Homo Sacer series - Adam Kotsko, one of his leading translators, shows how his political concerns emerged and evolved as Agamben responded to contemporary events and new intellectual influences while striving to remain true to his deepest intuitions. Kotsko reveals the trajectory of Agamben's work and shows us what it means to practice philosophy as a living, responsive discipline.

Agamben's Philosophical Trajectory

Istanbul's AemberlitaAY HamamA provides a case study for the cultural, social and economic functions of Turkish bathhouses over time

Agamben's Philosophical Lineage

The most enduring challenge to traditional monotheism is the problem of evil, which attempts to reconcile three incompatible propositions: God is all-good, God is all-powerful, and evil happens. The Prince of This World traces the story of one of the most influential attempts to square this circle: the offloading of responsibility for evil onto one of God's rebellious creatures. In this striking reexamination, the devil's story is bitterly ironic, full of tragic reversals. He emerges as a theological symbol who helps oppressed communities cope with the trauma of unjust persecution, torture, and death at the hands of political authorities and eventually becomes a vehicle to justify oppression at the hands of Christian rulers. And he evolves alongside the biblical God, who at first presents himself as the liberator of the oppressed but ends up a cruel ruler who delights in the infliction of suffering on his friends and enemies alike. In other words, this is the story of how God becomes the devil—a devil who remains with us in our ostensibly secular age.

The Prince of This World

The Social Logic of Salvation

The Politics of Redemption

Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek has been called an 'academic rock star'. This text assists students in getting to grips with Žižek's earlier and more recent works, with an eye toward what brings him to an explicit engagement with Christianity.

Adam Kotsko

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