Richard Appignanesi

Stuart Sim

Borin Van Loon

'Introducing Critical Theory' provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing theories. It puts into context recent developments by situating them within the longer-term tradition of critical analysis - back to the rise of Marxism.

Introducing Critical Theory

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"The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought constitutes an authoritative, yet truly readable guide to the complexity of postmodernism. This resource contains in-depth essays grouped by subject along with an A-Z list of key words and biographical entries. The contributors trace the impact of postmodern thought in their respective fields, which range throughout the arts, social sciences, politics, science and technology, popular culture, the media, and feminism."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Postmodern Thought

For Jean-Francois Lyotard, the cyborg is a symbol of fear, Mankind already inhabits a world which views machine implantation in humans as normal and necessary. It implies a future, Lyotard warns, which may dangerously negate the value of humanity itself.

Lyotard and the Inhuman

Anne Laurence

W.R. Owens

This volume of original essays is designed to be of interest to students not only of Bunyan, but of the history, religion and literature of the seventeenth century

JOHN BUNYAN & HIS ENGLAND, 1628-1688

Celebrated by some, abused by others, Derrida is the most discussed philosopher at the end of this century.

Derrida and the End of History

This book traces the crystallisation of post-Marxism as a specific theoretical position in its own right and considers the role played in its development by post-structuralism, postmodernism and second-wave feminism. It examines the history of dissenting tendencies within the Marxist tradition and considers what the future prospects of post-Marxism are likely to be.

An Intellectual History

Post-Marxism

Will our addiction to profit destroy the world we live in? The profit motive now exercises an effective tyranny over our lives: in the private as well as the public sector, nowhere seems immune from its reach. International tycoons, economists and politicians are obsessed with economic growth. Yet, as Stuart Sim shows, the pursuit of excessive profit brought the world to the brink of economic chaos in the recent credit crisis and threatens us with environmental disaster as well. Despite this, neoliberalism still sets the agenda for economic policy in the West. Sim suggests various 'act up' strategies so that we might resist becoming slaves to personal gain and, in doing so, he demonstrates that life needn't be all about profit.

Reclaiming Our Lives from the Free Market

Addicted to Profit

This fully revised third edition of The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism provides the ideal introduction to postmodernist thought. Featuring contributions from a cast of international scholars, the Companion contains 19 detailed essays on major themes and topics along with an A-Z of key terms and concepts. As well as revised essays on philosophy, politics, literature, and more, the first section now contains brand new essays on critical theory, business, gender and the performing arts. The concepts section, too, has been enhanced with new topics ranging from hypermedia to global warming. Students interested in any aspect of postmodernism will continue to find this an indispensable resource.

The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism

"Philosopher, critic, literary and political theorist, Marxist scholar and communist party activist, Georg Lukacs is a towering figure in the history of Marxism, but one whose work presents us with special problems in the late twentieth century. Although recognised as one of the founders of what has become known as 'Western Marxism', Lukacs was associated for much of his life with the more doctrinaire, and nowadays discredited, Eastern European Marxist tradition. Lukacs was also to the end of his career a staunch defender of 'realism' in aesthetic matters and a bitter critic of modernism who attacked such modernist icons as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka and Bertolt Brecht for their ideological failings." "While the commitment to realism can make Lukacs seem old-fashioned the advent of postmodernism and its radical problematisation of modernist aesthetics has led to a revival of interest in Lukacs' work. Lukacs has become a test case as to whether anything can be saved from Marxism as a political force. Written from the standpoint of a post-Marxist, postmodernist culture, this study positions Lukacs' theoretical writings with respect to recent debates in Marxism and postmodernism in order to establish his lasting importance as a theorist. There are chapters on Lukacs' major works on realism (The Historical Novel, Studies in European Realism, and The Meaning of Contemporary Realism, for example), as well as on Lukacs' contributions to Marxist philosophy and political theory. The Brecht-Lukacs debate is considered beside Lukacs' critical legacy."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Georg Lukacs

Georg Lukács

Challenges all forms of fundamentalism and unexamined belief systems from a philosophical and sceptical viewpoint. Is unquestioning belief making a global comeback? The growth of religious fundamentalism seems to suggest so. For the sceptically minded, this is a deeply worrying trend, not just confined to religion. Political, economic, and scientific theories can demand the same unquestioning obedience from the general public. Stuart Sim outlines the history of scepticism in both the Western and Islamic cultural traditions, and from the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Setting out what a sceptical politics might be like, Empires of Belief argues that we need less belief and more doubt: an engaged scepticism to replace the pervasive dogmatism that threatens our democracies.

Why We Need More Scepticism and Doubt in the Twenty-First Century

Empires of Belief

Global financial crisis, global environmental crisis--what connects them? Stuart Sim claims they are both symptoms of the end of modernity, the cultural system that has prevailed in the West from the Enlightenment onwards.In this provocative book, Sim argues that the modern world's insatiable need for technologically-driven economic progress is unsustainable, and potentially destructive of the planet and its socio-economic systems. The new landscape this creates--socially, politically, economically, intellectually--is explored through an interdisciplinary approach, providing a wide-ranging assessment of the collapse of modernity and the challenges it poses us. Sim calls for a radical alteration in our world view and for purposeful changes both to our economic and intellectual life: we need to jettison the free market, rein in conspicuous consumption, reinvigorate public service, and develop talents other than the entrepreneurial if we are to reconstruct our society satisfactorily.

What the Financial and Environmental Crisis is Really Telling Us

End of Modernity

Confrontations with Poststructuralism and Postmodernism

Beyond Aesthetics

The A-Z Guide to Modern Literary and Cultural Theorists

Hurling our financial markets through tempests of speculation, driving our businesses into practices of simultaneous austerity (for those on the bottom) and lavish expenditure (for those on the top), and flying high as a banner for outspoken bankers, brokers, and politicians alike has been a prevailing ethos: greed is good. In this book, Stuart Sim calls for an end to this madness, exposing the massively damaging effects that greed has had on both public and private life and showing how the actions of a socially irresponsible “greedocracy” have systematically undermined our democratic institutions. Ranging across politics, economic theory, finance, healthcare, the food industry, sports, religion, and the arts, Sim demonstrates how deeply embedded the greed imperative is in human psychology. As he shows, all of us as individuals are capable of greed—usually in small and insignificant ways—but some embrace it to the extreme, and moreover it has thrived as a powerful force in our wider culture and institutions, asserting itself everywhere we go. The food industry encourages us to overeat. The medical industry has increasingly been driven by profits rather than well-being. Corporations hypocritically claim fiscal responsibility, driving down workers’ wages while paying executives—even those who drive the business into the ground—record sums. Looking at larger phenomena such as the increasing wealth gap and exponential population growth, Sim also proffers various ways we can deal with greed in our day-to-day lives. And as he shows, we must deal with it. Insatiable is a wakeup call to recognize the horrible effects that greed is having on our relationships, institutions, cultures, environment—even on our own bodies—and that we must resist it wherever we can.

The Rise and Rise of the Greedocracy

Insatiable

In what is both a critique and a manifesto for cultural change, Stuart Sim explains what we could be doing to cure our addiction to profit, why we ought to be doing it, and how to set about achieving it. Life needn't all be about profit.

This book makes an urgent demand for silence. The ability to think, to reflect, and to create are all highly dependent on regular access to silence. Yet in today's noisy, 24/7 society silence and quiet are under threat. And the business world only makes this worse with cynical marketing strategies abusing the power of noise: ever-diminishing oases of calm are hard to find. Stuart Sim argues that we need more, not less, silence. He explains why silence matters, where it matters--in our environment, in religion, philosophy, the arts, literature and science - and why the human race will suffer if we do not make space for it. The confrontation between the politics of noise and the politics of silence affects all of us profoundly: we cannot stay neutral on this issue.

Stuart Sim

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