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A Question of Style

Jean-Jacques Lecercle

in Badiou and Deleuze Read Literature

This chapter examines the philosophical styles of Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze. It suggests that although Badiou and Deleuze share a passionate, all-pervasive and persistent interest in literary ... More

This chapter examines the philosophical styles of Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze. It suggests that although Badiou and Deleuze share a passionate, all-pervasive and persistent interest in literary texts, this is not necessarily relevant to a confrontation of their philosophical styles. The chapter analyses Badiou's conception of passion for literature in his book The Century, and highlights Badiou and Deleuze's shared belief that there is no philosophy which is not intimately linked to art in general and the art of language in particular. Deleuze believed that literature is one of the practices which forces us to think, while Badiou considered it to be one of the conditions for philosophy.Less

Philosophical Style

Donald Phillip Verene

in The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy

This chapter shows the importance of style in works of speculative philosophy. The philosopher shares with the poet the importance of style in the sense of how meaning is put into language. Style is ... More

This chapter shows the importance of style in works of speculative philosophy. The philosopher shares with the poet the importance of style in the sense of how meaning is put into language. Style is the third principle of composition, well known since Quintilian and Cicero: inventio (the amassing of materials), dispositio (their arrangement), and elocutio (their formulation in language). For the poet, nothing can be wasted. Each and every syllable is given a necessary role; every level of a metaphor is present; every connection of words is precise and simple. The poem, when good, is always something beyond itself. It is never what it seems.Less

Badiou Reads Mallarmé

Jean-Jacques Lecercle

in Badiou and Deleuze Read Literature

This chapter examines Alain Badiou's reading of the works of Stéphane Mallarmé. It explains that in the very first pages of Logic of Worlds, Badiou called Mallarmé his master and claimed that his ... More

This chapter examines Alain Badiou's reading of the works of Stéphane Mallarmé. It explains that in the very first pages of Logic of Worlds, Badiou called Mallarmé his master and claimed that his first philosophical proposition was formulated in Mallarmean style. The chapter discusses the reasons behind Badiou's interest in Mallarmé and evaluates Mallarmé's influence on the philosophical style of Badiou.Less

Catastrophizing: A Beginner’s Guide

Gerard Passannante

in Catastrophizing: Materialism and the Making of Disaster

The introduction defines and reflects on the concept of “catastrophizing” and argues for its value in rethinking the history of materialism in the early modern period.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Russell B. Goodman

in American Philosophy before Pragmatism

Emerson was a Romantic philosopher/poet who achieved fame in his own time and influenced philosophers as diverse as Friedrich Nietzsche, John Dewey, and Stanley Cavell. This chapter begins with a ... More

Emerson was a Romantic philosopher/poet who achieved fame in his own time and influenced philosophers as diverse as Friedrich Nietzsche, John Dewey, and Stanley Cavell. This chapter begins with a survey of some of the early intellectual influences on Emerson: Unitarian Christianity, Plato and Neoplatonism, Kant, Madame de Staël, Hume and Montaigne, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The discussion then turns to Concord in the 1830s: Emerson’s encounters with Margaret Fuller, Frederic Henry Hedge, and Bronson Alcott; his first book, Nature (1836); and his radical addresses, “The American Scholar” and “The Divinity School Address.” Emerson develops his mature philosophy in his essays of the 1840s and 1850s, discussed here under the following headings: Emerson’s philosophical style, self-reliance, friendship, temporality, one and many, power, fate, race, and slavery.Less