Egalitarian Moments: From Descartes to Ranciere

Description

Jacques Ranciere's work has challenged many of the assumptions of contemporary continental philosophy by placing equality at the forefront of emancipatory political thought and aesthetics. Drawing on the claim that egalitarian politics persistently appropriates elements from political philosophy to engage new forms of dissensus, Devin Zane Shaw argues that Ranciere's work also provides an opportunity to reconsider modern philosophy and aesthetics in light of the question of equality. In Part I, Shaw examines Ranciere's philosophical debts to the 'good sense' of Cartesian egalitarianism and the existentialist critique of identity. In Part II, he outlines Ranciere's critical analyses of Walter Benjamin and Clement Greenberg and offers a reinterpretation of Ranciere's debate with Alain Badiou in light of the philosophical differences between Schiller and Schelling. From engaging debates about political subjectivity from Descartes to Sartre, to delineating the egalitarian stakes in aesthetics and the philosophy of art from Schiller to Badiou, this book presents a concise tour through a series of egalitarian moments found within the histories of modern philosophy and aesthetics.

Devin Zane Shaw teaches philosophy at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. He is author of Freedom and Nature in Schelling's Philosophy of Art (Bloomsbury, 2010) and is co-editor of, and contributor to, "Theory Mad Beyond Redemption": The Post-Kantian Poe, a special edition of the Edgar Allan Poe Review (2012).

The book speaks to an urgent, incomplete task of contemporary philosophy: to be done with its decades-long tradition of scholastic, ritual self-flagellation and get on with the business of thinking the emancipatory transformation of the world. Shaw's contribution to this task is impressive, erudite, and takes a path less traveled. -- Matthew R. McLennan, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, Saint Paul University, Canada * Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy * Egalitarian Moments is a work that deserves careful attention from those interested in putting Ranciere's thought to productive use-to doing things with Ranciere-as well as those interested in egalitarian politics more generally. -- Matthew Lampert, New School for Social Research, USA * Comparative and Continental Philosophy * Shaw's work provides an important contribution to Rancierian scholarship and continental philosophy alike; his discussion of less well known secondary material in the history of philosophy is brilliantly used to advance his position. * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *