Spinoza's critique of religion and its heirs : Marx, Benjamin, Adorno / Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Vanderbilt University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dobbs-Weinstein, Idit, 1950- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spinoza, Benedictus de, 1632-1677.

Spinoza, Benedictus de.

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.

Marx, Karl.

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.

Benjamin, Walter.

Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969.

Adorno, Theodor W.

Religion--Philosophy.

Religion.

History--Philosophy.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 275 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Spinoza's Critique of Religion & its Heirs

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Spinoza's heritage has been occluded by his incorporation into the single, western, philosophical canon formed and enforced by theologico-political condemnation, and his heritage is further occluded by controversies whose secular garb shields their religious origins. By situating Spinoza's thought in a materialist Aristotelian tradition, this book sheds new light on those who inherit Spinoza's thought and its consequences materially and historically rather than metaphysically. By focusing on Marx, Benjamin, and Adorno, Idit Dobbs-Weinstein explores the manner in which Spinoza's radical critique of religion shapes materialist critiques of the philosophy of history. Dobbs-Weinstein argues that two radically opposed notions of temporality and history are at stake for these thinkers, an onto-theological future-oriented one and a political one oriented to the past for the sake of the present or, more precisely, for the sake of actively resisting the persistent barbarism at the heart of culture.

Contents:

Cover; Half title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface; Introduction; I. Whose History, Which Politics?; II. What or How Is Critical Theory?; III. Whose Theory, Which Dialectics? Historical Materialist Critique of Historicism; 1 The Theologico-Political Construction of the Philosophical Tradition; Preface: Whose Anxiety? Or the Return of the Repressed; Part I. The Enigma of Spinoza; I. A Clash of Traditions; II. Kant and Hegel: Precursors to Bruno Bauer; a. Kant; b. Hegel

Part II. Toward a Materialist History: Negative Dialectics as a Radical, Secular, or Jewish Species of Negative TheologyI. A Detour into History: The Hyphen; II. Adorno: Negative Dialectics as Inoculation against Idolatry; 2 The Paradox of a Perfect Democracy: From Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise to Marx; Preface: An Occlusion in Open Sight; Part I; a. An Excursus with Althusser; b. Revisiting Historical Materialism: Dialectics before Hegel, or The Concept "Dog" Does Not Bark; c. Homage to a Dead Dog - The Three Notebooks; Part II; a. The Commonwealth; b. The Hebrew Commonwealth

Part IIIa. From Marx's TTP to the Critique of Religion and the "Jewish Question"; b. From Marx's TTP to Hegel's Philosophy of Right; Afterword with Althusser; 3 Judgment Day as Repudiation: History and Justice in Marx, Benjamin, and Adorno; Introduction: The Ambiguous Matter of Historical Materialism - Metaphysics or Politics; Part I. Undoing the Fate of Dialectic of Enlightenment; Part II. The Abyss between Political Justice and Theological Judgment Day; Theory and Practice I: First Discussion; Theory and Practice II: Against Resignation

4 Destitute Life and the Overcoming of Idolatry: Dialectical Image, Archaic Fetish in Benjamin's and Adorno's ConversationIntroduction; Brief Excursus: Habent Sua Fata Auctores; Part I. Dialectical Image; Part II. Myth, Allegory, Philology, and History; Postscript; 5 Untimely Timeliness: Historical Reversals, the Possibility of Experience, and Critical Praxis; A Historical Materialist Apologia: Aristotle or Augustine; Part I. History as Catastrophe; I. Against the Grain of History; II. Benjamin on Redemption as Violence; Part II. The Possibility of Experience

I. Concrete Experience as the Capacity to Experience a ThreatII. The Debt to Surrealism: Experience as Shock; III. Experience as Catastrophe: Philosophy of New Music as Excursus to Dialectic of Enlightenment; Brief Excursus; IV. The Possibility of Experience: Praxis and Politics after Auschwitz; Afterword: The Possibility of Political Philosophy Now; Brief Historical Correction; The Tension between Secular Democracy and Religion; A Lesson from Recent History and Current Politics; Against Utopia; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-28985-0

1-316-31049-3

1-316-32387-0

1-107-47759-X

1-316-33055-9

1-316-33389-2

1-316-32721-3

1-316-15124-7

1-316-32051-0