Of Jews and Animals - Benjamin, Andrew

Résumé :
The Frontiers of Theory Series Editor: Martin McQuillan This series brings together internationally respected figures to comment on and re-describe the state of theory in the twenty-first century. It takes stock of an ever-expanding field of knowledge and opens up possible new modes of inquiry within it, identifying new theoretical pathways, innovative thinking and productive motifs. Of Jews and Animals Andrew Benjamin A philosophical concern with animals has played a central role within contemporary philosophical discussions since Peter Singer's work in the 1980s. However, recently within the area of Continental Philosophy the question of the animal has become an important area of academic inquiry. In addition, work on the figure of the Jew has for years been an area of scholarly investigation. By developing his own conception of the 'figure' Andrew Benjamin has written an innovative and provocative study of the complex relationship between philosophy, the history of painting and their presentation of both Jews and animals. As Benjamin makes clear the 'Other' is never abstract. He underscores the means by which the ethical imperative, arising from the way the history of philosophy and the history of art are constructed, shows us how to respond to an already identified, even if unacknowledged, determinant other. Andrew Benjamin is Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics and Director of the Research Unit in European Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. His most recent books are Writing Art and Architecture (re:press Books, 2009) and Style and Time: Essays on the Politics of Appearance (Northwestern University Press, 2006).

Biographie:

Andrew Benjamin is Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Monash University where he is a member of both the Department of Philosophy and the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. He also holds the positions of Distinguished Anniversary Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Kingston University in London and Distinguished Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Technology Sydney.

Sommaire:
Opening; 1. Of Jews and Animals; Part 1; 2. Living and Being: Descartes' 'Animal Spirits' and Heidegger's Dog; 3. The Insistent Dog: Blanchot and the Community without Animals; 4. Indefinite Play and the 'Name of Man': Anthropocentrism's Deconstruction; Part 2; 5. What if the other were an animal? Hegel on Jews, Animals and Disease; 6. Agamben on 'Jews' and 'Animals'; 7. Force, Justice and Jews: Pascal's Pens?es 102 and 103; 8. Facing Jews; Another Opening; 9. Animals Jews.

Critique:
Andrew Benjamin has written an original and provocative meditation on the place of the 'figure' of the animal in modern philosophy and culture. The book is remarkable for its sensitivity to the issue of visibility and the use of visual material. The engagement with the philosophical history of art is beautifully sustained and serves not only to work through the theme of figuration but also to make the philosophical narrative available to a wider range of readers. -- Howard Caygill, Goldsmith's College A stimulating book which will help those readers who, interested in the work of Agamben and the late Derrida, wish to reflect more on the image of the animal in classical continental philosophy. -- Peter Fenves, Northwestern University Of Jews and Animals is set to become a key text, alongside such works as Elisabeth de Fontenay's Le silence des betes (1998) and Jacques Derrida's The Animal That Therefore I Am (2006), in constituting a further and necessary move beyond the utilitarianism and neo-Kantianism within which 'animal philosophy' has for so long remained mired. -- Richard Iveson, Goldsmiths, University of London Parallax Andrew Benjamin has written an original and provocative meditation on the place of the 'figure' of the animal in modern philosophy and culture. The book is remarkable for its sensitivity to the issue of visibility and the use of visual material. The engagement with the philosophical history of art is beautifully sustained and serves not only to work through the theme of figuration but also to make the philosophical narrative available to a wider range of readers. A stimulating book which will help those readers who, interested in the work of Agamben and the late Derrida, wish to reflect more on the image of the animal in classical continental philosophy. Of Jews and Animals is set to become a key text, alongside such works as Elisabeth de Fontenay's Le silence des betes (1998) and Jacques Derrida's The Animal That Therefore I Am (2006), in constituting a further and necessary move beyond the utilitarianism and neo-Kantianism within which 'animal philosophy' has for so long remained mired.
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