Political Categories
Thinking Beyond Concepts
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:15th Mar '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In Political Categories, Michael Marder presents a novel approach to understanding politics through categorial thinking, emphasizing complexity and multiplicity in political discourse.
In Political Categories, Michael Marder introduces a transformative approach to political science and philosophy, termed 'categorial thinking.' This methodology challenges the traditional view of politics as a singular concept, instead presenting it as a diverse family of categories. Marder argues that contemporary political discourse is often dominated by a singular ideology, which oversimplifies complex realities. By recognizing the multiplicity of political ideas, we can better understand the intricate relationships between the state, the people, sovereignty, and power.
Marder's work draws from a rich philosophical tradition, including classical Aristotelian and Kantian thought, as well as phenomenology and modern political theories. He provides readers with a theoretical toolbox that allows for a nuanced interpretation of political phenomena, processes, and institutions. This approach emphasizes that no single category can fully encapsulate the essence of political reality; rather, categories should be viewed as interwoven threads that reflect the complexities of existence.
Through Political Categories, Marder encourages readers to move beyond simplistic ideological frameworks and embrace a more pluralistic understanding of politics. This shift not only opens up new avenues for political analysis but also fosters a deeper appreciation for the diverse and often conflicting views that shape our political landscape. By applying categorial thinking, we can navigate the complexities of political relations and the various senses of political being, ultimately enriching our understanding of the world around us.
Michael Marder's patient and lucid work reminds us how categories and concepts are different, and that a phenomenological approach, allied with Kantian reflection, can help us think about political matters through an expanded and refined understanding of political categories. In a political world where simplistic reductions tend to reign, Marder offers a thoughtful reconsideration of categories as offering greater descriptive power and critical complexity than concepts that suppress the specificity of political phenomena. This is an important book that gives us both the example and the ideal of a political philosophy tasked with understanding the field of conflict in the service of an expansive pluralism. -- Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, University of California, Berkeley
Michael Marder's Political Categories is much more than a book about politics. It takes a step back and looks at the conceptual apparatus we rely on when we talk about politics and engage in it. As such, it is indispensable for everyone who is not only politically active but also wants to know what they are doing when they are politically active. -- Slavoj Žižek, author of Disparities and The Incontinence of the Void
Political Categories proposes nothing less than a new way of thinking about politics and such political ideas and institutions as the state, sovereignty, power, and revolution. The question is how to define what is proper or singular to politics without isolating it from other spheres of human activity and thought. What makes politics politics? In this book, Marder finds a novel way of viewing the meaning of politics and its relation to nonpolitical realities. -- Daniel Innerarity, author of Governance in the New Global Disorder
Political Categories is undoubtedly one of the most interesting books today for a new phenomenological approach to political theory...it sparks the curiosity of the reader. -- Mees van Hulzen, Leipzig University * Phenomenological Reviews *
This is a remarkable book -- one of the most challenging and thought-provoking I have encountered in a very long time and, for this reason alone, richly deserving of attention. -- Nathan J. Jun, Midwestern State University * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
This is perhaps the most original and thought-provoking book of political theory this reviewer has read in years. Scholars in both political philosophy and political science will benefit from it . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *
- Winner of CHOICE, Outstanding Academic Title 200
ISBN: 9780231188685
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
272 pages