ABSTRACT

Formulating a new approach to philosophy which, instead of simply rejecting postmodern thought, tries to assimilate some of its main features, Paul Crowther identifies conceptual links between value, knowledge, personal identity and civilization understood as a process of cumulative advance.
To establish these links, Crowther deploys a mode of analytic philosophy influenced by Cassirer. This approach recontextualizes precisely those aspects of postmodernism which appear, superficially, to be fuel for the relativist fire. This method also enables him to illuminate some of the great practical dangers of the postmodern era - most notably the widespread inability or unwillingness to distinguish between signs and reality. Crowther renews analytic philosophy as a searching form of conceptual and cultural critique that pushes beyond the limits of postmodern thought.
Essential reading for advanced students and academics interested in Twentieth Century Philosophy, Philosophy After Postmodernism will also be of value to scholars working in the fields of Cultural Studies and Sociology.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

Postmodernity, perspectivalism and supermodernism

part |2 pages

Part I Civilization, postmodernity and philosophy

chapter 2|17 pages

From civilization to postmodernity

A context for refoundational philosophy

part |2 pages

Part II Questions of knowledge

chapter 3|17 pages

Refoundational knowledge

Cassirer’s epistemology

chapter 4|12 pages

Imagination and objective knowledge

chapter 5|23 pages

The cohesion of the self

Moment, image and narrative

chapter 6|22 pages

The limits of objective knowledge

What mind-independent reality must be

part |2 pages

Part III Questions of ethics

chapter 7|10 pages

Narrative and self-consciousness

A basis for virtue ethics

chapter 8|12 pages

Attacks upon civilization

Some ethical and metaphysical issues

part |2 pages

Part IV Critique

chapter 9|13 pages

Against epistemological nihilism: contra Derrida, contra

Contra Derrida, contra Welsch

chapter 10|11 pages

From rock music to deep signification

Lacan with ¯i¿ek

chapter 11|12 pages

Sociological imperialism and the field of cultural production

A critique of Bourdieu