Political Physics: Deleuze, Derrida, and the Body Politic (Transversals) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: hylomorphic production, somatic body politic, ethical body politic, Science of Logic, Plato's Sophist, Given Time (more...)

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Product Description

Political Physics crosses the work of two of the most influential thinkers at the start of the 21st Century, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. The book takes the reader on a transversal journey - employing Derridean analysis of the history of philosophy, Deleuzian creative dialogue and complexity theory - to cross the boundaries of philosophy and science.

Political Physics opens with Derridean readings of the 'forceful body politic' in Husserl, Hegel, 'the gift of life', and AIDS. Here, Derrida's concern with metaphysics is developed alongside Deleuze's critique of 'hylomorphism' - the doctrine that production is the imposition of order on chaos. The second part of the book presents Derridean readings for the Deleuzian concept of the 'organ-ized body politic' in Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger and Kant. Political Physics opens a new future for philosophy by revealing the way complexity theory shows the order and creativty inherent in matter itself.

From the Inside Flap

"A careful and far-reaching negotiation between the political substance and futures of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze (with Felix Guattari). Executed through a series of tour de force readings of the Western tradition, this negotiation opens up the radical need for continental philosophy to engage in the sciences for it to carry consistent ethico-political force." Richard Beardsworth

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Athlone Press (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0485006197
• ISBN-13: 978-0485006193
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,240,737 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Imminent Critique, May 9, 2008

By	bachelormachine (slc, ut) - See all my reviews

Though openly dependent on Massumi, Protevi is a far clearer writer - which matters greatly when the entire point of their project is to determine, finally and with all hip buzz phrases aside, what these boys, and in particular Deleuze, are actually saying.

Problem is Political Physics displays competence without constituting an actual performance. For all the obligatory squawking and flapping, Protevi lays no egg, and certainly not a golden one. This book, written by a purported philosopher of the event, does not begin to approach the status of an event in itself. Protevi can point out the limits of Derrida, or display what is most retrograde in Heidegger. But at no point does his thinking, immaculate or not (and I don't believe it is), ever evince a genuine sense of adventure or break through to insights of the sort achieved by those geniuses he takes to task. One can read Protevi only to agree or disagree, never to grow.

In short, Political Physics, though it champions positive creativity, itself remains trapped within the modality of Kantian critique. In fact, Protevi is at his very best when he stops critiquing Kant's architectonic and admits the degree to which aesthetic and political material experimentation are dear to the heart of that generally misconstrued philosopher. Best passage in the book: "Far from the dry and empty formalism generations of scholars have foisted upon him, Kant's ethics teaches us that each one of us is morally obligated to struggle to lessen the conditions that might tempt any of us to reverse the proper order of incentives. Merely condemning the succumbing to temptation is empty moralizing."

As for Protevi's promised treatment of Deleuze's account of self-organizing matter, he scarcely discusses the subject but simply announces it repeatedly. If Deleuze were still alive, one would be tempted to call Protevi's "reading" of him empty flattery.