Adventures in Transcendental Materialism - (Speculative Realism) by Adrian Johnston (Paperback)

About the Book

Critically engaging with thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Catherine Malabou, Jean-Claude Milner, Martin Hagglund, William Connolly and Jane Bennett, Johnston formulates a materialist and naturalist account of subjectivity that does full justice to human beings as irreducible to natural matter alone.

Book Synopsis

Adrian Johnston's transcendental materialism offers a new theoretical approach to the issues of science vs religion and mind vs body. Arming himself with resources provided by German idealism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, the life sciences and contemporary philosophical developments, Johnston formulates an account of subjectivity that, although being both materialist and naturalist, does full justice to human beings as irreducible to natural matter alone. At the same time he argues against relapses into idealisms, dualisms and spiritualisms. 'Adventures in Transcendental Materialism' elaborates Johnston's position through critical engagements with some of today's most important thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Catherine Malabou, Jean-Claude Milner, Martin Hagglund, William Connolly and Jane Bennett.

From the Back Cover

'Adrian Johnston passionately defends the tenets of what materialism should be for our times. His new book is as sweeping, engaged, erudite and lucid as his previous extensive attempts, bringing his project of transcendental materialism to a new degree of clarity, passionately defending it against a wide range of opponents, and in the best tradition of materialism, polemically engaging with friends.' Mladen Dolar, Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana 'Adrian Johnston strikes again. This new book is a most comprehensive and rigorous account of the contemporary philosophical debates concerning materialism and the necessity of its conceptual reinvention. In arguing his own original conceptual line, Johnston addresses most of the critical points in the contemporary materialism debate. And he does so with breath-taking ease, strolling among various key philosophical projects. This excellent book is a delightful must for everybody concerned with materialism and related matters.' Alenka Zupančič, Institute of Philosophy, Slovene Academy of Sciences A new materialist theory of subjectivity mobilizing philosophy, psychoanalysis, politics, and science Since the early seventeenth century of Bacon, Gallileo, and Descartes, the relations between science and religion as well as mind and body have remained volatile fault lines of conflict. The controversies surrounding these relations are as alive and pressing now as at any point over the course of the past four centuries. Adrian Johnston's transcendental materialism offers a new theoretical approach to these issues. Arming himself with resources provided by German idealism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, the life sciences, and contemporary philosophical developments, Johnston formulates an account of subjectivity that, although being both materialist and naturalist, does full justice to human beings as irreducible to natural matter alone. At the same time he argues against relapses into idealisms, dualisms, and spiritualisms. Adventures in Transcendental Materialism elaborates Johnston's position through critical engagements with some of today's most important thinkers, including: Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Catherine Malabou, Jean-Claude Milner, Martin Hägglund, William Connolly, and Jane Bennett. Adrian Johnston is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico and a faculty member at the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute. Cover image: Russian stamp, 1962 (c) mikhail pogosov/iStockphoto.com. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com

Review Quotes

Adrian Johnston passionately defends the tenets of what materialism should be for our times. His new book is as sweeping, engaged, erudite and lucid as his previous extensive attempts, bringing his project of transcendental materialism to a new degree of clarity, passionately defending it against a wide range of opponents, and in the best tradition of materialism, polemically engaging with friends-- "Mladen Dolar, Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana"

Adrian Johnston strikes again. This new book is a most comprehensive and rigorous account of the contemporary philosophical debates concerning materialism and the necessity of its conceptual reinvention. In arguing his own original conceptual line, Johnston addresses most of the critical points in the contemporary materialism debate. And he does so with breathtaking ease, strolling among various key philosophical projects. This excellent book is a delightful must for everybody concerned with materialism and related matters.-- "Alenka Zupančič, Institute of Philosophy, Slovene Academy of Sciences"

About the Author

Adrian Johnston is Distinguished Professor and Chair at the Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. He is the author of Time Driven (2005), Zizek's Ontology (2008), Badiou, Zizek, and Political Transformations (2009), and Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, Volume One (2013), all published by Northwestern University Press. He is the co-author, with Catherine Malabou, of Self and Emotional Life (Columbia University Press, 2013).