Andre Gorz and the Sartrean Legacy - (Arguments for a Person-Centered Social Theory) by Finn Bowring (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive and scholarly exploration of the personal and philosophical origins of André Gorz's work, this book includes a unique analysis of his early untranslated texts, as well as critical discussion of his relationship to the work of Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Marx and Habermas. Reassessing pivotal notions such as the 'lifeworld' and the 'subject', it argues that Gorz has pioneered a person-centred social theory in which the motive and meaning of social critique is firmly rooted in people's lived experience.

Review Quotes

'With this fine study, Andre Gorz finally receives the comprehensive treatment in English that he has long deserved. Bowring is as informative and sensitive when dealing with Gorz's intellectual formation and reworking of Sartrean philosophy, as he is in his exploration of Gorz's contribution to social theory. This work will be very valuable to those in the academy who have felt the lack of a serious engagement with Gorz's unique synthesis of existentialism and political ecology. It should also greatly help to enhance the appreciation among English speakers of Gorz's powerful, and ever more relevant, argument on work, time-expenditure and human fulfilment'. - Kate Soper, Professor of Philosophy, University of North London

'Andre Gorz is an important, radical and challenging thinker. We are lucky to have such a fine study as Finn Bowring's to explain the range of Gorz's work and to place it so convincingly within the perspective of the legacy of Jean Paul Sartre'. - Robin Blackburn, Editor, New Left Review

'Finn Bowring engagingly explores the fateful encounter between Andrew Gorz and Jean-Paul Sartre. Presenting for the first time in English an extensive overview of Gorz's life and work, Bowring demonstrates the vital Sartrean legacy in Gorz's writings and politics'. - Douglas Kellner, Professor, Department of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin

About the Author

Finn Bowring is Simon Marks Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.