Force and Understanding - by Howard Caygill (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For the past thirty years, Howard Caygill has been a distinctive and radical voice in continental philosophy. For the first time, this volume gathers together Caygill's most significant philosophical essays, the majority of which are not freely available and many of which are previously unpublished.

Here, a major philosopher is at work, offering rich, rigorous and politically-engaged readings of canonical and lesser-known figures and texts. From Kant and Frantz Fanon to Herman Kahn, founder of the Hudson Institute, Caygill uncovers the untapped resources that the history of philosophy provides for contemporary thought, whilst critically pushing beyond the limits of the tradition.

Divided into two parts, the first part of the collection reveals the philosophical backdrop to Caygill's acclaimed study of political resistance, On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance (2015), whilst the second part sees Caygill further develop his account of resistance through wide-ranging analyses of contemporary culture. Exploring numerous subjects, including Nietzsche, metaphysics, radical politics, and digital resistance, to name but a few, Force and Understanding introduces readers to the orienting themes of Caygill's thought and provides the opportunity to engage with one of the most astute, learned, and critical philosophical minds around.

Review Quotes

Caygill is one of our foremost practitioners of the past, present and future philosophical difficulties of Kant's [so-called] Copernican revolution. This collection essays the life force of understanding, resisting both metaphysics and the death of metaphysics with a non-resentful joyous living in the turmoil of the loss of the 'object in-itself'.
Nigel Tubbs, Professor of Philosophical and Educational Thought, University of Winchester, UK

For the past three decades Howard Caygill has been one of the two or three leading practitioners and exponents of European philosophy in the UK. This remarkable collection of selected essays is an intellectual event in itself, demonstrating Caygill's remarkable range, depth and unique form of critical engagement. Of especial note are the five exquisite essays on Nietzsche, the parallel essays on life and the life sciences, and the defiant series of essays that anticipate and complement Caygill's resistance trilogy. And then there is the beautiful, moving, and great demystifying opening essay on Gillian Rose.
J. M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, USA

Ringing true and brilliant and crystal clear, Force and Understandingconfirms what we have long thought and have yet to say: Howard Caygill is to be counted among the great thinkers of our time.
George Smith, Edgar E. Coons, Jr. Professor of New Philosophy and Founder and President of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, USA

About the Author

Howard Caygill is Professor of Modern European Philosophy at CRMEP, Kingston University, London, UK. He is author of On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance (Bloomsbury, 2013) and Kafka: In Light of the Accident (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Stephen Howard is a Postdoctoral Fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium.