Speculation
E-book – $34.95
ISBN 978-0-8101-3937-4Cloth Text – $99.95
ISBN 978-0-8101-3936-7Paper Text – $34.95
ISBN 978-0-8101-3935-0Contributors
Publication Date
March 2019
Series
Categories
Page Count
224 pages
Trim Size
6 x 9
ISBN
0-8101-3935-9
Speculation
Politics, Ideology, Event
Speculation: Politics, Ideology, Event develops Hegel’s radical perspective of speculative thought as a way of reclaiming and revitalizing the sense of the future and its possibilities. Engaging with such figures as Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, Ernesto Laclau, Slavoj Zizek, and Fredric Jameson, Glyn Daly articulates the distinctness of speculative philosophy and draws its implications for new debates in areas of science, politics, capitalism, ideology, ethics, and the event.
In a confrontation with today’s fatalistic milieu, principal emphasis is given to Hegel’s idea of infinity as the intrinsic dimension of negativity within all finitude. Against the modern era’s paradigmatic tendency to externalize social problems in the form of antagonism and Otherness, Daly argues for a renewal of utopian thought based on Hegelian reconciliation and the affirmation of excess as the essence of all being. On these grounds, he advances a new kind of political imagination that in speculative terms centers on uncompromising notions of truth and reason.
In a confrontation with today’s fatalistic milieu, principal emphasis is given to Hegel’s idea of infinity as the intrinsic dimension of negativity within all finitude. Against the modern era’s paradigmatic tendency to externalize social problems in the form of antagonism and Otherness, Daly argues for a renewal of utopian thought based on Hegelian reconciliation and the affirmation of excess as the essence of all being. On these grounds, he advances a new kind of political imagination that in speculative terms centers on uncompromising notions of truth and reason.
Reviews
"Just as Hegel distinguishes endless infinity from true infinity, Glyn Daly distinguishes pragmatic speculation under the aegis of finance capitalism from philosophical speculation oriented toward the truth of events. In this precise sense, his brilliant new book isn’t highly speculative; it's a speculative high." —Andrew Cutrofello, author of All for Nothing: Hamlet's Negativity
"While Daly clearly aims to make a scholarly case for speculative reason and its value as a critical approach, his development of examples from popular culture throughout the book (including The Hunger Games, Star Wars, Maze Runner, and Borat, to name but a few) make his arguments more accessible to a broad audience than would be expected in a monograph of this kind. Highly recommended." —Choice
“Daly’s book stuns with its complexity, but its elegance lies in the simplicity of the speculative. . . . Dazzling.” —Sergio Valverde, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books