Critical Environments Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the “Outside”

Critical Environments

Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the “Outside”

1998

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Author: 

Cary Wolfe

 Content

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Nothing Fails like Success: The Postmodern Moment and the Problem of the “Outside”

1 Pragmatism: Rorty, Cavell, and Others
The Island of Belief: Walter Benn Michaels and the Uses of William James
Making Contingency Safe for Liberalism: Richard Rorty’s Evasion of Philosophy
Coming to Terms: Stanley Cavell and the Ethics of Skepticism
2 Systems Theory: Maturana and Varela with Luhmann
Feminist Philosophy of Science and the Detour of “Objectivity”
When Loops Turn Strange: From First- to Second-Order Cybernetics
Between the Scylla of Realism and the Charybdis of Idealism: Autopoiesis and Beyond
Necessary Blind Spots: Niklas Luhmann and the Observation of Observation
Politics, Ethics, and Systems Theory
3 Poststructuralism: Foucault with Deleuze
Rorty and Foucault
A Pragmatics of the Multiple: Foucault with Deleuze
Folded but Not Twisted: Deleuze and Systems Theory

Conclusion: Post-Marxism, Critical Politics, and the Environment of Theory

Notes

Index