Critique Of Rationality

John Eustice O'Brien, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1971), formerly Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies, Portland State University, Oregon, now independent researcher in Paris, recently published, Critical Practice from Voltaire to Foucault (Haymarket, 2015) and two articles on the Global Political Economy in Critical Sociology (2015 & 2016).

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of FiguresPART I: WHAT CRISIS OF RATIONALITY?Socrates, Make Music...1. OverviewInstitutional ChallengeSocial Restructuring of JudgmentAnother Epistemology?Political Aesthetics after Marx2. Meaning As Critical for Social SciencesThe Origin of MeaningPhenomenologyMerleau-Ponty’s Apperceptive ProjectPréobjectivity: A Better Ambiguity?Theoretical Voices on Deep StructureMarx Critique3. Isaiah Berlin’s Romantic UncertaintyWestern Rationality’s Limits?Children of Two WorldsRomantic UndefinabilityBeyond EnlightenmentPre-Romantic GoodFrom Hume to the Germans?Romanticism’s ParentsRomanticism RestrainedKant’s ReservesSchiller’s Tragic RomanticismFichte’s Freedom As NecessityRomanticism UnleashedThe French Revolution and GoetheAgainst Old Fashioned Virtue?Subjective—Objective Reversal?Romanticism’s Politics4. Walter Benjamin’s Aesthetic CritiqueBenjamin’s Doctoral TrialWhat Does the Figure, Aesthetic-Critique, Intend?Pure Language or Creative Expression?Historical-Materialism or Historical-Idealism?Lost In The Paris ArcadesOn CritiqueHegel and HistoryBenjamin’s Leap into BeingWhat Is Mental Reflection?What Is a History of Problematics?Knowledge of NatureConnaissance EsthetiquePolitical EstheticsBenjamin’s Translator EmergesImmanent CritiqueThree Principles of JudgmentProductivity of Bad ArtUnprincipled ObjectivityWere the Early Romantics Misread?Irony of Ironies: There Are TwoThe Paradox of IronyFrom Disqualified Illusion to Potent FetishBetween the Seams with IronyCritical Eschatology?On the Impossibility of Ironic SuicideThere Is Form and There is Form...The Idea of Art, ThenUnity and DiversityDetermined IdeaTranscendental LeverageSymbolic Form as Fact and MannerNovel Supremacy as Romantic PoetryThe Intention of ProseRomanticism as Cultural FigureProsaic Appreciation Outmaneuvers Bourgeois BeautyEach Critic for HerselfClosing on Isaiah BerlinClosing on Walter BenjaminRevolutionary PossibilitiesWhat’s To Be Done?PART-II PHENOMENAL APPERCEPTION5. The Crisis Of Western RationalityExistence as Fine Art?Introducing Merleau-Ponty6. Phenomenology of PerceptionNot SartreWhat is Phenomenology?What is Perception?PréobjectivityHistorical Materialism of Social BeingExistential Conception of HistoryDialectics from the Greeks to MarxTemporalityPolitical AestheticsFreedom7. Merleau-Ponty’s SociologyAnthropology and PsychoanalyticsOn HusserlAppreciation before ComprehensionHusserl’s CrisisHistorical Relativism as Anthropological FactPhilosophy and SociologyHistorical ConsciousnessBeing Expressed as Phenomenological Method8. Merleau-Ponty Shadow’s HusserlHusserl’s Intellectualist PhenomenologyMerleau-Ponty’s Engaged PhenomenologyIn the Wake of the NegativeIntersubjective Flash of MeaningMobius Ribbon of BeingIntentionality and Constitution9. Aesthetic ConsciousnessOverviewSummarizing Merleau-PontyPréobjective PrecocityConsciousness and Bodily-BeingConsciousness as Active Presence10. Closing Issues: Consciousness over Mind?Remaining QuestionsAuto-CritiqueMeaning: The Material of HistoryRational Analytics of BrainConsciousness Is More Than What You ThinkAn Appeal to Social-PhilosophyConsciousness vs Conscious-AccessThe Risk of Systemic ExuberanceIntuition and Public ChoiceSocial CognitionThe Elusive Seat of ConsciousnessSummarizing Our Bi StudiesPolitical Aesthetics: Consciousness and SocietyClosingBibliographyIndex