The Life of Form

Paolo Heywood is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, UK. He is the author of two monographs (After Difference, 2018; Burying Mussolini, 2024) and the editor or co-editor of three edited volumes (Beyond Description, 2023; New Anthropologies of Italy, 2024; Freedoms of Speech, 2024).

• Introduction: forms of progress; Part I. Logic: A Culture of Context: 1. In the background; 2. The gods of context; Part II. Language: Contexts in Question: 3. A gesture to anthropology; 4. A metaphysics of magic; Part III. Life: Contextual Aporetics: 5. Life without form; 6. Anthropology after Wittgenstein; Conclusion: The unanalysable facts of life; References; Index.

'In this subtle and perceptive book, Heywood allows Wittgenstein and anthropology to cast light on each other in new and unexpected ways. Erudite and eminently readable, the book provides a clear-headed assessment of the useful - and the less useful - habits of thought left behind in Wittgenstein's wake. The result is a bold diagnosis of the power and the limits of the shift away from form and towards 'life' in philosophy and anthropology.' Matei Candea, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK