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The question "Where do we come from?" has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and artists for generations. This book reorients the question of the matrix as a place where everything comes from (chora, womb, incubator) by recasting it in terms of acts of "matrixial/maternal hospitality" producing space and matter of and for the other. Irina Aristarkhova theorizes such hospitality with the potential to go beyond tolerance in understanding self/other relations. Building on and critically evaluating a wide range of historical and contemporary scholarship, she applies this theoretical framework to the science, technology, and art of ectogenesis (artificial womb, neonatal incubators, and other types of generation outside of the maternal body) and proves the question "Can the machine nurse?" is critical when approaching and understanding the functional capacities and failures of incubating technologies, such as artificial placenta. Aristarkhova concludes with the science and art of male pregnancy, positioning the condition as a question of the hospitable man and newly defined fatherhood and its challenge to the conception of masculinity as unable to welcome the other.

"Wars of national secession and ethnic cleansing have disfigured recent years. These conflicts stem from claims that the same territory is occupied by separate 'peoples' for whom separate political arrangements should be made. Such claims are based on their supposedly distinct racial, ethnic, cultural or national identities. What, though, do such identities really amount to and what ought to be their role in determining the configuration and character of states? This has become a key concern of contemporary political philosophy and this book introduces readers to the materials required to address it." "This is the first comprehensive survey of a highly topical issue and its multidisciplinary approach will make it of relevance to courses in philosophy, politics, sociology and cultural studies, as well as of interest to the general reader."--Jacket

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748610914);Wars of national secession and ethnic cleansing have disfigured recent years. These conflicts stem from claims that the same territory is occupied by separate 'peoples' for whom separate political arrangements should be made. Such claims are based on their supposedly distinct racial, ethnic, cultural or national identities. What, though, do such identities really amount to and what ought to be their role in determining the configuration and character of states? This has become a key concern of contemporary political philosophy and this book introduces readers to the materials required to address it:The concepts of race and ethnicity, cultural identity and nationalityThe relevant political theories, including liberalism, communitarianism and postmodernismThe topics of citizenship and migration, multiculturalism, and the ethics of secessionThis is the first comprehensive survey of a highly topical issue and its multidisciplinary approach will make it of relevance to courses in philosophy, politics, sociology and cultural studies, as well as of interest to the general reader."

This is the first comprehensive examination of the implications of the messianic turn within contemporary thought. It will be of appeal to students and scholars working in the fields of cultural studies; philosophy; religious studies; politics and international relations and literary studies. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Cultural Research.

This article sketches an approach to what might be called the politics of Nietzsche's philosophy. Taking as its point of departure Nietzsche's diagnosis of nihilism in Western culture, the article aims to show that through his analysis of nihilism Nietzsche raises in an intrinsically political way the philosophical issue of how human agency is possible in an historical world. The methodology Nietzsche follows in constructing the problem provides a second arena of interest for political theory and philosophy. A critical dimension in Nietzsche's thought comparable to Marx's stems from the manner in which he related nihilism—a crisis of power manifest as a failure of self-understanding—to political experiences and reified cultural practices. Finally, the article concludes that Nietzsche could arrive at his overt politics only by combining his critical analysis of nihilism, culture, and power with uncritical assumptions about the modern determinants of nihilism.

1. What philosophy is and is not --. - 2. Africa and its philosophical thought : nature, scope and pragmatics --. - 3. African philosophy, debates, and Henry Odera Oruka's six trends --. - 4. Philosophical genres and movements in Africa --. - 5. Ubuntu/unhu/vumunhu : a principal moral compass for the southern African world --. - 6. Pan-Africanism and the search for Africa's framework for sustainable development --. - 7. Nyerereism : a blend of African communalism and socialism --. - 8. Nkrumahism : a search for the logic of African unity and consciencism --. - 9. African philosophy, cultural identity and globalisation : confronting fear, terror, and uncertainty --. - 10. Democracy and human rights talk : Africa's post-colonial challenge

One of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers presents the results of his lifetime study of man's cultural achievementsAn Essay on Man is an original synthesis of contemporary knowledge, a unique interpretation of the intellectual crisis of our time, and a brilliant vindication of man's ability to resolve human problems by the courageous use of his mind. In a new introduction Peter E. Gordon situates the book among Cassirer's greater body of work, and looks at why his "hymn to humanity in an inhuman age" still resonates with readers today. "The best-balanced and most mature expression of [Cassirer's] thought."--Journal of Philosophy "No reader of this book can fail to be struck by the grandeur of its program or by the sensitive humanism of the author."--Ernest Nagel, The Humanist "A rare work of philosophy and a rare work of art."--Tomorrow

AbstractThe historical beginnings of Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of culture remain unclear. For it is not apparent how his major philosophy of culture and thePhilosophy of Symbolic Forms, published in the 1920s, emerged from his earlier epistemological work andSubstance and Functionfrom 1910. However, this gap can be filled to a certain extent by the "Disposition" of a "Philosophy of the Symbolic" from 1917 that could be reconstructed from Cassirer's literary estate and is documented in this contribution. In the preceding "Introduction" an overview of Cassirer's text is given and some consequences for our general understanding of Cassirer's project of a philosophy of culture are put up for discussion.