LoveKnowledge: The Life of Philosophy from Socrates to Derrida

by Roy Brand

Overview

Since its inception, philosophy has struggled to perfect individual understanding through discussion and dialogue based in personal, poetic, or dramatic investigation. The positions of such philosophers as Socrates, Spinoza, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Derrida differ in almost every respect, yet these thinkers all share a common method of practicing philosophy—not as a detached, intellectual discipline, but as a worldly art.

What is the love that turns into knowledge and how is the knowledge we seek already a form of love? Reading key texts from Socrates to Derrida, this book addresses the fundamental tension between love and knowledge that informs the history of Western philosophy. LoveKnowledge returns to the long tradition of philosophy as an exercise not only of the mind but also of the soul, asking whether philosophy can shape and inform our lives and communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231160452
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roy Brand is Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate School of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts at Tel Aviv University; he also founded and served as Director and Chief Curator of Yaffo 23, a center for art and culture in downtown Jerusalem. He is the author of LoveKnowledge: The Life of Philosophy from Socrates to Derrida (Columbia, 2012), the editor and translator of Borradori: Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Habermas and Derrida (Chicago, 2004), and the editor and consultant curator of Bare Life (Museum on the Seam, 2007).

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Undoing Knowledge: Socrates of the Apology
2. The Logic of Desire: Socrates of the Symposium
3. Under a Certain Form of Eternity: Spinoza's Ethics
4. Communicating Solitude: Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker
5. How We Become What We Are: Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals
6. Becoming Other: Foucault's History of Sexuality
7. Derrida's "Here I Am"
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Christoph Menke

In a clear, beautiful style Roy Brand explores how philosophy, since its beginning in Socrates up to Derrida, has thought about itself—its precarious and fragile position in life. It is an intellectual adventure to follow Brand steering the course of his thoughts between the Scylla of narcissistic abstraction and the Charybdis of naive anti-intellectualism: a remarkable achievement!

Eva Illouz

Philosophia is notoriously the love of knowledge, yet few have asked what it means to love knowledge, how knowledge can be loved differently by different philosophers, and how love affects the very knowledge it shapes. In this concise and elegant book, Roy Brand offers a thrilling read on this core and understudied notion of philosophy. He takes us through a grand tour of the history of philosophy from Socrates to Derrida in lucid and witty prose. Brand's book is not only about the love of knowledge; it performs itself that, and will make you fall in love with philosophy if you haven't already.

Editorial Reviews

Compelling.

Portland Book Review

Taking a cue from the usual translation of philosophy (“love of knowledge”) Brand, a professor of philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, constructs an intensely personal and engrossing book that tackles several major philosophical texts, weaving connections and seeking to discover anew why philosophy, its questions, and its interplay of desire and knowledge are relevant to this day. He begins with Socrates—via Plato—and moves through Spinoza, Rousseau, and Nietzsche to the present with Foucault and Derrida. Brand anchors each chapter with a brief biographical sketch before approaching a key late text, often finding links between philosophies. His authorial voice captivates, and though arcane terms inevitably spring up, the dedicated reader is amply rewarded. Ideally, the book “trusts the impressions of the reader and her ability to navigate a philosophical landscape without an outline or map but with a sense of orientation and know-how.” Thus, Brand doesn’t always provide answers—and admits he won’t—but he offers food for thought, so when he describes Rousseau’s philosophy as “an exercise in the art of living,” he could easily be talking about his own work. Though experts may have their own views on Brand’s “idiosyncratic” interpretations, those newer to this discipline will have much to take away—about love, learning, and leading the fullest life possible—from this slim but full volume. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

May the neophyte who reads this book be drawn to the field of philosophy, and may the professional be reminded of the LoveKnowledge that sparked her interest in philosophy in the first place.

Dialogue - Diana Karbonowska

In addition to being a thoughtful philosophical work in and of itself, the clear prose is an entertaining read, and LoveKnowledge is sure to appeal to those casually interested in philosophy just as much as it will to students of the discipline.

The European Legacy Toward New Paradigms - Michael P. A. Murphy

Roy Brand steps away from the technicalities that populate the history of philosophy as an academic discipline, just as he shows himself a truly sanguine observer who stays above the fray of the different and diverging currents and debates of our days. What results is an at once greatly informative and deeply personal book, with chapters that serve as vignettes and epitomize the best of philosophical thinking about a question that matters to most.

Hent de Vries

The greatest strength of Brand's book is that it is humble, an uncommon virtue among academic philosophers.

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews - Jeremy David Bendik-Keymer

Roy Brand takes the reader on a journey through the history of philosophy, examining works by Plato, Spinoza, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Derrida. He does a wonderful job of showing how the relation between love/knowledge weaves its way through these various authors.

Steven Levine