This book employs perspectives from continental philosophy, intellectual history, and literary and cultural studies to breach the divide between early modernist and modernist thinkers. It turns to early modern humanism in order to challenge late 20th-century thought and present-day posthumanism. This book addresses contemporary concerns such as the moral responsibility of the artist, the place of religious beliefs in our secular societies, legal rights extended to nonhuman species, the sense of normality applied to the human body, the politics of migration, individual political freedom and international terrorism. It demonstrates how early modern humanism can bring new perspectives to postmodern antihumanism and even invite us to envision a humanism of the future.
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1 Is the Author Responsible? Artistic Agency in Humanist and Antihumanist Perspectives |
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1 | (24) |
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2 An Ethics for Antihumanism? Belief and Practice |
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25 | (24) |
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3 Should We Practice Justice Toward Nonhuman Animals? Radical Animal Interests, Humanism, and Classical Justice |
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49 | (22) |
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4 What Came Before, What Comes After Normal? Some Humanist and Postmodern Antihumanist Thoughts on the Concept of Normalcy |
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71 | (22) |
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5 What Is a Colony Before Colonialism? Humanist and Antihumanist Concepts of Governmentality from Foucault to Montaigne |
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93 | (24) |
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6 Humanists, Antihumanists, and Nouveaux Philosophes on What Makes Us Free |
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117 | (22) |
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7 Can a Human Bomb Be Human? Humanist and Antihumanist Perspectives on War and Terrorism |
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139 | (34) |
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| Afterword |
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173 | (16) |
| Bibliography |
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189 | (20) |
| Index |
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209 | |
Jan Miernowski is Professor of French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and Visiting Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland. His latest books include La Beauté de la haine (Droz, 2014) and an edited volume on the intersection between the grotesque and the sublime.
