Introduction To Antiphilosophy

Description: Traditional philosophy, claims Boris Groys in this provocative new work, promised to satisfy the desire for knowledge. But why should I bother with knowledge and philosophy at all? What motives lead me to such a project? Antiphilosophy in its various guises is directed not against this or that particular philosophy but against the philosophical project itself. That project is now interpreted as a symptom of frustration, a lack of true vitality, or of the product of an unjust society. Asked why we should want philosophy the answer is no longer a theory but rather an appeal and a command: Live dangerously! Change the world! Think rhizomatically! And then you will know. Groys explores these questions and answers via figures as varied as Bakhtin, Benjamin, Derrida, Heidegger, Junger, Kierkegaard, Kojeve and Nietzsche.

Review: Offers the reader many enlightening ideas, insights and original observations, which Groys produces in an almost mischievous fashion, but always with the critical intention of demonstrating failings of argument and logical inconsistencies in master-thinkers from Heidegger through to Derrida.

Author Biography: BORIS GROYS is Professor at New York University. His previous publications include Art Power, and from Verso, Communist Postscript and a new edition of The Total Art of Stalinism.