Can Philosophy Love?: Reflections and Encounters

336 Pages·2017·1.301 MB·English

by  Cindy Zeiher, Todd McGowan

Can Philosophy Love?

Can Philosophy Love?
Reflections and Encounters
Edited by Cindy Zeiher
and Todd McGowan
London• NewYork
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26–34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
www.rowmaninternational.com
Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd. is an affiliate of Rowman & Littlefield
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA
With additional offices in Boulder, New York, Toronto (Canada), and Plymouth (UK)
www.rowman.com
Selection and editorial matter © Cindy Zeiher and Todd McGowan 2017
Copyright in individual chapters is held by the respective chapter authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB 978-1-7866-0322-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Title: Can philosophy love? : reflections and encounters / edited by Cindy Zeiher and
Todd McGowan.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031625 (print) | LCCN 2017039023 (ebook) | ISBN
9781786603241 (electronic) | ISBN 9781786603227 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Love—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC BD436 (ebook) | LCC BD436 .C36 2017 (print) | DDC
128/.46—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031625
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Can Philosophy Love? xi
Cindy Zeiher and Todd McGowan
PART I: LOVE, HEGEL AND LACAN 1
1 Hegel in Love 3
Todd McGowan
2 Towards a Limitless Love or Mystical ‘Jouissance of Being’ 27
Jelica Šumič
3 On the Tendency to the Debasement of the Universal
in the Sphere of Love 55
Gabriel Tupinambá
4 L-D-L’, or: Lacan’s Dialectics of Love (in Loveless Times) 67
Fabio Vighi
5 Love, the Lack Thereof 87
Nicol Thomas
6 Love-Life 105
Frank Ruda
7 Love and the Apparatus: On a Hegelian Fragment 119
Georgios Tsagdis
v
vi Contents
PART II: LOVE AND POLITICS 133
8 Against Love as a Political Category 135
Agon Hamza
9 Ideological Love: The Return of Russian Conservative
Thinkers of the Fin-de-siecle 147
Henrietta Mondry
10 Towards a Politics of Love by Way of Resistance 163
Jeffrey W. Robbins
11 Politics, Solidarity and the (Dis)Location of Love 175
Geoff Pfeifer
PART III: LOVE AS CULTURAL AND MYTHICAL
CONCERN 191
12 Cordelia’s Kiss 193
Sigi Jöttkandt
13 Love and Surveillance: Reformulating the State Gaze
in the ‘Age of 1984’ 207
Ryan Engley
14 Love’s Intermediary: The Aesthetics of Rousseau’s
Amour de Soi 221
Monique Rooney
15 The ‘Endless Space between Words’: Desire, Fantasy
and Interface in Her 241
Louis-Paul Willis
PART IV: LOVE, LOGIC AND (IMPOSSIBLE) DEMAND 253
16 On Why Love Is a Black Square on a White Square
or Badiou on Love 255
Rado Riha
17 Weak Love? 17 Propositions 269
Mike Grimshaw
18 Beyond Narcissism: Emmanuel Levinas and ‘the wisdom
of love’ 281
Simone Drichel
Contents vii
19 Struggle as Love Par Excellence: Zupančič avec Badiou 297
Cindy Zeiher
Index 311
Notes on Contributors 319

Acknowledgements
Love is not easy and writing about it seems so much more difficult. Here we
thank all the contributors to this collection for putting love under scrutiny.
We would like to thank Sarah Campbell, Isobel Cowper-Coles and Rebecca
Anastasi from Rowman and Littlefield International for their support and
advice. Behind the scenes there are our dear friends and colleagues who in
various ways have supported this collection: Cherie Lacey, Agon Hamza, Ed
Pluth, Mike Grimshaw, Nick Derrick and Richard Boothby.
Our profound gratitude goes towards our loved ones who, in our delibera-
tions and interrogations of love, remained nothing but loving: Hilary Neroni,
Reuben Derrick, Theo and Dashiell Neroni, Naima and Iris Derrick.
ix