The Semblance of Subjectivity: Essays in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory

The Semblance of Subjectivity: Essays in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Tom Huhn and Lambert Zuidervaart. Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought series. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997; paperback 1999.

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Theodor W. Adorno died in 1969, and his last major work, Ästhetische Theorie, was published a year later. Only recently, however, have his aesthetic writings begun to receive sustained attention in the English-speaking world. This collect of essays is an important contribution to the discussion of Adorno’s aesthetics in Anglo-American scholarship.

The essays are organized around the twin themes of semblance and subjectivity. Whereas the concept of semblance, or illusion, points to Adorno’s links with Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, the concept of subjectivity recalls his lifelong struggle with a philosophy of consciousness stemming from Kant, Hegel, and Lukács. Adorno’s elaboration of the two concepts takes many dialectical twists. Art, despite the taint of illusion that it has carried since Plato’s Republic, turns out in Adorno’s account of modernism to have a sophisticated capacity to critique illusion, including its own. Adorno’s aesthetics emphasizes the connection between aesthetic theory and many other aspects of social theory. The paradoxical genius of Aesthetic Theory is that it turns traditional concepts into a theoretical cutting edge.

Knowing Other-wise: Philosophy at the Threshold of Spirituality

Knowing Other-wise: Philosophy at the Threshold of Spirituality. James Olthuis, editor. 1997

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Written by ICS faculty and doctoral students, this book explores current scholarship to come to a spiritual and ethically sensitive knowing. It points to an other way of knowing, a knowing of the heart with the eye of love.

Solidarity and the Stranger: Themes in the Social Philosophy of Richard Rorty

Kuipers, Ronald A. Solidarity and the Stranger: Themes in the Social Philosophy of Richard Rorty. Lanham, Md.: Institute for Christian Studies : University Press of America. 1997.

Recommended in the "Guide to Further Reading"
of The Rorty Reader  (Wiley Blackwell, 2010)

Find it on: Rowman & Littlefield

In a critical yet sympathetic examination of Richard Rorty's philosophy, the author uses the biblical figure of "The Stranger" to explore some ethical tensions in Rorty's affirmation of a liberal polity. The book begins with an exegesis of Rorty's work in epistemology and metaphilosophy, especially as these subjects are developed in his magnum opus Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. After appreciating Rorty's critique of epistemology-centered analytic philosophy, the book moves to explore Rorty's peculiar appropriation of pragmatism, and his rejection of philosophy as a foundational discipline or "superjudge" of human cultural practice and belief.

...captures the promise and limitations of Rorty's ideas and the convergence and dissonance Kuipers experiences with Rorty's work.
— M. Njeri Jackson, Virginia Commonwealth University; Religious Studies Review

...a suitable study for graduate students and academicians...a rare sympathetic yet critical treatment of Rorty's influential work...especially from a religious perspective, this book is recommended.
— Tobias Winright, Hubert Mäder Chair of Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University; Religious Studies Review

...a good introduction and primer to Rorty and his social philosophy.
— Gary E. Dann, University of Notre Dame; Religious Studies Review

...a commendable introduction to Rorty's social philosophy, accessible to college students but of sufficient depth for more advanced work.
— Religious Studies Review