1st Edition

Michael A. Weinstein Action, Contemplation, Vitalism

Edited By Robert L. Oprisko, Diane Rubenstein Copyright 2015
238 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

252 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

252 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book is a major reassessment of Michael Weinstein’s political philosophy. It situates his singular contribution, designated as "critical vitalism," in the context of both canonical American and contemporary continental theory. Weinstein is presented as a philosopher of life and as an American Nietzsche. Yet the contributors also persuasively argue for this form of thinking as a prescient... Read more

Selected Contents:

Foreword  Deena Weinstein 

1. Michael Weinstein’s Posthumous Thought For Our Times: An Introduction Robert L. Oprisko and Diane Rubenstein 

Part I: Action 

2. Nietzsche For Our Times: Three Meditations Arthur Kroker 

3. Strings: A Political Theory of Multi-Dimensional Reality Robert L. Oprisko 

Part II: Contemplation  

4. This Flesh Belongs to Me: Michael Weinstein and Max Stirner Justin Mueller 

5. Weinstein's American Philosophy: Intimacy and the Construction of Self Jonathan McKenzie 

6. Irreducible Ends: Michael Weinstein and the Value of Agony and Happy Pessimism Melba Hoffer 

7. Unpacking My Weinstein: Border Thinking and Classical American Philosophy Ramón E. Soto-Crespo  

Part III: Vitalism 

8. "I am the Radical Reality": Weinstein's "Defensive Life" as a Political Response to Post-Civilization Julie Webber 

9. Weinstein's Methodology for Political Analysis Robert L. Oprisko 

10. I am the God of My Own Tribe: Weinstein and Islam Joseph Kaminski 

11. A Remarkable Teacher Kathy E. Ferguson 

12. Michael Weinstein and Félix Guattari: A Militancy of "Vivacious Despair" Diane Rubenstein Epilogue 

13. Performing Integral Consciousness: Simulation Michael A. Weinstein

Appendices

Index

Biography

Robert L. Oprisko is a research associate at Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Global Change. His research focuses on contemporary political philosophy, international relations theory, and critical university studies.

Diane Rubenstein is Professor of Government and American Studies at Cornell University. Her teaching and research focuses on contemporary continental theory- semiotics, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, Western Marxism- as well as the manifestations of theory in current Franco-American politics and ideology.

"For those of us—and we are many—who have had the great fortune to know Michael Weinstein as a mentor, a teacher, a confident, a fellow provocateur, a passionate thought-wanderer, a colleague, a cultural bricoleur, a lover of philosophical texts, and a friend, this volume is at once touching, enthralling, thought-provoking, energizing, and a deeply pleasurable read. For everyone with a genuine passion for American political, aesthetic, visual, and digital thought, Oprisko and Rubenstein’s text exposes one to the mind/life/persona(s) of one of the most admirable thinkers of the last fifty years; it invites everyone to ride along with Weinstein’s unique and compelling philosophy of critical vitalism."—François Debrix, Professor of Political Science and Director of the ASPECT program, Virginia Tech