Butler on Whitehead

On the Occasion

Contributions by Jeffrey A. Bell, Vikki Bell, Judith Butler, Daniel A. Dombrowski, Jeremy D. Fackenthal, Kirsten M. Gerdes, Sigríður Guðmarsdóttir, Catherine Keller, Wendy Lee, Astrid Lorange, Randy Ramal, Alan Van Wyk Edited by Roland Faber, Michael Halewood, Deena Lin

Publication date:

22 March 2012

Length of book:

334 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

235x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739172766

This volume is based on the first set of formal conversations which brings together the dynamic philosophies of two eminent thinkers: Judith Butler and Alfred North Whitehead. Each has drawn from a wide palette of disciplines to develop distinctive theories of becoming, of syntactical violence, and creative opportunities of limitation. In bringing together internationally renowned interpreters of Butler and Whitehead from a variety of fields and disciplines—philosophy, rhetoric, gender and queer studies, religion, literary and political theory—the editors hope to set a standard for the relevance of interdisciplinary philosophical discourse today. This volume offers a unique contribution to and for the humanities in the struggles of politics, economy, ecology, and the arts, by reaching beyond their closed circles toward understandings that may serve as the basis for the activation of humanity today. Considered together, Butler and Whitehead delineate a whole new cadre of approaches to long-standing problems as well as never-before asked questions in the humanities.

ForewordDeena M. Lin
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionMichael HalewoodPart I: Butler on WhiteheadChapter 1: On this Occasion . . .Judith Butler
Chapter 2: After Performativity: On Concern and CritiqueVikki Bell
Chapter 3: Provocative Reflections: Judith Butler on Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Moral ObligationsRandy Ramal
Part II: Butler and WhiteheadChapter 4: Undoing and Unknowing: The Widening Relations of Judith Butler and Alfred North WhiteheadCatherine Keller
Chapter 5: Adventure and Risk: Exploring Creative Possibility for True Ethical ResponsibilityJeremy D. Fackenthal
Chapter 6: Coming Out with Butler and Whitehead: Opacity, Apophasis, and the Phallacy of Misplaced ClosetnessSigridur Guðmarsdóttir
Chapter 7: The Feeling of What Matters: Vectors of Power in Butler and WhiteheadAlan Van Wyk
Chapter 8: Khora and Violence: Revisiting Butler with WhiteheadRoland Faber
Chapter 9: Modes of Violence: Whitehead, Deleuze, and the Displacement of NeoliberalismJeffrey A. Bell
Chapter 10: Language, the Body, and the Problem of SignificationMichael Halewood
Chapter 11: The Objects Have Been Equal to the OccasionAstrid Lorange
Part III: On Butler On MourningChapter 12: Prehending Precarity: Presenting a Social Ontology that Feels Beyond the FrameDeena M. Lin
Chapter 13: Which Lives Are Grievable?Daniel A. Dombrowski
Chapter 14: Loss of ‘Self,’ Grievability of Life, and Reharmonizing Political PotentialKirsten M. Gerdes
Chapter 15: “A Tender Care That Nothing Be Lost”—Universal Salvation and Eternal Loss in Butler and Whitehead?Roland Faber
Chapter 16:Occasioned by “On this Occasion”: More Thoughts on Butler and WhiteheadCatherine Keller
Chapter 17: The Inappropriate Tenderness of the Divine: Mono No Aware and the Recovery of Loss in Whitehead’s AxiologyMatthew S. LoPresti

Samuel Johnson criticized Metaphysical poetry for its 'violent juxtapositions.' He was right in the characterization, wrong in the judgment. Is Butler a Whiteheadian? No. Is Whitehead proto-Butlerian? No. Is it ever appropriate to speak of them together? Hell yes! The present volume, a 21st-century Metaphysical poem, sets the parameters for this timely conversation and brilliantly starts the ball rolling!