Philosophy

A Cultural History of the Soul

Europe and North America from 1870 to the Present

KOCKU VON STUCKRAD

This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin-de-siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines a fascination spanning philosophy, the sciences, the arts, and the study of religion, and then explores how and why the United States witnessed a flowering of ideas about the soul in popular culture and spirituality in the latter half of the century. He examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements—ranging from Ernest Renan, Martin Buber, and Carl Gustav Jung to the Esalen Institute, deep ecology, and revivals of shamanism, animism, and paganism to Rachel Carson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Harry Potter franchise.

KOCKU VON STUCKRAD is professor of religious studies at the University of Groningen. He is the author of several books, including Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge (2005).

$30.00 / £25.00 paper 978-0-231-20037-0 $120.00 / £100.00 cloth 978-0-231-20036-3 $29.99 / £25.00 e-book 978-0-231-55357-5

NOVEMBER 368 pages / 6" x 9"

RELIGION / PHILOSOPHY

Critique of Bored Reason

On the Confinement of the Modern Condition

DMITRI NIKULIN

“Ambitious, well-written, and marked by welcome touches of humor, Critique of Bored Reason is distinguished by extraordinary erudition, impressive expository and interpretative powers, and a genuinely constructive impulse that is grounded in a deep knowledge of the tradition of philosophy.”

—William Desmond, author of The Intimate Universal:

The Hidden Porosity Among Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Politics

Most of the core concepts of the Western philosophical tradition originate in antiquity. Yet boredom is strikingly absent from classical thought. Dmitri Nikulin explores the concept’s genealogy to argue that boredom is the mark of modernity. Considering such thinkers as Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Kierkegaard, Kracauer, Heidegger, and Benjamin, Critique of Bored Reason places boredom on center stage in the philosophical critique of modernity.

DMITRI NIKULIN is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. His books include Comedy, Seriously (2014) and The Concept of History (2017).

$35.00 / £30.00 paper 978-0-231-18907-1 $140.00 / £115.00 cloth 978-0-231-18906-4 $34.99 / £30.00 e-book 978-0-231-54815-1

JANUARY 360 pages / 6.125" x 9.25"

The Boundaries of Human Nature

The Philosophical Animal from Plato to Haraway

MATTHEW CALARCO

“The Boundaries of Human Nature presents in elegant and succinct prose how animals have been regarded by leading thinkers from the Jains and early Greek thinkers to modern and late modern philosophers.”

—Edward S . Casey, author of The World on Edge

Matthew Calarco explores key issues in the philosophy of animals and their significance for our contemporary world. He unearths surprising insights about animals from a number of philosophers while also underscoring ways in which the philosophical tradition has failed to challenge the dogma of human-centeredness. Along the way, he indicates how mainstream Western philosophy is both complemented and challenged by non-Western traditions and noncanonical theories about animals.

MATTHEW CALARCO is professor of philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. His books include Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida (Columbia, 2008) and Beyond the Anthropological Difference (2020).

$30.00 / £25.00 paper 978-0-231-19473-0 $120.00 / £100.00 cloth 978-0-231-19472-3 $29.99 / £25.00 e-book 978-0-231-55096-3

DECEMBER 208 pages / 5.5" x 8.5"

Accidental Agents

Ecological Politics Beyond the Human

MARTIN CROWLEY

“Fascinating, original, and impressive.”

—Jane Bennett, author of Influx and Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman

Martin Crowley argues that a new conception of political agency as both distributed and decisive is necessary in the Anthropocene. He explores how a politics that incorporates nonhuman agency can intervene in the real world, examining timely issues such as climate-related migration and digital-algorithmic politics. A major intervention into ongoing debates in posthumanism, political ecology, and political theory, Accidental Agents reshapes our understanding of political agency in and for a more-than-human world.

MARTIN CROWLEY is reader in modern French thought and culture at the University of Cambridge, where he is also Anthony L. Lyster Fellow in Modern and Medieval Languages at Queens’ College.

$30.00 / £25.00 paper 978-0-231-20403-3 $120.00 / £100.00 cloth 978-0-231-20402-6 $29.99 / £25.00 e-book 978-0-231-55533-3

JANUARY 288 pages / 5.5" x 8.5"

PHILOSOPHY

INSURRECTIONS: CRITICAL STUDIES IN RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE