Lexington Books
Pages: 164
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-7936-5566-0 • Hardback • August 2022 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-7936-5567-7 • eBook • July 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Will Barnes teaches philosophy at New Mexico Highlands University.
Part 1: Two Cynicisms
Chapter 1: Liberal Cynicism, the Dangers, and the Promise
Chapter 2: Master Cynicism
Part 1: Conclusion
Part 2: Judith Butler & Extreme Liberal Cynicism
Chapter 3: Judith Butler & Liberalism
Chapter 4: Judith Butler and Liberal Cynicism
Part 2: Conclusion
Part 3: The Promise
Chapter 5: Cheekiness
Chapter 6: “Later” Butler and Overcoming Liberal Cynicism
Can we keep hope alive in the face of accelerating global disaster? Nietzsche warned that young idealists who could not endure irony’s ambivalent truths would soon flee into the comforting cynicism of self-centered fatalism and unethical realpolitik. In this timely and thoughtful book, Will Barnes fearlessly deconstructs some of the most popular political philosophers in the contemporary Continental tradition, showing how exaggerated distortions in their work conceal the theoretical and libidinal bases we need to motivate effective political action. Rediscovering and clarifying these crucial sources, A Critique of Liberal Cynicism helps renew the promise of an informed and engaged liberal philosophy ready to confront the growing challenges of our twenty-first-century reality.
— Iain Thomson, University of New Mexico