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The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kobo (Weatherhead Books on Asia)
by Kōbō AbeAbe Kobo (1924–1993) was one of Japan's greatest postwar writers, widely recognized for his imaginative science fiction and plays of the absurd. However, he also wrote theoretical criticism for which he is lesser known, merging literary, historical, and philosophical perspectives into keen reflections on the nature of creativity, the evolution of the human species, and an impressive range of other subjects. Abe Kobo tackled contemporary social issues and literary theory with the depth and facility of a visionary thinker. Featuring twelve essays from his prolific career—including "Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious)," written in 1944, and "The Frontier Within, Part II," written in 1969—this anthology introduces English-speaking readers to Abe Kobo as critic and intellectual for the first time. Demonstrating the importance of his theoretical work to a broader understanding of his fiction—and a richer portrait of Japan's postwar imagination—Richard F. Calichman provides an incisive introduction to Abe Kobo's achievements and situates his essays historically and intellectually.
Laboring and Learning
by Tatek Abebe Johanna WatersThis volume incorporates ground-breaking new academic perspectives on the contributions that children and young people make to societies around the world, with a particular focus on learning and work. The chapters in the volume offer conceptual and empirical insights into how young people learn to labour, and the complex social, spatial, temporal, institutional and relational processes that informs their engagements in daily, generational and social reproduction. The editors have intentionally avoided using the terms 'education' and 'employment' in the title, as this volume is an attempt to capture the multitude of ways, spaces and contexts (not just 'formal') in which learning takes place and work is carried out. Here, learning indicates education in the broadest possible sense, to incorporate not just formal schooling and the acquisition of institutionally recognised academic knowledge and credentials, but also informal learning (including socialization and the on-the-job acquisition of skills that takes place almost imperceptibly, over time). In addition to the theoretical perspectives this volume brings on young people's education and work, other prominent conceptual themes present throughout the work are mobilities, transitions and gender. Following four initial chapters that engage with conceptual issues, the remainder of the volume is divided into two sections, entitled 'spaces of labouring and learning' and 'livelihoods, transitions and social reproduction'. Within these sections, a broad spectrum of empirical chapters demonstrates how young people live, learn and labour in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. These include, among others, geographies of education; interface between migration, learning and livelihoods; cultural politics of human capital formation; schooling and work; citizenship education; families and parenting; socialization and informal education; education-induced migration; processes and practices of inclusion and exclusion in educational institutions; part-time work; domestic work; care work; informal livelihoods; entrepreneurship; social transitions; and a wide range of social, economic, cultural, political (structural) forces that intersect and dissect these topics. As the reader will become aware, there is no such thing as a standard educational or work trajectory, a 'normal' transition or a straight forward relationship between work, education and social reproduction. Indeed, one of the aims of the volume is deliberately to showcase the diversity that young people's lives hold in this regard.
Man is the Measure
by Reuben AbelAn accessible introduction to philosophy, this book narrows the gap between the general reader and intellectual inquiry. Its points are illustrated with concrete examples which should call the reader to a higher level of critical thinking and self-perception.
The Self-Conscious, Thinking Subject: A Kantian Contribution to Reestablishing Reason in a Post-Truth Age
by Robert AbeleThis book argues that the primary function of human thinking in language is to make judgments, which are logical-normative connections of concepts. Robert Abele points out that this presupposes cognitive conditions that cannot be accounted for by empirical-linguistic analyses of language content or social conditions alone. Judgments rather assume both reason and a unified subject, and this requires recognition of a Kantian-type of transcendental dimension to them. Judgments are related to perception in that both are syntheses, defined as the unity of representations according to a rule/form. Perceptual syntheses are simultaneously pre-linguistic and proto-rational, and the understanding (Kant’s Verstand) makes these syntheses conceptually and thus self-consciously explicit. Abele concludes with a transcendental critique of postmodernism and what its deflationary view of ontological categories—such as the unified and reasoning subject—has done to political thinking. He presents an alternative that calls for a return to normativity and a recognition of reason, objectivity, and the universality of principles.
Modern Logic 1850-1950, East and West
by Francine F. Abeles Mark E. FullerThis book presents diverse topics in mathematical logic such as proof theory, meta-mathematics, and applications of logic to mathematical structures. The collection spans the first 100 years of modern logic and is dedicated to the memory of Irving Anellis, founder of the journal 'Modern Logic', whose academic work was essential in promoting the algebraic tradition of logic, as represented by Charles Sanders Peirce. Anellis's association with the Russian logic community introduced their school of logic to a wider audience in the USA, Canada and Western Europe. In addition, the collection takes a historical perspective on proof theory and the development of logic and mathematics in Eastern Logic, the Soviet Union and Russia. The book will be of interest to historians and philosophers in logic and mathematics, and the more specialized papers will also appeal to mathematicians and logicians.
Thinking beyond the State
by Marc AbélèsThe French scholar Marc Abélès is one of the leading political and philosophical anthropologists of our time. He is perhaps the leading anthropologist writing on the state and globalization. Thinking beyond the State, a distillation of his work to date, is a superb introduction to his contributions to both anthropology and political philosophy. Abélès observes that while interdependence and interconnection have become characteristic features of our globalized era, there is no indication that a concomitant evolution in thinking about political systems has occurred. The state remains the shield—for both the Right and the Left—against the turbulent effects of globalization. According to Abélès, we live in a geopolitical universe that, in many respects, reproduces alienating logics. His book, therefore, is a primer on how to see beyond the state. It is also a testament to anthropology’s centrality and importance in any analysis of the global human predicament. Thinking beyond the State will find wide application in anthropology, political science and philosophy courses dealing with the state and globalization.
Freud for Architects (Thinkers for Architects)
by John AbellFreud for Architects explains what Freud offers to the understanding of architectural creativity and architectural experience, with case examples from early modern architecture to the present. Freud’s observations on the human psyche and its influence on culture and social behavior have generated a great deal of discussion since the 19th century. Yet, what Freud’s key ideas offer to the understanding of architectural creativity and experience has received little direct attention. That is partly because Freud opened the door to a place where conventional research in architecture has little traction, the unconscious. Adding to the difficulties, Freud’s collection of work is vast and daunting. Freud for Architects navigates Freud’s key ideas and bridges a chasm between architecture and psychoanalytic theory. The book highlights Freud’s ideas on the foundational developments of childhood, developments on which the adult psyche is based. It explains why and how the developmental stages could influence adult architectural preferences and preoccupations, spatial intuition, and beliefs about what is proper and right for architectural design. As such, Freud for Architects will be of great interest to students, practitioners, and scholars in a range of disciplines including architecture, psychoanalysis, and philosophy.
Making Zen Your Own
by Janet Jiryu AbelsIn this book, Janet Jiryu Abels traces the life stories of twelve Chinese Zen masters who, together, shaped what was to become known as Zen's Golden Age. She presents their biographies, describes their teachings, and shows how their lives and teachings can inspire those who practice Zen today. The book is a presentation of ancient Zen insight vividly relevant for the twenty-first century, addressing both the needs of both new and longtime Zen practitioners. Its singular distinction is in bringing Zen history, ancestral teachings, and present-day application of those teachings into one work. Although the book is based on scholarly sources and historical records, Abels stresses the humanity of these Zen ancestors, showing that they were not formed from a generic mold but were individuals with quirks, senses of humor, heartfelt enlightenment experiences, varied ways of living, and unique ways of expressing Zen. She tells their stories in a lively, accessible manner, shedding light on their paradoxical teachings with clarity and simplicity. She also shows that they all faced the same challenges that Zen practitioners face today. Interwoven among the stories and teachings are Abels' own insights into the dharma of Zen, as well as practical applications and encouragements that readers can bring to their individual practice of the Way. These insights are based on her more than ten years as a Zen teacher. She is the founder and co-resident teacher of Still Mind Zendo in New York City.
A Philosophy Of Interior Design (Icon Editions)
by Stanley AbercrombieThis book explores and explains the fundamentals of interior design. Because it does not emphasize current trends and fashion, its value will be long lasting.
The Argument of Mathematics
by Andrew Aberdein Ian J DoveWritten by experts in the field, this volume presents a comprehensive investigation into the relationship between argumentation theory and the philosophy of mathematical practice. Argumentation theory studies reasoning and argument, and especially those aspects not addressed, or not addressed well, by formal deduction. The philosophy of mathematical practice diverges from mainstream philosophy of mathematics in the emphasis it places on what the majority of working mathematicians actually do, rather than on mathematical foundations. The book begins by first challenging the assumption that there is no role for informal logic in mathematics. Next, it details the usefulness of argumentation theory in the understanding of mathematical practice, offering an impressively diverse set of examples, covering the history of mathematics, mathematics education and, perhaps surprisingly, formal proof verification. From there, the book demonstrates that mathematics also offers a valuable testbed for argumentation theory. Coverage concludes by defending attention to mathematical argumentation as the basis for new perspectives on the philosophy of mathematics.
Human Awareness, Energy and Environmental Attitudes
by Boris Aberšek Andrej FlogieThis book raises awareness about environmental issues that result from energy production, extraction and conversion, and examines the attitudes people have about these issues. It discusses societal and educational relations associated with energy and environmental issues, focusing on philosophical, sociological and psychological views, and provides an analysis of how the individual and the society perceive, process and analyze the information on this subject. The authors present the concept of environmentally conscious engineering, discussing various forms of energy extraction and production, and detail alternative, under-researched and unaffordable solutions, such as nuclear fusion and artificial photosynthesis. The book also touches on topics such as the storage of energy and greenhouse gases, recycling and reuse of energy waste, and energy saving and efficiency. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of environmentally conscious engineering, energy use, and human dimensions of ecology and the environment, as well as NGOs, policy makers, and environmental activists.
The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Ananda AbeysekaraAnanda Abeysekara contends that democracy, along with its cherished secular norms, is founded on the idea of a promise deferred to the future. Rooted in democracy's messianic promise is the belief that religious-political identity-such as Buddhist, Hindu, Sinhalese, Christian, Muslim, or Tamil-can be critiqued, neutralized, improved, and changed, even while remaining inseparable from the genocide of the past. This facile belief, he argues, is precisely what distracts us from challenging the violence inherent in postcolonial political sovereignty. At the same time, we cannot simply dismiss the democratic concept, since it permeates so deeply through our modernist, capitalist, and humanist selves. In The Politics of Postsecular Religion, Abeysekara invites us to reconsider our ethical-political legacies, to look at them not as problems, but as aporias, in the Derridean sense-that is, as contradictions or impasses incapable of resolution. Disciplinary theorizing in religion and politics, he argues, is unable to identify the aporias of our postcolonial modernity. The aporetic legacies, which are like specters that cannot be wished away, demand a new kind of thinking. It is this thinking that Abeysekara calls mourning and un-inheriting. Un-inheriting is a way of meditating on history that both avoids the simple binary of remembering and forgetting and provides an original perspective on heritage, memory, and time. Abeysekara situates aporias in the settings and cultures of the United States, France, England, Sri Lanka, India, and Tibet. In presenting concrete examples of religion in public life, he questions the task of refashioning the aporetic premises of liberalism and secularism. Through close readings of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Butler, and Agamben, as well as Foucault, Asad, Chakrabarty, Balibar, and Zizek, he offers readers a way to think about the futures of postsecular politics that is both dynamic and creative.
The Political Impact of African Military Leaders: Soldiers as Intellectuals, Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Statesmen (Contributions to Political Science)
by Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Felix Kumah-AbiwuThis edited volume examines the cases of four African military leaders who had enormous impact on the continent and beyond. These military officers, and later heads of state -- Jerry Rawlings of Ghana; Moammar Gaddafi of Libya; Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso; and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt – were provocative and polarizing figures, beloved domestically but mostly viewed with suspicion and hostility by foreign governments. This volume studies these leaders as a group, engaging in a critical but systematic examination of their personalities, leadership styles, official performance, legacies, and their continuing impact on the future and political destiny of the continent. Providing a survey of controversial but important African political figures, this volume will be of use to scholars and students in the social sciences, especially those interested in African history, African studies, military science, Black studies, political science, leadership studies, and the politics of developing nations.
The Permanent Guillotine: Writings of the Sans-Culottes (Revolutionary Pocketbooks)
by Mitchell AbidorWhen the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789, it wasn't a crowd of breeches-wearing professionals that attacked the prison, it was the working people of Paris. The Permanent Guillotine is an anthology of figures who expressed the will and wishes of this nascent revolutionary class, in all its rage, directness, and contradictoriness.
Apostles of Modernity: Saint-Simonians and the Civilizing Mission in Algeria
by Osama Abi-MershedInfluenced by the teachings of philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), says Ali-Mershed (history, Georgetown U.), France's military Arabists making colonial policy for Algeria from 1830 to 1870 opposed native assimilation, and promoted what they called controlled association with the Muslims. Following him, they contested the existence of primordial human racial and cultural racial and cultural characteristics, he explains, and insisted that societies at different stages of historical development should evolve within their particular institutional structures and cultural traditions. He describes how their discretionary control over the Arab territories provided them a human laboratory for their experiments with Saint-Simonian reforms, and the geographic space to erect a semi-autonomous and protected Arab Kingdom. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Fire Under My Feet: History, Race, and Agency in African Diaspora Dance (Routledge Series in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre and Performance)
by Ofosuwa M. AbiolaFire Under My Feet seeks to expose the diverse, significant, and often under-researched historical and developmental phenomena revealed by studies in the dance systems of the African Diaspora. In the book, written documentation and diverse methodologies are buttressed by the experiences of those whose lives are built around the practice of African diaspora dance. Replete with original perspectives, this book makes a significant contribution to dance and African diaspora scholarship simultaneously. Most important, it highlights the work of researchers from Ecuador, India, Puerto Rico, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and it exposes under-researched and omitted voices of the African diaspora dance world of the aforesaid locations and Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Trinidad as well. This study showcases a blend of scholars, dance practitioners, and interdisciplinarity, and engages the relationship between African diaspora dance and the fields of history, performance studies, critical race theory, religion, identity, and black agency.
Hobbes and the Two Faces of Ethics
by Arash AbizadehReading Hobbes in light of both the history of ethics and the conceptual apparatus developed in recent work on normativity, this book challenges received interpretations of Hobbes and his historical significance. Arash Abizadeh uncovers the fundamental distinction underwriting Hobbes's ethics: between prudential reasons of the good, articulated via natural laws prescribing the means of self-preservation, and reasons of the right or justice, comprising contractual obligations for which we are accountable to others. He shows how Hobbes's distinction marks a watershed in the transition from the ancient Greek to the modern conception of ethics, and demonstrates the relevance of Hobbes's thought to current debates about normativity, reasons, and responsibility. His book will interest Hobbes scholars, historians of ethics, moral philosophers, and political theorists.
Victorian Pain
by Rachel AblowThe nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, Victorian Pain offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain.Rachel Ablow provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. She explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers.A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, Victorian Pain shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.
Astrología y Literatura: Diálogos cósmicos: Borges - Xul Solar | Pizarnik - S. Ocampo
by Claudia AboafLa amistad entre Jorge Luis Borges y Xul Solar y entre Alejandra Pizarnik y Silvina Ocampo es interpretada en este ensayo experimental a partir de las cartas natales de los escritores, analizadas en sinastría, es decir, estudiadas en relación unas con otras, para revelar la belleza del hacer-con el otro. La autora combina saberes como la astrología y la literatura, pero también recurre a la filosofía y al ecofeminismo socioambiental para darle lugar a lo que enlaza y genera una red de conocimientos. El encuentro entre Jorge Luis Borges y Xul Solar y entre Alejandra Pizarnik y Silvina Ocampo es interpretado en este ensayo experimental a partir de sus cartas natales, estudiadas en relación unas con otras, para revelar la belleza que surge al compartir sus creaciones. Y cómo el arte y la literatura tienden un puente sensible para habitar mundos más complejos. La autora combina los saberes de la astrología y la literatura, pero también recurre a la filosofía y al ecofeminismo socioambiental para darle lugar a lo que enlaza y genera una red de conocimientos. Uno de los puntos fuertes del libro remarca la importancia de reconfigurar el mundo de "las personas y las cosas" a través de los poderosos lazos de las relaciones. Y transmite una tesis central: la carta natal entendida como un código que se despliega en la biosfera -un sistema donde todo lo vivo sucede- y que, al articularse con otras, se expande. A partir de los ejemplos concretos del vínculo entre los pares de artistas, este texto propone una nueva forma de pensarnos que potencia la interacción y repone la visión celeste, sofocada por la civilización. La crítica dijo... «¿Qué leen los astros en las letras? ¿Qué las letras en los astros? Era hora de que alguien lúcido como Claudia Aboaf pusiera en órbita dos mundos que siempre se desearon como locos, y que lo hiciera con las obras y vidas de una banda de freaks como la que armaban Xul, Borges, Silvina Ocampo y Pizarnik».Alan Pauls «El libro de Claudia Aboaf cuestiona los binarismos y los monocultivos mentales, internándose en aquello que, por banal, a veces olvidamos: que la literatura, como arte, es un portal hacia otros mundos, una suerte de "cartografías de una visión cosmogónica". La audacia conceptual y la maestría literaria de la autora se conjugan para ofrecernos un potente diálogo entre dos lenguajes».Maristella Svampa «Recomiendo El ojo y la flor de Claudia Aboaf porque trabaja la lengua con musicalidad y la sintaxis de una manera muy especial y porque se ocupa de temas como el capitalismo tardío y la naturaleza».Gabriela Cabezón Cámara «Un lenguaje riquísimo, envolvente, que resulta tremendamente perturbador precisamente por su ferocidad lírica y que recuerda al de Marosa di Giorgio y Agota Kristoff».Leila Guerriero, sobre El ojo y la flor «Novela sorprendente, El Rey del Agua es fruto de una cuidosa alquimia de materiales [...] un vivo rafting novelesco con fuertes picos de intensidad poética y narrativa».Gerardo Tipitto, Otra Parte «La escritura de Aboaf se desvía de las coordenadas esperables, como los sueños se desvían de nuestra voluntad. Con un lenguaje enrarecido que provoca un clima de zozobra, la escritora pone en escena algo de la capacidad humana de destruir y, aun así, la existencia de gestos que buscan proteger lo salvable».Eugenia Almeida
Transcendence: On Self-determination and Cosmopolitanism
by Mitchell AboulafiaNotions of self-determination are central to modern politics, yet the relationship between the self-determination of individuals and peoples has not been adequately addressed, nor adequately allied to cosmopolitanism. Transcendenceseeks to rectify this by offering an original theory of self and society. It highlights overlooked affinities between existentialism and pragmatism and compares figures central to these traditions. The book's guiding thread is a unique model of the social development of the self that is indebted to the pragmatist George Herbert Mead. Drawing on the work of thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic-Hegel, William James, Dewey, Du Bois, Sartre, Marcuse, Bourdieu, Rorty, Neil Gross, and Jean-Baker Miller-and according supporting roles to Adam Smith, Habermas, Herder, Charles Taylor, and Simone de Beauvoir, Aboulafia combines European and American traditions of self-determination and cosmopolitanism in a new and persuasive way.
Habermas and Pragmatism
by Mitchell Aboulafia Myra Bookman Catherine KempThere are few living thinkers who have enjoyed the eminence and reown of Jürgen Hamermas. His work has been highly influential not only in philosopy, but also in the fields of politics, sociology and law. This is the first collection dedicated to exploring the connections between his body of work ahd America's most significant philosophical movement, pragmatism. Habermas and Pragmatism considers the influence of pragmatism on Habermas's thought and the tensions between Habermasian social theory and pragmatism. Essays by distinguished pragmatists, legal and critical theorists, and Habermas cover a range of subjects including the philosophy of language, the nature of rationality, democracy, objectivity, transcendentalism, aesthetics, and law. The collection also addresses the relationship to Habermas of Kant, Peirce, Mead, Dewey, Piaget, Apel, Brandom and Rorty.
Finding Winnicott: Philosophical Encounters with the Psychoanalytic
by Fadi Abou-RihanIn Finding Winnicott: Philosophical Encounters with the Psychoanalytic, Fadi Abou-Rihan expands upon Winnicott’s category of the found object and argues that a genuine understanding of the analyst’s own thought requires that it be considered in relation to that of another. The essays in this collection are in dialogue with the work of Freud, Deleuze and Guattari, Laplanche, Bonaventure, Ibn Al-’Arabi, and Huizinga; these encounters showcase some of Winnicott’s yet unexplored contributions to the questions of subjectivity, time, and language. They weave psychoanalytic theory, clinical vignette and key moments from the history of ideas in order to shed light on our findings regarding, and indeed findings of, desire, on some of the playful but no less compelling ways in which the subject lives, suffers, understands, questions and/or normalizes desire. Chapters span a range of topics including rationales, findings and spaces, and highlight the subject as not only that which finds but that which is found. With clinical vignettes throughout, this book is vital reading for practicing analysts, as well as analysts in training and students of both philosophy and psychoanalysis.
Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany
by Abraham A. FraenkelJiska Cohen-MansfieldAbraham A. Fraenkel was a world-renowned mathematician in pre-Second World War Germany, whose work on set theory was fundamental to the development of modern mathematics. A friend of Albert Einstein, he knew many of the era's acclaimed mathematicians personally. He moved to Israel (then Palestine under the British Mandate) in the early 1930s. In his autobiography Fraenkel describes his early years growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Germany and his development as a mathematician at the beginning of the twentieth century. This memoir, originally written in German in the 1960s, has now been translated into English, with an additional chapter covering the period from 1933 until his death in 1965 written by the editor, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield. Fraenkel describes the world of mathematics in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, its origins and development, the systems influencing it, and its demise. He also paints a unique picture of the complex struggles within the world of Orthodox Jewry in Germany. In his personal life, Fraenkel merged these two worlds during periods of turmoil including the two world wars and the establishment of the state of Israel. Including a new foreword by Menachem Magidor Foreword to the 1967 German edition by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel
Intellectual Resistance and the Struggle for Palestine
by M. AbrahamBy positioning the late Edward Said's political interventions as a public intellectual on behalf of Palestinian populations living under Israeli occupation as a form of intellectual resistance, Abraham moves to consider forms of physical resistance, seeking to better understand the motivations of those who choose to turn their bodies into weapons.
La empresa de vivir
by Tomás AbrahamEl autor analiza y discute la empresa como nuevo monumento cultural, la tarea de los expertos en calidad de vida y su función en una nueva sociedad terapéutica. Tomas Abraham inicia una pesquisa filosófica y no se detiene ante las impugnaciones que dictan «el buen gusto» y la convivencia (la que esconde las contradicciones para simular seriedad y rigor intelectual). No lo detiene. Observa, analiza, compulsa. Sus preguntas no interrogan esas zonas del discurso para las cuales se han inventado ya benévolas excusas, sino las otras, las peligrosas. Desde 1989, reflexiona Abraham, el factor económico es la clave que permite descifrar los anhelos y las frustraciones de la sociedad. ¿Por qué? Porque el factor económico no se reduce a la economía, no se limita a la producción y a la distribución de riquezas sino que acusa la visible emergencia de nuevas formas de vida. El factor económico revela el diagrama de las mutaciones culturales. De las historias de vida de los archimillonarios al encuadre histórico de la ideología empresarial, de «la puesta en sorna» (con el mayor respeto) de la literatura de autoayuda a la meditación sobre la moral y el dolor en los campos del exterminio, La empresa de vivir, como los libros anteriores del autor, traza una línea osada y firme e incorpora al pensamiento argentino una nueva manera de hacer las cosas. Una nueva manera capaz de abrir discusiones aparentemente concluidas o censuradas, de expandir los efectos de un conflicto intelectual hacia áreas desprestigiadas o ignoradas de inaugurar una pasión para abolir la ironía autoindulgente y los entredichos ufanos. Porque logra trasformar el malestar en un problema y la dificultad y el obstáculo en una interrogación crítica, La empresa de vivir es un libro decisivo. Y algo más, algo que merece nuestra gratitud o por lo menos nuestra atención: porque ese libro decisivo e importante es también una investigación filosófica donde la busca de la verdad no renuncia al humor y se permite reír y hacernos reír.