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Informationen zum Autor Professor in political science at Medaille College in Buffalo, New York, where he teaches courses in psychoanalytic theory, political philosophy, ethics, and more. He holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Maryland, College Park and recently (2018) completed a Fulbright grant. He is the author or editor of eleven books - including a volume on the psychoanalysis of Hikikomori and severe social withdrawal (forthcoming from Phoenix) - and several dozen articles and chapters on psychoanalysis and politics. He serves as editor (N. America) of the Journal of Psychosocial Studies, co-editor of the Psychoanalytic Political Theory book series (Routledge), and sits on numerous editorial and advisory boards. Klappentext This book demonstrates that Albert Camus' concept of absurdity is best understood when decoupled from what might be called its ontological aspirations. Rather than pretend that absurdity usefully describes 'the human condition,' 'the silence of god,' 'the deprivation of transcendence,' or 'metaphysical revolt,' I argue that, for absurdity to be a fruitful idea, it must be approached as a psychological disposition and its basic tenets must be translated into phenomenal and psychological language. The book defines the particular psychological disposition of absurdity by analogizing it with the constructs of ambivalence, integration, conscious resistance, and creativity. Its central contention is that absurdity may be interpreted as a kind of ambivalence and, thus, as an aspect of psychological experience that demands a creative and mature response. Absurdists' cries of spiritual anguish need not persuade us that the conditions of loss, terror, alienation, and deprivation they describe are objectively 'real'. If, instead, descriptions of absurdity may be understood as psychological accounts of the powerfully ambivalent impulses toward merger and toward separateness, toward group-immersion and toward subjectivity, then absurd revolt involves recognizing, resisting, and integrating such impulses in order to facilitate mature ethical action. It may be possible, I argue, by examining the dynamics of absurdity, ambivalence, resistance, and creativity, to develop a new grounding for an absurd political morality. This book asks what unique properties and advantages this renewed political morality offers and applies this grounding to some of the political and moral crises of Camus' time and of our own. Zusammenfassung In Albert Camus and the Political Philosophy of the Absurd: Ambivalence! Resistance! and Creativity! Matthew H. Bowker takes an interdisciplinary approach to Albert Camus' political philosophy by reading absurdity itself as a metaphor for the psychosocial dynamics of ambivalence! resistance! integration! and creativity. Decoupling absurdity from its ontological aspirations and focusing instead on its psychological and phenomenal contours! Bowker discovers an absurdist foundation for ethical and political practice. Inhaltsverzeichnis Chapter 1: IntroductionAlbert Camus' AbsurdAbsurdity in Moral and Political PhilosophyAbsurd ConfusionAn Absurd and Ambivalent WorldThe Organization of this WorkChapter 2: Absurdity in ContextNietzsche's Tragic EthosKierkegaard's Absurd FaithSartre's Existential ApproachSamuel Beckett and the Theatre of the AbsurdThomas Nagel's Attitudinal ApproachChapter 3: The Meaning of Absurdity: Albert Camus and his CriticsThe Meaning of Camus' AbsurdThe Status of Camus' AbsurdAbsurd Facts, Data, and ValuesChapter 4: Absurdity and AmbivalenceAmbivalence in the Early Psychoanalytic Tradition: Bleuler and FreudAmbivalence and Splitting in the Work of Melanie KleinAmbivalence and the Borderline PersonalityAbsurdity as AmbivalenceCamus' Absurd Ambivalence, Part 1: MergerClarity and UnityLoving Mother NatureJean Grenier's InfluenceCamus' Absurd Ambivalence, Part II: Selfhood and Auto...
