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This book elaborates Jean Améry's critique of philosophy and his discussion of some central philosophical themes in At the Mind's Limits and his other writings. It shows how Améry elaborates the shortcomings and unfitness of philosophical theories to account for torture, the experience of homelessness, and other indignities, and their inability to assist with overcoming resentment. It thus teases out the philosophical import of Jean Améry's critique of philosophy, which constitutes his own philosophical testament of being an inmate at Auschwitz. This book situates At the Mind's Limits in the context of twentieth-century Continental philosophy. On the one hand, it elaborates Améry's engagement with key philosophical figures. On the other hand, it shows how thoroughly Améry denounces the limits of the philosophical enterprise, and its impotence in capturing and accounting for the crimes of the Third Reich.
List of contents
1. Memory, the Jewish Intellectual, and Cartesian Cogito.- 2. Torture and Homelessness: The Horrible Can Make No Claim to Singularity.- 3. Améry and Nietzsche on Resentment, Collective Guilt, and Historical Revisionism.- 4. Améry and Sartre: The Necessity and Impossibility of Being an Authentic Jew.- 5. Conclusion.
About the author
Vivaldi Jean-Marie is a Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. He also holds an ongoing appointment as an adjunct Professor of Philosophy and African-American Studies at the IRAAS at Columbia University. He is the author of
Fanon: Collective Ethics and Humanism (2007),
Kierkegaard: Historyand Eternal Happiness (2008), and Voodoo Cosmology and the Haitian Revolution in the Enlightenment Ideals of Kant and Hegel (2018). He has published articles in the following peer-reviewed journals: Gnosis, The Western Journal of Black Studies, Souls, and The CLR James Journal. He was Scholar-in-Residence at Hertford College, Oxford University during the Summer 2015.
Summary
This book elaborates Jean Améry’s critique of philosophy and his discussion of some central philosophical themes in
At the Mind’s Limits and his other writings. It shows how Améry elaborates the shortcomings and unfitness of philosophical theories to account for torture, the experience of homelessness, and other indignities, and their inability to assist with overcoming resentment. It thus teases out the philosophical import of Jean Améry's critique of philosophy, which constitutes his own philosophical testament of being an inmate at Auschwitz. This book situates
At the Mind’s Limits in the context of twentieth-century Continental philosophy. On the one hand, it elaborates Améry’s engagement with key philosophical figures. On the other hand, it shows how thoroughly Améry denounces the limits of the philosophical enterprise, and its impotence in capturing and accounting for the crimes of the Third Reich.
