Description: Ranciere's account of Western philosophical thought from Plato to Bourdieu argues that philosophers depend on an ideal "poor" for their own analyses but preclude them from abstract thought.
Review Quotes: "Sure to provoke controversy, The Philosopher and His Poor is a virtuoso performance. I can't think of anyone who has pursued the populist premise--the intuition that in this or that situation the grounding of truth or value is to be located in those most dispossessed--with anything approaching Rancière's degree of articulateness or philosophical sophistication. I predict that this book will become a landmark."--Bruce Robbins, author of Feeling Global: Internationalism in Distress