Description: Examines how violence has been conceptually and rhetorically put to use in continental social theory.
Brief description: Ann V. Murphy is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.
Review Quotes:
"...a concise and insightful exploration of the motif of violence within twentieth- and twenty-first-century continental philosophy ... Violence and the Philosophical Imaginary is an essential addition to recent rereadings of Beauvoir's oeuvre, especially her ethical period writings ... a precisely written and important book for anyone interested in feminist ethics, violence, or contemporary continental philosophy." -- Hypatia
"In short, Murphy's exciting book returns our attention to the ambiguity of our precarious lives and the overflowing imaginaries that animate them; we move from descriptive to prescriptive claims only through exercising critical restraint, such that we might do justice to our lived complexity." -- APA Newsletter
"Violence and the Philosophical Imaginary makes a unique and remarkable contribution to contemporary discussions of violence. What is unique about the approach of the book is that, from a position squarely on the side of nonviolence, Ann Murphy embarks on a critical analysis of critiques of violence. This is as brave as it is necessary." -- Rosalyn Diprose, author of Corporeal Generosity: On Giving with Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas