Description:
Interrogating the work of four contemporary French philosophers to rethink philosophy's relationship to science and science's relationship to reality
The Technique of Thought explores the relationship between philosophy and science as articulated in the work of four contemporary French thinkers--Jean-Luc Nancy, François Laruelle, Catherine Malabou, and Bernard Stiegler. Situating their writings within both contemporary scientific debates and the philosophy of science, Ian James elaborates a philosophical naturalism that is notably distinct from the Anglo-American tradition. The naturalism James proposes also diverges decisively from the ways in which continental philosophy has previously engaged with the sciences. He explores the technical procedures and discursive methods used by each of the four thinkers as distinct "techniques of thought" that approach scientific understanding and knowledge experimentally.
Moving beyond debates about the constructed nature of scientific knowledge, The Technique of Thought argues for a strong, variably configured, and entirely novel scientific realism. By bringing together post-phenomenological perspectives concerning individual or collective consciousness and first-person qualitative experience with science's focus on objective and third-person quantitative knowledge, James tracks the emergence of a new image of the sciences and of scientific practice.
Stripped of aspirations toward total mastery of the universe or a "grand theory of everything," this renewed scientific worldview, along with the simultaneous reconfiguration of philosophy's relationship to science, opens up new ways of interrogating immanent reality.
Review Quotes:
"This book tentatively envisions philosophy as a technique of thought in order to "imagine a future" when there is no longer a fracture between analytic and Continental traditions in philosophy."--Philosophical Reviews
"While the title of this brilliant book is written in the singular, it should, to my mind, be read through the lens of what one of the thinkers addressed in the book, Jean-Luc Nancy, has referred to as the singular plural. For as Ian James establishes from one chapter to the next, in meticulous readings of contemporary scientific and philosophical texts, the real is irreducibly multiple."--Critical Inquiry
"The rigor and deft with which James approaches scientific-realist perspectives produce a rich picture of post-metaphysical thinking."--Rhizomes
"James's staged encounter of some of the most interesting current scientific and philosophical work is not only extremely rewarding to read, but also highly suggestive of myriad paths for research to come."--French Studies