Transparency in Postwar France

A Critical History of the Present

Nonfiction, History, France
Cover of the book Transparency in Postwar France by Stefanos Geroulanos, Stanford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stefanos Geroulanos ISBN: 9781503603417
Publisher: Stanford University Press Publication: September 5, 2017
Imprint: Stanford University Press Language: English
Author: Stefanos Geroulanos
ISBN: 9781503603417
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Publication: September 5, 2017
Imprint: Stanford University Press
Language: English

This book returns to a time and place when the concept of transparency was met with deep suspicion. It offers a panorama of postwar French thought where attempts to show the perils of transparency in politics, ethics, and knowledge led to major conceptual inventions, many of which we now take for granted.

Between 1945 and 1985, academics, artists, revolutionaries, and state functionaries spoke of transparency in pejorative terms. Associating it with the prying eyes of totalitarian governments, they undertook a critical project against it—in education, policing, social psychology, economic policy, and the management of information. Focusing on Sartre, Lacan, Canguilhem, Lévi-Strauss, Leroi-Gourhan, Foucault, Derrida, and others, Transparency in Postwar France explores the work of ethicists, who proposed that individuals are transparent neither to each other nor to themselves, and philosophers, who clamored for new epistemological foundations. These decades saw the emergence of the colonial and phenomenological "other," the transformation of ideas of normality, and the effort to overcome Enlightenment-era humanisms and violence in the name of freedom. These thinkers' innovations remain centerpieces for any resistance to contemporary illusions that tolerate or enable power and social coercion.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book returns to a time and place when the concept of transparency was met with deep suspicion. It offers a panorama of postwar French thought where attempts to show the perils of transparency in politics, ethics, and knowledge led to major conceptual inventions, many of which we now take for granted.

Between 1945 and 1985, academics, artists, revolutionaries, and state functionaries spoke of transparency in pejorative terms. Associating it with the prying eyes of totalitarian governments, they undertook a critical project against it—in education, policing, social psychology, economic policy, and the management of information. Focusing on Sartre, Lacan, Canguilhem, Lévi-Strauss, Leroi-Gourhan, Foucault, Derrida, and others, Transparency in Postwar France explores the work of ethicists, who proposed that individuals are transparent neither to each other nor to themselves, and philosophers, who clamored for new epistemological foundations. These decades saw the emergence of the colonial and phenomenological "other," the transformation of ideas of normality, and the effort to overcome Enlightenment-era humanisms and violence in the name of freedom. These thinkers' innovations remain centerpieces for any resistance to contemporary illusions that tolerate or enable power and social coercion.

More books from Stanford University Press

Cover of the book Human Rights as a Way of Life by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Chinese Chicago by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book China's Futures by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Refugees, Women, and Weapons by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Homes Away from Home by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Coercive Concern by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Becoming Modern Women by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Tackling Wicked Problems in Complex Ecologies by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book On Ceasing to Be Human by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book The Highest Poverty by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book National Matters by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book The Future of Transatlantic Relations by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book The Kurillian Knot by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book The Anglosphere by Stefanos Geroulanos
Cover of the book Business Networks in Syria by Stefanos Geroulanos
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy