Death and Desire in Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze - by Brent Adkins (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book places Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze in conversation with one another, which results in a new (joyful) way of thinking about death.

Book Synopsis

Despite what its title might suggest, Death and Desire is a meditation on life. Using the texts of Hegel, Heidegger, and Deleuze, the author argues that philosophy has been dominated by a form of thought that focuses exclusively on death. The importance of Death & Desire lies in its refusal of the morbidity of much contemporary philosophy. Its uniqueness lies in placing Hegel, Heidegger, and Deleuze in conversation. Its usefulness lies in the clarity with which it articulates and compares these very diverse thinkers.Features: * this is the only book to place Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze in Conversation* it retells the recent history of death in terms of Freud's 'Mourning and Melancholia' essay* it provides a new account of desire that results in a new account of death

From the Back Cover

This book stages an encounter among Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze. Much recent work has been done on the relation between Hegel and Heidegger, but none that puts both in conversation with Deleuze. The results of this conversation are striking. In psychoanalytic terms, Hegel's ontology is fundamentally mournful, while Heidegger's ontology is fundamentally melancholic. Brent Adkins argues that the solution to this antinomy is found in Deleuze and Guatttari's Anti-Oedipus, where they take us beyond the limits of mourning and melancholia by refusing both. The result is a new (joyful) way of thinking about death that does not require philosophy to be a constant meditation on death.

About the Author

Brent Adkins is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Roanoke College