In recent philosophy, theology, and critical theory, postmodern thought has been much criticized on specifically ethical and political grounds. In particular, it has been argued that postmodernism has induced passivity and is impotent in the face of the challenges presented by the hegemonic global market. In response numerous thinkers have called for the "return of the metanarrative" or have insisted on the necessity of the domain of the "universal." In this book, Gavin Hyman accepts the diagnosis, while contesting the cure. Through detailed engagements with the work of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, and John Milbank--as well as discussions of the work of Simon Critchley, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri--Hyman argues that many contemporary thinkers merely invert the problems intrinsic to postmodernism and therefore do not effectively escape them. He argues that the ethical and political are best preserved and perpetuated through the negotiating of an ongoing tension between the domains of the universal, the particular, and the singular. To proceed thus would be to traverse the terrain of the middle--ethically, politically, and religiously.
"In strikingly clear, comprehensive, and rigorous terms, Gavin Hyman's Traversing the Middle contributes an essential step forward in the philosophical "return to religion." Engaging an impressive range of interlocutors, he persuasively argues that this return must enable and maintain the equivocation between the universal, the particular and the singular. The book gives those new to the subject a clear introduction; to those immersed in it, it poses provocative and necessary challenges."
--Tyler Roberts
Grinnell College
Gavin Hyman is Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Religion at the University of Lancaster, UK. He is author of The Predicament of Postmodern Theology (2001) and A Short History of Atheism(2010), and editor of New Directions in Philosophical Theology (2004).
advertisement