Toward a theory of radical origin: essays on modern German thought

Abstract

'Not since Edward Said's Beginnings has as much pressure been applied on the vexed concept of origin as in this remarkable book. John Pizer succeeds in rescuing it from the unearned abuse to which it has been subjected by much post-structuralist criticism, and in so doing provides illuminating readings of five of this century's most influential thinkers' - Martin Jay, author of Marxism and Totality: Adventures of a Concept from Lukacs to Habermas.Toward a Theory of Radical Origin represents a significant reconsideration of one of the main prejudices of contemporary literary theory: that discourses of 'origin' remain irretrievably foundationalist or logocentric. Via a lucid reassessment of the intellectual legacy of five German thinkers, Pizer compels us to view the concept of origin in new and illuminating ways' - Richard Wolin, author of The Terms of Cultural Criticism: Frankfurt School, Existentialism, Poststructuralism. This provocative book addresses one of the central and most controversial branches of Western thought: the philosophy of origin.In light of recent poststructuralist principles such as alterity, differance, and dissemination, the philosophy of origin seems to exemplify the repressive, reactionary tendencies of much of the Western philosophical tradition. John Pizer aims to overturn this recent antipathy to the philosophy of origin. He ably summarizes poststructuralist critiques of that earlier philosophical tradition, then turns to five German thinkers (Nietzsche, Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Heidegger, and Adorno) who developed philosophies of origin that effectively anticipate and counter poststructuralist attacks.These are thinkers who, in one way or another, influenced recent generations of poststructuralist thinkers. Pizer argues, however, that rather than do away with the notion of origin altogether (as in the works of the most thoroughgoing poststructuralists), these philosophers developed theories in which origin is always 'multiple and plurivalent'. In the writings of these seminal German thinkers, 'origin' becomes 'origins', and 'authentic origins' are 'inherently plural and divergent'. A valuable, engrossing account of a wide range of thinkers and their complex relations, Pizer's book recovers the notion of origin for an intellectual world that has come to value multiplicity, openness, and diversity. John Pizer is an associate professor of German and comparative literature at Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Historical Perspective in German Genre Theory: Its Development from Gottsched to Hegel.