Dilemma of Modernity

Lawrence E. Cahoone is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Boston University.

"I believe this is the most original and creative philosophy of modern Western culture since The Dialectic of Enlightenment in the 1940s. It shows how even the critics from whom the book draws insights remain within the confines of subjectivism. Cahoone's argument for a non-subjectivist culture, and for non-subjectivist philosophy of culture, makes a decisive contribution to the restoration of philosophy to its proper and needed cultural role." — Robert Cummings Neville

• Preface: The Dilemma Acknowledgments Introduction: Modernity, Philosophy, and Culture The Modernity Debate Philosophy as a Cultural Process Part One The Dynamics Of Subject And Object Introduction to Part One 1. Subjectivism and the Transcendental Synthesis The Pervasiveness of Subjectivism The Subjectivist-Transcendental Synthesis 2. Forging the New Standpoint: Descartes The Dichotomy The Transcendental Bridge 3. Recasting the Synthesis: Kant The Two Orders of Knowing Relating the Two Orders 4. Philosophical Narcissism and the Radicalization of Subjectivism The Fortunes of Subjectivism The Psycho-Dynamic Concept of Narcissism Philosophical Narcissism The Dialectic of Philosophical Narcissism 5. Subjectivism without the Object: Husserl The Project of Husserl's Late Work The Failure of Intersubjectivity in the Cartesian Meditations The Uninhabited Ego Husserl and Sartre The Enigmas of Phenomenology Conclusion 6. Subjectivism without the Subject: Heidegger The Project of Being and Time Dasein and Disclosedness Levinas and the Emptiness of Dasein The Collapse of Heidegger's Concept of World Conclusion Part Two The Theory of Modernity Introduction to Part Two 7. Enlightenment and Narcissism: Adorno, Horkheimer, and Lasch The Dialectical Theory A Flaw in the Theory 8. The Cultural Theory and the Rise of Anti-Culture Cultural versus Dialectical Perspectives Cultural Subjectivism and Anti-Culture Part Three The Cultural Dimension Introduction to Part Three 9. Anti-Culture and the Alleged Death of Philosophy The Limits of Subjectivism Anti-Cultural Philosophy Post-Modernism 10. The Metaphysics of Culture: A Pluralist-Naturalist View Integrity and Relation The Concept of Culture Culture and Mind: Winnicott, Cassirer, and Dewey Culture and Nature Epilogue: Humanism, Democracy, and Culture Jackboots on the Stairs Anti-Culture and American Democracy Not an Epitaph Notes Bibliography Index