Oliver Feltham is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Paris.. His publications include Anatomy of Failure (2013) and Alain Badiou: Live Theory (2008). He is the translator of Alain Badiou's Being and Event (2006) and co-translator (with Justin Clemens) of Infinite Thought (2003).

This is a brilliant and provocative book. Oliver Feltham has again demonstrated the potential of a historicisation of the foundational concepts of political philosophy for rethinking politics beyond neoliberalism. Following on from his analysis of joint action in Anatomy of Failure, in this new book Feltham opposes David Hume’s commercial model of action to the democratic enthusiasm of radical collectives in the English Revolution. The critique involves retrieval as well as demystification, however, for rather than rejecting Hume’s analysis of the political passions, Feltham advocates a topology of the passions as the key to grasping democratic political commitments. The resulting concepts of faction, envelope and vortex map the topology of the passions developed through a critical reading of Hume onto the social imaginary, breaking thereby the automatic connection between enthusiasm and sectarianism that Hume deplored. Feltham shows that the English Revolution remains a fertile reservoir of political concepts that go beyond possessive individualism and negative liberty, and that the modern era therefore harbours radical potentials that require retrieval and reactivation.

• I. PASSIONSChapter 1: From Torrents to Patterns Chapter 2: Passion Locates the Self Chapter 3: From Patterns to Configurations of Appearance Chapter 4: What Does the Other Want? II. ACTIONChapter 5: Locating Action Chapter 6: Conflict as Process and Models of Political Action III. GOVERNMENT Chapter 7: The Problem of Faction and Three Partial Solutions Chapter 8: Schema of Justice, Political Economy Chapter 9: Theory of Government IV. BEYOND GOVERNMENTChapter 10: Critique of Government Chapter 11: Theory of Democratic Enthusiasm

Oliver Feltham is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Paris.. His publications include Anatomy of Failure (2013) and Alain Badiou: Live Theory (2008). He is the translator of Alain Badiou's Being and Event (2006) and co-translator (with Justin Clemens) of Infinite Thought (2003).

This is a brilliant and provocative book. Oliver Feltham has again demonstrated the potential of a historicisation of the foundational concepts of political philosophy for rethinking politics beyond neoliberalism. Following on from his analysis of joint action in Anatomy of Failure, in this new book Feltham opposes David Hume’s commercial model of action to the democratic enthusiasm of radical collectives in the English Revolution. The critique involves retrieval as well as demystification, however, for rather than rejecting Hume’s analysis of the political passions, Feltham advocates a topology of the passions as the key to grasping democratic political commitments. The resulting concepts of faction, envelope and vortex map the topology of the passions developed through a critical reading of Hume onto the social imaginary, breaking thereby the automatic connection between enthusiasm and sectarianism that Hume deplored. Feltham shows that the English Revolution remains a fertile reservoir of political concepts that go beyond possessive individualism and negative liberty, and that the modern era therefore harbours radical potentials that require retrieval and reactivation.

• I. PASSIONSChapter 1: From Torrents to Patterns Chapter 2: Passion Locates the Self Chapter 3: From Patterns to Configurations of Appearance Chapter 4: What Does the Other Want? II. ACTIONChapter 5: Locating Action Chapter 6: Conflict as Process and Models of Political Action III. GOVERNMENT Chapter 7: The Problem of Faction and Three Partial Solutions Chapter 8: Schema of Justice, Political Economy Chapter 9: Theory of Government IV. BEYOND GOVERNMENTChapter 10: Critique of Government Chapter 11: Theory of Democratic Enthusiasm

Oliver Feltham is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Paris.. His publications include Anatomy of Failure (2013) and Alain Badiou: Live Theory (2008). He is the translator of Alain Badiou's Being and Event (2006) and co-translator (with Justin Clemens) of Infinite Thought (2003).

This is a brilliant and provocative book. Oliver Feltham has again demonstrated the potential of a historicisation of the foundational concepts of political philosophy for rethinking politics beyond neoliberalism. Following on from his analysis of joint action in Anatomy of Failure, in this new book Feltham opposes David Hume’s commercial model of action to the democratic enthusiasm of radical collectives in the English Revolution. The critique involves retrieval as well as demystification, however, for rather than rejecting Hume’s analysis of the political passions, Feltham advocates a topology of the passions as the key to grasping democratic political commitments. The resulting concepts of faction, envelope and vortex map the topology of the passions developed through a critical reading of Hume onto the social imaginary, breaking thereby the automatic connection between enthusiasm and sectarianism that Hume deplored. Feltham shows that the English Revolution remains a fertile reservoir of political concepts that go beyond possessive individualism and negative liberty, and that the modern era therefore harbours radical potentials that require retrieval and reactivation.

• I. PASSIONSChapter 1: From Torrents to Patterns Chapter 2: Passion Locates the Self Chapter 3: From Patterns to Configurations of Appearance Chapter 4: What Does the Other Want? II. ACTIONChapter 5: Locating Action Chapter 6: Conflict as Process and Models of Political Action III. GOVERNMENT Chapter 7: The Problem of Faction and Three Partial Solutions Chapter 8: Schema of Justice, Political Economy Chapter 9: Theory of Government IV. BEYOND GOVERNMENTChapter 10: Critique of Government Chapter 11: Theory of Democratic Enthusiasm