Madness of Knowledge

Steven Connor is Professor of English and Director of Research at the Digital Futures Institute, King’s College, London. He is the author of 18 books, most recently The Madness of Knowledge: On Wisdom, Ignorance and Fantasies of Knowing (2019).

"The Madness of Knowledge challenges the casual belief that there is a thing “out there”, solid and observable, which we more or less manage to cram into our brains . . . His argument – regardless of their truth, our beliefs about knowledge operate in a world of fantasy – is in itself both clear and convincing.," - TLS"Pinning down this wide-ranging book is difficult, but "psycho-literary history of ideas about knowledge" may not be too far off . . . Connor interrogates fictional, philosophical, religious, historical, and other texts to examine the relationships they suggest between knowledge, or the search thereof, and passion, madness, fantasy, and power. Many long passages connect myriad sources and incidents through their common use of a single word or concept. This sometimes looks like the exploratory wordplay that Continental philosophers often use in lieu of an argument or a thesis, but there is more substance here than this comparison may suggest, and the work offers some useful synthetic insights. Though those looking for an analytical, conceptually based central argument may be frustrated, Connor is relatively clear in defining his terms, framing and organizing his remarks, and establishing connections between old and new points. Recommended." - Choice"it is quite safe to say that Connor’s study is original and should be of interest to philosophers, intellectual and cultural historians, and literary scholars, as well as basically anyone who is interested in “epistemopathic” aspects of knowledge . . . As an admirably erudite scholar, Connor delves effortlessly into the storehouse of Western thought, equally at ease discussing the ideas of such luminaries as Plato, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and other psychoanalysts as well as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett." - Isis Journal