Richard J. White - Böcker

An emotion or an action, a kind of madness or a state of well-being, a measurable brain activity or a spiritual phenomenon: What is the truth about love? Richard White explores this elusive concept as a profound path of self-overcoming – a turning away from narcissism, fear, and isolation toward greater openness, receptivity, and compassion.Reimagining Love unfolds in four movements, through the fear of love as expressed in Stoicism and the modern achievement-oriented self; the awakening of love described by Plato, J.W. von Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others; the work of love and the cultivation of its virtues; and love as active compassion, a way of engaging with the world attentively, courageously, and non-possessively. White unites theory and practice, arguing that personal love can open outward into universal compassion, echoing the Buddhist ideal of karuṇā – the selfless embrace of another’s suffering. Central to this vision is love’s spiritual dimension. It is not religious as such, but a source of meaning grounded in our sense of connection to something greater: nature, truth, justice, or the sacred itself.Written with clarity and quiet authority, Reimagining Love offers a meditation on the ethical and existential significance of love for denizens of a disenchanted world.

From The Birth of Tragedy on, Nietzsche worked to comprehend thenature of the individual. Richard White shows how Nietzsche was inspiredand guided by the question of personal "sovereignty" and howthrough his writings he sought to provoke the very sovereignty he described.White argues that Nietzsche is a philosopher our contemporary age musttherefore come to understand if we are ever to secure a genuinely meaningfuldirection for the future. Profoundly relevant to our era, Nietzsche'sphilosophy addresses a version of individuality that allows us to movebeyond the self-dispossession of mass society and the alternative of selfishindividualism--to fully understand how one becomes what one is.A volume in the International Nietzsche Studies series, edited by Richard Schacht

Building upon anarchist critiques of racism, sexism, ableism and classism, this collection of new essays melds anarchism with animal advocacy in arguing that speciesism is an ideological and social norm rooted in hierarchy and inequality. Rising from the anarchist-influenced Occupy Movement, this book brings together international scholars and activists who challenge us all to look more critically into the causes of speciesism and to take a broader view of peace, social justice and the nature of oppression. Animal advocates have long argued that speciesism will end if the humanity adopts a vegan ethic. This concept is developed into the argument that the vegan ethic has the most promise if it is also anti-capitalist and against all forms of domination.

Weaving together a diverse range of scholarly-activist intersectional voices from around the world, Critical Animal Studies and Activism: International Perspectives on Total Liberation and Intersectionality co-edited by Anthony J. Nocella II and Richard J. White makes a powerful contribution to knowledge and understanding. It is essential reading for environmentalists, animal advocates, social justice organizers, policy-makers, social change-makers, and indeed for all those who care about the future of this planet. This book spans many scholar disciplines and activist social movements, and provides new insights to fundamental debates surrounding inter-species justice, liberation, and democracy. This critical theory for total liberation book expands the understanding of one struggle one fight: for human freedom, for animal rights, and for the liberation of the earth herself. Rooted in a radical praxis, the book argues that those in academia that claim critical animal studies, need to hit the streets with the protesters and the protesters need to join the theoretical conversations. Theory and practice and not binaries, but two pieces of a larger goal. Read this book and use its arguments to take the fight to smash capitalism, oppression, and domination in all its forms!

Weaving together a diverse range of scholarly-activist intersectional voices from around the world, Critical Animal Studies and Activism: International Perspectives on Total Liberation and Intersectionality co-edited by Anthony J. Nocella II and Richard J. White makes a powerful contribution to knowledge and understanding. It is essential reading for environmentalists, animal advocates, social justice organizers, policy-makers, social change-makers, and indeed for all those who care about the future of this planet. This book spans many scholar disciplines and activist social movements, and provides new insights to fundamental debates surrounding inter-species justice, liberation, and democracy. This critical theory for total liberation book expands the understanding of one struggle one fight: for human freedom, for animal rights, and for the liberation of the earth herself. Rooted in a radical praxis, the book argues that those in academia that claim critical animal studies, need to hit the streets with the protesters and the protesters need to join the theoretical conversations. Theory and practice and not binaries, but two pieces of a larger goal. Read this book and use its arguments to take the fight to smash capitalism, oppression, and domination in all its forms!

Offering a diagnostic global perspective on police brutality, Towards Anti-policing: Prefiguring Possibilities beyond the Thin Blue Line raises critical questions about whether policing is needed at all and what underlying purpose it actually serves. In this post-pandemic era, where the grip of authoritarianism has only tightened, Towards Anti-policing positions radical grassroots activism as a first line of critical defiance against the ‘Fear Terror Paradigm’ of policing logics and the pervasive brutality that this form of community control represents.

The last two decades have seen a re-birth of practices and principles that connect with the ‘soul’ of left-libertarianism, although they may not explicitly engage with the anarchist tradition. From practices of mapping and land-use planning to local protests and transnational social movements, this book explores a variety of case studies that trace the influences of, and affinities between, anarchist and geographic practice. The chapters explore the vast possibilities of inventive, exploratory libertarian practices from contemporary and historic contexts around the globe. They examine the ways in which various spatial practices have been compatible with left-libertarian principles, and explore the extent to which anarchists, neo-anarchists and libertarian autonomists have animated these waves of protest and forms of resistance. In an age that is desperately in need of critical new directions, this volume shows that a serious (re)turn toward anarchist thought and practice can challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond their traditional frontiers of geographical praxis.

The last two decades have seen a re-birth of practices and principles that connect with the ‘soul’ of left-libertarianism, although they may not explicitly engage with the anarchist tradition. From practices of mapping and land-use planning to local protests and transnational social movements, this book explores a variety of case studies that trace the influences of, and affinities between, anarchist and geographic practice. The chapters explore the vast possibilities of inventive, exploratory libertarian practices from contemporary and historic contexts around the globe. They examine the ways in which various spatial practices have been compatible with left-libertarian principles, and explore the extent to which anarchists, neo-anarchists and libertarian autonomists have animated these waves of protest and forms of resistance. In an age that is desperately in need of critical new directions, this volume shows that a serious (re)turn toward anarchist thought and practice can challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond their traditional frontiers of geographical praxis.

Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating with each other, sometimes struggling against each other. Space has multiple and complex functions in the development of social relations, it is a reference for identity-building, a material condition for existence, and an instrument of power.This book explores the ways in which space has been used for resistance, especially in left-libertarian contexts. From the early anarchist organizing efforts in the 19th century to the contemporary social movements of the Mexican Zapatistas, the chapters examine a range of cases to illustrate both the limits and potentialities of utilizing space within anarchist practice. By theorizing the production of anarchist spaces, the book aims to foster new geographical imaginations that energetically cultivate alternative practices to challenge the status quo. It shows that spatial re-organization, spatial practices and spatial resources are also a basic condition for human emancipation, autonomy and freedom.

Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating with each other, sometimes struggling against each other. Space has multiple and complex functions in the development of social relations, it is a reference for identity-building, a material condition for existence, and an instrument of power.This book explores the ways in which space has been used for resistance, especially in left-libertarian contexts. From the early anarchist organizing efforts in the 19th century to the contemporary social movements of the Mexican Zapatistas, the chapters examine a range of cases to illustrate both the limits and potentialities of utilizing space within anarchist practice. By theorizing the production of anarchist spaces, the book aims to foster new geographical imaginations that energetically cultivate alternative practices to challenge the status quo. It shows that spatial re-organization, spatial practices and spatial resources are also a basic condition for human emancipation, autonomy and freedom.

How do activists learn radical politics? Does the increasing neoliberalisation of education limit the possibilities of transgressive pedagogies? And in what contexts have anarchist geographers successfully shaped alternative pedagogic practices? Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge and represents one of the key sites of contact where anarchist approaches can inform and revitalize contemporary geographical thought. This book looks at how anarchist geographers have shaped pedagogies that move towards bottom-up, ‘organic’ transformations of societies, spaces, subjectivities, and modes of organizing, where the importance of direct action and prefigurative politics take precedence over concerns about the state. Examining contemporary and historical case studies across the world, from formal and informal contexts, the chapters show the potential for new imaginaries of anarchist geographies that will challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond the traditional frontiers of geographical knowledge.