Susan Neiman Livres

'An ambitious and engrossing investigation of the moral legacies which stubbornly refuse to pass' Brendan Simms As the western world struggles with its legacies of racism and colonialism, what can we learn from the past in order to move forward? Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman, who grew up as a white girl in the American South during the civil rights movement, is a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. In clear and gripping prose, she uses this unique perspective to combine philosophical reflection, personal history and conversations with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through focusing on the particularities of those histories, she provides examples for other nations, whether they are facing resurgent nationalism, ongoing debates over reparations or controversies surrounding historical monuments and the contested memories they evoke. It is necessary reading for all those confronting their own troubled pasts.

The Unity of Reason is the first major study of Kant's account of reason. It argues that Kant's wide-ranging interests and goals can only be understood by redirecting attention from epistemological questions of his work to those concerning the nature of reason. Rather than accepting a notion of reason given by his predecessors, a fundamental aim of Kant's philosophy is to reconceive the nature of reason. This enables us to understand Kant's insistence on the unity of theoretical and practical reason as well as his claim that his metaphysics was driven by practical and political ends. Neiman begins by discussing the historical roots of Kant's conception of reason, and by showing Kant's solution to problems which earlier conceptions left unresolved. Kant's notion of reason itself is examined through a discussion of all the activities Kant attributes to reason. In separate chapters discussing the role of reason in science, morality, religion, and philosophy, Neiman explores Kant'sdistinctions between reason and knowledge, and his difficult account of the regulative principles of reason. Through examination of these principles in Kant's major and minor writings, The Unity of Reason provides a fundamentally new perspective on Kant's entire work.

Whether expressed in theological or secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world's intelligibility. It confronts philosophy with fundamental questions: Can there be meaning in a world where innocents suffer? Can belief in divine power or human progress survive a cataloging of evil? Is evil profound or banal? Neiman argues that these questions impelled modern philosophy. Traditional philosophers from Leibniz to Hegel sought to defend the Creator of a world containing evil. Inevitably, their efforts--combined with those of more literary figures like Pope, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Sade--eroded belief in God's benevolence, power, and relevance, until Nietzsche claimed He had been murdered. They also yielded the distinction between natural and moral evil that we now take for granted. Neiman turns to consider philosophy's response to the Holocaust as a final moral evil, concluding that two basic stances run through modern thought. One, from Rousseau to Arendt, insists that morality demands we make evil intelligible. The other, from Voltaire to Adorno, insists that morality demands that we don't.

If you're woke, you're left. If you're left, you're woke. We blur the terms, assuming that if you're one you must be the other. That, Susan Neiman argues, is a dangerous mistake.The intellectual roots and resources of wokeism conflict with ideas that have guided the left for more than 200 years: a commitment to universalism, a firm distinction between justice and power, and a belief in the possibility of progress. Without these ideas, Neiman argues, they will continue to undermine their own goals and drift, inexorably and unintentionally, towards the right. In the long run, they risk becoming what they despise.One of the world's leading philosophical voices, Neiman makes this case by tracing the malign influence of two titans of twentieth-century thought, Michel Foucault and Carl Schmitt, whose work undermined ideas of justice and progress and portrayed social life as an eternal struggle of us against them. A generation schooled with these voices in their heads, raised in a broader culture shaped by the ruthless ideas of neoliberalism and evolutionary psychology, has set about changing the world. It's time they thought again.

Becoming an adult today can seem a grim prospect. As you grow up, you are told to renounce most of the dreams of your youth and resign yourself to an existence that is a pale dilution of the adventurous, important and enjoyable life you once expected. But who wants to do that? No wonder we live in a culture of rampant immaturity, argues renowned philosopher Susan Neiman. In Why Grow Up, the fourth in a series of short books of original thought, Neiman shows how philosophy can help us want to grow up. Travel, both literally and metaphorically, has been seen as a crucial step to coming of age by thinkers as diverse as Kant, Rousseau and Simone de Beauvoir. Neiman asks how this idea can help us build a new model of maturity. Refuting the widespread belief that the best time of your life is between sixteen and twenty-six, she argues that being grown-up is an ideal worth striving for.

Susan Neiman untersucht in "Moralische Klarheit" das Verhältnis von Moral und Politik, um die Sprache der Moral für die Linke zurückzugewinnen. Sie kritisiert die Trennung von Moral und Politik und betont die Bedeutung von Handeln und Verantwortung. Anhand von historischen Analysen und zeitgenössischen Helden entwickelt sie ein neues Verständnis der Aufklärungswerte.

Unsere Kultur verklärt die Zeit der Jugend mehr, als Peter Pan zu träumen gewagt hätte. Und alles, was danach kommt, erscheint als unaufhaltsamer Niedergang. Doch schon Kant wusste, dass Unmündigkeit einfacher ist – für den Einzelnen, vor allem aber für staatliche Obrigkeiten, denen infantilisierte Konsumenten lieber sind als selbstdenkende Bürger. Susan Neiman wendet sich gegen diese resignative Sicht auf das Erwachsensein. Sie liest die Philosophen neu und plädiert mit Rousseau und Kant: Nehmen wir uns die Freiheit, etwas vom Leben zu verlangen! Denn Reife bedeutet nicht das Ende aller Träume, sondern ein subversives Ideal: das Leben in seiner Widersprüchlichkeit zu ergreifen und glücken zu lassen.

Susan Neiman ist Direktorin des Einstein Forums in Potsdam. Sie lehrte Philosophie in Yale und an der Universität von Tel Aviv und ist Mitglied der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Susan Neiman ist Direktorin des Einstein Forums in Potsdam. Sie lehrte Philosophie in Yale und an der Universität von Tel Aviv und ist Mitglied der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Susan Neiman ist Direktorin des Einstein Forums in Potsdam. Sie lehrte Philosophie in Yale und an der Universität von Tel Aviv und ist Mitglied der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

'Links ≠ woke' is een vlammend en urgent boek. De Amerikaanse filosoof Susan Neiman, die als tiener sterk beïnvloed werd door de Burgerrechtenbeweging van Martin Luther King, behoort tot de meest geëngageerde denkers ter wereld. In dit boek roept zij mensen met progressieve idealen op om elkaar niet te bestrijden, maar samen op te komen voor gemeenschappelijke universele waarden, ongeacht verschillen in afkomst, gender en etniciteit. Zonder deze waarden zal de huidige woke-generatie haar eigen doelen ondermijnen en onbedoeld naar rechts afglijden. Op de lange termijn lopen we dan het risisco te worden wat we verachten. Neiman wijst op de invloed van twee titanen van het twintigste-eeuwse denken, Michel Foucault en Carl Schmitt, die het sociale leven voorstelden als een eeuwige strijd van 'wij' tegen 'zij'. Wie zich laat leiden door dit polariserende gedachtegoed, is bezig met een stammenstrijd waar niemand beter van wordt. Het is hoog tijd dat we weer gaan nadenken.