Kant in the Land of Extraterrestrials

Cosmopolitical Philosofictions

Peter Szendy, Will Bishop

$67.25

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Fordham University Press
02 September 2013

Philosophy

"""Yes, Kant did indeed speak of extraterrestrials."" This phrase could provide the opening for this brief treatise of philosofiction (as one speaks of science fiction). What is revealed in the aliens of which Kant speaks-and he no doubt took them more seriously than anyone else in the history of philosophy-are the limits of globalization, or what Kant called cosmopolitanism.

Before engaging Kantian considerations of the inhabitants of other worlds, before comprehending his reasoned alienology, this book works its way through an analysis of the star wars raging above our heads in the guise of international treaties regulating the law of space, including the cosmopirates that Carl Schmitt sometimes mentions in his late writings.

Turning to track the comings and goings of extraterrestrials in Kant's work, Szendy reveals that they are the necessary condition for an unattainable definition of humanity. Impossible to represent, escaping any possible experience, they are nonetheless inscribed both at the heart of the sensible and as an Archimedean point from whose perspective the interweavings of the sensible can be viewed.

Reading Kant in dialogue with science fiction films (films he seems already to have seen) involves making him speak of questions now pressing in upon us: our endangered planet, ecology, a war of the worlds. But it also means attempting to think, with or beyond Kant, what a point of view might be."

By: Peter Szendy
Translated by: Will Bishop
Imprint: Fordham University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 12mm
Weight: 254g
ISBN: 9780823255504
ISBN 10: 0823255506
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 02 September 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Peter Szendy is Professor of Aesthetics in the Philosophy Department of the University of Nanterre. The most recent of his books are Hits: Philosophy in the Jukebox and Prophecies of Leviathan: Reading (Past)Melville (both Fordham).

Reviews for Kant in the Land of Extraterrestrials: Cosmopolitical Philosofictions

Among the vast body of scholarship that explores the Kantian theory of space, none does so with greater urgency, concision, and wit than Kant in the Land of Extraterrestrials. It is especially innovative not only in its examination of the theme of extraterritoriality but also in its staging of the confrontation between Kant and Schmitt over the origin and fate of so-called outer space. GCoPeter Fenves, Northwestern University Among the vast body of scholarship that explores the Kantian theory of space, none does so with greater urgency, concision, and wit than Kant in the Land of Extraterrestrials. It is especially innovative not only in its examination of the theme of extraterritoriality but also in its staging of the confrontation between Kant and Schmitt over the origin and fate of so-called outer space. -Peter Fenves, Northwestern University