John T. Hamilton is the William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Soliciting Darkness; Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language; Security; and Philology of the Flesh, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Hamilton has given us an extended essay on the theme of complacency, taking as his starting-point an opinion piece from 2009 by the philosopher Simon Blackburn, which characterizes it as one of the deadly 'sins' of the academy. He draws on etymology and wordplay to explore the imagery and resonances of complacency in different historical contexts from antiquity to the present, not simply in its familiar associations of (self-)satisfaction, but, strikingly, in the imagery of 'flatness' that Hamilton explores in novel and thought-provoking ways. Readers will be diverted and challenged in turn, and all should come away with fresh perspectives on this topic. -- Duncan Kennedy, University of Bristol Hamilton's investigation of ambivalence in the long conceptual history of complacency sparkles. This nimble critique targets the blindnesses of classicism-justifying empire, flattening difference through universalism, any form of domination promising ease-wherever they are found, in science, business, higher education, or the discipline of classics itself. The solution is nevertheless ancient: to search, relentlessly and with love, for understanding and self-knowledge in all their contingent particularity. -- Michele Lowrie, The University of Chicago Hamilton's investigation of ambivalence in the long conceptual history of complacency sparkles. This nimble critique targets the blindnesses of classicism-justifying empire, flattening difference through universalism, any form of domination promising ease-wherever they are found, in science, business, higher education, or the discipline of classics itself. The solution is nevertheless ancient: to search, relentlessly and with love, for understanding and self-knowledge in all their contingent particularity. -- Michele Lowrie, The University of Chicago This beautiful book details a vision for the future of the humanities. It is not a plan, but a call to avoid the easy route, to stay attentive, to keep our eyes and ears open. This is a vital message from one of today's most important voices. -- Sean Gurd, The University of Texas at Austin This beautiful book details a vision for the future of the humanities. It is not a plan, but a call to avoid the easy route, to stay attentive, to keep our eyes and ears open. This is a vital message from one of today's most important voices. -- Sean Gurd, The University of Texas at Austin