Frederick Neuhouser is Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College, Columbia University, and Permanent Fellow at the Center for Humanities and Social Change in Berlin. His books include Fichte's Theory of Subjectivity (Cambridge, 1990), Foundations of Hegel's Social Theory (2000), Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love (2008), and Rousseau's Critique of Inequality (Cambridge, 2014).
'The concept of 'social pathology' seems to be both indispensable to critical social theory and at the same time fraught with problems, as it may invoke illegitimately organicist, conservative conceptions of society. In this path-breaking new book, Frederick Neuhouser, with characteristic philosophical depth and rigor, provides the most potent analysis and defense of the legitimacy of the concept in social theory yet to have appeared.' Arash Abazari, Sharif University of Technology 'Neuhouser's achievement in Diagnosing Social Pathology is an exceedingly rare one: it is at once a highly erudite examination of the ontological commitments underlying social theories of Hegel, Durkheim, and Marx (among others) that will be quite rewarding for anyone with a scholarly interest in those figures, while at the same time laying the groundwork for a thoroughly compelling and original method of social critique. This is a deeply fascinating work that will change the way its readers think about the possible modalities of social critique.' Todd Hedrick, Michigan State University