Iain Mackenzie

Occupying a space in-between conventional scholarship and imaginative storytelling, The University in Crumbs: A Register of Things Seen and Heard is an experimental work that dramatizes the everyday life of the academy. Consisting primarily of a series of five first-person reports, Robert Porter, Kerry-Ann Porter and Iain Mackenzie provide the reader with a number of stories that attempt to capture some of their everyday experiences of academic life in the UK, roughly between 2017 and 2022. Self-consciously written in a subjective and conversational register, and often in dialogical form, The University in Crumbs is an accessible series of interrelated narratives that allow us to develop a concrete sense of the grain, texture and feel for what it might be like to work in the academy at a specific point in time. These stories, first-person reports, dialogues, come alive, acquire their meaning, force and pragmatic effect by way of a rather unique circumlocutory form. There is a directedness to the everyday talk engaged in by Robert, Kerry-Ann and Iain that nonetheless, simultaneously, indirectly loops in and out of a kind of technical academic talk that provides the book its light and shade. University in Crumbs is an experimental work that implicitly and explicitly animates philosophy, social, cultural and political theory through first-person experiences and, in so doing, breathes new life into what can often otherwise remain rather conventional and technical academic language-games. More than that, this book dramatizes ideas and concepts in ways perhaps less burdened by the weight of canonical tradition, and encourages those readers with the talent to portray their social world differently to be more licentious and less bashful in putting such talents to work.

In the wake of the new far-right populisms, the fragmentation of global narratives of progress, and the dismantling of economic globalization, there are signs that neoliberalism is beginning to enter its death throes or at least starting to fundamentally mutate. This provides us with a roughly fifty-year cycle with which to re-assess the rise and potential fall of neoliberalism. Using 1968 as one of the inaugural moments of this history, this interdisciplinary collection seeks to reassess the significance and legacy of the global 1968 uprisings from today’s vantage point. While these uprisings arguably helped bring an end to a number of forms of oppression, the period following them also saw the re-entrenchment of class power to a level not seen since the 1920s. Without drawing any simple or direct lines of causation, the sequence of the past fifty years reflects what could be termed a double bind or “lose-lose” scenario. Yet, particularly given the present-day indicators of a crisis of neoliberal hegemony, this volume argues that returning to 1968 today may offer critical and comparative resources for thinking a way out of our current impasse.

`The truth will set you free' is a maxim central to both theories and practices of resistance. Nonetheless, it is a claim that has come under fire from an array of critical perspectives in the second half of the 20th century. Iain MacKenzie analyses two of the most compelling of these perspectives: the poststructuralist politics of truth formulated by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze and the alternative post-foundational account of truth and militancy developed by Alain Badiou. He argues that a critically oriented version of poststructuralism provides both an understanding of the deeply entwined nature of truth and power and a compelling account of the creative practices that may sustain resistance.

"Key Concepts in Philosophy" is a series of concise, accessible and engaging introductions to the core ideas and subjects encountered in the study of philosophy. Specially written to meet the needs of students and those with an interest in, but little prior knowledge of, philosophy, these books open up fascinating, yet sometimes difficult ideas. The series builds to give a solid grounding in philosophy and each book is also ideal as a companion to further study. Philosophy underpins political concepts, ideals and debates. The extent and nature of our rights, liberties and responsibilities, the role of the state and the best means of its governance are all questions to have been addressed by great philosophers throughout history - and questions students of political philosophy must engage with. "Politics: Key Concepts in Philosophy" offers a thorough, lucid and stimulating account of the central theories and ideas encountered in political philosophy. The text is thematically structured, covering the discipline's principal ideologies: Statism; Realism; Liberalism; Conservatism; Socialism; Anarchism; and Environmentalism. It also offers a brief history of political philosophy and the major political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes, Marx and Rawls, and, valuably, concludes with a look at 'applied' political philosophy, relating the discipline to contemporary political situations and questions. Philosophy undergraduates will find this an invaluable aid to study, one that goes beyond simple definitions and summaries to open up a new and stimulating range of ideas.

"Key Concepts in Philosophy" is a series of concise, accessible and engaging introductions to the core ideas and subjects encountered in the study of philosophy. Specially written to meet the needs of students and those with an interest in, but little prior knowledge of, philosophy, these books open up fascinating, yet sometimes difficult ideas. The series builds to give a solid grounding in philosophy and each book is also ideal as a companion to further study. Philosophy underpins political concepts, ideals and debates. The extent and nature of our rights, liberties and responsibilities, the role of the state and the best means of its governance are all questions to have been addressed by great philosophers throughout history - and questions students of political philosophy must engage with. "Politics: Key Concepts in Philosophy" offers a thorough, lucid and stimulating account of the central theories and ideas encountered in political philosophy. The text is thematically structured, covering the discipline's principal ideologies: Statism; Realism; Liberalism; Conservatism; Socialism; Anarchism; and Environmentalism. It also offers a brief history of political philosophy and the major political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes, Marx and Rawls, and, valuably, concludes with a look at 'applied' political philosophy, relating the discipline to contemporary political situations and questions. Philosophy undergraduates will find this an invaluable aid to study, one that goes beyond simple definitions and summaries to open up a new and stimulating range of ideas.

The Idea of Pure Critique will be invaluable to students of Kant as well as those interested in Deleuze and Guattari's contribution to philosophies of difference. More fundamentally, the book presents a series of stimulating political and philosophical challenges to the apathy and indifference that pervade modern life. What is required of critique if it is to overcome indifference? This question addresses core themes in modern, post-Kantian and European philosophy, challenging theory's resignation in the face of contemporary political and economic formations. In this book, Iain Mackenzie argues eloquently that if such indifference is to be overcome, critique must first be demarcated in its purity, as an idea of critique in and of itself. Moreover, for the idea of critique to become pure we must view it as being essentially the construction of difference. Only in this pure form, understood as the construction of difference, can critique hope to overcome the crushing indifference of our current age.

The Idea of Pure Critique will be invaluable to students of Kant as well as those interested in Deleuze and Guattari's contribution to philosophies of difference. More fundamentally, the book presents a series of stimulating political and philosophical challenges to the apathy and indifference that pervade modern life. What is required of critique if it is to overcome indifference? This question addresses core themes in modern, post-Kantian and European philosophy, challenging theory's resignation in the face of contemporary political and economic formations. In this book, Iain Mackenzie argues eloquently that if such indifference is to be overcome, critique must first be demarcated in its purity, as an idea of critique in and of itself. Moreover, for the idea of critique to become pure we must view it as being essentially the construction of difference. Only in this pure form, understood as the construction of difference, can critique hope to overcome the crushing indifference of our current age.

In the context of a new global order where the logic of the market reigns virtually unopposed, there is a clear need for original thinking that might reinvigorate a progressive political project. This collection of essays brings together the work of a number of leading scholars who are concerned to construct a convincing basis for incisive criticism today. These contributors represent the most vibrant and influential of contemporary critical perspectives: egalitarian liberalism, socialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics and critical theory.