Henry Pickford | Duke University (original) (raw)

Books by Henry Pickford

Translated with notes by H. W. Pickford Translator's Introduction: Christoph Hein (born 1944) was... more Translated with notes by H. W. Pickford Translator's Introduction: Christoph Hein (born 1944) was a renowned playwright, prose writer and essayist of the GDR (German Democratic Republic) whose 1982 novel Der fremde Freund (English translation The Distant Lover) also won accolades in West Germany. He continued his literary career in reunified Germany, and today is one of Germany's most acclaimed writers. The short story below draws on the novella Michael Kohlhaas and the anecdote "The newer (happier) Werther" (alluding to Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther), both by Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). The setting of the story is the GDR in the 1970s. Administrative authority was hierarchically organized from the local commune to the district (Kreis), further to the region (Bezirk), and finally to the state (federal) government. State-owned or "people's" enterprises were run by management and the local trade union in close cooperation. Disputes between workers and factory leadership were first referred to a factory-internal "conflict commission" that operated in a non-legal capacity. However, appeal could be made first to the district court, then to the regional court, and ultimately to the federal supreme court.

Volume of papers from the Weimar conference in January 2016. Edited by Rüdiger Dannemann, Hans-Er... more Volume of papers from the Weimar conference in January 2016. Edited by Rüdiger Dannemann, Hans-Ernst Schiller, and Henry Pickford

European Perspectives presents outstanding books by leading European thinkers. With both classic ... more European Perspectives presents outstanding books by leading European thinkers. With both classic and contemporary works, the series aims to shape the major intellectual controversies of our day and to facilitate the tasks of historical understanding.

Chicago Press), radically reinterprets Theodor W. Adorno's life and work -and the apparent divide... more Chicago Press), radically reinterprets Theodor W. Adorno's life and work -and the apparent divide between 'theory' and 'praxis' -under the guise of a single, deliberate, critical habitus self--consciously chosen by a thinker confronting the societal circumstances of his time. It is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project, building on our respective expertise in German literature, European intellectual and cultural history, philosophy, and

First edition of this book was 1998. A second edition, including an introduction by Lydia Goehr, ... more First edition of this book was 1998. A second edition, including an introduction by Lydia Goehr, was issued in 2006.

Papers by Henry Pickford

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2024

Expanded and updated entry on Adorno for the internet database.

Fordham University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2013

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022

Fordham University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2013

Novel: A Forum on Fiction, May 1, 2017

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

[The logic of the general use of the understanding] contains the absolutely necessary rules of th... more [The logic of the general use of the understanding] contains the absolutely necessary rules of thinking, without which no use of the understanding takes place, and it therefore concerns these rules without regard to the difference of the objects to which it may be directed.... Now general logic is either pure or applied logic. In the former we abstract from all empirical conditions under which our understanding is exercised.... A general but pure logic therefore has to do with strictly a priori principles, and is a canon of the understanding and reason, but only in regard to what is formal in their use, be the content what it may.... A general logic, however, is called applied if it is directed to the rules of the use of the understanding under the subjective empirical conditions that psychology teaches us.... In general logic the part that is to constitute the pure doctrine of reason must therefore be entirely separated from that which constitutes applied (though still general) logic. The former alone is properly science.... In this therefore logicians must always have two rules in view. 1) As general logic it abstracts from all contents of the cognition of the understanding and of the difference of its objects, and has to do with nothing but the mere form of thinking. 2) As pure logic it has no empirical principles, and thus draws nothing from psychology.... It is a proven doctrine, and everything in it must be completely a priori.

Constellations

This essay outlines a neo-Aristotelian approach to the concept of resistance that complements How... more This essay outlines a neo-Aristotelian approach to the concept of resistance that complements Howard Caygill’s conceptual analysis, by considering resistance as a particular species of the genus action and focusing on the logical form of judgments of resistant action. This more analytical approach to political resistance constitutes the first part of my essay. In the second part, I review Caygill’s conceptual typology with particular attention to his interpretation of Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on resistance under conditions of “total domination,” as a contrast for then, in the third part of the essay, considering Adorno, likewise a thinker of “total domination." I show that reflection on the concept and categories of resistance as elaborated in the first part of the essay reveals a powerful, deliberate and sustained resistant practice in Adorno’s writings and activities as a public intellectual.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2024

Expanded and updated entry on Adorno for the internet database.

Fordham University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2013

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022

Fordham University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2013

Novel: A Forum on Fiction, May 1, 2017

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

Constellations

Constellations, 2023

This essay outlines a neo-Aristotelian approach to the concept of resistance that complements How... more This essay outlines a neo-Aristotelian approach to the concept of resistance that complements Howard Caygill’s conceptual analysis, by considering resistance as a particular species of the genus action and focusing on the logical form of judgments of resistant action.
This more analytical approach to political resistance constitutes the first part of my essay. In the second part, I review Caygill’s conceptual typology with particular attention to his interpretation of Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on resistance under conditions of “total domination,” as a contrast for then, in the third part of the essay, considering Adorno, likewise a thinker of “total domination." I show that reflection on the concept and categories of resistance as elaborated in the first part of the essay reveals a powerful,
deliberate and sustained resistant practice in Adorno’s writings and activities as a public intellectual.

Wittgenstein and Literary Studies, 2023

While readers have long recognized the innovative styles of Wittgenstein's writings, this chapter... more While readers have long recognized the innovative styles of Wittgenstein's writings, this chapter considers the philosophical significance of the concept, perception, and attribution of style in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and other works. Contrary to some interpreters, I argue in the first section that the later Wittgenstein continued to see philosophy as logic, but expanded his conception of what constituted "the logical" to include "forms of life," "life," "living," and so on. In the second section, I draw on recent work on the logical form of judgment about living organisms to describe distinctive logical features of such judgment including necessity, unity, generality and its relation to particularity, and temporality, and in the third section, I show that this logical form and its distinctive features can elucidate claims made about forms of life in Philosophical Investigations. In the final section, I show how Wittgenstein's concept of style exhibits the same logical features and thereby serves as a guiding metaphor for recognizing "the logical" in our everyday life activities.

Sociedad de Estudios de Teoría Crítica, Dec 31, 2020

This essay attempts through extended textual exegesis to clarify two fundamental concepts in late... more This essay attempts through extended textual exegesis to clarify two fundamental concepts in late Adorno's metaphysical and philosophical-aesthetic writings respectively: "metaphysical experience" and the "riddle-character" of art. The first part of the essay explores how in Negative Dialectics Adorno reworks certain Kantian themes to provide an account of metaphysical experience as the exercise of the mind's capacity for thinking beyond the immanently given that brings happiness despite failing to attain the absolute. The second part of the essay interprets concepts from Aesthetic Theory and related writings, including the internal/external, performative/cognitive perspectives on the artwork, and its similarity to language, to show how the riddle-character of art elicits an experience similar to metaphysical experience, in that it demonstrates the ability of mind to reach beyond its cognitive selflimitations into a response-dependent objectivity with utopian implications.

nterpreters of Wittgenstein have long acknowledged the philosopher’s admiration for Tolstoy’s lif... more nterpreters of Wittgenstein have long acknowledged the philosopher’s admiration for Tolstoy’s life and works, especially his later writings.1 While the established evidence is compelling, I think that Tolstoy’s artistic and essayistic texts— his images, ideas and thoughts—are far more deeply implicated in Wittgenstein’s thought than has hitherto been recognized. In the present essay I will endeavor to show how a certain line of reasoning in Wittgenstein can be seen to be responding to a problematic mooted in Tolstoy’s texts. That is, by way of rational reconstruction I will show how aspects of Wittgenstein’s thought can elucidate Tolstoy, help us understand his theory of art and, most importantly, help us see how that theory ultimately fails. I proceed by first introducing meaning skepticism and the theory of expressivism that I will trace out in Tolstoy (section I), then showing how that theory arises in response to the Cartesian structure of meaning skepticism Tolstoy explores in ...

Solidarity in Open Societies

This essay outlines a picture of solidarity that can be extracted from early writings by Karl Mar... more This essay outlines a picture of solidarity that can be extracted from early writings by Karl Marx and that fulfills criteria of solidarity by thinkers like Ashley Taylor. Marx’s partially neo-Aristotelian picture of solidarity is shown to differ crucially from the phenomenological account of David Wiggins in the analytic tradition of moral philosophy, and from the account by Andrea Sangiovanni in the liberal tradition of political philosophy. After presenting some of Marx’s arguments that capitalism thwarts the realization of solidarity, the essay concludes with modest practical suggestions for promoting its realization in contemporary open societies.

To appear in the book "Aesthetic Marx," edited by Samir Gandesha and Johan Hart... more To appear in the book "Aesthetic Marx," edited by Samir Gandesha and Johan Hartle. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

This article lays the groundwork for a defense of rational intuitions by first arguing against a ... more This article lays the groundwork for a defense of rational intuitions by first arguing against a prevalent view according to which intuition is a distinctive psychological state, an “intellectual seeming” that p, that then constitutes evidence that p. An alternative account is then offered, according to which an intuition that p constitutes non-inferential a priori knowledge that p in virtue of the concepts exercised in judging that p. This account of rational intuition as the exercise of conceptual capacities in a priori judgment is then distinguished from the dogmatic, entitlement and reliabilist accounts of intuition’s justificatory force. The article concludes by considering three implications of the proposed view for the Experimental Philosophy movement.

Review of "Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein" in the Modern Language Review

Comprehensive review of the contributions to this collected volume, based on conference in Januar... more Comprehensive review of the contributions to this collected volume, based on conference in January 2016 held by the Nietzsche Kolleg in Weimar.

Review in the journal "Wittgenstein Studies"

Krisis, 2023

Suggests that genuine tragic knowledge, as exemplified in a film script by Cormac McCarthy, might... more Suggests that genuine tragic knowledge, as exemplified in a film script by Cormac McCarthy, might be used to motivate action in response to menacing global environmental catastrophe.

Adorno Studies, 2023

This short essay suggests the metaphysical purport of Benjamin's and Adorno's usage of color and ... more This short essay suggests the metaphysical purport of Benjamin's and Adorno's usage of color and rainbow imagery in their writings on experience and art.
A shortened version is forthcoming in the journal "Adorno Studies":
https://www.adornostudies.org/

forthcoming in the Blackwell Companion to Adorno

This essay first contextualizes Adorno's essays in literary criticism in relation to his historic... more This essay first contextualizes Adorno's essays in literary criticism in relation to his historico-philosophical account of modern rationalization and late capitalism, his dialectical theory of culture, and his return to postwar Germany. It then presents the neo-Marxist and formalist principles that inform his literary criticism, emphasizing the artwork's critical relationship to society on the one hand, and the theory of aesthetic experience undergone by the artwork's recipient on the other. These principles are exemplified in selective readings of Adorno's essays on Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Hölderlin. The essay concludes by polemically juxtaposing Adorno's practice of literary criticism with that of neo-Aristotelian "ethical criticism."

Translator's Note from the program accompanying the English-language premiere of Christoph Hein's... more Translator's Note from the program accompanying the English-language premiere of Christoph Hein's play "Passage" in Las Vegas, November 2017

An informal discussion of the chapters 1-4 of Owen Hulatt's book "Adorno's Theory of Philosophica... more An informal discussion of the chapters 1-4 of Owen Hulatt's book "Adorno's Theory of Philosophical and Aesthetic Truth". For Syndicate Review (online)

Critique (online)

Book review of Fabian Freyenhagen's book "Adorno's Practical Philosophy: Living Less Wrongly"

Review of Irina Paperno's recent book on Tolstoy and autobiography.

Short essay considering the empirical conditions and possible historicity of the sublime.

Unpublished translation of a play by Christoph Hein about Walter Benjamin. ***The play will be ... more Unpublished translation of a play by Christoph Hein about Walter Benjamin.
***The play will be staged 2-11 November 2017 at the College of Southern Nevada***

Invited contribution to celebration of Lev Loseff's poetry at the Joseph Brodsky Museum, St. Pete... more Invited contribution to celebration of Lev Loseff's poetry at the Joseph Brodsky Museum, St. Petersburg, October 2023

In her lean and crisp study Das Mitleid, Käte Hamburger draws on the history of philosophical acc... more In her lean and crisp study Das Mitleid, Käte Hamburger draws on the history of philosophical accounts of Mitleid as well as its appearance in modern literary works to ultimately present her own analysis of the concept. At the outset she notes that the concept has different connotations in different languages, including Greek eleos, Latin misericordia, French pitié, and English pity and compassion; some thinkers have extended the range of the concept's extension to include empathy and sympathy; I'll simply use the term 'Mitleid' in my talk. Hamburger herself defines Mitleid as "die Teilnahme am Mißgeschick anderer." 1 That is, she understands Mitleid as a two-place relation between one person (the subject) and another person (the object). 2 My talk falls into three parts. In the first part, I present one central line of reasoning in her book to her controversial conclusion that Mitleid stands in no necessary, essential or constitutive relation to ethics. In the second part I show that, from her own analysis, an alternative picture of the general relation underlying Mitleid can be reconstructed that does have ethical purport; this general relation I call "anthropological solidarity." In the third part I argue that her understanding of the relation between mental states on the one hand, and action on the other, which she mistakenly attributes to Wittgenstein, can be corrected by a reconsideration of her chosen Wittgenstein passage that further illuminates the account of anthropological solidarity. My talk thus, all too swiftly and schematically, can be considered a modest immanent critique of Hamburger's account that thereby reveals an alternative picture of the general relation underlying Mitleid that does have ethical purport.

My comments on Ruth Sonderegger's Duke-in-Berlin lecture, June 2019 in Berlin.

Paper read at the Pacific APA, 2016

Rocky Mountain Ethics Conference, 2012

Rocky Mountain Ethics Conference, 2010

Comments at the Rocky Mountain Ethics Conference, 2008.

Talk given at the ACLA, 2011. Now incorporated in my book "Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein... more Talk given at the ACLA, 2011. Now incorporated in my book "Thinking with Tolstoy and Wittgenstein" (forthcoming, Northwestern University Press)

Krisis, 2022

Short piece written on the 70th anniversary of the publication of Adorno's "Minima Moralia" for t... more Short piece written on the 70th anniversary of the publication of Adorno's "Minima Moralia" for the journal "Krisis"

Exploration of the emergence of the concept of the sublime from its mountainous origins and the t... more Exploration of the emergence of the concept of the sublime from its mountainous origins and the two great ages of the sublime in visual art.

Harvard Review, 1990

Review of Poems by Paul Celan, translated by Michael Hamburger

Harvard Review, 1993

Review of English translations of novels by Christoph Ransmayr

Harvard Review, 1994

Review of English edition of "La Jetée" by Chris Marker

Harvard Review, 1996

Review of writings by Danilo Kis

Harvard Review, 1990

Review of Collected Works by Velimir Khlebnikov.

Harvard Review, 1989

Review of "The Distant Lover," the translation of "Der fremde Freund" by Christoph Hein.

Symphilosophie, 2021

Book review of the collection of essays on the philosophy and literature of Romanticism and their... more Book review of the collection of essays on the philosophy and literature of Romanticism and their legacies. Published in volume 2 of the journal "Symphilosophie."

Remarks on Iain Macdonald's book "What Would Be Different: Figures of Possibility in Adorno" (Sta... more Remarks on Iain Macdonald's book "What Would Be Different: Figures of Possibility in Adorno" (Stanford UP, 2019), at a workshop held at the Institut für Kulturwissenschaften, Leipzig University, February 2022.

Architectural Theory Review, 2012

Normative, conceptual minimal conditions of adequacy for any Holocaust memorial arguably include ... more Normative, conceptual minimal conditions of adequacy for any Holocaust memorial arguably include a historical relation, in that the artwork must bear an intentional relation to historical facts of the Holocaust, and an aesthetic relation, in that the artwork must evince aesthetic properties of some sort that elicit an aesthetic experience. In this paper, after first outlining various design possibilities, including abstract or formalist art in general, within a dialectical framework of representation and non-representation, I argue that Eisenman's Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe fails to bear an adequate historical relation and, hence, is an unsuccessful memorial, despite defences of the design by Rauterberg, Eisenman and Agamben. By contrast, I show how memorials incorporating abstract art can successfully fulfil the minimal conditions by analysing Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Finally, drawing on the tradition of memorials to war dead, I propose a more radical alternative to Eisenman's project.