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GENERAL INTEREST NEW Fictions MARKUS GABRIEL University of Bonn Translated by Wieland Hoban ‘Fictions interfuses philosophy with problems of great interest to literary scholars ... Readers from a wide range of fields will find entry points into this discussion on every page.’ Christy Wampole, Princeton University ‘The traditional opposition between fiction and reality has prevented us from understanding how much fiction is part of being and contributes to making it ours. By making sense of the many ways in which fictions exist, Markus Gabriel restores its humanity to being and its being to humanity.’ M. Jocelyn Benoist, University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne 229 x 152mm • 432 pages • UK March 2024, US June 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-4661-9 • £35.00 / $45.00 / €42.90 ebook available For more Gabriel titles, see page 20 and backlist. NEW If You Have Never Thought Grey A Theory of Color PETER SLOTERDIJK Karlsruhe School of Design Translated by Corey Anderson Dansereau If you haven’t painted grey, Paul Cézanne once said, you are not a painter. The same could be said of philosophers: if you haven’t thought grey, you are not a philosopher. Baldly stated, this might seem like a pointless provocation. Why should philosophers think about a single colour instead of devoting themselves to ethics, metaphysics or logic? But the history of philosophy lends support to Sloterdijk’s intuition. What colour are the shadows in Plato’s allegory of the cave? Did not Hegel write, ‘When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey, it cannot be rejuvenated but only known’? And doesn’t Heidegger’s being-in-the-world imply existing in a diffuse shade of grey? Following the grey thread through the history of philosophy, art and culture, Sloterdijk reconstructs a chiaroscuro narrative which recognizes the power of grey as a metaphor for public opinion and a signifier for political and moral ambiguity. 229 x 152mm • 240 pages • UK December 2024, US March 2025 HB • 978-1-5095-5748-6 • £55.00 / $69.95 / €67.90 PB • 978-1-5095-5749-3 • £17.99 / $24.95 / €21.90 ebook available For more Sloterdijk titles, see page 23 and backlist. Everyone, Wherever You Are, Come One Step Closer Questions about God NAVID KERMANI Translated by Tony Crawford ‘[A] beautifully written meditation on the philosophical challenge all mortal beings must encounter.’ Elliot R. Wolfson, University of California, Santa Barbara 216 x 138mm • 240 pages • 2023 HB • 978-1-5095-5627-4 • £20.00 / $25.00 / €24.90 ebook available NEW The Human Animal Why We Still Don’t Fit into Nature MARKUS GABRIEL Translated by Karl von der Luft The climate crisis has forced us to recognize that we are not separate from nature but are part of the natural world on which we depend: human beings are animals. And yet we feel nevertheless that we do not entirely fit into nature, that we stand apart from other animals in some way – in what way, exactly? Markus Gabriel argues that what distinguishes humans from other animals is that humans are minded living beings who seek to understand the world and themselves and who possess ethical insight into moral contexts. The undeniable difference between us and other animals defines the human condition and places a special responsibility on us to consider our actions in the context of other living beings and our shared habitat. It also calls on us to cultivate an ethics of not-knowing: to recognize that, however much we may seek to understand the world, we will never completely master it. 229 x 152mm • 288 pages • UK November 2024, US January 2025 HB • 978-1-5095-5803-2 • £25.00 / $35.00 / €30.90 ebook available NEW How Nietzsche Came in From the Cold Tale of a Redemption PHILIPP FELSCH Humboldt University of Berlin Translated by Daniel Bowles ‘I became completely immersed in the lively and provocative panoramic tour of the widely diverse creative responses to Nietzsche radiating out from the circle round Colli and Montinari. “Perhaps,” the author notes, “because he himself acted out the antagonistic tendencies of the age, Nietzsche played the role of a canvas onto which the entire spectrum of twentieth century ideas could be projected.” Given that sentence, I would strike out the word “perhaps.”’ Sue Prideaux, author of I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche 229 x 152mm • 272 pages • UK March 2024, US June 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-5761-5 • £25.00 / $29.95 / €30.90 ebook available What is Possible Now 33 Political Situations NAVID KERMANI Translated by Tony Crawford ‘Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today.’ New York Review of Books ‘The most interesting voice Germany has.’ Die Welt 210 x 140mm • 272 pages • UK November 2023, US January 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-5763-9 • £55.00 / $69.95 / €67.90 PB • 978-1-5095-5764-6 • £17.99 / $24.95 / €21.90 ebook available For more Kermani titles, see backlist. NEW WWW.POLITYBOOKS.COM 6
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GENERAL INTEREST NEW The Self in the West and East Asia Being or Becoming JIN LI Brown University ‘This book’s comparison of the “East Asian self” with the “Western self” features extensive crosscultural knowledge of psychological theories and studies of how the self is conceived and functions. The presentation is immensely clear, engaging, and rich in its details, vivid in its recounting of the author’s illustrative personal experiences in Confucian and Western societies. Researchers in the field will benefit from this book, but perhaps more importantly, we all need to better understand one another in a world riven by misperception and antagonism.’ David Wong, Duke University ‘Jin Li brings the entire academy in all of its parts to her interrogation of how “self” has been understood within the Western and East Asian cultural narratives. The argument she mounts for fundamental cultural differences is kaleidoscopic, looking at the phenomenon of self from a broad range of intradisciplinary perspectives. Capacious and compelling, her thesis is certainly informed by her own discipline of psychology, both the theoretical and the empirical, but also by history, philosophy, philology, classical studies, and perhaps most importantly, by her own personal story.’ Roger T. Ames, Peking University 229 x 152mm • 367 pages • UK September 2024, US November 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6136-0 • £30.00 / $45.00 / €36.90 ebook available NEW Byung-Chul Han A Critical Introduction STEVEN KNEPPER, ETHAN STONEMAN & ROBERT WYLLIE Virginia Military Institute; Hillsdale College; Ashland University ‘Han’s most striking qualities are his unfailing sense for topicality and his ability to write philosophy “for all and none“. This introduction brings coherence to a work that seems to follow the ever-changing buzzwords of the present. The authors reveal the overall ethos in Han’s thought: philosophy as a therapy to survive neoliberal modernity.’ Eva Horn, University of Vienna Byung-Chul Han is one of the most important living philosophers. In response to the idea that new technological devices expand our freedom, he argues that they lead to burnout and self-absorption and that we must redevelop contemplative practices which slow us down. He has brought to his thought forms of deep cosmopolitanism developed from both Zen Buddhism and a renewed Romanticism. This book is the first critical introduction to Han’s body of work. Knepper, Stoneman, and Wyllie explore Han’s rich oeuvre and his contributions to a range of disciplines. This lively book is essential reading for anyone getting to grips with Han’s extraordinary work. Series: Key Contemporary Thinkers 229 x 152mm • 208 pages • UK June 2024, US August 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6098-1 • £55.00 / $69.95 / €67.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6099-8 • £17.99 / $24.95 / €21.90 ebook available For more Key Contemporary Thinkers titles, see pages 3, 27, and backlist. NEW The Spirit of Hope BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer These are bleak times – pandemic, wars, climate catastrophe. There are many reasons for despair. But it is precisely at such moments of fear and despair that hope arises like a phoenix from the ashes. Hope pushes forward into the unknown. It inspires fantasy and enables us to think about what is yet to come. It makes action possible in the midst of despair because it infuses our world with purpose and meaning. In this short essay on hope, Byung-Chul Han gives us the perfect antidote to the climate of fear that pervades our world. 210 x 140mm • 100 pages • UK November 2024, US January 2025 HB • 978-1-5095-6519-1 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6520-7 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90 NEW Vita Contemplativa In Praise of Inactivity BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han pleads for bringing our ceaseless activities to a stop and making room for the magic that happens in between. Life receives its radiance only from inactivity. 210 x 140mm • 128 pages • UK November 2023, US January 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-5800-1 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-5801-8 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90 ebook available For more Han titles, see backlist. NEW The Crisis of Narration BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer Narratives produce the ties that bind us. They create community, eliminate contingency and anchor us in being. And yet in our contemporary information society, where everything has become arbitrary and random, storytelling becomes storyselling and narratives lose their binding force. Whereas narratives create community, storytelling brings forth only a fleeting community – the community of consumers. No amount of storytelling could recreate the fire around which humans gather to tell each other stories. That fire has long since burnt out. It has been replaced by the digital screen, which separates people rather than bringing them together. Through storytelling, capitalism appropriates narrative: stories sell. They are no longer a medium of shared experience. The inflation of storytelling betrays a need to cope with contingency, but storytelling is unable to transform the information society back into a stable narrative community. Rather, storytelling as storyselling is a pathological phenomenon of our age. Byung-Chul Han, one of the most perceptive cultural theorists of contemporary society, dissects this crisis with exceptional insight and flair. 210 x 140mm • 96 pages • UK February 2024, US April 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6042-4 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6043-1 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90 ebook available WWW.POLITYBOOKS.COM 7

GENERAL INTEREST

NEW

The Self in the West and East Asia Being or Becoming JIN LI Brown University ‘This book’s comparison of the “East Asian self” with the “Western self” features extensive crosscultural knowledge of psychological theories and studies of how the self is conceived and functions. The presentation is immensely clear, engaging, and rich in its details, vivid in its recounting of the author’s illustrative personal experiences in Confucian and Western societies. Researchers in the field will benefit from this book, but perhaps more importantly, we all need to better understand one another in a world riven by misperception and antagonism.’ David Wong, Duke University ‘Jin Li brings the entire academy in all of its parts to her interrogation of how “self” has been understood within the Western and East Asian cultural narratives. The argument she mounts for fundamental cultural differences is kaleidoscopic, looking at the phenomenon of self from a broad range of intradisciplinary perspectives. Capacious and compelling, her thesis is certainly informed by her own discipline of psychology, both the theoretical and the empirical, but also by history, philosophy, philology, classical studies, and perhaps most importantly, by her own personal story.’ Roger T. Ames, Peking University 229 x 152mm • 367 pages • UK September 2024, US November 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6136-0 • £30.00 / $45.00 / €36.90 ebook available

NEW

Byung-Chul Han A Critical Introduction STEVEN KNEPPER, ETHAN STONEMAN & ROBERT WYLLIE Virginia Military Institute; Hillsdale College; Ashland University ‘Han’s most striking qualities are his unfailing sense for topicality and his ability to write philosophy “for all and none“. This introduction brings coherence to a work that seems to follow the ever-changing buzzwords of the present. The authors reveal the overall ethos in Han’s thought: philosophy as a therapy to survive neoliberal modernity.’ Eva Horn, University of Vienna Byung-Chul Han is one of the most important living philosophers. In response to the idea that new technological devices expand our freedom, he argues that they lead to burnout and self-absorption and that we must redevelop contemplative practices which slow us down. He has brought to his thought forms of deep cosmopolitanism developed from both Zen Buddhism and a renewed Romanticism. This book is the first critical introduction to Han’s body of work. Knepper, Stoneman, and Wyllie explore Han’s rich oeuvre and his contributions to a range of disciplines. This lively book is essential reading for anyone getting to grips with Han’s extraordinary work. Series: Key Contemporary Thinkers 229 x 152mm • 208 pages • UK June 2024, US August 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6098-1 • £55.00 / $69.95 / €67.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6099-8 • £17.99 / $24.95 / €21.90 ebook available For more Key Contemporary Thinkers titles, see pages 3, 27, and backlist.

NEW

The Spirit of Hope BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer These are bleak times – pandemic, wars, climate catastrophe. There are many reasons for despair. But it is precisely at such moments of fear and despair that hope arises like a phoenix from the ashes. Hope pushes forward into the unknown. It inspires fantasy and enables us to think about what is yet to come. It makes action possible in the midst of despair because it infuses our world with purpose and meaning. In this short essay on hope, Byung-Chul Han gives us the perfect antidote to the climate of fear that pervades our world. 210 x 140mm • 100 pages • UK November 2024, US January 2025 HB • 978-1-5095-6519-1 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6520-7 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90

NEW

Vita Contemplativa In Praise of Inactivity BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer In a beautifully crafted ode to the art of being still, Han pleads for bringing our ceaseless activities to a stop and making room for the magic that happens in between. Life receives its radiance only from inactivity. 210 x 140mm • 128 pages • UK November 2023, US January 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-5800-1 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-5801-8 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90 ebook available For more Han titles, see backlist.

NEW

The Crisis of Narration BYUNG-CHUL HAN Translated by Daniel Steuer Narratives produce the ties that bind us. They create community, eliminate contingency and anchor us in being. And yet in our contemporary information society, where everything has become arbitrary and random, storytelling becomes storyselling and narratives lose their binding force. Whereas narratives create community, storytelling brings forth only a fleeting community – the community of consumers. No amount of storytelling could recreate the fire around which humans gather to tell each other stories. That fire has long since burnt out. It has been replaced by the digital screen, which separates people rather than bringing them together. Through storytelling, capitalism appropriates narrative: stories sell. They are no longer a medium of shared experience. The inflation of storytelling betrays a need to cope with contingency, but storytelling is unable to transform the information society back into a stable narrative community. Rather, storytelling as storyselling is a pathological phenomenon of our age. Byung-Chul Han, one of the most perceptive cultural theorists of contemporary society, dissects this crisis with exceptional insight and flair. 210 x 140mm • 96 pages • UK February 2024, US April 2024 HB • 978-1-5095-6042-4 • £45.00 / $59.95 / €55.90 PB • 978-1-5095-6043-1 • £12.99 / $16.95 / €15.90 ebook available

WWW.POLITYBOOKS.COM

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