Slow Philosophy: Reading against the InstitutionIn an age of internet scrolling and skimming, where concentration and attention are fast becoming endangered skills, it is timely to think about the act of reading and the many forms that it can take. Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution makes the case for thinking about reading in philosophical terms. Boulous Walker argues that philosophy involves the patient work of thought; in this it resembles the work of art, which invites and implores us to take our time and to engage with the world. At its best, philosophy teaches us to read slowly; in fact, philosophy is the art of reading slowly – and this inevitably clashes with many of our current institutional practices and demands. Slow reading shares something in common with contemporary social movements, such as that devoted to slow food; it offers us ways to engage the complexity of the world. With the help of writers as diverse as Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Woolf, Adorno, Levinas, Critchley, Beauvoir, Le Dœuff, Irigaray, Cixous, Weil, and others, Boulous Walker offers a foundational text in the emerging field of slow philosophy, one that explores the importance of unhurried time in establishing our institutional encounters with complex and demanding works. |
Contents
1 | |
Le Doeuff s Future Philosophy | 35 |
Levinas and Adorno | 55 |
Irigaray on Love and Wonder | 75 |
Irigarays AttentiveListening | 103 |
Beauvoirs Lesson in Reading | 127 |
Cixouss Approach | 155 |
The Attentive Work of Grace | 177 |
NOTES | 191 |
275 | |
295 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adorno aesthetic allows ambiguity approach to reading argues attentive listening authentic love authentic reading Beauvoir becomes Boulous Walker chapter Cixous Cixous’s claims Clarice Lispector complex context Costa Lima 1996 Critchley critical Descartes Descartes’s desire to know Diotima’s Diotima’s speech discourse Discourse on Method discussion Dœuff emerges Emmanuel Levinas encounter engage essay ethical existential experience explore feminine flâneur future philosophy generosity gesture Hadot hearing Heidegger Heidegger’s important instituting moments Irigaray Irigaray’s reading judgement kind Levinas Levinas’s Lispector love of wisdom Lyotard means mode Nietzsche Nietzsche’s object one’s open-ended other’s passion Plato possible practice proximity psychoanalytic question read slowly reader reduce refers relation rereading RICHARD FLANAGAN romantic love romantic reading Sartre Sartre’s sense Simon Critchley Simone Simone de Beauvoir slow reading Stimmung strangeness suggests teaching things thought transformation wisdom and philosophy Wittgenstein woman in love women Woolf writes Ziarek