Categories
A Study of a Concept in Western Philosophy and Political Thought
Read Luke O'Sullivan's blog article on New Work in Philosophy
Establishes an enduring relationship between theories of categories and ideas about knowledge, politics, and history
- Explores the concept of a category and contemporary debates on category politics, category mistakes and the imperialism of categories
- Shows how the ideas of classic thinkers on categories, including Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, have informed three distinct modern schools of thought on the subject including thinkers in both analytical and continental traditions
- Explains modern thought on categories as a tension between a desire for a single dominant perspective, whether scientific (as in logical empiricism) or phenomenological (as in Heidegger), and a belief in irretrievable fragmentation (as in Nietzsche and later post-modern thought), with a minority of thinkers (like Cassirer and Ricoeur) trying to find a middle ground
- Addresses debates on categories in wide range of different fields in the humanities including the history of philosophy, political philosophy, critical theory, phenomenology, and the philosophy of history
In ancient and modern Western thought, the problem of the nature of categories has been inseparable from arguments about the nature of selfhood; about how knowledge is organised; about how power should be distributed; and about how history should be understood. For Plato, Forms belonging to a timeless order of being played the role of categories or fundamental concepts; for Aristotle categories were immanent in things; for Kant they were a priori logical structures of our consciousness; and for Hegel they were dynamic, dialectical inter-related ideas. In Categories, O’Sullivan shows how these answers have gone forward into the contemporary era, and identifies three key schools of thought that have developed since Hegel in particular. He explains modern thought as a tension between a desire for a single dominant perspective, whether scientific or phenomenological; a belief in irretrievable fragmentation; and an effort to find a middle ground.
Preface
Introduction – Why Categories Matter
Part 1: Categories in Platonic and Aristotelian Thought
1. Plato – Forms as Categories of Ideal Being
2. Aristotle – Categories as not-Forms, or Substances
Part 2: Categories in Modernity – Kant and Hegel
3. Kant – The Categorial A Priori
4. Hegel – The Dialectic Dynamics of Categories
Part 3: Contemporary Theories of Categories
5. Fragmentarians – The Categorial Kaleidoscope
6. Subordinationists – The Quest for a Master Category
7. Pluralists – The Search for Categorial Limits
Conclusion – The Inescapability of Categoriality
Index
It is in our nature to use categories – to understand and navigate the world around us, Luke O’Sullivan tells us. His masterful study guides us through the efforts of western philosophers to grapple with the problem of how to interpret reality. The result is an illuminating history of thought, and an insightful contribution to our understanding of this central aspect of the human condition.
All human thought begins with categories or the making of distinctions. A knowledge of the history of the term remains indispensable for philosophy today. In this erudite, carefully argued, and elegantly written book, which includes chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel as well as some of the most important contemporary authors to have addressed the issue of categories, Luke O’Sullivan provides us with an excellent study of an absolutely crucial topic.
