Spectres of History: Ethics and Postmodern Fictions of Temporality

The resurgence of ethics in the humanities reflects an increasing anxiety about the value and utility of critical/philosophical debate in the wake of poststructuralism. This book addresses this "return to ethics" in relation to a wide variety of theories and texts. It covers substantial areas of ethical debate, particularly in relation to queer politics, biography, history, postmodernism, atrocity literature, utilitarianism, pedagogy and the philosophy of science. Theorists discussed in the volume include Rorty, Heidegger, Levinas, Mill, Lyotard, Leavis, Kuhn, Davidson, Nussbaum and Freud. The contributors are Michael Bell, Dan Burnstone, Steven Connor, Simon Critchley, Anne Cubili, Robert Eaglestone, Geoffrey Galt Harpham, Colleen Lamos, Larry Lockridge, Christopher Norris, David Parker, Leona Toker, Margaret Toye, and Lori Branch West