Ethics and Representation From Kant to Post-Structuralism

Ethics and Representation provides a critique and overview of contemporary post-structuralist theory. Exploring the Kantian and phenomenological background of Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault and Irigaray, this book raises some key questions and issues in critical theory. Is it still possible to sustain a transcendental critical project? How do such projects fare in thecurrent terrain of cultural studies and anti-representationalism? These questions are looked at from a number of angles including the notion of point of view and perspective, the critique of anthropologism from Kant to Deleuze, and the relation between representation and modernity. The conclusion offers a defence of the concept of autonomy, although it suggests that the concept has to be re-defined in the light of post-enlightenment critiques of the subject.Key Features:* Original contribution to ethical and critical theory* Situates poststructuralism in its philosophical background, and in the sustained problematic of the enlightenment* Offers a critique of various appeals made to a would-be post-metaphysical or post-human culture.