New LRB has an entertaining article by Elif Batuman, reviewing Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida by Elisabeth Roudinesco. The review includes:
* repeated references to Flaubert and his brilliant Dictionnaire des idées reçues (Dictionary of received ideas ( Read more... )

Last weekend Terry Eagleton was complaining about the lack of politically-engaged writers in Britain. I'm not sure what politics he expects them to support, other than opposing the war in Iraq, which will surely be over in a couple of years and then all the world's radicals will have to find something new to get upset about. Whilst insulting ( Read more... )

Where does the arbitrariness of language lie? From Michael Devitt, I see that it lies in two things but it does not lie in a third ( Read more... )