Marking Time

On the Anthropology of the Contemporary

By: Paul Rabinow

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Paperback | 28 January 2008

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168 Pages

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21.5 x 13.9 x 1.3

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In Marking Time, Paul Rabinow presents his most recent reflections on the anthropology of the contemporary. Drawing richly on the work of Michel Foucault, John Dewey, Niklas Luhmann, and, most interestingly, German painter Gerhard Richter, Rabinow offers a set of conceptual tools for scholars examining cutting-edge practices in the life sciences, security, new media and art practices, and other emergent phenomena. Taking up topics that include bioethics, anger and competition among molecular biologists, the lessons of the Drosophila genome, the nature of ethnographic observation in radically new settings, and the moral landscape shared by scientists and anthropologists, Rabinow shows how anthropology remains relevant to contemporary debates. By turning abstract philosophical problems into real-world explorations and offering original insights, Marking Time is a landmark contribution to the continuing re-invention of anthropology and the human sciences.

Industry Reviews

"This essay is an intellectual pause in an active scholarly career... Rabinow contemplates the automation of science and art, where art becomes nature and nature art."--C.S. Peebles, Choice "[T]his book deserves a readership beyond anthropologists and scholars in science and technology studies. Read more generously, Rabinow's conversations with historians and philosophers (both ancient and modern), critics of art and literature, and artists and scientists could shed light on the problems of designing inquiry into the ethos and logos of any time."--Natasha Myers, Isis

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Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction
On the Anthropology of the Contemporary	p. 1
Inquiry	p. 6
Elements	p. 7
The Legitimacy of the Contemporary
2000: Drosophila Lessons	p. 14
The Future of Human Nature	p. 20
Bio-ethics: The Question Concerning Humanism	p. 22
Nature	p. 25
Security, Danger, Risk	p. 16
Contemporary Formations	p. 28
Conclusion	p. 29
Adjacency
Timing	p. 35
Situating: Tolerance and Benevolence	p. 36
Telos: A Zone of Discomfort	p. 44
Untimely Work	p. 48
Observation
Bildung	p. 54
Observing the Future	p. 57
Responsibility to Ignorance	p. 60
Observing Observers Observing	p. 62
Observing First-order Observers	p. 64
Chronicling Observation	p. 66
Original History	p. 67
Writing Things: Deictic Not Epideictic	p. 69
Vehement Contemporaries
Rugged Terrain	p. 78
Elements of a Contemporary Moral Landscape	p. 80
Genomics as Ethical Terrain	p. 81
Agon in the Genomic Terrain	p. 84
Thumos: Appropriate Anger	p. 90
Vehement Contemporaries	p. 98
Marking Time: Gerhard Richter
Contemporary Modern	p. 101
Biotechnical Forms	p. 103
Richter: Double Negations	p. 106
Art Critics and Others	p. 106
Our Contemporary	p. 108
Nature	p. 109
Photography	p. 112
Marking Time	p. 116
Abstract Images	p. 119
Remediation	p. 122
Objects	p. 124
Remedation	p. 127
Notes	p. 129
Bibliography	p. 141
Index	p. 147
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Marking Time

On the Anthropology of the Contemporary

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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