On the Difficulty of Living Together: Memory, Politics, and History

Manuel Cruz

Published by Columbia University Press 2016

On the Difficulty of Living Together

Memory, Politics, and History

Manuel Cruz
Translated by: Richard Jacques

Volume 21 in the series New Directions in Critical Theory

https://doi.org/10.7312/cruz16400

Overview
Contents

About this book

Manuel Cruz launches a nuanced study of memory and forgetting, defining their forms and uses, political meanings, and social and historical implications. Memory is not an intrinsically positive phenomenon, he argues, but an impressionable and malleable one, used to advance a variety of agendas. Cruz focuses on five memory models: that which is inherently valuable; that which legitimizes the present; that which supports retributive justice; that which is essential to mourning; and that which elicits renunciation or revelation.

Manuel Cruz offers a nuanced study of memory and forgetting, defining their forms and uses, political meanings, and social and historical implications. Memory is not an intrinsically positive phenomenon, he argues, but an impressionable and malleable one, used to advance a variety of agendas.

Author / Editor information

Manuel Cruz is professor of contemporary philosophy at the University of Barcelona and author of more than twenty titles, including Taking Charge: On Responsibility and Personal Identity (2011).

Reviews

Nuanced and thought-provoking.... The English translation of Manuel Cruz's important work is a welcome addition to the field of memory studies.

Recommended.

Roberto Esposito, author of Living Thought: The Origins and Actuality of Italian Philosophy:
In this book a major contemporary philosopher reflects on community from the point of view of our relationship with the past. In this way, memory takes on a uniquely deep political importance. But, far from being a necessary link, it is situated at a fluctuating margin that simultaneously joins and separates remembrance and forgetting. Ultimately allowing the book to remain open to unpredictable directions throughout. An important book, which analyses the complex relationship between origin and actuality.

María Pía Lara, author of The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization:
On the Difficulty of Living Together poses the question of memory as a methodological framework, revealing how the concept is in need of critical scrutiny. Cruz approaches this question with clear arguments that will appeal to a wide audience, including philosophers, historians, and specialists in law, literature, and politics. The result is an important contribution that will introduce the English-speaking world to a European philosopher whose work on the concept of history deserves attention.

Alessandro Ferrara, author of The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment:
On the Difficulty of Living Together is an engaging and well written text in which Manuel Cruz—one of the most outstanding philosophers active today on the Spanish-speaking scene—takes the reader along on an original journey through memory and the way we should relate to it.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface to the English Edition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Chapter One. Of Memory and Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. The Present Breathes Through History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Chapter Three. For an Urgent Typology of Memory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter Four. We Need to Start Defending Ourselves from the Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Chapter Five. More About Traumas, Calamities, and Catastrophes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
By Way of an Epilogue: A Future with Not Much Future (or About How the Perplexity of the Will Is Possible) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 176

eBook

Published: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 9780231541398