Bataille has often been dismissed as an "excremental" philosopher. Recently, however, his writings have garnered more serious attention, especially because of their influence upon contemporary French thought. But Bataille's importance far exceeds his place in the history of ideas. In his notion of communication, Bataille offers us a radically new conception of value. ;Bataille diagnoses utilitarian values as representative of a fundamental selfishness. This selfishness is a result of our placing value on solid things---whether that be the thing desired or (...) the thing that desires---rather than on the movement between beings. Expenditure without return would be the ultimate expression of this non-utilitarian movement. The movement of desire---i.e. communication---is usually recognized only as the means towards a solid end. Reason as teleological is the project of acquisition. In opposition to an economy whose paradigm is acquisition, one which Bataille labels "restricted," Bataille proposes a general economy based on expenditure. ;Life is a movement of luxury. Individuals constantly accumulate resources only to be dissolved in eroticism and in death, in poetry and in tragedy, in laughter and in tears. We vigilantly guard against dissolution, fearing the loss of meaning that comes with the end of separate existence. We close ourselves off to the flux of Being. We deny our intimate participation with the continuity that---to a discontinuous being---can only mean death. But our petty concerns, our worries about the future, our care for self-preservation, lead to a life of niggardly squalor. Separate existences fail to communicate . For Bataille, sovereign value is communication. Both the physical boundaries we maintain and the societal prohibitions we observe---and these two are not unrelated---must be transgressed for a movement of luxury to transfigure lackluster existence and open beings to communication. (shrink)

Hudson presents a lucid, thoughtful, and convincing account of how Kant's belief in causal determinism is compatible with his belief in human free will. Hudson's book is divided into five largely self contained chapters, the first of which clearly sets forth the apparent conflict. The second chapter is the heart of the book and is also where Hudson is at his best. Hudson brings Kant into contemporary philosophy of mind in the third chapter. The fourth chapter, which is the least (...) crucial for an appreciation of Hudson's central thesis, reconstructs Kant's argument for causal determinism. Hudson concludes with an account of Kant's theory of free will, an account which is surprisingly unsatisfactory in comparison to the rest of the work. (shrink)