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"The only thing of which one can be guilty of is having given ground relative to one's desire."-Jacques Lacan

"I can want only the freedom of others."-Jean-Paul Sartre

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"-The Book of Job

Emphasizing the Romantic heritage and modernist legacy of Karl Marx's writings, Peter Osborne presents Marx's thought as a developing investigation into what it means, concretely, for humans to be practical historical beings.Drawing on passages from a wide range of Marx's writings, and showing the links among them, Osborne refutes the myth of Marx as a reductively economistic thinker. What Marx meant by "materialism," "communism," and the "critique of political economy" was much richer and more original, philosophically, than is generally recognized. With the renewed globalization of capitalism since 1989, Osborne argues, Marx's analyses of the consequences of commodification are more relevant today than ever before.Extracts are taken from the full breadth of Marx's writings, including Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy, the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, and The Communist Manifesto to Capital.

An idiosyncratic and highly controversial French philosopher, Jacques Derrida inspired profound changes in disciplines as diverse as law, anthropology, literature and architecture. In Derrida's view, texts and contexts are woven with inconsistencies and blindspots, which provide us with a chance to think in new ways about, among other things, language, community, identity and forgiveness. Derrida's suggestions for "how to read" lead to a new vision of ethics and a new concept of responsibility.Penelope Deutscher discusses extracts from the full range of Derrida's work, including Of Grammatology, Dissemination, Limited Inc, The Other Heading: Reflections on Europe, Monolinguism of the Other, Given Time, and "Force of Law."

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."-Simone de Beauvoir