Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Sartre, imagination and dialectical reason: creating society as a work of art, hardcover/austin hayden smidt

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There are perpetual debates about the extent of freedom in politics.

Are we free to choose? Are we overdetermined by our material conditions? Some hybrid between the two? What is more, how are we to comprehend ourselves as creators of history if freedom itself is a problematic concept? And what would it mean if self-comprehension were foreclosed by this problematic? In this text, Austin Hayden Smidt analyzes an oft-overlooked text by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to ground a logical framework for exploring this paradox.

In Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sartre sought to develop an historical and structural heuristic; one that would enable future theorists and activists alike to assess the pressing problems facing the various milieux of capitalist life.

Through this heuristic, his intent was to develop an orientation enabling humans to transform their world in their perpetual creation of themselves (and vice versa).

However, the stylistic difficulties of the text, as well as a general agreement among previous interpreters, has prevented the richness of the investigation from taking root.

This book sets a new course, and invites further collaboration as - together - we create society as a work of art.

About the Author Austin Hayden Smidt is a political philosopher, producer, writer, podcaster and performer.

His research is most concerned with analyzing social life under the conditions of capitalism in order to envision better arrangements.

He is the producer of the cinematic adaptation of the best-selling book Inventing the Future and co-host of the Show Me the Meaning and Owls at Dawn podcasts.