Entropic Affirmation

How do we conceptualize death when its very nature implies absence and nothingness? It is difficult to put into words precisely because we want our words to help us delineate the world around us, whereas the absence associated with death is the opposite of such delineation. For this reason, death might be said to represent a form of infinite otherness, something radically different from our usual, finite, anthropomorphic way of thinking about the world. With this in mind, Apple Igrek observes an unusual paradox. Some philosophers argue that we should be more open to that which is infinitely other (as with change or death) in the context of ethics, culture, and politics, while others critique this position since we cannot logically say what is more or less open to the immeasurable. It would therefore seem impossible to defend the relevance of what is infinite to ethics while nevertheless acknowledging the validity of the above-stated critique. If we want, in other words, to say that infinite otherness remains relevant to our social and ethical values, we will have a difficult time doing so unless we create a new methodological approach determining how it is possible for pure absence and alterity to play a role in the creation of those values. In this book Apple Igrek takes up the challenge of articulating this new approach explaining how something transcending our finite comprehension (as with death or never-ending change) is nonetheless essential for describing the construction of social values, especially in terms of describing their conflictual and agonistic tendencies.

Although it is rigorously grounded in the Continental tradition, this is a strikingly original philosophical work. It both deepens our reception of that tradition and draws out its ethical ramifications in challenging new directions. , Thinking through the intimate entanglement of life and death, the ways change is itself a constant attribute of this thanato-vitalism, and the constitutive trouble of external social values, Apple Igrek develops a novel and much-needed methodology for approaching agonistic social relations. Given the world we’re in, and the world before us, the book could not be more timely.   

Apple Igrek is assistant professor in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma State University.