Gift Certificates How to Order

Philosophy & Critical Theory Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

<<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>>     sort list by title | author The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin You could spend years trying to read Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project--after all, he spent much of the last 13 years of his life doing the research. When he committed suicide in 1940, he destroyed his copy of the manuscript, and so for decades... Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors Susan Sontag In l978 Susan Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor, a classic work described by Newsweek as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding... Against Interpretation And Other Essays Susan Sontag As well as the title essay and the famous Notes on Camp, Against Interpretation includes original, provocative, and impassioned discussions on Sartre, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, science-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious... Wanderlust A History of Walking Rebecca Solnit Drawing together many histories-of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores-Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Aesthetic Theory Theory & History of Literature Theodor Adorno, Robert Hullot-Kentor This text on aesthetics includes major sections on: Art, Society, Aesthetics; the Categories of the Ugly, the Beautiful, the Technics; Natural Beauty; Coherence and Subject-Object; and Towards a Theory of the... Close to the Machine Technophilia and Its Discontents Ellen Ullman If there is such a thing as a typical computer programmer, Ellen Ullman is not it. She's female, a former communist, bisexual, old enough to be a twentysomething's mom, and not a nerd. She runs her own computer-consulting business in San Francisco... On the Heights of Despair E. M. Cioran Imagine walking across a tightrope suspended high in the summer air above a bay flooded in the mauve glow of sunset, the music of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" surrounding you. Now imagine the tightrope is actually razor-wire, and gusts of wind challenge... Representations of the Intellectual The 1993 Reith Lectures Edward W. Said Celebrated humanist, teacher, and scholar, Edward W. Said here examines the ever-changing role of the intellectual today. In these six stunning essays - delivered on the BBC as the prestigious Reith Lectures - Said addresses the ways in which... Discipline & Punish The Birth of the Prison Michel Foucault At the end of 2006, the United States had approximately 7.2 million people who were either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. Our society's propensity for punishment and justice has manifested into the modern prison system, arguably... The Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard This is a deep, magical, densely captivating book about space, our homes, how we live in them, and how dwellings and space affect us; it is as much a book of philosophy as a work of serious literature. It requires careful, preferably leisurely... The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961... The Rebel An Essay on Man in Revolt Albert Camus By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human nature, manifested in man's timeless Promethean struggle... The Myth of Sisyphus And Other Essays Albert Camus "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest– whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether.. Sade A Sudden Abyss Annie Le Brun The literary adventure of D.A.F. (1740-1814) is unique and paradoxical. He was widely read in the nineteenth century, but his books disappeared almost completely from circulation in the century. Meanwhile the exegesis of Sade poured from the presses... <<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>>