The Linguistic Condition

Providing a unique interpretation of Kant's theory of judgement as integral to his overall project, Claudia Brodsky explores his continued relevance to contemporary theoretical concerns. The Linguistic Condition traces how Kant combined sensus communis, or common sense with the communicative nature of judgement to reveal that, for him, acts of judgement are dependent on their linguistic articulation, so that in Kantian philosophy language and judgement are inextricably linked. In this first in-depth analysis of language in the Critique of Judgement, Brodsky forms creative connections between literature and philosophy.

Claudia Brodsky is Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, USA, and ancien Directeur de Programme at the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris, France. Her publications include The Imposition of Form (1987), Lines of Thought (1996), Birth of a Nation'hood (co-edited with Toni Morrison, 1997), In the Place of Language (2009), Inventing Agency (co-edited with Eloy LaBrada, Bloomsbury, 2017), and The Linguistic Condition (forthcoming Bloomsbury, 2020).

Preface. Acting upon Condition Chapter One. Introduction: Before Judgment: Doing without Knowing in Kant and Diderot Part I. Linguistic Conditions Chap. Two. "The Condition of Judgment:" Kant's "Common Sense," or the Origin of Language in the Third Critique 1. "'Common Sense'" and Signification, or What is Not Tautology 2. "Technique" 3. "Free" 4. "Feeling" 5. Speech Act and "Communicability" 6. Rousseau's Nouns 7. Diderot's Adjectives 8. Kant's Predicates: "Synthetic Judgments a Priori" and "A General Voice" 9. "The Schema," or Language Inside 10. What is Articulation? 11. World Without Words: Wordsworth Part II. Missing Senses and Poetics Chap. Three. "Judgment" and the Genesis of What We Lack: "Poetry," "Schema," and the "Monogram of Imagination" in Kant 1. "Judgment" in the "Age of Critique" 2. Judgment and "Indifference:" The "Common Sense" of Imagination in Arendt and Kant 3. The Schema and the Language of Poetry 4. Poetry and the Judgment of Critique Chap. Four. Kleist's Mere Formalities 1. Kant and Kleist: Representation and Irony 2. What happened: Missed Representation and Misrepresentation in "Die Marquise von O." 3. Contesting "Judgment" in "The Duel" Bibliography Primary Bibliography Secondary Bibliography