On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethics and Politics (Studies in Continental Thought)

This book takes as its point of departure the question of ethics: the values and their pursuit in the West often perpetuate their own worst enemies. At issue are the dangers in the structures and movements of images, values, and ways of knowing that are most intimately a part of our lives. Charles E. Scott engages the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Levinas. Nietzsche's and Foucault's genealogical approaches confront Heidegger's deconstructive thought and the religious thought of Levinas. In this encounter, a way of thinking emerges that makes evident the advantages of the nonethical and the nonpolitical for ethical and political life.