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The Problem of Distraction
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The Problem of Distraction Hardback - 2011

by Paul North

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Reader reviews for The Problem of Distraction

From the publisher

We live in an age of distraction. Contemporary analyses of culture, politics, techno-science, and psychology insist on this. They often suggest remedies for it, or ways to capitalize on it. Yet they almost never investigate the meaning and history of distraction itself. This book corrects this lack of attention. It inquires into the effects of distraction, defined not as the opposite of attention, but as truly discontinuous intellect. Human being has to be reconceived, according to this argument, not as quintessentially thought-bearing, but as subject to repeated, causeless blackouts of mind.

The Problem of Distraction presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to the largely forgotten, early twentieth-century efforts by Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin to revolutionize the humanities by means of distraction. Further, the book makes the case that our present troubles cannot be solved by recovering or enhancing attention. Not-always-thinking beings are beset by radical breaks in their experience, but in this way they are also receptive to what has not and cannot yet be called experience.

Details

  • Title The Problem of Distraction
  • Author Paul North
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 248
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Stanford University Press
  • Publication date 2011-10-19
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780804775380 / 0804775389
  • Weight 0.95 lbs (0.43 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 in (23.11 x 15.49 x 2.29 cm)
  • Category Philosophy
  • Library of Congress subjects Philosophy, Modern, Distraction (Philosophy)
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2010051611
  • Dewey Decimal Code 128.3

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 05/01/2012, Page 0

About the author

Paul North is Assistant Professor of German at Yale University.

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THE PROBLEM OF DISTRACTION.
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THE PROBLEM OF DISTRACTION.

by NORTH, Paul.

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Stanford,, 2012. First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket.. Fine in fine dust jacket.. 8vo. pp xi, 233. Colour illustrated dust jacket. Original publisher's blue cloth with yellow lettering at spine. ISBN: 0804775389
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The Problem of Distraction
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The Problem of Distraction

by North, Paul

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The Problem of Distraction

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Hardback. New. Rejecting the current conflation of distraction with diversion, this book presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin's early twentieth-century use of distraction to revolutionize the humanities.
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The Problem of Distraction

by North, Paul

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9780804775380 / 0804775389
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