In Marking Time , Paul Rabinow presents his most recent reflections on the anthropology of the contemporary. Drawing richly on the work of Michel Foucault, John Dewey, Niklas Luhmann, and, most interestingly, German painter Gerhard Richter, Rabinow offers a set of conceptual tools for scholars examining cutting-edge practices in the life sciences, security, new media and art practices, and other emergent phenomena. Taking up topics that include bioethics, anger and competition among molecular biologists, the lessons of the Drosophila genome, the nature of ethnographic observation in radically new settings, and the moral landscape shared by scientists and anthropologists, Rabinow shows how anthropology remains relevant to contemporary debates. By turning abstract philosophical problems into real-world explorations and offering original insights, Marking Time is a landmark contribution to the continuing re-invention of anthropology and the human sciences.
Author(s): Paul Rabinow
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 176
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 14
On the Anthropology of the Contemporary......Page 18
Inquiry......Page 23
Elements......Page 24
The Legitimacy of the Contemporary......Page 29
2000: Drosophila Lessons......Page 31
The Future of Human Nature......Page 37
Bio-ethics: The Question Concerning Humanism......Page 39
Nature......Page 42
Security, Danger, Risk......Page 43
Contemporary Formations......Page 45
Conclusion......Page 46
Adjacency......Page 50
Timing......Page 52
Situating: Tolerance and Benevolence......Page 53
Telos: A Zone of Discomfort......Page 61
Untimely Work......Page 65
Observation......Page 68
Bildung......Page 71
Observing the Future......Page 74
Responsibility to Ignorance......Page 77
Observing Observers Observing......Page 79
Observing First-order Observers......Page 81
Chronicling Observation......Page 83
Original History......Page 84
Writing Things: Deictic Not Epideictic......Page 86
Vehement Contemporaries......Page 90
Rugged Terrain......Page 95
Elements of a Contemporary Moral Landscape......Page 97
Genomics as Ethical Terrain......Page 98
Agon in the Genomic Terrain......Page 101
Thumós: Appropriate Anger......Page 107
Vehement Contemporaries......Page 115
Contemporary Modern......Page 118
Biotechnical Forms......Page 120
Art Critics and Others......Page 123
Our Contemporary......Page 125
Nature......Page 126
Photography......Page 129
Marking Time......Page 133
Abstract Images......Page 136
Remediation......Page 139
Objects......Page 141
Remedation......Page 144
Notes......Page 146
Bibliography......Page 158
C......Page 164
M......Page 165
W......Page 166
