From Violence to Speaking Out

Drawing on a career-long exploration of 1960s French philosophy, Leonard Lawlor seeks a solution to 'the problem of the worst violence'. Lawlor argues all violence must itself be reduced to its lowest level. He engages with Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze and Guattari to create new ways of speaking to best achieve the least violence.

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Develops the Derridean idea of the worst violence and creates new ways of speaking out against it Leonard Lawlor's groundbreaking book draws from a career-long exploration of the French philosophy of the 1960s in order to find a solution to 'the problem of the worst violence'. The worst violence is the reaction of total apocalypse without remainder. It is the reaction of complete negation and death. It is nihilism.

Lawlor argues that it is not just transcendental violence that must be minimised: all violence must itself be reduced to its lowest level. He then offers new ways of speaking which will best achieve the least violence which he creatively appropriates from Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze and Guattari as 'speaking-freely', 'speaking-distantly' and 'speaking-in-tongues'.