The Number and the Siren

Meillassoux, Quentin/ Mackay, Robin (TRN)

Sequence Press（2012/04発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 312 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780983216926
• DDC分類 149.97

Full Description

A philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarme's poem "Un Coup de Des."A meticulous literary study, a detective story a la Edgar Allan Poe, a treasure-hunt worthy of an adventure novel-such is the register in which can be deciphered the hidden secrets of a poem like no other. Quentin Meillassoux, author of After Finitude, continues his philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, infinity, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarme's poem "Un Coup de Des," patiently deciphering its enigmatic meaning on the basis of a dazzlingly simple and lucid insight with regard to Mallarme's "unique Number."The decisive point of the investigation proposed by Meillassoux comes with a discovery, unsettling and yet as simple as a child's game. The Number that "can be no other" can only be revealed to us via a secret code, hidden in the "Coup de des" like a key that finally unlocks every one of its poetic devices. Thus is also unveiled the meaning of that siren, emerging for a lightning-flash amongst the debris of the shipwreck: as the living heart of a drama that is still unfolding.With this bold new interpretation of Mallarme's work, Meillassoux offers brilliant insights into modernity, poetics, secularism, and religion, and opens a new chapter in his philosophy of radical contingency.The volume contains the entire text of the "Coup de des" and three other poems, with new English translations.

Contents

Introduction; Part OneInfinite; Conclusion; Appendix 1: The Poems; Appendix 2: The Count; Translator's Note