Reflexivity and the crisis of Western reason

the long version

This ground-breaking work, the first in a series of volumes, explores the genealogical analysis of the discourses of reflection. Barry Sandywell traces the differences between the traditional discourses of reflection and the experiences of reflexivity in everyday, social and philosophical thought. The central contention of Sandywell's argument is that in order to begin to address these types of questions we must first explore the force field between the discourses of reflection and reflexivity. To do so requires radical self-investigations of the role of reflexivity in human experience, and more especially of the role of the languages, practices, and institutions of self-reflection within the fabric of Western culture. Consequently, these 'logological investigations' introduce a method of analysis which traces the epochal movement of thought from a videological to a dialogical conception of the world. In doing so they introduce some of the preliminary work necessary for more detailed studies of premodern, modern, and postmodern forms of reflexivity in the subsequent volumes. Brilliantly organized and abounding with astonishing insights, Volume 1 offers a fundamental challenge to our normal ways of viewing social thought.