A World of Becoming

by William E. Connolly

In A World of Becoming William E. Connolly outlines a political philosophy suited to a world whose powers of creative evolution include and exceed the human estate. This is a world composed of multiple interacting systems, including those of climate change, biological evolution, economic practices, and geological formations. Such open systems, set on different temporal registers of stability and instability, periodically resonate together to produce profound, unpredictable changes. To engage such a world reflectively is to feel pressure to alter established practices of politics, ethics, and spirituality. In pursuing such a course, Connolly draws inspiration from philosophers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred North Whitehead, and Gilles Deleuze, as well as the complexity theorist of biology Stuart Kauffman and the theologian Catherine Keller. Attunement to a world of becoming, Connolly argues, may help us address dangerous resonances between global finance capital, cross-regional religious resentments, neoconservative ideology, and the 24-hour mass media. Coming to terms with subliminal changes in the contemporary experience of time that challenge traditional images can help us grasp how these movements have arisen and perhaps even inspire creative counter-movements. The book closes with the chapter “The Theorist and the Seer,” in which Connolly draws insights from early Greek ideas of the Seer and a Jerry Lewis film, The Nutty Professor , to inform the theory enterprise today.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Politics

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

William E. Connolly is a political theorist known for his work on democracy and pluralism. He is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His 1974 work The Terms of Political Discourse won the 1999 Benjamin Lippincott Award
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Reviews

[Indradeep Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connolly's program is ambitious, as he calls on thinkers and intellectuals to reorient themselves in a fundamental way to not only understand the world around them, but also to engage with it in a respectful and critical way. He also has a beautiful writing style that embodies this ethic of engagement. A fascinating read.

[Christopher Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very hard to digest the first time I read this. However, after the second time through it really started to make sense. I highly suggest this book for anyone interested in political science.

[Toby Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The double bind of the world: things move too fast, the rhythm of life is accelerated and insistent, pause and delay bother us, make us uneasy. How to deliver speed? By devolving to well-rehearsed human technologies – especially conventional pieties and well funded bon mots, and other linguistic alibis. But these don't really express our selves, they are trite and shallow, but they keep things flowing at the rapid rate expected and welcomed. We bob along.

Stopping to think is at a premium. Forget "critical thinking", just stop to think. Slow down and consider words carefully (i.e., with care). Be wary of pat phrases and anything that trips too lightly off the tongue. You will be paralysed, but that is the first station on the path to liberation.

You must risk annoying people by making them wait and causing them to think.