The Philosophy of Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion, and the Self

Arguing that Philip Rieff was a Freudian who departed in vital and fascinating ways from Freud, and a committed modern who nevertheless viewed modernity as a disaster, this book makes clear his thought transcends contemporary left-right culture war dichotomies. Alasdair MacIntyre described Rieff's early work as 'a permanently valuable contribution to the human sciences.' The essays in this volume engage with Rieff's teaching, both early and late, across a number of different axes and from a number of disciplinary perspectives, placing him into dialogue with thinkers such as Plato, Nietzsche, Freud, Weber, Heidegger, Strauss, Pieper, Wilde and more. The Philosophy of Philip Rieff conveys the utility of Rieff's theory for thinking through various contemporary issues, from religion, culture and race, to the role of elites in a democratic society. Philip Rieff's thought offers a key to unlocking the cultural trajectories of late modernity, and this interdisciplinary volume engages that work in its depth and complexity while suggesting Rieff's place in the wider philosophic tradition. Cover Contents Acknowledgments 1 Editor’s Introduction: Of Deathworks and Sacred Orders William G. Batchelder IV and Michael P. Harding Part 1 Rieff: Philosophy, Religion, and Metaphysics 2 “You Should Be Closest to Him in Heart When You Resist Him”: Rieff’s Use of Nietzsche in Deathworks Michael P. Harding 3 Self-Knowledge after Rieff Christopher Anadale 4 The Peculiar God of Philip Rieff William G. Batchelder IV 5 Democratic Drift and the Therapeutic Deathwork Paul J. Diduch 6 Rieff, Strauss, and Heidegger: Sacred Sociology and the Prophecy of a New Order Kevin Slack Part 2 Rieff and Cultural Change 7 Freud, Culture, and the Function of Political Elites: Philip Rieff on the “Virtuosi of Creation and Decreation” Ethan Alexander-Davey 8 Philip Rieff and the Resistance to Totalitarian Imagination Joshua J. Bowman 9 The Sexual Revolution, Sacred Order, and Total Revolution: Philip Rieff and Augusto Del Noce on Wilhelm Reich Carl Trueman 10 Philip Rieff’s Critique of Oscar Wilde, Expressive Individualis