Worldlessness after Heidegger : phenomenology, psychoanalysis, deconstruction

Sets out an innovative agenda for the potential applications of worldlessness in practical philosophyProvides a provocative rereading of post-WWII history of continental philosophy Advocates worldlessness as a positive valueSituates the argument among the work of Markus Gabriel, Levi Bryant and Timothy MortonSets out an innovative agenda for potential applications of the concept of worldlessness in practical philosophy, aesthetics, ethics and political philosophyRoland Végső opens up a new debate in favour of abandoning the very idea of the world in both philosophy and politics. Opening with a reconsideration of the Heideggerian critique of worldlessness, he goes on to trace the overlooked history of this argument in the works of Hannah Arendt, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Alain Badiou.This critical genealogy shows that the post-Heideggerian critique of the phenomenological tradition remained limited by its unquestioning investment in the category of the ‘world’. As a way out of this historical predicament, Végsö encourages us to create affirmative definitions of worldlessness.