The Test Drive - Softcover

Ronell, Avital

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252075358 ISBN 13: 9780252075353

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2007

Synopsis

The Test Drive deals with the war perpetrated by highly determined reactionary forces on science and research. How does the government at once promote and prohibit scientific testing and undercut the importance of experimentation? To what extent is testing at the forefront of theoretical and practical concerns today? Addressed to those who are left stranded by speculative thinking and unhinged by cognitive discourse, The Test Drive points to a toxic residue of uninterrogated questions raised by Nietzsche, Husserl and Derrida. Ranging from the scientific probe to modalities of testing that include the limits of friendship or love, this work explores the crucial operations of an uncontestable legitimating machine. Avital Ronell offers a tour-de-force reading of legal, pharmaceutical, artistic, scientific, Zen, and historical grids that depend upon different types of testability, involving among other issues what it means to put oneself to the test.

About this title

About the Author

Avital Ronell is a professor of German, English, and comparative literature at New York University, where she also codirects the program in Trauma and Violence Transdiciplinary Studies. She is the author of Stupidity, Crack Wars, and other books.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252075358
• ISBN 13: 9780252075353
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 371