Slow Philosophy: Reading against the Institution

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In an age of internet scrolling and skimming, where concentration and attention are fast becoming endangered skills, it is timely to think about the act of reading and the many forms that it can take. Slow Philosophy: Reading Against the Institution makes the case for thinking about reading in philosophical terms. Boulous Walker argues that philosophy involves the patient work of thought; in this it resembles the work of art, which invites and implores us to take our time and to engage with the world. At its best, philosophy teaches us to read slowly; in fact, philosophy is the art of reading slowly and this inevitably clashes with many of our current institutional practices and demands. Slow reading shares something in common with contemporary social movements, such as that devoted to slow food; it offers us ways to engage the complexity of the world. With the help of writers as diverse as Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Woolf, Adorno, Levinas, Critchley, Beauvoir, Le Duff, Irigaray, Cixous, Weil, and others, Boulous Walker offers a foundational text in the emerging field of slow philosophy, one that explores the importance of unhurried time in establishing our institutional encounters with complex and demanding works.

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The real innovation of Boulous Walkers book is its understanding of philosophia the love of wisdom in terms of the love of reading. The point is not that philosophers do not read, or that they ought to read more, but that philosophy needs to rethink what it is to read, and to think carefully about what it is to read better. Hence the importance of slowness. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
[T]his book represents a welcome refreshment for the academic; it allows one to remember why and how reading and thinking is central to engaging with the world--one's work is not always an attempt at grasping and defining the voice of the text, but it also includes letting the text express itself through attentive and respectful listening, involving a "sitting-with" that allows for silence, meditation, reflection, until the text becomes strangely at home enough to become a member of an emerging ethical community of readers, a vision to which we are summoned. * Sophia *
Systematic reading is characterised by a desire for knowledge. Whereas slow reading, according to Walker, is about nothing less than the love of wisdom. * Svenska Dagbladet (Bloomsbury translation) *
This is a book that goes against the grain. In an age of generalized speeding up and institutional pressure to generate rapid outcomes, Michelle Boulous Walker teaches us how to appreciate and enjoy the intellectual splendors of slowness. The most important things in life have a tendency to take their time, and philosophers should be the first to understand that. Indeed, they should make slowness a vital dimension of their work. Slow philosophy is enjoyable, imaginative, provocative, subversive a gem of a book. Read it now. Slowly! * Costica Bradatan, Associate Professor of Humanities in the Honors College at Texas Tech University, USA *
Philosophy professes to think about thinking in its many forms. Michelle Boulous Walker shows how hard it is to do it, and the many ways contemporary academic philosophy betrays the obligation to do it. In this beautifully written book she teaches us how to read thoughtfully by her attentive reading of philosophers and writers both ancient and contemporary, who taught her how to do it... slowly. Seldom does a work of philosophy practice what it preaches in such an exemplary manner. * Raimond Gaita, Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Law School & Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia *

Author Bio

Michelle Boulous Walker is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Queensland, Australia.