Although frequently invoked by philosophers and political theorists, the theory of negativity has received remarkably little sustained attention. "Negativity and Politics" is the first full-length study of this crucial topic within philosophy and political theory. Diana Coole explores the meaning of negativity in modern and postmodern thinking, and examines its significance for politics and our understanding of what constitutes the political. Beginning with an insightful reading of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" and a consideration of the work of Hegel, Coole goes on to discuss the importance of negativity in the thought of a number of key theorists including Nietzsche, Adorno, Kristeva, Freud, Foucault, Habermas, Deleuze, Derrida and Butler. Throughout, Coole clearly and skillfully shows how the problem of negativity lies at the heart of philosophical and political debate.

Introduction: negativity and politics 1 Negativity and noumena: critical reason at the limit 2 Hegel and his critics: dialectics and difference 3 Nietzsche: negativity as will to power 4 Negativity as invisibility: Merleau-Ponty's dialectical adventures 4 Negativity as invisibility: Merleau-Ponty's dialectical adventures 5 Subject-object relations again: identity, non-identity and negative dialectics 6 Subjectivity and the semiotic: gendering negativity, Conclusion: politics and negativity