Books Written and Co-edited by Lambert Zuidervaart
Now in Paperback!
Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth (State University of New York Press, 2024).
A critical and creative reconstruction of Adorno's conception of truth that shows its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics.
An elusive and complex idea of truth lies at the center of Theodor Adorno's thought. Yet he never spells out what it is. Through close readings of Negative Dialectics, Aesthetic Theory, and related course lectures, this book reconstructs Adorno's conception of truth, contrasts it with the conceptions of Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, and explores its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics. Adorno regards truth as a dynamic constellation in which various dialectical polarities intersect. The most decisive polarity, I argue, occurs between society as it has developed and the historical possibility of a completely transformed world. Critically reconstructed, Adorno's conception of truth can help inspire hopeful critiques of an allegedly post-truth society.
Hardcover published on February 1, 2024; now in paperback too. More details are at the publisher’s website and in my blog post “Hope for Truth in a Post-Truth World.”
“Zuidervaart, who already published numerable books on critical theory in general and Adorno in particular, again shows himself to be an excellent and critical reader of Adorno. The greatest strength of Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth is that it offers an in-depth study of Adorno's concept of truth, based on a thorough reading and understanding, and an original and critical interpretation of Adorno's work. It also surpasses that in demonstrating the need for a conception of 'truth as a whole' beyond propositional truth, and the need to link the concept of truth to social critique and social hope. All this makes this book a must-read for Adorno scholars.”
— Thijs Lijster, author of Benjamin and Adorno on Art and Art Criticism: Critique of Art
Other Recent Books
Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion (Routledge, 2023)
Truth is in trouble. Prominent philosophers have asked whether the idea of truth is important. Some have wondered why we even need it. Their questions reinforce broader trends in Western society, where many wonder whether or why we should pursue truth. Indeed, some pundits say we have become a "post-truth" society, one where feelings trump facts in public affairs.
Yet there are good reasons not to embrace the cultural Zeitgeist, reasons to regard truth as a substantive and socially significant idea. This book explains why. First I argue that propositional truth is only one kind of truth—an important kind, but not all-important. Then I show how propositional truth belongs to the more comprehensive process of truth as a whole. This process involves a dynamic correlation between human fidelity to societal principles and a life-giving disclosure of society. It comes to expression in distinct social domains of truth. The final chapters lay out five such domains: science, politics, art, religion, and philosophy. The result is a completely new way to think about truth.
More details are at the publisher’s website.
Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022)
Questions first raised by Hannah Arendt in the 1960s take on new urgency today: Is truth politically impotent? Are politics inherently false? Is the search for truth still relevant? Shattering Silos, a companion volume to Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation and Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal, provides a path-breaking response. As in these two previous books, I challenge the boundaries philosophers set up between epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. Knowledge, I argue, takes different forms in various social domains, and all are subject to political struggle. A critique of contemporary society must draw on many social domains of knowledge, including the arts and religion, and it should recast politics as a striving for truth in the broadest sense. This book proposes a new understanding of large-scale social change, challenging how most people think about knowledge and truth.
Interweaving epistemology, social criticism, and political thought, Shattering Silos aims to help redirect an allegedly post-truth society. More details are at the publisher’s website.
To Sing Once More: Sorrow, Joy, and the Dog I Loved
(Wipf & Stock, 2021)
How do we honor the dog friends who keep us company without complaint? How do we prepare when their all-too-short lives near an end? How do we grieve their passing and take joy in their memory? This memoir celebrates the life of a beautiful Golden Retriever named Hannah Estelle. It tells how, at a time of deep sadness, her puppy presence helped me learn to sing again; how, as I became an accomplished vocalist, her faithful friendship brought grace and joy; and how, during the cancer-wracked months that ended her life, my singing to Hannah helped her departure. Woven around texts from poignant songs, the book speaks of loss and love, of sorrow and joy, of suffering and hope. Each chapter is a dog song, inspired by the canine companion it is about, and songlike in its own aspiration. I tell lyrical stories about a dear dog's life to thank her for helping me learn to sing once more. More details are at the publisher’s website.
“As a singer, composer, and conductor, I am deeply moved by Lambert’s remembrances of his beloved Hannah, and the ways that music impacted their shared journey. I am inspired and reassured by the similarities I find here to my own life with dogs—from the joys and challenges of puppies, through the cementing of shared loyalties, and the grief of navigating illness and end-of-life care. I’m so grateful for this gracious, loving memoir and the memories it stirs in me.”
—Matthew Culloton, Founding Artistic Director, The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists
“This book, written passionately from the heart, verbalizes in truly beautiful language what so many of us who have shared our lives with dogs would wish to say, but could not find the words.”
—Chris Zink, sports medicine veterinarian and lifelong dog lover
More Books
I have published five types of books:
Monographs on the Idea of Truth
Studies of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School
Collections of Essays in Reformational Philosophy
Books on the Arts and Culture
Literary Memoirs about Canine Companions
The Idea of Truth
Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion. Routledge, 2023.
Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval. MIT Press, 2017.
Truth Matters: Knowledge, Politics, Ethics, Religion. Edited by Lambert Zuidervaart, Allyson Carr, Matthew Klaassen, and Ronnie Shuker. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013.
“Truth is not a minted coin that can be given and pocketed ready-made.”
Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School
“The only philosophy which can be responsibly practiced in the face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption.”
Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth. State University of New York Press, 2024. Publisher’s link.
Social Philosophy after Adorno. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
The Semblance of Subjectivity: Essays in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Tom Huhn and Lambert Zuidervaart. MIT Press, 1997.
Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory: The Redemption of Illusion. MIT Press, 1991.
Essays in Reformational Philosophy
“A farmer distinguishes stones, plants, animals, and humans more clearly than many who are stuck with an impoverished theory of knowledge.”
Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022.
Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017.
Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation: Essays in Reformational Philosophy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016.
Pledges of Jubilee: Essays on the Arts and Culture, in Honor of Calvin G. Seerveld. Edited by Lambert Zuidervaart and Henry Luttikhuizen. Eerdmans, 1995.
The Arts and Culture
“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.”
Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Artistic Truth: Aesthetics, Discourse, and Imaginative Disclosure. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
The Arts, Community and Cultural Democracy. Edited by Lambert Zuidervaart and Henry Luttikhuizen. Macmillan Press; St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture, and the Electronic Media. Co-authored by Quentin J. Schultze, Roy M. Anker, James D. Bratt, William D. Romanowski, John William Worst, and Lambert Zuidervaart; edited by Roy M. Anker. Eerdmans, 1991.
Literary Memoirs
“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased … What would the world be like without dogs?”
To Sing Once More: Sorrow, Joy, and the Dog I Loved. Wipf and Stock, 2021.
Dog-Kissed Tears: Songs of Friendship, Loss, and Healing. Wipf and Stock, 2010.
