Contradiction Set Free

Hermann Levin Goldschmidt

First published in in 1976, Hermann Levin Goldschmidt's Contradiction Set Free, (Freiheit für den Widerspruch), reflects the push to explore new forms of critical thinking that gained momentum in the decade between Theodor Adorno's Negative Dialectics of 1966 and Paul Feyerabend's Against Method in 1975.The book articulates Goldschmidt's reclamation of an epistemologically critical position that acknowledges the deep underlying link between the modes of production of knowledge and the social and political life they produce. In signalling a breakout from the academic rut and its repressive hold, Goldschmidt pointed beyond the ossified methods of a philosophical discourse whose oppressive consequences could no longer be ignored.Contradiction Set Free makes available for the first time in English a pivotal work by one of the great critical thinkers of the 20th century.

Willi Goetschel is a leading academic in Goldschmidt scholarship

I. The Discovery of Contradiction1. Contradiction From the Beginning2. Contradiction in Thought3. Contradiction in Faith4. Plato's DialecticII. The Forgotten and Overblown Contradiction1. The Unity of the Middle Ages2. The All of the Middle Ages3. The Anxiety of the Middle Ages4. The End of the Middle AgesIII. The Repression of Contradiction1. From Opposition to Contradiction2. From Hegel to Marx and Kierkegaard3. Mao Zedong's Contradiction Set Free4. The Weakness of Every DialecticIV. Attempted Displacement1. Freedom of Technology2. Freedom Through Technology3. Technology Contra Freedom4. Freedom Contra TechnologyV. Attempted Oppression1. The Completeness of the Modern World2. The Totalitarian Arrogation of Totality3. The Fascist Arrogation of Force4. The Right to Contradiction as the Right to ResistanceVI. Attempted Eradication1. Attempted Sabotage2. Attempted Postponement3. Attempted Dissipation4. Attempted AnnihilationVII. The Challenge of Contradiction1. Outraged Freedom2. Freedom Contra the State3. Freedom through Challenge4. Freedom contra FreedomVIII. The Contradictions of Freedom1. Freedom instead of Subjugation2. Freedom despite Liberation3. Freedom despite Freedom4. Limits of Freedom-in FreedomIX. The Unavoidable Contradiction1. The Old Meaning2. The Lost Meaning3. The Enduring Meaning4. The Reclaimed MeaningX. The Unacceptable Contradiction1. Guilt and Exculpation2. Guilt and Turning3. The Good of Turning4. In the End only Good!XI. Set Contradiction Free!1. Dialogic instead of Dialectic2. Dialogic without Dialogism3. Set Contradiction Free!4. Instead of Aufhebung - AufgeräumtheitXII. In Contradiction to the World1. The Challenged Environment2. Challenging Maturity3. Costs Claimed4. Required: Humans!Notes