Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy

"In our anti-Eurocentrist era, attempts abound to 'decenter' European legacy, to demonstrate how European ideology borrowed from and simultaneously oppressed other traditions. Kojin Karatani does something very different: he decenters European legacy from within, shifting the accent from the classic Greek idealism (Plato, Aristotle) to its half-forgotten predecessors, the so-called Ionian materialists (Thales, Democritus), the first philosophers who were also the true founders of democratic egalitarianism. Karatani’s book makes you see the entire history of philosophy in a new way; it deserves to become an instant classic." - Slavoj Žižek

"A unique and ambitious intellectual project, Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy marks a new phase in the history of Marxism and in the career of Kojin Karatani. It should be regarded as one of the radical critiques of Western metaphysics by virtue of its challenge to conventional accounts of the origins of philosophy. This work is of historical importance." - Naoki Sakai, author of Translation and Subjectivity: On Japan and Cultural Nationalism

"A work of historical importance, this book should be read by all who are interested in the innumerable conflicts that beset the contemporary world. Essential." - J. A. Fischel, Choice

"Karatani’s Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy is a deceptively complex work that offers numerous transdisciplinary insights for the philosophically initiated and uninitiated alike. And while its true value may be its intellectual historical angle – namely, its fascinating re-presentation of the history of Greek philosophy – Isonomia is a very worthwhile part of Karatani’s broader effort to offer readers an illuminating systematic perspective from which to view our contemporary political and philosophical situation." - Brendan Harvey, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

"Karatani is presenting . . . a concrete analysis of the conditions necessary to produce the scientific method, the rational against the superstitious, the cosmopolitan. . . It need hardly be said that these themes are more timely than ever." - Mat Callahan, Socialism and Democracy

"Provocative, wide-ranging, and very clearly written, Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy is highly worthwhile to read for philosophers, political theorists, and anyone interested in questions of universal history." - Grant Andersen, Philosophy in Review