Contradiction Set Free

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.

Table of Contents:
I. The Discovery of Contradiction 1. Contradiction From the Beginning 2. Contradiction in Thought 3. Contradiction in Faith 4. Plato's Dialectic II. The Forgotten and Overblown Contradiction 1. The Unity of the Middle Ages 2. The All of the Middle Ages 3. The Anxiety of the Middle Ages 4. The End of the Middle Ages III. The Repression of Contradiction 1. From Opposition to Contradiction 2. From Hegel to Marx and Kierkegaard 3. Mao Zedong's Contradiction Set Free 4. The Weakness of Every Dialectic IV. Attempted Displacement 1. Freedom of Technology 2. Freedom Through Technology 3. Technology Contra Freedom 4. Freedom Contra Technology V. Attempted Oppression 1. The Completeness of the Modern World 2. The Totalitarian Arrogation of Totality 3. The Fascist Arrogation of Force 4. The Right to Contradiction as the Right to Resistance VI. Attempted Eradication 1. Attempted Sabotage 2. Attempted Postponement 3. Attempted Dissipation 4. Attempted Annihilation VII. The Challenge of Contradiction 1. Outraged Freedom 2. Freedom Contra the State 3. Freedom through Challenge 4. Freedom contra Freedom VIII. The Contradictions of Freedom 1. Freedom instead of Subjugation 2. Freedom despite Liberation 3. Freedom despite Freedom 4. Limits of Freedom-in Freedom IX. The Unavoidable Contradiction 1. The Old Meaning 2. The Lost Meaning 3. The Enduring Meaning 4. The Reclaimed Meaning X. The Unacceptable Contradiction 1. Guilt and Exculpation 2. Guilt and Turning 3. The Good of Turning 4. In the End only Good! XI. Set Contradiction Free! 1. Dialogic instead of Dialectic 2. Dialogic without Dialogism 3. Set Contradiction Free! 4. Instead of Aufhebung - Aufgeräumtheit XII. In Contradiction to the World 1. The Challenged Environment 2. Challenging Maturity 3. Costs Claimed 4. Required: Humans! Notes

About the Author :
Hermann Levin Goldschmidt (1914-1998) was an independent philosopher and champion of dialogical thinking. A native of Berlin, he fled to Zurich in 1938 and continued to live and work in Switzerland until his death in 1998. He is also the author of The Legacy of German Jewry (translated in 2007). Willi Goetschel is Professor of German and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Review :
[Goldschmidt's] writing evinces the clear and straightforward development and exposition of a thought ... [An] impressive work. What if, instead of trying compulsively to avoid contradiction, we embrace it as an opportunity? This work discusses in an entirely original and highly lucid way some of the consequences this change of attitude might have for our views about such phenomena as meaning, freedom, guilt, politics and technology. Contradiction Set Free is one of Herman Levin Goldschmidt's most important books and it has lost none of its power since its publication forty years ago.This meticulous translation, together with Willi Goetschel's extremely helpful introduction, should go a long way to seeing that he is finally given his rightful due in the English-speaking world.