This collection assembles key essays of Reiner Schürmann centering on the concepts of anarchy and the singularization to come. Setting out from the question of the status of practical philosophy at the end of metaphysics, these texts track the crucial role of Schürmanns engagement with the work of Michel Foucault between 1983 and 1991. Drawing on his highly original reading of the philosophical tradition, Schürmann traces the status of identity and difference in Foucaults conception of history to develop a radical phenomenological understanding of anarchy. The texts pose the question of the fate of philosophy after the critique of the subject and the collapse of the divide between theory and praxis, philosophy and politics. Besides making Schürmanns seminal readings of Foucault widely available, the essay collection offers a concise and accessible introduction to Schürmanns thought and documents a shift in his thinking during the 1980s. Taken together, these pivotal essays introduce the reader to the entirety of Schürmanns most urgent concerns and assemble the conceptual tools for the project of his last book, Broken Hegemonies . This topology of broken hegemonies, which in many ways offers an alternative to Foucaults genealogical strategy, takes the form of a subversive re-reading of the history of Western metaphysics that urges our present relentlessly toward the singularization to come. To the reader unfamiliar with Schürmanns work, these texts establish him as one of the most radical thinkers of the late 20th century, whose work might eventually become legible in our present.

Reiner Schürmann wurde 1941 in Amsterdam geboren und verbrachte seine Kindheit und Jugend in Krefeld. Ab 1960 studierte er Philosophie in München, unterbrochen durch einen Aufenthalt in einem israelischen Kibbuz. 1961 trat er als Novize bei den Dominikanern in Frankreich ein und studierte von 1962-69 Theologie im Saulchoir, Essonne, bei Paris, unterbrochen durch einen Studienaufenthalt in Freiburg i. Br. bei Heidegger. 1970 wurde er zum Dominikanerpriester ordiniert, verließ den Orden 1975 jedoch wieder. Seit den frühen siebziger Jahren lebte Schürmann in den USA und wurde 1975 von Hannah Arendt und Hans Jonas an die New School for Social Research in New York berufen. 1993 starb Reiner Schürmann an Aids. Sein umfangreiches philosophisches Werk verfasste Schürmann in französischer Sprache.