Action and Reaction: The Life and Adventures of a Couple
Sep 2025 · Princeton University Press
Ebook
470
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary conceptual history of the changing meanings and metaphors of “action” and “reaction”
What is meant by reactionary politics? What do biologists mean when they speak of the interaction between life and its surroundings? Why was the term “abreaction” invented and later abandoned by the first generation of psychoanalysts? These are but a few of the questions the internationally renowned scholar Jean Starobinski answers in his latest work on the conceptual history of the words “action” and “reaction.”
Not just a history of ideas, Action and Reaction is also a semantic and philological history, a literary history, a history of medicine, and a history of the biological sciences. Concentrating especially on the moment when scientific language and ordinary language diverge, the author offers a genealogy of the human and natural sciences through their usage of the metaphors action and reaction.
Newton’s theorem “to every action an equal action is always opposed,” stands as a point of departure for Starobinski’s exploration of the lexical and metaphorical traces this proposition left in its wake. With stunning clarity, the author analyzes the scientific, literary, and political effects of the terms action / reaction in describing and explaining the material universe, the living body, the events of history, and psychological behavior.
Ultimately, the book explores the power and danger of metaphorical language and questions the convergence and collapse of scientific and moral explanations of the universe.
What is meant by reactionary politics? What do biologists mean when they speak of the interaction between life and its surroundings? Why was the term “abreaction” invented and later abandoned by the first generation of psychoanalysts? These are but a few of the questions the internationally renowned scholar Jean Starobinski answers in his latest work on the conceptual history of the words “action” and “reaction.”
Not just a history of ideas, Action and Reaction is also a semantic and philological history, a literary history, a history of medicine, and a history of the biological sciences. Concentrating especially on the moment when scientific language and ordinary language diverge, the author offers a genealogy of the human and natural sciences through their usage of the metaphors action and reaction.
Newton’s theorem “to every action an equal action is always opposed,” stands as a point of departure for Starobinski’s exploration of the lexical and metaphorical traces this proposition left in its wake. With stunning clarity, the author analyzes the scientific, literary, and political effects of the terms action / reaction in describing and explaining the material universe, the living body, the events of history, and psychological behavior.
Ultimately, the book explores the power and danger of metaphorical language and questions the convergence and collapse of scientific and moral explanations of the universe.
About the author
Jean Starobinski's books in English include Largess, Blessings in Disguise, The Invention of Liberty, 1700–1789, Montaigne in Motion, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction, and The Living Eye.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
