the Shaviro blurb

Here’s part of the description Amazon has up for the book:

“In Without Criteria, Steven Shaviro proposes and explores a philosophical fantasy: imagine a world in which Alfred North Whitehead takes the place of Martin Heidegger. What if Whitehead, instead of Heidegger, had set the agenda for postmodern thought? Heidegger asks, ‘Why is there something, rather than nothing?’ Whitehead asks, ‘How is it that there is always something new?’ In a world where everything from popular music to DNA is being sampled and recombined, argues Shaviro, Whitehead’s question is the truly urgent one. Without Criteria is Shaviro’s experiment in rethinking postmodern theory, especially the theory of aesthetics, from a point of view that hearkens back to Whitehead rather than Heidegger.”

It’s a refreshing premise for a book, and the portions I’ve seen (they were publicly available on the web) are a great read.