Without Criteria ─ Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Aesthetics

In Without Criteria, Steven Shaviro proposes and explores aphilosophical fantasy: imagine a world in which Alfred North Whitehead takes the place of MartinHeidegger. What if Whitehead, instead of Heidegger, had set the agenda for postmodern thought?Heidegger asks, "Why is there something, rather than nothing?" Whitehead asks, "Howis it that there is always something new?" In a world where everything from popular music toDNA 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 ratherthan Heidegger. In working through the ideas of Whitehead and Deleuze, Shaviro also appeals to Kant,arguing that certain aspects of Kant's thought pave the way for the philosophical"constructivism" embraced by both Whitehead and Deleuze. Kant, Whitehead, and Deleuze arenot commonly grouped together, but the juxtaposition of them in Without Criteriahelps to shed light on a variety of issues that are of concern to contemporary art and mediapractices.

James X. Dempsey is Executive Director of theCenter for Democracy and Technology, Washington,DC, www.cdt.org, and Policy Director for the GlobalInternet Policy Initiative, www.internetpolicy.net.