The Livable and the Unlivable

"A provocative, insightful, and profound discussion."--Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University

"This is one of the most engaging and dynamic conversations that I have read in a very long time. It is astonishing how much is said in so few words."--Peg Birmingham, DePaul University

The unlivable is the most extreme point of human suffering and injustice. But what is it exactly? How do we define the unlivable? And what can we do to prevent and repair it? These are the intriguing questions Judith Butler and Frédéric Worms discuss in a captivating dialogue situated at the crossroads of contemporary life and politics. Here, Judith Butler criticizes the norms that make life precarious and unlivable, while Frédéric Worms appeals to a "critical vitalism" as a way of allowing the hardship of the unlivable to reveal what is vital for us.

For both Butler and Worms, the difference between the livable and the unlivable forms the critical foundation for a contemporary practice of care. Care and support, in all their aspects, make human life livable, that is, "more than living." To understand it, we must draw on the concrete practices of humans who are confronted with the unlivable: the refugees of today and the witnesses and survivors of past violations and genocide. They teach us what is intolerable but also undeniable about the unlivable, and what we can do to resist it.

The Livable and the Unlivable at once considers longstanding philosophical questions around why and how we live, while working to retrieve a philosophy of life for today's Left.

Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Frédéric Worms is Director at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris.