Only Richard A. Lee could have written this book. Who else moves with such facility among these thinkers of both the distant past and the urgent present? Lee expertly reads Aristotle, Scotus, Hobbes, Marx, Benjamin, Adorno, and Althusser, involving them all in a thrilling conversation about a vital philosophical issue—the profound challenge that matter poses to thinking.

Sean D. Kirkland, Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University

Lee’s subtle and original study offers a far-reaching account of matter as that which is other than thought, and of the resulting problem of how thought can think what is other to it. His brilliant and insightful readings of thinkers from Aristotle to Adorno (via Marx, Duns Scotus and
Hobbes) have profound implications for both the promise and the power of philosophy today.

Josh Robinson, Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University