'Vicious Circles' Book Cover

Vicious Circles

Disclosing a History of Critique
Arvi Särkelä
March 2026
344 Pages
Hardcover ISBN: 9781503645417
Paperback ISBN: 9781503645721

From Emerson to Adorno, a tradition of radical social critique has flourished that utilize methods which disclose rather than judge life's form: instead of trying to say what is wrong and what would be better, these criticisms seek to show how the world is false and to reveal how we might escape the vicious circles of present society—pointing out its catastrophic state and directing readers to the real possibilities for another form of life.

This book presents an incisive history of disclosing critique of society. It reconstructs methods of critical disclosure by telling the story of a metaphor of society, "vicious circle," and a metaphor for disclosure "drawing a circle around the circle." As Särkelä illuminates, these two metaphors continually interact in the works of 19th and 20th century European and American authors including not just Emerson and Adorno, but also Nietzsche, Tarde, Freud, and Dewey. By reconstructing the driving examples of such disclosing critical gestures, Särkelä articulates their similarities and differences, and considers their potential for contemporary social critique. The result points the way toward the cultivation of critical skills relevant for our own age of catastrophe.

"Vicious Circles advances an exciting, ambitious, and original vision of disclosive critique. Through the careful excavation of prominent historical exemplars, Särkelä develops a compelling alternative to the normative, juridical conceptions of critique that predominate in contemporary critical theory."
—Amy Allen, Pennsylvania State University

"What are the conditions and nature of effective social criticism? In this groundbreaking study of disclosive critique without conceptual guardrails, Särkelä moves the terms of this long-standing debate decisively forward."
—Espen Hammer, Temple University

Arvi Särkelä is a Lecturer and Researcher at ETH Zurich. He focuses on the philosophy and history of critique, especially in 19th and 20th century Europe and Northern America.