In this learned, witty and groundbreaking study, Olli Lagerspetz offers a persuasive discussion of dirt and its ramifications in philosophy and culture.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• PART I: THE PHILOSOPHICAL LANDSCAPE OF ‘DIRTY’ AND ‘CLEAN’
• ONE Dirt in Philosophy and Culture
• TWO A Brief History of Dirt in Philosophy
• THREE Dirty and Clean: Main Distinctions
• FOUR Reductionism and the Role of Science
• PART II: ‘DIRTY’ AND ‘FORBIDDEN’: ANTHROPOLOGICAL REDUCTIONISM AND ITS LIMITS
• FIVE Ritual, Disorder and Pollution
• SIX Repressing the ‘Other’: The Myth of Abjection
• SEVEN The Civilizing Process
• EIGHT Ambiguities of Self-discipline and the Campaign for Civilization
• PART III: SETTLING ACCOUNTS WITH MATTER
• NINE Between Facts and Practices
• TEN To Dress and to Keep
• ELEVEN What Is Mine and What Is Someone Else's
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS