Phenomenology and Existentialism Books

Book SynopsisHart has assembled a stellar group of philosophers and theologians from the United States, Britain, France, and Australia to examine the work of Jean-Luc Marion, the leading figure in French phenomenology as well as one of the proponents of the so-called "theological turn" in European philosophy.Trade Review“This collection will prove useful to those already interested in the implications of Marion's work for philosophy and theology, and it is indicative of the increasingly blurred boundaries between the two within phenomenology. Kevin Hart's introduction and David Tracy's 'Jean-Luc Marion: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Theology' in particular provide good overviews of the development of Marion's work within phenomenology and its increasing influence as philosophical theology, and could be of use to those looking for a manageable starting point in this area.” —International Journal of Systematic Theology“This collection of essays from leading scholars in philosophy, theology, and religious studies, including J.D. Caputo, D. Tracy, and K. Turner, provides a wide variety of views dealing with Marion's theology, phenomenology, and the interaction of the two.” —Religious Studies Review“Hart has produced a remarkably lucid and engaging introduction to the thought of Marion. The volume includes insightful readings of, with, and against Marion from an excellent cohort of leading philosophers and theologians. These essays are organized thoughtfully and are supplemented by comprehensive bibliographic appendices. . . an indispensable resource for scholars working on Marion and for the scholarship engaged at the intersection of phenomenology and theology that his thought energizes.” —Modern Theology“Readers should be grateful to Kevin Hart for his marvelous introduction to Counter-Experiences, a collection of essays about Marion, which situates Marion in relation to the German philosophers. . . . Many of the best essays in Counter-Experiences address questions of Marion' philosophy of religion. . . . Counter-Experiences is useful precisely because it gives the reader not only a sense of the paths Marion has thus far traveled but also some sense of the most fruitful lines of inquiry his thought opens up.” —First Things“This collection contains many careful and insightful essays on Marion's thought, and is indispensable reading for anyone interested in Marion's contributions to contemporary phenomenology and theology.” —Philosophy in Review“This is a ground-breaking book by leading continental thinkers on one of the most pioneering and controversial voices to emerge in French thought in decades. This volume addresses the lynch-pin of Marion's thought—the point where philosophy and theology, gift and revelation, impossibility and grace, intersect in fascinating and arresting ways. Kevin Hart, as editor, assembles and conducts a magisterial intellectual orchestra.” —Richard Kearney, Boston College“The collective strength of these exceptionally high-quality essays is the authors’ diversity of reflection on the relation of phenomenology to theology. Readers new to Marion will find their way into the corpus and those already familiar with Marion’s work will encounter stimulating interpretations, challenges, and defenses. Valuable, too, are Hart’s introduction to Marion as phenomenologist and Marion’s defense of the saturated phenomenon that bookend the volume.” —Merold Westphal, Fordham University“As a sophisticated engagement with the question of Marion’s relation to Christian theology specifically, and as a general response to Marion’s work as a whole, Counter-Experiences is an undeniable success. The authors treat Marion’s texts carefully, bring impressive intellectual force to their task, and provide rich documentation in the strongest volume of work on Marion’s thought yet to appear in English.” —Jeffrey Bloechl, College of the Holy Cross

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Book SynopsisRollo May draws on the insights of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, and other great thinkers to offer a helpful roadmap of the ideas and techniques of existential psychotherapy.Trade Review"Clear, accurate, and interesting. There is no better short introduction to the existential approach to psychology." -- Dallas Morning News"A brisk, clear, popular introduction to existential psychology/psychotherapy. . . [Rollo May] makes a good case for it as a pragmatically broad and flexible method. . . . A solid, stimulating presentation." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisParadox and Passion in Psychotherapy an existential approach to therapy and counselling Emmy van Deurzen Schiller International University, London, UK This book confronts the taboo of the psychotherapista s personal history and emotions being involved in the therapeutic process.Table of ContentsParadox. Passion. Psychotherapy and Counselling. Conclusion. References. Index.

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Book SynopsisAs people struggle with a sense of crisis and confusion they search for clarity and meaning. Increasingly they turn to psychotherapists and counsellors, who will find in this book a powerful existential approach to therapy that helps people to make sense of themselves by addressing their social, cultural and political context as well as their personal and interpersonal issues. It makes room for paradox and the acceptance of the inevitable. It allows for questioning and re-evaluation. The existential approach lends itself to time-limited work. Existential therapists do not encourage dependence. But this book also shows that such a brief, tough approach does not mean it is task oriented or superficial, rather that it is possible to allow for the free play of existential concerns and cover much territory in limited time. Clients and therapists will find this approach effective, topical and relevant. ... an important contribution to the literature on existential psychotherapy. The book briTable of ContentsOverview of a Commonsense Existential Approach. The Mystery of Time. Time-limited Existential Therapy Limitations and Possibilities. Concepts and Methods. The Mystery of the 'Insight'. The Body. The 'Givens'. 'Connectedness'. The Tyranny of High Morality. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisMost people have a story to tell about a remarkable coincidence that in some instances changed the course of their lives. These uncanny occurrences have been variously interpreted as evidence of divine influence, fate, or the collective unconscious. Less common are explanations that explore the social situations and personal preoccupations of the individuals who place the most weight on coincidences. Drawing on a variety of coincidence stories, renowned anthropologist Michael Jackson builds a case for seeing them as allegories of separation and lossrevealing the hope of repairing sundered lives, reconnecting estranged friends, reuniting distant kin, closing the gap between people and their gods, and achieving a sense of emotional and social connectedness with others in a fragmented world.Table of ContentsPreface Time to Time A World in a Grain of Sand Lost and Found Synchronicity and Suffering The Other Portion Correspondences Ships That Pass in the Night Chance Meeting Coincidence and Theodicy Amazing Grace About Time March 15, 2019 Person to Person Confluences Love It So Happened That . . . Contrived Coincidences The Double Chinese Boxes Autumn Leaves Magdalene of the Black Rose All the Birds of the Air Place to Place The Relativity of Our Viewpoints As Time Goes By Pieces of Music Strangers on a Train The Lost Child In the Nature of Things Il Ritorno in Patria Affective Coincidences Coincidence and Fate The Question of Verisimilitude Coda Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMost people have a story to tell about a remarkable coincidence that in some instances changed the course of their lives. These uncanny occurrences have been variously interpreted as evidence of divine influence, fate, or the collective unconscious. Less common are explanations that explore the social situations and personal preoccupations of the individuals who place the most weight on coincidences. Drawing on a variety of coincidence stories, renowned anthropologist Michael Jackson builds a case for seeing them as allegories of separation and lossrevealing the hope of repairing sundered lives, reconnecting estranged friends, reuniting distant kin, closing the gap between people and their gods, and achieving a sense of emotional and social connectedness with others in a fragmented world.Table of ContentsPreface Time to Time A World in a Grain of Sand Lost and Found Synchronicity and Suffering The Other Portion Correspondences Ships That Pass in the Night Chance Meeting Coincidence and Theodicy Amazing Grace About Time March 15, 2019 Person to Person Confluences Love It So Happened That . . . Contrived Coincidences The Double Chinese Boxes Autumn Leaves Magdalene of the Black Rose All the Birds of the Air Place to Place The Relativity of Our Viewpoints As Time Goes By Pieces of Music Strangers on a Train The Lost Child In the Nature of Things Il Ritorno in Patria Affective Coincidences Coincidence and Fate The Question of Verisimilitude Coda Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn this account of how the novel reorients philosophy toward the meaning of existence, Yi-Ping Ong shows that the existentialists discovered a radical way of thinking about the relation between the form of the novel and the nature of self-knowledge, freedom, and the world. At stake are the conditions under which knowledge of existence is possible.Trade ReviewAnyone interested in the debates that have convulsed the study of the novel in recent years should read this book. It does more than any other piece of writing I’ve encountered to clarify the underlying stakes of the arguments about close reading versus distant, analog versus computational, depth versus surface…Ong’s masterful book raises questions that I suspect students of the novel will be grappling with for a long time. -- Michael Clune * Critical Inquiry *The Art of Being is brilliant—a beautifully conceived book that brings existentialist philosophy into creative dialogue with literary texts. Full of original and compelling insights into the philosophical content of the novels examined, the intricate readings are absorbing and show how literature subtly reaches beyond itself into our lives. -- Garry L. Hagberg, Bard CollegeYi-Ping Ong wears her immense learning lightly. Her philosophical and literary analyses are elegant and supremely intelligent, and the range of figures that her book draws together results in some startling constellations. The Art of Being is a model of philosophical criticism. -- Robert Chodat, Boston University

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Book SynopsisAboutness has been studied from any number of angles. Brentano made it the defining feature of the mental. Phenomenologists try to pin down the aboutness-features of particular mental states. Materialists sometimes claim to have grounded aboutness in natural regularities. Attempts have even been made, in library science and information theory, to oTrade Review"This is an important and far-reaching book that philosophers will be discussing for a long time. There are doctoral dissertations, articles, and books to write exploring the possibilities and limitations of [Yablo's] approach."--Adam Morton, Notre Dame Philosophical ReviewsTable of ContentsPreface vii How to Read This Book xi Introduction 1 1 I Wasn't Talking about That 7 2 Varieties of Aboutness 23 3 Inclusion in Metaphysics and Semantics 45 4 A Semantic Conception of Truthmaking 54 5 The Truth and Something But the Truth 77 6 Confirmation and Verisimilitude 95 7 Knowing That and Knowing About 112 8 Extrapolation and Its Limits 131 9 Going On in the Same Way 142 10 Pretense and Presupposition 165 11 The Missing Premise 178 12 What Is Said 189 Appendix. Nomenclature 207 Bibliography 209 Index 219

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Book SynopsisKierkegaard translator Walter Lowrie presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. Lowrie tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought.Trade Review"Probably as good an introduction to Kierkegaard and his works as any that is likely ever to be produced."--Times Literary Supplement "A remarkable phosphorescent condensation... [Lowrie gives] us the very essence of the man... A superb study."--New Republic "A very fine introduction."--Commonweal "A magnificent portrait."--Christian Century "A sympathetic and powerful study."--Union Seminary Review "A clear and moving account of the history of Kierkegaard's development and his writings."--Baltimore Evening SunTable of ContentsIntroduction by Alastair Hannay ix Preface xxiii Background 3 Childhood 31 Early Youth - 1830 to 1834 55 The Great Earthquake - Twenty-second birthday 67 At the Cross Roads - 1835 79 The Path of Perdition- 1836 92 Groping His Way Back - May 1836 to May 1838 104 Father and Son United - Twenty-five years of age 118 The Great Parenthesis - August 1838 to July 1840 128 Regina - September 1840 to October 1841 135 The Aesthetic Works 1841 to 1845 144 The Postscript - 1846 166 The Affair of the Corsair - 1846- 176 Thirty-four Years Old - 1847 188 The Edifying Discourses - 1843 - 1855 196 Metamorphosis - 1848 201 Venturing Far Out - 1849 to 1851 210 Holding Out - 1852 to 1854 222 Godly Satire - 1854/55 239 Death and Burial - October 2 to November 18, 1855 253 Kierkegaard's Last Words 257 Kierkegaard's Works in English 261 How Kierkegaard Got into English 265 Index 289

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Book SynopsisDeals with the topic - Watching Television.Table of ContentsTelevision - familiarity and phenomenology; television - hermeneutics and horizon; audiences - constructions of sense; viewing and the veridical effect; mechanisms of identification in film and television; subverting the veridical image; towards an "epic" television; conclusion - resisting television's familiarity.

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Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 Jean-Paul Sartre is often seen as the quintessential public intellectual, but this was not always the case. Until the mid-1940s he was not so well-known, even in France. Then suddenly, in a very short period of time, Sartre became an intellectual celebrity.Trade ReviewChoice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 "In a brilliant history of Sartre as philosopher and public figure, Patrick Baert creates a new theory of the public intellectual not through their personal intentions (the vocabulary of positioning) but in terms of the consequences of their thought (the vocabulary of efects). The result is a superb contribution both to our understanding of public intellectuals and to the sociology of knowledge." Bryan S. Turner, The City University of New York "Why Sartre emerged, from almost nowhere, to become one of the most compelling intellectuals of the 20th century has posed a seemingly intractable challenge for historians and social theorists alike. Patrick Baert cuts this Gordian knot, and develops a new sociological theory of intellectuals along the way. The Existentialist Moment is a deeply researched, conceptually compelling work." Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University "Baert's The Existentialist Moment gives us a unique opportunity to see precisely what was going on in the French intellectual world in 1945 when Sartre first exploded on the scene. The interactions among French thinkers, against the backdrop of earlier struggles between collaborationists and the Resistance, are vividly portrayed in Baert's fine writing. There is nothing like this book on the market today. It is a gem." Charles Guignon, University of South FloridaTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Occupation, intellectual collaboration and the Resistance Chapter 2 The purge of collaborationist intellectuals Chapter 3 Intellectual debates around the purge: responsibility, purity, patriotism Chapter 4 The autumn of 1945 Chapter 5 Sartre's committed literature in theory and practice Chapter 6 Rise and demise: a synthesis Chapter 7 Explaining intellectuals: a proposal Biblography Index

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Book SynopsisOne. Outline of a Theory of Relevance.- Two. The Problem of Rationality in the Social World.- Three. Realities from Daily Life to Theoretical Contemplation.- Four. Teiresias or Our Knowledge of Future Events.- Five. Relevance: Knowledge on Hand and in Hand.- Six. The Problem of Social Reality.- Seven. Toward a Viable Sociology.- Eight. Understanding and Acting in Political Economy and the Other Social Sciences.- Nine. Basic Problems of Political Economy.- Ten. Political Economy: Human Conduct in Social Life.- Eleven. Phenomenology and Cultural Science.- Twelve. The Life-World and Scientific Interpretation.- Thirteen. The Scope and Function of the Department of Philosophy Within the Graduate Faculty.- Fourteen. Basic Concepts and Methods of the Social Sciences.- Fifteen. A Note on Behaviorism.- Sixteen. A Scholar of Multiple Involvements: Felix Kaufmann.- Seventeen. Social Science and the Social World.- Eighteen. In Search of the Middle Ground.- Nineteen. Husserl's Cartesian MeditationsTable of ContentsPreface. Part I: The Problem of Social Reality. 1. The Outline of a Theory of Relevance. 2. The Problem of Rationality in the Social World. 3. Realities from Daily Life to Theoretical Contemplation. 4. Teiresias or our Knowledge of Future Events. 5. Relevance: Knowledge on Hand and in Hand. 6. The Problem of Social Reality. Part IIA: Studies in Social Theory. 7. Towards a Viable Sociology. 8. Understanding and Acting in Political Economy and the Other Social Sciences. 9. Basic Problems of Political Economy. 10. Political Economy: Conduct of Man in Social Life. 11. Phenomenology and Cultural Science. 12. The Life-World and Scientific Interpretation. 13. The Scope and Function of the Department of Philosophy within the Graduate Faculty. Part IIB: Studies in the Methodology of Social Theory. 14. Basic Concepts and Methods of the Social Sciences. 15. A Note on Behaviorism. 16. A Scholar of Multiple Involvements: Felix Kauffmann. 17. Social Science and the Social World. 18. In Search of the Middle Ground. Part III: Studies in Phenomenological Philosophy. 19. Husserl's Cartesian Meditations. 20. Husserl's Formal and Transcendental Logic. 21. Husserl's Notes Concerning the Constitution of Space. 22. Husserl's Krisis. 23. Farber's Foundations of Early Phenomenology. 24. The Paradox of the Transcendental Ego. 25. Husserl's Parisian Lectures of 1929. 26. On the Concept of Horizon. 27. Thou and I. 28. Foundations of the Theory of Social Organization. 29. Gnosticism and Orthodoxy: Contrasts in Fundamental Metaphysical and Theological Positions. 30. Experience and Transcendence. Appendix: Fragments Towards a Phenomenology of Music. Index of Names.

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Book SynopsisCharles Altieri, one of our foremost analysts of modernism, has in his recent work argued for the importance of the affects, which philosophy has too long subordinated to cognition and ethics. In Wallace Stevens and the Demands of Modernity, Altieri focuses his attention on modernist poetry, especially that of Wallace Stevens. He argues that critics have failed to appreciate the degree to which modernist poetry, like modernist art, breaks from the epistemology that arose from cultures of empiricism. If we recognize the limits of that authority we can also recognize the close positive affinities between how we feel and how we value.Nineteenth-century writing wanted to build values out of ways of looking at what could be established as fact. Early modernist poetry, particularly that of Stevens and Pound, labors to adapt Nietzschean attitudes toward poetry. Then Stevens embarked on an imaginative journey to find in linguistic activity itself a sufficient model for how we Trade ReviewAltieri provides the most authoritative treatment of Stevens in more than a decade.... He combines aesthetics and philosophy in a rigorous manner that is nonetheless resolutely literary. Wisely eschewing a commentary on all of Stevens's poems, Altieri extracts original interpretive insights from close reading, as seen in his discernment, in 'Farewell to Florida,' of a flight from the female that is as much wishful thinking as renunciation, and a reading of 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' in which he emphasizes how the different perspectives ‘fuse’ over the disjunction emphasized by critics such as Harold Bloom. Altieri's detailed explication... reveals him as a dazzling reader of this difficult poet. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of Contents1. Philosophical Poetry and the Demands of Modernity2. Harmonium as a Modernist Text3. "Ghostlier Demarcations, Keener Sounds": The Parts Negation Played in Developing a New Poetic4. How Stevens Uses the Grammar of As5. Aspectual Thinking6. Stevens's Tragic Mode: Why the Angel Must Disappear in “Angel Surrounded by Paysans”7. Aspect- Seeing and Its Implications in The RockNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisCharles Altieri, one of our foremost analysts of modernism, has in his recent work argued for the importance of the affects, which philosophy has too long subordinated to cognition and ethics. In Wallace Stevens and the Demands of Modernity, Altieri focuses his attention on modernist poetry, especially that of Wallace Stevens. He argues that critics have failed to appreciate the degree to which modernist poetry, like modernist art, breaks from the epistemology that arose from cultures of empiricism. If we recognize the limits of that authority we can also recognize the close positive affinities between how we feel and how we value.Nineteenth-century writing wanted to build values out of ways of looking at what could be established as fact. Early modernist poetry, particularly that of Stevens and Pound, labors to adapt Nietzschean attitudes toward poetry. Then Stevens embarked on an imaginative journey to find in linguistic activity itself a sufficient model for how we Trade ReviewAltieri provides the most authoritative treatment of Stevens in more than a decade.... He combines aesthetics and philosophy in a rigorous manner that is nonetheless resolutely literary. Wisely eschewing a commentary on all of Stevens's poems, Altieri extracts original interpretive insights from close reading, as seen in his discernment, in 'Farewell to Florida,' of a flight from the female that is as much wishful thinking as renunciation, and a reading of 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' in which he emphasizes how the different perspectives ‘fuse’ over the disjunction emphasized by critics such as Harold Bloom. Altieri's detailed explication... reveals him as a dazzling reader of this difficult poet. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of Contents1. Philosophical Poetry and the Demands of Modernity2. Harmonium as a Modernist Text3. "Ghostlier Demarcations, Keener Sounds": The Parts Negation Played in Developing a New Poetic4. How Stevens Uses the Grammar of As5. Aspectual Thinking6. Stevens's Tragic Mode: Why the Angel Must Disappear in “Angel Surrounded by Paysans”7. Aspect- Seeing and Its Implications in The RockNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisOffers a testimony concerning the first attempt to fuse Marxism and existentialism. This work presents an insight concerning Herbert Marcuse's early philosophical evolution.Table of ContentsIntroduction: What is Heideggerian Marxism?; Contributions to a Phenomenology of Historical Materialism; On Concrete Philosophy; On the Problem of Dialectic; On the Philosophical Foundations of the Concept of Labor in Economics; New Sources on the Foundation of Historical Materialism; German Philosophy, 1871-1933; Heidegger and Politics: An Interview; Postscript: My Disillusionment With Heidegger

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This series will become the definitive resource for English readers, a resource much needed given the great wave of philosophical, literary, and political interest in Nietzsche's thought. The excellent translations draw on the latest scholarship and are based on the state-of-the-art Colli-Montinari edition. The editors and translators have taken care to provide consistency in rendering Nietzsche's German and explaining important terms and variants. With their extensive and helpful annotations, the translations are indispensable for the scholar and appealing to the general reader."—Gary Shapiro, University of Richmond"Stanford University Press is doing Nietzsche studies and readers in the English-speaking world a great service through its support and publication of this series of translations of Nietzsche's texts. The Colli-Montinari (de Gruyter) critical edition of Nietzsche's writings, on which they are based, is the German-language 'gold standard' for Nietzsche scholarship. The Stanford series, as it fills out, will undoubtedly come to hold comparable pride of place for English-speaking readers world-wide."—Richard Schacht, University of Illinois

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsNotebook 1 = N V 1. Beginning of 1880 Notebook 2 = N V 2. Spring 1880 Notebook 3 = M II 1. Spring 1880 Notebook 4 = N V 3. Summer 1880 Notebook 5 = Mp XV 1a. Summer 1880 Notebook 6 = N V 4. Autumn 1880 Notebook 7 = N V 6. End of 1880 Notebook 8 = N V 5. Winter 1880–1881 Notebook 9 = M II 2. Winter 1880–1881 Notebook 10 = Mp XV 1b. Spring 1880–Spring Notes Translator's Afterword Index of Persons Subject Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Fragments are a terrific read – pithy, cutting, stark, playful, grand. It is like being in the company of the philosopher at his most expansive and garrulous."—Alexander Adams, The Brazen Head

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Book SynopsisThis ambitious work aims to shed new light on the relations between Husserlian phenomenology and the present-day efforts toward a scientific theory of cognitionwith its complex structure of disciplines, levels of explanation, and conflicting hypotheses.The book's primary goal is not to present a new exegesis of Husserl's writings, although it does not dismiss the importance of such interpretive and critical work. Rather, the contributors assess the extent to which the kind of phenomenological investigation Husserl initiated favors the construction of a scientific theory of cognition, particularly in contributing to specific contemporary theories either by complementing or by questioning them. What clearly emerges is that Husserlian phenomenology cannot become instrumental in developing cognitive science without undergoing a substantial transformation. Therefore, the central concern of this book is not only the progress of contemporary theories of cognition but also the reorieTrade Review"Every student of cognition will somewhere in [Naturalizing Phenomenology] find something new and interesting."—APA Review of BooksTable of ContentsForeword 1. Beyond the gap: an introduction to naturalizing phenomenology Jean-Michel Roy, Jean Petitot, Bernard Pachoud and Francisco J. Varela Part I. Intentionality, Movement and Temporality: 2. Intentionality naturalized? David Woodruff Smith 3. Saving intentional phenomena: intentionality, representation, and symbol Jean-Michel Roy 4. Leibhaftigkeit and representational theories of perception Elisabeth Pecherie 5. Perceptual completion: a case study in phenomenology and cognitive science Evan Thompson, Alva Noë and Luiz Pessoa 6. The teleological dimension of perceptual and motor intentionality Bernard Pachoud 7. Constitution by movement: Husserl in light of recent neurobiological findings Jean-Luc Petit 8. Wooden iron? Husserlian phenomenology meets cognitive science Tim van Gelder 9. The specious present: a neurophenomenology of time consciousness Francisco J. Varela Part II. Mathematics in Phenomenology: 10. Truth and the visual field Barry Smith 11. Morphological eidetics for a penomenology of perception Jean Petitot 12. Formal structures in the phenomenology of motion Roberto Casati 13. Godel and Husserl Dagfinn Follesdal 14. The mathematical continuum: from intuition to logic Giuseppe Longo Part III. The Nature and Limits of Naturalization: 15. Naturalizing phenomenology? Dretske on Qualia Ronald McIntyre 16. The immediately given as ground and background Juan-Jose Botero 17. When transcendental genesis encounters the naturalization project Natalie Depraz 18. Sense and continuum in Husserl Jean-Michel Salanskis 19. Cognitive psychology and the transcendental theory of knowledge Maria Villela-Petit 20. The movement of the living as the originary foundation of perceptual intentionality Renaud Barbaras 21. Philosophy and cognition: historical roots Jean-Pierre Dupuy Notes Bibliography Index of persons Index of topics.

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Book SynopsisThis work aims to shed new light on the relations between Husserlian phenomenology and the present-day efforts toward a scientific theory of cognition with its complex structure of disciplines, levels of explanation, and conflicting hypotheses.Trade Review"Every student of cognition will somewhere in [Naturalizing Phenomenology] find something new and interesting."—APA Review of BooksTable of ContentsForeword 1. Beyond the gap: an introduction to naturalizing phenomenology Jean-Michel Roy, Jean Petitot, Bernard Pachoud and Francisco J. Varela Part I. Intentionality, Movement and Temporality: 2. Intentionality naturalized? David Woodruff Smith 3. Saving intentional phenomena: intentionality, representation, and symbol Jean-Michel Roy 4. Leibhaftigkeit and representational theories of perception Elisabeth Pecherie 5. Perceptual completion: a case study in phenomenology and cognitive science Evan Thompson, Alva Noë and Luiz Pessoa 6. The teleological dimension of perceptual and motor intentionality Bernard Pachoud 7. Constitution by movement: Husserl in light of recent neurobiological findings Jean-Luc Petit 8. Wooden iron? Husserlian phenomenology meets cognitive science Tim van Gelder 9. The specious present: a neurophenomenology of time consciousness Francisco J. Varela Part II. Mathematics in Phenomenology: 10. Truth and the visual field Barry Smith 11. Morphological eidetics for a penomenology of perception Jean Petitot 12. Formal structures in the phenomenology of motion Roberto Casati 13. Godel and Husserl Dagfinn Follesdal 14. The mathematical continuum: from intuition to logic Giuseppe Longo Part III. The Nature and Limits of Naturalization: 15. Naturalizing phenomenology? Dretske on Qualia Ronald McIntyre 16. The immediately given as ground and background Juan-Jose Botero 17. When transcendental genesis encounters the naturalization project Natalie Depraz 18. Sense and continuum in Husserl Jean-Michel Salanskis 19. Cognitive psychology and the transcendental theory of knowledge Maria Villela-Petit 20. The movement of the living as the originary foundation of perceptual intentionality Renaud Barbaras 21. Philosophy and cognition: historical roots Jean-Pierre Dupuy Notes Bibliography Index of persons Index of topics.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a rich collection of philosophical essays radically interrogating key notions and preoccupations of the phenomenological tradition. While using Heidegger''s Being and Time as its permanent point of reference and dispute, this collection also confronts other important philosophers, such as Kant, Nietzsche, and Derrida. The projects of these pivotal thinkers of finitude are relentlessly pushed to their extreme, with respect both to their unexpected horizons and to their as yet unexplored analytical potential. A Finite Thinking shows that, paradoxically, where the thought of finitude comes into its own it frees itself, not only to reaffirm a certain transformed and transformative presence, but also for a non-religious reconsideration and reaffirmation of certain theologemes, as well as of the body, heart, and love. This book shows the literary dimension of philosophical discourse, providing important enabling ideas for scholars of literature, cultural theory,Trade Review"This book is a splendid demonstration of the many joys of thinking about thought itself. The finitude highlighted in the title applies to the concepts of thinking that Nancy expertly and adroitly elucidates: sense, sacrifice, existence, presence, love, the body. Nancy shows us that thinking is not a chess game of large, ungainly abstract pieces; it is a dance of specificity much akin to poetry and art themselves." -Henry Sussman,State University of New York at Buffalo

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Book SynopsisThe essays in this volume by Germany's leading social theorist of the late 20th century formulate what he considered to be the preconditions for an adequate theory of modern society.Trade Review“Luhmann’s thought has become more and more influential internationally as one of the very rare examples of the ability of social theory to enlarge its theoretical resources and thereby gain a new grasp of significant empirical phenomena. This book presents Luhmann as a thinker who advances existing difference theories by combining them with systems theory.”—Dirk Baecker, University of Witten/HerdeckeTable of ContentsContents Rasch William PART I. 1. 2. PART II. 3. 4. 5. 6. PART III. 7. 8. PART IV. 9.

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Book SynopsisFrom painting to poetry to new media technologies, this book theorizes "the image" beyond the logic of representationalism and provokes new ways of engaging topics of embodiment, agency, history, and technology.Trade Review"Releasing the Image: From Literature to New Media is essential reading for those wishing to track the continued growth of the image as an unsettled figure in current philosophy and media theory. Dynamically viewed through the different perspectives of this book, the image appears multifaceted, protean, alive, and proliferating—as far from the classical framework of the image-as-static-representation as can be."—Chris Burnett, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism"Releasing the Image is a stunning collection of essays by leading philosophers and media theorists who break with notions of the image as frozen or static, and refocus the debate around topics of embodiment, agency, virtuality and temporality. A brilliantly orchestrated work of intelligence and scope."—Tim Lenoir, Duke University

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Book SynopsisFrom painting to poetry to new media technologies, this book theorizes "the image" beyond the logic of representationalism and provokes new ways of engaging topics of embodiment, agency, history, and technology.Trade Review"Releasing the Image: From Literature to New Media is essential reading for those wishing to track the continued growth of the image as an unsettled figure in current philosophy and media theory. Dynamically viewed through the different perspectives of this book, the image appears multifaceted, protean, alive, and proliferating—as far from the classical framework of the image-as-static-representation as can be."—Chris Burnett, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism"Releasing the Image is a stunning collection of essays by leading philosophers and media theorists who break with notions of the image as frozen or static, and refocus the debate around topics of embodiment, agency, virtuality and temporality. A brilliantly orchestrated work of intelligence and scope."—Tim Lenoir, Duke University

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Book SynopsisThe book is a comprehensive phenomenological study of meanings that are unique to the major visual art forms.Trade Review"This is perhaps the most systematic phenomenological theory of the visual arts ever written. A book of philosophic meditation that makes direct contact with art history and art criticism, it will be the center of discussion and controversy by a very wide range of contemporary art historians, critics, artists, and theorists." -- James Elkins"Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame) speaks to the present moment of speculation about visual art, both by the critique of currently prominent art theories and by giving a convincing new theory that is at once more generous and more nuanced than previous efforts. Highly original and yet confirmatory of virtually every experience of art, this book is a singular contribution to contemporary theory of the visual arts." —Edward S. Casey, SUNY at Stony Brook"This book should interest a variety of scholars with a theoretical interest in the visual arts. The book addresses pictures, sculpture, abstract art conceptual art, photography, digital art, and architecture... Recommended" * J. O. Young Choice. *

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Book SynopsisThis lucidly written book looks at the interpretative audacity of five major "overreaders"—Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Slavoj Žižek and Stanley Cavell—and asks what is at stake and what is to be gained by their approaches to literature and film.Trade Review"This is a book about how certain philosophers read works of literature and film, and whether literature and film become or can be shown to be themselves philosophical in virtue of this reading. But what sort of reading? The figures under study here—Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Slavoj Žižek, and Stanley Cavell—approach ('attack' might be a better word) literature and film in ways that we lack concepts to describe, and they do not hesitate to call their ways of reading (not to mention what they read) 'philosophy.' 'Overreading' is Colin Davis's covering term for how these philosophers work on their texts, but no one of them is like any of the others, so their ways of reading are to that extent untheorizable. Instead of large concepts Davis gives us close readings of their readings of particular texts or films—this against the background of lucid and accurate accounts of their particular philosophical or theoretical orientations. This is a fine and timely piece of work, and beautifully written in the bargain." -- Gerald Bruns * University of Notre Dame *"A superb book, at once lucid and passionate, arguing the case for the wise folly of willful, outrageous, and unconventional critical thinking, thanks to which we might learn new and valuable things about the world we live in. Davis is a friendly, learned, and judicious guide, and his commitment to the ethical possibilities of adventurous critical thought is nothing short of inspirational. Read!, he exhorts us, Watch!, and Think!—who knows what you might find out?" -- Martin Crowley * Cambridge University *"Critical Excess is an important book . . . Throughout Critical Excess, Davis choose interesting texts, not always the most obvious ones, in which to explore the given critics' practice . . . Colin Davis' examination of these radically divergent critical practices has much to teach us, or remind us, about the value of and necessity for over-reading or over-interpretation." -- Clint Burnham * Electronic Book Review *"This is an admirable book. Davis writes beautifully, and his readings are models of clarity and precision. They are also narrowly focused, and this is a strength rather than a weakness. Rather than surveying entire bodies of work, Davis examines just a few texts by each thinker—often texts that are not well known. The result is a study which is wide-ranging but not superficial." -- Robert Piercey * University of Regina, Philosophy in Review *"Davis's book demonstrates, in exemplary fashion, the extent to which practices of overreading have come to constitute one of the key techniques of the philosophical thinking that has emerged in the wake of the closure or deconstruction of metaphysics . . . Davis has produced a work of highly original and important literary theory that draws on the more modest techniques and scholarly protocols of what he rather self-deprecatingly dubs the 'pedestrian critic'. Yet, in so doing, he has demonstrated the extent to which the techniques of literary criticism and scholarship can make indispensable contributions to contemporary and philosophical debate." -- Ian James * French Studies *"These readings in praise of overreading are detailed, patient, and rewarding. At its core, Davis's overreading is an openness to the uncanny potential for works of art to be familiar and strange, far removed from a hermeneutics of suspicion, feeding and feeding on art's—and criticism's—capacity for surprise. In this excess lies criticism's chance to be interesting." -- Mark Robson * Modern Language Review *

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Book SynopsisHeidegger Among the Sculptors is a provocative illustrated examination of Heidegger's sculptural writings that shows how they rethink the relationship between bodies and space and the place of art in our lives.Trade Review"Heidegger Among the Sculptors is an insightful exploration of the role sculpture plays in Heidegger's thinking of the interrelationship between corporeality and space." -- Sculpture Journal"In Heidegger Among the Sculptors, Andrew Mitchell offers an abundance of detailed information, as well as subtle and insightful reflections. His book is interspersed with extremely well-chosen images of works of sculpture. Throughout his discussions, Mitchell is attentive to the works and their specific character, and yet he never loses sight of the major philosophical questions that inform his reflections. This is a work of absolutely first-rate scholarship, of acute artistic sensitivity, and of philosophical profundity." -- John Sallis * Boston College *"This is a truly exceptional book: beautifully written, carefully argued, and deploying a detailed knowledge of Heidegger's oeuvre with a light touch. It is the first to be written on Heidegger and art that concentrates on sculpture and looks at the specific sculptural works discussed by Heidegger. Mitchell's achievement in this area is truly significant. Not only will this book appeal to Heidegger scholars, it will be of genuine interest to anyone who studies or is moved by sculpture." -- Andrew Benjamin * Monash University *

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Book SynopsisIn the 1950s and 60s, Martin Heidegger turned to sculpture to rethink the relationship between bodies and space and the role of art in our lives. In his texts on the subjecta catalog contribution for an Ernst Barlach exhibition, a speech at a gallery opening for Bernhard Heiliger, a lecture on bas-relief depictions of Athena, and a collaboration with Eduardo Chillidahe formulates his later aesthetic theory, a thinking of relationality. Against a traditional view of space as an empty container for discrete bodies, these writings understand the body as already beyond itself in a world of relations and conceive of space as a material medium of relational contact. Sculpture shows us how we belong to the world, a world in the midst of a technological process of uprooting and homelessness. Heidegger suggests how we can still find room to dwell therein. Filled with illustrations of works that Heidegger encountered or considered, Heidegger Among the Sculptors makes a singular contributiTrade Review"Heidegger Among the Sculptors is an insightful exploration of the role sculpture plays in Heidegger's thinking of the interrelationship between corporeality and space." -- Sculpture Journal"In Heidegger Among the Sculptors, Andrew Mitchell offers an abundance of detailed information, as well as subtle and insightful reflections. His book is interspersed with extremely well-chosen images of works of sculpture. Throughout his discussions, Mitchell is attentive to the works and their specific character, and yet he never loses sight of the major philosophical questions that inform his reflections. This is a work of absolutely first-rate scholarship, of acute artistic sensitivity, and of philosophical profundity." -- John Sallis * Boston College *"This is a truly exceptional book: beautifully written, carefully argued, and deploying a detailed knowledge of Heidegger's oeuvre with a light touch. It is the first to be written on Heidegger and art that concentrates on sculpture and looks at the specific sculptural works discussed by Heidegger. Mitchell's achievement in this area is truly significant. Not only will this book appeal to Heidegger scholars, it will be of genuine interest to anyone who studies or is moved by sculpture." -- Andrew Benjamin * Monash University *

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Book SynopsisThrough three different versions of phenomenological discourse (Derrida, Henry, and Levinas), this book explores the notions of excess and the excess of excess relative to conceptions of the self.Trade Review"Sebbah's noteworthy book is perhaps the first sustained inquiry into the relationship between three thinkers in the French phenomenological tradition, two of whom are well known in the Anglophone world (Levinas, Derrida) and one of whom (Henry) is gradually better understood by English-speaking audiences. That all three are arrayed together in this study makes it a pioneering enterprise and one that allows the English reader to apprise the worthiness of Henry's association with his better-known compatriots."—Jeffrey Hanson, Continental Philosophy Review"Convincing and well executed. A wide range of texts and thinkers is treated with evident familiarity and thought. . . This book makes an important contribution to the larger debate about the contemporary status and trajectory of phenomenology."—Christina Gschwandtner, International Philosophical Quarterly"François Sebbah, who practices phenomenology above all through a testing of readings—readings that jostle each other—uses phenomenology to experience limits that he neither denounces nor overcomes. Rather, he plunges in headfirst, engulfing himself so as to better draw on that experience, an a-theological baptism of sorts."—Bernard Stiegler

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Book SynopsisThrough three different versions of phenomenological discourse (Derrida, Henry, and Levinas), this book explores the notions of excess and the excess of excess relative to conceptions of the self.Trade Review"Sebbah's noteworthy book is perhaps the first sustained inquiry into the relationship between three thinkers in the French phenomenological tradition, two of whom are well known in the Anglophone world (Levinas, Derrida) and one of whom (Henry) is gradually better understood by English-speaking audiences. That all three are arrayed together in this study makes it a pioneering enterprise and one that allows the English reader to apprise the worthiness of Henry's association with his better-known compatriots."—Jeffrey Hanson, Continental Philosophy Review"Convincing and well executed. A wide range of texts and thinkers is treated with evident familiarity and thought. . . This book makes an important contribution to the larger debate about the contemporary status and trajectory of phenomenology."—Christina Gschwandtner, International Philosophical Quarterly"François Sebbah, who practices phenomenology above all through a testing of readings—readings that jostle each other—uses phenomenology to experience limits that he neither denounces nor overcomes. Rather, he plunges in headfirst, engulfing himself so as to better draw on that experience, an a-theological baptism of sorts."—Bernard Stiegler

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Book SynopsisThe book is a comprehensive phenomenological study of meanings that are unique to the major visual art forms.Trade Review"This is perhaps the most systematic phenomenological theory of the visual arts ever written. A book of philosophic meditation that makes direct contact with art history and art criticism, it will be the center of discussion and controversy by a very wide range of contemporary art historians, critics, artists, and theorists." -- James Elkins"Phenomenology of the Visual Arts (even the frame) speaks to the present moment of speculation about visual art, both by the critique of currently prominent art theories and by giving a convincing new theory that is at once more generous and more nuanced than previous efforts. Highly original and yet confirmatory of virtually every experience of art, this book is a singular contribution to contemporary theory of the visual arts." —Edward S. Casey, SUNY at Stony Brook"This book should interest a variety of scholars with a theoretical interest in the visual arts. The book addresses pictures, sculpture, abstract art conceptual art, photography, digital art, and architecture... Recommended" * J. O. Young Choice. *

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Book SynopsisArguing that today''s viewers move through a character''s brain instead of looking through his or her eyes or mental landscape, this book approaches twenty-first-century globalized cinema through the concept of the neuro-image. Pisters explains why this concept has emerged now, and she elaborates its threefold nature through research from three domainsDeleuzian (schizoanalytic) philosophy, digital networked screen culture, and neuroscientific research. These domains return in the book''s tripartite structure. Part One, on the brain as neuroscreen, suggests rich connections between film theory, mental illness, and cognitive neuroscience. Part Two explores neuro-images from a philosophical perspective, paying close attention to their ontological, epistemological, and aesthetic dimensions. Political and ethical aspects of the neuro-image are discussed in Part Three. Topics covered along the way include the omnipresence of surveillance, the blurring of the false and the real and the affTrade Review"Drawing on recent research in neurobiology and cognitive psychology as well as her own thinking about currently prevalent topics in cinema studies and film-philosophy, [Pisters] builds a case for the neuro-image that is usually persuasive and sometimes dazzling . . . I recommend The Neuro-Image to everyone interested in Deleuzian film theory . . . I commend her intellectual derring-do in expanding the Deleuzian dyad of movement-image and time-image with an innovative new meta-image paradigm. Its grounding in the particularities of twenty-first-century screen practice makes it a timely intervention, and I suspect that Deleuze would have welcomed it." -- David Sterritt * New Review of Film and Television Studies *"[A] magisterial work . . . Like all books worth reading, Pisters's work on the neuro-image raises more questions than it answers." -- Claire Colebrook * Deleuze Studies *"This outstanding work of scholarship makes a major contribution to the field of film studies and to the understanding of the work of Gilles Deleuze. The Neuro-Image extends Deleuze's questions and concerns by thinking through recent developments in film and moving-images culture and succeeds magnificently in mobilizing Deleuze's ideas in order to discover something new." -- Steven Shaviro * Wayne State University *

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Book SynopsisThis book examines Bakhtin as a Modernist, "exilic" thinker, engaged with the question of ethical subjectivity, aligned with contemporary Continental philosophers such as Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas, and positioned at a crossroads of the human sciences.Trade Review"A recurrent motif of the book, reflecting both Bakhtin's work and human experience in general, is the subject's need for a framing structure alongside the need to transcend those frames. The ethical subject pushes through the frame while understanding its deep dependence on that very frame - the individual acting at the limits of being even if those limits are impossible to fully cross. In her study, Erdinast-Vulcan has distilled the complexity of Bakhtin's thought while preserving its core of humanity - achieving that rare feat of a scholarly work that deals with questions that are pressing in human life." -- David Stromberg * Partial Answers: Journal of LIterature and the History of Ideas *"Erdinast-Vulcan provides an interpretation of Bakhtin's neglected early writings that effectively makes them available for the first time to a general audience. Her readings are critical, but they insightfully convey the essence of what Bakhtin was trying to do in his earliest phase. Her lucid exposition will result in a discovery of those writings as the important documents they are in the formation of new paths in linguistics, ethics, aesthetics—and even theology." —Michael Holquist, Yale University"By uncovering the layers of Bakhtin's understanding of the subject, Erdinast-Vulcan's offers an in-depth interpretation of his 'philosophizing under the mask' at a time when literary theory came under the threat of totalitarianism. She portrays his vision of the subject in the process of its formation, and by placing it in a broad historical context she discloses the range of his influence on modern philosophy and the humanities." -- Boris Gubman * European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms *"Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan's study avoids the standard lines of inquiry into the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. It aspires neither to provide a full exposition of his thought, nor to situate it in its cultural context or trace its intellectual genealogies. Drawing largely on sources that are less widely known—the early philosophical manuscripts and the suggestive notebooks—she provides instead a compelling account of Bakhtin's idiosyncratic place within the Western philosophical tradition, and in particular within the tradition of thinking about subjectivity and ethics....Bakhtin's work emerges as neither a curiosity from the past, fit for little more than intellectual-historical unpacking, nor a repository of helpful terms to be applied to our respective domains of study, but rather as our untimely contemporary, still grappling with the deadlock between a discredited foundationalism and an unsatisfying relativism....Lucid and beautifully written." -- Ilya Kliger * Comparative Literature *"Between Philosophy and Literature is profoundly interesting . . . [I]ts vision of a better way to live is genuinely persuasive . . . The chapters in which Bakhtin is compared to Bergson, Merleau-Ponty and Lévinas are particularly well-achieved and show how the examination of a concrete, historically situated, and creative self became a sustained philosophical concern in the 20th century." -- Andre van Loon * Review 31 *

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Book SynopsisThis book examines Bakhtin as a Modernist, "exilic" thinker, engaged with the question of ethical subjectivity, aligned with contemporary Continental philosophers such as Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas, and positioned at a crossroads of the human sciences.Trade Review"A recurrent motif of the book, reflecting both Bakhtin's work and human experience in general, is the subject's need for a framing structure alongside the need to transcend those frames. The ethical subject pushes through the frame while understanding its deep dependence on that very frame - the individual acting at the limits of being even if those limits are impossible to fully cross. In her study, Erdinast-Vulcan has distilled the complexity of Bakhtin's thought while preserving its core of humanity - achieving that rare feat of a scholarly work that deals with questions that are pressing in human life." -- David Stromberg * Partial Answers: Journal of LIterature and the History of Ideas *"Erdinast-Vulcan provides an interpretation of Bakhtin's neglected early writings that effectively makes them available for the first time to a general audience. Her readings are critical, but they insightfully convey the essence of what Bakhtin was trying to do in his earliest phase. Her lucid exposition will result in a discovery of those writings as the important documents they are in the formation of new paths in linguistics, ethics, aesthetics—and even theology." —Michael Holquist, Yale University"By uncovering the layers of Bakhtin's understanding of the subject, Erdinast-Vulcan's offers an in-depth interpretation of his 'philosophizing under the mask' at a time when literary theory came under the threat of totalitarianism. She portrays his vision of the subject in the process of its formation, and by placing it in a broad historical context she discloses the range of his influence on modern philosophy and the humanities." -- Boris Gubman * European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms *"Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan's study avoids the standard lines of inquiry into the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. It aspires neither to provide a full exposition of his thought, nor to situate it in its cultural context or trace its intellectual genealogies. Drawing largely on sources that are less widely known—the early philosophical manuscripts and the suggestive notebooks—she provides instead a compelling account of Bakhtin's idiosyncratic place within the Western philosophical tradition, and in particular within the tradition of thinking about subjectivity and ethics....Bakhtin's work emerges as neither a curiosity from the past, fit for little more than intellectual-historical unpacking, nor a repository of helpful terms to be applied to our respective domains of study, but rather as our untimely contemporary, still grappling with the deadlock between a discredited foundationalism and an unsatisfying relativism....Lucid and beautifully written." -- Ilya Kliger * Comparative Literature *"Between Philosophy and Literature is profoundly interesting . . . [I]ts vision of a better way to live is genuinely persuasive . . . The chapters in which Bakhtin is compared to Bergson, Merleau-Ponty and Lévinas are particularly well-achieved and show how the examination of a concrete, historically situated, and creative self became a sustained philosophical concern in the 20th century." -- Andre van Loon * Review 31 *

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Book SynopsisRejecting the current conflation of distraction with diversion, this book presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin's early twentieth-century use of distraction to revolutionize the humanities.Trade Review"With his thorough treatment of various concepts of distraction through the centuries, North contributes to the understanding of the complex nature of human thoughtValuable for scholars of literature and philosophy." -- R. C. Conard * Choice *"This thoughtful, original, and timely study asks not only what distraction is, but also what would be involved in theorizing the interpretive framework through which an interrogation of distraction would first became thinkable. It will be significant to scholars in German Studies and European Critical Thought, as well as to those interested in the conditions and possibilities of repressed, abjected modes of thought more generally." -- Gerhard Richter * University of California, Davis *"North situates distraction as a fundamental question whose long history of being ignored is witness to the challenge it posed in a century, the twentieth, when distraction itself became more than a fact of experience: it became a fact of existence. This superb analysis of distraction and our lack of attention to it breaks significant new ground in our critical history." -- David Ferris * University of Colorado *

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Book SynopsisSpinoza Contra Phenomenology fundamentally recasts the history of postwar French thought, typically presumed to have been driven by a critique of reason indebted to Nietzsche and Heidegger. Although the reception of phenomenology gave rise to many innovative developments in French philosophy, from existentialism to deconstruction, not everyone in France was pleased with this German import. This book recounts how a series of French philosophers used Spinoza to erect a bulwark against the nominally irrationalist tendencies of phenomenology. From its beginnings in the interwar years, this rationalism would prove foundational for Althusser''s rethinking of Marxism and Deleuze''s ambitious metaphysics. There has been a renewed enthusiasm for Spinozism of late by those who see his work as a kind of neo-vitalism or philosophy of life and affect. Peden counters this trend by tracking a decisive and neglected aspect of Spinoza''s philosophyhis rationalismin a body of thought too oftenTrade Review"It's rare to finish a book in the history of philosophy and say to oneself that it's indispensable for an adequate understanding of the period and the context that it deals with. But for those who have a serious interest in Spinoza's reception or even in the history of French philosophy in the twentieth century, Peden's book certainly belongs in this category." -- Mogens Lærke * Archives de Philosophie *"Knox Peden's Spinoza Contra Phenomenology is now the definitive statement on what it meant for some of French philosophy's most influential 20th century thinkers to begin, in Hegel's words, 'at the standpoint of Spinozism' . . . [I]t is an enviable work of scholarship, both massive in its intellectual scope and nuanced in its attention to detail. For those interested in 20th century French intellectual history, Spinoza Contra Phenomenology is sure to become essential reading." -- Steven Swarbrick * Theory & Event *"[I]t is exhilarating to think along with Peden. In Peden's hands, Spinozism becomes a powerful tool for critique: it is not the Spinoza of substance monism but of an 'essentially critical rationalism' that the author wields with finesse to ferret out unwarranted ontological claims, deflating arguments that would seek to derive a politics from Spinoza's metaphysics." -- Audrey Wasser * Critical Inquiry *"Peden provides a dramatic and compelling retelling of the intellectual history of postwar France. Instead of the familiar succession of existentialism, structuralism, and post-structuralism, Peden sees a set of variations of a fundamental struggle between two radically opposed ways of thinking." -- Edward Baring * Modern Intellectual History *"Peden's work is to be praised for drawing these philosophers to our attention, and for providing what will hopefully be a spur to further research. In addition, he provides interesting readings of more familiar figures which draw our attention to aspects of their work that have not previously received sufficient scholarly attention . . . Knox Peden has written a well-researched and well-argued book, which makes a meaningful contribution to our understanding of twentieth-century French philosophy. It is essential reading for those working in this area, as well as for any English-speaking philosophers whishing to purge themselves of unhelpful preconceptions they may well have inherited concerning philosophy in France in the twentieth century." -- David J. Allen * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *"Not only does [Spinoza Contra Phenomenlogy] contribute excellent biographical sketches of the less well known figures of Jean Cavaillès, Martial Gueroult, Ferdinand Alquié, and Jean-Toussaint Desanti; it effectively reveals the world that shaped them, and their effect on the conceptual universe of continental philosophy today . . . One cannot do justice here to Peden's rich discussion of Cavaillès' work on mathematics and set theory." -- Harrison Fluss * Radical Philosophy *"Peden offers an important book that seeks to challenge the dominant narrative that 20th-century French philosophy was in large part a series of responses to developments in post-Kantian German philosophy . . . [P]hilosophers and intellectual historians will find that this carefully researched book offers much to learn. An important acquisition for academic libraries building collections in 20th-century European philosophy . . . Summing Up: Highly Recommended." -- A. D. Schrift * CHOICE *"In this signal contribution to the study of European thought, Knox Peden shows that the importation of German phenomenology to France in the twentieth century was only part of the story. In appealing to Benedict Spinoza's version of rationalism, neglected figures whom this book restores to their centrality made conceptual moves of lasting importance, setting a context for the careers of Louis Althusser and Gilles Deleuze, with which Peden's absorbing reinterpretation culminates. Thanks to his sure grasp of the theoretical materials and ability to address them in lucid writing, Spinoza Contra Phenomenology redraws the map, not simply for the sake of having a better one, but because debates across the contemporary humanities need its orientation." -- Samuel Moyn * Columbia University *"The conventional understanding of twentieth-century French thought is just beginning to fracture, and we are now coming to appreciate the complexity and significance of intellectual trends that once-dominant schools—such as phenomenology and existentialism, structuralism and post-structuralism—have too long obscured. In this brilliant new study, Knox Peden breaks free of received wisdom to cast a new light on the movement of French philosophical rationalism that borrowed both its energies and its name from the metaphysical writings of a seventeenth-century heretical Jew. Spinozism, as reimagined in France by heterodox intellectuals such as Althusser and Deleuze, was something more than a philosophy: it was a veritable ethos. With verve and sophistication, Peden maps this inheritance and guides us through the formidable debates that have not yet reached their end." -- Peter Eli Gordon * Harvard University *"Spinoza Contra Phenomenologyis a serious and important endeavor, and it is perhaps not for the faint of philosophical heart. But for those interested in either Spinozism or developments in twentieth-century French thought, the book should be necessary reading." -- Tracie Matysik * Journal of Modern History *

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Book SynopsisArguing that our ears are far too narrowly attuned to our own species, this book explores different types of voices, both natural and artificial, in the name of helping us to decipher the complex cacophony of an increasingly imperiled planet.Trade Review"With Sonic Intimacy, we are manifestly in the hands of a skilled and not a little playful writer who connects new media to long developed philosophical conversations. This is a book that catalyzes thinking as much as it documents thoughts, and its influence should be wide and varied."—David Cecchetto, York University"Sonic Intimacy is a perceptive, engaging, and clever set of meditations on a topic of increasing scholarly importance: how sound produces human, technical, and nonhuman intimacies. Pettman's treatment of sound across the human and nonhuman is innovative, refreshing, and quite needed at this time."—Richard Grusin, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee"The form and style of Pettman's book capture the character of this roving ear, always pricking up with the possibility of another intriguing example. Pettman is a very engaging writer, and the way he traverses contexts and theoretical horizons is thrilling...Pettman's writing is perhaps at its most exciting when it ignores expectations to pin down the voices of interlocutors and instead revels in throwing the voice, in making it seem as if it emanates from somewhere else. Pettman himself, whose body of writing gives the impression of an insatiable curiosity, is no doubt already chasing down other voices and other worlds. I urge readers, though, to let their ear linger a little longer over this intriguing little book that promises to help us discern voices where we least expect to hear them."—Naomi Waltham-Smith, Boundary 2Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Aural Phase 1. The Cybernetic Voice 2. The Gendered Voice 3. The Creaturely Voice 4. The Ecological Voice (Vox Mundi) Conclusion: In Salutation of All the Voices

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Book SynopsisContains the unfinished manuscript and working notes of the book Merleau-Ponty was writing when he died. The text is devoted to a critical examination of Kantian, Husserlian, Bergsonian, and Sartrean method, followed by the extraordinary "The Intertwining - The Chiasm", that reveals the central pattern of Merleau-Ponty's own thought.

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Book SynopsisFor over thirty years, Hegel scholars have known that many of the views of Hegel rife in the Anglo-Saxon world are higly inaccurate. The essays collected in this volume show the myths and legends to be just that.Table of ContentsPart 1 The myth of the rational and the actual. Part 2 The myth of Hegel as totalitarian theorist or Prussian apologist. Part 3 The myth that Hegel glorified war. Part 4 The myth of the end of history. Part 5 The myth that Hegel denied the law of contradiction. Part 6 Miscellaneous myths.

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Book SynopsisCollected in this text are the written notes of courses on the concept of nature give by Merleau-Ponty at the College de France in the 1950s. The ideas that animated the philosopher's lectures emerge in an early, fluid form in the process of being elaborated, negotiated, critiqued and reconsidered.

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Book SynopsisIn this work Crowell proposes that the distinguishing feature of 20th-century philosophy is not so much its emphasis on language as its concern with meaning. He argues that transcendental phenomenology is indispensible to the philosophical explanation of the space of meaning.Trade ReviewCrowell present an original, distinguished addition to contemporary views of both the relation between Husserl and Heidegger and . . . of Heidegger's early and very early philosophical itinerary. . . . [C]ertain to be an important contribution to the field." —Gail Soffer, New School for Social Research

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