Phenomenology and Existentialism Books

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Book Synopsis'On the morning of April 16, Dr Rieux emerged from his consulting-room and came across a dead rat in the middle of the landing.' It starts with the rats. Vomiting blood, they die in their hundreds, then in their thousands. When the rats are all gone, the citizens begin to fall sick. Like the rats, they too die in ever greater numbers.

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Book SynopsisIs life worth living? If human existence holds no significance, what can keep us from suicide? In this book, the author argues if there is no God to give meaning to our lives, humans must take on that purpose themselves. It also argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty.

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Book SynopsisThese three plays, diverse in subject but thematically coherent, illuminate one of Sartre''s major philosophical concerns: the struggle to live and act freely in a complex and constricting world. Lucifer and the Lord, Sartre''s favourite among his plays, explores this theme in depth, dealing in the process with fundamental questions of faith and disillusionment; in Huis Clos - arguably Sartre''s most important play - he contends that ''Hell is other people'', and details the afterlife of three souls trapped together in locked room and the torments that they inflict on each other; while The Respectable Prostitute, set in the Deep South of America, is concerned with racism, subjugation and the demands of conscience.

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Book SynopsisThe townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. This title tells the story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.

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Book SynopsisSelected as a Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement''This lucid and riveting new biography at once rescuses Kierkegaard from the scholars and shows why he is such an intriguing and useful figure'' ObserverSøren Kierkegaard, one of the most passionate and challenging of modern philosophers, is now celebrated as the father of existentialism - yet his contemporaries described him as a philosopher of the heart. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen analysing love and suffering, courage and anxiety, religious longing and defiance, and forging a new philosophical style rooted in the inward drama of being human.As Christianity seemed to sleepwalk through a changing world, Kierkegaard dazzlingly revealed its spiritual power while exposing the poverty of official religion. His restless creativity was spurred on by his own failures: his relationship with the young woman whom he promised to marryTrade ReviewThis lucid and riveting new biography at once rescues Kierkegaard from the scholars and makes it abundantly clear why he is such an intriguing and useful figure -- Adam Phillips * Observer *She wonderfully conveys how, pelican-like, Kierkegaard tore his philosophy from his own breast -- Jane O'Grady * Telegraph *Philosopher of the Heart enacts Kierkegaard's audacity and verve in thinking and writing, his "new way of doing philosophy", in a thrillingly inward and intimate style -- Boyd Tonkin * Arts Desk *One of the best biographies of modern masters by a new generation -- Daniel Johnson * Standpoint *Superb... the sort of biography Kierkegaard himself might have written, thematic in structure rather than chronological, lucid in its narrative but not exhaustive in detail. ... Carlisle's book has its own beauty, reminding us that Kierkegaard sympathized with our own troubles, our own desires to live decent lives -- David Mason * The Hudson Review *

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Book Synopsis''Witty and learned ... Hershovitz intertwines parenting and philosophy, recounting his spirited arguments with his kids about infinity, morality, and the existence of God'' Jordan Ellenberg, author of ShapeA funny, wise guide to the art of thinking, and why the smallest people have the answers to the biggest questions''Anyone can do philosophy, every kid does...''Some of the best philosophers in the world can be found in the most unlikely places: in preschools and playgrounds. They gather to debate questions about metaphysics and morality, even though they''ve never heard the words, and can''t tie their shoelaces. As Scott Hershovitz shows in this delightful book, kids are astoundingly good philosophers. And, if we let ourselves pause to think along with them, we might discover that we are, too.Nasty, Brutish, and Short is a unique guide to the art of thinking, led by a celebrated philosophy professor and his two young sonTrade ReviewIn his witty and learned book Nasty, Brutish, and Short, Hershovitz intertwines parenting and philosophy, recounting his spirited arguments with his kids about infinity, morality, and the existence of God, and teaching half a liberal arts curriculum along the way -- Jordan Ellenberg * New York Times Bestselling author of Shape *This book will teach you how to transform the endless questions of childhood into the endless wonder of philosophy -- Barry Lam * Host and Executive Producer, Hi-Phi Nation podcast, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College *This delightful book is about philosophy and, ultimately, how to better love your kids. Want to cherish them, respect them, help them learn? Then join them in their natural wonderment and enjoy the philosophical fun -- Aaron James * bestselling author of Assholes: A Theory and Professor of Philosophy at UC Irvine *This book made me laugh and also think hard, sometimes on the same page. Highly recommended for anyone with kids, especially kids who wonder 'Why? -- Emily Oster, bestselling author of The Family FirmFunny and fascinating. Prompted by conversations with his two young sons, Scott Hershovitz walks us through some of philosophy's stickiest questions: Does the universe go on forever? Can we really know anything? Is it ok to use swear words? Should you take revenge? Nasty, Brutish, and Short is an easy-to-read primer on how to discuss these profound topics with children, and how to think about them yourself. -- Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing Up BébéHershovitz is a total delight--energetic, compassionate, patient, wise, and very, very funny, even when he is talking about weighty or difficult ideas. I'm grateful to have him as a model for how to talk to my children and how to think alongside them. -- Merve Emre * author of The Personality Brokers *Thoroughly enjoyable ... fun anecdotes abound ... This sincere and smart account puts to rest the idea that philosophy belongs in academia's ivory tower -- Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)Equal parts hilarious (for years, Hank kept up a facade of not knowing the alphabet to worry his dad) and profound (4-year-old Rex: 'I think that, for real, God is pretend, and for pretend, God is real') . . . clear and lively . . . A playful yet serious introduction to philosophy. * Kirkus *An enormously rich and mind-expanding book, which anyone will gain from reading, especially parents -- John Carey * The Sunday Times *Witty and self-deprecating, Nasty, Brutish, and Short explores the wonder that young kids bring to their efforts to make sense of the world - and what grown-ups can learn from it. * The Christian Science Monitor *Radical... Hershovitz highlights the ways your kids' sometimes awesome and sometimes annoying questions make them tiny versions of Socrates and Sartre ... The point of this book is not to provide a code for living morally. Instead, it's about the process of thinking philosophically -- Elissa Strauss * Atlantic *Vibrant, funny and provocative * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisStephen Mulhall explores how J. M. Coetzee's 'Jesus' Trilogy engages with themes drawn from Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and how Wittgenstein's and Coetzee's thought relates to the critique of modernity elaborated in the work of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre.Table of ContentsIntroduction Acknowledgements Part One Novilla: The Deviant Pupil Part Two Estrella: The Marionette Part Three Estrella: The Orphan Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDoes thought have distinctive experiential features? Is there, in addition to sensory phenomenology, a kind of cognitive phenomenology--phenomenology of a cognitive or conceptual character? Leading philosophers of mind debate whether conscious thought has cognitive phenomenology and whether it is part of conscious perception and conscious emotion.Trade ReviewThe volume is an important contribution to the debate on cognitive phenomenology. It should be of interest to philosophers of mind working on consciousness, cognition, and their intersections. * Anders Nes, Mind *Cognitive Phenomenology is an excellent collection of articles on an important debate in contemporary philosophy of mind. We strongly recommend it to anyone interested in consciousness, or philosophy of mind more generally. * Mendelovici and Bourget, Australasian Journal of Philosophy *Table of ContentsContents ; 1. Cognitive Phenomenology: An Introduction ; 2. The Case Against Cognitive Phenomenology ; 3. From Agentive Phenomenology to Cognitive Phenomenology: A Guide for the Perplexed ; 4. Cognitive Phenomenology as the Basis of Unconscious Content ; 5. On The Phenomenology of Thought ; 6. The Phenomenology of Particularity ; 7. Introspection, Phenomenality, and the Availability of Intentional Content ; 8. The Sensory Basis of Cognitive Phenomenology ; 9. A Frugal View of Cognitive Phenomenology ; 10. On Behalf of Cognitive Qualia ; 11. Phenomenal Thought ; 12. Disagreement about Cognitive Phenomenology ; 13. Cognitive Phenomenology: real life ; 14. Is There a Phenomenology of Thought? ; 15. Phenomenology of Consciously Thinking

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together a number of new essays by leading Nietzsche scholars to examine the philosopher's famous critique of morality and his emphasis on life-affirming values.Table of ContentsDaniel Came: Introduction 1: Ken Gemes: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Paradox of Affirmation 2: Daniel Came: Nietzsche as a Christian Thinker 3: Bernard Reginster: Ressentiment , Power, and Value 4: Maudemarie Clark: On the 'Meaning' of the Ascetic Ideal: A Normative Interpretation of GM III 5: Patrick Hassan: Organic Unity and the Heroic: Nietzsche's Aestheticization of Suffering 6: Andrew Huddleston: Affirmation, Admirable Overvaluation, and the Eternal Recurrence 7: Christopher Janaway: Who -- or What -- Says Yes to Life? 8: Tom Stern: Against Nietzsche's Theory of Affirmation 9: Edward Kanterian: Life's Affirmation and Denial

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Book SynopsisFeelings of Being is the first ever account of the nature, role and variety of ''existential feelings'' in psychiatric illness and in everyday life. There is a great deal of current philosophical and scientific interest in emotional feelings. However, many of the feelings that people struggle to express in their everyday lives do not appear on standard lists of emotions. For example, there are feelings of unreality, surreality, unfamiliarity, estrangement, heightened existence, isolation, emptiness, belonging, significance, insignificance, and the list goes on. Ratcliffe refers to such feelings as ''existential'' because they comprise a changeable sense of being part of a worldIn this book, Ratcliffe argues that existential feelings form a distinctive group by virtue of three characteristics: they are bodily feelings, they constitute ways of relating to the world as a whole, and they are responsible for our sense of reality. He explains how something can be a bodily feeling and, at theTrade ReviewThis book is for those who wonder about normal and pathological existential experiences. Clinicians who have time to pursue philosophy will be enriched. * Patricia E. Murphy. PhD (Rush University Medical Center) *Ratcliffe deserves credit for drawing attention to a shortcoming in the discussion of emotions and feelings and for providing an importance corrective to this tendency. * Phenom Cogn Sci *Table of ContentsPART I - THE STRUCTURE OF EXISTENTIAL FEELING; PART II - VARIETIES OF EXISTENTIAL FEELING IN PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS; PART III - EXISTENTIAL FEELING AND PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT

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Book SynopsisAims to bring phenomenology and analytic philosophy together, by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may help in analytic research, and how analytical philosophy of mind may shed light on phenomenological concerns. This book includes essays on topics as consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, and temporal awareness.Trade ReviewPhenomenology and Philosophy of Mind shows how to use phenomenology in a fruitful way * Mind & Machine *...informative about the several, important respects in which phenomology meets the analytic tradition...a welcome addition to the expanding literature on the subject. * Dimitris Platchias, Journal of Consciousness Studies 13/03 *Table of ContentsI. THE PLACE OF PHENOMENOLOGY IN PHILOSOPHY OF MIND ; II: SELF-AWARENESS AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE ; III. INTENTIONALITY ; IV. UNITIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS ; V. PERCEPTION, SENSATION, AND ACTION

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Book SynopsisDavid Carr outlines a distinctively phenomenological approach to history. Rather than asking what history is or how we know history, a phenomenology of history inquires into history as a phenomenon and into the experience of the historical. How does history present itself to us, how does it enter our lives, and what are the forms of experience in which it does so? History is usually associated with social existence and its past, and so Carr probes the experience of the social world and of its temporality. Experience in this context connotes not just observation but also involvement and interaction: We experience history not just in the social world around us but also in our own engagement with it. For several decades, philosophers'' reflections on history have been dominated by two themes: representation and memory. Each is conceived as a relation to the past: representation can be of the past, and memory is by its nature of the past. On both of these accounts, history is separated by Trade Review...this is an excellent work, thought provoking and detailed. It is a significant contribution to debates and studies in the often-neglected area of philosophy of history. More than this the essay is, perhaps in passing, a brilliant introduction to phenomenology. * Chris Lawn, Philosophy in Review. *Readers will benefit from both Carr's discussion of these authors and his original arguments for the fecundity of a phenomenological approach to history ... Recommended. * Choice *... a powerful combination of phenomenological analysis and a history of ideas that provides insight into the genesis of the philosophical motivations for pursuing "phenomenological perspectives" in the philosophy of history A highly readable and erudite contribution to current and future debates in the philosophy of history, this book is a welcome contribution to both phenomenology and the philosophy of history * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online *... ambitious, lucidly presented. * Martin Jay, Journal of the Philosophy of History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: On the Phenomenology of History ; 1. The Phenomenological Question ; 2. Representation, Memory, Experience ; 3. Phenomenological Perspectives: an Outline ; Chapter I: The Varieties of Experience ; 1. On the Concept of Experience and its Curious Fate ; 2. Experience and Innocence: The Empiricists ; 3. Experience in Kant and Hegel ; 4. So Far: Three Concepts of Experience ; 5. Dilthey, Husserl and a New Word: Erlebnis ; 6. From Mysticism to Pragmatism: Buber, James, Dewey ; 7. Taking Stock Again: How Many Concepts of Experience? ; 8. Experience and Foundationalism ; 9. Summing Up: Four Concepts of Experience ; Chapter II: Experience and History ; 1. The Two Relevant Senses of Experience ; 2. Husserl on Temporality ; 3. Time and Experience ; 4. Intentionality ; 5. Objects, Events, World ; 6. Others and The Human World ; 7. Experience and Historicity ; 8. Being with Others ; 9. <"We>" and Community ; 10. Community and Historicity ; 11. History and Retrospection ; 12. The Experience of Historical Events ; 13. Levels of Temporality ; 14. The Significance of These Examples ; Chapter III: Experience and The Philosophy of History ; 1. Taking Stock ; 2. Experience, Representation, Memory ; 3. Narrative Representation ; 4. Experience and Memory ; 5. What Kind of Philosophy of History Is This? ; 6. The Epistemology of History ; 7. The Metaphysics of History ; Chapter IV: The Metaphysics of History and Its Critics ; 1. The Project of Re-reading the Philosophy of History ; 2. The Rise and Fall of the Classical Philosophy of History: ; The Standard View ; 3. Hegel and his Alleged Predecessors ; 4. Hegel's Lectures and Their Reception ; 5. Twentieth Century Reactions ; Chapter V: A Phenomenological Re-reading of the Classical Philosophy of History ; 1. Danto and <"Metaphysics of Everyday Life>" ; 2. Narrative and Everyday Life ; 3. Practical Narrative ; 4. Narrative and The Classical Philosophy of History ; 5. Narrative and The Social ; 6. The Project of Re-reading ; 7. Marx and Marxists ; 8. Hegel's Lectures Again ; 9. History and the Phenomenology of Spirit ; 10. Hegel as Reformer ; 11. Hegel and Beyond ; 12. Conclusion ; Chapter VI: Phenomenologists on History ; 1. The Emergence of Nineteenth Century Historicism ; 2. Historicism and Marxism ; 3. Husserl and Dilthey ; 4. Husserl's Response to Historicism ; 5. Husserl's Crisis and a Different View of History ; 6. Philosophy of History in the Crisis ; 7. Phenomenology and The Epistemology of History ; 8. Phenomenology and Historicity in the Crisis ; 9. Coda: French Phenomenology of History ; 10. Conclusion ; Chapter VII: Space, Time and History ; 1. Time Zones: Phenomenological Reflections on Cultural Time ; a. Space and Place, Home and Beyond ; b. Lived Space, Lived Time ; c. The Universal Now ; d. Time and The Other ; e. Local Time, East and West ; f. Conclusion: Cultural Time and the Contemporary World ; 2. Place and Time: On the Interplay of Historical Points of View ; a. Place ; b. The Reality of Others ; c. Time ; d. <"Virtual History>" ; e. Narrative ; f. Conclusion ; Chapter VIII: Experience, Narrative and Historical Knowledge ; 1. History, Fiction and Human Time ; a. Questioning the Distinction Between History and Fiction ; b. A Response ; c. Fiction and Falsehood ; d. Knowledge and Imagination ; e. Narrative and Reality ; f. An Example ; g. Conclusion ; 2. Narrative Explanation ; 3. Epistemology and Ontology of Narrative ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

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Book Synopsis''Your Jacques is a tasteless mishmash of things that happen, some of them true, others made up, written without style and served up like a dog''s breakfast.'' Jacques the Fatalist is Diderot''s answer to the problem of existence. If human beings are determined by their genes and their environment, how can they claim to be free to want or do anything? Where are Jacques and his Master going? Are they simply occupying space, living mechanically until they die, believing erroneously that they are in charge of their Destiny? Diderot intervenes to cheat our expectations of what fiction should be and do, and behaves like a provocative, ironic and unfailingly entertaining master of revels who finally show why Fate is not to be equated with doom. In the introduction to this brilliant new translation, David Coward explains the philosophical basis of Diderot''s fascination with Fate and shows why Jacques the Fatalist pioneers techniques of fiction which, two centuries on, novelists still regard as experimental. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book SynopsisThe nature and reality of self is a subject of increasing prominence among Western philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists. It has also been central to Indian and Tibetan philosophical traditions for over two thousand years. It is time to bring the rich resources of these traditions into the contemporary debate about the nature of self. This volume is the first of its kind. Leading philosophical scholars of the Indian and Tibetan traditions join with leading Western philosophers of mind and phenomenologists to explore issues about consciousness and selfhood from these multiple perspectives. Self, No Self? is not a collection of historical or comparative essays. It takes problem-solving and conceptual and phenomenological analysis as central to philosophy. The essays mobilize the argumentative resources of diverse philosophical traditions to address issues about the self in the context of contemporary philosophy and cognitive science. Self, No Self? will be essential reading for pTrade Reviewa welcome product of a rare endeavor: the attempt to bring insights from diverse schools of thought to bear on a question of deep philosophical interest ... * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. The Who and How of Experience ; 3. The Experiential Self: objections and clarifications ; 4. Nirvana and Ownerless consciousness ; 5. Self and Subjectivity: A Middle Way Approach ; 6. Self-No-Self? Memory and Reflexive Awareness ; 7. Subjectivity, Selfhood and the Use of the Word 'I' ; 8. 'I am of the nature of Seeing': Phenomenological Reflections on the Indian Notion of Witness-Consciousness ; 9. Situating the Elusive Self of Advaita Vedanta ; 10. Enacting the Self: Buddhist and Enactivist Approaches to the Emergence of the Self ; 11. Radical self-awareness ; 12. Buddhas as Zombies: A Buddhist Reduction of Subjectivity ; Notes on Contributors ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe story of a successful professional woman and a reflection on the meaning of existentialism, this autobiography is an account of a woman's psychological liberation and the development of a personal philosophy. A translator of Sartre, Barnes recounts her battles with publishers and critics.

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Book SynopsisPhilosophy as . . . a rigorous science . . . the dream is over, Edward Husserl once declared. Heidegger (Husserl's successor), Derrida, and Rorty have propounded versions of the end of philosophy. Cumming argues that what would count as philosophy's coming to an end can only be determined with some attention to disruptions which have previously punctuated the history of philosophy. He arrives at categories for interpreting what is at issue in such disruptions by analyzing Heidegger's and Husserl's break with each other, Heidegger's break with Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty's break with Sartre. In this analysis Cumming deals with how a philosophy can be vulgarized (as Heidegger's was by Nazism but in Heidegger's own view by Sartre), with problems of periodization, with how the history of philosophy can be disinguished as a philosophical discipline from intellectual history. Cumming also elaborates an analogy between a philosophical method and style.

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Book SynopsisThis text argues that the differences between Husserl and Heidegger involve differences in method; whereas Husserl follows a method of clarification, that eliminates ambiguities, Heidegger rejects the criterion of clarity and embraces ambiguities as exhibiting overlapping relations.

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Book SynopsisThis text examines the bearing of Heidegger's philosophy on his original commitment to Nazism and on his later inability to face up to the implications of that allegiance. The author focuses on Heidegger's connection with other philosophers, most notably Karl Jaspers.

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Book SynopsisSartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist and poststructuralist philosophies more apparent than in their disparate approaches to historical understanding. A history, thought Foucault, should be a kind of map, a comparative charting of structural transformations and displacements. But for Sartre, authentic historical understanding demanded a much more personal and committed narrative, a kind of interpretive diary of moral choices and risks compelled by critical necessity and an exacting reality. Sartre's history, a rational history of individual lives and their intrinsic social worlds, was in essence immersed in biography. In Volume One of this authoritative two-volume work, Thomas R. Flynn conducts a pivotal and comprehensive reconstruction of Sartrean historical theory, and provocatively anticipates the Foucauldian counterpoint to come in Volume Two.

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Book SynopsisHegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has acquired a paradoxical reputation as one of the most important and most impenetrable and inconsistent philosophical works. In this study Michael N. Forster advances his own reading of Hegel's text and sees it as a coherent meditation.

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Book SynopsisPresents a fresh perspective on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. The author offers fresh contexts to approach art, philosophy and the resonance between them.Trade Review"In this pioneering and original study, Wiskus shows how Merleau-Ponty leads philosophy to a creative threshold-the place where thought and music merge.... A captivating experiment in thought and expression." (Richard Kearney, Boston College)

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of the major role played by Sartre as both figure and philosopher in the development of political thought in post-colonial Arab countries.

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Book SynopsisJacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, perhaps the world's most famous philosopher if not the only famous philosopher. He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection that honors those friendships in the wake of passing. Gathered here are texts letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabu00e8s, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Franu00e7ois Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Serviu00e8re. With his words, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of the major role played by Sartre as both figure and philosopher in the development of political thought in post-colonial Arab countries.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The publication of Derrida’s third essay on the theme of Geschlecht—sex, generation, race, genus, gender—is a long-awaited event. Geschlecht III is in fact the keystone to all four essays under this rubric. Here, in a seminar from 1984-85, Derrida confronts Heidegger’s uncanny interpretation of Georg Trakl’s poetry, where figures of the brother, the sister, and lovers loom large. The volume, impeccably edited and translated, is crucial for questions of sex and gender, but also for discussions of philosophy and literature generally.” -- David Farrell Krell, Emeritus, DePaul University"This is a well-conceived reconstruction of the hitherto missing central piece of Derrida’s Geschlecht series. Geschlecht III testifies again to the subtlety and insightfulness of Derrida’s reading of Heidegger. It is a provocative reading that exposes the tendency toward gathering and unity in Heidegger’s thought as it explores anew questions such as a non-dual sexuality, the foreign and the homeland, history and nationalism." -- Daniela Vallega-Neu, University of Oregon“Geschlecht III explores in greater depth than we have ever seen before the linguistic and conceptual strategies of Heidegger’s text, in the course of an account of Heidegger’s reading of Georg Trakl. The book comprises perhaps the closest reading of a single Heideggerian text that we have, and demonstrates both an extraordinary patience on Derrida’s part and the tenacity of his engagement with Heidegger, which are even more extreme than we might already have suspected.” -- Michael Lewis, author of The Beautiful Animal: Sincerity, Charm, and the Fossilised Dialectic“In this strange, searching text, painstakingly reassembled and masterfully presented by the editors, it is as though all of Derrida’s thought passes through the needle’s eye of the German word (or mark) Geschlecht. Derrida’s brilliant and persuasive critique of Heidegger’s "philosophical nationalism" also reveals itself to be a subtle interrogation of some of deconstruction’s most cherished thematics: care for the idiom and the untranslatable, the opening of philosophy to literature, the différance of the proper. Geschlecht III is a crucial document for understanding Derrida’s own trajectory and his ever-evolving relation to Heidegger, and it is also a wide-ranging meditation on the modern triangulation of literature, philosophy, and politics.” -- Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, editor of Handsomely Done: Aesthetics, Politics, and Media after Melville“Geschlecht III opens a new chapter in the relation between Derrida and Heidegger, constituting an essential piece not only of Derrida’s Geschlecht series, but of his engagement with Heidegger’s work as a whole. With meticulous care, Derrida interrogates Heidegger’s thinking on questions of language, nationalism, the homeland and the foreign, and sexual difference, all the while sensitive to the particularities of Heidegger’s German, and the challenges of rendering it into a French philosophical idiom. Geschlecht III is a masterclass in reading, in translating, and in reading and translating as a practice of philosophical thinking.” -- Samir Haddad, author of Derrida and the Inheritance of DemocracyTable of ContentsPreface by Rodrigo Therezo Editors’ NoteGeschlecht III Index

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Book SynopsisPhenomenology, together with Marxism, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy, dominated philosophy in the twentieth century - and Edmund Husserl is usually thought to have been the first to develop the concept. The author argues for a return to phenomenology's origins in epistemology and does so by locating its roots in the work of Immanuel Kant.Trade Review"This is a clear, concise, and enjoyable read by a senior scholar who is an expert on all aspects of German idealism. Tom Rockmore is uniquely qualified to establish clearly the phenomenological-epistemological narrative extending from Kant to Husserl, Heidegger, and beyond. His constructivist reading of Kant along with his contrast of Kant with Husserl makes his case convincingly in a work of exceptional clarity and rigorous documentation." - Alan Olson, Boston University"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An admirable project." * Publishers Weekly *“Following in the vein of Karl Schlechta, de Launay turns to Nietzsche’s texts to dispel many of the misunderstandings of his ideas and thoughts. Centering the role of the Nietzsche Archive, de Launay historically contextualizes notorious efforts to associate Nietzsche’s works and words with Nazism and philologically traces Nietzsche’s enigmatic but decidedly non-nationalistic notion of race. In the end, de Launay rightly shifts the focus away from Nietzsche’s allusions to human heredity and toward his exaltation of the universal and indiscriminate possibility of human genius.” -- A. Todd Franklin, Hamilton College“De Launay’s elegantly written book is an extremely valuable introduction to Nietzsche’s much misunderstood concept of ‘race.’ The book successfully debunks the idea that Nietzsche advanced a racist use of the term and instead foregrounds the complex historicity of the concept itself. A precise and thoughtful reader of the original texts, de Launay offers a philosophical interpretation that convincingly shows that Nietzsche’s use of the term ‘race’ should not be understood along biologistic lines.” -- Christian Emden, Rice UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Nietzsche under Nazism The Nietzsche Archives and the ReichThe Will to Power: An Editorial Fiction The “Will to Power”: A Concept The Overman Darwinism? Eternal Return Peoples and Nations “The Purest Race in Europe . . .” The Concept of “Race”In Fine Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe history of phenomenology, and its absence, in American philosophy. Phenomenology and so-called continental philosophy receive scant attention in most American philosophy departments, despite their foundational influence on intellectual movements such as existentialism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction. In Inventing Philosophy's Other, Jonathan Strassfeld explores this absence, revealing how everyday institutional practices played a determinative role in the development of twentieth-century academic discourse. Conventional wisdom holds that phenomenology's absence from the philosophical mainstream in the United States reflects its obscurity or even irrelevance to America's philosophical traditions. Strassfeld refutes this story as he traces phenomenology's reception in America, delivering the first systematic historical study of the movement in the United States. He examines the lives and works of Marjorie Grene, Alfred Schütz, Hubert Dreyfus, and Iris Marion Young, amonTrade Review“Inventing Philosophy’s Other is an ambitious, important, and exceptional . . . first-rate history of American philosophy that reminds us that the ‘best’ ideas don’t simply win out on their merits. Rather, they often come to be labeled as such after their influence is established through the vagaries of institutional contingency. At a time when the line dividing the continental and analytic traditions appears to be wearing thin, we would do well to heed this injunction for historical reflection.” * Los Angeles Review of Books *“Strassfeld is one of the most talented young scholars writing about the history of academic thought. Ambitious and comprehensive, Inventing Philosophy’s Other suggests that the triumph of analytic philosophy in America was neither preordained nor determined strictly on the basis of the quality of thought.” -- Bruce Kuklick, University of Pennsylvania“Strassfeld offers the fullest account yet of phenomenology’s fate in the United States. Revisiting a rich intellectual tradition inspired by the works of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Inventing Philosophy’s Other restores some of the dynamic pluralism of American philosophy, even as it exposes the forces—intellectual as well as institutional—that have railed against it.” -- Martin Woessner, City College of New YorkTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Understanding Phenomenology 2 First Encounters A Marjorie Glicksman Grene 3 Philosophy in Conflict B Alfred Schütz 4 Who Rules Philosophy? C Hubert Dreyfus 5 Becoming Continental D Iris Marion Young 6 Flanking Maneuvers Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: Quantitative Sources and Methods List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSeries Editor's Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Tragedy Logic Negativity Tragedy and Logic Time and Circularity Nature Language Teleology History Conclusion Notes Bibliography Author Index Subject IndexTrade Review'Here is a unique and fresh approach to Hegel's thought. By tapping the resources of his early writings, and developing the tragic strand that distinguishes them from the totalizing thrust of his later work, Karin de Boer demonstrates the relevance of Hegel's thought for a critical assessment of modernity's self-understanding. The pivotal contribution of this rich and sophisticated study, whose strength is on par with Hegel's, is the development of a 'logic of entanglement' which not only undercuts the concept of absolute negativity characteristic of Hegel's speculative works, but also provides new insight into the instable nature of the relation between contrary moments.' - Rodolphe Gasché, SUNY Distinguished Professor& Eugenio Donato Professor of Comparative Literature at SUNY at Buffalo 'In her On Hegel: The Sway of the Negative Karin de Boer masterfully shows how the idea of tragedy and the work of tragic negativity is at the heart of Hegel's system of philosophy, in constant tension with his famous dialectic, pervading the Logic, Nature, and History. This is a great accomplishment that offers a fresh, actual, and highly insightful re-reading of Hegel as the philosopher of modernity's self-criticism.' - Angelica Nuzzo, Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Tragedy Logic Negativity Tragedy and Logic Time and Circularity Nature Language Teleology History Conclusion Notes Bibliography Author Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisWhy does knowledge of philosophy presuppose knowledge of reality? What are the characters in Deleuze's theatre and philosophy? How are his famous metaphysical distinctions secondary to the concept of philosophy as practice and politics? These questions are answered through careful analysis and application of Deleuzian principles.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction PART I: DELEUZE AND SYSTEMATIC PHILOSOPHY The Shape of Systematic Philosophy Deleuze's Slogan of the Middle The Middle as Becoming Deleuze's Problem, Differential, or Abstract Machine PART II: THEATRE OF OPERATIONS The Exclusive Disjunctive Synthesis of Professional Philosophy Affirmative Philosophy Three Conceptual Personae: the Anglo-American Philosopher, the French Philosopher, and the Logician The Philosopher, the Artist, the Scientist, the Historian, & the Logician The Phenomenologist as Hero, The Phenomenologist as Parasite The Structuralist as Hero, the Structuralist as Palace Dog Philosophy's Encounter with Literature Why Does the Hero Loath Discussion? The Abstract Machine of Philosophical Discourse PART III: AFFIRMING PHILOSOPHY Philosophy's Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated The First Metaphilosophical Question: What is a Philosophy? The Second Metaphilosophical Question: What Does it Mean to Think? Ethico-Political Metaphysics Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsTranslator's Preface: Dead Man Thinking Introduction I. Submedial Space 1. The Submedial Subject and the Flux of Signs 2. The Truth of the Medial and the State of Exception 3. Media-Ontological Suspicion and Philosophical Doubt 4. The Phenomenology of Medial Sincerity 5. The Gaze of the Other 6. The Medium Becomes the Message 7. The Case of Exception and the Truth of the Medial II. The Economy of Suspicion 8. Marcel Mauss: Symbolic Exchange; or, Civilization Under Water 9. Claude Levi-Strauss: Mana; or, the Floating Signifier 10. Georges Bataille: The Potlatch with the Sun 11. Jacques Derrida: The Lack of Time and Its Specters 12. Jean-Francois Lyotard: The Roller Coaster of the Sublime 13. The Time of Signs 14. Suspicion Is the Medium Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA bold defense of a neglected concept and its relevance for critical social theory.Trade ReviewThrough a compelling combination of acute analysis and rich phenomenological description, Rahel Jaeggi brings alienation back to the center of political philosophy. She argues alienation concerns a failure to appropriate oneself in the right way, a problem with how one comes to be what one is, rather than an inability to realize some pregiven identity. Jaeggi is not only thoroughly learned in both the continental and analytic traditions. She does what is quite rare: she brings these traditions into a highly productive synthesis. A very impressive achievement. -- Daniel Brudney, University of Chicago With this masterful reconstruction of the concept of alienation, Jaeggi opens fruitful new avenues for critical theory. She also claims her place as a powerful exponent of social philosophy and a thinker of the first rank. Her book is a tour de force of cogent argumentation and rich phenomenological description. -- Nancy Fraser, The New School Alienation, the concept Hegel and Marx made so central to European political and social thought, has receded in importance in recent political philosophy. Like self-deception and weakness of will, it is extremely resistant to analysis even though it continues to be a major theme of modern life and accounts for the features of contemporary life. Jaeggi's great accomplishment is to provide the outlines of a new theory of an old term and thereby show its linkage to major ethical and political concerns. With this book, an entire tradition of political and social philosophy receives a new lease on life. -- Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University Jaeggi's scholarship and writing in this book is excellent, and the resuscitation of the concept of alienation in critical social theory is a welcome event in the literature. -- Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University Alienation is one of the most exciting books to have appeared on the German philosophical scene in the last decade. It not only rejuvenates a lagging discourse on the topic of alienation; it also shows how an account of subjectivity elaborated two centuries ago can be employed in the service of new philosophical insights. -- Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College This insightful and learned book will appeal to anyone interested in social philosophy. Library Journal Rahel Jaeggi's Alienation is an important contribution to - and rejuvenation of - the philosophical literature on the phenomenon of alienation. Marx & Philosophy Review of Books [A]n excellent representative of the work of a new generation of German philosophers who...seem well positioned to reanimate Western philosophy. -- Frederick Neuhouser Review of MetaphysicsTable of ContentsForeword, by Axel Honneth Translator's Introduction, by Frederick Neuhouser Preface and Acknowledgments Part 1. The Relation of Relationlessness: Reconstructing a Concept of Social Philosophy 1. "A Stranger in the World That He Himself Has Made": The Concept and Phenomenon of Alienation 2. Marx and Heidegger: Two Versions of Alienation Critique 3. The Structure and Problems of Alienation Critique 4. Having Oneself at One's Command: Reconstructing the Concept of Alienation Part 2. Living One's Life as an Alien Life: Four Cases 5. Seinesgleichen Geschieht or "The Like of It Now Happens": The Feeling of Powerlessness and the Independent Existence of One's Own Actions 6. "A Pale, Incomplete, Strange, Artificial Man": Social Roles and the Loss of Authenticity 7. "She but Not Herself": Self-Alienation as Internal Division 8. "As If Through a Wall of Glass": Indifference and Self-Alienation Part 3. Alienation as a Disturbed Appropriation of Self and World 9. "Like a Structure of Cotton Candy": Being Oneself as Self-Appropriation 10. "Living One's Own Life": Self-Determination, Self-Realization, and Authenticity Conclusion: The Sociality of the Self, the Sociality of Freedom Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisHegel's "highway of despair," introduced in his Phenomenology of Spirit, represents the tortured path traveled by "natural consciousness" on its way to freedom. This book follows Theodor Adorno, Georges Bataille, and Frantz Fanon as they each read, resist, and reconfigure a strand of Hegelian thought.Trade ReviewThe Highway of Despair is a superb and much needed book. Marasco argues that despair is not the dead end we think it to be (at least philosophically speaking) but is instead a state of being in which issues of control, authority and domination are resisted, in which normally suppressed passions and ideas can come to the fore and in which unworkable models of political order can be put to rest once and for all. -- James R. Martel, San Francisco State University The Highway of Despair masterfully puts patient interpretation in the service of a powerful political and theoretical vision. By following the thread of negativity that joins Hegel to Adorno, Bataille, and Fanon, Marasco shows that 'despair' is not a feeling of impotence but a mode of comportment through which people register and engage the torn, divided character of their world. In drawing out and analyzing despair's surprising power to energize praxis and sustain thought, she simultaneously recasts critical theory's history and scrambles the tired oppositional coordinates through which we too often debate its future. -- Patchen Markell, University of Chicago Is critical theory too theoretical, too negative, too destructive? What is to be done when there appears to be no way out of the horrors of contemporary life and rational hope for a better future recedes? Robyn Marasco's negative dialectical ambition is to reinvent and revivify critical theory by addressing prominent twentieth-century Left Hegelians (Adorno, Bataille, and Fanon) and recovering the protean notion of despair, treating it as a restless, energetic, and thus productive political passion rather than as a sign of reaction, resignation, pathology, or paralysis. Marasco's manifold experiments in new critical thinking are edgy, erudite, and demand a hearing. -- Steven Johnston, University of Utah Can any honest appraisal of our current times avoid ending in despair? In this remarkable and deeply felt book, Robyn Marasco shows that squarely facing this troubling truth can be the first step in transcending it. Drawing on resources from the tradition of critical theory, as well as the legacy of Bataille and Fanon, she shows how hope can be derived from even the most melancholy of sciences. -- Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley Robyn Marasco provocatively argues that despair is not intrinsically paralyzing and antipolitical but is central to our capacity for critique and even for hope. The Highway of Despair de-centers Habermas within the tradition of critical theory by revealing traces of a counter-tradition within Left Hegelianism that rejects the impulse to systematize and rationalize and instead acknowledges the persistence of violence, injustice, and irrationality-finding resources in the passion of despair to critically engage with the world in all of its ugliness. -- Michaele Ferguson, University of Colorado, Boulder Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. Choice Original... Anyone interested in the power of critique will profit from this book and will have to take seriously Marasco's provocative challenge to rethink the relation between despair and critique. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Marasco's approach is novel and timely. Radical Philosophy Review An engaging read... Marasco's work will undoubtedly reinvigorate the dialectical imagination and should be read by anyone with an interest in the future of critical theory. Theory and Event This is a stunning book, one whose impact on critical theory will be felt for decades to come. Perspectives on PoliticsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part 1. Dialectics and Despair 1. Hegel, the Wound 2. Kierkegaard's Diagnostics Part 2. Dialectical Remains 3. Theodor W. Adorno: Aporetics 4. Georges Bataille: Aleatory Dialectics 5. Frantz Fanon: Critique, with Knives Concluding Postscript Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA personal and philosophical account of the ambiguity of erotic love.Trade ReviewDiane Enns manages to strike a delicate balance between the intensely personal and the rigorously intellectual. She presents a profound meditation on love and its loss, passion and despair, risking everything and surviving despite everything. These are timeless, all-too-human topics. -- Mari Ruti, author of The Call of Character: Living a Life Worth Living Love in the Dark is engaging, developing fresh and bold perspectives that challenge the conventional interpretations of love. -- Linell Secomb, author of Philosophy and Love: From Plato to Popular Culture How can a philosopher who is heir of the Western tradition write of love without exceeding the fixed boundary that tradition posits between logos and eros? Moving beyond the confines of a disembodied and dematerialized order of reason, Diane Enns opens this reflection on love to the rich philosophical terrain of fiction, memoir, and poetry, allowing passion-her own and that of such thinkers as Augustine, Arendt, Kristeva, Cixous, and Gillian Rose-to infuse and inform her study. This is, indeed, philosophy by another name. -- Dawne McCance, author of Derrida on Religion: Thinker of DifferanceTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Part I. Legacy Ruined States What Is Love? Anarchic Eros The Cannibal Husbands of Our Futures Two Crucifixions If Only We Had Read the Song of Solomon Burning Find the Clitoris Shame Vulgar Love Ambivalent Pleasure Rigor Mortis Part II. Love The We Happy Love Sweet Apple Insatiable Demand for Presence Love for the Living The Infinite Plasticity of Position L'Amour Fou Beautification Pathological Love The Interworld The Gift "Volo Ut Sis" Part III. Limits Amputation "You Made My Life Better" On the Question of Worth My Best Thing Peeled Skin Can't or Won't The Angryman and the Sweetman Abusion A Misnomer The Paradox of Risk The House of Tragedy The Line A Bad Calculation Sweet Revenge Saving Leaving Part IV. Loss The Original Loss Slow Heart Iron Air Emotional Possibility Mourning Time Cosmic Gift Losing Is Ours Grieving the Living Singularity and Betrayal The Ambiguity of Loneliness Survival Monuments Afterword Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA new resolution of the mind-body problem that reconciles materialism and idealism.Trade ReviewThe Incorporeal might seem to be a departure for Elizabeth Grosz, whose work has provided one of the most profound and sustained theorizations of matter, embodiment and sexual difference. Rather than a refusal of corporeal feminism, this book is a powerful exploration of corporeality and its possibilities. A remarkable and groundbreaking work, The Incorporeal intensifies Grosz's already complex and nuanced account of bodies and difference: incorporeality is not to be equated with mind, ideality or the disembodied. It is, rather, part of the volatility that Grosz has always discerned in bodies, human and nonhuman. -- Claire Colebrook, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University In this new book, Elizabeth Grosz continues her investigations of role of the body in thinking in art and science, as in politics and philosophy. Through a fresh engagement with the work of Deleuze and the thinkers he admired, she extracts a vital new ethics, itself part of a philosophy of nature beyond the limits of 'the new materialism'. A stimulating and rigorous journey towards a new philosophy for our times. -- John Rajchman, author of The Deleuze Connections In this rich and deeply rewarding book, Elizabeth Grosz traces the hidden genealogy-centered on but not reducible to Gilles Deleuze-of a philosophy that makes room for both body and mind, without reductionism, but also without mysticism. -- Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University Philosophy, and in its wake cultural theory, has long made periodic pendulum swings between two poles, the materialist and the idealist. What is needed is a move through the middle: an incorporeal materialism, or a materialist idealism. This is the important and timely project Elizabeth Grosz undertakes in this book, with the help of judiciously chosen philosophical guides, from the Stoics to Simondon. -- Brian Massumi, University of Montreal This is a bold, brilliant, and fascinating study of an alternative philosophical tradition. The treatments of Simondon and Ruyer are especially welcome, and a new and highly challenging conception of materialism is offered. -- Keith Ansell-Pearson, University of WarwickTable of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Stoics, Materialism, and the Incorporeal 2. Spinoza, Substance, and Attributes 3. Nietzsche and Amor Fati 4. Deleuze and the Plane of Immanence 5. Simondon and the Preindividual 6. Ruyer and an Embryogenesis of the World Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMatthew Crippen, a philosopher of mind, and Jay Schulkin, a behavioral neuroscientist, offer an innovative interdisciplinary theory of mind. Synthesizing philosophy, neurobiology, psychology, and history of science, Mind Ecologies offers a broad and deep exploration of evidence for the embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended nature of mind.Trade ReviewMind Ecologies is a valuable and comprehensive contribution that certainly strengthens and amplifies recent efforts to show that pragmatism is an extremely useful asset that can bring different perspectives to contemporary debates on affectivity, embodiment, and the ecological relation between agents and the environment. -- Carlos Vara Sanchez * European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy *Mind Ecologies offers a lively and informative history of Pragmatist thought, revealing how it both anticipated current work in philosophy and the sciences of the mind, and how it can be applied to great effect. Crippen and Schulkin make a convincing case that we are 'living ecologies'⁠—integrated, interdependent systems—not detached, isolated intellects. -- Louise Barrett, author of Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human MindsMind Ecologies is wide-ranging and timely both as a contribution to today's philosophy of cognitive science and as a reminder of historical antecedents. This work will amplify and improve upon recent attempts to show that pragmatism and phenomenological philosophy are relevant to today’s sciences of the mind. -- Anthony Chemero, author of Radical Embodied Cognitive ScienceThis accessibly written book was long due. We finally have a clear and detailed overview of how pragmatism anticipated many key ideas of the field of 4E cognition. One theme that stands out as particularly interesting and refreshing is the pragmatists' emphasis on the affective-evaluative and aesthetic dimension of perception and cognition. -- Giovanna Colombetti, author of The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive MindAccessible for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students...Recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Life, Experimentalism, and Valuation2. Pragmatism and Embodied Cognitive Science3. Social Cohesion, Experience, and Aesthetics4. Pragmatism and Affective Cognition5. Perception, Affect, World6. Broadening EcologiesAppendix 1: Subcortical Structures of the BrainAppendix 2: Cortical Structures of the BrainNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisJudith Butler shows how COVID-19 and all its consequences—political, social, ecological, economic—challenge us to develop a new account of interdependency. Butler argues for a radical social equality and advocates modes of resistance that seek to establish new conditions of livability and a new sense of a shared world.Trade ReviewThrough a thorough philosophical accounting of the moral imperatives of living in a globalized society, Butler makes a rousing case for pushing progressive policies as a response to the disruptions of the pandemic. Thoughtful and profound, this hits the mark. * Publishers Weekly *By investigating the world's disunity, Butler provides an excellent text where readers can reflect on how the pandemic affected us all and what it revealed about the nature of our national and global realities. . . Butler challenges readers to think more deeply about how they share their physical and social space with other humans to assemble a more interconnected and livable world. * Philosophy in Review *'Death and illness have been quite literally in the air,' writes Judith Butler in this stunningly poignant study. Phenomenology, they argue, speaks to moments when, every now and then, many, if not all of us, are reminded of the eventual end of the world, and, even more, worlds. That harbinger knocks at the door in 'this' world in which 'all' now at least attempt, despite and even because of tragedy, to live. Addressing the pan-demos, the people everywhere and our interconnectedness, permeability, and irreplaceability, Butler challenges the hubris of imagined protection from the 'external' and articulates the ebb, flow, fragility, and precarity of life beyond idols—beyond, in their word, 'pretense'—of self-sustained and hoarded power. In the spirit of repair, they ask us to embrace responsibility for conditions of radical equality and nonviolence on which livable lives depend, a common world of the symbiosis of breath and touch in the sociality of life. A beautiful and profound offering for our times and beyond. -- Lewis R. Gordon, author of Fear of Black ConsciousnessA thoughtful meditation on what it means to share a world with others in a time of global pandemic and climate change, from a philosopher who has already taught us so much about livable and grievable lives. This book offers a deeply human perspective on life at the edge of disaster. -- Lisa Guenther, author of Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its AfterlivesIn this remarkable meditation, Judith Butler draws together the key strands of their thought—from bodies that matter to melancholia to grievability to nonviolence—and offers a manifesto for our time. Turning to phenomenology, they make the urgent case for a new form of global responsibility based on the deepest entwinement of everyone to each other, to the earth we live on, and to the air we breathe. Nobody else could have made it. What World Is This? offers hope in a cruel and endangered world. -- Jacqueline Rose, author of On Violence and On Violence Against WomenIn this timely and important book, Butler pays careful attention to the specifics of our contemporary situation with startling clarity, bringing their inimitable voice and philosophical resources to the questions of what it means for life to be livable, what it means for the earth to be inhabitable, what it means for an entity to be grievable, and the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has cast these questions into relief, at the same time marking how intimately entwined with each other they are. -- Amy Hollywood, author of Acute Melancholia and Other Essays: Mysticism, History, and the Study of ReligionTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Senses of the World: Scheler and Merleau-Ponty2. Powers in the Pandemic: Reflections on Restricted Life3. Intertwining as Ethics and Politics4. Grievability for the LivingPostscript: TransformationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisJudith Butler shows how COVID-19 and all its consequencespolitical, social, ecological, economicchallenge us to develop a new account of interdependency. Butler argues for a radical social equality and advocates modes of resistance that seek to establish new conditions of livability and a new sense of a shared world.Trade ReviewThrough a thorough philosophical accounting of the moral imperatives of living in a globalized society, Butler makes a rousing case for pushing progressive policies as a response to the disruptions of the pandemic. Thoughtful and profound, this hits the mark. * Publishers Weekly *By investigating the world's disunity, Butler provides an excellent text where readers can reflect on how the pandemic affected us all and what it revealed about the nature of our national and global realities. . . Butler challenges readers to think more deeply about how they share their physical and social space with other humans to assemble a more interconnected and livable world. * Philosophy in Review *'Death and illness have been quite literally in the air,' writes Judith Butler in this stunningly poignant study. Phenomenology, they argue, speaks to moments when, every now and then, many, if not all of us, are reminded of the eventual end of the world, and, even more, worlds. That harbinger knocks at the door in 'this' world in which 'all' now at least attempt, despite and even because of tragedy, to live. Addressing the pan-demos, the people everywhere and our interconnectedness, permeability, and irreplaceability, Butler challenges the hubris of imagined protection from the 'external' and articulates the ebb, flow, fragility, and precarity of life beyond idols—beyond, in their word, 'pretense'—of self-sustained and hoarded power. In the spirit of repair, they ask us to embrace responsibility for conditions of radical equality and nonviolence on which livable lives depend, a common world of the symbiosis of breath and touch in the sociality of life. A beautiful and profound offering for our times and beyond. -- Lewis R. Gordon, author of Fear of Black ConsciousnessA thoughtful meditation on what it means to share a world with others in a time of global pandemic and climate change, from a philosopher who has already taught us so much about livable and grievable lives. This book offers a deeply human perspective on life at the edge of disaster. -- Lisa Guenther, author of Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its AfterlivesIn this remarkable meditation, Judith Butler draws together the key strands of their thought—from bodies that matter to melancholia to grievability to nonviolence—and offers a manifesto for our time. Turning to phenomenology, they make the urgent case for a new form of global responsibility based on the deepest entwinement of everyone to each other, to the earth we live on, and to the air we breathe. Nobody else could have made it. What World Is This? offers hope in a cruel and endangered world. -- Jacqueline Rose, author of On Violence and On Violence Against WomenIn this timely and important book, Butler pays careful attention to the specifics of our contemporary situation with startling clarity, bringing their inimitable voice and philosophical resources to the questions of what it means for life to be livable, what it means for the earth to be inhabitable, what it means for an entity to be grievable, and the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has cast these questions into relief, at the same time marking how intimately entwined with each other they are. -- Amy Hollywood, author of Acute Melancholia and Other Essays: Mysticism, History, and the Study of ReligionTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Senses of the World: Scheler and Merleau-Ponty2. Powers in the Pandemic: Reflections on Restricted Life3. Intertwining as Ethics and Politics4. Grievability for the LivingPostscript: TransformationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisPlants in Place is a collaborative study of vegetal phenomenology at the intersection of Edward S. Casey’s phenomenology of place and Michael Marder’s plant-thinking.Trade ReviewBrilliant and astounding. Casey and Marder revolutionize our notion of place through a meditation on the being of plants. Place becomes a dynamic symbiosis with vegetal life such that it cannot be measured, quantified, or mastered. Nothing short of a paradigm shift in the way we think about both plants and place. -- Kelly Oliver, author of Earth and World: Philosophy After the Apollo MissionsThis singular work is not only timely but also vitally important in this age of planetary environmental crisis and existential estrangement from the Earth itself. The product of a unique collaboration between two prominent philosophers, Casey and Marder's Plants in Place enables us to reimagine our natural interconnectedness, spurring us on to be more actively engaged with not only the preservation of plant-beings and the myriad other entities that depend on them for their very life, but also with the immense pleasure that attends our interaction with the vegetal world. -- Brian Schroeder, Rochester Institute of TechnologyIn this extraordinary book, two of our most respected and inspiring contemporary philosophers invite us to new paths of thought regarding the mystery of places. In their phytophenomenology, they disclose how places are plants, multidirectional flourishing, upward and downward branching, spreading in the open air and in the night of the underground. Traditional distinctions between mobility and immobility, place and time, measure and the measureless lose their evidence. From the viewpoint of the placiality of plants, of the mysterious ways a plant shows the taking place of places, this book shakes dominant presuppositions about what it means to be in places and to be a place. Discovering how places are plants and planted rather than occupied and planned, how they are emergences and not only constructions, this book asks humans to learn to be with plant places and to find new modes of coexistence: an urgent task. -- Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback, Södertörn University, SwedenPlants in Place is a philosophically exciting book that provokes and inspires. Casey and Marder explore the relation between plants and place, and the interconnection of plants with places, in the process articulating an innovative philosophical vision that offers a new way of seeing and thinking about the world. -- Jeff Malpas, author of In the Brightness of Place: Topological Thinking In and After HeideggerTable of ContentsPreface: Walking Among PlantsAcknowledgments1. The Placial Basis of Plant Sessility and Mobility2. Peripheral Power: Structural Dynamics at the Edges of PlantsInterlude I. How Plants Think3. Taking Trees Over the EdgeInterlude II. Plants Up-Close: The Case of Moss4. The Shared Sociality of Trees, with Implications for PlaceInterlude III. Plants from Afar: As Seen in Landscape Painting5. Attachment and Detachment in the Place of PlantsConclusion: The Fate of Places, the Fate of PlantsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisPlants in Place is a collaborative study of vegetal phenomenology at the intersection of Edward S. Casey’s phenomenology of place and Michael Marder’s plant-thinking.Trade ReviewBrilliant and astounding. Casey and Marder revolutionize our notion of place through a meditation on the being of plants. Place becomes a dynamic symbiosis with vegetal life such that it cannot be measured, quantified, or mastered. Nothing short of a paradigm shift in the way we think about both plants and place. -- Kelly Oliver, author of Earth and World: Philosophy After the Apollo MissionsThis singular work is not only timely but also vitally important in this age of planetary environmental crisis and existential estrangement from the Earth itself. The product of a unique collaboration between two prominent philosophers, Casey and Marder's Plants in Place enables us to reimagine our natural interconnectedness, spurring us on to be more actively engaged with not only the preservation of plant-beings and the myriad other entities that depend on them for their very life, but also with the immense pleasure that attends our interaction with the vegetal world. -- Brian Schroeder, Rochester Institute of TechnologyIn this extraordinary book, two of our most respected and inspiring contemporary philosophers invite us to new paths of thought regarding the mystery of places. In their phytophenomenology, they disclose how places are plants, multidirectional flourishing, upward and downward branching, spreading in the open air and in the night of the underground. Traditional distinctions between mobility and immobility, place and time, measure and the measureless lose their evidence. From the viewpoint of the placiality of plants, of the mysterious ways a plant shows the taking place of places, this book shakes dominant presuppositions about what it means to be in places and to be a place. Discovering how places are plants and planted rather than occupied and planned, how they are emergences and not only constructions, this book asks humans to learn to be with plant places and to find new modes of coexistence: an urgent task. -- Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback, Södertörn University, SwedenPlants in Place is a philosophically exciting book that provokes and inspires. Casey and Marder explore the relation between plants and place, and the interconnection of plants with places, in the process articulating an innovative philosophical vision that offers a new way of seeing and thinking about the world. -- Jeff Malpas, author of In the Brightness of Place: Topological Thinking In and After HeideggerTable of ContentsPreface: Walking Among PlantsAcknowledgments1. The Placial Basis of Plant Sessility and Mobility2. Peripheral Power: Structural Dynamics at the Edges of PlantsInterlude I. How Plants Think3. Taking Trees Over the EdgeInterlude II. Plants Up-Close: The Case of Moss4. The Shared Sociality of Trees, with Implications for PlaceInterlude III. Plants from Afar: As Seen in Landscape Painting5. Attachment and Detachment in the Place of PlantsConclusion: The Fate of Places, the Fate of PlantsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisA Short History of Decay (1949) is E. M. Cioran''s nihilistic and witty collection of aphoristic essays concerning the nature of civilization in mid 20th-century Europe. Touching upon man''s need to worship, the feebleness of God, the downfall of the Ancient Greeks and the melancholy baseness of all existence, Cioran''s pieces are pessimistic in the extreme, but also display a beautiful certainty that renders them delicate, vivid, and memorable. Illuminating and brutally honest, A Short History of Decay dissects man''s decadence in a remarkable series of moving and beautiful pieces.Trade ReviewTo miss reading this book would be a deprivation * Los Angeles Times *Sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries. -- CJ Schüler * Independent on Sunday *

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA matchless fable of fear, courage and cowardice * Independent *Magnificent * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''It is possible for man to snatch the world from the darkness of absurdity''How should we think and act in the world? These writings on the human condition by one of the twentieth century''s great philosophers explore the absurdity of our notions of good and evil, and show instead how we make our own destiny simply by being.One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

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