Description
Book SynopsisUnfolds a history of Western metaphysics that is also a history of the legitimation of oppression. This book brings to light the unperceived challenge, by tracing the history of the inscription of domination into the very nature of being as it is conceived by Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, and Locke.
Trade ReviewIn this stunning philosophical accomplishment, McCumber (Northwestern Univ. and author of Poetic Interaction, 1989, and The Company of Words, 1993) sheds important new light on the history of substance metaphysics and Heidegger's challenge to metaphysical thinking. He carefully analyzes use of the concept of ousia in Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, and Hume. He finds in Aristotle three defining aspects of ousia: 1) everything occurs only within a boundary; 2) through disposition, everything is hierarchically arranged, and 3) through active initiative, form imposes itself on matter. He shows how the metaphysical concept of ousia, by defining the way things are, justifies as rational such social structures as slavery, colonialism, and male domination of women. In each case, rational form imposes itself on irrational matter. Historically, this has offered a conceptual rationale for oppression, but the analysis of Heidegger offers a positive alternative. Heidegger blurs ousia with metaphysics of presence; his thinking breaks through boundaries, does not impose a top-down hierarchy on nature and society, and does not relegate some things or people to the category of matter. Thus, significantly, Heidegger's critique of substance metaphysics offers a way beyond oppressive thinking. Well-documented, brilliant, definitely a major contribution to philosophy! Upper-division undergraduates and above.R. E. Palmer, emeritus, MacMurray College, 2000apr CHOICE.
Table of ContentsProem
Introduction: Two Heideggers and Their Challenge
Part 1: The Codification and Consolidation of Ousia (Aristotle and Aquinas)
1. Aristotle's Concept of Ousia
2. Ousia as Parameter in Aristotle
3. The Docility of Matter in Thomas Aquinas
4. Two Ancient Engines of Oppression
Appendix to Part 1: Plato and Prehistory
Part 2: The Modern Eviction of Ousia (Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Hume)
Introduction to Part 2
5. The Cartesian Relocation of Ousia
6. Ousia and Sovereignty in Hobbes
7. Ousia and Property Rights in Locke
8. The Triumph of the Individual in Hume
9. Critical Accounts of Oppression in Mudimbe, Douglass, de Beauvoir
Appendix to Part 2: Ousiodic Structures in Spinoza and Leibniz
Part 3: Heidegger's Challenge to Ousia
10. Heidegger's Presentation of Diakena in Being and Time
11. Diakena and Thing in the Later Heidegger
12. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
