Description
Book SynopsisThis is the most important book about the nature of philosophy and of the human soul published this year. In making the condition for its own possibility its deepest concern, philosophy is necessarily about itself_it is autobiographical. The first part of The Autobiography of Philosophy interprets Heidegger''s Being and Time, Nietzsche''s On the Genealogy of Morals, Aristotle''s Metaphysics, and Plato''s Lysis as examples of the implicitly autobiographical character of philosophy. The second part is a reading of Rousseau''s The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Although Rousseau''s explicitly autobiographical writings are more often read for the tantalizing details of his rather eccentric life than for their philosophical import, this work is an artful use of Rousseau''s exile and isolation_''the strangest position in which a mortal could ever find himself''_as a paradigm for the human soul in its relation to the world. In powerfully articulating the activity that is at the core of all
Trade Review<...considers the character and role of philosophy, or of philosophizing, <...comprises a series of chapters on Rousseau's Reveries, devoting one to each of the 'Walks' in that work in turn, assessing and extending their themes and ideas and bringing forward the interpretation of their underlying significance.... -- Nicholas Dent, University of Birmingham
This book is both far reaching and tightly focused. * Review of Metaphysics *
Davis does an excellent job of teasing out several interrelated tensions in the Reveries . . . careful and illuminating. . . . Displays an excellent philosophical sensitivity to particular texts. -- Rebecca Kukla, Carleton University * Philosophy in Review *
considers the character and role of philosophy, or of philosophizing, comprises a series of chapters on Rousseau's Reveries, devoting one to each of the 'Walks' in that work in turn, assessing and extending their themes and ideas and bringing forward the interpretation of their underlying significance. -- Nicholas Dent, University of Birmingham
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Philosophy as Autobiography Part 2 Part One: The Question of Philosophy Chapter 3 Phenomenology and Philosophy: The Good of Being Chapter 4 Nietzsche's Genealogy and Philosophy: The Being of the Good Chapter 5 Philosophy and Wisdom: The Question of Being in Aristotle's Metaphysics A Chapter 6 Philosophy and Friendship: The Question of the Good in Plato's Lysis Chapter 7 Parabasis Part 8 Part Two: Rousseau's Life Chapter 9 Solitude and Society Chapter 10 The Fall Chapter 11 The True Morality Chapter 12 The Goodness of Truth Chapter 13 The Island of the Blessed Chapter 14 Authority Chapter 15 Beauty Chapter 16 The End of Suffering Chapter 17 Them Chapter 18 The Soul Chapter 19 Index
