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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 -
This monograph offers a new interpretation of Melville's work
(focusing on "Moby-Dick", "Pierre" and "Benito Cereno") in the
light of scholarship on globalization from critics in 'new'
American studies. In "Melville, Mapping and Globalization", Robert
Tally argues that Melville does not belong in the tradition of the
American Renaissance, but rather creates a baroque literary
cartography, artistically engaging with spaces beyond the national
model. At a time of intense national consolidation and cultural
centralization, Melville discovered the postnational forces of an
emerging world system, a system that has become our own in the era
of globalization. Drawing on the work of a range of literary and
social critics (including Deleuze, Foucault, Jameson, and Moretti),
Tally argues that Melville's distinct literary form enabled his
critique of the dominant national narrative of his own time and
proleptically undermined the national literary tradition of
American Studies a century later. Melville's hypercanonical status
in the United States makes his work all the more crucial for
understanding the role of literature in a post-American epoch.
Offering bold new interpretations and theoretical juxtapositions,
Tally presents a postnational Melville, well suited to establishing
new approaches to American and world literature in the twenty-first
century.
This is a unique and much needed book exploring the debt Deleuze
owes to Kantian arguments and principles. The way in which we read
Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" has profound consequences for our
understanding of his thought in relation to the work of other
thinkers. "Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics" presents a unified
reading of this text in order to respond to the concerns
surrounding the method and arguments Kant employs. In showing us
how the 'first critique' comes to make greater sense when read as a
whole or in terms of its 'architectonic' unity, Edward Willatt
breathes new life into a text often considered rigid and artificial
in its organisation. On the basis of this reading, Kant's relation
to Deleuze is revealed to be much more productive than is often
realized. Deftly relating the unifying method of Kant's "Critique
of Pure Reason" with Deleuze's account of experience, and using
Kant's concern to secure the conditions that make experience
possible to develop Deleuze's attempt to convincingly relate 'the
actual' and 'the virtual', this book constitutes an important step
in our understanding of Deleuze and his philosophical project.
"Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge
scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly
original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in
this series make it an important and stimulating resource for
students and academics from across the discipline.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the French
philosopher Henri Bergson became an international celebrity,
profoundly influencing contemporary intellectual and artistic
currents. While Bergsonism was fashionable, L. Susan Stebbing,
Bertrand Russell, Moritz Schlick, and Rudolf Carnap launched
different critical attacks against some of Bergson's views. This
book examines this series of critical responses to Bergsonism early
in the history of analytic philosophy. Analytic criticisms of
Bergsonism were influenced by William James, who saw Bergson as an
'anti-intellectualist' ally of American Pragmatism, and Max
Scheler, who saw him as a prophet of Lebensphilosophie. Some of the
main analytic objections to Bergson are answered in the work of
Karin Costelloe-Stephen. Analytic anti-Bergsonism accompanied the
earlier refutations of idealism by Russell and Moore, and later
influenced the Vienna Circle's critique of metaphysics. It
eventually contributed to the formation of the view that 'analytic'
philosophy is divided from its 'continental' counterpart.
The transcendental turn of Husserl's phenomenology has challenged
philosophers and scholars from the beginning. This volume inquires
into the profound meaning of this turn by contrasting its Kantian
and its phenomenological versions. Examining controversies
surrounding subjectivity, idealism, aesthetics, logic, the
foundation of sciences, and practical philosophy, the chapters
provide a helpful guide for facing current debates.
Available in English for the first time, this first draft of
Heidegger's opus, "Being and Time", provides a unique insight into
Heidegger's Phenomenology. "The Concept of Time" presents
Heidegger's so-called Dilthey review, widely considered the first
draft of his celebrated masterpiece, "Being and Time". Here
Heidegger reveals his deep commitment to Wilhelm Dilthey and Count
Yorck von Wartenburg. He agrees with them that historicity must be
at the centre of the new philosophy to come. However, he also
argues for an ontological approach to history. From this
ontological turn he develops the so-called categories of Dasein.
This work demonstrates Heidegger's indebtedness to Yorck and
Dilthey and gives further evidence to the view that thought about
history is the germ cell of "Being and Time". However, it also
shows that Heidegger's commitment to Dilthey was not without
reservations and that his analysis of Dasein actually employs
Husserl's phenomenology. The work reopens the question of history
in a broader sense, as Heidegger struggles to thematize history
without aligning it with world-historical events. The text also
provides a concise and readable summary of the main themes of
"Being and Time" and as such is an ideal companion to that text.
Exploring the latest research in Husserl Studies, this collection
presents fifteen new essays on key topics in the field from an
international team of writers. "Epistemology, Archaeology, Ethics:
Current Investigations of Husserl's Corpus" presents fifteen
original essays by an international team of expert contributors
that together represent a cross-section of Husserl Studies today.
The collection manifests the extent to which single themes in
Husserl's corpus cannot be isolated, but must be considered in
relation to their overlap with each other. Many of the accepted
views of Husserl's philosophy are currently in a state of flux,
with positions that once seemed incontestable now finding
themselves relegated to the status of one particular school of
thought among several. Among all the new trends and approaches,
this volume offers a representative sample of how Husserlian
research should be conducted given the current state of the corpus.
The book is divided into four parts, each dedicated to an area of
Husserl Studies that is currently gaining prominence: Husserlian
epistemology; his views on intentionality; the archaeology of
constitution; and, ethics, a relatively recent field of study in
phenomenology.
Following the core principle of phenomenology as a return "to the
things themselves," Body Matters attends to the phenomena of bodily
afflictions and examines them from three different standpoints:
from society in general that interprets them as "sicknesses," from
the medical professions that interpret them as "diseases," and from
the patients themselves who interpret them as "illnesses." By
drawing on a crucial distinction in German phenomenology between
two senses of the body the quantifiable, material body (Korper) and
the lived-body(Leib) the authors explore the ways in which
sickness, disease, and illness are socially and historically
experienced and constructed. To make their case, they draw on
examples from a multiplicity of disciplines and cultures as well as
a number of cases from Euro-American history. The intent is to
unsettle taken-for-granted assumptions that readers may have about
body troubles. These are assumptions widely held as well by medical
and allied health professionals, in addition to many sociologists
and philosophers of health and illness. To this end, Body Matters
does not simply deconstruct prejudices of mainstream biomedicine;
it also constructively envisions more humane and artful forms of
therapy."
In our contemporary age aesthetics seems to crumble and no longer
be reducible to a coherent image. And yet given the vast amount of
works in aesthetics produced in the last hundred years, this age
could be defined "the century of aesthetics." "20th Century
Aesthetics" is a new account of international aesthetic thought by
Mario Perniola, one of Italy's leading contemporary thinkers.
Starting from four conceptual fields - life, form, knowledge,
action - Perniola identifies the lines of aesthetic reflection that
derive from them and elucidates them with reference to major
authors: from Dilthey to Foucault (aesthetics of life), from
Wolfflin to McLuhan and Lyotard (aesthetics of form), from Croce to
Goodman (aesthetics and knowledge), from Dewey to Bloom (aesthetics
and action). There is also a fifth one that touches on the sphere
of affectivity and emotionality, and which comes to aesthetics from
thinkers like Freud, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Lacan, Derrida and
Deleuze. The volume concludes with an extensive sixth chapter on
Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Brazilian, South Korean and
South East Asian aesthetic thought and on the present decline of
Western aesthetic sensibility.
This is an important collection of essays examining and promoting
Foucault's influence on present-day philosophy, in both the
analytic and Continental philosophical traditions."Foucault's
Legacy" brings together the work of eight Foucault specialists in
an important collection of essays marking the 25th anniversary of
Foucault's death. Focusing on the importance of Foucault's most
central ideas for present-day philosophy, the book shows how his
influence goes beyond his own canonical tradition and linguistic
milieu. The essays in this book explore key areas of Foucault's
thought by comparing aspects of his work with the thought of a
number of major philosophers, including Nietzsche, Heidegger,
Rorty, Hegel, Searle, Vattimo and Williams. Crucially the book also
considers the applicability of his central ideas to broader issues
such as totalitarianism, religion, and self-sacrifice. Presenting a
fresh and exciting vision of Foucault as a philosopher of enduring
influence, the book shows how important Foucault remains to
philosophy today.
This book explores a popular topic in Continental Philosophy - this
is a very active area of research, one that students often
encounter at upper-undergraduate/postgraduate level.In Heidegger's
"Early Philosophy", James Luchte sets forth a comprehensive
examination of Heidegger's phenomenology between 1924 and 1929,
during which time Heidegger was largely concerned with a radical
temporalization of thought. The book seeks to reconstruct
Heidegger's radical phenomenology through an interpretation of all
his published and unpublished works of the period, including the
1920s lecture courses and his published works, "Kant and the
Problem of Metaphysics" and his magnum opus, "Being and Time". The
book also explores Heidegger's relationship with other
philosophers, such as Husserl, Kant and Leibniz, with respect to
the question of the relationship of thought and temporality.The
book addresses a significant void in the treatment of Heidegger's
early phenomenology, emphasizing the importance of Heidegger's
lecture courses and other works besides "Being and Time", and
thereby investigates the many fragments of Heidegger's work so as
to more fully comprehend the meaning and significance of the
original project. James Luchte makes an extraordinary and hugely
important contribution to the field of Heidegger Studies.
Genealogies of Speculation looks to break the impasse between the
innovations of speculative thought and the dominant strands of 20th
century anti-foundationalist philosophy. Challenging emerging
paradigms of philosophical history, this text re-evaluates
different theoretical and political traditions such as feminism,
literary theory, social geography and political theory after the
speculative turn in philosophy. With contributions from leading
writers in contemporary thought this book is a crucial resource for
studying cultural and art-theory and continental philosophy.
All five volumes of George Santayana's philosophical masterwork
exploring the manifestations of reason in life are united in this
superb edition. The Life of Reason begins boldly, with Santayana
explaining his concept of reason in great detail. How a mind may
embark and progress on applying rational thought to life is
explained, and the practical value of such thinking methods are
demonstrated. The second volume sees the author questioning whether
men can be exhorted to virtuous behaviors without the concept of a
creator, heaven, hell or other supernatural concepts. The third
volume, Reason in Religion, is an emotional and at times
autobiographical account of Santayana's own struggles with faith.
Volumes four and five concern science and art, respectively. The
basis of artistic expression and its grounding in reasoning is
discussed, with chapters dedicated to the visual art of painting
and also music.
A Critical Introduction to Fictionalism provides a clear and
comprehensive understanding of an important alternative to realism.
Drawing on questions from ethics, the philosophy of religion, art,
mathematics, logic and science, this is a complete exploration of
how fictionalism contrasts with other non-realist doctrines and
motivates influential fictionalist treatments across a range of
philosophical issues. Defending and criticizing influential as well
as emerging fictionalist approaches, this accessible overview
discuses physical objects, universals, God, moral properties,
numbers and other fictional entities. Where possible it draws
general lessons about the conditions under which a fictionalist
treatment of a class of items is plausible. Distinguishing
fictionalism from other views about the existence of items, it
explains the central features of this key metaphysical topic.
Featuring a historical survey, definitions of key terms,
characterisations of important subdivisions, objections and
problems for fictionalism, and contemporary fictionalist treatments
of several issues, A Critical Introduction to Fictionalism is a
valuable resource for students of metaphysics as well as students
of philosophical methodology. It is the only book of its kind.
This edited collection provides the first comprehensive volume on
A. J. Ayer's 1936 masterpiece, Language, Truth and Logic. With
eleven original chapters the volume reconsiders the historical and
philosophical significance of Ayer's work, examining its place in
the history of analytic philosophy and its subsequent legacy.
Making use of pioneering research in logical empiricism, the
contributors explore a wide variety of topics, from ethics, values
and religion, to truth, epistemology and philosophy of language.
Among the questions discussed are: How did Ayer preserve or distort
the views and conceptions of logical empiricists? How are Ayer's
arguments different from the ones he aimed at reconstructing? And
which aspects of the book were responsible for its immense impact?
The volume expertly places Language, Truth and Logic in the
intellectual and socio-cultural history of twentieth-century
philosophical thought, providing both introductory and contextual
chapters, as well as specific explorations of a variety of topics
covering the main themes of the book. Providing important insights
of both historical and contemporary significance, this collection
is an essential resource for scholars interested in the legacy of
the Vienna Circle and its effect on ethics and philosophy of mind.
This book provides novel reading of the relations between two
central philosophical disciplines - metaphysics and ethics.
"Pragmatist Metaphysics" proposes a pragmatist re-articulation of
the nature, aims and methods of metaphysics. Rather than regarding
metaphysics as a 'first philosophy', an inquiry into the world
independent of human perspectives, the pragmatist views metaphysics
as an inquiry into categorizations of reality laden with human
practices. Insofar as our categorizations of reality are
practice-laden, they are also, inevitably, value-laden.Sami
Pihlstrom argues that metaphysics does not, then, study the world's
'own' categorical structure, but a structure we, through our
conceptual and practical activities, impose on the reality we
experience and interact with. Engaging with the classical American
pragmatists, in particular William James, and neopragmatists,
including Hilary Putnam, the author seeks to correct long-held
misconceptions regarding the nature of the relationship between
metaphysics and pragmatism. He argues that a coherent metaphysical
alternative to the currently fashionable realist metaphysics
emerges from pragmatism and that pragmatism itself should be
reinterpreted in a metaphysically serious manner. Moreover, the
book argues that, from a pragmatist perspective, metaphysics must
be inextricably linked with ethics.
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