Connecting aesthetic experience with our experience of nature or with other cultural artifacts, Aesthetics as Phenomenology focuses on what art means for cognition, recognition, and affect--how art changes our everyday disposition or behavior. Gunter Figal engages in a penetrating analysis of the moment at which, in our contemplation of a work of art, reaction and thought confront each other. For those trained in the visual arts and for more casual viewers, Figal unmasks art as a decentering experience that opens further possibilities for understanding our lives and our world."

Connecting aesthetic experience with our experience of nature or with other cultural artifacts, Aesthetics as Phenomenology focuses on what art means for cognition, recognition, and affect--how art changes our everyday disposition or behavior. Gunter Figal engages in a penetrating analysis of the moment at which, in our contemplation of a work of art, reaction and thought confront each other. For those trained in the visual arts and for more casual viewers, Figal unmasks art as a decentering experience that opens further possibilities for understanding our lives and our world."

Observing that humans often deal with the past in problematic ways, Jerome Veith looks to philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer and his hermeneutics to clarify these conceptions of history and to present ways to come to terms with them. Veith fully engages Truth and Method as well as Gadamer's entire work and relationships with other German philosophers, especially Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger in this endeavor. Veith considers questions about language, ethics, cosmopolitanism, patriotism, self-identity, and the status of the humanities in the academy in this very readable application of Gadamer's philosophical practice.

The Heidegger Reader brings key texts from the entire course of Heidegger s philosophical career into one volume. Many of the selections, translated here for the first time, offer new insight into Heidegger s thought for both the beginning student and the experienced scholar. A critical and interpretive introduction by Gunter Figal traces the many thematic paths that are necessary for developing a comprehensive understanding of Heidegger s most important work. The carefully chosen readings are designed to reflect the concerns that are most relevant to philosophy today. Special features include an authoritative chronology of Heidegger s life, a current list of the Complete Works, and a definitive translation of Heidegger s controversial interview with Der Spiegel."