In Platonic Legacies John Sallis addresses certain archaic or exorbitant moments in Platonism. His concern is to expose such moments as those expressed in the Platonic phrase "beyond being" and in the enigmatic word chora. Thus he ventures to renew chorology and to bring it to bear, most directly, on Platonic political discourse and Plotinian hyperontology. More broadly, he shows what profound significance these most archaic moments of Platonism, which remained largely unheeded in the history of philosophy, have for contemporary discussions of spacings, of utopian politics, of the nature of nature, and of the relation between philosophy and tragedy. Thus addressing Platonism in its bearing on contemporary philosophy, Platonic Legacies engages, in turn, a series of philosophers ranging from Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Arendt to certain contemporary American Continental philosophers. These engagements focus on the way in which these recent and contemporary philosophers take up the Platonic legacies in their own thought and on the way in which the exposure of an archaic Platonism can redirect or supplement what they have accomplished.

This excellent work... deserves the serious consideration of all who are interested in contemporary philosophy as well as those who concern themselves with ancient philosophy, especially Plato." —Review of Metaphysics In Chorology, John Sallis takes up one of the most enigmatic discourses in the history of philosophy. Plato's discourse on the chora—the chorology—forms the pivotal moment in the Timaeus. The implications of the chorology are momentous and communicate with many of the most decisive issues in contemporary philosophical discussions.

This excellent work... deserves the serious consideration of all who are interested in contemporary philosophy as well as those who concern themselves with ancient philosophy, especially Plato." -Review of Metaphysics In Chorology, John Sallis takes up one of the most enigmatic discourses in the history of philosophy. Plato's discourse on the chora-the chorology-forms the pivotal moment in the Timaeus. The implications of the chorology are momentous and communicate with many of the most decisive issues in contemporary philosophical discussions.

On Beauty and Measure features renowned philosopher John Sallis' commentaries on Plato's dialogues the Symposium and the Statesman. Drawn from two lecture courses delivered by Sallis, they represent his longest and most sustained engagement to date with either work. Brilliantly original, Sallis's close readings of Plato's dialogues are grounded in the original passages and also illuminate the overarching themes that drive the dialogues.

Nietzsche's Voices, a much-anticipated volume of the Collected Writings of John Sallis, presents his two-semester lecture course on Nietzsche offered in the Philosophy Department of Duquesne University during the school year 1971–72. "Nietzsche is easy to read; his is apparently the easiest of all the great philosophies. Yet the easy intelligibility is deceptive. Nietzsche's writings make us believe we have understood when in fact we have not. His philosophy is actually the exact opposite of easy," says Sallis. With this warning always in mind, Sallis first discusses Nietzsche's life and the relevance of the ancient Greeks to his thought and then analyzes Nietzsche's views on truth, history, morality, and the death of God. The entire second half of the book is devoted to Nietzsche's main work, the tragic, comedic, poetic Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche's Voices offers a sensitive and brilliant introduction to the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, as presented by one of today's most significant philosophers.

Ethicality and Imagination is the astounding conclusion to John Sallis's landmark trilogy launched with Force of Imagination and Logic of Imagination. In this new work, Sallis embarks on an unforgettable voyage spanning the cosmos and delving deep into what makes us human. If the first two works consider the question of being and thinking, respectively, the third and culminating volume takes up the question of action. In a series of highly original and always provocative meditations, Sallis articulates the way humans are rooted in their abodes yet not determined by them. Ethicality and Imagination develops a new approach to the relation of the imagination to literature, ethics, political thought, and recent discoveries in astrophysics. It represents a brilliant conclusion to one of the most exciting works of thinking in the Continental school in recent decades.

Ethicality and Imagination is the astounding conclusion to John Sallis's landmark trilogy launched with Force of Imagination and Logic of Imagination. In this new work, Sallis embarks on an unforgettable voyage spanning the cosmos and delving deep into what makes us human. If the first two works consider the question of being and thinking, respectively, the third and culminating volume takes up the question of action. In a series of highly original and always provocative meditations, Sallis articulates the way humans are rooted in their abodes yet not determined by them. Ethicality and Imagination develops a new approach to the relation of the imagination to literature, ethics, political thought, and recent discoveries in astrophysics. It represents a brilliant conclusion to one of the most exciting works of thinking in the Continental school in recent decades.

Since Hegel, philosophers have declared repeatedly that metaphysics is at an end, a pronouncement that has sparked much contemporary philosophical debate. What exactly does the end, or closure, of metaphysics mean, and what are the implications of this view? John Sallis characterizes the end of metaphysics as a limit, or horizon, both enclosing metaphysical thought and opening the field of thinking beyond it. He elaborates five areas in which the boundaries of thinking are extended: imagination as an opening power, the radicalizing of phenomenology's injunction to attend to the things themselves, Heidegger's shift of thinking toward an opening or clearing, archaic closure through a return to Plato and Heraclitus, and the nonidentity that takes place in the act of delimitation. This last question is developed in relation to Husserl's project of a pure phenomenology, to the debate between hermeneutics and deconstruction, and to the secluding of ground announced in Schelling's thought.

On Beauty and Measure features renowned philosopher John Sallis' commentaries on Plato's dialogues the Symposium and the Statesman. Drawn from two lecture courses delivered by Sallis, they represent his longest and most sustained engagement to date with either work. Brilliantly original, Sallis's close readings of Plato's dialogues are grounded in the original passages and also illuminate the overarching themes that drive the dialogues.

This volume of the Collected Writings of John Sallis presents his lecture courses on Kant. Each course was devoted respectively to one of Kant's three Critiques, and so the book as a whole treats the entirety of the Kantian critical project. Sallis displays here, as he does in all his lecture courses, an uncanny ability to open up dense philosophical texts. The matters Kant deals with—in theoretical, practical, and aesthetic philosophy—are difficult in themselves, and Kant's writings might at times seem so convoluted as to magnify the difficulty. Sallis patiently and successfully lays out the issues and the critical approach to them, such that the reader is led step by step into the very core of Kant's spirit of critique. This volume makes Kant accessible to students, while the most advanced scholars will also profit from it.

John Sallis's thought is oriented to two overarching tasks: to bring to light the elemental in nature and to show how the imagination operates at the very center of human experience. He undertakes these tasks by analyzing a broad range of phenomena, including perception, the body, the natural world, art, space, and the cosmos. In every case, Sallis develops an original form of discourse attuned to the specific phenomenon and enacts a thorough reflection on discourse itself in its relation to voice, dialogue, poetry, and translation. Sallis's systematic investigations are complemented by his extensive interpretations of canonical figures in the history of philosophy such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Schelling, and Hegel and by his engagement with the most original thinkers in the areas of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction.

John Sallis's thought is oriented to two overarching tasks: to bring to light the elemental in nature and to show how the imagination operates at the very center of human experience. He undertakes these tasks by analyzing a broad range of phenomena, including perception, the body, the natural world, art, space, and the cosmos. In every case, Sallis develops an original form of discourse attuned to the specific phenomenon and enacts a thorough reflection on discourse itself in its relation to voice, dialogue, poetry, and translation. Sallis's systematic investigations are complemented by his extensive interpretations of canonical figures in the history of philosophy such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Schelling, and Hegel and by his engagement with the most original thinkers in the areas of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction.

"[Sallis's] ideas are presented in a singular, scholarly, remarkable, captivating, conceptually rigorous, dense, and deep manner. . . . Highly recommended." -Choice "This fascinating book by one of the more original voices writing philosophy in English poses questions about the nature of the visible and invisible, sensible and intelligible." -Dennis Schmidt What is it that an artist paints in a painting? Working from paintings themselves rather than from philosophical theories, John Sallis shows how, through shades and limits, the painter renders visible the light that confers visibility on things. In his extended examination of three phases in the development of modern painting, Sallis focuses on the work of Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky, and Mimmo Paladino-three painters who, each in his own way, carry painting to the limit.

John Sallis dismantles the traditional conception of nature in this book of imagination and the cosmos. In the thought of Emerson, Hegel, and Schelling, Sallis discerns the seeds of an understanding of nature that goes against the modern technological assault on natural things and opens a space for a revitalized approach to the world. He identifies two fundamental reorientations that philosophical thought is called on to address today: the turn to the elemental in nature and the turn from nature to the cosmos at large. He traces the elusive course of the imagination, as if coming from nowhere, and describes the way in which it bears on the relation of humans to nature. Sallis's account demonstrates that a renewal of our understanding of nature is one of the prime imperatives we demand from philosophy today.

Broaching an understanding of nature in Platonic thought, John Sallis goes beyond modern conceptions and provides a strategy to have recourse to the profound sense of nature operative in ancient Greek philosophy. In a rigorous and textually based account, Sallis traces the complex development of the Greek concept of nature. Beginning with the mythical vision embodied in the figure of the goddess Artemis, he reanimates the sense of nature that informs the fragmentary discourses of Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Empedocles and shows how Plato takes up pre-Socratic conceptions critically while also being transformed. Through Sallis's close reading of the Theaetetus and the Phaedo, he recovers the profound and comprehensive concept of nature in Plato's thought.

Broaching an understanding of nature in Platonic thought, John Sallis goes beyond modern conceptions and provides a strategy to have recourse to the profound sense of nature operative in ancient Greek philosophy. In a rigorous and textually based account, Sallis traces the complex development of the Greek concept of nature. Beginning with the mythical vision embodied in the figure of the goddess Artemis, he reanimates the sense of nature that informs the fragmentary discourses of Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Empedocles and shows how Plato takes up pre-Socratic conceptions critically while also being transformed. Through Sallis's close reading of the Theaetetus and the Phaedo, he recovers the profound and comprehensive concept of nature in Plato's thought.

Exploring the relation between Paul Klee's philosophical thought and art, this book deals both with the impact of Klee's art on recent philosophy and with the relation between Klee's own theoretical writings and his art. Through various approaches the contributors show how Klee's ideas are realized in his art and how, conversely, his art serves to expand and develop his theoretical conceptions. Addressing temporality (Boehm); ascendancy and counterforce (Krell); artist as tree (Baracchi); visible space (Figal); nature sketches (Baumgartner); image of garden (Schmidt); prominence of rhythm (Barbaric); musical elements (Schuback); tragedy (Acosta); space of transformation (Vallega); Merleau-Ponty and Cezanne (Johnson)--these essays, taken comprehensively, mark a major contribution to the understanding of the philosophical depth of Klee's art and thought. This book is a reprint of Research in Phenomenology Volume 43, Issue 3.

What is the effect of light as it measures the seasons? How does light leave different traces on the terrain on a Pacific Island, in the Aegean Sea, high in the Alps, or in the forest? John Sallis considers the expansiveness of nature and the range of human vision in essays about the effect of light and luminosity on place. Sallis writes movingly of nature and the elements, employing an enormous range of philosophical, geographical, and historical knowledge. Paintings and drawings by Alejandro A. Vallega illuminate the text, accentuating the interaction between light and environment."

Working from newly available texts in Heidegger's Complete Works, Krzysztof Ziarek presents Heidegger at his most radical and demonstrates how the thinker's daring use of language is an integral part of his philosophical expression. Ziarek emphasizes the liberating potential of language as an event that discloses being and amplifies Heidegger's call for a transformative approach to poetry, power, and ultimately, philosophy. -- Indiana University Press

The essays collected in this volume take a new look at the role of language in the thought of Martin Heidegger to reassess its significance for contemporary philosophy. They consider such topics as Heidegger's engagement with the Greeks, expression in language, poetry, the language of art and politics, and the question of truth. Heidegger left his unique stamp on language, giving it its own force and shape, especially with reference to concepts such as Dasein, understanding, and attunement, which have a distinctive place in his philosophy. -- Indiana University Press