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The Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy
by Susi FerrarelloThe Phenomenology of Sex, Love, and Intimacy presents a phenomenological exploration of love as it manifests itself through sexual desires and intimate relationships. Setting up a unique dialogue between psychology and philosophy, Susi Ferrarello offers a perspective through which clinicians can inform their practice on diverse issues of human sexuality. Drawing on Husserl’s phenomenology, Ferrarello’s analysis of love spans a range of disciplines including psychology, theology, biology, epistemology, and axiology, as well as areas related to gender, consent, and political control. Combining Husserlian perspectives on ethics with a focus on lived-experience, this text will deepen therapists’ understanding of love as the subject of interdisciplinary inquiry and enable them to locate questions of sexuality and intimacy within an academic framework. With key theoretical principles included to allow clinicians to think through and clarify their practice, this book will be a valuable tool for sex therapists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors, as well as psychology and philosophy students alike.
The Phenomenology of Sociality: Discovering the ‘We’ (Routledge Research in Phenomenology #3)
by Dermot Moran Thomas SzantoPhenomenological accounts of sociality in Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Scheler, Schütz, Stein and many others offer powerful lines of arguments to recast current, predominantly analytic, discussions on collective intentionality and social cognition. Against this background, the aim of this volume is to reevaluate, critically and in contemporary terms, the rich phenomenological resources regarding social reality: the interpersonal, collective and communal aspects of the life-world (Lebenswelt). Specifically, the book pursues three interrelated objectives: it aims 1.) to systematically explore the key phenomenological aspects of social reality; 2.) to offer novel, state-of-the-art assessments of both central and lesser-known proponents of the phenomenology of sociality (Gurwitsch, Löwith, von Hildebrand, or Walther), and 3.) to contextualize this elaborate body of work in light of contemporary social cognition research, the growing literature in analytic social ontology, and current trends in moral psychology, moral phenomenology, and social and political philosophy. The collection brings together original articles by a host of prominent scholars and upcoming young talents to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the topic. It will be essential reading for those studying phenomenological accounts of intersubjectivity, empathy, and community, including analytic, social, moral and political philosophers, and will also be of interest for social scientists and social psychologists.
The Phenomenology of a Performative Knowledge System: Dancing with Native American Epistemology (Performance Philosophy)
by Shay WelchThis book investigates the phenomenological ways that dance choreographing and dance performance exemplify both Truth and meaning-making within Native American epistemology, from an analytic philosophical perspective. Given that within Native American communities dance is regarded both as an integral cultural conduit and “a doorway to a powerful wisdom,” Shay Welch argues that dance and dancing can both create and communicate knowledge. She explains that dance—as a form of oral, narrative storytelling—has the power to communicate knowledge of beliefs and histories, and that dance is a form of embodied narrative storytelling. Welch provides analytic clarity on how this happens, what conditions are required for it to succeed, and how dance can satisfy the relational and ethical facets of Native epistemology.
The Phenomenology of the Second-Person Plural (Routledge Research in Phenomenology)
by Sarah Pawlett JacksonThis book presents the case that there are forms of human interaction which should be understood as properly second-person plural. It engages with the work of Sartre, Levinas and contemporary phenomenology to show that this claim is not just about grammatical forms of address, but about the phenomenology and structure of our intersubjective experience.While there has been plenty of recent work exploring the phenomenology of the second-person singular and the first-person plural, we have not so far seen a systematic account of the second-person plural: the I-yous or we-you. This book outlines the phenomenology of the specific structures of interlocking intersubjective reciprocity which need to be in place between multiple subjects for an interaction to be properly second-person plural. The author considers and defends her account from various possible objections – both a conceptual worry, and a range of empirical worries. These objections are shown to be misguided, and the thread that runs through them – a problematically disembodied conception of the human subject – is exposed. She proceeds to offer a positive account of the second-person plural, supported by an understanding of subjectivity as necessarily embodied and embedded in the world. This account opens an exciting path for further analyses of complex multi-person intersubjectivities in small group contexts.The Phenomenology of the Second-Person Plural will appeal to scholars and graduate students working in phenomenology, social ontology, and the philosophy of intersubjectivity.
The Philanthropic Revolution
by Jeremy BeerWhen we talk about voluntary giving today, we usually prefer the word philanthropy to charity. Why has this terminological shift taken place? What is its philosophical significance? How did philanthropy come to acquire so much prestige--and charity come to seem so old-fashioned? Was this change contested? Does it matter?In The Philanthropic Revolution, Jeremy Beer argues that the historical displacement of charity by philanthropy represents a radical transformation of voluntary giving into a practice primarily intended to bring about social change. The consequences of this shift have included secularization, centralization, the bureaucratization of personal relations, and the devaluing of locality and place.Beer shows how the rise of "scientific charity" and the "new philanthropy" was neither wholly unchallenged nor entirely positive. He exposes the way modern philanthropy's roots are entangled with fear and loathing of the poor, anti-Catholic prejudice, militarism, messianic dreams, and the ideology of progress. And he reveals how a rejection of traditional charity has sometimes led philanthropy's proponents to champion objectionable social experiments, from the involuntary separation of thousands of children from their parents to the forced sterilizations of the eugenics movement.Beer's alternative history discloses that charity is uniquely associated with personalist goods that philanthropy largely excludes. Insofar as we value those goods, he concludes, we must look to inject the logic of charity into voluntary giving through the practice of a modified form of giving he calls "philanthrolocalism."
The Philology of Life: Walter Benjamin's Critical Program (Idiom: Inventing Writing Theory)
by Kevin McLaughlinThe Philology of Life retraces the outlines of the philological project developed by Walter Benjamin in his early essays on Hölderlin, the Romantics, and Goethe. This philological program, McLaughlin shows, provides the methodological key to Benjamin’s work as a whole. According to Benjamin, German literary history in the period roughly following the first World War was part of a wider “crisis of historical experience”—a life crisis to which Lebensphilosophie (philosophy of life) had instructively but insufficiently responded. Benjamin’s literary critical struggle during these years consisted in developing a philology of literary historical experience and of life that is rooted in an encounter with a written image.The fundamental importance of this “philological” method in Benjamin’s work seems not to have been recognized by his contemporary readers, including Theodor Adorno who considered the approach to be lacking in dialectical rigor. This facet of Benjamin’s work was also elided in the postwar publications of his writings, both in German and English. In recent decades, the publication of a wider range of Benjamin’s writings has made it possible to retrace the outlines of a distinctive philological project that starts to develop in his early literary criticism and that extends into the late studies of Baudelaire and Paris. By bringing this innovative method to light this study proposes “the philology of life” as the key to the critical program of one of the most influential intellectual figures in the humanities.
The Philosopher At The End Of The Universe: Philosophy Explained Through Science Fiction Films
by Mark Rowlands'It's Schopenhauer and the will. It's Plato, it's Hume, Baudrillard and the concept of the Nietzschean superman!' Keanu Reeves on The MatrixThe Philosopher at the End of the Universe allows anyone to understand basic philosophical concepts from the comfort of their armchair, through the plots and characters of spectacular blockbusting science-fiction movies. Learn about: The Nature of Reality from The Matrix; Good and Evil from Star Wars; Morality from Aliens; Personal Identity from Total Recall; The Mind-Body Dilemma from Terminator; Free Will from Minority Report; Death and the Meaning of Life from Blade Runner; and much more. As someone once said, things must be said and knowledge known, and the cast list assembled to tell us does not disappoint: Tom Cruise, Plato, Harrison Ford, Immanuel Kant, Sigourney Weaver, Friedrich Nietzsche, Keanu Reeves and Rene Descartes. From characters in the biggest films (with lots of explosions and bad language) to Ludwig Wittgenstein (no explosions and too much language in general), hear all the arguments. I think, therefore... I'll be back!
The Philosopher Li Zehou: His Thought and His Legacy (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)
by Jana S. Rošker; Roger T. AmesDeepens our understanding of this contemporary Chinese thinker's philosophy and its significance.Li Zehou (1930–2021) was one of China's most prominent contemporary philosophers, transforming Confucian philosophy into a resource for positive change. From a critical rereading of the Analects to a formulation of his own aesthetic theory, Li reinterpreted the tradition from earliest times down to the present day. In this effort, he was inspired by Marx and Kant but was neither a Marxist nor a Kantian. Nor was he a Confucian. He was, and remains, an original: the philosopher Li Zehou.In this volume, Chinese, European, and US scholars explore Li's contributions to Chinese philosophy and culture, deepening our understanding of his philosophy and its significance while also celebrating the intellectual diversity and richness of Chinese philosophical thought. In a passionate and dedicated endeavor to ensure that Li's philosophy endures and continues to inspire scholars, particularly the younger generation of academics, both in China and around the world, the volume aims to serve as a catalyst for ongoing scholarship and discourse on the work of the philosopher Li Zehou.
The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Correspondence from the Tenth Century (Library of Arabic Literature)
by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī Abū ʿAlī MiskawayhQuestions and answers from two great philosophersWhy is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī to the philosopher and historian Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century.The correspondence between al-Tawḥīdī and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, trivial and profound, al-Tawḥīdī’s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content.An English-only edition.
The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Correspondence from the Tenth Century, Volume One (Library of Arabic Literature #19)
by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī Abū ʿAlī MiskawayhQuestions and answers from two great philosophersWhy is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi to the philosopher and historian Abu 'Ali Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century. The correspondence between al-Tawhidi and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates and preoccupations of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, wondering and brooding, trivial and profound, al-Tawhidi’s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content. This new edition of The Philosopher Responds is accompanied by the first full-length English translation of this important text, bringing this interaction to life for the English reader.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Correspondence from the Tenth Century, Volume Two (Library of Arabic Literature #24)
by Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī Abū ʿAlī MiskawayhQuestions and answers from two great philosophersWhy is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi to the philosopher and historian Abu 'Ali Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century. The correspondence between al-Tawhidi and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates and preoccupations of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, wondering and brooding, trivial and profound, al-Tawhidi’s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content. This new edition of The Philosopher Responds is accompanied by the first full-length English translation of this important text, bringing this interaction to life for the English reader.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The Philosopher's Book of Questions & Answers: Questions to Open Your Mind
by D. E. WittkowerYour life through the lens of the world's greatest thinkers!Do you ever wonder how important money really is in life or what you need to do to achieve happiness? With The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers, you will be one step closer to solving these uncertainties. Inside, you'll find the basics of philosophy, written in plain English, and thoughts for applying these important theories to your own life. You'll also be encouraged to dig deep into the philosophical reasoning behind your everyday actions with a series of fascinating prompts, such as:If you had ten times your wealth and ten times your income, what would you do then that you can't do now?What's a version of that activity that you could do right now?Is it ten times less meaningful, important, or enjoyable than the activity you would do with more money? From Socrates and Epicurean to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers will not only help you grasp history's greatest thoughts, but will also unveil the world in a whole new light.
The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers
by D. E. WittkowerYour life through the lens of the world's greatest thinkers! Do you ever wonder how important money really is in life or what you need to do to achieve happiness? With The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers, you will be one step closer to solving these uncertainties. Inside, you'll find the basics of philosophy, written in plain English, and thoughts for applying these important theories to your own life. You'll also be encouraged to dig deep into the philosophical reasoning behind your everyday actions with a series of fascinating prompts, such as: If you had ten times your wealth and ten times your income, what would you do then that you can't do now? What's a version of that activity that you could do right now? Is it ten times less meaningful, important, or enjoyable than the activity you would do with more money? From Socrates and Epicurean to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers will not only help you grasp history's greatest thoughts, but will also unveil the world in a whole new light.
The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers
by D. E. WittkowerYour life through the lens of the world's greatest thinkers! Do you ever wonder how important money really is in life or what you need to do to achieve happiness? With The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers, you will be one step closer to solving these uncertainties. Inside, you'll find the basics of philosophy, written in plain English, and thoughts for applying these important theories to your own life. You'll also be encouraged to dig deep into the philosophical reasoning behind your everyday actions with a series of fascinating prompts, such as: If you had ten times your wealth and ten times your income, what would you do then that you can't do now? What's a version of that activity that you could do right now? Is it ten times less meaningful, important, or enjoyable than the activity you would do with more money? From Socrates and Epicurean to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers will not only help you grasp history's greatest thoughts, but will also unveil the world in a whole new light.
The Philosopher's Dog (Routledge Classics)
by Raimond GaitaIn this beautifully written book Raimond Gaita tells inspirational, poignant, sometimes funny but never sentimental stories of the dogs, cats and cockatoos that lived and died within his own family. He asks fascinating questions about animals: Is it wrong to attribute the concepts of love, devotion, loyalty, grief or friendship to them? Why do we care so much for some creatures but not for others? Why are we so concerned with proving that animals have minds? Reflecting on these questions, and drawing on the ideas of Descartes, Wittgenstein and J.M. Coetzee, Gaita pleads that we ask ourselves what it means to be creatures of ‘flesh and blood.’ He discusses mortality and sexuality, the relations between storytelling, philosophy and science and the spiritual love of mountains. An arresting and profound book, The Philosopher’s Dog is a triumph of both storytelling and philosophy. This Routledge Classics edition includes a substantial new introduction and afterword by the author.
The Philosopher's Dog: Friendships with Animals
by Raimond GaitaThe philosopher Raimond Gaita has always been fascinated by animals– their obvious intelligence and disturbing brutality, their uncanny responsiveness to our moods and needs, the deep feelings they elicit from us and seem to return. In this marvelous, luminous book, Gaita trains the lens of philosophy on the mystery and beauty of the animals he has known and loved best. The Philosopher’s Dogis one of those rare works that engage the heart from the very first paragraph and haunt the mind long after one has finished reading. What does Gaita’s dog, Gypsy, think about while she sits on her mat gazing out to sea for hours on end? Why did the irascible cockatoo Jack greet Gaita’s father with kisses each morning but bite everyone else? How can we acknowledge that animals are sentient and yet deny that they have consciousness? Is it possible to love animals and still eat meat? In contemplating questions like these, Gaita weaves together personal stories–inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking accounts about the animals he and his family members have sheltered–with the reflections and analysis of a professional philosopher. A graceful, engaging stylist, Gaita is perfectly lucid as he grapples with great thinkers through the ages–from Socrates to Wittgenstein, Descartes to Hannah Arendt. And yet, as important as formal philosophy has been to him, Gaita frankly acknowledges that he has learned much about the nature of life from Gypsy and Jack and his courageously arrogant cat Tosca. In the end, he argues that love should be the essence of our bond with animals, the critical factor that guides how we treat them and think about their place in our world. In pondering the meaning and morality of his relationships with animals, and with the natural world more generally, Raimond Gaita has created a surprising masterpiece, a book of startling insights, spellbinding stories, meticulous observations, and wise reflection. At once engrossing and thought-provoking,The Philosopher’s Dog is a supremely enjoyable book. From the Hardcover edition.
The Philosopher's Gaze: Modernity in the Shadows of Enlightenment
by David Michael LevinDavid Michael Levin's ongoing exploration of the moral character and enlightenment-potential of vision takes a new direction in The Philosopher's Gaze. Levin examines texts by Descartes, Husserl, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, and Lévinas, using our culturally dominant mode of perception and the philosophical discourse it has generated as the site for his critical reflections on the moral culture in which we are living.In Levin's view, all these philosophers attempted to understand, one way or another, the distinctive pathologies of the modern age. But every one also attempted to envision—if only through the faintest of traces, traces of mutual recognition, traces of another way of looking and seeing—the prospects for a radically different lifeworld. The world, after all, inevitably reflects back to us the character, the reach and range, of our vision.In these provocative essays, the author draws on the language of hermeneutical phenomenology and at the same time refines phenomenology itself as a method of working with our experience and thinking critically about the culture in which we live.
The Philosopher's Guide to Parenthood: Storks, Surrogates, and Stereotypes
by Teresa BaronOur understanding of what it means to be a parent in any given context is shaped by our biological, social, legal, and moral concepts of parenthood. These are themselves subject to the influence of changing expectations, as new technologies are produced, cultural views of the family are transformed, and laws shift in response. In this book Teresa Baron provides a detailed and incisive overview of the key questions, widespread presuppositions, and dominant approaches in the field of philosophy of parenthood. Baron examines paradigm cases and problem cases alike through an interdisciplinary lens, bringing philosophy of parenthood into dialogue with research on family-making and childrearing from across the social sciences and humanities. Her book aims to answer old questions, draw out new questions, and interrogate notions that we often take for granted in this field, including the very concept of parenthood itself.
The Philosopher's Habitat: An Introduction to... (Routledge Revivals)
by Laurence GoldsteinFirst published in 1990 The Philosopher's Habitat introduces the subject by investigating a variety of the problems which are currently engaging philosophers, and which can be made intelligible to an absolute beginner. Rather than introducing philosophy by examining, in the traditional way, the writings of great philosophers, the author has inverted this procedure. The idea is that the reader will become absorbed in these dramas, will thereby come to appreciate the ways in which the stage was set by the great writers of the past, and will feel the urge to participate. Questions at the end of each chapter encourage the reader to push beyond the text. This book is a must read for students of philosophy.
The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kant
by Stanley RosenAn ideal introduction for the casual reader and a beneficial reference for the student,The Philosopher's Handbookfeatures the writings of some of the world's most influential philosophers. Based on the premise that all human beings are curious about their existence, Rosen's collection brings together primary excerpts from the works of prominent thinkers such as Plato, Nietzsche, Descartes, Machiavelli, and Kant. Experts in each field have carefully selected the sources and provided brief introductions to help readers gain insight into the readings. Newly revised in order to emphasize its broad appeal,The Philosopher's Handbookis a solid introduction to Western philosophy for all inquiring minds.
The Philosopher's Plant: An Intellectual Herbarium
by Michael MarderDespite their conceptual allergy to vegetal life, philosophers have used germination, growth, blossoming, fruition, reproduction, and decay as illustrations of abstract concepts; mentioned plants in passing as the natural backdrops for dialogues, letters, and other compositions; spun elaborate allegories out of flowers, trees, and even grass; and recommended appropriate medicinal, dietary, and aesthetic approaches to select species of plants.In this book, Michael Marder illuminates the vegetal centerpieces and hidden kernels that have powered theoretical discourse for centuries. Choosing twelve botanical specimens that correspond to twelve significant philosophers, he recasts the development of philosophy through the evolution of human and plant relations. A philosophical history for the postmetaphysical age, The Philosopher's Plant reclaims the organic heritage of human thought. With the help of vegetal images, examples, and metaphors, the book clears a path through philosophy's tangled roots and dense undergrowth, opening up the discipline to all readers.
The Philosopher's Table: How to Start Your Philosophy Dinner Club--Monthly Conversation, Music, and Recipes
by Marietta Mccarty"Talk doesn't cook rice. " -Chinese Proverb According to Socrates, knowledge is "food for the soul. " That's all well and good for the Socratic but, according to Maslow, food for the stomach is a far more pressing matter. But why can't you have your talk, and cook rice too? With The Philosopher's Table, Marietta McCarty shows you that you can. In this book, you will find all of the necessary ingredients to start a Philosophy Dinner Club, taking a monthly tour around the world with friends to sample hors d'oeuvres of succulent wisdom and fill your plate with food from each philosophers' home country. With recipes, theories, and insights both old and new-all peppered with McCarty's charming and informative prose-you and your friends will: -Enjoy fresh homemade lamb meatballs and tzatziki, and the simple pleasures of life in Epicurus's ancient Greek garden. -Practice nonviolence (in life and at the dinner table) while sharing tofu curry with Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi. -Learn the fundamentals of rational decision-making with a mouthful of bratwurst from Germany's Immanuel Kant -In the spirit of accepting change, ditch the familiar take-out containers and dine on homemade shrimp dumplings with China's Lao Tzu. -And so much more! Complete with McCarty's recommendations for ethnic music from each region to enjoy during your gatherings and discussion questions to prompt debate, The Philosopher's Table contains everything you need to leave your host's home brimming with both nutritional and mental satisfaction. .
The Philosopher's Toolkit
by Julian Baggini Peter S. FoslThe second edition of this popular compendium provides the necessary intellectual equipment to engage with and participate in effective philosophical argument, reading, and reflectionFeatures significantly revised, updated and expanded entries, and an entirely new section drawn from methods in the history of philosophyThis edition has a broad, pluralistic approach--appealing to readers in both continental philosophy and the history of philosophy, as well as analytic philosophyExplains difficult concepts in an easily accessible manner, and addresses the use and application of these conceptsProven useful to philosophy students at both beginning and advanced levels
The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods (Wiley Desktop Editions Ser.)
by Julian Baggini Peter S. FoslA new edition of the bestselling guide to the study of philosophy: the ideal intellectual ‘toolkit’ for sharpening analytical skills and building philosophical acuity Whether used as a guide to basic principles or a resource for key concepts and methods, The Philosopher's Toolkit equips readers with all the intellectual ‘tools’ necessary for engaging closely with philosophical argument and developing fluency in the methods and language of philosophical inquiry. Featuring accessible explanations, practical examples, and expert guidance, this text empowers readers to understand traditional philosophical thinking and to engage with new ideas. Focuses on the practical methods and concepts necessary for philosophical inquiry Presents a versatile resource for both novice and advanced students in areas of philosophy, critical theory, and rhetoric Adopts a pluralistic approach to teaching philosophy, making this a suitable resource for many courses Delivers extensive cross-referenced entries, recommended readings, and updated online resources Covers an array of topics, from basic tools of argumentation to sophisticated philosophical principles Fully revised and updated to include new topics and entries as well as expanded recommended reading lists to encourage further study
The Philosopher's Touch
by Francois NoudelmannMusic is a significant object of reflection for contemporary philosophers, yet little has been written on the interplay of music and thought. François Noudelmann critically engages the musicality of Barthes, Sartre and Nietzsche, all of whom were amateur piano players, giving an insightful reading of their work in light of their music. The practice of playing the piano was crucial to these philosphers, but their writing on the topic was scant, implicit, or in discordance with their philosophical oeuvre. Noudelmann reveals how the manner in which they played, the composers they explicitly and secretly adored, and the music they chose to write about is telling of these philosophers' writing styles and thinking patterns. Noudelmann invites us to imagine the physical and theoretical practice of music as a dimension underpinning and resonating with their philosophical work proper. He thus unearths new perspectives on the philosophical trajectories of the three. Noudelmann has an elegant command of the texts under study, and understands the discursive points and concerns of philosophical and musical theorists of recent decades. He also brings to the work of Barthes, Sartre, and Nietzsche a sense of lived, embodied experience, raising the question of the relationship between philosophy and the senses, a philosopher's life and thought.