Product Description
Philosophical work on the mind flowed in two streams through the 20th century: phenomenology and analytic philosophy. This volume aims to bring them together again, by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to significant progress on problems central to current analytic research, and how analytical philosophy of mind may shed light on phenomenological concerns. Leading figures from both traditions contribute specially written essays on such central topics as consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, temporal awareness, and mental content. Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind demonstrates that these different approaches to the mind should not stand in opposition to each other, but can be mutually illuminating. ... Read more

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Hans Jonas, a pupil of Heidegger and a colleague of Hannah Arendt at the New School for Social Research, was one of the most prominent phenomenologists of his generation. This carefully chosen anthology of Jonas's shorter writings - on topics from Jewish philosophy to philosophy of religion to philosophy of biology and social philosophy - reveals their range without obscuring their central unifying thread: that as living, biological beings, we are also beings who die, and who must consider the implications for current and future ethical and social relations. Grounded in Jonas's belief in the inseparability of ethics and metaphysics - the reality of values at the centre of being - and shaped by his experience as a Holocaust survivor, the deeply personal essays "Mortality and morality" arise from a Jewish thinker's attempt to make sense of the Jewish experience in the twentieth century. Lawrence Vogel's insightful introduction provides both historical and philosophical contexts in which to understand the importance and gravity of Jonas's thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Readable
Highly spiritual and respectful of the reader, the text is grave without being pompous. Philosophy without a doubt,nevertheless extremely readable. I recommend it for anybody in search of the meanders of soul and mind, never one without the other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Absorbing
Yes, that is the first adjective that comes to mind when reading this excellent assessment of Badiou and Zizek- the fact that I read this in one feverish sitting should, I hope, be recommendation enough. If you have engaged with the work of either in a serious fashion, you will appreciate the sheer clarity and judiciousness of Johnston's exegesis- a lucidity that rivals Hallward's excellent 'Subject To Truth'- as well as the forthrightness of Johnston's own position. This is clearly not a work of hagiography, and it wastes little time in underlining the force and salience of Badiouan/Zizekian thought. For better or worse, it takes these for granted. In various respects, this is scarcely even a work of philosophy proper- Johnston is not so much concerned with exposing the latent aporias in both systems as he is in probing the possibilities/impasses that they present for political praxis. Like any good Marxist, Johnston's sole criterion in assessing a thought is its direct applicability to contemporary struggle, rather than its relation to its discursive field, the 'history of concepts'. Johnston is unequivocal on this point- what Badiou and Zizek share, beyond a fidelity to Lacan against his post-structuralist detractors, is an aspiration to transform the world. Conceived in this way, one can say that the qualitative value of their work is equivalent to the interventions and inquiries that they make possible.

That being said, this does not mean that Johnston forgoes the imperatives of rigorous reading and argument in lieu of revolutionary quixotism. In his section on Badiou, Johnston effectively extrapolates Badiou's logic of the event (particularly its relationship to time and the undecidability/indiscernibility that haunts its nomination) and rescues it from degenerating into a 'politics without politics' (Zizek). In essence, Johnston mobilizes several of Badiou's axiomatic claims to rescue a thought from terminating in the cul-de-sac of quietism. The argument can, at the risk of a vulgar bowdlerization, be expressed thus: if, as Badiou insists, a subject is always CONSEQUENT to the 'flash' of an event, issuing forth from this irruption as the material support ('body') of a truth, then this means that the subject is stricto sensu inconceivable prior to its advent. This is all very well, but what do we do in the meantime? Johnston's work on Badiou inheres in the ontical, interstitial space between the sterile homogeneity of statist time (which action must attempt to establish a distance from) and the sudden impact of evental time, which cannot be catalyzed through an act of will. Stuck in the 'in-between' of an exasperating emptiness and an incalulable fullness which we cannot forecast, let alone initiate, can we do nothing but hope? If so, what separates Badiou from Derrida and his epigones, with their tragical-eschatological defenses of messianic promise and 'weak thought'?

Through a close interrogation of the event's temporal and ontological status, Johnston effectively reveals all of its ambiguities, ambiguities that lend Johnston the means to construct a PRE-EVENTAL politics of 'forcing' and hypothesis that can initiate processes of experimentation before the event's unforeseen arrival. All of this hinges on Johnston's analysis of double inscription, which he borrows from Zizek's re-working of the Deleuzian 'minimal difference'- if reactive and obscure subjects, through the distorting medium of ideology, are capable of occulting the (often imperceptible) New that incarnates itself in the event, then it is possible that we live, unbeknownst to ourselves, IN THE MIDST of these sites. How so? First, Johnston takes up Badiou's claim that the nomination of an event's eventhood is itself an event- the first event is always evanescent and invisible, it vanishes shortly after its manifestation. Because an event is doubly illegal- it flouts the foundational axioms of being AND appearing- it is briskly covered and swallowed up by the order that it transcends in one incandescent instant. Since the event does not announce itself as such- there is nothing in the transcendental logic of a situation that permits us to discern its existence- it must be baptized as such by those who enter into an interpellative relationship with it, subjectivizing it through a process of fidelity.

Thus, if the eventhood of an event is not an objective, empirical predicate, the attributes of which can be established with reference to the existing regime of 'encyclopaedic' knowledge, but a 'cut' that can only be seen from the perspective of ENGAGED SUBJECTIVITY, then it would be counter-intuitive to simply 'await' the event, in the hope that one would be able to recognize it upon its arrival. Compounding matters is Johnston's suggestion, following Eagleton's reading of Badiou's 'Ethics', that an event could inaugurate such a radical shift in our epistemological categories that the very modalities of change that Badiou had proposed in his typologies would be invalidated altogether. In short, we can hypothesize about the prospect of a change so radical that it would alter our very conception of change itself. Keeping these two discussions in mind, we can offer a riposte to fashionable postmodern declamations of contemporary 'atonicity' and 'apoliticism', ideological apologias for political inaction. What if such lamentations are themselves sympotomatic of a consummate capitulation to ideological representation? Filtered through the lens of a world's transcendental logic, it is conceivable that many sites are, in fact, 'doubly-inscribed'- what appears to be counted-as-one as a situation, a docile constituent of a world's logic, could in fact harbor explosive, unfathomed potentials. It is my feeling that Badiou himself would not be altogether dismissive of such a proposition- in one of the most suggestive passages of 'Logics of Worlds', Badiou states that atonicity and complexity is often an optical effect, an ideological smokescreen that occludes sites and points.

Johnston, in a bid to rescue Badiou from lapsing into an eschatological religiosity that withdraws from politics altogether in anticipation of a miraculous happening, proposes that the irreducible Two of Badiou's thinking- the 'empty time' of the State and the radically heterogeneous temporality of Truth- be supplemented with a Third, a pre-Evental time that makes, through protracted theoretical and practical investigation, educated guesses about such doubly-inscribed sites. Johnston's appropriation of Badiou's concept of 'forcing' is not as controversial as it seems- if all 'forcing' happens in the future anterior, then militants can begin, at this very moment, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the state-of-the-situation in which they are ensconced and hypothesize about prospective transformations.

Similarly, Johnston enframes and siphons his reading of Zizek through the Lacanian distinction of action and act. This difference, which I feel to be constitutive of Johnston's argument throughout, is of considerable help to those who are approaching these philosophers for the first time. In many ways, the section on Zizek can, and perhaps should, be read prior to the study of Badiou. Like the Badiouan event, the act is a rift in the transcendental fabric of the Symbolic that inaugurates, in its wake, the ontogenetic possibility of a subject. Whereas an action is, in the last analysis, always addressed to an imagined Other (the subject-who-knows), the act marks an irrevocable rupture from this 'closed' economy of sense, breaking free from the dialectics of meaning that it imposes. Because of this, the act is as inexplicable as it is indiscernible- it seems to assume an autonomy of its own, independent of the material 'agents' through which it is enacted. To become a subject is to assume the act as one's own, subjectivating it. Yet, just as there is no event without the situation from which it emerges, there is no act without action-if the cleavage between act and action can only be established AFTER something has come to pass, we will never be afforded the opportunity to legislate upon this line if we dismiss all existent modes of action as being so many variations of 'aggressive passivity'.

Also of interest:
Although the book makes no note of this, the text includes an INVALUABLE appendix by Zizek himself, which is perhaps the clearest exposition yet of his ontology. In characteristically attention-deficient style, Zizek presents the fundamentals of his theoretical edifice, articulating in the process his precise position in regard to Badiou, post-structuralism and 'correlationism'. Of especial interest is his reading of Meillasoux' 'After Finitude', which, to any reader familiar with Zizek's repeated emphasis on the Non-All, espouses a brand of absolute materialism that is very close to Zizek's own 'Parallax View'. Also, Zizek alerts us to the residual, disavowed idealism that remains at the heart of Badiou's project, a 'passion for the Real' that marks the post-'68 generation at large and inhibits Badiou from formulating a properly materialist system. Not to be missed.

initial indications point to 'oh yeah!'
I just got this so I'm still working through it.

But it definitely seems as though Johnston has done it again.If you know his first, "Time Driven" and his second, "Zizek's Ontology," and you found those as simply great as I, then you don't need this endorsement.

If you are new to this stuff, or on the fence, then here you go:

Johnston is definitely within the Zizek camp.He is serious though, and seriously bright.He is no cheerleader.He tackles Zizek's work at its heart and is very good at explaining the problems and context of Zizek's philosophy while also shedding new light and challenging the master in interesting ways.Here he is once again ahead of the scene in placing Badiou and Zizek together.The Badiou is very good and not what you might call a Badiouian Badiou - if you take my meaning.This in itself is interesting.They are treated in separate sections under the unifying vision of them comprising, basically, a set we can name the "Lacano-Lukacs" of our time.He coordinates them thusly: Badiou thinks (from) the political Event while Zizek thinks (from) the ethical Act.Their respective adaptations of Lacan are an interwoven, occasionally knotted, Ariadne's Thread of the book. Pretty snazzy in that regard.

Does a new orthodox Communism have a future?That is the question. If you are perturbed by the very question, then you'd be a fool not to read this book, wouldn't you?

So far, it's extremely engrossing.It's a tough read for a tough subject, but Johnston doesn't - except at places, brief moments where he gets carried away with post-modern verbosity, he must be fairly young - care to make it tougher than it need be for the sake of flash.It's a nice book.It's about time. ... Read more

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The Phenomenology of Spirit is Hegel's most important and famous work.It is essential to understanding Hegel's philosophical system and why he remains a major figure in western philosophy. Stern offers a clear and accessible introduction to what is undoubtedly one of the most complex books in the history of philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a great way to understand a complicated philosopher
Hegel is a system philosopher...he provides an arching phenomenological philosophy. He dealt with huge concepts and spawned many philosophers...Marx, Nietzche, keirkegaard, Husserl, Schopenhauer, Sartre,
His mega philosophy is not helped by his writing style. Hegel is one of the most difficult philosophical reads, that a hegelian dictionary and assistant reader is almost non-negotiable. The Rutledge Hegel reader is one of the best, and was recommended to me by my Hegel expert professor...and it proved to be more than adequate. Having this book as you go through Hegel's phenomenology of spirit made the understanding of this tome much easier. It is clear, precise and has depth in understanding Hegel.

Good Introductory Commentary
Robert Stern's commentary on Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit is another strong addition in the Routledge Philosophy Guidebook series.Even by the arcane standards of German idealism Hegel's Phenomenology is a notoriously difficult text, at once, both, beautifully poetic and frustratingly specious.It can be impenetrable for the first-time reader if approached without the assistance of a skilled guide (or two).Following are comments for potential purchasers:

First. Stern is readable, short and clear - not overly laden with technical jargon.More advanced students may wish to augment this text with a more detailed commentary from the likes of Harris, Hyppolite or Lauer.

Second. Citations are referenced to Miller's standard English translation of the Phenomenology.

Third. A modest drawback is the lack of a glossary.Hegelian terminology can be especially difficult, hence some guidance would be useful.

Fourth. Jay Bernstein has a wonderful yearlong graduate-level course discussing the Phenomenology available on-line for no cost at BernsteinTapes.com.Kudos to the folks who have made this available, it is an outstanding resource.

Overall, I highly recommend Stern's commentary for readers approaching the Phenomenology for the first time.Even with this excellent guide, however, a solid background in academic philosophy is probably required to fully appreciate Hegel.

Cliff Notes
An introduction to Hegel is, in the first place, a certain barbarism. Given the emphasis that Hegel himself put on the act of pursuing the movement of The Phenomenology as a literary experience, we should be perhaps a bit hesitant to have such an experience augmented and, hence, swayed towards a particular reading. But, let's face it, The Phenomenology is so stuffed full of complex neologisms, seemingly circumlocutious sentences, and haphazard diversions as to likely lose the uninitiated within a few pages. It would seem that would really be helpful for those who haven't cut their teeth on Hegel yet would be an introduction to Hegel's style, both literary and philosophical, that would ease their entry into The PDG. Unfortunately, Stern's intro is much less a passage into Hegel, than a shortcut around him. Nowhere in "Hegel and The Phenomenology of Spirit" will you find an explanation of negativity, synthesis, or movement per se; they have been displaced in favor of more readily intelligible paraphrases, if at all directly mentioned. Hegel quotations appear periodically throughot the text, but without any insight into their meaning as such. To an unaccustomed reader, it probably seems like Stern is interpreting nebulous, equivocal poems. The bare bones outline structure of the Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks makes them much less amenable to thinkers like Hegel, Heidegger, Derrida, etc. whose style and precision with words eludes a simple rephrasing. Much like a book on Heidegger that didn't mention dasein, concealment, or concern would, Hegel and the Phenomenology Of Spirit leaves us with little assisstance in penetrating the actual text itself. Like many others, it is a good example of dry-humping an integral work in the history of philosophy. ... Read more

Product Description
Offering a collection of fifteen essays that deal with issues at the intersection of phenomenology, logic, and the philosophy of mathematics, this book is divided into three parts. Part I contains a general essay on Husserl's conception of science and logic, an essay of mathematics and transcendental phenomenology, and an essay on phenomenology and modern pure geometry. Part II is focused on Kurt Godel's interest in phenomenology. It explores Godel's ideas and also some work of Quine, Penelope Maddy and Roger Penrose. Part III deals with elementary, constructive areas of mathematics. These are areas of mathematics that are closer to their origins in simple cognitive activities and in everyday experience. This part of the book contains essays on intuitionism, Hermann Weyl, the notion of constructive proof, Poincaré and Frege. ... Read more

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A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism is a complete guide to two of the dominant movements of philosophy in the twentieth century.

• Written by a team of leading scholars, including Dagfinn Føllesdal, J. N. Mohanty, Robert Solomon, Jean-Luc Marion
• Highlights the area of overlap between the two movements
• Features longer essays discussing each of the main schools of thought, shorter essays introducing prominent themes, and problem-oriented chapters
• Organised topically, around concepts such as temporality, intentionality, death and nihilism
• Features essays on unusual subjects, such as medicine, the emotions, artificial intelligence, and environmental philosophy

Customer Reviews (1)

A welcome and important focus
This volume is a welcome addition to Blackwell's excellent series of "companions" to philosophical figures and schools.Its focus is important--it acknowledges implicitly that phenomenology has a variety of dimensions, but also that existentialism played a key role in the development of phenomenology.It also insists, rightly, that existentialism should not be understood outside of its phenomenological roots.Dreyfus and Wrathall are a marvelous team in their own writing, and they have done their usual impeccable job gathering clear-thinking and clear-writing scholars to produce a truly helpful volume for students of philosophy at all levels. ... Read more

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Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908 – 1961) is hailed as one of the key philosophers of the twentieth century. Phenomenology of Perception is his most famous and influential work, and an essential text for anyone seeking to understand phenomenology. In this GuideBook Komarine Romdenh-Romluc introduces and assesses:

• Merleau-Ponty’s life and the background to his philosophy
• the key themes and arguments of Phenomenology of Perception
• the continuing importance of Merleau-Ponty’s work to philosophy.

Merleau-Ponty and Phenomenology of Perception is an ideal starting point for anyone coming to his great work for the first time. It is essential reading for students of Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology and related subjects in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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The present translation draws upon nearly half a century of Husserl scholarship as well as the many translations into English of other books by Husserl, occasioned by W.R. Boyce Gibson’s pioneering translation of Ideas, First Book, in 1931. Based on the most recent German edition of the original text published in 1976 by Martinus Nijhoff and edited by Dr. Karl Schuhmann, the present translation offers an entirely new rendering into English of Husserl’s great work, together with a representative selection of Husserl’s own noted and revised parts of his book. Thus the translation makes available, for the first time in English, a significant commentary by Husserl on his own text over a period of about sixteen years.

Customer Reviews (3)

Useful translation of an important work
Kersten's translation of Husserl's "Ideas" is a huge improvement over the old Gibson translation, which was for years the only access English speaking readers had to this centrally important work. Much has been clarified and brought into conformity with the conventions established by Dorion Cairns. There are still minor flaws in the translation (and lots of typos), but these are insignificant in light of the vast improvement in readability of the present version. When Kluwer took over the rights from Martinus Nijhoff, it preserved and expanded the accessibility of these works for another generation. They deserve our gratitude for that. But one could still wish that Kluwer would price these volumes more reasonably.

Aquivocations
The fault of Husserl's main work - or at least one of them - is only that though he's very against linguistic aquivocations, he does some. It's not suddenly understandable, that the noetisch-noematisch expressions has no connection with the difference of noma and noemata (plural), but that noetisch means "refering to the noesis" and noematisch "refering to the noema" etc.

flawed translation
This translation is a huge improvement over the pioneering work by Boyce-Gibson from the 30s. But, as you read, you'll have to keep a pencil handy. Specifically, you should scratch out every occurrence of the term "mental process". That phrase is Kersten's choice to render the german "Erlebnis". In translating "Erlebnis" in this manner, Kersten is following the lead of Dorian Cairns, who made the suggestion in his "Guide For Translating Husserl." While it makes sense not to translate "Erlebnis" as "experience" (as one normally would in rendering colloquial German) since "experience" should be reserved to render the German "Erfahrung," just about any of the alternate translations would be better than the highly misleading "mental process." "Lived experience" would be much simpler and better - or you could render it with a neologism like "lived-through". Really anything other than "mental process" would be an improvement.

Also, there used to be a paperback edition of this item. Suchbooks are of interest to students. In whose interest is it to price them out of the reach of anyone except libraries? ... Read more

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Leonard Lawlor investigates Derrida's writings on Husserl in order to determine Derrida's transformation of the basic problem of phenomenology from genesis to language. To do so, he lays out a narrative of the period during which Derrida devoted himslef to formulating and interpretation of Husserl, from approximately 1954 to 1967. On the basis of the narrative, certain well known Derridean concepts are determined (in relation primarily to Husserl's phenomenology): deconstruction, the metaphysics of presence, diffŽrance (and Derrida's initial concept of dialectic), the trace, and spectrality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Insightful, clear, accurate. Yet...
Lawlor is unquestionably one of the finest American scholars of French philosophy.This text is a relatively quick read (i.e., it's well put together and the language is that of one who clearly lives in these problems) and has some valuable insights, especially regarding "The Problem of Genesis" text.

Unfortunately, there isn't much here that one would fail to glean from Derrida's writings themselves.The best thing about this collection (really a narrative, I suppose) is that the author presents Derrida's formative works in a very clear manner while maintaining accuracy, in a way that puts forth a picture of Derrida's development.There is no criticism or dissent.

Equally unfortunately, the author does not seem to be rigorously familiar with Husserl, other than via Derrida.This may very well be inaccurate, but such is the impression left on me after finishing.Each and every citation (regarding Husserl) comes from one of Derrida's or Fink's texts, and the latter only in the beginning.I found it troubling that the author chose to cite Derrida citing Husserl rather than simply pulling out his copy of the Investigations or Ideas and fitting in the page number.But this doesn't really detract from the overall quality of the analyses, so that shouldn't avert someone wanting a valid picture of Derrida's development.

Unrepeatable
With a few small but ancillary reservations, this study is dazzlingly masterful. Lawlor cogently traces Derrida's development as an interpreter of Husserl and convincingly maps the influences which helped effect his thought. What impressed me most is that Lawlor accomplishes this without utterly reducing Derrida to these influences. In all the secondary lit I've read, Lawlor's is unmatched as an opening onto to Derrida's work.

The 2 reservations I have with Lawlor's treatment hover around what may be a common root. Lawlor claims to be `defending the Derridain faith,' a necessarily problematic statement. This statement began to make more sense to me as Lawlor begins positing - or if you like, foregrounding - a specific (admittedly VERY specific) Derridain concept of `experience.' Many readers of Derrida could justifiably bulk at this suggestion, given that Derrida has severely problematized the concept of experience whether as Erlebnis or Erfahrung. Yet there seems to be some plausibility to Lawlor's suggestion. At this point, however, I'm not sure I am competent enough to evaluate.

In any event, it may come down to a debate between your "phenomenological" Derridians and you "structuralist" Derridians. Of course we know that this disjunction is just plain false. But it is interesting in that those who tend to talk about the "experience of the impossible" usually read Derrida *through and with* Husserl, Heidegger, Hegel, and Levinas, while those who remain a bit skeptical of the "ethical turn" tend to read him *through and with* Saussure and Nietzsche. It is not so much an opposition but a difference of emphasis that may well lead, with time, to a broadening fissure. Given that this text approaches Derrida as a Husserl interpreter, we should not be surprised on the moment of a specific `experience.' In any event, as with a few other of your "phenomenological" Derridians (e.g. Caputo, etc.), one spots momentary glimmers of Lawlor's own project beneath the fabric he weaves in this text.

Both as a rigorous exposition of Derrida's development and as an innovative reading foregrounding new foci, this book is a must read!

A Peerless Study of Derrida on Husserl
This work is an excellent explication of the relation of Derrida to Husserl.The arguments set forth, though detailed, are both clear and cogent.And since this relation is of such central importance to Derrida's thought, it sheds light on the whole of his work.

Lawlor begins by investigating the problem of genesis in Eugen Fink's Kantstudien essay "The Phenomenological Philosophy of Edmund Husserl and Contemporary Criticism," works through the Derrida's essay "'Genesis and Structure' and Phenomenology," and examines the most important aspects of Derrida's _Le problème de la genése dans la philosophie de Husserl_ and his "Introduction" to his translation of Husserl's "Origin of Geometry."He then shows how the early problematic of genesis becomes the later problematic of sign in _Voice and Phenomena_.Finally, Lawlor rounds off his investigation with an analysis of Derrida's "turn" from an emphasis on metaphysics (Derrida's famous critique of presence) to ethics and politics in his investigation of _Specters of Marx_.

The reviewer below who claimed that Lawlor's work "fails to grasp its subject matter" could not be more wrong.Apparently, he never read the book.Lawlor takes great pains to explain the role of repetition, and substitution in Derrida's critique of Husserl.In fact, I know of no study (in English or otherwise) that comes close to Lawlor's detailed analysis of this critique.

As a final note, one should not presume that this work could serve as an introduction to Derrida in the sense that it is a basic work.It is not.While a thorough understanding of Derrida is not presupposed, it is imperative that one has a good grasp of Husserl's own position before reading this book.For the purposes of understanding the debate between Husserl and Derrida I would recommend reading Robert Sokolowski's _Husserlian Meditations_, since it covers the whole gamut of Husserlian doctrines from presence and absence to signs and sensibility.

Extremely Helpful Analysis of Derrida
This is a rigorous and clear presentation of Derrida's fundamental argument/insight.Lawlor's strategy is to map out carefully the history of Derrida's engagement with Husserl in Derrida's formative period (1954-1967), and to use this development as the key to the interpretation of Derrida's thought.Lawlor is able to make Derrida clear and compelling, while dispelling many familiar prejudices; he simultaneously demonstrates the strength of Husserl's thought, against the facile claim that Derrida's deconstruction is a rejection of Husserlian phenomenology.This is a demanding book to read, because it presupposes a reader with fairly advanced knowledge of--or at least familiarity with--Derrida, Husserl, Heidegger and Levinas, but for such readers this should be mandatory reading.I recommend this work very highly to any serious student of contemporary European philosophy.(Good complementary texts would include Jay Lampert, _Synthesis and Backwards Reference in Husserl's Logical Investigations_, and Miguel de Beistegui, _Thinking with Heidegger_.)

Remarkably Bad
This book comes with the highest recommendations from the likes of Gasche, so it was something of a surprise to discover that this book fails to grasp its subject matter. The book's rhetorical strategy, which continually discusses Derrida's phenomenology, or critique of phenomenology, as one part of his career that was then displaced by a second elaboration based on his encounter with Levinas....No doubt, this is very strenuous philosophical territory, but the author elaborates nothing of Derrrida's critique of Husserl, based as it is on a pervasive notion of repetition/substitution, and also Derrida's appropriation of Heidegger's critique of presence, presencing and the "present." Again, this is complex territory, and Derrida's innovations take place within intricate argumentation, but this author's rhetorical strategy is a guise, a bluff to cover over that finally this material is beyond his reach. ... Read more

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The Phenomenological Mind is the first book to properly introduce fundamental questions about the mind from the perspective of phenomenology. Key questions and topics covered include:

• What is phenomenology?
• naturalizing phenomenology and the empirical cognitive sciences
• phenomenology and consciousness
• consciousness and self-consciousness, including perception and action
• time and consciousness, including William James
• intentionality
• the embodied mind
• action
• knowledge of other minds
• situated and extended minds
• phenomenology and personal identity

Interesting and important examples are used throughout, including phantom limb syndrome, blindsight and self-disorders in schizophrenia, making The Phenomenological Mind an ideal introduction to key concepts in phenomenology, cognitive science and philosophy of mind.

Customer Reviews (1)

A good introduction
Although the language is a little advanced for anyone unfamiliar with analytic philosophy, this book is an accessible introduction to phenomenology from the perspective of analytic philosophy of mind.It presents new issues by reformatting valuable phenomenological ideas in terms that are easy for an analytical philosopher to understand and work with.I am working on a thesis project on phenomenology and I am an analytical philosopher, I found this book extremely helpful. ... Read more

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"... an excellent translation of an extremely important book." -- The Modern Schoolman

This early version of Being and Time (1927) offers a unique glimpse into the motivations that prompted the writing of this great philosopher's master work and the presuppositions that gave shape to it. Theodore Kisiel's outstanding translation permits English readers to appreciate the central importance of this text for the development of Heidegger's thought.

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Preparation for Being and Time
`Heidegger's History of the Concept of Time', translated by Kisiel, is a compilation of Heidegger's lecture notes from a 1925 course taught at the University of Marburg.These lectures cover much of the same ground articulated in `Being and Time' (1927), and can be read as an draft of Heidegger's magnum opus.

Often one of the greatest challenges that students face in reading historic thinkers is the question of context.That is, what is the intellectual milieu that the writer is working within, and, what question(s) are they seeking to address?Getting a feel for these considerations can be particularly difficult with an abstruse writer such as Heidegger.As such, these lecture notes are invaluable in situating the reader and providing valuable context.

Kisiel's translation of `History of the Concept of Time' is clear and accessible possessing a smoothness that is absent in some English translations of Heidegger.John Drabinski's `Between Husserl and Heidegger'(available on-line course), is an excellent companion to when reading this text - it discusses History of the Concept of Time in addition to other works by Husserl and Heidegger.Drabinski is a capable commentator and his pedagogical approach of working from within Heidegger's language, while challenging for the novice, is an ultimately rewarding approach.

Overall, `The History of the Concept of Time' is an excellent addition to the corpus of Heideggerian work available in English.I highly recommended it for all students of Heidegger, particularly those approaching Being and Time for first time.

Considered the best exposition of phenomenology
Anyone coming from a rational empiricist background need not be offended by Heidegger's thinking since he does manage to look at matters from a radically different perspective that is novel and worthy of consideration.In this way, he expands our own thinking and puts into critical relief our own position.This is considered by scholars to be the best exposition of phenomenology.The fact Heidegger is able to explain other thinkers and other philosophers in such a superb manner seems to indicate how thoroughly he thought through to get to his own position.Paul Edwards cursory dismissal of Heidegger, although a worthy cause in itself, doesn't do justice to Heidegger.

Extremely helpful
As a student with a great deal of interest in Heidegger's ontologicalinquiry, I found this to be an indispensable supplement to Being and Time. Where Being and Time seems unbearably difficult to understand, History ofthe Concept of Time offers clarification.Since it is a collection oflecture/notes, the writing is usually more straight-forward, which as weknow is a blessing when it comes to Heidegger.I would recommend readingBeing and Time and History of the Concept of Time in tandem.

An early draft of `Being and Time'.
Perhaps, one of the first and least interesting of Heidegger's long phenomenology books from the 1920s. Most of what is contained within this text is worked out brilliantly in his masterwork `Being and Time, e.g., theontological/ontic structures of temporality.Ironically, there is littleexposition of `history' or the history of the `concept of time' in thiswork.I read this work during my thesis on Heidegger's thinking onspatiality.It contains some insights regarding this aspect of Heidegger'sthought, but does not add much to `Being and Time.'I recommend this toserious and budding Heidegger scholars, but others with only a passinginterest I would recommend `Being and Time' and `The Basic Problems OfPhenomenology' as much better choices. ... Read more

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This book explores the resurgence of interest in phenomenology as a philosophy and research movement among scholars in education, the humanities and social sciences.

• Brings together a series of essays by an international team of philosophers and educationalists
• Juxtaposes diverse approaches to phenomenological inquiry and addresses questions of significance for education today
• Demonstrates why phenomenology is a contemporary movement that is both dynamic and varied
• Highlights ways in which phenomenology can inform a broad range of aspects of educational theorising and practice, including learning through the body, writing online, being an authentic teacher, ambiguities in becoming professionals, and school transition

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"In Albert Hofstadter's excellent translation, we can listen in as Heidegger clearly and patiently explains... the ontological difference." -- Hubert L. Dreyfus, Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews (5)

A flood of philosophical brilliance, though "Being and Time" is an imperative prerequisite
I concur with Mr. Belcher's warning. This book will be impenetrable without prior knowledge of Heidegger and especially Being and Time. The reason for this is that "BP" is primarily preoccupied with the "temporal" facet of Heidegger's quest to carve out a path for fundamental-ontology. What this does is explicitly presupposed the reader with the investigations of "Being and Time". In this book, the insights of those investigations are explicitly applied to particular stages in the history of ontology, culminating in what is nothing less than a stunning vivisection of Kant.

Since Mr. Belcher has written such an economical and informative review, I'd like to just build upon his remarks. The "ontological difference" does indeed consist of "entities vs the Being of entities" as translated. However, I think that this English translation by Hofstadter, one that is perhaps initiated by Macquarrie & Robinson [I'm not sure], slightly undermines Heidegger's teachings. After all Macquarrie was a theologian who thought that God was latent in "Being and Time", hence the capitalization and consequential mystification of "Being". One also wonders about the extent to which the presuppositions of his field influenced his translation of "Being and Time". In relation to this, one of more daunting insights of this text is where Heidegger vividly shows the reader how all of medieval, modern, and even ancient ontology is in some way grounded in the being of God. In steps Nietzsche and his entire argument [which I think Heidegger took as his marching orders]. Anyway, this graphical enhancement of being into "Being" obscures Heidegger's investigations because no where in his thought is there an Oz. Of course, one could object that "being" is already an objectification. Those who would level this conjecture shouldn't worry because Heidegger lays down all the parameters for such a scenario in this very book.

There is also the problem of substituting "entities" for "beings". The problem with this is that in English "entity" is a throughly ontical designation that has no ontological connotation whatsoever. We hardly designate thoughts or impulses as "entities". As soon as we do such a thing they become objectified and cast off into the doomed subjective/objective split, which Heidegger illuminates in this book with astonishing clarity and rigor. "Entity" breaches Heidegger's drive to reveal how the ontical is "always already" existentially in the ontological. By substituting "beings" for "entities", so as to arrive at "the being of a being", being is less alien, both to us and to "the things themselves" [phenomena].

The frequency in which the term "horizon" appears in this text is only consequential to the elucidation of "Temporality" [estatical-enpresenting]. I think the crucial reason as to why "horizon" becomes increasingly important is because Heidegger's temporal enterprise is, at bottom, an interpretation of "care". Here we can again see why "Being and Time" is so important for this text, since "care" is an eminent facet of "Being and Time". In this case it would perhaps be circumspect to take Heidegger's "Temporality" [estatical-enpresenting] as an attempt to institute "care" itself as a limit-situation, with the "horizons" serving as the literal schematic boundaries which are then maintained by the temporal ecstasies, though this is only a preoccupation of mine. One could perhaps further inquire into how these schema [horizions-praesens] are made manifest, and thus constituted. To impart to you another one of my worthless positions, I was personally heeded from any such inquiry because throughout all the teachings of Heidegger that I've encountered, but especially here, I could hear Nietzsche's cry "back to the body".

Aside from the above, I can only add a warning; never hold Heidegger up to Derrida and Foucault in an attempt to understand him, or any other post-68 Parisians for that matter. If anything, the exact opposite should be done.

If you are looking for an introduction to Heidegger, then I think his "Introduction to Metaphysics" is a fine referral. However, there really isn't an aspect of Heidegger that lends itself to blithe curiosity, so be warned.

The great Philosophy.
I have studies about relationship between Immunology and Psychopathology including Heidegger. His philosophy is very similar to my fundamental philosophy. He is the great person who teached me the important medical philosophy.

eminently readable and interesting
This is an eminently readable translation of Heidegger--a chore that is indeed quite difficult. Moreover, the material Heidegger treats here finds a very concise, cohesive presentation, so it is all in all a very approachable text. As a reviewer noted below, this text is quite helpful in understanding _Being and Time_, or just generally for its own value in exposing Heidegger's thought around this time. Highly recommeded for someone serious about approaching texts by Heidegger.

Clean as a whistle, until it defines "is"
Mostly, philosophy is clean as a whistle, and we rarely understand it well enough to bow to the obviously superior form of intellect which, lecturing in 1927, strove to convince those who would like to consider themselves at the cutting edge of knowledge that:

"We have here once again the peculiar circumstance that the unveiling appropriation of the extant in its being-such is precisely not a subjectivizing but just the reverse, an appropriating of the uncovered determinations to the extant entity as it is itself."(p. 219).

If you read the small print on the cover of THE BASIC PROBLEMS OF PHENOMENOLOGY (1982, published in German as Die Grundprobleme der Phanomenologie in 1975) by Martin Heidegger, you will see that this book includes "Translation, Introduction, and Lexicon by Albert Hofstadter."The Lexicon is quite an accomplishment:pages 339 to 396 contain a wealth of information about the pages on which particular words ended up in this translation of lectures by Heidegger on philosophical problems.If you read the book first, then come to the first entry on page 340, "already, always already, antecedent, before, beforehand, earlier, in advance, precedent, prior--expressions used with great frequency: . . ." you know that dozens of pages can be cited for "some characteristic instances: . . . "Longer entries provide more complete indexing for being, being-in-the-world, beings, Da, Dasein, exist, extant, horizon, interpretation, "is" (See copula), Kant, now, nows (nun), ontological, ontology, philosophy, problem, problems, problems, specific, projection, project, self, structure, subject, Temporal, Temporality, temporal, temporality (zeitlich . . .), temporalize (zeitigen), theses, thing, thingness, thinghood, thinking, time, transcend, truth, understand, understanding of being, unveil, and world.

Frankly, I am glad that I have previously attempted to read lectures and the Heraclitus seminars which used the Greek alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc.) for Greek words, so that I was warned that translation was necessary, and I learned enough Greek words to recognize that ancient language even when it is printed in transliterated form, with no indication that a foreign language is being used, as frequently occurs in this book.

"In a corresponding passage Aristotle says that this `is' means a synthesis and is accordingly en sumploke dianoias kai pathos en taute, it is the coupling that the intellect produces as combining intellect, and this `is' means something that does not occur among things; it means a being, but a being that is, as it were, a state of thought."(p. 182).

People with absolutely no knowledge of Greek might try reading the Lexicon entry for "Greek expressions" (pp. 358-359) before reading pages 73, 86, 115, etc. to remind themselves that when they read "to on" on page 53, they were reading Greek, as "to ti en einai" on page 85 is a bit more obviously not in English, as Aristotle was not.How helpful is this?Consider the final entry in Greek expressions:zoe, 121.Looking it up, I find in the final paragraph of section 12:

"First, however, one problem makes its claim on our attention:besides the extant (at-hand extantness) there are beings in the sense of the Dasein, who exists.But this being which we ourselves are--was this not always already known, in philosophy and even in pre-philosophical knowledge?Can one make such a fuss about stressing expressly the fact that besides the extant at-hand there is also this being that we ourselves are?After all, every Dasein, insofar as it is, always already knows about itself and knows that it differs from other beings.We ourselves said that for all its being oriented primarily to the extant at-hand, ancient ontology nevertheless is familiar with psuche, nous, logos, zoe, bios, soul, reason, life in the broadest sense.Of course.But it should be borne in mind that the ontical, factual familiarity of a being does not after all guarantee a suitable interpretation of its being."(pp. 120-121).

The actual lectures only consist of 22 sections, with "The Being of the Copula" in Chapter Four (pp. 177-224) primarily considered in sections 16 and 17, though the outline of the subject at the end of Heidegger's Introduction, section 6, suggested that this would be at the end of Part One, Chapter Four.Section 18 on the existential mode of being of truth has also been included at the end of Chapter Four, where it seems to follow quite naturally.Though it is only followed by Part Two, Chapter One, anyone who wishes to imagine more may adopt the idea stated by Heidegger on page 225 that Part Two would also have four chapters, in which we could encounter the basic problems again ending with "fourthly, the problem of the truth-character of being."

There isn't anything about pandering in the Lexicon, but the 22 listings for "copula" might be close, considering the "See `is' " cross-reference and the amount of political scandal that has recently been generated by President Clinton when he was trying to think non-copulatively in the way he defined "is."The 1908 Oxford translation of Aristotle included in note 4 on page 181 illustrates the kind of compartmentalization that most people exhibited in thinking about the impeachment proceedings:

"For neither are `to be' and `not to be' and the participle `being' significant of any fact, unless something is added; for they do not themselves indicate anything, but imply a copulation, of which we cannot form a conception apart from the things coupled."

Continuation of Being and Time
This book is a must read for those that choose to read Being and Time.The book itself is based, like so many of Heidegger's books, off of a lecture course he gave at the University of Marburg in the summer of 1927.This is important because Being and Time was ready for publication in 1927.If we put Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics alongside The Basic Problems of Phenomenology and Being and Time, we have the predominant whole of early Heideggerian thinking.

As for the book itself (for now on referred to as BP), the book is incomplete--just like Being and Time.Heidegger undertakes Three Parts each with Four chapters (see page 24).But BP only deals with all of Part One and only chapter 1 of Part Two.Heidegger gets no farther than the Problem of Ontological Difference (entities vs. the Being of entities) and the lecture course ends.But the book is extraordinarly helpful because of what it does address.Part One is elaborate and interesting because it deals with other philosophers and their ideas.Heidegger pays particular attention to Kant, Aristotle, Descartes and explains how their ideas have been inherited into the contemporary philosophic era.What I found most interesting was the deconstruction of Medieval and Modern ontology.Heidegger thus gives a broad historical interpretation of the history of philosophy and explains the presuppositions of each period.

Obviously this book is not for philosophical neophytes.The book should only be undertaken by those with some background in 20th century philosophy and knowledge of basic Heideggerian thought.The book's appeal should thus be limited to few individuals, and certainly only those with philosophic interest.

The book borrows much of the terminology from Being and Time with some notable exceptions.Authenticity and inauthenticity have pracitically been dropped.The term "horizon" becomes notably more important and the term "Temporality" is of great importance to understanding what is being disclosed from the text.Ontological difference is explicitly defined, though it was implicitly defined in Being and Time.Pay particular attention to Part Two of the work, for it questions through many of the underlying questions I had after completing Being and Time.If you are disappointed how the book abruptly ends, it is to be expected.But for those 285 people on Earth interested in Heidegger this book is indispensable.But read Being and Time first!

Philosophy Student,
Drake University ... Read more

Product Description
This new annotated translation of Chapter Six of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, the joint product of a group of scholars that included H. S. Harris, George di Giovanni, John W. Burbidge, and Kenneth Schmitz, represents an advance in accuracy and fluency on previous translations into English of this core chapter of the Phenomenology. Its notes and commentary offer both novice and scholar more guidance to this text than is available in any other translation, and it is thus well suited for use in survey courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Helpful Guide
Published in 2008 by Marquette University Press, George Marshall's `A Guide to Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception', is a welcome addition the corpus of English language existentialist scholarship.Marshall is a long-time professor of continental philosophy at the University of Regina in Canada.

While widely recognized within European philosophy as a leading contributor to existentialism and phenomenology (arguably eclipsed only by Husserl and Heidegger), Merleau-Ponty, has been largely overlooked by readers reared in the Anglo-American tradition.Published in 1945 the `Phenomenology of Perception' is Merleau-Ponty's best known work.

Marshall's text is helpful in several regards.Unlike many commentaries which focus on analyzing and critiquing the source text, this is very much a guidebook wherein the author plays a limited descriptive and explanatory role.While in some cases such an approach could be trivial and uninteresting it is valuable in this instance.Merleau-Ponty's rambling prose, dialectical style and abstruse terminology make for a difficult read for the unaided first-time reader.On a more mundane level the text has a detailed glossary and a helpful page referencing system.The glossary is helpful, given that, at times, the Phenomenology reads very much like a period piece, discussing antiquated theories and forgotten historic personages, while page references are made to both the classic 1962 English translation as well as the newer 2002 Routledge edition.

With respect to drawbacks I offer two observations.First, while I do not have a keen eye for typos I noticed a few more than expected.Second, the combination of Marshall's clarity and Merleau-Ponty's lack of clarity, could cause this text to become an alternative, rather than a compliment to reading the Phenomenology - especially for students pressed for time.That would be a shame.Despite its drawback's the Phenomenology remains a rewarding piece of classic existentialist writing.

Overall, a solid text, recommended as a companion to reading the Phenomenology of Perception.




... Read more

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"... an important contribution... offers a penetrating glimpse into certain uncharted waters in the development of German thought." -- Review of Metaphysics

"A must for all students of Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger." -- Choice

Strikes a skillful balance between the needs of first-time readers of Hegel and the interests of advanced scholars. These lectures contain some of Heidegger's most crucial statements about temporality, ontological difference and dialectic, and being and time in Hegel.

Customer Reviews (1)

A book on the easy absolute:we got him
Here is another book of philosophy lectures with no index.The Contents has a lot of section number and titles, but the possibility of some confusion is already obvious in the title for section 3, "The significance of the first part of the system with regard to the designation of both its titles." (p. v, pp. 17-26).This still relates to the early part of the Introduction before "Preliminary Consideration" (p. v, pp. 32-42), which consists of section 5, "The presupposition of the Phenomenology:Its absolute beginning with the absolute."If this seems excessive in the substitution of words for whatever this series of lectures is supposed to be about, there is a little chart of the basic Phenomenology-system at the bottom of page 7 which shows how Part I of Hegel's philosophy, his book, PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, is merely an introduction to the Encyclopedia-system, which Hegel originally called Part II, before it was written, but which was divided in three parts, Logic, Philosophy of Nature, and Philosophy of Spirit, in the Encyclopedia which included Phenomenology of Spirit as merely "The second section of the first part (subjective spirit)" (p. 7) of the three main divisions included "in the transformed system of philosophy."(p. 7).Heidegger admits that this is a very philosophical move:

"But should one not say then that Hegel already at the beginning of his work presupposes and anticipates what he wants to achieve only at the end?Certainly this must be said.Indeed, whoever wishes to understand anything of his work must say that again and again.The attempt to diminish this `fact'--as we would like to call it--show, furthermore, how little this work has been understood. . . . For it pertains to the essential character of philosophy that wherever philosophy sets to work in terms of its basic question and becomes a work, it already anticipates precisely that which it says later."(p. 30).

These lectures on Hegel's first major work "constitutes the lecture course given by Heidegger at the University of Freiburg during the winter semester of 1930/31.The German edition, edited by Ingtraud Goerland, was published in 1980 by Vittorio Klostermann Verlag."(p. viii).Normally publication dates matter little in philosophy, and the English translation did not appear until 1988, but the publication in German in 1980 might be considered an answer to specific questions raised by hotshot American philosopher and Princeton professor Walter Kaufmann, near the end of his life, who published a three-volume set in 1980 called Discovering the Mind, after some of the ideas were presented in 1974 and the first draft was completed in 1976, in which Hegel was considered too rushed to be considered philosophical:"especially in his first book he came to write at such a pace that he put fleeting thoughts and doubtful notions down on paper and then had to send them to the printer without any opportunity to rethink what he had written."(DM, V. I, pp. 255-256).Volume II made the same points regarding the publication of Heidegger's first original work, only half a system in which "Heidegger secularized Christian preaching about guilt, dread, and death, but claimed to break with two thousand years of Western thought." (DM, VII, p. xvi).Privately, in "an unpublished letter that Heidegger had written to Karl Loewith on August 19, 1921" (DM, VII, p. 170), Heidegger had written "but it must be added that I am no philosopher, and I do not imagine that I am doing anything remotely comparable; that is not my intention. . . . I am a `Christian theologian.' " (DM, VII, p. 171).

It should be obvious that Heidegger was capable of recognizing systems and identifying them quite easily.In HEGEL'S PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, he has titles in his Contents that call out:"the System of Science," "1. The system of the phenomenology and of the encyclopedia," "2. Hegel's conception of a system of science," "b)Absolute and relative knowledge.Philosophy as the system of science," "4.The inner mission of the phenomenology of spirit as the first part of the system."Such an understanding of systems is entirely philosophical, and Heidegger's defense of his BEING AND TIME in the final few pages of these lectures is entirely philosophical in nature.He was not supposed to be writing about himself, but about the philosophical "problematic of `being and time' " (pp. 146-147) which previously flared up "for the first and only time, namely, in Kant--people refuse to see the problem and speak rather of my arbitrarily reading my own views into Kant.There is something peculiar about the lack of understanding in our contemporaries by virtue of which one can become famous all of a sudden, and indeed in a dubious sense."(p. 147).That he could complain about being famous as a philosopher already in 1931, before any notoriety from political scandals could make the picture as messy as a German mentality would be a few years later, tends to show that Heidegger had a better grasp of philosophical matters than any of his competitors, of whom only Karl Jaspers, the famous doctor-philosopher whose books include one on GENERAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY, springs to mind as truly great.

Heidegger pictures Hegel's first book as a process of creeping up on absolute knowledge."Hence, the work ends with the short section DD, which is entitled `Absolute Knowledge.' "(pp. 32-33).This leads up to the main assignment:

"In this lecture course I presuppose such a first reading of the entire work.If such a reading has not taken place or does not take place in the next few weeks, there is no sense in sitting here:You cheat not only me but yourselves.However, the first reading is not a guarantee that with the second reading we really understand the work.Perhaps the first reading must be frequently repeated, which is only to say that the first reading is utterly indispensable."(p. 36). ... Read more

Product Description
This book, one of the most frequently quoted works on Martin Heidegger in any language, belongs on any short list of classic studies of Continental philosophy. Richardson explores the famous turn in Heidegger's thought after Being in Time and demonstrates how this transformation was radical without amounting to a simple contradiction of his earlier views. In a full account of the evolution of Heidegger's work as a whole, he provides an illuminating account of divergences and continuities in Heidegger's philosophy in light of recently published works. Includes as a preface the letter that Heidegger wrote to Richardson and a new writer's preface and epilogue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Let's start from the beginning
1. Read Jose Pablo Feinmann ¨La Filosofia y el barro de la historia"
2. Have a try to Being and Time
3. A book by author: Steiner: Heidegger
4. Heidegger by Gianni Vattimo
5. "El joven Heidegger" by Adrián Escudero, Jesús

And finally THIS GREAT BOOK. This one will clarify everything.

A full exposition on Heidegger
This book contains a detailed study on Heidegger's works, the different stages of his thought. The philosopher himself wrote the introduction to this very complete treatise. ... Read more