Category Archives: Books

Books

Interrogating Antigone

Oxford University Press has recently published a collection of articles providing a postmodern perspective on the enigmatic figure of Antigone. The volume, Interrogating Antigone in Postmodern Philosophy and Criticism, focuses on on the ethical and political issues raised by Antigone as a figure who questions the patriarchal state.

Our own Sean Kirkland has an article in the volume entitled, Speed and Tragedy in Cocteau and Sophocles. Other contributors include Terry Eagleton, Tina Chanter, and Luce Irigaray.

Download this form to receive a 20% discount on the book.

Books

Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

Indiana University Press has just released a translation of Heidegger’s Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy, translated by Robert Metcalf and Mark Tanzer.

“With a deep sensitivity to the nuances of Heidegger’s German, this translation retains a liveliness and readability that captures something of the urgency and creativity of Heidegger’s original presentation.”
—Christopher P. Long, Pennsylvania State University

Volume 18 of Martin Heidegger’s collected works presents his important 1924 Marburg lectures which anticipate much of the revolutionary thinking that he subsequently articulated in Being and Time. Available in English for the first time, they make a significant contribution to ancient philosophy, Aristotle studies, Continental philosophy, and phenomenology.

To learn more about the book, see:
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?isbn=978-0-253-35349-8

Books

Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle

Indiana University Press has just released a paperback copy of Heidegger’s Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle: Initiation into Phenomenological Research, translated by Richard Rojcewicz.

“This book is an indispensable resource for the study of Heidegger’s thought because it provides a very early articulation of concepts that are central to Heidegger’s philosophy, such as care, facticity, nothingness, and temporality.” —Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado, Denver

Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle is the text of a lecture course presented at the University of Freiburg in the winter of 1921–1922. In this course, Heidegger first takes up the role of the definition of philosophy and then elaborates a unique analysis of “factical life,” or human life as it is lived concretely in relation to the world, a relation he calls “caring.” As he works out a phenomenology of factical life, Heidegger lays the groundwork for a phenomenological interpretation of Aristotle, whose influence on Heidegger’s philosophy was pivotal.

To learn more about the book, see:
The Indiana University Press

Books

Plato and the Question of Beauty

Announcing the publication of Drew Hyland’s Plato and the Question of Beauty.

The publisher’s description of the book reads as follows:

“A well written and forcefully argued exposition of one of the most important themes in Plato’s philosophy.” —Walter Brogan, Villanova University

Drew A. Hyland, one of Continental philosophy’s keenest interpreters of Plato, takes up the question of beauty in three Platonic dialogues, the Hippias Major, Symposium, and Phaedrus. What Plato meant by beauty is not easily characterized, and Hyland’s close readings show that Plato ultimately gives up on the possibility of a definition. Plato’s failure, however, tells us something important about beauty—that it cannot be reduced to logos.

Exploring questions surrounding love, memory, and ideal form, Hyland draws out the connections between beauty, the possibility of philosophy, and philosophical living. This new reading of Plato provides a serious investigation into the meaning of beauty and places it at the very heart of philosophy.

http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=76819

Studies in Continental Thought
168 pages
978-0-253-35138-8, cloth $55.00
978-0-253-21977-0, paper $21.95

Books

Aristotle’s Ethics as First Philosophy

Congratulations to Claudia Baracchi for the publication of her book, Aristotle’s Ethics as First Philosophy, with Cambridge University Press.

The publisher’s description of the book reads as follows:

In Aristotle’s Ethics as First Philosophy, Claudia Baracchi demonstrates the indissoluble links between practical and theoretical wisdom in Aristotle’s thinking. Referring to a broad range of texts from the Aristotelian corpus, Baracchi shows how the theoretical is always informed by a set of practices, and, specifically, how one’s encounter with phenomena, the world, or nature in the broadest sense, is always a matter of ethos.

Claudia was the 2008 host of the Annual Independent meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society at the New School in New York.  She is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School.

Books

Plato on the Rhetoric of Philosophers and Sophists

Congratulations to Marina McCoy on the publication of her book, Plato on the Rhetoric of Philosophers and Sophists, with Cambridge University Press.

From the catalogue entry on the Cambridge site, the description reads: n this book, Marina McCoy explores Plato’s treatment of the rhetoric of philosophers and sophists through a thematic treatment of six different Platonic dialogues, including Apology, Protagoras, Gorgias, Republic, Sophist, and Phaedrus. She argues that Plato presents the philosophers and the sophists as difficult to distinguish insofar as both use rhetoric as part of their arguments. Plato does not present philosophy as rhetoric-free but rather shows that rhetoric is an integral part of the practice of philosophy. However, the philosopher and the sophist are distinguished by the philosopher’s love of the forms as the ultimate objects of desire. It is this love of the forms that informs the philosopher’s rhetoric, which he uses to lead his partner to better understand his deepest desires. McCoy’s work is of interest to philosophers, classicists, and communications specialists alike in its careful yet comprehensive treatment of philosophy, sophistry, and rhetoric as portrayed through the drama of the dialogues.

Marina McCoy is assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College. A former National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, she has published articles in several journals, including Ancient Philosophy and Philosophy and Rhetoric.

Books

Philosophy in Dialogue: Plato’s Many Devices

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Traditional Plato scholarship, in the English-speaking world, has assumed that Platonic dialogues are merely collections of arguments. Inevitably, the question arises: If Plato wanted to present collections of arguments, why did he write dialogues instead of treatises? Concerned about this question, some scholars have been experimenting with other, more contextualized ways of reading the dialogues. This anthology is among the first to present these new approaches as pursued by a variety of scholars. As such, it offers new perspectives on Plato as well as a suggestive view of Plato scholarship as something of a laboratory for historians of philosophy generally.The essays gathered here each examine vital aspects of Plato’s many methods, considering his dialogues in relation to Thucydides and Homer, narrative strategies and medical practice, images and metaphors. They offer surprising new research into such much-studied works as The Republic as well as revealing views of lesser-known dialogues like the Cratylus and Philebus. With reference to thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Sartre, the authors place the Platonic dialogues in an illuminating historical context. Together, their essays should reinvigorate the scholarly examination of the way Plato’s dialogues “work”–and should prompt a reconsideration of how the form of Plato’s philosophical writing bears on the Platonic conception of philosophy.”Plato studies are now undergoing a transformation and I believe that this collection will be on the forefront of innovative scholarship.” –Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado

Books

Aristotle and Rational Discovery: Speaking of Nature

In this lively and original book, Russell Winslow pursues a newinterpretation of logos in Aristotle. Rather than a reading ofrationality that cleaves human beings from nature, this newinterpretation suggests that, for Aristotle, consistent and dependable rational arguments reveal a deep dependency upon nature. To this end,the author shows that a rational account of a being is in fact subjectto the very same principle that governs the physical motion andgeneration of a being under inquiry. Among the many consequences of this argument is a rejection of both of the prevailing oppositionalclaims that Aristotle’s methodological procedure of discovery is one resting on either empirical or conceptual grounds: discovery reveals amore complex structure than can be grasped by either of these modern modes. Further, Winslow argues that this interpretation of rationaldiscovery also contributes to the ethical debates surrounding Aristotle’s work, insofar as an ethical claim is achieved throughreason, but is not thereby conceived as objective. Again, the demand for agreement in ethical/political decision will be disclosed assuperseding in its complexity both those accounts of ethical decision as subjective (for example, “emotivist” accounts) and those asobjective (“realist” accounts).

Books

Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics

Michael Weinman’s Pleasure in Aristotle’s Ethics provides an innovative and crucially important account of the role of pleasure and desire in Aristotle’s philosophy. Michael Weinman seeks to overcome common impasses in the mainstream interpretation of Aristotle’s ethical philosophy through the careful study of Aristotle’s account of pleasure in the human, but not merely human, good, thus presenting a new way in which we can improve our understanding of Aristotle’s ethics. Weinman asserts that we should read Aristotle’s ethical arguments in the light of his views on the cosmos (the living whole we call nature) and the never-changing principles informing that living whole.

Books

Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic

This Companion provides a fresh and comprehensive account of this outstanding work, which remains among the most frequently read works of Greek philosophy, indeed of Classical antiquity in general. The sixteen essays, by authors who represent various academic disciplines, bring a spectrum of interpretive approaches to bear in order to aid the understanding of a wide-ranging audience, from first-time readers of the Republic who require guidance, to more experienced readers who wish to explore contemporary currents in the work’s interpretation. The three initial chapters address aspects of the work as a whole. They are followed by essays that match closely the sequence in which topics are presented in the ten books of the Republic. Since the Republic returns frequently to the same topics by different routes, so do the authors of this volume, who provide the readers with divergent yet complementary perspectives by which to appreciate the Republic’s principal concerns.