Category Archives: Books

Books

Brill Publishes Plato on the Limits of Human Life

The APS is thrilled to call your attention to the appearance of Sara Brill’s book, Plato on the Limits of Human Life, published by Indiana University Press.

“Sara Brill takes on at least two significant issues in Platonic scholarship: the nature of the soul, and especially the language of immortality in its description, and the relationship between politics and psychology. She treats each one of these topics in a fresh and nuanced way. Her writing is beautiful and fluid.” —Marina McCoy, Boston College

Sara has been a long time member of the Society, serving as co-director from 2011-2013.

Here is the description from the Indiana University Press:

By focusing on the immortal character of the soul in key Platonic dialogues, Sara Brill shows how Plato thought of the soul as remarkably flexible, complex, and indicative of the inner workings of political life and institutions. As she explores the character of the soul, Brill reveals the corrective function that law and myth serve. If the soul is limitless, she claims, then the city must serve a regulatory or prosthetic function and prop up good political institutions against the threat of the soul’s excess. Brill’s sensitivity to dramatic elements and discursive strategies in Plato’s dialogues illuminates the intimate connection between city and soul.

Books, Of Interest

Recco and Sanday Edit Volume on Plato’s Laws

Two long time members of the APS have co-edited a volume entitled: Plato’s Laws: Force and Truth in Politics. 

Here is what Indiana University Press says:

Readers of Plato have often neglected the Laws because of its length and density. In this set of interpretive essays, notable scholars of the Laws from the fields of classics, history, philosophy, and political science offer a collective close reading of the dialogue “book by book” and reflect on the work as a whole. In their introduction, editors Gregory Recco and Eric Sanday explore the connections among the essays and the dramatic and productive exchanges between the contributors. This volume fills a major gap in studies on Plato’s dialogues by addressing the cultural and historical context of the Laws and highlighting their importance to contemporary scholarship.

Our own Marina McCoy of Boston College writes:

A diverse set of intelligent and original essays on the Laws featuring some of the best names in American scholarship.

Congratulations to Greg and Eric and to all the contributors published in this volume.

Books, Of Interest

The Nature Drawings of Peter Karklins

The Nature Drawings of Peter Karklins
Ed. Sean D. Kirkland

University of Chicago Press/Distributed for DePaul Art Museum

64 pages | 1 color plate, 31 halftones | 8 x 10 3/4

This exhibition catalogue presents a series of fascinating and challenging “nature drawings” by the Latvian, German-born, Chicago-based artist, Peter Karklins, drawings that are on display from July to November of 2012 at the DePaul University Art Museum in Chicago.

The book may well interest APS members for two reasons. On the one hand, the artist understands himself to present nature in a mode wholly at odds with the modern, scientific, technologically mastered conception thereof, even as he finds a profound resonance in the early Greeks’ experience of their world. On the other hand, a number of the mini-essays in the collection are contributed by long-time APS members, David Farrell Krell, Michael Naas, and William McNeill, and the volume is edited by Sean D. Kirkland, former APS co-director. The Nature Drawings of Peter Karklins is available through Amazon or the University of Chicago Press website.

“Peter Karklins once referred to his work as “Presocratic Realism,” a provocative title that suggests reality is found in the world before the time of systematic rationality, and, indeed, his images transport us to just such a place. His miniature works offer visions of another world in which the very fabric of the real is a strange hybrid of the biomorphic and the mechanically regularized, the sexual and the sterile, a world that holds itself uncomfortably between objectivity and fantasy, between objects we consciously observe and desires we unconsciously enact. Drawing primarily upon the insights of contemporary Continental philosophy, seventeen contributors from a variety of disciplines offer short, engaging responses that use the works to introduce powerful, contemporary reflections on the nature of art, of humanity, and of freedom.”

John Russon, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph

 

“This is that rare, much to be coveted, invitation to the sort of event one only wishes happened more often. Gathered here are scholars of different fields all set in concerted focus on the marvelously strange miniature drawings of Peter Karklins. The creative dialogue that develops between these thinkers and the works in this volume stands as a testament to the value of bypassing the boundaries usually adhered to by the mainstream art industry, suggesting that the most refreshing engagements in art may happen well beyond them.”

Annika Marie, Department of Art and Design, Columbia College

 

Books

Aristotle on the Nature of Truth

Christopher P. Long, Aristotle on the Nature of Truth, 1st ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

This book reconsiders the traditional correspondence theory of truth, which takes truth to be a matter of correctly representing objects.

Drawing Heideggerian phenomenology into dialogue with American pragmatic naturalism, I undertake a rigorous reading of Aristotle that articulates the meaning of truth as a cooperative activity between human beings and the natural world that is rooted in our endeavors to do justice to the nature of things.

By following a path of Aristotle’s thinking that leads from our rudimentary encounters with things in perceiving through human communication to thinking, this book traces an itinerary that uncovers the nature of truth as ecological justice, and it finds the nature of justice in our attempts to articulate the truth of things.

Endorsements of the book:

“An original interpretation of Aristotle that subtly weaves together the themes of truth and justice. Christopher Long shows how the question of truth leads us ineluctably to justice and the question of justice leads us back to truth. He combines a rigorous reading of Aristotle’s texts with an imaginative discussion of how American pragmatic naturalism and Heideggerian phenomenology illuminate Aristotle’s attentive response to the world. Through Long’s rich text, we can virtually hear Aristotle’s voice speaking to us in new, relevant, and exciting ways.”
– Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research

“Christopher Long’s new book, Aristotle and the Nature of Truth, is a remarkably fresh and original treatment of one of the most central topics in all of philosophy. Long shows through penetrating and persuasive scholarship that for Aristotle the question of truth is about the nature of things and the things of nature. Thus, this is as much a book about nature and about ecology as it is about truth and being, and it is an indispensable tool for those whose work in environmental philosophy is committed to mining the tradition in order to retrieve a theoretical basis for a new sense of ecological justice. Long philosophizes with a remarkable gracefulness and he has a unique ability to work across methodological traditions to offer a reading of Aristotle that draws resources equally from phenomenology, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy. This book will contribute a great deal to overcoming the polarization that inhibits the usual philosophical approaches to ancient Greek philosophy.”
– Walter A. Brogan,Villanova University

“This is a boldly conceived, painstakingly researched, and exquisitely executed work. The author’s intensely focused attention on the relevant texts is matched by a hermeneutic sensibility animated by imagination, probity, and a steadying awareness of Aristotle’s principal preoccupations and commitments. Christopher Long exemplifies what he takes to be at the heart of Aristotle’s understanding of truth – responsibility in the sense of responsiveness (including reflexive responsiveness). His reading of Aristotle as an integral part of philosophical naturalism, taken to be a living philosophical tradition, is just one of the notable and valuable aspects of this unique contribution to contemporary philosophy, not just contemporary scholarship. At every turn, Professor Long shows in detail the relevance of Aristotle’s writings – indeed, the force of his arguments and the depth of his insights.”
– Vincent Colapietro, Pennsylvania State University

“This is a deeply insightful, genuinely important book that says things far beyond what its title might suggest. It is at once a learned and original study of Aristotle and his contemporary importance; a brilliant and productive dialogue with naturalism, pragmatism, and existential phenomenology; and a profound and moving meditation on truth, nature, and justice.  Aristotle and the Nature of Truth is philosophy at its best.”
– John J. Stuhr, Emory University

Books

Feminist Readings of Antigone

Holly Moore has suggested that members of the Ancient Philosophy Society might be interested in this new book out from SUNY Press entitled, Feminist Readings of Antigone. Here is what the Press says about the book:

Feminist Readings of Antigone collects the most interesting and provocative feminist work on the figure of Antigone, in particular looking at how she can figure into contemporary debates on the role of women in society. Contributors focus on female subjectivity and sexuality, feminist ethics and politics, questions of race and gender, psychoanalytic theory, kinship, embodiment, and tensions between the private and the public. This collection seeks to explore and spark debate about why Antigone has become such an important figure for feminist thinkers of our time, what we can learn from her, whether a feminist politics turning to this ancient heroine can be progressive or is bound to idealize the past, and why Antigone keeps entering the stage in times of political crisis and struggle in all corners of the world. Fanny Söderbäck has gathered classic work in this field alongside newly written pieces by some of the most important voices in contemporary feminist philosophy. The volume includes essays by Judith Butler, Adriana Cavarero, Tina Chanter, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva.

Books

Heidegger’s Being and Truth

Indiana University Press is pleased to announce the recent publication of:

BEING AND TRUTH
Martin Heidegger
Translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt

“Fried and Polt’s translation of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Truth is a well-crafted and careful rendering of an important and demanding volume of the Complete Works.” —Andrew Mitchell, Emory University

In these lectures, delivered in 1933–1934 while he was Rector of the University of Freiburg and an active supporter of the National Socialist regime, Martin Heidegger addresses the history of metaphysics and the notion of truth from Heraclitus to Hegel. First published in German in 2001, these two lecture courses offer a sustained encounter with Heidegger’s thinking during a period when he attempted to give expression to his highest ambitions for a philosophy engaged with politics and the world. While the lectures are strongly nationalistic and celebrate the revolutionary spirit of the time, they also attack theories of racial supremacy in an attempt to stake out a distinctively Heideggerian understanding of what it means to be a people. This careful translation offers valuable insight into Heidegger’s views on language, truth, animality, and life, as well as his political thought and activity.

Studies in Continental Thought
256 pp., 5 b&w illus. cloth 978-0-253-35511-9 $39.95

For more information, visit:
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?isbn=978-0-253-35511-9

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