Both/And is a new interpretation of Kierkegaard's writings which attempts to make sense of a very diverse authorship by offering a comprehensive interpretation of both Kierkegaard's so-called aesthetic and his religious writings. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) stands for a turning point in philosophy from a systematic philosophy - which, with its focus on objectivity, attempts to place itself on the secure path of science - to a philosophythat focuses its attention in subjectivity and openly acknowledges itself as fragmentary and provisional. Strawser examines Kierkegaard's works as religious,...

The essence of Dussel's thought is presented through the concept of ethical hermeneuticswhich seeks to interpret reality from the viewpoint of what Emmanuel Levinas presents as the other- those who are vanquished, forgotten, or excluded from existent socio-political or cultural systems. Barber traces Dussel's development toward Levinas' philosophy through his discussion of the Hegelian dialectic and through the stages of Dussel's own ethical theory.

Responding to questions put to him at a Roundtable held at Villanova University in 1994, Jacques Derrida leads the reader through an illuminating discussion of the central themes of deconstruction. Speaking in English and extemporaneously, Derrida takes up with unusual clarity and great eloquence such topics as the task of philosophy, the Greeks, justice, responsibility, the gift, the community, the distinction between the messianic and the concrete messianisms, and his interpretation of James Joyce. Derrida convincingly refutes the charges of relativism and nihilism that are often leveled at...

Recent discussions in the various circles of feminism, postmodernism, and environmentalism have begun to make clear that ontology and epistemology without ethics is deadly - oppressive to women, oppressive to men, oppressive to the earth. In response to this crisis of reason in modernity, this collection of essays suggests the importance of knowing other-wise, non-rational ways of knowing which are wise to the other- a spiritual knowing of the heart with the passionate eye of love. Knowing Otherwise calls into question the Western philosophical tradition of giving pride of place to reason in...

"Analyzes and assesses the decisive contributions made to our understanding of the imaginary life of phenomenology (Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Bachelard), hermeneutics (Heidegger, Ricoeur), and postmodernism (Vattimo, Kristeva, Lyotard) . . . superb and highly recommended." -The Midwest Book Review

Existentialism has come to be identified as a critical, reactionary way of thinking, celebrating the individual, freedom, embodiment, and the limits of rationality and systematic theorizing. For the most part this assessment is true of the early and, by now, classicalworks of existentialism, those that first burst upon the philosophical and cultural scene. Circulating Being centers on the later works of several well-known French existentialists (Camus, Marcel, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) to trace out the development of their existential thinking about language, communicative life, ethics, and...

Edith Wyschogrod presents the first full-length study in English of the important contemporary French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. It is a revision of the author's earlier study and includes discussions of his recent writings as well as current scholarship. Dr. Wyschogrod's extensive discussion of Levinas's relation to Judaism, especially his use of literature from the Torah and other religious writings, will be of interest to religious scholars. The author compares Levinas's thought with that of his contemporaries, most notably Jacques Derrida and Husserl.

The Face of the Other and the Trace of God contain essays on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and how his philosophy intersects with that of other philosophers, particularly Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Derrida. This collection is broadly divided into two parts: relations with the other, and the questions of God.

Based on papers delivered at a conference held at Georgetown University in Fall 1993, The Question of Christian Philosophy Today proves different issues confronting Christian philosophy at the brink of the twenty-first century, from traditionalism to postmodernism. Together with excerpts from the question and answer session, each paper and the concluding round table discussion are here preserved in five distinct sections. The work, taken as a whole, is an exemplar of the meaning and spirit of where we can locate Christian Philosophy today, and what we can expect for its future.

Contemporary continental philosophy approaches metaphysics with great reservation. A point of criticism concerns traditional philosophical speaking about God. Whereas Nietzsche, with his question God is dead; who killed Him?was, in his time, highly 'unzeitgema' and shocking, the twentieth century by contrast, saw Heidegger's concept of 'onto-theology' and its implied problematization of the God of the metaphysicians quickly become a famous term. In Heidegger's words, to a philosophical concept or 'being' we can neither pray, nor kneel. Heidegger did not, however, return to the God of...