First published in 2014. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Arguably the most influential of all contemporary English-speaking philosophers, Richard Rorty has transformed the way many inside and outside philosophy think about the discipline and the traditional ways of practising it. Drawing on a wide range of thinkers from Darwin and James to Quine, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Derrida, Rorty has injected a bold anti-foundationalist vision into philosophical debate, into discussions in literary theory, communication studies, political theory and education, and, as public intellectual, into national debates about the responsibilities of America (...) in the modern world. The essays in this volume offer a balanced exposition and critique of Rorty's views on knowledge, language, truth, science, morality and politics. The editorial introduction presents a valuable overview of Rorty's philosophical vision. Written by a distinguished team of philosophers, this volume will have an unusual appeal outside philosophy to students in the social sciences, literary studies, cultural studies and political theory. (shrink)

This article discusses the ordinary, the existentialist, and the virtue‐ethics senses of the word ‘authenticity’. The term ‘authentic’ in ordinary usage suggests the idea of being ‘original’ or ‘faithful to an original’, and its application implies being true to what someone (or something) truly is. It is important to see, however, that the philosopher who put this technical term on the map in existentialism, Martin Heidegger, used the word to refer to the human capacity to be fully human, not to (...) being true to one's unique inner nature. Authenticity might also be thought of as a virtue, and interesting questions arise whether such a virtue should be regarded primarily as a personal or as a social virtue. (shrink)

The dominance of the medical-model in American psychiatry over the last 30 years has resulted in the subsequent decline of the “talking cure”. In this paper, we identify a number of problems associated with medicalized psychiatry, focusing primarily on how it conceptualizes the self as a de-contextualized set of symptoms. Drawing on the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, we argue that medicalized psychiatry invariably overlooks the fact that our identities, and the meanings and values that matter to us, are created and (...) constituted by our dialogical relations with others. While acknowledging the importance of medical and pharmaceutical interventions, we suggest that it is only by means of the dialogical interplay of the talking cure that the client can both recognize unhealthy and self-defeating ways of being and be opened up to the possibility of new meanings and self-interpretations. (shrink)

The contribution hermeneutic philosophy can make to reflection on issues in psychology is shown through a critique of the "positive psychology" movements inaugurated in the special issue of the American Psychologist edited by M. Seligman and M. Csikszentmihalyi in 2000. Drawing on the broad historical sense advocated by hermeneutics, it is shown that the conceptions of the good life defended by the contributors to the special issue might turn out to be limited to the rather narrow range of questionable and (...) shallow ideals of contemporary Western consumerist economy. In particular, the attempt made by S. E. Taylor, et al to show that "positive illusions" are conducive to a good life is shown to rest on dubious conceptions about what is genuinely worthwhile in life. As an alternative to the somewhat arid conception of human existence presupposed by the authors contributing to the special issue, M. Heidegger's conception of authentic existence is put forward as a hermeneutically inspired basis for rethinking what constitutes the richest and most fulfilling life for humans. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

The question is: how does the thought of Heidegger and the later Wittgenstein lead to such different postfoundationalist views as those of Charles Taylor and Richard Rorty? I consider how the "phenomenology of everyday life" in Heidegger and Wittgenstein shows (1) that understanding is dependent on a social background of meanings, and (2) that the sense of reality embodied in our actions is prestructured by language. This picture of everydayness is holistic, antidualistic and nonfoundationalist. I conclude by focusing the debate (...) between Taylor and Rorty, suggesting that Taylor's reading of our current philosophical situation is more viable. (shrink)

Heidegger's Being and Time: Critical Essays provides a variety of recent studies of Heidegger's most important work. Twelve prominent scholars, representing diverse nationalities, generations, and interpretive approaches deal with general methodological and ontological questions, particular issues in Heidegger's text, and the relation between Being and Time and Heidegger's later thought. All of the essays presented in this volume were never before available in an English-language anthology. Two of the essays have never before been published in any language ; three of (...) the essays have never been published in English before , and two of the essays provide previews of works in progress by major scholars. (shrink)

(2014). ‘Heidegger and the Measure of Truth’, by McManus, Denis. Australasian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 92, No. 3, pp. 602-605. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2013.834953.

This chapter contains sections titled: Phenomenology and the Problem of History Husserl: The “Inner History” of Europe and of Humanity Heidegger: History as Destruction and Retrieval Phenomenological and Existentialist Developments after Husserl and Heidegger.

This book is concerned with how we should think and act in our work, leisure activities, and time utilization in order to achieve flourishing lives. The scope papers range from general theoretical considerations of the value, e.g. 'What is a balanced life?', to specific types of considerations, e.g. 'How should we cope with the effects of work on moral decision-making?'.

Books reviewed:Mark BevirThe Logic of the History of Ideas.

The question of personal identity lies in the question: In virtue of what is a person correctly considered the same person throughout a life‐course? This chapter shows that this question is central to the thought of Dilthey, Martin Heidegger, Hans‐Georg Gadamer, Ricoeur, as well as other thinkers in the hermeneutic tradition. Despite the deep differences among hermeneutic thinkers on the topic of personal identity, there are areas of common ground that enable us to formulate a general view that is distinctively (...) hermeneutic. Heidegger rejects the conception of the self as a substance. Gadamer asks about the nature of understanding and how it is possible, and addresses these questions by drawing on the fundamental ontological approach of Heidegger's question of the being of Dasein. Ricoeur goes beyond the proto‐narrative accounts of identity by distinguishing different levels at which life can be seen as having a narrative structure. (shrink)

Dostoevsky's disturbing and groundbreaking novella appears in this new annotated edition with an Introduction by Charles Guignon and Kevin Aho. An analogue of Guignon's widely praised Introduction to his 1993 edition of "The Grand Inquisitor," the editors' Introduction places the underground man in the context of European modernity, analyzes his inner dynamics in the light of the history of Russian cultural and intellectual life, and suggests compelling reasons for our own strange affinity for this nameless man who boldly declares, "I (...) was rude and took pleasure in being so.”. (shrink)

Rorty's "philosophical life" as a public intellectual was aimed at dispelling the belief that there is a transcendent source of information about what is true and real that humans are obliged to bow down to. From a historical standpoint, his thought can be seen as the culmination of a development of ideas leading to the view that humans determine what counts as real and right. This paper traces this view and also questions whether, in its most robust form, it is (...) tenable. (shrink)

This new edition presents _The Grand Inquisitor_ together with the preceding chapter, _Rebellion,_ and the extended reply offered by Dostoevsky in the following sections, entitled _The Russian Monk._ By showing how Dostoevsky frames the Grand Inquisitor story in the wider context of the novel, this edition captures the subtlety and power of Dostoevsky's critique of modernity as well as his alternative vision of human fulfillment.

This chapter contains sections titled: Heidegger's Use of the Term “History of Being” Heidegger's Debt to Dilthey's Vision of History Heidegger's Early Account of History Historicity and History in Being and Time Being‐historical Thinking in the Later Writings The History of Being and the Work of Art.

Engelbert Krebs, a Catholic priest and professor of theology at Freiburg University, was a close friend of her husband, the philosophy lecturer Martin Heidegger. In fact, Krebs was the minister who had officiated at the Heideggers' Catholic wedding in Freiburg Cathedral on March..

Philosophy in Question is one of those rare books which manage to cast an entirely new light on familiar themes. By recovering the Pyrrhonian tradition, Hiley reinvigorates some key figures in philosophy's history while offering an insightful framework for understanding current postmodernist talk about the "end of philosophy." What motivated the Pyrrhonists, we find, was not "doubt for doubt's sake," but deep concerns about the moral and social implications of philosophy. Their critique of the Platonic equation, knowledge = virtue = (...) happiness, was directed against dogmatism and the presumption of assuming that knowing essences would make us better people. Hiley shows how this antiphilosophical theme reappears in such thinkers as Montaigne, Hume, and Rousseau, and he uses it to clarify recent questions about the Enlightenment notion of rationality found in Foucault, Kuhn, and Rorty. In the end, we have a compelling picture of how philosophy through the ages has been haunted by doubts about its ability to lead us to the good life. (shrink)