Path into Metaphysics Phenomenological, Hermeneutical, and Dialogical Studies
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Robert E. Wood is Graduate Dean and Director of the Institute of Philosophical Studies at the University of Dallas. He is the author of Martin Buber's Ontology, and co-editor of the journal, The New Scholasticism.
<p>"This is a brilliant 'introduction' to metaphysics, beginning with the creation of a metaphysical system (Part I) and then defending it through a reading of the Western tradition (Part II). The writing is clear and persuasive throughout; it does not presuppose antecedent knowledge of the tradition, or of any present context defining 'metaphysics.' Rather, the book develops what it needs of those things as it goes along; hence it would be splendid as an undergraduate text. Nevertheless, there are subtle references throughout Part I and direct discussions in Part II of the metaphysical tradition; for those who already know, this is a profound and subtly argued defense of a particular metaphysical position relative to the competitors; hence it is intrinsically interesting for advanced scholars and will evoke commentary in the current discussion. The book is magisterial in both senses: a fine teaching tool and an embodiment of mastery."— Robert Cummings Neville</p><p>"I like the sense of philosophical seriousness that comes through. The author displays a humanly insightful touch in relation to metaphysical problems that are often wrongly dismissed as abstract and irrelevant. He communicates the sense that philosophical thought is an adventure of mind. Another major asset of the book is that it shows a wide command of the major thinkers in the philosophical tradition." — William Desmond</p>
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: HUMANNESS, METAPHYSICS, AND BEING
1. Secular Meditations
Death
Birth
Embodiment
Consciousness
Self-Identity
Space
Time
Interconnectedness
2. The Many Dimensions of Humanness
Experience and Conceptualization
Flatland: An Imaginative Model
Imagination and Judgment
Intentionality
Sensing
Conceptualization
Reference to Being
Implicit Features of Inwardness
3. Toward a Definition of Humanness
Observational Differences
The Proximate Inner Ground: Rationality
The Ultimate Ground: Metaphysicality
"Soul" as Center of Meaning
The Human Being as the Sick Animal
The Human Being as Religious Animal
The Human Being as Historical
4. Metaphysics and Practicality
The Meaning of Practicality
Immanence
Transcendence
Relativity of Norms
Levels of Transcendence
Subjectivity and the Sacred
Immanence and Transcendence
Metaphysics and Practicality
5. Abstract and Concrete
Identifying the Context of the Terms
Bodiliness and Concreteness
Concreteness and Universality
Object, Subject, Praxis
PART TWO: READING THE TRADITION
Section A. The Ancient-Medieval Tradition
6. Parmenides
"Heart" as Starting Point
The Logic of Being
Historical Aftermath
Heidegger's Approach
7. Plato
Metaphor and Allegory
Dreaming in the Cave
In the Light
Geometry as Paradigm
Eros and the Good
Epilogue on Plotinus
8. Aristotle
Empiricism and the Principles of Changing Being
The Hierarchy of Changing Being
Knowing and Being
Revisiting the One and the Good
9. Aquinas
Being and the Sensorily Given
Essence-Esse and God
Assimilation and Transformation of Aristotle
"The Mystical"
Analogy and the Transcendentals
Presence to Being
Section B. The Modern Tradition
10. Rene Descartes
Methodic Doubt and the Cogito
Being and God
Cogito, World, God
Response
11. Baruch Spinoza
Being as a Single Substance
Freedom
Unity
Response
12. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
The Monad
Hierarchy
First Principles
Response
13. Immanuel Kant
The Ground of Kant's Thought
Sensibility
Categories
Reason
The Moral Order
Critique of Judgment
Response
14. G.W.F. Hegel
The Comprehension of Christian Revelation
The Phenomenology of Spirit
The Logic of the Logos
Nature and Spirit
Absolute Spirit
Response
15. Alfred North Whitehead
Whitehead and Modern Physics
Whitehead and Plato
Response
16. Martin Heidegger
Situating Heidegger
Being, Truth, and Being-in-the-World
The Light of Being
Historicity and Authenticity
The Play of the Fourfold
The History of Truth and the Return to Meditative Thinking
Response
Epilogue: The Metaphysical Basis of Dialogical Pluralism
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Robert E. Wood is Graduate Dean and Director of the Institute of Philosophical Studies at the University of Dallas. He is the author of Martin Buber's Ontology, and co-editor of the journal, The New Scholasticism.