Philosophy and Religion - Recent Titles from Ohio University Press

Rational Animals

Mon, 09 Jul 2007

Rational Animals (2007)
The Teleological Roots of Intentionality

By Mark Okrent

Rational Animals: The Teleological Roots of Intentionality offers an original account of the intentionality of human mental states, such as beliefs and desires.

The account of intentionality in Rational Animals is broadly biological in its basis, emphasizing the continuity between human intentionality and the levels of intentionality that should be attributed to animal actions and states.

Establishing the goal-directed character of animal behavior, Mark Okrent argues that instrumentally rational action is a species of goal-directed behavior that is idiosyncratic to individual agents and is distinguished by its novelty and flexibility. He also argues that some nonlinguistic animals are capable of instrumental rationality and that in the first instance, the contents of beliefs and desires are individuated by the explanatory role of those states in rationally accounting for such instrumentally rational behavior.

The account of instrumental rationality offered in Rational Animals allows for understanding the practical rationality of linguistically competent human beings as a distinctive capacity of social animals capable of undertaking roles governed by socially sanctioned norms.

Rational Animals will be of interest to cognitive scientists, philosophers of mind, philosophers of biology, philosophers of action, ethologists, and those interested in the debates concerning animal intelligence.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Rational+Animals.
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African Gifts of the Spirit

Thu, 15 Mar 2007

African Gifts of the Spirit (2007)
Pentecostalism & the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement

By David Maxwell

This book considers the rise of born-again Christianity in Africa through a study of one of the most dynamic Pentecostal movements. David Maxwell traces the transformation of the prophet Ezekiel Guti and his prayer band from small beginnings in the townships of the 1950s into the present-day transnational business enterprise, which is now the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God. Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa claims one and a half million members in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa and has branches in other African countries, Europe, and the United States. African Gifts of the Spirit illuminates Africa’s relations with American Christianities, black and white.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/African+Gifts+of+the+Spirit.
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Topologies of the Flesh

Tue, 28 Mar 2006

Topologies of the Flesh (2006)
A Multidimensional Exploration of the Lifeworld

By Steven M. Rosen

The concept of "flesh" in philosophical terms derives from the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This was the word he used to name the concrete realm of sentient bodies and life processes that has been eclipsed by the abstractions of science, technology, and modern culture. Topology, to conventional understanding, is the branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the properties of geometric figures that stay the same when the figures are stretched or deformed.

Topologies of the Flesh is an original blend of continental thought and mathematical imagination. Steven M. Rosen opens up a new area of philosophical inquiry: topological phenomenology. Through his unique application of qualitative mathematics, he extends the approaches of Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger so as to offer a detailed exploration of previously uncharted dimensions of human experience and the natural world.

Rosen's unprecedented marriage of topology and phenomenology is motivated by the desire to help overcome the pervasive dualism of contemporary philosophy and Western culture at large. To carry this to completion, he must address his own dualistic stance as author. Challenging the author's traditional posture of detachment and anonymity, Rosen makes his presence vividly felt in his final chapter, and his philosophical analysis is transformed into a living reality.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Topologies+of+the+Flesh.
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Merleau-Ponty and Derrida

Wed, 18 Aug 2004

Merleau-Ponty and Derrida (2004)
Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity

By Jack Reynolds

While there have been many essays devoted to comparing the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty with that of Jacques Derrida, there has been no sustained book-length treatment of these two French philosophers. Additionally, many of the essays presuppose an oppositional relationship between them, and between phenomenology and deconstruction more generally.

Jack Reynolds systematically explores their relationship by analyzing each philosopher in terms of two important and related issues—embodiment and alterity. Focusing on areas with which they are not commonly associated (e.g., Derrida on the body and Merleau-Ponty on alterity) makes clear that their work cannot be adequately characterized in a strictly oppositional way. Merleau-Ponty and Derrida: Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity proposes the possibility of a Merleau-Ponty-inspired philosophy that does not so avowedly seek to extricate itself from phenomenology, but that also cannot easily be dismissed as simply another instantiation of the metaphysics of presence. Reynolds argues that there are salient ethico-political reasons for choosing an alternative that accords greater attention to our embodied situation.

As the first full-length monograph comparing the philosophers, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida will interest scholars and students in European philosophy and teachers of courses dealing with deconstruction.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Merleau-Ponty+and+Derrida.
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The World Unclaimed

Tue, 01 Jul 2003

The World Unclaimed (2003)
A Challenge to Heidegger's Critique of Husserl

By Lilian Alweiss

The World Unclaimed argues that Heidegger's critique of modern epistemology in Being and Time is seriously flawed. Heidegger believes he has done away with epistemological problems concerning the external world by showing that the world is an existential structure of Dasein. However, the author argues that Heidegger fails to make good his claim that he has "rescued" the phenomenon of the world, which he believes the tradition of philosophy has bypassed. Heidegger fails not only to reclaim the world but also to acknowledge its loss. Alweiss thus calls into question Heidegger's claim that ontology is more fundamental than epistemology.

The World Unclaimed develops its powerful critique of Being and Time by arguing for a return to Husserl. It draws on Husserl's insight that it is the moving and sensing body that discloses how we are already familiar with the world. Kinaesthesia provides a key for understanding our relation to the world. The author thus suggests that thinkers in the vein of Husserl and Kant -who, for Heidegger, epitomize the tradition of modern philosophy by returning to a "worldless subject"- may provide us with the resources to reclaim the phenomenon of the world that Being and Time sets out to salvage.

Alweiss's fresh and innovative study demonstrates that it is possible to overcome epistemological skepticism without ever losing sight of the phenomenon of the world. Moreover, Alweiss challenges us to reconsider the relation between Husserl and Heidegger by providing a forceful defense of Husserl's critique of cognition.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+World+Unclaimed.
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The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche

Mon, 30 Jun 2003

The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche (2003)

By David Mikics

The great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson and the influential German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, though writing in different eras and ultimately developing significantly different philosophies, both praised the individual's wish to be transformed, to be fully created for the first time. Emerson and Nietzsche challenge us to undertake the task of identity on our own, in order to see (in Nietzsche's phrase) "how one becomes what one is."

David Mikics's The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche examines the argument, as well as the affinity, between these two philosophers. Nietzsche was an enthusiastic reader of Emerson and inherited from him an interest in provocation as a means of instruction, an understanding of the permanent importance of moods and transitory moments in our lives, and a sense of the revolutionary character of impulse. Both were deliberately outrageous thinkers, striving to shake us out of our complacency.

Rather than choosing between Emerson and Nietzsche, Professor Mikics attends to Nietzsche's struggle with Emerson's example and influence. Elegant in its delivery, The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche offers a significant commentary on the visions of several contemporary theorists whose interests intersect with those of Emerson and Nietzsche, especially Stanley Cavell, Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Zizek, and Harold Bloom.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+Romance+of+Individualism+in+Emerson+and+Nietzsche.
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The Struggle for Meaning

Sun, 15 Dec 2002

The Struggle for Meaning (2002)
Reflections on Philosophy, Culture, and Democracy in Africa

By Paulin J. Hountondji

The Struggle for Meaning is a landmark publication by one of African philosophy's leading figures, Paulin J. Hountondji, best known for his critique of ethnophilosophy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this volume, he responds with autobiographical and philosophical reflection to the dialogue and controversy he has provoked. He discusses the ideas, rooted in the work of such thinkers as Husserl and Hountondji's former teachers Derrida, Althusser, and Ricoeur, that helped shape his critique.

Applying his philosophical ideas to the critical issues of democracy, culture, and development in Africa today, he addresses three crucial topics: the nexus between scientific extraversion and economic dependence; the nature of endogenous traditions of thought and their relationship with modern science; and the implications--for political pluralism and democracy--of the emergence of "philosophies of subject" in Africa.

While the book's immediate concern is with Africa, the densely theoretical nature of its analyses, and its bearing on current postmodern theories of the "other," will make this timely and elegant translation of great interest to many disciplines, especially ethnic, gender, and multicultural studies.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+Struggle+for+Meaning.
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Christian Missionaries and the State in the Third World

Sun, 31 Mar 2002

Christian Missionaries and the State in the Third World (2002)

Edited by Holger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle

The fact that many of the leaders in the Third World were educated by Christian missionaries is a decisive factor in world politics today. Christian Missionaries and the State in the Third World provides examples of how these missionaries contributed to the construction, destruction, and reconstruction of state structures in Africa and the Caribbean, through educational activity and attempts at healing and trade, as well as by preaching, prayer, and other sacramental endeavors.

In the nineteenth century, after the abolition of the slave trade, the character of the states encountered on both sides of the Atlantic was of critical importance. This was regardless of the social origin or status of the missionaries or whether they were African, American, or European, slave or free. In the twentieth century, missionaries were often involved in the struggles for cultural renewal, political freedom, and economic development. They sometimes made crucial contributions to the movements that eventually achieved freedom from colonialism.

In recent history, their role in relation to the state continues, though changed. As Michael Twaddle points out, “Christian professionals from Western countries act as members of humanitarian NGOs in Third World countries and as monitors of human rights infringements worldwide. These particular professionals may not call themselves such, but they act as Christian missionaries nonetheless.”

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Christian+Missionaries+and+the+State+in+the+Third+World.
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Creating a Perfect World

Fri, 15 Mar 2002

Creating a Perfect World (2002)
Religious and Secular Utopias in Nineteenth-Century Ohio

By Catherine M. Rokicky

Powerful currents of religious revival and political and social reform swept nineteenth-century America. Many people expressed their radical religious and social ideals by creating or joining self-contained utopian communities. These utopianists challenged the existing social and economic order with alternative notions about religion, marriage, family, sexuality, property ownership, and wage labor.

Between 1787 and 1919, approximately 270 utopian communities existed in the United States. Due to its unique location on the young nation’s frontier, the state of Ohio was the site of much of this activity.

Creating a Perfect World examines Ohio’s utopian movements, both religious and secular. These include the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, or Shakers; the Society of Separatists at Zoar; the Mormons, who stopped in the state for several years on their way west; and several societies based on the philosophies of European social reformers Robert Owen and Charles Fourier.

In this detailed account of a unique and fascinating chapter in Ohio’s history, Catherine M. Rokicky profiles these communities and explores their ideals, how and why they were established, their leaders, and their members’ reasons for joining and sometimes leaving. She also examines the roles men and women played, their approaches to communal living and community property, their economic activities, their relations with surrounding communities and the state, and the various reasons for their success or failure.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Creating+a+Perfect+World.
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Husserl and Transcendental Intersubjectivity

Wed, 15 Aug 2001

Husserl and Transcendental Intersubjectivity (2001)
A Response to the Linguistic-Pragmatic Critique

By Dan Zahavi

Husserl and Transcendental Intersubjectivity analyzes the transcendental relevance of intersubjectivity and argues that an intersubjective transformation of transcendental philosophy can already be found in phenomenology, especially in Husserl. Husserl eventually came to believe that an analysis of transcendental intersubjectivity was a conditio sine qua non for a phenomenological philosophy. Drawing on both published and unpublished manuscripts, Dan Zahavi examines Husserl's reasons for this conviction and delivers a detailed analysis of his radical and complex concept of intersubjectivity, showing that precisely his reflections on transcendental intersubjectivity are capable of clarifying the core-concepts of phenomenology, thus making possible a new understanding of Husserl’s philosophy.

Against this background the book compares his view with the approaches to intersubjectivity found in Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, and it then attempts to establish to what extent the phenomenological approach can contribute to the current discussion of intersubjectivity. This is achieved through a systematic confrontation with the language-pragmatical positions of Apel and Habermas.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Husserl+and+Transcendental+Intersubjectivity.
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