Philosophy of Finitude: Heidegger, Levinas and Nietzsche

Description

Examining the legacies of Heidegger, along with Derrida, Levinas and Nietzsche, Rafael Winkler argues that it is not the search for truth or even contradictions that stimulates philosophical thought. Instead, it is our exposure to the unthinkable or the impossible – to thought's own limits. An experience of the unthinkable is possible in our encounter with the uniqueness of death, the singularity of being, and of the self and the other. This 'thinking of finitude' also has political implications, as it provides us with a way to talk about, and evaluate, absolute strangeness and, by implication, the absolute stranger or foreigner. Illuminating Heidegger's writings on the question of ontology, ethics and history, Winkler proves that this encounter with thought's limits is one of the mainstays of the philosophies of difference of Heidegger, Levinas, and Nietzsche. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1 Death, the Impossible 1. Introduction1 2. Perishing and demise 3. Is dying possible? 4. Singularization 5. Schizophrenia 6. Mourning 2 Self and Other 1. Introduction 2. Vanquishing death 3. Alterity 4. The call 5. Guilt 6. Responsibility 3 Figurations 1. Introduction 2. Proximities a. Ontology and metaphysics b. Absolute alterity 3. The feminine welcome (a) ‘ [T]he equivocal par excellence’ (Levinas, 1979: 255) (b) ‘ [T]he hidden as hidden’ (Levinas, 1979: 260) 4. The absolute arrivant 4 Dwelling 1. Introduction 2. The earth 3. The gods 4. Antigone 5. Holy mourning 6. The proper and the foreign 7. Guestfriendship 5 Beyond Truth 1. Introduction1 2. Truth and error 3. Justice 4. Naturalism 5. The end of metaphysics a. Anthropomorphism b. Value thinking 6. The will to truth 7. Self-discipline 8. Schein 6 Substance 1. Introduction 2. The standard hypothesis 3. Essence 4. Substance 5. Rhetoric 6. Metaphor Notes Bibliography Index