Philosophy, Writing, and the Character of Thought

John T. Lysaker is the William R. Kenan Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He is the author of many books, including After Emerson and You Must Change Your Life: Poetry, Philosophy, and the Birth of Sense.

"[Lysaker's] writing is scholarly, to be sure, but never merely so; he takes philosophy as we all should--personally. His prose is full of personality, wit, self-awareness, even self-doubt, and always good will."--Scott F. Parker "Rain Taxi" "Lysaker is attempting something very difficult, maybe impossible, in philosophy: a revitalization of the discipline by returning to its most vibrant (but also most confusing) expressions -- fragments, aphorisms, quotations, confessions, essays, ironies, rhetorical questions. His book is, unapologetically, a stylistic mash-up. A reader accustomed to, if not delighted by, straightforward argumentation will find it to be a maddening journey of switchbacks and dead ends. Yet someone bored by contemporary philosophy's hidebound method of analysis will find it a joyful intellectual jaunt."-- "Los Angeles Review of Books" "Lysaker provides a tour de force self-examination and analysis of philosophical writing and philosophical purpose. He addresses multiple facets of the nature of philosophical writing: what is written, how it is written, why it is written, by and to whom it is written. Lysaker engages with these concerns thoughtfully and honestly, so the book is far more than a survey. . . . Summing Up: Essential."-- "CHOICE" "This book is a profound meditation on what it means to write philosophy in all the remarkable diversity of ways in which this has happened. Examples abound from a rich tapestry composed of figures from Plato through Emerson and Thoreau, into Heidegger, Cavell, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. Lysaker's own text defies all standard genres--it is itself sui generis--as it creates its own original unique mixture of reflection and critique. Showing how philosophy must move beyond traditional aims of demonstration and validity, it concerns itself not just with the relationship between the philosophical text and the reader but also, and especially, with the times in which it exists: it must be 'equal to the moment.' Lysaker shows that philosophy at its best is an experimentation and a provocation; and his own text, at once learned and wry, humorous and dead serious, eloquent and forceful, is both of these at once."--Edward S. Casey, State University of New York at Stony Brook "This is one of the best books I have read in a while. Powerful and original, it is about writing and not knowing how to write. It is about displacement, and being uprooted, and disorientation. About stuttering, about not knowing one's way in an argument or how to say it, so that it is to the height of what it is being expressed. It is about how philosophy is homeless, and how just as it has no mother tongue, it also has no distinct or owned, sovereign, genre. This is a book about how to philosophize that requires that we create new ways, forms, genres, "styles," gestures, of writing and communicating. But, the book is more than that; it is also a reflection on how thought is impacted by its mode of delivery. The thought is its own expression, or mode of presentation."--Eduardo Mendieta, Pennsylvania State University "Philosophy, Writing, and the Character of Thought is a bold and courageous book. John Lysaker, at the level of form and in the substance of his powerful writing, shows us what philosophy can be and what it can do."--Eddie Glaude, Princeton University

• Gambits and GamblesIron FilingsPardon the InterruptionContent and FormForm and ContentIn the Beginning Was the DeedReworking MakingDeliberate WritingMistaking Instrumental ReasonFits and StartsA CultivarQuotation beyond QuotasFor ExamplesIn NuceIronyMessage in a BottleThe Hour of the WolfIt’s the Gesture That CountsFurnishing the Space of ReasonsA Struggle with OurselvesWho’s on FirstEvery One Is EverybodyThe Secret AddresseeWhen We Undo Things with WordsUnknown FriendsResoundingly ReticentProvocation/DemonstrationAmong the Pros (and Cons)A: “O my friend, there are no friends.” B: “At least we’ve got each other.”Then Came HistoryEqual to the MomentUnequal to the MomentAfter BeauvoirProperty Is TheftStrange AlchemyPublic CommitmentPropagation without PropagandaBit by BitTaking StancesCharacter StudiesWhere Do We Find OurselvesAcknowledgmentsNotesReferencesIndex