William Desmond is professor of philosophy, Higher Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and David R. Cook Visiting Chair in Philosophy at Villanova University.

A marvelously articulated work with a consummately refined language of its own for conceiving the perennial issues of philosophy in fresh and compelling terms. -- William Franke, Vanderbilt University and University of Macao Desmond combines the virtues of scope, systematic rigor, and highly individual manner of perception and expression. -- Cyril O'Regan, University of Notre Dame In this excellent and interesting work, Desmond is expanding and refining his already considerable contribution to contemporary continental philosophy in a metaphysical register. -- Christopher Ben Simpson, Lincoln Christian University How can something singular, in all the depths of its singularity, communicate with the universal, with the result that the singular is not contracted to itself and the universal is not a free floating abstraction? William Desmond explores this basic question in all its dimensions in the steady, systematic and meticulous manner we have come to expect from him in this not to be missed new volume. -- John D. Caputo, Emeritus Professor, Syracuse University and Villanova University There is today no more important philosophical project being undertaken than that of William Desmond's poetic, unshirkingly apposite and yet unpretentious attempt to rethink a metaphysics of analogy and mediation. This book represents another chapter in its unfolding. -- John Milbank, University of Nottingham

• Acknowledgments Introduction: For and Against the Universal-Doing Justice Part I: The Intimate Universal-Exoteric Reflections: Religion 1. Religion and the Intimate Universal: Neither Cosmopolis nor Ghetto 2. Art and the Intimate Universal: Neither Imitation nor Self-Creation 3. Philosophy and the Intimate Universal: Neither Theory nor Practice 4. Politics and the Intimate Universal: Neither Servility nor Sovereignty Part II: The Intimate Universal-Systematic Thoughts: From the Idiotic to the Agapeic 5. The Idiotics of the Intimate Universal 6. The Aesthetics of the Intimate Universal 7. The Erotics of the Intimate Universal 8. The Agapeics of the Intimate Universal Glossary Notes Index