Degrees of Givenness

Christina M. Gschwandtner is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. She is author of Reading Jean-Luc Marion: Exceeding Metaphysics (IUP, 2007).

"Gschwandtner hopes to . . . [tone] down . . . and [sharpen focus] so that we see more clearly how Marion's phenomenological descriptions of the historical 'event', the work of art, the natural object, the movement into an erotic love – as well as prayer, sacrifice, and the Eucharist – make up 'degrees of givenness'.November 2015"—Heythrop Journal"Christina M. Gschwandtner has established herself as a valued reader of contemporary French philosophy in general and of Marion's writings in particular. She was the first to consider at length Marion's extensive reflections on Descartes and to evaluate their theological importance, and she has translated two of Marion's books from the French. This new study, Degrees of Givenness, extends her contribution to our understanding of this fecund philosopher."—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"This beautifully written work belongs to a developing field of scholarship on Jean-Luc Marion that goes beyond commentary and explication, to critique and extension of some of the main insights of his phenomenological project. . . . It significantly advances scholarship on Marion, and offers a sustained and critical analysis of two weaknesses in Marion's phenomenology."—Tamsin Jones, University of Victoria

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations of Works by Jean-Luc MarionIntroduction: Givenness, Saturated Phenomena, Negative Certainties, and Hermeneutics1. Historical Events and Historical Research2. Art and the Artist3. Nature and Flesh4. Love and Violence5. Gift and Sacrifice6. Prayer and Sainthood7. Eucharist and SacramentConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex