This new book by Ermanno Bencivenga expands upon his earlier work, which explores the issue of the multiplicity of the subject in contemporary philosophy. In Dancing Souls Bencivenga addresses the crucial question of how the subject can be one and multiple at the same time. Without reducing multiplicity to juxtaposition (or phenomenological schizophrenia), or simple unity to objectivity, Bencivenga locates the subject's unity between various existential positions. He finds that this phenomenon is like the disciplined movement of the dancer through space. Bencivenga explores the structure of this ontological betweenness in its various levels of complexity from the most intimately personal to the communal and the political. Written in a style that is at once highly informed by scholarship while also remaining very personal and honest, Bencivenga does not provide easy answers but struggles with the reader. The novel and engaging form of this book, along with its unique treatment of some of the most perennially engaging philosophical questions will satisfy the most serious scholars, while also appealing to educated readers interested in social ethics and existentialism.
