Ring of Representation

Stephen David Ross is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory-Second Edition; Metaphysical Aporia and Philosophical Heresy; Perspective in Whitehead's Metaphysics; Philosophical Mysteries; and A Theory of Art: Inexhaustibility by Contrast, all published by SUNY Press.

"It's the ambitious question of how philosophical representation can proceed once it ceases to be naive regarding its representational means. Can philosophy recognize its own limits? (What is a 'limit' in this case?) It is Heidegger's question concerning the 'overcoming' of metaphysics. It is implicitly posed by Kant's 1st Critique: what is the status of the critique itself?" — Forrest Williams, University of Colorado, Boulder"There is no book I know of that deals with such an extensive group of philosophers and themes. The author has addressed many of the most cogent issues in contemporary philosophy, allowed them to resonate in terms of each other, even provided an implicit landscape from which to organize them. There is a lot of original work here and some interpretation of recent essays that will prove extraordinarily helpful. I would point to his extraordinary treatment of Derrida's Geschlecht texts. The importance of these texts is well known and Ross' 'commentary' on them and his ability to situate Derrida's discussion in a chapter on embodiment is the best treatment of the subject I know of. I would also mention Ross' notion of 'sonorescence' which completely shifts the 'ground' of philosophy and is an original philosophical contribution. Finally, he has set up a dialogue between many of the key figures in philosophy, both contemporary and in the history."Ross shows that the issue is not an overcoming of metaphysics but a releasing of the excess within and beyond representational metaphysics. But his own work is itself a metaphysics. Each of the issues he addresses flow into the next issue so that his final discussion of physis and techne really returns and re-presents the origin of metaphysics." — Walter A. Brogan, Villanova University

• AnacrusisOneSonanceTwoJudgmentThreeRepresentationFourPowerFiveDesireSixTruthSevenHistoryEightEmbodimentNinePraxisTenHumanityElevenNatureNotesIndex