Indeterminacy and Intelligibility

Brian John Martine is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is the author of Individuals and Individuality, also published by SUNY Press.

"This book is superb: it shows the absolute relation between the determinate and indeterminancy by laying bare the categorial ties that bind these concepts together And it does so by using eminent thinkers in the history of philosophy: Parmenides, Plato, and Descartes. An important contribution to the post-modern debate." — Joseph Grange, University of Southern Maine"The major strength of the book is the careful, clear style in which Martine addresses the philosophical predilection to think of all intelligibility in terms of determinacy. He uncovers the place of indeterminacy in our struggle for intelligibility. He does so very nicely: on the one hand there is a strong emphasis on the analysis of basic categories; on the other, Martine avoids empty abstraction by grounding the analysis on a rich phenomenological sense of the appearance of things into determinate intelligibility." — William Desmond, Loyola University"It addresses a timely and important topic in a clear and engaging manner. It is, in my judgment, a model of clarity and honest reflection about a cluster of crucial philosophical issues, issues confronted in a fashion by ancient Greek philosophers, modern European thinkers, and contemporary figures of the most diverse sort. If more works in philosophy were this clearly written, honestly executed, and self-critically argued, we would perhaps hear far less about the 'end of philosophy.'" — Vincent Colapietro, Fordham University

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Relations, Indeterminacy, and Intelligibility i. Things in Relationii. Indeterminacy and Interpretationiii. Determinacy and Intelligibilityiv. The Contemporary Landscape 2. Determinations, Boundaries, and Determinacy i. Indeterminacy and Boundariesii. Boundaries in Direct Experienceiii. Determinacy Iiv. Interludev. Determinacy IIvi. Boundaries and Determinacyvii. The Unbounded 3. Being, Not-Being, and the Otherness of Otherness i. The Reflective Removeii. Being and Boundaries a. Being and Nothingb. Being and Thoughtc. Being and Movement iii. Being, Otherness, and Indeterminacy a. Not-Being and Thoughtb. The Otherness of Otherness iv. Making-Determinate and Indeterminacy 4. Beginnings, Ends, and Indeterminacy i. Modern Beginningsii. Determinacy and Dichotomiesiii. The Ordinary Experience of Indeterminacy Index