Mind's Bodies

Berel Lang is Professor of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, State University of New York at Albany.

"I like the book's idiosyncratic perspectives; its brilliance, its originality. The prose is burnished, the ideas arresting. Philosophy as literature (currently a rara avis!)" — Cynthia Ozick"Lang has found a way to make us, for a time, philosophers despite ourselves by presenting a novelist's imagination in philosophical clothing. Nothing sheepish, however, about his often cruelly precise observations. They summon us to imagine more fully (i.e. carnally) and then to think more consequently (i.e. like Kafka or Wittgenstein). These extended aphorisms, little essays really, begin casually enough from any subject—reading, walking, voyeurism, death—but develop in startling ways. They almost convince us that self-consciousness is a good thing and that logic can be made reader-friendly." — Geoffrey Hartman, Yale University

• Articles of Incorporation Acknowledgments Words, OneClarityReadingSilencesIn PrivateWalking, TalkingAloneThe RealistEnglish and the EnglishMeasure for MeasureOrderPrayerReading in VainSigns, DesireGodsCatching a FishPointingOne by OneParentsNoveltyWeather or NotTogetherTaking ChancesDoing and NotMirror ImagesNamesLimbs, Food for ArtAcrobaticsFalse ImmodestyFuture FactsMarriage and MonotheismImpotenceNature's NatureThe Art of CrueltyA BildungsromanThe Fail-Safe PrincipleRedressEros UnboundSpectator SexSins, ChoosingA Fit CrimeThe Marriage ParadoxThe Genius of the LieLosing ParadiseChildren and AdultsPartial RecallA BargainFilial ImpietySameness and DifferenceThe Seeds of HistoryPaid in FullCircles and Linesand People The Price of a Possible WorldEndingsMemory NowClass StruggleRisenBorges as BorgesOne Out of ManyFables RefabledTaking the CureObjections to ObjectsRepairsParticles and Fields: A Lament3 1/2 on Death