Lost Souls

David Weissman is Professor of Philosophy at City College of New York and the author of several books, including, most recently, A Social Ontology.

"Weissman traces the effects of the counter-revolution taking place in the New Millennium with courage and frankness. Even those of us who delighted in the radical sectarianism of the sixties will appreciate the delicacy of his writing. His new book should be read and savored by all who are ready to face the more disagreeable political and cultural aspects of the world today with honesty and bravery." — Stephen Toulmin"Weissman deals with the issue in modern Western thought—the Cartesian subjectifying of the ontological foundations of knowledge and value, and our consequent descent into an intellectual and moral dead end. He explains why we are 'lost souls' and what the first steps are toward recovering what we have lost. This is an important work." — George Allan, author of The Patterns of the Present: Interpreting the Authority of Form"This is a profoundly neat book—exact in getting to the heart of some philosophic ideas that have been badly treated, with the result of much twentieth-century Western philosophy being wrong, empirically wrong. Rarely have I read philosophy that is so thoroughly thought through, with a complex analysis expressed in such simple and straightforward ways. Brilliantly written. This book stands as an intriguing contrast to Heidegger's story about Western philosophy, and is far more concise and to the point." — Robert Cummings Neville, author of Religion in Late Modernity"Lost Souls is an exceedingly lucid romp through all of Western philosophy—with an illuminating commentary on science and mathematics to boot. It will appeal to all intellectually curious readers... Highly recommended." — CHOICE

• List of Illustrations AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Chapter One. Plato's Divided Line 1. The Line2. The Line's Transmission A. Plotinus B. Augustine and Proclus Chapter Two. Descartes' Revisions of the Line 1. Platonic Themes A. Knowledge versus BeliefB. Mind–Body Dualism 2. Four Alterations: Descartes Amends Plato's Figure in These Critical Ways A. Imaginings and Material Particulars Merged as Empirical Differences B. Forms Replaced by GeometricalsC. The Cogito Substituted for the GoodD. The Line Ensouled 3. The Line Redrawn with Descartes' Emendations4. The Equivocal Status of God and Space: The Richer and Leaner Theories5. Skepticism6. Descartes' Sources Chapter Three. Consequences 1. Foundationalism A. Epistemic and Ontological Foundationalsim B. Mind's Structure 2. Self-knowledge3. A Priori Intelligibility4. The Geometrical Character of the Physical 5. The Self-valorizing Ego6. Descartes' Legacy A. ExistenceB. GodC. Mind as Thinking SubstanceD. A Hierarchy of Mutually-Conditioning Orders E. Which is Prior: Ideas or Percepts?F. Ideas Construed as RulesG. MeaningH. TruthI. ModalitiesJ. WillK. Value Chapter Four. Descartes' Heirs: Ontological Foundationalism and "The End of Western Metaphysics" 1. Kant2. Kant in Our Time A. Romantic Kantians: Nietzsche and HeideggerB. Analytic Kantians: Carnap and Quine 3. What is Philosophy?4. Response Chapter Five. The Cogito's Demise 1. Mind's Reduction to Body2. Diagnosis: A Philosophical Theory Empirically Refuted A. What is the Hypothesis Refuted?B. What Conceptual Features Make Dualism Suspect?C. What Empirical Evidence Refutes Descartes' Claim?D. Is the Alleged Refutation a Methodological Error? 3. Consequences of the Refutation Chapter Six. Churning 1. Disputed Questions A. Mind's Knowledge of Itself: Introspection, Behaviorism, or Inference?B. Experience: Schematization and Inspection, or Interaction?C. Ideas: Innate or Acquired?D. MeaningE. ThoughtF. Truth: Identity, Coherence or Correspondence? G. Knowledge: Intuition and Demonstration, or a Network of Hypotheses?H. Does Mind Prescribe or Investigate the Features of Things?I. Space and Time: Forms of Intuition or Spacetime? J. Freestanding Mind, or an Array of Causally-related Bodies or Systems? K. Freedom or Determinism?L. Control or Accommodation?M. Egoism or Sociality? N. Human Significance 2. An Altered Focus Chapter Seven. Ideas to Reformulate and Save 1. Intelligibility: Are Thought and Language Autonomous? 2. Mind as Foundational: Culture3. Self4. The Good Afterword Notes Index