Studies in Existentialism, Hermeneutics, and Phenomenology – serie

This collection of humanist readings of Simone de Beauvoir’s work is a novel contribution to contemporary research on Beauvoir, and a defense of the importance of the humanities. It demonstrates the significance and value of humanistic research through the work of Beauvoir, and argues that the reception and influence of her works demonstrate the transformative potential of humanistic research.Organized around three topics, each chapter ascertains Beauvoir’s relation to the humanities and the humanist tradition. The first group focuses on Beauvoir’s interdisciplinary methodology and critical thinking, the second on her ethics of freedom and the construction of values. The last section explores how Beauvoir uses literature as a laboratory for developing her ideas on human interaction. The chapters can be studied as independent essays, or read together as a whole.Simone de Beauvoir—A Humanist Thinker reveals new and previously unexplored dimensions of Beauvoir’s work by exposing her as a significant and inspiring humanist thinker. This volume attests that Beauvoir’s works continue to offer conceptual tools and insights enabling readers to critically analyze their own situation. In today’s world, where religious fanaticism and totalitarian ideologies are gaining ground, humanist values and humanistic research are more important than ever.

Silence exists at the edge of the world, where words break off and meaning fades into ambiguity. The numerous treatments of silence in Steven L. Bindeman’s Silence in Philosophy, Literature, and Art question the misleading clarity of certainty, which persists in the unreflective discourse of common experience. Significant philosophical problems, such as the limits of language, the perception of sound and the construction of meaning, the dynamics of the social realm, and the nature of the human self, all appear differently as a consequence of this questioning. Silence is shown to have two modes, disruptive and healing, which work together as complementary stages within a creative process. The interaction between these two modes of silence serves as the dynamic behind the entire work.

Nietzsche and the Dionysian argues that the shuddering mania of the affect associated with Dionysus in Nietzsche’s early work runs as a thread through his thought and is linked to an originary interruption of self-consciousness articulated by the philosophical companion. In this capacity, the companion can be considered a ‘mask of Dionysus’, or one who assumes the singular role of the transmitter of the most valuable affirmative affect and initiates a compulsion to respond which incorporates the otherness of the companion. In the context of such engagements, Nietzsche envisages ‘Dionysian’ or divine ‘madness’ within an optics of life, through which an affirmative ethics can be thought. The ethical response to the philosophical companion requires an affirmation of the plurality of life, formulated in the imperatives to be ‘true to the earth’ and ‘become who you are’. Such an ethics, compelled by the Dionysian affect, grounds any future for humanity in the affirmation of the earth and life.

This book investigates the importance of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and poetics in rethinking humanities. In particular, Ricoeur’s insights on reference as refiguration and his idea of interpretation as a triadic process (which consists of mimesis 1 – prefiguration, mimesis 2 – configuration, and mimesis 3 – refiguration) will be applied to philosophy of science and to literary and historical texts. It will be shown that Ricoeur’s idea of emplotment can be extended and applied to scientific, literary and historical texts. This multidisciplinary research will include philosophy of science, metaphysics, hermeneutics, and literary theory.

In this work, Belliotti unravels the paradoxes of human existence. The purpose of this philosophical journey is to reveal paths for forging meaningful, significant, valuable, even important lives. By examining notions of The Absurd expressed within Search for the Holy Grail, The Seventh Seal, and The Big Lebowski, the author crafts a working definition of “absurdity.” He then investigates the contributions of classical thinkers such as Shakespeare, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Sartre, Camus, as well as philosophers such as Nagel, Feinberg, and Taylor. After arguing that human life is not inherently absurd, Belliotti examines the implications of mortality for human existence, the relationship between subjective and objective meaning, and the persuasiveness of several challenging contemporary renderings of meaningful human lives.

This book recovers Dionysus and Apollo as the twin conceptual personae of life’s dual rhythm in an attempt to redesign contemporary theory through the reciprocal affirmation of event and form, earth and world, dance and philosophy. It revisits Heidegger and Lévi-Strauss, and combines them with Roy Wagner, with the purpose of moving beyond Nietzsche’s manifold legacy, including post-structuralism, new materialism, and speculative realism. It asks whether merging philosophy and anthropology around issues of comparative ontologies may give us a chance to re-become earthbound dwellers on a re-worlded earth.

This book is the first attempt at a critical edition of selected works and letters by Maximilian Beck—the “forgotten phenomenologist”. Maximilian, or Max, Beck was one of the representatives of the early phenomenological tradition and in particular of the so-called “Munich” phenomenological circle. In the introductory chapter, Daniele De Santis presents his life, his most important publications and the general character of his philosophy. Beck supported a strong objectivism in ontology and theory of ideas and advocated a radical form of "naïve realism" in the theory of knowledge. He was the author of the first long, critical discussion of Heidegger’s Being and Time and a radical critic of all forms of transcendentalism and idealism, especially those of Husserl and Heidegger.Dieses Buch ist der erste Versuch einer textkritischen Ausgabe ausgewählter Werke und Briefe von Maximilian Beck—dem „vergessenen Phänomenologen“. Maximilian, oder Max, Beck war einer der Vertreter der frühen phänomenologischen Tradition und insbesondere des sogenannten „Münchner“ Phänomenologiekreises. In der Einleitung stellt Daniele De Santis sein Leben, seine Veröffentlichungen und den allgemeinen Charakter seiner Philosophie vor. Beck unterstützte einen starken Objektivismus in der Ontologie und Ideentheorie und vertrat einen „naïven Realismus“ in der Erkenntnistheorie. Beck war der Autor der ersten langen und kritischen Besprechung von Heideggers Sein und Zeit und ein Kritiker aller Formen von Transzendentalismus und Idealismus, insbesondere derjenigen von Husserl und Heidegger.

Empathy is often seen as a window into others’ minds, effectively guiding our decisions and moral judgments about them. But what if this assumption is dangerously wrong? This book challenges the popular view of empathy as a desirable ally in our deliberative processes, revealing the pitfalls of this phenomenon. Drawing on insights from moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and applied psychology, the book argues that the standard definition of empathy—combining perspective-taking, emotional sharing, and concern for others—can be profoundly inaccurate and motivate immoral actions or unfair judgments. To address these shortcomings, this work offers a novel phenomenological approach. Building on Edith Stein’s account, alongside contributions from Husserl, Scheler, and contemporary phenomenologists, it redefines empathy as a quasi-perceptual, quasi-imaginative experience of others' inner states, recognizing them as persons with unique motives and values. This phenomenological approach provides a better conceptual framework for understanding empathy and its role in deliberation while avoiding the problematic consequences of popular definitions in the literature.