Known especially for his original system of metaphysics in a trilogy of books published between 1995 and 2008, and for his scholarship on Hegel, William Desmond has left his mark on the philosophy of religion, ethics, and aesthetics. The William Desmond Reader provides for the first time in a single book a point of entry into his original and constructive philosophy, including carefully chosen selections of his works that introduce the key ideas, perspectives, and contributions of his philosophy as a whole. Also featured is an original essay by Desmond himself reflecting synthetically on the topics covered, as well as an interview by Richard Kearney.
William Desmond sees religion, art, philosophy, and politics as essential and distinctive modes of human practice, manifestations of an intimate universality that illuminates individual and social being. They are also surprisingly permeable phenomena, and by observing their relations, Desmond captures notes of a clandestine conversation that transforms ontology.
An original work which rethinks the question of God in a constructive spirit, drawing its conclusions by considering ideas received from both philosophy and religion. Makes an important new contribution to the ongoing scholarly debates surrounding the intersection of philosophy and religion Suggests that this junction is not just dictated by religion having to prove its credentials to rational philosophy, but that it is also a matter of philosophy wondering if religion is the ultimate partner in dialogue Includes discussion of a wide range of significant thinkers, both traditional and contemporary, such as Plotinus, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche and his successors Completes a trilogy of works by William Desmond, complementing its companion volumes, Being and the Between and Ethics and the Between.
This book explores the contested place of metaphysics since Kant and Hegel, arguing for a renewed metaphysical thinking about the intimate strangeness of being.
In William Desmond and Contemporary Theology, Christopher Simpson and Brendan Sammon coordinate, through a collection of scholarly essays, a timely exploration of William Desmond’s work on theology and metaphysics, bringing the disciplines of philosophy and theology together in new and vital ways. The book examines the contribution that Desmond’s metaphysics makes to contemporary theological discourse and to the renewal of metaphysics. A central issue for the contributors is the renewal of metaphysics within the post-metaphysical, or anti-metaphysical, context of late modernity. This volume not only capably demonstrates the viability of the metaphysical tradition but also illuminates its effectiveness and value in dealing with the many issues in contemporary theological conversation. William Desmond and Contemporary Theology presents Desmond’s contemporary, yet historically aware, continental metaphysics as able to provide revealing insights for the discussion of the relation between philosophy and theology. Simpson and Sammon argue, moreover, that Desmond’s contribution to linking these two fields makes his an important voice in the academic conversation. Students and scholars of Desmond, contemporary philosophy, theology, and literature will find much to provoke thought in this collection. Contributors: John R. Betz, Christopher R. Brewer, Patrick X. Gardner, Joseph K. Gordon, Renée Köhler-Ryan, D. Stephen Long, John Panteleimon Manoussakis, Cyril O’Regan, Brendan Thomas Sammon, D. C. Schindler, Christopher Ben Simpson, and Corey Benjamin Tutewiler.
Once regarded as a minor Socratic school, Cynicism is now admired as one of the more creative and influential philosophical movements in antiquity. First arising in the city-states of late classical Greece, Cynicism thrived through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, until the triumph of Christianity and the very end of pagan antiquity. In every age down to the present, its ideals of radical simplicity and freedom have alternately inspired and disturbed onlookers. This book offers a survey of Cynicism, its varied representatives and ideas, and the many contexts in which it operated. William Desmond introduces important ancient Cynics and their times, from Diogenes 'the Dog' in the fourth century BC to Sallustius in the fifth century AD. He details the Cynics' rejection of various traditional customs and the rebellious life-style for which they are notorious.The central chapters locate major Cynic themes (nature and the natural life, Fortune, self-sufficiency, cosmopolitanism) within the rich matrix of ideas debated by the ancient schools. The final chapter reviews some moments in the diverse legacy of Cynicism, from Jesus to Nietzsche.
In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor, faced with contemporary challenges to belief, issues a call for “new and unprecedented itineraries” that might be capable of leading seekers to encounter God. In Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age, Ryan G. Duns demonstrates that William Desmond’s philosophy has the resources to offer a compelling response to Taylor. To show how, Duns makes use of the work of Pierre Hadot. In Hadot’s view, the point of philosophy is “not to inform but to form”—that is, not to provide abstract answers to abstruse questions but rather to form the human being such that she can approach reality as such in a new way. Drawing on Hadot, Duns frames Desmond’s metaphysical thought as a form of spiritual exercise. So framed, Duns argues, Desmond’s metaphysics attunes its readers to perceive disclosure of the divine in the everyday. Approached in this way, studying Desmond’s metaphysics can transform how readers behold reality itself by attuning them to discern the presence of God, who can be sought, and disclosed through, all things in the world. Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age offers a readable and engaging introduction to the thought of Charles Taylor and William Desmond, and demonstrates how practicing metaphysics can be understood as a form of spiritual exercise that renews in its practitioners an attentiveness to God in all things. As a unique contribution at the crossroads of theology and philosophy, it will appeal to readers in continental philosophy, theology, and religious studies broadly.
William Desmond's misgivings regarding Hegel's take on God leads the reader through Hegel's writings to reveal a path that leads anywhere but to God. The author believes that an idol is no less an idol constructed from thought as constructed from gold.
