Customer Reviews

The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History (Centennial Books)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Edward Casey has provided us the most comprehensive survey and in-depth interaction with the philosophical history of place. It is dense, demanding, and rewarding. I am trained in the arts and theology and not philosophy which slowed my already slow pace of reading down to a crawl through the 342 pages of text (not to mention the 135 pages of end notes). Though difficult, Casey's text is the quintessential work on the topics of place and who and what influenced the conversation. I would highly recommend the volume, especially to those who have a background in philosophy. Casey seems to shine in chapters 10-12 covering the re-emergence of place into philosophy and contemporary life by dealing with Merleau-Ponty, Kant, Bachelard, Derrida, Foucault and Heidegger.

I think the review by "R. Stander" is well-stated. All I would add is that _The Fate of Place_ (FP) is, to my knowledge, the first study of its kind to chronologically lay out the foundations of our modern (dis-?)regard of place in favor of abstract "space" and the consequences of this shift. Though FP is a later work than Casey's other book _Getting Back Into Place_, FP is a prequel of sorts and provides an essential foundation to that earlier work. I would wholeheartedly recommend both. Great work and thank you, Professor Casey!

Despite the many useful and profound ideas contained in this volume, the pretention and staggering self-absorption of the author drained out all of the excitement I might have had reading this hapless book. The writing style is turgid, top-heavy, and repellent in doses of more than three pages--in short, every stereotype people are afraid of when they hear the word "philosophy."

Casey is inexplicably excited by Latin and German terminology, even when the English would have been fine, and this makes the text ultimately inaccessible to anyone who is not very familiar with the languages of philosophy. Among Casey's favourite words are "cosmogony" and "ex nihilo," and the sheer number of times he uses these two words must take up half of the book by volume.

Derrida, Heidegger, and the Greeks all appear in turn, but in the end the sheer density of philosophical doddering in the text renders these beautiful ideas clumsy and unrewarding to read.