William McNeill explores the phenomenon of the Augenblick, or "glance of the eye," in Heidegger's thought, and in particular its relation to the primacy of seeing and of theoretical apprehending (theoria) both in Aristotle and in the philosophical and scientific tradition of Western thought. McNeill argues that Heidegger's early reading of Aristotle, which identifies the experience of the Augenblick at the heart of ethical and practical knowledge (phronesis), proves to be a decisive encounter for Heiddegger's subsequent understanding and critique of the history of philosophy, science, and technology. It provides him with a critical resource for addressing the problematic domination of theoretical knowledge in Western civilization. Such knowledge, the author shows, always remains in a peculiar tension (itself historically determined and changing) with ethical or "protoethical" knowledge, which is bound to the finite, "ekstatic" temporality of the lived and living moment, and inevitably exposed to the presence of the sensuous.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
William McNeill is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great philosophical text that is both broad and deep.,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Glance of the Eye: Heidegger, Aristotle, and the Ends of Theory (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) (Hardcover)
As a philosophical figure, Heidegger is one who is sometimes, perhaps even often, largely avoided even by those whose interests reside in continental philosophy. This relative unfamiliarity is a great loss not only because of H's massive erudition and creativity but because the span of his project brings into one evolving vocabulary the span of western metaphysics from the Pre-Socratics to the peculiarities of science and technology in the late 20th century. Few are able to bring clarity and contribution to Heidegger's project both because of H's complexity and because H depends so heavily on a mastery of languages, ancient and modern. McNeill, one of H's best and most prolific translators, is well suited to this task. While the book's title may lead one to see it as highly specialized. M traces his thread of the "Augenblick" through the whole of H corpus as an organizing thread. The primary axis of this reading is through the relatedness of H to Aristotle. As such an exploration, the volume helps clarify a huge current that has come to the present with determinations that echo into daily affairs. While any summary of such a dense text that is already synoptic must be foolish, the following is an attempt. The volume suggests convincingly that our collective vision of being in the world has undergone an extensive alteration although one begun perhaps with the Platonic concept of the forms. Too briefly, this shift has brought about a gradual separation of the comportment appropriate to praxis and phronesis and the modern methodologies of theorization and experimentalism in which our encounter with being is given in advance, out of a centeredness of the subject most clearly initiated by Descartes, rather than as a unprejudiced appreciation of the particularity and difference immanent in our immediate locality and temporality. In contrast, the Augenblick names a caring, if anxious, attending to the here and now which is less the projection of a habitual expectation upon being than an attentiveness to the fate of the moment. The effect of this text is grand. It lays open how much more has yet to be articulated of H's project; it understands from one perspective the grand sweep or trajectory of philosophy; it coordinates the relations of the technological and traditional philosophy; and it supplies a framework from which to reconceive the work of more recent figures -- such as Derrida and Deleuze --which makes their obscurities less vexing. In short, this book should be in every philosophical library.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
