For a Philosophy of Freedom and Strife: Politics, Aesthetics, Metaphysics (SUNY Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) [Paperback]

Gunter Figal (Author), Wayne Klein (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy | Publication Date: November 25, 1997

This first book-length work of the prominent German philosopher Gunter Figal to appear in English offers a radical defense of metaphysical philosophy in the era of postmodern thought. For Figal, metaphysics does not represent an anachronistic and pernicious mode of thought that ought to be overcome but rather is a type of thinking that proceeds from a recognition of the necessary coherence of everything with its opposite. It is this agonistic relationship of opposites that Figal, following Heraclitus, terms strife. Rather than regarding the conflict of opposites as necessarily resulting in the dissolution of meaning and sense, as many contemporary thinkers maintain, Figal contends that sense and meaning can only come into existence metaphysically, that is to say, as a consequence of strife. And, the context within which strife occurs is freedom. Using these concepts of strife and freedom, Figal proposes new and provocative readings of Plato, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard, as well as of some of the most controversial figures of twentieth-century philosophy.

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Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Gunter Figal is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tubingen. He is the author of Martin Heidegger: Phanomenologie der Freiheit (Martin Heidegger: Phenomenology of Freedom) and Das Untier und die Liebe: Sieben platonische Essays (Love and the Beast: Seven Platonic Essays) and is the coeditor of the Internationalen Zeitschrift fur Philosophie (International Journal of Philosophy). Wayne Klein is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University in New Orleans. He is the author of Nietzsche and the Promise of Philosophy, also published by SUNY Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (November 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791436985
• ISBN-13: 978-0791436981
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,106,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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