In the Absence of Human Beauty
Vivid fragments engaging with ethical and sceptical themes by means of an engagement with several major European thinkers.
Vivid fragments engaging with ethical and sceptical themes by means of an engagement with several major European thinkers.
Vivid fragments engaging with ethical and sceptical themes by means of an engagement with several major European thinkers.
Criticism, Literary criticism (general)
A collection of vivid fragments engaging with ethical and sceptical themes by means of an engagement with several major European thinkers, including Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Levinas and Wittgenstein.
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Subtitled ‘philosophical fragments’ – an apt description of the episodic and at times gnomic content - this book sounds rather like Wittgenstein in opening with the sentence that ‘It is not that our search for satisfaction has its limits, but that satisfaction is itself a limit.’ Later on the same page we have ‘that which is now no longer exists. It never did.’ Neither of these two fragments has an accompanying commentary, which is the case with many of the others, and mystics would certainly disagree with the second statement. In the course of these explorations, many of which are devoted to the theme of the Other, the author engages with Heidegger, Schopenhauer, Levinas, Nietzsche and others. In bridging the gap (p. 38), Ray feels that non-conceptual experience or feeling is more important than knowledge; and between the philosophical musings are other fragments of the life of a couple wrestling with some of the same issues, as well as with language. There are many stimulating lines of thought for philosophically minded readers. ~ David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer
An absorbing and Profound dialogue with the thinking of Levinas and Nietzsche and others. ~ Stephen Cheeke, Bristol University
"These fragments tremble with something rarely encountered in philosophical writing - the urgency of life." ~ Devorah Baum, University of Southampton