The Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy

Description

Life-philosophy, central to 19th-century philosophical thought, is concerned with the meaning, value and purpose of life. This much-needed study returns to the central philosophical questions of Lebensphilosophie and reveals the ascendency of 'life' in contemporary philosophical thinking. Scholars from the disciplines of political theory, aesthetics, bioethics and ontology examine how the notion of life has made its way into contemporary philosophical discussions. They explore three main themes: the shift toward biological and technological views of life; the political implications of our conceptions of life; and the re-emergence of the idea of life in recent philosophical discussions about, for example, care of the self, scepticism, tragedy, desire, the emotions, and history. Anticipating new directions of philosophical thinking, this study restores a vital school of thought to crucial considerations about the dangers of contemporary politics and the threat of new technologies.

Scott M. Campbell is Professor of Philosophy at Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, USA. Paul W. Bruno is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Framingham State University, Massachusetts, USA.

This book should be in every library and in many personal collections. Campbell and Bruno have assembled essays from an international selection of today's leading thinkers on philosophy of life, offering new directions to this ongoing branch of thought. -- Bernard Freydberg, Duquesne University, USA This collection provides a highly original synthesis of conceptions of life that bring philosophy, especially the "life-philosophy" initiated by Nietzsche, Dilthey and Bergson, into dialogue with contemporary life sciences. Accessible and eminently readable, the essays in this volume give a broad, comprehensive account of the many complications that we face today, with increased impact of technology and life sciences on "life itself." Key issues concerning the "right to life" and artificial reproduction of life, the ontology and politics of genomics and "the good life," are productively brought to light by first-class philosophical analysis engaging post-existentialist thought in Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Arendt, Foucault, Jonas, Lyotard and Derrida. -- Emilia Angelova, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Trent University, Canada In a world where we encounter new technologies and new forms of life every day, this volume is a clarion call to think about what life means now. Each author uncovers fresh resources in the western philosophical tradition for thinking deeply about life and meaning by reaching behind debates over biotechnology and biopower and beyond the dominant figures of Foucault and Deleuze. They tap into strands of thought running from Bergson back through Nietzsche and Dilthey, and from Foucault all the way back to Pyrrho and the Ancient Sceptics. This is a valuable volume that belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who believes in keeping the life in the examined life. -- Anne O'Byrne, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, USA