The Sea: A Philosophical Encounter

Description

Humankind has a profound and complex relationship with the sea, a relationship that is extensively reflected in biology, psychology, religion, literature and poetry. The sea cradles and soothes us, we visit it often for solace and inspiration, it is familiar, being the place where life ultimately began. Yet the sea is also dark and mysterious and often spells catastrophe and death. The sea is a set of contradictions: kind, cruel, indifferent. She is a blind will that will 'have her way'. In exploring this most capricious of phenomena, David Farrell Krell engages the work of an array of thinkers and writers including, but not limited to, Homer, Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hoelderlin, Melville, Woolf, Whitman, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Schelling, Ferenczi, Rank and Freud. The Sea explores the significance in Western civilization of the catastrophic and generative power of the sea and what humankind's complex relationship with it reveals about the human condition, human consciousness, temporality, striving, anxiety, happiness and mortality.

David Farrell Krell is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago, and Brauer Distinguished Visiting Professor of German Studies at Brown University, Providence, USA. He is the editor of Heidegger's Basic Writings (1977, 1993) and the author of sixteen books of philosophy and three novels.

This is a magnificent book from one of our best philosophers and writers, now apparently at the top of his form. Ranging from Greek mythology to contemporary thinkers, and across philosophy, literature, and the natural sciences, Krell's philosophical encounter with the sea, in bays and coves as well as texts, is consistently enthralling. -- Graham Parkes, Professorial Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria A beautifully conceived, astonishingly erudite engagement with the sea, its enlivening beauty, terrifying force, and symbolic significance in Western civilization. David Farrell Krell brings together philosophical conception, textual exposition, and poetic inspiration in a remarkably dynamic and captivating work. I believe people who fathom this book in its depth will experience the sea differently from the way they previously understood it. -- Charles E. Scott, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University, USA This is a brilliant book; even more stunning than the photographs is Krell's profound and poetic philosophical writing. -- Dawne McCance, Distinguished Professor, Department of Religion, University of Manitoba, Canada David Krell sheds deep and sometimes strange light on many ancient and new texts, seeing them cradled by the sea like a coral reef seen through transparent tropical waters. His penetrating thought is warmed by an intense love of the sea and love of all these myths, psychoanalysis, poets, novelists, philosophers. -- Alphonso Lingis, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, USA There is hardly a more seminal topic-for psychology, biology, philosophy, theology, literature, and for life in general-than the sea and David Farrell Krell has captured, with great literary sensitivity and enormous intellectual breadth, the immense power and depth of his subject. This erudite work is a literary and philosophical tour de force but it is also a major contribution to the field of psychology. It is a compelling read from beginning to end. -- Walter Brogan, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University, USA