Ontology Books - Page 4

The Birth of Tragedy: Out of the Spirit of Music (Penguin Classics)

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Dialectic model of Art 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Since the only other review is fairly obtuse about this book, it seems necessary to write another. If you consider yourself a creative entity, an artist, a musician, a filmmaker, a writer; then this book should be required reading. It describes two opposing "forces", Apollo and Dionysus, who are in perpetual conflict. From this conflict, all great art is born.

It is a dialectic, Thesis meets Antithesis to beget Synthesis.

The real point is though, after reading the book, you look for these opposing forces in everyday life and find them everywhere. Man and woman, religion and science, good and evil (for rudimentary examples). After reading the book it was apparent how much of this world is constructed out of, and centered on, opposition. It's like Matt Modine's helmet in Full Metal Jacket, man is a creature with inherent duality.

The Birth of Tragedy touches on something so essential and instinctually true to our existence that it can only vaguely be explained in words. Nietszche knows this and presents the concept as eloquently and clearly as it allows. It is up to the reader to take this knowledge as a starting point and explore deeper into their own individual experience and perspective.

UNCONTROLLABLE BEAUTY (Aesthetics Today)

Bill Beckley, David Shapiro

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The notion of beauty and its relationship to contemporary art is once again arousing passionate discussion and wide-spread debate among artists, writers, critics, and curators. Uncontrollable Beauty is the first anthology to capture this new wave of critical discourse, examining the role of beauty in twentieth-century art and culture in order to redefine it for a new generation of artists and writers.

Encompassing three central themes: Theory, Ownership, and Practice, the thirty essays, writings, and poems explore how we define beauty, where we locate it in art, and its complex links to issues of gender, morality, and universalism. Included are works by John Ashbery, Agnes Martin, and Carter Ratcliff, as well as a conversation with Julia Kristeva and an exclusive interview with Louise Bourgeois. Anyone wanting to stay current with contemporary art criticism will find this book a stimulating selection of dialogue, debate, and philosophical insight.

Contributors: John Ashbery; Louise Bourgeois; Hubert Damisch; Arthur Danto; Max Fierst; David Freedberg; Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe; John Hejduk; Dave Hickey; James Hillman; Ariane Lopez-Huici; Kenneth Koch; Julia Kristeva; Donald Kuspit; Jaqueline Lichtenstein; Agnes Martin; Thomas McEvilley; Robert Morgan; Frank O'Hara; Carter Ratcliff; William Rubin; Meyer Schapiro; Peter Schjeldahl; David Shapiro; Robert Farris Thompson; Kirk Varnedoe; Marjorie Welish; John Yau.

Uncontrollable Beauty is co-published with the School of Visual Arts as part of the Aesthetics Today series.

An introduction to existentialism (Dover)

Robert Goodwin Olson

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

An Excellent Examination of Existentialism 4 out of 5 stars.
18 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Robert G. Olson does justice to the philosophy of Existentialism in his stellar novel, "An Introduction to Existentialism". By examining each individual aspect of the Existentialist interpretation and also introducing the main arguments against Existentialist points, Olson helps to create a solid base for the novice philosopher. Utilizing the works of Sartre, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Hursserl and Marx, the novel gives in depth analysis and conclusionary support to even the most complex areas of Existentialist thought. This novel makes one question the conformist views of our society while presenting an alternative solution through Existentialism.

Editorial Review:

Indispensable guide to one of the most influential thought systems of our century. Stressing the work of Heidegger and Sartre, it offers a careful and objective examination of the existentialist position and values — freedom of choice, individual dignity, personal love, creative effort — and answers to the eternal questions of the human condition.

Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time

Edward Twitchell Hall

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Irritating Methodology, Extraordinary Insights 3 out of 5 stars.
27 of 39 people found this review helpful.

Hall seldom bothers to document, presents his musings as given, has constructed a system and world view which bears little relationship to accepted qualitatitive research in the social sciences. . . so why read this book? Because every chapter has an idea with unusual parallels either to developments in cognitive research, to human-computer interaction, or to linguistics, all of which came about post-publication! Astounding intuitions, oftentimes annoyingly documented.

A must-have for understanding cultural perceptions of time. 5 out of 5 stars.
26 of 27 people found this review helpful.

This book blew my mind back when it was first released, and on third or fourth read, there is still so much information to be gleaned from it.
Issues discussed:
Appointments by time vs. being late because a friend in need is more important.
Queueing for the bus vs. pushing and shoving to the front of the line.
Needing closure vs. pigeon-holing a half-completed but unimportant task, often for months or even years.
But most importantly, the book goes in great detail into how these cultural differences in the perception of time and sequence affect interactions between the races and between nations. I highly recommend Dance of Life not only for international travellers but also for anyone who has to deal with other cultures.

Editorial Review:

Hall's most recent book studies the ways that people are tied together and yet so isolated by hidden threads of rhythm and walls of time. The Dance of Life treats time as a language, organizer, and message system revealing people's feelings about each other and reflecting differences between cultures.

The Search for Truth (Books with something to say)

Michael A Singer

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

So promising, yet disappointing at the end 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I bundled this book with IONS' first offering, The Untethered Soul, by the same author. My hope is that Mr. Singer makes up for the shortcomings of this much earlier text with his new one. As for 'The Search for Truth', I have to conclude "What a horrific end to such a promising work." The author 'had me' all the way to the final section entitled "Applying the results". The rest of this volume is brilliant and his Model of Man is an enlightening and, I believe, quite groundbreaking synthesis of psychology, physics and religion. However, one must bear in mind that it is possible to have a very deep knowledge and insight into certain facts, and at the same time vitiate the results of such knowledge by an entirely wrong assumption in regard to the law which binds these facts together in the Universal System. The author failed miserably to answer the question 'Why', which is promised on the back cover. In fact, as far as I can tell, he never tried.

I suspect Mr. Singer himself suspected as much during the composition of this final chapter as it contains none of the joy and exploration so prevalent in those previous. Instead, we are admonished to forsake all desire for what he would lead us to believe is our ultimate and inexorable fate - an eternal life free of all of life's pleasures! Where is the joy in his river of universal energy? Where is the love in this amalgamation of pure thought, the purpose of which he does not hesitate to offer?

The universe is life, by its very nature, not death, and to think of all desire as 'illusory' at best is to deprive life of its reason for being, if not its very means of creating.

That said, I will treasure this book for its valuable insights into our true nature and possibilities, the value of which I will determine by my own introspection and personal quest for 'enlightenment'.

The search continues...

Editorial Review:

This book is for those who, like the astronauts, cannot look at this view of our planet without asking "WHY?" The search conducted within these pages is a logical journey into the fields of biology, psychology, physics, parapsychology, yogic science, and Eastern and Western religious philosophies. Are they merely viewing different aspects of the same Truth?

The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (Phoenix Book)

Hans Jonas

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the most prominent thinkers of his generation, Hans Jonas wrote on topics as diverse as the philosophy of biology, ethics, social philosophy, cosmology, and Jewish theology -- always with a view to understanding morality as the root of our moral responsibility to safeguard humanity's future. A classic of phenomenology and existentialism and arguably Jonas's greatest work, The Phenomenon of Life sets forth a systematic and comprehensive philosophy -- an existential interpretation of biological facts laid out in support of Jonas's claim that mind is prefigured throughout organic existence. At the center of this philosophy is an attack on the fundamental assumptions underlying modern philosophy since Descartes, primarily dualism. Dissenting from the dualistic view of value as a human projection onto nature, Jonas's critique affirms the classical view that being harbors the good. In a brilliant synthesis of the ancient and modern, Jonas draws upon existential philosophy to justify core insights of the classical tradition. This critique transcends the historical limits of its phenomenological methodology and existential ethical stance to take its place among the most scientifically nuanced contemporary accounts of moral nature. It lays the foundation for an ethic of responsibility grounded in an assignment by Being to protect the natural environment that has allowed us to spring from it.

A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time

Michael Gelven

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Make time for this one! 5 out of 5 stars.
26 of 27 people found this review helpful.

If you're workin through B&T then you know you need help: where to turn. Depends, if you want themes laid individually, but not always making the big picture cohere and with further goals in mind (refuting certain analytic thoughts) Dreyfus is a must and probably necessary for any advanced philosophy student (if you don't want Heidegger to ultimately smell of spinach completely). If you want a Brit spin written pretty orderly but often focusing on specifics that show where the research interests of the author are, then Mulhall is a must. If you want someone without any axes to grind elsewhere, well laid-out and often willing to go back and reconsider earlier important areas in light of new important ones, then Gelven is your guy. Very level-headed and shows a sincere interest in B&T. I'm still leary of all things Heideggerian, but enjoy a good toil and Gelven allowed me that.

An indispensible guide to Heidegger's work 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 21 people found this review helpful.

I don't think I could have ventured too far into Being and Time or the rest of Heidegger's philosophy if not for having read this book. Gelven makes very clear and accessible, but without watering down, all of the major concepts, terms and ideas brought out in Being and Time, a book which can be extremely intimidating and confusing, especially in translation. This is perhaps the best work on explaining the project of Heidegger's philosophy. If you just want to read one book by Heidegger or wish to gain an understaning of Heidegger's philosophy, don't read a book by Heidegger, read this book instead. Gelven's text is a great starting point and handy reference. I'd highly recommend bringing this book to any class in which one is trying to teach or learn Heidegger.

Kant after Duchamp (October Books)

Thierry de Duve

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Kant after Duchamp brings together eight essays around a central thesis with many implications for the history of avant-gardes. Although Duchamp's readymades broke with all previously known styles, de Duve observes that he made the logic of modernist art practice the subject matter of his work, a shift in aesthetic judgment that replaced the classical "this is beautiful" with "this is art." De Duve employs this shift (replacing the word "beauty" by the word "art") in a rereading of Kant's Critique of Judgment that reveals the hidden links between the radical experiments of Duchamp and the Dadaists and mainstream pictorial modernism.

Part I of the book revolves around Duchamp's famous/infamous Fountain. Part II explores his passage from painting to the readymades, from art in particular to art in general. Part III looks at the aesthetic and ethical consequences of the replacement of "beauty" with "art" in Kant's Third Critique. Finally, part IV attempts to reconstruct an "archaeology" of modernism that paves the way for a renewed understanding of our postmodern condition.



The essays: Art Was a Proper Name. Given the Richard Mutt Case. The Readymade and the Tube of Paint. The Monochrome and the Blank Canvas. Kant after Duchamp. Do Whatever. Archaeology of Pure Modernism. Archaeology of Practical Modernism.

On the Plurality of Worlds

David K. Lewis, David Lewis

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Most significant contribution to metaphysics in many years 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 30 people found this review helpful.

It's obvious to me that some of these reviewers don't understand either what Lewis was doing in this book or the standard philosophical response to it. He wasn't arguing that there are multiple universes connected to ours in some way explorable through science. Those would be parts of this world, in Lewis' sense. The worlds he's talking about are possible worlds. They aren't actual. That is, they don't exist in any way spatiotemporally or causally connected with the actual world. And yet he says they're as concrete as we are.

Philosophers' responses to this view are incredibly interesting. They think the idea is nuts, and yet they have no way to resist the conclusion that he gives compelling arguments that his view solves numerous philosophical problems that no one has been able to deal with in a perfectly satisfactory way. This doesn't convince many people that his view is correct, but the response has been pretty strong among those who want to use his system without thinking that it's true. They call it a modal fiction, and the view is called fictionalism. This is becoming incredibly influential among metaphysicians.

Aside from all that, most metaphysicians today recognize this book as just incredibly fruitful and creative in bringing together so many different strains in metaphysics. He deals with so many problems in such a lucid way that the book serves to introduce many problems in metaphysics, making advances in the discussion even apart from the contribution of his main thesis.

Editorial Review:

One of America's most infuential philosophers offers his defence of modal realism. He holds that ours is but one of a plurality of possible worlds; and that we who inhabit this world are but a few out of all the inhabitants of all the worlds. Lewis argues that the utility of modal realism is reason to believe that it is true.

The Zen of Living and Dying: A Practical and Spiritual Guide

Philip Kapleau

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

peace of mind for seekers of answers about death... 5 out of 5 stars.
33 of 33 people found this review helpful.

I did not pick this book up and decided to read it. The book drew me to it when I most needed it. I was troubled by the illness and possible death of a loved one, and this book demanded my attention and in return offered the best answers, the most thought-provoking arguments, and the most soothing advice for my death-troubled mind. You don't have to be a buddhist to enjoy this book, or even to gain insight from its arguments. Philip Kapleau makes a great job in offering a complete perspective on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. This book is divided into four parts. Part one deals with Death, and it includes, among other things, anecdotes about the death of famous historical figures (Gautama the Buddha, Socrates, Sri Ramana Maharshi, etc.), an analysis on why we fear death, and an interesting, albeit brief, look at the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Part two deals with dying, and it is a compassionate explanation of how our views of death affect the way we will undergo the inevitable process of dying. It shows how this process is only as painful or liberating as we make it, through our views, our beliefs, and our hopes and fears. Part three explains karma. Like I said, you don't have to be buddhist (or of any particular religion, at that), and if there's anything about this book that is outstanding, it is this part. Rational, logical, well-argued, and convincing, it wraps up the discussion on "Existential Aspects of Death" from part one, and leaves the reader with a strange assuredness about the nature of change and renewal inherent to life. Part four looks at rebirth. the last two parts of the book require an open mind if you do not belive/are not familiar with eastern beliefs, but if that is the case, I know of no better place to start learning about this subject than here. Philip Kapleau writes compassionately, from the heart, such way that the reader is never challenged in his beliefs, yet at the same time he drives his point home with unerring accuracy, like a Zen Archer. This book changed my life and the way I look at death and what lies beyond, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Editorial Review:

To live life fully and die serenely—surely we all share these goals, so inextricably entwined. Yet a spiritual dimension is too often lacking in the attitudes, circumstances, and rites of death in modern society. Kapleau explores the subject of death and dying on a deeply personal level, interweaving the writings of Western religions with insights from his own Zen practice, and offers practical advice for the dying and their families.