2 comments about Guy Debord.

1. With a variety of historical references and cultural events to offer a sound foundation for the events thwarted and formulated by Debord, Jappe constructs an informative synopsis of the development of the situationalists. The transformative evolution from the LI (Letterist International) to the SI (Situationalist International)is explored, as are multiple situations which gained both groups recognition by intellectual circles. Well referenced, well written.



2. Reading books won't help

3 comments about Unveiling the Mystery of Life and Death.

1. Dr. Sylvie Bidot's book shows how the power of faith can elevate the human consciousness in crisis and merge it with the unconditional love of God. It is compelling stories like this that provide others, who feel broken from similar circumstances, a fount of triumphant inspiration.
   
   ~ Lydia K. Bustamante-Mohr



2. A beautiful combination of personal narrative and inspirational passages from writings of spiritual leaders, Unveiling the Mystery of Life and Death shares an intimate experience of personal tragedy and the author's resulting spiritual growth and understanding in a way which gives the reader helpful insights in overcoming tragedies of their own.



3. Dr. Sylvie has shared with the reader something very personal and yet it is also universal-trajedy followed by healing and inspiration. Everyone can find a connection and receive a little piece of healing from reading this book. It is very touching as she takes you through all phases of what is truly a great example of the human spirit overcoming a great life test. I would recommend that you take a break from the crazyness of everyday life and follow along. We can all learn and be inspired!

1 comments about The Point of View : Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 22.

1. The greatest challenge for any newcomer to Kierkegaard is finding the best place to gain an overview. In my opinion, this is the finest place to start. In the main work in this collection, THE POINT OF VIEW (the book also contains some smaller pieces on his Authorship), Kierkegaard sets out to explain his purposes and strategy in writing the books constituting what he calls his Authorship. Students of Kierkegaard generally refer to these books as his Pseudonymous Authorship, because in all of these he writes none of them under his own name, but employs a variety of fictionalized authors, who represent a particular point of view that is not that of Kierkegaard himself. The Pseudonymous works are contrasted with what has become to be known as Kierkegaard's Second Literature (a descriptions attributed to Kierkegaard scholar Robert L. Perkins), which comprises his edifying works and his later religious works, most of which were published under Kierkegaard's own name, though with a couple of his greatest later works published under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus.

   Some of these works, such as EITHER/OR I, contain writings on a variety of aesthetic topics. Many of the books deal with either ethical or religious topics, though the latter never from within a religious perspective. Kierkegaard's main argument in the POINT OF VIEW is that from first to last he was, even when writing on aesthetic topics, a religious author. The Pseudonymous works all presuppose a theory of stages, which Kierkegaard describes as moving from the aesthetic to the ethical and into the religious (the precise prepositions, according to SK, being of the utmost importance).

   It is not clear that Kierkegaard had a precise understanding of all this at the moment he was writing the first of his Pseudonymous works, but it is unquestionable that he moved to this point of view fairly early on. This little volume is, therefore, a wonderful introduction to Kierkegaard's most famous works, and remains one of the most fascinating reflections by a great writer on the nature of his own work ever written.

No comments about Nietzsche.

2 comments about John Stuart Mill: A Biography.

1. Contemporary analytic philosophers tend to present a rather skewed view of Mill, ignoring the larger textual and personal context of his work. Capaldi's book goes a long way to correcting these errors.
   
   For instance, Capaldi provides strong reasons to think that Utilitarianism should be read in light of On Liberty, not vice versa, as contemporary textbooks tend to present Mill. In addition, Capaldi provides an in-depth examination of Mill's intellectual growth. He starts with Mill's early education and exposure to the philosophical radicalism of his father and Jeremy Bentham, and describes how Mill spent a large part of his life struggling to keep what he believed was good about their hedonistic utilitarianism while rejecting its inadequacies. Capaldi shows us how the style of education Mill received permanently influences Mill's manner of thinking. Capaldi demonstrates how Mill is essentially a dialectical thinker attempting to synthesize Romantic deontology with its emphasis on autonomous self-development, with empiricist ethical methodology with its emphasis on pleasure and associationist human psychology. At the same time, Capaldi illuminates the precise ways that figures like Carlyle, Hegel, Comte, Coleridge, and of course Harriot Taylor influenced Mill. Capaldi helps us learn how to read Mill, based on who Mill's audience was and the purpose of his various texts. One's view of Utilitarianism, for instance, will be radically changed in light of Capaldi's biography. This text, taken as the definitive statement of Mill's theory by most contemporary philosophers, emerges as a rather restrained attempt to defend a general class of philosophies, will Mill's own beliefs quite hidden under the surface.
   
   The picture of Mill that emerges is that of a powerful mind with continually evolving ideas. For the typical philosopher who has read at most a few of Mill's works, this book is very valuable indeed.
   
   As an aside, by way of illustrating what the reputation of Capaldi's intellectual biography is, let me relate the following. I recently had a paper defending a thesis of Mill's accepted for publication in a major philosophy journal. The reviewer asked me to make some revisions in light of this work. This book is quickly becoming the authoritative source on John Stuart Mill. In comparing Capaldi's work with that of others who have written on Mill, one gets the feeling that Capaldi is the only one taking Mill--and intellectual history--seriously.
   
   As such, I highly recommend that any philosopher interested in ethics or the history of philosophy read this.



2. From the view of philosophy departments, Mill is frequently read as as figure in the line of traditional empiricists stretching from Locke to Russell. In that context, some of his teachings, such as the quality of pleasure and the primacy of social good seem like, well, mistakes. In fact, that's how it was presented to me in school and I'm afraid I may have passed that view on. I always wondered how a guy so smart could be so dumb. By bringing in the French connection (and Mill's intellectual environment in general), Capaldi presents the complete thinker. That's a service. Of course, given their format, no title in this series from Cambridge can be either a full scale biography or a full scale commentary.

No comments about Roger Bacon's Letter: Concerning the Marvelous Power of Art And Nature And the Nullity of Magic.

1 comments about Paul Ricoeur: His Life and His Work.

1. The work of Paul Ricoeur, while brilliant, is often difficult to penetrate. Reagan's book helps the newcomer to Ricoeur's writing get through those difficulties to an understanding of the importance of his philosophy. Reagan is uniquely qualified to do this. He was Ricoeur's student and has remained his lifelong friend. Reagan's book offers highly readable summaries of some of Ricoeur's major works complemented with biographical details that put those works into the context of Ricoeur's life. If you are only going to buy one book about Ricoeur, this should be it

5 comments about The Lives of Michel Foucault.

1. Michel Foucault is certainly not an easy person to write a biography of but "The Lives of Michel Foucault" does not rise to the task. It seems to me this might be a good biography of Foucault for French philosophers who like to read in English. The author breaks about every rule about elements of style and maddeningly insists on only referring to Foucault's works in French leaving the reader in need of a French dictionary. For references to the works of some (not all) other French authors who inspired Foucault the author condescends to add a parenthetical English translation. Perhaps most problematic is the author's unwillingness or inability to help the reader understand some of Foucault's truly astonishing insights that re-made structuralist studies and founded post-structuralist studies. A disappointing effort.



2. David Macey's "The Lives of Michel Foucault" - 1993 is by far the best of the three significant biographies that have thus far appeared (there is James Miller's "The Passion of Michel Foucault" - 1993 and Betsy Wing's translation of Didier Eribon's "Michel Foucault" - 1991 all available on Amazon.com). For Macey, the "silence" of Foucault is something to be taken seriously, not as theoretically authorized avoidance of truth telling, but rather as the bewilderment of a man; a real man situated in his time and place, caught between different roles and self-conceptions. Macey tells Foucault's story clearly and without fanfare. What is truly scholarly helpful in Macey's telling is a rigorous archive of how Foucault, this most tenacious detractor of institutional power, was ironically the beneficiary of the French intellectual establishment, and how this retiring scholar proved remarkably proficient at seizing political moments for stepping up onto the public stage. Macey's intensive research and detailed textual elucidation provides the type of documentary support that is often lacking in James Miller's "passionate" book. Macey's book, is conversely, is a cautious account of Foucault's doings, written with expertise of a careful study and a sharp spirit of defensiveness, as might be expected from a biography that has been duly "authorized" by Foucault's surviving companion Daniel Defert. As opposed to Miller's very good biography that offered a portrait of Foucault the man and thinker - Macey's rendition pays attention to the day-to-day goings on offers the reader a more vivid picture of Foucault as a political activist. Macey painstakingly explores the early 1970s - when Foucault plunged into a life of sustained political involvement. I am grateful to all three biographers for making Foucault come alive as a person and more understandable as a scholar. Macey though, is really good at taking Foucault's anti-humanist perspective and developing it, not as a theme or explanation of Foucault's life but rather as a topic of study. According to Macey, no French theoretician has had a more recondite or permanent influence on American thinking then Michel Foucault. Foucault, who been dead for more than a decade now may no longer be the first name to be dropped at academic circles and seminars, but the terms he made famous, terms like `discourse' and `networks of power' - often misappropriated and dropped at a moments notice get a very good treatment in this book. Macey is really helpful in taking the often cryptic writing of Foucault and makes it accessible to the unfamiliar - and at times even familiar - Foucault scholar. According to Macey, the cult of Foucault, matured in its impact because Foucault and his cohort had intellectual claims beyond the reading of "texts." Going beyond the often dead ended practice of "deconstruction" practiced by such luminaries as Lacan, Derrida and Levi-Strauss.

   Foucault was shaping an enterprise in anti-humanist, anti-essentialist "discourse." In sync with many other strains in the thought of his continental contemporaries - with Kant, Nietzsche and Heidegger were acknowledged as his primary influences while Althusser, Canguilhem and Barthes were included in the mix - Foucault's ideas about the essential constitution of civil society drew on a ardently anti-liberal attack on the Enlightenment. Far from being the light of reason to shed light and resolve problems surrounding the human condition, the Enlightenment according to Foucault replaced the ancien regime model of social marginalization and class demarcations with a better mousetrap of domination, which was simply a modernized technology of social control. It would no longer be possible to look to the obvious figures of sovereignty and privilege - embodied in king and counts - for the telling signs of "power." Power was beginning to make its way into the ordinary institutions of social life. The reigning king of the humanist project was still Sartre, who became the locus of Foucault's efforts. Sartre, according to Foucault stood for a tired philosophy of "Marxist humanism." Sartre did not see, in Foucault's view that humanism was inevitably the soiled result of the new technology of domination that sprang up with the Enlightenment. Sartre, according to Foucault, was the poster boy of the Enlightenment. Macey spells out how according to Foucault, Humanism was just the happy facade put on the medical and scientific lessening of the human being into an itemized, categorized and catalogued object of a detached "gaze" - recognition of this phenomenon according to Foucault should put to rest any ebullience for the communitarian didactic discourse of the Sartrean "politics of commitment." More openly then does Miller (or Eribon for that matter), Macey recognizes Foucault's ongoing struggle against Sartre's "gaze," against any other interpretative or evaluative power. What was really happening, Foucault posits was the construction of a "networks" of power - though one was not supposed to ask "`whose' power?" Power, this new social fixation with discipline and surveillance, became its own rationale according to Foucault. As I mentioned above, power was not to be found in leaders or social organizations or parties or in any given social structure, but was rather a kind of "discourse, " a set of terms or symbolic representations that connect, in an abstract way, the given instances of discipline and surveillance at work in social life. For Foucault, to fight a diffuse "power" was to be able to pick any point of attack in any institutional setting and do the work of social revolution. Foucault is not keen to lay out a recipe for such transgression but his strength is in critique. Macey's strength is making this often baroque author accessible - the Macey that I appreciate.

   Miguel Llora




3. david macey's biography of michel foucault is both the best researched and the most carefully analysed account of foucault's life currently available. While it lacks both the interpretative drive behind james miller's "the passion of michel foucault" (who reads foucault as a nietzscheian), and the treatment of friendships and specific themes throughout foucault's life given in "michel foucault et ses contemporains" (didier eribon's second work on foucault), macey is incredibly erudite, very well-balanced and a solid reader of foucault. macey recounts many more details of mf's life than any other account, and doesn't take foucault's self-reflective moments for granted as correct interpretations of his past actions and thought (Foucault gave tons of interviews, where he tended to reflect on his past works from his present perspective - so he could say that he had always been working on power etc, when this argument could undermine tensions and different trends in his work). he gives a solid, if long account of foucault's intellectual development, manages to place him in as much of a context as the biographical genre permits and, within this context, is mildly critical of his subject. macey is also a fun read. perhaps not as much as miller, but he certainly provides better balanced -and more interesting to read- accounts (than both miller and eribon) of foucault's works as well as of his life and homosexuality

   nonetheless, there are important criticisms to be made. there's a certain elegiac tone throughout much of the book which is not totally appropriate to foucault's thought and perhaps even to foucault himself. this tone complicates the problem of writing a biography of a thinker without treating him through his own lens of comprehending "the subject," "the author," "the self" etc. in other words, the account is stylistically rather conservative, something that might lead readers to doubt the level of depth at which foucault is approached. and indeed, though the depth is considerable, the approach is too conservative to catch some of the more radical tones in foucault especially as regards his "post-modern" tendencies (foucault was suspicious of that term).

   still, this is a very good biography and a good reading of MF, that mixes well his life and his thought. worth reading, even (especially) if you've read other accounts. it complements them well and improves on them considerably.




4. Eloqently and aesthetically written for writers, this is the book for those who delight in literature. The book transubstantiate the reader:Macey establishes a post-humous dialogue in which the reader uncovers the archeoalogy of Foucault, his experiences as a writer, politician and philosopher. The author takes the reader through the labyrinth at the centre of which Foucault lurks as a minotaur. It uncoils the myth of literature's wordily genesis in which writing is discussed extensively and given the authority of infinity, as an original force that was there from the beginning before things unfolded into the natural world of things. Foucault died from intellectual gibbosity-"inflammation of the cerebrum".

   Trueman Myaka Tel:0927 31 303 6466 Fax: 0927 31 303 4493




5. Eloqently and aesthetically written for writers, this is the book for those who delight in literature. The book transubstantiate the reader:Macey establishes a post-humous dialogue in which the reader uncovers the archeoalogy of Foucault, his experiences as a writer, politician and philosopher. The author takes the reader through the labyrinth at the centre of which Foucault lurks as a minotaur. It uncoils the myth of literature's wordily genesis in which writing is discussed extensively and given the authority of infinity, as an original force that was there from the beginning before things unfolded into the natural world of things. Foucault died from intellectual gibbosity-"inflammation of the cerebrum".

   Trueman Myaka Tel:0927 31 303 6466 Fax: 0927 31 303 4493

1 comments about The Humor of Kierkegaard: An Anthology.

1. The editor of this book says it is not meant to present a systematic , serious investigation of Kierkegaard's humor. Rather it is presented for the general reader as a kind of introduction to Kierkegaard, and his droll, imaginative humor which the editor believes is the greatest of any philosopher.
   Having read a fair amount of Kierkegaard in my time I would say that his humor is real, ironic and smile- raising. It will not get anyone rolling in the aisles.
   Yet the wit, again the irony do help make Kierkegaard an amusing writer- and this when his emotional range goes far beyond this.

3 comments about Alain Locke: Faith And Philosophy (Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions).

1. Before discussing the merits of this book it is in order give a brief description of Alain Locke.
   
   Locke was born in Philadelphia in 1885, and studied philosophy at Harvard. In 1907 he received a Rhodes scholarship enabling him to study at Oxford. While in Europe he traveled and came into contact with the philosophers Brentano and Meinong. It is notable that he was the first, and until 1960 the only, black Rhodes scholar. Upon his return he secured a position at
   Howard University, Washington. He received his PhD in Philosophy (with a dissertation on axiology) from Harvard in 1918.
   His work The New Negro: An Interpretation of Negro Life (1925) established him as (one of) the main forces of the Harlem Renaissance.
   
   Alhtough his impression on academic philosophy has been slight (e.g. the 10 volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy has not one mention of Alain Locke). However, through his writing and lecturing he managed to influence american life, and secure a place in the history of the Harlem Renaissance and the american civil rights movement.
   
   He was born into a Christian (Episcopalian) family but converted to the Bahá'i religion in 1918. Attracted by that religions teachings on the equality of races, he involved himself in the american community's Race Amity Conferences and other activities aimed at achieving equality between the races. His overall involvement in the baha'i community was however less than enthusiastic. Partly, this seems to have been due to the bahá'i-community's periodic inability to implement its lofty ideals into practice.
   
   Locke's identity as a bahá'i has been unknown or at least unacknowledged by earlier biographers and researchers.
   
   Turning to the book itself:
   In addition to being a biography of Alain Locke this book's major contribution is to bring out and establish Locke's identity as a bahá'i.
   Regarded purely as a biography the book is more than acceptable (approx. 4 stars) and enjoyable. Contrary to another amazon-reviewer, I think that the author solves the biographer's perpetual problem of choosing between a thematic and a chronological presentation in an admirable way. The chapters are thematically held together which breaks up the 'cover-to-cover'-chronology of the book (the reader is taken back and forth in time as the books proceeds), but within each chapter the chronology is maintained. This structure contributes to the readability of the book. In addition, it enables the reader to focus only on those aspects of Locke's life that interest her. Given that this book is not simply a biography, but aims to show the influence of Locke's association with the Bahá'i religion on his intellectual output, such a structure is without doubt preferable.
   
   The book is, I guess, attractive to two, not necessarily distinct, groups of readers:
   1. Those with an antecedent interest in Locke or the Harlem Renaissance. To this group, the book provides new insights and information about the extent and nature of Locke's involvement with the Bahá'i religion.
   2. Those with an antecedent interest in the Bahá'i religion. To this group the book provides information about a, then-prominent, member of the bahá'i faith who, for strange reasons, is largely unknown in the contemporary literature on the bahá'i religion.
   In addition, and more interestingly, Buck aspires to show how Locke's philosophical work and the Bahá'i teachings influenced one another, and in this way extract the basics of a 'bahá'i philosophy'(p.6 and pp.187ff). In this respect the author completely fails. The problem is not that what he says is wrong. He doesn't say anything of substance on the subject at all. (One suspects that this is to a large extent due to ignorance of philosophy on the part of the author.) This still leaves a pretty good biography of Locke's life, but the fact that he at several places promises to give such an account but fails to deliver detracts from the overall score.



2. Dr. Buck does a great, incredibly thorough job of presenting a biography of Alain Locke. Citations to nearly every factual statement in the book are provided. Locke was a giant of the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American community, and of the race unity movement. Yet he is poorly understood and often not even known at all. Buck proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Locke was indeed a genuine Baha'i for most of his life. However Buck shows that Locke was an enigmatic, aloof, almost paradoxical Baha'i. My only criticisms of the book relate to its format and editing. The book is not presented as a chronological biography, but rather is divided into chapters, which are then divided into subsections. This separation of various periods of his life/activities, breaks the flow of the book and causes the book at times not to read well. Certain topics are repeated several times. But on the whole this definitely covers what the author wanted to do, i.e. describe Locke's spiritual life and philosophy, especially his Baha'i life. It's definitely required reading for anyone seriously studying Locke, anyone studying the history of the American Baha'is in the early 20th century, or anyone just interested in reading a biography of a Baha'i.



3. Christopher Buck, Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy (Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 2005). With an introductory essay by Professor Leonard Harris of Purdue University (today's leading scholar on Alain Locke).
   
   One of the towering figures of African American history is Alain Locke -- the first black Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Howard University, "Dean" of the Harlem Renaissance. Locke was the most important African American intellectual between W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are the opening paragraphs in Chapter One of Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy:
   
   *************
   Chapter One
   INTRODUCTION
   
   Alain Locke democratized American culture and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement. During the Jim Crow era of American history, when civil rights were white rights, Locke was the genius behind the Harlem Renaissance, which David Levering Lewis aptly characterized as "Civil Rights by Copyright."1 Locke edited the monumental anthology, The New Negro (1925), hailed as the first national book of African America.2 In so doing, Locke ingeniously used culture as a strategy for ameliorating racism and for winning the respect of powerful white elites as potential agents for social and political transformation. Awakening the black masses to their noble African heritage and instilling pride in unique black contributions to American life, Locke may well be regarded as "the Martin Luther King of African American culture."3
   
   Without Locke, there may not have been a Martin Luther King. The New Negro movement, for which Locke was the chief architect and spokesman, was singularly responsible for inculcating and cultivating the requisite group consciousness and solidarity necessary for the mobilization of African Americans during the Civil Rights era. As Martin Luther King was a man of faith, Alain Locke was also. Based on newly discovered documentation of his conversion in 1918, we can now say with certainty that Locke was member of the Bahá'í Faith for over three decades.
   
   As the youngest independent world religion, the Bahá'í Faith was clearly a leader in advocating racial harmony and full integration during the Jim Crow era. Through his service on several national Bahá'í committees, Locke was instrumental in organizing a number of "race amity" events. At various times, Locke lent his prestige to the Bahá'í Faith: he publicly identified himself as a Bahá'í in a 1952 issue of Ebony magazine, for example. By virtue of his being both a race leader and a cultural pluralist, Locke is certainly the most important Western Bahá'í to date in terms of his impact on American history and thought. This book documents and demonstrates the synergy between Locke's profession as a philosopher and his confession as a Bahá'í, which confirmed his commitment to racial harmony as a necessary prerequisite to world peace.
   
   *************
        
   Many books have been written about Locke's contributions to black art and culture in the United States. These books have generally ignored the fact that Locke was a Baha'i. Alain Locke: Faith and Philosophy fills in that missing link, telling the story of Locke's services to this new world religion from 1918 until his death in 1954.
   
   Based on Buck's painstaking archival research of the Alain Locke Papers at Howard University and elsewhere, this book also describes, for the first time in scholarship, Locke's philosophy of democracy ("A New Americanism") in nine dimensions -- ranging from the concept of "local democracy" all the way to "world democracy." Locke's philosophy of democracy presents a compelling argument for America's world role or "destiny" -- but if and only if America can first solve her own racial crisis at home.
   
   This topic should be of contemporary interest, especially since America is taking such a controversial leadership role in exporting "democracy" in the Middle East and around the world. But what does "democracy" mean? And how does "democracy" compare with Baha'i social principles? Locke has a compelling answer that should interest all Americans.
   
   Alain Locke: Faith & Philosophy is richly illustrated with rare historical photographs, including photos of Locke with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ralph Bunche.