Collected Philosophical Essays

In Vagaries of Desire, Timo Airaksinen develops a new philosophical account of desire understood as mental state that focuses on a desirable possible world. Literary and philosophical themes, including sexuality, are discussed in terms of their metaphoric and metonymic features.

Colin Wilsonâ (TM)s first book The Outsider was published to great critical acclaim in May 1956. It was the first of six philosophical books, known collectively as â ~The Outsider Cycleâ (TM), compiled by Wilson during the following decade. A summary volume, Introduction to the New Existentialism, appeared in 1966. During the 1970s, however, Wilsonâ (TM)s interests became, on the surface, more varied, publishing books on criminology, psychology and the occult. But he always maintained a philosophical stance, irrespective of subject matter, and continued to write purely philosophical essays for journals, magazines, and symposia. This volume brings together, for the first time, his essays on seventeen philosophers, including some of those he met personally to discuss their ideas. In his essay on Spinoza he wrote: â oePhilosophers are never so entertaining â " or so instructive â " as when they are beating one another over the head.â It is that statement, applied to this particular volume, that makes these essays, from Englandâ (TM)s only home-grown existential philosopher, so eminently readable, entertaining, instructive and, sometimes, controversial.

Baruchello's Philosophy of Cruelty, the second collection of his essays, turns a difficult and emotionally charged topic into a surprisingly informative and enlightening read. Covering the history of Western philosophy's treatment of cruelty as a topic, yet relating every point to present-day occasions of violence and injustice, this book is a touchstone for any discussion of cruelty as a philosophical theme. It pulls no punches, yet it leaves you standing taller.

As John O'Loughlin's mature works became increasingly aphoristic and hence, to his mind, increasingly metaphysical, with what he would regard as truth effectively eclipsing the fumblingly discursive nature of essays and, indeed, knowledge generally, he totally abandoned both the essays (as here) and the dialogues (published in a separate collective volume), together with such early aphoristic material that at least had the merit, so far as he was concerned, of anchoring him in a more genuine approach to philosophy than could ever be found in works of a philosophical nature diluted by prose and, hence, by a discursive want of both logic and system unworthy, in his estimation, of true philosophy. Nonetheless, the reader will be aware that philosophical essays are still distinct from literary prose, all the more so when, as in this volume and various others, the material has been centred, the better to intimate of a sort of metaphysical aloofness from the pedament-slaving world which customarily fights shy, in the angularity of its untransvaluated nature, of anything resembing, no matter how metaphorically, the curvilinear subjectivity of a dome, particularly when intimating, in true religious vein, of transcendental possibility, a possibility very much a part of the best of the essays included in this one-volume presentation, spanning the years 1977–84, of John O'Loughlin's literary output. – A Centretruths Editorial

Michael and Carolyn's eyes locked. She was the most beautiful women he had ever seen. The Chronic he just blazed in the car might of influenced him a bit but in that moment he was completely enchanted. Carolyn's longing stare told him loud and clear that the attraction was mutual. If it were not for Carolyn's evil, demon possessed, homicidal boyfriend, that Michael inadvertently kills moments later, their chance encounter would have been fortuitous. Unfortunately evil had other ideas, take another host and continue it's killing spree and frame it's new friend... It's a great time A fast paced, page turning, twisted, erotic, supernatural thriller It's a great time A fast paced, hot, erotic, supernatural thriller EXCERPT: It was very dark, almost pitch black. I couldn't hear a thing, except for my heavy breathing. I was a bit nervous. I had never been in a situation like this before. The little room had the smell of old pine wood and body odor, my body odor. There wasn't any kind of air circulation in there and it was getting hotter by the moment. The only light came from the concealment screen that separated me from the priest. "Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been about fifteen years since my last confession." Maybe longer. "Very well, what is your confession?" The Father asked sounding half asleep. "Father I'm afraid I've done a very bad thing and I think I'm going to hell." "I see. Well my son, God weighs all sins equal and he died on the cross to take away all of our sins. All he asked for, is for you to ask for forgiveness." "I understand that. I also need some guidance." "Okay, let's start from the beginning then. Tell me your confession." "Okay Father. I'll tell you but parts of the story are a little embarrassing to admit, especially to a Priest." "Don't worry about that, you need to purge your soul, tell me everything." "Okay." It all started when I was driving through Texas. After losing my job six months ago. I've been making ends meet by helping a friend transport illegal narcotics across country, marijuana to be specific. Legal marijuana from California is in high demand on the East Coast. I transported it to a distributor in North Carolina. I was on my way back to So-Cal. I usually take HWY 40 to and from. It's the fastest route and it's clear of highway checkpoints, going out of California anyway. I made that trip four other times and I was getting a bit bored of the route, so I decided to take Interstate 10. I was driving through the long desolate part of Texas, the vast emptiness in between Houston and El Paso. The valleys were so vast that if someone dropped a nuke while you were in one there's a good chance they'd miss. I had half a tank of gas when I stopped at a BP for a fill up. With gas stations one hundred miles apart, I didn't want to chance it. After pumping my gas, I went inside for a Red Bull and a Snickers bar. That's where I saw Jezebel and it all started. "Jezebel? Was that the name she gave you or the name you gave her?" I must of stimulated a nerve. The Priest sounded interested all of a sudden. "That's the name she gave me, but not until later." Anyhow when I entered the BP's convenience store, Jezebel was leaning over the counter. She was pointing to her brand of cigarettes, Marlboro Special Blend Black. I don't know what the breakdown in communication was but the Middle Eastern attendant kept grabbing the wrong pack. Jezebel was quite the spectacle with her sun bleached blond hair, long, tan, toned, sexy legs. Her rear was firm and full in her Daisy Dukes. She was just so curvaceous and hot. At least her backside was. I was entranced, I couldn't see anything else, I was completely engrossed. I usually would have been satisfied with a glance and a few peaks while I was shopping or at check out but not this time. It was probably due to the joint I just finished off in the parking lot.

This book collects fifteen major philosophical essays spanning more than twenty years by acclaimed Italian philosopher and author of State of Exception. Giorgio Agamben is one of contemporary philosophy’s most influential thinkers on the subjects of language, power, society. This collection of essays opens with an enlightening introduction by the translator Daniel Heller-Roazen, who situates Agamben’s work with respect to both the history of philosophy and contemporary European thought. The essays that follow articulate a series of theoretical confrontations with privileged figures in the history of philosophy, politics, and criticism, from Plato to Spinoza, Aristotle to Deleuze, Carl Schmitt to Benjamin, Hegel to Aby Warburg, and Heidegger to Derrida. Three fundamental concepts organize the collection as a whole: the existence of language; the nature of history; and the problem of potentiality in metaphysics, ethics, and the philosophy of language. All these topics converge in the final part of the book, in which Agamben offers an extensive reading of Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” as a work that puts potentiality and actuality, possibility and reality, in a new light.

A pivotal volume in the collected works of Hans Jonas (1903-1993), one of most important German-American philosophers of the last half of the 20th century, this edition is the only one to include contributions from his three primary areas of achievement: philosophical reflection on gnosticism, on biology, and on technology.

The time for what? The title of Mihaela Gligor’s edited collection is wonderfully flexible, as anything having to do with time should be. There is something not only boundless about time, but also raw and untamed. In its pure form, time would be too much for us to handle. We would be crushed by the sheer immensity of it, or else we would lose our minds trying to make sense of such unmediated time. Luckily, for the most part we don’t experience time in its pure form. Time comes to us already processed: shaped, engineered, tamed. The volume does fine justice to the notion that we experience time as already shaped by religion, politics, and culture. Whether its contributions cover religious or political figures, philosophers or poets, mystics or physicists, they show – sometimes explicitly, sometimes more discreetly – how difficult it is to deal with time in a pure, unmediated form. The contributors’ cultural, religious, and intellectual rooting inform the way think about time, just as about anything else. Which, far from being a weakness, is something to be recognized and celebrated. (Costică Brădățan, Texas Tech University, U.S.A.)