Arthur Cools

Walter Van Herck

Koenraad Verrycken

This collection of essays examines the role of metaphors in philosophy against the background of a reflection on the nature and function of metaphors in general. Drawing on the insights formulated in Ralf Könersmann's 'Wörterbuch der philosophischen Metaphern' and in the 'Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie', the editors acknowledge that philosophical metaphors are to be distinguished from philosophical concepts properly speaking, that not all metaphorical language in philosophy can be translated into pure concepts and that philosophical metaphors can have their own irreducible cognitive value. In the first and systematic part of the book different approaches to the role of philosophical metaphors in general are proposed from different angles. In the second part some selected metaphors in the history of modern philosophy are discussed. In the third part selected cases of metaphorical philosophical language are studied.

Metaphors in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy

Michael Fagenblat

The posthumous publication of Emmanuel Levinas’s wartime diaries, postwar lectures, and drafts for two novels afford new approaches to understanding the relationship between literature, philosophy, and religion. This volume gathers an international list of experts to examine new questions raised by Levinas’s deep and creative experiment in thinking at the intersection of literature, philosophy, and religion. Chapters address the role and significance of poetry, narrative, and metaphor in accessing the ethical sense of ordinary life; Levinas's critical engagement with authors such as Leon Bloy, Paul Celan, Vassily Grossman, Marcel Proust, and Maurice Blanchot; analyses of Levinas’s draft novels Eros ou Triple opulence and La Dame de chez Wepler; and the application of Levinas's thought in reading contemporary authors such as Ian McEwen and Cormac McCarthy. Contributors include Danielle Cohen-Levinas, Kevin Hart, Eric Hoppenot, Vivian Liska, Jean-Luc Nancy and François-David Sebbah, among others.

New Directions

Levinas and Literature

kennis en verleiding in de moderniteit

De macht van de sirene

Chris Bremmers

Andris Breitling

The contributions of this volume discuss the legacy of Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy. Examining critically the limits of his thinking, they also bear witness to its influence, thus demonstrating the significance of his groundbreaking project of establishing ethics as first philosophy

Debating Levinas’ Legacy

Vivian Liska

Kafka’s work has been attributed a universal significance and is often regarded as the ultimate witness of the human condition in the twentieth century. Yet his work is also considered paradigmatic for the expression of the singular that cannot be subsumed under any generalization. This paradox engenders questions not only concerning the meaning of the universal as it manifests itself in (and is transformed by) Kafka’s writings but also about the expression of the singular in literary fiction as it challenges the opposition between the universal and the singular. The contributions in this volume approach these questions from a variety of perspectives. They are structured according to the following issues: ambiguity as a tool of deconstructing the pre-established philosophical meanings of the universal; the concept of the law as a major symbol for the universal meaning of Kafka’s writings; the presence of animals in Kafka’s texts; the modernist mode of writing as challenge of philosophical concepts of the universal; and the meaning and relevance of the universal in contemporary Kafka reception. This volume examines central aspects of the interplay between philosophy and literature.

Kafka and the Universal

Johan Taels

Rosa Slegers

Thomas Crombez

Ask for the tragic and Europe will answer. Leaving behind the philosophers’ enthusiasm of the nineteenth century, ‘tragedy’ and ‘the tragic’ now seem little more than vague containers. However, it appears that we still discover a tragic essence in our personal lives. This book wants to open a contemporary philosophical perspective on the tragic.

Arthur Cools

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