“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Thursday, October 14, 2010

Treat Yourself to Lingis

Thanks to Graham's writing I've been discovering Alphonso Lingis. I read his translations of Levinas, of course. But the man himself is very special, it's clear. He's obviously the best prose stylist in philosophy alive today—maybe his best-ness goes back a way too.

When you read a book like Dangerous Emotions you will keep having to pinch yourself to remember that this is philosophy. It could be narrative or “non-fiction” (yuck, he deserves a better term than that). You can get the Kindle edition for the price of a couple of caramel frappucinos from this not bad Starbucks at LAX, where I'm sitting. Curse the muzak!

It's philosophy that makes you feel glad to be alive. I hope that's okay with you.

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