The Voiding of Being: The Doing and Undoing of Metaphysics in Modernity

313 Pages·2019·2.07 MB·English

by  William Desmond

The Voiding
of Being
The Doing and
Undoing of Metaphysics
in Modernity
William Desmond
The Voiding of Being
Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy
General Editor: John C. McCarthy
Volume 61
The Voiding of Being
The Doing and Undoing of
Metaphysics in Modernity
William Desmond
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2020
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Desmond, William, 1951– author.
Title: The voiding of being : the doing and undoing of metaphysics in modernity /
William Desmond.
Description: Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2020.
| Series: Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy; Volume 61 | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “The author amplifies important
themes in the unfolding of modern metaphysics, exploring diverse aspects of current
skepticism and offering a defense in terms of his metaxological metaphysics. Along
the way he engages both the long tradition and more modern writers, such as
Heidegger and Marion”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019037733 | ISBN 9780813232485 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780813232492 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Metaphysics.
Classification: LCC BD111 .D444 2020s | DDC 110—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037733
τὸ ὂν λέγεται πολλαχῶς
Aristotle, Metaphysics 1003b5
S
For Conor, Liam, and James
Godsends, Grandchildren:
May they be good guests at the feast of creation

Contents
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. The Voiding of Being: On the Doing and Undoing of
Metaphysics in Modernity 17
The Plurivocity of Being and Modern Metaphysics 17
The Doubling of Being and Metaphysics 19
The Devaluation of Being: Between Autonomous Thought and Religion 23
Rationalist and Empiricist Voidings: Dianoetic and Aesthetic Univocity 27
Voiding Being and Transcendental Positing: The Kantian Equivocation 30
Being Nothing and the Whole: Hegel’s Speculative Completion 37
The Overdeterminacy of Being and Transdialectical Metaphysics 41
2. Analogy and the Fate of Reason 49
Analogy, Plurivocity, and the Fate of Reason 49
Analogy, Reason, and Religious Figuring 53
Modern Reason, Geometrical Figuring, Weakening Analogy 56
Analogy, Univocity, and Correspondence 62
Moralizing Analogy: The “as if” of Kantian Practical Reason 69
Sublating Analogy Speculatively: The Hegelian “Is” 74
Analogy and Reason’s De-sublation: Post-Hegelian Postulations 78
Reason’s Plurivocal Promise, Revolt, and Aesthetic Analogy 83
The Vocation of Transdialectical Reason: Analogy on the
Verge of the Hyperbolic 88
3. The Dearth of Astonishment: On Curiosity, Scientism,
and Thinking as Negativity 96
Curiosity and Scientism 96
Between Indeterminacy and Overdeterminacy 102
Ontological Astonishment and Hegelian Negativity 104
Being Overdeterminate: Wonder as Astonishment 106
viii Contents
Being Indeterminate: Wonder as Perplexity 112
Being Determinate: Wonder as Curiosity 116
The Idolatry of Contracted Curiosity and Its Limitless Self-Expansion 120
4. Are We All Scholastics Now? On Analytic, Dialectical,
and Transdialectical Thinking 126
Schooling Philosophy 126
Hermeneutic and Technical Scholasticism 129
Analytic Thinking 133
Dialectical Thinking 142
Transdialectical Thinking 148
Deschooling Dialectic: Wittgenstein or Hegel Again? 154
School Days Over: Back to Skolē 158
5. Between System and Poetics: On the Practices of Philosophy 160
Vocation 160
Betweens 161
Metaxology 163
System 165
Antisystem 167
Being Systematic 170
Finesse 173
Poetics 176
Singing Thought 179
Religious Porosity 184
Beyond the Solitudes of Immanence 188
6. Saturated Phenomena and the Hyperboles of Being:
On Marion’s Postmetaphysical Thought 193
Opening Metaphysics: Not Quite a Has-been 193
General Contrast of Saturated Phenomena and the Hyperboles of Being 195
The Idiocy of Being and Vanity 203
The Aesthetics of Happening, Icons, Idols 207
The Erotics of Selving and the Erotic Phenomenon 211
The Agapeics of Community: Does Marion Redeem the Promise? 219
7. Being True to Mystery and Metaxological Metaphysics 226
Opening 226
Being True, Metaphysics, and Mystery 230
Being True to Mystery: Between Determinability and the Overdeterminate 235
Univocity, Equivocity, Being True to Mystery 237
Dialectic and Being True to Mystery 243
Metaxology and Being True to Mystery 246
Contents ix
8. Flux-Gibberish: For and against Heraclitus 252
Opening 252
Aristotle’s Irritation 254
Wording Flux and Gibberish 259
Heraclitus and Saturated Equivocity 262
Companions of Heraclitus: Hegel and Nietzsche 266
Hegel’s Endorsement of Heraclitus and Aristotle 270
The Overdeterminacy of Being and the Fluent Cosmos 274
Listening to Wording the Between 280
Selected Bibliography 285
Index 291