William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics: Thinking Metaxologically PDF
Preview William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics: Thinking Metaxologically
Edited by Dennis Vanden Auweele Th inking Metaxologically William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics Dennis Vanden Auweele Editor William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics Thinking Metaxologically Editor Dennis Vanden Auweele KU Leuven (University of Leuven) Leuven, Belgium ISBN 978-3-319-98991-4 ISBN 978-3-319-98992-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98992-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958416 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover design by Ran Shauli This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland There is simple gratitude for the sweetness of being that no one merits and that no act of thanks can ever repay. William Desmond To William Teacher, friend and inspiration P reface William Desmond held an appointment at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven (University of Leuven) from December 1994 until his retire- ment in 2016. In the spring of 2017 (April 19–20), an international con- ference was organized in honor and recognition of his philosophical achievement. The turnout was—both for speakers and for attendees—far beyond expectation, and the subsequent quality of keynote and split ses- sions presentations was impressive. After the conference ended on a high with a round table including John Milbank, Cyril O’Regan, Sander Griffioen and William himself, the organizer—yours truly—thought it more than appropriate to collect some of these excellent contributions, adding some essays commissioned especially for this volume, in order to give life to the present volume. Why such an undertaking is of philosophical importance, now more than ever, will be discussed in the introduction and the chapters to come. There are, however, also reasons of a more personal nature why I think that this book, both critical and honorific, had to appear. When I had become a master’s student at KU Leuven, I had my fill of German idealism and hoped to work on Nietzsche. Only two courses in the curriculum promised discussion of Nietzsche, both of which were by William Desmond, but to my regret they also promised ample discussion of Kant and Hegel. Grudgingly I decided to weather those discussions of ‘tran- scendental critique’ and ‘absolute spirit’ once again in the hopes of hear- ing the sweet rhetoric of Nietzsche. To my surprise, I was taken in by a new way of thinking about German idealism, one not merely expository and reconstructive, but critical and engaging, serious and playful. I was ix x PREFACE excited about this class many weeks before Nietzsche was even mentioned. This explains the image on the cover of this book: the serious playfulness of a child, on the beach, running after birds. I mention this anecdote because it might give readers a first impression into what makes Desmond’s philosophy unique: it allows new discussion, new thoughts, and new engagements, with topics and authors that are, by some, assigned to the dustbin of philosophical history. Many colleagues have told me that they similarly felt revitalized by the metaxological approach to philosophy. While I had no plans to continue philosophy after my master’s, I was to finish my studies in law, William’s classes inspired me onward, toward a research master and even a doctorate. To this day, I am still engrossed in philosophy, which would not have been the case without William—whether this is for better or for worse, I have no clue. Throughout these years, he was my gentle doctoral supervisor (as they say in German: Doktorvater) and we slowly became friends. Much like William’s teaching, our conversations mix the high and the low, the critical and the apprecia- tive, the metaphysical and the profane. Years later, I learned that William adapted his style to the needs of his students. One colleague of mine once described William as a gardener, tending to the garden with insight and finesse. Some of us needed confidence, others needed constraint; some needed a firm hand, others needed to be let free. Most appreciated William’s style, which is evident from the good number of former students who flocked from all over the world to William’s retirement conference. I hope that this volume would get his gentle approval. Ironic. When I write, there is always music playing on my computer. The songs ‘shuffle’ randomly, which sometimes works well, sometimes not. When I came to this paragraph and was looking for a way to close this preface, the song ‘Life Is Good’ by the Irish-American folk-punk band Flogging Molly started playing, and that seems appropriate. The song is itself expressive of a desire for someone who would bring peace, but the search for that someone tends to be a gamble. The chorus repeats ‘life is good’, even though the advances toward the other are not always successful and life will come to an end someday. The song is bittersweet, but it truthfully expresses intimacy and displacement, love and estrangement—similar sensations emerge when reading through metaxology. Flogging Molly comes to the bridge now, and the chorus will soon repeat: “But I could walk across the ocean / Find ourselves a little peace / Where all our troubles are forgotten / And wars will someday cease / Life is good, life PREFACE xi is good / Life is fine, life is fine / Life is everything we loathe and so unkind / They say death is cruel, / But death unwinds / It comes natu- rally to all us here alive”.1 I feel confident to say that this volume is good as well, which is to some extent the case because it came to be under fortunate circumstances: many had written excellent papers on the topics of metaxology. There was an abundance of good work to select from, and I express my heartfelt grati- tude for the commitment and diligence of all contributors to this volume. Although some negotiations with regard to deadlines were in order at times, the process ran fairly smoothly. When I contacted the editorial staff of Palgrave Macmillan, I was happy to find that Amy Invernizzi was enthu- siastic about the project. The book proposal passed a favorable review, and I am very grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his or her comments and suggestions, most of which I have incorporated in this volume. The edito- rial staff at Palgrave Macmillan works very efficiently, and I do want to voice gratitude toward all of them. Leuven, Belgium Dennis Vanden Auweele 1 Flogging Molly, ‘Life Is Good’. From the album Life Is Good (2017), released by Vanguard, Spinefarm. c ontents 1 Introduction 1 Dennis Vanden Auweele Part I Being, Knowing and Intimacy 13 2 Number and the Between 15 John Milbank 3 True Being and Being True: Metaxology and the Retrieval of Metaphysics 45 D. C. Schindler 4 Hermeneutical Selving as Metaxological Selving: Bridging the Perceived Gap Between Theological Hermeneutics and Metaphysics 59 Daniel Minch 5 Metaxology and New Realist Philosophy 77 Sandra Lehmann xiii
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