Epitomes

This short introduction to Georges Bataille's work examines his philosophy and literature by identifying the central theories of transgression, sovereignty and/or subjectivity, sacrifice, art and/or aesthetic radicalism, general and restricted economies, as well as the profane and the sacred by way of eroticism and ecstasy. Bataille remains a singular and complex figure, an Outsider in poststructuralist, continental philosophy, and the complexities of his interdisciplinary approach to literature and theory compels this introduction to explore and explain his innovative and often controversial work as an impossible philosopher, as well as a philosopher of the Impossible.

This book introduces the underlying ideas which have created the constellation of thought commonly referred to as Speculative Realism (SR). In a non-technical style Speculative Realism: An Epitome explores the thought of three contemporary philosophers: Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, and Iain Hamilton Grant. The book characterizes the milieu in which SR was born and charts how the tendencies of thought created from its birth have diverged into contemporary metaphysics. Readers will gain from the book an understanding how the evolving motion of concepts created by the brief life of SR continue to change speculative philosophy in the contemporary Continental philosophical landscape today. Contents: Introduction Chapter I: Dead on Arrival Chapter II: Heirs of Kantian Finitude Chapter III: After Finitude Chapter IV: After Nature Interview with Ray Brassier Interview with Iain Hamilton Grant About the author: Dr. Leon Niemoczynski is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. His research focuses mainly on the philosophy of nature, especially within the Continental philosophical tradition. He also maintains interests in a diverse range of topics including philosophical ecology, logic and metaphysics, German idealism, aesthetics, animal ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Philosophers most relevant to his current research include Plato, Hegel, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Deleuze, and Merleau-Ponty. Niemoczynski is the author of Speculative Naturalism (forthcoming 2018); as co-editor, Animal Experience: Consciousness and Emotions in the Natural World (Open Humanities Press, 2014) and A Philosophy of Sacred Nature: Prospects for Ecstatic Naturalism (Lexington Books, 2014); and Charles Sanders Peirce and a Religious Metaphysics of Nature (Lexington Books, 2011). He currently resides in the Pocono Mountains of Northeastern, Pennsylvania with his wife, Nalina.

Throughout the Middle Ages, great intellectuals from Jerome to Jean Gerson all commented on education. What was its purpose? What practices best achieved the intended aims? This volume introduces the central themes that ran through literature on education, from its fixation on moral instruction to recommendations on playtime. It explores writing from the first century to the educational treatises of Renaissance Italy and discusses the important place that education, even of small children, held in medieval thought. Contents: Introduction; 1) Authors and Works; 2) The Beginning and End of Elementary and Grammar Education; 3) Organizing the School Day and Schoolroom; 4) Corporal Punishment; 5) Natural Ability; 6) Morals and Religion; 7) Being a Teacher; 8) Education of Women; 9) Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography