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The Autobiography of Philosophy: Rousseau's The Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Author(s): Michael Davis (Author)
- Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
- Publication Date: 23 Feb. 1999
- Language: English
- Print length: 296 pages
- ISBN-10: 0847692264
- ISBN-13: 9780847692262
Book Description
This is the most important book about the nature of philosophy and of the human soul published this year. In making the condition for its own possibility its deepest concern, philosophy is necessarily about itself―it is autobiographical. The first part of The Autobiography of Philosophy interprets Heidegger’s Being and Time, Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and Plato’s Lysis as examples of the implicitly autobiographical character of philosophy. The second part is a reading of Rousseau’s The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Although Rousseau’s explicitly autobiographical writings are more often read for the tantalizing details of his rather eccentric life than for their philosophical import, this work is an artful use of Rousseau’s exile and isolation―”the strangest position in which a mortal could ever find himself”―as a paradigm for the human soul in its relation to the world. In powerfully articulating the activity that is at the core of all philosophy, The Reveries articulates the nature of the human soul for which this activity is the defining possibility.
Editorial Reviews
Review
<…considers the character and role of philosophy, or of philosophizing, <…comprises a series of chapters on Rousseau’s Reveries, devoting one to each of the ‘Walks’ in that work in turn, assessing and extending their themes and ideas and bringing forward the interpretation of their underlying significance…. — Nicholas Dent, University of Birmingham
This book is both far reaching and tightly focused. ―
Review of MetaphysicsDavis does an excellent job of teasing out several interrelated tensions in the Reveries . . . careful and illuminating. . . . Displays an excellent philosophical sensitivity to particular texts. — Rebecca Kukla, Carleton University ―
Philosophy in Reviewconsiders the character and role of philosophy, or of philosophizing, comprises a series of chapters on Rousseau’s Reveries, devoting one to each of the ‘Walks’ in that work in turn, assessing and extending their themes and ideas and bringing forward the interpretation of their underlying significance. — Nicholas Dent, University of Birmingham
About the Author
Michael Davis is professor of philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College. His most recent works include The Politics of Philosophy: A Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1996).
