Of Reality: The Purposes of Philosophy

Gianni Vattimo

Published by Columbia University Press 2016

Of Reality

The Purposes of Philosophy

Gianni Vattimo
Translated by: Robert T. Valgenti

https://doi.org/10.7312/vatt16696

Overview
Contents

About this book

Drawing on Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo develops in this volume a philosophy to combat the newest enemy of freedom and democracy: complacency toward reality. It is no accident, Vattimo argues, that the call to embrace reality has emerged at a time when the inequalities of liberal capitalism are at their most extreme. Truth is therefore never objective, and resistance to reality becomes our best hope for countering the ongoing indifference to our fate.

A defense of the critical faculties that keep us from settling for the status quo. Drawing on Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo develops a philosophy to combat the newest enemy of freedom and democracy: complacency toward reality. Resistance to reality becomes our best hope for countering the ongoing indifference to our fate.

Author / Editor information

Gianni Vattimo is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Turin and a former member of the European Parliament. His most recent Columbia University Press books include A Farewell to Truth (2011); Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx (with Santiago Zabala, 2011); The Responsibility of the Philosopher (2010); and Art's Claim to Truth (2008), all translated into several languages.

Reviews

An engaging and refreshing read for any serious student of philosophy.

Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor at the Pompeu Fabra University:
One of the great privileges I've had during my life was to attend Gianni Vattimo's Cardinal Mercier Chair lectures in Leuven and Gifford Lectures in Glasgow. While in the former the Italian philosopher ventured into the effects Nietzsche and Heidegger thought continues to have on philosophy, in the latter he individuated it's new enemy in the twenty-first century: 'new realism.' The return to reality these movement calls for is actually a return to order, in other words, to any alteration of the political and financial order we are submitted to today. Now that these lectures are available, together with new essays, I'm not afraid to describe this book as his magnum opus.

Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania:
A continuation of his lifelong engagement with Nietzsche and Heidegger, Of Reality provides a reflective summation of Gianni Vattimo's late thinking while also exemplifying a mode of hermeneutical philosophy that is politically engaged without being merely ideological and that is inspired not by the ideals of an unattainable utopia but by the need to stand against enslavement, domination, and suffering. This is a powerful work by one of the major figures in contemporary and twentieth-century philosophy.

David Jasper, Distinguished Overseas Professor, Renmin University of China:
Of Reality represents the fullness of Vattimo's philosophical journey, which places him at the heart of contemporary European thought. Realistic in the face of our post-metaphysical age, Vattimo's philosophy is rooted in a theological and political vision that should be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. THE LEUVEN LECTURES
1. The Nietzsche Effect Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. The Heidegger Effect Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
3. The Age of the World Picture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
II. INTERMISSION
4. The Temptation of Realism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
III. THE GIFFORD LECTURES
5. Tarski and the Quotation Marks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
6. Beyond Phenomenology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
7. Being and Event Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
8. The Ethical Dissolution of Reality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
IV. APPENDIX
9. Metaphysics and Violence: A Question of Method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
10. From Heidegger to Marx: Hermeneutics as the Philosophy of Praxis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
11. The End of Philosophy in the Age of Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
12. True and False Universalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
13. The Evil That Is Not, 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
14. The Evil That Is Not, 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
15. Weak Thought, Thought of the Weak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
16. From Dialogue to Conflict Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 248

eBook

Published: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 9780231536578