Greetings from Amazon.com Delivers Philosophy FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL: * "Apostles of Sartre: Existentialism in America, 1945-1963," by Ann Fulton * "Writings on Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan," by Louis Althusser * "Letters from Prison," by Marquis de Sade * "All Gall Is Divided," by E.M. Cioran "Apostles of Sartre: Existentialism in America, 1945-1963" by Ann Fulton http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810112906/entertainmentsit Ann Fulton examines the American response to Jean-Paul Sartre's writings and philosophy in this engaging historical survey. In the years immediately following World War II, as Sartre first became known to American philosophers and the public at large, he was treated somewhat dismissively, in part because of the trendy reception he was acquiring from the popular press (and the equally trendy backlash against his ideas). But as more and more of his work was translated into English, thereby making it easier to teach courses on his work, Sartre's positions became more acceptable to American academic philosophers, who began to explore connections between existentialism and pragmatism. Fulton's account shows how Sartreanism, with its emphasis on individual responsibility, choice, and freedom "helped reinvigorate" American philosophy "by infusing it with a line of inquiry that led back to questions of immediate human importance." The book is written in a clear and concise style that will make it equally useful to academics and laymen. "Writings on Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan" by Louis Althusser http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231101694/entertainmentsit Louis Althusser is perhaps better remembered for strangling his wife to death during a fit of temporary insanity than for most of his writings (with the possible exception of his essay on the "ideological state apparatus," an explication of normalizing social institutions that has become standard fare in academic postmodernism), but he was one of the key figures in postwar French philosophy. "Writings on Psychoanalysis" is a collection of essays, article drafts, and correspondence that displays the extent of his intellectual grappling with Freud's writings and with contemporary psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan, a former friend whom Althusser would gradually come to view as a "magnificent and pitiful Harlequin." (Two of the pieces here deal with the 1980 conference at which Althusser vehemently broke with Lacan, ostensibly over the latter's stifling position of dominance among their colleagues.) "Writings on Psychoanalysis" is a bit heavy-going and theoretical in places, but of unique historical interest. "Letters from Prison" by Marquis de Sade http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/155970411X/entertainmentsit The 1990s have seen a resurgence of interest in the Marquis de Sade, with several biographies competing to put their version of his life story before the public. But Sadean scholar Richard Seaver takes us directly to the source, translating Sade's prison correspondence. Seaver's translations retain the aristocratic hauteur of Sade's prose, which still possesses a clarity that any reader can appreciate. "When will my horrible situation cease?" he wrote to his wife shortly after his incarceration began in 1777. "When in God's name will I be let out of the tomb where I have been buried alive? There is nothing to equal the horror of my fate!" But he was never reduced to pleading for long, and not always so solicitous of his wife's feelings; a few years later, he would write, "This morning I received a fat letter from you that seemed endless. Please, I beg of you, don't go on at such length: do you believe that I have nothing better to do than to read your endless repetitions?" For those interested in learning about the man responsible for some of the most infamous philosophical fiction in history, "Letters from Prison" is an indispensable collection. "All Gall Is Divided" by E.M. Cioran http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1559704713/entertainmentsit Romanian-born E.M. Cioran moved to Paris at the age of 26, remaining there nearly six decades until his death in 1995. He was called "a sort of final philosopher of the Western world" and "the last worthy disciple of Nietzsche"; the bleak aphorisms of "All Gall Is Divided" make a strong case for either appellation. "With every idea born in us," he declares early on, "something in us rots." Throughout the book, he addresses the futile attempts of man to impose meaning on a meaningless existence--"That there should be a reality hidden by appearances is, after all, quite possible; that language might render such a thing would be an absurd hope"--and nurses an ongoing fascination with the possibilities death holds for release from life's madness. (When the Dead Kennedys sang, "I look forward to death / This world brings me down," they might as well have been taking notes from Cioran.) Grim stuff, but presented in brilliant, crystalline form--particularly in the translation by Richard Howard, which retains Cioran's cold, detached viewpoint. ****** You'll find more great books, articles, and interviews in Amazon.com's Philosophy section at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/?keyword=philosophy&tag=entertainmentsit
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