Faculty Books

Recent Publications

Language at the Boundaries: Philosophy, Literature, and the Poetics of Culture

In this work, Peter Carravetta offers a "contemporary defense of poetry," examining the vital role of the poetic act in a modern era often indifferent to it. He argues that poetry is not a fading historical relic but a necessary space for navigating the limits of human expression and knowledge.

Thinking in Transit - Explorations of Life in Motion

Thinking in Transit is a multidisciplinary collection that challenges the traditional philosophical preference for stillness and permanence. Instead, editors Megan Craig and Edward S. Casey assemble a series of "explorations" that argue movement is the fundamental fabric of human existence. The book moves beyond the idea of transit as a mere means to an end, repositioning it as a rich site of philosophical inquiry.

The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority

In The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science (2019), Robert P. Crease—a philosopher and historian of science at Stony Brook University—addresses the growing crisis of scientific authority in an era of "post-truth" politics and climate denial. Crease uses the metaphor of the "workshop" to represent the specialized space where scientific knowledge is produced, and the "world" as the public sphere where that knowledge must be communicated and acted upon.

Thinking Matters: Critical Thinking Creative Problem Solving

In Thinking Matters, Gary Mar presents a refreshing departure from standard logic textbooks by framing critical thinking as a dynamic, generative process. While most logic guides focus on identifying what is wrong with an argument, Mar focuses on how rigorous thinking can be used to create solutions. He treats the mind as a laboratory where logic, mathematics, and philosophy intersect to solve the "wicked problems" of the 21st century.

Logics of Genocide

In Logics of Genocide: The Structures of Violence and the Frontiers of Hope (2020), Anne O’Byrne offers a harrowing but necessary philosophical investigation into the "logic" that allows mass extermination to become a social and political reality. Rather than treating genocide as a sudden explosion of irrationality or a historical anomaly, O’Byrne argues that it is often the result of specific, identifiable structures of thought—what she terms "logics"—that define identity, belonging, and the boundaries of the human.

The Genocide Paradox: Democracy and Generational Time

In The Genocide Paradox: Democracy and Generational Time (2023), Anne O’Byrne expands her rigorous investigation into the structural foundations of political violence, focusing on a deeply unsettling contradiction: the relationship between democratic ideals and the impulse toward genocidal exclusion. O'Byrne argues that democracy, which defines itself through the "people," often struggles with the biological and historical reality of generational time—the fact that "the people" are constantly changing through birth, death, and migration.

Hermeneutics as Critique Science, Politics, Race and Culture

In Hermeneutics as Critique: Science, Politics, Race, and Culture (2021), Lorenzo Simpson offers a masterful defense of "critical hermeneutics"—the art of interpretation as a tool for social and political liberation. Simpson argues that hermeneutics is not merely about understanding historical texts, but is a vital practice for evaluating the "situatedness" of human knowledge across the most pressing issues of our time.

Knowing by Heart: Loving as Participation and Critique

In Knowing by Heart: Loving as Participation and Critique (2021), Anthony Steinbock offers a transformative phenomenological study of the emotions, specifically focusing on the heart as a unique site of knowledge. Steinbock challenges the modern tendency to view emotions as mere "feelings" or irrational impulses, arguing instead that the heart possesses its own rigorous logic and "evidence" that is essential for a full understanding of human existence.

Phenomenology and Perspectives on the Heart

In Phenomenology and Perspectives on the Heart (2024), Anthony Steinbock extends his ground-breaking work on the philosophy of emotions by delving into the "heart" as the central organ of human meaning. Moving beyond the common view of the heart as a mere metaphor or a site of irrationality, Steinbock utilizes a rigorous phenomenological method to describe how the heart functions as the source of our most fundamental orientations toward the world, others, and the divine.

Mundo Familiar Y Mundo Ajeno

In Mundo Familiar y Mundo Ajeno (Family World and Alien World), Anthony Steinbock presents a seminal contribution to "generative phenomenology," a field that extends the work of Edmund Husserl into the realms of history, culture, and intersubjectivity. The book’s primary objective is to move beyond a static analysis of the individual mind and instead explore how our very sense of reality is structured by the tension between what is "homeworld" (Heimwelt) and what is "alienworld" (Fremdwelt).

Emociones morales: El clamor de la evidencia desde el corazón

In Emociones morales: El clamor de la evidencia desde el corazón (originally published in English as Moral Emotions: Reclaiming the Evidence of the Heart), Anthony Steinbock offers a profound phenomenological defense of the heart as a source of objective truth. Steinbock challenges the modern "prejudice of the mind," which tends to view emotions as subjective, irrational, or purely psychological reactions. Instead, he argues that moral emotions provide a unique kind of "evidence" that is essential for perceiving the value and dignity of persons.

Turning Emotion Inside Out: Affective Life beyond the Subject

In Turning Emotion Inside Out: Affective Life Beyond the Subject (2022), Edward S. Casey—a preeminent phenomenologist of space and place—radically reconfigures our understanding of the emotional landscape. Traditionally, Western philosophy and psychology have treated emotions as private, internal states locked within the "container" of the individual subject. Casey inverts this paradigm, arguing that emotions are not merely "inside" us; rather, we are "inside" them. He posits that affects are expansive, world-spanning phenomena that saturate the environments we inhabit.

Hegel's Anthropology: Life, Psyche, and Second Nature

In Hegel’s Anthropology: Life, Psyche, and Second Nature (2021), Allegra de Laurentiis provides a rigorous and illuminating commentary on the "Anthropology" section of G.W.F. Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind. De Laurentiis challenges the common misconception that Hegel’s system is a purely abstract idealism detached from biological reality. Instead, she argues that for Hegel, the human spirit (Geist) is deeply rooted in organic life and the "obscure" depths of the psyche.

Autonomy, Moral Worth, and Right: Kant on Obligatory Ends, Respect for Law, and Original Acquisition

In Autonomy, Moral Worth, and Right: Kant on Obligatory Ends, Respect for Law, and Original Acquisition (2017), Jeffrey Edwards provides a meticulous and integrative analysis of Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy. Edwards’s primary intervention is to bridge the often-perceived gap between Kant’s moral theory—centered on the Groundwork and the second Critique—and his political and legal theory found in the Metaphysics of Morals. He argues that Kant’s concepts of internal freedom (ethics) and external freedom (law) are more systematically unified than many commentators suggest.

Band 3 Arbeiten zu Hegel und verwandten Themen

In Band 3: Arbeiten zu Hegel und verwandten Themen (the third volume of the series Arbeiten zu Philosophie), Jeffrey Edwards and Allegra de Laurentiis curate and contribute to a sophisticated collection of essays that interrogate the legacy of G.W.F. Hegel and his precursors. The volume is characterized by its commitment to "systematic" philosophy—understanding how specific metaphysical or ethical problems fit within the broader architecture of German Idealism.

Hegel and Metaphysics: On Logic and Ontology in the System

In Hegel and Metaphysics: On Logic and Ontology in the System (2016), Allegra de Laurentiis offers a definitive defense of G.W.F. Hegel’s Science of Logic as a rigorous metaphysical project. She pushes back against "non-metaphysical" interpretations of Hegel that emerged in the late 20th century, which sought to reduce his philosophy to a mere theory of discourse or social normativity. Instead, de Laurentiis argues that for Hegel, logic is not just a tool for thinking, but is identical to ontology—the study of being itself.

The Betrayal of Substance

In The Betrayal of Substance: Death, Literature, and Sexual Difference in Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit”, Mary C. Rawlinson offers a provocative and influential feminist critique of G.W.F. Hegel’s masterwork. Rawlinson argues that Hegel’s system, which purports to achieve "Absolute Knowing" by subsuming all particularity into a universal spirit, can only do so by "betraying" or suppressing the irreducible reality of the body, sexual difference, and the singular experience of death.

What Is Sexual Difference? Thinking with Irigaray

In What Is Sexual Difference? Thinking with Irigaray (2018), editors Mary C. Rawlinson and James Sares curate a collection of essays that re-examine the foundational question of sexual difference through the lens of Luce Irigaray’s philosophy. The volume argues that sexual difference is not merely a "biological fact" or a social "identity" among others, but the most fundamental problem of our age—one that affects the very structure of thought, language, and ethics.