Death and Finitude (eBook)

Toward a Pragmatic Transcendental Anthropology of Human Limits and Mortality

Sami Pihlstrom (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
228 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-4985-2442-1 (ISBN)

Infos

This book integrates pragmatism and transcendental philosophy in examining the most serious problem defining the human condition, death and mortality. Its analysis of human limits and finitude is intended to be relevant to the concerns of philosophers specializing in, for example, transcendental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, pragmatism, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of religion. Mortality is studied as providing a necessary framework within which questions concerning the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of human life become possible.

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Death and Finitude offers an examination and defense of a pragmatic transcendental anthropology applicable to the concepts of limit, finitude, and mortality that are constitutive of human life as we know it. Sami Pihlstrom develops a special kind of philosophical anthropology-a pragmatic yet transcendental examination of the human condition-that interprets what is worth preserving in the tradition of transcendental philosophy in such a manner that this unusual combination will crucially enrich our understanding of a human problem we all share: mortality. In some sense, all serious philosophy inevitably reflects on the human condition and is thus philosophical anthropology, broadly conceived. There can hardly be any more serious problem concerning the human condition than the problem of death. Yet, mainstream analytic contributions to the philosophy of death usually addresses death in general, and it is far from obvious that such contributions are philosophically relevant in the sense of addressing the agony of an individual human being trying to understand their own mortal condition. "e;Continental"e; philosophy of death may be frustrating in a different sense, as it often fails to be conceptually as clear and argumentatively as rigorous as the analytic literature. Claiming to address my "e;being-toward-death"e;, such contributions may also fail to speak to the mortal individual if they end up in endless pseudo-philosophical jargon. It is against this background of frustration that Death and Finitude contributes to humanity's on-going reflections on death, dying, and mortality-from a pragmatist yet transcendental perspective, seeking to accommodate these topics within a broader philosophical anthropology.The book is primarily intended for academic philosophers, but the potential readership includes not only scholars but also both graduate students and advanced undergraduates, as well as general educated readers. It is relevant to the concerns of philosophers specializing in transcendental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, pragmatism, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of religion. As the book may be said to be an attempt to "e;philosophize historically,"e; it is in principle of interest to both systematically and historically oriented philosophers and students.

Autor

Sami Pihlström is professor of philosophy of religion at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.

Inhalt

IntroductionMortality and philosophical anthropologyThe self as a limit Death—mine or the other’s?Death, guilt, and (in)equalityControlling death? Pragmatist philosophy of mortalityConclusion: a pragmatic transcendental anthropology

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.9.2016
• Reihe/Serie: American Philosophy Series
• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
• Schlagworte: American Philosophy • Death • Mortality • philospohical anthropology • Pragmatism • Solipsism • thanatology • Transcendental philosophy • William James
• ISBN-10: 1-4985-2442-7 / 1498524427
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4985-2442-1 / 9781498524421