Tragic Thoughts at the End of Philosophy ― Language, Literature, and Ethical Theory

Recently, a number of Anglo-American philosophers of very different sorts--pragmatists, metaphysicians, philosophers of language, philosophers of law, moral philosophers--have taken a reflective rather than merely recreational interest in literature. Does this literary turn mean that philosophy is coming to an end or merely down to earth? In this collection of essays, one of the most insightful of contemporary literary theorists investigates the intersection of literature and philosophy, analyzing the emerging preferences for practice over theory, particulars over universals, events over structures, inhabitants over spectators, an ethics of responsibility over a morality of rules, and a desire for intimacy with the world instead of simply a disengaged knowledge of it.

Gerald L. Bruns is the William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. His publications include Maurice Blanchot: The Refusal of Philosophy and Hermeneutics Ancient and Modern.