Phenomenology and the Arts develops the interplay between phenomenology as a historical movement and a descriptive method within Continental philosophy and the arts. Divided into five themes, the book explores first how the phenomenological method itself is a kind of artistic endeavor that mirrors what it approaches when it turns to describe paintings, dramas, literature, and music. From there, the book turns to an analysis and commentary on specific works of art within the visual arts, li...

Brian Eno's seminal album Ambient 1: Music for Airports continues to fascinate and charm audiences, not only as a masterpiece of ambient music, but as a powerful and transformative work of art. Author John T. Lysaker situates this album in the context of twentieth-century art music, where its ambitions and contributions to avant garde music practice become even more apparent. To appreciate the album's multifaceted character, Lysaker advocates for "prismatic listening," an attentiv...

A new ethics of human finitude developed through three experimental essays.As ethical beings, we strive for lives that are meaningful and praiseworthy. But we are finite. We do not know, so we hope. We need, so we trust. We err, so we forgive. In this book, philosopher John T. Lysaker draws our attention to the ways in which these three capacities—hope, trust, and forgiveness—contend with human limits. Each experience is vital to human flourishing, yet each also po...

Lysaker examines the relationship between philosophical thought and the act of writing to explore how this dynamic shapes the field of philosophy.Philosophy's relation to the act of writing is John T. Lysaker's main concern in Philosophy, Writing, and the Character of Thought. Whether in Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, or Derrida, philosophy has come in many forms, and those forms—the concrete shape philosophizing takes in writing—matter. Much mo...

The author of Emerson & Self-Culture shares essays covering such themes as identity, experience, ethics, poetry, philosophy, history, and race.John T. Lysaker works between and weaves together questions and replies in philosophical psychology, Emerson studies, and ethics in this book of deep existential questioning. Each essay in this atypical, philosophical book employs recurring terms, phrases, and questions that characterize our contemporary age. Setting...