The Lives of Things

"Like his On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethics and Politics, (CH, Oct'97), this new work situates Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.) as a leading American scholar in the Continental tradition. In this important new contribution, he argues that things have lives beyond our cognitive grasp but are nonetheless formative of memories (biological, institutional, and cultural), thought, language, and action. Scott's argument underscores the importance of the physicality (phusis) of things, which has been sidelined in philosophical thought. Dewey's and Heidegger's consideration of physicality and the relation between the pragmatist and Continental traditions are built on to develop an account of phusis that emphasizes animation, lightness, density, and the thereness of physicality. Scott's analysis of density, luminosity, and physicality in Foucault's and Heidegger's work and of the displacement of subjectivity is incisive and critical. His final chapter on nihilism is a significant contribution in rethinking nihilism's negative connotations and resituating it as allowing for a multiplicity of discourses, for regions of recognition, and for life—affirming experiences. Scott's wit and personal experiences are woven throughout the text. Highly recommended for upper—division undergraduates through faculty."—N. A. McHugh, Wittenberg University, Choice, February 2003

". . . [T]his new work situates Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.) as a leading American scholar in the Continental tradition. . . . Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty.February 2003"—Choice