{"product_id":"levels-of-organic-life-and-the-human-an-introduction-to-philosophical-anthropology-hardback-9780823283996","title":"Levels of Organic Life and the Human; An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology (Hardback) 9780823283996","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eLevels of Organic Life and the Human\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eAn Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eHelmuth Plessner (Author), Millay Hyatt (Translated by), J. M. Bernstein (Introduction by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780823283996\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 2 July 2019\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e448 pages, 4\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm, 0.81 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe most important work by a key figure in German thought, Helmuth Plessner's \u003ci\u003eLevels of Organic Life and the Human\u003c\/i\u003e, originally published in 1928, appears here for the first time in English, accompanied by a substantial Introduction by J. M. Bernstein, after having served for decades as an influence on thinkers as diverse as Merleau-Ponty, Peter Berger, Habermas, and the new naturalists.\u003cbr\u003e The \u003ci\u003eLevels\u003c\/i\u003e, as it has long been known, draws on phenomenological, biological, and social scientific sources as part of a systematic account of nature, life, and human existence. The book considers non-living nature, plants, non-human animals, and human beings in turn as a sequence of increasingly complex modes of boundary dynamics—simply put, interactions between a thing's insides and surrounding world. On Plessner's unique account, living things are classed and analyzed by their \"positionality,\" or orientation to and within an environment. \"Life\" is thereby phenomenologically defined, and its universal yet internally variable features such as metabolism, reproduction, and death are explained.\u003cbr\u003e The approach provides a foundation not only for philosophical biology but philosophical anthropology as well. According to Plessner's radical view, the human form of life is excentric—that is, the relation between body and environment is something to which humans themselves are positioned and can take a position. This \"excentric positionality\" enables human beings to take a stand outside the boundaries of their own body, a possibility with significant implications for knowledge, culture, religion, and technology.\u003cbr\u003e Plessner studied zoology and philosophy with Hans Driesch in the 1910s before embarking on a highly productive philosophical career. His work was initially obscured by the superficially similar views of Max Scheler and Martin Heidegger and by his forced exile during World War II. Only in recent decades, as scholarship has moved more squarely into engagement with issues like animality, embodiment, human dignity, social theory, the philosophy of technology, and the philosophy of nature, has the originality and depth of Plessner's vision been appreciated.\u003cbr\u003e A powerful and sophisticated account of embodiment, the \u003ci\u003eLevels\u003c\/i\u003e shows, with reference both to science and to philosophy, how life can be seen on its own terms to establish its own boundaries, and how, from the standpoint of life, the human establishes itself in relation to the nonhuman. As such, the book is not merely a historical monument but a source for invigorating a range of vital current conversations around the animal, posthumanism, the material turn, and the biology and sociology of cognition.\u003cbr\u003e This modern philosophical classic, long-awaited in English translation, is a key book both historically and for today's interest in understanding philosophy and social theory together with science, without reducing the former to the latter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eForeword from the Helmuth Plessner Society\u003c\/b\u003e   vii\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eTranslator's Preface and Acknowledgments \u003c\/b\u003e  ix\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePreface to the First Edition (1928)\u003c\/b\u003e   xv\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePreface to the Second Edition (1965) \u003c\/b\u003e  xix\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIntroduction \u003c\/b\u003e  xxxvii\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJ. M. Bernstein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e1. \u003c\/b\u003eAim and Scope of the Study   1\u003cbr\u003e The Development of Intuitionist Lebensphilosophie in Opposition to\u003cbr\u003e Experience, 3 • Lebensphilosophie and the Theory of the Humanities, 11 • \u003cbr\u003e Working Plan for the Foundation of a Philosophy of the Human, 22\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2. \u003c\/b\u003eThe Cartesian Objection and the Nature of the Problem   34\u003cbr\u003e Extension vs. Interiority and the Problem of Appearance, 34 •\u003cbr\u003e Appearance as Originating in Interiority, 38 • The Prior Givenness\u003cbr\u003e of Interiority and the Forward Displacement of Myself: The Proposition\u003cbr\u003e of Immanence 41 • Extension as Outer World; Interiority as Inner\u003cbr\u003e World, 46 • The Proposition of Representation and the Element\u003cbr\u003e of Sensation, 51 • The Inaccessibility of Other I's according to the\u003cbr\u003e Principle of Sensualism, 55 • The Need for a Revision of the Cartesian\u003cbr\u003e Dichotomy in the Interest of a Science of Life, 58 • A Methodological\u003cbr\u003e Reformulation of the Opening Question, 64\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e3.\u003c\/b\u003e The Thesis   75\u003cbr\u003e The Question, 75 • The Dual Aspect in the Appearance of Ordinary\u003cbr\u003e Perceptual Things, 76 • Against the Misinterpretation of This Analysis:\u003cbr\u003e A Closer Focus on the Subject Matter, 81 • The Dual Aspect of Living\u003cbr\u003e Perceptual Things: Köhler contra Driesch, 84 • How Is Dual Aspectivity\u003cbr\u003e Possible? The Nature of the Boundary, 93 • The Task of a Theory of the\u003cbr\u003e Essential Characteristics of the Organic, 99 • Definitions of Life, 104 •\u003cbr\u003e Nature and Object of a Theory of the Essential Characteristics of the\u003cbr\u003e Organic, 110\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e4. \u003c\/b\u003eThe Modes of Being of Vitality   115\u003cbr\u003e Essential Characteristics Indicating Vitality, 115 • The Positionality of\u003cbr\u003e Living Being and Its Spacelikeness, 118 • Living Being as Process\u003cbr\u003e and Type; the Dynamic Character of the Living Form; the Individuality of the\u003cbr\u003e Living Thing, 123 • Living Process as Development, 129 • The Curve of\u003cbr\u003e Development: Aging and Death, 137 • The Individual Living Thing as a\u003cbr\u003e System, 144 • The Self-Regulation of the Individual Living Thing\u003cbr\u003e and the Harmonious Equipotentiality of Its Parts, 149 • Individual Living Things\u003cbr\u003e as Organized: The Dual Meaning of Organs, 154 • The Temporality of\u003cbr\u003e Living Being, 159 • The Positional Union of Space and Time and the\u003cbr\u003e Natural Place, 168\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e5.\u003c\/b\u003e The Organizational Modes of Living Being: Plants and Animals   172\u003cbr\u003e The Circle of Life, 172 • Assimilation—Dissimilation, 182 •\u003cbr\u003e Adaptedness and Adaptation, 186 • Reproduction, Heredity,\u003cbr\u003e Selection, 196 • The Open Form of Organization of the Plant, 202 •\u003cbr\u003e The Closed Form of Organization of the Animal, 209\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e6. \u003c\/b\u003eThe Sphere of the Animal   219\u003cbr\u003e The Positionality of the Closed Form: Centrality and Frontality, 219 •\u003cbr\u003e The Coordination of Stimulus and Response in the Case of an Inoperative\u003cbr\u003e Subject (Decentralized Type of Organization), 227 • The Coordination of\u003cbr\u003e Stimulus and Response by a Subject (Centralized Type of Organization),\u003cbr\u003e 231 • The Animal's Surrounding Field Organized into Complex Qualities and\u003cbr\u003e Things, 242 • Intelligence, 252 • Memory, 257 • Memory as the Unity of\u003cbr\u003e Residue and Anticipation, 262 \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e7. \u003c\/b\u003eThe Sphere of the Human   267\u003cbr\u003e The Positionality of the Excentric Form: \"I\" and Personhood, 267 •\u003cbr\u003e Outer World, Inner World, Shared World, 272 • The Fundamental Laws\u003cbr\u003e of Anthropology: The Law of Natural Artificiality, 287 • The Law of\u003cbr\u003e Mediated Immediacy: Immanence and Expressivity, 298 • The Law of\u003cbr\u003e the Utopian Standpoint: Nullity and Transcendence, 316\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAppendix   \u003c\/i\u003e323\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eGlossary   \u003c\/i\u003e337\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNotes   \u003c\/i\u003e345\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex   \u003c\/i\u003e359\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52580354425112,"sku":"9780823283996","price":89.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/levels-of-organic-life-and-the-human-an-introduction-to-philosophical-anthropology-hardback-9780823283996","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}