Este artigo discute o conceito de herdabilidade, empregado pela genética do comportamento, genética molecular e a teoria da herdabilidade, sob a perspectiva do modelo reticulado de racionalidade científica, de Larry Laudan. Analisa os argumentos contrários à utilização do termo herdabilidade focando principalmente nos resultados de experimentos da genética do comportamento. Conclui que algumas críticas ao termo herdabilidade são válidas tais como o termo poder ser confuso para o público em geral, mas podem ser extremas como as que propõem sua extinção. (...) A análise desenvolvida leva à conclusão de que a herdabilidade, tanto pela genética do comportamento, quanto pela genética molecular, é útil para seus respectivos fins. Os autores consideram que ao invés de ser extinto, o termo pode ser utilizado considerando mais análises, resultados e conclusões, sendo, portanto, essa a escolha mais racional e progressiva. (shrink)

Conjunto de textos de pesquisadores que discutem alguns dos temas mais importantes da fenomenologia, a partir dos fundamentos de Husserl e sua influência em diversas correntes da filosofia contemporânea, principalmente a ontologia de Martin Heidegger e a fenomenologia da existência de Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Julian of Norwich (b. 1342) anticipated the ontological and epistemological work on sexed embodiment pioneered in the work of Merleau-Ponty and Irigaray in the 20th century. Her epistemology of sensual ‘showings’ helped reconfigure women’s embodiment and speech acts (‘bodytalk’): by recognizing cognitive emotions and the knowledge-producing body; and by envisioning the intertwining of human flesh with All That Is. The paper next examines Merleau-Ponty’s somatic discourse on the chiasmic flesh, which leads to a discussion of Irigaray’s work on poetic mimesis.

In our paper we aim to meditate on the concept of depth (profondeur) in the works of M. Merleau-Ponty, as it is a key notion to understand the French philosopher’s concept of space. Furthermore we will try to show that space plays a fundamental role in the development of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, allowing us to understand important features both of his phenomenological readings and ontological project.

This paper aims to meditate the importance of cinematographic image in the development of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception. It will also try to underline such a subject in the later works of the French philosopher. Therefore, we will try to base our considerations upon the ideas of body, space, Visible and flesh.

This paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of approaching the phenomenon of memory in relation to space. In order to approach memory on “the side ofspace”, we will find our first decisive guidelines in M. Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of habit developed in Phenomenology of Perception. Starting from there, we will then try to show in what way memory, in a way, can be said to belong to places. The final point of the discussion is Ricœur’s investigation of architecture and urbanism’s (...) analogies with narrative, as they allow us to consider a hermeneutic approach to the spatial fabric of time. (shrink)

This paper aims to meditate on the importance of Jacob von Uexküll’s notion of Umwelt in Merleau-Ponty’s research of an ontophenomenological path - that is to say, in Merleau-Ponty’s putting to the test of some of the thesis and presuppositions that were at the heart of both La structure du Comportement and the Phénoménologie de la perception. As Merleau-Ponty is looking for a way to develop and overcome the results of an investigation based on the point of view of consciousness, (...) this notion of Umwelt will become–namely in the three lecture courses on the concept of Nature, delivered by Merleau-Ponty in the late 1950s at the Collège de France–more and more decisive.Este artículo trata de meditar acerca de la importancia de la noción de Umwelt de Uexküll en la búsqueda de un camino ontofenomenológico por parte de Merleau-Ponty, es decir, en la puesta a prueba de ciertas tesis y presupuestos que estaban presentes en el núcleo tanto de La structure du Comportement como de Phénoménologie de la perception. Siendo así que Merleau-Ponty persigue encontrar un camino para desarrollar y superar los resultados de una investigación basada en el punto de vista de la conciencia, esta noción de Umwelt llegará a ser –especialmente en las lecciones de los tres cursos sobre el concepto de Nature, impartidos por Merleau-Ponty a finales de los años 50 en el Collège de France– cada vez más decisiva. (shrink)

Una de las tareas de la filosofía consiste, según Merleau-Ponty, en aprender de nuevo a ver el mundo. En este artículo se pretende mostrar el laberinto de dificultades en el que se penetra cuando se pregunta qué es ver, qué se ve y quién o qué es el vidente. Este y lo visible brotan de una misma visibilidad carnal que los entreteje: la motricidad y la reversibilidad serán claves para acercarse a esa relación, así como para ofrecer una nueva visión (...) de la imagen que conlleva una reciprocidad entre lo real y lo imaginario. (shrink)

Los trabajos reunidos en este volumen pertenecen a pensadoras y pensadores de varios países, todos ellos a su vez conocedores profundos tanto de la obra de Husserl como de la de los representantes máximos del movimiento fenomenológico -Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty. De lo sartículos hemos elegido seis para nuestro trabajo de presentación crítica.

Thinking through French Philosophy has two objectives. First, it seeks to demonstrate that the thought of Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze draw inspiration from the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Lawlor shows that Merleau-Ponty, residing somewhere between structuralism and poststructuralism, managed to articulate key ideas that helped Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze make the necessary breakthroughs that now come to mark their respective philosophies. Such ideas include Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the flesh as developed in The Visible and the Invisible, the chiasm, and expression as (...) a sense-giving event. The second objective of the book is to read the “great French philosophies of the Sixties” as a philosophy of “interrogation.” Lawlor argues that Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze offer us a “point of diffraction” through which we can further elaborate our thinking on various aporias opened up by these thinkers. (shrink)

En el presente artículo, analizamos la influencia que el “gran Doctor del Occidente” ha ejercido sobre el pensamiento doctrinal de Juan Pablo II, un Pontífice que, a través de su magisterio, lleno de santidad y de sabiduría de Dios, ha demostrado al mundo entero cómo las palabras sabias y elocuentes de este “gran hombre y santo” resuenan aún con fuerza dentro del seno de la Iglesia. Es por ello que, basándonos en algunas Encíclicas o Cartas Apostólicas, corroboramos el “buen olor (...) agustiniano” tanto en la vida como en la obra de este papa santo cuyo único propósito, al igual que san Agustín, fue el de servir a Dios y a la Iglesia, defendiendo en todo momento la fe católica. Así, como reza el título de este artículo, “dos amores constituyeron dos grandes pastores”: el amor a Dios y el amor al prójimo, las dos “alas de la caridad”, pues “Ama y haz lo que quieras”. (shrink)

In this essay I examine the possibilities of approaching the phenomenon of memory from the point of view of space. Drawing on Edward Casey’s Getting Back into Place and on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s analyses of the spatialized lived body, I attempt to show in what way memory can be said to belong to places. My inquiry ends with a discussion of Paul Ricoeur’s proposals on the narrative dimension of human space, which, I argue, allows us to consider why a building or (...) a city may be said to produce a sensed duration by and through inscribing it in the durability of their materials and, at the same time, in human histories. (shrink)

Indirect Nature and the Colors of the Invisible. Notes regarding Merleau-Ponty’s Ontological ProjectThis paper aims to meditate on the importance of the Notes de cours du Collège de France on the idea of “Nature” to the understanding of M. Merleau-Ponty ontological project. In particular, we would like to show that in these notes a Philosophy of Nature is drawn both in view of a necessary conception of Being that surpasses the ontology of the object, and in view of a new (...) philosophy of the incarnated perceiving body. In the center of this fertile tension we hope to contribute to a new way of understanding what Merleau-Ponty was still trying to do with his Le visible et l’invisible.La Natura indiretta e i colori dell’invisibile. Note sul progetto ontologico di Merleau-PontyLo scopo di questo articolo è di riflettere sull’importanza delle Lezioni al Collège de France sull’idea di “Natura” per la comprensione del progetto ontologico di M. Merleau-Ponty. In particolare, intendiamo mostrare come in queste lezioni sia tracciata una filosofia della natura in vista di una nuova concezione dell’Essere che superi l’ontologia dell’oggetto, ma anche di una nuova filosofia del corpo percipiente incarnato. Nella scia di questa fertile tensione, speriamo di poter contribuire ad una nuova comprensione di ciò che Merleau-Ponty stava cercando di fare con il suo Il visibile e l’invisibile. (shrink)

Indirect Nature and the Colors of the Invisible. Notes regarding Merleau-Ponty’s Ontological ProjectThis paper aims to meditate on the importance of the Notes de cours du Collège de France on the idea of “Nature” to the understanding of M. Merleau-Ponty ontological project. In particular, we would like to show that in these notes a Philosophy of Nature is drawn both in view of a necessary conception of Being that surpasses the ontology of the object, and in view of a new (...) philosophy of the incarnated perceiving body. In the center of this fertile tension we hope to contribute to a new way of understanding what Merleau-Ponty was still trying to do with his Le visible et l’invisible.La Natura indiretta e i colori dell’invisibile. Note sul progetto ontologico di Merleau-PontyLo scopo di questo articolo è di riflettere sull’importanza delle Lezioni al Collège de France sull’idea di “Natura” per la comprensione del progetto ontologico di M. Merleau-Ponty. In particolare, intendiamo mostrare come in queste lezioni sia tracciata una filosofia della natura in vista di una nuova concezione dell’Essere che superi l’ontologia dell’oggetto, ma anche di una nuova filosofia del corpo percipiente incarnato. Nella scia di questa fertile tensione, speriamo di poter contribuire ad una nuova comprensione di ciò che Merleau-Ponty stava cercando di fare con il suo Il visibile e l’invisibile. (shrink)

This book provides the first detailed account of Gramsci's work in the context of current critical and socio-cultural debates. Renate Holub argues that Gramsci was ahead of his time in offering a theory of art, politics and cultural production. Gramsci's achievement is discussed particularly in relation to the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Bloch, Habermas), to Brecht's theoretical writings and to thinkers in the phenomenological tradition especially Merleau-Ponty. She argues for Gramsci's continuing relevance at a time of retreat from Marxist (...) positions on the postmodern left. Antonio Gramsci is distinguished by its range of philosophical grasp, its depth of specialized historical scholarship, and its keen sense of Gramsci's position as a crucial figure in the politics of contemporary cultural theory. (shrink)

Being a member of both local and global teams requires constant distribution and re-distribution of attention, engagement, and intensive communication over synchronous and asynchronous channels with remote and local partners. We explore in this paper the increasing number of social worlds such participants distribute their attention to, how this affects their level of engagement and attention, and how the workspace, collaboration technologies, and interaction modes afford and constrain the communicative events. The use of information and collaboration technologies (ICT) shapes and (...) reshapes work spaces, processes, and social interactions among team members, and team members reshape ICT and the way it is used. We use as a testbed the AEC Global Teamwork course established at Stanford in 1993 in collaboration with universities worldwide and provide examples from two sites—Stanford PBL Lab, California USA and Chalmers University, Goteborg Sweden. We used temporal analysis and qualitative methods of inquiry in order to study participants’ attention, how they used the site and the means, i.e., their social and material resources, to accomplish their interaction needs, and how they engaged throughout project reviews. (shrink)

BackgroundThere are two types of voluntary interruption of pregnancy: elective and therapeutic abortion. These forms are different for many reasons, and it is reasonable to assume that they can have negative consequences that can last until a subsequent gestation. However, no study has analyzed the psychological experience of gestation after a previous abortion, distinguishing the two forms of voluntary interruption of pregnancy.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the level of prenatal attachment and centrality of pregnancy in nulliparous low-risk pregnant women with (...) a recently previous elective or therapeutic abortion.MethodsA total of 34 nulliparous pregnant women with a history of abortion, aged from 27 to 48 years, were recruited in the maternity ward of a public hospital of the metropolitan area of Tuscany and Lombardy during the third trimester of gestation. The participants filled out a battery of questionnaires aimed at assessing prenatal attachment and centrality of pregnancy.ResultsAnalyses of variance showed that women with a history of elective abortion reported a higher centrality of pregnancy than women with a past therapeutic abortion. On the contrary, women with a past therapeutic abortion reported higher prenatal attachment.ConclusionElective and therapeutic abortions are different experiences that impact the way women experience a subsequent pregnancy. Future research should further investigate the psychological experience of gestation after abortion. (shrink)

The publication of this book is an event in the making. All over the world scientists, psychologists, and philosophers are waiting to read Antonio Damasio's new theory of the nature of consciousness and the construction of the self. A renowned and revered scientist and clinician, Damasio has spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and devising ingenious research using PET scans to piece together the great puzzle of consciousness. In his bestselling Descartes' Error, (...) Damasio revealed the critical importance of emotion in the making of reason. Building on this foundation, he now shows how consciousness is created. Consciousness is the feeling of what happens-our mind noticing the body's reaction to the world and responding to that experience. Without our bodies there can be no consciousness, which is at heart a mechanism for survival that engages body, emotion, and mind in the glorious spiral of human life. A hymn to the possibilities of human existence, a magnificent work of ingenious science, a gorgeously written book, The Feeling of What Happens is already being hailed as a classic. (shrink)

In light of the recently developed European Union (EU) Biofuels Strategy, the literature is reviewed to examine (a) the coherency of biofuel production with the EU nonindustrial vision of agriculture, and (b) given its insufficient land base, the implications of a proposed bioenergy pact to grow biofuel crops in the developing world to meet EU biofuel demands. The EU acknowledged that the use of food crops for biofuel production was based on wrong assumptions concerning climate change mitigation, and its support (...) has now shifted to second-generation nonfood crops. The bioenergy pact entails (a) biofuel crops production in developing countries, especially Africa, that in the absence of environmental and social regulations may lead to ethical trade-offs in land use (food vs. fuel) and (b) the use of transgenic technology that conflicts with the EU’s own vision of sustainable agriculture. (shrink)

The article examines four models of data governance emerging in the current platform society. While major attention is currently given to the dominant model of corporate platforms collecting and economically exploiting massive amounts of personal data, other actors, such as small businesses, public bodies and civic society, take also part in data governance. The article sheds light on four models emerging from the practices of these actors: data sharing pools, data cooperatives, public data trusts and personal data sovereignty. We propose (...) a social science-informed conceptualisation of data governance. Drawing from the notion of data infrastructure we identify the models as a function of the stakeholders’ roles, their interrelationships, articulations of value, and governance principles. Addressing the politics of data, we considered the actors’ competitive struggles for governing data. This conceptualisation brings to the forefront the power relations and multifaceted economic and social interactions within data governance models emerging in an environment mainly dominated by corporate actors. These models highlight that civic society and public bodies are key actors for democratising data governance and redistributing value produced through data. Through the discussion of the models, their underpinning principles and limitations, the article wishes to inform future investigations of socio-technical imaginaries for the governance of data, particularly now that the policy debate around data governance is very active in Europe. (shrink)

The paper shows how the Bohmian approach to quantum physics can be applied to develop a clear and coherent ontology of non-perturbative quantum gravity. We suggest retaining discrete objects as the primitive ontology also when it comes to a quantum theory of space-time and therefore focus on loop quantum gravity. We conceive atoms of space, represented in terms of nodes linked by edges in a graph, as the primitive ontology of the theory and show how a non-local law in which (...) a universal and stationary wave-function figures can provide an order of configurations of such atoms of space such that the classical space-time of general relativity is approximated. Although there is as yet no fully worked out physical theory of quantum gravity, we regard the Bohmian approach as setting up a standard that proposals for a serious ontology in this field should meet and as opening up a route for fruitful physical and mathematical investigations. (shrink)

Instead of the currently prevailing competitive model, a more collaborative strategy is needed to address the concerns related to the unsustainability of today’s business. This article aims to explore collaborative approaches where enterprises seek to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with all stakeholders and want to produce sustainable values for their whole business ecosystem. Cases here analyzed demonstrate that alternative ways of doing business are possible. These enterprises share more democratic ownership structures, more balanced and broader governance systems, and a (...) more comprehensive view of organizational goals and performance – which goes beyond the narrow concept of financial bottom line and into a stronger and systematic care of the needs and requirements of the different stakeholder groups. Thanks to this evidence and different theoretical and empirical contributions, we suggest that the strength and sustainability of enterprises come from their ability to fit into the environmental, social, and cultural context in which they operate. By creating values for all stakeholders, enterprises can involve them and gain deep support based on their commitment. This may lead to superior performance from a multiple-bottom-line perspective. (shrink)

A statement of hyperarithmetic analysis is a sentence of second order arithmetic S such that for every Y⊆ω, the minimum ω-model containing Y of RCA0 + S is HYP, the ω-model consisting of the sets hyperarithmetic in Y. We provide an example of a mathematical theorem which is a statement of hyperarithmetic analysis. This statement, that we call INDEC, is due to Jullien [13]. To the author's knowledge, no other already published, purely mathematical statement has been found with this property (...) until now. We also prove that, over RCA0, INDEC is implied by [Formula: see text] and implies ACA0, but of course, neither ACA0, nor ACA 0+ imply it. We introduce five other statements of hyperarithmetic analysis and study the relations among them. Four of them are related to finitely-terminating games. The fifth one, related to iterations of the Turing jump, is strictly weaker than all the other statements that we study in this paper, as we prove using Steel's method of forcing with tagged trees. (shrink)

Among the reasons that Whitehead is such an interesting philosopher is that his work resonates across philosophical traditions. This collection develops connections between Whiteheadian concepts and recent European thinkers. The purpose is not simply to compare, however, but, as editor Jeremy Fackenthal suggests, to develop a Whiteheadian thinking “in tandem” with European philosophers in order to create disruptions or “dislocations” in thought that can engender creative approaches to contemporary problems.One general feature of the book deserves mention at the outset, though (...) I will return to it later in the review: although phenomenology and hermeneutics are each represented in the volume, roughly half of the essays focus on the work of Gilles Deleuze (if we group these together with essays focused on “new materialism,” which is connected with Deleuze, the proportion is more like two-thirds). This will be no surprise, since Deleuze is the European philosopher who was most appreciative of Whitehead. And yet, the result is that the conversation with “continental philosophy” is highly selective.The book is organized into three parts, each comprised of three essays. In part 1, “Technological and Systematic Dislocations,” William S. Hamrick brings Whitehead into conversation with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concept of “the flesh” to suggest an ecological ontology capable of overcoming the instrumentalization of nature. Hamrick's strategy is to read Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty as contributing to an “ontological foundation” for a sustainable civilization (18). Bo Eberle writes about the “quantified self” suggested in new, wearable self-monitoring technologies. Drawing on Whitehead's notion of causal efficacy, Eberle argues that devices such as Fitbit give us access to bodily states that bypasses the standard ways we are aware of ourselves (i.e., through consciousness). He goes further to argue that, like all ways of knowing, wearable technologies are selective, and that the selection reflects the interests of the manufacturers and promotes a certain kind of subjectivity (in the case of Fitbit, a subjectivity that is oriented toward “getting your steps in”). Whitehead's epistemology thus enables the critic of wearable technologies to understand how contemporary experience and self-understanding is shaped not simply by recent technological mediations but by the material interests embedded in them. J.R. Hustwit and Carl Dyke take on what they call “activist” uses of Whitehead that naively (in their judgment) suggest that a non-relational substance metaphysics is to blame for most of our social ills. They employ the theory of complex adaptive systems in conversation with Whitehead and Antonio Gramsci to show that, in fact, achieving significant social change is far more difficult and even unpredictable than mere insertion of better ideas into public discourse. Dominant hegemonies have ways of adapting and absorbing attempts to undermine them. Here Hustwit and Dyke draw on the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur to suggest that resistance to the dominant hegemony is nevertheless always possible because of the vagueness of discourse, allowing a plurality of competing interpretations and thus fractures in the dominant hegemony. However, even this kind of resistance is impossible to control and its effects incapable of being entirely predicted. To the essay's titular question, “Can Whitehead save the world?” the authors answer, “No.”In part 2, “Animal/Human Dislocations,” Jeremy Fackenthal draws on the new materialism of Rosi Braidotti (and Deleuze) along with Whitehead to argue for a “process-relational” nomadism that culminates in a “becoming-imperceptible.” His reading together of Whitehead and Braidotti creates the opportunity to recast the former's concept of objective immortality in such a way that it does not refer to death so much as to being diffused into a relational network. The satisfaction of an actual occasion may be taken as its translation into its effects among its relations. Fackenthal argues that this becoming-imperceptible makes possible a sustainable presence within a fragile network of life. Deena M. Lin uses Whitehead, Braidotti, and Judith Butler to lay out a vision of human life as precarious and deserving attention, care, and solidarity. She presses this vision as a direct moral assault on US (Trump's) policy toward Syrian refugees. Going further, she draws on Braidotti's posthuman account of zoe to argue for universal connection and solidarity with all life that should foster, as the title of her essay puts it, “Welcoming of Syrian Life.” Tano Posteraro offers an intriguing essay drawing on Jakob von Uexküll's account of animal experience. Posteraro argues that Uexküll's notion of an animal's Umwelt, shaped by its distinctive perceptual apparatus, needs to be supplemented by Whitehead's notion of prehension to account for the active dimension of animal perception. Rather than a passive registering of animal environments, Posteraro argues that the latter are constructed, and that concepts (or conceptual prehensions) should be understood as tools with which such environments are constructed.In part 3, “Time, the World, and Abstraction,” three essays probe ways that Whiteheadian and Deleuzian themes may resonate critically and constructively. Kris Klotz brings the thought of Whitehead and Deleuze together to inquire about how alternatives to present social forms are envisioned. He argues that, for Whitehead, every actual occasion involves a selection of some features of the past, and, further, that every selection is also an abstraction from the concrete welter of influences impinging on it. For Whitehead, then, to envision alternatives involves a critique of abstractions, a reinstatement of the concrete plurality of possibilities. This, for Whitehead, is what rationality does: it works at restoring the concrete, and, with it, a series of alternatives that have been eclipsed. To this Whiteheadian analysis, Klotz adds Deleuze and Guattari's critique of “opinion.” For Deleuze and Guattari, opinion is not an idiosyncrasy but a consensus to which differences of experience are subjected. Philosophy, for Deleuze and Guattari, must always struggle against opinion in order to bring alternatives to light. These conceptions of reason/philosophy, Klotz argues, represent useful ways to critique inequalities and other social wrongs that are embedded in the social forms that are routinely taken for granted. Elijah Prewitt-Davis uses a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, along with philosophical innovations of Foucault, Deleuze, and Whitehead, to offer a distinctive account of power. Prewitt-Davis calls attention to Deleuze's important book on Leibniz, The Fold, and to how Whitehead's concept of prehension lies at its center. The upshot is that power is not reduced to dominance but, instead, is at work wherever any occasion of experience persists amid the onslaught of the influence of other occasions. Power, as Deleuze wrote, is the capacity to be affected—and to decide how to constitute oneself anew. Keith Robinson offers a detailed account of Whitehead's epistemology along with a reading of Deleuze's analysis of temporality to suggest that there is a common trajectory that seeks to undermine what the title of the essay describes as the “Bifurcation of Nature” (i.e., the separation of natural phenomena and human experience) within the dominant Western philosophical tradition.There is much of value in the volume as a whole. Aside from staging what Spinoza might have called good encounters between Whitehead and a number of continental philosophers, enhancing the conceptual power of each, the contributors are able to make a case that these philosophical trajectories, when read together, have much to contribute to our understanding of and response to the pressing issues of the day. In addition, readers who are interested in the relationship between Whitehead and the new materialism will find this volume to be a helpful resource, stocked with fine examples of how to sharpen new materialist thinking with Whitehead and how to read contemporary contexts through these lenses. On the other hand, this book is not a handbook nor a comprehensive reference. The organizational logic behind its division into sections is murky and the amount of attention given to particular continental philosophers as opposed to others appears somewhat arbitrary: there are recent continental philosophers who get little to no attention at (Derrida, Malabou, Žižek, Agamben, Latour, Nancy, for example), several of whom might prove to be quite interesting to read “in tandem” with Whitehead. Perhaps that is just to say that there are many more essays to be written. (shrink)

For most philosophers, the work of Edith Stein continues to be eclipsed and relegated to obscurity. This work presents an excellent cross-section of Stein's writings and demonstrates the timeliness and relevance of her ideas for contemporary philosophical scholarship. Antonio Calcagno covers most of Edith Stein's philosophical life, from her early work with Husserl to her later encounters with medieval Christian thought, as well as a critical and analytical reading of major Steinian texts. Stein was an original thinker who challenged (...) not only the direction in which Husserlian phenomenology was progressing but also sought to bring to philosophical light the relevance of certain key questions, including the meaning of what it is to be human, the relevance of metaphysics to science, and fundamental questions about the nature of God. Working to correct the perception that Stein is either an "unfaithful and distorting" phenomenologist or a pious Catholic mystic, Calcagno presents important work that has been neglected by both secular and religious scholars. The essays are not merely expository, but discuss the philosophical questions raised by Stein's work from a contemporary perspective, using Stein's original German texts. In its attention to the breadth and depth of Stein's philosophy from its initial development to its more mature form, The Philosophy of Edith Stein offers a new understanding of an individual who left behind an incredible philosophical and literary legacy worthy of scholarly attention. The book will be of interest not only to Stein scholars, but to feminists, phenomenologists, and Heideggerians. (shrink)