The search for an ethics rooted in human experience is the crux of this deeply compassionate work, here translated from the 1983 German edition. Distinguished philosopher Werner Marx provides a close reading, critique, and Weiterdenken, or "further thinking," of Martin Heidegger's later work on death, language, and poetry, which has often been dismissed as both obscure and obscurantist. In it Marx seeks, and perhaps finds, both a measure for distinguishing between good and evil and a motive for preferring the former. The poet Hölderlin posed the question, "Is there a measure on earth?" His own answer was emphatic, "There is none," for he was convinced that the measure for man was to be found only in the domain of the heavenly beings. Such metaphysical assumptions, as well as the attempt to found ethical conduct in the nature of man as a rational being, have been rejected by many contemporary thinkers, particularly Heidegger. Yet these thinkers have not been able to provide a satisfactory alternative to metaphysical foundations of the standards for responsible human conduct. Marx, therefore, goes beyond Heidegger in demonstrating how several of his most basic notions could be relevant to a secular morality in our age. It is death, Marx claims, that unsettles man and transforms his conduct toward his fellow man. the common experience of mortality nourishes ethical life—and leads to the measures of compassion, love, and recognition of one's fellow human beings. "It is only on the basis of these 'traditional virtues,'" Marx writes, "that we can find a motive for averting the impending dangers which have often enough been described so vividly and convincingly."

Is There a Measure on Earth?: Foundations for a Nonmetaphysical Ethics

Politics & Social Sciences

Marx, Werner

Philosophy

University of Chicago Press

Hegel's classic Phenomenology of Spirit is considered by many to be the most difficult text in all of philosophical literature. In interpreting the work, scholars have often used the Phenomenology to justify the ideology that has tempered their approach to it, whether existential, ontological, or, particularly, Marxist. Werner Marx deftly avoids this trap of misinterpretation by rendering lucid the objectives that Hegel delineates in the Preface and Introduction and using these to examine the whole of the Phenomenology. Marx considers selected materials from Hegel's text in order both to clarify Hegel's own view of it and to set the stage for an examination of post-Hegelian philosophy. The primary focus of Marx's book is on the account. Hegel gives of the phenomenological journey from natural consciousness to philosophical wisdom (or absolute knowledge, as Hegel calls it). In showing that Hegel's many statements concerning consciousness 'finding itself' or 'knowing itself' in its world can be understood as discovering the rationality of the conditioning world, Marx offers a solution to several sets of interrelated problems that have troubled students of Hegel. His book contains valuable analyses of the relation between Hegel's thought and that of Descartes and Kant as well as that of Karl Marx, and it also sheds considerable light on the question of the internal unity or coherence of the Phenomenology.

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Commentary Based on the Preface and Introduction

This is an example product description.

The Philosophy of F.W.J. Schelling: History, System, and Freedom (Studies in Phenomenology & Existential Philosophy)

Indiana Univ. Pr

This book investigates the possibility of a contemporary ethics of compassion based upon the experience of human mortality. During an age in which the traditional metaphysical guarantors of order, transcendent sources of meaning, and appeals to human rationality are becoming historical phenomena, it is important to investigate whether an alternative source of measure for human conduct can be discovered through phenomenological analysis. Marx shows how a confrontation with one's mortality, as a basic condition of human existence which is ignored or actively avoided for the most part, can transform a person's attitude from one of indifference to one of active concern for other human beings; how it can heighten one's awareness of the social nature of human existence; and how it can serve as an integrative force in the various spheres of human life. The transformation Marx outlines depends, not upon deliberation and conscious decision, or upon a demand to conform to formal rules or maxims, but rather, upon a change in one's emotional attunement toward others, out of which a more compassionate conduct emerges almost automatically. He shows how the awareness of one's limitations and dependencies as a mortal can raise sociality to an important and pervasive factor in human existence instead of a merely unpleasant or indifferent fact. Marx also shows how the development of the notion of "world" as a sphere of human concerns has been accompanied by a deterioration of the traditional idea of the world as a seamless unity or an integrated whole, and he points out that a transformed ethical awareness of others as fellow mortals helps provide a unifying meaning to the disparate worlds in which we all live.

Towards a Phenomenological Ethics: Ethos and the Life-World (Contemporary Contin Philosophy)

State University of New York Press

This book investigates the possibility of a contemporary ethics of compassion based upon the experience of human mortality. During an age in which the traditional metaphysical guarantors of order, transcendent sources of meaning, and appeals to human rationality are becoming historical phenomena, it is important to investigate whether an alternative source of measure for human conduct can be discovered through phenomenological analysis. Marx shows how a confrontation with one’s mortality, as a basic condition of human existence which is ignored or actively avoided for the most part, can transform a person’s attitude from one of indifference to one of active concern for other human beings; how it can heighten one’s awareness of the social nature of human existence; and how it can serve as an integrative force in the various spheres of human life. The transformation Marx outlines depends, not upon deliberation and conscious decision, or upon a demand to conform to formal rules or maxims, but rather, upon a change in one’s emotional attunement toward others, out of which a more compassionate conduct emerges almost automatically. He shows how the awareness of one’s limitations and dependencies as a mortal can raise sociality to an important and pervasive factor in human existence instead of a merely unpleasant or indifferent fact. Marx also shows how the development of the notion of “world” as a sphere of human concerns has been accompanied by a deterioration of the traditional idea of the world as a seamless unity or an integrated whole, and he points out that a transformed ethical awareness of others as fellow mortals helps provide a unifying meaning to the disparate worlds in which we all live.

A view of Heidegger's divergence from the traditional philosophies of reason.

Heidegger and the Tradition (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy)

Northwestern University Press

The Meaning of Aristotle's "ontology."

Hassell Street Press

Diese werkimmanente Interpretation soll besonders Studenten der Hegelschen Philosophie das Verstandnis der Phanomenologie des Geistes erleichtern. Bewusst beschrankt sich Marx auf Einleitung und Vorrede und fragt nach der Idee der Phanomenologie des Geistes. Er sucht damit eine einheitliche Dimension, aus der heraus das ganze Werk verstandlich wird: die Idee der Phanomenologie ist das dem ganzen Werk einheitgebende Prinzip des Selbstbewusstseins, wie es sich aus dessen Begriffsnatur ergibt. Beachtung hat die hier vertretene Auffassung gefunden, dass Hegel einen fur das Verstandnis des ganzen Werkes entscheidenden Unterschied zwischen dem naturlichen Bewusstsein als solchen und dem naturlichen Bewusstsein als erscheinendem Wissen macht und nur dies letztere methodisch und logisch so dargestellt hat, dass sich das absolute Wissen als der dem naturlichen Bewusstsein der Reflexionsphilosophie zu vermittelnde Wissenschaftsbegriff erweist. Das Buch ist in so vielem so vorzuglich, dass es den ungeteilten Beifall der an Hegels Philosophie Interessierten verdient. Nicht eine der mittlerweile zahlreichen Arbeiten uber Hegels Phanomenologie des Geistes verschafft so viel Einsicht in den Hegelschen Phanomenologiegedanken wie dieses Buch. Archiv fur die Geschichte der Philosophie

Hegels Phanomenologie Des Geistes: Die Bestimmung Ihrer Idee in Vorrede Und Einleitung (German Edition)

Verlag Vittorio Klostermann

Die Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls: Eine Einführung (Uni-Taschenbücher) (German Edition)

W. Fink

Einführung in Aristoteles' Theorie vom Seienden

Meiner Felix Verlag GmbH

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Books by Marx, Werner

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Marx, Werner. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Is There a Measure on Earth?: Foundations for a Nonmetaphysical Ethics

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Commentary Based on the Preface and Introduction

The Philosophy of F.W.J. Schelling: History, System, and Freedom (Studies in Phenomenology & Existential Philosophy)

Towards a Phenomenological Ethics: Ethos and the Life-World (Contemporary Contin Philosophy)

Towards a Phenomenological Ethics: Ethos and the Life-World (Contemporary Contin Philosophy)

Heidegger and the Tradition (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy)

The Meaning of Aristotle's "ontology."

Hegels Phanomenologie Des Geistes: Die Bestimmung Ihrer Idee in Vorrede Und Einleitung (German Edition)

Die Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls: Eine Einführung (Uni-Taschenbücher) (German Edition)

Einführung in Aristoteles' Theorie vom Seienden