Reality and culture : : essays on the philosophy of Bernard Harrison / / edited by Patricia Hanna ; Michael Krausz, cover illustration.

• Superior document: Value Inquiry Book Series ; Volume 270
• TeilnehmendeR: Hanna, Patricia,; Krausz, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam, Netherlands : : Rodopi,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Value inquiry book series ; Volume 270.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (294 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

More than being a volume about the philosophy of Bernard Harrison, this volume is about how Harrison conceptualizes the creation of the human world. One might be tempted to classify Harrison as a major voice in many diverse discussions—philosophy of literature, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, color studies, epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, philosophy of culture, Wittgenstein, antisemitism, and more—without recognizing a unifying strand that ties them together. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Harrison contests and destabilizes a persistent and misleading alignment of culture with subjectivity—whether found in unexamined distinctions between nature and culture or appearance and reality. His general aim has been to undermine the belief that human culture deals in smoke and mirrors, and that the only realities are those of extra-human nature. He emphasizes the paraxial foundation of meaning, and argues that the creative inventions of language and culture are as real as any extra-linguistic reality. While granting the existence of extra-human reality, he holds it to be, in itself, conceptually unorganised, but nevertheless cognitively accessible by way of sense-perception and physical manipulation. This volume offers new critical essays that examine Harrison’s corpus, written by distinguished voices in philosophy and literary studies. It bridges many of the abysses of conflicting opinion opened by the culture wars of the past half-century. Importantly, it includes an opening essay by Harrison that elucidates the unifying strand running through his variegated philosophical writings, and concludes with a chapter in which he replies to and reflects on the other critical essays herein.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- REALITY AND CULTURE / Bernard Harrison -- WHAT DO HUMANISTS WANT? / John Gibson -- READING DICKENS: PLEASURE AND THE PLAY OF BERNARD HARRISON’S “SOCIAL PRACTICES” / Murray Baumgarten -- HARRISON, WITTGENSTEIN, DONNE, AND THE POWERS OF LITERARY ART / Richard Eldridge -- BERNARD HARRISON ON THE ENGLISH NOVEL / Leona Toker -- FROM MEANING TO MORALITY IN KOVESI AND HARRISON / Alan Tapper -- PAYING A DEBT: BERNARD HARRISON VERSUS THE OLD-NEW ANTISEMITISM / Edward Alexander -- BERNARD HARRISON, LITERATURE, AND THE STREAM OF LIFE / Danièle Moyal-Sharrock -- LANGUAGE WITHOUT MEANING: THE LIMITS OF BIOLINGUISTICS / Patricia Hanna -- BERNARD HARRISON’S “WORLD” / Michael Krausz -- MEANING, TRUTH, AND PRACTICES: A CONUNDRUM / Dennis Patterson -- LANGUAGE, FICTION, AND THE LATER WITTGENSTEIN / Michael Morris -- REFLECTIONS AND REPLIES / Bernard Harrison -- WORKS CITED -- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BERNARD HARRISON -- ABOUT THE AUTHORS -- NAME INDEX -- SUBJECT INDEX -- VIBS.