Egocentricity and Mysticism: An Anthropological Study

by Ernst Tugendhat, Alexei Procyshyn (Translator), Mario Wenning (Translator)

Overview

In Egocentricity and Mysticism, Ernst Tugendhat casts mysticism as an innate facet of what it means to be human—a response to an existential need for peace of mind. This need is created by our discursive practices, which serve to differentiate us from one another and privilege our respective first-person standpoints. Emphasizing the first person fuels a desire for mysticism, which builds knowledge of what binds us together and connects us to the world.

Any intellectual pursuit that prompts us to "step back" from our egocentric concerns harbors a mystic kernel that manifests as a sense of awe, wonder, and gratitude. Philosophy, the natural sciences, and mathematics all engender forms of mystical experience as profound as any produced by meditation and asceticism. One of the most widely discussed books by a German philosopher in decades, Egocentricity and Mysticism is a philosophical milestone that clarifies in groundbreaking ways our relationship to language, social interaction, and mortality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231542937
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ernst Tugendhat is professor emeritus at Freie Universität Berlin and honorary professor at the University of Tübingen.

Table of Contents

Translators' Introduction
Introduction
Part I. Relating to Oneself
1. Propositional Language and Saying "I"
2. "Good" and "Important"
3. Saying "I" in Practical Contexts: Self-Mobilization and Responsibility
4. Adverbial, Prudential, and Moral Good: Intellectual History
5. Relating to Life and Death
Part II. Stepping Back from Oneself
6. Religion and Mysticism
7. Wonder
Addendum: On Historical and Nonhistorical Inquiry
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Egocentricity and Mysticism is a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary work. In addition to straddling the so-called continental/analytic divide in contemporary philosophy, it also makes significant and original contributions to the fields of philosophical anthropology, existential phenomenology, and theology—not to mention semantics and even ethics as well.

Martin Woessner

This is an engaging and thoughtful philosophical reflection that packs much into its relatively short span. It admirably ranges from what is involved in our ability to say 'I,' through what counts as important in our moral lives, to the large and recurrent questions dealing with life and death, mysticism, religion, and wonder at the existence of the world. Its lucid style of philosophizing joins the precision of analysis with a finessed feel for the larger picture. In its own way, it impressively spans the so-called divide between the analytic and continental approaches to philosophical questions. Warmly recommended.

William Desmond

Ernst Tugendhat's groundbreaking essay in philosophical anthropology explores with analytical lucidity and existential depth our twofold disposition to speak and act in the first person while going beyond egocentricity, relativizing our singular senses of selfhood in 'mystical' apperceptions of what it means to possess agency, to pursue the good, to ponder mortality, to achieve peace of mind, and to be responsible for others and to life itself—in sum, to be human.

Michael Jackson

Ernst Tugendhat demonstrates how a sense of mysticism, that is, the capacity for 'stepping back,' is not only necessary for a more humane anthropology but also for philosophy's own theoretical practice.

Santiago Zabala