Chapter 1 Immanuel Kant: The Postmodern Turn Chapter 2 Martin Heidegger: Toward a Fundamental Ontology Chapter 3 A.N. Whitehead: Toward aMore Fundamental Ontology Chapter 4 Paul Ricoeur: Narrative Theory and its Metaphysical Ground
Olav Bryant Smith is Lecturer at California State University, Chico.
I believe that Myths of the Self is an important work that could
make an important contribution to the current discussion in many
respects. Perhaps most novel is Bryant's interpretation of Kant. It
has the potential to move Kant studies out of their dogmatic
slumbers.
*David Griffin, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology;
Professor of Religion, Claremont Graduate University*
Smith's exciting retrieval of Whitehead and Ricouer out of the
Kantian background gives new relevance to the mythic component of
our "construction" of self. Not to be missed.
*Bruce Wilshire, Senior Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers
University*
This intriguing journey across the landscape of modern philosophy
builds a pervasive case for seeing Whitehead's metaphysics as
providing the theoretical resources for understanding human lives
in the narrative terms of everyday experience. It thereby provides
a distinctive vantage point for combining the key insights of some
major twentieth century philosophers in a way that mediates between
important trends in Continental and Anglo-American thought.
*Nicholas Rescher*
Smith's theory of the nature and identity of the self is original,
important, and beautifully grounded in the history of philosophy.
His nuanced interpretation, critique, and development of relevant
ideas in Kant, Heidegger, Whitehead, and Ricoeur lays the
foundation for an impressive synthesis of metaphysical and
phenomenological ontologies in terms of which self and nature are
both understood as essentially involving creative processes of
interpretation and expression.
*Jorge L. Nobo, Professor of Philosophy, Washburn University*
It is remarkable how comparatively little intradisciplinary
discourse occurs among practitioners in the various fields in
philosophy. Olav Bryant Smith is an exception. He brings together
two groups that should have much in common: process thinkers (in
both philosophy and religious studies) and continental thinkers. He
argues convincingly that Kant, the quintessential modern thinker,
is also in a way the father of postmodernism. He also shows how
Heidegger's phenomenological genius left him a bit short when it
came to ontology. Further, Smith is to be thanked for bringing
together in a clear and insightful way two thinkers who make real
philosophical advances over Kant and Heidegger: Alfred North
Whitehead and Paul Ricoeur. Whithead's ontology and Ricoeur's
narrative theory need each other, Smith argues. The result is a
thought-provoking and readable theory of the postmodern self that
is indeed constructive.
*Daniel A. Dombrowski, Seattle University*
This is a very intelligent and engaging essay in constructive
postmodern metaphysics. Olav Smith brings Whitehead into
provocative and fruitful dialogue with the philosophies of Kant,
Heidegger, and Ricoeur. The diverse discussions are marked by many
illuminating and surprising connections.
*William Desmond, David Cook Chair in Philosophy, Villanova
University; Thomas A.F. Kelly Visiting Chair in Philosophy,
Maynooth University, Ireland; and professor of philosophy emeritus,
Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium*
Through careful, informed examination of Kant, Heidegger, Whitehead
and Ricoeur, Olav Smith dissects myths, understood as narratives
about the self, in relating narrative identity and postmodern
metaphysics. Smith makes an intelligent, original and certainly
intriguing contribution to the task of rethinking the self against
the background of an ontology based on modern science.
*Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University*
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