Art's Philosophical Work

Andrew Benjamin is professor of philosophy and Jewish thought at Monash University and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Kingston University. His many publications include Towards a Relational Ontology. Philosophy’s Other Possibility (2015), Working with Walter Benjamin (2013), Of Jews and Animals (2010), Place, Commonality and Judgment (2010) and Style and Time: Essays on the Politics of Appearance (2006).

• Acknowledgments / Illustrations / Opening / Part One:Relationality and the Work of Art / 1. Mattering, Particularity and the Work of Art / 2. Othering Relationality: Warburg, Benjamin and the Presence of Dürer / 3. On Hands / Part Two: Engaging Philosophy’s Art / 4. Matter and Movement’s Presence: Notes on Heidegger, Francesco Mosca and Bernini / 5. Art’s Work: Derrida and the Work of Art / 6. Coloring Philosophy: Appel, Lyotard and Art's Work / 7. And Color? Sallis on Art’s Coloring / 8. Endless Touching: Herder and Sculpture / Bibliography / Index

Animated by a very real philosophical imagination and informed by an impressive knowledge of the history of art, Andrew Benjamin's Art's Philosophical Work engages and illuminates the fascinating questions that arise when philosophizing confronts the strange material and historical presence at work in art. This is a significant work, full of insight and originality.