Cormac McCarthy, Philosophy and the Physics of the Damned

Patrick O’Connor is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy in the School of Digital, Technologies and Arts at Staffordshire University. He researches European Philosophy (especially Phenomenology), 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy and 20th Century French Philosophy. His published books include Atheism Reclaimed (2014) on atheism and existentialism and on phenomenology, ethics and the work of Jacques Derrida, Derrida: Profanations (2010). He has published several articles on philosophy, literature, education and film. He hosts the Thales’ Well philosophy podcast.

• Introduction1. Older than Language: Cormac McCarthy on Language and Evolution in Whales and Men and "The Kekulé Problem’’2. Literature and Death: Suttree, McCarthy and Blanchot3. Spirits in Cinderland: Blood Meridian’s Nietzsche4. In the Shadow of the Forms: The Sunset Limited as Educational Encounter5. Anti-Matters: Mortal Ethics in The Road6. Saving Sheriff Bell: Derrida, McCarthy and the Opening of Mercantile Ethics in No Country for Old Men7. A Maelstrom of Doing and Undoing: McCarthy’s Political ImaginaryConclusionBibliographyIndex

O’Connor’s navigation of the sea of philosophical themes across McCarthy’s corpus is exactly the intervention McCarthy studies needed. This lucid, path-breaking book does more than simply codify our sense of McCarthy’s personal philosophy. It also helps to clarify what it means for any writer to write philosophical literature.