Desire, Dialectic, and Otherness

William Desmond is currently Professor of Philosophy at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven as well as David Cook Visiting Chair in Philosophy at Villanova University. He taught at Loyola in Maryland before going to Leuven where he was Director of the International Program in Philosophy for thirteen years. He is the author of many books, including the trilogy 'Being and the Between' (winner of the Prix Cardinal Mercier and the J. N. Findlay Award for best book in metaphysics, 1995-1997), 'Ethics and the Between', and 'God and the Between'.

• Preface to the First EditionPreface to the Second EditionIntroductionDialectic and Otherness: The Historical ProblemThe Problem of Otherness: Four Fundamental PossibilitiesDesire and OriginsPART 1: INTENTIONAL INFINITUDE1. Desire, Lack, and the Absorbing GodFinite Desire and LackParticular Possessions and the Infinitude of DesireThe Difficulty of Discourse and DesireInfinite Lack and the Absorbing GodAfterword2. Desire and Original SelfnessThe Issue in Historical ContextThe Being of Self and the Difficulty of Discursive AccessThe Original Self as FactThe Original Self as IdealThe Original Self as Concrete IdealityThe Original Self and the Empirical EgoThe Original Self and the Transcendental Ego: Being and the "I think"Afterword3. Desire's Infinitude and WholenessUnivocal and Equivocal Desire: Wholeness ShortcircuitedIntentional Infinitude and WholenessBetween Incompleteness and Absolute Closure: Art and the Dialectical Tension of WholenessThe Open Circle of DesireAfterwordPART 2: ACTUAL FINITUDE4. Desire, Transcendence, and Static EternityTranscendence, Time, and the Problem of DualismDesire and Equivocal BecomingStatic Eternity and Its DefectsBecoming as Process of Positive OtheringThe Self as Free BecomingThe Positive Pluralization of Identity and DifferenceAfterword5. Desire, Knowing, and OthernessImmediacy, Self-mediation, and IntermediationHegel, Identity, and Self-MediationThe Dialectical and the Metaxological RelationsAfterword6. Desire, Concreteness, and BeingDesire and the Identification of OthernessUnivocal Particularity and Equivocal PredicationDialectical Comprehension and FormThe Metaxological Affirmation of BeingThe Fourfold Sense of Being and Traditional Philosophical ViewsAfterword7. Desire, Otherness, and InfinitudeDesire, Infinitude, and the "Between"Three Forms of InfinitudeThe Sublime and Aesthetic InfinitudeAgapeic OthernessAfterwordPART 3: ACTUAL INFINITUDE8. Desire and the Absolute OriginalThe Absolute Original and the Metaxological ViewThe Absolute Original and the Givenness of BeingThe Absolute Original, the Regulative Ideal, and the Ens RealissimumThe Absolute Original as Whole and InfiniteThe Absolute Original as Beginning and EndThe Absolute Original, Heights, and DepthsThe Absolute Original and the Absorbing GodThe Absolute Original, Man, and the WorldAfterwordBibliographyIndex

"William Desmond is one of the most original and significant voices in contemporary philosophy today. ... This book is recommended to graduate students and upper level philosophy students. It is primarily of interest to those working within areas of metaphysics, ethics, Continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, and theology. I highly recommend it."-Joshua A. Hurd, Theological Book Review, Vol. 27 No.1, 2016