Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

The story of the mad Captain Ahab and his pursuit of the white whale is a gripping nautical quest, yet what makes Moby-Dick an undisputed classic of world literature is the philosophical and theological tale woven throughout the action. Ishmael takes to sea with Plato on his mind and finds himself caught up in Ahab's metaphysical revenge tour. While Moby-Dick has long been recognized as a philosophical novel, the nature of its philosophy has remained elusive.This collection provides a new set of critical reflections on the philosophical themes of Moby-Dick. Written by leading philosophers and critics, these essays are accessible to non-specialists and forge new connections between philosophy and literature. The wide-ranging set of essays approach the issue of significance in Moby-Dick in relation to German idealism, American transcendentalism, and to the thinkers (Nietzsche, Heidegger) who rebelled against idealism. These essays draw out the philosophy from the text and show how the novel engages philosophical questions about agency, ethics, and metaphysics. They shed light on Melville's own philosophical context and on what he has to tell contemporary audiences about humanity's place in the world.This volume contributes to a growing body of interdisciplinary work on Melville as a philosopher who charted new routes through traditional philosophical puzzles in a modernity grappling with the loss of religious faith and the spread of worldwide commerce. The readings generate both philosophical insights about substantive issues and insights about the relation of philosophy and literature.