Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International
Pages: 156
Trim: 5½ x 8¼
978-1-78660-825-3 • Hardback • July 2018 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
978-1-78660-826-0 • Paperback • July 2018 • $29.95 • (£22.95)
978-1-78660-827-7 • eBook • July 2018 • $28.00 • (£21.95)
Anthony J. Steinbock is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Phenomenology Research Center at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His many publications include Moral Emotions (2014), Phenomenology and Mysticism (2007), Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology After Husserl (1995) and the English translation of Husserl's Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis (2001).
Introduction / 1. The Surprise, the Gift, and Humility / 2. What Gives? Heidegger, Machination, and the Jews / 3. Overcoming Forgetfulness: Henry’s Challenge of Self-Givenness / 4. The Poor Phenomenon: Marion, Givenness, and Saturation / 5. Resituating the Gift in Maimonides: Participation and Liberation / Conclusion
Gift-giving is not simply about patterns of exchange or even giving without return; it presumes a rich context of experience: aesthetic, moral, and above all the motivation of love. Steinbock guides us through the dense phenomenological tradition of gift and givenness and, in his attention to beauty, goodness and love, adds something new, fundamental and unforgettable to the discussion.
— Kevin Hart, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia
Steinbock's analysis of the enigma of the gift is phenomenology at its best. At once engaging with our everyday experience of giving and givenness and deploying the richest contemporary research on the subject in Heidegger, Derrida and Marion. This work is a rare gift of thought in its own right.
— Richard Kearney, Charles Seelig Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
It's Not About The Gift is a highly important contribution to contemporary philosophy of intersubjectivity and sociality. It challenges fundamental assumptions and intuitions of the gift-theoretical approach dominant in continental philosophy and offers an alternative based on Steinbock’s rich and multifaceted phenomenology of emotions. The book will initiate a new phase in gift-theoretical debates concerning the foundations of ethics and will also stimulate contemporary social phenomenology.
— Sara Heinämaa, Professor of Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland