Philosophy, Social ScienceFrom the book's introduction:
"What is arrests my attention, commands it, but does not possess it for overlong. I too am a moving target, for others and even for the world in its own anonymous concern. I am a being completed only in mine ownmost death, and whence I am presented with its more radical otherness I find that it is, in itself, something value-neutral. I am apprehended by it, furtive being that I am, whether or not I have been in life a fugitive or figurehead, sought escape or merely egress, have myself grasped life, seized the day, nay the hour, or have placed myself into a personal corner, from which I then observe the living others and exempt myself from their daily doings. This heavy sleep about which I cannot come to an even term is yet no horror, once again, in itself. And just as the margins of existence are still part of the human situation, contributing to our shared historical conditions in a manner oft more significant than one might imagine, death too retains its stake in the very life that has given it ironic birth."
Casting a broad net over the diverse affairs of ordinary people, social philosopher G.V. Loewen presents thirty new essays and studies, including radical interpretations of religious themes, critical glances at parenting fashions and technological fetishes, and a ground-breaking, if disturbing, study of youth in the illicit sex industry. This cutting-edge collection offers wide appeal.
Author Bio: G.V. Loewen, the author of over sixty books about ethics, education, aesthetics, religion, health, and social theory, as well as fiction, was a professor of the interdisciplinary human sciences for over two decades.