Other Analyses

A conviction underlying all these 16 essays is that philosophy defines itself in part by a repression (or at least an avoidance) of the issue of reading. Reading, in the sense these pieces elaborate more or less obliquely, is an event that philosophy as such cannot quite register. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, this does not mean that these essays engage in a 'literary' approach to philosophical texts. They all in fact endeavour to present arguments, often of a recognisably philosophical kind, in favour of an essentially non-philosophical understanding of reading. Reading, in the sense I am concerned to elaborate, must be taking place before philosophy: the point would be to develop an understanding of that 'taking place' that would not be simply pre-philosophical.