The nonsense of Kant and Lewis Carroll : unexpected essays on philosophy, art, life, and death / Ben-Ami Scharfstein.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-242).

Introduction: you, me, Kant, and Carroll -- The nonsense of Kant and Lewis Carroll -- A comparatist's risks and rewards -- A handful of rules against philosophical self-isolation -- What death makes of philosophy -- Keeping the world together -- The common universe of aesthetics -- Are the deaf and blind epistemologically isolated? -- Pain, cruelty, and pathology in art -- On the transparency and opacity of philosophers -- The three philosophical traditions -- Does philosophy progress? -- Nonutopian observations on Machiavellism -- On the nature and limits of ineffability -- Ineffabilities are the demons and angels of incompleteness and incompletability -- What can and cannot words express? -- The bird with bread in its beak -- You, me, and Kaufmann's Discovering the mind.

Print version record.

What if Immanuel Kant floated down from his transcendental heights, straight through Alice's rabbit hole, and into the fabulous world of Lewis Carroll? For Ben-Ami Scharfstein this is a wonderfully instructive scenario and the perfect way to begin this wide-ranging collection of decades of startlingly synthesized thought. Combining a deep knowledge of psychology, cultural anthropology, art history, and the history of religions-not to mention philosophy-he demonstrates again and again the unpredictability of writing and thought and how they can teach us about our experiences.

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