Actology
Actology
Actology, Mark's Gospel, Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy, An Actology of the Given, and An Actological Metaphysic, are the first five results of a long-term philosophy project
An Actological Metaphysic
An actology--introduced by the first book in this series, Actology: Action, Change and Diversity in the Western Philosophical Tradition--understands reality as action in changing patterns. Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy
reads a number of continental philosophers through this lens, and An Actology of the Given
explores the concepts of the gift, givenness, and giving in the light of reality understood as action in changing patterns. Mark's Gospel: An Actological Reading
is what it says it is. This fifth book in the series, An Actological Metaphysic, is a more systematic treatment of cosmology and of such concepts as truth, knowledge, causality, time, space, life, and society, to see what happens when they are understood actologically: that is, with reality understood as action in changing patterns.
This is the fifth volume in the Wipf and Stock 'Actological Explorations' series, the first of which is Actology: Action, change and diversity in the western philosophical tradition, the the second of which is Mark's Gospel: An actological reading, the third of which is Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy, and the fourth of which is An Actology of the Given.
An Actology of the Given
An Actology of the Given takes a somewhat different approach from Actology and Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy. Both of those read a variety of philosophers' texts and asked what they might contribute to the construction of an actology and what an actological reading might contribute to an understanding of those philosophies. This new book explores the concepts of the gift, givenness, giving, and other cognates in the light of reality understood as action in patterns rather than as beings that change: and it does so by discussing some anthropology, the writings of a number of continental philosophers - particularly Jean-Luc Marion - biblical texts, social policy, and a variety of other givens.
This is the fourth volume in the Wipf and Stock 'Actological Explorations' series, the first of which is Actology: Action, change and diversity in the western philosophical tradition, the the second of which is Mark's Gospel: An actological reading, and the third of which is Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy.
Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy
The social policy book Unconditional: Towards unconditionality in social policy contains summaries of material on the possibility or otherwise of unconditional giving to be found in An Actology of the Given.
Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy
Actological Readings in Continental Philosophy
is what it says it is. The book asks how we might understand the writings of a number of continental philosophers actologically: that is, with reality understood as action in changing patterns rather than as beings that change. It also asks how the different continental philosophies might enable us to develop an actology: an understanding of reality as action in changing patterns. The philosophers whom we study are Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas, Gilles Deleuze, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Gaston Bachelard, Michel Foucault, and Michel Serres. A whole new way of understanding reality casts new light on their philosophies and raises and answers some significant new questions.
This is the third volume in the Wipf and Stock 'Actological Explorations' series, the first of which is Actology: Action, change and diversity in the western philosophical tradition, and the second of which is Mark's Gospel: An actological reading.
Mark's Gospel: An actological reading
This might look like an ordinary commentary on Mark's Gospel, but it isn't one. It understands reality as Action, actions, change, diversity, movement, and the dynamic, rather than as Being, beings, the unchanging, the unitary, rest, and the static, and it reads Mark's Gospel in the light of that distinctive understanding of reality. It is all about action, change, and diversity, and it understands God, Jesus, and ourselves as action, change, and diversity. The initial chapter introduces the action-based understanding of reality as action in changing patterns--an actology, rather than an ontology. Then follows a section-by-section close study of the Gospel. The result is a unique and somewhat unexpected reading of the text and a distinctive theology to match.
This is the second volume in the Wipf and Stock 'Actological Explorations' series, the first of which is Actology: Action, change and diversity in the western philosophical tradition.
Actology
Two streams run through the Western philosophical tradition: one characterized by Being, beings, the unchanging, the static, and the unitary; and the other by Action, actions, the changing, the dynamic, and the diverse. The former might be represented by Parmenides, Plato, and much of what followed; the latter by Heraclitus, and by rather less of what followed. The book explores the 'Action' stream as it wound its way through history, through Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Maurice Blondel, Henri Bergson, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, process philosophy and theology, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Boys Smith.
Visit the publisher's website
Read a review of 'Actology' by Keith Ward, former Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford
The journey enables us to create the beginnings of an 'actology': a way of seeing ourselves, the universe, and God in terms of actions in patterns rather than as beings that change. Such an actology offers a complete alternative narrative far more in tune with the diverse and rapidly changing world in which we live than the ontology that has shaped philosophy, theology, and much else for the past two thousand years.
John Boys Smith was Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, during the 1960s, and his booklet Christian Doctrine and the Idea of Evolution is the subject of half a chapter in Actology. In 2003, St. John's College published an edited edition of Boys Smith's sermons in which the booklet is reprinted as an appendix. Copies are available from St. John's College, and sometimes from online booksellers. In case of difficulty, please contact the editor.