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Preface
- University of Ottawa Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Preface The aim of this collection of essays is to introduce interesting work within contemporary Canadian philosophy from the continental or contemporary European perspective. Far from merely representing the European tradition, however, we wanted to focus on original philosophical research. In structuring this book we also sought an approach congenial to future research, and not just current work. From the earliest inception of this project we had two ideas in mind. First, we wanted the content to reflect current important work being done by leading philosophers in Canada. Second, we wanted this work to be presented through the eyes of advanced doctoral students who have studied under these philosophers. In many of these essays readers will discover research that has, until now, been available only in classes, in unpublished papers, and at conferences. This gives readers a rare opportunity to enjoy work still in progress. It is also a chance for readers to familiarize themselves with the continental tradition of philosophy without having to actually go to class. The manuscript will uncover new, unique, and exciting Canadian research without too much technical vocabulary. Another element of the text that we hope readers will appreciate is the way in which these essays pave the way for potential students.As many of our contributors know, too oen doctoral students begin their studies without having the first idea of what to expect, whether of academia in general or of the relationships they will form with their own professors. For those new graduate students who are asking what their future might look like, our contributors’experiences will help fill in some blanks. The professor–student dynamic is far from set in stone. As this collection shows, some doctoral students’ projects adopt a style and language representative of their professors’, while some pursue very different paths. This may encourage potential students about the open-endedness of academia: the nature of one’s studies is very much self-created. We hope that the sense of excitement our contributors feel for their own studies will be contagious. The following papers represent what most students are already doing in their own lives, namely, working out new ways of thinking through the tradition in which they are embedded. Engaging with the philosophy of those to whom the doctoral candidates’ current research is indebted is both a sign of gratitude for the work that has come before as well as an indication of what might be expected of philosophical movements in the near future. PhD candidates, who are particularly sensitive to the relative newness of ideas, can act as intermediaries and help in avoiding potential misunderstandings of new ideas in philosophy, even while they are reshaping those ideas themselves. Those of us who are currently professors do not, of course, expect that years down the road our former advisees will still be following in our conceptual footsteps, though we do anticipate that something of what we taught them might survive in their own projects. For us the papers in this collection compress the future reception viii P A of our own works, so that instead of waiting twenty years to see how our students have incorporated our teachings, we see it right away, in some cases even before we have examined their dissertations and in some cases before we even know what our own work means. It is always a li le disconcerting to see one’s ideas expressed through the formulations and interpretations of another, yet, versed in the vagaries of intersubjectivity, we read the papers of our students as those of our paired alter egos, the self-othering others, the response-abilities, and the à-venirs of our own present intellectual selves. Naturally, some of the essays are more challenging to interpret than others, though we are confident most of the needless hurdles have been cleared away. While the essays are directed at advanced readers, they should be accessible to non-specialized readers of philosophy as well. This, we believe, is especially important to current and potential students who do not have ready access to the potential range of current research, as well as to professional philosophers in subdisciplines other than continental philosophy. From our point of view, anything that adds to inter- and transdisciplinary conversation is a step in a beneficial direction. Offering even a small sampling of Canadian philosophy in the continental tradition is a difficult challenge. The most difficult task for us as editors has been deciding which...