Böcker av Casey Rentmeester

Although philosophers have examined and commented on music for centuries, Martin Heidegger, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, had frustratingly little to say about music--directly, at least. This volume, the first to tackle Heidegger and music, features contributions from philosophers, musicians, educators, and musicologists from many countries throughout the world, aims to utilize Heidegger's philosophy to shed light on the place of music in different contexts and fields of practice. Heidegger's thought is applied to a wide range of musical spheres, including improvisation, classical music, electronic music, African music, ancient Chinese music, jazz, rock n' roll, composition, and musical performance. The volume also features a wide range of philosophical insights on the essence of music, music's place in society, and the promise of music's ability to open up new ways of understanding the world with the onset of the technological and digital musical age. Heidegger and Music breaks new philosophical ground by showcasing creative vignettes that not only push Heidegger's concepts in new directions, but also get us to question the meaning of music in various contexts.

In the past few decades, it has become clear that the Western world's relation to nature has led to environmental degradation so wide-ranging that it threatens the existence of human civilizations as we have come to know them. The onset of anthropogenic climate change and the increasing threats of resource depletions are the most obvious signs of an environmental crisis. This book attempts to examine the metaphysical underpinnings of our current environmental crisis, thereby viewing it from a philosophical perspective. Using Martin Heidegger's writings on the history of being as its lynchpin, it examines how humans have come to view nature as a giant array of mere resources to be maximally exploited. Following Heidegger, Casey Rentmeester argues that this understanding of nature is rooted in the understanding of what it means to be that came about in ancient Greece. Rentmeester then utilizes elements of Heidegger's post-metaphysical later philosophy and aspects of early philosophical Daoism to create an alternative way to think about the relation between humans and nature that is environmentally sustainable.