WHAT IS THINKING? And Other Philosophical Reflections

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WHAT IS THINKING? The philosophical essays of this collection argue, each time from a singular perspective, that the task of thinking is to release the element of the undconditional from various closures, and thus to make it manifest as the true and the essential task of our individual and social existence.Naming this unconditional element as the “messianic”, the book displays the profound ethico-political significance of messianic thought for our contemporary world.

“To think is to thank: thinking and thanking, denkena anddanken, in their very proximity – as Martin Heidegger remars – bring together an event that will one day give birth to the dancing start that will shine against the dark night in which we exist today. That is why Socrates calls the philosopher a midwife. To be a midwife, that is, to be a philosopher is to give birth to dancing stars, as Friedrich Nietzsche poetized once. The weight of thinking does not merely follow the law of gravity that pulls us down. If thinking is to measure the immeasurable, and if the measure of thinking is the gift out of the abyss of the immeasurable, then this weight is also a flight and a dance and a feast of joy in the sky of eternity.”

Saitya Brata Dasteachers literature and philosophy at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also the author ofThe Political Theology of Kierkegaard(Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and few other books by Aakar.