Event and World: (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

The world into which we are born as the horizon of all our behavior is a world both of things and of events. But what are events? Though familiar to all of us, they are philosophically obscure. However central they may be to the question of being in Western thought, from Aristotle to Heidegger, events have always been assigned a derivative status, indeterminate, at the margins of philosophy. Claude Romano seeks to change all that, to describe precisely what sort of phenomenon an event is and to establish how it can be grasped via a phenomenology. He seeks, above all, to understand a human being as one to whom events can occur, who is able to face them and to appropriate them through experience. "Evential hermeneutics" is the name he gives this approach, which conceives human being as an undergoing of events for which there can be no substitution and as thereby becoming himself. Romano at once forces us to think human existence-or rather, human adventure-in the light of events and helps us understand how and why the event has been neglected in the ontological tradition.

About the Author :
Claude Romano is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne and Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University. Two of his books have previously appeared in English, Event and World and Event and Time (both Fordham). Shane Mackinlay is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Catholic Theological College (Melbourne College of Divinity).

Review :
"Claude Romano's powerful investigation of a world that is first made out of "eventful" and meaningful events, and not of mere happenings or facts opens an entirely new horizon for present-day phenomenology and hermeneutics. For many readers it will be an "event" in Romano's sense, changing radically their way of looking at the world, at the others and at themselves. (Professor Jean Greisch, Paris) Please tell me whether this proposal suits you and my congratulations for publishing this otustanding work." -- -Jean Greisch Institut Catholique "Compellingly taking the notion of event as his leading clue, Claude Romano analyzes the human "adventure" in an exceedingly rich and creative phenomenological hermeneutics. _Event and World_ lucidly examines the very process of something happening to us as we human beings are interpreted as the opening to events. This eloquent and profound work brings to the English speaking world one of France's leading contemporary thinkers. It marks a significant contribution to the philosophy of event, time, and world." -- -Anthony J. Steinbock Southern Illinois University at Carbondale "In this first volume of his ground-breaking phenomenology of the event, Claude Romano re-describes the human being as the being that is capable of events. The result is something new and provocative: an evential hermeneutics. All philosophers and theologians have things to learn from this study." -- -Kevin Hart The University of Virginia