In the spotlight

	In Wat de lezer leert. Filosofen over het nut van literatuur (Letterwerk, 2019) Leen Verheyen investigates the main philosophical theories on the cognitive and ethical value of literature. Furthermore, she develops her own approach to this issue by focusing on the aesthetic experience of the literary work and by stressing the idea that while literature does not offer us truths or knowledge, it nevertheless plays an important role in shaping our frame of reference. More information can be found on the publisher's website.
	Guido Vanheeswijck has published a new book, entitled Onbeminde gelovigen: waarom we religieus blijven (Polis, 2019). More information can be found on the publisher's website.
	Geert Van Eekert and Herbert De Vriese co-authored the book Het einde van de metafysica: Kant, Hegel en de Jonghegelianen (UPA, 2019).
	Klement-Polis has published Charles Taylor (2018), an accessible, current and critical introduction to the thought of the Canadian philosopher. The book is edited by Guido Vanheeswijck and Ger Groot, and contains contributions by various (previous) members of the Center - Stijn Latré, Michiel Meijer, Martha Claeys, and Vanheeswijck himself.
	Furthermore, Michiel Meijer - whose research on Taylor's work earned him a PhD (2016) - has published the monograph Charles Taylor's Doctrine of Strong Evaluation: Ethics and Ontology in a Scientific Age (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). "I am grateful to Michiel Meijer for his interesting and challenging description of the inner relations – and tensions – in my account of human agency. (...) His discussion should help further define the issues involved, which are central to our understanding of what it is to be human." (Charles Taylor)
	Emeritus professor Koenraad Verrycken has published a philosophical interpretation of Giacomo Casanova's autobiography, entitled Giacomo Casanova's Histoire de ma vie: Polytropie, demonie en melancholie (ASP, 2017).
	Does music have meaning? Can a musical composition be understood as a story? The question of musical meaning runs like a red thread through western philosophy of music. In her recently published book Waarom Chopin de regen niet wilde horen (Letterwerk, 2017), Marlies De Munck sketches a fascinating panorama of thinkers and musicians who have pondered this issue. She argues that listeners, during the musical experience, create meaning together. This meaning is a direct result of the way we think about music.
	Leen Verheyen edited a special issue of the Dutch-language journal De uil van Minerva on "Fiction and Testimony" (2016). The issue features contributions by Gert-Jan van der Heiden, Frans van Peperstraten, Leen Verheyen and Arthur Cools. Please click on the image for a larger version of the cover or visit the journal's website.
	Guido Vanheeswijck's book De draad van Penelope: Europa tussen ironie en waarheid has been published by Polis (2016). "A real tour de force: a critical reflection on the philosophical foundations of European cultural identity, that is both a cultural history of Europe and a philosophical study of the relationship between truth and laughter in all their forms." (Herman De Dijn) More information on the publisher's website.
	Debating Levinas' Legacy (2015) is a new volume on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and its legacy. The book, edited by Andris Breitling, Chris Bremmers and Arthur Cools, has been published by Brill. "The contributions of this volume discuss the legacy of Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy. Examining critically the limits of his thinking, they also bear witness to its influence on contemporary philosophy, thus demonstrating the significance of his groundbreaking project of establishing ethics as first philosophy."
	Guido Vanheeswijck's article "De ambiguïteit van 'postseculiere' en 'postmetafysische' verhalen. Over de plaats van religie en levensbeschouwing in een seculiere samenleving" has been published as a focus article in the leading Dutch-language journal Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte (ANTW 2014 issue 4). The journal brings out one or two focus issues each year, with an essay written by a prominent Dutch or Flemish philosopher, followed by six shorter comments and a reply by the focus author. Commentaries on Vanheeswijck's text are provided by Tim Heysse, Marc De Kesel, Patrick Loobuyck, Erik Meganck, Stefan Rummens and Emanuel Rutten.
	Koenraad Verrycken, emeritus professor at the Center for European Philosophy, has written a book about the largely disregarded connection between the ancient Greek ’cult of the body’ and the origins of Western philosophy up until Plato. The volume, entitled Onverborgenheid en Eros. Het lichaam achter de Griekse filosofie is available through ASP editions (2015); more information can be found on the publisher’s website.
	Stemming from a long-standing interest in the issue of religion and secularization, the Center for European Philosophy presents the edited volume Radical Secularization? (Bloomsbury, 2014). Editors Stijn Latré, Walter Van Herck and Guido Vanheeswijck present a collection of texts by a variety of international scholars on this topical theme. The three editors and Herbert De Vriese are the members of the Center to contribute a paper. "... Radical Secularization? delves into the philosophical presuppositions of secularization..." More information on the publisher's website.
	The Center for European Philosophy presents the volume Metaphors in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy. This collection, edited by Arthur Cools, Walter Van Herck and Koenraad Verrycken and published by University Press Antwerp (2013), originates from the first Annual Meeting of the Center in 2009 and includes many of the papers presented there.
	The volume Radicale secularisatie. Tien hedendaagse filosofen over religie en moderniteit (Radical secularisation. Ten contemporary philosophers on religion and modernity), edited by Stijn Latré and Guido Vanheeswijck, has been published by Klement-Pelckmans (2013). The book contains contributions by the two editors, as well as by numerous other members of the Center, such as Walter Van Herck, Erik Meganck, and André Cloots.
	The book De stem en het schrift (Voice and Writing), published by Klement-Pelckmans (2012), contains the Dutch translations of three texts by Maurice Blanchot, along with articles by four commentators. The volume was edited by Arthur Cools.
	Herbert De Vriese's doctoral dissertation, which was successfully defended on the 28th of October 2011, has been published under the title De roes van de Kritiek: Bruno Bauer en 'Die Freien' (The Rapture of Critique: Bruno Bauer and 'Die Freien' - ASP, 2012).
	The Philosophy Department of the University of Antwerp was featured in the series 'Philosophy in the Low Countries' of the Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, volume 74 (2012) issue 1. Three of the published articles are authored by members of the Center for European Philosophy, namely by Guido Vanheeswijck ("The Two-fold Franciscan Heritage: A 'missing link' in the Löwith-Blumenberg Debate"), Walter Van Herck ("Transformations of Belief") and Geert Van Eekert ("Misrepresenting Moral Law: Kant on Virtue, Autocracy and the Propsensity to Evil"). The articles are in Dutch.