Philosophers of Consciousness: Polanyi, Lonergan, Voegelin, Ricoeur, Girard, Kierkegaard

by Eugene Webb

Philosophers of Consciousness is both an expository study of the thought of the six figures it focuses on and an original exploration of the themes they address. In addition, as Eugene Webb states, "it does not hesitate to probe the more problematic areas of the thought of each thinker and to suggest what to some of their advocates will probably seem rather bold and controversial interpreations of their ideas."

The book reveals some deep differences that set the six off against one another in what is basically a clash between the intellectual emphasis of Lonergan and the more existential approaches of the other thinkers in this study. Readers of Kierkegaard may find much of Webb's interpretation surprising and perhaps disturbing.

Genres: Philosophy

344 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Professor Emeritus Eugene Webb was Professor of Comparative Religion and Comparative Literature and Associate Director of the Jackson School of International Studies at The University of Washington.

Professor Webb is the author of seven books, including two on the novels and plays of Samuel Beckett, as well as The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (1975), Eric Voegelin: Philosopher of History (1981), Philosophers of Consciousness (1988), and The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (1993), World View and Mind: Religious Thought and Psychological Development (2009), and In Search of the Triune God: The Christian Paths of East and West (2014).