{"product_id":"one-foot-in-the-finite-k-l-evans-9780810136120","title":"One Foot in the Finite: Melville's Realism Reclaimed","description":"\u003ci\u003eOne Foot in the Finite\u003c\/i\u003e inspires a radical shift in our view of Melville's project in \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e, for its guiding notion is that Melville uses his book to call into question the naturalism that distinguishes the early modern period in Europe. Naturalism is not only the idea that reality is exhausted by nature, or that there exists a domain of physical entities subject to autonomous laws and unaffected by human ingenuity; it also implies a counterpart, a world of pretense and deception, a domain of mental entities ontologically distinct from physical entities and therefore constituting a different realm. To naturalists, whales are part of the background of existing objects against which man assembles his various, subjective, rather arbitrary interpretations. But in \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e Melville casts upon the world a more ingenious eye, one free of the dualist veil. He confronts a basic misconception: that the contents of consciousness comprise a different order from physical life. He rubs out the dividing line modernity has drawn between the human world of \u003ci\u003enames\u003c\/i\u003e or \u003ci\u003econcepts\u003c\/i\u003e and the nonhuman world of plants, creatures, geological features, and natural forces. Melville's philosophizing, carried by fiction, has dramatic consequence. It overturns our view of language as a system of mental representations that might turn out to represent falsely. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e K. L. Evans\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0810136120\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780810136120\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Northwestern University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/15\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2018","brand":"K. L. Evans","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49096743878911,"sku":"9780810136120","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/one-foot-in-the-finite-k-l-evans-9780810136120","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}