{"product_id":"9781623562304","title":"The Laughter of the Thracian Woman : A Protohistory of Theory","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Laughter of the Thracian Woman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Hans Blumenberg\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn important work by 20-century philosopher Hans Blumenberg, here translated into English for the first time, \u003ci\u003eThe Laughter of the Thracian Woman\u003c\/i\u003e describes the reception history of an anecdote best known from Plato's \u003ci\u003eTheaetetus\u003c\/i\u003e dialogue: while focused on observing the stars, the early astronomer and proto-philosopher Thales of Miletus fails to see a well directly in his path and tumbles down. A Thracian servant girl laughs, amused that he sought to understand what was above him when he was not mindful of what was right in front of him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVariants of this story recur in texts by Diogenes Laertius, Church Fathers Tertullian and Eusebius, medieval and Renaissance-era preachers, Enlightenment figures Voltaire, Montaigne, Bacon, and Kant, and later in works by Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Blumenberg's own colleagues. Some of these philosophers sympathize with Thales' ambitions while others chastise his negligence. Blumenberg sees the story as a highly sought substitute for our missing knowledge of the earliest historical events that would fit the label “theory.” By retelling the anecdote, philosophers reveal their distinctive values regarding absorption in curiosity, philosophy's past, and the demand that theorists abide by sanctioned methods and procedures. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this work and others, Blumenberg demonstrates that philosophers' most beloved images and anecdotes have become indispensable to philosophy \u003ci\u003eas\u003c\/i\u003e metaphors; that is, as representations whose meanings remain indefinite and invite frequent reinterpretation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This English translation of \u003ci\u003eDas Lachen der Thrakerin\u003c\/i\u003e, the original German of which first appeared with Suhrkamp in 1987, will no doubt intensify the impression among anglophone readers that Blumenberg is a decidedly historical and literary philosopher whose own thinking emerges from an almost obsessive level of engagement with the minutiae of Western intellectual history, including the genre of the philosophical anecdote ... Like many of Blumenberg's works,\u003ci\u003e Das Lachen der Thrakerin\u003c\/i\u003e demands a lot of the reader: a detailed knowledge of the Western tradition, not only of philosophy, but of letters in general, from the Presocratics to the present; and patience with an argumentative method which revels in the detours and the details, and which is thin on orienting summaries (here the highly informative Afterword and scholarly apparatus provided by Hawkins offer much historical context and orientation).” —\u003ci\u003eModern Language Review\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In its sweeping scope and singular focus, Hans Blumenberg's \u003ci\u003eThe Laughter of the Thracian Woman\u003c\/i\u003e provides a monadic history of how to read the beginning of thinking as located precisely at the nexus of storytelling and reflection, literature and philosophy. In Blumenberg's series of relentless reconstructions and analyses, the telling and re-telling of the anecdote of Thales falling into a well – over and over again, from Plato to Heidegger, accompanied by the Thracian woman's laughter – comes to form the central image for the tension within philosophy between theoretical reflection and intuitive insight.” —\u003ci\u003ePaul Fleming, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Director, Institute for German Cultural Studies (IGCS), Cornell University, USA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hans Blumenberg stands as one of the most important and innovative thinkers of the twentieth century. As a philosopher, historian of science, and literary scholar, his work has made indispensable contributions to a broad range of fields across the Humanities and the Social Sciences. This impeccably nuanced translation of The Laughter of the Thracian Woman promises to enhance our understanding of Blumenberg's methodology and the theoretical premises that drive his thought, while offering key insights into the perennial tensions between theory and realism, contemplation and action, philosophical reflection and the Lebenswelt.” —\u003ci\u003eJohn T. Hamilton, William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Chair,  Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, USA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781623562304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40596656881870,"sku":"9781623562304","price":35.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_84e4d58d-ea50-44dc-a474-29db59a5e246.jpg?v=1637863916","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781623562304","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}