Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

An examination of the relationship between Buddhist notions of transcendence and political authority in East Asia. It provides a discussion of the "Transcendent Wisdom Scripture for Humane Kings Who Want to Protect Their States", along with an annotated translation of this Buddhist text.

"Phenomenology of Spirit" was Hegel's first major work. Here, translations of sections are provided, accompanied by summaries of the parts not translated so as to provide the reader with a sense of the whole. The sections include the introduction and the master-slave dialect.

The word ''alterity'' is found infrequently in Heidegger''s work, yet Vallega makes the compelling case that the effort to trace the enigmatic force of alterity is at the heart of that work. Suggesting that we find in Heidegger an enactment of that enigma by looking at what he calls ''exilic grounds'' in Heidegger''s thought, Vallega makes an important and original contribution to Heidegger scholarship. Well written, clear in its presentation of difficult issues, precise in delineating solutions to some thorny problems which come out of Heidegger, this is a provocative and exciting book.-Dennis J. Schmidt, Penn State UniversityAs the only full-length treatment in English of spatiality in Martin Heidegger''s work, this book makes an important contribution to Heidegger studies as well as to research on the history of philosophy. More generally, it advances our understanding of philosophy in terms of its "exilic" character, a sense of alterity that becomes apparent when one fully engages the temporality or finitude essential to conceptual determinations.By focusing on Heidegger''s treatment of the classical difficulty of giving conceptual articulation to spatiality, the author discusses how Heidegger''s thought is caught up in and enacts the temporality it uncovers in Being and Time and in his later writings. Ultimately, when understood in this manner, thought is an "exilic" experience-a determination of being that in each case comes to pass in a loss of first principles and origins and, simultaneously, as an opening to conceptual figurations yet to come. The discussion engages such main historical figures as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and indirectly Husserl, as well as contemporary European and American Continental thought.

Beginning with an analysis of the work of early activists and the social centres movement in the USA, the author shows how democratic participation grew into a national phenomenon and cites its achievements and ideals. He explores how public involvement in politics might be fostered today.

Examines the movement for labor reform among domestic workers in Latin America. Explores how domestic workers' mobilization, strategic alliances, and political windows of opportunity can lead to improved rights.

In this text, two social scientists from competing research traditions - the rationalist and the culturalist - try to chart a course between them. They draw on their respective strengths to present a model of social order based on a classificatory scheme of market/community/contract/hierarchy.

Explores the reasons why concepts such as rights and equality can sometimes reinforce oppression. This book argues that certain forms of abstraction and individualism are central to liberal methodology and that these give rise to a number of problems.

Joins together thirty-three short essays on nature, science, country living, and self. Based on hours spent hiking, skiing, botanizing, and observing wild creatures, this work features insightful pieces that the author wrote for his monthly column, "Thornapples," which ran in "Pennsylvania Game News" magazine from the late 1970s until early 1990s.

An historical and theoretical literary study of three Latin American women writers, Refugio Barragan of Mexico, Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera of Peru, and Ana Roque of Puerto Rico. Examines how these novelists subversively rewrote womanhood vis a vis the prescribed comportment for women during a conservative era.

This study considers the writings of traditional and contemporary religious mystics. It argues that not only are the mystic's responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment shape the perceptual content of the mystic's experience.