Overview

Offers an expansion of Desmond's explorations in the philosophy of the between by considering in a fresh way the distinctive features of Irish thought, with reference to religion, culture, and poetry. In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond explores the philosophy of the between in connection with traditions of Irish thought and culture, especially poetry, drawing upon the metaxological philosophy developed most systematically in the award-winning Being and the Between, Ethics and the Between, and God and the Between. It begins with a broad overview of this notion in connection with Irish thinking and culture by contrast with French, German, and Greek variations of the notion. It touches on figures like John Scotus Eriugena, John Toland, George Berkeley, and Edmund Burke as well as major poets and writers like Swift, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett. The paradoxical twinning of being at home and not being at home and the relation of thought and exile, in an Irish as well as more cosmopolitan setting, are explored. Desmond presents a synopsis of metaxological philosophy and how it contributes to aesthetics, ethics, religion, and metaphysics. In an extended exploration of Irish betweenings, reflections are offered that move from nature to culture, with four sequences of reflections on islanding, naturing, homing, and wording. Additional concerns come to light such as insular thinking, the ecology of land and sea, religion, postcolonialsm, and the dialogue of poet and philosopher.

Full Product Details

Author:   William Desmond (Villanova University)
Publisher:   State University of New York Press
Imprint:   State University of New York Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.694kg
ISBN:  

9798855804232

Pages:   430
Publication Date:   01 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I 1.Wording the Between: Conditions of Irish Thought and Writing Inside-Out: Betweening, Location, and Dislocation Being Between: Irish-Wise Being Between: Greek-Wise Being Between: French-Wise Being Between: German-Wise Betweening and Early Irish Christianity: Augustinus Hibernicus Betweening, Hermes, Intermediating the Sacred Between Greeks and Germans: Peregrine Eriugena Between the One and Serviceable Disposability: Patrick Kavanagh on the Land Between System and Poetics Traversing an Equivocal Between: Heterodox John Toland Between Geometry and Finesse Trans-Substantializing the Between: Bishop Berkeley Neither Here nor There The Laputan Between: Swift and Comic Finesse Between Pieties: Burkean Doubleness Between Religion and Thought Betweening, Religion, the Need of an Enemy Betweening in the Interim: Yeats’s Coinage Betweening of Selving and Soul: Yeats’s Vacillation and Dialogue Outliving the Between: Oisín not Ossianic Outside-In: Betweening as Mean-whiling Part II 2. Wayward and Homebound: Irish Betweenings and the Exile of Thought The Irish Philosophical Society and Double Belonging Nomads, Shepherds, and Pastors Thinking Strangeness: A Bios Xenikos Thinking Offshore, Crediting Thought Wayward and Homebound Thinking Aboriginal Dreaming and the Exile of the Dead Between Wayward and Homebound: Being True Broken Tradition(s) and the Exile of Thought Religion, Exiled Thought, Returning to Ourselves Motherless Children and the Exile of Religion Poetry and the Exile of Thought Universities and the Exile of Thought Motherless Children of Wonder: Exiled Alumni Between Children of Wonder and Curious Changelings: A Remark on Yeats’s ""Stolen Child"" Socratic Strangeness — Athenian and Atopic Betweening, Yeats and Plato’s Ghost Part III 3. Wording the Between: A Philosophical Synopsis Opening: Wording the Between Being Philosophical as Betweening: On Metaphysics as Metaxological Passing from Elemental Flesh to Sacred Folly Being Ethical as Betweening: Passing from the Given Ethos to Agapeic Giving Being Religious as Betweening: Passing from Idiotic Mystery to Holy Agape Part IV: Four Irish Betweenings: Islanding, Naturing, Homing, Wording 4. First Irish Betweening: Islanding and the Metaxu Opening Irish Betweenings: Giving Voice to the Intimate Universal Island Betweening: Between Sea, Sky, Air, Earth Betweening, Landing, Landfall Betweening and the Beloved Land Betweening and Rivering Betweening, Rivering: On the Banks Betweening on the Island: Pilgrimage of the Beyond Purgatorial Betweening: Heaney as Poetic Pilgrim on the Island Betweening and Other Islands 5. Second Irish Betweening: Naturing and the Metaxu Betweening and Naturing Pagan Betweening Yeatsian Betweening, Naturing Othering: Dawn Song of Twilight Pagan Womanizing and Christian Betweening: Brigid Goddess and Saint Betweening and Druidic Christianity Betweening, Circling, Crossing Generational Betweening Intergenerational Betweening: Blood Bonds Betweening and Revolting: Revisiting Burke’s Brusqueness Post-Christian Betweening: On Berkeley and Anglo-Irish Times Generational Betweening and Some Poets 6. Third Irish Betweening: Homing and the Metaxu Betweening and the Eros of the Night Country and City Betweening Betweening as Hungering Betweening, Homing, the Religion of Shopping Betweening and Partition: Marking and Crossing Borders Betweening and the Patriotism of the Dead Betweening Being Sung Betweening, Singing and Uaigneas 7. Fourth Irish Betweening: Wording and the Metaxu Betweenings, Peripheral Poetic Wordings, the Intimate Universal Joycean Betweenings: Erotics, Aesthetics, Voicing Sacredness Wording Betweening, Unwording the Between: Beckett Between Yes and No and Yes Betweening and Being/Becoming Woman Betweening and Being (Un)Becoming Molly: Between No and Yes, Yes and Yes Betweening, Giving Voice Beyond Voicing: Beckett Mouthing the Not-I Betweenings Consecrated and Comic: Wordings of Patrick Kavanagh Betweening and Growing Up: Heaney Intermediating the Earthy and Marvelous Anatheistic Betweening: Richard Kearney Rhapsodic and Ruminative Betweenings: John Moriarty and John O’Donohue Colonial and Postcolonial Betweening Betweening and Hiberno-English: Wording the Hyphen Betweening as Comic: With a Green Bow to Black Irish Humor Betweening as Gaeilge and Seán Ó Ríordáin: Intermediating Poetic Porosity and Astonished Prayer Glossary Bibliography Index

Reviews

""In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond invites readers to accompany him on a journey that is simultaneously historical, philosophical, religious, and autobiographical. Books on the topic of philosophy abound; texts that invite others to undertake the labor of philosophical thought, books in philosophy, are rare indeed. Desmond leads readers on an intellectual journey, one that crisscrosses epochs and oceans, and leads them to the fecund soil of his native Ireland. Under his guidance, readers will become attuned to voices that have long been marginalized in the West. In this book, Desmond plays the role of gracious host to an event akin to an Irish musical seisiún. But instead of musicians playing jigs and reels, this book entreats significant Irish thinkers—saints, scoundrels, scholars, and poets—to let their voices resound in the between."" — Ryan G. Duns, Marquette University

""This is an original work by one of the truly original contemporary philosophical thinkers, who effortlessly combines big-picture conceptualization with granular detail. This outstanding book, which is as epical in reach as it is lyrical in expression, has two fundamental dimensions. The first is the application of Desmond's high-altitude metaphysics of the between to the full breadth and depth of Irish culture, which over two millennia demonstrates a marvelous porosity between religion, and philosophy. The discussion of the contributions of each is outstanding; the discussion of their relation astonishing. The second and hidden dimension of this probing account of Irish culture is more personal. Providing an account of Irish culture in a sense provides an account of Desmond's own Irishness fated to resist the three modern sirens of reduction that affront us in the modern world: the reduction to a procrustean unity that dims plurality and dialogue; the reduction to equivocity that indemnifies incommensurability of thought and habit and leaves us talking to ourselves, and the reduction to dialectic prosecuted by Hegel that suggests plurality and difference only to betray them in a self-certifying system."" — Cyril O'Regan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame ""William Desmond's openhanded engagement with Seán Ó Ríordáin, a poet for whom betweenness was both an affliction and an act of conflicted integrity, re-minds us that estrangement is both a prelude to a homecoming deferred and an acceptance of the human need to incorporate difference rather than suppressing it. To be able to eavesdrop on the dialogue between the 'cough-clearing' poet and the 'breathgiving' philosopher is one of the great joys of William Desmond's Wayward and Homebound: Irish Betweenings, Philosophical Thought, and Writing."" — Louis de Paor, Centre for Irish Studies, University of Galway ""In this enchanting book, William Desmond applies his metaxological philosophy of the 'between' to a brilliant reading of Irish thought and culture. In a panoptic journey ranging from ancient and medieval Irish writing to contemporary Irish poets and thinkers, Desmond displays a singular mix of metaphysical depth, historical breadth, and comic wit. This is the Irish mind at its best. An intellectual and spiritual tour de force."" — Richard Kearney, author of Salvage ""In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond invites readers to accompany him on a journey that is simultaneously historical, philosophical, religious, and autobiographical. Books on the topic of philosophy abound; texts that invite others to undertake the labor of philosophical thought, books in philosophy, are rare indeed. Desmond leads readers on an intellectual journey, one that crisscrosses epochs and oceans, and leads them to the fecund soil of his native Ireland. Under his guidance, readers will become attuned to voices that have long been marginalized in the West. In this book, Desmond plays the role of gracious host to an event akin to an Irish musical seisiún. But instead of musicians playing jigs and reels, this book entreats significant Irish thinkers—saints, scoundrels, scholars, and poets—to let their voices resound in the between."" — Ryan G. Duns, Marquette University

Author Information

William Desmond is David Cook Chair in Philosophy at Villanova University and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is the author of many books, including Art, Origins, Otherness: Between Philosophy and Art and Perplexity and Ultimacy: Metaphysical Thoughts from the Middle, both by SUNY Press.

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