Synopses & Reviews
What happens when we glance around a room? How do we trust what we see in fleeting moments? In The World at a Glance, Edward S. Casey describes how glancing counts for more of human perception than previously imagined. An entire universe is perceived in a glance, but our quick and uncommitted attention prevents examination of these rapid acts and processes. While breaking down this paradox, Casey surveys the glance as an essential way by which we acquaint ourselves with the world. This experiential tour-de-force reveals what happens in a blink of an eye. It will become a landmark study in phenomenology, philosophy, environmental philosophy, and the philosophy of mind.
Review
"Elegantly written, this book, its erudition formidable, offers the reader an encyclopedic glance into a treasure-trove of information and knowledge bearing on vision: material in cinema studies, architecture, art criticism, world history, anthropology, urban studies, psychology, psychoanalysis, literature, and the natural sciences, as well as philosophy. To venture into its beckoning pages of stories is to undertake a richly rewarding journey, glancing at the world through configurations of time and space." --David Kleinberg-Levin, Vol. IV.1 April 2009
Review
"In this remarkable and thorough book, Edward Casey again demonstrates why he is one of the most agile and penetrating practitioners of phenomenology working today." --Stephen Watson, University of Notre Dame Indiana University Press Indiana University Press
Review
"The World at a Glance is... a challenging book, in every positive sense of the word.... The book's analyses are simultaneously wide-ranging and incredibly detailed, reflecting, no doubt intentionally, the very diversity and singularity of its subject matter.... Casey's work is effortlessly interdisciplinary, drawing on and responding to ideas from psychology, ecology, and art history. Yet while Casey's thinking is always informed by that of others, he develops a truly original line of inquiry." --Continental Philosophy Review Indiana University Press
Review
"... Notable for its breadth and depth, the present title examines the range of information that one absorbs in rapid glances, i.e., 'blink of an eye' experiences that characterize visual interaction with the world. Looking at familiar, everyday events as well as examples from ancient history, linguistics, literature, art, photography, and ethics, Casey develops a narrative that will fascinate anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, and their interaction in the construction of the perceptual world. Even neuroscientists will appreciate the notion that enduring emotional and cognitive experiences are built from momentary visual impressions.... Essential." --Choice
Synopsis
How the simple act of glancing connects us to the wider world
About the Author
Edward S. Casey is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SUNY-Stony Brook. He is the author of several books, including Getting Back into Place (IUP, 1993), Imagining (IUP, 1976), and Remembering (IUP, 1987).
Table of Contents
Contents<\>Acknowledgments
Prologue: Regaining the Glance
Introduction: Taking in the World at a Glance
Part One: Approximating to the Glance
1. Getting into the Glance
2. Coming Closer to the Glance
3. Becoming and Being Oriented by the Glance
4. The Hegemony of the Gaze
Part Two: Glancing Earlier and Farther Afield
5. The Glance in Ancient Athens
6. The Sudden, the Surprising, and the Wondrous: With Walter Benjamin on the Streets of Paris
Coda
Part Three: Getting Inside the Glance
7. The Singularity of the Glance
8. Glancing Time
9. Attending and Glancing
Part Four: Praxis of the Glance
10. The Ethics of the Glance
11. The Natural Environment in a Glance
12. Glancing at the Image in Photography and Painting
Concluding Thoughts: Catching Sight of Surprise
Afterword: Families of the Glance and the Gaze
Index