Steinbock becomes bestselling author | Philosophy | SIU

Steinbock becomes bestselling author

The 2013 release of a Slovak translation of Anthony Steinbock’s 1995 book, “Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl,” caught our own Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Phenomenology Research Center (PRC) by surprise when it promptly landed him on the bestsellers list in Slovakia. Not the “academic bestsellers,” or “best-selling philosophy books,” lists, mind you – the national bestsellers ranking. (Rankings published by Slovak ArtForum website, with English site translation available.)

(click picture below for enlarged image)

And finding his name next to the 16^th bestselling title in Slovakia only served as a teaser for the coming weeks, when he then rose to 14^th, then 11^th, then finally 8^th for all books sold in Slovakia during the period following its release earlier this year.

Dr. Steinbock, according to the 1995 American description of his book, “presents an innovative approach to Husserlian phenomenology.” His work with Husserl’s manuscripts, according to ArtForum, looks at the “so-called generative, which refers to the constant renewal and flexibility of our attitudes and ways of showing us the world.” The book has previously also been translated into German and production on a Portugese version is currently underway.

Wondering what phenomenology even means? The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes the subject as “the study of structures of experience, or consciousness. Literally, phenomenology is the study of ‘phenomena’: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience.”

The Husserl mentioned in Steinbock’s title is Edmund Husserl, a founding pioneer of 20^th century phenomenological theory. Other notables early in the discipline’s formation include Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Steinbock is also the author of Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience (Indiana UP, 2007), which was the recipient of the 2009 Edward Goodwin Ballard Book Prize in Phenomenology. His new book, forthcoming with Northwestern UP, is: Moral Emotions: Reclaiming the Evidence of the Heart (expected publish date in early 2014). 

The Phenomenology Research Center at SIU Carbondale is recognized as a premiere destination for work in phenomenology, and has hosted many national and international scholars since its inception in 2009. Dr. Steinbock and the PRC Office are located on campus in Faner Hall, Room 2514.*