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Tables of Contents for The Consolation of Ontology
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Translator's Introduction
ix
Author's Introduction
xvii
MEDITATION
1
246
Chapter One
3
30
In medias res
3
1
Rationalism
3
2
A warning to philosophical anthropologists
5
1
Personal meaning
5
1
Adversity
5
1
Obligations
6
1
Achievement
7
1
Koheleth
7
1
For something else
7
1
Just consequences, or natural justice
8
1
... and revolt
8
1
The first exposition of the vicious circle in existence
9
1
Nonhuman collectivity
9
1
Social meaning
10
1
A little science fiction ...
11
1
... and reality as a joke
12
1
Biological meaning
13
1
Cosmological meaning
14
1
Cosmocreativity
14
1
Two cosmological models:
cyclical
15
1
the evolutionary model ...
16
1
... as the model of cosmology proper to Marxism
17
1
The universe of single-units
18
1
... and an unarticulated universe
18
1
The first hint of reflection
19
4
Back to a possible Marxist cosmological model
23
1
Conscious action for the first time
24
1
The ``cultivation'' of the material substrate
25
3
Cosmological optimism
28
1
Anthropological cosmology
29
2
The author's enthusiasm
31
1
The question of abominable creatures
31
2
Chapter Two
33
14
The vanity of eternity
33
2
Ad ontologiam!
35
1
Why we do not commit suicide
36
1
Hymenoptera, Teilhard de Chardin, and the problem of ``collective suicide''
37
4
The problem of the validity of knowledge
41
6
Chapter Three
47
32
The real pleasure of ontology begins
47
1
Meaning and obligation
47
2
``Naturalness''
49
1
... and slavery
49
3
The whole and its parts
52
1
Ontological models
53
1
The mechanical materialist model. Its various types
54
1
The meaning of material substance. Our relationship to it
55
1
Existence for the sake of existence
56
1
The indestructibility of existence
57
1
Substance ...
57
1
... and phenomenality
57
2
The ``evolution'' of substance
59
3
Again, existence for the sake of existence
62
1
Substantial materialism as idealism
63
1
Understood necessity
64
1
Its usefulness
65
1
The author defends bashing one's head against a wall
65
1
Relationship to the future
66
3
Return to the subject ... The exemplarity of the traditional mechanical materialist model
69
1
Evolving substance
69
2
The materialist possibility of working out the evolutionary substantial model
71
1
Single-units, although concrete, even here are ``nonautonomous''
71
2
Transition to the traditional substantial model
73
1
Evolution for the sake of evolution
73
1
Again the ultimate wisdom of capitulation
74
1
The vicissitudes of self-reflection
75
1
Man as a mistake. Advice to man
75
4
Chapter Four
79
36
What God is and is not
79
1
No need for anthropomorphism
80
2
Intelligibility: the author corrupted by obscurantists
82
2
The ontological solipsism of all substantial models
84
1
Two explanations of phenomenality
85
1
Active creation
85
1
A prankster God
86
1
A pensive God
87
1
The blessed lot of phenomenality
88
1
The history of God and its problems
89
1
A God who wallows in delight
90
1
A God who tries
91
1
Divine difficulties
92
1
An existential God
93
1
Devotion to God and the purpose of life
94
1
Extempore:
95
1
The God of the philosophers; the author appeals to the authorities
96
2
The sleeping God for the first time
98
1
An existential God: the author's defense
99
1
An existential God, full face
100
1
God's self-rescue
101
1
Real mythology ...
101
1
and false antihumanistic mythology
102
1
The creation of the world as ontologically equivalent. Freedom
102
2
Mythological problems. Dualism
104
1
The problem of the act of creation
105
2
God's dependence
107
1
God in man's hands: God's case
108
1
Is there anything more in God's world than there is in the world of materialism?
109
1
Revelation
109
1
Mutual contingency
110
5
Chapter Five
115
20
And yet God is!
115
1
The sleeping God for the second time. Reincarnation
116
3
Buddha's challenge to the sleeping God
119
1
The significance of a dreaming God
120
2
Mysticism
122
2
The longing for meaning. Capitulationism again
124
3
Reason: phylogenetically and gnosiologically the highest instance
127
1
The limits of introspection
128
2
Mysticism and substantial models
130
1
Psychic regression
131
1
The advantage of substance. Duration
132
1
A great mystery ...
133
2
Chapter Six
135
84
... and its genealogy
135
1
The substantial model is always dualistic
136
1
Two realities: aseity and abaliety
137
1
Uniform laws rule out a dual reality, and vice versa
138
2
The consequences of crypto-dualism
140
1
The necessity of agnosticism or revelation
141
1
Summation:
142
3
``Negative theism''
145
2
Substantial materialism and Marxism
147
1
Transition to the nonsubstantial model
148
2
The activity of single-units
150
2
Motion and reflection
152
1
The level of conscious action
153
3
The traditional stumbling block: the polemic against the substantial model. Origination and extinction
156
3
In no way ex nihilo
159
4
Origination or nonorigination
163
4
Self-origination
167
1
Inherent eternity
167
2
Self-origination continued
169
2
Relationship to self-movement
171
1
The question of general preconditions
171
2
Possibility
173
4
Toward the category of reality
177
1
What Marxist philosophy needs
178
2
Recapitulation
180
3
The question of extinction
183
2
Dialectics
185
2
Activity
187
1
Active self-origination and self-extinction
188
3
The anthropological content of the nonsubstantial model
191
2
The consequences of the ``ontorule'' of humankind
193
2
Values and measures
195
5
Values in particular
200
4
Valuation as activity
204
3
The absoluteness of valuation
207
2
Existence
209
2
``How'' and ``why''
211
1
The world before man
212
3
Toward man
215
2
The meaning of human life in the nonsubstantial model
217
2
Chapter Seven
219
28
The place of humankind in reality
219
3
The problem from the perspective of historical materialism
222
12
Final comments: from ontology
234
2
... from gnosiology
236
2
The unity of evaluating, knowing, and acting
238
2
Normative valuation
240
1
Conclusion: The significance of Marxism
241
4
Art
245
2
Notes
247
6
About the Author and Translator
253