Living with Indifference

Living with Indifference is about the dimension of life that is utterly neutral, without care, feeling, or personality. In this provocative work that is anything but indifferent, Charles E. Scott explores the ways people have spoken and thought about indifference. Exploring topics such as time, chance, beauty, imagination, violence, and virtue, Scott shows how affirming indifference can be beneficial, and how destructive consequences can occur when we deny it. Scott’s preoccupation with indifference issues a demand for focused attention in connection with personal values, ethics, and beliefs. This elegantly argued book speaks to the positive value of diversity and a world that is open to human passion.

"A refreshing reminder of what philosophical practice is capable of setting forth." —Jason WinfreeCalifornia State University, "No one should be able to finish this book without having been moved to reconsider issues that are both sophisticated and existential." —John Lysaker, University of Oregon, "Scott (Vanderbilt) continues the subtle work begun in his previous books, particularly The Lives of Things, (CH, Feb'03, 40—3336). Here he focuses on a range of experiences with 'indifferent' life events... Scott also addresses various ways traumas may be caused and experienced indifferently; gives a 'middle-voice' account of people finding themselves enacting and indifferently caring for 'public memory' and significance; and discusses the Wal-Mart ethos, contrasted with the beauty of indifferent cosmic events. His fine 'phenomenological' eye for important human 'events' makes this book well worth reading.... Recommended." —Choice, "A refreshing reminder of what philosophical practice is capable of setting forth." —Jason Winfree, California State University

Charles E. Scott is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Ethics. He is author of The Lives of Things (IUP, 2002) and co-editor of Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy (IUP, 2001).