Quite wonderful. Especially remarkable is how Schmitt is able to place a theory of subjectivity within the broad context of political economy. . .Should be read by anyone who is thinking today about conceptions of the self . . . 

Linda MartÍn Alcoff,

Syracuse University

This is a fine, subtle book. Richard Schmitt draws out some disturbing real-life implications of the autonomous individualism that permeates Western industrial societies, to offer in its stead an ontology of being-in-relation whose social - political - personal effects could be profoundly restorative. Schmitt's authorial voice engages his readers directly, creating just those `connections and currents between persons' that his text advocates and illustrates.

Lorraine Code

York University 

by Richard Schmitt

Brown University 

People are separate from one another to the extent that their actions, beliefs, projects are exclusively their own. As embodied beings, we are separate from each other--your bodily sensations and feelings are yours alone. But is the same true of actions, beliefs, projects? Beyond Separateness discusses that question in detail and concludes that actions, beliefs, projects can be shared so that they are not exclusively owned by any particular person.

Many mainstream philosophers believe that human beings are separate from one another as a matter of logic or of natural fact. It turns out, however, that whether one is separate or in-relation is a matter of choice and that, moreover, many people who claim to be separate, to be living according to a life plan all their own, are actually in hidden ways dependent on others and thus in-relation. Usually that means that they require a good deal of attending from others while they retain for themselves the freedom to act separately and independently when that seems more convenient. 

Feminist theory has pointed out that people who openly chose to be in-relation are attentive to each other, that they have many joint projects that belong as much to them as to their partners. They choose to make these projects joint projects so that everyone's contribution is important and valued.

Much of epistemology assumes human separateness without question or argument. Once we recognize that separateness is chosen, and is an inferior choice to being in-relation, the concept of knowledge requires re-examination. So do the ideas of love and friendship, and of power. The later chapters of Beyond Separateness sketch approaches to knowing, loving and power from the perspective of feminist theory. 

Beyond Separateness is now published by the Perseus Books Group. Perseus does not sell to the public direct.

You can order this book for $25 from Amazon.com