Abstract

The present book is no ordinary anthology, but rather a workroom in which anthropologists and philosophers initiate a dialogue on trust and hope, two important topics for both fields of study. The book combines work between scholars from different universities in the U.S. and Denmark. Thus, besides bringing the two disciplines in dialogue, it also cuts across differences in national contexts and academic style. The interdisciplinary efforts of the contributors demonstrate how such a collaboration can result in new and challenging ways of thinking about trust and hope. Reading the dialogues may, therefore, also inspire others to work in the productive intersection between anthropology and philosophy.

“While this book is seemingly aimed primarily at an anthropological audience, there exists a clear desire to make a contribution to both disciplines. As a result, this book is incredibly valuable for those interested in producing scholarship in either discipline, in addition to interdisciplinary work. Moreover, the dialogues that make up the majority of the text demonstrate the possibility, as well as the difficulty, of putting two importantly distinct disciplines in conversation with one another. It demonstrates the possibility of making explicit the intellectual companionship between anthropology and philosophy, ensuring that this text is a resource for both disciplines.” · Anthropology Book Forum

“This volume is a serious, innovative, and patient attempt to meet disciplinary difference with candour, and to work beyond it; it is imbued with the sobriety and good faith of its contributors. It also upholds a kind of tradition in (what might now be termed) ‘thinking outside the box’ that characterises, certainly on the anthropological side of the fence, the work of some of the most innovative and inspirational figures.” · Anthropos

“Anthropology & Philosophy: Dialogues on Trust and Hope is a thoughtful and thought-provoking read that is a significant and highly recommended addition to academic library Anthropology and Philosophy reference collections and supplemental studies reading lists.” · Midwest Book Review

Esther Oluffa Pedersen is Associate Professor of philosophy at the University of Roskilde. She has published several articles on trust, most recently “A Kantian Conception of Trust” in Sats. Northern European Journal of Philosophy (2013), and more broadly within the history of philosophy and philosophical anthropology, including the book Die Mythosphilosophie Ernst Cassirers (Königshausen & Neumann, 2009).

Anne Line Dalsgård is Associate Professor at Aarhus University. Based on periodic fieldwork in Northeast Brazil since 1997, she has published extensively on motherhood, youth, violence, affect and temporality. She is author of the book Matters of Life and Longing: Female Sterilisation in Northeast Brazil (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004; Editora UNESP, 2006).

Sune Liisberg is an External Lecturer of philosophy of psychology and intercultural communication at Aarhus University. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy and the history of ideas in Aarhus in 2008, and has since published on a variety of topics primarily within the fields of existential philosophy and phenomenology.