Wayward and Homebound
Irish Betweenings, Philosophical Thought, and Writing
Published on 1. November 2025
Book
Hardback
430 pages
979-8-8558-0423-2 (ISBN)
Description
Offers an expansion of Desmond's explorations in the philosophy of the between by considering in a fresh way the distinctive features of Irish thought, with reference to religion, culture, and poetry.
In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond explores the philosophy of the between in connection with traditions of Irish thought and culture, especially poetry, drawing upon the metaxological philosophy developed most systematically in the award-winning Being and the Between, Ethics and the Between, and God and the Between. It begins with a broad overview of this notion in connection with Irish thinking and culture by contrast with French, German, and Greek variations of the notion. It touches on figures like John Scotus Eriugena, John Toland, George Berkeley, and Edmund Burke as well as major poets and writers like Swift, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett. The paradoxical twinning of being at home and not being at home and the relation of thought and exile, in an Irish as well as more cosmopolitan setting, are explored. Desmond presents a synopsis of metaxological philosophy and how it contributes to aesthetics, ethics, religion, and metaphysics. In an extended exploration of Irish betweenings, reflections are offered that move from nature to culture, with four sequences of reflections on islanding, naturing, homing, and wording. Additional concerns come to light such as insular thinking, the ecology of land and sea, religion, postcolonialsm, and the dialogue of poet and philosopher.
In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond explores the philosophy of the between in connection with traditions of Irish thought and culture, especially poetry, drawing upon the metaxological philosophy developed most systematically in the award-winning Being and the Between, Ethics and the Between, and God and the Between. It begins with a broad overview of this notion in connection with Irish thinking and culture by contrast with French, German, and Greek variations of the notion. It touches on figures like John Scotus Eriugena, John Toland, George Berkeley, and Edmund Burke as well as major poets and writers like Swift, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett. The paradoxical twinning of being at home and not being at home and the relation of thought and exile, in an Irish as well as more cosmopolitan setting, are explored. Desmond presents a synopsis of metaxological philosophy and how it contributes to aesthetics, ethics, religion, and metaphysics. In an extended exploration of Irish betweenings, reflections are offered that move from nature to culture, with four sequences of reflections on islanding, naturing, homing, and wording. Additional concerns come to light such as insular thinking, the ecology of land and sea, religion, postcolonialsm, and the dialogue of poet and philosopher.
Reviews / Votes
"This is an original work by one of the truly original contemporary philosophical thinkers, who effortlessly combines big-picture conceptualization with granular detail. This outstanding book, which is as epical in reach as it is lyrical in expression, has two fundamental dimensions. The first is the application of Desmond's high-altitude metaphysics of the between to the full breadth and depth of Irish culture, which over two millennia demonstrates a marvelous porosity between religion, and philosophy. The discussion of the contributions of each is outstanding; the discussion of their relation astonishing. The second and hidden dimension of this probing account of Irish culture is more personal. Providing an account of Irish culture in a sense provides an account of Desmond's own Irishness fated to resist the three modern sirens of reduction that affront us in the modern world: the reduction to a procrustean unity that dims plurality and dialogue; the reduction to equivocity that indemnifies incommensurability of thought and habit and leaves us talking to ourselves, and the reduction to dialectic prosecuted by Hegel that suggests plurality and difference only to betray them in a self-certifying system." - Cyril O'Regan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame"William Desmond's openhanded engagement with Sean O Riordain, a poet for whom betweenness was both an affliction and an act of conflicted integrity, re-minds us that estrangement is both a prelude to a homecoming deferred and an acceptance of the human need to incorporate difference rather than suppressing it. To be able to eavesdrop on the dialogue between the 'cough-clearing' poet and the 'breathgiving' philosopher is one of the great joys of William Desmond's Wayward and Homebound: Irish Betweenings, Philosophical Thought, and Writing." - Louis de Paor, Centre for Irish Studies, University of Galway
"In this enchanting book, William Desmond applies his metaxological philosophy of the 'between' to a brilliant reading of Irish thought and culture. In a panoptic journey ranging from ancient and medieval Irish writing to contemporary Irish poets and thinkers, Desmond displays a singular mix of metaphysical depth, historical breadth, and comic wit. This is the Irish mind at its best. An intellectual and spiritual tour de force." - Richard Kearney, author of Salvage
"In Wayward and Homebound, William Desmond invites readers to accompany him on a journey that is simultaneously historical, philosophical, religious, and autobiographical. Books on the topic of philosophy abound; texts that invite others to undertake the labor of philosophical thought, books in philosophy, are rare indeed. Desmond leads readers on an intellectual journey, one that crisscrosses epochs and oceans, and leads them to the fecund soil of his native Ireland. Under his guidance, readers will become attuned to voices that have long been marginalized in the West. In this book, Desmond plays the role of gracious host to an event akin to an Irish musical seisiun. But instead of musicians playing jigs and reels, this book entreats significant Irish thinkers-saints, scoundrels, scholars, and poets-to let their voices resound in the between." - Ryan G. Duns, Marquette University
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Illustrations
1 Illustrations, color; 27 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
1074 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-0423-2 (9798855804232)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2025
State University of New York Press
€39.99
Available for download
Person
William Desmond is David Cook Chair in Philosophy at Villanova University and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is the author of many books, including Art, Origins, Otherness: Between Philosophy and Art and Perplexity and Ultimacy: Metaphysical Thoughts from the Middle, both by SUNY Press.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I
1.Wording the Between: Conditions of Irish Thought and Writing
Inside-Out: Betweening, Location, and Dislocation
Being Between: Irish-Wise
Being Between: Greek-Wise
Being Between: French-Wise
Being Between: German-Wise
Betweening and Early Irish Christianity: Augustinus Hibernicus
Betweening, Hermes, Intermediating the Sacred
Between Greeks and Germans: Peregrine Eriugena
Between the One and Serviceable Disposability: Patrick Kavanagh on the Land
Between System and Poetics
Traversing an Equivocal Between: Heterodox John Toland
Between Geometry and Finesse
Trans-Substantializing the Between: Bishop Berkeley Neither Here nor There
The Laputan Between: Swift and Comic Finesse
Between Pieties: Burkean Doubleness
Between Religion and Thought
Betweening, Religion, the Need of an Enemy
Betweening in the Interim: Yeats's Coinage
Betweening of Selving and Soul: Yeats's Vacillation and Dialogue
Outliving the Between: Oisin not Ossianic
Outside-In: Betweening as Mean-whiling
Part II
2. Wayward and Homebound: Irish Betweenings and the Exile of Thought
The Irish Philosophical Society and Double Belonging
Nomads, Shepherds, and Pastors
Thinking Strangeness: A Bios Xenikos
Thinking Offshore, Crediting Thought
Wayward and Homebound Thinking
Aboriginal Dreaming and the Exile of the Dead
Between Wayward and Homebound: Being True Broken Tradition(s) and the Exile of Thought
Religion, Exiled Thought, Returning to Ourselves
Motherless Children and the Exile of Religion
Poetry and the Exile of Thought
Universities and the Exile of Thought
Motherless Children of Wonder: Exiled Alumni
Between Children of Wonder and Curious Changelings: A Remark on Yeats's "Stolen Child"
Socratic Strangeness - Athenian and Atopic
Betweening, Yeats and Plato's Ghost
Part III
3. Wording the Between: A Philosophical Synopsis
Opening: Wording the Between
Being Philosophical as Betweening: On Metaphysics as Metaxological
Passing from Elemental Flesh to Sacred Folly
Being Ethical as Betweening: Passing from the Given Ethos to Agapeic Giving
Being Religious as Betweening: Passing from Idiotic Mystery to Holy Agape
Part IV: Four Irish Betweenings: Islanding, Naturing, Homing, Wording
4. First Irish Betweening: Islanding and the Metaxu
Opening Irish Betweenings: Giving Voice to the Intimate Universal
Island Betweening: Between Sea, Sky, Air, Earth
Betweening, Landing, Landfall
Betweening and the Beloved Land
Betweening and Rivering
Betweening, Rivering: On the Banks
Betweening on the Island: Pilgrimage of the Beyond
Purgatorial Betweening: Heaney as Poetic Pilgrim on the Island
Betweening and Other Islands
5. Second Irish Betweening: Naturing and the Metaxu
Betweening and Naturing
Pagan Betweening
Yeatsian Betweening, Naturing Othering: Dawn Song of Twilight
Pagan Womanizing and Christian Betweening: Brigid Goddess and Saint
Betweening and Druidic Christianity
Betweening, Circling, Crossing
Generational Betweening
Intergenerational Betweening: Blood Bonds
Betweening and Revolting: Revisiting Burke's Brusqueness
Post-Christian Betweening: On Berkeley and Anglo-Irish Times
Generational Betweening and Some Poets
6. Third Irish Betweening: Homing and the Metaxu
Betweening and the Eros of the Night
Country and City Betweening
Betweening as Hungering Betweening, Homing, the Religion of Shopping
Betweening and Partition: Marking and Crossing Borders
Betweening and the Patriotism of the Dead
Betweening Being Sung
Betweening, Singing and Uaigneas
7. Fourth Irish Betweening: Wording and the Metaxu
Betweenings, Peripheral Poetic Wordings, the Intimate Universal
Joycean Betweenings: Erotics, Aesthetics, Voicing Sacredness
Wording Betweening, Unwording the Between: Beckett
Between Yes and No and Yes
Betweening and Being/Becoming Woman
Betweening and Being (Un)Becoming Molly: Between No and Yes, Yes and Yes
Betweening, Giving Voice Beyond Voicing: Beckett Mouthing the Not-I
Betweenings Consecrated and Comic: Wordings of Patrick Kavanagh
Betweening and Growing Up: Heaney Intermediating the Earthy and Marvelous
Anatheistic Betweening: Richard Kearney
Rhapsodic and Ruminative Betweenings: John Moriarty and John O'Donohue
Colonial and Postcolonial Betweening
Betweening and Hiberno-English: Wording the Hyphen
Betweening as Comic: With a Green Bow to Black Irish Humor
Betweening as Gaeilge and Sean O Riordain: Intermediating Poetic Porosity and Astonished Prayer
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Part I
1.Wording the Between: Conditions of Irish Thought and Writing
Inside-Out: Betweening, Location, and Dislocation
Being Between: Irish-Wise
Being Between: Greek-Wise
Being Between: French-Wise
Being Between: German-Wise
Betweening and Early Irish Christianity: Augustinus Hibernicus
Betweening, Hermes, Intermediating the Sacred
Between Greeks and Germans: Peregrine Eriugena
Between the One and Serviceable Disposability: Patrick Kavanagh on the Land
Between System and Poetics
Traversing an Equivocal Between: Heterodox John Toland
Between Geometry and Finesse
Trans-Substantializing the Between: Bishop Berkeley Neither Here nor There
The Laputan Between: Swift and Comic Finesse
Between Pieties: Burkean Doubleness
Between Religion and Thought
Betweening, Religion, the Need of an Enemy
Betweening in the Interim: Yeats's Coinage
Betweening of Selving and Soul: Yeats's Vacillation and Dialogue
Outliving the Between: Oisin not Ossianic
Outside-In: Betweening as Mean-whiling
Part II
2. Wayward and Homebound: Irish Betweenings and the Exile of Thought
The Irish Philosophical Society and Double Belonging
Nomads, Shepherds, and Pastors
Thinking Strangeness: A Bios Xenikos
Thinking Offshore, Crediting Thought
Wayward and Homebound Thinking
Aboriginal Dreaming and the Exile of the Dead
Between Wayward and Homebound: Being True Broken Tradition(s) and the Exile of Thought
Religion, Exiled Thought, Returning to Ourselves
Motherless Children and the Exile of Religion
Poetry and the Exile of Thought
Universities and the Exile of Thought
Motherless Children of Wonder: Exiled Alumni
Between Children of Wonder and Curious Changelings: A Remark on Yeats's "Stolen Child"
Socratic Strangeness - Athenian and Atopic
Betweening, Yeats and Plato's Ghost
Part III
3. Wording the Between: A Philosophical Synopsis
Opening: Wording the Between
Being Philosophical as Betweening: On Metaphysics as Metaxological
Passing from Elemental Flesh to Sacred Folly
Being Ethical as Betweening: Passing from the Given Ethos to Agapeic Giving
Being Religious as Betweening: Passing from Idiotic Mystery to Holy Agape
Part IV: Four Irish Betweenings: Islanding, Naturing, Homing, Wording
4. First Irish Betweening: Islanding and the Metaxu
Opening Irish Betweenings: Giving Voice to the Intimate Universal
Island Betweening: Between Sea, Sky, Air, Earth
Betweening, Landing, Landfall
Betweening and the Beloved Land
Betweening and Rivering
Betweening, Rivering: On the Banks
Betweening on the Island: Pilgrimage of the Beyond
Purgatorial Betweening: Heaney as Poetic Pilgrim on the Island
Betweening and Other Islands
5. Second Irish Betweening: Naturing and the Metaxu
Betweening and Naturing
Pagan Betweening
Yeatsian Betweening, Naturing Othering: Dawn Song of Twilight
Pagan Womanizing and Christian Betweening: Brigid Goddess and Saint
Betweening and Druidic Christianity
Betweening, Circling, Crossing
Generational Betweening
Intergenerational Betweening: Blood Bonds
Betweening and Revolting: Revisiting Burke's Brusqueness
Post-Christian Betweening: On Berkeley and Anglo-Irish Times
Generational Betweening and Some Poets
6. Third Irish Betweening: Homing and the Metaxu
Betweening and the Eros of the Night
Country and City Betweening
Betweening as Hungering Betweening, Homing, the Religion of Shopping
Betweening and Partition: Marking and Crossing Borders
Betweening and the Patriotism of the Dead
Betweening Being Sung
Betweening, Singing and Uaigneas
7. Fourth Irish Betweening: Wording and the Metaxu
Betweenings, Peripheral Poetic Wordings, the Intimate Universal
Joycean Betweenings: Erotics, Aesthetics, Voicing Sacredness
Wording Betweening, Unwording the Between: Beckett
Between Yes and No and Yes
Betweening and Being/Becoming Woman
Betweening and Being (Un)Becoming Molly: Between No and Yes, Yes and Yes
Betweening, Giving Voice Beyond Voicing: Beckett Mouthing the Not-I
Betweenings Consecrated and Comic: Wordings of Patrick Kavanagh
Betweening and Growing Up: Heaney Intermediating the Earthy and Marvelous
Anatheistic Betweening: Richard Kearney
Rhapsodic and Ruminative Betweenings: John Moriarty and John O'Donohue
Colonial and Postcolonial Betweening
Betweening and Hiberno-English: Wording the Hyphen
Betweening as Comic: With a Green Bow to Black Irish Humor
Betweening as Gaeilge and Sean O Riordain: Intermediating Poetic Porosity and Astonished Prayer
Glossary
Bibliography
Index