In this new book, the philosopher and critic Alphonso Lingis extends a question that has occupied him throughout his career: how are we to understand the strangeness of our bodies? Weaving together philosophy, psychoanalysis, and anthropology, Lingis explores how the body might be more richly understood in terms of parts. Moving from ethics to fetishism, from the functions of genitals to the distinctiveness of good actions, this is a unique and thought-provoking book.

Alphonso Lingis is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He has published several books and contributed essays to numerous volumes and journals.

Introduction -- Discontinuities -- Our Species: Premature, Symbiotic, Atavistic -- The Evolution of Splendor -- Quadrille -- How One Feels, How One Looks -- Dismemberments -- The Social Body -- The Physiology of Art -- Transparency -- Attachments -- Appetite -- Fetishism -- Potlatch -- Flesh Trade -- Good Deeds.