“This is an astonishingly brilliant first book by one of the world's best new philosophical talents. Prepare to enter an entire world of watery pleasures by a mind that has the fluidity, tidal mobility and dread abysses of the oceans.”
Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research
“Rarely have I have read such an original and beautifully written book that overflows in fresh insights on every page. Yi Wu takes us on an exciting philosophical and literary sea journey. This odyssey begins with the Greeks (Plato and Homer) passes on the way to Rome (Plautus), pauses in Denmark with Hamlet, moves on to Kant and Husserl, and culminates with Virginia Woolf. At every stage, the sea makes a dramatic appearance.”
Richard J. Bernstein, Vera List Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research
“When Nietzsche, in his ‘Gay Science,’ urged: ‘Aboard ship! ye philosophers!’ he held up a mirror to Western thinking. For not already with the view from the coast, but only with the actual step out to sea, the land-fixed concepts forfeit their solid ground, the cogito proves to be a fleeting reflex—and philosophy recognizes itself as a mere island in the midst of a maelstrom of contingency. In her impressive study, Yi Wu embarks a whole crew of great thinkers, as well as of epoch-making politicians and poets, from Plato to Augustus and Shakespeare, from Kant to Heidegger and Woolf. Rather than merely providing metaphors, her book is an essay in the very best sense of the word: the methodologically unmethodical exploration of what might be called the maritime latency of philosophy.”
Burkhardt Wolf, Professor of German and Media Studies, University of Vienna