David Appelbaum
David Appelbaum is an American philosopher, poet, editor, and publisher. He is professor emeritus of Philosophy at the State [University of New York at New Paltz]. He has published books in philosophy and poetry including Everyday Spirits.
He has served for ten years as editor-in-chief of Parabola Magazine and founded the independent literary press Codhill Press.
Education and career
After degrees from Williams College and Oxford University, Appelbaum completed his graduate studies in philosophy at Harvard University, writing his dissertation under the direction of John Rawls and John Cooper. He subsequently pursued an academic career in philosophy and joined the faculty of the State University of [New York at New Paltz], where he taught for many years and later became professor emeritus of Philosophy.At SUNY New Paltz, Appelbaum's teaching focused on Eastern philosophy, phenomenology, continental philosophy, and postmodernism, often emphasizing lived experience, ethical attentiveness, and the limits of conceptual systems.
In addition, Appelbaum served over fifteen years on the editorial board of SUNY Press where, among other responsibilities, he edited a series of monographs on Western Esoteric Traditions.
He served for ten years as editor-in-chief of Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning, a magazine dedicated to philosophical, spiritual, and mythological traditions from around the world.
Appelbaum is also the founder and longtime publisher of Codhill Press, an independent literary press.
Scholarly works
Appelbaum's scholarly work is situated at the intersection of philosophy and literature, drawing on phenomenology, ethics, and literary analysis.His book Everyday Spirits explores the transcendent dimensions of ordinary experience, arguing that philosophical insight emerges not from abstraction but from attentive engagement with everyday life.
The main body of Appelbaum’s philosophical works is found in two separate trilogies. The first includes The Stop, Disruption, and The Delay of the Heart.' Through a series of phenomenological reflections, his inquiry asks after means of deepening inwardness and moral responsiveness in the light of a non-intentional consciousness. The second trilogy is composed of Jacques Derrida’s Ghost: a conjuration, A Propos, Levinas', and In his Voice: Maurice Blanchot’s Affair with the Neuter. In each, Appelbaum investigates the performative aspects of philosophical voice. Jacques Derrida’s Ghost: a conjuration engages Derridean themes of absence, trace, and voice, reflecting Appelbaum’s sustained interest in language, embodiment, and the limits of presence. A Propos, Levinas examines the ethical foundation of Emmanual Levinas’s thinking, particularly the primacy of responsibility as well as the encounter with the Other. In his Voice: Maurice Blanchot’s Affair with the Neuter dwells on Blanchot’s radical reassessment of the literary text and the implications for thinking in general.
In notes on water: an aqueous phenomenology, Appelbaum examines philosophy, myth, science, and poetic reflection, using water as both subject and metaphor, the work investigates fluidity, perception, and interconnection, exemplifying his research approach of blending phenomenology with literary form.
His more recent books, Portuguese Sailor Boy and Collector of Lapsed Times, addresses his long-standing concerns with memory, temporality, and lived experience, continuing to blur the boundaries between philosophical prose and poetry.
Poems
- ''Evidence of Place ''