No One’s Ways: An Essay on Infinite Naming

Ulysses once saved himself by twisting his name, calling himself “No One” or “Non-Man” and becoming anonymous even as he bore a name. Professor of comparative literature Daniel Heller-Roazen, in his book No One’s Ways (MIT Press) explores how philosophers have never forgotten that lesson, exploiting the possibilities of adding “non-” to the names of man, and how the philosophers’ infinite names all point to one subject: human beings, who are unnamable.