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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General
This work presents a rethinking of critical philosophy through the
recovery of a larger sense of aesthetics in Kant. It provides a
unitary reading of the "Critique of Judgement". This is situated in
relation to Kant's attempt to think ends in general. The question
of how to think ends is argued to guide Kant both in his treatment
of aesthetics and teleology and to provide the rationale for
critique itself.
This volume discusses how commonality and difference are negotiated
across heterogeneous social movements in Latin America, especially
Peru. It applies cosmopolitics as an analytical lens to understand
the intricacies of social movement encounters across difference,
without imposing colonial hierarchies or categorizations. The
author blends multiple theoretical approaches-such as social
movement research, postcolonial feminism, and post-foundational
discourse theory-with ethnographic insights to develop a theory of
cosmopolitical solidarity. Providing a transnational and
intersectional perspective on the politics of social justice in a
postcolonial context, this book will appeal to students of social
movements, gender studies, racism, Latin American studies, and
international relations, as well as practitioners involved in
activism, social work, or international cooperation.
Thomas White, in the quatercentenary of his birth, is due for
historical rehabilitation. English Catholic priest, philosopher,
theologian, and scientist, he was a renowned and notorious figure
in his own day; and, though long forgot ten, his work exemplifies
aspects of major current concern to historians of ideas: in
particular, the significance of the newly-revived sceptical
philosophy; the complexity ofthe transition from scholasticism to
the new philosophy; and the whole role of"minor," non-canonical
figures in the historyofthought. White's writings embrace theology,
politics, and natural philosophy, or science'; and in all these
three areas, his work, after centuries of comparative neglect, has
slowly been resurfacing. His theological significance received
intermittent recognition through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and
early-twentieth centuries; but more recently his great importance
as leader of a whole "Blackloist" faction of English Catholics has
become increasingly clear. Condemned by co-religionists in his own
time as a dangerous heretic, he has been assessed by modem scholars
as an anticipator of twentieth-century trends in Catholic theology,
and even as "probably, after John Henry Newman, the most original
thinker as yet producedby modem English Catholicism."2 Blackloism
implied not only a theological, but also a political position; and
that position was clarified and publicised by White in his single
political treatise, The Grounds of Obedience and Government,
published in the mid 1650s. His provocative stance was widely
misunderstood and misinterpreted, and was soon anyway rendered
untenable by the restoration of the monarchy."
Stephen Neale presents a powerful, original examination of a cornerstone of modern philosophy: the idea that our thoughts and utterances are representations of reality, that accurate or true representations are those that correspond to the facts. Facing Facts will be crucial to future work in metaphysics, logic, and the philosophy of mind and language, and will have profound implications far beyond.
In this important and engaging new book, Alastair Morgan offers a
detailed examination of the concept of life in Adorno's philosophy.
He relates Adorno's thought in this context to a number of key
thinkers in the history of Continental philosophy, including Marx,
Hegel, Heidegger and Agamben, and provides an argument for the
relevance and importance of Adorno's critical philosophy of life at
the beginning of the 21st century. Crucially, Morgan offers a new
framework for understanding the relation between concepts of life
and a critical philosophy. The concept of life has previously
received little attention in Adorno scholarship. However, the
concept of life is a constant theme and problem running throughout
Adorno's work, from his early critiques of life-philosophies to his
late philosophy of metaphysical experience as the possibility of
life. The idea that Adorno's philosophy is in need of or lacking in
a fundamental ontology has been the subject of a great deal of
critical attention, but this has rarely been examined through an
analysis of the concept of life. Furthermore, philosophies of life
have seen a resurgence in recent years (particularly with a renewed
interest in Bergson's philosophy via the critical reception of
Deleuze's philosophy). "Adorno's Concept of Life" is therefore a
necessary and timely study that offers a distinctive interpretation
of Adorno's philosophy, and will be of central interest to everyone
working on Adorno. Furthermore, it provides a powerful
interpretation of the critical force of Adorno's philosophy, that
will contribute to the renewed interest in the concept of life
within contemporary philosophy.
"Art and Thought" is a collection of newly commissioned essays that
explores the relationship between the discipline of art history and
important movements in the history of western thought.Brings
together newly commissioned essays that explore the relationship
between the discipline of art history and movements in the history
of western thought.Considers the impact of the writings of key
thinkers, including Aristotle, Kant, and Heidegger, on the way in
which objects are perceived and understood and histories of art are
constructed, deconstructed, and reconfigured according to varying
sets of philosophical frameworks.Introduces the reader to the
dynamic interface between philosophical reflections and art
practices.Part of the New Interventions in Art History series,
which is published in conjunction with the Association of Art
Historians.
The studies included in the Care of the Self: Ancient
Problematizations of Life and Contemporary Thought focus on
different manifestations of "taking care of the self" present in
ancient and contemporary thought. Each of these studies approaches
the issue of taking care of the self from a different perspective:
Part I by Vladislav Suvak focuses on Socrates' therapeutic
education; Part II by Livia Flachbartova centres on Diogenes'
ascetic practices; and Part III by Pavol Sucharek concentrates on
Henri Maldiney's existential phenomenology. Taking care of the self
(epimeleia heautou) is not just one of a great many topics
associated with ancient ethics. Echoing Michel Foucault, we could
say that the care of the self applies to all problematizations of
life.
This is the first English translation of Condillac's most
influential works: the Essay on the Origins of Human Knowledge
(1746) and Course for Study of Instruction of the Prince of Parma
(1772). The Essays lay the foundation for Condillac's theory of
mind. He argues that all mental operations are, in fact, sensory
processes and nothing more. An outgrowth of Locke's empirical
account of ideas and sensations as a source of knowledge,
Condillac's theory goes beyond Locke's foundations, introducing his
universal method for understanding any complex entity: the
reduction of all matters to their origins and then to their
simplest forms. The Course, originally written to teach Prince
Ferdinand of Parma to think and to develop good habits of mind
following the principle of association of ideas, covers grammar,
writing, reasoning, thinking, and ancient and modern history.
Philip writes in the introduction: "[the] mind is moldable to
reason and to 'nature' which gave it a model and provides the
ultimate authority for all it can know or do."
Paris of the year 1900 left two landmarks: the Tour Eiffel, and
David Hilbert's celebrated list of twenty-four mathematical
problems presented at a conference opening the new century. Kurt
Goedel, a logical icon of that time, showed Hilbert's ideal of
complete axiomatization of mathematics to be unattainable. The
result, of 1931, is called Goedel's incompleteness theorem. Goedel
then went on to attack Hilbert's first and second Paris problems,
namely Cantor's continuum problem about the type of infinity of the
real numbers, and the freedom from contradiction of the theory of
real numbers. By 1963, it became clear that Hilbert's first
question could not be answered by any known means, half of the
credit of this seeming faux pas going to Goedel. The second is a
problem still wide open. Goedel worked on it for years, with no
definitive results; The best he could offer was a start with the
arithmetic of the entire numbers. This book, Goedel's lectures at
the famous Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in 1941, shows
how far he had come with Hilbert's second problem, namely to a
theory of computable functionals of finite type and a proof of the
consistency of ordinary arithmetic. It offers indispensable reading
for logicians, mathematicians, and computer scientists interested
in foundational questions. It will form a basis for further
investigations into Goedel's vast Nachlass of unpublished notes on
how to extend the results of his lectures to the theory of real
numbers. The book also gives insights into the conceptual and
formal work that is needed for the solution of profound scientific
questions, by one of the central figures of 20th century science
and philosophy.
Thomas Hurka presents the first full historical study of an
important strand in the development of modern moral philosophy. His
subject is a series of British ethical theorists from the late
nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, who shared key
assumptions that made them a unified and distinctive school. The
best-known of them are Henry Sidgwick, G. E. Moore, and W. D. Ross;
others include Hastings Rashdall, H. A. Prichard, C. D. Broad, and
A. C. Ewing. They disagreed on some important topics, especially in
normative ethics. Thus some were consequentialists and others
deontologists: Sidgwick thought only pleasure is good while others
emphasized perfectionist goods such as knowledge, aesthetic
appreciation, and virtue. But all were non-naturalists and
intuitionists in metaethics, holding that moral judgements can be
objectively true, have a distinctive subject-matter, and are known
by direct insight. They also had similar views about how ethical
theory should proceed and what are relevant arguments in it; their
disagreements therefore took place on common ground. Hurka recovers
the history of this under-appreciated group by showing what its
members thought, how they influenced each other, and how their
ideas changed through time. He also identifies the shared
assumptions that made their school unified and distinctive, and
assesses their contributions critically, both when they debated
each other and when they agreed. One of his themes is that that
their general approach to ethics was more fruitful philosophically
than many better-known ones of both earlier and later times.
Hans Kelsen's efforts in the areas of legal philosophy and legal
theory are considered by many scholars of law to be the most
influential thinking of this century. This volume makes available
some of the best work extant on Kelsen's theory, including papers
newly translated into English. The book covers such topics as
competing philosophical positions on the nature of law, legal
validity, legal powers, and the unity of municipal and
international law. It also throws much light on Kelsen's
intellectual milieu--as well as his intellectual debts.
• A self-reflection on boundaries, compassion, and love , the
place they each have in therapy, and how this transfers to our
understand of life • Existential therapy and trauma, and
existential and transgenerational trauma or both topics with
increasing demand and general relevance. • Laura Barnett’s
writing is also well-known, and this book offers unique vignettes,
dialogues, and personal reflections that are enjoyable to read and
challenge the reader to think differently
This accessible and jargon-free book features readings of over 20
key texts and authors in Western poetry and philosophy, including
Homer, Plato, Beowulf , Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Rousseau.
Simon Haines presents a thought-provoking and theoretically aware
account of Western literature and philosophy, arguing that the
history of both can be seen as a struggle between two different
conceptions of the self: the 'romantic' (or dualist) vs the
'realist' or ('extended').
Kant's Politics in Context is the first comprehensive contextual
study of Kant's legal and political philosophy. It gives an account
of the development of his thought before, during, and after the
French revolution. Reidar Maliks argues that Kant provided a
philosophical defence of the revolution's republican ideals while
aiming to avoid the twin dangers of anarchy and despotism. Central
to this was a concept of equal freedom, constituted by legal rights
and duties within a state. The close connection between freedom and
the rule of law accounts for the centrality of the state in Kants
thought. That Kant idealized the public sphere is well known, but
that he intentionally developed his own philosophy in polemical
essays and pamphlets aimed for a wide audience has not been fully
appreciated. Maliks shows how our understanding of Kant's political
philosophy can be enriched through paying attention to the
discussions he sparked during the 1790swhere radical followers
including Fichte, Erhard, and Bergk clashed with conservative
critics such as Rehberg, Moeser, and Gentz. This book provides
fresh knowledge about a foundational moment for modern political
thought and offers a new perspective on Kant's central political
concepts, including freedom, rights, citizenship, revolution, and
war.
In this collection of essays, which were first delivered as
lectures at the International Academy of Philosophy in the
Principality of Liechtenstein in 1998, distinguished philosopher
Peter Geach confronts some of the most difficult issues in
philosophy with the precision of a logician and the grace and wit
of an accomplished stylist. These essays constitute a significant
addition to Professor Geach's esteemed body of work in philosophy,
as he addresses not only problems of logic and analytic philosophy,
but also of epistemology and ethics. Geach's engaging discussions
of human nature, truth, goodness, and love provide probing insight
into perennial themes in an appealing, highly readable style which
is nevertheless forceful and exacting. Geach knows the subjectivity
of his own experience and belief and is able to illuminate that
experience and belief by submitting it to a rational and
philosophical inquiry. His avowed Catholic perspective is neither a
weapon nor a shield. It is an integral part of the sustained,
systematic, and constructive approach to philosophy demonstrated in
these essays. They will certainly provoke serious reflection even
in those inclined to disagree with Geach's conclusions.
Roger Crisp presents a comprehensive study of Henry Sidgwick's The
Methods of Ethics, a landmark work first published in 1874. Crisp
argues that Sidgwick is largely right about many central issues in
moral philosophy: the metaphysics and epistemology of ethics,
consequentialism, hedonism about well-being, and the weight to be
given to self-interest. He holds that Sidgwick's long discussion of
'common-sense' morality is probably the best discussion of
deontology we have. And yet The Methods of Ethics can be hard to
understand, and this is perhaps one reason why, though it is a
philosophical goldmine, few have ventured deeply into it. What does
Sidgwick mean by a 'method'? Why does he discuss only three
methods? What are his arguments for hedonism and for
utilitarianism? How can we make sense of the idea of moral
intuition? What is the role of virtue in Sidgwick's ethics? Crisp
addresses these and many other questions, offering a fresh view of
Sidgwick's text which will assist any moral philosopher to gain
more from it.
According to George Berkeley (1685-1753), there is fundamentally
nothing in the world but minds and their ideas. Ideas are
understood as pure phenomenal 'feels' which are momentarily had by
a single perceiver, then vanish. Surprisingly, Berkeley tries to
sell this idealistic philosophical system as a defense of
common-sense and an aid to science. However, both common-sense and
Newtonian science take the perceived world to be highly structured
in a way that Berkeley's system does not appear to allow. Kenneth
L. Pearce argues that Berkeley's solution to this problem lies in
his innovative philosophy of language. The solution works at two
levels. At the first level, it is by means of our conventions for
the use of physical object talk that we impose structure on the
world. At a deeper level, the orderliness of the world is explained
by the fact that, according to Berkeley, the world itself is a
discourse 'spoken' by God - the world is literally an object of
linguistic interpretation. The structure that our physical object
talk - in common-sense and in Newtonian physics - aims to capture
is the grammatical structure of this divine discourse. This
approach yields surprising consequences for some of the most
discussed issues in Berkeley's metaphysics. Most notably, it is
argued that, in Berkeley's view, physical objects are neither ideas
nor collections of ideas. Rather, physical objects, like forces,
are mere quasi-entities brought into being by our linguistic
practices.
In everything from philosophical ethics to legal argument to public
activism, it has become commonplace to appeal to the idea of human
dignity. In such contexts, the concept of dignity typically
signifies something like the fundamental moral status belonging to
all humans. Remarkably, however, it is only in the last century
that this meaning of the term has become standardized. Before this,
dignity was instead a concept associated with social status.
Unfortunately, this transformation remains something of a mystery
in existing scholarship. Exactly when and why did "dignity" change
its meaning? And before this change, was it truly the case that we
lacked a conception of human worth akin to the one that "dignity"
now represents? In this volume, leading scholars across a range of
disciplines attempt to answer such questions by clarifying the
presently murky history of "dignity," from classical Greek thought
through the Middle Ages and Enlightenment to the present day.
Translated by Thomas Common. With an Introduction by Nicholas
Davey. This astonishing series of aphorisms, put into the mouth of
the Persian sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, contains the kernel of
Nietzsche's thought. 'God is dead', he tells us. Christianity is
decadent, leading mankind into a slave morality concerned not with
this life, but with the next. Nietzsche emphasises the UEbermensch,
or Superman, whose will to power makes him the creator of a new
heroic mentality. The intensely felt ideas are expressed in
prose-poetry of indefinable beauty. Though misused by the German
National Socialist party as a spurious justification of their
creed, the book also had a profound influence on early
twentieth-century writers such as Shaw, Mann, Gide, Lawrence and
Sartre.
This text offers an assessment of Jean-Paul Sartre as an exemplary
figure in the evolving political and cultural landscape of
post-1945 France. Sartre's originality is located in the tense
relationship that he maintained between deeply held revolutionary
political beliefs and a residual yet critical attachment to
traditional forms of cultural expression. A series of case studies
centred on Gaullism, communism, Maoism (Part 1), the theatre, art
criticism and the media (Part 2), illustrate the continuing
relevance and appeal of Sartre to the contemporary world.
Selfie: Poetry, Social Change & Ecological Connection presents
the first general theory that links poetry in environmental thought
to poetry as an environment. James Sherry accomplishes this task
with a network model of connectivity that scales from the
individual to social to environmental practices. Selfie
demonstrates how parts of speech, metaphor, and syntax extend
bidirectionally from the writer to the world and from the writer
inward to identities that promote sustainable practices. Selfie
shows how connections in the biosphere scale up from operating
within the body, to social structures, to the networks that science
has identified for all life. The book urges readers to construct
plural identifications rather than essential claims of identity in
support of environmental diversity.
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