This book provides a philosophical assessment of the idea of personhood advanced in popular self-help literature. It also traces, within academic philosophy and philosophical scholarship, a self-help culture where the self is brought forth as an object of improvement and a key to meaning, progress and profundity.

This volume focuses on philosophical problems concerning sense perception in the history of philosophy. It consists of thirteen essays that analyse the philosophical tradition originating in Aristotle's writings. Each essay tackles a particular problem that tests the limits of Aristotle's theory of perception and develops it in new directions. The problems discussed range from simultaneous perception to causality in perception, from the representational nature of sense-objects to the role of conscious attention, and from the physical/mental divide to perception as quasi-rational judgement. The volume gives an equal footing to Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions. It makes a substantial contribution not just to the study of the Aristotelian analysis of sense perception, but to its reception in the commentary tradition and beyond. Thus, the papers address developments in Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, Avicenna, John of Jandun, Nicole Oresme, and Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, among others. The result of this is a coherent collection that attacks a well-defined topic from a wide range of perspectives and across philosophical traditions.

Heidegger´s construction of Being is paramount in Western philosophy and arguably the most enduring effort to construct a presupposition free ontology. Nevertheless, using the theory of encryption of power, we can discover that the result of his effort is a sophisticated perpetuation of a kind of knowing and of doing that alienates the possibility of any kind of politics as a commonality of differences. This book connects the theory of encryption of power with an array of ground-breaking philosophical and scientific traditions of the last hundred years in order to perforate and depose Heidegger´s metaphysics, through his construction of the ready-to-hand. Through a hypothetical language game, based on Wittgenstein´s “language games� (The “X� game of language) this book decrypts Heidegger´s construction of Being while also decrypting and empowering the Wittgensteinian philosophy of language along with it. The idea of decryption demonstrates that, through particular forms of language use and philosophy, the world as we know it is encrypted; forms of resistance and life are covered over by a surface of control and determination that leads to economic and political forms like capitalism, fascism and liberalism. Decryption is a way of unconcealing what has been concealed. By staging this encounter, Sanin-Restrepo brings the insights of decolonial theory to bear on the main body of Western philosophy and directly on Heidegger himself.

This book explores critical pedagogy and issues relating to entrepreneurialism, commodification, and marketization in education, and their deleterious effects on student agency and subjectivity. The central theme of the book is a cross-border critical ethnographic study of the shadow education practices of an overseas Japanese business community in Singapore which d ra w s attention to the elaborate extent to which families are engaged in shadow or cram tutoring practices as part of their children's education, supported by the strong presence of overseas branches of well-established corporate tutoring businesses headquartered in Japan. The author ultimately critiques a banking approach to education, particularly in terms of its oppressive and dehumanizing outcomes, sustained by the inner workings of neoliberal forces and mercantilist ideologies.

The ancient Tamil poetic corpus of the Canam ("The Academy") is a national treasure for Tamilians and a battle-ground for linguists and historians of politics, culture and literature. Going back to oral predecessors probably dating back to the beginning of the first millennium, it has had an extremely rich and variegated history. Collected into anthologies and endowed with literary theories and voluminous commentaries, it became the centre-piece of the Tamil literary canon, associated with the royal court of the Pandya dynasty in Madurai. Its decline began in the late middle ages, and by the late 17th century it had fallen into near oblivion, before being rediscovered at the beginning of the print era. The present study traces the complex historical process of its transmission over some 2000 years, using and documenting a wide range of sources, in particular surviving manuscripts, the early prints, the commentaries of the literary and grammatical traditions and a vast range of later literature that creates a web of inter-textual references and quotations.

For the past thirty years, Howard Caygill has been a distinctive and radical voice in continental philosophy. For the first time, this volume gathers together Caygill's most significant philosophical essays, the majority of which are not freely available and many of which are previously unpublished. Here, a major philosopher is at work, offering rich, rigorous and politically-engaged readings of canonical and lesser-known figures and texts. From Kant and Frantz Fanon to Herman Kahn, founder of the Hudson Institute, Caygill uncovers the untapped resources that the history of philosophy provides for contemporary thought, whilst critically pushing beyond the limits of the tradition. Divided into two parts, the first part of the collection reveals the philosophical backdrop to Caygill's acclaimed study of political resistance, On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance (2015), whilst the second part sees Caygill further develop his account of resistance through wide-ranging analyses of contemporary culture. Exploring numerous subjects, including Nietzsche, metaphysics, radical politics, and digital resistance, to name but a few, Force and Understanding introduces readers to the orienting themes of Caygill's thought and provides the opportunity to engage with one of the most astute, learned, and critical philosophical minds around.

This book offers a new interpretation of William James's ethical and religious thought. Michael Slater shows that James's conception of morality, or what it means to lead a moral and flourishing life, is intimately tied to his conception of religious faith, and argues that James's views on these matters are worthy of our consideration. He offers a reassessment of James's 'will to believe' or 'right to believe' doctrine, his moral theory, and his neglected moral arguments for religious faith. And he argues that James's pragmatic account of religion is based on an ethical view of the function of religion and a realist view of the objects of religious belief and experience, and is compatible with his larger conception of pragmatism. The book will appeal to readers interested in the history of modern philosophy, especially pragmatism, as well as those interested in moral philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas.

This book employs perspectives from continental philosophy, intellectual history, and literary and cultural studies to breach the divide between early modernist and modernist thinkers. It turns to early modern humanism in order to challenge late 20th-century thought and present-day posthumanism. This book addresses contemporary concerns such as the moral responsibility of the artist, the place of religious beliefs in our secular societies, legal rights extended to nonhuman species, the sense of 'normality' applied to the human body, the politics of migration, individual political freedom and international terrorism. It demonstrates how early modern humanism can bring new perspectives to postmodern antihumanism and even invite us to envision a humanism of the future.

Why has memory become such an important political tool in response to the challenges of modernity? How can performance be used to probe and recuperate aspects of the past, and what are the ethical and political questions that arise when it does so? And how should the discipline of theatre studies define and deploy the term 'memory' theoretically and in practice? Theory for Theatre Studies: Memory provides a comprehensive introduction to the intersections between contemporary theatre and performance, the field of memory studies and the politics of memory across the globe. Beginning by offering a fresh critical snapshot of the major theoretical foundations for the study of memory today, the author presents vivid theatrical examples drawn from a wide variety of cultural contexts and compellingly illustrates the centrality of memory for the theatre as well as the vital role of theatre in transmitting individual and collective memories. Featuring in-depth case studies of a range of performance works - including Lola Arias’s Minefield, Yael Ronen’s Common Ground and Robert Lepage’s The Seven Streams of the River Ota - it explores how theatre artists have grappled with issues of memory and the tensions between memory and history. A final section examines the problematics of memory in a global context by exploring the subject of migration/immigration. Memory is supported by further online resources including section overviews and discussion questions. Online resources to accompany this book are available at: https://www.bloomsbury.com/theory-for-theatre-studies-memory-9781474246651/

This innovative book proposes that what we think of as "moral conscience" is essentially the exercise of reflective judgment on the goods and ends arising in interpersonal relations, and that such judgment constitutes a form of taste. Through an historical survey Mitchell shows that the constant pendant to taste was an educational and cultural ideal, namely, that of the gentleman, whether he was an ancient Greek citizen-soldier, Roman magistrate, Confucian scholar-bureaucrat, Renaissance courtier, or Victorian grandee. Mitchell argues that it was neither an ethical doctrine nor methodology that provided the high cultures with moral and political leadership, but rather an elite social order. While the gentry in the traditional sense no longer exists, it nevertheless made significant historical contributions, and insofar as we are concerned to understand the present state of human affairs, we need to grasp the nature and import of said contributions.

This book represents a study of Evelyn Underhill's premier work on mysticism, using Hegel's dialectics and Kant's theory of the sublime as interpretive tools. It especially focuses on two prominent features of Underhill's text: the description of the mystical life as one permeated by an intense love between the mystic and infinite reality, and the detailed delineation of stages of mystical development. Given these two features, the text lends itself to a construction of a valuable discourse predicated on dialecticism, sublimity, and mysticism. The book also articulates a number of insights into the content and nature of the writings of Christian mystics.

This volume comprises seventeen essays by Henry E. Allison, one of the world's leading Kant scholars. They cover virtually the full spectrum of Allison's work on Kant, ranging from his epistemology, metaphysics, and moral theory to his views on teleology, political philosophy, the philosophy of history, and the philosophy of religion. But most of the essays revolve around three basic themes: the nature of transcendental idealism and its relation to other aspects of Kant's thought; freedom of the will; and the concept of the purposiveness of nature. The first two themes have been prominent in Allison's work on Kant since its inception. The essays on the third theme constitute a major new contribution to the understanding of Kant's 'critical' philosophy; their primary concern is to demonstrate the central place of the third Critique in Kant's thought. Among the notable features of Allison's essays is the presence of a significant comparative dimension, which places Kant's views in their historical context and explores their contemporary relevance. To this end, these views are contrasted with those of his major predecessors and immediate successors, as well as philosophers of the present day.

The "aphoristic form causes difficulty," Nietzsche argued in 1887, for "today this form is not taken seriously enough." Nietzsche's Aphoristic Challenge addresses this continued neglect by examining the role of the aphorism in Nietzsche's writings, the generic traditions in which he writes, the motivations behind his turn to the aphorism, and the reasons for his sustained interest in the form. This literary-philosophical study argues that while the aphorism is the paradigmatic form for Nietzsche's writing, its function shifts as his thought evolves. His turn to the aphorism in Human, All Too Human arises not out of necessity, but from the new freedoms of expression enabled by his critiques of language and his emerging interest in natural science. Yet the model interpretation of an aphorism Nietzsche offers years later in On the Genealogy of Morals tells a different story, revealing more about how the mature Nietzsche wants his earlier works read than how they were actually written. This study argues nevertheless that consistencies emerge in Nietzsche's understanding of the aphorism, and these, perhaps counter-intuitively, are best understood in terms of excess. Recognizing the changes and consistencies in Nietzsche's aphoristic mode helps establish a context that enables the reader to navigate the aphorism books and better answer the challenges they pose.

This book examines the theoretical links between Edward W. Said and Sigmund Freud as well the relationship between psychoanalysis, postcolonialism and decoloniality more broadly. The author begins by offering a comprehensive review of the literature on psychoanalysis and postcolonialism, which is contextualized within the apparatus of racialized capitalism. In the close analysis of the interconnections between the Freud and Said that follows, there is an attempt to decolonize the former and psychoanalyze the latter. He argues that decolonizing Freud does not mean canceling him; rather, he employs Freud's sharpest insights for our time, by extending his critique of modernity to coloniality. It is also advanced that psychoanalyzing Said does not mean psychologizing the man; instead the book's aim is to demonstrate the influence of psychoanalysis on Said's work. It is asserted that Said began with Freud, repressed him, and then Freud returned. Reading Freud and Said side by side allows for the theorization of what the author calls contrapuntal psychoanalysis as liberation praxis, which is discussed in-depth in the final chapters. This book, which builds on the author's previous work, Decolonial Psychoanalysis, will be a valuable text to scholars and students from across the psychology discipline with an interest in Freud, Said and the broader relationship between psychoanalysis and colonialism.

The code of conduct for a leading tech company famously says "Don't Be Evil." But what exactly is evil? Is it just badness by another name-the shadow side of good? Or is it something more substantive-a malevolent force or power at work in the universe? These are some of the ontological questions that philosophers have grappled with for centuries. But evil also raises perplexing epistemic and psychological questions. Can we really know evil? Does a victim know evil differently than a perpetrator or witness? What motivates evil-doers? Satan's rebellion, Iago's machinations, and Stalin's genocides may be hard to understand in terms of ordinary reasons, intentions, beliefs, and desires. But what about the more "banal" evils performed by technocrats in a collective: how do we make sense of Adolf Eichmann's self-conception as just an effective bureaucrat deserving of a promotion? Evil: A History collects thirteen essays that tell the story of evil in western thought, starting with its origins in ancient Hebrew wisdom literature and classical Greek drama all the way to Darwinism and Holocaust theory. Thirteen interspersed reflections contextualize philosophical developments by looking at evil through the eyes of animals, poets, mystics, witches, librettists, film directors, and even a tech product manager. Evil: A History will enlighten readers about one of the most alluring and difficult topics in philosophy and intellectual life, and will challenge their assumptions about the very nature of evil.

The book identifies to what extent it is possible to speak of a democratization of knowledge in Renaissance Italy. It establishes the boundaries of the present investigation within the Aristotelian tradition, and outlines democratization as a process capable of assigning power to people. It deals with how the democratization of knowledge historically is invested equally in ideas from religion and philosophy, involving the same democratizers, moved by similar intentions, employing identical techniques of vulgarization and targeting equivalent communities of recipients.

This book critically explores the development of radical criminological thought through the social, political and cultural history of three periods in Ancient Greece: the Classical, the Hellenistic and the Greco-Roman periods. It follows on from the previous volume which examined concepts of law, legitimacy, crime, justice and deviance through a range of Ancient Greek works including epic and lyrical poetry, drama and philosophy, across different chapters. This book examines the three centuries that followed which were very important for the history of radical thinking about crime and law. It explores the socio-political struggles and how ruptures produced breaks in knowledge production and developed the field of deviance and social control. It also examines the key literature, religions and philosophers of each period. The gap between social consensus and social conflict deepened during this time and influenced the theoretical discourse on crime. These elements continue to exist in the theoretical quests of the modern age of criminology. This book examines the links between the origins of radical criminology and its future. It speaks to those interested in the (pre)history of criminology and the historical production of criminological knowledge.

Providing a solid media-philosophical groundwork, the book contributes to the theory of alterity in Performance Philosophy, while stimulating and inspiring future inquiries where studies in media, art, and literature intersect with philosophy. It collects a selective as well as productive diversity of philosophical, literary, and artistic figures of thought, attaining an exacting framework as a result of a clearly elaborated ethics of alterity, innovatively opened up by way of an aisthetics of existence: Touching upon the Aristotelian concept of aisthesis, the material, perceptual and sensory dimensions of everyday bodily existence are highlighted to move beyond what aesthetics in Modern Philosophy just specializes in, namely art and the beautiful. The notion of existence is therefore borrowed from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who understands it as something concrete and richly interrelated, so as to avoid the dualisms both of psychological processes of consciousness and of physiological mechanisms. It is thus made explicit such that the unity of body and soul is not any arbitrarily arranged connection between “subject� and “object� but, rather, that it is enacted at every instant in the movement of existence. Imaginatively then, the book puts into writing how alterity not only can be treated theoretically but can be also made accessible through writing as well as rendered relatable through reading. That is why it deals with exemplary interpersonal encounters in the lifeworld, in the arts, and in the media, which are initially thematized as intercorporeal experiences, so as to enable an approach for an ethics of alterity by way of, in particular, sites located within a phenomenology of perception oriented towards the lived body.

Galen of Pergamum (AD 129 c.216) was the most influential doctor of later antiquity, whose work was to influence medical theory and practice for more than fifteen hundred years. He was a prolific writer on anatomy, physiology, diagnosis and prognosis, pulse-doctrine, pharmacology, therapeutics, and the theory of medicine; but he also wrote extensively on philosophical topics, making original contributions to logic and the philosophy of science, and outlining a scientific epistemology which married a deep respect for empirical adequacy with a commitment to rigorous rational exposition and demonstration. He was also a vigorous polemicist, deeply involved in the doctrinal disputes among the medical schools of his day. This volume offers an introduction to and overview of Galen's achievement in all these fields, while seeking also to evaluate that achievement in the light of the advances made in Galen scholarship over the past thirty years."

Tracing the notion of 'the gift' in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Emilio Corriero provides a new interpretation of this essential text, alongside 'the gift's' evolution as a key concept in the history of western philosophy and Christianity. The last phase of Nietzsche's thought, including his writings on the death of God, The Will to Power, the Overman, and eternal recurrence are analysed anew in Corriero's reading of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. From Nietzsche's Prologue, in which Zarathustra presents the idea of the Overman as a gift of love and wisdom, up to the fourth and final book, in which the theme of hospitality and sacrifice are inextricably linked to the concept of donation, highlighting the novelty and exceptionality of Zarathustra's gift. Building on these ideas, this book reveals how the gift of Zarathustra put forward by Nietzsche rethinks the relationships between individuals based on Christian doctrine, enabling new forms of coexistence and sociality to thrive.

For decades Foucault was mostly known for his diagnosis of modernity as a form of entrapment, both in our modes of thought and our behaviors. This book argues that Foucault's reappraisal of modernity occurs with the 1978 and 1979 lectures, in which he sketches modern power as governmentality and neoliberalism. From this perspective, Foucault's once surprising studies on the Greeks' constitution of the 'self' can be seen as a continuation of his diagnosis of late modernity, and as an attempt to retrieve a form of autonomy for our modern selves. One finds in the late Foucault a postmodern conception of reason and not a destruction of reason; but this is possible only if postmodernity is seen as a critical exercise of reason in the analysis of norms.