Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as "an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher". This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.

John Duns Scotus (1265/6-1308) was (along with Aquinas and Ockham) one of the three principal figures in medieval philosophy and theology, with an influence on modern thought arguably greater than that of Aquinas. The essays in this volume systematically survey the full range of Scotus's thought. They clearly explain the technical details of his writing and demonstrate the relevance of his work to contemporary philosophical debate.

How do we judge whether we should be willing to follow the views of experts or whether we ought to try to come to our own, independent views? This book seeks the answer in medieval philosophical thought. In this engaging study into the history of philosophy and epistemology, Peter Adamson provides an answer to a question as relevant today as it was in the medieval period: how and when should we turn to the authoritative expertise of other people in forming our own beliefs? He challenges us to reconsider our approach to this question through a constructive recovery of the intellectual and cultural traditions of the Islamic world, the Byzantine Empire, and Latin Christendom. Adamson begins by foregrounding the distinction in Islamic philosophy between taqlīd, or the uncritical acceptance of authority, and ijtihād, or judgment based on independent effort, the latter of which was particularly prized in Islamic law, theology, and philosophy during the medieval period. He then demonstrates how the Islamic tradition paves the way for the development of what he calls a “justified taqlīd,” according to which one develops the skills necessary to critically and selectively follow an authority based on their reliability. The book proceeds to reconfigure our understanding of the relation between authority and independent thought in the medieval world by illuminating how women found spaces to assert their own intellectual authority, how medieval writers evaluated the authoritative status of Plato and Aristotle, and how independent reasoning was deployed to defend one Abrahamic faith against the other. This clear and eloquently written book will interest scholars in and enthusiasts of medieval philosophy, Islamic studies, Byzantine studies, and the history of thought.

Adam Smith's major work of 1759 develops the foundation for a general system of morals, and is a text of central importance in the history of moral and political thought. Through the idea of sympathy and the mental construct of an impartial spectator, Smith formulated highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment and the virtues. This volume offers a new edition of the text with helpful notes for the student reader, and a substantial introduction that establishes the work in its philosophical and historical context.

This major new study of Thomas Aquinas, the most influential philosopher of the Middle Ages, offers a clear and accessible guide to the central project of Aquinas's philosophy--the understanding of human nature. Robert Pasnau sets the philosophy in the context of ancient and modern thought, and argues for groundbreaking proposals for understanding some of the most difficult areas of Aquinas's thought--the relationship of soul to body, the workings of sense and intellect, the will and the passions, and personal identity.

Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best scholarly research in this flourishing field. The series covers all aspects of medieval philosophy, including the Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions, and runs from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. It publishes new work by leading scholars in the field, and combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness. The papers will address a wide range of topics, from political philosophy to ethics, and logic to metaphysics. OSMP is an essential resource for anyone working in the area.

The Franciscan William of Ockham was an English medieval philosopher, theologian, and political theorist. Ockham is important not only in the history of philosophy and theology, but also in the development of early modern science and of modern notions of property rights and church-state relations. This volume offers a full discussion of all significant aspects of Ockham's thought: logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics and natural philosophy, epistemology, ethics, action theory, political thought and theology. It is the first study of Ockham in any language to make full use of the new critical editions of his works, and to consider recent discoveries concerning his life, education, and influences.

La naturaleza de la abstraccion ha sido uno de los topicos mas estudiados dentro de la historia del tomismo, donde se la ha interpretado como el termino especifico que designa el proceso intelectual segun el cual el hombre conoce una realidad inteligible partiendo desde los datos sensibles; o bien, mediante el cual capta determinadas caracteristicas de un objeto sin considerar otras. De un modo particular, la exegesis del siglo XX en adelante anadio sobre esta interpretacion un cariz particularmente epistemologico al colocar la abstraccion como la causa de la distincion de las ciencias especulativas y sus objetos. El presente libro tiene como objetivo demostrar que el termino posee en Tomas un significado mas amplio que el expuesto en tanto es tambien utilizado en numerosos casos para designar una propiedad de las esencias de las cosas. Esta abstraccion de las esencias resulta un elemento clave dentro del corpus metafisico del Aquinate ya que la operacion intelectual depende de ella como de su causa formal. De este modo, lo que queda expuesto es el sentido analogico que posee el termino abstractio en la obra de Tomas y sus implicancias. A su vez, este descubrimiento se vuelve relevante toda vez que las interpretaciones mas difundidas hasta el momento han puesto demasiado enfasis en la faz intelectual dificultando la interpretacion de algunos textos importantes. De esta manera, la obra constituye una pieza importante para avanzar en la comprension de un tema central en la filosofia tomasiana.

This collection of essays is unparalleled in the depth of its coverage of all facets of Galileo's work. A particular feature of the volume is the treatment of Galileo's relationship with the Church. It will be of particular interest to philosophers, historians of science, cultural historians and those in religious studies. New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most convenient, accessible guide to Galileo available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Galileo.

With the publication of Arthur Farndell's "Gardens of Philosophy" (Shepheard-Walwyn 2006), there remained only four of Ficino's commentaries on Plato's dialogues which had not yet been translated into English. Farndell's translation of the commentaries on "The Republic and the Laws" will comprise the third volume under the title "When Philosophers Rule" and the fourth, "All Things Natural", will contain the "Timaeus". As Carol Kaske of Cornell University wrote when reviewing "Gardens of Philosophy" in "Renaissance Quarterly", these translations fill 'A need. Even those Anglophone scholars who know Latin still need a translation in order to read quickly through a large body of material'. The central message of 'Parmenides', that everything depends on the One, resonates with the growing awareness around the world of the inter-relatedness of all things, be it in the biosphere, the intellectual or spiritual realms. Philosophers in ancient Greece appreciated this unity and employed reason and dialectic to draw the mind away from its preoccupation with the material world and attract it towards contemplation of the soul, and ultimately of that Oneness which embraces, but is distinct from, the multifarious forms of creation. Thus Parmenides carefully instructed the young Socrates, and Plato recorded their dialogue in this work which he named after the elderly philosopher. Nearly 2000 years later, Marsilio Ficino made 'Parmenides' available to the West by translating it into Latin, the language of scholars in his time. Ficino added a lengthy commentary to this translation, a commentary which "Evermore Shall Be So" puts into English for the first time, more than 500 years after its original composition. Ficino's crucial influence upon the unfolding of the Renaissance and his presentation of Plato's understanding of the One and the so-called Platonic Ideas or Forms make "Evermore Shall Be So" an important work in the history of thought. Though it will be an essential buy for renaissance scholars and historians, its freshness of thought and wisdom are as relevant today as they ever were to inspire a new generation seeking spiritual and philosophical direction in their lives.

Kants kritischer Philosophie wird bis heute von prominenter Seite der Vorwurf gemacht, sie unterstelle ein im Kern subjektivistisch-monologisches Individuum. Tatsachlich aber liegt ihr nichts ferner als ein solcher Subjektivismus. Kants Vernunft ist eine durch und durch oeffentliche Vernunft, sie ist, wie er selbst sagt, existenziell angewiesen auf oeffentliches Rasonnement. Kant verwendet den Begriff "OEffentlichkeit", anders als das Adjektiv "oeffentlich", in seinem schriftlichen Werk zwar kein einziges Mal, die Funktion der OEffentlichkeit aber sieht er als fur sein Denken elementar an. Entscheidend dabei: OEffentlichkeit ist nicht nur eine Bedingung allen kritischen Vernunftgebrauchs, sondern gerade auch dessen Folge. Trager der Vernunft sind freie, empirische Individuen. Machen diese Individuen Gebrauch von ihrer oeffentlichen Vernunft, konstituieren sie bestimmte OEffentlichkeiten des Vernunftgebrauchs - namlich neben der politischen, die theoretische, die praktische und die asthetische OEffentlichkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht dieser OEffentlichkeit der Vernunft unter anderem in den drei Kritiken nach - und zeigt dabei, wie eng insbesondere Kants theoretische Philosophie mit seinen politischen Schriften verbunden ist.

The third volume of The Hackett Aquinas, a series of central philosophical treatises of Aquinas in new, state-of-the-art translations accompanied by a thorough commentary on the text.

Global Justice and the Mind of Our Epoch explores the mind of our epoch, defined as the period since the Nuremberg Trial and the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Xunwu Chen examines four defining ideas of this epoch—global justice, cosmopolitanism, crimes against humanity, and cultural toleration—as well as the relationships among these ideas. Chen argues that the mind of our epoch is the mind of humanity. Its world view, horizon, standpoint, norms, standards, and vocabularies are all embodied in human institutions and practices throughout the globe. Furthermore, our epochal mind has a dialectical relationship with particular cultures and peoples, bearing normative force. As a metaphysical subjectivity and substance, humanity is the source of all human values and defines what can and should be human values and virtues. Humankind, therefore, is a people with socio-political and legal sovereignty, sharing a common fate. This novel study brings a cross-cultural approach and will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, political science, sociology, and the humanities more broadly.

It is generally accepted that the European Renaissance began in Italy. However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This 'Other Renaissance' was initially centred on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its influence was soon being felt in France, the German states, England, and even in Italy itself. Following a sequence of major figures, including Copernicus, Gutenberg, Luther, Catherine de Medici, Rabelais, van Eyck and Shakespeare, Paul Strathern tells the fascinating story of how this 'Other Renaissance' played as significant a role as the Italian renaissance in bringing our modern world into being.

Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. This landmark study of Western thought takes a fresh look at the writings of the great thinkers of classic philosophy and questions many pieces of conventional wisdom. The book invites comparison with Bertrand Russell's monumental History of Western Philosophy, "but Gottlieb's book is less idiosyncratic and based on more recent scholarship" (Colin McGinn, Los Angeles Times). A New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Book, and a Times Literary Supplement Best Book of 2001.

Im Zentrum des Bandes steht die Frage nach dem Zusammenhang von Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftstheorie im Kontext der mittelalterlichen Rezeption der Texte des Aristoteles an Hof und Universitaten, insbesondere der fur die Epistemologie einschlagigen Passagen in "De anima" und in den "Zweiten Analytiken" sowie ihre spatantike und arabische Vermittlung. In diesem komplexen Rezeptions- und vor allem Transformationsprozess werden zugleich die wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlich-institutionellen Grundlagen fur den okzidentalen Prozess der Rationalisierung und Aufklarung gelegt, deren "Dialektik" nicht nur die Geschichte Europas bis zum heutigen Tag bestimmt."

Despite our admiration for Renaissance achievement in the arts and sciences, in literature and classical learning, the rich and diversified philosophical thought of the period remains largely unknown. This volume illuminates three major currents of thought dominant in the earlier Italian Renaissance: classical humanism (Petrarch and Valla), Platonism (Ficino and Pico), and Aristotelianism (Pomponazzi). A short and elegant work of the Spaniard Vives is included to exhibit the diffusion of the ideas of humanism and Platonism outside Italy. Now made easily accessible, these texts recover for the English reader a significant facet of Renaissance learning.

Too often the study of philosophical texts is carried out in ways that do not pay significant attention to how the ideas contained within them are presented, articulated, and developed. This was not always the case. The contributors to this collected work consider Jewish philosophy in the medieval period, when new genres and forms of written expression were flourishing in the wake of renewed interest in ancient philosophy. Many medieval Jewish philosophers were highly accomplished poets, for example, and made conscious efforts to write in a poetic style. This volume turns attention to the connections that medieval Jewish thinkers made between the literary, the exegetical, the philosophical, and the mystical to shed light on the creativity and diversity of medieval thought. As they broaden the scope of what counts as medieval Jewish philosophy, the essays collected here consider questions about how an argument is formed, how text is put into the service of philosophy, and the social and intellectual environment in which philosophical texts were produced.

A historical and systematic introduction to what the medieval philospher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) said about faith in the Trinity. Gilles Emery OP provides an explanation of the main questions in Thomas's treatise on the Trinity in his major work, the Summa Theologiae. His presentation clarifies the key ideas through which Thomas accounts for the nature of Trinitarian monotheism. Emery focuses on the personal relations of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both in their eternal communion and in their creative and saving action. By highlighting the thought of one of the greatest defenders of the doctrine of the Trinity, he enables people to grasp the classical Christian understanding of God.