In this powerfully argued book, Knasas engages a debate at the heart of the revival of Thomistic thought in the twentieth century. Richly detailed and illuminating, his book calls on the tradition established by Gilson, Maritain, and Owen, to build a case for Existential Thomism as a valid metaphysics.Being and Some Twentieth-Century Thomists is a comprehensive discussion of the major issues and controversies in neo-Thomism, including issues of mind, knowledge, the human subject, free will, nature, grace, and the act of being. Knasas also discusses the Transcendental Thomism of Marchal, Rahner, Lonergan, and others as he builds a carefully articulated case for completing the Thomist revival.

Brian Davies offers a full-scale introduction to Aquinas's philosophy, collecting in one volume the best recent essays on Aquinas by some of the world's foremost scholars of medieval philosophy. Taken together they illuminate the entire spectrum of Aquinas's thought: philosophy of nature, logic, metaphysics, natural theology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action and ethics. Philosophically rigorous, readable, informative, critical, and evaluative of the texts of Aquinas, the essays are framed by a detailed introduction providing an account of Aquinas's life, works, and his major philosophical conclusion.

Norman Kretzmann expounds and criticizes Aquinas's theology of creation, which is `natural' (or philosophical) in that Aquinas developed it without depending on the data of Scripture. Because of the special importance of intellective creatures like us, Aquinas's account of the divine origin and organization of the universe includes essential ingredients of his philosophy of mind. The Metaphysics of Creation is a continuation of the project Kretzmann began in The Metaphysics of Theism; as before, he not only explains Aquinas's natural theology, but advocates it as the best available to us.

Roger Bacon (1210-1292), einem bislang noch weithin vernachlassigten Denker, verdanken wir bahnbrechende Ideen auf dem Gebiet der Sprachtheorie, der "Scientia experimentalis" sowie der Moralphilosophie. Im vorliegenden Band sind philosophisch und wissenschaftsgeschichtlich bedeutsame Forschungsarbeiten aus den letzten 50 Jahren versammelt.

2013 Reprint of 1928 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is still one of the best discussions of the 19th century Utilitarian movement in England-the rise of the Benthamites and the conflict between the growing economic philosophy and older philosophies that emphasized human and social values. Halevy discusses Locke, Newton, Gay, Hartley, Hume, Bentham, Adam Smith, Burke, Godwin, Malthus, James Mill, Ricardo, Grote and others. Remains a standard work to this day.

A distinguished philosopher offers a novel account of experience and reason, and develops our understanding of conscious experience and its relationship to thought: a new reformed empiricism. The role of experience in cognition is a central and ancient philosophical concern. How, theorists ask, can our private experiences guide us to knowledge of a mind-independent reality? Exploring topics in logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, Conscious Experience proposes a new answer to this age-old question, explaining how conscious experience contributes to the rationality and content of empirical beliefs. According to Anil Gupta, this contribution cannot be determined independently of an agent's conceptual scheme and prior beliefs, but that doesn't mean it is entirely mind-dependent. While the rational contribution of an experience is not propositional-it does not, for example, provide direct knowledge of the world-it does authorize certain transitions from prior views to new views. In short, the rational contribution of an experience yields a rule for revising views. Gupta shows that this account provides theoretical freedom: it allows the observer to radically reconceive the world in light of empirical findings. Simultaneously, it grants empirical reason significant power to constrain, forcing particular conceptions of self and world on the rational inquirer. These seemingly contrary virtues are reconciled through novel treatments of presentation, appearances, and ostensive definitions. Collectively, Gupta's arguments support an original theory: reformed empiricism. He abandons the idea that experience is a source of knowledge and justification. He also abandons the idea that concepts are derived from experience. But reformed empiricism preserves empiricism's central insight: experience is the supreme epistemic authority. In the resolution of factual disagreements, experience trumps all.

In the 16th century, Erasmus was one of the most celebrated figures in Europe--a man of such vast learning that both royalty and universities petitioned for his services. In this very readable biography, a noted scholar traces Erasmus's youth, his years as an itinerant scholar, sojourns in England, France, Switzerland, and Italy, friendship with Sir Thomas More, and disputes with Martin Luther. The author also probes Erasmus's mind and character and discusses his writings, including In Praise of Folly and his great translation of the New Testament.

Human civilization will be forever indebted to the great thinkers of Jewish philosophy's golden age. Moses Maimonedes, Levi Gersonides, Judah Halevi, Saadia Gaon, Hasdai Crescas and their like grappled with some of the most challenging metaphysical issues, while the profundity of their solutions continue to engage philosophers today. Did God create the world? Can human freedom be reconciled with divine foreknowledge? What is the nature of the good life? Focusing on the central philosophical questions of the Middle Ages, Daniel Rynhold offers a concise introduction to topics such as God and creation, human freewill, biblical prophecy, the Commandments, the divine attributes and immortality. Structured around themes that form the common "syllabus" of medieval Jewish philosophy, each chapter builds a debate around a particular topic and in so doing utilizes the arguments of the chief philosophical figures of the medieval era. Explaining all concepts in a clear, non-technical fashion, the book also provides suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter. The first dedicated textbook to introduce the great richness of medieval Jewish philosophy as a whole, this lively and comprehensive survey is the ideal introduction for undergraduate students of the subject as well as the interested general reader.

The nature and content of the thought of Duns Scotus (c.1266-1308) remains largely unknown except by the expert. This book provides an accessible account of Scotus's theology, focusing both on what is distinctive in his thought, and on issues where his insights might prove to be of perennial value.

Im Mittelpunkt des vorliegenden Bandes steht die Untersuchung des Selbstverstandnisses der praktischen Wissenschaften, wie es sich im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert im Umkreis der Hoheren Fakultaten der Universitat sowie insbesondere innerhalb der Philosophie artikuliert. Die Frage nach der Wissenschaftsfahigkeit des uberlieferten juristischen und medizinischen Wissens sowie jene nach dem wissenschaftlichen Anspruch der Praktischen Philosophie, insbesondere der philosophischen Ethik, und der Theologie, verstanden als einer "scientia practica," beschreiben die Herausforderung, mit der sich die hier behandelten Autoren und Texte des Mittelalters beschaftigen. Insbesondere werden in den in diesem Band versammelten Einzeluntersuchungen die Beitrage von Albert dem Grossen, Thomas von Aquin, Johannes Duns Scotus und Wilhelm von Ockham zur Frage einer philosophischen Begrundung des Status des menschlichen Handlungswissens und der praktischen Wissenschaften gewurdigt."

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes in Greek and Roman science, medicine, mathematics and technology. A distinguished team of specialists engage with topics including the role of observation and experiment, Presocratic natural philosophy, ancient creationism, and the special style of ancient Greek mathematical texts, while several chapters confront key questions in the philosophy of science such as the relationship between evidence and explanation. The volume will spark renewed discussion about the character of 'ancient' versus 'modern' science, and will broaden readers' understanding of the rich traditions of ancient Greco-Roman natural philosophy, science, medicine and mathematics.

Boethius composed the De Consolatione Philosophiae in the sixth century AD whilst awaiting death under torture, condemned on a charge of treason which he protested was manifestly unjust. Though a convinced Christian, in detailing the true end of life which is the soul's knowledge of God, he consoled himself not with Christian precepts but with the tenets of Greek philosophy. This work dominated the intellectual world of the Middle Ages; writers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas, Jean de Meun, and Dante were inspired by it. In England it was rendered in to Old English by Alfred the Great, into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer, and later Queen Elizabeth I made her own translation. The circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanour of the author, and the 'Menippean' texture of part prose, part verse have combined to exercise a fascination over students of philosophy and literature ever since. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Das Universalienproblem - die Frage nach der Erkenntnis der Natur des Allgemeinen -, das seit der griechischen Antike zu den zentralen Problemen philosophischen Denkens zahlt, besitzt fur die Gegenwart nicht nur philosophischen Wert, sondern liegt zugleich vielfach wichtigen Streitpunkten in verschiedenen Wissenschaften zugrunde. Woehler legt eine Auswahl der wichtigsten Primarquellen, ausgehend von der beruhmten Isagoge des Porphyrios und deren Kommentierung durch Boethius bis zu Anselm von Canterbury und Johannes von Salisbury vor, wobei er die arabische Tradition (Avicenna, Averroes) mit einbezieht. Erstmals werden in dieser Breite dem deutschen Leser Texte mit dem Ziel zur Verfugung gestellt, die wesentlichen Entwicklungslinien des Streits um die Universalien mitvollziehen zu koennen. In seinem umfangreichen Nachwort gibt Woehler uber die Texterlauterungen hinaus einen UEberblick uber die Geschichte des Universalienstreits und seinen Verlauf bis zur Fruhscholastik. Erganzt wird der Band durch ein deutsch-lateinisches Glossar.

The Middle Ages span a period of well over a millennium: from the emperor Constantine's Christian conversion in 312 to the early sixteenth century. David Luscombe's history of Medieval Thought steers a clear path through this long period, beginning with the three greatest influences on medieval philosophy: Augustine, Boethius, and Pseudo-Denis, and focusing on Abelard, Anselm, Aquinas, Ockham, Duns Scotus, and Eckhart amongst others in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.

Jacques Maritain was deeply engaged in the intellectual and political life of France through the turbulent decades that included the two world wars. Accordingly, his philosophical reflections often focus on an attempt to discover man's role in sustaining a social and political order that seeks and maintains both liberty and peace. "Scholasticism and Politics", first published in 1940, is a collection of nine lectures Maritain delivered at the University of Chicago in 1938. While the lectures address a variety of diverse topics, they explore three broad topics: the nature of modern culture, its relationship to Christianity, and the origins of the crisis which has engulfed it; the true nature and authentic foundations of human freedom and dignity and the threats posed to them by the various materialist and naturalistic philosophies that dominate the modern cultural scene; and, the principles that provide the authentic foundation of a social order in accord with human dignity. Maritain championed the cause of what he called personalist democracy - a regime committed to popular sovereignty, constitutionalism, limited government, and individual freedom. He believed a personalist democracy offered the modern world the possibility of a political order most in keeping with the demands of human dignity, Christian values, and the common good.

German Philosophers contains studies of four of the most important German theorists: Kant, arguably the most influential modern philosopher; Hegel, whose philosophy inspired an enduring vision of a communist society; Schopenhauer, renowned for his pessimistic preference for non-existence; and Nietzsche, who has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum of people.

Althusius's "Politics Methodically Set Forth and Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples", known today simply as "Politica" or Althusius's "Politics", was originally published in Germany in 1603. Professor Carney's translation, which first appeared in 1964, represents the first attempt to present the basic structure of Althusius's political thought in English. "Politica" is now recognised as an extraordinary contribution to the intellectual history of the West. It combines ancient and medieval political philosophy with Reformation theory, and is considered a bridge between the political wisdom of the ancients and the moderns. Friedrich thought Althusius was the most profound political thinker between Bodin and Hobbes. Drawing deeply from Aristotle and Biblical teaching, "Politica" presents a unique vision of the commonwealth as a harmonious ordering of natural associations. According to Althusius, the purpose of the state is to protect and encourage social life. The family is the most natural of human associations, and all other unions derive from it. Power and authority properly grow from more local to more general associations. Each higher union must protect the associations that compose it, seeing to it that all of them are able to carry out the purposes for which they were established. The highest purpose of human association is devotion to God, which the state must encourage, but which properly is the province of a higher religious authority. Of particular interest to the modern reader is Althusius's theory of federalism. It does not refer merely to a division of powers between central and state governments, but to an ascending scale of authority in which higher institutions rely on the consent of local and voluntary associations.

From the days of antiquity to the time of the Middle Ages, intellectuals have widely assumed that stars were alive, a belief that gave the cosmos an important position not only in Greek religion, but also in discussions of human psychology and eschatology. In the third century AD, the Christian theologian Origen included such Hellenistic theories on the life and nature of the stars in his cosmology, a theory that would have important implications for early Christian theology. Moving through a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources from antiquity to medieval times, this is the first thorough treatment of Origen's biblical theology. The second book in the new Oxford Early Christian Studies series, Origen and the Life of the Stars provides a new look at the roots of early Christian thought.