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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Western philosophy, c 500 to c 1600 > General

Contemplation and Philosophy: Scholastic and Mystical Modes of Medieval Philosophical Thought - A Tribute to Kent Emery, Jr.... Contemplation and Philosophy: Scholastic and Mystical Modes of Medieval Philosophical Thought - A Tribute to Kent Emery, Jr. (English, French, German, Hardcover)
Roberto Hofmeister Pich, Andreas Speer
R5,500 Discovery Miles 55 000 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This volume collects essays which are thematically connected through the work of Kent Emery Jr., to whom the volume is dedicated. A main focus lies on the attempts to bridge the gap between mysticism and a systematic approach to medieval philosophical thought. The essays address a wide range of topics concerning (a) the nature of the human soul (in philosophical and theological discourse); (b) medieval theories of cognition (natural and supernatural), self-knowledge and knowledge of God; (c) the human soul's contemplation of, and union with, God; (d) the tradition of "the modes of theology" in the Middle Ages; (e) the relation between philosophy and theology. Various articles are dedicated to major figures of the 13th and 14th century philosophy, others display new material based on critical editions. Contributors are Jan A. Aertsen, Stephen Brown, Bernardo Carlos Bazan, William J. Courtenay, Alfredo Santiago Culleton, Silvia Donati, Bernd Goehring, Guy Guldentops, Daniel Hobbins, Roberto Hofmeister Pich, Georgi Kapriev, Steven P. Marrone, Stephen M. Metzger, Timothy B. Noone, Mikolaj Olszewski, Alessandro Palazzo, Garrett R. Smith, Andreas Speer, Carlos Steel, Loris Sturlese, Chris Schabel, Christian Trottmann, and Gordon A. Wilson.

Meaning and Cognitive Structure - Issues in the Computational Theory of Mind (Hardcover): Zenon W. Pylyshyn, William Demopoulos Meaning and Cognitive Structure - Issues in the Computational Theory of Mind (Hardcover)
Zenon W. Pylyshyn, William Demopoulos
R2,541 Discovery Miles 25 410 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Few areas of study have led to such close and intense interactions among computer scientists, psychologists, and philosophers as the area now referred to as cognitive science. Within this discipline, few problems have inspired as much debate as the use of notions such as meaning, intentionality, or the semantic content of mental states in explaining human behavior. The set of problems surrounding these notions have been viewed by some observers as threatening the foundations of cognitive science as currently conceived, and by others as providing a new and scientifically sound formulation of certain classical problems in the philosophy of mind. The chapters in this volume help bridge the gap among contributing disciplines-computer science, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience-and discuss the problems posed from various perspectives.

Human, All Too Human - A Book for Free Spirits, Part One and Part Two (Hardcover): Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Human, All Too Human - A Book for Free Spirits, Part One and Part Two (Hardcover)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
R775 Discovery Miles 7 750 Ships in 18 - 22 working days
Aquinas and Modern Science - A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason (Hardcover): Gerard M. Verschuuren Aquinas and Modern Science - A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason (Hardcover)
Gerard M. Verschuuren; Foreword by S J Joseph W Koterski
R807 Discovery Miles 8 070 Ships in 18 - 22 working days
A History of Political Thought (Hardcover): J Coleman A History of Political Thought (Hardcover)
J Coleman
R3,875 Discovery Miles 38 750 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Janet Coleman's two volume history of European political theorizing, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance is the introduction which many have been waiting for. It treats some of the most influential writers who have been considered by educated Europeans down the centuries to have helped to construct their identity, their shared "languages of politics" about the principles and practices of good government, and the history of European philosophy. It seeks to uncover and reconstruct the emergence of the "state" and the various European political theories which justified it.


This volume continues the story by focusing on medieval and Renaissance thinkers and includes extensive discussion of the practices that underpinned medieval political theories and which continued to play crucial roles in the eventual development of early-modern political institutions and debates. Throughout the author draws on recent scholarly commentaries written by specialists in philosophy, contemporary political theory, and on medieval and Renaissance history and theology. She shows that the medieval and Renaissance theorists' arguments can be seen as logical and coherent if we can grasp the questions they thought it important to answer. Janet Coleman strikes a balance between trying to understand the philosophical cogency of medieval and Renaissance arguments on the one hand, and on the other, elucidating why historically-situated medieval and Renaissance thinkers, respectively, thought the ways they did about politics; and why we often think otherwise.

The volume will meet the needs of students of philosophy, history and politics, proving to be an indispensable secondary source which aims tosituate, explain, and provoke thought about the major works of political theory likely to be encountered by students of this period and beyond.

Early Modern Disputations and Dissertations in an Interdisciplinary and European Context (Hardcover): Meelis Friedenthal,... Early Modern Disputations and Dissertations in an Interdisciplinary and European Context (Hardcover)
Meelis Friedenthal, Hanspeter Marti, Robert Seidel
R7,655 Discovery Miles 76 550 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

From the sixteenth through to the eighteenth century, printed disputations were the main academic output of universities. This genre is especially attractive as it deals with the most significant cultural and scientific innovations of the early modern period, such as the printing revolution and the development of new methods in philosophy, education and scholarly exchange via personal networks. Until recently, academic disputations have attracted comparatively little scholarly attention. This volume provides for the first time a comprehensive study of the early modern disputation culture, both through theoretical discussions and overviews, and numerous case studies that analyze particular features of disputations in various European regions.

The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy (Hardcover): Ohad Nachtomy, Justin E. H. Smith The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy (Hardcover)
Ohad Nachtomy, Justin E. H. Smith
R2,620 Discovery Miles 26 200 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The present volume advances a recent historiographical turn towards the intersection of early modern philosophy and the life sciences by bringing together many of its leading scholars to present the contributions of important but often neglected figures, such as Ralph Cudworth, Nehemiah Grew, Francis Glisson, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Georg Ernst Stahl, Juan Gallego de la Serna, Nicholas Hartsoeker, Henry More, as well as more familiar figures such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malebranche, and Kant. The contributions to this volume are organized in accordance with the particular problems that living beings and living nature posed for early modern philosophy: the problem of life in general, whether it constitutes something ontologically distinct at all, or whether it can ultimately be exhaustively comprehended "in the same manner as the rest "; the problem of the structure of living beings, by which we understand not just bare anatomy but also physiological processes such as irritability, motion, digestion, and so on; the problem of generation, which might be included alongside digestion and other vital processes, were it not for the fact that it presented such an exceptional riddle to philosophers since antiquity, namely, the riddle of coming-into-being out of - apparent or real - non-being; and, finally, the problem of natural order.

Forming the Mind - Essays on the Internal Senses and the Mind/Body Problem from Avicenna to the Medical Enlightenment... Forming the Mind - Essays on the Internal Senses and the Mind/Body Problem from Avicenna to the Medical Enlightenment (Hardcover, Special Edition)
Henrik Lagerlund
R4,199 Discovery Miles 41 990 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

'Forming the Mind' deals with the internal senses, the mind/body problem and other problems associated with the concept of mind as it developed from Avicenna to the medical Enlightenment. The book collects essays from some of the foremost scholars in a relatively new and very promising field of research. It stresses how important and fruitful it is to see the time period between 1100 and 1700 as one continuous tradition, and brings together scholars working on the same issues in the Arabic, Jewish and Western philosophical traditions. In this respect, this collection opens up several new and interesting perspectives on the history of the philosophy of mind.

Machiavelli on Freedom and Civil Conflict - An Historical and Medical Approach to Political Thinking (Hardcover): Marie Gaille Machiavelli on Freedom and Civil Conflict - An Historical and Medical Approach to Political Thinking (Hardcover)
Marie Gaille
R5,705 Discovery Miles 57 050 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

In Machiavelli on Freedom and Civil Conflict: An Historical and Medical Approach to Political Thinking, Marie Gaille rethinks Machiavelli's conception of civil conflict. In complete opposition to the common view of Machiavelli as a defender of tyranny, this analysis brings new elements to the forefront: the use of medical metaphors to describe the body politic, its historical lifespan and its institutional arrangement. This study is also based on a comprehensive approach to Machiavelli's writings, including his most famous works, but also The History of Florence, his correspondence, and his political, military and diplomatic reports. This study allows Marie Gaille to propose an original assessment of Machiavelli's insights for contemporary conceptions of democracy. This is a revised and translated edition of Conflit Civil et Liberte: la Politique Machiavelienne entre Histoire et Medecine, first published in French, in 2004 by Editions Honore Champion.

Aquinas (Hardcover, New): Eleonore Stump Aquinas (Hardcover, New)
Eleonore Stump
R5,540 Discovery Miles 55 400 Ships in 10 - 15 working days


Few philosophers or theologians exerted as much influence on the shape of Medieval thought as Thomas Aquinas. He ranks amongst the most famous of the Western philosophers and was responsible for almost single-handedly bringing the philosophy of Aristotle into harmony with Christianity. He was also one of the first philosophers to argue that philosophy and theology could support each other. The shape of metaphysics, theology and Aristotoelian thought today still bears the imprint of Aquinas' work.

In this extensive and deeply researched study, Eleonore Stump examines Aquinas' major works, Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles and clearly assesses the vast range of Aquinas' thought. Philosophers, theologians and students of the medieval period alike will find this unrivalled study an indispensable resource in researching and teaching Aquinas.

Emotions and Choice from Boethius to Descartes (Hardcover, 2002 ed.): Henrik Lagerlund, Mikko Yrjoensuuri Emotions and Choice from Boethius to Descartes (Hardcover, 2002 ed.)
Henrik Lagerlund, Mikko Yrjoensuuri
R2,841 Discovery Miles 28 410 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

The essays in this book give the first comprehensive picture of the medieval development of philosophical theories concerning the nature of emotions and the influence they have on human choice. The historical span reaches from the late ancient to the early modern philosophy, showing in detail how old and new ideas were bred and brought into the Middle Ages, and how they resulted in a genuinely modern perspective in the thought of Descartes.

Straw Dogs - Thoughts On Humans And Other Animals (Paperback): John Gray Straw Dogs - Thoughts On Humans And Other Animals (Paperback)
John Gray
R428 R399 Discovery Miles 3 990 Save R29 (7%) Ships in 18 - 22 working days

The British bestseller "Straw Dogs "is an exciting, radical work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche and Marx, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. John Gray argues that this belief in human difference is a dangerous illusion and explores how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned. The result is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question our deepest-held beliefs. Will Self, in the "New Statesman," called "Straw Dogs "his book of the year: "I read it once, I read it twice and took notes . . . I thought it that good." "Nothing will get you thinking as much as this brilliant book" ("Sunday Telegraph").

The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (Hardcover): Ernst Cassirer The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (Hardcover)
Ernst Cassirer; Translated by Mario Domandi
R720 Discovery Miles 7 200 Ships in 18 - 22 working days
Science, the Singular, and the Question of Theology (Hardcover, 1st ed): Richard A. Lee Jr. Science, the Singular, and the Question of Theology (Hardcover, 1st ed)
Richard A. Lee Jr.
R1,393 Discovery Miles 13 930 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Science, the Singular, and the Question of Theology explores the role that the singular plays in the theories of science of Robert Grosseteste, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Marsilius of Inghen, and Pierre d’Ailly. Confronting the scientific status of theology, Lee argues that the main issue is how to provide a “rational ground” for existing singulars. The book exposes how, on the eve of modernity, existing singulars were freed from the constraints of rational ground.

The Works of John Locke - A Comprehensive Bibliography from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Hardcover): John Attig The Works of John Locke - A Comprehensive Bibliography from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Hardcover)
John Attig
R2,696 Discovery Miles 26 960 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This bibliography is a comprehensive listing of published works by John Locke, including all known editions and translations of his works, abridgments and selections in anthologies and several works which he edited or translated, from the first editions to the present. It covers not only the works published during Locke's lifetime, but also those printed from the voluminous manuscripts he left behind at his death in 1704. In addition, Locke's works are set in their original controversial context: entries are provided for the works Locke wrote about and for the attacks and defenses his writings provoked during and immediately following his lifetime. An appendix contains a list of works incorrectly attributed to Locke. Three indexes complete the bibliography: an index to the names of the editors, the translators, and authors of works cited in the annotations; an index to the titles of anonymous works; and a language index that lists all the works that have been translated into each language.

The Ontology, Psychology and Axiology of Habits (Habitus) in Medieval Philosophy (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2018): Nicolas Faucher,... The Ontology, Psychology and Axiology of Habits (Habitus) in Medieval Philosophy (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2018)
Nicolas Faucher, Magali Roques
R3,686 Discovery Miles 36 860 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book features 20 essays that explore how Latin medieval philosophers and theologians from Anselm to Buridan conceived of habitus, as well as detailed studies of the use of the concept by Augustine and of the reception of the medieval doctrines of habitus in Suarez and Descartes. Habitus are defined as stable dispositions to act or think in a certain way. This definition was passed down to the medieval thinkers from Aristotle and, to a lesser extent, Augustine, and played a key role in many of the philosophical and theological developments of the time. Written by leading experts in medieval and modern philosophy, the book offers a historical overview that examines the topic in light of recent advances in medieval cognitive psychology and medieval moral theory. Coverage includes such topics as the metaphysics of the soul, the definition of virtue and vice, and the epistemology of self-knowledge. The book also contains an introduction that is the first attempt at a comprehensive survey of the nature and function of habitus in medieval thought. The material will appeal to a wide audience of historians of philosophy and contemporary philosophers. It is relevant as much to the historian of ancient philosophy who wants to track the historical reception of Aristotelian ideas as it is to historians of modern philosophy who would like to study the progressive disappearance of the term "habitus" in the early modern period and the concepts that were substituted for it. In addition, the volume will also be of interest to contemporary philosophers open to historical perspectives in order to renew current trends in cognitive psychology, virtue epistemology, and virtue ethics.

Brill's Companion to German Romantic Philosophy (Hardcover): Elizabeth Millan Brusslan, Judith Norman Brill's Companion to German Romantic Philosophy (Hardcover)
Elizabeth Millan Brusslan, Judith Norman
R5,382 Discovery Miles 53 820 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Scholars are finally fully appreciating the philosophical significance of early German Romanticism. Brill's Companion to German Romantic Philosophy is a collection of original essays showcasing not only the philosophical achievements of romantic writers such as Schlegel and Novalis, but the sophistication, relevance, and influence of romanticism today.

Renaissance? Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity in Europe, c.1300- c.1550 (Hardcover): Klara Benesovska, Robert Black,... Renaissance? Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity in Europe, c.1300- c.1550 (Hardcover)
Klara Benesovska, Robert Black, Stephen David Bowd, Matteo Burioni, Ingrid Ciulisova, …
R6,113 Discovery Miles 61 130 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

At least since the publication of Burckhardt's seminal study, the Renaissance has commonly been understood in terms of discontinuities. Seen as a radical departure from the intellectual and cultural norms of the 'Middle Ages', it has often been associated with the revival of classical Antiquity and the transformation of the arts, and has been viewed primarily as an Italian phenomenon. In keeping with recent revisionist trends, however, the essays in this volume explore moments of profound intellectual, artistic, and geographical continuity which challenge preconceptions of the Renaissance. Examining themes such as Shakespearian tragedy, Michelangelo's mythologies, Johannes Tinctoris' view of music, the advent of printing, Burgundian book collections, and Bohemian 'renovatio', this volume casts a revealing new light on the Renaissance. Contributors include Klara Benesovska, Robert Black, Stephen Bowd, Matteo Burioni, Ingrid Ciulisova, Johannes Grave, Luke Houghton, Robin Kirkpatrick, Alexander Lee, Diotima Liantini, Andrew Pettegree, Rhys W. Roark, Maria Ruvoldt, Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Robin Sowerby, George Steiris, Rob C. Wegman, and Hanno Wijsman.

Logic, Theology and Poetry in Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, and Alan of Lille - Words in the Absence of Things (Hardcover, 2006... Logic, Theology and Poetry in Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, and Alan of Lille - Words in the Absence of Things (Hardcover, 2006 ed.)
E. Sweeney
R1,406 Discovery Miles 14 060 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This book offers an interpretation of the major logical, philosophical/theological, and poetic writings of Boethius, Abelard, and Alan of Lille. In this interdisciplinary study, Abelard and Alan of Lille are placed with Boethius as creatively reformulating the Boethian methods, vocabulary, and literary forms so influential in the 12th century. The author examines the theories of language of these thinkers and the ways in which those theories form part of their speculative projects and spiritual aspirations. What emerges are significant structural and narrative connections between the problems of how words illuminate things, how the mind comprehends God, and how the individual reaches beatitude.

Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover, New): Andrew Kimbrough Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover, New)
Andrew Kimbrough
R2,514 Discovery Miles 25 140 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

The problem of language constituted the most contentious subject of the philosophies and human sciences in the twentieth-century and drove what came to be known as the "linguistic turn" to Western thought. Phenomenology, linguistics, analytic philosophy, speech act theory, anthropology, psychology, poststructuralism, media studies, and ordinary language philosophy-all addressed language as the primary vehicle of human thought and communication, and queried whether any accurate linguistic representation of reality were possible. The sound of the human voice lay at the center of the debate. The central question raised by Husserl's phenomenology and de Saussure's linguistics, and discussed throughout the century, concerned whether the sounds of the voice were intrinsic to meaning or were simply relative. In a related phenomenon, vocal experimentation marked the twentieth-century avant garde, which included the nonsense verbal texts of Dada; the electronic mediations of Samuel Beckett and Peter Handke; and the playful, ironic, and confrontational performances of Laurie Anderson, Karen Finley, and the Wooster Group. The experiments mirrored the fixation with voice and language as expressed in the philosophies and sciences. Yet despite the centrality of the voice for the philosophy of language, linguistic study, and performance, no book-length study before now has focused solely on vocal expression. The voice ranks with gesture as one of two media of communication available to every fully able-bodied human being, and yet theatre studies tends to take a visual approach to its objects of critique: the body, the dramatic text, and the mise-en-scene. Because the voice registers as a crucial media of expression in the theatre, theatre studies also can provide valuable contributions to the discussion of voice and language undertaken in other disciplines. The theatre as a social and public art form reveals a great deal about what we think and feel in regards to our communications with each other. This is the first book of theatre studies to identify and articulate theories of voice as expressed in the philosophies, human sciences, and physical sciences of the twentieth century. It also identifies parallels between the theories and the vocal practices of twentieth-century performances that shared similar concerns with issues of language and mediation. This book adopts as a central premise that the introduction and proliferation of electronic forms of communication stimulated the interest in voice and language in the scholarly discourses of the twentieth century and stimulated as well the fascination with the sounds of the voice as expressed in the twentieth-century avant garde. Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century is the only book of theatre and performance studies to address the sounds of the human voice and as such ranks as an invaluable addition to all theatre, philosophy, performance studies, communications, and cultural studies collections.

Selected papers on Renaissance philosophy and on Thomas Hobbes (Hardcover, 2004 ed.): Karl Schuhmann Selected papers on Renaissance philosophy and on Thomas Hobbes (Hardcover, 2004 ed.)
Karl Schuhmann; Edited by Piet Steenbakkers, Cees Leijenhorst
R2,808 Discovery Miles 28 080 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

-Selected papers on Renaissance philosophy and on Thomas Hobbes offers the best work in these fields by the acclaimed historian of philosophy, Karl Schuhmann (1941-2003), displaying the extraordinary range and depth of his unique scholarship,
-Topics covered include Renaissance philosophy of nature; the development of the notion of time in early modern philosophy; Telesio's concept of space; Hermetic influences on Pico, Patrizi and Hobbes; Hobbes's Short Tract; Spinoza and Hobbes; Hobbes's political philosophy,
-This book brings together, in chronological arrangement, twelve papers. Though these were published before in some form, several were not easily accessible so far,
-All articles have been edited in accordance with the author's wishes, and incorporate his later additions and corrections

Spheres of Philosophical Inquiry and the Historiography of Medieval Philosophy (Hardcover): John Inglis Spheres of Philosophical Inquiry and the Historiography of Medieval Philosophy (Hardcover)
John Inglis
R4,376 Discovery Miles 43 760 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Recent writers in the historiography of philosophy have placed into question the paradigms that structure our historical writing. This volume continues this discussion with particular reference to medieval philosophy.
Inglis shows that the modern historiography of medieval philosophy had its origins in certain nineteenth-century German reactions to Kantian idealism. He uncovers the philosophical, political, and theological origins of how we have come to interpret medieval philosophy according to the standard spheres of philosophy. By keeping such historiography in mind and paying attention to the context in which the medieval actually wrote, Inglis raises serious questions concerning the accuracy of the dominant model and proposes an historically sensitive alternative.
The genealogy will interest medievalists and intellectual historians, the alternative model will interest historians of medieval philosophy, and theology.

Pilgrim Home (Hardcover): Michael W. Dunne Pilgrim Home (Hardcover)
Michael W. Dunne; Michael Dunne
R1,003 Discovery Miles 10 030 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Sophisms in Medieval Logic and Grammar - Acts of the Ninth European Symposium for Medieval Logic and Semantics, held at St... Sophisms in Medieval Logic and Grammar - Acts of the Ninth European Symposium for Medieval Logic and Semantics, held at St Andrews, June 1990 (Hardcover, 1993 ed.)
Stephen Read
R5,382 Discovery Miles 53 820 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

The first Symposium consisted of three people in a cafe in Warsaw in 1973. Since then, meetings have grown in size and have been held in Leyden, Copenhagen, Nijmegen, Rome, Oxford, Poitiers and Freiburg am-Breisgau. The ninth Symposium was held in St Andrews in June 1990, with 57 participants who listened to addresses by 28 speakers. It was very fitting that Scotland's oldest university, founded in the heyday of medievalleaming in 1411, should have been given the chance to bring together scholars from all over Europe and beyond to present their researches on the glorious past of scholastic rational thought. The topic of the Symposium was "Sophisms in Medieval Logic and Grammar." The present volume consists, for the most part, of the papers presented at the Symposium. In fact, however, it proved impossible to include five of the contributions. Two of the papers included here were intended for the Symposium but in the event not delivered, because of the unavoidable absence of the speakers. The Symposium received very helpful financial support from one of the major philosophical associations in Britain, the Mind Association, from the Philosophical Quarterly, a journal published at St Andrews, from the University of St Andrews, from the British Academy, and from Low and Bonarplc. In organising the programme for the conference and in preparing the papers for publication I received invaluable help from: Professor E.J."

Composing the World - Harmony in the Medieval Platonic Cosmos (Hardcover): Andrew Hicks Composing the World - Harmony in the Medieval Platonic Cosmos (Hardcover)
Andrew Hicks
R1,575 Discovery Miles 15 750 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

We can hear the universe! This was the triumphant proclamation at a February 2016 press conference announcing that the Laser Interferometer Gravity Observatory (LIGO) had detected a "transient gravitational-wave signal." What LIGO heard in the morning hours of September 14, 2015 was the vibration of cosmic forces unleashed with mind-boggling power across a cosmic medium of equally mind-boggling expansiveness: the transient ripple of two black holes colliding more than a billion years ago. The confirmation of gravitational waves sent tremors through the scientific community, but the public imagination was more captivated by the sonic translation of the cosmic signal, a sound detectable only through an act of carefully attuned listening. As astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka remarked, "Until this moment, we had our eyes on the sky and we couldn't hear the music. The skies will never be the same." Taking in hand this current "discovery" that we can listen to the cosmos, Andrew Hicks argues that sound-and the harmonious coordination of sounds, sources, and listeners-has always been an integral part of the history of studying the cosmos. Composing the World charts one constellation of musical metaphors, analogies, and expressive modalities embedded within a late-ancient and medieval cosmological discourse: that of a cosmos animated and choreographed according to a specifically musical aesthetic. The specific historical terrain of Hicks' discussion centers upon the world of twelfth-century philosophy, and from there he offers a new intellectual history of the role of harmony in medieval cosmological discourse, a discourse which itself focused on the reception and development of Platonism. Hicks illuminates how a cosmological aesthetics based on the "music of the spheres" both governed the moral, physical, and psychic equilibrium of the human, and assured the coherence of the universe as a whole. With a rare convergence of musicological, philosophical, and philological rigor, Hicks presents a narrative tour through medieval cosmology with reflections on important philosophical movements along the way, raising connections to Cartesian dualism, Uexkull's theoretical biology, and Deleuze and Guattari's musically inspired language of milieus and (de)territorialization. Hicks ultimately suggests that the models of musical cosmology popular in late antiquity and the twelfth century are relevant to our modern philosophical and scientific undertakings. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Composing the World will resonate with a variety of readers, and it encourages us to rethink the role of music and sound within our greater understanding of the universe.

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