Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes features the work of feminist scholars who are centrally engaged with Hobbes's ideas and texts and who view Hobbes as an important touchstone in modern political thought. Bringing together scholars from the disciplines of philosophy, history, political theory, and English literature who embrace diverse theoretical and philosophical approaches and a range of feminist perspectives, this interdisciplinary collection aims to appeal to an audience of Hobbes scholars and nonspecialists alike.

As a theorist whose trademark is a compelling argument for absolute sovereignty, Hobbes may seem initially to have little to offer twenty-first-century feminist thought. Yet, as the contributors to this collection demonstrate, Hobbesian political thought provides fertile ground for feminist inquiry. Indeed, in engaging Hobbes, feminist theory engages with what is perhaps the clearest and most influential articulation of the foundational concepts and ideas associated with modernity: freedom, equality, human nature, authority, consent, coercion, political obligation, and citizenship.

Aside from the editors, the contributors are Joanne Boucher, Karen Detlefsen, Karen Green, Wendy Gunther-Canada, Jane S. Jaquette, S. A. Lloyd, Su Fang Ng, Carole Pateman, Gordon Schochet, Quentin Skinner, and Susanne Sreedhar.

Kant denies that Reason is intuitive, but demands that we must - in some way - 'make' Reason intuitive, and follow its guidance, particularly in matters of morality. In this book, a group of scholars attempt to analyze and explore this central paradox within Kantian thought. Each essay explores the question from a different perspective - from political philosophy, ethics and religion to science and aesthetics. The essays thus also reformulate the core question in different forms, for example, how are we to realize the moral good in personal character, political arrangements, or religious institutions?

Hegelian philosophy is now enjoying an enormous renaissance in the English-speaking world. At the very centre of his work is the monumental "Science of Logic." Hegel's theory of subjectivity, which comprises the final third of the "Science of Logic," has been comparatively neglected. This volume collects 15 essays on various aspects of Hegel's theory of subjectivity. For Hegel, "substance is subject." Anyone aspiring to understand Hegel's philosophy cannot afford to neglect this central topic.

Literature and Encyclopedism in Enlightenment Britain tells the story of long-term aspirations to comprehend, record, and disseminate complete knowledge of the world. It draws on a wide range of literary and non-literary works from the early modern era and British Enlightenment.

This book is not a merely historical reconstruction of Schelling's thought; its main goal is to provide a contribution for a better comprehension of the importance of the philosophical quest of the young German philosopher from within, which represents a turning point for the whole thought of modernity. I did not describe the various fields of Schelling's work, but I pointed out the central position of his Aesthetics, through the analysis of the inner mechanisms of his concepts. This mechanism, in my opinion, shows the reason why an Aesthetic philosophy is possible, and why its origin can be traced to Kant's Aesthetics (particularly in Kant's Critique of Judgement) and in the speculations of the early post-Kantian philosophy. The young Schelling's philosophical problems precede his encounter with Fichte's philosophy. Schelling discovers these problems, related to Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Wolff, Leibniz and Kant, in the protestant college of the Stift in Tubingen. Fichte confirmed the necessity of an urgent reform of transcendental philosophy, and offered to the young philosopher a philosophical dictionary and an orientation. Schelling exploited these resources with a great degree of autonomy, independence and originality. In these years Hoelderlin's influence on Schelling was much greater. Schelling's and Hoelderlin's speculations, in these crucial years, were tightly connected.

The relations between science and philosophy in the early nineteenth century remain one of the most misunderstood topics in modern European intellectual history. By taking the brilliant career of Danish physicist-philosopher Hans Christian A~rsted as their organizing theme, leading international philosophers and historians of science reveal illuminating new perspectives on the intellectual map of Europe in the age of revolution and romanticism. They show how A~rsted, an intrepid traveller and cosmopolitan from the periphery of enlightened Europe, mediated between the great scientists of Germany, France, and Britain and profoundly shaped post-kantian philosophy and the emerging new energy physics of the nineteenth-century.

An authoritative critical edition, based on fresh collation of the seventeenth century texts and documented in an extensive textual apparatus, of Francis Bacon's (1561-1626) The Advancement of Learning, the principal philosophical work in English announcing his comprehensive programme to restore and advance learning.

Building on the results of the Groundwork and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant finally published his system of moral philosophy in two volumes in 1797. By then, he had been planning to write a Metaphysics of Morals for three decades; but only the title remained unchanged while the basic principles of his theoretical and practical philosophy changed dramatically. While for many years academic moral philosophy focused mainly on Kant's earlier ethical treatises, there has recently been much interest in this later and perhaps more mature work on moral philosophy, particularly the ethical part of the Metaphysics of Morals, the "Metaphysical Principles of the Doctrine of Virtue" or "Tugendlehre". The present volume responds to these demands. Following a series of research workshops, 18 scholars from Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States provide a seamless commentary on the "Doctrine of Virtue", discussing topics such as suicide, truthfulness, moral perfection, beneficence, gratitude, sympathy, respect and friendship as well as Kant's moral psychology, philosophy of action and theory of moral education. This book will be an invaluable resource for moral philosophers and Kant scholars alike.

Re-reads Marx in light of the contemporary critical interrogation of subjectivity. What is the relation between the economy, or the mode of production, and culture, beliefs, and desires? How is it possible to think of these relations without reducing one to the other, or effacing one for the sake of the other? To answer these questions. The Micro-Politics of Capital re-reads Marx in light of the contemporary critical interrogations of subjectivity in the works of Althusser, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, and Negri. Jason Read suggests that what characterizes contemporary capitalism is the intimate intersection of the production of commodities with the production of desire, beliefs, and knowledge.

Besides his more famous works of philosophy--"Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and "Principles of Philosophy--Descartes devoted a great deal of time and thought to the study of physiology and anatomy. An account of his activities in 1629 reports that he visited butcher shops on an almost daily basis to study specific animal organs. In the 1630s, he assisted in the dissection of human cadavers--all to satisfy his intense curiosity about how bodies, animal and human, work. The fruits of this research can be found in his "Treatise of Man, a work that he decided not to publish for fear of suffering the same fate as Galileo. Consequently, this fascinating treatise did not appear until twelve years after his death. Among its many intriguing features are his detailed descriptions of the nervous system and its interactions with the muscles to create movement in response to stimulus. Though we now know that many of these details are wrong, Descartes' understanding that much of the body functions as a mechanism was a stroke of genius. He is the first to describe the reflex arc, anticipating Pavlov and the behaviorists by almost 300 years. The idea of the body as a kind of animal machine that functions according to physical laws was an immense advance over the previous scholastic notions based on Aristotle, which merely begged the question of how the various organs of the body work by stating that it is in their nature to perform their specific functions. This is a landmark work that students of history, medicine, biology, and the history of science will find richly rewarding.

"Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most engaging yet enigmatic philosophers of the eighteenth century. He wrote with a flair and directness unique among great thinkers, yet beneath the surface of his works there is an extraordinarily complex theory of human nature and society. His diverse body of writing often leaves students struggling to find a coherent philosophical outlook. "Rousseau: A Guide for the Perplexed" is a clear and thorough account of Rousseau's major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the complicated thought of this key philosopher. The book covers the whole range of Rousseau's life and work, offering a detailed review of his landmark philosophical texts, including "The Social Contract" and "Emile", together with examination of his influential contribution to the social sciences. The book provides a cogent and reliable survey of the famous paradoxes in his philosophy and shows how they fit together into a coherent and important theory of culture and politics. This book is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging philosopher.

This collection of essays delineates the history of the rather disparate intellectual tradition usually labeled as "Platonic" or "Neoplatonic." In chronological order, the book covers the most eminent philosophic schools of thought within that tradition. The most important terms of the Platonic tradition are studied together with a discussion of their semantic implications, the philosophical and theological claims associated with the terms, the sources that furnish the terms, and the intellectual traditions aligned with or opposed to them. The contributors thereby provide a vivid intellectual map of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Contributions are written in English or German.

Rasmussen offers a novel interpretation of the relationship between religious concern and artistic creativity in the works of the self-styled "Christian poet and thinker" Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Although Kierkegaard articulated neither a "Christology" in the sense that the term has for systematic theology, nor a generic "theory of poetry" in the sense that phrase has for literary criticism, this study makes the case that Kierkegaard's writings nevertheless do advance a "Christomorphic poetics," a tertium quid that resists conventional distinctions between theology and literature. The term "Christomorphic" signals that Kierkegaard's Christian view of the incarnation of God in Christ shapes his poetics in a fundamental way and that, therefore, Kierkegaard's authorship and his incarnational view of God in Christ should be understood together. Arguing that Kierkegaard's poetics takes shape in conversation with many of the major themes of early German Romanticism (irony, imaginative creativity, paradox, the relativization of imitation [mimesis], and erotic love), this book offers a fresh appreciation of the depth of Kierkegaard's engagement with Romanticism, and of the contours of his alternative to that literary movement. Chapter one analyzes Kierkegaard's reception of romantic irony, and demonstrates that the romantic tendency to fantasize subjective existence (at least on Kierkegaard's reading) motivates the critique of romantic poetry in Kierkegaard's early works. Chapters two and three identify and explicate Kierkegaard's alternative to romantic poetics, elucidating his distinctive Christomorphic poetics in terms of his view of God as divine poet. The fourth chapter demonstrates the way Kierkegaard's emphasis on the "imitation of Christ" challenges the romantic relativization of "mimesis," and signals a reversal of the romantic celebration of the ironic imagination. Finally, chapter five constructs a typology of Kierkegaard's three senses of the term "poet." By showing how these different senses of the one term function within Kierkegaard's larger poetics, this chapter makes clear the manner in which Kierkegaard as a "religious poet" distinguishes himself from the "secular poet" of romantic irony by fostering what he considers authentic Christian "witness" in the world according to the "Word" of the divine poet embodied in Christ.

Kant's omnipresence in contemporary cosmopolitan discourses contrasts with the fact that little is known about the historical origins and the systematic status of his cosmopolitan theory. This study argues that Kant's cosmopolitanism should be understood as embedded and dynamic. Inspired by Rousseau, Kant developed a form of cosmopolitanism rooted in a modified form of republican patriotism. In contrast to static forms of cosmopolitanism, Kant conceived the tensions between embedded, local attachments and cosmopolitan obligations in dynamic terms. He posited duties to develop a cosmopolitan disposition (Gesinnung), to establish common laws or cosmopolitan institutions, and to found and promote legal, moral, and religious communities which reform themselves in a way that they can pass the test of cosmopolitan universality. This is the cornerstone of Kant's cosmopolitanism, and the key concept is the vocation (Bestimmung) of the individual as well as of the human species. Since realizing or at least approaching this vocation is a long-term, arduous, and slow process, Kant turns to the pedagogical implications of this cosmopolitan project and spells them out in his later writings. This book uncovers Kant's hidden theory of cosmopolitan education within the framework of his overall practical philosophy.

What is the je-ne-sais-quoi? How-if at all-can it be put into words? In addressing these questions, Richard Scholar offers the first full-length study of the je-ne-sais-quoi and its fortunes in early modern Europe. He describes the rise and fall of the expression as a noun and as a topic of debate, examines its cluster of meanings, and uncovers the scattered traces of its 'pre-history'. The je-ne-sais-quoi is often assumed to belong purely to the realm of the literary, but in the early modern period it serves to articulate problems of knowledge in natural philosophy, the passions, and culture, and for that reason it is approached here from an interdisciplinary perspective. Placing major figures of the period such as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Corneille, and Pascal alongside some of their lesser-known contemporaries, Scholar argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi serves above all to capture first-person encounters with a 'certain something' that is as difficult to explain as its effects are intense. When early modern writers use the expression in this way, he suggests, they give literary form to an experience that twenty-first-century readers may recognize as something like their own.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau has a claim to be ranked above even Karl Marx as the political philosopher who has most influenced everyday life. His much-read philosophy of education alone would qualify him for a high place, but his political theory is even more important: decisions affecting millions of people were made based on the reading of certain lines of the Social Contract. Yet while politicians and scholars have studied this book for 250 years, almost no agreement exists on how to interpret its central concept: freedom. Rousseau's theory of freedom has led him to be called everything from the greatest prophet of individual liberty to the designer of the first totalitarian state. This book offers a new, unifying interpretation of the theory of freedom in the Social Contract. Simpson gives a careful analysis of Rousseau's theory of the social pact, and then examines the kinds of freedom that it brings about, showing how Rousseau's individualist and collectivist aspects fit into a larger and logically coherent theory of human liberty. Simpson's book not only helps us to understand one of the pre-eminent political minds of the 18th century, but also brings us into closer conversation with those he influenced, who have done so much to shape our world. And in light of the interest in contemporary contractualist philosophers like Rawls, Scanlon, and Gauthier, readers will find it worthwhile to return to the thinker who offers one of the most radical, profound, and insightful theories of the social contract ever devised.

Addressing the perennial question: why should we be moral? this book argues that we can only give a truly and morally satisfying answer to that question by radically reconfiguring our conception of the self and the way it relates to others.

Chance ordained that Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was not only a philosopher, playwright and writer, but also a salonnier. In other words, an art critic. In 1759, his friend Grimm entrusted him with a project that forced him to acquire "thoughtful notions concerning painting and sculpture" and to refine "art terms, so familiar in his words yet so vague in his mind."

Diderot wrote artistic reviews of exhibitions - Salons - that were organized bi-annually at the Louvre by the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. These reviews, published in the Correspondence Litteraire, were Diderot's unique contribution to art criticism in France. He fulfilled his task of salonnier on nine occasions, despite occasional dips in his enthusiasm and self-confidence.

Compiled and presented by Jean Szenec, this anthology helps the contemporary reader to familiarize himself with Diderot's aesthetic thought in all its greatness. It includes eight illustrations and is followed by texts from Jean Starobinski, Michel Delon, and Arthur Cohen.

'On Art and Artists' is translated by John Glaus, professor of French and an amateur expert of the XVIIIth century."

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling (1775GCo1854) was a colleague of Hegel, Holderlin, Fichte, Goethe, Schlegel, and Schiller. Always a champion of Romanticism, Schelling advocated a philosophy which emphasized intuition over reason, which maintained aesthetics and the creative imagination to be of the highest value. At the same time, SchellingGCOs concerns for the self and the rational make him a major precursor to existentialism and phenomenology. The New Schelling brings together a wide-ranging set of essays which elaborate the connections between Schelling and other thinkersGCosuch as Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, Deleuze, and LacanGCoand argue for the unexpected modernity of SchellingGCOs work. Contributors: Manfred Frank, J++rgen Habermas, Iain Hamilton Grant, Joseph Lawrence, Odo Marquand, Judith Norman, Alberto Toscano, Michael Vater, Alistair Welchman, Slavoj +a Zi+azek.

John Locke (1632-1704) is perhaps the greatest philosopher in the English language. A political activist in a revolutionary age, Locke's prolific correspondence opens up the cultural, social, intellectual, and political worlds of the later Stuart era. Spanning half a century, the letters trace the transition from Puritanism to the Enlightenment. A man of insatiable curiosity, Locke's letters encompass science (his correspondents include Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle), education, travel, religion, and the birth of the British empire.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Social and Aesthetic Philosophy examines Wollstonecraft's attempts to revise representations of women to give them a more active role in public life. Combining history of ideas with close textual reading, Bahar insists that Wollstonecraft's political claims cannot be separated from her desire to develop more convincing aesthetic representations of women.

From the 18th to the 19th century, the history of philosophy becomes the history of a particular science. Modern philosophical historiography is an entirely ambivalent project. On the one hand, we find an affirmative concept of Bildung through tradition and historical insight; on the other, there arises a critical reflection on historical education in the light of an emerging critique of modern culture. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the historiography of modern philosophy.

Although they were not written by Kant himself, the transcripts of his lectures constitute an important source for philosophical research today. Some of the contributions presented in this volume discuss the authenticity and significance of these transcripts, for example the status of Kant's lectures on logic and anthropology, while others shed light on the historical formation of specific writings, for instance the texts on the philosophy of religion. The contributions provide new insights into Kant's philosophy, that, if looking at Kant's published writings alone, we would not be able to gain. In a number of cases, a critical analysis of Kant's lectures gives us a better understanding of his published works. Thus his lectures on metaphysics shed new light on his Critique of Pure Reason, while the lecture on natural law is a valuable source for the understanding of his published legal writings.