Descartes is often regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, and is credited with placing at centre stage the question of what we know and how we know it. Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue seeks to reinsert his work and thought in its contemporary ethical and theological context. Richard Davies explores the much neglected notion of intellectual virtue as it applies to Descartes' inquiry as a whole. He examines the textual dynamics of Descartes' most famous writings in relation to background debates about human endeavour from Plato down to Descartes' own contemporaries. Bringing these materials together in a novel format, Davies argues for a new approach to Descartes' ideas of scepticism and the sciences. The book also offers fresh interpretations of key passages of the Meditations . Descartes: Belief, Scepticism and Virtue offers an original reassessment of some of the most important bodies of work in Western Philosophy.

Paul Natterer's systematic commentary on the "Critique of Pure Reason" fills a long-standing gap in Kant scholarship. It is based on an analysis and evaluation of all the German and English-speaking literature published on the "Critique" since 1945. The influence of Kant's thought on present-day philosophy remains unbroken. The author sets himself the task of examining its power in detail. He does this with special reference to cognitive science and the philosophy of mind. The result is a systematic evaluation of the "Critique in Pure Reason" as a metatheory of present-day interdisciplinary research into cognition. In this context, Natterer presents the first detailed analysis of the systemic positions of empirical psychology, formal logic and general metaphysics in the Kantian theory of cognition. In addition, from the perspective of the history of science he compares the positions put forward in the "Critique of Pure Reason" with the ancient, scholastic and modern traditions in which Kant's thought can be situated. Overviews, indexes and the structural division of the work into 36 compact chapters make it possible to access the comprehensive and complex material rapidly and methodically.

It is difficult to imagine a world without common sense, the distinction between truth and falsehood, the belief in some form of morality or an agreement that we are all human. But Friedrich Nietzsche did imagine such a world, and his work has become a crucial point of departure for contemporary critical theory and debate. This volume introduces this key thinker to students of literary and cultural studies, offering a lucid account of Nietzsche's thought on:
* anti-humanism
* good and evil
* the Overman
* nihilism
* the Will to Power.
Lee Spinks prepares readers for their first encounter with Nietzsche's most influential texts, enabling them to begin to apply his thought in studies of literature, art and contemporary culture.

Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality is one of the most widely read books of philosophy, by philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Many of the ideas Nietzsche raises such as 'the will to power', the 'slave revolt' in morality and perspectivism - are startling and disturbing and resonate in subjects as diverse as ethics, continental philosophy, literature and religion. Brian Leiter's Nietzsche on Morality is an outstanding introduction to Nietzsche's famous work and is essential reading for any student of Nietzsche. Clearly and compellingly argued, it also caused controversy amongst Nietzsche scholars for its emphasis on naturalism as the key to understanding the Genealogy, and is regarded as one of the most significant works on Nietzsche of recent years. In this second edition Brian Leiter revises and refreshes the book throughout. He has written a new preface; revised sections on key topics such as epiphenomenanlism and consciousness in light of important recent work on Nietzsche; and significantly expands his discussion of agency and free will in relation to Nietzsche's text. He also includes an important postscript on Nietzsche's naturalism in light of recent interpretations of Nietzsche.

Both an introduction to Nietzsche s moral philosophy, and a sustained commentary on his most famous work, "On the Genealogy of Morality," this book has become the most widely used and debated secondary source on these topics over the past dozen years. Many of Nietzsche s most famous ideas - the "slave revolt" in morals, the attack on free will, perspectivism, "will to power" and the "ascetic ideal" - are clearly analyzed and explained. The first edition established the centrality of naturalism to Nietzsche s philosophy, generating a substantial scholarly literature to which Leiter responds in an important new Postscript. In addition, Leiter has revised and refreshed the book throughout, taking into account new scholarly literature, and revising or clarifying his treatment of such topics as the objectivity of value, epiphenomenalism and consciousness, and the possibility of "autonomous" agency."

The thought of G. W. F. Hegel (1770 -1831) has had a deep and lasting influence on a wide range of philosophical, political, religious, aesthetic, cultural and scientific movements. But, despite the far-reaching importance of Hegel's thought, there is often a great deal of confusion about what he actually said or believed. G. W. F. Hegel: Key Concepts provides an accessible introduction to both Hegel's thought and Hegel-inspired philosophy in general, demonstrating how his concepts were understood, adopted and critically transformed by later thinkers. The first section of the book covers the principal philosophical themes in Hegel's system: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethical theory, political philosophy, philosophy of nature, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, philosophy of history and theory of the history of philosophy. The second section covers the main post-Hegelian movements in philosophy: Marxism, existentialism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy, hermeneutics and French poststructuralism. The breadth and depth of G. W. F. Hegel: Key Concepts makes it an invaluable introduction for philosophical beginners and a useful reference source for more advanced scholars and researchers.

First published in 1977 this book is both expository and critical and concentres on Hobbes' ethical and political theory, but also considering the effect on these of his metaphysics. Updated, with a new preface especially for this re-issue, which brings together recent scholarship on Hobbes, a particular useful feature of the book is the new, critical bibliography.

This book features an important collection of essays examining Nietzsche's response to contemporary nihilism. "Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future" examines Nietzsche's analysis of and response to contemporary nihilism, the sense that nothing has value or meaning. Eleven newly-commissioned essays from an influential team of contributors illustrate the richness and complexity of Nietzsche's thought by bringing together a diverse collection of perspectives on Nietzsche. Nietzsche's engagement with nihilism has been relatively neglected by recent scholarship, despite the fact that Nietzsche himself regarded it as one of the most original and important aspect of his thought. This book addresses that gap in the literature by exploring this central and compelling area of Nietzsche's thought. The essays concentrate on Nietzsche's philosophical analysis of nihilism, the cultural politics of his reaction to nihilism, and the rhetorical dimensions and intricacies of his texts. "Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline.

For over one hundred and fifty years G.W.F. Hegel s ghost has haunted theoretical understanding and practice. His opponents first, and later his defenders, have equally defined their programs against and with his. In this way Hegel s political thought has both situated and displaced modern political theorizing.

This book takes the reception of Hegel s political thought as a lens through which contemporary methodological and ideological prerogatives are exposed. It traces the nineteenth century origins of the positivist revolt against Hegel s legacy forward to political science s turn away from philosophical tradition in the twentieth century. The book critically reviews the subsequent revisionist trend that has eliminated his metaphysics from contemporary considerations of his political thought. It then moves to re-evaluate their relation and defend their inseparability in his major work on politics: the" Philosophy of Right." Against this background, the book concludes with an argument for the inherent metaphysical dimension of political theorizing itself. Goodfield takes Hegel s reception, representation, as well as rejection in Anglo-American scholarship as a mirror in which its metaphysical presuppositions of the political are exceptionally well reflected. It is through such reflection, he argues, that we may begin to come to terms with them.

This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and readers of political theory and philosophy, Hegel, metaphysics and the philosophy of the social sciences."

In this book, Chris W. Surprenant puts forward an original position concerning Kant's practical philosophy and the intersection between his moral and political philosophy. Although Kant provides a detailed account of the nature of morality, the nature of human virtue, and how right manifests itself in civil society, he does not explain fully how individuals are able to become virtuous. This book aims to resolve this problem by showing how an individual is able to cultivate virtue, the aim of Kant's practical philosophy. Through an examination of Kant's accounts of autonomy, the state, and religion, and their effects on the cultivation of virtue, Surprenant develops a Kantian framework for moral education, and ultimately raises the question of whether or not Kantian virtue is possible in practice.

Gathering together an impressive array of legal scholars from around the world, this book features essays on Jeremy Bentham's major legal theoretical treatise, Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence, reassessing Bentham's theories of law as well as his impact on jurisprudence. While offering a suggestive picture of contemporary Bentham studies, the book provides a thorough examination of concepts such as legal discourse, legal norms, legal system, and subjective legal positions. The book compares Bentham's approach with other landmark theories and the works of major legal philosophers including Austin, Hart and Kelsen, and explores Bentham's treatise through major trends in contemporary legal thought, such as the imperative theory of law, deontic logic, Scandinavian and American legal realisms, the pure theory of law, and critical legal thought. Resisting any apologetic stance, the book elucidates how consistent with Bentham's all-encompassing project of utilitarian reform 'Limits' turns out to be, and how this sheds light on contemporary modes of governance. The book will be great use and interest to scholars and students of contemporary jurisprudence, legal theory, 19th century philosophy, and public law.

One of Victorian England s most famous philosophers harbored a secret: Herbert Spencer suffered from an illness so laden with stigma that he feared its revelation would ruin him. He therefore went to extraordinary lengths to hide his malady from the public. Exceptionally, he drew two of his closest friends the novelist George Eliot and her partner, G. H. Lewes into his secret. Years later, he also shared it with a remarkable neurologist, John Hughlings-Jackson, better placed than anyone else in England to understand his illness. Spencer insisted that all three support him without betraying his condition to others and two of them did so. But George Eliot, still smarting from Spencer s rejection, years earlier, of her offer of love, did not. Ingeniously, she devised a means both of nominally respecting (for their contemporaries) and of violating (for our benefit) Spencer s injunction. What she hid from her peers she reveals to us in an act of deferred, but audacious literary revenge. It s here decoded for the first time. Indeed The Complicity of Friends comprises the first disclosure of Spencer s hidden frailty but also, more importantly, of the responses it generated in the lives and works of his three notable friends. This book provides a complete rethinking of its principal figures. The novelist who emerges in these pages is a more sinuous and passionate George Eliot than the oracular Victorian we are used to hearing about. The significance of the friendship between Lewes, her irrepressible partner, and the inventive Hughlings-Jackson is outlined for the first time. And in an ironic twist, even his three farsighted confidants could not anticipate that, late in the twentieth century, certain of Spencer s own intuitions about the nature and provenance of his illness would be vindicated. Those with any interest in George Eliot, Lewes, Hughlings-Jackson, or Spencer will be compelled to re-envision their personalities after reading The Complicity of Friends."

This book offers a new, European-centered approach to Tocqueville's thought. Although Tocqueville is often revered as a classic writer on the subject of American democracy, this book focuses on the multifaceted importance of his ideas within a European context. This collection of essays presents Tocqueville's vision of a diverse and united Old Continent, exploring his ideas of liberty, virtue, religion, patriotism, greatness, civic participation and democracy. These thoughts are analyzed not only in the context of Tocqueville's output, but also in the light of their potential to describe the dilemmas of contemporary Europe and to offer remedies for its problems.

Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843) has long been recognized as one of the greatest poets of the German language, but his importance to philosophy has surfaced only comparatively recently. Although Schelling and Hegel acknowledged Holderlin early on as their equal, for a long time his philosophical thought remained unknown outside the small circle of his friends.
Among the most prominent figures in the rediscovery of Holderlin's thought is Dieter Henrich, who, in a series of highly influential studies over the last thirty years, has shown that Holderlin played a decisive role in the development of philosophy from Kant to Hegel, and hence in the formation of German Idealism. Among other things, Henrich demonstrated that Holderlin, while still a student, launched a powerful critique of Fichte's "Wissenschaftslehre" and outlined an alternative to the dominant view of the foundation of philosophy. This alternative proved pathbreaking for his philosophical friends, forcing Hegel, for example, to abandon his own Kantianism and, eventually, to give systematic articulation to a position that went even beyond Holderlin's.
This volume includes six of Henrich's most important essays on Holderlin's philosophical significance. Among the topics discussed are Holderlin's motivation and methodological orientation in his work on German Idealism, the intellectual atmosphere of Holderlin's student years and the philosophical problems that occupied him, Holderlin's attitude toward any first-principle philosophy, and the complex personal and philosophical relationships between Hegel and Holderlin. The last essay is a long, detailed interpretation of one of Holderlin's greatest poems, "Remembrance." In elucidating its lyric composition and structure, Henrich also seeks to show how it incorporates and develops Holderlin's philosophical thought.

Kierkegaard's Concepts is a comprehensive, multi-volume survey of the key concepts and categories that inform Kierkegaard's writings. Each article is a substantial, original piece of scholarship, which discusses the etymology and lexical meaning of the relevant Danish term, traces the development of the concept over the course of the authorship, and explains how it functions in the wider context of Kierkegaard's thought. Concepts have been selected on the basis of their importance for Kierkegaard's contributions to philosophy, theology, the social sciences, literature and aesthetics, thereby making this volume an ideal reference work for students and scholars in a wide range of disciplines.

Few philosophers have been as popular, prolific, and controversial as Friedrich Nietzsche, who has left his imprint not only on philosophy but on all the arts. Whether it is his concept of the ubermensch or his nihilistic view of the world, Nietzsche's writings have aroused enormous interest, as well as anathema, in scholars for centuries. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Nietzscheanism covers the history of this philosophy through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 hundred cross-referenced entries on his major writings, his contemporaries, and his successors. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Friedrich Nietzsche.

Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Thought provides essential information on, and a critical interpretation of, nineteenth-century thought and nineteenth-century thinkers. The project takes as its temporal boundary the period 1789 to 1914. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Thought primarily covers social and political thinking, but key entries also survey science, religion, law, art, concepts of modernity, the body and health, and so on, and thereby take into account all of the key developments in the intellectual history of the period. The encyclopedia is alphabetically organized, and consists of: * principal entries, divided into ideas (4000 words) and persons (2500 words) * subsidiary entries of 1000 words, which are entirely biographical * informational entries of 500 words, which are also biographical.

Hegel's philosophy has witnessed periods of revival and oblivion, at times considered to be an unrivalled and all-embracing system of thought, but often renounced with no less ardour. This book renews the dialogue with Hegel by looking at his legacy as a source of insight and judgement that helps us rethink contemporary economics. This book focuses on a concept of institution which is equally important for Hegel's political philosophy and for economic theory to date. The key contributions of this Hegelian perspective on economics lead us to the synthesis of traditional approaches and new ideas gained in economic experiments and advanced by neuroeconomists, sociologists and cognitive scientists. The proper account of contemporary 'civil society' involves comprehending it as a historically evolving totality of individual minds, ideas and intersubjective structures that are mutually dependent, tied by recognitive relations, and assert themselves as a whole in the ongoing performative movement of 'objective spitit'. The ethics of recognition is paired with the ethics of associations that supports moral principles and gives them true, concrete universality. This unusual constellation of seemingly remote fields suggests that Hegel, read in a pragmatist mode, anticipated the new theories and philosophies of extended mind, social cognition and performativity. By providing a new conceptual apparatus and reformulating the theory of institutions in the light of this new synthesis, this book claims to give new meaning both to Hegel as interpreted from today, and to the social sciences. Seen from this perspective, such phenomena as cooperation in games, personal identity or justice in the version of Amartya Sen's 'realization-focused comparisons' are reinscribed into the logic of institutional theory. This 'Hegel' clearly goes beyond the limits of philosophical discussion and becomes a decisive reference for economists, sociologists, political scientists and other scholars who study the foundations and consequences of human sociality and try to explore and design the institutions necessary for a worthy common life.

This is the second of two collections of correspondence written by early modern English women philosophers. In this volume, Jacqueline Broad presents letters from three influential thinkers of the eighteenth century: Mary Astell, Elizabeth Thomas, and Catharine Trotter Cockburn. Broad provides introductory essays for each figure and explanatory annotations to clarify unfamiliar language, content, and historical context for the modern reader. Her selections make available many letters that have never been published before or that live scattered in various archives, obscure manuscripts, and rare books. The discussions range in subject from moral theology and ethics to epistemology and metaphysics; they involve some well-known thinkers of the period, such as John Norris, George Hickes, Mary Chudleigh, John Locke, and Edmund Law. By centering epistolary correspondence, Broad's anthology works to reframe early modern philosophy, the foundation for so much of twentieth-century philosophy, as consisting of collaborative debates that women actively participated in and shaped. Together with its companion volume, Women Philosophers of Eighteenth-Century England: Selected Correspondence is an invaluable primary resource for students, scholars, and those undertaking further research in the history of women's contributions to the formation and development of early modern thought.

The arguments advanced in the second chapter of On Liberty (1859) have become the touchstone for practically every discussion of freedom of speech, yet the broader development of John Stuart Mill's ideas concerning intellectual liberty has generally been neglected. This work attempts to fill that lacuna by looking beyond On Liberty, in order to understand the evolution of Mill's ideas concerning freedom of thought and discussion.

John Stuart Mill's thought has been central in recent (as well as older) works of political theory discussing the relationship between liberal democratic politics and nationality or nationalism -- which is far from surprising, given his undisputed influence on liberal attitudes towards nationality from the 1860s to the present. This book provides the first thorough critical study of the attitude of this pillar of the liberal tradition towards nationality, nationhood, patriotism, cosmopolitanism, intervention/non-intervention, and international politics more generally. Based on exhaustive research in a great range or writings by Mill, as well as by his contemporaries and later students, it establishes for the first time clearly and subtly where exactly Mill stood with regard to nationhood, nationalism, patriotism, cosmopolitanism, national self-determination, intervention/non-intervention and other important issues in international ethics. It thus exposes and challenges all sorts of misconceptions, half-truths, or myths surrounding Mill's views on, and attitude towards, nationality and related issues in a vast literature from the mid-nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. At the same time, it offers a timely contribution to contemporary debates among political theorists on the relationship between liberal democratic values and nationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, not least through its articulation of a distinct sense in which patriotism and cosmopolitanism can be compatible and mutually reinforcing (based on Varouxakis's interpretation of Mill's thought on this question). The reader will find critical discussions of the pronouncements on some of the issues examined (or on Mill's contributions to them) of some of the most important late-twentieth-century political theorists as well as of contemporaries or near-contemporaries of Mill.

While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists worldwide who have been attracted to his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in different language groups and traditions. Tome II is dedicated to the use of Kierkegaard by later Danish writers. Almost from the beginning Kierkegaard's works were standard reading for these authors. Danish novelists and critics from the Modern Breakthrough movement in the 1870s were among the first to make extensive use of his writings. These included the theoretical leader of the movement, the critic Georg Brandes, who wrote an entire book on Kierkegaard, and the novelists Jens Peter Jacobsen and Henrik Pontoppidan. The next generation of writers from the turn of the century and through the First World War also saw in Kierkegaard important points of inspiration. These included Ernesto Dalgas and Harald Kidde, who used elements of Kierkegaard's thought in their novels. Modern Danish writers such as Karen Blixen, Martin A. Hansen, and Villy SArensen have continued to incorporate Kierkegaard into their works. There can be no doubt that Kierkegaard has indelibly stamped his name on Danish literature.

Philosophers and linguists have come together for this volume to provide a glimpse of current thinking about language in a semiotic mode and of the analyses that result from applying the theory of signs of the American philosopher-scientist Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) to subjects that Peirce himself did not explore in any depth. Contributors include Victor Friedman, Laura Janda, Tony Jappy, Dines Johansen, Dan Nesher, Joao Queiroz, Joelle Rethore, Michael Shapiro, and Nils Thelin.

Comparing Averroes' and Hegel's positions on the relation between philosophy and religion, this book explores the theme of the authorities of faith and reason, and the origin of truth, in a medieval Islamic and a modern Christian context respectively. Through an in-depth analysis of Averroes' and Hegel's parallel views on the nature of philosophical and religious discourse, Belo presents new insights into their perspectives on the relation between philosophical knowledge and religious knowledge, and the differences between philosophy and religion. In addition, Belo explores particular works which have not yet been studied by modern scholarship.

George Pattison provides a bold and innovative reassessment of Kierkegaard's neglected Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses and reading of his work as a whole. The first full length assessment of the discourses in English, this volume will be essential reading for philosophers and theologians, and anyone interested in Kierkegaard and the history of philosophy.