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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 - > General
One of the earliest and most influential treatises on the subject
of this volume is Aristotle's Categories. Aristotle's title is a
form of the Greek verb for speaking against or submitting an
accusation in a legal proceeding. By the time of Aristotle, it also
meant: to signify or to predicate. Surprisingly, the "predicates"
Aristotle talks about include not only bits of language, but also
such nonlinguistic items as the color white in a body and the
knowledge of grammar in a man's soul. (Categories I/ii) Equally
surprising are such details as Aristotle's use of the terms
'homonymy' and 'synonymy' in connection with things talked about
rather than words used to talk about them. Judging from the
evidence in the Organon, the Metaphysics, and elsewhere, Aristotle
was both aware of and able to mark the distinction between using
and men tioning words; and so we must conclude that in the
Categories, he was not greatly concerned with it. For our purposes,
however, it is best to treat the term 'predication' as if it were
ambiguous and introduce some jargon to disambiguate it. Code,
Modrak, and other authors of the essays which follow use the terms
'linguistic predication' and 'metaphysical predication' for this."
Many contemporary philosophers assume that, before one can discuss
prayer, the question of whether there is a God or not must be
settled. In this title, first published in 1965, D. Z. Phillips
argues that to understand prayer is to understand what is meant by
the reality of God. Beginning by placing the problem of prayer
within a philosophical context, Phillips goes on to discuss such
topics as prayer and the concept of talking, prayer and dependence,
superstition and the concept of community. This is a fascinating
reissue that will be of particular value to students with an
interest in the philosophy of religion, prayer and religious
studies more generally.
First published in 1935, this book compares and examines what John
Laird termed the 'three most important notions in ethical science':
the concepts of virtue, duty and well-being. Laird poses the
question of whether any one of these three concepts is capable of
being the foundation of ethics and of supporting the other two.
This is an interesting reissue, which will be of particular value
to students researching the philosophy of ethics and morality.
Wittgenstein once said, "I cannot help seeing every problem from a
'religious point of view'. "However, since he never advocated any
one religion many people have wondered just what this religious
point of view could be. This book answers this question by
clarifying the overall nature(s) of his philosophies (the early and
the later) and then by exploring the idea of a religious point of
view as an analogy for a philosophy. As a result, the author
reveals the concordance between the later Wittgenstein and central
aspects of Hebraic thought. Although perhaps this ought not to be
surprising (Wittgenstein himself described his thought as "one
hundred per cent Hebraic"), the truth of the matter has been
obscured by popular supposition that Wittgenstein was anti-Semitic.
Assembling an unprecedented range of considered responses to the
noted contributions to philosophy made by Marcelo Dascal, this
collection comprises the work of his many friends, colleagues and
former students. Beginning with a series of articles on Dascal's
influential insights on philosophical controversy, this volume
continues with explorations of Dascal's celebrated scholarship on
Liebnitz, before moving on to papers dealing with his philosophy of
language, including interpretations by Dresner and Herring on the
phenomenon of emoticons. Taken as a whole, they provide a
compelling commentary on Dascal's prolific and voluminous
publications and include fresh perspectives on the theory of
argumentation and the ethics of communication.
The material collected here extends to political philosophy,
such as Morris-Reich's paper exploring the ways in which German
social scientists confront issues of antisemitism, the psychology
of genius, and the origins of norms in society and culture. Much of
the analysis is directly connected to, or influenced by, the
philosophical themes, ideas and concepts developed throughout the
years by Marcelo Dascal, while others have a looser connection to
his work. All of them, however, attest to the remarkable and
multifaceted philosophical persona of Marcelo Dascal, who is the
guiding light of the rich conceptual dialogue running through this
book. "
Wittgenstein's Copernican Revolution explores the relation between language and reality without embracing Linguistic Realism and without courting any form of Linguistic Idealism either. It argues that this is precisely what Wittgenstein does. This book also examines some well known contemporary philosophers who have been concerned with this same question.
Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind is the third volume of a four-volume
analytical commentary on Wittgenstein's Philosophical
Investigations, consisting of two parts. Part 1 is a sequence of
fifteen essays that examine in detail all the major topics
discussed in Philosophical Investigations 243-427. These include
the private language arguments, privacy, private ostensive
definition, the nature of the mind, the inner and the outer,
behaviour and behaviourism, thought, imagination, the self,
consciousness, and criteria. Published in 1990 to widespread
acclaim as a scholarly tour de force, the first edition of this
volume of essays provides a comprehensive survey of these themes,
the history of their treatment in early modern and modern
philosophy, the development of Wittgenstein's ideas on these
subjects from 1929 onwards, and an elaborate analysis of his
definitive arguments in the Investigations. The new second edition
has been thoroughly revised by the author and features four new
essays. These include a survey of the evolution of the private
language arguments in Wittgenstein's oeuvre and their role within
the developing argument of the Investigations, a comprehensive
essay on private ownership of experience and its pitfalls, a
detailed examination and defence of Wittgenstein's repudiation of
subjective knowledge of one's experience, and an overview of the
achievement and importance of the private language arguments.
Revised essays examine new objections to Wittgenstein's arguments -
which are found wanting- and incorporate new materials from the
Nachlass that were not known to exist in 1990. All references have
been adjusted to the revised fourth edition of the Investigations,
but previous pagination in the first and second editions has been
retained in parentheses. These revisions bring the book up to the
high standard of the extensively revised editions of Wittgenstein:
Understanding and Meaning (Blackwell, 2005) and Wittgenstein:
Rules, Grammar and Necessity (Wiley Blackwell, 2009). They ensure
that this survey of Wittgenstein's private language arguments and
of his accounts of thought, imagination, consciousness, the self,
and criteria will remain the essential reference work on the
Investigations for the foreseeable future.
The author draws on lesser known archival materials, including
Marx's notebooks on women and patriarchy and technology to offer a
new interpretation of Marx's concept of alienation as this concept
develops in his later works.
This book discusses the legal thought of Bronislaw Malinowski
(1884-1942), undoubtedly one of the titans of social sciences who
greatly influenced not only the shape of modern cultural
anthropology but also the social sciences as a whole. This is the
first comprehensive work to focus on his legal conceptions: while
much has been written about his views on language, magic, religion,
and culture, his views on law have not been fairly reconstructed or
recapitulated. A glance at the existing literature illustrates how
little has been written about Malinowski's understanding of law,
especially in the legal sciences. This becomes even more evident
given the fact that Malinowski devoted much of his scholarly work
to studying law, especially in the last period of his life, during
which he conducted broad research on law and "primitive
jurisprudence". The main aim of this book is to address this gap
and to present in detail Malinowski's thoughts on law. The book is
divided into two parts. Part I focuses largely on the impact that
works of two distinguished professors from his alma mater (L.
Dargun and S. Estreicher) had on Malinowski's legal thoughts, while
Part II reconstructs Malinowski's inclusive, broad and
multidimensional understanding of law and provides new readings of
his legal conceptions mainly from the perspective of reciprocity.
The book offers a fresh look at his views on law, paving the way
for further studies on legal issues inspired by his methodological
and theoretical achievements. Malinowski's understanding of law
provides a wealth of fodder from which to formulate interesting
research questions and a solid foundation for developing theories
that more accurately describe and explain how law functions, based
on new findings in the social and natural sciences.
This book deals with the entrenched misunderstandings of
Feyerabend's philosophy, brings together the positive elements to
be found in Feyerabend's work, and presents these elements as a
coherent alternative conception of scientific rationality. It is
the first book-length study of Feyerabend's post-1970 philosophy
and will be an invaluable resource for philosophers of science,
students of the philosophy of science, and anyone who wants to
understand the views of one of the most influential philosophers of
science of the twentieth century.
This volume collects thirteen original essays that address the
concept of will in Classical German Philosophy from Kant to
Schopenhauer. During this short, but prolific period, the concept
of will underwent various transformations. While Kant identifies
the will with pure practical reason, Fichte introduces, in the wake
of Reinhold, an originally biological concept of drive into his
ethical theory, thereby expanding on the Kantian notion of the
will. Schelling, Hegel, and Schopenhauer take a step further and
conceive the will either as a primal being (Schelling), as a
socio-ontological entity (Hegel), or as a blindly striving,
non-rational force (Schopenhauer). Thus, the history of the will is
marked by a complex set of tensions between rational and
non-rational aspects of practical volition. The book outlines these
transformations from a historical and systematic point of view. It
offers an overview of the most important theories of the will by
the major figures of Classical German Philosophy, but also includes
interpretations of conceptions developed by lesser-studied
philosophers such as Maimon, Jacobi, Reinhold, and Bouterwek.
MY PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE MORAL AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS
OF OUR TIME by BENEDETTO CROCE. Contents include: Translators Note
page 5 Discourses on Philosophy I. My Philosophy n a. The Moral
Problem of Our Time 21 3. Why We Cannot Help Calling Ourselves
Christian 37 Philosophy of Politics 4. Unpolitical Man 51 5. The
State as Friend and as Enemy 55 6. An Essay in Communist Philosophy
64 7. Note on the History of Communism as Practical Politics 68 8.
The Idea of Classes as Real Entities 79 9. Aristocracy and the
Masses 84 10. Political Truth and Popular Myths 88 n. Liberalism
and Democracy 93 12. Justice and Liberty 97 13. Liberty and
Revolution 109 14. The - Theory of Liberty Once More in 15. Justice
as a Legal Conception 115 16. Peace and War 117 17. The
Idealisation of War 120 18. Patriotism a Disused Word 125 19.
Denationalisation of History 127 Problems of Ethics and Aesthetics
20. The Intellectual Life Morals and Aesthetics 131 21. Art as the
Form of Pure Knowledge 137 22. The Two Profane Sciences Aesthetics
and Economics 140 23. The Conflict of Duties 153 24. Manual Work
and Work of the Mind 158 Philosophy of History 25. Providence or
the Cunning of the Idea 167 26. The History of Ends and the History
of Means 172 27. The History of Events and Judgments of Value 176
28. In Praise of Individuality 180 29. Proust An Example of
Decadent Historical Method 208 Various Thoughts 30. Sexuality and
Spirituality 217 31. Our Debt to Thought 219 32. The Eternal
Problems 221 33. Eternal Truth 222 34. The Final Philosophy 224 35.
Eternal Life 225 36. The Identity of Philosophy and the Moral Life
226 37. Soliloquy of an Old Philosopher 233. DISCOURSES ON
PHILOSOPHY. MY PHILOSOPHY: I HAVE ALWAYS DECLINED the request to
expound my philosophy shortly in a popular way, partly because
philosophy, like any other work of man, can only be really
understood by those who are of the trade, and partly because this
possessive my has a bad sound. Any craftsman who takes up the job
which a fellow-worker or pre decessor has dropped, and carries it
on towards perfection does not call it his but our work. But I have
now reached the age when, as Giovanni Prati wrote, there rises in
the heart the sadness of the days that are no more. It was his
fortune to know sadness but not, as we do, to despair in the
encircling gloom of slaughter and destruction of all that we held
dear or sacred. I have reached the age when a mans life seems a
past that he can survey at a single glance, and when he himself
takes his place in history, or to put it more plainly, he looks at
himself as if he were dead. That is why I am now willing to comply
briefly, so far as is modest and reasonable, with the request.
Consistently with my simile of a craft as always a matter of colla
boration, we must get rid of the pretence or illusion that a philo
sophers work or system is a self-completed revelation of the
so-called mystery of reality...
"Iris Murdoch: A Reassessment" is an eclectic mix of essays that
reposition Murdoch's work in relation to current debates in
philosophy, theology, literature, gender and sexuality, and
authorship. The essays refine, develop or contest previous
readings, and blur the distinction between liberal humanist and
theoretical positions, suggesting negotiations between them. The
book not only questions established critical and philosophical
positions, but also Murdoch's own pronouncements about her work. It
suggests fresh influences and interpretations, and celebrates
Murdoch's interdisciplinary modernity.
The history of scepticism is assumed by many to be the history of
failed responses to a problem first raised by Descartes. While the
thought of the ancient sceptics is acknowledged, their principle
concern with how to live a good life is regarded as bearing little,
if any, relation to the work of contemporary epistemologists. In
"Scepticism" Neil Gascoigne engages with the work of canonical
philosophers from Descartes, Hume and Kant through to Moore,
Austin, and Wittgenstein to show how themes that first emerged in
the Hellenistic period are inextricably bound up with the
historical development of scepticism. Foremost amongst these is the
view that scepticism relates not to the possibility of empirical
knowledge but to the possibility of epistemological theory. This
challenge to epistemology itself is explored and two contemporary
trends are considered: the turn against foundationalist
epistemology and towards more naturalistic conceptions of inquiry,
and the resistance to this on the part of non-naturalistically
inclined philosophers. In contextualizing the debate in this way
Gascoigne equips students with a better appreciation of the
methodological importance of sceptical reasoning, an analytic
understanding of the structure of sceptical arguments, and an
awareness of the significance of scepticism to the nature of
philosophical inquiry.
The history of scepticism is assumed by many to be the history of
failed responses to a problem first raised by Descartes. While the
thought of the ancient sceptics is acknowledged, their principle
concern with how to live a good life is regarded as bearing little,
if any, relation to the work of contemporary epistemologists. In
"Scepticism" Neil Gascoigne engages with the work of canonical
philosophers from Descartes, Hume and Kant through to Moore,
Austin, and Wittgenstein to show how themes that first emerged in
the Hellenistic period are inextricably bound up with the
historical development of scepticism. Foremost amongst these is the
view that scepticism relates not to the possibility of empirical
knowledge but to the possibility of epistemological theory. This
challenge to epistemology itself is explored and two contemporary
trends are considered: the turn against foundationalist
epistemology and towards more naturalistic conceptions of inquiry,
and the resistance to this on the part of non-naturalistically
inclined philosophers. In contextualizing the debate in this way
Gascoigne equips students with a better appreciation of the
methodological importance of sceptical reasoning, an analytic
understanding of the structure of sceptical arguments, and an
awareness of the significance of scepticism to the nature of
philosophical inquiry.
The works of Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1757 1823) were a major factor
in the development of post-Kantian philosophy, yet his exact
contribution is still under discussion. This book investigates how
Reinhold s background in Enlightenment influenced his reception of
Kant? s critical philosophy. From his pre-Kantian efforts up to the
point where he began distancing himself from the master, Reinhold s
own philosophical development takes center stage. This development,
rather than critical philosophy, was the main ingredient of
Reinhold s contribution to post-Kantian philosophy."
There is no adequate understanding of contemporary Jewish and Christian theology without reference to Martin Buber. Buber wrote numerous books during his lifetime (1878-1965) and is best known for I and Thou and Good and Evil. Buber has influenced important Protestant theologians like Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Paul Tillich, and Reinhold Niebuhr. His appeal is vast--not only is he renowned for his translations of the Hebrew Bible but also for his interpretation of Hasidism, his role in Zionism, and his writings in psychotherapy and political philosophy.In addition to a general introduction, each chapter is individually introduced, illuminating the historical and philosophical context of the readings. Footnotes explain difficult concepts, providing the reader with necessary references, plus a selective bibliography and subject index.
This volume makes a significant contribution to both the study of
Derrida and of modernist studies. The contributors argue, first,
that deconstruction is not "modern"; neither is it "postmodern" nor
simply "modernist." They also posit that deconstruction is
intimately connected with literature, not because deconstruction
would be a literary way of doing philosophy, but because literature
stands out as a "modern" notion. The contributors investigate the
nature and depth of Derrida's affinities with writers such as
Joyce, Kafka, Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille, Paul Celan, Maurice
Blanchot, Theodor Adorno, Samuel Beckett, and Walter Benjamin,
among others. With its strong connection between philosophy and
literary modernism, this highly original volume advances modernist
literary study and the relationship of literature and philosophy.
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