Simone Weil philosopher, trade union militant, factory worker developed a penetrating critique of Marxism and a powerful political philosophy which serves an alternative both to liberalism and to Marxism. In A Truer Liberty, originally published in 1989, Blum and Seidler show how Simone Weil 's philosophy sought to place political action on a firmly moral basis. The dignity of the manual worker became the standard for political institutions and movements. Weil criticized Marxism for its confidence in progress and revolution and its attendant illusory belief that history is on the side of the proletariat.
Blum and Seidler relate Weil 's work to influential trends in political philosophy today, from analytic Marxism to central traditions within liberal thought. The authors stress the importance of Weil 's work for understanding liberation theology, Catholic radicalism, and, more generally, social movements against oppression which are closely tied to religion and spirituality.

Giorgio Agamben is one of the most important and controversial figures in contemporary continental philosophy and critical theory. His work covers a broad array of topics from biblical criticism to Guantanamo bay and the a ~war on terrora (TM).

Alex Murray explains Agambena (TM)s key ideas, including:

• an overview of his work from first publication to the present
• clear analysis of Agambena (TM)s philosophy of language and life
• theories of ethics and a ~witnessinga (TM)
• the relationship between Agambena (TM)s political writing and his work on aesthetics and poetics.

Investigating the relationship between politics, language, literature, aesthetics and ethics, this guide is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex nature of modern political and cultural formations.

The papers collected in this volume represent the main body of research arising from the International Munich Centenary Conference in 2001, which commemorated the discovery of the famous Russell Paradox a hundred years ago. The 31 contributions and the introductory essay by the editor were (with two exceptions) all originally written for the volume. The volume serves a twofold purpose, historical and systematic. One focus is on Bertrand Russell's logic and logical philosophy, taking into account the rich sources of the Russell Archives, many of which have become available only recently. The second equally important aim is to present original research in the broad range of foundational studies that draws on both current conceptions and recent technical advances in the above-mentioned fields. The volume contributes therefore, to the well-established body of mathematical philosophy initiated to a large extent by Russell's work.

Originally published in 1991, this book focuses on a major problem in the philosophy of Martin Buber. This is the topic of immediacy which is presented in terms of the contact between human beings on the one hand, and man and God on the other. The basic theme throughout is whether the I-Thou relation refers to immediate contact between human beings, as Buber saw it, or whether that relation is something established or aspired to. This is an important study which should be consulted in any future discussion of Martin Buber's thought. At the same time, it raises critical issues for recent European philosophy. Students of philosophy, and religious and social thought will find its critical exposition extremely helpful.

What might be the outcome for philosophy if its texts were subjected to the powerful techniques of rhetorical close-reading developed by current deconstructionist literary critics? When first published in 1983, Christopher Norrisa (TM) book was the first to explore such questions in the context of modern analytic and linguistic philosophy, opening up a new and challenging dimension of inter-disciplinary study and creating a fresh and productive dialogue between philosophy and literary theory.

Existential semiotics is a new paradigm which combines classical semiotics with continental philosophy. It does not mean a return to existentialism, albeit philosophers from Hegel and Kierkegaard to Heidegger, Jaspers and Sartre are its sources of inspiration. It introduces completely new sign categories and concepts to the field, recasting the whole of semiotics, communication and signification as integral to a transcendental art. The volume contains essays on music, the voice, silence, calligraphy, metaphysics, myth, aesthetics, entropy, cultural heritage, film, the Bible, among other subjects.

Two questions often shape our view of the world. On the one hand, we ask what there is, on the other hand, we ask what there ought to be. Empirical research and normative theory, the methodological traditions concerned with these questions, entered a difficult relationship, from at least as early as around the time of the advent of modern sciences. To this day, there remains a strong separation between the two domains, with both tending to neglect discourses and results from the other. Contrary to a verdict of strict segregation between "is" and "ought," there are, nowadays, various attempts to integrate both theoretical approaches. This calls for a discourse on the relation between empirical research and normative theory. In this volume, scholars from different disciplines - including psychology, sociology, economics, and philosophy - discuss the possible desired or undesired influences on, and limits of, the integration of these two approaches.

Providing a detailed and in depth analysis of one of the most important sociologists of the twentieth century, this Routledge Library Edition brings together some of the most significant and insightful scholarship on Michel Foucault published in the past quarter of a century. These five volumes, first published between 1984 and 1991, offer an extremely valuable study of this influential figure, covering a wide variety of themes, which range from Foucault's views on education and society through to his thoughts on ethics sexuality, Marxism and power. Not only does the collection offer a detailed analysis of Foucault's social and philosophical theories, it also seeks to assess the continuing influence and significance of Foucault in the decade immediately following his death in 1984.

Richard Rorty (1931 2007) remains one of the contemporary world s most influential thinkers. He has been a major figure in philosophy ever since the publication of his first important paper, Mind-Body Identity, Privacy, and Categories in 1965, but it was the release of his seminal Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979) that caused the literature on his work to expand exponentially, a process which has accelerated since his death in 2007; scores of new articles and books about Rorty appear every year, and even his biography has proved to be an academic bestseller. Rorty s enduring appeal has a number of sources. One is the scope and urgency of his views, for he was never shy about presenting his call for the abandonment of objective truth against the grand backdrop of the cultural progress of the West. Another is that his views were highly controversial, and yet could not be easily dismissed, since Rorty was able to claim with some plausibility that he was simply drawing out the consequences of positions developed by his more conventionally respectable peers. And another is that Rorty applied his views to a wide range of topical concerns outside of academic philosophy. For these and many other reasons, philosophers to this day line up to refute him, students read Rorty before the philosophers he discusses, and non-philosophy academics produce a continuous stream of articles applying his views to their own interests.

The daunting quantity (and variable quality) of literature available on Rorty makes it difficult to discriminate the useful from the tendentious, superficial, and otiose. That is why this new title in the highly regarded Routledge series, Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, is so urgently needed. Edited by James Tartaglia, the author of Rorty and the Mirror of Nature (Routledge, 2007), one of the most popular and straightforward books available on Rorty, this new Routledge Major Work is a four-volume collection of the best scholarship from the 1960s to the present day; the collected materials have been carefully selected from a wide range of academic journals, edited collections, and research monographs, many of which are hard to obtain in their original source.

The first of the four volumes ( Mind, Language, and Truth ) covers Rorty s eliminative materialism in the philosophy of mind, his Davidsonian rejection of conceptual schemes in the philosophy of language, and his rejection of objective truth. Volume II ( Metaphilosophy and Pragmatism ), meanwhile, assembles the best assessments of his pessimistic metaphilosophy, and his distinctive conception of pragmatism. The third volume ( Philosophers ) brings together the key scholarly work on Rorty s highly original but endlessly disputed interpretations of other philosophers, while the final volume in the collection (Volume IV: Themes ) explores Rorty s views as applied to a diverse range of topics, from feminism to environmentalism and bioethics.

The tightly focused organization of this collection will allow scholars quickly and easily to access both established and up-to-date assessments of Rorty s central positions, and will also make for irresistible browsing. With comprehensive introductions to each volume, providing essential background information and relating the various articles to each other, Richard Rorty is destined to be an indispensable resource for research and study.

The long nineteenth-century-the period beginning with the French Revolution and ending with World War I-was a transformative period for women philosophers in German-speaking countries and contexts. The period spans romanticism and idealism, socialism, Nietzscheanism, and phenomenology, philosophical movements we most often associate with Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Marx-but rarely with women. Yet women philosophers not only contributed to these movements, but also spearheaded debates about their social and political implications. While today their works are less well-known than those of their male contemporaries, many of these women philosophers were widely-read and influential in their own time. Their contributions shed important new light on nineteenth-century philosophy and philosophy more generally: revealing the extent to which various movements which we consider distinct were joined, and demonstrating the degree to which philosophy can transform lives and be transformed by lived experiences and practices. In the nineteenth century, women philosophers explored a wide range of philosophical topics and styles. Working within and in dialogue with popular philosophical movements, women philosophers helped shape philosophy's agenda and provided unique approaches to existential, political, aesthetic, and epistemological questions. Though largely deprived formal education and academic positions, women thinkers developed a way of philosophizing that was accessible, intuitive, and activist in spirit. The present volume makes available to English-language readers-in many cases for the first time-the works of nine women philosophers, with the hope of stimulating further interest in and scholarship on their works. The volume includes a comprehensive introduction to women philosophers in the nineteenth century and introduces each philosopher and her position. The translations are furnished with explanatory footnotes. The volume is designed to be accessible to students as well as scholars.

Does Wittgenstein's method of analysis rest on the distinction between internal and external relations? Approaching Wittgenstein's writings from a new perspective, Wittgenstein on Internal and External Relations focuses on how Wittgenstein distinguishes between relations that are grounded in the nature of their related terms, internal, and those which belong to them accidentally, external. This original approach reveals the difference to be one of the most fundamental distinctions that Wittgenstein drew in his writings. Working chronologically, it summarizes the philosophical background against which the distinction emerged, addressing Hegel, Bradley, Russell and Moore. Dealing with Wittgenstein's early and later writings, it distils definitions of the notions of internal and external relations and offers its applications, before concluding with the rationale for Wittgenstein's method of analysis. Making a valuable contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship, Wittgenstein on Internal and External Relations presents significant new insights into his relationship with Russell and Moore and shows how internal and external relations inform his entire philosophical approach.

Bringing together high profile scholars in the fields of Deleuze and postcolonial studies, this book highlights the overlooked connections between two major schools of contemporary criticism and establishes a new critical discourse for postcolonial literature and theory.

This 'philosophical biography' gives an account of Godwin's life and thought, and by setting his thoughts in the context of his life, brings the two into juxtaposition. It relates Godwin's views on politics and morality, education and religion, freedom and society, to the events of his life, notably the revolution in France and its impact on radicalism and reaction in Britain and the parliamentary reforms of 1832.

Jean Baudrillard is one of the most controversial theorists of our time, famous for his claim that the Gulf War never happened and for his provocative writing on terrorism, specifically 9/11. This new and fully updated second edition includes:

• 
  
  
  
  
  
• an introduction to Baudrillard's key works and theories such as simulation and hyperreality
• 
  
• coverage of Baudrillard's later work on the question of postmodernism
• 
  
• a new chapter on Baudrillard and terrorism
• 
  
• engagement with architecture and urbanism through the Utopie group
• 
  
• a look at the most recent applications of Baudrillard's ideas.
• 
  
  
  

Richard J. Lane offers a comprehensive introduction to this complex and fascinating theorist, also examining the impact that Baudrillard has had on literary studies, media and cultural studies, sociology, philosophy and postmodernism.

This book offers readers a collection of 50 short chapter entries on topics in the philosophy of language. Each entry addresses a paradox, a longstanding puzzle, or a major theme that has emerged in the field from the last 150 years, tracing overlap with issues in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics, political philosophy, and literature. Each of the 50 entries is written as a piece that can stand on its own, though useful connections to other entries are mentioned throughout the text. Readers can open the book and start with almost any of the entries, following themes of greatest interest to them. Each entry includes recommendations for further reading on the topic. Philosophy of Language: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments is useful as a standalone textbook, or can be supplemented by additional readings that instructors choose. The accessible style makes it suitable for introductory level through intermediate undergraduate courses, as well as for independent learners, or even as a reference for more advanced students and researchers. Key Features: Uses a problem-centered approach to philosophy of language (rather than author- or theory-centered) making the text more inviting to first-time students of the subject. Offers stand-alone chapters, allowing students to quickly understand an issue and giving instructors flexibility in assigning readings to match the themes of the course. Provides up-to-date recommended readings at the end of each chapter, or about 500 sources in total, amounting to an extensive review of the literature on each topic.

This is a book about evolution from a post-Darwinian perspective. It recounts the core ideas of French philosopher Henri Bergson and his rediscovery and legacy in the poststructuralist critical philosophies of the 1960s, and explores the confluences of these ideas with those of complexity theory in environmental biology.

When I entered the graduate program in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961, Nicholas Rescher had just joined the department of philosophy' to begin, with Adolf Grunbaum, the building of what is now a philosophy center of worldwide renown. Very soon his exceptional energy and versatility were in evidence, as he founded the American Philosophical Quarterly, generated a constantly rising stack of preprints, pursued impor tant scholarly research in Arabic logic, taught a staggering diversity of histori cal and thematic courses, and obtained, in cooperation with Kurt Baier, a major grant for work in value theory. That is all part of the record. What may come as a surprise is that none of it was accomplished at the expense of his students. Papers were returned in a matter of days, often the next class meet ing. And so easily accessible was he for philosophical discussion that, since (inevitably) we shared many philosophical interests, I asked him to serve as my dissertation advisor. My work in connection with this project led to a couple of journal articles while his, characteristically, led to a book. Our dis cussions certainly helped me, and while they may also have had some small influence on him, in the end our views were quite distinct. I was not only allowed complete independence, but was positively encouraged to think of my own ideas and to develop them independently. The length and breadth of Rescher's bibliography defy belief."

Jacques Derrida famously stated in Specters of Marx that a justice worthy of the name must call us to render justice not only to the living but also to the dead. In The Politics and Pedagogy of Mourning, Timothy Secret argues that offering a persuasive account of such a duty requires establishing a discussion among the 20th century's three key thinkers on death - Heidegger, Levinas and Freud. Despite arguing that none of these three figures' discourses offers us a complete account of our duty to the dead and that it remains impossible to unify them into a single, consistent and correct approach, Secret nevertheless offers an account of how Derrida managed to produce an always singular articulation of these discourses in each of the acts of eulogy he offered for his philosophical contemporaries. This is one of the first monographs to pay particular attention to the key role any contemporary account of the ethics of eulogy must grant to the revolutionary theoretical work on the materiality of crypts and phantoms offered by the psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok. Their work is shown to supplement major limitations in traditional philosophical accounts of the ethical relation. The account of eulogy as a privileged space where different discourses act on each other under the pressure of responding responsibly to an always singular loss proves itself essential reading not only for those interested in understanding Derrida's overtly political works, but also offers an account of a performative training in negotiating aporias that arise in political society - the result of which is a pedagogy in the art of civility whose relevance today is more timely than ever.

Kierkegaard: The Self in Society brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore Kierkegaard's continuing relevance to political and social issues. Kierkegaard is often portrayed as an out-and-out individualist with no concern for interpersonal relations. These essays not only refute this caricature, they bring out the complex nature of Kierkegaard's engagements with questions of selfhood and society. What Kierkegaard has to say about love, the church, politics and justice is shown to test the limits of what we take for granted in the modern (and postmodern) world.

In the first full-length analysis of Wittgenstein's Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, Brian R. Clack presents a fresh and innovative interpretation of Wittgenstein's conception of religion. While previous commentators have tended to sideline the Remarks on Frazer, Clack shows how the key to Wittgenstein's thought on religion lies in these remarks on primitive magico-religious observances. This book shows that Wittgenstein neither embraces expressivism, as it is generally assumed, nor straightforwardly denies instrumentalism. Focusing instead on Wittgenstein's suggestion that magic is somehow akin to metaphysics, a view of ritual as the spontaneous expression of human beings (conceived as "ceremonial animals") is presented.

This series, originally published in the 1920s and 1930s, includes work by some of the twentieth century's most well-known thinkers, scientists, philosophers, doctors, critics and artists. When first published it was immediately recognized as a noteworthy event. Written from various points of view, with one books frequently opposing the argument of another, the volumes provide the reader with numerous aspects of modern thought. It Sheds light on the conception of disciplines at the time Shows how disciplinary thinking is shaped by humanistic rhetoric Illustrates how literature is reshaped by scientific discourses Reveals the changing status of public intellectuals between the wars

As the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl has been hugely influential in the development of contemporary continental philosophy. In The Philosophy of Husserl, Burt Hopkins shows that the unity of Husserl's philosophical enterprise is found in the investigation of the origins of cognition, being, meaning, and ultimately philosophy itself. Hopkins challenges the prevailing view that Husserl's late turn to history is inconsistent with his earlier attempts to establish phenomenology as a pure science and also the view of Heidegger and Derrida, that the limits of transcendental phenomenology are historically driven by ancient Greek philosophy. Part 1 presents Plato's written and unwritten theories of eide and Aristotle's criticism of both. Part 2 traces Husserl's early investigations into the formation of mathematical and logical concepts and charts the critical necessity that leads from descriptive psychology to transcendentally pure phenomenology. Part 3 investigates the movement of Husserl's phenomenology of transcendental consciousness to that of monadological intersubjectivity. Part 4 presents the final stage of the development of Husserl's thought, which situates monadological intersubjectivity within the context of the historical a priori constitutive of all meaning. Part 5 exposes the unwarranted historical presuppositions that guide Heidegger's fundamental ontological and Derrida's deconstructive criticisms of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. The Philosophy of Husserl will be required reading for all students of phenomenology.

Hannah Arendt's work offers a powerful critical engagement with the cultural and philosophical crises of mid-twentieth-century Europe. Her idea of the banality of evil, made famous after her report on the trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, remains controversial to this day.

In the face of 9/11 and the 'war on terror', Arendt's work on the politics of freedom and the rights of man in a democratic state are especially relevant. Her impassioned plea for the creation of a public sphere through free, critical thinking and dialogue provides a significant resource for contemporary thought.

Covering her key ideas from The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition as well as some of her less well-known texts, and focussing in detail on Arendt's idea of storytelling, this guide brings Arendt's work into the twenty-first century while helping students to understand its urgent relevance for the contemporary world.

ABOUT THE DEATH AND ANTI-DEATH SERIES: The Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press discusses issues and controversies related to death, life extension, and anti-death. A variety of differing points of view are presented and argued. The following volumes in the series have been published: _________________________________________________ Death And Anti-Death, Volume 1: One Hundred Years After N. F. Fedorov (1829-1903) (Edited By Charles Tandy, Ph.D.) -- ISBN 0-9743472-0-5 is available from most bookstores -- The anthology discusses a number of interdisciplinary cultural, psychological, metaphysical, and moral issues and controversies related to death, life extension, and anti-death. This first volume in the series is in honor of the 19th century Russian philosopher N. F. Fedorov. (Some of the contributions are about Fedorov; most are not.) Each of the 17 chapters includes a selected or short bibliography. The anthology also contains an Introduction and an Index -- as well as an Abstracts section that serves as an extended table of contents. A variety of differing points of view are presented and argued. Most of the 400-plus pages consists of contributions unique to this volume. Although of interest to the general reader, the anthology functions well as a textbook for university courses in culture studies, death-related controversies, ethics, futuristics, humanities, interdisciplinary studies, life extension issues, metaphysics, and psychology. _________________________________________________ Death And Anti-Death, Volume 2: Two Hundred Years After Kant, Fifty Years After Turing (Edited By Charles Tandy, Ph.D.) -- ISBN 0-9743472-2-1 is available from most bookstores -- Thefollowing contributions are original to this volume of the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press: > Is The Universe Immortal?: Is Cosmic Evolution Never-Ending? (By Charles Tandy) > Death As Metaphor (By Lawrence Kimmel) > Fantasies Of Immortality (By Werner J. Wagner) > What Will The Immortals Eat? (By George M. Young) > Cultural Death Understanding (By Anthony S. Dawber) > Death And Immortality: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas And Descartes On The Soul (By Carol O'Brien) > Against The Immortality Of The Soul (By Matt McCormick) > Why Death Is (Probably) Bad For You: A Common Sense Approach (By R.C.W. Ettinger) > Resurrecting Kant's Postulate Of Immortality (By Scott R. Stroud) > Immortality and Finitude: Kant's Moral Argument Reconsidered (By Douglas Burnham) > Death, Harm, And The Deprivation Theory (By Jack Li) > To Be Or Not To Be: The Zombie In The Computer (By R.C.W. Ettinger) > The Future Of Human Evolution (By Nick Bostrom) > Earthlings Get Off Your Ass Now!: Becoming Person, Learning Community (By Charles Tandy) ABOUT THE EDITOR: Dr. Charles Tandy received his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from the University of Missouri at Columbia (USA) before becoming a Visiting Scholar in the Philosophy Department at Stanford University (USA). Presently Dr. Tandy is Associate Professor of Humanities, and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Philosophic Studies, at Fooyin University (Taiwan). Dr. Tandy is author or editor of numerous publications, including The Philosophy Of Robert Ettinger (2002); and, Death And Anti-Death, Volume 1 (2003). For more information, see .