Throughout his philosophical development, Wittgenstein was more concerned with language than with any other topic. No other philosopher has been as influential on our understanding of the deep problems surrounding language, and yet the true significance of his writing on the subject is difficult to assess, since most of the current debates regarding language tend to overlook his work. In this book, Thomas McNally shows that philosophers of language still have much to learn from Wittgenstein's later writings. The book examines the finer details of his arguments while also clarifying their importance for debates outside the field of Wittgenstein studies. Presenting the issues thematically (as they relate to questions of reference, scepticism about meaning, and the social dimension of language, among others), the book explores how the arguments in the Philosophical Investigations remain relevant, compelling us to reflect in novel and challenging ways on the nature of language.

As seen on Oprah's Book Club! The #1 New Zealand Bestseller! Discover how to live a happier life - simple, traditional wisdom for difficult modern times. Aroha is an ancient Maori word and way of thinking. Maori psychiatrist Dr Hinemoa Elder explores how Aroha can help us all by sharing 52 thought-provoking whakatauki, traditional Maori life lessons - one for each week of the year. Discover how we can all find greater contentment and kindness for ourselves, each other and our world by understanding how we might invite the values of Aroha into our daily lives. Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, ki te kapuia, e kore e whati. When we stand alone we are vulnerable but together we are unbreakable.

For centuries it was believed that all matter was composed of four elements: earth, air, water, and fire in promiscuous combination, bound by love and pulled apart by strife. Elemental theory offered a mode of understanding materiality that did not center the cosmos around the human. Outgrown as a science, the elements are now what we build our houses against. Their renunciation has fostered only estrangement from the material world. The essays collected in Elemental Ecocriticism show how elemental materiality precipitates new engagements with the ecological. Here the classical elements reveal the vitality of supposedly inert substances (mud, water, earth, air), chemical processes (fire), and natural phenomena, as well as the promise in the abandoned and the unreal (ether, phlogiston, spontaneous generation). Decentering the human, this volume provides important correctives to the idea of the material world as mere resource. Three response essays meditate on the connections of this collaborative project to the framing of modern-day ecological concerns. A renewed intimacy with the elemental holds the potential of a more dynamic environmental ethics and the possibility of a reinvigorated materialism.

Readings in Chinese Women's Philosophical and Feminist Thought gathers 40 original writings on women by 32 authors (many of whom are women) from the Yuan dynasty to the Republics, an important 700-year historical period during which women's learning in China blossomed as a result of economic prosperity, the development of commercial printing, and the interaction between East and West. Selections are made not only from canonical texts on women's virtues, but also from less orthodox literary works such as plays, poetry, novels, essays, and revolutionary writings that illuminate the lived experience of women and the perception of gender. With many texts translated into English for the first time, this reader provides the context needed to understand them. It features: - Chronologically organized readings in the sequence of the Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties, and the Republics to demonstrate historical progression of thought (or the lack of) - Introductions to each section and chapter covering essential information about the authors and the cultural, historical, and philosophical background to their work - A chronology of dynasties, Republics, key events, and a map Recovering discourse so often neglected in discussion of Chinese thought, this is the first collection to pay special attention to women-authored works from the late 13th to the early 21st century. By bringing these readings together in a single volume, it juxtaposes and compares female and male perspectives from the same time and creates a new narrative of Chinese philosophical thought.

A new and complete translation in English of this controversial and provocative modern text, with substantive notes -- educating readers to the sources and traditions of the words employed -- a glossary of terms, various indices, selected biography, and an interpretative essay.

How ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This Very Short Introduction discusses some of the key questions philosophy engages with. Edward Craig explores important themes in ethics, and the nature of knowledge and the self, through readings from Plato, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. Throughout, he emphasizes why we do phiilosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in which philosophy was and is done. This new edition includes a new chapter on free will, discussing determinism and indeterminism in the context of Descartes and Hegel's work. Craig also covers the Problem of Evil, and Kant's argument on the source of moral obligation. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This text introduces the most important Jewish philosophers of contemporary times from the point of view of their original approach to both Judaism and philosophy and include: Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenweig, Martin Buber, Leo Strauss, Emmanuel Levinas. It shows how for them the dialogue between Judaism and philosophy is necessary in order to avoid on one side, an attachment to Jewish tradition which is only nationalistic or non-rational; and on the other, an idea of philosophy which first of all focuses the problems of nature, human existence in the world, or God as the origin of being. In reconstructing the intellectual evolution of each of these twentieth-century philosophers with a view to their meaning today, this book is unique and goes beyond the standard historical account provided by other books. Contemporary Jewish Philosophy is essential reading for researchers and students of philosophy, Judaism and the history of religions.

The first volume to offer a comprehensive scholarly treatment of Rand's entire corpus (including her novels, her philosophical essays, and her analysis of the events of her times), this Companion provides vital orientation and context for scholars and educated readers grappling with a controversial and understudied thinker whose enduring influence on American (and world) culture is increasingly recognized. The first publication to provide an in-depth scholarly treatment ranging over the whole of Rand's corpus Provides informed contextual analysis for scholars in a variety of disciplines Presents original research on unpublished material and drafts from the Rand archives in California Features insightful and fair-minded interpretations of Rand's controversial positions

This collection of essays focuses on theories and practices in relation to the arts around the globe - particularly those that have been ignored or marginalized by mainstream aesthetics and philosophy of art, and explains specific ways that the concepts of the aesthetic and of the arts might be enriched and enhanced.

Explores a variety of art forms, including music, architecture, and the visual arts, with numerous specific examples
Discusses a variety of cultural traditions, including the gamelan in Central Java, gong music of the central Vietnamese highlands, contemporary Chinese visual arts, Balinese aesthetics, Islamic aesthetics
Contains clear explanations of key ideas in specific non-Western art theories and practices
Argues that the participation in artistic practices and the experience of art are deeply embedded in one' s sense of self, in moral action, and in how one negotiates one's way through the world

Available for the first time in a handy, easy-to-use size, here is the most accessible and authoritative modern English translation of the ancient Chinese classic. This new Vintage edition includes an introduction and notes by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.

In this book Rose illuminates the extraordinary creativity of Jewish intellectuals as they reevaluated Judaism with the tools of a German philosophical tradition fast emerging as central to modern intellectual life. While previous work emphasizes the "subversive" dimensions of German-Jewish thought or the "inner antisemitism" of the German philosophical tradition, Rose shows convincingly the tremendous resources German philosophy offered contemporary Jews for thinking about the place of Jews in the wider polity. Offering a fundamental reevaluation of seminal figures and key texts, Rose emphasizes the productive encounter between Jewish intellectuals and German philosophy. He brings to light both the complexity and the ambivalence of reflecting on Jewish identity and politics from within a German tradition that invested tremendous faith in the political efficacy of philosophical thought itself.

This book breaks the stereotype that links Chinese philosophy solely to Confucianism, instead providing a kaleidoscopic view of Chinese philosophy of education. The contributors explore a variety of issues, including the journey of modernisation (or Westernisation) of China's education between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries; Chinese identity and the concept of race in education and history; contemporary interpretations of Confucian pedagogy in relation to twenty-first-century skills; the life story of a teacher in modern China as embodying the spirit of a Confucian pedagogue; the ecological self in education; an original interpretation of postmodern-Daoist symbolism; and the role of translation in producing and transmitting knowledge across cultural and linguistic boundaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Early in his career, Fernand Brunner became one of the few specialists on Ibn Gabirol, a Jewish philosopher and poet in 11th-century Spain, whose treatise, the Fons vitae, is known only in Latin translation. Brunner showed the coherence of this rarely studied version of Platonism and traced its impact on the scholastic philosophy of the succeeding centuries. His work was guided by a systematic interest in Platonic solutions to such problems as the relations of matter and form, and of God to the world. This volume includes a number of previously unpublished papers, several of which also provide broad expositions of a Platonic ontology. The author makes his reader aware that arguments as well as images must be taken seriously in the attempt to approach the Platonic tradition. Des le debut de sa carriere, Fernand Brunner est rapidement devenu l'un des rares specialistes d'Ibn Gabirol, le poete philosophe juif espagnol du 11e siecle - dont le traite, le Fons vitA|, n'est connu qu'en version latine. Guide dans ses recherches par un interAt systematique pour les solutions platoniciennes aux problemes des rapports entre la forme et la matiere, et entre Dieu et le monde, Brunner a demontre la coherence de cette interpretation rarement etudiee du platonisme et en a retrace l'effet sur la philosophie scolastique des siecles suivants. Ce volume comprend plusieurs exposes inedits traitant de l'ontologie platonicienne dont la comprehension, selon Brunner, est essentielle A tout historien de la philosophie. L'auteur fait prendre conscience A ses lecteurs de l'importance des arguments, tout comme des metaphores, dans toute tentative d'approche de la tradition platonique.

Featuring the Chinese text on the left and the English translation on the right, this beautifully bound edition of Sun Tzu's classic text makes a unique gift or collector's item. Written in the sixth century BCE, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is still widely read and consulted today for its timeless, piercing insights into strategy and tactics. Napoleon, Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and General Douglas MacArthur all claimed to have drawn inspiration from it. Beyond the world of war, business and management gurus have also applied Sun Tzu's ideas to office politics and corporate strategy. This edition of The Art of War is printed on high-quality paper and bound by traditional Chinese book-making techniques. It contains the full 13 chapters on such topics as laying plans, attacking by stratagem, weaponry, terrain, and the use of spies. Sun Tzu addresses different campaign situations, marching, energy, and how to exploit your enemy's weaknesses. This edition is an essential addition to any library, whether you're fascinated by the philosophy of warfare, Chinese history, or even twenty-first-century business.

Sanchez and Sanchez have selected, edited, translated, and introduced some of the most influential texts in Mexican philosophy, which constitute a unique and robust tradition that will challenge and complicate traditional conceptions of philosophy. The texts collected here are organized chronologically and represent a period of Mexican thought and culture that emerged from the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and which culminated in la filosofia de lo mexicano (the philosophy of Mexicanness). Though the selections reflect on a variety of philosophical questions, collectively they represent a growing tendency to take seriously the question of Mexican national identity as a philosophical question-especially given the complexities of Mexico's indigenous and European ancestries, a history of colonialism, and a growing dependency on foreign money and culture. More than an attempt to describe the national character, however, the texts gathered here represent an optimistic period in Mexican philosophy that aimed to affirm Mexican culture and philosophy as a valuable, if not urgent, contribution to universal culture.

In this remarkable new book, Paramahansa Yogananda provides a revelatory introduction to the hidden yoga of the Gospels. A selection of material from his highly acclaimed two-volume work, The Second Coming of Christ (Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004), this concise book is designed as both a stand-alone work, and as an introduction to that larger, comprehensive commentary on the Gospels. Yogananda, who is widely known as the father of yoga in the West, explores the role of Jesus as yogi and avatar (divine incarnation). He removes the centuries of dogma and misunderstanding that obscure Christ's original teachings, and shows that Jesus' message is not about sectarian divisiveness, but is a unifying path by which seekers of all faiths and traditions can enter the kingdom of God. Topics include: The "lost years" of Jesus in India / The true meaning of baptism / The correlation between "to be born again" and karma and reincarnation.

This second selection of articles by George Makdisi concentrates on the schools of religious thought and legal learning in the medieval Islamic world and their defence of 'orthodoxy'. The author aims to review and re-assess the implications of the conflict between, first, the 'rationalist' and the 'traditional' theologians (the one accepting the influence of Greek philosophy, the other rejecting it), and then between one of these traditionalist schools - the Hanbali school of law - and Sufi mysticism. One of the most important consequences of the first of these confrontations, he contends, was the emergence of the schools of law as the guardians of the faith and theological orthodoxy. The final section of the book also looks at the structure of legal learning, at the institutions themselves, their organization and the principles upon which they operated. As well as entering the debate over the existence of corporations and guilds of law in classical Islam - maintaining that they did exist - these articles further suggest links between such institutions and the evolution of universities in the medieval West, and the Inns of Court in England, and discuss the Islamic and Arabic contribution to the concepts of academic amd intellectual freedom and to the development of scholasticism and humanism. Cette seconde collection d'articles par George Makdisi se concentre sur les ecoles de la pensee religieuse et de la science juridique, dans le monde islamique medieval. L'auteur a pris pour objectif de reviser et de re-evaluer les implications du conflit entre, premierement, les theologiens rationalistes et traditionalistes (les premieres etant ouverts A l'influence de la philosophie grecque que les seconds rejettaient) et, deuxiemement, entre l'une de ces ecoles traditionalistes - l'ecole de droit Hanbali - et le mysticisme Sufi. L'une des consequences les plus importantes, selon lui, de la premiere de ces confrontations A ete la po

This book, appropriately titled Decolonisation, Africanisation and the Philosophy Curriculum, signposts and captures issues about philosophy, the philosophy curriculum, and its decolonisation and Africanisation. This topic is of critical importance at present for the discipline of philosophy, not the least because philosophy and the current philosophical canons are perceived to be improvised by virtue of their historical marginalisation and exclusion of other valuable and important philosophical traditions and perspectives. The continued marginalisation and exclusion of one such philosophical tradition and perspective, i.e. African philosophy connects to issues of space contestations and raise questions of justice. The chapters in this book engage with all of these issues, and they also attempt to make sense of what it will mean for philosophy and the philosophy curriculum to be decolonised and Africanised; how to go about achieving this task; and what the challenges and problems are that confront efforts to decolonise and Africanise the philosophy curriculum. Furthermore, the contributors initiate discussions on the value and importance of non-western philosophical traditions and perspectives, and by so doing challenge the dormant and triumphant narrative and hegemony of Western philosophy, as well as the centrality accorded to it in philosophical discourse. The chapters in this book were originally published as articles in the South African Journal of Philosophy.

As a Festschrift, this book celebrates and honours the scholarly achievements of Professor Jaysankar Lal Shaw, one of the most eminent and internationally acclaimed comparative philosophers of our times. Original works by leading international philosophers and logicians are presented here, exploring themes such as: meaning, negation, perception and Indian and Buddhist systems of philosophy, especially Nyaya perspectives. Professor Shaw's untiring effort to solve some of the problems of contemporary philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, metaphysics and morals from the perspectives of classical Indian philosophers or systems of philosophy is deserving of a tribute. Chapters in this volume reflect the diverse aspects of Shaw's contribution to comparative philosophy and are organised into four sections: Language, Epistemology, Mathematics and Logic, Ethics and Politics. These chapters would appeal to anyone interested in philosophy or East-West thinking, including students and professionals. Graduates and researchers with interests in epistemology, metaphysics, political philosophy, logic and non-western philosophy will find this work highly relevant. Regarding the editors, Purushottama Bilimoria is a honorary professor at Deakin University and research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, a Visiting Professor and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Graduate Theological Union; Michael Hemmingsen is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.

This volume, comprised of 42 newly commissioned and 5 adapted essays, provides comprehensive coverage of African philosophy, ranging across disciplines and throughout the ages.

The essays encompass all the main branches of philosophy - logic, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, religion, and politics, among others - as these have occupied the African mind in both communal and individual conceptions. A special feature of the volume is its historical dimension, including a substantial treatment of ancient African philosophy as encountered in ancient Egypt, an extended study of medieval North African thinkers, an enlightening discussion of pre-colonial African philosophy, and a history of African political thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

"A Companion to African Philosophy" is unique in its depth and breadth of coverage. It is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to learn about African philosophy and its rich history.

This book proposes a new way of understanding the concept of currere, first described by William Pinar, as an approach to curriculum studies. Derived from her subject position as a Chinese woman who has studied in Beijing and Hong Kong and now researches in Vancouver, the author sets out to contribute to the distinctiveness of a Chinese cosmopolitan theory of curriculum as experienced: the initial formulation of a Chinese currere. Juxtaposing currere with elements of ancient Chinese philosophical thought to inform a cosmopolitan concept of spirituality, chapters articulate the author's own journey through subjective reconstruction, shedding light on how her subjectivity has been reconstructed through autobiography and academic study toward a coherent self capable of sustained, critical, and creative engagement with the world.

One of the greatest Marxist theorists of his generation, Georg Lukacs was a prolific writer of remarkably catholic, if moralistic, tastes. In The Lukacs Reader , his biographer Arpad Kadarkay represents the great range and variety of Lukacsa s output. The reader includes, in original translations, and with introductory essays, Lukacs on: Kierkegaard, Shakespeare, Ford, Strindberg, Ibsen, Wilde, Shaw, Gaughin, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. Also collected are: the autobiographical essay a On the Poverty of Spirita , material from Lukacsa s diary, and such key articles as: a Aesthetic Culturea , a The Ideology of Modernisma , a Bolshevism as an Ethical Problema , and a Class Consciousnessa . What emerges is a figure very much at the centre of European thought whose value to modern culture and philosophy differs markedly from that which received opinion generally admits.

How are we placed on Earth? What is our relationship to the world around us, and how does our thinking affect the way we relate to the world? We are entrapped, says A. James Wohlpart, by what Martin Heidegger calls "enframing" a worldview that considers all objects as mere resources for our use. Walking in the Land of Many Gods envisions a new way of thinking about the world, one grounded in a moral imagination reconnected to Earth. Insightful readings of three contemporary classics of nature writing - Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and Linda Hogan's Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World - are at the heart of Wohlpart's endeavor. Powerful and affecting works like these reveal a pathway to a deeper remembering, one that reconnects us with the primal forces of creation and acknowledges the sacredness of the world. We have forgotten that the world around us is rich and fertile and generative, says Wohlpart. His exploration of these literary works, based on deep anthropology and Native American philosophy, opens a pathway into a new way of thinking called sacred reason. Founded on interdependence and interrelationship, and on care and compassion, sacred reason reminds us that divinity exists around us at all times. We are invited to walk, once again, in a land filled with many gods.

"Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader" sets out a timely and critical agenda for contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American philosophy.

With many leading contributors, this collection of newly-commissioned work provides key coverage of the postcolonial and the postmodern; the critique of eurocentrism in philosophy; philosophy in post-independence Africa and post-civil rights black America; multi-culturalism; and inter-cultural dialogue between contemporary African and western philosophy in the academy. In addition, it includes important interventions on the historical, political, and cultural situations of Africa and America at the end of the twentieth century, and philosophy's role in this milieu.

Designed to complement Emmanuel Eze's "Racist Enlightenment" (1996) and "African Philosophy: An Anthology" (1997) also published by Blackwell, these volumes represent powerful new intervention in a fast developing area of study and research.