'I concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature resides only in thinking, and which, in order to exist, has no need of place and is not dependent on any material thing.' Descartes's A Discourse on the Method of Correctly Conducting One's Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences marks a watershed in European thought; in it, the author provides an informal intellectual autobiography in the vernacular for a non-specialist readership, sweeps away all previous philosophical traditions, and sets out in brief his radical new philosophy, which begins with a proof of the existence of the self (the famous 'cogito ergo sum'), next deduces from it the existence and nature of God, and ends by offering a radical new account of the physical world and of human and animal nature. This new translation is accompanied by a substantial introductory essay which draws on Descartes's correspondence to examine his motivation and the impact of his great work on his contemporaries. Detailed notes explain his philosophical terminology and ideas. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Observations upon Liberal Education, the first modern edition, arose from a longing for a liberty of mind and tried to lay the groundwork for a society of free, virtuous, and educated citizens. The work's influence was by no means confined to Scotland. Benjamin Franklin drew generously from the work of Turnbull. The Liberty Fund edition of Observations upon Liberal Education is the first modern edition of this work ever published.

Francis Hutcheson is considered by many scholars of philosophy to be the father of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was influential in defining the modern social, political, economic, and institutional world. Despite his influence, he has been widely forgotten, until now. This considerable volume in Hutcheson's vast work addresses the nature of human nature. In the great tradition of Enlightenment thinkers before and after him, Hutcheson is here engaged in a process of defining terms on which social, political, and economic liberty could be justified in light of centuries of rule by various tyrants and monarchs. As editor Aaron Garrett notes, "In the Essay Hutcheson provides his crucial argument against Hobbes and Mandeville, that not just egoistic self preservation, but also benevolence, is an essential feature of human nature." Professor Garrett has constructed a critical variorum edition of this great work. As there are no manuscripts of the work, this could be done only by comparing all extant lifetime editions.

The edition of Nietzsche's correspondence is concluded with the commentary on the letters from and to Nietzsche in the crisis-ridden period from 1887 to 1889. The effort required for the commentary is particularly great for this time, as nearly every document from the period has been subjected to intense comment and interpretation. Renate MA1/4ller-Buck, who has proved her worth in editing the letters from the very beginnning of the project, has not only been involved in collating and accessing the manuscript resources (particularly the drafts of letters) but has over and above this devoted her attention to unravelling difficult personal connections, personal and literary allusions and the complicated networks in this wide-ranging correspondence. The comprehensive index to Section III, to which Holger Schmid has made an equal contribution, now provides access to the final and most complex episode in Friedrich Nietzsche's life and work.

In "An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense, "Francis Hutcheson answers the criticism that had been leveled against his first book "Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue" (1725). Together the two works constitute the great innovation in philosophy for which Hutcheson is most well known.
The first half of the "Essay" presents a rich moral psychology built on a theory of the passions and an account of motivation, deepening and augmenting the doctrine of moral sense developed in the "Inquiry." The second half of the work, the "Illustrations, " is a brilliant attack on rationalist moral theories and is the font of many of the arguments taken up by Hume and used to this day.
As editor Aaron Garrett notes, "In the "Essay" Hutcheson provides his crucial argument against Hobbes and Mandeville, that not just egoistic self-preservation, but also benevolence, is an essential feature of human nature."
Professor Garrett has constructed a critical variorum edition of this great work. Because there are no manuscripts of the work, this could be done only by comparing all extant lifetime editions. Three such editions exist: those of 1728, 1730 (chiefly a reprint of the 1728 edition), and 1742. The Liberty Fund edition collates the first edition with Hutcheson's revision of 1742.
Francis Hutcheson was a crucial link between the continental European natural law tradition and the emerging Scottish Enlightenment. Hence, he is a pivotal figure in the Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics series. A contemporary of Lord Kames and George Turnbull, an acquaintance of David Hume, and the teacher of Adam Smith, Hutcheson was arguably the leading figure in making Scotland distinctive within the general European Enlightenment.
Aaron Garrett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University.
Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.

Exploring the experiments in individual and national self-consciousness conducted during the Romantic period, this essential comparative study of European literature, philosophy and politics makes original and often surprising connections and contrasts to reveal how personal and social identities were re-orientated and disorientated from the French Revolution onwards. Reviving a contested moment in the history of aesthetic theory, this study shows how the growing awareness of irresolution in Kant's third Kritik allowed Romantic writers to put the aesthetic to radical uses not envisaged by its parent philosophy. It also recounts how they would go on to force philosophy to revise received notions of authority, empowering women and subordinated ethnic groups to re-orientate existing hierarchies. The sheer range and variety of writers covered is testament both to the breadth of writing that Kant's philosophy so rashly legitimated and to the wider importance of philosophy to the understanding of Romantic literature.

Der Widerspruch, den Kant in der Kritik der praktischen Vernunft unter den Titeln "Dialektik" und "Antinomie der praktischen Vernunft" beschreibt, wurde bisher sehr unterschiedlich verstanden. Das Buch dokumentiert zum ersten Mal die enorme Vielfalt der divergierenden Deutungen und bietet eine textorientierte Analyse der Antinomie und ihrer Aufloesung, die in vielen Aspekten heute weithin akzeptierten Auslegungen und Bewertungen widerspricht. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass die Antinomie erst moeglich wurde, nachdem Kant noch nach 1781 wichtige Korrekturen an den Prinzipien der sittlichen Verpflichtung und Triebfeder vorgenommen hatte. Sie macht deutlich, dass die Antinomie der praktischen Vernunft sich in ihrer Struktur und Funktion charakteristisch von den Antinomien in der Kritik der reinen Vernunft unterscheidet.

Zentrale Theoriebestandteile der kritischen Philosophie Kants und der fruhen Wissenschaftslehre Fichtes werden in einer detaillierten Interpretation einander gegenubergestellt. Dazu gehoeren sowohl das reine als auch das konkrete Ich, die Einbildungskraft, die Ableitung und die Rechtfertigung der Kategorien sowie das Ding an sich. Bei der Ausarbeitung dieser Themen zeigt sich, dass die Ansatze Kants und Fichtes uber ihre herausragende historische Bedeutung hinaus in verschiedener Weise nach wie vor grundlegende Moeglichkeiten fur eine Philosophie des Geistes und eine Erkenntnistheorie bereitstellen.

Philosophy enquires into the relationship between being and thought, existence and determination. In his early works, Kant approaches this basic problem of philosophy as determined by conventional rationalist metaphysics. Starting from the realisation that existence is not the determination, is not the predicate of an object, but its absolute position, Kant intervenes in the ontological and theological discussion of his age and develops his own philosophical position from the differentiation between real and philosophical reasons. The author demonstrates Kant's struggle with this basic problem from his pre-critical writings up to his Critiques. In an excursus he deals with the posthumous works and with the return of the approach in Schelling's late philosophy and its turn to an unpredicated being.

The question of how far Dewey's thought is indebted to Hegel has long been a conundrum for philosophers. This book shows that, far from repudiating Hegel, Dewey's entire pragmatic philosophy is premised on a "philosophy of spirit" inspired by Hegel's project. Two essays by Shook and Good defending this radical viewpoint are joined by the definitive text of Dewey's 1897 Lecture at the University of Chicago on Hegel's "Philosophy of Spirit." Previously cited by scholars only from the archival manuscript, this edited Lecture is now available to fully expose the basic concern shared by Hegel and Dewey for the full and free development of the individual in the social context. Dewey's and Hegel's philosophies are at the center of modern philosophy's hopes for advancing human freedom.

Kant conceived of 'critique' as a kind of winnowing exercise, with the aim of separating the wheat of good metaphysics from the chaff of bad. He used a less familiar metaphor to make this point, namely, that of 'the fiery test of critique'-not a medieval ordeal of trial by fire, but rather a metallurgical assay, or cupellation, a procedure in which ore samples are tested for their precious-metal content. When seen in this light, critique has a positive, investigatory side: it seeks not merely to eliminate bad, 'dogmatic' metaphysics but also to uncover what of philosophical value might be contained in traditional speculative metaphysics. In this comprehensive study of the Transcendental Dialectic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Proops argues that Kant uncovered two nuggets of value: the indirect proof of Transcendental Idealism afforded by the resolution of the Antinomies, and a defence of theoretically grounded 'doctrinal beliefs' in a wise and great originator, on the one hand, and in an afterlife, on the other. This examination of critique engages with Kant's views on a number of central problems in philosophy and meta-philosophy: the explanation of the enduring human impulse towards metaphysics, the correct philosophical method, the limits of self-knowledge, the possibility of human freedom, the resolution of metaphysical paradox ('Antinomy'), the justification of faith, the nature of scepticism, and the role of 'as if' reasoning in natural science.

Philosophy, art, literature, music, and politics were all transformed in the turbulent period between the French Revolution of 1789 and the Communist Manifesto of 1848. This was the age of the 'Romantic revolution', when modern attitudes to political and artistic freedom were born. When we think of Romanticism, flamboyant figures such as Byron or Shelley instantly spring to mind, but what about Napoleon or Hegel, Turner or Blake, Wagner or Marx? How was it that Romanticism could give birth to passionate individualism and chauvinistic nationalism at the same time? How did it prefigure the totalitarian movements of the 20th century? Duncan Heath and Judy Boreham answer these questions and provide a unique overview of the many interlocking strands of Romanticism, focusing on the leading figures in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and America.

The Essential Berkeley and Neo-Berkeley is an introduction to the life and work of one of the most significant thinkers in the history of philosophy and a penetrating philosophical assessment of his lasting legacy. Written in clear and user-friendly style, Berman provides: * A concise summary of George Berkeley (1685-1753)'s life and writings * An accessible introduction to the structure of Berkeley's most authoritative work, The Principles of Human Knowledge * An overview of common misunderstandings of Berkeley's philosophy, and how to avoid them Beyond solely an introduction, Berman also gives us a broader and deeper appreciation of Berkeley as a philosopher. He argues for Berkeley's work as a philosophical system with coherence and important key themes hitherto unexplored and provides an analysis of why he thinks Berkeley's work has had such lasting significance. With a particular focus on Berkeley's dualist thinking and theories of 'mental types', Berman provides students and scholars with a key to unlocking the significance of this work. This introductory text will provide an insight into Berkeley's full body of work, the distinctiveness of his thinking and how deeply relevant this key thinker is to contemporary philosophy.

"Beyond Good and Evil" is Nietzsche's first sustained philosophical treatment of issues important to him. Unlike the expository prose of the essayistic period (1872-76), the stylized forays and jabs of the aphoristic period (1878-82), and the lyrical-philosophical rhetoric of the Zarathustra-period (1882-85), "Beyond Good and Evil" inscribes itself boldly into the history of philosophy, challenging ancient and modern notions of philosophy's achievements and insisting on a new task for "new philosophers." This is a watershed book for Nietzsche and for philosophy in the modern era. "On the Genealogy of Morality" applies Nietzsche's celebrated genealogical method, honed in the earlier aphoristic writings, to the problem of morality's influence on the human species. In three treatises that strikingly anticipate insights appearing much later in Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents" (1930), Nietzsche provides an anthropological psychograph of our species, revealing the origins of the concepts of good and evil, the roles played by guilt and bad conscience, and the persistence of ascetic ideals. Manifesting a hopeful yet unsentimental assessment of the human condition, these books resonated throughout the 20th century and continue to exert broad appeal.

In his monumental "Critique of Pure Reason, " German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argues that human knowledge is limited by the capacity for perception. He attempts a logical designation of two varieties of knowledge: "a posteriori, " the knowledge acquired through experience; and "a priori, " knowledge not derived through experience. Kant maintains that the most practical forms of human knowledge employ the "a priori" judgments that are possible only when the mind determines the conditions of its own experience. This accurate translation by J. M. Meiklejohn offers a simple and direct rendering of Kant's work that is suitable for readers at all levels.