The period leading up to the Revolutions of 1848 was a seminal moment in the history of political thought, demarcating the ideological currents and defining the problems of freedom and social cohesion which are among the key issues of modern politics. This 2006 anthology offers research on Hegel's followers in the 1830s and 1840s. With essays by philosophers, political scientists, and historians from Europe and North America, it pays special attention to questions of state power, the economy, poverty, and labour, as well as to ideas on freedom. The book examines the political and social thought of Eduard Gans, Ludwig Feuerbach, Max Stirner, Bruno and Edgar Bauer, the young Engels, and Marx. It places them in the context of Hegel's philosophy, the Enlightenment, Kant, the French Revolution, industrialization, and urban poverty. It also views Marx and Engels in relation to their contemporaries and interlocutors in the Hegelian school.

George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense but that it was also integral to its defense. Roberts argues that understanding the basic connection between Berkeley's philosophy and common sense requires that we develop a better understanding of the four principle components of Berkeley's positive metaphysics: The nature of being, the divine language thesis, the active/passive distinction, and the nature of spirits.
Roberts begins by focusing on Berkeley's view of the nature of being. He elucidates Berkeley's view on Locke and the Cartesians and by examining Berkeley's views about related concepts such as unity and simplicity. From there he moves on to Berkeley's philosophy of language arguing that scrutiny of the famous "Introduction" to the Principles of Human Knowledge reveals that Berkeley identified the ideational theory of meaning and understanding as the root cause of some of the worst of man's intellectual errors, not "abstract ideas." Abstract ideas are, rather, the most debilitating symptom of this underlying ailment. In place of the ideational theory, Berkeley defends a rudimentary "use theory" of meaning. This understanding of Berkeley's approach to semantics is then applied to the divine language thesis and is shown to have important consequences for Berkeley's pragmatic approach to the ontology of natural objects and for his approach to our knowledge of, and relation to other minds, including God's. Turning next to Berkeley's much aligned account of spirits, the author defends the coherence of Berkeley's view of spirits by way of providing an interpretation of the active/passive distinction as marking anormative distinction and by focusing on the role that divine language plays in letting Berkeley identify the soul with the will. With these four principles of Berkeley's philosophy in hand, he then returns to the topic of common sense and offers a defense of Berkeley's philosophy as built upon and expressive of the deepest metaphysical commitments of mainstream Christianity.
Roberts' reappraisal of this important figure should appeal to all historians of philosophy as well as scholars in metaphysics and philosophy of language.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought.

Did Hobbes's political philosophy have practical intentions? There exists no "Hobbist" school of thought; no new political order was inspired by Hobbesian precepts. Yet in Behemoth Teaches Leviathan Geoffrey M. Vaughan revisits Behemoth to reveal hitherto unexplored pedagogic purpose to Hobbes's political philosophy. The work demonstrates Hobbes's firm commitment to government and his attempts to create a system of political education to underpin his commitment to sovereignty. Vaughan explore Hobbes's political education in detail and in an epilogue considers the resurgence of political education in contemporary liberal theory. He discovers that contemporary political education has far more in common with Hobbes's system than it does with early liberalism.

Ethical Politics and Modern Society introduces and critically examines British idealist philosopher, Thomas Hill Green, his practical philosophy, and its reception in China between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. As a response to the modernity issue in Great Britain, Green's philosophy, in particular his ethical politics, anticipated a practical solution to the individual alienation issue in modern society. Witnessing the resemblance between Green's ethical politics and classical Chinese ethical and political thought, some Chinese scholars became inclined to take Green's thought as an intellectual approach to assimilate Western modernity. While Green and the Chinese scholars both intended to articulate an ethical conception of modern politics in response to the issue of modernity, their results were very different. In this book, James Jia-Hau Liu analyses why modern Chinese scholars introduced Green's philosophy to China and why the studies of Green's philosophy in China have since faded away. Modern Chinese scholars, such as Gao Yi-Han, Chin Yueh-Lin, Tang Jun-Yi, Chang Fo-Chuan, and Yin Hai-Guang, are explored in greater detail. The contradictory standings towards modernity between Green and Chinese scholars illustrate how to understand the difference forms of modernity that can be embodied therein. Ethical Politics and Modern Society is a valuable resource to scholars of political philosophy, political theory, history of social and political thought, British idealism, and the work of Thomas Hill Green.

Hobbes's philosophical discourse is deconstructed as the interplay of the drama of individual behaviour as perceived by rational "agents" and the detached analysis of conflict by a "political geometer". The author offers solutions to some long-standing problems in Hobbesian political philosophy (for example, the role of glory, Hobbes' pessimism) and shows the consistency of Hobbes' attempt to derive absolution as the only stable political association. Although based on extensive textual analysis of Hobbes' works and correspondence, the text is an exercise in political philosophy that students should find iconoclastic and experts challenging.

"Exploring Hegels philosophical psychology to uncover viable remedies to the chief dilemmas plaguing contemporary philosophy of mind, Hegel and Mind exposes why mind cannot be an epistemological foundation nor reduced to discursive consciousness not modelled after computing machines"--Provided by publisher.

Library of Liberal Arts title.

This book is about learning how to live the good life. Part biography and part philosophical inquiry, it is a fresh, original interpretation of the intellectual world of the largely forgotten, eighteenth-century professor, Adam Ferguson. Although less well-known today than his famous Scottish contemporaries, Adam Smith and David Hume, Ferguson was considered their equal in the 18th century. The book shows how Ferguson, who grew up speaking Gaelic and English, and spent a decade ministering to a Highlander regiment, developed a distinctive, cross-cultural approach to moral philosophy that is relevant for doing comparative ethics in today's global village. The premise is that life in the twenty-first century is plagued by a moral disorientation that has affinities with the materialism, privatization, social fragmentation and spiritual crises that were emerging in 18th-century, urban Scotland. Like his peers in medical science, Ferguson pursued what was then known as moral science with a particular concern to diagnose and treat moral "dis-ease." The book contends that his moral philosophy lectures became strikingly modern experiments in recovering moral moorings-disclosing epitomes of moral dynamics, investigating the use of moral terms in ordinary language, and crafting moral principles, such as probity, which preserved classical moral virtues but also incorporated the practical wisdom of 'peoples of the mountains.' Although focused on re-discovering Ferguson as a full-blown ethicist before his time, the book is also intended as a primer for the reader's own quest for living a life which is emblematic of ethical integrity The primary audience for this book is philosophers, historians, religious studies scholars who specialize in ethics, eighteenth-century English literature scholars, and social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists) who focus on the eighteenth-century.

This book, first published in 1987, offers a reconstruction of Berkeley's doctrine on notions by examining the implications of his repeated suggestion that there is a close relationship between his doctrine and his semantic theory. The study ties in with some of the most important topics in modern analytic philosophy, and casts important light on modern philosophical concerns as well as on Berkeley's thought.

Berkeley's critique of abstract ideas in the Introduction to Principles of Human Knowledge has provoked a great deal of commentary of various sorts. This anthology, first published in 1989, presents a selection of historically important and philosophically interesting discussions on Berkeley's theories.

This book, first published in 1985, presents a key collection of essays on Berkeley's moral and political philosophy. They form an introduction to, and analysis of, Berkeley's immaterialist arguments, part of his consciously adopted strategy to subvert Enlightenment thought, which he saw as a danger to civil society.

Christian Discourses contains some of Kierkegaard's most constructive religious and social thought, founded on his deepening appreciation of the ambiguity of our common human situation before a loving yet commanding God. ""Christian Discourses"" is a collection of provocative arguments and insights which should redefine the approach to Kierkegaard's 'attack on Christendom' and provoke a useful debate about the significance of his 'second literature'.

Being and Freedom is a panoramic account of ethics in Europe from the French Revolution to the end of the nineteenth century. In this period the influence of ethics ran far beyond philosophy, eventually dominating politics and religion in the West. Developments came from France, Germany, and Britain: this is the first book to treat them together as a Europe-wide phenomenon, paying attention to the context of events and ideas from which they emerged. Skorupski begins by examining the philosophical conflict at the heart of the French revolution, between the individualism of the Enlightenment and two very different forms of holistic ethics: the old regime's ethic of service and the radical-democracy of the Rousseauian left. Responses analysing freedom and modern social relations came from a series of French liberal thinkers. In Germany the reaction was to two revolutions seen as inaugurating modernity: the political revolution in France and the philosophical revolution of Kant. Here, the fate of religion was critical, and with it the metaphysics of being and freedom. Skorupski traces this story from Kant to Hegel's idealist version of ethical holism. In Britain, Enlightenment naturalism remained the prevailing framework. It took different forms: 'common sense' and the theory of the sentiments in Scotland, utilitarianism in England. From all these elements came a synthesis of European themes by John Stuart Mill, comparable in range but opposed to that of Hegel. The final chapter is an assessment of this period's ethical ideas. They remain the core of late modern ethics and the contested ground on which ethical disagreements take place today.

This richly annotated second edition of the now-classic pairing of Bacon s masterpieces, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration features the addition of other works by Bacon, including The Idols of the Mind, Of Unity in Religion and Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates, as well a Summary of the each work and Questions for the reader. S * Includes works new to the second edition, including The Idols of the Mind, Of Unity in Religion, and Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates * Updates the layout of the previous edition with a more generous interior design, making this work more student-friendly and easier to navigate in the classroom * Each work is introduced and subsequently discussed, revealing the importance of Bacon s work to his contemporaries as well as to modern readers * Includes a comprehensive introduction and annotations throughout the text; as well as an appendix of Principal Dates in the Life of Sir Francis Bacon; a selected bibliography; and synopses and questions to accompany each work

This book, first published in 2005, explores the historical contextualization of Nietzsche's thought, focusing on his controversial Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The fourth part of Nietzsche's Zarathustra consists of Zarathustra's encounter with eight 'higher men' whom Zarathustra meets in succession on his path. The prophet then invites each individual to his cave for the evening festivities, culminating in a blasphemous festival in which his guests worship an ass as God. Revealing each guest's specific characteristics and distinct roles, the author attempts to discern 'who' these guests are or represent (historically) through glimpsing the characteristics specific to each guest.

Exploring the life, work and ideas of the great 19th Century utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, this study takes a unique look at his intellectual project from the point of view of the development of his political thought and later reassessment of his own ideas. Placing Bentham's work in its historical and intellectual context, Utilitarian Philosophy and Politics considers in particular Bentham's utilitarianism in relation to his later engagement with political and constitutional reform. James Crimmins argues that, despite being one of the most argued over philosophers of the 19 th century, Bentham remains one of the most misunderstood of political philosophers. By attempting to look again at the context in which Bentham was writing and his self-conscious concern with his own legacy, this book offers a new and comprehensive account of this major political and moral thinker.

This volume of new translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will and Representation. In On the Fourfold Root he takes the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing is without a reason why it is, and shows how it covers different forms of explanation or ground that previous philosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wrote as his doctoral dissertation, as an essential preliminary to The World as Will. On Will in Nature examines contemporary scientific findings in search of corroboration of his thesis that processes in nature are all a species of striving towards ends; and On Vision and Colours defends an anti-Newtonian account of colour perception influenced by Goethe's famous colour theory. This is the first English edition to provide extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of these works.

Written three years before his death, The Undiscovered Self combines acuity with concision in masterly fashion and is Jung at his very best. Offering clear and crisp insights into some of his major theories, such as the duality of human nature, the unconscious, human instinct and spirituality, Jung warns against the threats of totalitarianism and political and social propaganda to the free-thinking individual. As timely now as when it was first written, Jung's vision is a salutary reminder of why we should not become passive members of the herd. With a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani.

Spinoza is commonly perceived as the great metaphysician of coherence. The Euclidean manner in which he presented his philosophy in the Ethics has led readers to assume they are facing a strict and consistent philosophical system that necessarily follows from itself. As opposed to the prevailing understanding of Spinoza and his work, The Role of Contradictions in Spinoza's Philosophy explores an array of profound and pervasive contradictions in Spinoza's system and argues they are deliberate and constitutive of his philosophical thinking and the notion of God at its heart. Relying on a meticulous and careful reading of the Theological-Political Treatise and the Ethics, this book reconstructs Spinoza's philosophy of contradictions as a key to the ascending three degrees of knowledge leading to the Amor intellectualis Dei. Offering an exciting and clearly-argued interpretation of Spinoza's philosophy, this book will interest students and scholars of modern philosophy and philosophy of religion, as well as Jewish studies. Yuval Jobani is Assistant Professor at the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies and the School of Education at Tel-Aviv University.

Emmanuel Kant has the distinction of having introduced a great revolution into philosophy and yet stood the test of time. He stands as one of the great foundation stones of modern thought. This book, first published in 1925, covers Kant's works essential to his philosophy as a system, and also illustrates his position in the history of thought. It is a clear and accurate statement of Kant's chief doctrines.

This book, first published in 1989, presents sixteen articles on Kant and Berkeley, examining their attitude to the physical world. They were both idealists, regarding the physical world as being in some way a product of perceptions and thought. At the same time they both held it to be no mere illusion, but real and objective: it was in a sense ideal, but in a different sense also real.

First published in 1934, and revised and expanded in 1964, this book is the standard work on the political thought of Rousseau. It was acclaimed by English reviewers as 'an excellently arranged, lucidly written, unbiased account of Rousseau's political theory', a 'scholarly book, distinguished for lucidity both in thought and style', and a 'first-rate book in defence of the essential sanity of Rousseau's thought'.

This book, first published in 1974, presents a critical examination of Berkeley's immaterialism. It is based on a detailed study of his writings (in particular of his notebooks), and while it places his ideas against their eighteenth-century background it also takes into account the various interpretations of Berkeley found in the literature.

This book, first published in 1931, provides a valuable account of Rousseau's early years, giving an insight into his later philosophies, as well as showing the development of his thought.