The late 1960s saw the emergence of new philosophical interest in Kant's philosophy of mathematics, and since then this interest has developed into a major and dynamic field of study. In this state-of-the-art survey of contemporary scholarship on Kant's mathematical thinking, Carl Posy and Ofra Rechter gather leading authors who approach it from multiple perspectives, engaging with topics including geometry, arithmetic, logic, and metaphysics. Their essays offer fine-grained analysis of Kant's philosophy of mathematics in the context of his Critical philosophy, and also show sensitivity to its historical background. The volume will be important for readers seeking a comprehensive picture of the current scholarship about the development of Kant's philosophy of mathematics, its place in his overall philosophy, and the Kantian themes that influenced mathematics and its philosophy after Kant.

Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of language, Neurobiology, Philosophy of Perception, Modern Political Philosophy-all share a common philosophical foundation: atomism. The theory of atomism that is developed in the writing of Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, and Reichenbach shares the same metaphysical roots as the atomism of Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Bertrand Russell. These atomisms share the same foundation as the one developed by John Locke and David Hume. Until now, the full philosophic history, and metaphysical foundations of this theory of atomism have not been presented. Atomist theory not only contains cultural premises of great significance for the fate of public opinion, but it is also an eminently political doctrine, incompatible with the most modest degree of democracy. The atomist theory happens to be false. In this case, the truth does matter.

Providing a clear interpretation of Hegel's characterizations of possibility and actuality in the Science of Logic, this book departs from the standard understandings of these concepts to break new ground in Hegelian scholarship. The book draws out some of the implications of Hegel's view of immanent possibility, especially as it relates to Leibniz's thesis of modal optimism: his view that this world is the best of all possible worlds. Reading Hegel as a philosopher of possibility, against a tradition that has conceived of him primarily as a philosopher of necessity, rationality, and finitude, Nahum Brown demonstrates the historical background and philosophical traditions from which Hegel's concept of possibility emerges. Systematically outlining Hegel's conceptions of positive and negative freedom, Brown reveals the Hegelian underpinnings of our conception of reality and what it is to be in the world itself. Original and convincing, this book is crucial for philosophers approaching modality from any tradition.

In his perceptive and provocative new book, Alastair Hannay contests two prejudices that have dogged the appreciation of Soren Kierkegaard's writings. These are that to grasp their contemporary impact, the religious focus must be referred to his personal background, and that their varied voices mirror a fragmentation in his own relationship to self and society. It was for paying lip-service to their own values that Kierkegaard castigated his society, his diagnosis being that this was one of many ways in which more pressing and disturbing questions of existence were typically evaded. It is in the renowned thinker's own struggle for selfhood that Hannay sees his prescient anticipation of the current focus on issues relating to integration, acceptance and identity. By cultivating a role as the social misfit within his innate exceptionality Kierkegaard deliberately exposed himself to the problems to which an age gripped by 'identity politics' is now responding. By cleverly examining the relation between his richly conceived polemics and Kierkegaard's own preoccupation with identity, Hannay has written an essential new text for Kierkegaard scholars and students of Continental philosophy and existentialism.

In the famous Correspondence with Clarke, which took place during the last year of Leibniz s life, Leibniz advanced several arguments purporting to refute the absolute theory of space and time that was held by Newton and his followers. The main aim of this book is to reassess Leibniz s attack on the Newtonian theory in so far as he relied on the principle of the identity of indiscernibles. The theological side of the controversy is not ignored but isolated and discussed in the last three chapters, which deal with problems connected with the notions of omnipotence and omniscience."

The works presented in this volume, in a new English translation, are among the most important and characteristic texts of the Enlightenment, and bring together all three aspects of Voltaire: the writer, the doer and the philosophe. Originating in Voltaire's campaign to exonerate Jean Calas, they are works of polemical brilliance, informed by his deism and humanism and by Enlightenment values and ideals more generally. The issues that they raise, concerning questions of tolerance and human dignity, are still highly relevant to our own times.

Italian philosophy constitutes one of the most vibrant and fruitful areas in contemporary thought, bringing extraordinary novelty to some of the oldest tropes, from human nature to the relation between political power and life, the thinking of actuality and potential, and the nature of work and labour. This reader includes texts by the most renowned thinkers, from Dante and Machiavelli to Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, and Roberto Esposito, all of which are introduced by an expert on the particular thinker, and situated within the context of their work as a whole. The Bloomsbury Italian Philosophy Reader provides a unique resource for students and scholars alike, covering the history of Italian thought to the present day.

Kant and Applied Ethics makes an important contribution to Kant scholarship, illuminating the vital moral parameters of key ethical debates. * Offers a critical analysis of Kant s ethics, interrogating the theoretical bases of his theory and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses * Examines the controversies surrounding the most important ethical discussions taking place today, including abortion, the death penalty, and same-sex marriage * Joins innovative thinkers in contemporary Kantian scholarship, including Christine Korsgaard, Allen Wood, and Barbara Herman, in taking Kant s philosophy in new and interesting directions * Clarifies Kant s legacy for applied ethics, helping us to understand how these debates have been structured historically and providing us with the philosophical tools to address them

This volume sets Berkeley's philosophy in its historical context by providing selections from works that deeply influenced Berkeley as he formed his main doctrines; works that illuminate the philosophical climate in which those doctrines were formed; and works that display Berkeley's subsequent philosophical influence. The first category is represented by selections from Descartes, Malebranche, Bayle, and Locke; the second category includes extracts from such thinkers as Regius, Lanion, Arnauld, Lee, and Norris; while reactions to Berkeley, both positive and negative, are drawn from a wide range of thinkers--Leibniz, Baxter, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, Reid, Kant, Herder, and Mill.

The political philosophy of the 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau has long been associated with the dramatic events of the French Revolution. In this book, an international team of scholars has been brought together to examine the connection between Rousseaus thought and the revolutionary traditions of modern Europe. The book explores Rousseaus own conceptions of violence and revolution in contrast to those of other thinkers such as Hegel and Fanon and in connection with his ideas on democracy. Historical analyses also consider Rousseaus thinking in light of the French Revolution in particular and the European revolutions that have followed it. Across the eleven chapters the book also touches on such issues as citizenship, activism, terrorism and the State. In doing so, the book reveals Rousseau to be an important source of insight into contemporary political problems.

Jeremy Bentham coined the term 'utilitarian' in 1781, but the idea of 'utility' as a value, goal or principle in political, moral or economic life has a long and rich history. The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism captures the complex developmental history and the multi-faceted character of utilitarianism in its various contexts and forms more completely than any previous source. Studies of utilitarianism hitherto have been notably compartmentalised, focusing on utilitarian ethics, or the socio-political utilitarianism epitomized in Benthamism, or the genesis of Austrian jurisprudence, but never making these various aspects available for comparative study within a single work. The Encyclopedia includes entries on the authors and texts that are recognised as having built the tradition of utilitarian thinking, as well as on the issues and critics that have arisen at every stage of the development of that tradition. Academics and researchers in search of fresh juxtapositions of issues and arguments will welcome this unique reference work.

While Kantian constructivism has become one of the most influential and systematic schools of thought in analytic moral and political philosophy, Hegelian approaches to practical normativity hold out the promise of building upon Kantian insights into individual self-determination while avoiding their dualistic tendencies. James Gledhill and Sebastian Stein unite distinguished scholars of German idealism and contemporary Anglophone practical philosophy with rising stars in the field, to explore whether Hegelian idealist philosophy can offer the categories that analytic practical philosophy requires to overcome the contradictions that have so far plagued Kantian constructivism. The volume organizes the contributions into three parts. The first of these engages debates in metaethics regarding the relationship between realism and constructivism. The second part sees contributors draw on debates about the nature of political normativity, focusing primarily on the problems of historical contextualism, relativism, and critical reflection. The concluding part considers the application of the Hegelian framework to contemporary debates about specific ethical issues, including multiculturalism, democracy, and human rights. Hegel and Contemporary Practical Philosophy contributes to the on-going debate about the importance of systematic philosophy in the context of practical philosophy, engages with contemporary discussions about the shape of a rational social order, and gauges the timeliness of Hegelian philosophy. This book is a must read for scholars interested in Hegel and in the contemporary tradition of Kantian constructivism in moral and political philosophy.

Best known as the Saducismus triumphatus (1681), Joseph Glanvill's book on witchcraft is among the most frequently published from the seventeenth century, and its arguments for the reality of diabolic witchcraft elicited passionate responses from critics and supporters alike. Davies untangles the intricate development of this text and explores how Glanvill's roles as theologian, philosopher and advocate for the Royal Society of London converge in its pages. Glanvill's broader philosophical method and unique approach to the supernatural provide a case study that enables the exploration of the interaction between the rise of experimental science and changing attitudes to witchcraft.

This book discusses the most comprehensive of Hegel's works: his long-neglected Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline. It contains original essays by internationally renowned and emerging voices in Hegel scholarship. Their contributions elucidate fundamental aspects of Hegel's encyclopedic system with an eye to its contemporary relevance. The book thus addresses system-level claims about Hegel's unique conceptions of philosophy, philosophical "science" and its method, dialectic, speculative thinking, and the way they relate to both Hegelian and contemporary notions of nature, history, religion, freedom, and cultural praxis.

Originally published in 1988 Arthur Schopenhauer's English Schooling examines the famous German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and his image of England and the influences and experiences which formed that image, notably his visit to England in 1803. His philosophy, when he came to formulate it, showed the pervasive influence of his English reading, was riddled with allusions to his three months at Wimbledon School, and was indeed in many 'English' style; above all it was a philosophy designed as a refutation of 'Christianity' as understood and practised by his English headmaster, who is the invisible bete noire behind it. In the course of the book two major figures who have hitherto been known only by name are identified and their lives related. The book also examines many background figures in Schopenhauer's English diary and the letters addressed to him in 1803. This book, which is based on a wide variety of hitherto unknown material from many different sources, will permanently modify our view of his philosophy; it also has important implications for educationalists and for all interest in the history of ideas.

This is a classic account of Nietzsche's thought, first published in 1957. It traces the development of Nietzsche's thought through all its principal phases, and stresses its relevance to our times. Squarely based on original literary and biographical sources, it avoids technicalities and obscure comparison. It is intended for the general reader rather than the specialist - above all for the reader who desires, as Nietzsche did, to "clear his mind of cant".

No single text could be considered more important in the history of philosophy than Descartes' Meditations. This unique collection of background material to this magisterial philosophical text has been translated from the original French and Latin. The texts gathered here illustrate the kinds of principles, assumptions, and philosophical methods that were commonplace when Descartes was growing up. The selections are from: Francisco Sanches, Christopher Clavius, Pierre de la Ramee (Petrus Ramus), Francisco Suarez, Pierre Charron, Eustachius a Sancto Paulo, Scipion Dupleix, Marin Mersenne, Pierre Gassendi, Jean de Silhon, Francois de la Mothe le Vayer, Charles Sorel, and Jean-Baptiste Morin.

The traditional and lively interest in Meinong s philosophy and related topics among Italian philosophers gives rise to this volume of MEINONG STUDIES. As more than an introduction, Venanzio Raspa presents an enlightening historical presentation of Meinong s reception in Italy from his lifetime to the present day. Riccardo Martinelli offers a reconstruction of the Meinongian theory of musical objects of higher order. Francesca Modenato gives the outlines of Meinong s object theory as a theory of the pure object, separating it from ontology and associating it rather with gnoseology. From a less historical than systematic-analytic perspective, Andrea Bottani deals with incomplete objects, Mario Alai investigates the problem of propositions concerning non-existent objects, and Carola Barbero proposes a realistic theory of the emotions aroused by reading literary texts. As themes related to Meinongian ones, Alberto Voltolini discusses the concept of existence as a property, Francesco Orilia validates an intuition of Meinong by adopting an approach called 'fact infinitism', and Guido Bonino deals with Gustav Bergmann s interpretation of Meinong s ontology. Das traditionelle und lebhafte Interesse italienischer Philosophen an Meinongs Philosophie und damit zusammenhangenden Themen gibt Anlass fur diesen Band der MEINONG STUDIEN. Weit uber die Anforderungen an ein Eineitung hinausgehend, prasentiert Venanzio Raspa eine erhellende Studie der Rezeption Meinongs in Italien von seinen Lebzeiten bis zum heutigen Tag. Riccardo Martinelli rekonstruiert Meinongs Theorie musikalischer Objekte hoherer Ordnung und Francesca Modenato umreisst Meinongs Objekttheorie (als Theorie reiner Objekte), welche sie eher der Gnoseologie denn der Ontologie zuordnet. Aus einer weniger historischen als systematisch-analytischen Perspektive befassen sich Andrea Bottani mit unvollstandigen Objekten, Mario Alai mit der Frage nicht-existierende Objekte betreffender Aussagen, und Carola Barbero prasentiert eine realistische Theorie von Emotionen, die durch die Lekture literarischer Texte erweckt werden. Als Meinong-bezogene Themen diskutiert Alberto Voltolini den Begriff der Existenz als Eigenschaft, Francesco Orilia bestatigt in seinem 'Fakteninfinitismus' genannten Zugang eine Meinongsche Intuition, und Guido Bonino befasst sich mit Gustav Bergmanns Interpretation der Meinongschen Ontologie."

In Hegel's Rabble, Frank Ruda identifies and explores a crucial problem in the Hegelian philosophy of right that strikes at the heart of Hegel's conception of the state. This singular problem, which Ruda argues is the problem of Hegelian political thought, appears in Hegel's text only in a seemingly marginal form under the name of the "rabble": a particular side-effect of the dialectical deduction of the necessity of the existence of state from the contradictory constitution of civil society. Working out from a thorough analysis of this problem and drawing on contemporary discussions in the work of such thinkers as Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Slavoj Zizek, the book proceeds to re-examine and reconstruct Hegel's entire political project. Ruda goes on to argue that only by re-thinking this problem of the rabble' in Hegel's thought the only problem Hegel is able neither to resolve nor to sublate can the early Marxian conception of the proletariat' be properly understood. The book closes with an Afterword from Slavoj Zizek.

Hume's discussion of the idea of space in his Treatise on Human Nature is fundamental to an understanding of his treatment of such central issues as the existence of external objects, the unity of the self, and the relation between certainty and belief. Marina Frasca-Spada's rich and original study examines this difficult part of Hume's philosophical writings and connects it to eighteenth-century works in natural philosophy, mathematics and literature. Her analysis points the way to a reassessment of the central current interpretative questions in Hume studies.

This volume explores recent developments in the practice of hospitality, as well as the curious, precarious relationship between guests and their hosts. Drawing from personal interactions with an aging innkeeper called Herr Klaus and modern Airbnb hostess Gretchen, Amitai Touval offers a touching and illuminating account of how the rise of Airbnb has forged new standards of generosity, hostility, and accountability. An Anthropological Study of Hospitality is a must-read for anyone who has wondered about the intricate social cues involved in such a seemingly simple exchange.

In recent years interest in the thought of Kierkegaard has grown dramatically, and with it the body of secondary literature has expanded so quickly that it has become impossible for even the most conscientious scholar to keep pace. The problem of the explosion of secondary literature is made more acute by the fact that much of what is written about Kierkegaard appears in languages that most Kierkegaard scholars do not know. Kierkegaard has become a global phenomenon, and new research traditions have emerged in different languages, countries and regions. The present volume is dedicated to trying to help to resolve these two problems in Kierkegaard studies. Its purpose is, first, to provide book reviews of some of the leading monographic studies in the Kierkegaard secondary literature so as to assist the community of scholars to become familiar with the works that they have not read for themselves. The aim is thus to offer students and scholars of Kierkegaard a comprehensive survey of works that have played a more or less significant role in the research. Second, the present volume also tries to make accessible many works in the Kierkegaard secondary literature that are written in different languages and thus to give a glimpse into various and lesser-known research traditions. The six tomes of the present volume present reviews of works written in Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.

Kierkegaard's Concepts is a comprehensive, multi-volume survey of the key concepts and categories that inform Kierkegaard's writings. Each article is a substantial, original piece of scholarship, which discusses the etymology and lexical meaning of the relevant Danish term, traces the development of the concept over the course of the authorship, and explains how it functions in the wider context of Kierkegaard's thought. Concepts have been selected on the basis of their importance for Kierkegaard's contributions to philosophy, theology, the social sciences, literature and aesthetics, thereby making this volume an ideal reference work for students and scholars in a wide range of disciplines.

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.

Experimental philosophy was an exciting and extraordinarily successful development in the study of nature in the seventeenth century. Yet experimental philosophy was not without its critics and was far from the only natural philosophical method on the scene. In particular, experimental philosophy was contrasted with and set against speculative philosophy and, in some quarters, was accused of tending to irreligion. This volume brings together ten scholars of early modern philosophy, history and science in order to shed new light on the complex relations between experiment, speculation and religion in early modern Europe. The first six chapters of the book focus on the respective roles of experimental and speculative philosophy in individual seventeenth-century philosophers. They include Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Isaac Newton. The next two chapters deal with the relation between experimental philosophy and religion with a special focus on hypotheses and natural religion. The penultimate chapter takes a broader European perspective and examines the paucity of concerns with religion among Italian natural philosophers of the period. Finally, the concluding chapter draws all these individuals and themes together to provide a critical appraisal of recent scholarship on experimental philosophy. This book is the first collection of essays on the subject of early modern experimental philosophy. It will appeal to scholars and students of early modern philosophy, science and religion.