Originally published in 1998, Easels of Utopia presents a discussion of art's duration and contingency within the avant garde's aesthetic parameters, which throughout this century have constructed, influenced, and informed our definitions of modernity. In this context the book reads Umberto Boccioni's Futurism as reminiscent of Thomist realism; proposes Caravaggism's historical relevance to the election of individuality in post-war realism; and draws the readers attention to the aesthetic implications in Carlo Carra's metaphysical art and its reappraisal of the early Renaissance. Following a contextual analysis of the historic avant-garde in Part One, Part Two presents parallel discussions of Italian and British questions, articulated by the works of Marino Marini, Francis Bacon, Renato Guttuso and Stanley Spencer in their return to individuality within art's aesthetic construct. The author argues that this initiates a return to 'lost' beginnings where form seeks knowledge, content regains an ability to anarchize, and art recognizes its contingent condition.

A milestone in the study of value in human life and thought, written by one of the world's preeminent living philosophers The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature is a philosophical investigation of the moral potentialities and sensibilities of human beings, of the meaning of human life, and of the place of death in life. It is an essay in philosophical anthropology: the study of the conceptual framework in terms of which we think about, speak about, and investigate homo sapiens as a social and cultural animal. This volume examines the diversity of values in human life and the place of moral value within the varieties of values. Its subject is the nature of good and evil and our propensity to virtue and vice. Acting as the culmination of five decades of reflection on the philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and human nature, this volume: Concludes Hacker's acclaimed Human Nature tetralogy: Human Nature: The Categorial Framework, The Intellectual Powers: A Study of Human Nature, and The Passions: A Study of Human Nature Discusses traditional ideas about ethical value and addresses misconceptions held by philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive neuroscientists The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature is required reading philosophers of mind, ethicists, psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and any general reader wanting to understand the nature of value and the place of ethics in human lives.

Emotions are the focus of intense debate both in contemporary philosophy and psychology and increasingly also in the history of ideas. Simo Knuuttila presents a comprehensive survey of philosophical theories of emotion from Plato to Renaissance times, combining rigorous philosophical analysis with careful historical reconstruction. The first part of the book covers the conceptions of Plato and Aristotle and later ancient views from Stoicism to Neoplatonism and, in addition, their reception and transformation by early Christian thinkers from Clement and Origen to Augustine and Cassian. Knuuttila then proceeds to a discussion of ancient themes in medieval thought, and of new medieval conceptions, codified in the so-called faculty psychology from Avicenna to Aquinas, in thirteenth century taxonomies, and in the voluntarist approach of Duns Scotus, William Ockham, and their followers. Philosophers, classicists, historians of philosophy, historians of psychology, and anyone interested in emotion will find much to stimulate them in this fascinating book.

The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history.

From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence.

The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority.

To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a" tour de force" of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History.

The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.

At the beginning of the twelfth century a group of scholars, mainly centred on Paris and Bologna, began an enterprise of unprecedented scope. Their intention was to produce a once-and-for-all body of knowledge that would be as perfect as humanity's fallen state permits, and which would provide a view of God, nature, and human conduct, promoting order in this world and blessedness in the next. Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe reconsiders this enterprise, and its long-term effects on European History. It describes the creative intellectual impulse that brought it into being and sustained it for two centuries, and shows how it was able to bring into existence a systematic body of knowledge of the natural and supernatural worlds, including the whole area of human relations, which together embraced all areas of possible truth and defined the conduct required of all members of western Christendom. The whole work will be in three volumes. This first is concerned with the beginnings, in the years between 1060 and 1160, when the main lines of scholastic thought were laid down and its agenda established. It examines the intellectual principles of enquiry and the sources used in developing the whole field of assured knowledge. It seeks to provide an understanding of the new outlook on the world, the supernatural and an organized Christian society, and to show why this proved so powerful and so attractive to the time. The book explores the social, intellectual, and political developments that provided the conditions to create the new system in the great schools of learning in France and Italy, and the rewards that attracted experts who could both administer the system and make it known and acceptable to the generality of people whose lives were affected by it. Elegantly written, enlivened with wit and vivid anecdote, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe will be a work of seminal importance for the understanding of the civilization of the Middle Ages, and of the evolution of modern European societies.

The Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy is a reference work on the philosophy of Greek and Roman antiquity. It includes subjects and figures from the dawn of philosophy in Ionia in the 6th century BC to the demise of the Academy in Athens in the 6th century AD. Scholarly study of the texts and philosophical thought of this period has been, during the last half of the 20th century, amazingly productive and has become increasingly sophisticated. The 269 articles in the encyclopedia reflect this development. While the majority of the articles are devoted to individual figures, many of the articles are thematic surveys of broad areas such as epistemology, ethics, and political thought. Some articles focus on particular concepts that evoked significant philosophical treatment by the ancients, and have proved central to later thought. Other articles treat fields that are no longer considered part of philosophy proper, such as mathematics and science. There are articles examining areas of intellectual or cultural endeavour, such as poetry or rhetoric, or genres of philosophical expression, such as dialogue and diatribe. Still others describe the historical developments of philosophical schools and traditions. The encyclopedia includes a chronology and guide to further reading. Best Reference Source

Surveys the writings of leading Jewish thinkers, attempting to place them in an historical context and describe their contributions to the history of Jewish medieval thought in simple and lucid terms.

Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, also known as Shaikh al-ishraq or the Master of Illumination, lived in the sixth century AH / twelfth century CE.
His thoughts form a consistent and coherent philosophical system, and a close study of his writings in Persian reveals a theory of knowledge generally called 'Knowledge by Presence'. The elaborate web of myth and symbolism in Suhrawardi's philosophy articulates his theory of knowledge, an important subject in the ishraqi school of thought.
Suhrawardi, who claims first to have discovered the truth and then embarked on a path to find the rational basis of his experiential wisdom, represents a thinker who tried to reconcile rational discourse and inner purification.

Beginning with the earliest philosopher of the Middle Ages, Saadiah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi, this work surveys the writings of such figures as Solomon ben Joseph ibn Gabirol, Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda, Abraham ben david Halevi ibn Daud, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Gersonides, Hasdai Crescas, Simon ben Zemah Duran, Joseph Albo, Isaac Arama, and Isaac Abrabanel. Throughout an attempt is made to place these thinkers in an historical context and describe their contributions to the history of Jewish medieval thought in simple and lucid terms. The book is directed to students enrolled in Jewish studies courses as well as to those who seek an awareness and appreciation of the riches of medieval Jewish philosophical tradition.

Study of the life, works and legacy of Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, also known as Shaikh al-ishraq or the Master of Illumination.

Auf seiner Suche nach einer menschlichen Philosophie stößt Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) auf die Frage nach dem ganzen Menschen als dem zentralen Problem der Anthropologiegeschichte. Die Studie zeichnet anhand einer detaillierten Analyse der einschlägigen Schriften Herders nach, wie dieser aus theologischer Perspektive zu einer alle Dimensionen der menschlichen Existenz umfassenden, ganzheitlichen Sicht des Menschen gelangt. Er begründet damit eine Konzeption von der Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts, die zur Schnittstelle zwischen Theologie und Anthropologie wird, indem sie beide für die Subjektwerdung des Menschen in die Pflicht nimmt.

Das Phänomen des Bösen prägt die moderne Welt ganz entscheidend. Dennoch gibt es gerade heute die Tendenz, den Begriff des Bösen zu verdrängen. Auf seinen Bedeutungsgehalt kann aber nicht verzichtet werden. Dies zeigt die Studie, indem sie ihren Ansatz bei der Augustinischen und der Kantischen Position über das Böse nimmt. In ihrem vergleichenden Teil kommt sie zu dem Ergebnis, daß es begriffsgeschichtlich hier zu einem fundamentalen Umbruch gekommen ist. Die ontologische Perspektive wurde durch die heteronome abgelöst. Besonders herausgearbeitet wird dabei die Dimension der sittlichen Freiheit. Sie ist eine notwendige Voraussetzung für das Böse, die auch unter heutigen Bedingungen relevant ist. Methodisch verfolgt die Arbeit eine kontextorientierte Interpretation. Das Böse wird so immer auch im Kontrast zum Guten bestimmt. Sein systematischer Ort im jeweiligen Grundtyp ethischer Theorie wird aufgezeigt.

This book shows how the mature writings of Thomas Aquinas though written in the thirteenth century have much to offer the human mind and the relationship between intellect and will, body and soul.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203004949

This volume contains the popular Elizabeth S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross' translation of Rene Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy", and in addition a portion of the "Replies to Objections II", in which Descartes discusses how the method employed in the "Meditations", which he calls "analysis", differs from the method of "synthesis" employed by the general geometer. In the editor's introduction, Stanley Tweyman provides a detailed discussion of the relationship between Descartes' "Rule for the Direction of the Mind" and the method of "analysis", insofar as each has application to the "Meditations". The six critical papers which Professor Tweyman has drawn together in this book present a broad and exegetical commentary on the "Meditations" and give an indication of the diversity of scholarly opinion which exists on the topic of method in Descartes' philosophy. An extensive bibliography is also included.

Through the concept of contraction, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) endeavoured to explain the relationship of God to his Creation in a way that conformed with his pantheistic view of nature as well as his heterodox view of man's relationship to God. The concept of contraction is twofold. In the ontological sense it denotes the way in which the One, or God, descends to multiplicity. In the noetic sense it accounts for the ways in which the individual human soul ascends towards God through a reversed process of contemplation. Bruno denied the efficacy of the several psychical, psychological and medical states traditionally thought to aid contemplation and noetic ascent towards God. In his view the only means was philosophical contemplation, the use of memory being one important form. Philosophical contemplation elevated the mind from the fragmented multiplicity of sense impressions to an understanding of the principles governing the sensible world. This publication is the first book-length study dedicated to concept of contraction in Bruno's philosophy. Moreover, it explores his sources for this concept. Traditionally Ficino's translation of Plotinus, dating from the second half of the fifteenth century, has been seen as a key source to the Neoplatonism informing Bruno's philosophy. In The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno's Philosophy another Neoplatonic source is considered, namely the pseudo-Aristotelian Liber de Causis (Book of causes), which has not yet been examined in the context of Renaissance Neoplatonism. This work, probably written in Arabic in the ninth century, was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and remained well known to many late Medieval and Renaissance philosophers. Catana argues that this work may have prepared for Ficino's translation of Plotinus, and that in some instances it provided a common source to Renaissance philosophers, Bruno and Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) being conspicuous examples discussed in this book.

"Rene Descartes'" Meditations on First Philosophy "In Focus" contains the excellent and popular Elizabeth S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross translation of Rene Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy," It also contains a portion of the "Replies to Objections II," in which Descartes discusses how the method employed in the "Meditations," which he calls "analysis," differs from the method of "synthesis" employed by the geometer.
In his introduction, Stanley Tweyman provides a fresh and detailed discussion of the relationship between Descartes' "Rules" "for the Direction of the Mind" and the method of "analysis," and their applications to the "Meditations," The six critical papers drawn together in this book present a broad and exegetical commentary on the "Meditations" and give an indication of the diversity of scholarly opinion which exists on the topic of method in Descartes' philosophy. An extensive bibliography is also included.
Contributors: D. M. Clarke, E. Curley, D. Garber, L. Cohen, J. Hintikka, Georges Moyal, and Stanley Tweyman.

With selections of philosophers from Plotinus to Bruno, this new anthology provides significant learning support and historical context for the readings along with a wide variety of pedagogical assists. Featuring biographical headnotes, reading introductions, study questions, as well as specialPrologues andPhilosophical Overviews, this anthology offers a unique set of critical thinking promtps to help students understand and appreciate the philosophical concepts under discussion.Philosophical Bridges" discuss how the work of earlier thinkers would influence philosophers to come and place major movements in a contemporary context, showing students how the schools of philosophy interrelate and how the various philosophies apply to the world today. In addition to this volume of Medieval Philosophy, a comprehensive survey of the whole of Western philosophical history and other individual volumes for each of the major historical eras are also available for specialized courses.

In the ancient world being a philosopher was a practical alternative to being a Christian. Philosophical systems offered intellectual, practical and moral codes for living. By the Middle Ages however philosophy was largely, though inconsistently, incorporated into Christian belef. From the end of the Roman Empire to the Reformation and Renaissance of the sixteenth century Christian theologians had a virtual monopoly on higher education. The complex interaction between theology and philosophy, which was the result of the efforts of Christian leaders and thinkers to assimilate the most sophisticated ideas of science and secular learning into their own system of thought, is the subject of this book. Augustine, as the most widely read author in the Middle Ages, is the starting point. Dr Evans then discusses the classical sources in general which the medieval scholar would have had access to when he wanted to study philosophy and its theological implications. Part One ends with an analysis of the problems of logic, language and rhetoric. In Part Two the sequence of topics - God, cosmos, man - follows the outline of the summa, or systematic encyclopedia of theology.

Agonistes comprises a collection of essays presented by his friends and colleagues to Denis O'Brien, former Directeur de recherche at the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, representing the full range of his scholarly interests in the field of ancient philosophy, from the Presocratics, through Plato, Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophy, to Plotinus and later Neoplatonism. The honorand himself leads off with a stimulating Apologia, sketching the development of his scholarly interests and dwelling on the issues that have chiefly concerned him. The contributions then follow in chronological order, under four headings: I From the Presocratics to Plato (Frere, Brancacci); II From Plato to the Stoics (Brisson, Casertano, Dixsaut, KA1/4hn, McCabe, Narcy, Rowe, Goulet); III Plotinus and the Neoplatonist Tradition (O'Meara, Sakonji, Gersh, Steel, Dillon, Smith); IV Saint Augustine and After (Pepin, Rist, Brague/Freudenthal). They comprise a significant representation of the most distinguished scholars both on the continent and in the British Isles, and fairly represent the wide influence which Denis O'Brien has had on his contemporaries. The volume includes also a full bibliography of O'Brien's works.

Epicureanism has had a long and complex history. Established in Greece in the fourth century BC in response to the peculiar needs of a new age, it gained an immediate and widespread following throughout the Mediterranean world, and in Roman times competed on equal terms with Stoicism for the allegiance of the citizens of the empire. It was singled out by the early Church as a dangerous enemy of the faith, and the philosophy of the Garden became the target of a bitter campaign of denunciation and distortion; it was a one-dimensional Epicurus - the champion of earthly delights - who kept the name of the School alive throughout the Middle Ages. Coinciding with a renewed interest in the antique world, an Epicureanism truer to its classical parent re-emerged to add an important dimension to Renaissance philosophical debate, and in the 16th and 17th centuries, Epicurean theory contributed significantly to the growth of the new science of physics. Howard Jones' book, which is divided equally between the classical and post-classical eras, documents the story as it unfolds. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics of classics, medieval philosophy, histo

An introduction to philosophy in the Latin West (1150-1350) combines an historical approach with philosophical analysis of thirteenth and fourteenth-century writing in terms comprehensible to the modern reader.

This book explores how humans in the Renaissance lived with, attended to, and considered the minds, feelings, and sociality of other creatures. It examines how Renaissance literature and natural history display an unequal creaturely world: all creatures were categorized hierarchically. However, post-Cartesian readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance literature have misunderstood Renaissance hierarchical creaturely relations, including human relations. Using critical animal studies work and new materialist theory, Bach argues that attending closely to creatures and objects in texts by Shakespeare and other writers exposes this unequal world and the use and abuse of creatures, including people. The book also adds significantly to animal studies by showing how central bird sociality and voices were to Renaissance human culture, with many believing that birds were superior to some humans in song, caregiving, and companionship. Bach shows how Descartes, a central figure in the transition to modern ideas about creatures, lived isolated from humans and other creatures and denied ancient knowledge about other creatures' minds, especially bird minds. As significantly, Bach shows how and why Descartes' ideas appealed to human grandiosity. Asking how Renaissance categorizations of creatures differ so much from modern classifications, and why those modern classifications have shaped so much animal studies work, this book offers significant new readings of Shakespeare's and other Renaissance texts. It will contribute to a range of fields, including Renaissance literature, history, animal studies, new materialism, and the environmental humanities.

The Book of Causes, highly influential in the medieval university, was commonly but incorrectly understood to be the completion of Aristotle's metaphysics. It was Thomas Aquinas who first judged it to have been abstracted from Proclus's Elements of Theology, presumably by an unknown Arabic author, who added to it ideas of his own. The Book of Causes is of particular interest because themes that appear in it are echoed in the metaphysics of Aquinas: its treatment of being (esse) as proceeding from the First Creating Cause; the triadic scheme of being, living, and knowing; and the general scheme of participation in which "all is in all." Thus, the Book of Causes provides a historical backdrop for understanding and appreciating Aquinas's development of these themes in his metaphysics. Thomas's Commentary on the Book of Causes, composed during the first half of 1272, is a distinct philosophical work in its own right. It provides an extended view of his approach to Neoplatonic thought and functions as a guide to his metaphysics. Though long neglected and, until now, never translated into English, it deserves an equal place alongside his commentaries on Aristotle and Boethius. In addition to the extensive annotation, bibliography, and thorough introduction, this translation is accompanied by two valuable appendices. The first provides a translation of another version of proposition 29 of the Book of Causes, which was not known to St. Thomas. The second lists citations of the Book of Causes found in the works of St. Thomas and cross-references these to a list showing the works, and the exact location within them, where the citations can be found.

The introduction of Greek philosophy into the Muslim world left an indelible mark on Islamic intellectual history. Philosophical discourse became a constant element in even traditionalist Islamic sciences. However, Aristotelian metaphysics gave rise to doctrines about God and the universe that were found highly objectionable by a number of Muslim theologians, among whom the fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Taymiyya stood foremost.

Ibn Taymiyya, one of the greatest and most prolific thinkers in medieval Islam, held Greek logic responsible for the `heretical' metaphysical conclusions reached by Islamic philosophers, theologians, mystics, and others. He therefore set out to refute philosophical logic, a task which culminated in one of the most devastating attacks ever levelled against the logical system upheld by the early Greeks, the later commentators, and their Muslim followers. His argument is grounded in an empirical approach that in many respects prefigures the philosophies of the British empiricists.

Professor Hallaq's translation, with a substantial introduction and extensive notes, makes this important work available to a wider audience for the first time.