In the 20th century theorists of mind were almost exclusively concerned with various versions of the materialist thesis, but prior to current debates accounts of soul and mind reveal an extraordinary richness and complexity which bear careful and impartial investigation. This book is the first single-authored, comprehensive work to examine the historical, linguistic and conceptual issues involved in exploring the basic features of the human mind - from its most remote origins to the beginning of the modern period. MacDonald traces the development of an armature of psychical concepts from the Old Testament and Homer's works to the 18th century advocacy of an empirical science of the mind. Along the way, detailed attention is paid to the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicurus, before turning to look at the New Testament, Neoplatonism, Augustine, Medieval Islam, Aquinas and Dante. Treatment of Renaissance theories is followed by an unusual (perhaps unique) chapter on the words "soul" and "mind" in English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare; the story then rejoins the mainstream with analyses of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Chapter-focused bibliographies.

This collection of essays delineates the history of the rather disparate intellectual tradition usually labeled as "Platonic" or "Neoplatonic." In chronological order, the book covers the most eminent philosophic schools of thought within that tradition. The most important terms of the Platonic tradition are studied together with a discussion of their semantic implications, the philosophical and theological claims associated with the terms, the sources that furnish the terms, and the intellectual traditions aligned with or opposed to them. The contributors thereby provide a vivid intellectual map of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Contributions are written in English or German.

A conversational text that addresses many philosophical concepts as well as Western religion by questioning good versus evil and the unnecessary suffering of innocent people. Anicius Boethius draws from his own experiences to illustrate these spiritual and ethical struggles. In The Consolation of Philosophy the author engages in a figurative discussion with Lady Philosophy, a type of teacher. Through their exchange, he poses serious questions regarding the existence of God and human nature. He also acknowledges his own dire circumstances, contemplating the hardships and trauma. Many counterpoints are tied to ideals such as the Wheel of Fortune, highlighting inconsistent and often unfair outcomes. He also focuses on the importance of intangible gifts such as love and intelligence. The Consolation of Philosophy is an honest analysis of the nature of happiness. It forces the reader to face hard truths about their wants versus needs. It's a sobering examination of the unpredictable structure of life. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Consolation of Philosophy is both modern and readable.

The impact of classical thought on Renaissance philosophy is the subject of this volume. In the first part Dr Kraye deals with the interpretations of ancient philosophy put forward by various thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, including the humanist Angelo Poliziano and the Platonist Marsilio Ficino; in the second, she examines the central role of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics within Renaissance moral philosophy and considers the influence of other classical treatises on ethics, especially the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The final section explores controversies concerning the authenticity of works in the Aristotelian canon, together with the early printing history of Aristotle. All the articles aim to locate philosophical questions within the historical and cultural context of the Renaissance, and particular attention is paid to the importance of philological scholarship within philosophical debates. The collection includes an essay on Philipp Melanchthon's ethical commentaries and textbooks which has previously appeared only in German translation.

Focussing on individuals whose ideas shaped intellectual life between 400 and 1500, Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers is an accessible introduction to those religious, philosophical and political concepts central to the medieval worldview. Including such diverse figures as Bede and Wyclif, each entry presents a biographical outline, a list of works and a summary of their main theories, alongside suggestions for further reading. Chronologically arranged, and with an introductory essay which presents important themes in context, this volume is an invaluable reference tool for all students of Medieval Europe.

Focusing on individuals whose ideas shaped intellectual life between 400 and 1500, Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers is an accessible introduction to those religious, philosophical and political concepts central to the medieval worldview. Including such diverse figures as Bede and Wyclif, each entry presents a biographical outline, a list of works and a summary of their main theories, alongside suggestions for further reading. Chronologically arranged, and with an introductory essay which presents important themes in context, this volume is an invaluable reference tool for all students of Medieval Europe.

John Duns Scotus is commonly recognized as one of the most original thinkers of medieval philosophy. His influence on subsequent philosophers and theologians is enormous and extends well beyond the limits of the Middle Ages. His thought, however, might be intimidating for the non-initiated, because of the sheer number of topics he touched on and the difficulty of his style. The eleven essays collected here, especially written for this volume by some of the leading scholars in the field, take the reader through various topics, including Duns Scotus's intellectual environment, his argument for the existence of God, and his conceptions of modality, order, causality, freedom, and human nature. This volume provides a reliable point of entrance to the thought of Duns Scotus while giving a snapshot of some of the best research that is now being done on this difficult but intellectually rewarding thinker.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401 64), doctor of canon law, church politician and philosopher, was one of the most important thinkers of 15th century Europe. This year marks the sixth centenary of his birth. Scholars from round the globe gathered in Tokyo for the 19th Cusanus Congress last year; this volume makes their contributions more widely available. Major themes examined include tradition and innovation, religion, the relevance of Nicholas of Cusa's thought for today, the relationship between East and West in his thought, and the development of his thought and scholarship as we enter a new millennium. Multilingual text: English, German, French.

A collection of essays on the Renaissance, focusing on humanism and thought. The concept of the Renaissance has always been challenging to define. This book aims to enable a deeper understanding of the essential features of the Renaissance and humanism. Knowledge of Renaissance thought illuminates other key aspects of Renaissance culture such as philology, political thought and scholastic and platonic philosophy. This book explores all the important themes and influential figures including: humanism and scholasticism; the scholarship of Politician; printers and readers in Italy; Ptolemy of Lucca; Petrarch; Florentine constitutionalism and Medici ascendancy; and the humanist challenge to medieval German culture.

Renaissance Thought is a fascinating collection of essays on the Renaissance, focusing on humanism and thought. The concept of the Renaissance has always been challenging to define and this book enables a deeper understanding of the essential features of the Renaissance and humanism. Knowledge of Renaissance thought illuminates other key aspects of Renaissance culture such as philology, political thought and scholastic and platonic philosophy.
Renaissance Thought explores all the important themes and influential figures including:
* humanism and scholasticism
* the scholarship of Politician
* printers and readers in Italy
* Ptolemy of Lucca
* Petrarch
* Florentine constitutionalism and Medici ascendancy
* the humanist challenge to medieval German culture.
This collection of articles is essential reading for students of the Renaissance. The book will allow readers to contribute to the debate on the Renaissance, a theme which has never ceased to stimulate intellectual interest since the earliest days of the Renaissance itself.

Although he is one of the most influential Catholic theologians in Europe, very few of Klaus Demmer's writings are available in English. This translation of his well-known work on moral theology introduces Demmer's thought to English-speaking audiences.

In an original synthesis of scholastic and continental philosophy, Demmer brings the Catholic moral tradition into conversation with contemporary philosophical schools -- transcendental, hermeneutical, and analytical -- to fashion a moral theology in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. He shows the richness of the neoscholastic tradition in shaping and being shaped by our contemporary self-understanding.

A complete bibliography of Demmer's works will assist readers in seeking out more of his writings.

This book brings together a diverse and wide-ranging group of thinkers to forge unsuspecting conversations across the humanist and non-humanist divide. How should humanism relate to a non-humanist world? What distinguishes "humanism" from the "non-humanist?" Readers will encounter a wide-range of perspectives on the terms bringing together this volume, where "Humanism" "Non-Humanist" and "World" are not taken for granted, but instead, tackled from a wide variety of perspectives, spaces, discourses, and approaches. This volume offers both a pragmatic and scholarly account of these terms and worldviews allowing for multiple points of analytical and practical points of entry into the unfolding dialogue between humanism and the non-humanist world. In this way, this volume is attentive to both theoretically and historically grounded inquiry and applied practical application.

Philosophy in the medieval Latin West before 1200 is often thought to have been dominated by Platonism. The articles in this volume question this view, by cataloguing, describing and investigating the tradition of Aristotelian logic during this period, examining its influence on authors usually placed within the Aristotelian tradition (Eriugena, Anselm, Gilbert of Poitiers), and also looking at some of the characteristics of early medieval Platonism. Abelard, the most brilliant logician of the age, is the main subject of three articles, and the book concludes with two more general discussions about how and why medieval philosophy should be studied.

This volume offers an important re-evaluation of early modern philosophy. It takes issue with the received notion of a 'revolution' in philosophical thought in the 17th-century, making the case for treating the 16th and 17th centuries together. Taking up Charles Schmitt's formulation of the many 'Aristotelianisms' of the period, the papers bring out the variety and richness of the approaches to Aristotle, rather than treating his as a homogeneous system of thought. Based on much new research, they provide case studies of how philosophers used, developed, and reacted to the framework of Aristotelian logic, categories and distinctions, and demonstrate that Aristotelianism possessed both the flexibility and the dynamism to exert a continuing impact - even among such noted 'anti-Aristotelians' as Descartes and Hobbes. This constant engagement can indeed be termed 'conversations with Aristotle'.

An important milestone of 20th Century philosophy was the rise of personalism. After the crimes and atrocities against millions of human beings in two World Wars, especially the Second, some philosophers and other thinkers began to seek arguments showing the value of each human being, to expose and denounce the folly of political structures that violate the inalienable rights of the individual person. Karol Wojty?a appeals to the ancient concept of 'person' to emphasize the particular value of each human being. The person is unique because of their subjectivity by which they possesses an unrepeatable interior world in the history of humanity. Their rational nature grants them a special character among living beings, among which is the transcendence to the infinite. Wojty?a magisterially shows how each human being's personhood is rooted in a conscious and free subjectivity, which is marked also by personal and social responsibility. Wojty?a's original philosophical analysis takes for its starting point the human act, in which consciousness and experience consolidate voluntary choices, which are objectively efficacious. By their acts, the person determines their own personhood. This self-dominion manifests the person and enables them to live together in a community in which one's neighbor can be a companion on the voyage of life. This work provides a clear guide to Karol Wojty?a's principal philosophical work, Person and Act, rigorously analyzing the meaning that the author intended in his exposition. An important feature of the work is that the authors rely on the original Polish text, Osoba i czyn, as well as the best translations into Italian and Spanish, rather than on a flawed and sometimes misleading English edition of the work. Besides the analysis of Wojty?a's masterwork, this volume offers three chapters examining the impact of Wojty?a's anthropology on the relationship between faith and reason.

With the publication of Arthur Farndell's "Gardens of Philosophy" (Shepheard-Walwyn 2006), there remained only four of Ficino's commentaries on Plato's dialogues which had not yet been translated into English. Farndell's translation of the commentaries on "The Republic and the Laws" will comprise the third volume under the title "When Philosophers Rule" and the fourth, "All Things Natural", will contain the "Timaeus". As Carol Kaske of Cornell University wrote when reviewing "Gardens of Philosophy" in "Renaissance Quarterly", these translations fill 'A need. Even those Anglophone scholars who know Latin still need a translation in order to read quickly through a large body of material'. The central message of 'Parmenides', that everything depends on the One, resonates with the growing awareness around the world of the inter-relatedness of all things, be it in the biosphere, the intellectual or spiritual realms. Philosophers in ancient Greece appreciated this unity and employed reason and dialectic to draw the mind away from its preoccupation with the material world and attract it towards contemplation of the soul, and ultimately of that Oneness which embraces, but is distinct from, the multifarious forms of creation. Thus Parmenides carefully instructed the young Socrates, and Plato recorded their dialogue in this work which he named after the elderly philosopher. Nearly 2000 years later, Marsilio Ficino made 'Parmenides' available to the West by translating it into Latin, the language of scholars in his time. Ficino added a lengthy commentary to this translation, a commentary which "Evermore Shall Be So" puts into English for the first time, more than 500 years after its original composition. Ficino's crucial influence upon the unfolding of the Renaissance and his presentation of Plato's understanding of the One and the so-called Platonic Ideas or Forms make "Evermore Shall Be So" an important work in the history of thought. Though it will be an essential buy for renaissance scholars and historians, its freshness of thought and wisdom are as relevant today as they ever were to inspire a new generation seeking spiritual and philosophical direction in their lives.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Originally published in 1992 The Medieval Consolation of Philosophy is an annotated bibliography looking at the scholarship generated by the translations of the works of Boethius. The book looks at translations which were produced in medieval England, France, and Germany and addresses the influence exercised by Boethius, which extended into almost every area of medieval intellectual and artistic life. The book acts in two ways, as a whole the book acts as a bibliography and study of the European tradition of Consolatio translations, but viewed on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it is a collection of independent bibliographies on the individual vernacular traditions. The book contains separate chapters looking at the Consolatio traditions of medieval France and Germany.

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 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

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.

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

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.