Promoting cultural understanding in a globalized world, this collection offers a new perspective on Western philosophy and religion through the voices of Chinese scholars. It examines the evolution of economic and political structures across the United States and the European Union, as well as key developments in various educational systems in the United Kingdom, Sweden, the US, France and Germany. As an interdisciplinary study situated at the intersection of sociology, history, culture and philosophy, this book re-examines pivotal structures and developments in Western countries and provides readers with a succinct yet effective way of mastering a deeper understanding of Western culture.

This book proposes a conceptual-empirical framework for exploring forms of continuity and change along psychosocial pathways in South African universities. It illustrates how the psychosocial pathways are grounded in the symbolic narratives and knowledges of young scientists, engineers and architects - all interlocutors in the research from which this book is based. Alala, Mamoratwa, Welile, Odirile, Kaiya, Amirah, Takalani, Nosakhele, Naila, Ambani, Khanyisile, Itumeleng, Ethwasa and Kgnaya provide collective standpoints in the multiplicities within and between the lived lives and told stories of young Black South African women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In doing so, this compelling work advances possibilities for demythologising scientific endeavour as a white male achievement and shifting knowledge communities across gendered, racialised, class and national divides. This book presents an innovative narrative methodology, utilising the myth of the Minotaur to examine the state of the university at the heart of the hierarchical labyrinth in "post"-apartheid South Africa. Throughout the work the author wrestles with and self-reflexively highlights her own positionality as a white, middle-class South African woman to examine how this affects the production of this research in ways which serve to preserve the colonial knowledge system. With the rise of the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall student movement in South Africa, demanding for the fall of institutionalised racial hierarchies, the author uses the cover image of narrative formations in the spirit of exploration to think with and through undulating networked forms that could possibly forge new psychosocial pathways towards decolonising and reinventing South African universities. This work offers a unique conceptual and methodological resource for students and scholars of psychosocial and narrative theory, as well as those who are concerned about the politics of higher education, both in South Africa and in other contexts around the world.

This major study of Kierkegaard and love explores Kierkegaard's description of love's treachery, difficulty, and hope. It reads his Works of Love as a text that both deciphers and complicates the central books in his pseudonymous canon: Fear and Trembling, Repetition, Either/Or and Stages on Life's Way. Amy Laura Hall argues that a spiritual void brings each text into being, and her interpretation is as much about faith as about love. Her scholarly and lyrical style makes this study a poetic contribution to ethics and the philosophy of religion.

A landmark work. Mandatory reading for anyone who wants to learn to be a good skeptic.
In this widely acclaimed and highly controversial book, Paul Kurtz examines the reasons why people accept supernatural and paranormal belief systems in spite of substantial evidence to the contrary. According to the author, it is because there is within the human species a deeply rooted tendency toward magical thinking - the "transcendental temptation" - which undermines critical judgment and paves the way for willful beliefs. He explores in detail the three major monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - finding striking psychological and sociological parallels between these religions, the spiritualism of the 19th century, and the paranormal belief systems of today. There are sections on mysticism, belief in the afterlife, the existence of God, reincarnation, astrology, and ufology. Kurtz also explains the nature of skepticism as an antidote to belief in the transcendental.

This book mediates between postcolonial positions that criticize Marxist approaches (and Marx's writings) for their Eurocentrism and defenders of Marx, who claim that this accusation is a myth. In different contributions to this volume, Kolja Lindner pleads for a differentiated assessment of the whole of Marx's work, including less known manuscripts, and a theoretical reconstruction of various elements that have come into the focus of postcolonial critique: ethnocentrism, Orientalism, false universalism and the oblivion of modernity's global entanglement. Against this background, two opportunities simultaneously arise: Marx's Eurocentrism can be deconstructed and his growing awareness of global developments and cosmopolitan struggles established.

This book explores Wittgenstein's long engagement with the work of the pragmatist William James. In contrast to previous discussions, Russell Goodman argues that James exerted a distinctive and pervasive positive influence on Wittgenstein's thought. He shows that both share commitments to anti-foundationalism, to the description of the concrete details of human experience, and to the priority of practice over intellect. Considering in detail what Wittgenstein learnt from his reading of William James, Goodman provides considerable evidence for Wittgenstein's claim that he is saying "something that sounds like pragmatism."

This volume comprises one of the key lecture courses leading up to the publication in 1966 of Adorno's major work, "Negative Dialectics," These lectures focus on developing the concepts critical to the introductory section of that book. They show Adorno as an embattled philosopher defining his own methodology among the prevailing trends of the time. As a critical theorist, he repudiated the worn-out Marxist stereotypes still dominant in the Soviet bloc - he specifically addresses his remarks to students who had escaped from the East in the period leading up to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Influenced as he was by the empirical schools of thought he had encountered in the United States, he nevertheless continued to resist what he saw as their surrender to scientific and mathematical abstraction. However, their influence was potent enough to prevent him from reverting to the traditional idealisms still prevalent in Germany, or to their latest manifestations in the shape of the new ontology of Heidegger and his disciples. Instead, he attempts to define, perhaps more simply and fully than in the final published version, a 'negative', i.e. critical, approach to philosophy. Permeating the whole book is Adorno's sense of the overwhelming power of totalizing, dominating systems in the post-Auschwitz world. Intellectual negativity, therefore, commits him to the stubborn defence of individuals - both facts and people - who stubbornly refuse to become integrated into 'the administered world'.

These lectures reveal Adorno to be a lively and engaging lecturer. He makes serious demands on his listeners but always manages to enliven his arguments with observations on philosophers andwriters such as Proust and Brecht and comments on current events. Heavy intellectual artillery is combined with a concern for his students' progress.

Ramon Llull (1232-1316), born on Majorca, was one of the most remarkable lay intellectuals of the thirteenth century. He devoted much of his life to promoting missions among unbelievers, the reform of Western Christian society, and personal spiritual perfection. He wrote over 200 philosophical and theological works in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic. Many of these expound on his "Great Universal Art of Finding Truth," an idiosyncratic dialectical system that he thought capable of proving Catholic beliefs to non-believers.
This study offers the first full-length analysis of his theories about rhetoric and preaching, which were central to his evangelizing activities. It explains how Llull attempted to synthesize commonplace advice about courtly speech and techniques of popular sermons into a single program for secular and sacred eloquence that would necessarily promote love of God and neighbor. Llull's work is a remarkable testimony to the diffusion of clerical culture among educated lay-people of his era, and to their enthusiasm for applying that knowledge in pursuit of learning and piety. This book should find a place on the shelf of every scholar of medieval history, religion, and rhetoric.

Christos Yannaras pioneering critique of the concept of the right of the individual is presented in English for the first time. This central aspect of political theory (since Hegels Philosophy of Right) summarizes the philosophical and cultural identity of the paradigm of modernity, but the philosophical assumptions underlying the concept of right have not hitherto been subject to scrutiny. Yannaras shows that the starting-point of the concept of right is a phenomenalistic naturalism, which presupposes an abstract concept of the human subject as a fundamentally undifferentiated natural individual. The question is also explored of how the priority accorded to this concept of right is related to the contemporary crisis of the modern politico-social paradigm, while a new preface from the translator underlines the continued significance of Yannaras proposal for Anglophone readers. Against the modern concept of right with its illusion of objectivity, The Inhumanity of Right sketches out the basic lines of a political theory that prioritizes new social needs that reflect the relational character of the human person.

The intellectual relationship between Henry James and his father proved to be an influential resource for the novelist. Andrew Taylor examines the nature of both men's engagement with autobiographical strategies, issues of gender reform, and the language of religion. He argues for a reading of Henry James that is informed by an awareness of paternal inheritance. Through the study of a wide range of novels and texts, he demonstrates how James Senior's dialogue with his contemporaries, such as Emerson and Whitman, anticipates James's own theories of fiction and selfhood.

Distinguished scholars--Jurgen Habermas, Claus Offe, Douglas Kellner, and Martin Jay, among others--draw upon historical, theoretical, and biographical information to assess Marcuse's philosophy, from its grounding in classical German idealism, through the break with Heidegger, to his role in the American counterculture of the sixties and seventies. Indispensable for anyone interested in an in-depth understanding of one of the most burning issues of our time: the relation of critical theory to social action.

Presenting the history of an unexplored yet significant institution in East Germany, this book analyses the development of the Parteihochschule Karl Marx (PHS), a training institute for Communist party officials and members of the functional elite. By chronicling the PHS from its establishment in 1946, the author demonstrates how it sought to implement Stalin's rule, and sheds light on the activities of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic. The book focuses on the leadership of Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker as First Secretary and General Secretary of the SED respectively, and examines key personalities within the PHS. The activities of party functionaries under the rule of Hanna Wolf and Kurt Tiedke are scrutinised, revealing the dogmatic nature of the East German regime. An essential read for anyone interested in German history and East European Communism, this book brings to light one of the key institutions in implementing Stalinism and Marxism-Leninism in the German Democratic Republic.

Ward's book focuses on the work of the Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller; prominent member of the Budapest School, a group of students who studied under the Marxist social theorist Gyoergy Lukacs. For both Marx and Heller (albeit in different ways) dissatisfaction emerges as the inevitable result of the expansion of need(s) within modernity and as a catalyst for the development of anthropological wealth (what Marx refers to as the 'human being rich in need'). Ward argues that dissatisfaction and the corresponding category of human wealth-as both motif and method-is central to grasping Heller's seemingly disparate writings. While Marx postulates a radical overcoming of dissatisfaction, Heller argues dissatisfaction is integral not only to the on-going survival of modernity but also to the dynamics of both freedom and individual life. In this way Heller's work remains committed to a position that both continually returns and departs, is both with and against, the philosophy of Marx. This book will be of interest to scholars of political philosophy, social theory, critical theory, and sociology.

This important new book argues that Henry James' fiction reveals a sophisticated theory of moral understanding and moral motivation. The claim is that James is engaged in a distinctive kind of original thinking and reflecting on modern moral life in his novels and short stories. The book offers important new interpretations of many novels as well as several short stories. It is written by one of the pre-eminent interpreters of the modern European philosophical tradition and will interest philosophers as well as literary critics. Moreover, the style is completely non-technical, with no reliance on contemporary literary or philosophical theory, and will therefore be accessible to students and general readers.

This is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the 20th century. Moore's ethical project, set out in his seminal text the Principia Ethica is to preserve common moral insight from skepticism and, in effect, persuade his readers to accept the objective character of goodness. Brian Hutchinson explores Moore's arguments in detail, showing Moore's ethical work to be much richer and more sophisticated than his critics have acknowledged.

The present book contextualizes Du Chatelet's contribution to the philosophy of her time. The editor offers this tribute to an Epoque Emiliennee as a collection of innovative papers on Emilie Du Chatelet's powerful philosophy and legacy. Du Chatelet was an outstanding figure in the era she lived in. Her work and achievements were unique, though not an exception in the 18th century, which did not lack outstanding women. Her personal intellectual education, her scholarly network and her mental acumen were celebrated in her time, perceiving her to have "multiplied nine figures by nine figures in her head". She was able to gain access to institutions which were normally denied to women. To call an epoch an Epoque Emilienne may be seen as daring and audacious, but it will not be the last time if we continue to bring women philosophers back into the memory of the history of philosophy. The contributors paid attention to the philosophical state of the art, which forms the background to Du Chatelet's philosophy. They follow the transformation of philosophical concepts under her pen and retrace the impact of her ideas. The book is of interest to scholars working in the history of philosophy as well as in gender studies. It is of special interest for scholars working on the 18th century, Kant, Leibniz, Wolff, Newton and the European Enlightenment.

This book presents a conceptual mapping of supererogation in the analytic moral philosophical tradition. It first asks whether supererogation can be conceptualised in the absence of obligation or duty and then makes the case that it can be. It does so by enlisting the resources of the continental tradition, specifically using the work of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of infinite responsibility. In so doing the book contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic and continental traditions within moral philosophy. Supererogatory actions are praiseworthy actions that go 'beyond duty', and yet are not blameworthy when not performed. In responding to this paradox, moral philosophy either brackets or attempts a reductionism of supererogation. Supererogation is epitomised in the paradigmatic figures of the saint and hero. Yet, most would agree that emulating these figures is too morally demanding. We rightly ask: where does moral obligation end? Is it even possible, or desirable to demarcate such a boundary? Besides the important theoretical issues these questions raise, they also speak to practical ethical dilemmas in the contemporary milieu, as they concern the global wealthy's responsibility to the poor and the challenges of development aid work.

Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential twentieth-century philosophers in the western tradition. In his Philosophical Investigations he undertakes a radical critique of analytical philosophy's approach to both the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations introduces and assesses: Wittgenstein's life The principal ideas of the Philosophical Investigations Some of the principal disputes concerning the interpretation of his work Wittgenstein's philosophical method and its connection with the form of the text. With further reading included throughout, this guidebook is essential reading for all students of philosophy, and all those wishing to get to grips with this masterpiece.

This is by far the most exhaustive biography on Niels Stensen, anatomist, geologist and bishop, better known as "Nicolaus Steno". We learn about the scientist's family and background in Lutheran Denmark, of his teachers at home and abroad, of his studies and travels in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Germany, of his many pioneering achievements in anatomy and geology, of his encounters with Swammerdam, Malpighi and with members of the newly established Royal Society of London and the Accademia del Cimento in Florence, and with the philosopher Spinoza. It further treats Stensen's religious conversion. The book includes the full set of Steno's anatomical and geological scientific papers in original language. The editors thoroughly translated the original Latin text to English, and included numerous footnotes on the background of this bibliographic and scientific treasure from the 17th century.

In their trenchant panoramic overview - ranging from antiquity to the present-day - John and Anna Rist write with authority and ennui about nothing less than the loss of the foundational culture of the West. The authors characterize this culture as the 'original tradition', viewing its erosion as one which has led to anxiety about the entire value of Western thought. The causes of the disintegration are discussed with an intensity rare in academe. Critics of modernity ordinarily concentrate on the Enlightenment and the book certainly offers deep analysis of Enlightenment thought. But it goes further. Thus the cruelty of modern totalitarianism is now depicted as in the spirit of the French Revolution and its implacable hostility to a vanished primordial heritage, while scientism, bureaucracy and consumerism appear as the only rivals to a threatening nihilism. The book argues that Western thought has created a set of conflicting moral and spiritual customs: to the detriment of coherence, in individual minds as in society and culture.

The field of Indian studies and the wide-ranging fascination with India in Wilhelmine Germany emerged during a time of extraordinary cultural and political tensions, which explicitly informed the analyses, understanding, and interpretation of Indian traditions. That is, German Indologen - eminent professors in Indian Studies - and other intellectuals transacted concerns with religious traditions, scientific imperatives, and sociopolitical transformations. Specifically, these German intellectuals drew on non-Western traditions to assemble an archive of knowledge through which they could negotiate a number of issues, including: denominational agendas - both Catholic and Protestant - as the established Churches sought to solidify their roles in a more secular world dominated by Bismarckian power politics and eventually imperial designs; the perceived faltering of religious signifiers, sparked in part by the scientific challenges to Biblical exegesis as the primary source for establishing human knowledge and spiritual identity; a new paradigm for the nation as Germany sought to identify itself during the age of Empire, with its inherent colonial competition among the European powers; and new, innovative paths for re-shaping intellectual identity and re-building community consensus in response to these perceived stresses. The image of India became a powerful sounding board during the Kaiserreich for many intellectuals to re-negotiate modern definitions of science, culture, and religion - to re-formulate their destabilized sense of history and progress. Just as Chamberlain projects in 1905, German Indologists had already long sought to navigate the unstable religious, social and political waters of Wilhelmine Germany through their constructed India. This study shows that these religious (denominational and spiritual) dilemmas, political agendas, and shifting social consensus became inextricably entangled in the wider German encounter with India.

This collection of new essays derives from a conference sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the Centre of Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St Andrews. It brings together a number of prominent academics from the fields of philosophy and political theory along with politicians and social commentators. The subjects covered include liberalism, education, welfare policy, religion, art and culture, and cloning. The mix of contributors and the topicality of the subject matter should further promote a serious engagement between philosophy and public life.

A tercentenary conference of March, 1985, drew to Newport, Rhode Island, nearly all the most distinguished Berkeley scholars now active. The conference was organized by the International Berkeley Society, with the support of several institutions and many people (whose help is acknowl edged below). This volume represents a selection of the lead papers deliv ered at that conference, most now revised. The Cartesian marriage of Mind and Body has proved an uneasy union. Each side has claimed supremacy and usurped the rights of the other. In anglophone philosophy Body has lately had it all pretty much its own way, most dramatically in the Disappearance Theory of Mind, whose varieties vary in appeal and sophistication, but uniformly shock sensibili ties. Only recently has Mind reasserted itself, yet the voices of support are already a swelling chorus. "Welcome," Berkeley would respond, since " ... all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth ... have not a subsis tence without a mind ... " (Principles, sect. 6). In fairness, Berkeley does playa Disappearance trick of his own - with Matter now into the hat. But his act is far subtler than any brute denial of the obvious, and seeks rather to explain than bluntly to reject. Perhaps we are today better prepared to appreciate his insights."

The Reformed Theological Tradition makes the beginning point of its theology the knowledge of God, and the goal and meaning of life, the glory of God. John Calvin begins his Institutes of the Christian Religion with chapters about the knowledge of God. The Westminster Confession of Faith dedicates its first chapter to how God is known. However, in 21st century America the words 'knowing God' have come to mean relying on an inner feeling or having a personal preference. Yet it was not that long ago that Charles Hodge, now largely forgotten outside of specialized academic circles, was a national figure known for his theological work on the knowledge of God. This book focuses on the specifics of his intellectual lineage and his own arguments to show how God can be known. There are tensions that arise and must be addressed between claims about the authority of inner feelings on the one hand, and the ability for actual knowledge of God on the other. We today have inherited the residue from those tensions and a better understanding of them will help us in our thinking about knowing God.

This is the first book-length study of Decartes' metaphysics to place it in its immediate historical context, the Late Scholastic philosophy of thinkers such as Suárez against which Descartes reacted. Jorge Secada views Cartesian philosophy as an "essentialist" reply to the "existentialism" of the School, and his discussion includes careful analyses and original interpretations of such central Cartesian themes as the role of skepticism, the theory of substance, and the dualism of mind and matter. His study offers a picture of Descartes' metaphysics that is both novel and philosophically illuminating.