The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte is a condensed English version of the French philosopher's controversial work, freely translated by Harriet Martineau and published in two volumes in 1853. Martineau's abridged and more easily digestible version of Comte's work was intended to be readily accessible to a wide general readership, particularly those she felt to be morally and intellectually adrift, and Comte's philosophy indeed attracted a significant following in Britain in the later nineteenth century. Comte's 'doctrine' promoted personal and public ethics and social cohesion based no longer on metaphysics but on strict scientific method, and anticipated twentieth-century logical positivism and secular humanism. The first volume of this translation contains Parts 1 to 5 and sets out the nature and importance of positivism, leading on to an overview of the 'positive sciences': mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology.

The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte is a condensed English version of the French philosopher's controversial work, freely translated by Harriet Martineau and published in two volumes in 1853. Martineau's abridged and more easily digestible version of Comte's work was intended to be readily accessible to a wide general readership, particularly those she felt to be morally and intellectually adrift, and Comte's philosophy indeed attracted a significant following in Britain in the later nineteenth century. Comte's 'doctrine' promoted personal and public ethics and social cohesion based no longer on metaphysics but on strict scientific method, and anticipated twentieth-century logical positivism and secular humanism. The second volume of this translation is devoted entirely to Comte's new science of 'social physics' and human progress, and outlines his theories about society and its development through various phases - theological, humanistic and finally scientific.

History remembers James Hinton as a successful surgeon and author of books and articles on physiology and ethics. A gifted thinker and communicator, Hinton was well placed to address the relationship between science and religion in an age when the two were pitted against each other. First published in 1859, the same year as the Origin of Species, Man and His Dwelling Place takes an ambitiously broad view of the human condition, addressing difficult topics from science, religion, philosophy and ethics. Hinton's arguments against outdated ways of thinking and his approach to human nature were revolutionary, and he took pains to address readers' doubts in a series of question-and-answer dialogues at the end of the book. Hinton's impassioned plea for a bolder spirit of enquiry to better interpret human existence assures this book an important place in the history of science and the understanding of Darwin's intellectual context.

Published in 1831, this work forms part of a collection of introductory volumes suggested by Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux, the Lord Chancellor, for the Society of the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Due to the exceptional mathematical ability of its author, however, it outgrew its original plan and has since been seen as a rather more ambitious project. Praised by Somerville's contemporary Sir John Herschel for its presentation of general astronomical theories and the mechanical principles employed in their derivation, the work was a tour de force of scientific and technical exposition. It is especially remarkable both for its author's firm grasp of the subject, especially given her lack of formal mathematical training, and for its clear outline of Newtonian philosophy for a popular audience.

William Paley (1743-1805) argues for the existence of God as the intelligent creator of the world in this, his last book, published in 1802. He builds on early modern natural theology including the works of John Ray, William Derham, and Bernard Nieuwentyt, and most of his examples are taken from medicine and natural history. Paley uses analogy and metaphors, including a particularly well-written version of the 'watchmaker analogy', to prove that the world is designed and sustained by God. This sixth edition also contains a detailed bibliography, appendices on Paley's courses, and background notes on key figures. It was an influential best-seller throughout the nineteenth century, read by theologians and scientists alike, and reprinted in cheap editions for the middle classes. It inspired many nineteenth-century works on natural theology, including the Bridgewater Treatises (which also appear in this series), and is a landmark of Western thought.

The Scotsman George Combe (1788-1858) was an energetic and vocal promoter of phrenology, natural philosophy, and secularism, who rose from humble origins to tour widely in Europe and the United States and become a best-selling author. His most famous book, The Constitution of Man, was published in 1828, and had sold approximately 350,000 copies, distributed by over 100 publishers, by 1900. It put forward Combe's version of naturalism, and was hugely influential - perhaps more so even than Charles Darwin - in changing popular understanding of the place of humanity in the natural order, as subject to natural laws (physical, organic and moral). Combe's essay illustrates the relations between these laws with a view to the improvement of education and the regulation of individual conduct. It stirred up enormous controversy for decades after its publication, and is central to the understanding of the philosophical and scientific debates of the Victorian period.

This 1850 edition of The Method of The Divine Government is the Scottish philosopher and clergyman James McCosh's influential account of how God's providence, which in his opinion is an unquestionable fact, governs the world in both a physical (external) and in a moral (internal) sense. The latter is particularly connected to the many layers that make up man's conscience. This second edition, which consists of four parts ('books') and an appendix, differs from the original version as McCosh pays far more attention to first principles than to fundamental ones. He seeks to pinpoint God's character and probes the depths of man's conscience (First Book) and in the following he delves into the physical aspects of God's government, paying particular attention to Comte's Positivism. McCosh devotes part three to a detailed analysis of the human mind and moral nature and finally in the fourth part he reconciles God and man.

Henry George Atkinson (c.1812 c.1890), a free thinker and supporter of naturalism, published extensively on phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism. He became acquainted with the professional writer, political activist and radical philosopher Harriet Martineau (1802 76) in the 1840s, when she attributed her recovery from a long illness to mesmerism. Their correspondence was published in 1851, and promotes a radical form of atheistic naturalism, more extreme than that found in George Combe's best-selling Constitution of Man (also published in this series). It ranges widely over topics including the brain and the nervous system, matter and causation, superstition, theology and science. The book promotes the purity of natural law as superior to social customs and institutions, and reflects many concerns of the intelligentsia of the time, amongst whom it stirred up much controversy.

Sir David Brewster (1781 1868) was a distinguished scientist and inventor who frequently turned the results of his research to practical ends; his work on the diffraction of light, for example, led to his developing improved reflectors for lighthouses and inventing two popular Victorian toys, the stereoscope and the kaleidoscope. He was also active as the editor of the Edinburgh Magazine and the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1808 1830) and contributed to the seventh and eighth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as writing many articles for a variety of philosophical and scientific journals. He was deeply religious, and in More Worlds Than One (1854) he set out to counter the arguments against extra-terrestrial life of William Whewell's recently published Of the Plurality of Worlds (also reissued in this series), urging that Whewell's 'extraordinary doctrine' was wrong on scientific grounds.

The English astronomer Richard A. Proctor was already a well-known populariser of science when he published Other Worlds Than Ours in 1870, joining a ferocious debate about the possibility of life on other planets in which Whewell (1853) and Brewster (1854) had also participated. Taking his cue from the seventeenth-century French astronomer Fontenelle's classic book The Plurality of Worlds, Proctor discusses Victorian discoveries about the solar system and describes what was then known about each of the planets. He evaluates the habitability of Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn in the light of his belief in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The text includes many illustrations of the planets, a spectacular map of Mars, and theoretical views of the Milky Way. Influenced by Darwin, Proctor had a teleological view of the universe and believed that eventually the cosmos would be filled with living things.

George Combe (1788-1858) rose from humble origins to tour widely in Europe and the United States lecturing on phrenology, the popular Victorian belief that character traits were determined by the configuration of the skull. His most famous book, The Constitution of Man, published in 1828, put forward a naturalist agenda and sold approximately 350,000 copies. In 1857, Combe published On the Relation between Science and Religion. He denounces dogmatism and sectarianism, and argues insistently that religious leaders should encourage the study of science as revealing God's governance. He proposes that phrenology sheds light on the divine purpose and moral laws through an improved understanding of the human mind, and criticises both scientists and religious leaders who maintain that higher thought has nothing to do with the brain. His book ranges widely across the concerns of Victorian educated classes, and addresses questions many of which still resonate today.

Baden Powell (1796 1860) was a mathematician who held the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford, and was also a priest in the Church of England. He was a defender of the claims of new scientific discoveries in the face of Christian orthodoxy well before Darwin published the theory of evolution, and drew a clear distinction in his thinking and writing between moral and physical phenomena, as being independent of each other and the fields of completely different study. Darwin himself wrote, in the 'Historical Sketch' at the beginning of the third edition of On the Origin of Species, 'The 'Philosophy of Creation' has been treated in a masterly manner by the Rev. Baden Powell, in his Essays on the Unity of Worlds, 1855. Nothing can be more striking than the manner in which he shows that the introduction of new species is 'a regular, not a casual phenomenon'.'

First published in 1896, this two-volume history of the conflict between theology and science quickly became a landmark text. It was widely recognised, along with John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, as a defining study of the relationship between religion and science. A distinguished educator, scholar and writer, Andrew Dickson White was the first president of Cornell University. White held the view that religion was historically opposed to progress in the field of science. He argued that any interference on the part of religion in science had always proved disastrous, whereas scientific investigation, no matter how seemingly damaging to religion, had always resulted in the highest good. This book is the culmination of thirty years of White's research, publication and lectures on the subject. Volume one discusses creation, evolution, geography, astronomy, meteorology, ethnology and antiquity.

Based on the Gifford Lectures of 1937 8 in Edinburgh, Nobel Prize winner Charles Sherrington's 1940 study addresses the nature of the mind and its relationship to life and matter. The book centres on the writings of the little-known sixteenth-century physician Jean Fernel. After setting out Fernel's views on the nature of man, Sherrington proceeds to develop his own thoughts, drawing upon a wide variety of philosophical theories. Using Fernel as a historical case study, the book demonstrates how any scientific outlook is always part of its age, and shows how views on the eternal enigmas of mankind, mind and life have changed radically over time. Sherrington's book is important in the history of ideas for its assessment of the value of advances in natural science as a framework for the development of natural theology.

In 1863, the biologist and educator Thomas Henry Huxley published Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, a compilation of his public lectures on Darwin's theory of evolution - specifically the controversial idea of the ape ancestry of humans. An energetic supporter of Darwin, Huxley's argues that in order to understand the universe, everyone must know their place in the natural world. The book is divided into three parts, each written with the aim of persuading lay audiences. The first covers earlier human beliefs about exotic animals, especially 'man-like' apes. In Part 2, Huxley suggests that every animal on Earth is related in that all go through developmental stages from an egg, whether the animal is 'a silkworm or a school-boy'. Part 3 involves a discussion of recently discovered Neanderthal bones and compares prehistoric craniums to modern human skulls.

'A tour de force.' - THE SECRET BARRISTER 'Urgent and engaging.' - NICK COHEN, OBSERVER COLUMNIST 'A phenomenal history from a truly big mind.' - DAVID SCHNEIDER, WRITER 'Required reading for anyone interested in politics and philosophy.' - PROSPECT In a soaring narrative that stretches from the battlefields of the English Civil War to the 2008 Wall Street crash and Brexit, Ian Dunt tells the story of liberalism from its birth in the fight against absolute monarchy to the modern-day struggle against nationalism. This vivid, epic book explains the political ideas which underpin the modern world. Written by the presenter of the Origin Story podcast, it is a call to action for those who believe in freedom and reason, and a clear-throated defence and explanation of why those values matter to us all, every day. Mostly, though, it is political history and philosophy as it should be written (and read): taut, thought-provoking and bursting with ideas. Among the topics dealt with are: The birth of liberalism with Rene Descartes Radical ideas of freedom in the English Civil War Mob rule during French Revolution Liberal values in the American War of Independence Benjamin Constant's philosophical revolution John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor and liberalism's great love affair The Nazis and Soviets snuff out individual rights Building a liberal world with John Maynard Keynes The rise of identity politics and groupthink The viral threat from social media Liberalism's failures, from feminism to the rust belt From the US to Hungary, nationalism sweeps the world Why we fight for our values - the rebellion begins here Hailed as 'courageous' by LBC's James O'Brien and as a 'tour de force' by the Secret Barrister, How to be a Liberal is both a history of the growth of individual liberty and a rally cry to turn back the new populism threatening democratic values and personal freedoms. Reviews 'A tour de force; a mighty trumpet blast for the forces of liberalism and enlightenment in the face of a global tide of ignorance and populism.' - THE SECRET BARRISTER 'This is a history of ideas as it should be written - brilliant, vivid story-telling about the people who shaped liberalism, the challenges it has faced over the centuries, its commitment to the truth and why it's now more important than ever to defend it.' - CAROLINE LUCAS MP 'How To Be A Liberal is required reading for today's political debates.' - ANNE APPLEBAUM, TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY 'I'm loving How to be a Liberal. It's really great. I mean breathtakingly good. Bravo.' - DR BEN GOLDACRE 'Dunt... describes liberalism as "an enormous, boisterous, confounding bloody thing," and writes passionately in its favour, as a counterweight to ignorance and populism. This book is required reading for anyone interested in politics and philosophy.' - PROSPECT About the Author Ian Dunt is a columnist with the I newspaper and presents the Origin Story and Oh God, What Now? podcasts. His first book, Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? (Canbury Press, 2017), on Britain's challenge in leaving the European Union, was a critically-acclaimed bestseller. In How To Be A Liberal (Canbury, 2020), the journalist tells the epic story of personal freedom. Ranging across history, politics and economics, he makes a powerful case for a radical brand of egalitarian liberalism that can safeguard individuals while looking after us all. Extract - The New Nationalism (starting with the nationalist blueprint of Viktor Orban's Hungary) Liberalism had been weakened by the financial crash, the rise of identity war and anti-truth. Then, in 2016, nationalism punched through its defences with breakthroughs in Britain and America. For many people, this was the start of the nationalist takeover. But in fact its momentum had been building for years... Buy the book to continue reading

"A witty, learned, authoritative survey of philosophical thought." -The New York Times Book Review The first authoritative and accessible single-volume history of philosophy to cover both Western and Eastern traditions, from one of the world's most eminent thinkers The story of philosophy is an epic tale, spanning civilizations and continents. It explores some of the most creative minds in history. But not since the long-popular classic by Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, published in 1945, has there been a comprehensive and entertaining single-volume history of this great, intellectual, world-shaping journey. With characteristic clarity and elegance, A. C. Grayling takes the reader from the age of the Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates through Christianity's capture of the European mind, from the Renaissance and Enlightenment on to Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre and, finally, philosophy today. Surveying in tandem the great philosophical traditions of India, China, and the Persian-Arabic world, and astonishing in its range and accessibility, Grayling's The History of Philosophy is destined to be a landmark work.

The work of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) has a variety of meanings for different interpreters. Some attribute to him a new 'scientific method' of drawing conclusions from practical or historical experience in order to form rules for successful political behaviour, with its emphasis on man's behavioural patterns rather than on moral precepts as a basis for politics. Others attribute to him a belief in the autonomy of the state - that the state is a structure governed by its own laws of development and that it finds its justification only in terms of its success. Others again emphasise his republicanism and see him as a theorist of the modern state. [Some believe his first name is the proper basis of an appellation of the Devil.] Although a lucid writer in many respects, the metaphorical way in which Machiavelli expressed some of his key concepts and his preference for working through examples rather that elaborating principles has given much scope for debate about his actual intentions. These volumes present in chronological order the most significant articles on Machiavelli written in the 20th century and offer a representative selection of the numerous interpretations of his work.

The growth and development of the Lincoln Record Society in its first hundred years highlights the contribution of such organisations to historical life. In 2010 the Lincoln Record Society celebrates its centenary with the publication of the hundredth volume in its distinguished series. Local record societies, financed almost entirely from the subscriptions of their members, have made an important contribution to the study of English history by making accessible in printed form some of the key archival materials relating to their areas. The story of the Lincoln society illustrates the struggles and triumphsof such an enterprise. Founded by Charles Wilmer Foster, a local clergyman of remarkable enthusiasm, the LRS set new standards of meticulous scholarship in the editing of its volumes. Its growing reputation is traced here througha rich archive of correspondence with eminent historians, among them Alexander Hamilton Thompson and Frank Stenton. The difficulties with which Kathleen Major, Canon Foster's successor, contended to keep the Society alive duringthe dark days of the Second World War are vividly described. The range of volumes published has continued to expand, from the staple cartularies and episcopal registers to more unusual sources, Quaker minutes, records ofCourts of Sewers and seventeenth-century port books. While many of the best-known publications have dealt with the medieval period, notably the magnificent Registrum Antiquissimum of Lincoln Cathedral, there have also beeneditions of eighteenth-century correspondence, twentieth-century diaries, and pioneering railway photographs of the late Victorian era. This story shows the Lincoln Record Society to be in good heart and ready to begin its secondcentury with confidence. Nicholas Bennett is currently Vice-Chancellor and Librarian of Lincoln Cathedral.

Across disciplinary borders, clarity is taken for granted as a cardinal virtue of communication in contemporary academia. But what is clarity, how is it practised in writing across disciplinary borders and how does it affect our ways of researching and thinking? This book explores such questions by scrutinising the ideal of clarity beyond its apparently self-evident value. Through a multi-methodological empirical analysis of the ideal of clarity, the author offers a sketch of what is termed 'the poetics of clarity', which is unfolded as a field of tension with important implications for sentence formation, authorial positioning and textual organisation. By way of a series of reflections on the possible consequences of this for thinking, this volume also explores the parts of knowledge production that may be marginalised, especially poetic language use, biases, interests and contexts, multi-dimensional arguments and errors. Revealing a positivist bias and a regime of high-speed consumption that characterise what, in certain regards, might be considered a productive space for knowledge production, Writing and Thinking in Contemporary Academia will appeal to scholars with interests in the sociology of knowledge, continental philosophy, the philosophy of science and academic writing.

In this landmark volume, Samuel Hollander presents a fresh and compelling history of moral philosophy from Locke to John Stuart Mill, showing that a 'moral sense' can actually be considered compatible with utilitarianism. The book also explores the link between utilitarianism and distributive justice. Hollander engages in close textual exegesis of the works relating to individual authors, while never losing sight of the intellectual relationships between them. Tying together the greatest of the British moral philosophers, this volume reveals an unexpected unity of eighteenth and nineteenth century ethical doctrine at both the individual and social level. Essential reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, history of ethics, history of political thought and intellectual history.

James Mill's (1773-1836) role in the development of utilitarian thought in the nineteenth century has been overshadowed both by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Of the three, the elder Mill is considered to be the least original and with the least important, if any, contributions to utilitarian theory. True as this statement may be, even those who have tried to challenge some of its aspects take the common portrayal of Mill - "the rationalist, the maker of syllogisms, the geometrician" - as given. This book does not. Studying James Mill's background has surprising results with reference to influences outside the Benthamite tradition as well as unexpected implications for his contributions to debates of his time. The book focuses on his political ideas, the ways in which he communicated them and the ways in which he formed them in an attempt to reveal a portrait of Mill unencumbered from the legacy of Thomas Babington Macaulay's (1800-1859) brilliant essay "Utilitarian Logic and Politics".

In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds--remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia--drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America--five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

This first anthology of women's international thought explores how women transformed the practice of international relations, from the early to middle twentieth century. Revealing a major distortion in current understandings of the history and theory of international relations, this anthology offers an alternative 'archive' of international thought. By including women as international thinkers it demonstrates their centrality to early international relations discourses in and on the Anglo-American world order and how they were excluded from its history and conceptualization. Encompassing 104 selections by 92 different thinkers, including Anna Julia Cooper, Margaret Sanger, Rosa Luxemburg, Judith Shklar, Hannah Arendt, Merze Tate, Susan Strange, Lucy P. Mair and Claudia Jones, it covers the widest possible range of subject matter, genres, ideological and political positions, and professional contexts. Organized into thirteen thematic sections, each with a substantial introductory essay, the anthology provides intellectual, political and biographical context, and original arguments, showing women's significance in international thought.

This book contains essays written over the past 25 years about medieval urban communities and about the loyalties and beliefs of medieval lay people in general. Most writing about medieval religious, political, legal, and social ideas starts from treatises written by academics and assumes that ideas trickled down from the clergy to the laity. Susan Reynolds, whether writing about the struggles for liberty of small English towns, the national solidarities of the Anglo-Saxons, or the capacity of medieval peasants to formulate their own attitudes to religion, rejects this assumption. She suggests that the medieval laity had ideas of their own that deserve to be taken seriously.