Wittgenstein's later writings generate a great deal of controversy and debate, as do the implications of his ideas for such topics as consciousness, knowledge, language and the arts. Oswald Hanfling addresses a widespeard tendency to ascribe to Wittgenstein views that go beyond those he actually held. Separate chapters deal with important topics such as the private language argument, rule-following, the problem of other minds, and the ascription of scepticism to Wittgenstein. Describing Wittgenstein as a 'humanist' thinker, he contrasts his views on language, art humanity and philosophy itself with those of scientifically minded philosophers. He argues that 'the human form of life' calls for a kind of understanding that cfannot be achieved by the methods of emirical science; that consiousness, for example, cannot properly be regarded as a property of the bran; and that the resulting 'problem of consoiusness is an illusion. Wittgenstein and the Human Form of Life is essential reading for anyone interested in Wittgenstein's approach to what it means to be human. It will be invaluable to all Wittgenstein scholars, and all who are interested in the philosophy of mind, language and aesthetics.

At the turn of the century, philosophical thinking on both sides of the Atlantic was dominated by the idealist movement, a school of thought that influenced the rise of both pragmatism and analytic philosophy. The essays in this edited collection introduce and critically assess the central themes of the main Anglo-American idealists, considering the philosophical arguments in their own context and terms, but also connecting them to current debates. The figures and topics covered include T. H. Green on the common good, Edward Caird on evolution, F. H. Bradley on relations, Bosanquet's view of the state, Royce's concept of the absolute, McTaggart's timeless personalism, JoachiM's theory of truth, and Collingwood's philosophy of history. The introduction provides a contextual overview of the movement, which, as a philosophy superseded by a more modern approach, was first subjected to much hostile criticism, then ignored, and is now once again beginning to interest historians of philosophy.

This title presents a new introduction to Mill, guiding the student through the key concepts of his work by examining the overall development of his ideas. John Stuart Mill was one of the most important and influential British philosophers. When one considers his overall intellectual contributions, Mill is arguably the most important intellectual figure of the nineteenth century. Covering all the key concepts of his work, "Starting with Mill" provides an accessible introduction to the ideas of this hugely significant thinker. Clearly structured according to Mill's key works, the book leads the reader through a thorough overview of the development of his thought, resulting in a more thorough understanding of the roots of his philosophical concerns. Offering coverage of the full range of Mill's ideas, the book explores his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology, logic, psychology, political economy, ethics, utilitarianism, and liberalism. Crucially the book introduces the major thinkers whose work proved influential in the development of Mill's thought, including Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, Adam Smith, John Locke and the other British Empiricists. This is the ideal introduction for anyone coming to the work of this hugely important thinker for the first time. "Continuum's Starting" with...series offers clear, concise and accessible introductions to the key thinkers in philosophy. The books explore and illuminate the roots of each philosopher's work and ideas, leading readers to a thorough understanding of the key influences and philosophical foundations from which his or her thought developed. Ideal for first-year students starting out in philosophy, the series will serve as the ideal companion to study of this fascinating subject.

This study offers a fresh reappraisal of the philosopher, political thinker, and historian of ideas Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) from childhood to the height of his intellectual career. It provides the first historically contextualized study of Berlin's formative years and identifies different stages in his intellectual development, allowing a reappraisal of his theory of liberalism. Applying a "double perspective" that examines Berlin both as an East European Jewish emigre as well as a British Liberal intellectual, author Arie Dubnov stresses the very ambivalent relation between Berlin's liberal philosophy and his pro-Zionist sentiments.

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

Terry Pinkard draws on Hegel's central works as well as his lectures on aesthetics, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of history in this deeply informed and original exploration of Hegel's naturalism. As Pinkard explains, Hegel's version of naturalism was in fact drawn from Aristotelian naturalism: Hegel fused Aristotle's conception of nature with his insistence that the origin and development of philosophy has empirical physics as its presupposition. As a result, Hegel found that, although modern nature must be understood as a whole to be non-purposive, there is nonetheless a place for Aristotelian purposiveness within such nature. Such a naturalism provides the framework for explaining how we are both natural organisms and also practically minded (self-determining, rationally responsive, reason-giving) beings. In arguing for this point, Hegel shows that the kind of self-division which is characteristic of human agency also provides human agents with an updated version of an Aristotelian final end of life. Pinkard treats this conception of the final end of "being at one with oneself" in two parts. The first part focuses on Hegel's account of agency in naturalist terms and how it is that agency requires such a self-division, while the second part explores how Hegel thinks a historical narration is essential for understanding what this kind of self-division has come to require of itself. In making his case, Hegel argues that both the antinomies of philosophical thought and the essential fragmentation of modern life are all not to be understood as overcome in a higher order unity in the "State." On the contrary, Hegel demonstrates that modern institutions do not resolve such tensions any more than a comprehensive philosophical account can resolve them theoretically. The job of modern practices and institutions (and at a reflective level the task of modern philosophy) is to help us understand and live with precisely the unresolvability of these oppositions. Therefore, Pinkard explains, Hegel is not the totality theorist he has been taken to be, nor is he an "identity thinker," a la Adorno. He is an anti-totality thinker.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

David Kaplan's intellectual influence on 20th century analytic philosophy has been transformative. He introduced lasting innovations in the philosophy of language and philosophical logic. Just as important, however, is Kaplan's way of doing philosophy; generous but incisive, his profoundly interactive style mentored countless generations of students, many of whom contribute to this volume.
This volume collects new, previously unpublished articles on Kaplan, analyzing a broad spectrum of topics ranging from cutting edge linguistics and the philosophy of mathematics, to metaphysics, the foundations of pragmatics, and the theory of communication.
With its historical introduction and personal tributes, The Philosophy of David Kaplan also reveals much of Kaplan's life and times, highlighting the key players of analytic philosophy of the last century, and underscoring Kaplan's substantial impact on contemporary philosophy.

French thinkers such as Lacan and Derrida are often labelled as representatives of 'poststructuralism' in the Anglophone world. However in France, where their work originated, they use no such category; this group of theorists - 'the poststructuralists' - were never perceived as a coherent intellectual group or movement. Outlining the institutional contexts, affinities, and rivalries of, among others, Althusser, Barthes, Foucault, Irigaray, and Kristeva, Angermuller - drawing from Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and the academic field - insightfully explores post-structuralism as a phenomenon. By tracing the evolution of the French intellectual field after the war, Why There is No Poststructuralism in France places French Theory both in the specific material conditions of its production and the social and historical contexts of its reception, accounting for a particularly creative moment in French intellectual life which continues to inform the theoretical imaginary of our time.

This volume brings Cassirer's work into the arena of contemporary debates both within and outside of philosophy. All articles offer a fresh and contemporary look at one of the most prolific and important philosophers of the 20th century. The papers are authored by a wide array of scholars working in different areas, such as epistemology, philosophy of culture, sociology, psychopathology, philosophy of science and aesthetics.

This book presents a unique rethinking of G. W. F. Hegel's philosophy from unusual and controversial perspectives in order to liberate new energies from his philosophy. The role Hegel ascribes to women in the shaping of society and family, the reconstruction of his anthropological and psychological perspective, his approach to human nature, the relationship between mental illness and social disease, the role of the unconscious, and the relevance of intercultural and interreligious pathways: All these themes reveal new and inspiring aspects of Hegel's thought for our time.

This is an in-depth analysis of dramatization as method in the work of Deleuze and Guattari. It provides an account of the value of this method for the study of the political with particular emphasis on the relationship between politics and art.

"Reading Ranciere" brings together leading international in the first sustained critical exploration of Ranciere's work on politics, aesthetics and philosophy in English. Over the past 40 years, Jacques Ranciere's work has defined itself through a remarkable set of philosophical differences in relation to other key figures working in the fields of politics, philosophy and aesthetics. There have been significant philosophical, theoretical and aesthetic disagreements with influential figures in contemporary thought, including Althusser, Bourdieu, Derrida, Agamben, Deleuze, Foucault, Habermas and Badiou. Through these differences Ranciere has emerged as one of the world's leading contemporary theorists. Whilst Ranciere has long been a well-known force in francophone contexts, the translation of his works into English has generated a lot of excitement and catapulted him to the forefront of attention in several putatively distinct but interconnected fields: philosophy, politics, critical theory, aesthetics and film. "Reading Ranciere" intervenes in this ongoing discourse by assembling an eminent collection of critical assessments of the significance of Ranciere's diverse impact and growing influence. This book offers the first sustained and critically balanced response to the work of this major contemporary theorist.

Wittgenstein's thought is reflected in his reading and reception of other authors. Wittgenstein Reading approaches the moment of literature as a vehicle of self-reflection for Wittgenstein. What sounds, on the surface, like criticism (e.g. of Shakespeare) can equally be understood as a simple registration of Wittgenstein's own reaction, hence a piece of self-diagnosis or self-analysis. The book brings a representative sample of authors, from Shakespeare, Goethe, or Dostoyevsky to some that have received far less attention in Wittgenstein scholarship like Kleist, Lessing, or Wilhelm Busch and Johann Nepomuk Nestroy. Furthermore, the volume offers means for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts. Unique to this book is its internal design. The editors' introduction sets the scene with regards to both biography and theory, while each of the subsequent chapters takes a quotation from Wittgenstein on a particular author as its point of departure for developing a more specific theme relating to the writer in question. This format serves to avoid the well-trodden paths of discussions on the relationship between philosophy and literature, allowing for unconventional observations to be made. Furthermore, the volume offers means for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts.

This book is a collection of articles authored by renowed Polish ontologists living and working in the early part of the 21st century. Harking back to the well-known Polish Lvov-Warsaw School, founded by Kazimierz Twardowski, we try to make our ontological considerations as systematically rigorous and clear as possible - i.e. to the greatest extent feasible, but also no more than the subject under consideration itself allows for. Hence, the papers presented here do not seek to steer clear of methods of inquiry typical of either the formal or the natural sciences: on the contrary, they use such methods wherever possible. At the same time, despite their adherence to rigorous methods, the Polish ontologists included here do not avoid traditional ontological issues, being inspired as they most certainly are by the great masters of Western philosophy - from Plato and Aristotle, through St. Thomas and Leibniz, to Husserl, to name arguably just the most important.

While there are publications on Wittgenstein's interest in Dostoevsky's novels and the recurring mentions of Wittgenstein in Sebald's works, there has been no systematic scholarship on the relation between perception (such as showing and pictures) and the problem of an adequate presentation of interiority (such as intentions or pain) for these three thinkers.This relation is important in Wittgenstein's treatment of the subject and in his private language argument, but it is also an often overlooked motif in both Dostoevsky's and Sebald's works. Dostoevsky's depiction of mindset discrepancies in a rapidly modernizing Russia can be analyzed interms of multi-aspectivity. The theatricality of his characters demonstrates especially well Wittgenstein's account of interiority's interrelatedness with overt public practices and codes. In Sebald's Austerlitz, Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblances is an aesthetic strategy within the novel. Visual tropes are most obviously present in Sebald's use of photography, and can partially be read as an ethical-aesthetic imperative of rendering pain visible. Tea Lobo's book contributes towards a non-Cartesian account of literary presentations of inner life based on Wittgenstein's thought.

This book is the first systematic account of Pierre Charron s influence among the major French philosophers in the period (1601-1662). It shows that Charron s "Wisdom" was one of the main sources of inspiration of Pierre Gassendi s first published book, the "Exercitationes adversus aristoteleos." It sheds new light on La Mothe Le Vayer, who is usually viewed as a major free thinker. By showing that he was a follower of Charron, La Mothe emerges neither as a skeptical apologist nor as a disguised libertine, as combatting superstition but not as irreligious. The book shows the close presence of Charron in the preambles of Descartes philosophy and that the cogito is mainly based on the moral Academic self-assurance of Charron s wise man. This interpretation reverses the standard view of Descartes relation to skepticism. Once this skepticism is recognized to be Charron s Academic one, it is seen not as the target but as the source of the cogito. Pascal is the last major philosopher for whom Charron s wisdom is crucially relevant. Montaigne and Descartes influenced, respectively, Pascal s view of the Pyrrhonian skeptic and of the skeptical main arguments. The book shows that Charron s Academic skeptical wise man is one of the main targets of his projected apology for Christianity, since he considered him as a threat and counter-example of the kind of Christian view of human beings he believed. By restoring the historical philosophical relevance of Charron in early modern philosophy and arguing for the relevance of Academic skepticism in the period, this book opens a new research program to early modern scholars and will be valuable for those interested in the history of philosophy, French literature and religion."

This collection on the Standard of Taste offers a much needed resource for students and scholars of philosophical aesthetics, political reflection, value and judgments, economics, and art. The authors include experts in the philosophy of art, aesthetics, history of philosophy as well as the history of science. This much needed volume on David Hume will enrich scholars across all levels of university study and research.

"In 12 excellent essays by scholars East and West, this collection explores the many dimensions of Heidegger's relation to Eastern thinking.... Because of the quality of the contributions, the eminence of the many contributors... this volume must be considered an indispensable reference on the subject. Highly recommended." --Choice.

The volume will consist of a series of interpretative studies of Locke 's philosophical and religious thought in historical context and consider his contributions to the Enlightenment and modern liberal thought.

During the early modern era (c. 1600-1800), philosophers formulated a number of new questions, methods of investigation, and theories regarding the nature of the mind. The result of their efforts has been described as the original cognitive revolution . Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind provides a comprehensive snapshot of this exciting period in the history of thinking about the mind, presenting studies of a wide array of philosophers and topics. Written by some of today s foremost authorities on early modern philosophy, the ten chapters address issues ranging from those that have long captivated philosophers and psychologists as well as those that have been underexplored. Likewise, the papers engage figures from the history of ideas who are well-known today (Descartes, Hume, Kant) as well as those who have been comparatively neglected by contemporary scholarship (Desgabets, Boyle, Collins).

This volume will become an essential reference work that graduate students and professionals in the fields of philosophy of mind, the history of philosophy, and the history of psychology will want to own."

Occasional Paper No. 44 of the Royal Anthropological Institute Published in association with the Anglo-Finnish Society Westermarck was a remarkable man, but one who has received little credit for the significant part he played in the creation of modern anthropology. He spanned two worlds: the comparative anthropological endeavours of the nineteenth century, and the establishment of social anthropology at the LSE, in which he played a major role. One of Malinowski's principal teachers, he was himself an outstanding fieldworker. His work on Morocco has, even today, hardly been surpassed. Yet, his theories on the nature of human marriage and the origins of the incest taboo place him firmly in the earlier, generalist camp, and the controversies to which they have given rise have hardly settled down to this day. In this volume, Westermarck's place in anthropology is discussed, along with detailed descriptions of his very active academic life in Finland and in Britain, whilst other chapters consider his equally pioneering writings in morals and ethics. Westermarck's own writings are featured by way of illustration of his ideas, including his LSE inaugural lecture, his Huxley lecture, and a hitherto unpublished paper on ritual and survivals. This volume shows, indeed, that Westermarck is a 'missing link' in today's history of anthropology, and our understanding of that history will be profoundly changed by a better appreciation of his role within it.

This fascinating and nuanced volume engages with the innovative and at the same time contentious debate on religious pluralism mooted by John Hick, one of the most prominent British philosophers of religion. In celebrating Hick's voluminous work, a team of eminent and emerging scholars, representing a broad range of philosophical and theological perspectives, offer a succinct and incisive analysis of Hick's ideas and their enduring relevance for a world which is becoming increasingly polarized. These essays not only deal with theoretical and doctrinal aspects of interreligious discourse, but also focus on developing a discourse that challenges any form of religious absolutism.They address important questions such as how to articulate a philosophy or theology of religious pluralism that is not triumphalistic, how to affirm a spirituality that is not restrictive, how to speak about liberation that does not smack of theological finality. Besides issues related to religious pluralism, this volume also contains illuminating essays on themes such as suffering and theodicy. This insightful volume should be of immense interest and value to scholars and students of religion and lay readers.