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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, c 1600 to c 1800
'Capitalist critique and proletarian reasoning fit for our time' -
Peter Linebaugh Taking the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David
Hume as its subject, this book breaks new ground in focusing its
lens on a little-studied aspect of Hume's thinking: his
understanding of money. George Caffentzis makes both an
intervention in the field of monetary philosophy and into Marxian
conceptions of the relation between philosophy and capitalist
development. He vividly charts the ways in which Hume's philosophy
directly informed the project of 'civilizing' the people of the
Scottish Highlands and pacifying the English proletariat in
response to the revolts of both groups at the heart of the empire.
Built on careful historical and philosophical detective work,
Civilizing Money offers a stimulating and radical political reading
of the ways in which Hume's fundamental philosophical claims
performed concrete political functions.
This book situates John Locke's philosophy of knowledge and his
political theory within his engagement in British monetary debates
of the 17th and 18th century. Anchored in extensive archival
research, George Caffentzis offers the most expansive reading of
Locke's economic thought to date, contextualizing it within the
expansion of capitalist accumulation on a world scale and the
universality of money as a medium of exchange. Updated with a new
introduction by Paul Rekret, a new foreword by Harry Cleaver and
new material by the author, Clipped Coins, Abused Words, and Civil
Government continues to make a significant intervention in
contemporary debates around the history of capitalism, colonialism
and philosophy.
This book explores the Paris Ecole Militaire as an institution,
arguing for its importance as a school that presented itself as a
model for reform during a key moment in the movement towards
military professionalism as well as state-run secular education.
The school is distinguished for being an Enlightenment project, one
of its founders publishing an article on it in the Encyclopedie in
1755. Its curriculum broke completely with the Latin pedagogy of
the dominant Jesuit system, while adapting the legacy of
seventeenth-century riding academies. Its status touches on the
nature of absolutism, as it was conceived to glorify the Bourbon
dynasty in a similar way to the girls' school at Saint Cyr and the
Invalides. It was also a dispensary of royal charity calculated to
ally the nobility more closely to royal interests through military
service. In the army, its proofs of nobility were the model for the
much debated 1781 Segur decree, often described as a notable cause
of the French Revolution.
This book suggests that to know how Wittgenstein's post-Tractarian
philosophy could have developed from the work of Kant is to know
how they relate to each other. The development from the latter to
the former is invoked heuristically as a means of interpretation,
rather than a historical process or direct influence of Kant on
Wittgenstein. Ritter provides a detailed treatment of
transcendentalism, idealism, and the concept of illusion in Kant's
and Wittgenstein's criticism of metaphysics. Notably, it is through
the conceptions of transcendentalism and idealism that
Wittgenstein's philosophy can be viewed as a transformation of
Kantianism. This transformation involves a deflationary conception
of transcendental idealism along with the abandonment of both the
idea that there can be a priori 'conditions of possibility'
logically detachable from what they condition, and the appeal to an
original 'constitution' of experience. The closeness of Kant and
post-Tractarian Wittgenstein does not exist between their arguments
or the views they upheld, but rather in their affiliation against
forms of transcendental realism and empirical idealism. Ritter
skilfully challenges several dominant views on the relationship of
Kant and Wittgenstein, especially concerning the cogency of
Wittgenstein-inspired criticism focusing on the role of language in
the first Critique, and Kant's alleged commitment to a
representationalist conception of empirical intuition.
Human, All Too Human marks the beginning of what is often called
Nietzsche's middle or positivist period (which ends with the
conclusion of Book IV of The Gay Science). It initiates some
important features that become permanent in his work, such as his
experiments in multiple writing styles within one work, his
self-representation as a psychologist, his genealogical excavations
of morality and his appeal to fellow Europeans to overcome the
parochialism and antagonism of nationalism.
On the basis of the Thomist and Pietist tradition, Christian August
Crusius (1715-1775) elaborated a philosophically challenging and
influential alternative to the philosophy of Christian Wolff. For
the first time, this edited collection offers a rigorous overview
of the work of the Leipzig-based philosopher and theologian.
This book outlines and analyzes John Locke's political thought
about the oceans with a focus on law and freedom at sea. The book
examines the Two Treatises of Government, in which Locke argues
that the seas are collectively owned by all humans and are governed
by universal natural laws that prohibit piracy. Locke's Two
Treatises provides a systematic political theory of the seas that
contributes to theories of international law and maritime law, but
his text does not answer the practical question of how to enforce
law effectively at sea. The book also considers how Locke
translated his theoretical ideas into practice when he was involved
in policymaking as a member of England's Board of Trade during the
1690s. On the Board, Locke waged a war against pirates by proposing
an anti-piracy treaty between Europe's major maritime states, by
successfully advocating a new English piracy law, and by supporting
the deployment of the English Navy against pirates. Locke's war
against pirates was consistent with the natural law theory in the
Two Treatises, and helped to build English empire on land and at
sea. There is also consistency between Locke's theoretical views
about slavery and his work on the Board of Trade. As a Board
member, Locke advocated forced migration and forced labor for
English convicts, which is consistent with the theory of penal
slavery in the Two Treatises and suggests that his theory was
intended to justify the enslavement of English convicts. However,
there are tensions between Locke's arguments in the Two Treatises
and the policies of forced naval service that he supported on the
Board. Locke's theories of law and freedom at sea shaped his vision
of English national identity, and influenced the English
government's policies about slavery and piracy.
This book offers new critical perspectives on the relationship
between the notions of speculation, logic and reality in Hegel's
thought as basis for his philosophical account of nature, history,
spirit and human experience. The systematic functions of logic and
pure thought are explored in their concrete forms and processual
progression from subjective spirit to philosophy of right, society,
the notion of habit, the idea of work, art, religion and science.
Engaging the relation between the Logic and its realisations, this
book shows the internal tension that inhabits Hegel's philosophy at
the intersection of logical (conceptual) speculation and concrete
(interpretative) analysis. The investigation of this tension allows
for a hermeneutical approach that demystifies the common view of
Hegel's idealism as a form of abstract thought, while allowing for
a new assessment of the importance of speculation for a concrete
understanding of the world.
Our reasoning evolved not for finding the truth, but for social
bonding and convincing. The best logical methods humans have
created provide no path to truth, unless something is assumed as
true from the start. Other than that, we only have methods for
attempting to measure uncertainty. This book highlights the
consequences of these facts for scientific practice, and suggests
how to correct the mistakes we still make. But even our best
methods to measure uncertainty might require infinite resources to
provide solid answers. This conclusion has important consequences
for when and how much we can trust arguments and scientific
results. The author suggests ways we can improve our current
practices, and argues that theoretical work is a fundamental part
of the most effective way to do science.
This collection of reading and essays 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.
Best known for the progressive school he founded in Dessau during
the 18th century, Johann Bernhard Basedow was a central thinker in
the German Enlightenment. Since his death in 1790 a substantial
body of German-language literature about his life, work, and school
(the Philanthropin) has developed. In the first English
intellectual biography of this influential figure, Robert B. Louden
answers questions that continue to surround Basedow and provides a
much-needed examination of Basedow's intellectual legacy. Assessing
the impact of his ideas and theories on subsequent educational
movements, Louden argues that Basedow is the unacknowledged father
of the progressive education movement. He unravels several
paradoxes surrounding the Philanthropin to help understand why it
was described by Immanuel Kant as "the greatest phenomenon which
has appeared in this century for the perfection of humanity",
despite its brief and stormy existence, its low enrollment and
insufficient funding. Among the many neglected stories Louden tells
is the enormous and unacknowledged debt that Kant owes to Basedow
in his philosophy of education, history, and religion. This is a
positive reassessment of Basedow and his difficult personality that
leads to a reevaluation of the originality of major figures as well
as a reconsideration of the significance of allegedly minor authors
who have been eclipsed by the politics of historiography. For
anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of the history of
German philosophy, Louden's book is essential reading.
What is solitude, why do we crave and fear it, and how do we
distinguish it properly from loneliness? It lies at the core of the
lives of philosophers and their self-reflective contemplations, and
it is the enabling (and disabling) condition that allows us to
seriously question how to live creatively and meaningfully. David
Farrell Krell is one of the decisive philosophical voices on how
philosophers can creatively engage their solitudes. The scale and
range of his understanding of solitudes are taken up in this book
by some of the most distinguished Continental philosophers. Authors
address the problem of solitude from different angles, and imagine
how to face and respond creatively to it. Blending philosophical
narrative and straightforward philosophical treatises, this book
provides inspiration for contemplation of our own versions of
solitude and their creative potentials. Some authors focus on the
work of historical figures in philosophy or poetry, such as
Heidegger and Hoelderlin, while others deal more directly with
Krell's work as exemplary of their own imaginings of creative
solitudes. Other authors respond more personally and creatively in
their demonstrations of how we can, and must, seek our solitudes.
Including an original chapter by David Farrell Krell, this book is
an invigorating meditation on the possibility of being
philosophical about a life through solitude, and the meaning of
this powerfully resonant and universal human experience.
'Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' These are the
famous opening words of a treatise that has stirred vigorous debate
ever since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that
anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau
argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist
between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source
of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to
consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving
at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for
totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.
Translated by Quintin Hoare With a new introduction by Christopher
Bertram
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