|
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 -
Husserl's phenomenology has often been criticized for its
Cartesian, fundamentalistic, idealistic and solipsistic nature.
Today, this widespread interpretation must be regarded as being
outdated, since it gives but a very partial and limited picture of
Husserl's thinking. The continuing publication of Husserl's
research manuscripts has disclosed analyses which have made it
necessary to revise and modify a number of standard readings. This
anthology documents the recent development in Husserl research. It
contains contributions from a number of young phenomenologists, who
have all defended their dissertation on Husserl in the nineties,
and it presents a new type of interpretation which emphasizes the
dimensions of facticity, passivity, alterity and ethics in
Husserl's thinking.
Hegel is most famous for his view that conflicts between contrary
positions are necessarily resolved. Whereas this optimism, inherent
in modernity as such, has been challenged from Kierkegaard onward,
many critics have misconstrued Hegel's own intentions. Focusing on
the "Science of Logic," this transformative reading of Hegel on the
one hand exposes the immense force of Hegel's conception of
tragedy, logic, nature, history, time, language, spirit, politics,
and philosophy itself. Drawing out the implications of Hegel's
insight into tragic conflicts, on the other hand, De Boer brings
into play a form of negativity that allows us to understand why the
entanglement of complementary positions always tends to turn into
their conflict, but not necessarily into its resolution.
Wittgenstein's work, early and later, contains the seeds of an
original and important rethinking of moral or ethical thought that
has, so far, yet to be fully appreciated. The ten essays in this
collection, all specially commissioned for this volume, are united
in the claim that Wittgenstein's thought has much to contribute to
our understanding of this fundamental area of philosophy and of our
lives. They take up a variety of different perspectives on this
aspect of Wittgenstein's work, and explore the significance of
Wittgenstein's moral thought throughout his work, from the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and Wittgenstein's startling claim
there that there can be no ethical propositions, to the
Philosophical Investigations.
Nearly all philosophers refer to Kant when debating the concept of
dignity, and many approve of Kant's conception, unaware of the
tensions between Kant's conception and the modern idea of dignity
intimately connected to the idea of human rights. What exactly is
Kant's conception of dignity? Is there a connecting tie between
dignity and the legal sphere of human rights at all? Does Kant's
concept refer to a superior status human beings seem to own in
comparison to non-rational beings? Or does it refer to an absolute
value? The contributions of this volume are organised in five
broader topics. In the first section tensions within the Kantian
conception of dignity are discussed (C. Horn, D. Birnbacher, G.
Schoenrich). The second group of articles illuminates the intimate
connections between dignity and human rights (R. Mosayebi, M.
Kettner). The third group discusses the prevailing moral conception
of dignity (S. Yamatsuta, S. Shell, O. Sensen). The fourth group
focuses on the relation of dignity and end in itself (T. Hill, D.
Sturma, A. Wood). The central theme of the fifth group of
contributions are the social, political, and cultural dimensions of
dignity (Y. Kato, K. Ameriks, K. Flikschuh, T. Saito).
This book examines the human ability to participate in moments of
joint feeling. It presents an answer to the question concerning the
nature of our faculty to share in what might be called episodes of
collective affective intentionality. The proposal develops the
claim that our capacity to participate in such episodes is grounded
in an ability central to our human condition: our capacity to care
with one another about certain things. The author provides a
phenomenologically adequate account of collective affective
intentionality that takes seriously the idea that feelings are at
the core of our emotional relation to the world. He details a form
of group emotional orientation that relies on the fact that the
participating individuals have come to share a number of concerns.
Readers will learn that at the heart of a collective affective
intentional episode, one does not merely find a set of shared
concerns, but also a particular mode of caring. In the end, the
argument presented in this monograph makes plausible the idea that
the emotions through which humans participate in moments of
affective intentional community express our nature. In addition, it
shows that the debate on collective affective intentionality also
permits us to better understand the relationship between two
conflicting philosophical pictures of ourselves: the idea that we
are essentially social beings and the claim that we are creatures
for whom our personal existence is an issue. Thus, aiming at an
elucidation of the nature of our ability to feel together, the book
offers a detailed account of what it is to situationally express
our human nature by caring about something in a properly joint
manner.
-Selected papers on phenomenology offers the best work in this
field by the acclaimed historian of philosophy, Karl Schuhmann
(1941-2003), displaying the extraordinary range and depth of his
unique scholarship,
-Topics covered include the development of Husserl's concept of
intentionality, Husserl and Indian philosophy, the origins of
speech act theory in Munich phenomenology, the historical
background of the notion of "phenomenology," and Johannes Daubert's
critique of Martin Heidegger,
-This book brings together, in chronological arrangement, fourteen
papers. Though thirteen of these were published before in some
form, several were not easily accessible so far. In addition, a
substantial piece of research, Schuhmann's chronicle of Johannes
Daubert, appears here for the first time,
-All articles have been edited in accordance with the author's
wishes, and incorporate his later additions and corrections.
Cassirer's thought-provoking essay Form and Technology (1930)
considers the theoretical work performed by material instruments
and, in so doing, it ascribes to technology a new dignity as a
genuine tool of the mind in equal company with language and art.
Germinating in this essay, we find an ambitious program for a new
kind of philosophy of technology that resonates with contemporary
approaches focusing on material apparatuses, relational and
performative processes, and the embodied, embedded, and enacted
nature of perception and cognition. Cassirer's approach, however,
is unique in the way that it integrates logical concerns,
championed by scientifically oriented philosophers, with the
concerns of the historical and cultural sciences. The current
revival of interest in Cassirer's thinking has precisely to do with
its potential for bridging unproductive intellectual gaps. Form and
Technology, especially, provides a rich resource for current
attempts, across disciplines, to develop new conceptual and
ontological frameworks. Cassirer's classic essay, translated here
into English for the first time, is accompanied by ten critical
essays that explore its current relevance.
The main purpose of the present volume is to advance our
understanding of the notions of knowledge and context, the
connections between them and the ways in which they can be modeled,
in particular formalized a question of prime importance and utmost
relevance to such diverse disciplines as philosophy, linguistics,
computer science and artificial intelligence and cognitive
science.
Bringing together essays written by world-leading experts and
emerging researchers in epistemology, logic, philosophy of
language, linguistics and theoretical computer science, the book
examines the formal modeling of knowledge and the knowledge-context
link at one or more of three intersections - context and
epistemology, epistemology and formalism, formalism and context and
presents a novel range of approaches to the current discussions
that the connections between knowledge, language, action, reasoning
and context continually enlivens. It develops powerful ideas that
will push the relevant fields forward and give a sense of the new
directions in which mainstream and formal research on knowledge and
context is heading."
Edith Stein has become almost a legend in recent years largely
because of her heroic personality and her death in Auschwitz at the
hands of the Nazis. She is known also as an eminent
German-jewish-Christian intellectual and feminist, but more in the
realm of the sacred than of the secular. Both are essential to
understanding her. To know the real Edith Stein one must have some
knowledge of her as philosopher, for philosophy was central to her
very being. For this reason the present work is designed to be of
interest to the general reader as well as to philosophers. Many of
the latter have given evidence of interest in Stein's phenomenology
and may welcome an introduction that gives clues to its substance
and quality. Those who knew Edith Stein personally and
professionally--Edmund Husser , Roman lngarden, Hedwig
Conrad-Martius, Peter Wust, and other friends at the universities
of G6ttingen and Freiburg--affirm her genius and her passionate
pursuit of truth in philosophy. james Collins, distinguished
American historian of philosophy, who discovered some of her works
about the time she died, wrote that "we may expect critical studies
on her philosophy to multiply rapidly with the issuance of her
collected works and the recognition of her high philosophical
genius."l The fact is that this has not happened, although fourteen
of her major works have been published posthumously by Nauwelaerts
and Herder, and many are available from other sources.
IF WITI'GENSTEIN COULD TALK, COULD WE UNDERSTAND HIM? Perusing the
secondary literature on Wittgenstein, I have frequently experienced
a perfect Brechtean Entfremdungseffekt. This is interesting, I have
felt like saying when reading books and papers on Wittgenstein, but
who is the writer talking about? Certainly not Ludwig Wittgenstein
the actual person who wrote his books and notebooks and whom I
happened to meet. Why is there this strange gap between the ideas
of the actual philosopher and the musings of his interpreters?
Wittgenstein is talking to us through the posthumous publication of
his writings. Why don't philosophers understand what he is saying?
A partial reason is outlined in the first essay of this volume.
Wittgenstein was far too impatient to explain in his books and book
drafts what his problems were, what it was that he was trying to
get clear about. He was even too impatient to explain in full his
earlier solutions, often merely referring to them casually as it
were in a shorthand notation. For one important instance, in The
Brown Book, Wittgenstein had explained in some detail what
name-object relationships amount to in his view. There he offers
both an explanation of what his problem is and an account of his
own view illustrated by means of specific examples of
language-games. But when he raises the same question again in
Philosophical Investigations I, sec.
This is an original examination of the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur,
focusing on his specific concept of interpretation. "Ricoeur,
Hermeneutics and Globalization" explores the philosophical
resources provided by Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics in dealing with
the challenges of a world framed by globalization. Bengt
Kristensson Uggla's reflections start from an understanding of
globalization as an 'age of hermeneutics', linking the seldom
related problematic of globalization with hermeneutics through
Ricoeur's concept of interpretation. The book proceeds to embrace
lifelong, learning as the emerging new life script of the
globalized knowledge economy, the post-national 'memory wars'
generated by the celebration of national anniversaries, and the
need for orientation in a post-modern world order. The author
argues that Ricoeur's hermeneutics provide intellectual resources
of extraordinary importance in coping with some of the most
important challenges in the contemporary world. "Continuum Studies
in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge scholarship in the
field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments,
perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it
an important and stimulating resource for students and academics
from across the discipline.
Contemporary interest in realism and naturalism, emerging under the
banner of speculative or new realism, has prompted
continentally-trained philosophers to consider a number of texts
from the canon of analytic philosophy. The philosophy of Wilfrid
Sellars, in particular, has proven remarkably able to offer a
contemporary re-formulation of traditional "continental" concerns
that is amenable to realist and rationalist considerations, and
serves as an accessible entry point into the Anglo-American
tradition for continental philosophers. With the aim of appraising
this fertile theoretical convergence, this volume brings together
experts of both analytic and continental philosophy to discuss the
legacy of Kantianism in contemporary philosophy. The individual
essays explore the ways in which Sellars can be put into dialogue
with the widely influential work of Quentin Meillassoux, explaining
how-even though their methods, language, and proximal influences
are widely different-their philosophical stances can be compared
thanks to their shared Kantian heritage and interest in the problem
of realism. This book will be appeal to students and scholars who
are interested in Sellars, Meillassoux, contemporary realist
movements in continental philosophy, and the analytic-continental
debate in contemporary philosophy.
"Schizoanalytic Cartographies" represents Felix Guattari's most
important later work and the most systematic and detailed account
of his theoretical position and his therapeutic ideas. Guattari
sets out to provide a complete account of the conditions of
'enunciation' - autonomous speech and self-expression - for
subjects in the contemporary world. Over the course of eight
closely argued chapters, he presents a breathtakingly new
reformulation of the structures of individual and collective
subjectivity. Based on research into information theory and new
technologies, Guattari articulates a vision of a humanity finally
reconciled with its relationship to machines. "Schizoanalytic
Cartographies" is a visionary yet highly concrete work, providing a
powerful vantage point on the upheavals of our present epoch,
powerfully imagining a future 'post-media' era of technological
development. This long overdue translation of this substantial work
offers English-speaking readers the opportunity finally to fully
assess Guattari's contribution to European thought.
Ethical Experience provides a unique phenomenological dialogue
between psychology and philosophy. This novel approach focuses on
lived experiences that belong to daily practical life, such
self-identity and ethical decision-making. This practical focus
enables the reader to explore how ethics relates to psychology and
how the ethical agent determines herself within her surrounding
community and world. Using Husserl's ethics the authors present a
phenomenological approach moral psychology that offers an
alternative to cognitive and neuroscientific theories. This is a
practical and theoretically rigorous textbook that will be of use
to those researching and studying ethics, morality, psychology and
religion.
Phenomenology, according to Husserl, is meant to be philosophy as
rigorous science. It was Franz Brentano who inspired him to pursue
the ideal of scientific philosophy. Though Husserl began his
philosophical career as an orthodox disciple of Brentano, he
eventually began to have doubts about this orientation. The
Logische Unterschungen is the result of such doubts. Especially
after the publication of that work, he became increasingly
convinced that, in the interests of scientific philosophy, he had
to go in a direction which diverged from Brentano and other members
of this school (Brentanists') who believed in the same ideal. An
attempt is made here to ascertain Husserl's philosophical relation
to Brentano and certain other Brentanists (Carl Stumpf, Benno
Kerry, Kasimir Twardowski, Alexius Meinong, and Anton Marty). The
crucial turning point in the development of these relations is to
be found in the essay which Husserl wrote in 1894 (particularly in
response to Twardowski) under the title Intentional Objects' (which
is translated as an appendix in this volume). This study will be of
interest to historians of philosophy and phenomenology in
particular, but also to anyone concerned with the ideal of
scientific philosophy.
There have been many voices in disciplines as various as
philosophy, history, psychology, hermeneutics, literary theory, and
theology that have claimed that narrative is fundamental to all
that is human. Here is a book that in an engaging and amusing way
presents a coherent thesis to that effect, connecting the Joke and
the Story (with all that comedy and tragedy imply) not only with
our sensing and perceiving of the world, but with our faith in each
other, and what the character of that faith should be.
This book is dedicated to the consolidation and to the expansion of
theoretic systems thinking as a necessary integration of the
general reductionist and analytical attitude dominant in our
culture. Reductionism and analytical approaches have produced
significant results in many fields of contemporary knowledge giving
a great contribution to relevant scientific discoveries and to
their technological application, but their validity has been
improperly universalized as the only and best methods of knowledge
in every domain. It is nowadays clear that analytical or
mereological approaches are inadequate to solve many problems and
that we should introduce - or support the diffusion of - new
concepts and different research attitudes. A good candidate to
support such a shift is the well known theoretical approach based
on the concept of "system" that no more considers the elementary
constituents of an object, but the entity emerging from the
relations and interactions among its elementary parts. It becomes
possible to reconstruct several domains, both philosophical and
scientific, from the systemic point of view, introducing fresh
ideas in the research in view of a general rational vision of the
world on more comprehensive basis. This book contributes to the
diffusion and evolution of systemic thinking by focusing on two
main objectives: developing and updating the systemic approach in
disciplines currently using it and introducing the systemic
perspective in humanistic disciplines, where the approach is not
widely used. The Systemic Turn in Human and Natural Sciences: A
Rock in the Pond is comprised of ten chapters. The chapter authors
adopt a trans-disciplinary perspective, consisting in the
recognition and harmonization of the special outlooks that
together, within the general systemic paradigm, gives an ideal
unity to the book.
Friedrich Waismann (1896-1959) was one of the most gifted students
and collaborators of Moritz Schlick. Accepted as a discussion
partner by Wittgenstein from 1927 on, he functioned as spokesman
for the latter's ideas in the Schlick Circle, until Wittgenstein's
contact with this most faithful interpreter was broken off in 1935
and not renewed when exile took Waismann to Cambridge. Nonetheless,
at Oxford, where he went in 1939, and eventually became Reader in
Philosophy of Mathematics (changing later to Philosophy of
Science), Waismann made important and independent contributions to
analytic philosophy and philosophy of science (for example in
relation to probability, causality and linguistic analysis). The
full extent of these only became evident later when the larger
(unpublished) part of his writings could be studied. His first
posthumous work The Principles of Linguistic Philosophy (1965, 2nd
edn.1997; German 1976) and his earlier Einfuhrung in das
mathematische Denken (1936) have recently proved of fresh interest
to the scientific community. This late flowering and new
understanding of Waismann's position is connected with the fact
that he somewhat unfairly fell under the shadow of Wittgenstein,
his mentor and predecessor. Central to this book about a life and
work familiar to few is unpublished and unknown works on causality
and probability. These are commented on in this volume, which will
also include a publication of new or previously scattered material
and an overview of Waismann's life.
Lacan's four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. This book
provides the first truly sustained commentary to appear in either
French or English on Lacan's most important seminar, The Four
Fundamental concepts of Psychoanalysis.
Proceedings of the von Wright conference at the Center for
Intedisciplinary Studies in Bielefeld, April 26 to 27, 1996. Georg
Henrik von Wright, born 1916, is an important analytical
philosopher of the 20th century.
|
|