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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy
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This volume collects new, previously unpublished articles on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.
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.
The Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic
publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and
state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in a
particular area. Specially commissioned essays from leading
international figures in the discipline give critical examinations
of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide
scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives
upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social
sciences.
Plato is the best known, and continues to be the most widely
studied, of all the ancient Greek philosophers. The twenty-one
newly commissioned articles in the Oxford Handbook of Plato provide
in-depth and up-to-date discussions of a variety of topics and
dialogues. The result is a useful state-of-the-art reference to the
man many consider the most important philosophical thinker in
history.
Each article is an original contribution from a leading scholar,
and they all serve several functions at once: they survey the lay
of the land; express and develop the authors' own views; and
situate those views within a range of alternatives.
This Handbook contains chapters on metaphysics, epistemology,
love, language, ethics, politics, art and education. Individual
chapters are are devoted to each of the following dialogues: the
Republic, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, and Philebus.
There are also chapters on Plato and the dialogue form; on Plato in
his time and place; on the history of the Platonic corpus; on
Aristotle's criticism of Plato, and on Plato and Platonism.
Ex nihilo nihil fit. Philosophy, especially great philosophy, does
not appear out of the blue. In the current volume, a team of top
scholars-both up-and-coming and established-attempts to trace the
philosophical development of one of the greatest philosophers of
all time. Featuring twenty new essays and an introduction, it is
the first attempt of its kind in English and its appearance
coincides with the recent surge of interest in Spinoza in
Anglo-American philosophy. Spinoza's fame-or notoriety-is due
primarily to his posthumously published magnum opus, the Ethics,
and, to a lesser extent, to the 1670 Theological-Political
Treatise. Few readers take the time to study his early works
carefully. If they do, they are likely to encounter some surprising
claims, which often diverge from, or even utterly contradict, the
doctrines of the Ethics. Consider just a few of these assertions:
that God acts from absolute freedom of will, that God is a whole,
that there are no modes in God, that extension is divisible and
hence cannot be an attribute of God, and that the intellectual and
corporeal substances are modes in relation to God. Yet, though
these claims reveal some tension between the early works and the
Ethics, there is also a clear continuity between them. Spinoza
wrote the Ethics over a long period of time, which spanned most of
his philosophical career. The dates of the early drafts of the
Ethics seem to overlap with the assumed dates of the composition of
the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and the Short
Treatise on God, Man, and His Well Being and precede the
publication of Spinoza's 1663 book on Descartes' Principles of
Philosophy. For this reason, a study of Spinoza's early works (and
correspondence) can illuminate the nature of the problems Spinoza
addresses in the Ethics, insofar as the views expressed in the
early works help us reconstruct the development and genealogy of
the Ethics. Indeed, if we keep in mind the common dictum "nothing
comes from nothing "-which Spinoza frequently cites and appeals
to-it is clear that great works like the Ethics do not appear ex
nihilo. In light of the preeminence and majesty of the Ethics, it
is difficult to study the early works without having the Ethics in
sight. Still, we would venture to say that the value of Spinoza's
early works is not at all limited to their being stations on the
road leading to the Ethics. A teleological attitude of such a sort
would celebrate the works of the "mature Spinoza " at the expense
of the early works. However, we have no reason to assume that on
all issues the views of the Ethics are better argued, developed,
and motivated than those of the early works. In other words, we
should keep our minds open to the possibility that on some issues
the early works might contain better analysis and argumentation
than the Ethics.
This new book by Michael Slote argues that Western philosophy on
the whole has overemphasized rational control and autonomy at the
expense of the important countervailing value and virtue of
receptivity. Recently the ideas of caring and empathy have received
a great deal of philosophical and public attention, but both these
notions rest on the deeper and broader value of receptivity, and in
From Enlightenment to Receptivity, Slote seeks to show that we need
to focus more on receptivity if we are to attain a more balanced
sense and understanding of what is important to us.
Beginning with a critique of Enlightenment thinking that calls into
question its denial of any central role to considerations of
emotion and empathy, he goes on to show how a greater emphasis on
these factors and on the receptivity that underlies them can give
us a more realistic, balanced, and sensitive understanding of our
core ethical and epistemological values. This means rejecting
post-modernism's blanket rejection of reason and of compelling real
values and recognizing, rather, that receptivity should play a
major role in how we lead our lives as individuals, in how we
relate to nature, in how we acquire knowledge about the world, and
in how we relate morally and politically with others.
A unifying theme of Loeb's work is epistemological - that Descartes
and Hume advance theories of knowledge that rely on a substantial
'naturalistic' component, adopting one or another member of a
cluster of psychological properties of beliefs as the goal of
inquiry and the standard for assessing belief-forming mechanisms.
Thus Loeb shows a surprising affinity between the epistemologies of
the two figures -- surprising because they are often thought of as
polar opposites in this respect.
Descartes and Hume are unique in that their philosophical texts are
accessible beyond just a narrow audience in the history of
philosophy; their ideas continue to be a vital part of the field at
large. This volume will thus appeal to advanced students and
scholars not just in the history of early modern philosophy but in
epistemology and other core areas of the discipline.
This book is a detailed account of and commentary on Thomas
Aquinas's most influential work: the Summa Theologiae. Intended for
students and general readers interested in medieval philosophy and
theology, the book will also appeal to professors and scholars,
although it does not presuppose any previous knowledge of its
subject. Following a scholarly account of Aquinas's life, the book
explores his purposes in writing the Summa Theologiae and works
systematically through each of its three Parts. It also relates
their contents and Aquinas's teachings to that of other works and
other thinkers both theological and philosophical. In addition to
being expository, the volume aims to help readers think about the
value of the Summa Theologiae for themselves. The concluding
chapter considers the impact Aquinas's best-known work has had
since its first appearance, and why it is still studied today.
Davies's study is a solid and reflective introduction both to the
Summa Theologiae and to Aquinas in general.
After 9/11/2001, gendered narratives of humiliation and revenge
proliferated in the U.S. national imaginary. How is it that gender,
which we commonly take to be a structure at the heart of individual
identity, is also at stake in the life of the nation? What do we
learn about gender when we pay attention to how it moves and
circulates between the lived experience of the subject and the
aspirations of the nation in war? What is the relation between
national sovereignty and sovereign masculinity? Through examining
practices of torture, extra-judicial assassination, and first
person accounts of soldiers on the ground, Bonnie Mann develops a
new theory of gender. It is neither a natural essence nor merely a
social construct. Gender is first and foremost an operation of
justification which binds the lived existence of the individual
subject to the aspirations of the regime. Inspired by a
reexamination of the work of Simone de Beauvoir, the author exposes
how sovereign masculinity hinges on the nation's ability to tap
into and mobilize the structure of self-justification at the heart
of masculine identity. At the national level, shame is repeatedly
converted to power in the War on Terror through hyperbolic displays
of agency including massive aerial bombardment and practices of
torture. This is why, as Mann demonstrates, the phenomenon of
gender itself demands a four-dimensional analysis that moves from
the phenomenological level of lived experience, through the
collective life of a people expressed in the social imaginary and
the operations of language, to the material relations that prevail
in our times.
One of Aquinas's best known works after the Summa Theologica, Summa
Contra Gentiles is a theological synthesis that explains and
defends the existence and nature of God without invoking the
authority of the Bible. A detailed expository account of and
commentary on this famous work, Davies's book aims to help readers
think about the value of the Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) for
themselves, relating the contents and teachings found in the SCG to
those of other works and other thinkers both theological and
philosophical. Following a scholarly account of Aquinas's life and
his likely intentions in writing the SCG, the volume works
systematically through all four books of the text. It is,
therefore, a solid and reflective introduction both to the SCG and
to Aquinas more generally. The book is aimed at students of
medieval philosophy and theology, and of Aquinas in particular. It
will interest teachers of medieval philosophy and theology, though
it does not presuppose previous knowledge of Aquinas or of his
works. Davies's book is the longest and most detailed account and
discussion of the SCG available in English in one volume.
Moral Motivation presents a history of the concept of moral
motivation. The book consists of ten chapters by eminent scholars
in the history of philosophy, covering Plato, Aristotle, later
Peripatetic philosophy, medieval philosophy, Spinoza, Locke, Hume,
Kant, Fichte and Hegel, and the consequentialist tradition. In
addition, four interdisciplinary "Reflections" discuss how the
topic of moral motivation arises in epic poetry, Cicero, early
opera, and Theodore Dreiser. Most contemporary philosophical
discussions of moral motivation focus on whether and how moral
beliefs by themselves motivate an agent (at least to some degree)
to act. In much of the history of the concept, especially before
Hume, the focus is rather on how to motivate people to act morally
as well as on what sort of motivation a person must act from (or
what end an agents acts for) in order to be a genuinely ethical
person or even to have done a genuinely ethical action. The book
shows the complexity of the historical treatment of moral
motivation and, moreover, how intertwined moral motivation is with
central aspects of ethical theory.
"Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy" presents original articles
on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be of
substantial length, and include critical notices of major books.
OSAP is now published twice yearly, in both hardback and paperback.
The essays in this volume focus in particular on Plato, Aristotle
and the Stoics.
The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century
is the first collective critical study of this important period in
intellectual history. The volume is divided into four parts. The
first part explores individual philosophers, including Fichte,
Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, and Nietzsche, amongst other great
thinkers of the period. The second addresses key philosophical
movements: Idealism, Romanticism, Neo-Kantianism, and
Existentialism. The essays in the third part engage with different
areas of philosophy that received particular attention at this
time, including philosophy of nature, philosophy of mind,
philosophy of language, philosophy of history, and hermeneutics.
Finally, the contributors turn to discuss central philosophical
topics, from skepticism to mat-erialism, from dialectics to ideas
of historical and cultural Otherness, and from the reception of
antiquity to atheism. Written by a team of leading experts, this
Handbook will be an essential resource for anyone working in the
area and will lead the direction of future research.
In Frege's Conception of Logic Patricia A. Blanchette explores the
relationship between Gottlob Frege's understanding of conceptual
analysis and his understanding of logic. She argues that the
fruitfulness of Frege's conception of logic, and the illuminating
differences between that conception and those more modern views
that have largely supplanted it, are best understood against the
backdrop of a clear account of the role of conceptual analysis in
logical investigation. The first part of the book locates the role
of conceptual analysis in Frege's logicist project. Blanchette
argues that despite a number of difficulties, Frege's use of
analysis in the service of logicism is a powerful and coherent
tool. As a result of coming to grips with his use of that tool, we
can see that there is, despite appearances, no conflict between
Frege's intention to demonstrate the grounds of ordinary arithmetic
and the fact that the numerals of his derived sentences fail to
co-refer with ordinary numerals. In the second part of the book,
Blanchette explores the resulting conception of logic itself, and
some of the straightforward ways in which Frege's conception
differs from its now-familiar descendants. In particular,
Blanchette argues that consistency, as Frege understands it,
differs significantly from the kind of consistency demonstrable via
the construction of models. To appreciate this difference is to
appreciate the extent to which Frege was right in his debate with
Hilbert over consistency- and independence-proofs in geometry. For
similar reasons, modern results such as the completeness of formal
systems and the categoricity of theories do not have for Frege the
same importance they are commonly taken to have by his
post-Tarskian descendants. These differences, together with the
coherence of Frege's position, provide reason for caution with
respect to the appeal to formal systems and their properties in the
treatment of fundamental logical properties and relations.
Embodiment-defined as having, being in, or being associated with a
body-is a feature of the existence of many entities, perhaps even
of all entities. Why entities should find themselves in this
condition is the central concern of the present volume. The problem
includes, but also goes beyond, the philosophical problem of body:
that is, what the essence of a body is, and how, if at all, it
differs from matter. On some understandings there may exist bodies,
such as stones or asteroids, that are not the bodies of any
particular subjects. To speak of embodiment by contrast is always
to speak of a subject that variously inhabits, or captains, or is
coextensive with, or even is imprisoned within, a body. The subject
may in the end be identical to, or an emergent product of, the
body. That is, a materialist account of embodied subjects may be
the correct one. But insofar as there is a philosophical problem of
embodiment, the identity of the embodied subject with the body
stands in need of an argument and cannot simply be assumed. The
reasons, nature, and consequences of the embodiment of subjects as
conceived in the long history of philosophy in Europe as well as in
the broader Mediterranean region and in South and East Asia, with
forays into religion, art, medicine, and other domains of culture,
form the focus of these essays. More precisely, the contributors to
this volume shine light on a number of questions that have driven
reflection on embodiment throughout the history of philosophy. What
is the historical and conceptual relationship between the idea of
embodiment and the idea of subjecthood? Am I who I am principally
in virtue of the fact that I have the body I have? Relatedly, what
is the relationship of embodiment to being and to individuality? Is
embodiment a necessary condition of being? Of being an individual?
What are the theological dimensions of embodiment? To what extent
has the concept of embodiment been deployed in the history of
philosophy to contrast the created world with the state of
existence enjoyed by God? What are the normative dimensions of
theories of embodiment? To what extent is the problem of embodiment
a distinctly western preoccupation? Is it the result of a
particular local and contingent history, or does it impose itself
as a universal problem, wherever and whenever human beings begin to
reflect on the conditions of their existence? Ultimately, to what
extent can natural science help us to resolve philosophical
questions about embodiment, many of which are vastly older than the
particular scientific research programs we now believe to hold the
greatest promise for revealing to us the bodily basis, or the
ultimate physical causes, of who we really are?
Plato's "Phaedo", Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" and Heidegger's
"Being and Time" are three of the most profound meditations on
variations of the ideas that to practice philosophy is to practice
how to die. This study traces how these variations are connected
with each other and with the reflections of this idea to be found
in the works of other ancient and modern philosophers - including
Neitzsche, Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and levinas. The book
also shows how this philosophical thanatology motivates or is
motivated by experiences documented in psychoanalysis and in the
anthropology of Western and Oriental religions and myths.
This is the first of two volumes of the only English edition of
Hegel's Aesthetics, the work in which he gives full expression to
his seminal theory of art. The substantial Introduction is his best
exposition of his general philosophy of art. In Part I he considers
the general nature of art as a spiritual experience, distinguishes
the beauty of art and the beauty of nature, and examines artistic
genius and originality. Part II surveys the history of art from the
ancient world through to the end of the eighteenth century, probing
the meaning and significance of major works. Part III (in the
second volume) deals individually with architecture, sculpture,
painting, music, and literature; a rich array of examples makes
vivid his exposition of his theory.
Iris Murdoch's philosophy has long attracted readers searching for
a morally serious yet humane perspective on human life. Her
eloquent call for "a theology which can continue without God" has
been especially attractive to those who find that they can live
neither with religion nor without it. By developing a form of
thinking that is neither exclusively secular nor traditionally
religious, Murdoch sought to recapture the existential or spiritual
import of philosophy. Long before the current wave of interest in
spiritual exercises, she approached philosophy not only as an
academic discourse, but as a practice whose aim is the
transformation of perception and consciousness. As she put it, a
moral philosophy should be capable of being "inhabited"; that is,
it should be "a philosophy one could live by."
In A Philosophy to Live By, Maria Antonaccio argues that Murdoch's
thought embodies an ascetic model of philosophy for contemporary
life. Extending and complementing the argument of her earlier
monograph, Picturing the Human: The Moral Thought of Iris Murdoch,
this new work establishes Murdoch's continuing relevance by
engaging her thought with a variety of contemporary thinkers and
debates in ethics from a perspective informed by Murdoch's
philosophy as a whole. Among the prominent philosophers engaged
here are Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Stephen Mulhall, John
Rawls, Pierre Hadot, and Michel Foucault, and theologians such as
Stanley Hauerwas, David Tracy, William Schweiker, and others. These
engagements represent a sustained effort to think with Murdoch, yet
also beyond her, by enlisting the resources of her thought to
explore wider debates at the intersections of moral philosophy,
religion, art, and politics, and in doing so, to illuminate the
distinctive patterns and tropes of her philosophical style.
First published in France in 1987, this book provides a definitive
account of how to read and interpret Nietzsche, given that it is
the work of Nietzsche himself that has so fundamentally changed our
understanding of what "reading" and "interpreting" mean. The book's
title points to the two central questions raised by Nietzsche: how
culture is formed and how culture forms us; and the extent to which
we are more body than spirit.
The "Posterior Analytics" contains some of Aristotle's most influential thoughts in logic, epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of science. The first book expounds and develops the notions of a demonstrative argument, and of a formal, axiomatized science. The second discusses a cluster of problems raised by the axioms of principles of such a science, and investigates in particular the theory of definition.;This volume, like the others in the "Clarendon Aristotle" series, is intended to serve the needs of readers of Aristotle without a knowledge of Greek. For this second edition the translation has been completely rewritten, with the aims of greater elegance and greater fidelity to the Greek. The commentary elucidates and assesses Aristotle's arguments from a philosophical point of view. It has been extensively revised to take account of the scholarship of the last 20 years.
Cicero's speech on behalf of L. Lucinius Murena, newly elected to
the consulship of 62 BCE but immediately prosecuted for electoral
bribery, is especially famous for its digressions and valuable for
its insights into the complex political wrangles of the late 60s.
It is, however, a speech more commonly excerpted and cited than
read in its entirety, though whether the absence of an
English-language commentary is a cause or effect of that situation
remains uncertain. In short, a pedagogical commentary on this
important and strange speech is long overdue. Distinguished
Latinist Elaine Fantham's commentary is noteworthy for its ability
to elucidate not only the rhetorical structure of this speech but
the rationale behind Cicero's strategic decisions in creating that
structure. It also calls attention to the stylistic features like
word choice, rhetorical figures, and rhythmic effects that make the
speech so effective, and explains with care and precision the
political, social, and historical considerations that shaped the
prosecution and defense of the somewhat hapless defendant. This
commentary includes the kind of grammatical explication required to
make its riches accessible to undergraduate students of Latin.
In the face of ongoing religious conflicts and unending culture
wars, what are we to make of liberalism's promise that it alone can
arbitrate between church and state? In this wide-ranging study,
John Perry examines the roots of our thinking on religion and
politics, placing the early-modern founders of liberalism in
conversation with today's theologians and political philosophers.
From the story of Antigone to debates about homosexuality and bans
on religious attire, it is clear that liberalism's promise to solve
all theo-political conflict is a false hope. The philosophy
connecting John Locke to John Rawls seeks a world free of tragic
dilemmas, where there can be no Antigones. Perry rejects this as an
illusion. Disputes like the culture wars cannot be adequately
comprehended as border encroachments presided over by an impartial
judge. Instead, theo-political conflict must be considered a
contest of loyalties within each citizen and believer. Drawing on
critics of Rawls ranging from Michael Sandel to Stanley Hauerwas,
Perry identifies what he calls a 'turn to loyalty' by those who
recognize the inadequacy of our usual thinking on the public place
of religion. The Pretenses of Loyalty offers groundbreaking
analysis of the overlooked early work of Locke, where liberalism's
founder himself opposed toleration.
Perry discovers that Locke made a turn to loyalty analogous to that
of today's communitarian critics. Liberal toleration is thus more
sophisticated, more theologically subtle, and ultimately more
problematic than has been supposed. It demands not only
governmental neutrality (as Rawls believed) but also a reworked
political theology. Yet this must remain under suspicion for
Christians because it places religion in the service of the state.
Perry concludes by suggesting where we might turn next, looking
beyond our usual boundaries to possibilities obscured by the
liberalism we have inherited.
This book is a radical reappraisal of positivism as a major
movement in philosophy, science and culture. In examining
positivist movement and its contemporary impact, the author had six
goals. First, to provide a more precise and systematic definition
of the notion of positivism. Second, to describe positivism as a
trend of thought concerned not only with the theory of knowledge
and philosophy of science, but also with problems of ethics,
social, and political philosophy. Third, to examine the development
of positivism as a movement: it was born in the 18th century during
the Enlightenment, took the form of social positivism in the 19th
century, was transformed at the turn of the 20th century with the
emergence of empirio-criticism, and became logical positivism (or
logical empiricism) in the 20th century. Fourth, to reveal the
external and internal factors of this evolution. Fifth, to disclose
the relation of positivism to other trends of philosophy. Sixth, to
determine the influence the positive mind had upon other cultural
phenomena, such as the natural and social sciences, law, politics,
arts, religion, and everyday life.
Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient
Greek philosophers. Malcolm Schofield, a leading scholar of ancient
philosophy, offers a lucid and accessible guide to Plato's
political thought, enormously influential and much discussed in the
modern world as well as the
ancient. Schofield discusses Plato's ideas on education, democracy
and its shortcomings, the role of knowledge in government, utopia
and the idea of community, money and its grip on the psyche, and
ideological uses of religion.
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