|
|
Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy
Material objects persist through time and survive change. How do
they manage to do so? What are the underlying facts of persistence?
Do objects persist by being "wholly present" at all moments of time
at which they exist? Or do they persist by having distinct
"temporal segments" confined to the corresponding times? Are
objects three-dimensional entities extended in space, but not in
time? Or are they four-dimensional spacetime "worms"? These are
matters of intense debate, which is now driven by concerns about
two major issues in fundamental ontology: parthood and location. It
is in this context that broadly empirical considerations are
increasingly brought to bear on the debate about persistence.
Persistence and Spacetime pursues this empirically based approach
to the questions. Yuri Balashov begins by setting out major rival
views of persistence -- endurance, perdurance, and exdurance -- in
a spacetime framework and proceeds to investigate the implications
of Einstein's theory of relativity for the debate about
persistence. His overall conclusion -- that relativistic
considerations favour four-dimensionalism over three-dimensionalism
-- is hardly surprising. It is, however, anything but trivial.
Contrary to a common misconception, there is no straightforward
argument from relativity to four-dimensionalism. The issues
involved are complex, and the debate is closely entangled with a
number of other philosophical disputes, including those about the
nature and ontology of time, parts and wholes, material
constitution, causation and properties, and vagueness.
The epics of the three Flavian poets-Silius Italicus, Statius, and
Valerius Flaccus-have, in recent times, attracted the attention of
scholars, who have re-evaluated the particular merits of Flavian
poetry as far more than imitation of the traditional norms and
patterns. Drawn from sixty years of scholarship, this edited
collection is the first volume to collate the most influential
modern academic writings on Flavian epic poetry, revised and
updated to provide both scholars and students alike with a broad
yet comprehensive overview of the field. A wide range of topics
receive coverage, and analysis and interpretation of individual
poems are integrated throughout. The plurality of the critical
voices included in the volume presents a much-needed variety of
approaches, which are used to tackle questions of intertextuality,
gender, poetics, and the social and political context of the
period. In doing so, the volume demonstrates that by engaging in a
complex and challenging intertextual dialogue with their literary
predecessors, the innovative epics of the Flavian poets respond to
contemporary needs, expressing overt praise, or covert anxiety,
towards imperial rule and the empire.
Primitive Man as Philosopher by Paul Radin, Ph. D. Research Fellow
of Yale University and sometime Lecturer in Ethnology in Cambridge
University editor of Crashing Thunder, the Autobiography of an
American Indian with a foreword by John Dewcy Professor of
Philosophy in Columbia University New York and London D, Appleton
and Company 1927 COPYRIGHT, 1927, D. APPLETON AND COMPANY PRINTED
IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY WIFE PREFACE When a modern
historian desires to study the civilization of any people, he
regards it as a necessary preliminary that he divest himself, so
far as possible, of all prejudice and bias. He realizes that
differences between cultures exist, but he does not feel that it is
necessarily a sign of inferiority that a people differs in customs
from his own. There seems, how ever, to be a limit to what an
historian treats as legitimate difference, a limit not always easy
to determine. On the whole it may be said that he very naturally
passes the same judgments that the majority of his fellow
countrymen do. Hence, if some of the differences between admittedly
civil ized peoples often call forth unfavorable judgments or even
provoke outbursts of horror, how much more must we expect this to
be the case where the differences are of so funda mental a nature
as those separating us from people whom we have been accustomed to
call uncivilized. The term uncivilized is a very vague one, and it
is spread over a vast medley of peoples, some of whom have
comparatively simple customs and others extremely com plex ones.
Indeed, there can be said to be but two charac teristics possessed
in common by all these peoples, the absence of a written language
and the fact of originalposses sion of the soil when the various
civilized European and Asiatic nations came into contact with them.
But among all aboriginal races appeared a number of customs which
undoubtedly seemed exceedingly strange to their European and
Asiatic conquerors. Some of these customs they had never heard of
others they recognized as similar to observ vli viii PREFACE ances
and beliefs existing among the more backward mem bers of their own
communities. Yet the judgments civilized peoples have passed on the
aborigines, we may be sure, were not initially based on any calm
evaluation of facts. If the aborigines were regarded as innately
inferior, this was due in part to the tremendous gulf in custom and
belief separating them from the con querors, in part to the
apparent simplicity of their ways, and in no small degree to the
fact that they were unable to offer any effective resistance.
Romance soon threw its distorting screen over the whole primitive
picture. Within one hundred years of the dis covery of America it
had already become an ineradicably established tradition that all
the aborigines encountered by Europeans were simple, untutored
savages from whom little more could be expected than from
uncontrolled children, individuals who were at all times the slaves
of their passions, of which the dominant one was hatred. Much of
this tradi tion, in various forms, disguised and otherwise, has
persisted to the present day. The evolutionary theory, during its
heyday in the iSyos and Sos, still further complicated and
misrepresented the situation, and from the great classic that
created modern ethnology Tylors Primitive Culture, published in
1870 future ethnologists were to imbibe the cardinal andfunda
mentally misleading doctrine that primitive peoples represent an
early stage in the history of the evolution of culture. What was,
perhaps, even more dangerous was the strange and uncritical manner
in which all primitive peoples were lumped together in ethnological
discussion simple Fuegians with the highly advanced Aztecs and
Mayans, Bushmen with the peoples of the Nigerian coast, Australians
with Poly nesians, and so on. PREFACE ix For a number of years
scholars were apparently content with the picture drawn by Tylor
and his successors...
Drawing from the works of Dante, Catherine of Siena, Boccaccio,
Aquinas, and Cavalcanti and other literary, philosophic, and
scientific texts, Heather Webb studies medieval notions of the
heart to explore the "lost circulations" of an era when individual
lives and bodies were defined by their extensions into the world
rather than as self-perpetuating, self-limited entities.
The Hegel Lectures Series Series Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's
lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he
himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated
only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the
last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials
from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and
logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a
selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and
manuscripts. The original lecture series are reconstructed so that
the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume
presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial
introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the
identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Hegel's
interpretation of the history of philosophy not only played a
central role in the shaping of his own thought, but also has had a
great influence on the development of historical thinking. In his
own view the study of the history of philosophy is the study of
philosophy itself. This explains why such a large proportion of his
lectures, from 1805 to 1831, the year of his death, were about
history of philosophy. The text of these lectures, presented here
in the first authoritative English edition, is therefore a document
of the greatest importance in the development of Western thought:
they constitute the very first comprehensive history of philosophy
that treats philosophy itself as undergoing genuine historical
development. And they are crucial for understanding Hegel's own
systematic works such as the Phenomenology, the Logic, and the
Encyclopedia, for central to his thought is the theme of spirit as
engaged in self-realization through the processes of historical
change. Furthermore, they played a crucial role in one of the
determining events of modern intellectual history: the rise of a
new consciousness of human life, culture, and intellect as
historical in nature. This third volume of the lectures covers the
medieval and modern periods, and includes fascinating discussion of
scholastic, Renaissance, and Reformation philosophy, and of such
great modern thinkers as Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and especially
Kant.
John Cottingham explores central areas of Descartes's rich and
wide-ranging philosophical system, including his accounts of
thought and language, of freedom and action, of our relationship to
the animal domain, and of human morality and the conduct of life.
He also examines ways in which his philosophy has been
misunderstood. The Cartesian mind-body dualism that is so often
attacked is only a part of Descartes's account of what it is to be
a thinking, sentient, human creature, and the way he makes the
division between the mental and the physical is considerably more
subtle, and philosophically more appealing, than is generally
assumed. Although Descartes is often considered to be one of the
heralds of our modern secular worldview, the 'new' philosophy which
he launched retains many links with the ideas of his predecessors,
not least in the all-pervasive role it assigns to God (something
that is ignored or downplayed by many modern readers); and the
character of the Cartesian outlook is multifaceted, sometimes
anticipating Enlightenment ideas of human autonomy and independent
scientific inquiry, but also sometimes harmonizing with more
traditional notions of human nature as created to find fulfilment
in harmony with its creator.
The International Kierkegaard Commentary-For the first time in
English the world community of scholars systematically assembled
and presented the results of recent research in the vast literature
of Soren Kierkegaard. Based on the definitive English edition of
Kierkegaard's works by Princeton University Press, this series of
commentaries addresses all the published texts of the influential
Danish philosopher and theologian. This is volume 7 in a series of
commentaries based upon the definitive translations of
Kierkegaard's writings published by Princeton University Press,
1980ff.
In our contemporary age aesthetics seems to crumble and no longer
be reducible to a coherent image. And yet given the vast amount of
works in aesthetics produced in the last hundred years, this age
could be defined "the century of aesthetics." "20th Century
Aesthetics" is a new account of international aesthetic thought by
Mario Perniola, one of Italy's leading contemporary thinkers.
Starting from four conceptual fields - life, form, knowledge,
action - Perniola identifies the lines of aesthetic reflection that
derive from them and elucidates them with reference to major
authors: from Dilthey to Foucault (aesthetics of life), from
Wolfflin to McLuhan and Lyotard (aesthetics of form), from Croce to
Goodman (aesthetics and knowledge), from Dewey to Bloom (aesthetics
and action). There is also a fifth one that touches on the sphere
of affectivity and emotionality, and which comes to aesthetics from
thinkers like Freud, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Lacan, Derrida and
Deleuze. The volume concludes with an extensive sixth chapter on
Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Brazilian, South Korean and
South East Asian aesthetic thought and on the present decline of
Western aesthetic sensibility.
In the Platonic work "Alcibiades I," a divinely guided Socrates
adopts the guise of a lover in order to divert Alcibiades from an
unthinking political career. The contributors to this carefully
focussed volume cover aspects of the background to the work; its
arguments and the philosophical issues it raises; its relationship
to other Platonic texts, and its subsequent history up to the time
of the Neoplatonists. Despite its ancient prominence, the
authorship of "Alcibiades I" is still unsettled; the essays and two
appendices, one historical and one stylometric, come together to
suggest answers to this tantalising question.
Although it has long been established that Syrianus, the teacher of
Proclus, was the source of much of his student's metaphysics, it is
not known precisely what in Proclus' thought can be attributed to
Syrianus. The problem is compounded by the fact that Syrianus wrote
very little and there is uncertainty as to whether written
commentaries ever existed of his teaching on Plato's "Timaeus" and
"Parmenides," the most important sources for Platonic metaphysics.
This work attempts to re-construct the major tenets of Syrianus'
philosophical teachings on the "Timaeus" and "Parmenides" based on
the testimonia of Proclus, as found in Proclus' commentaries on
Plato's "Timaeus" and "Parmenides" and, Damascius, as reported in
his "On First Principles" and commentary on Plato's "Parmenides."
This is the classic book by Nietzsche in hardcover format.
This is a new introduction to Kant, guiding the student through the
key concepts of his work by examining the overall development of
his ideas. Immanuel Kant is arguably the most important and
influential thinker in the whole history of philosophy. Covering
all the key concepts of his work, "Starting with Kant" provides an
accessible introduction to the ideas of this hugely significant
thinker. Thematically structured, the book leads the reader through
a thorough overview of the development of Kant's mature thought,
resulting in a wide-ranging understanding of his philosophical
concerns. Offering coverage of the full range of Kant's ideas, the
book explores his so-called Copernican Revolution, the basic
framework of his metaphysical outlook, and sets out its
implications for his theory of knowledge, moral philosophy and
theory of beauty and design. Crucially the book situates Kant in
relation to other philosophers of his period, and it shows how a
number of his seminal ideas can be clearly understood through an
appreciation of their opposing views. 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 important new book offers the first full-length interpretation
of the thought of Martin Heidegger with respect to irony. In a
radical reading of Heidegger's major works (from "Being and Time"
through the "Rector's Address" and the "Letter on Humanism" to "The
Origin of the Work of Art" and the Spiegel interview), Andrew Haas
does not claim that Heidegger is simply being ironic. Rather he
argues that Heidegger's writings make such an interpretation
possible - perhaps even necessary.Heidegger begins "Being and Time"
with a quote from Plato, a thinker famous for his insistence upon
Socratic irony. "The Irony of Heidegger" takes seriously the
apparently curious decision to introduce the threat of irony even
as philosophy begins in earnest to raise the question of the
meaning of being. Through a detailed and thorough reading of
Heidegger's major texts and the fundamental questions they raise,
Haas reveals that one of the most important philosophers of the
20th century can be read with as much irony as earnestness. "The
Irony of Heidegger" attempts to show that the essence of this irony
lies in uncertainty, and that the entire project of
onto-heno-chronophenomenology, therefore needs to be called into
question.
Bernard Lonergan (1904-84) is acknowledged as one of the most
significant philosopher-theologians of the 20th century. Lonergan,
Meaning and Method in many ways complements Andrew Beards' previous
book on Lonergan, Insight and Analysis (Bloomsbury, 2010). Andrew
Beards applies Lonergan's thought and brings it into critical
dialogue and discussion with other contemporary philosophical
interlocutors, principally from the analytical tradition. He also
introduces themes and arguments from the continental tradition, as
well as offering interpretative analysis of some central notions in
Lonergan's thought that are of interest to all who wish to
understand the importance of Lonergan's work for philosophy and
Christian theology. Three of the chapters focus upon areas of
fruitful exchange and debate between Lonergan's thought and the
work of three major figures in current analytical philosophy: Nancy
Cartwright, Timothy Williamson and Scott Soames. The discussion
also ranges across such topics as meaning theory, metaphilosophy,
epistemology, philosophy of science and aesthetics.
Available in English for the first time, this first draft of
Heidegger's opus, "Being and Time", provides a unique insight into
Heidegger's Phenomenology. "The Concept of Time" presents
Heidegger's so-called Dilthey review, widely considered the first
draft of his celebrated masterpiece, "Being and Time". Here
Heidegger reveals his deep commitment to Wilhelm Dilthey and Count
Yorck von Wartenburg. He agrees with them that historicity must be
at the centre of the new philosophy to come. However, he also
argues for an ontological approach to history. From this
ontological turn he develops the so-called categories of Dasein.
This work demonstrates Heidegger's indebtedness to Yorck and
Dilthey and gives further evidence to the view that thought about
history is the germ cell of "Being and Time". However, it also
shows that Heidegger's commitment to Dilthey was not without
reservations and that his analysis of Dasein actually employs
Husserl's phenomenology. The work reopens the question of history
in a broader sense, as Heidegger struggles to thematize history
without aligning it with world-historical events. The text also
provides a concise and readable summary of the main themes of
"Being and Time" and as such is an ideal companion to that text.
What makes individuals what they are? How should they judge their
social and political interaction with the world? What makes them
authentic or inauthentic? This original and provocative study
explores the concept of "authenticity" and its relevance for
radical politics. Weaving together close readings of three 20th
century thinkers: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Jean-Paul
Sartre with the concept of authenticity, Stephen Eric Bronner
illuminates the phenomenological foundations for self-awareness
that underpin our sense of identity and solidarity. He claims that
different expressions of the existential tradition compete with one
another in determining how authenticity might be experienced, but
all of them ultimately rest on self-referential judgments. The
author's own new framework for a political ethic at once serves as
a corrective and an alternative. Wonderfully rich, insightful, and
nuanced, Stephen Eric Bronner has produced another bookshelf staple
that speaks to crucial issues in politics, philosophy, psychology,
and sociology. Existentialism, Authenticity, Solidarity will appeal
to scholars, students and readers from the general public alike.
|
|