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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy
Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662) has become one of the most
discussed figures in contemporary patristic studies. This is partly
due to the relatively recent discovery and critical edition of his
works in various genres, including On the Ascetic Life, Four
Centuries on Charity, Two Centuries on Theology and the
Incarnation, On the 'Our Father', two separate Books of
Difficulties, addressed to John and to Thomas, Questions and
Doubts, Questions to Thalassius, Mystagogy and the Short
Theological and Polemical Works. The impact of these works reached
far beyond the Greek East, with his involvement in the western
resistance to imperial heresy, notably at the Lateran Synod in 649.
Together with Pope Martin I (649-53 CE), Maximus the Confessor and
his circle were the most vocal opponents of Constantinople's
introduction of the doctrine of monothelitism. This dispute over
the number of wills in Christ became a contest between the imperial
government and church of Constantinople on the one hand, and the
bishop of Rome in concert with eastern monks such as Maximus, John
Moschus, and Sophronius, on the other, over the right to define
orthodoxy. An understanding of the difficult relations between
church and state in this troubled period at the close of Late
Antiquity is necessary for a full appreciation of Maximus'
contribution to this controversy. The editors of this volume aim to
provide the political and historical background to Maximus'
activities, as well as a summary of his achievements in the spheres
of theology and philosophy, especially neo-Platonism and
Aristotelianism.
This book investigates a number of central problems in the
philosophy of Charles Peirce grouped around the realism of his
semiotics: the issue of how sign systems are developed and used in
the investigation of reality. Thus, it deals with the precise
character of Peirce's realism; with Peirce's special notion of
propositions as signs which, at the same time, denote and describe
the same object. It deals with diagrams as signs which depict more
or less abstract states-of-affairs, facilitating reasoning about
them; with assertions as public claims about the truth of
propositions. It deals with iconicity in logic, the issue of
self-control in reasoning, dependences between phenomena in their
realist descriptions. A number of chapters deal with applied
semiotics: with biosemiotic sign use among pre-human organisms: the
multimedia combination of pictorial and linguistic information in
human semiotic genres like cartoons, posters, poetry, monuments.
All in all, the book makes a strong case for the actual relevance
of Peirce's realist semiotics.
This is the first study to compare the philosophical systems of
secular scientific philosopher Mario Bunge (1919-2020), and
Moroccan Islamic philosopher Taha Abd al-Rahman (b.1945). In their
efforts to establish the philosophical underpinnings of an ideal
modernity these two great thinkers speak to the same elements of
the human condition, despite their opposing secular and religious
worldviews. While the differences between Bunge's critical-realist
epistemology and materialist ontology on the one hand, and Taha's
spiritualist ontology and revelational-mystical epistemology on the
other, are fundamental, there is remarkable common ground between
their scientific and Islamic versions of humanism. Both call for an
ethics of prosperity combined with social justice, and both
criticize postmodernism and religious conservatism. The aspiration
of this book is to serve as a model for future dialogue between
holders of Western and Islamic worldviews, in mutual pursuit of
modernity's best-case scenario.
2013 Winner (Gold Medal), Classical Studies/Philosophy, Independent
Publisher Book Awards -- 2013 Winner, Spirituality: General,
International Book Awards -- 2013 Winner, Science, National Indie
Excellence Awards -- 2013 Finalist, Science: General, International
Book Awards -- 2013 Finalist, Best New Non-Fiction, International
Book Awards -- 2013 Finalist, Best Cover Design: Non-Fiction,
International Book Awards -- 2013 Finalist, Philosophy, National
Indie Excellence Awards -- The Eternal Law takes the reader on a
fascinating journey through some of the most profound questions
related to our understanding of modern science. What does it mean
to say that there is an eternal mathematical law underpinning all
of physical reality? How must we expand our narrow conception of
science to include not only logic but also intuition,
consciousness, and the pursuit of beauty, symmetry, simplicity, and
unity? Is truth objective, or is it nothing more than a whimsical
projection of opinions? Why were many of the key founders of modern
science inevitably drawn to ancient Greek philosophy? Spencer's
extraordinary clarity helps to restore a sane vision of reality,
while deepening our appreciation of what Einstein called 'the
mysterious'.
This volume examines (1) the philosophical sources of the Kantian
concepts "apperception" and "self-consciousness", (2) the
historical development of the theories of apperception and
deduction of categories within the pre-critical period, (3) the
structure and content of A- as well as B-deduction of categories,
and finally (4) the Kantian (and non-Kantian) meaning of
"apperception" and "self-consciousness".
The future of deconstruction lies in the ability of its
practitioners to mobilise the tropes and interests of Derrida's
texts into new spaces and creative readings. In Deconstruction
without Derrida, Martin McQuillan sets out to do just that, to
continue the task of deconstructive reading both with and without
Derrida. The book's principal theme is an attention to instances of
deconstruction other than or beyond Derrida and thus imagining a
future for deconstruction after Derrida. This future is both the
present of deconstruction and its past. The readings presented in
this book address the expanded field of deconstruction in the work
of Jean-Luc Nancy, Helene Cixous, Paul de Man, Harold Bloom, J.
Hillis Miller, Judith Butler, Gayatri Spivak and Catherine Malabou.
They also, necessarily, address Derrida's own readings of this
work. McQuillan accounts for an experience of otherness in
deconstruction that is, has been and always will be beyond Derrida,
just as deconstruction remains forever tied to Derrida by an
invisible, indestructible thread.
Aristotle's theory of eternal continuous motion and his argument
from everlasting change and motion to the existence of an unmoved
primary cause of motion, provided in book VIII of his Physics, is
one of the most influential and persistent doctrines of ancient
Greek philosophy. Nevertheless, the exact wording of Aristotle's
discourse is doubtful and contentious at many places. The present
critical edition of Ishaq ibn Hunayn's Arabic translation (9th c.)
is supposed to replace the faulty edition by A. Badawi and aims at
contributing to the clarification of these textual difficulties by
means of a detailed collation of the Arabic text with the most
important Greek manuscripts, supported by comprehensive Greek and
Arabic glossaries.
The book offers an elucidation of two of the most important themes
in Martin Heidegger's early as well as later philosophical
writings. These perennial themes of his thought, namely, the
concept of the world and his existential analysis of death, are
explored as the ongoing philosophical problems grappled by this
important thinker of the twentieth century within all periods of
the body of his entire work. These themes are closely related to
the fundamental issue of Heidegger's thought namely the question
concerning the meaning of Being for which a proper elucidation of
the world-concept and death is absolutely crucial. Since this book
considers all the important phases of Heidegger's thought along
with all the important ongoing conceptual preoccupations of this
thinker along with his original analyses of human existence and the
world, the notion of the ground, art and artworks, language,
dwelling, and death, it can serve as a substantive introduction to
the philosophy of Martin Heidegger.
This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It
contains classical literature works from over two thousand years.
Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore
shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the
cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical
literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the
mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from
oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of
international literature classics available in printed format again
- worldwide.
Reflections on the Religious, the Ethical, and the Political
presents fourteen essays devoted to the interconnected topics of
religion, ethics, and politics, along with an introductory
interview with the author regarding his philosophical development
over the years. This volume serves two interconnected purposes: as
an introduction or reintroduction to Calvin O.Schrag s intellectual
contributions to a critical consideration of these three topics,
and as a critical companion and supplement to Schrag s published
work on these topics. The topics of religion, ethics, and politics
have served as pivot points throughout Schrag s career in the
academy, which spans half a century."
This is a unique collection presenting work by Alain Badiou and
commentaries on his philosophical theories. It includes three
lectures by Badiou, on contemporary politics, the infinite, cinema
and theatre and two extensive interviews with Badiou - one
concerning the state of the contemporary situation and one wide
ranging interview on all facets of his work and engagements. It
also includes six interventions on aspects of Badiou's work by
established scholars in the field, addressing his concept of
history, Lacan, Cinema, poetry, and feminism; and four original
essays by young and established scholars in Australia and New
Zealand addressing the key concerns of Badiou's 2015 visit to the
Antipodal region and the work he presented there. With new material
by Badiou previously unpublished in English this volume is a
valuable overview of his recent thinking. Critical responses by
distinguished and gifted Badiou scholars writing outside of the
European context make this text essential reading for anyone
interested in the development and contemporary reception of
Badiou's thought.
This is a book about the body and its amazing contribution to the
moral mind. The author focuses on the important roles the body
plays in moral cognition. What happens to us when we observe moral
violations, make moral judgments and engage in moral actions? How
does the body affect our moral decisions and shape our moral
dispositions? Can embodied moral psychology be consistently pursued
as a viable alternative to disembodied traditions of moral
philosophy? Is there any school of philosophy where the body is
discussed as the underlying foundation of moral judgment and
action? To answer these questions, the author analyzes Confucian
philosophy as an intriguing and insightful example of embodied
moral psychology.
Imagination and Postmodernity addresses the role of the imagination
in philosophy today. By focusing on philosophy at the boundary of
reason with constant reference to Kant s view of the
boundary-limit, it is possible to advance a viable alternative to
deconstructing the imagination. Patrick L. Bourgeois puts forth the
claim that by refocusing the imagination in the postmodern
conversation, a far-reaching contemporary position can be reached
that reestablishes the position of the humanities as central
against the anti-humanism of deconstruction. This work addresses
some of the challenges and problems that emerge in conflicting
positions within contemporary philosophy, including a concentration
on the role of the imagination in the work of Paul Ricoeur in
contrast and in opposition to its role in such postmodern thinkers
as Derrida and Lyotard. This treatment requires going back to the
role of the imagination in the period of Kant and his immediate
followers in order to clarify the various ways of seeing the
imagination then and now, for the role today is anticipated in the
nineteenth century. Finally, this work, as a creative appropriation
of the position of Paul Ricoeur, presents a role for the
imagination today that is more encompassing than most thinkers
allow for.
Michel Foucault continues to be regarded as one of the most
essential thinkers of the twentieth century. A brilliantly
evocative writer and conceptual creator, his influence is clearly
discernible today across nearly every discipline-philosophy and
history, certainly, as well as literary and critical theory,
religious and social studies, and the arts. This volume exploits
Foucault's insistent blurring of the self-imposed limits formed by
the disciplines, with each author in this volume discovering in
Foucault's work a model useful for challenging not only these
divisions but developing a more fundamental interrogation of
modernism. Foucault himself saw the calling into question of
modernism to be the permanent task of his life's work, thereby
opening a path for rethinking the social. Understanding Foucault,
Understanding Modernism shows, on the one hand, that literature and
the arts play a fundamental structural role in Foucault's works,
while, on the other hand, it shifts to the foreground what it
presumes to be motivating Foucault: the interrogation of the
problem of modernism. To that end, even his most explicitly
historical or strictly epistemological and methodological enquiries
directly engage the problem of modernism through the works of
writers and artists from de Sade, Mallarme, Baudelaire to Artaud,
Manet, Borges, Roussel, and Bataille. This volume, therefore,
adopts a transdisciplinary approach, as a way to establish
connections between Foucault's thought and the aesthetic problems
that emerge out of those specific literary and artistic works,
methods, and styles designated "modern." The aim of this volume is
to provide a resource for students and scholars not only in the
fields of literature and philosophy, but as well those interested
in the intersections of art and intellectual history, religious
studies, and critical theory.
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