Reflecting on the "clash of civilizations" as its point of departure, this book is based on a series of sixteen of the author's interconnected, thematically focused lectures and calls for new perspectives to resist imperialistic homogeneity. Situated within a neo-humanist context, the book applies interactive cognition from an Asian perspective within which China can be perceived as an essential "other," making it highly relevant in the quest for global solutions to the many grave issues facing mankind today. The author critiques American, European, and Chinese points of view; highlighting the significance of difference and the necessity of dialogue; before ultimately, rethinking the nature of world literature and putting forward interactive cognition as a means of "reconciliation" between cultures. Chinese culture, as a frame of reference endowed with traditions of "harmony without homogeneity", may help to alleviate global cultural confrontation and even reconstruct the understanding of human civilization. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Comparative Literature, Chinese Studies, and all those who are interested in cross-cultural communication and Chinese culture in general.

Hunter claims that, since the Romantics, culture has been identified with the promise of a complete development of human capacities and, typically, the "rise of English" has been viewed in terms of the (true or distorted) fulfilment of this promise in the education system. His book presents a critique of this view of culture and literary education. English, he argues, inherits its "humanizing" powers not from culture but from techniques of moral supervision built into the apparatus of popular education. He also suggests that the attributes shaped by English are not parts of a full set promised by culture; rather, they are a specialized variant of those specified by governments when they took as their object the "moral and physical" condition of the population. Ian Hunter has published a number of articles in a variety of learned journals.

Reflecting on the "clash of civilizations" as its point of departure, this book is based on a series of sixteen of the author's interconnected, thematically focused lectures and calls for new perspectives to resist imperialistic homogeneity. Situated within a neo-humanist context, the book applies interactive cognition from an Asian perspective within which China can be perceived as an essential "other," making it highly relevant in the quest for global solutions to the many grave issues facing mankind today. The author critiques American, European, and Chinese points of view; highlighting the significance of difference and the necessity of dialogue; before ultimately, rethinking the nature of world literature and putting forward interactive cognition as a means of "reconciliation" between cultures. Chinese culture, as a frame of reference endowed with traditions of "harmony without homogeneity", may help to alleviate global cultural confrontation and even reconstruct the understanding of human civilization. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Comparative Literature, Chinese Studies, and all those who are interested in cross-cultural communication and Chinese culture in general.

In the business world, especially in manufacturing or quality management, the term Six Sigma usually refers to a set of tools and methodologies developed by Motorola to improve processes by eliminating defects. So why should the HR professional care what Six Sigma is or how it can be applied in the HR function? According to the specialists at Orion Partners, there are ten key reasons: * to create excellence in process delivery; * to reduce defects; * to increase efficiency; * to create a quality focused mindset; * to benefit from best practice; * to bring clarity to the processes of HR; * to use a structured scientific approach; * to speak the same language and improve communication; * to gain control over your processes; * and to strengthen your business case. Mircea Albeanu and Ian Hunter explain some of the basic concepts to show how applying Six Sigma tools and methodologies can be used to manage the practical challenges of improving HR operations to meet your organization's expectations at a lower cost and with greater efficiency. To help illustrate some of the key messages examples are drawn from Orion Partners' work using Six Sigma tools with international organizations over the last seven years. This concise guide is ideal for project and programme managers involved in business transformation, and for HR managers as well as Six Sigma specialists seeking to understand its applications within human resources. About The Gower HR Transformation Series: The Human Resources function faces a continuing challenge to its role and purpose, in many organizations it has suffered from serious under-representation at strategic, board level. Yet, faced with the challenges of globalism, the need to innovate, manage knowledge, attract and retain the very best employees, organizations need an HR function that can lead from the front. The process of transforming the function is complex and rarely linear. It includes the practical challenges of improving HR operations to meet customer expectations at lower cost and with greater efficiency. The Gower HR Transformation Series will help; it uses a blend of conceptual frameworks, practical advice and global case study examples to cover each of the main elements of the HR transformation process. The books in the series follow a standard format to make them easy to read and reference. Together, the titles create a definitive guide from one of the leading specialist HR transformation consultancies; an organization that has been involved in HR transformation for clients as diverse as Bombardier Transportation, Marks & Spencer, Barnardo's, Oxfam, Schroders, UnitedHealth Group, Nestle, BP, HM Prison Service, Transport for London and Vodafone.

For many years now, both private and public sector organizations have been dealing with the challenge of how best to improve corporate performance. HR has not escaped this scrutiny. The very same businesses that have spent recent years cost cutting, restructuring and streamlining, are putting the pressure on the HR 'overhead' to prove that it is not just a cost centre but a function that provides added value through alignment to business needs and aspirations. The traditional, transaction-based HR service must, however, still be delivered. Understanding how to combine a renewed strategic focus with effective delivery of transactional and administrative services is the key to HR's next generation of service delivery models. The authors' work with HR functions includes an established set of service design criteria and an approach that differentiates between a successful implementation and what can be a costly backward step that only serves to alienate the business. They show how any prospective HR transformation should consider five fundamental issues in the service design phase to align the HR approach to the business strategy. These issues are critical to ensuring a fit for purpose HR function that can measure and demonstrate the value it adds. About The Gower HR Transformation Series: The Human Resources function faces a continuing challenge to its role and purpose, in many organizations it has suffered from serious under-representation at strategic, board level. Yet, faced with the challenges of globalism, the need to innovate, manage knowledge, attract and retain the very best employees, organizations need an HR function that can lead from the front. The process of transforming the function is complex and rarely linear. It involves designing a function that can manage its generalist and specialist roles with equal skills. The Gower HR Transformation Series will help; it uses a blend of conceptual frameworks, practical advice and global case study examples to cover each of the main elements of the HR transformation process. The books in the series follow a standard format to make them easy to read and reference. Together, the titles create a definitive guide from one of the leading specialist HR transformation consultancies; an organization that has been involved in HR transformation for clients as diverse as Bombardier Transportation, Marks & Spencer, Barnardo's, Oxfam, Schroders, UnitedHealth Group, Nestle, BP, HM Prison Service, Transport for London and Vodafone.

The concept of heresy is deeply rooted in Christian European culture. The palpable increase in incidences of heresy in the Middle Ages may be said to directly relate to the Christianity's attempts to define orthodoxy and establish conformity at its centre, resulting in the sometimes forceful elimination of Christian sects. In the transition from medieval to early modern times, however, the perception of heresy underwent a profound transformation, ultimately leading to its decriminalization and the emergence of a pluralistic religious outlook. The essays in this volume offer readers a unique insight into this little-understood cultural shift. Half of the chapters investigate the manner in which the church and its attendant civil authorities defined and proscribed heresy, whilst the other half focus on the means by which early modern writers sought to supersede such definition and proscription. The result of these investigations is a multifaceted historical account of the construction and serial reconstruction of one of the key categories of European theological, juristic and political thought. The contributors explore the role of nationalism and linguistic identity in constructions of heresy, its analogies with treason and madness, the role of class and status in the responses to heresy. In doing so they provide fascinating insights into the roots of the historicization of heresy and the role of this historicization in the emergence of religious pluralism.

Educationalists have long worked to democratise our school system and purge traces of its religious origins. Rethinking the School shows that these efforts have been in vain. The bureaucratic organisation of schooling is here to stay, and Christian moral discipline is an integral part of the school as we know it.Hunter argues that both liberal and Marxian theory ignore the historical reality of the school. He does not see the school as the failed attempt to realise principles of social equality, complete personal development and intellectual enlightenment. Rather, he sees the modern school as an improvised apparatus for the training of good citizens and the guidance of souls.Rethinking the School is one of the first major applications of Foucault's genealogical method to the school system, and will be widely debated by educationalists, policy-makers and those interested in the interaction of government and subjectivity.'This is a serious piece of scholarship which breaks with much orthodoxy in educational theory and research. It brings new insights to old dilemmas and as such is a major contribution to a field which has in some respects lost its nerve. This is a book that must be read.' - Professor Richard Smith, Australian Journal of Education'Hunter. offers a detailed and fascinating account of the popular school. in a manner which reinvigorates modern debates regarding the relations between government and education. He makes us look and see differently, the hallmark of a powerful and original thinker.' - Professor Tony Bennett, Institute for Cultural Policy Studies

For many years now, both private and public sector organizations have been dealing with the challenge of how best to improve corporate performance. HR has not escaped this scrutiny. The very same businesses that have spent recent years cost cutting, restructuring and streamlining, are putting the pressure on the HR 'overhead' to prove that it is not just a cost centre but a function that provides added value through alignment to business needs and aspirations. The traditional, transaction-based HR service must, however, still be delivered. Understanding how to combine a renewed strategic focus with effective delivery of transactional and administrative services is the key to HR's next generation of service delivery models. The authors' work with HR functions includes an established set of service design criteria and an approach that differentiates between a successful implementation and what can be a costly backward step that only serves to alienate the business. They show how any prospective HR transformation should consider five fundamental issues in the service design phase to align the HR approach to the business strategy. These issues are critical to ensuring a fit for purpose HR function that can measure and demonstrate the value it adds. About The Gower HR Transformation Series: The Human Resources function faces a continuing challenge to its role and purpose, in many organizations it has suffered from serious under-representation at strategic, board level. Yet, faced with the challenges of globalism, the need to innovate, manage knowledge, attract and retain the very best employees, organizations need an HR function that can lead from the front. The process of transforming the function is complex and rarely linear. It involves designing a function that can manage its generalist and specialist roles with equal skills. The Gower HR Transformation Series will help; it uses a blend of conceptual frameworks, practical advice and global case study examples to

In the business world, especially in manufacturing or quality management, the term Six Sigma usually refers to a set of tools and methodologies developed by Motorola to improve processes by eliminating defects. So why should the HR professional care what Six Sigma is or how it can be applied in the HR function? According to the specialists at Orion Partners, there are ten key reasons: to create excellence in process delivery; to reduce defects; to increase efficiency; to create a quality focused mindset; to benefit from best practice; to bring clarity to the processes of HR; to use a structured scientific approach; to speak the same language and improve communication; to gain control over your processes; and to strengthen your business case. Mircea Albeanu and Ian Hunter explain some of the basic concepts to show how applying Six Sigma tools and methodologies can be used to manage the practical challenges of improving HR operations to meet your organization's expectations at a lower cost and with greater efficiency. To help illustrate some of the key messages examples are drawn from Orion Partners' work using Six Sigma tools with international organizations over the last seven years. This concise guide is ideal for project and programme managers involved in business transformation, and for HR managers as well as Six Sigma specialists seeking to understand its applications within human resources. About The Gower HR Transformation Series: The Human Resources function faces a continuing challenge to its role and purpose, in many organizations it has suffered from serious under-representation at strategic, board level. Yet, faced with the challenges of globalism, the need to innovate, manage knowledge, attract and retain the very best employees, organizations need an HR function that can lead from the front. The process of transforming the function is complex and rarely linear. It includes the practical challenges of improving HR opera

This Orion Partners' report addresses the main considerations for an organization investigating a large-scale transference of HR transactional activity to an outsource provider. The report also provides an overview of the market for HR outsourcing services in Europe. There are sections profiling each of the main outsourcing providers in the UK and continental Europe and case studies drawn from both the public and private sector. Human Resources Outsourcing agreements, which typically run for seven years or more, have a critical influence on any organization's ability to deliver its long-term strategy. The Orion Partners' report is a valuable contribution to identifying the right model, locating the right partner and realising the value of one of the most important elements in the current strategic investment for large organizations. It also provides helpful advice on how to manage the impact of outsourcing on the retained HR team.

A box set of 12 Norman Wisdom classics. In 'On the Beat' Wisdom stars as a bumbling Scotland Yard car park attendant who gets his chance to be a real policeman after he accidentally catches some crooks. His advantage lies in the fact that he physically resembles one of the ringleaders. In 'Man of the Moment' the bumbling Norman (Wisdom) accidentally becomes the British delegate to an important international conference in Geneva. Hilarious chaos and amusing misunderstandings ensue. In 'Trouble in Store' Wisdom is taken on as a shop assistant in a department store. His ambition is to become a window dresser, and he falls in love at first sight with his dream-girl, Sally. After a disastrous start (chasing a bus on roller skates, entering a shop girl's hostel, the usual sort of thing), events conspire to make Norman an unlikely hero. In 'Up in the World' Wisdom stars as the bumbling window cleaner to Lady Banderville. He has to cope with the pranks of her son, Sir Reggie, but cleans up when he confounds a gang of kidnappers. In 'The Square Peg' Norman Pitkin (Wisdom) is keen to help the war effort, and turns out to be a dead ringer for an enemy general. Joining up with his colleague, Mr Grimsdale, he is posted to France as part of a team repairing the damaged roads. Captured by the enemy, he turns his uncanny resemblance to his own advantage and comes home a hero. In 'Follow a Star' Wisdom plays a shop worker (imaginatively also named Norman, as indeed is every character he has ever portrayed) who dreams of becoming a famous singer. His attempts are, of course, disastrous, until he is encouraged by music teacher Miss Dobson, and a crippled girl named Judy. In 'The Bulldog Breed' Norman Puckle (Wisdom) is a grocer who joins the Navy and finds himself chosen to man a rocket flight into outer space. After Norman brings his own brand of madcap mayhem to the training process, his superiors begin to suspect that they might have picked the wrong person for the mission. Also starring Ian Hunter and Edward Chapman. Whilst in 'One Good Turn' Norman (Wisdom) works at the orphanage, and promises that he will buy one of its charges a model car. But how can he get the money? Proving himself equally incompetent at all jobs, he manages to raise a few laughs along the way in his attempts to earn the cash and not disappoint the little sprite. In 'A Stitch in Time' Star Wisdom plays an apprentice butcher trying to help a sick child. His bumbling efforts end up with him being banned from visiting little orphan Lindy, but Norman will go to any lengths to keep in touch with his young charge. Whilst in 'Just My Tuck', determined to win the heart of his beautiful neighbour, Norman (Wisdom) decides he wants to buy her a diamond necklace - but how can he possibly afford it? A solution offers itself when he goes to a bookmaker's, learns the intricacies of the accumulator bet, and sets out on a major winning streak. However, whenever Norman is involved things are never quite that simple, and soon enough our hapless hero finds himself in deep trouble, creating havoc at the local racetrack. In 'The Early Bird' Wisdom plays a milkman caught up in a feud between the small, traditional company that employs him and a large, modern dairy planning a hostile takeover. Will Norman, in his typically inept fashion, manage to save his company from the onset of modernity? Finally in 'Press For Time' Norman Shields (Wisdom) is an accident-prone young reporter, who only got the job because his grandfather (also played by Wisdom) happens to be the Prime Minister. Hilarious chaos ensues when Norman is sent to cover a beauty contest. Wisdom also appears in drag as a Suffragette called Emily.

Since the Romantics culture has been identified with the promise of a complete development of human capacities and, typically, the 'rise of English' has been viewed in terms of the (true or distorted) fulfilment of this promise in the education system. This book presents a sustained and historically informed challenge to that view.

Ian Hunter's Diary of a Rock `n' Roll Star, first published in 1974, is a fascinating diary of Mott the Hoople's 1972 US tour. It has received a litany of plaudits and been described as what "may well be the best rock book ever" and "an enduring crystallization of the rock musician's lot, and a quietly glorious period piece" from Q and The Guardian. A brutally honest chronicle of touring life in the Seventies, and a classic of the rock writing genre, Diary of a Rock `n' Roll Star remains the gold standard for rock writing. This new edition includes new content from Hunter. Ian Hunter is the lead singer in Mott the Hoople and a successful solo artist in his own right. He continues to record and perform across the world after more than fifty years in rock'n'roll.

Collection of eleven classic films from influential filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. 'The Battle of the River Plate' (1956) tells the true story of the famous 1939 naval battle. Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is captaining the crack German battleship Graf Spee through the South Atlantic, unaware that a small number of lightweight British battle cruisers are hot on his trail. When the British cruisers manage to trap the powerful German ship in the Uruguayan harbour of Montevideo, they attempt to trick Langsdorff into believing that an entire battle fleet is waiting to destroy his vessel at sea. In 'A Canterbury Tale' (1944), a British sergeant, a land girl and a United States Army officer arrive at a Kent village on the same train. The newcomers are brought face to face with the bizarre menace causing bewilderment in the tight-knit community: someone is pouring glue onto the hair of girls who dare to venture out at night with visiting servicemen. Powell and Pressburger offered this 'propaganda' piece as their contribution to the war effort, but the authorities were unsure how its oddball tone would go down with the Allies. In '49th Parallel' (1941), Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard are among the stars who try to prevent Nazi sailors, from a sunken U-Boat, reaching neutral USA through Canada in this classic war film, which was intended to persuade America to join World War II. Pressburger won an Academy Award for the story and the film was directed by Powell. In 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945), a woman (Wendy Hiller) has always known what she wanted in life, and now she is about to marry a millionaire. But when she ends up stranded on a Hebredian island due to a storm, she begins to see things a little differently. 'Ill Met By Moonlight' (1957) was the final film created by Powell and Pressburger together. Set on the island of Crete during the Nazi occupation, the film stars Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley as British officers assigned to kidnap the German commander-in-chief General Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him back to Cairo. If successful, the morale of the Germans would be weakened and the resistance would be stronger. But once he is captured, the British officers have to get him past German patrols at almost every turning. In 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943), stuffy ex-soldier Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) recalls his career which began as a dashing officer in the Boer War. As a young man he lost the woman he loved (Deborah Kerr, who plays three roles) to a Prussian officer (Anton Walbrook), whom he fought in a duel only to become lifelong friends with. Candy cannot help but feel that his notions of honour and chivalry are out of place in modern warfare. The film's title comes from 'Evening Standard' cartoonist David Low's satirical comic creation, Colonel Blimp. In 'The Red Shoes' (1948), ballet impressario Boris Lermontov (Walbrook) hires up-and-coming ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) and talented young composer Julian Craster (Goring) to work with him on a new ballet, an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story 'The Red Shoes'. The show is a great success and Victoria and Julian fall in love, but Boris is jealous and makes moves to spoil their happiness. 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946) is a classic wartime propaganda movie, commissioned by the Ministry of Information, but turned into a fantastical allegory by the Archers, aka Powell and Pressburger. David Niven plays an RAF pilot who is ready to be picked up by the angels after bailing out of his plane. But an administrative error in Heaven leads to a temporary reprieve, during which he must prove his right to stay on Earth. A tribunal in heaven ensues to decide the case. In 'They're a Weird Mob' (1966), Nino Culotta (Walter Chiari) is an Italian immigrant who arrives in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousin's magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine has folded, the cousin has done a runner and the money his cousin sent for the fare was borrowed from the daughter of the boss of a local construction firm. 'The Tales of Hoffman' (1951) is an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera and follows Hoffman's (Robert Rounseville) tales of his love for the doll Olympia, the courtesan Giuletta (Ludmilla Tcherina) and the frail diva Antonia (Anne Ayars), and of how his quest for the eternal woman was always thwarted by evil. Finally, in 'Black Narcissus' (1946), a group of British nuns are sent into the Himalayas to set up a mission in what was once the harem's quarters of an ancient palace. The clear mountain air, the unfamiliar culture and the unbridled sensuality of a young prince (Sabu) and his beggar-girl lover (Jean Simmons) begin to play havoc with the nuns' long-suppressed emotions. Whilst the young Mother Superior, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), fights a losing battle for order, the jaunty David Farrar falls in love with her, sparking uncontrollable jealousy in another nun, Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron).

Double bill of two classic adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', in which a scientist investigates the nature of good and evil. The first, made in 1932, stars Frederic March, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as both the cultured man and the neanderthal. The second version was made in 1941, with Spencer Tracy in the lead role, and a strong supporting cast that included Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.

This book highlights the changes and challenges to the role of the HR Business Partner, overviewing the emerging service delivery models for the HR function (in particular the development of shared services and outsourcing options) and what this means for the HR Business Partner (HRBP) in the modern enterprise. The purpose of this book is to provide a conceptual framework and practical advice, based on real life case studies and recent research, into how HR Business Partners best add value to the organization. The authors have extensive experience of working in the area of HR restructuring (having been HR Directors in blue chip organizations and senior advisers in leading consultancies) and have consistently come up against confusion and contradiction about what is the new role of the HR Manager/Business Partner in supporting business managers in the delivery of strategic and tactical objectives. Theory and conceptual models are used to underpin this book but it has been written as a pragmatic, hands-on guide that will help its readers think through how best they might fulfil the role of the HRBP. The book contains checklists, case study examples and self-assessment tools. It is supported by supplementary material (updates, further case studies, templates and tools) which are available via the authors' website.

In the same intellectual league as Grotius, Hobbes and Locke, but today less well known, Samuel Pufendorf was an early modern master of political, juridical, historical and theological thought. Trained in an erudite humanism, he brought his copious command of ancient and modern literature to bear on precisely honed arguments designed to engage directly with contemporary political and religious problems. Through his fundamental reconstruction of the discipline of natural law, Pufendorf offered a new rationale for the sovereign territorial state, providing it with non-religious foundations in order to fit it for governance of multi-religious societies and to protect his own Protestant faith. He also drew on his humanist learning to write important political histories, a significant lay theology, and vivid polemics against his many opponents. This volume makes the full scope of his thought and writing accessible to English readers for the first time.

In the same intellectual league as Grotius, Hobbes and Locke, but today less well known, Samuel Pufendorf was an early modern master of political, juridical, historical and theological thought. Trained in an erudite humanism, he brought his copious command of ancient and modern literature to bear on precisely honed arguments designed to engage directly with contemporary political and religious problems. Through his fundamental reconstruction of the discipline of natural law, Pufendorf offered a new rationale for the sovereign territorial state, providing it with non-religious foundations in order to fit it for governance of multi-religious societies and to protect his own Protestant faith. He also drew on his humanist learning to write important political histories, a significant lay theology, and vivid polemics against his many opponents. This volume makes the full scope of his thought and writing accessible to English readers for the first time.

The penultimate film from the celebrated teaming of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ('Black Narcissus', 'A Matter of Life and Death') tells the true story of the famous 1939 naval battle. Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is captaining the crack German battleship Graf Spee through the South Atlantic, unaware that a small number of lightweight British battle cruisers are hot on his trail. When the British cruisers manage to trap the powerful German ship in the Uruguayan harbour of Montevideo, they attempt to trick Langsdorff into believing that an entire battle fleet is waiting to destroy his vessel at sea.

Christian Thomasius (1655 1728) was a tireless campaigner against the political enforcement of religion in the early modern confessional state. In a whole series of combative disputations - against heresy and witchcraft prosecutions, and in favour of religious toleration - Thomasius battled to lay the intellectual groundwork for the separation of church and state and the juridical basis for pluralistic societies. In this 2007 text, Ian Hunter departs from the usual view of Thomasius as a natural law moral philosopher. In addition to investigating his anti-scholastic cultural politics, Hunter discusses Thomasius' work in public and church law, particularly his disputations arguing for the toleration of heretics, providing a revealing comparison with Locke's arguments on the same topic. If Locke sought to base toleration in the subjective rights protecting Christian citizens against an intolerant state, Thomasius grounded it in the state's duty to impose toleration as an obligation on intolerant citizens.

In this groundbreaking collection of essays the history of philosophy appears in a fresh light, not as reason's progressive discovery of its universal conditions, but as a series of unreconciled disputes over the proper way to conduct oneself as a philosopher. By shifting focus from the philosopher as proxy for the universal subject of reason to the philosopher as a special persona arising from rival forms of self-cultivation, philosophy is approached in terms of the social office and intellectual deportment of the philosopher, as a personage with a definite moral physiognomy and institutional setting. In so doing, this collection of essays by leading figures in the fields of both philosophy and the history of ideas provides access to key early modern disputes over what it meant to be a philosopher, and to the institutional and larger political and religious contexts in which such disputes took place.

Christian Thomasius (1655 1728) was a tireless campaigner against the political enforcement of religion in the early modern confessional state. In a whole series of combative disputations - against heresy and witchraft prosecutions, and in favour of religious toleration - Thomasius battled to lay the intellectual groundwork for the separation of church and state and the juridical basis for pluralistic societies. In this first book-length study in English of Thomasius' political thought, Ian Hunter departs from the usual view of Thomasius as a natural law moral philosopher. In addition to investigating his anti-scholastic cultural politics, Hunter discusses Thomasius' work in public and church law, particularly his disputations arguing for the toleration of heretics, providing a revealing comparison with Locke's arguments on the same topic. If Locke sought to base toleration in the subjective rights protecting Christian citizens against an intolerant state, Thomasius grounded it in the state's duty to impose toleration as an obligation on intolerant citizens.

Rival Enlightenments, first published in 2001, is a major reinterpretation of early modern German intellectual history. Ian Hunter approaches philosophical doctrines as ways of fashioning personae for envisaged historical circumstances, here of confessional conflict and political desacralization. He treats the civil philosophy of Pufendorf and Thomasius and the metaphysical philosophy of Leibniz and Kant as rival intellectual cultures or paideiai, thereby challenging all histories premised on Kant's supposed reconciliation and transcendence of the field. This study reveals the extraordinary historical self-consciousness of the civil philosophers, who repudiated university metaphysics as inimical to the intellectual formation of those administering desacralized territorial states. The book argues that the marginalization of civil philosophy in post-Kantian philosophical history may itself be seen as a continuation of the struggle between the rival enlightenments. Combining careful and well-documented scholarship with vivid polemic, Hunter presents penetrating insights for philosophers and historians alike.

In this groundbreaking collection of essays the history of philosophy appears in a fresh light, not as reason's progressive discovery of its universal conditions, but as a series of unreconciled disputes over the proper way to conduct oneself as a philosopher. By shifting focus from the philosopher as proxy for the universal subject of reason to the philosopher as a special persona arising from rival forms of self-cultivation, philosophy is approached in terms of the social office and intellectual deportment of the philosopher, as a personage with a definite moral physiognomy and institutional setting. In so doing, this collection of essays by leading figures in the fields of both philosophy and the history of ideas provides access to key early modern disputes over what it meant to be a philosopher, and to the institutional and larger political and religious contexts in which such disputes took place.