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Kant believed that true enlightenment is the use of reason freely
in public. This book systematicaaly traces the philosophical
origins and development of the idea that the improvement of human
understanding requires public activity. Michael Losonsky focuses on
seventeenth-century discussions of the problem of irresolution and
the closely connected theme of the role of volition in human belief
formation. This involves a discussion of the work of Descartes,
Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza and Leibniz. Challenging the traditional
views of seventeenth-century philosophy and written in a lucid,
non-technical language, this book will be eagerly sought out by
historians of philosophy and students of the history of ideas.
This is the first book to trace systematically the philosophical origins and development of the idea that the improvement of human understanding requires public activity, through discussion of the work of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Challenging the traditional views of 17th century philosophy and written in lucid, nontechnical language, it will be sought by historians of philosophy and students of the history of ideas.
This classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to Humboldt's treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. It remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics. This volume presents a modern translation by Peter Heath together with a new introduction by Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical and philosophical context.
Wilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first
published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume
treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of
his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its
universal structures and its relation to mind and culture.
Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the
Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most
interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical
conclusions from comparative linguistics. This 1999 volume presents
a translation by Peter Heath, together with an introduction by
Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical
context and discusses its relevance to contemporary work in
philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology.
This flexible textbook is both an introduction and a reader in
metaphysics combining original discussion with selections from
primary sources. This text shows that important social, political
and moral concerns involve metaphysical questions and that
important metaphysical positions have practical implications. It
discusses major metaphysical topics such as God, Freedom, Mind,
Causality, Value, and Universals as well as important historical
and contemporary critiques of metaphysics. Each chapter is followed
by selections from classic and contemporary texts, allowing for
in-depth study of primary sources.
This book traces the linguistic turns in the history of modern
philosophy and the development of the philosophy of language from
Locke to Wittgenstein. It examines the contributions of canonical
figures such as Leibniz, Mill, Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein,
Austin, Quine, and Davidson, as well as those of Condillac,
Humboldt, Chomsky, and Derrida. Michael Losonsky argues that the
philosophy of language begins with Locke's Essay Concerning Human
Understanding. He shows how the history of the philosophy of
language in the modern period is marked by a dichotomy between
formal and pragmatic perspectives on language and that modern
philosophy has not been able to integrate these two aspects of
human language. Language as a human activity and language as a
syntactic and semantic system remain distinct and competing focal
points, although the interplay between these points of view has
driven the development of the philosophy of language.
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