Philosophical traditions and schools of thought Books

Book SynopsisA prodigiously brilliant thinker who sharply challenged the beliefs of his age, the political and social radical John Stuart Mill was the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. Regarded as one of the sacred texts of liberalism, his great work On Liberty argues lucidly that any democracy risks becoming a ''tyranny of opinion'' in which minority views are suppressed if they do not conform with those of the majority. Written in the same period as On Liberty, shortly after the death of Mill''s beloved wife and fellow-thinker Harriet, The Subjection of Women stresses the importance of equality for the sexes. Together, the works provide a fascinating testimony to the hopes and anxieties of mid-Victorian England, and offer a compelling consideration of what it truly means to be free.Trade ReviewOn Liberty remains a classic. . . . The present world would be better than it is if [MillÆs] principles were more respected. (Bertrand Russell)

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Book SynopsisImmanuel Kant was one of the most influential philosophers in the whole of Europe, who changed Western thought with his examinations of reason and the nature of reality. In these writings he investigates human progress, civilization, morality and why, to be truly enlightened, we must all have the freedom and courage to use our own intellect. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

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Book SynopsisFriedrich Nietzsche''s Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics. Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche''s position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a ''slave morality''. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own ''will to power'' upon the world. This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner''s introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil. Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche''s influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable. If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche''s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics. ''One of the greatest books of a very great thinker'' Michael TannerTable of ContentsOn the prejudices of philosophers; the free spirit; the religious nature; maxims and interludes; on the natural history of morals; we scholars; our virtues; people and fatherlands; what is noble?; from high mountains - epode.

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Book SynopsisThe masterpiece of the father of modern philosophyA seminal text of modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant''sCritique of Pure Reason(1781) made history by bringing together two opposing schools of thought: rationalism, which grounds all our knowledge in reason, and empiricism, which traces all our knowledge to experience. Published here in a lucid reworking of Max Müller''s classic translation, the Critique is a profound investigation into the nature of human reason, establishing its truth, falsities, illusions, and reality.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Book SynopsisEdmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society. In this landmark work, he propounds his theory that the sublime and the beautiful should be regarded as distinct and wholly separate states - the first, an experience inspired by fear and awe, the second an expression of pleasure and serenity. Eloquent and profound, A Philosophical Enquiry is an involving account of our sensory, imaginative and judgmental processes and their relation to artistic appreciation. Burke''s work was hugely influential on his contemporaries and also admired by later writers such as Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth. This volume also contains several of his early political works on subjects including natural society, government and the American colonies, which illustrate his liberal, humane views.Table of ContentsList of AbbreviationsA Chronology of Edmund BurkeIntroductionFurther ReadingA Note on the TextsA Vindication of Natural Society (1756; second edition, 1757)A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757; second edition, 1759)Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770; third edition, 1770)Speech on American Taxation (1774; third edition, 1775)Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies(1775; third edition, 1775)Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America (1777; third edition, 1777)NotesBiographica

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Book Synopsis"God Crucified" and Other Essays on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity The basic thesis of this important book on New Testament Christology, sketched in the first essay 'God Crucified, is that the worship of Jesus as God was seen by the early Christians as compatible with their Jewish monotheism. Jesus was thought to participate in the divine identity of the one God of Israel. The other chapters provide more detailed support for, and an expansion of, this basic thesis. Readers will find not only the full text of Bauckham's classic book God Crucified, but also groundbreaking essays, some of which have never been published previously

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Book SynopsisThe first volume of this series presents fifteen selected papers dealing with a variety of topics in ontology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.Trade ReviewThe essays are unsurpassed in their clarity and characterized by a complete intellectual honesty. * The Modern Schoolman *The essays are unsurpassed in their clarity and characterized by a complete intellectual honesty. * The Modern Schoolman *

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Book SynopsisBenedict de Spinoza (1632-77) was at once the father of the Enlightenment and the last sad guardian of the medieval world. In his brilliant synthesis of geometrical method, religious sentiment, and secular science, he attempted to reconcile the conflicting moral and intellectual demands of his epoch, and to present a vision of humanity as simultaneously bound by necessity and eternally free. In this book Roger Scruton presents a clear and systematic analysis of Spinoza''s thought, and shows its relevance to today''s intellectual preoccupations.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'an interesting and provocative guide' * Christian Science Monitor *'His exposition is beautifully lucid.' * Expository Times *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Life and Character ; 2. Background ; 3. God ; 4. Man ; 5. Freedom ; 6. The Body Politic ; 7. Spinoza's Legacy ; Glossary ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisAvailable for the first time in the English language, this is a complete and annotated translation of a key work by the twelfth-century Muslim philosopher, Averroes (Ibn Rushd). Acknowledged as the leading transmitter of Aristotelian th ought, Averroes also held controversial views about the re lationship between faith and reason, arguing that religion should not be allowed to impose limits on the exercise of rational thought. His theory of rationality, along with others on language, justice and the interpretation of religious texts, is clearly presented here, in a work that provides the most comprehensive picture available of Averroes's great intellectual achievements.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1989. As a young man growing up near Basel, Jung was fascinated and disturbed by tales of Nietzsche''s brilliance, eccentricity, and eventual decline into permanent psychosis. These volumes, the transcript of a previously unpublished private seminar, reveal the fruits of his initial curiosity: Nietzsche''s works, which he read as a student at the University of Basel, had moved him profoundly and had a life-long influence on his thought. During the sessions the mature Jung spoke informally to members of his inner circle about a thinker whose works had not only overwhelmed him with the depth of their understanding of human nature but also provided the philosophical sources of many of his own psychological and metapsychological ideas. Above all, he demonstrated how the remarkable book Thus Spake Zarathustra illustrates both Nietzsche''s genius and his neurotic and prepsychotic tendencies. Since there was at that time no thought of the seminar notes being published, Ju

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Book SynopsisHe shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success - such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals - can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety.Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory.Trade ReviewWitty, useful and beautifully written... this book grapples expansively with the most profound questions any of us face * The Sunday Times *Brilliant. Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know. -- Stephen FryBrown tries to resurrect the original Stoic ambitions here: not just to live well but to die well, too. His book is thoughtful, insightful and ultimately, well, helpful. * Sunday Times Books of the Year *Til now, we've known Derren Brown as a supreme illusionist and magician. Now he surprises us with a new and brilliant identity: as a philosopher. Not just any philosopher. Brown takes philosophy back to its truest task: that of helping us to live and die well. His book is deeply informative, moving, wise and full of love. It sets out to change lives - and it will. Derren has pulled off a properly implausible trick: that of making the deepest ideas relevant, humane and urgent. -- Alain de BottonIn this wise and perceptive book Derren Brown has conjoined personal experience, profoundly sensible psychology and the magic of philosophy to produce a really excellent account of how to be happy - really, maturely, properly happy. This is a wonderfully educative - and enjoyable! - book, and should be on everyone's reading list, always. -- A.C. Grayling

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Book SynopsisPostcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader sets out a timely and powerful agenda for contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean, and African American philosophy.Trade Review"We are indeed blessed to have Eze's up-to-date and magnificent anthology. It brings together some of the most stimulating texts of African philosophy. Its ambitious effort will serve well all those interested in African Studies and students and professionals of philosophy in general." V. Y. Mudimbe, Stanford University " Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze has assembled a collection of essays that will be a most substantial contribution to making the case for African philosophy. Not just by the persuasiveness of each argument, but, as well, by virtue of each person who contributes to the effort. One important effect will be to further the development of African philosophy by moving the discussion well beyond the potential danger of confinement within improper conceptions of raciality not simply by attacking racialized thought, but via the constitutive activities of the contributors. This collection is, then, to be read and pondered in a number of respects in order to appreciate fully the very important contribution it is. " Professor Lucius Outlaw, Haverford CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Philosophy and the (post) Colonial: Emmanuel Chuckwudi Eze (Bucknell University). 1. Philosophy, Culture and Technology in the Postcolonial: Kwame Gyekye (University of Ghana). 2. Is Modern Science a European System of Knowledge?: Sandra Harding (University of Delaware). 3. African Philosophy and Modernity: Peter Amato (Fordham University). 4. The Color of Reason: The Idea of Race in Kant's Anthropology: Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (Bucknell University). 5. The Critique of Eurocentrism and the Practice of African Philosophy: Tsenay Serequeberhan (Simmons College). 6. Critic of Boers or Africans? Arendt's Treatment of South Africa in Origins of Totalitarianism: Gail Presby (Marist College). 7. African Philosophy's Challenge to Continental Philosophy: Robert Bernasconi (Memphis University). 8. Understanding African Philosophy from a Non-African Point of View: An Exercise in Cross-Cultural Philosophy: Richard Bell (College of Wooster). 9. Alterity, Dialogue, and African Philosophy: Bruce Janz (Augustana University College). 10. Tragic Dimensions of our Neocolonial 'Postcolonial World': Lewis Gordon (Purdue University). 11. Honor, Eunuchs, and the Postcolonial Subject: Leonard Harris (Purdue University). 12. Post-Philosophy and the Post-Colonial: John Pittman (John Jay College of Criminal Justice). 13. African Philosophy and the Post-Colonial: Some Misleading Abstractions about 'Identity': D. A. Masolo (Antioch College). 14. Democracy and Consensus in African Traditional Politics: A Plea for Non-Party Polity: Kwasi Wiredu (University of South Florida). 15. Of the Good use of Tradition: Keeping the Critical Perspective in African Philosophy: Jean-Marie Makang (University of Maryland). 16. Toward a Critical Theory of African (Post) Colonial Identities: Emmanuel Chuckwudi Eze (Bucknell University). Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisPresented with Kierkegaard's notes of the celebrated Berlin lectures on "positive philosophy" by FWJ Schelling, this book is a seedbed of Kierkegaard's subsequent work, both stylistically and thematically. It concentrates on Socrates, as interpreted by Xenophon, Plato, and Aristophanes, with a word on Hegel and Hegelian categories.Trade Review"The definitive edition of the Writings. The first volume ... indicates the scholarly value of the entire series: an introduction setting the work in the context of Kierkegaard's development; a remarkably clear translation; and concluding sections of intelligent notes."--Library JournalTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Historical Introduction, pg. vii*The Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates, pg. 1*Theses, pg. 5*Introduction, pg. 9*I. The View Made Possible, pg. 13*II. The Actualization of the View, pg. 157*III. The View Made Necessary, pg. 198*APPENDIX. Hegel's View of Socrates, pg. 219*Introduction, pg. 241*Observations for Orientation, pg. 246*The World-Historical Validity of Irony, the Irony of Socrates, pg. 259*Irony after Fichte, pg. 272*Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth of Irony, pg. 324*Addendum. NOTES OF SCHELLING'S BERLIN LECTURES, pg. 331*Key to References, pg. 413*Original Title Pages of The Concept of Irony, pg. 416*Original First Page (manuscript) of Notes of Schelling's Berlin Lectures, pg. 420*Selected Entries from Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers Pertaining to The Concept of Irony, pg. 423*Acknowledgments, pg. 457*Collation of The Concept of Irony in the Danish Editions of Kierkegaard's Collected Works, pg. 461*NOTES, pg. 465*BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, pg. 597*INDEX, pg. 599

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Book SynopsisOne of the most remarkable and influential books of the nineteenth century—Nietzsche's attempt to sum up his philosophy. In nine parts the book is designed to give the reader a comprehensive idea of Nietzsche's thought and style:  they span The Prejudices of Philsophers, The Free Spirit, religion, morals, scholarship, Our Virtues, Peoples and Fatherlands, and What Is Noble, as well as epigrams and a concluding poem.     This translation by Walter Kaufmann has become the standard one, for accuracy and fidelity to the eccentricities and grace of the style of the original.  The translation is based on the only edition Nietzsche himself published, and all variant reading in later editions.  This volume offers an inclusive index of subjects and persons, as well as a running footnote commentary on the text.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive and authoritative anthology of Indian philosophy, from antiquity to the twentieth centuryThe Sourcebook of Indian Philosophy offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the philosophical wisdom of ancient and modern India. Edited by two leading authorities, Indian philosopher-statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and American philosopher Charles Moore, this compact anthology presents the chief riches of more than 3,000 years of Indian philosophical thought—the ancient Vedas, the Upanisads, the Bhagavad-gita and other epics, the works of the heterodox and orthodox systems (including Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, and Vedanta), and modern writings. Featuring substantial selections from these key texts and systems, brief introductions to each selection, and a general introduction that gives a short history and outline of Indian philosophy, this anthology offers readers a thorough survey of India’s great and lasting contribution to world thought. For the full contents, please see below:PrefaceGeneral IntroductionThe Vedic Period:1. The Vedas2. The UpanisadsThe Epic Period:3. The Bhagavad-gita4. The Mahabharata5. The Laws of Manu6. Kautilya’s Artha-sastraThe Heterodox Systems:7. Carvaka8. Jainism9. BuddhismThe Orthodox Systems:10. Nyaya11. Vaisesika12. Samkhya13. Yoga14. Purva Mimamsa15. Vedanta: Samkara, Ramanuja, and MadhvaContemporary Thought:16. Sri Aurobindo17. Sarvepalli RadhakrishnanAppendices (including a pronunciation guide)BibliographyIndexTrade Review"This book ... is not only for the Western student, but for all of us who must gauge our impacted twentieth-century world and find our path in its confusion."--The New York TimesTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Preface, pg. ix*Contents, pg. xv*General Introduction, pg. xvii*Chapter I. The Vedas, pg. 3*Chapter II. The Upanisads, pg. 37*Introduction, pg. 99*Chapter III. The Bhagavad-Gita, pg. 101*Chapter IV. The Mahabharata, pg. 164*Chapter V. The Laws of Manu, pg. 172*Chapter VI. Kautilya's Artha-Sastra, pg. 193*Chapter VII. Carvaka, pg. 227*Chapter VIII. Jainism, pg. 250*Chapter IX. Buddhism, pg. 272*Introduction, pg. 349*Chapter X. Nyaya, pg. 356*Chapter XI. Vaisesika, pg. 386*Chapter XII. Samkhya, pg. 424*Chapter XIII. Yoga, pg. 453*Chapter XIV. Purva Mimamsa, pg. 486*Chapter XV. Vedanta, pg. 506*Chapter XVI. Sri Aurobindo, pg. 575*Chapter XVII. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, pg. 610*Appendices, pg. 638*Bibliography, pg. 643*Index, pg. 671

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Book SynopsisAn anthology of Chinese philosophy that covers its entire historical development. It provides selections from various thinkers and schools in every period - ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary - and includes in their entirety some of the important classical texts. It deals with the fundamental, and technical aspects of Chinese thought.Trade Review"[E]normous chunks of the philosophers, and the commentary reduced to the essential minimum. Mr Chan's theme is Chinese humanism, because this is the unavoidable theme of Chinese philosophy in nearly all ages. Heroically he has translated his philosophers himself, with the result that for the first time the entire map is seen through a consistent eye. 'Source Book': no. Please look on it instead as a massive and superb anthology."--Robert Payne, Saturday Review "[Mr. Chan's] brilliant scholarship has enabled him to strike a balance between modern, medieval and ancient periods as well as between Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and for the first time a leading Chinese scholar has carefully weighed the influences and importance's as well as the themes of many of the Chinese philosophers."--John Coombes, Columbus Enquirer "[T]he Neo-Confucian translations in particular are the most reliable yet made, and show a familiarity with classical allusions, early colloquial idiom and the turns of Neo-Confucian thought which no Western translator can hope to emulate."--A. C. Graham, Journal of the American Oriental Society "[T]he volume is virtually an encyclopedia."--Journal of Bible and Religion

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Book SynopsisExamines the relationship between hope and knowledge by investigating how hope is produced in various forms of knowledge - Fijian, philosophical, anthropological. This book discusses the hope entailed in a range of Fijian knowledge practices and compares it with the concept of hope in the work of philosophers.Trade Review"Innovative and theoretically provocative."—Oceania"What is hope? Can one hope to understand it? Must one hope in order to understand it? Is hope, then, a method of knowing rather than an object of knowledge? In a brilliant synthesis of philosophy and anthropology, Miyazaki engages the reader with these questions in a path-breaking example of contemporary ethnography."—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"A lucid and compact work, The Method of Hope will ideally reorient anthropological knowledge, not only about Fiji but also about the ways in which, as Miyazaki writes, 'hope is a common operative in knowledge formation, academic and otherwise.'"—Anthropological Forum

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of CHOICE’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017""Longlisted for the 2017 Bronisław Geremek First Academic Book Prize, College of Europe""The task that Hugo Drochon sets himself is to reinsert some political content into Nietzsche and show that he had a systematic political theory. The result is a superb case of deep intellectual renewal and the most important book to have been written about him in the past few years."---Gavin Jacobson, New Statesman"There is no lack of contemporary publications that deal forthrightly with Nietzsche’s political thinking: these include Hugo Drochon’s Nietzsche’s Great Politics. "---Alex Ross, New Yorker"This book is not so much a reclamation of his [Nietzsche's] thinking on the subject as a reconstruction of the development of political thinking in the philosopher's works, so often missed by those who require thinking and expression less profound to make sense of such. Coherent, detailed and balanced."---Daniel Binney, Times Higher Education"The book achieves its stated goal with aplomb as it follows the development of political ideas in Nietzsche's works, and it deserves to become a standard reference text for advanced students and Nietzsche scholars."---Mina Mitreva, Past Imperfect"In this compelling and accessible study, Drochon--a historian of 19th- and 20th-century political thought--argues the affirmative case, contending that Nietzsche articulated a ‘great politics' centered on the unification of Continental Europe under the aegis of a cultivated, interbred class of superior individuals who would ultimately lead a geopolitical struggle against Great Britain and Russia for world supremacy. . . . One can find lots of books on Nietzsche, but this one stands out for its clarity and excellence." * Choice *"Hugo Drochon sets out to show that Nietzsche had a 'politics' after all. [He] in large part succeeds, and gives an illuminating account of Nietzsche's vision for a unified, cosmopolitan Europe. . . . This is a learned book that does a nice job of situating Nietzsche in his social and political context. . . . Drochon’s is a book from which one will learn a great deal, and . . . Will challenge us to reconsider our opinions about Nietzsche and his place in history."---Andrew Huddleston, Times Literary Supplement"Necessary reading for anyone working on Nietzsche as a political thinker. . . . Drochon provides a fine way into these questions surrounding Nietzsche's thought about great politics. He provides a scrupulous account of Nietzsche’s political thought and a stimulating argument for a way of taking Nietzsche seriously from a political point of view."---Barry Stocker, Los Angeles Review of Books"A thought-provoking contribution to the debate over Nietzsche's politics. . . . [It] contains plenty to interest the contemporary Nietzsche scholar, providing insight into Nietzsche's political statements and offering a tantalising glimpse into his preparations for a great role in the politics of his age."---Simon Townsend, Contemporary Political Theory"Drochon's book largely succeeds. . . . He demonstrates that Nietzsche had political considerations that stretched with some consistency across his career, which should be sufficient to call Nietzsche a political philosopher, and, indeed the sort of political philosopher ill-suited to Nazi appropriation."---Natasha Leonard, Dissent"There is much to recommend in Drochon's bold, erudite, and lucid study of Nietzsche's political thought. In particular, Drochon should be commended for meeting the rigorous demands of a contextualist methodology while also demonstrating Nietzsche's contemporary relevance. Drochon's philosophic interpretation is thus both historically grounded and timely. Nietzsche's Great Politics will surely open up new areas of research and revitalize ostensibly settled questions of interpretation."---Paul Wilford, The Review of Politics"Nietzsche’s Great Politics by Hugo Drochon is one of the most creative and original efforts to mould Nietzsche’s thought to the challenges of our age. Nietzsche always wanted to have creative and critical readers and this book certainly lives up to that ideal."---Damian Valdez, History of European Ideas"A realist interpretation of Nietzsche’s politics . . . well written and readable. . . . While Nietzsche’s political analyses of the late nineteenth century act as a well-timed reminder of both the fragility and worth of European integration, the general premises of his political philosophy provide us with highly useful conceptual tools for rethinking many of our political categories."---Gulsen Seven, Political Studies Review"Among the most illuminating studies that have been written on the topic of Nietzsche's political thought. . . .Those who confidently maintain that Nietzsche has no 'politics' will be forced, if not to abandon their view completely, then seriously to reconsider it." * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *"It is to the supreme credit of Hugo Drochon’s Nietzsche’s Great Politics to see that . . . his study succeeds in delivering a well-researched and thoughtful analysis of Nietzsche’s 'great politics' in the context of both Nietzsche’s writings and their cultural and political settings. . . . A provocative and timely study."---Dale Wilkerson, Review of Metaphysics"Drochon’s book is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the question whether Nietzsche should be regarded as a political thinker. . . . The whole book, which also focuses on Nietzsche’s views about the Greeks, the state, democracy, and the relation of democracy to aristocracy, is a carefully construed and well-documented argument that Nietzsche did indeed make a contribution to political thought."---Manuel Knoll, Nietzsche-Studien"A daring and welcome attempt to re-historicize one of the nineteenth century’s most controversial philosophers, and should be read with great interest by scholars of Nietzsche, as well as students of European culture, thought and politics."---Rebecca Mitchell, Politics, Religion & Ideology"Rigorous in its close reading of the sources and written with great clarity. . . . Drochon also persuasively demonstrates that Nietzsche’s thought has a place within the canon of the history of political thought and that his political theory may prove resourceful when dealing with the specters that haunt liberal democracies and market societies today."---Dotan Leshem, Politics, Religion & Ideology"Drochon’s book is a stimulating and fascinating contribution to our understanding of Nietzsche’s enigmatic writings. Without a doubt, it will become the standard reference work for everyone interested in the philosopher’s complex political thought and its many legacies."---Udi Greenberg, Politics, Religion & Ideology"Hugo Drochon provides an invaluable service by drawing our attention to Nietzsche’s political philosophy, which he contends has been either neglected or misunderstood. . . . In a world where liberal and egalitarian pieties seem to be under strain, his views, however disquieting, merit our attention and Drochon is to be congratulated for exploring them in a subtle and sophisticated volume."---James Chappel, Politics, Religion & Ideology"A well-written and well-argued account of Nietzsche’s political vision that presents itself squarely within the tradition of Cambridge School intellectual history . . . Drochon is entirely right to conclude that Nietzsche does field a relatively coherent vision of political life, and he is also on the mark in his conclusion that Nietzsche’s politics remains a politics of the nineteenth century that cannot fully be translated into the present."---Christian J. Emden, Journal of Nietzsche Studies"In the otherwise crowded field of Nietzsche scholarship, this book has received an unusual and deserved amount of popular attention. In part, this follows from the strong reassertion today of various illiberal voices. Drochon’s concluding questions, concerning the purpose of European unity and the role of European elites, are inescapable."---Michael Lang, Journal of Modern History"Excellent. . . . Even a review essay cannot adequately capture the depth of scholarship and the originality present in [Nietzsche's Great Politics]. . . . Students of Nietzsche’s political provocations will want to read [it] in order to see how Nietzsche wrote a politics for the future predicated upon his careful reading of both his predecessors and his contemporaries."---Corey McCall, Comparative and Continental Philosophy"Hugo Drochon, a distinguished intellectual historian at Cambridge University, has in this brilliant new book pointed to another thinker who believed private protection agencies were possible. This is none other than Friedrich Nietzsche."---David Gordon, Mises Institute"Extraordinary book . . . . Drochon masterfully articulates a credible account of Nietzsche’s political action programme. . . . [A] rich, luminous and comprehensive argument."---Renato Cristi, History of Political Thought"For historians and political theorists alike, Drochon’s assessment of Nietzsche’s Great Politics sets a new standard, introducing readers to a political reading of the philosopher, and unearthing urgent new routes to be explored."---Emily Steinhauer, H-Diplo

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Book SynopsisIn The Moral Imagination, Gertrude Himmelfarb, one of America''s most distinguished intellectual historians, explores the minds and lives of some of the most brilliant and provocative thinkers of modern times. In their distinctive ways, she argues, they exemplify what Burke two centuries ago and Trilling most recently have called the moral imagination. Himmelfarb describes how each of these thinkers, coming from different traditions, responding to different concerns, and writing in different genres, shared a moral passion that permeated their work. It is this passion that makes their reflectionson politics and literature, religion and society, marriage and sexsometimes unpredictable, often controversial, always exciting, and as illuminating and pertinent today as they were then. The second edition includes a revised introduction and three new essays on Adam Smith, Lord Acton, and Alfred Marshall.Trade ReviewThe Scrapbook is a big fan of the distinguished historian Gertrude Himmelfarb,(Really, who isn't?) So we were very pleased to learn that Rowman & Littlefield has just published a new, expanded edition of her superb collection of essays The Moral Imagination. The subtitle of the 2006 edition was “From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling.” The new subtitle is “From Adam Smith to Lionel Trilling,” reflecting the fact that the new volume features three additional essays, on Smith, Lord Acton, and Alfred Marshall. So now you get 15 dazzling studies of men ranging from John Stuart Mill to Michael Buchan, and Walter Bagehot to Winston Churchill. And, The Scrapbook hastens to add only partly for fear of being accused of complicity in the famed war on women, not just men-the essays on Jane Austen and George Eliot are two of our favorites. Buy the book and send copies to your friends-you’ll thank us for the recommendation, and they’ll thank you (and Himmelfarb) for the reading enjoyment, the historical education, and the intellectual stimulation. * The Weekly Standard *Fresh insights are to be found throughout the book by juxtaposing authors, by understanding them within their own times, by pulling them out and learning from them as if they were our contemporaries. . . .Moral imagination is not the sum total of wisdom, but it is clear from this collection of essays that it is a necessary part of it. The subjects of her essays have helped form our moral imaginations, almost entirely for the better, and reading this book is an excellent way to see how it was done. * Society *Gertrude Himmelfarb has single-handedly revived the prestige of the Victorians. Her writings on such figures as Lord Acton, Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, George Eliot, and others, along with the topics of social and political life among the the Victorians, has demonstrated how truly eminent the Victorians were. Professor Himmelfarb's books make unmistakably plain that Victorian England was an artistic and intellectual period that rivaled that of fifth century Athens and was perhaps as great an era as any the western world has known. I do not know any intellectual achievement on the part of an historian over the past century that compares to Gertrude Himmelfarb's. -- Joseph EpsteinIn fifteen lapidary essays, Gertrude Himmelfarb, America's greatest historian of 19th and 20th century thinkers and their thoughts, provides a map of the intellectual terrain we still inhabit and a path to higher moral ground. -- George F. Will, syndicated columnist for The Washington PostGertrude Himmelfarb has given us history that's fun again, written in prose so graceful that you almost don't notice the breathtaking erudition. Let The Moral Imagination fall open to any random page and read. You won't stop. -- Charles MurrayGertrude Himmelfarb undertakes a subtle, often lyrical, examination of the moral sensibilities that underlie social and political life by way of a series of brilliant critiques/appreciations of the great Anglo-American writers that have most shaped hers. The result is an intellectual tour de force–a meditation on conservatism as political, philosophical and moral modesty–that is prodigiously learned, profoundly wise and remarkably timely. -- Charles KrauthammerTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Adam Smith: Political Economist cum Moral Philosopher Chapter 2: Edmund Burke: Apologist for Judaism? Chapter 3: George Eliot: The Wisdom of Dorothea Chapter 4: Jane Austen: The Education of Emma Chapter 5: Charles Dickens: “A Low Writer” Chapter 6: Benjamin Disraeli: The Tory Imagination Chapter 7: John Stuart Mill: The Other Mill Chapter 8: Walter Bagehot: “A Divided Nature” Chapter 9: Lord Acton: The Historian as Moralist Chapter 10: Alfred Marshall: “The Economics of Chivalry Chapter 11: John Buchan: An Untimely Appreciation Chapter 12: The Knoxes: A God-Haunted Family Chapter 13: Michael Oakeshott: The Conservative Disposition Chapter 14: Winston Churchill: “Quite Simply, a Great Man” Chapter 15: Lionel Trilling: The Moral Imagination Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAdam Smith was an eloquent man of considerable philosophical and historical learning. His most incisive and enduring observations are collected here on subjects ranging from political and economic history to morals, art, education, war, and the American colonies. Throughout, notes an admirer in the introduction, his writing is blessedly free of that use of jargon (and mathematics) that characterizes most of the modern materials in economics. His ideas are expressed in a lucid, straightforward manner that makes them accessible to all.

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Book SynopsisThis collection of Abe's essays is a welcome addition to philosophy and comparative philosophy.

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Book SynopsisThematically focused on the theology of redemption or what is called in theology soteriology, each of the two sections of The Redemption addresses biblical literature and significant moments in the history of Christian theology, and especially the work of Anselm of Canterbury. The second part of the book presents a significant treatment of the problem of good and evil, and introduces the important category of cultural evil. Most significant from the standpoint of Lonergan''s original contribution is the treatment accorded in both Part 1 and Part 2 to what he calls the just and mysterious law of the cross. The treatment of biblical literature contains a valuable distinction between redemption as end and redemption as medium. Beginning with theses 15-17 from Lonergan''s Collected Works, The Incarnate Word, this volume also includes rare and never-before-published texts originally written in the late 1950s. Table of ContentsPart One: Theses 15-17 of De Verbo Incarnato Thesis 15 Thesis 16 Thesis 17 Part Two: The Redemption: A Supplement 1 Good and Evil 2 The Justice of God 3 The Death and Resurrection of Christ 4 The Cross of Christ 5 The Satisfaction Made by Christ 6 [The Effects of the Redemption] Appendix Abbreviations Bibliography Scriptural Passages Index

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Book SynopsisCrossing continents and running across centuries, Key Concepts in World Philosophies brings together the 45 core ideas associated with major Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, African, Ancient Greek, Indigenous and modern European philosophers. The universal theme of self-cultivation and transformation connects each concept. Each one seeks to change our understanding the world or the life we are living. From Chinese xin and karma in Buddhist traditions to okwu in African philosophy, equity in Islamic thought and the good life in Aztec philosophy, an international team of philosophers cover a diverse set of ideas and theories originating from thinkers such as Confucius, Buddha, Dogen, Nezahualcoyotl, Nietzsche and Zhuangzi. Organised around the major themes of knowledge, metaphysics and aesthetics, each short chapter provides an introductory overview supported by a glossary. This is a one-of-a-kind toolkit that allows you to read philosophical texts from all overTrade ReviewThis is a brilliantly conceived volume, aimed at encouraging recognition of the diversity of philosophical ideas across the various world traditions. Dipping into just a few of the chapters should convince anyone that there are no grounds whatsoever for philosophers to ignore key ideas outside their own cultural traditions. * Michael Beaney, Regius Professor of Logic, University of Aberdeen, UK, and Professor of History of Analytic Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany *Can there be a better way to "take the world as the world" in philosophy than recruiting a cadre of the very best scholars across the subfields of global philosophy with each writing a substantial piece on a concept usually associated with their own careers? Sarah Flavel and Chiara Robbiano at the helm of this great ship are indeed taking world philosophy towards the boundless horizon of Nietzsche's open sea. * Roger T. Ames, Humanities Chair Professor, Peking University, China *Contemporary Anglo-European philosophy often appears to be nothing but a temple to the achievements of dead white men. Key Concepts in World Philosophies, by Sarah Flavel and Chiara Robbiano, is a powerful antidote to philosophical ethnocentrism. This anthology is like a philosophical box of chocolates, with wide selections of delicious, "bite-sized" chapters that broaden our philosophical horizons and expand our conceptual toolkits. It is useful for both the timid beginner and the jaded cosmopolitan. * Bryan W. Van Norden, James Monroe Taylor Chair in Philosophy, Vassar College, USA *Table of ContentsList of Contributors Preface “A Note on the “Key-Concepts” Approach and Diversification of Philosophical Curricula”, Sarah Flavel Acknowledgments Introduction, “Valuing diversity”, Chiara Robbiano Part I: How We Acquire Knowledge about Ourselves and Reality 1. Action and Praxis, Jin Y. Park 2. Africa, Delphine Abadie 3. Ataraxia, Frans A.J. de Haas 4. Continuous Inquiry, Chiara Robbiano 5. Emptiness, Jason M. Wirth 6. Epistemic Decolonization of Culture, Omar Rivera 7. Ezumezu, Jonathan O Chimakonam 8. Gewu (Investigation of Things), Xiao Ouyang 9. “I” as the Absolute Present, Yoko Arisaka 10. Intellectual Non-Harming and Epistemic Friction, Anand Vaidya 11. Karma, Peter D. Hershock 12. Nature, Marzenna Jakubczak 13. Perspectival Agility, Sarah Flavel and Brad Hall 14. Relational Knowing, Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach 15. Relegational Arguments, Andrew K. Whitehead 16. Science Fiction in/as Philosophy, Ethan Mills 17. Shinjin Gakudô (Studying the Way with Body and Mind), Bret W. Davis 18. Shinjin-datsuraku (dropping the bodymind), Rein Raud 19. Prasanga Method, Ethan Mills 20. Unconditioned, Russell Re Manning 21. Vital Force, Pius M. Mosima 22. Zhi (Knowing), Aaron Creller Part II: How We Cultivate Ourselves and Relate to Others 23. Double movement, Evgenia Ilieva 24. Duhkha (suffering), Stephen E. Harris 25. Equality, Hadeer Aboelnagah 26. I-Thou Relation, Michiko Yusa 27. Moral Responsiveness, Jay L. Garfield 28. Nepantla, James Maffie 29. Self-Cultivation and Political Power, Leah Kalmanson 30. The Good Life, Sebastian Purcell 31. Ubuntu/Botho, Michael Onyebuchi Eze 32. Ujamaa, Edwin Etieyibo 33. Wu wei, Yuan Zhang and Douglas L. Berger 34. Xin (Heart-mind), Dascha Düring Part III: How We Express Ourselves 35. Concreteness, Paul Ziche 36. Conversationalism, Aribiah David Attoe 37. Creativity, Kiene Brillenburg Wurth 38. Diversity in Philosophy, Purushottama Bilimoria & Agnieszka Rostalska 39. Dôtoku (Expression), Gereon Kopf 40. Embodied Practice, John C. Maraldo 41. Kata, Enrico Fongaro 42. Li (Ritual), Geir Sigurðsson 43. Noh Theater Mask, Mayuko Uehara 44. Okwu, Jonathan O Chimakonam 45. Tôjisha kenkyû (participant-led research), Saku Hara Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis work will have immense appeal across fields, including philosophy of mind, psychiatry, the history of Western thought, the sociology of medicine, and mental health services. * M. Uebel, CHOICE *I cannot remember the last time I read a book of philosophy that taught me something new and also took me on such a journey of images and soundsa powerful reminder that, yes, rigorous philosophical ideas can be expressed in many forms, including excellent prose. Justin Garson's Madness reads like a novel but instructs like an encyclopaedia. I revelled in an engaging narrative filled with suspense and cliff-hangers, where I challenged myself to anticipate the next twist...This was a journey of self-transformation and, as such, it was an often uncomfortable read: I have always thought of myself as someone who accepts a largely medicalized view of madness but is vocal about madness having meaning and purpose. While reading the book and for a long time afterwards, however, I became seriously concerned that I could not be both; that I had to choose. * Lisa Bortolotti, University of Birmingham, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Review of Books *I do not use 'brilliant' often, but no better word comes to mind for Garson's intriguing perspective-shifting exegetical journey through the highways and byways of historical writing about mental disorder. It has often been recognized that madness offered compensations, some of them cathartic, consoling, even healing. Now, suddenly, we find ourselves seeing those compensations not as haphazard if lucky side-effects, but as part of the order of things. And through this remarkable sleight of hand, Garson offers us what has long been sought by philosophers of psychiatry: a plausible place for disorder within our era's neo-Darwinism. * Jennifer Radden, University of Massachusetts, Boston *The fundamental, yet original, insight of this book is that theories about mental illness are always, in one sense or another, theories about design; and that surveying the different stances on design developed through psychiatry's history can provide as fruitful a taxonomy for understanding the field as more traditional conceptual schemas, like 'mind' and 'body' or 'biological' and 'constructed.' Garson builds upon his impressive work in philosophy of biology to make a contribution that will make a big splash among philosophers of psychiatry, and among those working in the life sciences more broadly. * Kathryn Tabb, Bard College *Garson's new book is a much-needed presentation of an alternative tradition in psychiatry — a tradition that is invisible or marginalized in the history of psychiatry, that is, the tradition of considering mental disorders as functional. While most people in the field maintain that mental illness has always been conceptualized as some kind of dysfunction, Garson argues eloquently that this is a mischaracterization. By looking attentively at well-known (and sometimes, forgotten) theoreticians of madness as well as contemporary research programs, Garson offers a counter-narrative that will challenge prevalent views and will open theoretical possibilities. * Luc Faucher, Université du Québec, Montréal *Is someone whose thoughts and feelings take a strange turn deranged and disordered? Or are they instituting some tactic, some way forward, on their quest to make do and find meaning? Is there a reason behind their madness? Is there perhaps some innate design? These are, quite literally, questions for the ages, and Garson tackles them all-and more-with a thoroughness, a calm and inclusive meticulousness, that impresses while it persuades. * MadInAmerica.com *Justin Garson's Madness: A Philosophical Exploration offers a conception of madness that infuses hope to those whose lives are touched by it...By successfully marshalling the tools of philosophy, psychiatry, and history, Garson offers new conceptual resources for making sense of madness and loosens the grip of the madness-as-dysfunction model in contemporary psychiatry...Garson's analysis is rich, compelling, and even poetic. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The Dual Teleology of Madness Chapter 1: Hippocrates and the Magicians Chapter 2: The Suffocation of The Mother Chapter 3: Madness as Misuse and Defect Chapter 4: An Infinitely Wise Contrivance Part II: Madness and The Sound Mind Chapter 5: A Temporary Surrogate of Reason Chapter 6: The Mountebanks of The Mind Chapter 7: The Miracle of Sanity Chapter 8: Delusion as Castle and Refuge Chapter 9: A Salutary Effort of Nature Chapter 10: The Biologization of Kant Part III: Madness and The Goal of Evolution Chapter 11: The Strategies of Wish-Fulfillment Chapter 12: Madness as Creativity and Conquest Chapter 13: From Retreat to Resistance Chapter 14: Confronting the Wounded Animal Chapter 15: The Darwinization Of Madness

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Book SynopsisThe texts in this volume represent Kristin Ross's attempt to think the question of the everyday across a range of discourses, practices and knowledges, from philosophy to history, from the visual arts to popular fiction, all the way to the forms taken by collective political action in the territorial struggles of today. If everyday life is, as many have come to believe, the ideal vantage point for an analysis of the social, it is also the crucial first step in its transformation.The volume opens with a return to Henri Lefebvre's powerful attempt to think the everyday as both residue and resource, as the site of profound alienation and-by the same token-the site where all emancipatory initiatives and desires begin. The second section focuses on our attempts to represent our lived reality to ourselves in cultural forms, from painting and literature and film to an analysis of the contemporary transformations of the sub-genre most embedded in the deep superficiality of everyday life: detective fiction. The final section turns to present-day ecological occupations in the wake of the zad at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, and locates the everyday as a site for rich oppositional resources and immanent social creativity.Trade ReviewIn these remarkably lucid essays, real critics, rebellious farmers, artisans, and diverse character-types are summoned to remind us of moments of conformist immobility, disavowals of colonialism, violence and class difference; but also, of how French cultural history offers paths toward public beauty, collectivity, ecological ways of living. Ross has an uncanny ability to zero in on what matters in the forms of the Paris Commune and beyond, letting participants speak without the usual virtue-signaling. -- Karen Pinkus, Professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature, Cornell UniversityThis volume recalls why Kristin Ross's work is a necessary point of entry into the infinite insurrection of everyday life envisaged by Karl Marx and Henri Lefebvre, Arthur Rimbaud and Jacques Ranciere, variously enacted from the Commune to May 68, and that animates the rural radicalism of today's Zad. Anyone interested in altering the questions of our day towards a new everyday life will find here an abundant reservoir to think and do anew. -- Manu Goswami, New York University

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Book SynopsisA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARWhat is the nature of things? Must I think my own way through the world? What is justice? How can I be me? How should we treat each other?Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests, in a life ruled by imagined metaphysical monsters. 2,500 years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbour-cities, that way of thinking began to change. Men (and some women) decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own worrying and thinking minds to the conundrums of life.These great innovators shaped the beginnings of philosophy. Through the questioning voyager Odysseus, Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus in Ephesus was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. In Lesbos, the Aegean island of Sappho and Alcaeus, the early lyric poets asked themselves How can I be true to myself?' In Samos, Pythagoras Trade Review A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘What links all Nicolson’s writing, though, is a tireless and tigerish sense of wonder and curiosity; a bounding willingness to immerse himself and his reader deeply in his subject: life… I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that marries such profundity with such a sense of fun. How to Be delivers wholeheartedly on the promise of its vaunting title. It is like a net strung between the deep past and the present, a blueprint for a life well lived’ OBSERVER ‘This eminently readable tour of Greek philosophy from approximately 650 to 450 B.C. brings the ‘sea-and-city world’ of Heraclitus and Homer to life . . . [He shows] the early Greeks developed intellectual habits, chief among them the use of questioning as the basis of knowing, which laid the groundwork for Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and for how we reason today’ NEW YORKER ‘Wise, elegant . . . richer and more unusual than [the self-help genre], an exploration of the origins of Western subjectivity’ WASHINGTON POST 'Seductive… a poetic tour of philosophical thought’ SPECTATOR ‘Passionate, poetic, and hauntingly beautiful, Adam Nicolson’s account of the west’s earliest philosophers brings vividly alive the mercantile hustle and bustle of ideas traded and transformed in a web of maritime Greek cities.. In this life-affirming, vital book, those ideas sing with the excitement of a new discovery’ David Stuttard ‘It’s hard not to be dazzled by this book … No one else writes with the originality, energy and persuasiveness of Adam Nicolson. It’s like encountering the Greek sea. It takes your breath away’ Laura Beatty, bestselling author of Lost Property

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Book SynopsisA rigorous and imaginative inquiry into rhythm’s vital importance for film and the moving imageFocusing attention on a concept much neglected in the study of film, The Rhythm of Images opens new possibilities for thinking about expanded perception and idiosyncratic modes of being. Author Domietta Torlasco engages with both philosophy and cinema to elaborate a notion of rhythm in its pre-Socratic sense as a “manner of flowing”—a fugitive mode that privileges contingency and calls up the forgotten fluidity of forms. In asking what it would mean to take this rhythm as an ontological force in its own right, she creatively draws on thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, and Luce Irigaray. Rhythm emerges here as a form that eludes measure, a key to redefining the relation between the aesthetic and the political, and thus a pivotal means of resistance to power.Working with constellations of films and videos by international artists—from Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Lynch to Harun Farocki and Victor Burgin, among others—Torlasco brings to bear on them her distinctive concept of rhythm with respect to four interrelated domains: life, labor, memory, and medium. With innovative readings of artworks and critical texts alike, The Rhythm of Images fashions a vibrant, provocative theory of rhythm as the excess or potential of perception. Ultimately, the book reconceives the relation between rhythm and the world-making power of images. The result is a vision of cinema as a hybrid medium endowed with the capacity not only to reinvent corporeal boundaries but also to find new ways of living together.Trade Review"Domietta Torlasco is a unique scholar-artist whose work resides at the intersection of critique and practice, reflection and poeisis. Her erudition and critical virtuosity are on full display in The Rhythm of Images, a work that looks at the way image cultures produce rhythms that resonate across philosophy, speculative thought, and cinema. Among the remarkable achievements of The Rhythm of Images is its stereographic score, a multivocity that emerges from the force of Torlasco’s ensemble."—Akira Mizuta Lippit, author of Cinema without Reflection: Jacques Derrida’s Echopoiesis and Narcissism Adrift"Domietta Torlasco’s The Rhythm of Images is a major breakthrough in aesthetic ontology. At the heart of this extraordinary intervention—as beautifully written as it is rigorously conceived—is an unexpected conception of rhythm as rhuthmos. Taken as rhuthmos, rhythm is understood against the all-too-familiar, and altogether problematic, assumption that rhythm is the engine of order, synchronization, and relations of identity—and against the idea that rhythm is primarily a question of sound. For Torlasco, rhythm is a force of difference, of what holds us together in and with difference. And what emerges first as a difficult problem of form moves fearlessly outward to surprisingly new, and much needed, ways of thinking about the relation between being and technicity, subject/object relations, time and capital, freedom and labor, difference and sameness."—Brian Price, University of TorontoTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Life2. Labor3. Memory4. MediumNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisAlain Badiou offers a tour de force encounter with a lesser-known seventeenth-century philosopher and theologian, Nicolas Malebranche, a contemporary and peer of Spinoza and Leibniz. The seminar is at once a record of Badiou’s thought at a key moment and a lively interrogation of Malebranche’s key text, the Treatise on Nature and Grace.Trade ReviewI devoured this magnificent work in an evening. It blends Badiou’s usual systematic approach with a nuanced account of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century philosophy that draws skillful contrasts between Malebranche’s system and those of Arnauld, Bossuet, Leibniz, Pascal, and the Jesuits. Hovering over the scene is the unlikely but finally compelling specter of Jacques Lacan. -- Graham Harman, author of Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of EverythingMalebranche emerges from this seminar as an author divided between an asphyxiating theological doctrine and an exhilarating theory of the subject, which anticipates many ideas about desire, fantasy, finitude, and grace that will appear much later, from Hegel to Lacan. Even though Badiou claims that nothing productive came from his effort, we can appreciate in this new installment of his seminar a crucial stepping stone between Theory of the Subject and Being and Event. -- Bruno Bosteels, author of Badiou and PoliticsThis book tackles Malebranche through Alain Badiou’s unique perspective. Badiou nicely translates questions of theology into questions of politics, bringing Malebranche a contemporary resonance that he doesn’t have in any other account. -- Todd McGowan, author of Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory RevolutionThe book reads very well, and the translation is as excellent as one would expect from this team. . . . Anyone curious about Malebranche, or wishing to recall things they used to know about him, should enjoy Badiou's presentation; and anyone who appreciates solid philosophical exegeses and a bit of intellectual flair should be very entertained and provoked by this seminar as well. -- Ed Pluth * Notre Dame Philosophical Review *Malebranche is a must-read for Marxists, Philosophers, Theologians, and anyone interested in the Philosophy of Alain Badiou. -- Dalton Winfree * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *A fascinating interrogation of a thinker much ignored in the English-speaking world by a leading contemporary philosopher. * Choice *Malebranche is Badiou’s most richly theological work . . . Like nearly all of Badiou’s writing, it is conceptually difficult and challenging, but immensely rewarding. * Modern Theology *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Affects in Configuration: Controversy and Conviviality in Fatih Akın’s The Edge of Heaven and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation2. Critical Intensity: Jean-Luc Godard’s and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Defamiliarized Worldmaking Practices3. Genre Assemblages: Affective Incisions in Fatih Akın’s The Cut and Aki Kaurismäki’s Refugee Trilogy4. Tenderly Cruel Realisms: Objectfull Assembly and the Horizon of a Shared WorldEpilogue: Reconfiguring ResistanceAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn a series of publications over the course of a decade, Edward Feser has argued for the defensibility and abiding relevance to issues in contemporary philosophy of Scholastic ideas and arguments, and especially of Aristotelian-Thomistic ideas and arguments. This work has been in the vein of what has come to be known as “analytical Thomism,” though the spirit of the project goes back at least to the Neo-Scholasticism of the period from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. Neo-Scholastic Essays collects some of Feser’s academic papers from the last ten years on themes in metaphysics and philosophy of nature, natural theology, philosophy of mind, and ethics. Among the diverse topics covered are: the relationship between Aristotelian and Newtonian conceptions of motion; the varieties of teleological description and explanation; the proper interpretation of Aquinas’s Five Ways; the impossibility of a materialist account of the human intellect; the philosophies of mind of Kripke, Searle, Popper, and Hayek; the metaphysics of value; the natural law understanding of the ethics of private property and taxation; a critique of political libertarianism; and the defensibility and indispensability to a proper understanding of sexual morality of the traditional “perverted faculty argument.”

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn optimistic historian sifts through the past in his mission to prove that mankind might not be so bad . . . A superb read - brisk, accessible and full of great stories * Sunday Times *This is the book we need right now . . . Entertaining, uplifting . . . If Bregman is right, this book might just make the world a kinder place * Telegraph *Here, we visit the blitz, Lord of the Flies – both the novel and a very different real-life version – a Siberian fox farm, an infamous New York murder and a host of discredited psychological studies . . . There’s a great deal of reassuring human decency to be taken from this bold and thought-provoking book . . . It makes a welcome change to read such a sustained and enjoyable tribute to our better natures * Observer *Filled with compelling tales of human goodness . . . Bregman’s book is a thrilling read and it represents a necessary correction * The Times *Humankind displays [Bregman's] gift for synthesising libraries full of academic research into spellbinding reads. I whizzed through Humankind’s 480 pages, engrossed * Financial Times *The notion that we already have the capacity to radically improve the world is both an exhilarating and a daunting one * New Statesman *Bregman argues convincingly that what we teach and report about ourselves, we become . . . Bold, entertaining and uplifting * Spectator *Bregman’s book is something of a beacon at the moment, when many are looking for values to profess in our traumatised and altered society . . . People have started to talk about this book: perhaps the moment of this entirely positive, heartening message is about to come -- Alexander McCall Smith * Scotsman *Lively and illuminating . . . Even a few months ago, [the idea that most people behave well in most circumstances] might have seemed, as Bregman claims, “a radical idea”. The coronavirus crisis has made it blindingly obvious * Irish Times *This book must be read by as many people as possible - only when people change their view of human nature will they begin to believe in the possibility of building a better world -- Grace BlakeleyOne of the most powerful books I have read for a long time, and a book I have absolutely no hesitation about saying everyone needs to read, and that it will change your life if you do so -- Matthew Taylor, RSARutger Bregman’s extraordinary new book is a revelation . . . Humankind is masterful in its grasp of history, both ancient and modern -- Susan Cain, author of 'Quiet'Cynicism is a theory of everything, but, as Rutger Bregman brilliantly shows, an elective one. This necessary book widens the aperture of possibility for a better future, and radically -- David Wallace-Wells, author of 'The Uninhabitable Earth'This important book is almost preternatural in its timing and argument. Rutger Bregman is poetic in his rejection of a Hobbesian view of our true natures. The gigantic upheavals of 2020 have proved him right. Reading this during lockdown changed the way I think about our humanity. We are good -- Dan SnowRutger Bregman is out on his own, thinking for himself, using history to give the rest of us a chance to build a much better future than we can presently imagine -- Timothy Snyder, Holocaust historian and author of 'On Tyranny'A devastating demolition of the misanthrope’s mantra. A beacon of hope for a frighted world -- Professor Danny Dorling, author of 'Inequality and the 1%'

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Book SynopsisThe Eighth Edition of Steven M. Cahn's Classics of Western Philosophy offers the same exacting standard of editing and translation that made earlier editions of this anthology the most highly valued and widely used volume of its kind. But the Eighth Edition offers exciting new content as well: Plato's Laches (complete), new selections from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (on courage), Descartes' Discourse on Method (complete), all previously omitted sections of Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (complete).These additions—with no offsetting deletion of content of the Seventh Edition—yield an anthology of unrivaled versatility, the only one to offer the complete texts of: both Descartes' Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, both Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and selections from the Critique of Pure Reason.

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Book SynopsisThe Eighth Edition of Steven M. Cahn's Classics of Western Philosophy offers the same exacting standard of editing and translation that made earlier editions of this anthology the most highly valued and widely used volume of its kind. But the Eighth Edition offers exciting new content as well: Plato's Laches (complete), new selections from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (on courage), Descartes' Discourse on Method (complete), all previously omitted sections of Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (complete).These additions—with no offsetting deletion of content of the Seventh Edition—yield an anthology of unrivaled versatility, the only one to offer the complete texts of: both Descartes' Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, both Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and selections from the Critique of Pure Reason.

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Book SynopsisRevealing and enlightening, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin gives a close-up view of one of the foremost thinkers of our timeAn interview with the noted British philosopher and historian of ideas, conducted by the Iranian philosopher Jahanbegloo, which grew into a series of five conversations, comprising an intellectual memoir. They include Berlin's writings on historicism, pluralism and liberty as well as the ideas of thinkers such as Vico, Herder and Herzen. Berlin also speaks of his many friends and acquaintances amongst the important thinkers and artists of the twentieth century.Philosopher and leading proponent of liberal thinking, Isaiah Berlin has changed our sense of history and life. This new edition provides an excellent introduction to Berlin's thought.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Gaukroger displays a remarkably broad range: his sweep of knowledge is truly impressive. . . . Many of his local observations are startling, in a good way; he asks those of us who study the figures he discusses to step back and reflect on their ultimate objectives, their successes, and, yes, their failures."---Christopher Shields, MIND"Gaukroger’s narrative is creative and convincing, extremely dense and elegant at the same time, based on a jaw-dropping breadth and depth of scholarship. . . . All this is a rather convoluted way of saying that to my mind, our losses are not as great as they may seem: the fact that we have Stephen Gaukroger’s brilliant studies to read makes up in no small part for the failures of philosophy."---Jeroen Bouterse, 3 Quarks Daily

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As approachable, humane and personal an Aristotle as one could hope for. . . a triumph."---Peter Jones, Classics For All

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Book SynopsisA radical thinker, Xunzi disagreed with Mencius on human nature. For him men are naturally evil. From this inverse assumption, he yet reached the same Mencian conclusion: moral education is paramount for society to function, and the ruler should be meritorious, protecting the people. This makes Xunzi a Confucianist, though Han Fei and Li Si, his students, were to subvert Confucian principles. From Xunzi, Mingyuan Hu selects and translates three treatises, illustrating his argument. This book is part of the Erstwhile Series.Table of ContentsMen Are Naturally Evil, Their Goodness a Matter of Cultivation Human Demeanour, All Too Human Demeanour, Not at All Becoming Water Carries the Boat; Water Overturns the Boat

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Book SynopsisG. W. F. Hegel''s first masterpiece, the Phenomenology of Spirit, is one of the great works of philosophy. It remains, however, one of the most challenging and mysterious books ever written. Michael Inwood presents this central work to the modern reader in an intelligible and accurate new translation. This translation attempts to convey, as accurately as possible, the subtle nuances of the original German text. Inwood also provides a detailed commentary that explains what Hegel is saying at each stage of his argument and also discusses the philosophical issues it raises. This volume will therefore prove invaluable to those who want to get to grips with Hegel''s thought processes and to follow his complex argument.Trade ReviewInwood's guide is both more textually engaged and more philosophically sophisticated than its predecessor [Miller]. The commentary on the Preface and Introduction is especially worthwhile . . . [the translation is] very dependable * Fred Rush, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *include[es] a helpful paragraph-by-paragraph Commentary . . . Inwood provides more aids to the reader, so is more suitable to the reader coming to the work for the first time, and is also to be recommended to those familiar with and not wanting to be taken too far from Miller. * Meade McCloughan, Marx and Philosophy *Table of ContentsEditor's Introduction Note on the Translation and Commentary The Phenomenology of Spirit Introduction A. Consciousness B. Self-Consciousness (AA.) Reason (BB.) Spirit (CC.) Religion (DD.) Absolute Knowledge Commentary

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Book SynopsisThis handsome gift edition presents the profound teachings of Confucius in his famous collection The Analects, featuring a luxurious, gold-embossed cover design, gilded page edges and patterned endpapers. The Analects are a fascinating anthology of the words and ideas of Confucius, gathered by his loyal disciples. They espouse the importance of education for moral development and celebrate the qualities of sincerity, piety, and virtue. In these pivotal writings, human behavior was put under the microscope for the first time. Confucius provides a moral code by which each one of us should live based on ideals of responsibility, respect, kindness, and honesty - qualities as relevant and sought-after today as they were 2,500 years ago. His principles continue to shape Eastern philosophy, politics, and culture. This pocket-sized gift edition contains the classic translation by William Edward Soothill and an introduction by John

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Book SynopsisIn their trenchant panoramic overview ranging from antiquity to the present-day John and Anna Rist write with authority and ennui about nothing less than the loss of the foundational culture of the West. The authors characterize this culture as the ''original tradition'', viewing its erosion as one which has led to anxiety about the entire value of Western thought. The causes of the disintegration are discussed with an intensity rare in academe. Critics of modernity ordinarily concentrate on the Enlightenment and the book certainly offers deep analysis of Enlightenment thought. But it goes further. Thus the cruelty of modern totalitarianism is now depicted as in the spirit of the French Revolution and its implacable hostility to a vanished primordial heritage, while scientism, bureaucracy and consumerism appear as the only rivals to a threatening nihilism. The book argues that Western thought has created a set of conflicting moral and spiritual customs: to the detriment of coherence,Table of Contents1. Confusion introduced; 2. Athens, Rome, Jerusalem; 3. From Constantine to Henry VIII; 4. Man enlightened: Montaigne to Kant; 5. Totalitarian man: theory and practice; 6. Scientistic humanism; 7. World War, bureaucracy, consumerism; 8. Sexual liberation and the subversion of the person; 9. Personalism, virtue ethics and the original tradition; 10. Culture, what culture? 2021.

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