Philosophical traditions and schools of thought Books

Book SynopsisHe taught that mind must recognise and penetrate its own state of being, not 'being this or that, here or there, then or now', but just timeless being. This is a legacy from a unique teacher who helps the reader to a clearer understanding of himself.

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Book SynopsisDeeply interesting a superb critique of contemporary self-obsession' Steven Poole, Guardian'Engrossing bracing incendiary and timely' Stuart Jeffries, Daily TelegraphA philosopher explains why the search for identity is meaningless, and how we should escape the self Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the world hoping it will bring us happiness. But this often leads to a complex game of envy and pride. We achieve these identities but want others to imitate us. We disagree with those whose identities contradict ours leading to polarisation and even violence. And yet when they thump against us, we are ashamed to ring hollow. In Against Identity, philosopher Alexander Douglas seeks an alternative wisdom. Searching the work of three thinkers ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, Dutch Enlightenment thinker Benedict de Spinoza, and 20th Century French theorist René Girard he explores how identity can be a spiritual violence that leads us away from truth. Through their worlds and radically different cultures, we discover how, at moments of historical rupture, our hunger for being grows: and yet, it is exactly these times when we should make peace with our indeterminacy and discover the freedom of escaping our selves. Lucid and absorbing One of my highlight books of the year' Stuart Kelly, Scotsman

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Book SynopsisDevelops a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. This book represents an effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA Secular Age is a work of stupendous breadth and erudition. -- John Patrick Diggins * New York Times Book Review *A Secular Age represents a singular achievement… Taylor is somehow uniquely able to combine chutzpah and good manners, making bold and imaginative claims, yet always attending respectfully to the whole range of disciplines that touch on the philosophical trajectory being drawn, whether that be history, sociology, theology, art theory, cultural studies, anthropology or social theory… A Secular Age succeeds in the same way as his previous work: in illuminating through complicating. At the same time, this book seems to step up the ambition somewhat: by attempting to provide a final definitive account of all the narratives and complications that make up our contemporary age, as they implode on themselves and interact with one another… Hegel knew, of course, that ‘the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk’; or, in other words, that philosophy can only fathom the truth about an age in hindsight, when the day has passed. But then again, that didn’t stop Hegel having a go; and we should be glad that it hasn’t stopped Charles Taylor, either. -- Christopher J. Insole * Times Literary Supplement *Charles Taylor’s remarkable book A Secular Age achieves something quite different from what other writers on secularization have accomplished. Most have focused on decline as the essence of secularism—either the removal of religion from sphere after sphere of public life, or the decrease of religious belief and practice. But Taylor focuses on what kind of religion makes sense in a secular age… Taylor is asking not only how secularism became a significant option in a civilization that not so long ago was explicitly Christian, but what that change means for the spiritual quest, both of those who are still religious and those who consider themselves secular. I doubt many people have even perceived that aspect of secularism, and Taylor’s book should be as much of a revelation to them as it was to me. -- Robert N. Bellah * Commonweal *Taylor’s book is a major and highly original contribution to the debates on secularization that have been ongoing for the past century. There is no book remotely like it. -- Alasdair MacIntyreOne finds big nuggets of insight, useful to almost anybody with an interest in the progress of human society… A vast ideological anatomy of possible ways of thinking about the gradual onset of secularism as experienced in fields ranging from art to poetry to psychoanalysis… Taylor also lays bare the inconsistencies of some secular critiques of religion. * The Economist *[A] thumping great volume. -- Stuart Jeffries * The Guardian *In A Secular Age, philosopher Charles Taylor takes on the broad phenomenon of secularization in its full complexity… [A] voluminous, impressively researched and often fascinating social and intellectual history…Taylor’s account encompasses art, literature, science, fashion, private life—all those human activities that have been sometimes more, sometimes less affected by religion over the last five centuries. -- Jack Miles * Los Angeles Times *A rich, complex book, but what I most appreciate is [Taylor’s] vision of a ‘secular’ future that is both open and also contains at least pockets of spiritual rigor, and that is propelled by religious motivation, a strong and enduring piece of our nature. -- David Brooks * New York Times *Taylor is arguably the most interesting and important philosopher writing in English today… What makes Taylor so important? Over more than 40 years, four large books, four or five slimmer essays and several volumes of articles, he has worked out a distinctive network of arguments and an exceptionally rich analysis of the modern self and its values—an analysis that reveals us to be altogether deeper and more interesting, but also less self-aware, than we tend to suppose… A Secular Age sets out to offer a richer characterization of secularization and the nature of contemporary belief, both religious and skeptical… Taylor writes brilliantly about the new social forms—the nation state, the market economy, the charitable enterprise—and the ideals of altruism and public service that have emerged with them… A Secular Age is effectively a polemic against dogmatic atheism… It is full of insights, and many of its component parts—notably Taylor’s discussion of the ‘pressures’ that make a settled view on the big ontological questions hard to sustain—are as good as anything by this magnificent philosopher. -- Ben Rogers * Prospect *Taylor’s masterful integration of history, sociology, philosophy, and theology demands much of the reader. In return you will be convinced that Charles Taylor is one of the smartest and deepest social thinkers of our time. -- Tyler Cowen * Slate *In an idiosyncratic blend of the philosophical, the historical, and the speculative, Taylor describes the shift from a world brim-full with spirits and magic to a world where divinity is absent. His account resists the idea that the rise of secularism is a process of subtraction, of loss, and of disenchantment. Rather, Taylor describes secularity’s birth as the migration of ideas, subtle changes in those ideas, and the opening of new possibilities. If Taylor’s communitarian scholarship celebrated historical and social rootedness, A Secular Age is an encomium to the sheer happenstance of how those circumstances arose. -- Azziz Huq * American Prospect *[A Secular Age] may become an enduring contribution to understanding religious belief, the evolution of the secular order, and the defining characteristics of modern secularism and contemporary spirituality. Like Charles Taylor’s earlier books, it is a product of prodigious erudition. Its 874 dense pages brim with original observation, cogent argument constructed from sources in a wide array of disciplines, and generous ecumenical gestures, even towards humanists. His story is complex, somewhat repetitious and yet unflaggingly interesting: it is loaded with so much novel detail and insight that the reader will be grateful for each scrap of familiar ground. -- Tamas Pataki * Australian Review of Books *Sophisticated, erudite…with excursions into history, philosophy and literature, A Secular Age is a weighty and challenging tome. It is also a brilliant account of the ‘sensed context’ in which secularization developed. And a moving meditation, by a believer, on the ‘ineradicable bent’ of human beings to respond to something beyond life, to keep open ‘the transcendent window.’ -- Glenn C. Altschuler * Baltimore Sun *If you are, as I am, often puzzled by the landscape of contemporary religious belief and unbelief, you will regard Charles Taylor’s huge and hugely rewarding intellectual history of the secularization of European and North American culture as a marvelous gift. A Secular Age is a first-class map of the spiritual terrain of Western modernity as well as the road that got us here. -- Robert Westbrook * Christian Century *A culminating dispatch from the philosophical frontlines. It is at once encyclopedic and incisive, a sweeping overview that is no less analytically rigorous for its breadth. Its subject is a philosophical history of the past, present and future of Western Christendom. As such, it begins with a deceptively simple question: How did it become possible for anyone to not believe in God?… A Secular Age recounts the history of an idea, in other words, but in it the past is not an inert, settled fact, but a reservoir to be drawn upon to shatter the sameness and the apparent inevitability of the present. As a history it clarifies crucial intellectual and theological divisions that continue to structure debates about divinity, but with the aim of reforming the way we think about them, ‘to show the play of destabilization and recomposition.’ Though this isn’t a book you take to the beach, it remains eminently readable. As philosophers go, Taylor is a kind of behaviorist, more concerned with elaborating the implications of a way of thinking than with showing its contradictions. Unlike most philosophers, though, Taylor seems at pains to remain accessible to a general audience to capture complex philosophical debate in ordinary language. An important part of Taylor’s argument is that religion and the belief in God, most particularly the experience of transcendence, are not at all outmoded… Though it avoids predictions or prescriptions, A Secular Age leaves us with the sense that the future will be a far poorer, less human place, if we do not discover some expression for that transcendent otherness. -- Steven Hayward * Cleveland Plain Dealer *It is, simply, the most comprehensive account of the process and meaning of secularization… Taylor’s depiction of the past two centuries is rich with insights and subtle analyses… Familiarity with Taylor’s book is now the entry ticket for any serious discussion of secularization. -- Peter Steinfels * Commonweal *Very occasionally there appears a book destined to endure. A Secular Age is such a book… A Secular Age is an important and deeply interesting work. Its central thesis is that secularization must be understood not simply as the decline of certain beliefs and institutions, but as a total change in our experience of the world… There are subtle, original discussions of the modern self, of changing conceptions of time, of the religious landscape of art, and much else besides. Taylor has a great gift of empathy, an ability to inhabit and bring to life the mental world of both believers and unbelievers. A true Hegelian, he sees the goal of philosophy as understanding, not judgment. -- Edward Skidelsky * Daily Telegraph *A Secular Age offers an invaluable map of how the modern religious–secular divide came into being. -- Andrew Koppelman * Dissent *Though this essential Canadian intellectual may overstate the triumph of secularity, his huge and elegant work takes on the transformation of the world from 1500, when it was almost impossible not to believe in a Creator, to 2000, when religion was simply one choice on a menu of belief systems. He finds the answer in ‘exclusive humanism,’ which sees ‘no final goals beyond human flourishing, nor any allegiance to anything else beyond this flourishing.’ -- Donald Harman Akenson * Globe & Mail *It is refreshing to read an inquiry into the condition of religion that is exploratory in its approach. Charles Taylor, a Roman Catholic as well as one of the world’s leading political theorists, does not aim to attack or defend any system of belief in his new book, A Secular Age. Rather, he wants to elucidate the very idea of a secular world. For Taylor, the difference between the pre-modern Western world and the modern West is not simply that beliefs held then are no longer accepted today; it is that the entire framework of thought has changed. -- John Gray * Harper’s *In a determinedly brilliant new book, Charles Taylor challenges the ‘subtraction theory’ of secularization which defines it as a process whereby religion simply falls away, to be replaced by science and rationality. Instead, he sees secularism as a development within Western Christianity, stemming from the increasingly anthropocentric versions of religion that arose from the Reformation. For Taylor, the modern age is not an age without religion; instead, secularization heralds ‘a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others.’ The result is a radical pluralism which, as well as offering unprecedented freedom, creates new challenges and instabilities. * London Review of Books *The real genius of this erudite and profound book resides in its grandeur of theme and richness of detail. For all its imposing intellectual density, it is a delight to read; at times, it was literally impossible to put down. Yet it is also a work that ought to be read by degrees—one chapter at a time, with ample pause for reflection. -- Lorenzo DiTommaso * Montreal Gazette *A salutary and sophisticated defense of how life was lived before the daring views of a tiny secular elite inspired mass indifference, and how it might be lived in the future. -- Michael Burleigh * New York Sun *Taylor reminds us that we remain spiritual creatures in our most essential natures, and that what we take for granted—our age’s lack of religious faith—is, in fact, an anomaly of history. Our forefathers did not live this way and our grandchildren might not either. Considering the doubts about extreme secularism, it is possible we are entering a new Age of Spirit. If so, Taylor’s latest magnum opus serves as a comprehensive guide to the reemergence of religious sensibility. -- Robert Sibley * Ottawa Citizen *The focus here is neither on the role of religion in public institutions nor on the extent of religious belief, but rather on its conditions… It is the slow emergence of secularity in this sense that Taylor sets out to explain, at formidable length, and in remarkable historical and philosophical detail. Binding all that detail together is an argument that Taylor manages to sustain over nearly eight hundred pages. Simply put, A Secular Age is a magisterial refutation of what Taylor calls the ‘subtraction story’ of secularisation. -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Philosopher’s Magazine *Taylor’s gargantuan philosophical history of modernity, which complicates the flattering and simplified story we like to tell ourselves about secularization, is a major intellectual event. -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *Grapples with the Christian–secular relationship, and with admirable nuance (unlike most theology). -- Theo Hobson * The Tablet *Taylor makes a strong case for the presence in ordinary moral life of something like Plato’s idea of the Good, however little acknowledged… A Secular Age carries the story further, into the question of the role of religion in constituting a person’s identity. Taylor wants to lay out what it takes to go on believing in God, in the absence of any equivalent to the intellectual, cultural and imaginative surroundings in which pre-modern religion was quietly embedded. This is what he calls our ‘social imaginary’: how we collectively sense what is normal and appropriate in our dealings with one another and with the world around us. This is something deeper and more diffused than philosophical theories or thought-out positions. -- Fergus Kerr * The Tablet *A Secular Age is a towering achievement… It shows the ways we have traveled from the automatic certainties of 1500 to the fragile alignments of today. It transforms the secularization debate. -- David Martin * The Tablet *Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age offers a uniquely rich historical and philosophical overview of how we came to take a disenchanted world for granted—quietly inviting us to reflect that if disenchantment and the absence of the divine were learned habits of mind, they might not necessarily be the self-evidently rational truths so many think they are. -- Rowan Williams * Times Literary Supplement *[A] big, powerful book… [Taylor’s] book is massive in its historical and philosophical scope. Penetrating and dense, it would take months to fully digest. Loosely structured, it’s crammed with original insights. Taylor, 75, can pack more into one of his complex paragraphs than most prevaricating, deconstructing academic philosophers can say in a chapter, or even a book… The book explores the immense ramifications of how the West shifted in a few centuries from being a society in which ‘it was virtually impossible not to believe in God’ to one in which belief is optional, often frowned upon. -- Douglas Todd * Vancouver Sun *If the author had accomplished nothing more than a survey of the voluminous body of ‘secularization theory,’ he would have done something valuable. But, although Taylor clearly articulates his disdain for the view that modernity ineluctably led to the death of God, he goes far beyond a literature review… In addition to its conceptual value, this study is notable for its lucidity. Taylor has translated complex philosophical theories into language that any educated reader will be able to follow, yet he has not sacrificed an iota of sophistication or nuance. A magisterial book. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *In his characteristically erudite yet engaging fashion, Taylor takes up where he left off in his magnificent Sources of the Self (1989) as he brilliantly traces the emergence of secularity and the processes of secularization in the modern age… Taylor sweeps grandly and magisterially through the 18th and 19th centuries as he recreates the history of secularism and its parallel challenges to religion. He concludes that a focus on the religious has never been lost in Western culture, but that it is one among many stories striving for acceptance. Taylor’s examination of the rise of unbelief in the 19th century is alone worth the price of the book and offers an essential reminder that the Victorian age, more than the Enlightenment, dominates our present view of the meanings of secularity. Taylor’s inspired combination of philosophy and history sparkles in this must-read virtuoso performance. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *This is Charles Taylor’s breakthrough book, a book of really major importance, because he succeeds in recasting the whole debate about secularism. This is one of the most important books written in my lifetime. I am tempted to say the most important book, but that may just express the spell the book has cast over me at the moment. -- Robert N. Bellah

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Book SynopsisQuentin Meillassoux teaches Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France.Ray Brassier is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.Trade Review"'Rarely do we encounter a book which not only meets the highest standards of thinking, but sets up itself new standards, transforming the entire field into which it intervenes. Quentin Meillassoux does exactly this.' Slavoj Zizek"Table of ContentsTranslator's Preface; Preface by Alain Badiou; 1. Ancestrality; 2. Metaphysics, Fideism, Speculation; 3. The Principle of Factuality; 4. Hume's Problem; 5. Ptolemy's Revenge.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Maudlin's book . . . should have been subtitled ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Quantum Theory (But Were Afraid to Ask)’ . . . its plain presentation style makes it a good introductory book for students and non-specialists. In short, it is highly recommended for anybody interested in quantum theory." * Notre Dame Philosophy Reviews *"The book is a must for the serious reader of both philosophy and Physics."---P. R. S. Carvalho, Zentralblatt MATH

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Book SynopsisUniting 30 years of scholarship, this book is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. It reveals the role of sects in Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule indirectly and the ultimately partisan character of his project.

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Book SynopsisHuman, All Too Human (1878) marks the point where Nietzsche abandons German romanticism for the French Enlightenment. At a moment of crisis in his life (no longer a friend of Richard Wagner, forced to leave academic life through ill health), he sets out his views in a scintillating and bewildering series of aphorisms which contain the seeds of his later philosophy (e.g. the will to power, the need to transcend conventional Christian morality). The result is one of the cornerstones of his life's work. It well deserves its subtitle ‘A Book for Free Spirits’, and its original dedication to Voltaire, whose project of radical enlightenment here finds a new champion. Beyond Good and Evil (1886) is a scathing and powerful critique of philosophy, religion and science. Here Nietzsche presents us with problems and challenges that are as troubling as they are inspiring, while at the same time outlining the virtues, ideas, and practices which will characterise the philosophy of the future. Relentless, energetic, tirelessly probing, he both determines that philosophy's agenda and is himself the embodiment of the type of thought he wants to foster.

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Book SynopsisSpinoza's theoretical philosophy is one of the most radical attempts to construct a pure ontology, with a single infinite substance, and all beings as the modes of being his substance. This book, which presents Spinoza's main ideas in dictionary form, has as its subject the opposition between ethics and morality, and the link between ethical and ontological propositions. His ethics is an ethology, rather than a moral science. Attention has been drawn to Spinoza by deep ecologists such as Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher; and this reading of Spinoza by Deleuze lends itself to a radical ecological ethic. As Robert Hurley says in his introduction, Deleuze opens us to the idea that the elements of the different individuals we compose may be nonhuman within us. One wonders, finally, whether Man might be defined as a territory, a set of boundaries, a limit on existence. Gilles Deleuze, known for his inquiries into desire, language, politics, and power, finds a kinship between Spinoza and Nietzsche. He writes, Spinoza did not believe in hope or even in courage; he believed only in joy and in vision ...he more than any other gave me the feeling of a gust of air from behind each time I read him, of a witch's broom that he makes one mount. Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was a French philosopher whose writings influenced many philosophical disciplines such as literary theory, post-structuralism, and postmodernism. He also taught philosophy at the University of Paris at Vicennes. Robert Hurley was a translator for many French philosophers including Michael Foucault (History of Sexuality), Gilles Deleuze, and George Bataille (Theory of Religion).

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction by Dr Richard Serjeantson, Trinity College, CambridgeSince its first publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan has been recognised as one of the most compelling, and most controversial, works of political philosophy written in English. Forged in the crucible of the civil and religious warfare of the mid-seventeenth century, it proposes a political theory that combines an unequivocal commitment to natural human liberty with the conviction that the sovereign power of government must be exercised absolutely. Leviathan begins from some shockingly naturalistic starting-points: an analysis of human nature as being motivated by vain-glory and pride, and a vision of religion as simply the fear of invisible powers made up by the mind. Yet from these deliberately unpromising elements, Hobbes constructs with unparalleled forcefulness an elaborate, systematic, and comprehensive account of how political society ought to be: ordered, law-bound, peaceful. In Leviathan, Hobbes presents us with a portrait of politics which depicts how a state that is made up of the unified body of all its citizens will be powerful, fruitful, protective of each of its members, and — above all — free from internal violence.

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Book SynopsisThis original critique of Wittgenstein's analogy between language and games, written by one of the philosopher's literary executors and closest friends, has now been updated to include two additional articles. Updated edition of this original critique of Wittgenstein's analogy between language and games. Rush Rhees was one of Wittgenstein's literary executors and closest friends, as well as being an outstanding philosopher in his own right. D.Z. Phillips was Director of the Rush Rhees Archive and the Associated Centre for Wittgensteinian Studies. Constitutes a major contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship and to philosophical debates about the possibility of discourse. The second edition includes as a preface Rhees' article, The Fundamental Problems of Philosophy', first published in 1994. It also includes as a second appendix some of Rhees' reflections of Wittgenstein, his teTable of ContentsNote to the second edition vii Preface: The Fundamental Problem of Philosophy viii Note in editing xxi Introduction xxv Analytic table of contents xlv Part One Philosophy and Language I Plato, language and the growth of understanding 3 II “What is language 21 III The reality of language 33 Part Two Games and Language IV Discussion and discourse 65 V Games, calculations, discussions and conversations 81 Part Three Beyond Wittgenstein’s Builders VI Signals and saying something 97 VII Language: a family of games? 116 VIII Understanding what is said 130 IX Wittgenstein’s builders – recapitulation 151 Part Four Belonging to Language X Conversation and institutions 173 XI Language and generality 181 XII Language, speaking and common intelligibility 210 XIII Philosophy, life and language 243 Appendix: On Wittgenstein 257 Rush Rhees: a biographical sketch 266 Index 276

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Book SynopsisFind inspiration from one of the most important books in the world''s literature . . . __________The I Ching is a book of oracles containing the whole of human experience. Used for divination, it is a method of exploring the unconscious; through the symbolism of its hexagrams we are guided towards the solution of difficult problems and life situations. It can also be read as a book of wisdom revealing the laws of life to which we must all attune ourselves if we are to live in peace and harmony.''The I Ching'', or ''Book of Changes'', a common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy, is one of the first efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for 3,000 years, and interest in it has been rapidly spreading in the West.

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Book SynopsisFew philosophers have been the subject of as much or as intense debate, yet almost everyone agrees on one thing: Jean-Jacques Rousseau is among the most important and influential thinkers in the history of political philosophy. This book brings together fresh translations of three of Rousseau's works.Trade Review"Scott's translations combine great exactness with thoroughly readable English. The outstanding accompanying materials include notes that are illuminating but never intrusive, a chronology of Rousseau's life, a bibliography, and above all a substantial introduction that offers a masterful overview of Rousseau's notoriously complex thought. A genuine contribution that will aid scholars and especially students for many years to come." (Robert C. Bartlett, Boston College) "Scott's is the first single-volume translation of the Discourses and Social Contract to appear in twenty-five years, and instructors who teach all three texts will find the volume particularly useful. The excellent introduction, fluent translation, and detailed notes will make the volume a favorite for many scholars as well. (If one sought to summarize the significance of Rousseau's political thought in three pages or less, it is doubtful that one could do better than the first pages of Scott's introduction.)" (Political Theory)"

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Book SynopsisStephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of fifteen books, including The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, which won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, as well as the New York Times bestseller Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and the classic university text Renaissance Self-Fashioning. A prize-winning author and celebrated scholar, he has been studying, thinking and writing about Renaissance literature for his entire working life.Trade ReviewSuperbly readable... An exciting story, and Greenblatt tells it with his customary clarity and verve -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * Daily Telegraph *Superb history ... this concise, learned and fluently written book tells a remarkable story -- Charles Nicholl * Observer *Dazzling * Guardian *In this outstandingly constructed assessment of the birth of philosophical modernity, renowned Shakespeare scholar Greenblatt deftly transports reader to the dawn of the Renaissance...Readers from across the humanities will find this enthralling account irresistible * Library Journal *More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian (starred review) * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisWhy must we believe that God is dead? Can we accept that traditional morality is just a 'useful mistake'? Did the principle of 'the will to power' lead to the Holocaust? What are the limitations of scientific knowledge? Is human evolution complete or only beginning? It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Friedrich Nietzsche for our present epoch. His extraordinary insights into human psychology, morality, religion and power seem quite clairvoyant today: existentialism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and postmodernism are plainly anticipated in his writings - which are famously enigmatic and often contradictory."Introducing Nietzsche" is the perfect guide to this exhilarating and oft-misunderstood philosopher.Trade Review"'Introducing is a miracle of modern publishing... buy one now.' Don Patterson, Guardian"

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Book SynopsisThe System of Objects is a tour de force-a theoretical letter-in-a-bottle tossed into the ocean in 1968, which brilliantly communicates to us all the live ideas of the day-offering a cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society.Trade ReviewA sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the post-Marxist left. * New York Times *The most notorious intellectual celebrity to emerge from Paris since Roland Barthes and the most influential prophet of the media since Marshall McLuhan. * i-D magazine *Modest, independent, and devastatingly humorous, Jean's work transmitted the lost urbanity of the mid-20th century while speaking of and into the future. -- Chris Kraus

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is the only book of its kind: it's a readable, yet expertly crafted, tour through the Frankfurt School, along with a forceful account of why the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory still matters a decade into the new millennium. I can't recommend it highly enough. * Jeffrey T. Nealon, professor of English, Penn State University; co-editor of Rethinking the Frankfurt School *The book's forthright critique and call to transformation are a breath of fresh air. * Joan Braune, Philosophy in Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Introduction: What is critical theory? Chapter 1: The Frankfurt School Chapter 2: A matter of method Chapter 3: Critical theory and modernism Chapter 4: Alienation and reification Chapter 5: Enlightened illusions Chapter 6: The utopian laboratory Chapter 7: The happy consciousness Chapter 8: The great refusal Chapter 9: From resignation to renewal Chapter 10: Unfinished tasks References Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Can thought explain why it cares about what it thinks? Can the mind account for its own minding? Drawing on his decades of reflection on German Idealism, Pippin supports Heidegger’s answer: no. The implications for the history of philosophy and for its future are profound.” -- Richard Polt, Xavier University“The Culmination is by far the deepest and most thorough study of Heidegger’s reading of Hegel and its centrality to his account of the history of metaphysics. Pippin makes a compelling case that the rationalist equation of thinking and being remains a dogmatic assumption absent a more radical reflection on how meaning is disclosed in nonrational ways. If, as Pippin says, Heidegger understood the idealist tradition better than anyone before him, it would be fair to add that Pippin has appreciated Heidegger’s reading of that tradition more profoundly than anyone yet has." -- Taylor Carman, Barnard College“With typical lucidity, Pippin executes his most extensive engagement with Heidegger to date, focusing on Heidegger’s insistence on the finitude of reason and its inability to do justice to the question of philosophy: the meaning of being. At the same time, The Culmination vividly illustrates how difficult it is to imagine an ‘other’ beginning, where thinking is not modeled as rational knowledge but as attunement to the sources of mattering and meaningfulness. An indispensable resource for anyone concerned about the future of philosophy.” -- Steven Crowell, Rice UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Sigla Preface Section One: Preliminaries 1. The Issues 2. What Is the Problem of the Meaning of Being? Section Two: Heidegger’s Kant 3. Being as Positing 4. Kant as Metaphysician 5. Finitude in Kant’s Moral Theory 6. The Thing Section Three: Heidegger’s Hegel 7. Hegel, Idealism, and Finitude 8. Hegel: The Culmination Section Four: Post-Culmination 9. Poetic Thinking? Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Carlisle’s book is a finely written and thoughtful introduction to Spinoza’s philosophy for anyone who is curious as to why this thinker, dead for almost 350 years, remains vitally relevant today"---Steven Nadler, Literary Review"[Carlisle] admirably establishes that Spinoza’s philosophy can be interpreted as a distinctive and original form of rational religion."---Carlos Fraenkel, Times Literary Supplement"Carlisle has done us a great service by offering a convincing and newly rounded portrayal—and by reminding us that you can never exhaust the majesty of Spnoza's religious writing."---Alex Dean, Prospect"An intimate, religious reading of Spinoza’s Ethics, which allows his peculiar religion to emerge with all its promise and paradox." * Choice Reviews *"Carlisle’s interpretation of Spinoza is consistently fresh and surprising. . . . This book steps decisively away from the modes of rational reconstruction and conceptual analysis that now dominate Spinoza scholarship in the English language, and is all the better for it. . . . An excellent book that will reward readers of Spinoza of all levels."---Beth Lord, Philosophy"I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels excited to explore the new world of interpretation that Carlisle has opened up by taking Spinoza’s religion seriously."---Alexander Douglas, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Spinoza’s Religion is a joy to read. . . . It is a book that has the power to bring Spinoza deeper into our hearts, making his words a companion n our efforts to live with greater equanimity and delight. Spinoza's Religion also poses a compelling challenge to what we think we know about Spinoza."---Hasana Sharp, Journal of the History of Philosophy

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Book Synopsis How might an oceanic Gramsci speak to Black aquafuturism and other forms of oceanic critique? This succinct work reads Antonio Gramsci’s writings on the sea, focused in his prison notes on waves of imperial power in the inter-war oceans of his time. Sharad Chari argues that the imprisoned militant’s method is oceanic in form, and that this oceanic Marxism can attend to the roil of sociocultural dynamics, to waves of imperial power, as well as to the capacity of Black, Drexciyan, and other forms of oceanic critique to “storm” us on different shores.

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Book Synopsis'Baggini offers us a tempting smorgasbord of some of the most baffling, weird and occasionally downright creepy scenarios ever envisaged... enjoy these mind-boggling tales from the outer limit of thought' Guardian Is it right to eat a pig that wants to be eaten? Are you really reading this book cover, or are you in a simulation? If God is all-powerful, could he create a square circle? Here are 100 of the most intriguing thought experiments from the history of philosophy and ideas - questions to leave you inspired, informed and scratching your head, dumbfounded. A collection of short, accessible philosophical quandaries to stimulate, challenge and entertain. 'This book is like the Sudoku of moral philosophy: apply your mind to any of its "thought experiments" while stuck on the Tube, and quickly be transported out of rush-hour hell' New StatesmanTrade ReviewBaggini offers us a tempting smorgasbord of some of the most baffling, weird and occasionally downright creepy scenarios ever envisaged... enjoy these mind-boggling tales from the outer limit of thought * Guardian *This book is like the Sudoku of moral philosophy: apply your mind to any of its "thought experiments" while stuck on the Tube, and quickly be transported out of rush-hour hell * New Statesman *Thinking again is what this taut, incisive, bullet-hard book is dedicated to promoting * Sunday Times *An eloquent and engaging introduction to the major philosophical quandaries * Scotland on Sunday *An engaging read ... It's one to which I'll keep returning - whenever I feel like an argument and have nobody to argue with * Sunday Herald *An eloquent and engaging introduction to the major philosophical quandaries about identity, knowledge, morality and rationality.It is the best kind of popularising work: amusing enough to provide an easy way into difficult questions, but uncompromising in terms of the meanings deduced from the fables * Scotland on Sunday *Baggini frames various philosophical conundrums so that we focus on the nub of the matter without the extraneous considerations that complicate them in real life... helpfully cross- referenced and ideal for reading aloud * Metro (London) *

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Book SynopsisHow ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This Very Short Introduction discusses some of the key questions philosophy engages with. Edward Craig explores important themes in ethics, and the nature of knowledge and the self, through readings from Plato, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. Throughout, he emphasizes why we do phiilosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in which philosophy was and is done.This new edition includes a new chapter on free will, discussing determinism and indeterminism in the context of Descartes and Hegel''s work. Craig also covers the Problem of Evil, and Kant''s argument on the source of moral obligation. 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.Table of Contents1: Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction 2: What should I do? Plato's Crito 3: How do we know? Hume's, Of Miracles 4: What am I? An unknown Buddhist on the Self: King Milinda's chariot 5: Some themes 6: Of 'isms' 7: Some more high spots: a personal selection 8: Freedom of the will 9: What's in it for whom Bibliography Where to go next Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface xi List of Illustrations xv Acknowledgements xvii Introduction xix I PHILOSOPHY IN ITS INFANCY 1 The Milesians 3 Xenophanes 5 Heraclitus 6 The School of Parmenides 8 Empedocles 14 The Atomists 17 II THE ATHENS OF SOCRATES 20 The Athenian Empire 20 Anaxagoras 22 The Sophists 22 Socrates 24 The Euthyphro 26 The Crito 29 The Phaedo 30 III THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO 36 Life and Works 36 The Theory of Ideas 38 Plato’s Republic 41 The Theaetetus and the Sophist 50 IV THE SYSTEM OF ARISTOTLE 57 Plato’s Pupil, Alexander’s Teacher 57 The Foundation of Logic 59 The Theory of Drama 63 Moral Philosophy: Virtue and Happiness 64 Moral Philosophy: Wisdom and Understanding 68 Politics 71 Science and Explanation 72 Words and Things 74 Motion and Change 76 Soul, Sense, and Intellect 78 Metaphysics 81 V GREEK PHILOSOPHY AFTER ARISTOTLE 85 The Hellenistic Era 85 Epicureanism 87 Stoicism 89 Scepticism 91 Rome and its Empire 93 Jesus of Nazareth 94 Christianity and Gnosticism 96 Neo-Platonism 99 VI EARLY CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY 102 Arianism and Orthodoxy 102 The Theology of Incarnation 105 The Life of Augustine 107 The City of God and the Mystery of Grace 110 Boethius and Philoponus 113 VII EARLY MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 118 John the Scot 118 Alkindi and Avicenna 121 The Feudal System 123 Saint Anselm 124 Abelard and Héloïse 126 Abelard’s Logic 128 Abelard’s Ethics 130 Averroes 131 Maimonides 133 VIII PHILOSOPHY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 135 An Age of Innovation 135 Saint Bonaventure 138 Thirteenth-Century Logic 140 Aquinas’ Life and Works 141 Aquinas’ Natural Theology 143 Matter, Form, Substance, and Accident 145 Aquinas on Essence and Existence 147 Aquinas’ Philosophy of Mind 148 Aquinas’ Moral Philosophy 149 IX OXFORD PHILOSOPHERS 154 The Fourteenth-Century University 154 Duns Scotus 155 Ockham’s Logic of Language 162 Ockham’s Political Theory 164 The Oxford Calculators 167 John Wyclif 168 X RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY 171 The Renaissance 171 Free-will: Rome vs. Louvain 172 Renaissance Platonism 175 Machiavelli 176 More’s Utopia 179 The Reformation 181 Post-Reformation Philosophy 185 Bruno and Galileo 187 Francis Bacon 189 XI THE AGE OF DESCARTES 194 The Wars of Religion 194 The Life of Descartes 195 The Doubt and the Cogito 198 The Essence of Mind 200 God, Mind, and Body 201 The Material World 20 XII ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 209 The Empiricism of Thomas Hobbes 209 Hobbes’ Political Philosophy 211 The Political Theory of John Locke 214 Locke on Ideas and Qualities 216 Substances and Persons 219 XIII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV 224 Blaise Pascal 224 Spinoza and Malebranche 227 Leibniz 232 XIV BRITISH PHILOSOPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237 Berkeley 237 Hume’s Philosophy of Mind 242 Hume on Causation 246 Reid and Common Sense 248 XV THE ENLIGHTENMENT 251 The Philosophes 251 Rousseau 252 Revolution and Romanticism 256 XVI THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF KANT 259 Kant’s Copernican Revolution 259 The Transcendental Aesthetic 261 The Transcendental Analytic: The Deduction of the Categories 263 The Transcendental Analytic: The System of Principles 266 The Transcendental Dialectic: The Paralogisms of Pure Reason 269 The Transcendental Dialectic: The Antinomies of Pure Reason 271 The Transcendental Dialectic: The Critique of Natural Theology 274 Kant’s Moral Philosophy 276 XVII GERMAN IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM 280 Fichte 280 Hegel 281 Marx and the Young Hegelians 285 Capitalism and its Discontents 287 XVIII THE UTILITARIANS 290 Jeremy Bentham 290 The Utilitarianism of J. S. Mill 295 Mill’s Logic 297 XIX THREE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS 301 Schopenhauer 301 Kierkegaard 307 Nietzsche 310 XX THREE MODERN MASTERS 313 Charles Darwin 313 John Henry Newman 318 Sigmund Freud 322 XXI LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS 329 Frege’s Logic 329 Frege’s Logicism 331 Frege’s Philosophy of Logic 334 Russell’s Paradox 335 Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 337 Logical Analysis 340 XXII CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 342 Henri Bergson 342 Husserl’s Phenomenology 347 The Existentialism of Heidegger 349 The Existentialism of Sartre and de Beauvoir 351 XXIII THE PHILOSOPHY OF WITTGENSTEIN 356 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 356 Logical Positivism 359 Philosophical Investigations 361 XXIV RECENT CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 372 The Frankfurt School 372 Jacques Derrida 379 Jurgen Habermas 382 XXV RECENT ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 388 Elizabeth Anscombe 389 W. V. O. Quine 390 Donald Davidson 393 Peter Geach 394 Peter Strawson 396 American Metaphysics 397 The Cartesian Revival 399 Analytical Ethics 401 John Rawls 405 Richard Rorty 406 Afterword 409 Suggestions for Further Reading 412 Index 421

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Book SynopsisContemporary scholarship tends to view Albert Camus as a modern, but he himself was conscious of the past and called the transition from Hellenism to Christianity “the true and only turning point in history.” For Camus, modernity was not fully comprehensible without an examination of the aspirations that were first articulated in antiquity and that later received their clearest expression in Christianity. These aspirations amounted to a fundamental reorientation of human life in politics, religious, science, and philosophy. Understanding the nature and achievement of that reorientation became the central task of Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism. Primarily known through its inclusion in a French omnibus edition, it has remained one of Camus’s least-read works, yet it marks his first attempt to understand the relationship between Greek philosophy and Christianity as he charted the movement from the Gospels through Gnosticism and Plotinus to what he calls Augustine’s “second revelation” of the Christian faith. Ronald Srigley’s translation of this seminal document helps illuminate these aspects of Camus’ work. His freestanding English edition exposes readers to an important part of Camus’ thought that is often overlooked by those concerned primarily with the book’s literary value and supersedes the extant McBride translation by retaining a greater degree of literalness. Srigley has fully annotated the book to include nearly all of Camus’ original citations and has tracked down many poorly identified sources. His introduction and new preface places the text in the context of Camus’ better-known later work, explicating its relationship to those mature writings and exploring how its themes were reworked in subsequent books. He included a new preface to highlight Camus’ relationship with Christianity, especially to St. Augustine. As the only stand-alone English version of this important work – and a long-overdue critical edition – Srigley’s fluent translation is an essential bench-mark in our understanding of Camus and his place in modern thought.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Translator's Introduction Translator's Preface CHRISTIAN METAPHYSIC AND NEOPLATONISM Introduction Chap. 1: Evangelicl Christianiy Chap. 2: Gnosis Chap. 3: Mystic Reason Chap. 4: Augustne Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFriedrich Nietzsche''s most accessible and influential philosophical work, misquoted, misrepresented, brilliantly original and enormously influential, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale in Penguin Classics. Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche''s utterance ''God is dead'', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in

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Book SynopsisThis selection of thoughts on religion, ethics, politics, women, suicide, books, and much more is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipo-mena, published in 1851.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.Table of ContentsEssays and Aphorisms - Arthur Schopenhauer Selected and Translated with an Introduction by R. J. HollingdaleIntroductionEssaysOn the Suffering of the WorldOn the Vanity of ExistenceOn the Antithesis of Thing in Itself and AppearanceOn Affirmation and Denial of the Will to LiveOn the Indestructibility of our Essential Being by DeathOn SuicideOn WomenOn Thinking for YourselfOn Religion: A DialogueAphorismsOn Philosophy and the IntellectOn EthicsOn Law and PoliticsOn AestheticsOn PsychologyOn ReligionOn Books and WritingOn Various SubjectsList of Correspondences

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Book SynopsisThe author, a leading feminist and psychoanalyst, holds an imaginary dialogue with Nietzsche designed to interrogate the philosopher on his views of the feminine. She links their dialogue with a pre-Socratic examination of the elements.

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Book Synopsis''We must learn to love, learn to be kind, and this from our earliest youth ... Likewise, hatred must be learned and nurtured, if one wishes to become a proficient hater''This volume contains a selection of Nietzsche''s brilliant and challenging aphorisms, examining the pleasures of revenge, the falsity of pity, and the incompatibility of marriage with the philosophical life.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche''s works available in Penguin Classics are A Nietzsche Reader, Beyond Good and Evil, Ecce Homo, Human, All Too Human, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Birth of Tragedy, The Portable Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of Idols and Anti-Christ.

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Book SynopsisBerkeley''s idealism started a revolution in philosophy. As one of the great empiricist thinkers he not only influenced British philosophers from Hume to Russell and the logical positivists in the twentieth century, he also set the scene for the continental idealism of Hegel and even the philosophy of Marx.There has never been such a radical critique of common sense and perception as that given in Berkeley''s Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). His views were met with disfavour, and his response to his critics was the Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.This edition of Berkeley''s two key works has an introduction which examines and in part defends his arguments for idealism, as well as offering a detailed analytical contents list, extensive philosophical notes and an index. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, Trade ReviewThere is something beautiful about the design of this series: their portability, even their tendency to become dog-eared. And this is a welcome reprint, sensitively edited. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *the editions deserve great credit for the enthusiasm of their approach ... The introductions by eminent scholars put the thoughts of the author and the history of the time into clear perspective. Oxford should be given credit for making the classics accessible for all rather than just crib notes for students. * Jonathan Copeland, Lincolnshire Echo *

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Book SynopsisWhat are human beings like? How is knowledge possible? What is truth? Where do moral values come from? Questions like these have stood at the centre of Western philosophy for centuries. In addressing them, philosophers have made certain fundamental assumptions,that we can know our own minds by introspection, that most of our thinking about the world is literal, and that reason is disembodied and universal,that are now called into question by well-established results of cognitive science. It has been shown empirically that:Most thought is unconscious. We have no direct conscious access to the mechanisms of thought and language. Our ideas go by too quickly and at too deep a level for us to observe them in any simple way.Abstract concepts are mostly metaphorical. Much of the subject matter of philosopy, such as the nature of time, morality, causation, the mind, and the self, relies heavily on basic metaphors derived from bodily experience. What is literal in our reasoning about such concepts is minimal and conceptually impoverished. All the richness comes from metaphor. For instance, we have two mutually incompatible metaphors for time, both of which represent it as movement through space: in one it is a flow past us and in the other a spatial dimension we move along.Mind is embodied. Thought requires a body,not in the trivial sense that you need a physical brain to think with, but in the profound sense that the very structure of our thoughts comes from the nature of the body. Nearly all of our unconscious metaphors are based on common bodily experiences.Most of the central themes of the Western philosophical tradition are called into question by these findings. The Cartesian person, with a mind wholly separate from the body, does not exist. The Kantian person, capable of moral action according to the dictates of a universal reason, does not exist. The phenomenological person, capable of knowing his or her mind entirely through introspection alone, does not exist. The utilitarian person, the Chomskian person, the poststructuralist person, the computational person, and the person defined by analytic philosopy all do not exist.Then what does?Lakoff and Johnson show that a philosopy responsible to the science of mind offers radically new and detailed understandings of what a person is. After first describing the philosophical stance that must follow from taking cognitive science seriously, they re-examine the basic concepts of the mind, time, causation, morality, and the self: then they rethink a host of philosophical traditions, from the classical Greeks through Kantian morality through modern analytic philosopy. They reveal the metaphorical structure underlying each mode of thought and show how the metaphysics of each theory flows from its metaphors. Finally, they take on two major issues of twentieth-century philosopy: how we conceive rationality, and how we conceive language. Philosopy in the Flesh reveals a radically new understanding of what it means to be human and calls for a thorough rethinking of the Western philosophical tradition. This is philosopy as it has never been seen before.Table of Contents* Introduction: Who Are We? How The Embodied Mind Challenges The Western Philosophical Tradition * The Cognitive Unconscious * The Embodied Mind * Primary Metaphor and Subjective Experience * The Anatomy of Complex Metaphor * Embodied Realism: Cognitive Science Versus A Priori Philosophy * Realism and Truth * Metaphor and Truth The Cognitive Science Of Basic Philosophical Ideas * The Cognitive Science of Philosophical Ideas * Time * Events and Causes * The Mind * The Self * Morality The Cognitive Science Of Philosophy * The Cognitive Science of Philosophy * The Pre-Socratics: The Cognitive Science of Early Greek Metaphysics * Plato * Aristotle * Descartes and the Enlightenment Mind * Kantian Morality * Analytic Philosophy * Chomskys Philosophy and Cognitive Linguistics * The Theory of Rational Action * How Philosophical Theories Work Embodied Philosophy * Philosophy in the Flesh

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Book Synopsis“The most exciting intellectual adventure I''ve been on since reading Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York TimesGary Zukav’s timeless, humorous, New York Times bestselling masterpiece, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, is arguably the most widely acclaimed introduction to quantum physics ever written. Scientific American raves: “Zukav is such a skilled expositor, with such an amiable style, that it is hard to imagine a layman who would not find his book enjoyable and informative.” Accessible, edifying, and endlessly entertaining, The Dancing Wu Li Masters is back in a beautiful new edition—and the doors to the fascinating, dazzling, remarkable world of quantum physics are opened to all once again, no previous mathematical or technical expertise required.

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Book SynopsisMudimbe addresses the multiple scholarly discourses that exist-African and non-African-concerning the meaning of Africa and being African.

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Book SynopsisFirst and foremost an outcry against injustice and inhumanity, Unto this Last is also a closely argued assault on the science of political economy, which dominated the Victorian period. Ruskin was a profoundly conservative man who looked back to the Middle Ages as a Utopia, yet his ideas had a considerable influence on the British socialist movement. And in making his powerful moral and aesthetic case against the dangers of unhindered industrialization he was strangely prophetic. This volume shows the astounding range and depth of Ruskin''s work, and in an illuminating introduction the editor reveals the consistency of Ruskin''s philosophy and his adamant belief that questions of economics, art and science could not be separated from questions of morality. In Ruskin''s words, ''There is no Wealth but Life.''Table of ContentsEdited with an Introduction and Notes by Clive WilmerIntroductionChronologyFurther ReadingThe King of the Golden RiverFrom The Stones of Venice, Volume IIThe Nature of GothicFrom The Two PathsThe Work of Iron, in Nature, Art, and PolicyFrom Modern Painters, Volume VThe Two BoyhoodsUnto This LastPrefaceEssay I: The Roots of HonourEssay II: The Veins of WealthEssay III: Qui Judicatis TerramEssay IV: Ad ValoremFrom The Crown of Wild OliveTrafficFrom Sesame and LiliesOf Kings' TreasuriesFrom Fors ClavigeraLetter 7: CharitasLetter 10: The Baron's GateNotes

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Book SynopsisWhen it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published - "godless," "full of abominations," "a book forged in hell ...by the devil himself." This title the tells of story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash.Trade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2011 PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers "In this clearly written and accessible book, Nadler offers up a historical and philosophical analysis of Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise... Each chapter not only focuses on sections of the Treatise but also explains the historical context of the Treatise and why many saw it as such a dangerous and corrupting book... [Nadler] has definitely succeeded in writing an extremely rewarding and engaging book."--Library Journal (starred review) "[T]his is a groundbreaking analysis of an incendiary text."--Booklist "Steven Nadler's new study of the Treatise, A Book Forged in Hell, succeeds... While his tasks are primarily expository and contextual, Nadler, who is the author of the standard biography of Spinoza, puts forward a substantive thesis as well... Guided by this set of claims, Nadler takes us through the Treatise in a detailed but seamless account of Spinoza's arguments and aims. One measure of his integrity, indeed, is that while endorsing the common portrayal of Spinoza as a founder of modern secularism, Nadler is sensitive to some of the ways in which Spinoza is not to be taken as the harbinger of the secular mindset. In fact, A Book Forged in Hell raises the important question of how appropriate it is to view Spinoza as a philosophical founder of contemporary secularism and especially of contemporary liberalism. It also raises the question of whether Spinoza should be understood as a Jewish thinker, if so, to what extent."--Zachary Micah Gartenberg, Jewish Review of Books "Steven Nadler has written a delightfully lucid and philosophically thorough account of the Treatise that helps to explain how and why this singular text became the object of such opprobrium and why we should see its appearance as the 'the birth of the secular age.'... What makes Nadler's so welcome a contribution is the care and the clarity of his philosophical exposition, and his restraint when tracing the wider implications of Spinoza's work."--Peter Gordon, TNR.com's The Book "Without comparison the best among the available books on Spinoza in this category."--British Journal for the History of Philosophy "Nadler shows, for a general audience, why Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus evoked such opposition from contemporary religious and political readers. Nadler places Spinoza and his book in their historical context, explains the issues that were at stake, and discusses the book's subsequent influence. Persons interested in the history of political liberalism, modern Judaism, biblical interpretation, and early modern philosophy will welcome this excellent book."--Choice "A Book Forged in Hell is ... without comparison the best among the available books on Spinoza in this category."--British Journal for the History of Philosophy "Steven Nadler, professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has written a thoroughly engaging study of a book which, not only controversial in its day, may be said to have moved Biblical studies into a modern terminology and thrust. It will be a welcome addition to seminary and university libraries."--Morton J. Merowitz, Association of Jewish Library Reviews "[A]ccomplished... Few have accepted Spinoza's equation of God with Nature or his determinism. Yet his deconstruction of the Bible remains a towering achievement, a triumph of reason over ecclesiastical obfuscation. Nadler is to be applauded for making this achievement so accessible. God knows, the world still needs such enlightenment."--Jewish Chronicle "Philosophy professor Steven Nadler tells the story of the book that scandalized early modern Europe--and laid the groundwork for modern republican, anticlerical, and anti-sectarian movements--in his readable A Book Forged in Hell."--Reason "[L]ucid... Nadler does an excellent job of summarizing Spinoza's sometimes convoluted arguments."--Weekly Standard "Nadler's book is a biography of the treatise and very much a page turner, a philosophical and political thriller, which demands to be bought, read and shared."--Derek Wall, Morning Star Online "In this highly readable study, Steven Nadler persuasively shows that this scandalous work of modern philosophy deserves far more attention than it has actually received from scholars."--Grant Havers, European LegacyTable of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xvii Chapter 1: Prologue 1 Chapter 2: The Theological-Political Problem 17 Chapter 3: Rasphuis 36 Chapter 4: Gods and Prophets 52 Chapter 5: Miracles 76 Chapter 6: Scripture 104 Chapter 7: Judaism, Christianity, and True Religion 143 Chapter 8: Faith, Reason, and the State 176 Chapter 9: Libertas philosophandi 200 Chapter 10: The Onslaught 215 A Note on Texts and Translations 241 Abbreviations 243 Notes 245 Bibliography 267 Index 277

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Book SynopsisThe influential work of speculative biology-and a key document in posthumanist studies-now available in a new, accurate English translation.Table of ContentsContents Introduction: Umwelt after Uexküll Dorion Sagan Translator's Introduction A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans Foreword Introduction Environment Spaces The Farthest Plane Perception Time Simple Environments Form and Movement as Perception Marks Goal and Plan Perception Image and Effect Image The Familiar Path Home and Territory The Companion Search Image and Search Tone Magical Environments The Same Subject as Object in Different Environments Conclusion A Theory of Meaning Carriers of Meaning Environment and Dwelling-shell Utilization of Meaning The Interpretation of the Spider's Web Form Development Rule and Meaning Rule The Meaning Rule as the Bridging of Two Elementary Rules The Composition Theory of Nature The Sufferance of Meaning The Technique of Nature Counterpoint as a Motif/Motive of Form Development Progress Summary and Conclusion Afterword. Bubbles and Webs: A Backdoor Stroll through the Readings of Uexküll Geoffrey Winthrop-Young Notes Index

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Book SynopsisSlavoj Zizek, the maverick philosopher, author of over 30 books, acclaimed as the "Elvis of cultural theory", and today's most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory, taking in film, popular culture, literature and jokes-all to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated philosophy. His recent films The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema and Zizek! reveal a theorist at the peak of his powers and a skilled communicator. Now Verso is making his classic titles, each of which stand as a core of his ever-expanding life's work, available as new editions. Each is beautifully re-packaged, including new introductions from Zizek himself. Simply put, they are the essential texts for understanding Zizek's thought and thus cornerstones of contemporary philosophy.The Sublime Object of Ideology: Slavoj Zizek's first book is a provocative and original work looking at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. In a thrilling tour de force that made his name, he explores the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society.Trade ReviewThe Elvis of cultural theory. * Chronicle of Higher Education *The giant of Ljubljana provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus. * The Village Voice *The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades. -- Terry EagletonUnafraid of confrontation and with a near limitless grasp of pop symbolism * The Times *Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative. * Guardian *Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability. * Publishers Weekly *Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *

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