Philosophical traditions and schools of thought Books

Book SynopsisWhat do Socrates, Hypatia, Giordano Bruno, Thomas More, and Jan Patocka have in common? First, they were all faced one day with the most difficult of choices: stay faithful to your ideas and die or renounce them and stay alive. Second, they all chose to die. Their spectacular deaths have become not only an integral part of their biographies, but are also inseparable from their work. A death for ideas is a piece of philosophical work in its own right; Socrates may have never written a line, but his death is one of the greatest philosophical best-sellers of all time. Dying for Ideas explores the limit-situation in which philosophers find themselves when the only means of persuasion they can use is their own dying bodies and the public spectacle of their death. The book tells the story of the philosopher's encounter with death as seen from several angles: the tradition of philosophy as an art of living; the body as the site of self-transcending; death as a classical philosophical topic;Trade ReviewAn intriguing 'dramatic narrative' of philosophers' clash with death … a book that is accessible to all philosophers, academic and non-academic alike. In this intelligent and artful account, [Bradatan] ranges from the ancient world to our own times, drawing on the stories of individual philosophers who defended and died for their beliefs ... Bradatan's rich examination of the philosopher's act of dying for ideas brings into focus the riskiness of living for them as well. * Times Higher Education *[Bradatan] argues persuasively that death is not simply the opposite of life, but that it enters life and lends it urgency – that it can even 'breathe new life into life'. * Times Literary Supplement *Dying for Ideas: The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers [is] a stimulating spiritual journey through an essential topic of human existence, and a reading of the history of human vision about it... Bradatan’s highly intelligent and challenging book is an exemplary scrutiny of the life of the human mind, the human soul and body. -- Norman Manea * The Los Angeles Review of Books *[Bradatan's] style is nimble. A register of directness works throughout the book, moving from argument to quip, to narrative as appropriate. The book is well designed, with each chapter building on the previous ... Dying for Ideas is a lucid discussion of mortality and an unsparing portrait of philosophy's ends - in both senses of the word. -- Damon Young * The Australian *Accessible, penetrating and erudite, [Dying For Ideas is] a beautifully written book which reveals that philosophy is not about academics grinding out dry papers but about mortals confronting the truths of the human condition in order to develop an art of living ... Bradatan has achieved something special in writing this book. As a comprehensive philosophy of death, it amounts to a profound philosophy of the true nature of philosophy itself -- Gary Cox * Morning Star Online *Books of philosophy are rarely page-turners, but Bradatan takes us through a fascinating exploration of the existential limit-situations in which philosophers find themselves when their only means of communicating the truth is their own dying bodies. * Existential Analysis *The choice of philosophers to sacrifice their lives for their ideas is lofty and grim. In Costica Bradatan’s book, it is also fun and funny. Dying for Ideas is full of joie de mourir, which as Plato’s Socrates would have put it, is just the other side of joie de vivre. The book is at once heroic and ironic ... Too often when young people announce their intention to study philosophy, well-wishers ask them what they are going to do with it, assuming it is a commodity that is bought from professionals and should lead to monetary returns. The correct answer is: live right, be prepared to die. Dying for Ideas reminds us of this ancient truth. * Aspen Review *[This is] a pithy book that is hard to put down as each section promises a new surprise. * Trouw (Bloomsbury translation) *One of the greatest merits of Costica Bradatan's book is that it explores a cluster of topics that represent the untold, the unuttered, almost the unutterable in contemporary philosophy: death, dying, sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Ours is a culture of 'happy endings' and, in this respect, most philosophers of today are the spokespersons of their time. Bradatan is a dissenter. His book approaches death head-on. Indeed, what makes this project fascinating is the fact that, while the book purports to be about 'dying for an idea,' it in fact sings praise to life. Death, in Bradatan's view, is something that brings new meaning to life, a renewed intensity to the act of living. * Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research, New York, USA. *A thoroughly stimulating exploration of philosophers and their courageous deaths, pushing us to reflect on the fascinating question: what is philosophy for? * Sarah Bakewell, author of 'How to Live: A Life of Montaigne' *Written with verve and humor, at once deeply learned and wickedly ironic, this book explores how philosophy is not only an art of living but also an art of dying - and dying well! Original and irreverent! * Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor for Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University, USA *What it all comes down to, unexpectedly enough, is laughter, even if it isn't clear at whose expense the joke has been played. The martyr laughs in the face of death, as More did... 'If you are the first to laugh at yourself,' Bradatan asks, 'what else can death possibly do to you?' ... a suggestive and finely delineated argument. -- Stuart Walton * Review 31 *Poignant, provocative, astute, moving, thoughtful. * The Millions Magazine *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Philosophy as Self-fashioning 2. The First Layer 3. Philosophy in the Flesh 4. The Second Layer 5. The Making of a Martyr-Philosopher Postscript: To Die Laughing Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHume''s Reception in Early America: Expanded Edition brings together the original American responses to one of Britain's greatest men of letters, David Hume. Now available as a single volume paperback, this new edition includes updated further readings suggestions and dozens of additional primary sources gathered together in a completely new concluding section.From complete pamphlets and booklets, to poems, reviews, and letters, to extracts from newspapers, religious magazines and literary and political journals, this book's contents come from a wide variety of sources published in colonial America and the early United States between 1758 and 1850. As well as classics by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, it contains scores of unknown and hard-to-locate items, many of which have not been reprinted since their original publication. These responses are divided into four parts covering Hume''s Essays; his Philosophical Writings; his History of England; and his ChaTrade ReviewThis volume is an indispensable source for Hume scholars, historians of the period and anyone interested in how Hume’s extensive writings were received in America from 1758 – 1850. Most of the 125 extracts will be unknown and inaccessible to the majority of readers. Largely for religious, political and linguistic reasons there was much closer engagement with Hume’s writings on religion and history by American commentators than by continental European writers, and Spencer here provides impeccably documented quotations and references. First published in 2002, this enlarged and corrected paper-back version is a splendid achievement. -- Peter Jones, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, UKFor anyone doubting Hume's profound importance as a philosopher, historian and political thinker in the age of the Enlightenment, Spencer's unparalleled run of evidence for his wide-ranging contemporary American reception ought to be regarded as conclusive proof. -- David Allan, Reader in Scottish History, University of St Andrews, UKMade available for the first time in an affordable paperback edition, Spencer’s outstanding anthology of printed responses to the works of David Hume is a primary point of reference for scholars and students interested in the American Enlightenment. One of the most striking revelations – reinforced by 38 newly discovered primary sources added to this new edition – is that Hume remained a central part of American periodical culture well into the nineteenth century. -- Mark R. M. Towsey, Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Liverpool, UKMark C. Spencer's expanded edition of his well-received Hume's Reception in Early America (2002), greatly enhanced by the addition of 125 excellent new entries which strengthen his argument that Hume's works were quite well-known to members of America's intellectual culture before 1850, is an outstanding model of primary source research and topical organization. -- Roger J. Fechner, Professor Emeritus of History, Adrian College, USAThis expanded paperback edition is welcome, and it has the added benefit of including an addendum with 38 new primary sources (and some editorial corrections to the earlier edition) … [A] valuable resource for those interested in early American philosophy and politics. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface to the Expanded Edition Preface to the First Edition Acknowledgements Abbreviations Part I: Early American Responses to Hume’s Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary Part II: Early American Responses to Hume’s Philosophical Writings Part III: Early American Responses to Hume’s History of England Part IV: Early American Responses to Hume’s Character and Death Index

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the AATSEEL 2022 Award for Best Edited Multi-Author Scholarly Volume (AATSEEL is The American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages) Theory in the Post Era brings together the work and perspectives of a group of Romanian theorists who discuss the morphings of contemporary theory in what the editors call the post era. Since the Cold War''s end and especially in the third millennium, theorists have been exploring the aftermath - and sometimes just the after - of whole paradigms, the crisis or passing of anthropocentrism, the twilight of an entire ontological and cultural condition, as well as the corresponding rise of an antagonist model, of an anti, meta, or neo alternative, with examples ranging from posthumanism and post-postmodernism to post-aesthetics, postanalog interpretation or digicriticism, post-presentism, post-memory, post- or neo-critique, and so forth. It is no coincidence, the contributors to this volume argTrade ReviewTheory in the “Post” Era manages to assemble a heterogenous collection of interventions which capture the essential cultural gestures and ethical reflexes of “an era that seems at once epistemologically insurgent and blasé” (173). In doing so, it lays the lexical groundwork for its envisioned projects of communal futurity. * Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory *What Theory in the Post Era, as a collective manifesto – for a new age, a “post” age of literary theory – excels at is finding new and functional alternatives to an otherwise overused and exhausted set of working notion for the study of literary and critical phenomena in and from the margins and deliver them to the world. More than that, there are several concepts introduced for the very first time (at least in a similarly ambitious editorial project) that could feasibly form the basis for a new “communality” in Eastern European literary theory and that could rapidly enter the world theory system. * Philologica Jassyensia *Even readers annoyed by the proliferation of constructions in “post-“ will discover much to engage and provoke in this lively collection by a group of Romanian scholars. Writing from the periphery of Europe yet well-versed in contemporary Western critical thought, they offer original, estranging perspectives on issues of the moment, whether proposing an Easthetics, a Constructuralism, or literary criticism as diplomacy. * Jonathan Culler, Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, Cornell University, USA *Just as there is ‘World Literature,’ this book urges us to consider ‘World Theory.’ While we often tout the globalism of theory, its history typically focuses on Western Europe and the US. Reminding us that the story of theory is a travel narrative, this collection features work arising from Romania’s Critical Theory Institute, whose members have been investigating the various possibilities of theory in the new millennium. One way to think of theory is as the genre that allows us to speak critically across various national, disciplinary, and temporal borders, and Theory in the ‘Post’ Era works to create a contemporary intellectual commons. * Jeffrey Williams, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism *This group of inspired Romanian 'post' theorists decisively shows two things. First, theory is no thing. You cannot be for or against it. It is rather the ubiquitous fabric of our global conversation on politics, culture, science, and art. Second, theory is no longer (and never really was) an elite discourse promulgated in Paris, New York, New Haven, and Irvine. It is a radically decentered interrogation that is elaborated in both Cluj and Greensboro, in Walla Walla and Taipei. It is alive and well and living on the periphery! * Paul Allen Miller, Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina, USA *Boldly recasting theory as World Theory, this timely volume makes a compelling case for 'theory commons,' for what we as theorists translate and share as an open-ended, transnational community, a community—needed by theory and in need of theory—invested in thinking inventively and comparatively the plethora of “posts” endemic to our infinitely interconnected planetary condition. * Zahi Zalloua, Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Whitman College, USA *‘Romania,’ amid the planetary turbulence of 2021, is every bit as a propos as the more customary ‘deconstruction’ or ‘Cultural Studies’ in denoting that interstitial zone (or lab) where new modalities of critical reception, theoretical investigation, and cultural mapping, prompted by turbulent developments, get generated. Romanian intellectuals have routinely coped with their country’s historical placement in a multicultural ‘outskirts’ of European culture, with its World War II suppression under Nazism, followed by the singularly cruel abuses and meltdown of its Communist regime. It is no accident that we turn to an ‘A-team’ of Romanian commentators assembled by the editors of Theory in the ‘Post’ Era in our own efforts to process distortion effects now entrenched but particularly rampant since 2016, with no end in sight. In treating the periphery as a theoretical phenomenon on a planetary scale in its own right; in registering the inroads made by such factors as science, systems theory, cybernetics, design, geography, and diplomacy into contemporary cultural deliberation, the collective authorship of Theory in the ‘Post’ Era casts luminous insight on present-day impasses, while crystallizing the vision necessary for addressing the future. * Henry Sussman, Professor Emeritus, Comparative Literature, University at Buffalo, USA *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Introduction: Toward a “Post” Vocabulary-- A Lab Report Alexandru Matei, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania; Christian Moraru, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA; and Andrei Terian, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Part I: Aesthetics 1. Constructualism: Literary Evolution as Multiscalar Design Teodora Dumitru, G. Calinescu Institute of Literary History and Theory of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania 2. Post-Aesthetics: Literature, Ontology, and Criticism as Diplomacy Alexandru Matei, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania 3. Eastethics: The Ideological Shift in Narratology Alex Goldis, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania 4. Metapolitics: Recommitting Literature in the Populist Aftermath Ioana Macrea-Toma, Central European University of Budapest, Hungary 5. Communality: Un-Disciplining Race, Class, and Sex in the Wake of Anti-“PC” Monomania Andrei Terian, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania 6. Anarchetype: Reading Aesthetic Form after “Structure” Corin Braga, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania Part II: Temporalities 7. Post-Synchronism: “Cultural Complex,” or Critical Theory’s Unfinished Business Carmen Musat, University of Bucharest, Romania 8. Post-Presentism: The Past, the Passed, and “Now” as Critical Operator Bogdan Cretu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania 9. Postfuturism: Contemporaneity, Truth, and the End of World Literature Christian Moraru, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA 10. Post-Memory: The Labor of Critical Remembrance after Communism Andreea Mironescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania 11. Biofiction: Metamorphoses of Life-Writing across Criticism, Theory, and Literature Laura Cernat, Independent Scholar Part III: Critical Modes 12. Geocritique: Siting, Poverty, and the Global Southeast Stefan Baghiu, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania 13. Neocritique: Sherlock Holmes Investigates Literature Mihai Iovanel, G. Calinescu Institute of Literary History and Theory of the Romanian Academy, Romania 14. Digicriticism: Profession On(the)Line Adriana Stan, Sextil Puscariu Institute of Linguistics and Literary History of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 15. Somatography: Writing as Incorporated Cognition, or the Body Knows More Caius Dobrescu, University of Bucharest, Romania 16. Post-Canonicity: Curating World Literary Archives after Postmodernism Cosmin Borza, Sextil Puscariu Institute of Linguistics and Literary History of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Bibliography Contributors Index

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