Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology Books

Book SynopsisMight we be parts of a divine mind? Could anything like an afterlife make sense? Starting with a Platonic answer to why the world exists, Immortality Defended suggests we could well be immortal in all of three separate ways.Trade Review"John Leslie addresses issues of belief in immortality and the creative role of value in a characteristically lively style, in the course of deploying a variety of arguments. He is always stimulating, even when one disagrees with him." Revd Dr John Polkinghorne, KBE, FRS "I believe Leslie will be remembered one hundred or two hundred years from now as one of the most unique, philosophically fundamental, and interesting thinkers of our time." Quentin Smith, Western Michigan University "This is an admirable piece of philosophical speculation, in the grand manner of great philosophers in the past, but informed by modern cosmology." J J C Smart, Monash University “Thought-provoking … useful to both the professional philosopher and to one just starting … .Touches on a variety of topics … and is exceptionally clear.” Religious Studies Review “Leslie has articulated and defended … the great subjects in the history of philosophy: God, the self, the nature and origin of the cosmos, value, and immortality.” Notre Dame Philosophical ReviewsTable of ContentsPreface. Acknowledgments. 1. Pantheism: A Rapid Introduction. 2. Platonic Creation. 3. Divine and Human Minds. 4. Immortality. 5. Existence, Causation, and Life. Appendix: Brief Summary of the Book. Bibliography. Index of Names. Index of Subjects

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Book SynopsisKit Fine argues for a fundamentally new approach to the study of representation in language and thought. His key idea is that there may be representational relationships between expressions or elements of thought that are not grounded in the intrinsic representational features of the expressions or elements themselves.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Coordination among Variables A. The Desiderata B. The Problem C. The Contextualist Response D. The Dismissive Response E. The Instantial Approach F. The Algebraic Approach G. Relational Semantics for First-order Logic 2. Coordination within Language A. Frege’s Puzzle B. Rejecting Compositionality C. Semantic Fact D. Closure E. Referentialism Reconsidered F. A Relational Semantics for Names G. Transparency 3. Coordination within Thought A. Intentional Coordination B. Strict Co-representation C. The Content of Thought D. The Cognitive Puzzle 4. Coordination between Speakers A. Kripke’s Puzzle B. Some Related Puzzles C. A Response D. A Solution E. A Deeper Puzzle F. A Deeper Solution G. The Role of Variables in Belief Reports H. Some Semantical Morals Postscript: Further Work Index

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Book SynopsisThoroughly updated, the second edition of this highly successful textbook continues to represent the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of canonical readings in metaphysics. In addition to updated material from the first edition, it presents entirely new sections on ontology and the metaphysics of material objects. One of the most comprehensive and authoritative metaphysics anthologies available now updated and expanded Offers the most important contemporary works on the central issues of metaphysics Includes new sections on ontology and the metaphysics of material objects, as well as readings on the topics of fictionalism, fundamentality, tropes, vague identity, temporary intrinsics, stage theory, and composition Surpasses other anthologies in its combination of contributions from leading metaphysicians and a younger generation of rising-stars Table of ContentsPreface (Jaegwon Kim, Ernest Sosa, Daniel Z. Korman). Part I: Ontology. 1. "On What There Is" (W. V. Quine). 2. "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (Rudolf Carnap). 3. "Holes" (David and Stephanie Lewis). 4. "Beyond Being and Nonbeing" (Roderick M. Chisholm). 5. "Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?" (Stephen Yablo). 6. "Fictional Objects" (Amie L. Thomasson). 7. "On What Grounds What" (Jonathan Schaffer). Part II: Identity. 8. "The Identity of Indiscernibles" (Max Black). 9. "Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity" (Robert M. Adams). 10. "Identity and Necessity" (Saul Kripke). 11. "Contingent Identity" (Allan Gibbard). 12. "Can There Be Vague Objects?" (Gareth Evans). 13. "Vague Identity" (Robert C. Stalnaker). Part III: Modality. 14. "Modalities: Basic Concepts and Distinctions" (Alvin Plantinga). 15. "Actualism and Thisness" (Robert M. Adams). 16. "A Philosopher's Paradise: The Plurality of Worlds" (David Lewis). 17. "Possible Worlds" (Robert C. Stalnaker). 18. "Modal Fictionalism" (Gideon Rosen). 19. "Essence and Modality" (Kit Fine). Part IV: Properties. 20. "Natural Kinds" (W. V. Quine). 21. "Causality and Properties" (Sydney Shoemaker). 22. "The Metaphysic of Abstract Particulars" (Keith Campbell). 23. "New Work for a Theory of Universals" (David Lewis). 24. "Universals as Attributes" (D. M. Armstrong). Part V: Causation. 25. "On the Notion of Cause" (Bertrand Russell). 26. "Causes and Conditions" (J.L. Mackie). 27. "Causal Relations" (Donald Davidson). 28. "Causality and Determination" (G.E.M. Anscombe). 29. "Causation" (David Lewis). 30. "Causal Connections" (Wesley C. Salmon). 31. "Causation: Reductionism Versus Realism" (Michael Tooley). 32. "Two Concepts of Causation" (Ned Hall). Part VI: Persistence. 33. "Identity Through Time" (Roderick M. Chisholm). 34. "Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis" (W. V. Quine). 35. "Parthood and Identity Across Time" (Judith Jarvis Thomson). 36. "Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects" (Mark Heller). 37. "The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics" (David Lewis). 38. "Endurance and Temporary Intrinsics" (Sally Haslanger). 39. "All the World's a Stage" (Theodore Sider). Part VII: Persons. 40. "Persons and Their Pasts" (Sydney Shoemaker). 41. "The Self and the Future" (Bernard Williams). 42. "Personal Identity" (Derek Parfit). 43. "Survival and Identity" (David Lewis). 44. "Lonely Souls: Causality and Substance Dualism" (Jaegwon Kim). 45. "The Ontological Status of Persons" (Lynne Rudder Baker). 46. "An Argument for Animalism" (Eric T. Olson). Part VIII: Objects. 47. "When are Objects Parts?" (Peter van Inwagen). 48. "Many But Almost One" (David Lewis). 49. "Existential Relativity" (Ernest Sosa). 50. "The Argument from Vagueness" (Theodore Sider). 51. "Epiphenomenalism and Eliminativism" (Trenton Merricks). 52. "Against Revisionary Ontology" (Eli Hirsch). 53. "Strange Kinds, Familiar Kinds, and the Charge of Arbitrariness" (Daniel Z. Korman).

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Book SynopsisDualism, unlike monism, is a system that allows for dynamic and dramatic possibilities. Just as it can explain change and imperfection in the natural world, as the two distance elements of matter and spirit or matter and form strive to accommodate themselves to one another, so in the little world of the human the two elements of body and soul generate conflict as well. Essential to one another and yet incompatible, they provide both an explanation of and a metaphor for the internal, psychological struggle that the individual feels going on within. The body and soul dialogues portray this tradition of conflict in its most fundamental form. They bring together psychological concerns about the nature of humanity and theological concerns about the responsibility for sin. They provide the conceptual centre from which the multiple metaphors and analogies in the rest of the literature radiate.Rosalie Osmond examines both literal and metaphorical aspects of the relationship between bod

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Book SynopsisUntil the nineteenth century it was common to assume that philosophers said more or less the same things throughout their lives. Such an attitude led their successors to turn their thoughts into harmonious systems which, though often of great philosophical interest, failed to reflect the detailed richness of a philosopher’s thought at any specific period in his life. In more recent times the study of a philosopher’s growth has often provided a greater understanding of what puzzled him, what problems he was trying to solve, and why he attempted to solve them the way he did.For Aristotle such an approach has led to many advances in our knowledge, but conflicting ‘readings’ have led to confusion and a tendency to revert to more systematic treatments. In an effort to confront this situation John Rist attempts to chart Aristotle’s philosophical progress, using the techniques of both philology and philosophical analysis. His aim is to see where Ar

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Book SynopsisFor nineteenth-century thinkers, the central problem of religious consciousness in the modern West was the tension between prevailing concepts of individual autonomy and the traditional Judaeo-Christian claim for divine revelation. The God Within brings together ten of Professor Emil Fackenheim's essays on the German Idealists who struggled to resolve this tension. This philosophic preoccupation found its most searching and comprehensive expression, when the traditional notion of 'God as Transcendent' was reconceptualized as 'the God within.' The internalization of God's `otherness' reached its climax with Hegel, the subject of Fackenheim's earlier work, The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought. This long-awaited companion to that volume examines the earlier stages of the process, beginning with its initiator, Kant, then considering Schelling in both his earlier and later phases, and finally, looking once more at Hegel. The investigation of this movement, together with the

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Book SynopsisWhat objects exist in the social world and how should we understand them? Is a specific Pizza Hut restaurant as real as the employees, tables, napkins and pizzas of which it is composed, and as real as the Pizza Hut corporation with its headquarters in Wichita, the United States, the planet Earth and the social and economic impact of the restaurant on the lives of its employees and customers? In this book the founder of object-oriented philosophy develops his approach in order to shed light on the nature and status of objects in social life. While it is often assumed that an interest in objects amounts to a form of materialism, Harman rejects this view and develops instead an “immaterialist” method. By examining the work of leading contemporary thinkers such as Bruno Latour and Levi Bryant, he develops a forceful critique of ‘actor-network theory’. In an extended discussion of Leibniz’s famous example of the Dutch East India Company, Harman argues that this company qualifies for objecthood neither through ‘what it is’ or ‘what it does’, but through its irreducibility to either of these forms. The phases of its life, argues Harman, are not demarcated primarily by dramatic incidents but by moments of symbiosis, a term he draws from the biologist Lynn Margulis. This book provides a key counterpoint to the now ubiquitous social theories of constant change, holistic networks, performative identities, and the construction of things by human practice. It will appeal to anyone interested in cutting-edge debates in philosophy and social and cultural theory.Trade Review"It is rare to find academic and philosophical writing that is this clear. Harman’s explanations of not just his own position but also the other views to which he responds are thorough, concise and in a style and vocabulary that are accessible to non-experts."The British Society for Literature and ScienceTable of ContentsPart One: Immaterialism 1. Objects and Actors 2. The Dangers of Duomining 3. Materialism and Immaterialism 4. Attempts to Evolve ANT 5. The Thing-in-Itself Part Two: The Dutch East India Company 6. Introducing the VOC 7. On Symbiosis 8. Governor-General Coen 9. Batavia, the Spice Islands, and Malacca 10. The Intra-Asian VOC 11. Touching Base Again with ANT 12. Birth, Ripeness, Decadence, and Death 13. Fifteen Provisional Rules of OOO Method References

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Book SynopsisThe triumph of technological rationality and of the sciences as a whole has by no means provided answers to humanity’s great questions. Instead, it has raised new and old questions and problems. To orient ourselves in the twenty-first century, we must take a new look at the central categories of philosophy that, often unbeknownst to us, continue to shape our everyday thinking. Future Metaphysics is an attempt at restating the importance of the great metaphysical categories for the present: how our contemporary predicament forces us both to reclaim them and to give them a radically new twist. Armen Avanessian re-examines and displaces categories like substance and accident, form and matter, life and death, giving them an unexpected twist. What if the idea of accident, for instance, had to take into account the many new kinds of glitches, crashes and crises – from finance to ecology, from technological catastrophes to social collapses – that permeate our culture and make everyday news? Can we keep on using this concept as it was traditionally meant to be used when risk and chance have become part of the very substance of our world, so rendering the distinction between substance and accident meaningless? The other concepts and distinctions require a similar interrogation, giving birth to a new metaphysical landscape, where the most urgent realities of the twenty-first century impinge on the most fundamental categories of thought.

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Book SynopsisA powerful case for why anthropology should study outsiders of thought and their speculative ideas What sort of thinking is needed to study anomalies in thought? In this trenchantly argued and beautifully written book, anthropologist Peter Skafish explores this provocative question by examining the writings of the medium and “rough metaphysician” Jane Roberts (1929–1984). Through a close interpretation of her own published texts as well as those she understood herself to have dictated for her cohort of channeled personalities—including one, named “Seth,” who would inspire the New Age movement—Skafish shows her intuitive and dreamlike work to be a source of rigorously inventive ideas about science, ontology, translation, and pluralism. Arguing that Roberts’s writings contain philosophies ahead of their time, he also asks: How might our understanding of speculative thinking change if we consider the way untrained writers, occult visionaries, and their counterparts in other cultural traditions undertake it? What can outsider thinkers teach us about the limitations of even our most critical intellectual habits?Rough Metaphysics is at once an ethnography of the books of a strange and yet remarkable writer, a commentary on the unlikely philosophy contained in them, and a call for a new way of doing (and undoing) philosophy through anthropology, and vice versa. In guiding the reader through Roberts’s often hallucinatory “world of concepts,” Skafish also develops a series of original interpretations of thinkers—from William James to Claude Lévi-Strauss to Paul Feyerabend—who have been vital to anthropologists and their fellow travelers.Seductively written and surprising in its turns of thought, Rough Metaphysics is a feast for anyone who wants to learn how to think something new, especially about thought.Trade Review "Lucid, insightful, and absolutely original, Rough Metaphysics vastly expands the scope and possibility of the anthropological discipline. Peter Skafish demonstrates how, despite our academic prejudices to stabilize knowledge in a contextually bounded self, we must learn new modes of thought that enable us to listen to what someone like Jane Roberts can reveal about our own multiplicity and the possibilities that this recognition might entail."—Eduardo Kohn, author of How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human "Highly original, beautifully written, and thoughtfully structured, Rough Metaphysics escapes the recursive loops by which socio-cultural anthropology often proceeds, allowing Peter Skafish to probe more deeply than almost anyone else into the implications of ‘taking seriously’ the ontological framework of an anthropologist’s interlocutor. In doing so, he offers a sharp criticism of anthropology’s persistent concern with categories of analysis that obviate such attention."—Marilyn Strathern, author of Relations: An Anthropological Account

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Book SynopsisA powerful case for why anthropology should study outsiders of thought and their speculative ideas What sort of thinking is needed to study anomalies in thought? In this trenchantly argued and beautifully written book, anthropologist Peter Skafish explores this provocative question by examining the writings of the medium and “rough metaphysician” Jane Roberts (1929–1984). Through a close interpretation of her own published texts as well as those she understood herself to have dictated for her cohort of channeled personalities—including one, named “Seth,” who would inspire the New Age movement—Skafish shows her intuitive and dreamlike work to be a source of rigorously inventive ideas about science, ontology, translation, and pluralism. Arguing that Roberts’s writings contain philosophies ahead of their time, he also asks: How might our understanding of speculative thinking change if we consider the way untrained writers, occult visionaries, and their counterparts in other cultural traditions undertake it? What can outsider thinkers teach us about the limitations of even our most critical intellectual habits?Rough Metaphysics is at once an ethnography of the books of a strange and yet remarkable writer, a commentary on the unlikely philosophy contained in them, and a call for a new way of doing (and undoing) philosophy through anthropology, and vice versa. In guiding the reader through Roberts’s often hallucinatory “world of concepts,” Skafish also develops a series of original interpretations of thinkers—from William James to Claude Lévi-Strauss to Paul Feyerabend—who have been vital to anthropologists and their fellow travelers.Seductively written and surprising in its turns of thought, Rough Metaphysics is a feast for anyone who wants to learn how to think something new, especially about thought.Trade Review "Lucid, insightful, and absolutely original, Rough Metaphysics vastly expands the scope and possibility of the anthropological discipline. Peter Skafish demonstrates how, despite our academic prejudices to stabilize knowledge in a contextually bounded self, we must learn new modes of thought that enable us to listen to what someone like Jane Roberts can reveal about our own multiplicity and the possibilities that this recognition might entail."—Eduardo Kohn, author of How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human "Highly original, beautifully written, and thoughtfully structured, Rough Metaphysics escapes the recursive loops by which socio-cultural anthropology often proceeds, allowing Peter Skafish to probe more deeply than almost anyone else into the implications of ‘taking seriously’ the ontological framework of an anthropologist’s interlocutor. In doing so, he offers a sharp criticism of anthropology’s persistent concern with categories of analysis that obviate such attention."—Marilyn Strathern, author of Relations: An Anthropological Account

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Book SynopsisDRETSKE AND HIS CRITICS Dretske and his Critics Frederick Dretske’s views on the nature of seeing, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of content or non-natural meaning, the nature of behavior, and the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior have been profoundly important. Dretske and his Critics contains original discussions of these issues by John Heil, Stuart Cohen, David H. Sanford, Jaegwon Kim, Fred Adams, Daniel Dennett, Robert Cummins, Terence Horgan and Brian McLaughlin. Each chapter is responded to by Dretske himself. In Seeing and Knowing (1968), Dretske argued that there is a relational sense of seeing according to which, if one sees X, then X exists (or occurs); and if one sees X, and X = Y, then one sees Y. He carefully contrasted seeing in this relational sense with seeing that something is the case. In his contribution to this volume, Heil examines Dretske’s notion of non-epistemic seeing. Dretske is largely responsible for the relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge. In arguing that we cannot know the sorts of things we ordinarily claim to know, the skeptic appeals to irrelevant alternatives that the purported knower cannot eliminate. In their contributions to this volume, Cohen and Sanford examine Dretske’s relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge. In Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes (1988), Dretske defended a component account of behavior, and offered original, naturalized accounts of the nature of content and of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. In their contributions, Kim, Adams, Dennett, Cummins, and Horgan examine Dretske’s account of behavior and his naturalized account of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. McLaughlin focuses on Dretske’s naturalized account of content.Table of ContentsPerceptual experience, John Heil; scepticism, relevance, and relativity, Stewart Cohen; proper knowledge, David H.Sanford; Dretske on how reasons explain behaviour, Jaegwon Kim; actions, reasons, and the explanatory role of content, Terence Horgan; the role of mental meaning in psychological explanation, Robert Cummins; ways of establishing harmony, Daniel C.Dennett; causal contents, Frederick Adams; belief individuation and Dretske on naturalizing content, Brian P.McLaughlin; Dretske's replies.

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Book SynopsisThis flexible textbook is both an introduction and a reader in metaphysics combining original discussion with selections from primary sources.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgments viii 1 What is Metaphysics? 1 2 Metaphysics and Political Philosophy 11 3 Values and Reality 82 4 God and Evil 183 5 Causation and Responsibility 237 6 Mind and Morality 283 7 Freedom and Responsibility 358 8 Against Metaphysics 435 Glossary 485 Index 490

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Book SynopsisEach volume in this series provides a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the main philosophical topics of contemporary debate.Trade Review"The text includes short exercises printed in bold every few pages. These are excellent devices for testing a student's grasp of the material, and for sparking fresh thoughts about it." Chris Daly, MindTable of ContentsPreface. 1. Metaphysics. 2. Numbers. 3. Platonism. 4. Identity. 5. Is Truth Relative?. 6. Colour. 7. Modality. 8. Things and Their Parts. 9. Determinism, Freedom and Fatalism. 10. Is There Truth in Fiction?. 11. Cosmology. References. Index.

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Book SynopsisEach volume in this series provides a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the main philosophical topics of contemporary debate.Trade Review"The text includes short exercises printed in bold every few pages. These are excellent devices for testing a student's grasp of the material, and for sparking fresh thoughts about it." Chris Daly, MindTable of ContentsPreface. 1. Metaphysics. 2. Numbers. 3. Platonism. 4. Identity. 5. Is Truth Relative?. 6. Colour. 7. Modality. 8. Things and Their Parts. 9. Determinism, Freedom and Fatalism. 10. Is There Truth in Fiction?. 11. Cosmology. References. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book is an account of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. The work is considered as a whole and each of its parts or books is taken up in the order that it has in the traditional text. The book is based on an examination of all of the manuscript readings reported in the three most recent editions of the work (those of Christ, Ross, and Jaeger), and it attempts in this way and others to come as close as possible to what would have been the original text. The Metaphysics is of course a much-studied work. What distinguishes this new effort to understand it is the working assumption that Aristotle presents in it his most comprehensive reflection on science: its character and aims, its foundations or presuppositions, and the obstacles or objections that constitute a challenge to its possibility. The book is thus intended to be of interest and use to at least two classes of readers: to those who have already reflected themselves on the nature of science and who have perhaps become dissatisfied with more recent attempts to establish it on a firm basis or to explain the basis on which it rests; and to beginning students who are willing to undertake a difficult task and who can be brought to see that science and philosophy were originally equivalent terms and that the effort to distinguish or separate them may have been deeply misguided. In other words, the book is meant to afford a glimpse into what philosophy originally meant.

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Book SynopsisAlexandre Kojève (1902–1968) is most widely known in America for his provocative assertion that history is at its end, that is, its completion. In the “practical” sense, this means that the process of historical development can at last be seen (if from a distance) as the realization of the Marxist “universal and homogeneous state.” However, Kojève claimed as well that the history of philosophical thinking had also reached its goal in the transformation of philosophy, as the “love of wisdom” (or the unsatisfied quest for comprehensive knowledge), into that very Wisdom itself and had done so in the most essential respects in the philosophy of Hegel.The Concept, Time, and Discourse is the first volume of Kojève’s magnum opus, which was to have given an exposition of the (Hegelian) System of Knowledge and of which five volumes were written before his death. It contains, along with a preliminary discussion of the need for an updating of the Hegelian system, the first two of three introductions to the exposition of that system: a First Introduction of the Concept (the integrated totality of what is comprehensible, which is the final object of philosophic inquiry) and a Second Introduction concerning Time, both introductions leading to the (Hegelian) identification of the Concept with Time, an identification which alone takes adequate account of the fact that Philosophy is necessarily discursive (that it must actualize the requirements and essential structure of Discourse).The present volume offers Kojève’s fullest statement of his Ontology. It includes a critical discussion of the traditional oppositions of the “general” to the “particular” and of the “abstract” to the “concrete” and an analysis of the act of “generalizing abstraction,” which detaches Essence from the Existence of Things. Kojève then discusses the three great figures in the three-stage development of philosophy into wisdom: Parmenides, Plato, and Hegel. Parmenides’ monadic account of Being (= Eternity) rendered it ineffable, thereby reducing philosophy to (non-philosophic) silence; Plato’s dyadic account of Being (as eternal) was intended to make Being a possible subject of discourse but failed to reflect adequately the triadic (and temporally developing) structure which Plato himself discerned in Discourse. Finally, Hegel’s triadic account of Being as itself “dialectical” achieved the final identification of the Concept with Time.This is a first-time, meticulous translation of Kojève’s late, unfinished magnum opus, the “updating” of the Hegelian System of Knowledge, meaning its modification so as to make it comprehensible to the author himself and to his contemporaries. It is, however, much more than an exposition of its central terms, The Concept and Time and their identity. It is an acute, original review of the major themes of the West’s philosophical tradition; it is, in fact, a philosophical education in itself. Robert Williamson has done this tradition a great service by making Kojève’s work accessible to Americans. – Eva Brann, Dean Emerita and Senior Faculty, St. John’s College, Annapolis, MarylandWe now recognize Alexandre Kojève as one of the central figures of 20th century European philosophy. A translation of his The Concept, Time, and Discourse will enable English speaking readers to have a fuller understanding of his remarkably ambitious intellectual project. – Michael S. Roth, President, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.Robert B. Williamson is Tutor Emeritus at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he continues to teach. He is co-author, with Alfred Mollin, of An Introduction to Ancient Greek (University Press of America) and the author of articles on Plato’s philosophy and Einstein’s early work on relativity theory.James H. Nichols, Jr. is Professor of Government and Dr. Jules L. Whitehill Professor of Humanism and Ethics at Claremont McKenna College, where he teaches political philosophy. Among his publications are Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De rerum natura of Lucretius, translations with interpretations of Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus, and most recently Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History.Table of ContentsPreface Attempt at an Updating of the Hegelian System of Knowledge INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEM OF KNOWLEDGE: THE CONCEPT AND TIME FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEM OF KNOWLEDGE: PSYCHOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION OF THE CONCEPT (after Aristotle) 1. The Concept and Notions2. Notions and Things in the Extended-duration of Empirical-Existence a. The General and the Particular a. The Particularity of Notions b. The Generality of Things g. The Perception of the Particular and the General d. Generality and Particularity of Notions and Things b. The Abstract and the Concrete a. The Concrete Character of Notions b. The Abstract Character of Things g. The Perception of the Concrete and the Abstract d. The Abstract and Concrete Character of Notions and Things c. Generalizing Abstraction and the Detachment of the hic et nunc a. The Difference of Notions and Things b. The Detachment from the hic et nunc g. Generalizing Abstraction 3. Notions, the Concept, and Time a. Notions and the Concept b. The Concept and Time SECOND INTRODUCTION TO THE SYSTEM OF KNOWLEDGE: LOGICAL INTRODUCTION OF TIME (after Plato) 1. Being as Such and the Being-of-which-one-speaks (Given-Being)2. Given-Being and Time a. Being-One and Eternity (after Parmenides) b. Being-Two and the Eternal (after Plato) c. Being-Three (the Tri-nity) and Spatio-temporality (after Hegel) 3. Time and the Concept Index

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Book Synopsis“The Analytic Thomist,” Rob Koons, delivered the 2021 Aquinas Lecture at the University of Dallas. Here he engages the possibility of a bridge between philosophy and metaphysics proper. Koons boldly lays out his position: without Aristotelian metaphysics, there is no Aristotelian philosophy of nature, and there is no philosophy of nature in Aristotle without acknowledging his natural science. His lecture thus challenges Thomists and their respective approaches to hylomorphism and their all too frequent quickness to discard it. (Koons lays down the gauntlet. if one denies hylomorphism there can be no transubstantiation!) A bonus addition to this volume in the Dallas lecture series is Koon's “Aristotle, god and the Quantum.”

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Book SynopsisPoint of Departure offers a practical metacognitive and transformational learning strategy for human surviving and thriving. Using five foundational and interactive Indigenous worldview beliefs that contrast sharply with our dominant worldview ones, everyone can reclaim the original instructions for living on Earth. Without the resulting change in consciousness that can emerge from this learning approach, no modern technologies can save us. The five foundational Indigenous precepts relate to a radically different understanding about: (1) Trance?based learning (2) Courage and Fearlessness (3) Community Oriented Self?Authorship (4) Sacred Communications (5) Nature as Ultimate Teacher.Trade ReviewFour Arrows provides a quintessential critique of how the collective human departure of modern society from “Indigenous Consciousness” has led to the current wholesale exploitation and destruction of “Indigenous Nature” . . . while providing the impetus for the urgency of a return to the “Indigenous Mind” as one of the true pathways for our future survival - Greg Cajete, Director of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico, Author of Native Science and Look to the Mountain.

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Book SynopsisPoint of Departure offers a practical metacognitive and transformational learning strategy for human surviving and thriving. Using five foundational and interactive Indigenous worldview beliefs that contrast sharply with our dominant worldview ones, everyone can reclaim the original instructions for living on Earth. Without the resulting change in consciousness that can emerge from this learning approach, no modern technologies can save us. The five foundational Indigenous precepts relate to a radically different understanding about: (1) Trance?based learning (2) Courage and Fearlessness (3) Community Oriented Self?Authorship (4) Sacred Communications (5) Nature as Ultimate Teacher.

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Book SynopsisThe Reason for all Existence endeavours to explain why there is existence, rather than nothingness, by dissecting the fundamental principles/concepts of all existence, such as infinity, absolute zero and the ideas of good and evil. Familiar, earthly examples of these concepts are used along with their basic descriptions, so that the reader can better see how these concepts work and relate to the entirety of existence. The Reason for all Existence should give individuals a clear idea of the reason why they exist at all, while aiding them to direct their life in a positive way.

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Book SynopsisAn ontological and epistemological framework and foundation for the psychological symptom 'neurosis'.

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Book SynopsisThe Algorithm of Creation is the last of Nicholas Hagger’s quartet on the unity of the universe and humankind, and follows The Universe and the Light (1993), The One and the Many (1999) and The New Philosophy of Universalism (2009). It offers an algebraic formula written out for him by Junzaburo Nishiwaki, Japan’s T.S. Eliot, in Tokyo in October 1965, that sums up the wisdom of the East: “+A + –A = 0.” Based on ancient Chinese thinking, yin (dark) + yang (light) = the Tao, it shows all opposites reconciled in the underlying unity of the One Void whose emptiness is also a fullness. During a dinner at a conference of leading scientists at Jesus College, Cambridge in September 1992, watched by Nobel physics prizewinner Roger Penrose, Hagger reversed the formula to 0 = +A + –A when he wrote down the maths for his view of the origin and creation of the universe and showed the first two particles emerging from the Void’s singularity, influenced by the 1992 discovery of ripples in the cosmic microwave background radiation and the Presocratic Anaximander of Miletus. In this work Hagger shows how this algebraic formula has worked as a universal algorithm, 0 = +A + –A = 0. Its many variations have acted as rules that have controlled the creation and development of the expanding universe, its evolution and the rise of human history, religion and science, and its ultimate fate. The formula is behind many of Hagger’s works, and his application of this algorithm to all human knowledge of the universe and all disciplines takes him to a first-ever Theory of Everything, which is set out at the end: the algorithm of Creation containing 100 mathematical symbols (reflecting all the variations) that can be summed up in the above algorithm. This startling achievement has been made possible by his Universalist cross-disciplinary approach which focuses on the fundamental oneness of the universe and humankind, and the unitive vision.

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Book SynopsisTime seems to flash by when we are enjoying ourselves, and slows to a crawl when we are bored. Why? Does time exist, or is it an illusion? Does it flow? Is it linear? How real are our memories? When is now? These are just some of the questions that Time To Tell asks in its foray into what time is for us, what it does to us and for us, and how we live and react to it in our daily lives. Digging down to the roots of our lived experience in the world, Time To Tell takes us through a journey replete with twists and turns and "aha!" moments. Challenging the obvious, the book asks us to look anew at our perspective of what we naturally take for granted. Rattling the comfort of instant satisfaction, of reality shows, celebrity worship and the self-glorification of the I-generation, Ronald Green, with panache and authority, takes us on a journey that allows us a new way of looking at ourselves in the world, and to act upon what we discover.

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Book SynopsisCreator and Creators starts from the point of Nothing/Everything and the cosmic Rhythm, and gradually includes and explains the esoteric and exoteric mechanisms that lead to manifestation of life as we know it. Through an analysis of personal experience and the synthesis of spiritual philosophy and modern discoveries in cosmology, quantum physics, and the holographic mechanisms of genetics and neurophysiology Creator and Creators develops a new definition of Matter and new explanations of the nature of Time, Gravitational Waves, and Dark Energy. The book also solves the argument between the creationists and evolutionists by providing a cyclic theory of Creation and Evolution.

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Book SynopsisThe human world is in a mess. The human mind is in a mess. And now the human species is threatening its own survival by its own inventions and by war. For thousands of years, human beings conducted a great debate about the human condition and human possibilities, about philosophy and society and law. In 1516, Thomas More, in his book Utopia, contributed to the ancient debate, at another time of profound transformation in the human world. In our own time, we have witnessed a collapse in intellectual life, and a collapse in the theory and practice of education. The old debate is, for all practical purposes, dead.In 2016, Philip Allott's Eutopia resumes the debate about the role of philosophy and society and law in making a better human future, responding to a human world that More could not have imagined. And he lets us hear the voices of some of those who contributed to the great debate in the past, voices that still resonate today.Trade Review'Allott's Eutopia is audaciously ambitious and unconventional in style and content. It seeks no less than to do for the 21st century what Thomas More's Utopia and Francis Bacon's Great Instauration did in the English Renaissance: To help bring about a transformation of human self-understanding, overcome fatalism and inertia ultimately grounded in mistaken ideas of the the human condition and the limits of human power, and become aware of the permanent possibility of making the human world into a ''place of happiness''.' --Mattias Kumm, New York University, School of Law'No international thinker today offers more profound insights, or offers more challenging questions, on the possibilities for law and philosophy to touch our lives and our world than does Philip Allott. A quarter of a century after publishing Eunomia, Allott unleashes an entirely original, magnificent, challenging and overwhelming book, one that asks us to confront fatalism and to imagine the possibility that thought and ideas have the power to enhance the future of the human.' --Philippe Sands QC, Professor of Laws, University College London, UK'What would happen if you decided to rethink the human condition from the ground up? If you spent a lifetime at it, taking along the works of the greatest minds who tried this before? You might conclude, with Philip Allott, that ''the human species will need a revolution -- a revolution in the mind -- to become what it could be.'' And that ''we have the power to transform the human world.'' Eutopia is the work of a singular mind, a heroically independent thinker who brings the full power of his synthetic intelligence and style to bear in this philosophical tour de force. Allott will entertain you, challenge you, educate you -- and you may end up changing the world!' --David Kennedy, Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law, Harvard Law SchoolTable of ContentsContents: Part I THE HUMAN CONDITION 1. Changing Reality by Changing Ideas. 2. The Human Condition Now. 3. Paradoxes of Being Human I 4. Paradoxes of Being Human II PART II HUMAN POWER 5. The Power of Memory 6. The Power of Imagination 7. The Power of Knowledge 8. The Power of Emotion PART III HUMAN WILL 9. New Philosophy: Human Flourishing through Self-understanding 10. New Law: Human Flourishing Through Self-ordering 11. New Society: Living the Good Life Together 12. From Istopia to Eutopia Index

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Book SynopsisThe Subject itself is the Subject of the Machine. What does it mean to be human? We live in a technological age, where rapid advances in personal tech and the science of Artificial Intelligence are challenging us in ways never before imagined. A book in two parts, The Universal Subject of Our Time begins with an exploration of 20th Century post-modernism's undermining of subjectivity with thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard and Althusser and continues with a description of the science wars, where physical realists challenged the post-modernists up to the 1990s when the intellectual conflict resulted in an uncompromising stand-off after the Sokal Hoax. In Part II the subject is resurrected by taking a look at arguments for machine intelligence and AI and also, from the perspective of physics, examines what subjectivity means, particularly in relation to black holes or black stars, and look to what lies ahead in the future, in terms of space exploration, Martian habitats and even the possibility of first contact with extra-terrestrials.

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Book SynopsisIf Levinas and Negarestani raised a child enchanted by the dark, then this is his debut. In this book, Rosen argues that current archaeological theoretic approaches are not up to the task of adequately theorizing exhumation in our present age of extinctions. Speculative Annihilationism attempts to “think thought’s extinction,” suggesting a new ontological ground for archaeology. Combining contemporary work in speculative philosophy, saprophytic dialectics, and Levinasian ethics, Rosen’s “putrefied-thought” explores themes of the unthought and unthinkable, anonymity, otherness, and meaninglessness so that archaeology can be granted a new basis, a new avenue of inquiry at its intersection with extinction.

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Book SynopsisIt's About You! integrates some of the most profound teachings from science, metaphysics, psychology, philosophy and spirituality into a set of experiential workbooks. The primary aim is to awaken the reader to their own personal intent and in so doing clarify the purpose of their life. Such knowledge equips us with the means to better manage those key areas within our lives - health, relationships, occupation and abundance, and begin living a more joyful existence. In this new, revised edition, Chris W.E. Johnson posits that when we know the totality of our Self – the fabulous resources of our Essence self, along with the foibles, fears and errant beliefs of our ego-self – we are in a much better position to free ourselves from the restraints that impede the full expression of the Self in the physical domain.

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Book SynopsisA Magical Mystery Ride through the Prism of History in a Search for the Answers to Humanity’s Highest Dreams. The Journey Across Forever is a powerful collection of writings detailing the author’s metaphysical insights and paranormal experiences over the decades as he traveled the world in a quest for truth and enlightenment. Topics under discussion include the profound mysteries of consciousness, precognition, karma, reincarnation, the “Phenomenon” (UAPs), the Dreamtime of the Aborigines, Hermeticism, alchemy and the ‘secret knowledge’, shamanism, psychotropics and the three forms of magic. Saalman reveals what the physicist, the mystic and all seekers of truth have in common and explains why climate change, the power of social media, the threat of “apocalyptic” politics and the nefarious appeal of the dark web are a spiritual challenge for each of us. Above all, The Journey Across Forever deeply explores why it is crucial that we heed the words, here and now, of those who have had a near-death experience if we genuinely believe in the reality of spiritual immortality and wish to make our way to higher dimensions upon our own exit from this planet. In the meantime, the author argues, a Brave New Aquarian Age of promise is ours for the making if we really want it and are prepared to do what it takes to secure it.

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Book SynopsisOur Eternal Existence takes the many disparate scientific, religious, and metaphysical principles into account and answers the questions: Who are we? Where are we? and Why are we here? In so doing, it provides a much-needed ethical philosophy to guide mankind - and a personal methodology to improve our lives.

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Book SynopsisRene Guenon is a major figure for anyone who recognises a need to rediscover the spiritual roots from which Western society has become so comprehensively alienated. Immersing himself in the search for spiritual truth, he chose Islam as the vehicle for his spiritual life. Settling in Egypt, he clarified and deepened our understanding of the teachings of traditional metaphysics, his central message being that there is at the source of all humanity's traditions a 'Primordial Tradition' -- a Universal Metaphysics which sets out the principles that underlie this Tradition. The truths it embodies are universal and unchanging, and form part of a unified body of higher knowledge which transcends the multiplicity of religious dogmas and philosophical systems that abound in Western society. He wrote about the need to transcend the formal and emotional aspect of religion in order to prepare ourselves for an understanding of 'pure metaphysics'. He explained how traditional societies achieved this, exploring the symbols used, in order to help individuals forward to levels of understanding which are otherwise inaccessible to minds blinkered by the limitations of the currently prevailing Western approach to existence and its meaning.Table of ContentsPART 1: THE PRIMORDIAL TRADITION AND RELIGION -- The Primordial Tradition; Religion; The Oriental Traditions; The Monotheistic Religions. PART II: THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY AND THE INTEGRAL BEING -- The Spiritual Journey; The Integral Being and its Multiple States. PART III: WESTERN SOCIETY AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERNITY -- Aspects of Western Society; Modernity; The Humanities; Psychology; Philosophy, Logic and Metaphysics; Mathematics and Geometry. PART IV: SYMBOLISM and SYMBOLS. Index.

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Book Synopsis'Dreaming humanity's future. There is nothing like the dream to create the future' - Victor Hugo. 'Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil' - James Allen. What is it we, as a human race, desire in the world? What dreams do we have to shape our future? Over 100 artists, activists, authors, educators, speakers, environmentalists, scientists, young entrepreneurs, visionaries, and Elders were asked for the following: A written description of your perfect world, or your dream world. This can be one sentence or many pages; a poem or researched essay. Your dream world can be as fantastic and marvelous as you want it to be. There are no rules, no right or wrong descriptions, only the world of your imagination and the world of your dreams.Trade Reviewchange, and here we have wise guidance for the way forward. (Nowick Gray, editor, Alternative Culture Magazine, http://alternativeculture.com) This book gives hope that many powerful dreamers, from diverse traditions and cultures, are even now dreaming into being a world where all can thrive. (Andrea de Michaelis, Publisher, Horizons Magazine, FL)

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Book SynopsisAn anthology of the most important and representative passages in Hagger's innovatory literary, philosophical and historical writings, chosen by the author.

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Book SynopsisIn The New Philosophy of Universalism Nicholas Hagger outlined a new philosophy that restates the order within the universe, the oneness of humankind and an infinite Reality perceived as Light; and its applications in many disciplines, including literature. In this work of literary Universalism which carries forward the thinking in T.S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' and other essays, Hagger traces the fundamental theme of world literature, which has alternating metaphysical and secular aspects: a quest for Reality and immortality; and condemnation of social vices in relation to an implied virtue. Since classical times these two antithetical traditions have periodically been synthesised by Universalists. Hagger sets out the world Universalist literary tradition: the writers who from ancient times have based their work on the fundamental Universalist theme. These can be found in the Graeco-Roman world, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, in the Baroque Age, in the Neoclassical, Romantic Victorian and Modernist periods, and in the modern time. He demonstrates that the Universalist sensibility is a synthesis of the metaphysical and secular traditions, and a combination of the Romantic inspired imagination (the inner faculty by which Romantic poets approached the Light) and the Neoclassical imitative approach to literature which emphasizes social order and proportion, a combination found in the Baroque time of the Metaphysical poets, and in Victorian and Modernist literature. Universalists express their cross-disciplinary sensibility in literary epic, as did Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton, and in a number of genres within literature - and in history and philosophy. Universalist historians claim that every civilisation is nourished by a metaphysical vision that is expressed in its art, and when it declines secular, materialist writings lose contact with its central vision. As Universalist literary works restate the order within the universe, reveal metaphysical Being and restore the vision of Reality, Hagger excitingly argues that the Universalist sensibility renews Western civilisation's health. Literary Universalism is a movement that revives the metaphysical outlook and combines it with the secular, materialistic approach to literature that has predominated in recent times. It can carry out a revolution in thought and culture and offer a new direction in contemporary literature. This work conveys Universalism's impact on literature, and should be read by all who have concerns about the sickness and decline of contemporary European/Western culture.Trade ReviewHe hits a pace, a tilt, that really carries the reader along...Everything comes as a subordinate clause to his dramatic momentum, a hand waving out of the express train window. (Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate)

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Book SynopsisThe Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suarez (1548-1617) was an eminent Catholic philosopher-theologian whose 'Disputations Metaphysicae' were first published in Spain in 1597 and came to be widley studied throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The 'Disputions Metaphysicae' not only constituted the high point of sixteenth-century scholasic metaphysics but exercised a great influence on early modern philosophers such as Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz. This is the first time that Disputations 20-22 have been translated into English. These disputations, which deal with the divine actions of creation, conservation, and concurrence,form the last half of Suarez's treatment of efficient causality. The present work completes thus Freddoso's translation of Suarez's full account of efficient causality in the 'Disputations Metaphysicae.' In his lengthy introduction, Freddoso situates the 'Disputationes Metaphysicae' within their proper intellectual context, provides a basic introduction to scholastic ontology and treatments of efficient causality, and traces the main lines of argument proposed by Suarez in Disputations 20-22.Trade Review"Freddoso is medieval philosphy's best and most prolific translator. Here, as in his earlier works, the English is both clear and faithful to the original. The translation is literal enough to satisfy philosophers, but not so ploddingly literal as to wear down the reader. Frequent footnotes help make sense of obscure references and tangled arguments. In comparing forty pages of the translation with the original Latin I was unable to find a single significant mistake, omission, or even questionable rendering" - 'The Philisophical Review' "[This serves] to indicate the brilliance of the translators at understanding the intricacies and subtleties of medieval scholastic Latin, and their sensitivity to modern readers' needs and problems." - 'The Thomist' "A brilliant piece of scholarship... Freddoso's introduction and notes are a 'tour de force'." - 'Philosophical Review' "Feddoso's translation and introduction are, quite simply, splendid pieces of work." - 'International Philosophical Quarterly'"Table of Contentspreface, intro., names index, subject index, bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe problem of the one and the many is central to ancient Greek philosophy, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to Aristotle’s treatment of it in the Metaphysics. This omission is all the more surprising because the Metaphysics is one of our principal sources for thinking that the problem is central and for the views of other ancient philosophers on it.The Central Books of the Metaphysics are widely recognized as the most difficult portion of a most difficult work. Halper uses the problem of the one and the many as a lens through which to examine the Central Books. What he sees is an extraordinary degree of doctrinal cogency and argumentative coherence in a work that almost everyone else supposes to be some sort of patchwork. Rather than trying to elucidate Aristotle’s doctrines—most of which have little explicitly to do with the problem, Halper holds that the problem of the one and the many, in various formulations, is the key problematic from which Aristotle begins and with which he constructs his arguments.Thus, exploring the problem of the one and the many turns out to be a way to reconstruct Aristotle’s arguments in the Metaphysics. Armed with the arguments, Halper is able to see Aristotle’s characteristic doctrines as conclusions. These latter are, for the most part, supported by showing that they resolve otherwise insoluble problems. Moreover, having Aristotle’s arguments enables Halper to delimit those doctrines and to resolve the apparent contradiction in Aristotle’s account of primary ousia, the classic problem of the Central Books. Although there is no way to make the Metaphysics easy, this very thorough treatment of the text succeeds in making it surprisingly intelligible.Halper's One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics: The Central Books was originally published in 1989 by Ohio State University Press. The reprint of this work includes a new Introduction by the author.Further, The Central Books is part of a Trilogy whose two other as of yet unpublished works Alpha—Delta and Iota—Nu will be released by Parmenides Publishing in 2008 and in 2014 respectively.Trade ReviewAs the body of the text consists in a close textual reading of books 6–9 of the Metaphysics, not every reader was able to persevere to the end, and the new introduction greatly facilitates an understanding of the author’s claims and an appreciation of his method. . . No student of these texts should miss this commentary"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisThis translation is the result of a collaboration between Arnold Hermann and Dr. Sylvana Chrysakopoulou. Heeding the challenge of balancing intelligibility with faithfulness—while maintaining sufficient consistency to allow the discernment of technical terms—great pains have been taken to secure both accuracy and accessibility. In his Foreword, Douglas Hedley gives an insightful account of the way the Parmenides was received by different cultures and philosophical schools throughout the centuries to the present day.Hermann’s Introduction, aimed at first time readers and professional interpreters alike, offers an overview of the most noted philosophical problems addressed in the dialogue, and of its historical background. In view of the fact that certain individual issues have been exhaustively explored by generations of scholars, Hermann chooses to focus also on subjects that have at times been passed over, or trivialized: the debt the dialogue may owe to the works of earlier thinkers, or whether it constitutes a response to certain critics of the Theory of Forms; as for the Theory itself, whether it is bolstered or superseded by the dialogue’s conclusions, or whether there is such a thing as a “simple,” unparticipated Form, and if there is, why it cannot be the subject of an account; also, the issue of the “interweaving of Forms,” (the Sophist) is discussed, in light of its possible relevance to the Second Part of the Parmenides. Finally, Hermann provides an overview with a listing and summaries of the individual conclusions to each of the eight central arguments of the dialgoue’s Second Part (plus Coda).Trade ReviewIn his 70-page introduction, Arnold Hermann himself is somewhat more restrained. He sees the First Part of the dialogue as targeting ‘naive misreadings’ (15) of the Theory of Forms, and the Second Part as ‘a successful attempt to illuminate the difficulties raised by the First’ (17). For instance (to take an easy example), a form is ‘itself by itself’, and such simplicity or straightforwardness is explored in Argument I of the Second Part. Or again, since Forms have to interweave, they can be seen as complex, such as the ‘One Being’ of Argument II. These are not original lines of thought, but the introduction well conveys the author's enthusiasm for a dialogue that strikes many as rather dry. Throughout, Hermann corroborates his views by drawing connections with the thought of the Parmenides and Zeno, and other Platonic passages"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisEdward Halper’s three volume One and Many in Aristotle’s 'Metaphysics' contends that Aristotle argues for his central metaphysical doctrines by showing that they alone resolve various versions of what is known as “the problem of the one and the many.” The present volume, Alpha–Delta, argues that these books constitute the first stage of Aristotle’s inquiry, his case for the existence of metaphysics. Halper shows that the possibility of metaphysics turns on its having a subject matter with a sufficient degree of unity to be known by one science. Although books Alpha–Delta address the problem that occupied Aristotle’s predecessors, they also prepare the way for—and are consistent with—the second stage, the inquiry into principles in the central books. Along the way Halper argues for unique interpretations of “being qua being,” the source of the aporiai, the method of “saving the phenomena,” “said in many ways,” the principle of non-contradiction, and the significance of book Delta.Trade ReviewThis book deserves to become a kind of reference point interpretation for contemporary Scholarship precisely because it is a comprehensive reading that reasserts the integrity of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Halper attends meticulously but not tediously to Aristotle's text, and he defends a plausible reading that remains philosophically rich while preserving Aristotle from confusion and contradiction"". - Review of Metaphysics

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Book SynopsisThe much-anticipated anthology on Plato’s Timaeus—Plato’s singular dialogue on the creation of the universe, the nature of the physical world, and the place of persons in the cosmos—examining all dimensions of one of the most important books in Western Civilization: its philosophy, cosmology, science, and ethics, its literary aspects and reception. Contributions come from leading scholars in their respective fields, including Sir Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics. Parts of or earlier versions of these papers were first presented at the Timaeus Conference, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in September of 2007.To this day, Plato’s Timaeus grounds the form of ethical and political thinking called Natural Law—the view that there are norms in nature that provide the patterns for our actions and ground the objectivity of human values. Beyond the intellectual content of the dialogue’s core, its literary frame is also the source of the myth of Atlantis, giving the West the concept of the “lost world.”From Platonic space to Presocratic vortices, from Philosopher-Kings to Craftsman-Gods and from modern physics to the myth of Atlantis, One Book, The Whole Universe presents in one volume the most up-to-date and penetrating scholarship on Plato’s Timaeus by some of the greatest minds alive today.Trade ReviewOne Book, The Whole Universe is remarkably thorough in the treatment of its chosen text (a thesis that can be confirmed by the index locorum) and contains precisely the sort of articles that one would want and expect in a scholarly collection on the Timaeus. There is scarcely a Timaean topic of traditional interest to scholars that is not mentioned or even given a detailed explanation"". - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

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Book SynopsisHow was the universe created, and what is our place within it? These are the questions at the heart of Plotinus’ Against the Gnostics. For the Gnostics, the universe came into being as a result of the soul’s fall from intelligible reality—it is the evil outcome of a botched creation. Plotinus challenges this, and insists that the soul’s creation of the world is the necessary consequence of its contemplation of the ideal forms. While the Gnostics claim to despise the visible universe, Plotinus argues that such contempt displays their ignorance of the higher realities of which the cosmos is a beautiful image.Against the Gnostics is a polemical text. It aims to show the superiority of Plotinus’ philosophy over that of his Gnostic rivals, and poses unique challenges: Plotinus nowhere identifies his opponents by name, he does not set out their doctrines in any great detail, and his arguments are frequently elliptical. The detailed commentary provides a guide through these difficulties, making Plotinus’ meandering train of thought in this important treatise accessible to the reader.

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Book SynopsisThe term dunamis (potentiality) entered into the philosophical vocabulary with Plato, but it was with Aristotle that it acquired, together with energeia (actuality), the strong technical meaning that the two terms have maintained, with variations, throughout subsequent philosophical tradition.The significance of the notions of actuality and potentiality in Plotinus’ thought can hardly be overstated. Throughout the Enneads, they are crucial to understanding the specific causality of intelligible realities and the relation of participation between intelligible and sensible realms.In Ennead II.5, Plotinus for the first time provides a systematic clarification of his peculiar use of these terms, through a sustained revision of Aristotle’s own elaboration of the topic and of his terminology. The treatise discusses the different meanings of potentiality and actuality as well as the way each of them applies or does not apply to the sensible realm, to the intelligible realm, and to matter.While the structure of the text unfolds in a coherent and cohesive manner, Plotinus’ writing in this treatise is dense and at times dry in its technicality. The detailed commentary guides the reader step by step, making an otherwise particularly difficult text accessible. Trade ReviewThis text is difficult due to Plotinus’ dense style. Based on the inclusion of important research in recent years, such as that of Narbonne and Kalligas, and on the author’s own contributions, Cinzia Arruzza’s new English translation is an improvement compared with the older ones. And her clear commentary not only sheds light upon the difficult text, but also offers innovative investigation of and answers to the controversial problems in this treatise"". - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisPlotinus’ Ennead V.8, originally part of a single work (with III.8, V.5, and II.9), provides the foundation for a positive view of the universe as an image of divine beauty against the Gnostic rejection of the world. Although it emphasizes the cosmic dimension of beauty, it is, as are most treatises of Plotinus, concerned with the individual soul. The notion that the artist has within him an idea of beauty that derives directly from the intelligible world in fact coincides with his theory that each one of us has access to Intellect through his or her own intellect. It is the exploitation of this theme that forms the central dynamic of the treatise, with its stress on our ability to ""see"" and be one with the intelligible world and its beauty.

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.4.30–45 and IV.5 retrieves the unity in this last section of Plotinus’ treatise on Problems concerning the Soul. Combining translation with commentary, Gurtler enhances both the accuracy of the translation and the recovery of Plotinus’ often unsuspected originality. This is especially true for IV.5, where previous translations fail to convey the concise nature of his argument against both the Aristotelian and Platonic theories of vision.Plato and Aristotle each claim that vision depends on the light between the eye and the object, but Plotinus presents evidence that this is not the case and develops a novel theory of light as a second activity that moves from source to object directly, even arguing that color is in the light itself rather than merely a quality of the object. This theory of vision, in turn, depends on the nature of sympathy developed especially in IV.4.30–45, where Plotinus shows how action at a distance is both possible and necessary for the proper unity in diversity of the sensible cosmos.Trade ReviewIn this third and last part of ‘Problems Concerning the Soul’, Plotinus takes up three final problems or aporiai; insights from the first two parts are used to attack the popularly-credited influence of the planets on human enterprises, and the attendant problem of their memory and cooperation with evil"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisPlotinus was much exercised by Plato's doctrines of the soul. In this treatise, at chapter 1 line 27, he talks of "the divine Plato, who has said in many places in his works many noble things about the soul and its arrival here, so that we can hope for some clarity from him. So what does the philosopher say? It is clear that he does not always speak with sufficient consistency for us to make out his intentions with any ease." The issue in this treatise is one that has puzzled students of Plato from ancient to modern times—and is indeed a popular topic for undergraduate essays even today: Why should the philosopher, who has ascended through a long and painful process of dialectic to "assimilation to the divine," ever descend back into the body? Plotinus himself is said by Porphyry to have attained such a state of other-worldly transcendence on at least four occasions during his lifetime, so this was a very real and personal issue for him. In this treatise we see him grappling with it.Trade Review"This volume makes an excellent start to the series. Barrie Fleet's translation is both accurate and readable. His scholarly and well-informed commentary is particularly valuable in demonstrating how Plotinus' views on the soul arise from the interpretation of Plato." Anne SheppardProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyRoyal Holloway, University of London, UK "The first volume of a new series of translations and commentaries, edited by John Dillon and Andrew Smith, is devoted to Enn IV.8. We are in the capable hands of Barrie Fleet, author of an important previous study on Enn III.6...Fleet's introduction to the treatise and his commentary will be especially helpful to readers coming to Plotinus for the first time ...[He] provides extensive discussion of the Platonic passages that inspired Plotinus; an approach that fits IV.8 especially well, since this treatise is unusually explicit in its doxographical use of Plato. Overall the volume is a promising beginning to a new series that will provide an English readership with something akin to the single-treatise commentaries and translations published by Cerf in France." Peter AdamsonProfessor of Ancient and Medieval PhilosophyKing's College London, UK "Enn. IV 8 is one of Plotinus' most fascinating essays. It begins by addressing what for ancient Platonism was a very traditional topic, namely the descent of the soul, and examines it in the light of his own personal experience, while also taking into account the doctrines of previous thinkers including Plato and Aristotle. It concludes by expounding a radically novel view according to which no real descent occurs after all. This involves a fundamental reassessment of the status of the soul and its position in the universe and, furthermore, a new understanding of its association with the body and with sensible reality as a whole. Fleet's presentation is highly readable and informative, and provides an excellent introduction to Plotinus' views on man and his relation to the cosmos." Paul KalligasProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Athens, Greece "A clear and accurate translation of one of Plotinus' first and more significant writings, accompanied by a helpful commentary for the English-speaking reader." Dominic O'MearaProfessor EmeritusChair of Metaphysics and Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Fribourg, SwitzerlandTable of ContentsIntroduction: Achilles' Shield; The Fall; The Ambassadors of Death; Horse & Rider; The Silence of Words; The Structure of Narrative; The Chaos of Colors & the Order of Words; The Fallen Angel & the Survivor's Burning Eye; Epilogue: Ekphrasis, Mimesis & the Difference between Word & Image; Index.

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.7 is a very early treatise (second according to Porphyry’s chronological table), and unlike the many treatises devoted to attempts at untangling various issues Plotinus found problematic in Plato’s thinking, this one presents the teachings of the other main schools current in Plotinus’ day: the Stoics, Epicureans, Pythagoreans, and Peripatetics, all of whom presented soul as something material or as contingent upon material soul, and so as being neither truly immortal nor imperishable.It includes observations on many mainly Stoic doctrines on perception, memory, sensation, thought, virtue, powers of material bodies, mixture and reproduction (Chapters 1–83); on Pythagorean attunement (84); and on Peripatetic entelechy (85). In Chapters 9–10 Plotinus presents, in broad terms, Plato’s doctrines on soul’s immortality—mainly that of the individual soul, but a fortiori that of the soul of the cosmos. These chapters offer some of Plotinus’ most powerful prose.He is not concerned to prove the soul’s immortality—that was an uncontroversial tenet of Platonism, to be taken for granted. In this treatise Plotinus is laying down the in­disputable foundations for his later writings.

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