Philosophy Books

Book SynopsisPhilosophical Adventures is a clear, concise introduction to philosophy, covering an engaging set of topics: reasoning, free will, religious belief, ethics, well-being, politics, and education. Stylishly written and cogently argued, the book engages readers by using compelling examples to make complex ideas accessible. The book’s distinctive and engaging content provides a welcoming path to understanding the appeal of philosophical inquiry. Trade Review“Philosophical Adventures is a superb introduction to philosophy. Writing in a clear and engaging style, Steven Cahn deftly introduces us to the field’s methods and some of its core concerns. His topics (which include human free will, the existence of God, the nature of morality, and the value of democracy) are ones we must address to develop an informed understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. A master teacher, he defines the issues, displays their importance, and guides us through the associated debates. Anyone looking to understand philosophy—or, for that matter, themselves—would do well to read this book.” — Peter Markie, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Missouri“Philosophical Adventures introduces new readers of philosophy to topics including necessary and sufficient conditions, religious commitment, and democracy. It’s worth the price for the first thirty pages alone, which can explain the basics of reasoning in under an hour. Exceptionally written books like this one perform a valuable social and disciplinary service by putting everything philosophers wonder about into one accessible, affordable, hundred-page volume.” — Alexandra Bradner, Department of Philosophy, Kenyon College“True to its title, this book infuses readers with the conviction that philosophy is an adventure of the mind, one that often engages the heart. Thanks to Cahn’s uncommonly crisp and lucid prose, they come to appreciate the perplexity that drives philosophical reflection, the variety of routes out of that perplexity, and the relevance of philosophical problems to living.” — David Shatz, Ronald P. Stanton University Professor of Philosophy, Ethics, and Religious Thought, Yeshiva UniversityTable of Contents Preface Part I: Reasoning 1: The Elements of Argument 2. Necessary and Sufficient Conditions 3: Dummy Hypotheses Part II: Free Will 4: Determinism and Freedom 5: Random Choices Part III: Religious Belief 6: Philosophical Proofs and Religious Commitment 7: The Theodicy Trap 8: Religion Without God Part IV: Ethics 9: Moral Judgments 10: Moral Principles 11: Moral Puzzles Part V: Well Being 12: Living Well 13: Choosing the Experience Machine Part VI: Society 14: The Case for Democracy 15: The Content of a Liberal Education

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis innovative book concentrates on the important distinction between philosophy of medicine and medical philosophy, by expanding the focus from knowing that of the first term to the knowing how of the latter. Thus, the idea of patient and provider self-discovery becomes integral part, method, and strategy at the basis of therapeutic treatment. Among the most important contributions of this volume, the definition of Central Medicine, overcoming the dichotomy Western-Eastern medicine and Traditional-Integrative approaches, is presented under the lenses of hermeneutics, with particular regards to neurosciences, psychiatry, and psychology. Evidence-Based and Patient-Centred Medicine are analysed within the debate on placebo and non-specific effects. Furthermore, the clinical research presented in the appendix investigates the patient-doctor relationship, and the interactive nature of human relationships in general, including environment, personal beliefs, and perspectives on lifes meaning and purpose. Tomasis research covers neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and medicine. In this book, a wide array of questions and answers pertaining to these areas is presented in a clear, readable, and detailed way, satisfying the needs of professionals, students, and anyone who enjoys the exploration of the complexity of human mind, brain, and heart.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe image of the medieval and Renaissance demon attracts the interest of historians, philosophers, anthropologists, and many other scholars because of its huge impact on significant social and political phenomena and because of its relation to many philosophical and intellectual movements. Nevertheless, such researches are focused predominantly on the Western evil spirit. Its Byzantine colleague', on the other hand, has been somehow neglected, even though Byzantinology is at least a century-old field of research. This book attempts to shed light on a subject which has not been previously in the focus of such exhaustive research. The image of the demon will be presented in a very different and much more obscure epoque, for which the main sources are numerous, but not so well-known. The so-called Byzantine Dark centuries' are marked by political and social instability and theological crises. Nevertheless, during these troubled centuries one literary genre flourished. The Lives of the Sai

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow can literature engage readers and speak to matters of concern, inspire attachments, weave affiliations, or forge collectives? How can literature be useful to readers and in society and what are the dynamics between the actors involved? These are some of the questions that have been explored in the research project Uses of Literature The Social Dimensions of Literature, which took place at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) from 2016 to 2021 under the guidance of Niels Bohr Professor Rita Felski. This journalistic report highlights the most important insights, discussions, and results that have emerged from the five years of collaborative research at SDU through interviews with more than twenty scholars. The research presented in this publication covers topics such as narrative medicine, new sociologies of literature, literary perspectives on love, gender and recognition, new approaches to teaching, as well as precarity and the social dimensions of literature. The report aims to open up the rich portfolio of research that has been conducted at SDU and make it available to other scholars as well as actors outside of academia, such as teachers, librarians, and readers. Both the report and the research project have been funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book discusses the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset, separate from physical entities, that can enable us to understand and/or change the world. It provides a thorough treatment of knowledge, one that is free of ideological and philosophical preconceptions, and which relies exclusively on concepts and principles from the theory of computing and logic. It starts with an introduction to knowledge as truthful and useful information, and its development and management by computers and humans. It analyses the relationship between computational processes and physical phenomena, as well as the processes of knowledge production and application by humans and computers. In turn, the book presents autonomous systems that are called upon to replace humans in complex operations as a step toward strong AI, and discusses the risks – real or hypothetical – of the careless use of these systems. It compares human and machine intelligence, attempting to answer the question of whether and to what extent computers, as they stand today, can approach human-level situation awareness and decision-making. Lastly, the book explains the functioning of individual consciousness as an autonomous system that manages short- and long-term objectives on the basis of value criteria and accumulated knowledge. It discusses how individual values are shaped in society and the role of institutions in fostering and maintaining a common set of values for strengthening social cohesion. The book differs from books on the philosophy of science in many respects, e.g. by considering knowledge in its multiple facets and degrees of validity and truthfulness. It follows the dualist tradition of logicians, emphasizing the importance of logic and language and considering an abstract concept of information very different from the one used in the physical sciences. From this perspective, it levels some hopefully well-founded criticism at approaches that consider information and knowledge as nothing more than the emergent properties of physical phenomena. The book strikes a balance between popular books that sidestep fundamental issues and focus on sensationalism, and scientific or philosophical books that are not accessible to non-experts. As such, it is intended for a broad audience interested in the role of knowledge as a driver for change and development, and as a common good whose production and application could shape the future of humanity.Trade Review​In Understanding and Changing the World: From Information to Knowledge and Intelligence, Joseph Sifakis (a 2007 Turing Award recipient) amasses a lifetime of knowledge as a deep thinker and effective practitioner of computer science—indeed, collecting a civilization’s wisdom—to provide a valuable framework that is rooted in the philosophy of science and society."Akash Deshpande, SIAM News, https://sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/intelligence-whence-and-whitherTable of Contents1. Introduction.- Part I For a Gnoseological View of the World.- 2. Fundamental Questions about Knowledge.- 3. Information and Knowledge.- 4. The Development and Application of Knowledge.- Part II Computing, Knowledge and Intelligence.- 5. Physical Phenomena and Computational Processes.- 6. Human vs Artificial Intelligence.- Part III Consciousness and Society.- 7. Consciousness.- 8. Value Systems and Society.- 9. Epilogue.- Index.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisVoltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, first published in 1764, is a series of short, radical essays - alphabetically arranged - that form a brilliant and bitter analysis of the social and religious conventions that then dominated eighteenth-century French thought. One of the masterpieces of the Enlightenment, this enormously influential work of sardonic wit - more a collection of essays arranged alphabetically, than a conventional dictionary - considers such diverse subjects as Abraham and Atheism, Faith and Freedom of Thought, Miracles and Moses. Repeatedly condemned by civil and religious authorities, Voltaire's work argues passionately for the cause of reason and justice, and criticizes Christian theology and contemporary attitudes towards war and society - and claims, as he regards the world around him: 'common sense is not so common'.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA concise, reader-friendly overview of pragmatism, the most influential school of American philosophical thought.Pragmatism, America’s homegrown philosophy, has been a major intellectual movement for over a century. Unlike its rivals, it reaches well beyond the confines of philosophy into concerns and disciplines as diverse as religion, politics, science, and culture. In this concise, engagingly written overview, John R. Shook describes pragmatism’s origins, concepts, and continuing global relevance and appeal. With attention to the movement’s original thinkers—Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead—as well as its contemporary proponents, he explains how pragmatism thinks about what is real, what can be known, and what minds are doing. And because of pragmatism’s far-reaching impact, Shook shows how its views on reality, truth, knowledge, and cognition coordinate with its approaches to agency, social

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The World and Us, Roberto Mangabeira Unger sets out to reinvent philosophy. His central theme is our transcendence - everything in our existence points beyond itself - and its relation to our finitude: everything that surrounds us, and we ourselves, are flawed and ephemeral. He asks how we can live so that we die only once, instead of dying many small deaths; how we can breathe new life and new meaning into the revolutionary movement that has aroused humanity for the last three centuries, but that is now weakened and disoriented; and how we can make sense of ourselves without claiming for human beings a miraculous exception to the general regime of nature. For Unger, philosophy must be the mind on fire, insisting on our prerogative to speak to what matters most.From this perspective, he redefines each of the traditional parts of philosophy, from ontology and epistemology to ethics and politics. He turns moral philosophy into an exploration of the contest between the t

Read more less

Book SynopsisAxel Honneth has been instrumental in advancing the work of the Frankfurt School of critical theorists. His essays, collected here, address the possibilities of continuing this tradition through radically changed theoretical and social conditions.Trade ReviewThis book is welcome and needed; I highly recommend it to all those interested in social justice. It offers a sophisticated, exceptionally well-crafted answer to a highly pertinent question: what social scientific criteria are there for making normative judgments about why and how Western civilization should change? -- Ronjon Paul Datta * Studies in Social Justice *This volume is a significant contribution to the debates over the history of the Frankfurt School and the contemporary relevance of critical social theory. Axel Honneth’s work provides a subtle reading of history that is less concerned with putting its products in their place—though he does do that in an exemplary fashion—than in highlighting what is living and vibrant in those products for contemporary thought. -- Christopher F. Zurn, University of Massachusetts BostonThese essays reflect a deep familiarity with each individual author while also serving to advance the particular approach characterizing Axel Honneth’s work: a focus on the theme of suffering and moral struggle as the point of departure for a more ambitious, ‘reconstructive’ form of social criticism. As such, this volume makes a very significant contribution to the continuing relevance of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School for contemporary forms of social criticism. -- Kenneth Baynes, Syracuse UniversityTable of ContentsPreface1. The Irreducibility of Progress: Kant's Account of the Relationship Between Morality and History2. A Social Pathology of Reason: On the Intellectual Legacy of Critical Theory3. Reconstructive Social Criticism with a Genealogical Proviso: On the Idea of "Critique" in the Frankfurt School4. A Physiognomy of the Capitalist Form of Life: A Sketch of Adorno's Social Theory5. Performing Justice: Adorno's Introduction to Negative Dialectics6. Saving the Sacred with a Philosophy of History: On Benjamin's "Critique of Violence"7. Appropriating Freedom: Freud's Conception of Individual Self-Relation8. "Anxiety and Politics": The Strengths and Weaknesses of Franz Neumann's Diagnosis of a Social Pathology9. Democracy and Inner Freedom: Alexander Mitscherlich's Contribution to Critical Social Theory10. Dissonances of Communicative Reason: Albrecht Wellmer and Critical TheoryAppendix: Idiosyncrasy as a Tool of Knowledge: Social Criticism in the Age of the Normalized IntellectualNotesBibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn excellent book that deserves wide readership. -- Marc Bekoff, editor of Ignoring Nature No More: The Case For Compassionate Conservation I love this book. Thom van Dooren's thorough, detailed, and calmly passionate scholarship adds immensely to my understanding of caring, science, and justice, and conditions for recuperation that take multispecies flourishing seriously. He is a leader in learning to learn without the tools of human exceptionalism, attuned to the nuances and specificities of situated worlds, including human worlds-in-relation with other critters. -- Donna Haraway, author of When Species Meet In this wise and fascinating book, van Dooren takes us into the fleshy, biosocial, and ethical consequences of extinction. His lively stories of five bird species open worlds-both avian and human-of care, dedication, and the most ardent commitment. By developing a deeper understanding of species as intergenerational and interspecies achievements, van Dooren helps us rethink both loss and conservation. Flight Ways is a profoundly realized exploration of why extinction matters, and how we may respond. -- Deborah Bird Rose, author of Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction Haunting, beautiful, and important: Flight Ways is extraordinary. This is ethnographic storytelling at its very best, and it carries the environmental humanities to new heights. You will never look at a bird in the same way again. -- Anna Tsing, University of California, Santa Cruz Flight Ways recovers a way of responding ethically to extinction. van Dooren's scientifically-informed case studies of particular bird species facing extinction give the lie to the trope of "the last one" by framing stories of the "distinct unraveling of ways of life" that had evolved over millions of years and whose passings are unevenly experienced as tragedies. Informative, heartbreaking, and deeply inspiring, his book serves as a compelling model for how animal studies scholarship can move beyond false competitions of individuals and populations to engage with the real problems of sustaining life in multispecies communities. -- Susan McHugh, author of Animal Stories: Narrating across Species Lines and Dog A magnificent, sensitive, and marvelously intelligent book that tells stories of extinction while reinspiring us with life and curiosity. Every page teaches us something about other forms and ways of life, makes us think differently or more deeply than we have been in the habit of thinking, and helps us to do so in company with the beings of other species. Van Dooren teaches us that to care passionately can be a weapon of resistance against the forces of destruction. -- Vinciane Despret, University of Liege Thom van Dooren's book... blends philosophy with the natural sciences in his discussion of the cultural and ethical significance of modern-day extinctions. Birds are the focus of this lovely book and readers are treated to beautiful prose about what it means to the birds themselves and to us to lose these amazing beings. Psychology Today Masterful... [a] thought-provoking book and essential reading for those who seek to avert the sixth mass extinction. It makes the case, eloquently and convincingly, for greater attention to scientifically-informed narratives... Biological Conservation Engaging... CHOICE A novel, thought-provoking, and deeply moving analysis of species extinction from the perspective of five different bird species The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory A very valuable book that makes an important (and affective) intervention in existing conceptual debates. SomatosphereTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Telling Lively Stories at the Edge of Extinction 1. Fledging Albatrosses: Flight Ways and Wasted Generations 2. Circling Vultures: Life and Death at the Dull Edge of Extinction 3. Urban Penguins: Stories for Lost Places 4. Breeding Cranes: The Violent-Care of Captive Life 5. Mourning Crows: Grief in a Shared World Epilogue: A Call for Stories Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHannah Arendt, Herbert Marcuse, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Edward Said each steered major intellectual and political schools of thought in American political discourse after World War II, yet none of them was American. Intimate Strangers rereads these thinkers to reconsider ideas of citizenship, universalism, and belonging.Trade ReviewRitivoi lends her lucid, careful, well balanced analysis to a topic to which our years of heightened suspicion concede heightened relevance. She offers a wealth of material on the American, German, Russian and Palestinian historical and cultural contexts in a mix organized according to the variety of Arendt, Marcuse, Solzhenitsyn, and Said's stranger personae. I would have titled this book Hannah and Her Others, had I written it. But I have not. -- Calin-Andrei Mihailescu, University of Western OntarioAndreea Ritivoi provides a combination of poignant biography with insightful analysis of how the rhetorical strategy of the stranger persona reveals the tightrope that we walk when we converse in the public sphere with those who are part of a social configuration that we enter from the outside. The insight she provides into this insider/outsider relation is bolstered by the rigor and concreteness of her analysis of the public rhetoric of four prominent immigrant intellectuals during their sojourn in the U.S. just before and after the Second World War. -- Fred Evans, Duquesne UniversityThis book is important. It is ambitious, thorough and sensitively written by one whom herself is an intimate stranger in America. It is about the discourse of foreign intellectuals and their receptions. Intimate Strangers highlights the diverse stories of four iconic figures--Hannah Arendt, Herbert Marcuse, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Edward Said--and how their "stranger personas" were ambivalently received in America. It says as much about American culture as it does about "foreign" intellectuals. This book is a "must-read" for anyone interested in the politics and challenges of cultural identity. -- Michael Krausz, author of Oneness and the Displacement of Self: Dialogues on Self-RealizationA superb endeavor to understand the thorny dialectics of uprootedness and the reinvention of intellectuals forced into exile by the ideological follies of the twentieth century. This book is not only a major achievement in intellectual history but also a vibrant invitation to empathy, lucidity, and moral clarity. -- Vladimir Tismaneanu, author of The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth CenturyA finely argued contribution to the discussion of immigration. * Kirkus Reviews *Unusual and illuminating... Essential reading for students of literature, philosophy, and post-World War II American intellectual history. * Library Journal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future for achieving emancipatory social goals.Trade ReviewAmy Allen has performed the long-overdue task of pulling contemporary Frankfurt School theory into the light that postcolonial theory sheds upon its quietude about imperialism and colonialism, its insufficient appreciation of global inequality and differences, and its fetishism and purification of European modernity. While honoring the power of the School's theoretical foundations and insights, she stages a steady and profound encounter with its worldly Others-an encounter that cannot be dismissed. -- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley In this courageous and path-breaking text, Allen challenges critical theory to live up to its own pretensions and begin to decolonize itself, starting with its still insufficiently interrogated foundational Euro-progressivist assumptions. -- Charles Mills, Northwestern University The End of Progress is a beautifully written and engaging critique of critical theory. It challenges basic assumptions of the Frankfurt School to expand our field of view and builds bridges with other genres of critical thinking. This book charts a bold direction that breathes new life into critical theory. -- Kevin Olson, University of California, Irvine In this engaging, perceptive, and illuminating book, Amy Allen seeks to decolonize Critical Theory. Exposing weaknesses in the normative claims of Habermas, Honneth, and Forst and with a fresh interpretation of Adorno and Foucault, this book is stimulating and provocative for anyone interested in both the limitations and prospects of Critical Theory. -- Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research I highly recommend this outstanding internal critique of the idea of universal, developmental progress in the critical theory tradition and its role in legitimating Western imperialism by a leading critical theorist. Allen also initiates a promising dialogue with postcolonial theorists who have advanced external critiques, a dialogue oriented to decolonizing normative political theory together. -- James Tully, University of Victoria In her perspicacious and penetrating discussion of major figures of the Frankfurt School, Allen shows how deeply the tradition of critique is entangled with the grand narrative of enlightenment, the myth of the progressive unfolding of reason. Drawing on Adorno and Foucault, she shows the path contemporary critique has to take: the path to radical self-critique. -- Christoph Menke, Goethe-Universitat FrankfurtTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Critical Theory and the Idea of Progress 2. From Social Evolution to Multiple Modernities: History and Normativity in Habermas 3. The Ineliminability of Progress? Honneth's Hegelian Contextualism 4. From Hegelian Reconstructivism to Kantian Constructivism: Forst's Theory of Justification 5. From the Dialectic of Enlightenment to the History of Madness: Foucault as Adorno's Other Other Son 6. Conclusion: "Truth," Reason, and History Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis clear, readable introduction to philosophy presents a traditional theistic view of the existence of God.There are many fine introductions to philosophy, but few are written for students of faith by a teacher who is sensitive to the intellectual challenges they face studying in an environment that is often hostile to religious belief. Many introductory texts present short, easy-to-refute synopses of the traditional arguments for God's existence, the soul, free will, and objective moral value rooted in God's nature, usually followed by strong objections stated as if they are the last word. This formula may make philosophy easier to digest, but it gives many students the impression that there are no longer any good reasons to accept the beliefs just mentioned.Philosophy, Reasoned Belief, and Faith is written for philosophy instructors who want their students to take a deeper look at the classic theistic arguments and who believe that many traditional viTrade Review“This book is a well-written introduction to philosophy that has a systematic approach informed by the history of philosophy. There are many introductory philosophy books available, but I am not aware of one with quite this approach and spin on the issues.” —Christopher Kaczor, author of Disputes in Bioethics“Philosophy, Reasoned Belief, and Faith is a solid, well-written, well-organized, theistic-leaning introduction to philosophy.” —Gregory Bassham, co-author of Critical Thinking: A Student’s IntroductionTable of ContentsTo The Instructor To The Student Acknowledgements Dedication Unit One. Three Things to Know before You Dive into Philosophy 1. How Philosophy Began 2. The Socratic Method 3. And a Little Bit of Logic Unit Two. Philosophy of Religion 4. The Design Argument 5. Design and Evolution 6. The Cosmological Argument Interlude 1: A Survey of Modern Cosmology 7. The Problem of Evil Unit Three. Epistemology 8. What Can We Know? 9. C. S. Lewis and the Argument from Reason Unit Four. Philosophy of the Human Person 10. The Mind-Body Problem 11. Do We Have Free Will? Unit Five. Philosophical Ethics 12. Is It Reasonable to be Moral? Interlude 2: Or Should We All Become Moral Relativists? 13. Moral Reasoning Applied to the State 14. God and Morality

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the most influential and widely read moral philosophers of the last three or four decades. This remarkably erudite and comprehensive book is an indispensable guide for anyone who has a serious interest in twentieth-century moral and political philosophy.” —Richard Kraut, author of The Quality of Life“The book is a sympathetic treatment of the ideas that have consistently run through MacIntyre’s complicated career, but it doesn’t hesitate to pose to MacIntyre tough-minded intellectual challenges. It is a genuine philosophical dialogue between two serious thinkers.” —Ronald Beiner, author of Dangerous Minds"Provides a penetrating overview of the ideas of 20th-century moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. . . . Perreau-Saussine proves a talented historian of ideas, cogently elucidating how such diverse traditions as Marxism, Catholicism, and Aristotelianism come together in MacIntyre’s writings." —Publishers Weekly"[The book's] treatment of MacIntyre’s religious struggles and his journey to the Catholic Church is perhaps its strongest part and will be a revelation to anyone accustomed to a more narrowly philosophical approach to MacIntyre’s ideas." —Current"MacIntyre stands in the modern intellectual landscape as one of tradition’s great champions, but he was never a particularly happy warrior, even though he had a great deal to say about what makes men happy. Anyone who is intrigued by these puzzles will find this book of considerable interest." —Law & Liberty"Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography by Émile Perreau-Saussine seeks to defend the Scottish philosopher’s standing as one of the most profound theorists of capitalist modernity on either side of the Atlantic. . . . [A]long the way we do learn a great deal about MacIntyre’s life and how it informed his unique blend of Marxist-Catholic Scholasticism." —Jacobin"Alasdair MacIntyre is a moral philosopher of the first rank. . . . May our contemporaries be receptive to the wisdom and moderation that informs this splendid and timely book." —Claremont Review of Books"On the whole, this is a[n] . . . insightful essay in intellectual history. Or rather, it is three essays, dealing respectively with MacIntyre’s politics, philosophy, and theology. The first covers MacIntyre’s early involvement with the British New Left. . . . A second chapter deals with the philosophy of action and ethics. . . . A last chapter, on theology, sees Perreau-Saussine return to safer ground." —First Things"Perreau-Saussine makes a valuable contribution for those looking to understand the context and nature of Alasdair MacIntyre’s thought. He strikes a balance by pulling together biographical details, intellectual influences, and a variety of publications to craft a portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most influential philosophers." —The University Bookman"[F]or those who would like to consider the merits and demerits of liberal democracy in a judicious way, Émile Perreau-Saussine’s critical study of one of antiliberalism’s éminence grise is now available. It is both a specimen and a model of the sort of political philosophizing sorely needed in our trying times." —Law & Liberty“Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography, by the philosopher Émile Perreau-Saussine, is less an academic study than an essay on MacIntyrean themes. . . It’s engaging and accessible.” —The Nation"The real value of Perreau-Saussine’s biography lies less in its exposition of MacIntyre’s intellectual development than in its extended clarification of what is at stake in the questions MacIntyre explores. . . . For Perreau-Saussine, political progress will come when we better navigate these tensions within the liberal order, not when we seek to resolve them entirely outside it. Whether his eminent case proves his point is worth our careful reflection." —The Hedgehog Review"In this book, Perreau-Saussine traces the complex intellectual development of Scottish American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (b. 1924) with a view to showing the underlying unity of his life’s work. ...Recommended." —Choice“Émile Perreau-Saussine has produced an interesting and provocative interpretation of Alasdair MacIntyre and Nathan Pinkoski’s translation has provided the English-speaking world access to the work....Any university library with a serious politics, philosophy, or theology program should procure a copy.” —The American Journal of Jurisprudence"The scholarship behind the book—the volume of Anglophone philosophy Perreau-Saussine had to absorb, inside and outside MacIntyre’s corpus—is hugely impressive. And we owe Pinkoski a debt for doing the unglamorous kind of work Perreau-Saussine himself did first." —CommonwealTable of ContentsPreface by Pierre Manent Introduction 1. Politics 2. Philosophy 3. Theology Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisJohn Rawls, in three decades of teaching at Harvard, has had a profound influence on the development of philosophical ethics. This book brings together the lectures that inspired a generation of students, providing readers with the inspired guidance of one of contemporary philosophy's most noteworthy practitioners and teachers.Trade ReviewRawls is, of course, one of the major moral and political philosophers of the 20th-century. These essays center on Kant's moral philosophy as influenced by Hume's and Leibniz's and as it influenced Hegel. Throughout, Rawls tries to understand the distinctive questions each philosopher posed to himself and the specific answers he gave...Rawls's deep, tightly argued, and lucidly presented analyses warrant close attention by students on the subject. -- Robert Hoffman * Library Journal *Rawls's 'Kant Lectures' have enjoyed a cult status so great that it has propelled dog-eared copies of his notes across campuses and generations. After being guided by Rawls's able hand through the rigors of such texts as Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, readers will appreciate how Rawls's generosity, both to students and subject, earned these Harvard lectures a place in legend. * Kirkus Reviews *This volume draws together the final version of Rawls' lecture notes on the history of modern moral philosophy. It offers probing discussions of Hume, Leibniz, Kant, and Hegel and of the four basic types of moral reasoning--perfectionism, utilitarianism, intuitionism, and Kantian constructivism. Readers could hardly find a more enlightening (if sometimes challenging) companion in exploring key historical approaches to life's most fundamental moral and philosophical questions. -- Mary Carroll * Booklist *What names would we want to place next to Wittgenstein and Heidegger? No thinker, I believe, has a greater right to stand alongside them than John Rawls. Rawls's A Theory of Justice, which appeared in 1971, changed forever the landscape of moral and political philosophy. Like Wittgenstein and Heidegger, Rawls has shown a remarkable capacity for self-criticism. Like them, he has gone on to revise in significant ways the doctrines that first established his fame...The publication of the Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy is thus a major event, since here we find the conception of modern ethics as a whole, the understanding of its characteristic themes and problems, that has inspired Rawls's political thought. -- Charles Larmore * New Republic *Rawls has an enormously authoritative and interesting way of thinking and writing about the history of philosophy. His approach and tone is that of a world-class athlete watching old films to analyze the technique of his great predecessors. It is a pleasure to listen in. -- Matthew Simpson * Journal of the History of Philosophy *Table of ContentsEditors Foreword A Note On The Texts Introduction: Modern Moral Philosophy, 1600-1800 1. A Difference between Classical and Modern Moral Philosophy 2. The Main Problem of Greek Moral Philosophy 3. The Background of Modern Moral Philosophy 4. The Problems of Modem Moral Philosophy 5. The Relation between Religion and Science 6. Kant on Science and Religion 7. On Studying Historical Texts HUME I. Morality Psychologized and the Passions 1. Background: Skepticism and the Fideism of Nature 2. Classification of the Passions 3. Outline of Section 3 of Part III of Book II 4. Hume's Account of (Nonmoral) Deliberation: The Official View II. Rational Deliberation and the Role of Reason 1. Three Questions about Hume's Official View 2. Three Further Psychological Principles 3. Deliberation as Transforming the System of Passions 4. The General Appetite to Good 5. The General Appetite to Good: Passion or Principle? III. Justice as an Artificial Virtue 1. The Capital of the Sciences 2. The Elements of Hume's Problem 3. The Origin of Justice and Property 4. The Circumstances of Justice 5. The Idea of Convention Examples and Supplementary Remarks 6. Justice as a Best Scheme of Conventions 7. The Two Stages of Development IV. The Critique of Rational Intuitionism 1. Introduction 2. Some of Clarke's Main Claims 3. The Content of Right and Wrong 4. Rational Intuitionism's Moral Psychology 5. Hume's Critique of Rational Intuitionism 6. Hume's Second Argument: Morality Not Demonstrable V. The Judicious Spectator 1. Introduction 2. Hume's Account of Sympathy 3. The First Objection: The Idea of the Judicious Spectator 4. The Second Objection: Virtue in Rags Is Still Virtue 5. The Epistemological Role of the Moral Sentiments 6. Whether Hume Has a Conception of Practical Reason 7. The Concluding Section of the Treatise Appendix: Hume's Disowning the Treatise LEIBNIZ I. His Metaphysical Perfectionism 1. Introduction 2. Leibniz's Metaphysical Perfectionism 3. The Concept of a Perfection 4. Leibniz's Predicate-in-Subject Theory of Truth 5. Some Comments on Leibniz's Account of Truth II. Spirits As Active Substances: Their Freedom 1. The Complete Individual Concept Includes Active Powers 2. Spirits as Individual Rational Substances 3. True Freedom 4. Reason, Judgment, and Will 5. A Note on the Practical Point of View KANT I. Groundwork: Preface And Part I 1. Introductory Comments 2. Some Points about the Preface: Paragraphs 11-13 3. The Idea of a Pure Will 4. The Main Argument of Groundwork I 5. The Absolute Value of a Good Will 6. The Special Purpose of Reason 7. Two Roles of the Good Will II. The Categorical Imperative: The First Formulation 1. Introduction 2. Features of Ideal Moral Agents 3. The Four-Step CI-Procedure 4. Kant's Second Example: The Deceitful Promise 5. Kant's Fourth Example: The Maxim of Indifference 6. Two Limits on Information 7. The Structure of Motives III. THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE: THE SECOND FORMULATION 1. The Relation between the Formulations 2. Statements of the Second Formulation 3. Duties of Justice and Duties of Virtue 4. What Is Humanity? 5. The Negative Interpretation 6. The Positive Interpretation 7. Conclusion: Remarks on Groundwork 11:46-49 IV. THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE: THE THIRD FORMULATION 1. Gaining Entry for the Moral Law 2. The Formulation of Autonomy and Its Interpretation 3. The Supremacy of Reason 4. The Realm of Ends 5. Bringing the Moral Law Nearer to Intuition 6. What Is the Analogy? V. THE PRIORITY OF RIGHT AND THE OBJECT OF THE MORAL LAW 1. Introduction 2. The First Three of Six Conceptions of the Good 3. The Second Three Conceptions of the Good 4. Autonomy and Heteronomy 5. The Priority of Bight 6. A Note on True Human Needs VI. Moral Constructivism 1. Rational Intuitionism: A Final Look 2. Kant's Moral Constructivism 3. The Constructivist Procedure 4. An Observation and an Objection 5. Two Conceptions of Objectivity 6. The Categorical Imperative: In What Way Synthetic A Priori? VII. THE FACT OF REASON 1. Introduction 2. The First Fact of Reason Passage 3. The Second Passage: 5-8 of Chapter 1 of the Analytic 4. The Third Passage: Appendix I to Analytic I, Paragraphs 8-15 5. Why Kant Might Have Abandoned a Deduction for the Moral Law 6. What Kind of Authentication Does the Moral Law Have? 7. The Fifth and Sixth Fact of Reason Passages 8. Conclusion VIII. The Moral Law as the Law of Freedom 1. Concluding Remarks on Constructivism and Due Reflection 2. The Two Points of View 3. Kant's Opposition to Leibniz on Freedom 4. Absolute Spontaneity 5. The Moral Law as a Law of Freedom 6. The Ideas of Freedom 7. Conclusion IX. THE MORAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE RELIGION, BOOK I 1. The Three Predispositions 2. The Free Power of Choice 3. The Rational Representation of the Origin of Evil 4. The Manichean Moral Psychology 5. The Roots of Moral Motivation in Our Person X. The Unity Of Reason 1. The Practical Point of View 2. The Realm of Ends as Object of the Moral Law 3. The Highest Good as Object of the Moral Law 4. The Postulates of Vernunftglaube 5. The Content of Reasonable Faith 6. The Unity of Reason HEGEL I. His Rechtsphilosophie 1. Introduction 2. Philosophy as Reconciliation 3. The Free Will 4. Private Property 5. Civil Society II. Ethical Life and Liberalism 1. Sitttichkeit: The Account of Duty 2. Sittlickkeit: The State 3. Sittlichkeit: War and Peace 4. A Third Alternative 5. Hegel's Legacy as a Critic of Liberalism Appendix: Course Outline

Read more less

Book SynopsisFocusing on Marxism and Rawlsian liberalism, G. A. Cohen argues that egalitarian justice is not only a matter of rules that define the structure of society, but also a matter of personal attitude and choice. Personal attitude and choice are, moreover, the stuff of which social structure itself is made.Trade ReviewThese nine engaging and searching lectures, an unorthodox mixture of intellectual autobiography and philosophical argument, fall into two parts. In the first, [Cohen] describes the leading features of the Marxism in which he once believed. In the second, he explains why he remains critical of the sort of left-wing liberalism that would seem to be Marxism's natural alternative. -- Ben Rogers * The Observer *Some titles carry the author's voice...Surely If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich? does. Cohen is much the funniest living Anglophone political philosopher of any note, as well as perhaps the cleverest. Many of his best comic effects depend on the tone of voice, and some are clearly intended simply for fun. But it is always dangerous to assume that the jokes do not carry a point...[Cohen's book is] a strikingly personal address, fusing autobiography and the history of ideas with political philosophy, and ending not only with the weighty issue of how far personal attitudes must feature within the subject matter of justice itself, but with the more disconcerting question of how far the disciplines of living effectively under capitalism are bound to prove lethal for the soul...At one level, Cohen's book is largely an ingenious and agreeably frank casuistry of the ethics of professorial income management, but at another and more consequential level, it is a most imaginative deployment of personal ethical discomfort to pin down, and press home, a deep evasion at the center of this majority vision of social justice under capitalism. Its source may be merely the externalization of a private disquiet; but its force at the point of impact is as public as any philosopher could wish. -- John Dunn * Times Higher Education Supplement *This is an unusual book, a remarkably successful blend of autobiography, intellectual history and moral philosophy that reflects the author's distinctive outlook and background … [It] presents, I believe, the most important contemporary challenge to the egalitarian form of liberalism...The questions he asks are the ones we should all be worrying about. -- Thomas Nagel * Times Literary Supplement *It would be difficult to over-praise this wonderful book. It is profound, humane, witty, erudite, and often deeply personal. Though presented as something of an intellectual memoir, Cohen provides us with more food for thought than has been available in any book on egalitarian political philosophy in recent memory. -- Daniel Weinstock * Philosophy in Review *Table of ContentsPreface Prospectus 1. Paradoxes of Conviction 2. Politics and Religion in a Montreal Communist Jewish Childhood 3. The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science 4. Hegel in Marx: The Obstetric Motif in the Marxist Conception of Revolution 5. The Opium of the People:God in Hegel, Feuerbach, and Marx 6. Equality: From Fact to Norm 7. Ways That Bad Things Can Be Good: A Lighter Look at the Problem of Evil 8. Justice, Incentives, and Selfishness 9. Where the Action Is: On the Site of Distributive Justice 10. Political Philosophy and Personal Behavior Envoi Notes Bibliography Credits Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisKey contemporary discussions of distributive justice have formulated egalitarian approaches in terms of responsibility. But this approach, Hurley contends, has ignored the way our understanding of responsibility constrains the roles it can actually play within distributive justice.Trade ReviewLuck-neutralization is a central concept in contemporary work on distributive justice, and thus moral responsibility is also a central concept (insofar as luck is what one is not morally responsible for). It is therefore fruitful and illuminating to apply important insights from responsibility theory to various theories of distributive justice. The book is written in a lively style, Susan Hurley is remarkably well-versed in the literature on free will and moral responsibility as well as distributive justice, and the ideas are vibrant and provocative...a path-breaking book. -- John Martin Fischer, Professor of Philosophy, University of California RiversideHurley's arguments are highly original. This is an impressive and insightful book. -- Peter Vallentyne, Professor of Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityExceedingly rigorous...at the same time, exceptionally reader-friendly...One of the best critical introductions to the...problem of determinism and moral responsibility on the market...[this book] deserve[s] to be read by all responsibility enthusiasts...Eye-opening and exciting...incisive...carefully crafted...ground-clearing as well as path-breaking, [it is]...from start to finish, a true masterpiece of conceptual clarity and tidiness...Shrewdly analyses the relevant concepts...defuses bothersome misapprehensions and misapplications...[and] deftly pulls together the remaining strands...Deeply thought-provoking...[Both egalitarians and inegalitarians] need to rethink their positions. -- Kristjan Kristjansson * Mind *Hurley's penetrating treatment of [responsibility and justice] is bound to have a considerable influence on these fields. I found her subtle taxonomy of reason-responsiveness views especially instructive, and her critique of the idea that responsibility is 'essentially impossible' seems to me a tour de force. Further, the defense of a 'bias-neutralizing' conception of justice in favor of 'luck neutralizing' conceptions will surely have to be reckoned with by anyone who works in these fields. -- Gary Watson * Philosophy and Phenomenological Research *Hurley does a great service to the theory of egalitarianism by doing what most authors have shied away from doing so far, namely, opening the black box of 'responsibility' in order to examine how the various conceptions of responsibility can inform the debate about the just allocation of resources in an egalitarian society. -- Marc Fleurbaey * Philosophical Books *An admirable piece of work...Hurley's book provides a very insightful discussion of the relationship between luck and justice (among several other issues). She has done egalitarians a great service in clarifying the relation between egalitarianism and luck-neutralization. -- Kaspar Lippert-Rasmussen * Philosophy, Politics, and Economics *Hurley's book is a first-rate achievement. It is uniformly informative and clarifying. -- Kaspar Lippert-Rasmussen * Philosophical Books *Hurley's central thesis, that responsibility and luck-neutralization are not the basis of egalitarianism, is original and correct...To my mind, Hurley's thesis engages with many statements that leading egalitarians have put in writing. That thesis, we should recall, is obvious only once Hurley makes her compelling argument for that thesis...The book is dense with thought-provoking ideas. -- Nir Eyal * Economics and Philosophy *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Responsibility and Justice I. RESPONSIBILITY 1. Philosophical Landscape: The New Articulation of Responsibility 2. Why Alternate Sequences Are Irrelevant to Responsibility 3. Why Responsibility Is Not Essentially Impossible 4. Responsibility, Luck, and the "Natural Lottery" II. JUSTICE 5. Philosophical Landscape: The Luck-Neutralizing Approach to Distributive Justice 6. Why the Aim to Neutralize Luck Cannot Provide a Basis for Egalitarianism 7. Roemer on Responsibility and Equality 8. The Currency of Distributive Justice and Incentive Inequality 9. The Real Roles of Responsibility in Justice 10 From Ignorance to Maximin: A Bias-Neutralizing Alternative Appendix: Outline of the Arguments Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.Trade ReviewA Secular Age is a work of stupendous breadth and erudition. -- John Patrick Diggins * New York Times Book Review *A Secular Age represents a singular achievement… Taylor is somehow uniquely able to combine chutzpah and good manners, making bold and imaginative claims, yet always attending respectfully to the whole range of disciplines that touch on the philosophical trajectory being drawn, whether that be history, sociology, theology, art theory, cultural studies, anthropology or social theory… A Secular Age succeeds in the same way as his previous work: in illuminating through complicating. At the same time, this book seems to step up the ambition somewhat: by attempting to provide a final definitive account of all the narratives and complications that make up our contemporary age, as they implode on themselves and interact with one another… Hegel knew, of course, that ‘the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk’; or, in other words, that philosophy can only fathom the truth about an age in hindsight, when the day has passed. But then again, that didn’t stop Hegel having a go; and we should be glad that it hasn’t stopped Charles Taylor, either. -- Christopher J. Insole * Times Literary Supplement *Charles Taylor’s remarkable book A Secular Age achieves something quite different from what other writers on secularization have accomplished. Most have focused on decline as the essence of secularism—either the removal of religion from sphere after sphere of public life, or the decrease of religious belief and practice. But Taylor focuses on what kind of religion makes sense in a secular age… Taylor is asking not only how secularism became a significant option in a civilization that not so long ago was explicitly Christian, but what that change means for the spiritual quest, both of those who are still religious and those who consider themselves secular. I doubt many people have even perceived that aspect of secularism, and Taylor’s book should be as much of a revelation to them as it was to me. -- Robert N. Bellah * Commonweal *Taylor’s book is a major and highly original contribution to the debates on secularization that have been ongoing for the past century. There is no book remotely like it. -- Alasdair MacIntyreOne finds big nuggets of insight, useful to almost anybody with an interest in the progress of human society… A vast ideological anatomy of possible ways of thinking about the gradual onset of secularism as experienced in fields ranging from art to poetry to psychoanalysis… Taylor also lays bare the inconsistencies of some secular critiques of religion. * The Economist *[A] thumping great volume. -- Stuart Jeffries * The Guardian *In A Secular Age, philosopher Charles Taylor takes on the broad phenomenon of secularization in its full complexity… [A] voluminous, impressively researched and often fascinating social and intellectual history…Taylor’s account encompasses art, literature, science, fashion, private life—all those human activities that have been sometimes more, sometimes less affected by religion over the last five centuries. -- Jack Miles * Los Angeles Times *A rich, complex book, but what I most appreciate is [Taylor’s] vision of a ‘secular’ future that is both open and also contains at least pockets of spiritual rigor, and that is propelled by religious motivation, a strong and enduring piece of our nature. -- David Brooks * New York Times *Taylor is arguably the most interesting and important philosopher writing in English today… What makes Taylor so important? Over more than 40 years, four large books, four or five slimmer essays and several volumes of articles, he has worked out a distinctive network of arguments and an exceptionally rich analysis of the modern self and its values—an analysis that reveals us to be altogether deeper and more interesting, but also less self-aware, than we tend to suppose… A Secular Age sets out to offer a richer characterization of secularization and the nature of contemporary belief, both religious and skeptical… Taylor writes brilliantly about the new social forms—the nation state, the market economy, the charitable enterprise—and the ideals of altruism and public service that have emerged with them… A Secular Age is effectively a polemic against dogmatic atheism… It is full of insights, and many of its component parts—notably Taylor’s discussion of the ‘pressures’ that make a settled view on the big ontological questions hard to sustain—are as good as anything by this magnificent philosopher. -- Ben Rogers * Prospect *Taylor’s masterful integration of history, sociology, philosophy, and theology demands much of the reader. In return you will be convinced that Charles Taylor is one of the smartest and deepest social thinkers of our time. -- Tyler Cowen * Slate *In an idiosyncratic blend of the philosophical, the historical, and the speculative, Taylor describes the shift from a world brim-full with spirits and magic to a world where divinity is absent. His account resists the idea that the rise of secularism is a process of subtraction, of loss, and of disenchantment. Rather, Taylor describes secularity’s birth as the migration of ideas, subtle changes in those ideas, and the opening of new possibilities. If Taylor’s communitarian scholarship celebrated historical and social rootedness, A Secular Age is an encomium to the sheer happenstance of how those circumstances arose. -- Azziz Huq * American Prospect *[A Secular Age] may become an enduring contribution to understanding religious belief, the evolution of the secular order, and the defining characteristics of modern secularism and contemporary spirituality. Like Charles Taylor’s earlier books, it is a product of prodigious erudition. Its 874 dense pages brim with original observation, cogent argument constructed from sources in a wide array of disciplines, and generous ecumenical gestures, even towards humanists. His story is complex, somewhat repetitious and yet unflaggingly interesting: it is loaded with so much novel detail and insight that the reader will be grateful for each scrap of familiar ground. -- Tamas Pataki * Australian Review of Books *Sophisticated, erudite…with excursions into history, philosophy and literature, A Secular Age is a weighty and challenging tome. It is also a brilliant account of the ‘sensed context’ in which secularization developed. And a moving meditation, by a believer, on the ‘ineradicable bent’ of human beings to respond to something beyond life, to keep open ‘the transcendent window.’ -- Glenn C. Altschuler * Baltimore Sun *If you are, as I am, often puzzled by the landscape of contemporary religious belief and unbelief, you will regard Charles Taylor’s huge and hugely rewarding intellectual history of the secularization of European and North American culture as a marvelous gift. A Secular Age is a first-class map of the spiritual terrain of Western modernity as well as the road that got us here. -- Robert Westbrook * Christian Century *A culminating dispatch from the philosophical frontlines. It is at once encyclopedic and incisive, a sweeping overview that is no less analytically rigorous for its breadth. Its subject is a philosophical history of the past, present and future of Western Christendom. As such, it begins with a deceptively simple question: How did it become possible for anyone to not believe in God?… A Secular Age recounts the history of an idea, in other words, but in it the past is not an inert, settled fact, but a reservoir to be drawn upon to shatter the sameness and the apparent inevitability of the present. As a history it clarifies crucial intellectual and theological divisions that continue to structure debates about divinity, but with the aim of reforming the way we think about them, ‘to show the play of destabilization and recomposition.’ Though this isn’t a book you take to the beach, it remains eminently readable. As philosophers go, Taylor is a kind of behaviorist, more concerned with elaborating the implications of a way of thinking than with showing its contradictions. Unlike most philosophers, though, Taylor seems at pains to remain accessible to a general audience to capture complex philosophical debate in ordinary language. An important part of Taylor’s argument is that religion and the belief in God, most particularly the experience of transcendence, are not at all outmoded… Though it avoids predictions or prescriptions, A Secular Age leaves us with the sense that the future will be a far poorer, less human place, if we do not discover some expression for that transcendent otherness. -- Steven Hayward * Cleveland Plain Dealer *It is, simply, the most comprehensive account of the process and meaning of secularization… Taylor’s depiction of the past two centuries is rich with insights and subtle analyses… Familiarity with Taylor’s book is now the entry ticket for any serious discussion of secularization. -- Peter Steinfels * Commonweal *Very occasionally there appears a book destined to endure. A Secular Age is such a book… A Secular Age is an important and deeply interesting work. Its central thesis is that secularization must be understood not simply as the decline of certain beliefs and institutions, but as a total change in our experience of the world… There are subtle, original discussions of the modern self, of changing conceptions of time, of the religious landscape of art, and much else besides. Taylor has a great gift of empathy, an ability to inhabit and bring to life the mental world of both believers and unbelievers. A true Hegelian, he sees the goal of philosophy as understanding, not judgment. -- Edward Skidelsky * Daily Telegraph *A Secular Age offers an invaluable map of how the modern religious–secular divide came into being. -- Andrew Koppelman * Dissent *Though this essential Canadian intellectual may overstate the triumph of secularity, his huge and elegant work takes on the transformation of the world from 1500, when it was almost impossible not to believe in a Creator, to 2000, when religion was simply one choice on a menu of belief systems. He finds the answer in ‘exclusive humanism,’ which sees ‘no final goals beyond human flourishing, nor any allegiance to anything else beyond this flourishing.’ -- Donald Harman Akenson * Globe & Mail *It is refreshing to read an inquiry into the condition of religion that is exploratory in its approach. Charles Taylor, a Roman Catholic as well as one of the world’s leading political theorists, does not aim to attack or defend any system of belief in his new book, A Secular Age. Rather, he wants to elucidate the very idea of a secular world. For Taylor, the difference between the pre-modern Western world and the modern West is not simply that beliefs held then are no longer accepted today; it is that the entire framework of thought has changed. -- John Gray * Harper’s *In a determinedly brilliant new book, Charles Taylor challenges the ‘subtraction theory’ of secularization which defines it as a process whereby religion simply falls away, to be replaced by science and rationality. Instead, he sees secularism as a development within Western Christianity, stemming from the increasingly anthropocentric versions of religion that arose from the Reformation. For Taylor, the modern age is not an age without religion; instead, secularization heralds ‘a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others.’ The result is a radical pluralism which, as well as offering unprecedented freedom, creates new challenges and instabilities. * London Review of Books *The real genius of this erudite and profound book resides in its grandeur of theme and richness of detail. For all its imposing intellectual density, it is a delight to read; at times, it was literally impossible to put down. Yet it is also a work that ought to be read by degrees—one chapter at a time, with ample pause for reflection. -- Lorenzo DiTommaso * Montreal Gazette *A salutary and sophisticated defense of how life was lived before the daring views of a tiny secular elite inspired mass indifference, and how it might be lived in the future. -- Michael Burleigh * New York Sun *Taylor reminds us that we remain spiritual creatures in our most essential natures, and that what we take for granted—our age’s lack of religious faith—is, in fact, an anomaly of history. Our forefathers did not live this way and our grandchildren might not either. Considering the doubts about extreme secularism, it is possible we are entering a new Age of Spirit. If so, Taylor’s latest magnum opus serves as a comprehensive guide to the reemergence of religious sensibility. -- Robert Sibley * Ottawa Citizen *The focus here is neither on the role of religion in public institutions nor on the extent of religious belief, but rather on its conditions… It is the slow emergence of secularity in this sense that Taylor sets out to explain, at formidable length, and in remarkable historical and philosophical detail. Binding all that detail together is an argument that Taylor manages to sustain over nearly eight hundred pages. Simply put, A Secular Age is a magisterial refutation of what Taylor calls the ‘subtraction story’ of secularisation. -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Philosopher’s Magazine *Taylor’s gargantuan philosophical history of modernity, which complicates the flattering and simplified story we like to tell ourselves about secularization, is a major intellectual event. -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *Grapples with the Christian–secular relationship, and with admirable nuance (unlike most theology). -- Theo Hobson * The Tablet *Taylor makes a strong case for the presence in ordinary moral life of something like Plato’s idea of the Good, however little acknowledged… A Secular Age carries the story further, into the question of the role of religion in constituting a person’s identity. Taylor wants to lay out what it takes to go on believing in God, in the absence of any equivalent to the intellectual, cultural and imaginative surroundings in which pre-modern religion was quietly embedded. This is what he calls our ‘social imaginary’: how we collectively sense what is normal and appropriate in our dealings with one another and with the world around us. This is something deeper and more diffused than philosophical theories or thought-out positions. -- Fergus Kerr * The Tablet *A Secular Age is a towering achievement… It shows the ways we have traveled from the automatic certainties of 1500 to the fragile alignments of today. It transforms the secularization debate. -- David Martin * The Tablet *Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age offers a uniquely rich historical and philosophical overview of how we came to take a disenchanted world for granted—quietly inviting us to reflect that if disenchantment and the absence of the divine were learned habits of mind, they might not necessarily be the self-evidently rational truths so many think they are. -- Rowan Williams * Times Literary Supplement *[A] big, powerful book… [Taylor’s] book is massive in its historical and philosophical scope. Penetrating and dense, it would take months to fully digest. Loosely structured, it’s crammed with original insights. Taylor, 75, can pack more into one of his complex paragraphs than most prevaricating, deconstructing academic philosophers can say in a chapter, or even a book… The book explores the immense ramifications of how the West shifted in a few centuries from being a society in which ‘it was virtually impossible not to believe in God’ to one in which belief is optional, often frowned upon. -- Douglas Todd * Vancouver Sun *If the author had accomplished nothing more than a survey of the voluminous body of ‘secularization theory,’ he would have done something valuable. But, although Taylor clearly articulates his disdain for the view that modernity ineluctably led to the death of God, he goes far beyond a literature review… In addition to its conceptual value, this study is notable for its lucidity. Taylor has translated complex philosophical theories into language that any educated reader will be able to follow, yet he has not sacrificed an iota of sophistication or nuance. A magisterial book. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *In his characteristically erudite yet engaging fashion, Taylor takes up where he left off in his magnificent Sources of the Self (1989) as he brilliantly traces the emergence of secularity and the processes of secularization in the modern age… Taylor sweeps grandly and magisterially through the 18th and 19th centuries as he recreates the history of secularism and its parallel challenges to religion. He concludes that a focus on the religious has never been lost in Western culture, but that it is one among many stories striving for acceptance. Taylor’s examination of the rise of unbelief in the 19th century is alone worth the price of the book and offers an essential reminder that the Victorian age, more than the Enlightenment, dominates our present view of the meanings of secularity. Taylor’s inspired combination of philosophy and history sparkles in this must-read virtuoso performance. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *This is Charles Taylor’s breakthrough book, a book of really major importance, because he succeeds in recasting the whole debate about secularism. This is one of the most important books written in my lifetime. I am tempted to say the most important book, but that may just express the spell the book has cast over me at the moment. -- Robert N. BellahTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Part I: The Work of Reform 1. The Bulwarks of Belief 2. The Rise of the Disciplinary Society 3. The Great Disembedding 4. Modern Social Imaginaries 5. The Spectre of Idealism Part II: The Turning Point 6. Providential Deism 7. The Impersonal Order Part III: The Nova Effect 8. The Malaises of Modernity 9. The Dark Abyss of Time 10. The Expanding Universe of Unbelief 11. Nineteenth-Century Trajectories Part IV: Narratives of Secularization 12. The Age of Mobilization 13. The Age of Authenticity 14. Religion Today Part V: Conditions of Belief 15. The Immanent Frame 16. Cross Pressures 17. Dilemmas 1 18. Dilemmas 2 19. Unquiet Frontiers of Modernity 20. Conversions Epilogue: The Many Stories Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewFascinating and instructive…Shelby and Terry may offer the best solution to the pain of thinking about King and our loss of him…King’s philosophy, speaking to us through the written word, may turn out to constitute his most enduring legacy. -- Annette Gordon-Reed * New York Review of Books *To Shape a New World firmly situates Dr. King in the canon of American political thought. An extraordinary group of scholars grapple with the subtlety and nuance of King’s political philosophy, and they set the stage for a renewed engagement with his broader work. This is a must-read in our time. -- Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Princeton UniversityThe collection brings together a series of impressive scholars—Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, and Robert Gooding-Williams among them—to look at King’s understudied writings on economic inequality, just-war theory, and voting rights…To Shape a New World is a compelling work of philosophy, all the more so because it treats King seriously without inoculating him from the kind of critique important to both his theory and practice. -- Shivani Radhakrishnan * Los Angeles Review of Books *To Shape a New World is a milestone in the study of Martin Luther King, Jr., essentially a sanctified figure in American life, whose actual ideas are rarely interrogated in any depth, either in the public realm or in academic circles. What makes this volume particularly striking is the exceptionally high quality of the essays, which are analytically rigorous, impressively researched, and often profoundly original. They highlight the limits of common narratives about King and the civil rights movement, showing the shifts in his own thinking and the unconventional nature of many of his arguments. This is a path-breaking book. -- Aziz Rana, Cornell UniversityThis is a powerful and invaluable collection of essays on Dr. King. I hope it will inspire an entirely new generation of readers to go back and immerse themselves in Dr. King’s language and thought and hear and heed his prophetic voice. -- Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense FundKing’s theology, philosophy, and nonviolent prophetic engagement are needed now more than any time since his death. In his last speech, Dr. King said that when it comes to the struggle for love and justice, ‘nothing would be more tragic than for us to turn back now.’ We must embrace his challenge in this moment and commit to go forward together, not one step back. -- Rev. Dr. William J. Barber IIWhile his birthday has become a national holiday and schoolchildren across the nation and the world know the words of his most famous speeches, there are still many aspects of his life and work that remain lesser known. * Time *Looks at the work of Dr. King as a philosopher, rather than a political figure. By examining some lesser-known writings, the authors draw the conclusion that Dr. King was a much more radical thinker than his watered-down legacy would suggest. * Vox *King was not simply a compelling speaker, but a deeply philosophical intellectual…King drew on theological, economic, and historical ideas to inform his philosophical thinking…We still have much to learn from him. -- Olivia Goldhill * Quartz *King’s own scholarship is refreshingly illuminated in To Shape a New World. -- Colin Grant * Prospect *[An] ambitious, illuminating volume…The collection facilitates rigorous engagement with King’s thought in its own time and place but also presses the question of what we ought to do with it in this current ‘age of impunity and mendacity.’ -- Erin R. Pineda * Journal of the History of Philosophy *Reimagines King as a political thinker for our—and for all—time. * The Point *This book demonstrates the necessity of revisiting King’s philosophy and creed of nonviolence…Perhaps most importantly, this collection gives us a clear look at the mechanisms of the nonviolent approach, a different option to discrimination instead of submission or violent resistance. * Kirkus Reviews *[A] robust and wide-ranging collection...The book as a whole displays the pliability and dynamism of King’s thought, applying it to circumstances both recent (Barack Obama’s presidency) and far in the past (the practice of slavery in 18th- and 19th-century America). Throughout, King’s voice is placed within a community of philosophers…As the nation approaches the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, this work demonstrates, for anyone who needs convincing, the continued and vital importance of his thinking. * Publishers Weekly *

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhilosophers—professionals and the armchair variety—are given to defending comprehensive world views. Raymond Geuss, one of the most celebrated thinkers of our time, dispenses with this ambition for intellectual unity. Ranging across the history of art and ideas, Geuss argues for flexibility, doubt, and the accommodation of unresolved complexity.Trade ReviewMany of the joys of Who Needs a World View? lie not only in the encouragement Geuss offers to see through the need for a worldview but also in his pithy and enlightening insights into the works of the philosophers, artists, and writers he discusses. -- Georgia Warnke, Director, Center for Ideas and Society, University of California, RiversideRaymond Geuss has undertaken in recent years to resuscitate the genre of the classical philosophical essay, and he has by now made himself an absolute master of it. This is abundantly evident in his new collection of essays, which takes us on a vertiginous and often exhilarating journey that easily passes from Homer to the present in pursuit of his leading question, ‘Who needs a world view?’ -- Hans Sluga, University of California, BerkeleyWho Needs a World View? is a brilliant collection of essays that richly yet deftly challenges a broad range of pieties and settled assumptions on how we are supposed to understand our lives and our circumstances. Raymond Geuss shares with us the philosophical motivations behind his approach to those questions, with absorbing accounts of the two teachers who deeply impressed his thinking. This is a book of unfailingly resonant, sometimes poignant, and characteristically timely interventions. -- Brian O’Connor, Professor of Philosophy, University College DublinGeuss wants to replace collective creeds and manifestos, which tend to be dogmatic and encompassing, with personal confessions…These essays glitter with insights…Makes a compelling case, by argument and example, that one can live well without adopting any view of one’s life as a whole, let alone a systematic worldview. -- Kieran Setiya * Los Angeles Review of Books *Geuss’s startling scholarly range, from ancient Greek and biblical history to Brexit and Donald Trump, and his command of languages (French, German, Latin, Greek) and knowledge of figures both philosophical (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche) and artistic (Bruegel, Tristan Tzara, Paul Klee, Antonin Artaud) are on full display here, alongside his usual acuity and wit. -- Hugo Drochon * Times Literary Supplement *Probing and playful essays. -- Graham Ambrose * Chicago Review of Books *Some of his most personal [essays] and they have a perceptive depth to them where each feels like a glimpse at life in its most spontaneous, creative, unruly, and ultimately, unknowable aspects, and the implications these have for how we orientate ourselves in the world. -- Alex Tebble * Marx and Philosophy *Geuss [is] among the most renowned philosophical essayists alive today…In one way or another, all of [his] work sets out to puncture the pretensions of contemporary Anglophone philosophical thinking…Who Needs a World View? is perhaps Geuss’s most personal and existential book yet…This collection of essays confirms Geuss’s status as a subtle, perceptive, and deep thinker with estimable gifts and an enviable range. -- Edward Hall * Society *

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring his long career, Hilary Putnam repeatedly revised his philosophical positions. This unique volume is a window into his intellectual humility and breadth of interests, as his own thinking evolved in dialogue with contemporaries such as Sellars, Habermas, Rorty, Chomsky, McDowell, Nussbaum, W. V. Quine, Cora Diamond, and Cornel West.Trade ReviewPhilosophy as Dialogue conveys on every page the generous and deep intelligence with which Hilary Putnam responded to the thoughts of other philosophers. The value of the book lies not only in the wealth of ideas expressed in it but also in how it demonstrates the open-endedness and conversational character of philosophy. -- Cora Diamond, University of VirginiaThis volume enables the reader to see Hilary Putnam, one of the greatest philosophers of the last century, in his element: in dialogue with other philosophers, both alive and dead, and with himself. On a vast array of topics—from philosophy of language to metaphysics to ethics; from varieties of realism to theism, pragmatism, skepticism, and relativism—Putnam offers incisive objections and illuminating insights. Most of all, Putnam exemplifies the mind in action, constantly reconsidering its own commitments, never satisfied, yet always in love with the activity of thinking with others. -- Paul Franks, Yale UniversityThis volume displays Putnam’s mastery of the art of philosophy: a life of teaching and learning, absorbed in the specific joy of self-discovery through colloquy. -- Juliet Floyd, Boston UniversityThe striking variety of essays testify to Putnam’s wide-ranging intellect, and his penetrating responses to fellow philosophers exemplify his belief that one of the purposes of philosophy is to ‘encounter texts which anger, provoke, inspire, transform, repulse, or all of these at once.’ Scholars will appreciate this edifying addition to Putnam’s oeuvre. * Publishers Weekly *This volume has a larger metaphilosophical goal: to make philosophy (explicitly) dialogical again. Although the fact that Putnam ‘changed his mind’ several times during his career is often cited as a quirky idiosyncrasy, it should rather be seen as an example to follow: ‘philosophers should never assume that they have reached the final truth on a topic of philosophical interest and should always be open to alternative viewpoints’…Changing one’s mind in philosophy should be the rule, not the exception. -- Céline Henne * International Journal of Philosophical Studies *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. This book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. Next is a discourse by Judge William in praise of marriage in answer to objections.Trade Review"The definitive edition of the Writings. The first volume ... indicates the scholarly value of the entire series: an introduction setting the work in the context of Kierkegaard's development; a remarkably clear translation; and concluding sections of intelligent notes."--Library Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a theory of rationality, the one characteristic deemed to fix humanity's "specialness." This book combines speculations with investigations to portray the nature and status of rationality and the essential role that imagination plays in this singular human aptitude.Trade Review"Robert Nozick's brief, vivid, energetic, intensely personal and enviably clever book attacks head-on the question of what rationality really is."--John Dunn, The Times Higher Education Supplement "Robert Nozick always attacks his problems in a disconcertingly original way... From Mr. Nozick you always expect fireworks... The questions he addresses are fundamental in the true philosophical sense: Why exactly should we want to act and believe rationally? Why should we formulate principles of action and try to stick to them? The questions are not moral but explicatory. He is not out to argue that unprincipled or irrational behavior is immoral; rather, he invites us to consider what we are trying to do, and what the justification for such behavior is... Sure to attract a great deal of interest."--Anthony Gottlieb, The New York Times Book Review "To Nozick, rationality and belief are each an evolutionary adaptation to a world that changes in nonregular ways. Our acts resonate with symbolic meaning and 'stand for' our principles and beliefs. In this boldly original ... inquiry which will reward serious students of philosophy, Nozick uses decision theory to propose new rules of rational decision-making that take into account the symbolic, practical, and evolutionary components of our behavior ... this challenging treatise champions reason as a faculty that enables us to transcend our mere animal status and to strive toward goals by the light of principles."--Publishers Weekly "From Mr. Nozick you always expect fireworks... The questions he addresses are fundamental in the true philosophical sense: Why exactly should we want to act and believe rationally?"--The New York Times Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionIHow to Do Things with Principles3Intellectual Functions3Interpersonal Functions9Personal Functions12Overcoming Temptation14Sunk Costs21Symbolic Utility26Teleological Devices35IIDecision-Value41Newcomb's Problem41Prisoner's Dilemma50Finer Distinctions: Consequences and Goals59IIIRational Belief64Cognitive Goals67Responsiveness to Reasons71Rules of Rationality75Belief93Bias100IVEvolutionary Reasons107Reasons and Facts107Fitness and Function114Rationality's Function119VInstrumental Rationality and Its Limits133Is Instrumental Rationality Enough?133Rational Preferences139Testability, Interpretation, and Conditionalization151Philosophical Heuristics163Rationality's Imagination172Notes183Subject Index219Index of Names224

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhilosophical debates over the fundamental principles that should guide life-and-death medical decisions usually occur at a considerable remove from the tough, real-world choices made in hospital rooms, courthouses, and legislatures. This title seeks to change that.Trade Review"Orentlicher makes a compelling case that our understanding of bioethical controversies could be improved by considering how moral concerns are translated from principle into practice."--Choice "A highly thoughtful and useful contribution to our understanding of how moral principles can be translated into practice, with substantial benefit to individual patients and, as well, to the health care system and our larger society."--Dale H. Cowen, The Journal of Legal Medicine "By drawing our attention to future real life implications of the implementation of moral principle, this book forces us to reevaluate the balance between theory and practice and is thus well worth reading."--James A. Anderson and Charles Weijer, Journal of the American Medical AssociationTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii One: Introduction 1 PART ONE: THE APPROACH OF USING GENERALLY VALID RULES Two: The Importance of Generally Valid Rules in Implementing Moral Principle 11 Three: The Absence of a Moral Distinction between Treatment Withdrawal and Assisted Suicide 24 Four: The Distinction between Treatment Withdrawal and Assisted Suicide as a Generally Valid Way to Distinguish between Morally Justified and Morally Unjustified Deaths 53 PART TWO: AVOIDING PERVERSE INCENTIVES Five: The Implications for Practice of a Policy's Perverse Incentives 83 Six: Underlying Moral Principle Permits a Limited Legal Obligation for Pregnant Wowen to Accept Life-Saving Treatment for Their Fetuses 91 Seven: The Problems with a Legal Duty for Pregnant Wowen Because of Perverse Incentives 113 PART THREE: THE "TRAGIC CHOICES" MODEL Eight: Avoiding Explicit Trade-offs through Implicit Choices 123 Nine: Limitations of the "Futility" Concept in Medical Treatment Decisions 132 Ten: Futility as a Way to Make "Tragic Choices" 153 Conclusion 167 Notes 171 Index 225

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmong the great ironies of quantum mechanics is not only that its conceptual foundations seem strange even to the physicists who use it, but that philosophers have largely ignored it. Here, Bernard d'Espagnat argues that quantum physics--by casting doubts on once hallowed concepts such as space, material objects, and causality-demands serious reconTrade Review"Bernard d'Espagnat eschews the technical philosophical and mathematical jargon ... while nonetheless getting deeply into the consistency and plausibility of significant metaphysical claims. For all collections on the philosophy of science... Highly recommended."--Choice "In this valuable work, Bernard d'Espagnat brings his considerable expertise in contemporary physics to bear on the difficult philosophical issues arising from the current understanding of the subatomic domain."--Thomas Oberdan, Isis "Written in a very readable style, without an overload of mathematical equations, Of Physics and Philosophy unfolds the exotic features of quantum physics to the accompaniment of philosophical commentary. It is without doubt a work of immense scholarship, and will probably hold its own till the mysteries in the field are adequately understood. D'Espagnat's scholarship is helping understand the bizarre implications of quantum theory in investigating everything from free will and the paranormal to the enigma of consciousness."--Sudhirendar Sharma, CaravanTable of ContentsPreface to the English Edition xi Foreword 1 PART 1: PHYSICAL FACTS AND RELATED CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS CHAPTER 1: Broad Overview 13 1-1. A General Picture 13 1-2. Some Useful Definitions 21 CHAPTER 2: Overstepping the Limits of the Framework of Familiar Concepts 32 2-1. Introduction 32 2-2. From Aristotle's Ontology to Descartes' Near Realism and Galilean Ontology 32 2-3. A Small Digression on Ontology 34 2-4. A Gradual Overstepping 37 2-5. Trajectories and Misleading "Pieces of Evidence" 38 2-6. On the Existence or Nonexistence of Hidden Things: Particles and Dirac's Sea 41 2-7. A "Fabricated" Ontology 46 2-8. Indications for What Follows 48 CHAPTER 3: Nonseparability and Bell's Theorem 51 3-1. Correlation at-a-Distance: Bell's Theorem 51 3-2. Locality and the Bell Theorem 58 3-3. Discussion and Philosophical Implications 71 CHAPTER 4: Objectivity and Empirical Reality 89 4-1. Strong Objectivity and Weak Objectivity (Alias Intersubjectivity) 89 4-2. The Measurement Problem and Empirical Reality 101 4-3. "Quantum Rules" and "von Neumann's Chain" 110 CHAPTER 5: Quantum Physics and Realism 113 5-1. Strong Objectivity and Realism 113 5-2. Intersubjective Agreement 127 5-3. Intersubjective Agreement and Empirical Reality 127 5-4. Conceptual Glimpses; Carnap, Quine, Primas; Relative Ontologies 129 CHAPTER 6: Universal Laws and the "Reality" Question 134 6-1. The "Theoretical Framework" Notion 134 6-2. Antiuniversalism and "Realism about Entities" 136 6-3. "Pythagorism" ("Einsteinism") 142 6-4. Remarks Concerning Two "Macrorealisms" 145 6-5. Quantum Mechanics as a Universal Theoretical Framework 146 6-6. Antirealism 148 CHAPTER 7: Antirealism and Physics; the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Problem; Methodological Operationalism 152 7-1. "Value of a Quantum Physical Quantity" in the Antirealist Framework 152 7-2. Operationalism (Alias "Instrumentalism") 156 7-3. On "Meaning" and "Prediction" 166 CHAPTER 8: Measurement and Decoherence, Universality Revisited 168 8-1. Introduction 168 8-2. Decoherence 177 8-3. Decoherence and State Robustness 189 8-4. The Everett-Zurek Semirealist Approach 190 8-5. Universality Revisited 192 CHAPTER 9: Various Realist Attempts 196 9-1. Introduction 196 9-2. On Our Intellectual Craving for Realism 196 9-3. The Broglie-Bohm Approach 199 9-4. The So-Called "Modal" Interpretation 206 9-5. The Heisenberg Representation: It Does Not, by Itself, Yield a Solution 209 9-6. Feynman's Reformulation and the Corresponding "Fabricated Ontology" 211 9-7. A "Realism of Signification" 216 9-8. Nonlinear Realist Quantum Theories 220 9-9. Outlook 222 CHAPTER 10: Schrodinger's Cat, Wigner's Friend, and Veiled Reality 225 10-1. Introduction 225 10-2. Of Pointers and Cats 225 10-3. Wigner's Friend 228 10-4. The Veiled Reality Hypothesis 236 PART 2: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS CHAPTER 11: Science and Philosophy 249 11-1. The Impossible Split 249 11-2. Epistemology in the Late Twentieth Century 250 11-3. A Critical Glance at Some Claims 255 11-4. Physics and Linguistics 258 11-5. Sociologism 261 11-6. The End of Certainties? 263 CHAPTER 12: Materialisms 265 12-1. Introduction 265 12-2. Dialectical Materialism 265 12-3. The So-Called "Scientific" Materialism 266 12-4. "Neomaterialism" and Physics 272 12-5. The Purely Philosophical Aspects of Neomaterialism 276 12-6. Materialism and Wisdom 281 CHAPTER 13: Suggestions from Kantism 282 13-1. Introduction 282 13-2. A Look at Kantism 282 13-3. Facing the Refusal of the Independent Reality Notion 291 13-4. Kant and Our Contemporaries 306 CHAPTER 14: Causality and Observational Predictability 312 14-1. Introduction 312 14-2. Causes and Laws 312 14-3. Determinism and Causality 315 14-4. Determinism and Chaos 316 14-5. Quantum Indeterminacy 319 14-6. Predictability and Reliability Revisited 326 14-7. The Influence Notion Revisited 330 CHAPTER 15: Explanation and Phenomena 333 15-1. Introduction 333 15-2. The Notion of Explanation 333 15-3. Back to the "Explanatory Power of Predictive Rules" Question 342 15-4. Empirical Reality and Abstractions, Explanation, and Empirical Causality 344 15-5. The Rainbow Analogy 347 15-6. Removing the "Paradox of the Dinosaurs" 351 15-7. The "False Explanation" Question 352 CHAPTER 16: Mind and Things 354 16-1. Empiricism, Positivism, and So On 354 16-2. Phenomenalism 355 16-3. Ambiguities about Innatism 366 16-4. Poincare, Conventionalism, and Structural Realism 368 CHAPTER 17: Pragmatic-Transcendental versus Veiled Reality Approaches 376 17-1. Introduction 376 17-2. Replies to Michel Bitbol's and Herve Zwirn's Objections 376 17-3. The Pragmatic-Transcendental Approach 396 17-4. A Few Notes on Zwirn's Approach 402 CHAPTER 18: Objects and Consciousness 405 18-1. Introduction 405 18-2. Truth: Definitions and Criteria 406 18-3. Objects and "Orders," or "Levels," of Reality 408 18-4. A Few Remarks Concerning Sensations 411 18-5. On the Question of the Plurality of Minds 426 CHAPTER 19: The "Ground of Things" 429 19-1. Introduction 429 19-2. Mystery, Affectivity, and Meaning 429 19-3. Do Things Have a "Ground"? Pro and Con Received Arguments 434 19-4. Some Consequences of the Evolution of Physics 443 19-5. The Veiled Reality Conception Reexamined 449 APPENDIX 1: The Bell Theorem 465 A. Proof 465 B. A Simplified Proof 470 C. A Glance at the Experimental State of Things 473 D. Historical Comments and a Short Bibliography 474 APPENDIX 2: Consistent Histories, Counterfactuality, and Bell's Theorem 477 APPENDIX 3 Correlation-at-a-Distance in the Broglie-Bohm Model 483 References 485 Name Index 493 Subject Index 497

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn essential introduction to the philosophy of biologyThis is a concise, comprehensive, and accessible introduction to the philosophy of biology written by a leading authority on the subject. Geared to philosophers, biologists, and students of both, the book provides sophisticated and innovative coverage of the central topics and many of the latest developments in the field. Emphasizing connections between biological theories and other areas of philosophy, and carefully explaining both philosophical and biological terms, Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses the relation between philosophy and science; examines the role of laws, mechanistic explanation, and idealized models in biological theories; describes evolution by natural selection; and assesses attempts to extend Darwin''s mechanism to explain changes in ideas, culture, and other phenomena. Further topics include functions and teleology, individuality and organisms, species, the tree of life, and human nature. The bookTrade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 "Tracing the history of the great debates and ideas that punctuated this specialty, Peter Godfrey-Smith offers a clear and accessible introduction, which extends to the review of its current key issues. This book will interest course philosophers and biologists, but also sociologists and psychologists, as the issues come from classic biology and philosophy."--Romaric Jannel, Liens Socio "Peter Godfrey-Smith's Philosophy of Biology ... [is] a great way to get up to speed on all the issues that working biologists love to debate amongst themselves... [N]on-specialists should not be put off. Godfrey-Smith's style is engaging, almost conversational."--John Farrell, Forbes.com "Here, Godfrey-Smith, a prominent and prolific scholar working in the field, delivers an elegant and stimulating analysis of key areas in the life sciences where conceptual questions arise regularly... Godfrey-Smith provides an exemplar of expositional clarity and philosophical insight for those who would imitate his approach in these domains."--Choice "[O]ne of the very best textbooks in its field."--Brian Garvey, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "[A]lthough it is too brief to be the only text for any course, it would be a perfect addition to or foundation for the reading list for many. And no practicing biologist who reads it is likely to think her time was wasted."--W. Ford Doolittle, Current Biology "Philosophy of Biology can be recommended mainly as an excellent resource for teachers. They will find an up to date overview of important topics and can rely on the further reading sections to supplement this volume with additional material."--Christina Behme, Metapsychology "Philosophy of Biology is a valuable addition to the introductions already out there, and one that stands out in many ways."--Joeri Witteveen, History and Philosophy of Life SciencesTable of ContentsPreface ix CHAPTER ONE Philosophy and Biology 1 CHAPTER TWO Laws, Mechanisms, and Models 11 CHAPTER THREE Evolution and Natural Selection 28 CHAPTER FOUR Adaptation, Construction, Function 50 CHAPTER FIVE Individuals 66 CHAPTER SIX Genes 81 CHAPTER SEVEN Species and the Tree of Life 100 CHAPTER EIGHT Evolution and Social Behavior 120 CHAPTER NINE Information 144 References 159 Index 179

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"I have read many critiques of liberalism, but none so original as Why We Are Restless."---Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal"[Benjamin and Jenna Storey’s] book is an education in the irony and complexity of the modern quest for contentment, and in the pre-modern sources required for any understanding of how to actually achieve meaningful contentment. . . . I can’t recommend it enough."---Yuval Levin, National Review"[A] terrific book. Hard to understand modern secular culture if you don't know anything about Montaigne."---Timothy Keller, New York Times bestselling author"Throughout this excellent book, the Storeys provide a model for how the thought of the past can be made vital."---Diana Schaub, Claremont Review of Books"Unapologetically earnest . . . brave and countercultural."---Joe Moran, Times Higher Education"Written in an engaging and compact style, [Why We Are Restless] is essential reading for all observers of the persistent, often hidden, but increasingly visible unhappiness of contemporary life. Benjamin and Jenna Storey have done us the service of restoring some of the deepest arguments about human happiness that lie at the roots of modern politics."---Adam Thomas, Public Discourse""Why We Are Restless is a rich analysis of why we are unhappy and what we might begin to do about it.""---Nathaniel Peters, Law & Liberty"Beautifully written and carefully argued, it’s as searching as it is subtle. . . . [Why We Are Restless] does a magnificent job of summarizing four hugely important thinkers with impressive clarity, wit, and brevity and raises some profound questions about the modern quest for happiness in the process."---Andrew Wilson, Gospel Coalition"A powerful case that the invention of ‘immanent contentment’ in early modern France has everything to do with the infinite restlessness of the postmodern United States."---Delaney Thull, Fare Forward"A great read for pastors, theologians, and Christians who want to think deeply and critically about the culture."---Stephen Roberts, Modern Reformation"Culturally significant. . . . this study is a rich resource for reflection." * Paradigm Explorer *"Excellent. . . . Why We Are Restless stands out among other books like it by answering the question implied by its title with rigor and charity."---Matt Dinan, Hedgehog Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2019"

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Unsettlingly brilliant. . . . Her work is proof positive of the richness of political theory in its authentically Aristotelian sense: as the abstract contemplation of politics for the sake of doing it better—if not always well."---Teresa M. Bejan, Boston Review"Conceptually rich and compulsively readable.—David Livingstone Smith, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Singer] is persuasive on so many topics that he makes you wish we could turn the world off, then on again, in an attempt to reset it."---Dwight Garner, New York Times"A terrific recent book . . . that wrestles with how much we should donate to charity, and whether wearing a $10,000 watch is a sign of good taste, or of shallow narcissism."---Nicholas Kristof, New York Times"Could well inspire conversations—and arguments—that deepen and complicate the crucial moral and ethical issues that Singer presents." * Kirkus Reviews *"An accessible introduction to the work of a philosopher who would not regard being described as ‘accessible' as an insult. . . . Despite their brevity, the essays do not shirk the big moral questions." * The Economist *"Philosophy should be a more public endeavor, and Singer's work is an excellent entry point. In a fall that will be shaped by a political contest in many ways detached from genuinely pressing moral issues, it might also serve as a refreshingly complex source of ethical questioning."---Talya Zax, Forward"Singer demonstrates how to write pungently and succinctly about moral philosophy."---Daniel Johnson, Standpoint"The essays in the present volume address issues well beyond Singer's normal range of commentary. In sum, this book not only provides a broad-based introduction to Singer¹s moral philosophy but also will serve . . . as an excellent textbook for any course in applied ethics. For philosophers, Singer's work provides a model for how to transition from the ivory tower to the domain of public philosophy." * Choice *"Singer is a provocative, well-informed and hands-on philosopher, with a lucid and engaging writing style. The collection provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of themes that are central to Singer's ethics. . . . His essays are well-structured, engaging, and exemplarily clear. Moreover, his arguments tend to be nuanced and non-dogmatic, in spite of his well-known ethical agenda: here is an ethicist not looking for arguments to support a preconceived conclusion, but sincerely pondering the implications of his utilitarian stance."---Jeroen Hopster, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics"Inspiring and enlivening; each essay is an easily digested nugget of acute, inventive reasoning and moral urgency, focused on practical, achievable results and the resistance of lazy, dogmatic thinking. . . . Any reader will find the book accessible; every reader will find it both thought-provoking and challenging."---Shane N. Glackin, Quarterly Review of Biology"The way Singer approaches his subject matter is awesome and instructive. He picks up news, anniversaries, but also personal encounters, and—within three or four sentences—shows the deeper ethical questions that lie behind these snippets."---Jan Friedrich, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice"This is a lovable book which deserves to be read and discussed."---Tommi Lehtonen, European Legacy"This book of clear analysis and challenging thinking encourages readers towards radical shifts of thinking and action."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"Quick, punchy and clear. . . . [Singer] has an enviable mastery of his form, and the book provides a representative introduction to the breadth of his public thought."---Simone Gubler, Times Literary Supplement"Singer is to be applauded for bringing philosophy out of the academic classroom and into, as the title of this book suggests, the “real world,” and for his classical understanding of and approach to philosophy, especially ethics, as essentially “practical,” as bearing upon how one should live."---Steven L. Johnson, Society

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A profoundly insightful and indeed magisterial new book. . . . [The Two Greatest Ideas] is a wild and informative ride through the centuries and up to what may intellectually come next in the human adventure. It was a marvel of an experience."---Tom V. Morris, Plato's Lemonade Stand: Stirring Change into Something Great"Zagzebski offers a fascinating meta-level view of these two foundational ideas, taking readers on a journey that includes the many connections between cultural developments, not least the current politically polarized situation in the US. The book is well written and should be accessible to intelligent lay readers." * Choice *"A brilliant, panoramic and original contribution to the history of ideas, providing a new framework that sheds light on many of our current social and political tensions."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"[A]n ambitious essay in intellectual history. . . . [Zagzebski] has written a highly original study of what it is that makes the modern world modern."---John Crosby, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Read more less

Book SynopsisEncompassing a wide range of subjects, the ten masterful essays gathered here may at first appear unrelated to one another. In truth, Giorgio Agamben''s latest book is a mosaic of his most pressing concerns. Take a step backward after reading it from cover to cover, and a world of secret affinities between the chapters slowly comes into focus. Take another step back, and it becomes another indispensable piece of the finely nuanced philosophy that Agamben has been patiently constructing over four decades of sustained research. If nudity is unconcealment, or the absence of all veils, then Nudities is a series of apertures onto truth. A guiding thread of this collectionweaving together the prophet''s work of redemption, the glorious bodies of the resurrected, the celebration of the Sabbath, and the specters that stroll the streets of Veniceis inoperativity, or the cessation of work. The term should not be understood as laziness or inertia, but rather as the paradigm of hu

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating and timely treatment of the objectivism versus relativism debates occurring in philosophy of science, literary theory, the social sciences, political science, and elsewhere." * Choice *"A superb book. It combines two strong qualities rarely seen together: it makes an insightful and extremely valuable contribution to the philosophical issues on a central matter [and] is at the cutting edge of the subject." * Charles Taylor *Table of ContentsPREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PART ONE. BEYOND OBJECTIVISM AND RELATIVISM: AN OVERVIEW Objectivism and Relativism The Cartesian Anxiety Postempiricist Philosophy and History of Science The Idea of a Social Science The Recovery of the Hermeneutical Dimension of Science Philosophic Hermeneutics: A Primordial Mode of Being Hermeneutics and Praxis Political Judgment and Practical Discourse Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis PART TWO. SCIENCE, RATIONALITY, AND INCOMMENSURABILITY The Practical Rationality of Theory-Choice Kuhn and His Critics: The Common Ground The Development of the Philosophy of Science Incommensurability and the Natural Sciences Incommensurability and the Social Disciplines PART THREE. FROM HERMENEUTICS TO PRAXIS The Cartesian Legacy Truth and the Experience of Art Understanding and Prejudice The Hermeneutical Circle Temporal Distance, Effective-Historical Consciousness, and the Fusion of Horizons Application: The Rediscovery of the Fundamental Hermeneutical Problem The Movement Beyond Philosophic Hermeneutics Philosophic Hermeneutics and the Cartesian Anxiety PART FOUR. PRAXIS, PRACTICAL DISCOURSE, AND JUDGMENT A Historical Interlude Practical Discourse: Habermas Rorty's Metacritique Judgment: Arendt Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: The Practical Task NOTES APPENDIX. A LETTER BY PROFESSOR HANS-GEORG GADAMER BIBLIOGRAPHY SUBJECT INDEX INDEX

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review "Erin Manning and Brian Massumi have written a fascinating and ground-breaking book that deserves wide attention. An exemplar of how to do theory in an exploratory and process-oriented way." —Jane Bennett, author of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things"It is at once a poetic encounter with the works of art presented over the course of the book, and a manual for reaching that productive space where research and creation can be said to truly interpenetrate." —The Culture MachineTable of ContentsContentsPrefacePart I. PassagesComing Alive in a World of Texture: For NeurodiversityA Perspective of the Universe: Alfred North Whitehead Meets Arakawa and GinsJust Like That: William Forsythe between Movement and LanguageNo Title Yet: Bracha Ettinger Moved By LightPart II. PropositionsFor Thought in the ActPostscript to Generating the ImpossibleNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamines the roles of mobility and immobility in the history of political thought and the structuring of political spaces.Trade Review"Hagar Kotef has written an insightful, thought-provoking and thoroughly engaging book that brings a fresh theoretical perspective on the intersections between borders, mobility and liberalism.... Movement and the Ordering of Freedom makes an impressive contribution to a literature spanning Border Studies, Mobility and Migration Studies, and a range of interdisciplinary efforts to come to terms with the spatial and architectural dimensions of power and governmentality.... I suspect this important work will be much cited as one that brings fresh historical perspective to the political stakes of human mobility and liberal governmental regimes." -- Anne McNevin * Migration Studies *“This is not only a well researched and written book, it is also informed by a political-ethical commitment against injustice…. This provides a fascinating (re)reading of liberalism which is pursued through an intriguing twofold analysis: one focusing on the enactment of the regulation of movement in Israel and Palestine; the second exploring a genealogy of liberalism and mobility through the work of Hobbes, Locke, Mill (as well as William Blackstone and Hannah Arendt). This somewhat unorthodox approach to structuring a political theory text is one of the highlights of the book and opens it up to multiple audiences.” -- Joe Turner * Review of Politics *“It’s a book written with both verve and the depth of close, careful reading; with an intellectual suppleness and playfulness and the utter seriousness of a conviction in the political relevance of theory; but more importantly a book that, even, or especially, when it delves into history, strikes with nothing less than the urgency of the present.” -- Nasser Abourahme * Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World *"... Kotef ’s book offers a nuanced critique of liberalism, exploring it as a political ideology articulated in terms of freedom and movement. Most important, the book’s readings of settler colonialism in America and in Israel persuasively demonstrate that the colonial condition is not, and never has been, either geographically or theoretically external to liberalism. On the contrary, colonialism, as the book makes clear, is the foundational archive of liberalism." -- Gil Hochberg * GLQ *"[O]riginal, concise, well written and well argued and certainly makes a new contribution to the fields of migration and mobility studies. . . . [It will] certainly be of interest to postgraduate students and professionals across the social sciences and humanities who are concerned with migration, mobility, identity, Israel/Palestine, political subjectivity and the liberal state—a thought-provoking read and one which comes highly recommended." -- Lucy Mayblin * Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History *"Movement and the Ordering of Freedom offers a conceptually rich contribution that seeks to consider how mobility and movement might be conceived as central to the emergence of liberal models of governance. Kotef’s text is a lucid and well-researched account of the historical context through which ‘the liberal subject was formed in the image of moderation.'" -- Jonathan Darling * Progress in Human Geography *"Kotef presents us with a rich and multi-faced contribution to contemporary theories on movement, migration, and border security." -- Nanda Oudejans * Perspectives on Politics *"Hagar Kotef’s enquiry into ‘the politics of motion’ is timely, excellently written and surely a must read for researchers not just of surveillance/control societies and of Israel-Palestine (the book’s regional focus), but more broadly for scholars in cultural politics." -- Marcelo Svirsky * Contemporary Political Theory *Table of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Between Imaginary Lines: Violence and Its Justifications at the Military Checkpoints in Occupied Palestine / Hagar Kotef and Merav Amir 27 2. An Interlude: A Tale of Two Roads—On Freedom and Movement 52 3. The Fence That "Ill Deserves the Name of Confinement": Locomotion and the Liberal Body 61 4. The Problem of "Excessive" Movement 87 5. The "Substance and Meaning of All Things Political": On Other Bodies 112 Conclusion 136 Notes 141 Bibliography 203 Index 217

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book addresses the issue of trauma and psychic wounds to stage a confrontation between psychoanalysis and contemporary neurobiology. In so doing, it reevaluates the brain as an organ that is not separated from psychic life but rather appears as its very locus. A philosophical approach of the “new wounded” (brain lesion patients) forms the matter of the confrontation.Trade Review"The first of the 'old wounded,' hysterics suffering from reminiscences, were Freud's co-conspirators in the invention of psychoanalysis. Not only were they its earliest patients and critics; their malady formed the very stuff of psychoanalysis. Malabou identifies a more recent class of 'new wounded'-Alzheimer's patient, autistic children, concentration camp survivors, victims of rape, bombing, natural disasters and brain tumors-who, radically severed from their own past, are devoid not only of reminiscences but of meaning itself. Their maladies, she claims, evacuate the core concepts of psychoanalysis, its original stuff. Friends and foes of Freud's science will be riveted by Malabou's intelligent argument whose destructive thrust produces not merely rubble and dust, more a foam of fascinating new concepts-including cerebrality and destructive plasticity-and strong readings of Freudian texts." -- -Joan Copjec University at Buffalo, SUNY "Malabou draws upon the most current neurological research and contemporary psychoanalytic works, and applies them to a careful, penetrating and convincing reading of Freud's primary texts, in order to fashion her original interpretation." -- -Clayton Crockett University of Central Arkansas What has happened when subjectivity is utterly changed by brain damage? What are the links of war, trauma, and loss of affect? In The New Wounded Catherine Malabou brilliantly shows how 'destructive plasticity' is the key concept for understanding our 'new economy of pain.' Highly recommended for everyone in the fields she so deftly examines: philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neurology." -- -John Protevi Louisiana State UniversityTable of ContentsPreamble Introduction Part One: The Neurological Subordination of Sexuality Introduction: The "New Maps" of Causality 1. Cerebral Auto-Affection 2. Brain Wounds: From the Neurological Novel to the Theater of Absence 3. Identity Without Precedent 4. Psychoanalytic Objection: Can There Be Destruction Without a Drive of Destruction? Part Two: The Neutralization of Cerebrality Introduction: Freud and Preexisting Fault Lines 5. What Is a Psychic Event? 6. The "Libido Theory" and the Otherness of the Sexual to Itself: Traumatic Neurosis and War Neurosis in Question 7. Separation, Death, the Thing, Freud, Lacan, and the Missed Encounter 8. Neurological Objection: Rehabilitating the Event Part Three: On the Beyond of the Pleasure Principle--That it Exists Introduction: Remission at the Risk of Forgetting the Worst 9. The Equivocity of Reparation: From Elasticity to Resilience 10. Toward a Plasticity of the Compulsion to Repeat 11. The Subject of the Accident Conclusion Notes Bibliography

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less