Western philosophy from c 1800 Books

Book SynopsisA timeless collection of hundreds of poems that resonate to the American spirit.  Leaves of Grass is a timeless collection of poems and essays penned by influential nineteenth-century writer Walt Whitman. This profound compilation explores topics such as nature, mysticism, mortality, transcendentalism, and democracy. Inspired by personal experiences and observations, Whitman spent almost four decades piecing together the complete work, sharing societal ideals and epiphanies about life that still resonate with readers today. This sturdy leather-bound edition of the complete Leaves of Grass also includes Whitman’s preface to the original 1855 edition, in which he expounds on his personal philosophy of writing poetry.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis substantially revised new edition of Rousseau: The Basic Political Writings features a brilliant new Introduction by David Wootton, a revision by Donald A. Cress of his own 1987 translation of Rousseau's most important political writings, and the addition of Cress' new translation of Rousseau's State of ?War. New footnotes, headnotes, and a chronology by David Wootton provide expert guidance to first-time readers of the texts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe most widely read anthology for the study of modern philosophy, this volume provides key works of philosophers and other leading thinkers of the period, chosen to enhance the reader’s understanding of modern philosophy and its relationship to the natural sciences of the time. The third edition incorporates important contributions of women and minority thinkers into the canon of the modern period, while retaining all of the material of the previous edition. Included are works by Princess Elisabeth, Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle, Lady Anne Conway, Anton Wilhelm Amo, Lady Damaris Masham, Lady Mary Shepherd, and Emilie Marquise Du Châtelet.Trade Review"This is a wonderful text. . . . [T]he changes made for the 3rd edition are very welcome (especially the new selections from women and philosophers of color). I can't see using any other text, particularly at this very reasonable price point." —Steven Burgess, Benedictine University

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Thousand Plateaus is the second part of Deleuze and Guattari's landmark philosophical project, Capitalism and Schizophrenia - a project that still sets the terms of contemporary philosophical debate. Written over a seven year period, A Thousand Plateaus provides a compelling analysis of social phenomena and offers fresh alternatives for thinking about philosophy and culture. Its radical perspective provides a toolbox for ‘nomadic thought' and has had a galvanizing influence on today's anti-capitalist movement.Table of ContentsTranslator's Foreword: Pleasures of Philosophy Notes on the Translation and Acknowledgements Author's Note 1. Introduction: Rhizome 2. 1914: One or Several Wolves? 3. 10,000 BC: The Geology of Morals (Who Does the Earth Think It Is?) 4. November 20th, 1923: Postulates of Linguistics 5. 587BC-AD70: On Several Regimes of Signs 6. November 28th, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs? 7. Year Zero: Faciality 8. 1874: Three Novellas, or "What Happened?" 9. 1933: Micropolitics and Segmentarity 10. 1730: Becoming Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming Imperceptible... 11. 1837: Of the Refrain 12. 1227: Treatise on Nomadology - The War Machine 13. 7000BC: Apparatus of Capture 14. 1440: The Smooth and the Striated 15. Conclusion: Concrete Rules and Abstract Machines Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis collection of lectures shows the intensity of Kojève's study and thought and the depth of his insight into Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.Table of Contents1. In Place of an Introduction2. Summary of the First Six Chapters of the Phenomenology of Spirit Complete Text of the First Three Lectures of the Academic Year 1937–19383. Summary of the Course in 1937–1938 Excerpt from the 1938–1939 Annuaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences religieuses4. Philosophy and Wisdom Complete Text of the First Two Lectures of the Academic Year 1938–19395. A Note on Eternity, Time, and the Concept Complete Text of the Sixth through Eighth Lectures of the Academic Year 1938–19396. Interpretation of the Third Part of Chapter VIII of the Phenomenology of Spirit (conclusion) Complete Text of the Twelfth Lecture of the Academic Year 1938–19397. The Dialectic of the Real and the Phenomenological Method in Hegel Complete Text of the Sixth through Ninth Lectures of the Academic Year 1934-1935Appendix The Structure of the Phenomenology of Spirit

Read more less

Book SynopsisA sparkling and up-to-date new cover for one of Fontana Press's strongest-selling titles.Jung was on a giant scalehe was a master physician of the soul in his insights, a profound sage in his conclusions. He is also one of Western Man's great liberators.' J. B. Priestly, Sunday TelegraphJung can sometimes rise to the heights of a Blake or a Nietzsche or a Kierkegaardlike any true prophet or artist, he extended the range of the human imaginationto be able to share Jungian emotions is surely an almost necessary capacity of the free mind.' Philip Toynbee, ObserverThis compact volume of extracts from the twenty volumes of Jung's published writings presents him clearly, in his own words and in precis.Jung's writing is the key to understanding 20th-century psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Most of the terms of reference now used (extrovert', collective unconscious', archetype') are Jungian.This is essential reading for both students of psychology and the general reader.Trade Review‘Storr presents a selection characterised by clarity of organisation and sympathetic understanding which will be of value both to the general reader and the more serious student.’ Journal of Analytical Psychology ‘Anthony Storr offers a commentary that is admirably clear and unfailingly level in tone.’ Liam Hudson, Sunday Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book is a defense of modal realism; the thesis that our world is but one of a plurality of worlds, and that the individuals that inhabit our world are only a few out of all the inhabitants of all the worlds.Table of ContentsPreface. 1. A Philosopher's Paradise. The Thesis of Pluraliry of Worlds. Modal Realism at Work: Modality. Modal Realism at Work: Closeness. Modal Realism at Work: Content. Modal Realism at Work: Properties. Isolation. Concreteness. Plenitude. Actuality. 2. Paradox in Paradise?. Everything is Actual?. All Worlds in One?. More Worlds Than There Are?. How Can We Know?. A Road to Scepticism?. A Road to Indifference?. Arbitrariness Lost?. The Incredulous Stare. 3. Paradise on the Cheap?. The Ersatzist Program. Linguistic Ersatzism. Pictorial Ersatzism. Magical Ersatzism. 4. Counterparts or Double Lives?. Good Questions and Bad. Against Overlap. Against Trans-World Individuals. Against Haecceitism. Against Constancy. Works Cited. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisRené Girard (1923-) was Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA, from 1981 to his retirement in 1995. A historian, literary critic and philosopher, he is the author of over 30 books including Violence and the Sacred.Trade ReviewFor those who want a lively, general introduction to the thought of this seminal religious thinker [Rene Girard], Evolution and Conversion is a book not to be missed. * Theology *Girard is now well known for his multidisciplinary writings on religion and violence ... This book develops and reassesses ideas set out thirty years ago. * Theological Book Review *Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction: 'One long argument from the beginning to the end' Pierpaolo Antonello and Joao Cezar Castro Rocha 1 The Life of the Mind 2 'A Theory by Which to Work': The Mimetic Mechanism 3 The Symbolic Species 4 Dialogues and Criticism: From Frazer to Levi-Strauss 5 Method, Evidence and Truth 6 The Scandal of Christianity 7 Modernity, Postmodernity and Beyond Chronology of Girard's Life List of Girard's Publications Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understandingaccompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh and his Abstract of A Treatise on Human Nature.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this definitive new en face German-English edition, Wittgenstein experts Peter Hacker and Joachim Schulte have incorporated significant editorial changes to earlier editions of Philosophical Investigations in order to reflect more closely Wittgenstein's original intentions.Table of ContentsEditorial Preface to the Fourth Edition and Modified Translation viii The Text of the Philosophische Untersuchungen xviii Philosophische Untersuchungen Philosophical Investigations 1 Philosophie der Psychologie – Ein Fragment Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment 182 Endnotes 244 Register 267 Index 288

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn his final work, Richard Rorty provides the definitive statement of his political thought. Rorty equates pragmatism with anti-authoritarianism, arguing that because there is no authority we can rely on to ascertain truth, we can only do so intersubjectively. It follows that we must learn to think and care about what others think and care about.Trade ReviewToday, there are few philosophers left whose thoughts are inspired by a unifying vision; there are even fewer who can articulate such a view in terms of a ravishing flow of provocative, but sharp and differentiated, arguments. But rarely anyone can compete with Richard Rorty in summarizing the whole of it in a series of brilliant literary lectures like these. -- Jürgen HabermasRichard Rorty was the most iconoclastic and dramatic philosopher of the last half-century. In this final book, his unique literary style, singular intellectual zest, and demythologizing defiance of official philosophy are on full display. -- Cornel WestA sharp and comprehensive statement of Richard Rorty’s distinctive version of pragmatism, presented with all the wit and vitality typical of his writings. Carefully edited by Eduardo Mendieta, with an illuminating foreword by Robert B. Brandom, this book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in Rorty’s philosophical vision. -- Richard J. Bernstein, Vera List Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social ResearchWe have perhaps the clearest account of how he understood pragmatist thinking as a political undertaking…Provocative and engaging…The array of urgent questions and crises facing our democracy makes one miss Richard Rorty’s voice: insistent, relentlessly questioning, and dedicated to the proposition that we can’t afford to let our democracy fail. -- Chris Lehmann * New Republic *The verve with which [the arguments] are made and their relevance to our current context make for a bracing read…The message of Rorty’s body of work, so well summarized in these newly published lectures, is that aiming at ‘increased responsiveness to the needs of a larger and larger variety of people and things’ will reduce the sources of suffering, and by so doing multiply our opportunities to thrive. -- Michael S. Roth * Los Angeles Review of Books *Show[s] an impressive command of both analytic and continental philosophy. -- George Scialabba * Commonweal *It is coherent, often brilliant, and it presents a clear and timely case for political pragmatism. -- Jonathan Rée * Prospect *A useful compendium of the philosopher’s mature views. -- Robert Chodat * American Literary History *A very finely edited collection of essays in which Rorty’s undeniable polemical brilliance and philosophical knowledge are in full display. -- Richard Shusterman * Society *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Times Biography of the YearWinner of the Hawthornden Prize 2019Shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Prize 2019Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019Longlisted for the Cundhill History Prize 2019Outstanding.' The Sunday Times A revelation.' Guardian Wonderful.' The Times Riveting.' New StatesmanFriedrich Nietzsche's work rocked the foundation of Western thinking and continues to permeate our culture, high and low yet he is one of history's most misunderstood philosophers. Sue Prideaux's myth-shattering book brings readers into the world of a brilliant, eccentric and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand Nietzsche, the philosopher who foresaw and sought solutions to our own troubled times.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn a new retelling of the romantic rationalist adventure of ideas that is Hegel’s classic The Phenomenology of Spirit, Robert Brandom argues that when our self-conscious recognitive attitudes take Hegel’s radical form of magnanimity and trust, we can overcome a troubled modernity and enter a new age of spirit.Trade Review[A] masterpiece. -- Slavoj Žižek * Philosophy Now *Displays the swashbuckling speculation and hermeneutical ingenuity of the best continental philosophy together with the rigor of the best analytic work…[An] astonishing book. Brandom develops fundamentally original positions with implications for everything from narrative theory to the free will problem to the nature of the political state. -- Crispin Sartwell * Los Angeles Review of Books *Must now count as Brandom's most significant contribution to contemporary philosophy…[An] impressive book. -- Stephen Houlgate * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *This long-awaited book has been thirty years in the making. Brandom’s A Spirit of Trust aspires to do for Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Spirit what Strawson’s The Bounds of Sense did for Kant’s The Critique of Pure Reason: to transpose a seminal work of German Idealism into the terminological idiom and argumentative key of anglophone analytic philosophy—not only to render a past classic newly available to the present, but to transform the philosophical present through such a re-inheritance of its past. -- James Conant, University of ChicagoA Spirit of Trust will be the book that finally moves analytic philosophy from its Kantian phase to its Hegelian phase. Brandom has succeeded in bridging both the history–systematic and the continental–analytic divides in contemporary philosophy. To say that this book is highly anticipated would be a gross understatement. -- Dean Moyar, Johns Hopkins UniversityBrandom’s goal is to make Hegel explicable to a new audience, to make the importance of his philosophy plain and to further develop his own impressive body of work. He has succeeded, and his success throws up fascinating questions for both American philosophy and critical theory. -- J. D. Evans * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn his most important work, Max Horkheimer surveys and demonstrates the gradual ascendancy of Reason in Western philosophy, its eventual total application to all spheres of life, and what he considers its present reified domination. First published in 1947, Horkheimer here explores the ways in Nazism - that most irrational of political movements - had co-opted ideas of rationality for its own ends. Ultimately, the book is a warning of the ways this might happen again and, as such, this is a book that has never appeared more timely. Table of ContentsI. Means and Ends \ II. Conflicting Panaceas \ III. The Revolt of Nature \ IV. Rise and Decline of the Individual \ V. On the Concept of Philosophy \ Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review‘Mehring’s book is a remarkable achievement: an intellectual biography that illuminates a whole era while taking very seriously the intimate connections between the theory and the restless and obsessive personality of its main character. It is bound to remain a fundamental reference in the vast literature on one of the most decisive chapters in European constitutional history: the Weimar Republic.’Political Studies Review ‘By presenting a complete account of Schmitt’s life, heretofore absent, Mehring has done a great service. This biography will no doubt be the point of departure for studies of Carl Schmitt and his intellectual legacy for a long time.’Constellations

Read more less

Book SynopsisAll the World an Icon is the fourth book in an informal "quartet" of works by Tom Cheetham on the spirituality of Henry Corbin, a major twentieth-century scholar of Sufism and colleague of C. G. Jung, whose influence on contemporary religion and the humanities is beginning to become clear. Cheetham''s books have helped spark a renewed interest in the work of this important, creative religious thinker.Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was professor of Islamic religion at the Sorbonne in Paris and director of the department of Iranic studies at the Institut Franco-Iranien in Teheran. His wide-ranging work includes the first translations of Heidegger into French, studies in Swedenborg and Boehme, writings on the Grail and angelology, and definitive translations of Persian Islamic and Sufi texts. He introduced such seminal terms as "the imaginal realm" and "theophany" into Western thought, and his use of the Shi''ite idea of ta''wil or "spiritual interpretation" influenced psychologist James Hillman and the literary critic Harold Bloom. His books were read by a broad range of poets including Charles Olson and Robert Duncan, and his impact on American poetry, says Cheetham, has yet to be fully appreciated. His published titles in English include Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, and The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.As the religions of the Book place the divine Word at the center of creation, the importance of hermaneutics, the theory and practice of interpretation, cannot be overstated. In the theology and spirituality of Henry Corbin, the mystical heart of this tradition is to be found in the creative, active imagination; the alchemy of spiritual development is best understood as a story of the soul''s search for the Lost Speech. Cheetham eloquently demonstrates Corbin''s view that the living interpretation of texts, whether divine or human—or, indeed, of the world itself seen as the Text of Creation—is the primary task of spiritual life.In his first three books on Corbin, Cheetham explores different aspects of Corbin''s work, but has saved for this book his final analysis of what Corbin meant by the Arabic term ta''wil—perhaps the most important concept in his entire oeuvre. "Any consideration of how Corbin''s ideas were adapted by others has to begin with a clear idea of what Corbin himself intended," writes Cheetham; "his own intellectual and spiritual cosmos is already highly complex and eclectic and a knowledge of his particular philosophical project is crucial for understanding the range and implications of his work." Cheetham lays out the implications of ta''wil as well as the use of language as integral part of any artistic or spiritual practice, with the view that the creative imagination is a fundamentally linguistic phenomenon for the Abrahamic religions, and, as Corbin tells us, prayer is the supreme form of creative imagination.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPart of a two-volume set of work containing words of all four books comprising the "Essay", this book provides marginal analyses of almost every paragraph, and explanatory footnotes which comment, elaborate and explain difficult points.Trade ReviewThis abridgment by Kenneth Winkler is the best that has ever been done. Winkler's judgment as to what must be kept and what may be dropped is unerring, and his literary skill has enabled him to fashion a text that reads smoothly. An illuminating Introduction and comprehensive glossary enhance the value of this volume for students. --Vere Chappell, University of Massachusetts, AmherstLocke's Essay is a massive, scarcely organized work that is easy for students to get lost in and difficult for teachers to lend coherence to. But Winkler's abridgment succeeds remarkably at bringing out the underlying structure of Locke's masterpiece without sacrificing any of the long and important passages that put the meat on that structure. I didn't think this could be done until I came across Winkler's abridgment. It certainly makes teaching Locke much easier, since it makes the structure of the Essay more apparent, and leaves the teacher thus freer to concentrate on the details of the text. I know of no passages from the Essay left out of this abridgment that I would prefer to use in a lower-level class. If anything, I would have made the abridgment shorter still. But to my knowledge, nobody has yet done a better job than Winkler. --Michael Rolf, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsLocke's Life and Writing; The Essay concerning Human Understanding; Books I and II: Ideas and Principles; Book III: Language and Abstraction; Book IV: Knowledge; Reception and Legacy; A Chronology of John Locke; An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1; Appendix Extracts from Locke's Letters to Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester; Explanatory Notes; Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince the book's first publication in 1988, Alain Badiou's Being and Event has established itself of one of the most important and controversial works in contemporary philosophy and its author as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. Being and Event is a comprehensive statement of Badiou's philosophical project and sees him recast the European philosophical tradition from Plato onwards, via a series of analyses of such key figures as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel, Rousseau, and Lacan. He thus develops the basis for a history of philosophy rivalling those of Heidegger and Deleuze in its depth.Now publishing in the Bloomsbury Revelations series to mark 25 years since the book's first publication in French, Being and Event is an essential read for anyone interested in contemporary thought.Trade Review"Badiou's approach is unique, rigorous, and interesting..." - Jill Stauffer, Theory & Event"[Badiou] develops, in the central passages of the book, his central notions of situations and events, and devotes many, often arresting pages to elucidating the mechanism by which the latter productively disrupt the former. The structure of experience is not merely open to change, pregnant with contingent revolution. This is a nice model and Badiou deploys it across a broad front." - Hugh Lawson-Tancred for The Liberal"A variety of scholars, including philosophers, mathematicians, and intellectual historians, would do well to examine this volume and seek in it threads that warrant continued examination in an era of nanotechnology and political terrorism."- Francisca Goldsmith, Library Journal, April 1, 2006 * Library Journal *"Two things are new in this much-anticipated translationof Badiou: the language and the preface. Both are instructive. TranslatorOliver Feltham stayed 'as close as possible to Badiou's syntax' but 'at theprice of losing fluidity.' Thankfully, Badiou addresses such dissonance and hislarger philosophical goals in an indispensable new preface—without which the 37weighty meditations might be lost to the layperson. Recommended..." - Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsNew Author's Preface Translator's Preface Introduction Book I Being: Multiple and Void. Plato/Cantor 1. The One and the Multiple: a priori conditions of any possible ontology 2. Plato 3. Theory of the Pure Multiple: paradoxes and critical decision Technical Note: the conventions of writing 4. The Void: Proper name of being 5. The Mark Æ 6. Aristotle Book II Being: Excess, State of the Situation, One/Multiple, Whole/Parts, or Î/Ì? 7. The Point of Excess 8. The State, or Metastructure, and the Typology of Being (normality, singularity, excrescence) 9. The State of the Historico-social Situation 10. Spinoza Book III Being: Nature and Infinity. Heidegger/Galileo 11. Nature: Poem or matheme? 12. The Ontological schema of Natural Multiples and the Non-existence of Nature 13. Infinity: the other, the rule and the Other 14. The Ontological Decision: 'There is some infinity in natural multiples' 15. Hegel Book IV The Event: History and Ultra-one 16. Evental Sites and Historical Situations 17. The Matheme of the Event 18. Being's Prohibition of the Event 19. MallarméBook V The Event: Intervention and Fidelity. Pascal/Choice; Hölderlin/Deduction 20. The Intervention: Illegal choice of a name for the event, logic of the two, temporal foundation 21. Pascal 22. The Form-multiple of Intervention: is there a being of choice? 23. Fidelity, Connection 24. Deduction as operator of ontological fidelity 25. HölderlinBook VI Quantity and Knowledge. The discernable (or constructible): Leibniz/Gödel 26. The concept of quantity and the impasse of ontology 27. Ontological destiny of orientation within thought 28. Constructivist thought and the knowledge of being 29. The folding of being and the sovereignty of language 30. LeibnizBook VII The Generic: indiscernible and truth. The event - P.J.Cohen 31. The Thought of the Generic and Being in Truth 32. Rousseau 33. The Matheme of the Indiscernible: P.J.Cohen's strategy 34. The existence of the indiscernible: the power of the namesBook VIII Forcing: Truth and the Subject. Beyond Lacan 35. Theory of the subject 36. Forcing: from the indiscernible to the undecidable 37. Descartes / LacanAnnexes Appendixes Notes Dictionary

Read more less

Book Synopsis“We should be grateful to Schopenhauer for managing to express the truth about life so beautifully.” — Alain De Botton, author of The Consolations of PhilosophyThe Essential Schopenhauer delivers the first comprehensive English anthology of the seminal philosopher’s writings, edited by Wolfgang Schirmacher, president of the International Schopenhauer Association. This indispensable collection affords readers a uniquely accessible gateway into the monolithic thinker’s prodigious body of work. Just as the Harper Perennial Basic Writings series renders the work of Heidegger and Nietzsche accessible for English readers, The Essential Schopenhauer gives us unprecedented access to the complex ideas of this profound and influential thinker.Trade Review“Schopenhauer’s beautiful, exceptionally dark philosophy liberates us from the intolerable burden placed upon us by our contemporary optimism. The Essential Schopenhauer is a book to turn to when all others have failed.” — Alain de Botton, bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy and How Proust Can Change Your Life “Unquestionably one of the most profound and penetrating intellects.” — New York Times “A great philosopher” — The Guardian “Schopenhauer’s philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life’s meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts.” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Read more less

Book SynopsisTheodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are the leading figures of the Frankfurt School and this book is their magnum opus. Dialectic of Enlightenment is one of the most celebrated works of modern social philosophy that continues to impress in its wide-ranging ambition.Writing just after the Second World War and reflecting on the bureaucracy and myths of National Socialism and the inanity of the dawn of consumerism, Adorno and Horkheimer addressed themselves to a question which went to the very heart of the modern age: 'why mankind, instead of entering into a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism'. Modernity, far from redeeming the promises and hopes of the Enlightenment, had resulted in a stultification of mankind and administered society, characterised by simulation and candy-floss entertainment.Tracing humanity's modern fall to the very rationality that was to be its liberation, the authors exposed the domination and violence that underpin the Enlightenment project.Trade ReviewA classic of twentieth-century thought. * Times Literary Supplement *A sustained and serious critique of Western civilization. * Times Higher Education Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a persuasive argument of there not being rationality that is not the rationality of some tradition. MacIntyre examines the problems presented by the existence of rival traditions of inquiry in the cases of four major philosophers: Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Hume.Trade Review"Alasdair MacIntyre has done it again. . . . [He] delivers on his promise in After Virtue to develop an account of rationality and justice that is tradition specific. It is a long and complex book, but will repay any reader's labors. In this book MacIntyre tells the story of four traditions: the Aristotelian, the Augustinian, the Scottish, and the rise of the liberal tradition. His narrative shows the interaction of these in a manner that illumines our current intellectual and moral context. . . ." —Commonweal"It is a step in the right direction, not of returning to some Catholic version of fundamentalist bibliotary, but of reading a Christian theologian and philosopher whose immense wisdom repays careful study by Christians and non-Christians alike." —New Oxford Review“Whose Justice? Which Rationality? is a work of signal importance ... [it] is usually convincing, always provocative, and has wide-reaching implications for the way we think about our historical moment." —Commentary“MacIntyre’s rich historical exposition displays all the erudition and philosophical subtlety that his readers have come to expect from his work. . . . [T]here is much to admire in MacIntyre’s unflinching indictment of liberal modernity.” —The New Criterion“[MacIntyre’s] diagnosis of what ails recent moral philosophy is brilliant.” —Wilson Quarterly“MacIntyre is widely informed and his story of developments in the traditions that he identifies is learned, interesting, and notably well-written.” —London Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book is a translation of Maurice Blanchot's work that is of major importance to late 20th-century literature and philosophy studies. Using the fragmentary form, Blanchot challenges the boundaries between the literary and the philosophical. With the obsessive rigor that has always marked his writing, Blanchot returns to the themes that have haunted his work since the beginning: writing, death, transgression, the neuter, but here the figures around whom his discussion turns are Hegel and Nietzsche rather than Mallarme and Kafka. The metaphor Blanchot uses for writing in The Step Not Beyond is the game of chance. Fragmentary writing is a play of limits, a play of ever-multiplied terms in which no one term ever takes precedence. Through the randomness of the fragmentary, Blanchot explores ideas as varied as the relation of writing to luck and to the law, the displacement of the self in writing, the temporality of the Eternal Return, the responsibility of the self towards the others.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis substantially revised edition of Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics contains one section, an essay of fifty pages, not previously published, as well as considerable additions to others sections.Table of ContentsPreface to The Revised Edition Part I Circa 1937-1938 Part II 1938 Part III 1939-40 Part IV 1942-1944 Part V 1942-1944 Part VI ca. 1943/1944 Part VII 1941 and 1944 Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally published in French in 1997 and appearing here in English for the first time, David Lapoujade''s William James: Empiricism and Pragmatism is both an accessible and rigorous introduction to James''s thought and a pioneering rereading of it. Examining pragmatism''s fundamental questions through a Deleuzian framework, Lapoujade outlines how James''s pragmatism and radical empiricism encompass the study of experience and the making of reality, and he reopens the speculative side of pragmatist thought and the role of experience in it. The book includes an extensive afterword by translator Thomas Lamarre, who illustrates how James''s interventions are becoming increasingly central to the contemporary debates about materialist ontology, affect, and epistemology that strive to bridge the gaps among science studies, media studies, and religious studies.Trade Review“David Lapoujade's book, at last translated, was an event in France, and so it will be for his American readers, who will rediscover what they thought they knew. Lapoujade does not write about William James but rather embraces the movement of James's thought, performing it as a musician performs a score, making it alive and audible for its own sake and enabling his readers to go back and read James as if for the first time.” -- Isabelle Stengers, author of * In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism *“In this crisp, well-argued book, David Lapoujade rescues the whole idea of pragmatism from the dismissive and misguided views that it is an ‘American’ philosophy by recasting its fundamental questions along new lines. He advances a vision of pragmatism that is based in trust in the world of things in the making, in effect reopening pragmatist thought from a fresh angle.” -- John Rajchman, author of * The Deleuze Connections *“Originally published in French in 1997 and finally translated into English, David Lapoujade's William James is varnished by the specter of Deleuzean transcendental empiricism.... William James is as much an archeological disinterring of Deleuze by way of James as it is a recovery of James’s pragmatism from Richard Rorty’s neo-pragmatism....” -- Ekin Erkan * Continental Thought & Theory *“[William James] is well written, with a verve that will repay the attentive reader. Recommended.” -- J. A. Fischel * Choice *“For those attentive to connection, who seek to multiply relations, [William James] will prove instructive through its experimentation with the prospective possibilities of a philosopher’s thought. As Lapoujade performatively reminds us, every act of interpretation is also an act of creation.” -- Bonnie Sheehey * American Literary History *Table of ContentsA Note on References vii Preface / Thomas Lamarre ix Introduction 1 1. Radical Empiricism 9 2. Truth and Knowledge 27 3. Faith and Pragmatic Community 51 Conclusion 73 Afterword: Diversity as Method / Thomas Lamarre 77 Notes 119 Bibliography 137 Index 143

Read more less

Book SynopsisCaptures the synthesis that emerges from the dialectical process of a transcending Godhead and the rational and material world. This work covers miracles, the Trinity, Creation, prayer, resurrection, immortality, faith and more.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThough Michel Foucault is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, little is known about his early life. Even Foucault’s biographers have neglected this period, preferring instead to start the story when the future philosopher arrives in Paris. Becoming Foucault is a historical reconstruction of the world in which Foucault grew up: the small city of Poitiers, France, from the 1920s until the end of the Second World War. Beyond exploring previously unexamined aspects of Foucault’s childhood, including his wartime ordeals, it proposes an original interpretation of Foucault’s oeuvre. Michael Behrent argues that Foucault, in addition to being a theorist of power, knowledge, and selfhood, was also a philosopher of experience. He was a thinker intent on making sense of the events that he lived through. Behrent identifies four specific experiences in Foucault’s childhood that exercised a decisive influence on him and that, in various ways, he later made the subject of his philosophy: his family’s deep connections to the medical profession; his upbringing in a bourgeois household; the German Occupation during World War II; and his Catholic education. Behrent not only reconstructs the specific nature of these experiences but also shows how reference to them surfaces in Foucault’s later work. In this way, the book both sheds light on a formative period in the philosopher’s life and offers a unique interpretation of key aspects of his thought.Trade Review"In this innovative and thought-provoking intellectual history, Michael Behrent paints an intimate portrait of the young Foucault and his family, as well as a panorama of early twentieth-century Poitiers, the town in central France in which they made their lives. In doing so, he gives us a radically new perspective on one of the most important thinkers of modern times. Becoming Foucault should be on the bookshelf of every scholar interested in postwar French thought." * Edward G. Baring, Princeton University *"In what may very well be the definitive work on the topic, Michael Behrent’s innovative and insightful Becoming Foucault shows how understanding the thinker’s early milieu—born of a family of doctors, submitted to middle-class strictures, navigating wartime occupation, surviving local schooling—casts new light on his mature projects and positions. Neither traditional biography nor conventional intellectual history, Behrent’s book breaks new ground by demonstrating the mutual, irreducible relations between thought and experience. Well-written and accessible, based on remarkable archival research, and imaginatively argued, Becoming Foucault will interest anyone devoted to experiencing thought and thinking about experience." * Julian Bourg, Boston College *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe key to human nature that Marx found in wealth and Freud in sex, Bertrand Russell finds in power. Power, he argues, is man's ultimate goal, and is, in its many guises, the single most important element in the development of any society. Writting in the late 1930s when Europe was being torn apart by extremist ideologies and the world was on the brink of war, Russell set out to found a 'new science' to make sense of the traumatic events of the day and explain those that would follow. The result was Power, a remarkable book that Russell regarded as one of the most important of his long career. Countering the totalitarian desire to dominate, Russell shows how political enlightenment and human understanding can lead to peace - his book is a passionate call for independence of mind and a celebration of the instinctive joy of human life.Trade Review'Extremely penetrating analysis of human nature in politics' - The Sunday Times'An acute and learned study.' - The EconomistTable of ContentsChapter 1 THE IMPULSE TO POWER; Chapter 2 LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS; Chapter 3 THE FORMS OF POWER; Chapter 4 PRIESTLY POWER; Chapter 5 KINGLY POWER; Chapter 6 NAKED POWER; Chapter 7 REVOLUTIONARY POWER; Chapter 8 ECONOMIC POWER; Chapter 9 POWER OVER OPINION; Chapter 10 CREEDS AS SOURCES OF POWER; Chapter 11 THE BIOLOGY OF ORGANISATIONS; Chapter 12 POWERS AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENTS; Chapter 13 ORGANISATIONS AND THE INDIVIDUAL; Chapter 14 COMPETITION; Chapter 15 POWER AND MORAL CODES; Chapter 16 POWER PHILOSOPHIES; Chapter 17 THE ETHICS OF POWER; Chapter 18 THE TAMING OF POWER INDEX;

Read more less

Book SynopsisA joyful celebration (NPR) that shows us why silence is essential to our sanity and happiness—and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude—from a renowned explorer and acclaimed author. In this astonishing and transformative meditation, Erling Kagge, famed Norwegian explorer and the first person to reach the South Pole alone, explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. By recounting his own experiences and discussing the observations of poets, artists, and explorers, Kagge shows us what silence is, where it can be found, and why it is now more important than ever.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor nearly two decades, Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science has distinguished itself as the standard for texts specifically designed to meet the needs of beginning students. Retaining the best essays from the first two editions, the editors have added ten important new selections to maintain this influential text's relevance for today and tomorrow. Readings cover such timely and important topics as feminism and the sciences, the effects of science on society, the natural versus the social sciences, and science and human values. There are also new study questions and case studies, updated section introductions, revised select bibliographies for each section, and a valuable appendix for instructors.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWho was Jacques Derrida? For some, he is responsible, at least in part, for the contemporary crisis of truth. For the far right, he is one of the architects of Cultural Marxism. To his academic critics, he reduced French philosophy to 'little more than an object of ridicule'. For his fans, he is an intellectual rock star who ranged across literature, politics, and linguistics. In An Event Perhaps, Peter Salmon presents this misunderstood and misappropriated figure as a deeply humane and urgent thinker for our times. Accessible, provocative and beautifully written, this biography will introduce to a new readership to the life and work of a philosopher whose influence over the way we think will continue long into the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewThis is a compulsively readable intellectual biography of Derrida that teases out his endlessly fascinating thought, even when it is at its knottiest, with admirable patience and lucidity. Salmon's book, in vividly transmitting the intellectual excitement of Derrida's times, reminds the reader that, especially in his thinking about ethics, he remains a philosopher who is urgently, politically relevant to our times too. -- Matthew Beaumont, Professor at English at University College, LondonThe life of Jacques Derrida has never been told as elegantly or engagingly as it is in Peter Salmon's new book. In delightfully readable, often laconic prose, Salmon helped me to understand Derrida as never before and demonstrated why he is not, as some detractors called him, the Devil but much more cherishable. A wonderful book. -- Stuart Jeffries, author of Grand Hotel AbyssA precise intellectual biography ... Salmon's ability to render the man and the mind behind Derrida's "notoriously difficult" style accessible make this volume a rich resource for both newcomers to, and fans of, "one of the great philosophers of this or any age. * Publishers Weekly *Peter Salmon's clear-sighted, engaging guide to Derrida's life and ideas is an excellent way to learn about how one of the twentieth century's most complex thinkers continues to influence our world -- Daniel Trilling, author of Lights in the DistanceA scintillating new biography . . . Derrida's life story provides a frame and background for an intellectual biography of his ideas and their development. In the process it also serves as one of the clearest introductions to 20th-century continental philosophy available. -- Julian Baggini * Prospect Magazine *[An Event, Perhaps] comes as manna from heaven ... It's dizzyingly good. * Expressen *

Read more less

Book SynopsisUncovering the melancholic tradition of the global left.Trade ReviewThe perfect meditation for our melancholy age. -- Peter Gordon * Boston Review *Left-Wing Melancholia is well-written, timely and original. -- Eli Zaretsky, The New School for Social ResearchAn exciting, original, and illuminating discussion, which sets the contemporary Left's feeling of disorientation and loss into a rich and varied landscape of memory practices and emotional states. * American Historical Review *Left-Wing Melancholia’s breadth is impressive, almost intimidating. -- Sean Cashbaugh, Stevens Institute of Technology * H-Net Socialisms, H-Net Reviews *This brilliant book seeks to recover a hidden, discreet tradition: that of 'left-wing melancholia.' * Against the Current *[This] wide-ranging study is triumphant in plumbing the depths of socialist despair. * Times Higher Education *Spirited, engaging, and almost panoramic. * History and Theory *Traverso makes a persuasive case. * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *A stirring . . . call for the left to challenge this narrative and rethink its past. . . . A brilliant piece of historical study. * 3:AM Magazine *Left-Wing Melancholia is a path breaking work that combines history and political theory with a concise, richly analytical, exciting narrative. Enzo Traverso redefines our understanding of the current regimes of temporality—a sorrowful transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century—and challenges historians and critical theorists alike to think beyond the standard binaries between history and memory, revolution and defeat, and melancholy and politics. In other words, this book is a gem. -- Federico Finchelstein, The New School for Social ResearchMarvelously learned and gorgeously poetic, Left-Wing Melancholia is a transcendent masterpiece of the Marxist imagination. Each engrossing chapter provides a tour-de-force of trenchant observations and lucid argumentation about the melancholic landscape of socialist memory. Intricately constructed with acrobatic prose, electric compressions, and magisterial assuredness, Traverso's scholarly milestone synthesizes an ambitious spectrum of interventions into the revolutionary aspirations and defeats of the twentieth century that is historically engaging, eminently readable, and pressingly pertinent. -- Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor of English Literature and American Culture, University of MichiganAccording to Freud, mourning is differentiated from melancholia in its working through grief by acknowledging the irreparable loss of a love object. If so, should the contemporary Left finally concede the failure of its dreams of revolutionary redemption? Or, and this is the gamble of Enzo Traverso's provocative new book, is it better to remain defiantly melancholic in the hope that those dreams may still be realized? Drawing on a lifetime of immersion in the history of modern European culture and politics, he provides future progressive movements a glimmer of hope that the dialectic of defeat may not yet be history's final word. -- Martin Jay, University of California, BerkeleyWith Left-Wing Melancholia, Enzo Traverso provides us with a timely and learned meditation on the politics of grief, mourning, and historical loss. Yet, in the tradition of Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch, Traverso also instructs us on how the experience of loss can simultaneously generate heretofore untapped repositories of social hope. Left-Wing Melancholia is both an exhilarating work of intellectual synthesis as well as a pathbreaking study in cultural history. -- Richard Wolin, author of Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of RedemptionIn this wide-ranging, conceptually rich, nuanced and thoughtful meditation, Enzo Traverso takes stock of the current historical moment as marking a fundamental historical and cultural crisis for the Left. The overarching trajectory of struggles oriented toward an emancipatory future that characterized and motivated movements in the past two centuries has been fundamentally broken, resulting in a profound melancholia. Taking inspiration from heterodox critical responses to the darkness enveloping Europe in 1940, Traverso seeks to uncover trace elements of a new utopian imaginary, as a leap without guarantees, a melancholy wager. -- Moishe Postone, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Haunting Pasts Without Utopias1. The Culture of Defeat2. Marxism and Memory3. Melancholy Images4. Bohemia: Between Melancholy and Revolution5. Marxism and the West6. Adorno and Benjamin: Letters at Midnight in the Century7. Synchronic Times: Walter Benjamin and Daniel BensaïdNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisAntonio Gramsci''s Prison Notebooks, written between 1929 and 1935, are the work of one of the most original thinkers in twentieth century Europe. Gramsci has had a profound influence on debates about the relationship between politics and culture. His complex and fruitful approach to questions of ideology, power and change remains crucial for critical theory. This volume was the first selection published from the Notebooks to be made available in Britain, and was originally published in the early 1970s. It contains the most important of Gramsci''s notebooks, including the texts of The Modern Prince, and Americanism and Fordism, and extensive notes on the state and civil society, Italian history and the role of intellectuals. ''Far the best informative apparatus available to any foreign language readership of Gramsci.'' Perry Anderson, New Left Review ''A model of scholarship'' New Statesman

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""Best known for inaugurating the rehabilitation of Nietzsche, Kaufmann is portrayed in Stanley Corngold’s splendid recent biography—Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic—as the conduit through which [Martin] Buber’s teaching entered the American conversation."---Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal"[A] luminous biography." * Kirkus *"In this new work, [Stanley] Corngold presents a historical account of philosopher Walter Kaufmann's writings, which ranged widely from ethics and religion to a major rethinking of Friedrich Nietzsche. Thorough and engaging, Corngold presents a vivid picture of Kaufmann's life through an analysis of his most influential works."---William Simkulet, Library Journal"Corngold’s ‘philosophical biography’ portrays Kaufmann as a fascinating, admirable, and flawed character. After a brief biographical chapter, Corngold takes us through Kaufmann’s intellectual journey from his first book to his last. The detailed discussions of Kauf­mann’s individual works, supplemented by an array of philosophical and liter­ary references, are balanced and rich."---Lewis Rosenberg, Australian Book Review"Corngold writes with a tenacity and intensity that matches his subject . . . [and] proves an admirable guide."---Robert L. Kehoe III, Los Angeles Review of Books"[A] brilliantly erudite and playful intellectual biography of Kaufmann."---Hugo Drochon, Times Literary Supplement

Read more less

Book Synopsis* Roberto Esposito is one of leading figures in a new generation of Italian philosophers. * This book criticizes the notion of the person and develops an original account of the concept of the impersonal - what he calls the third person.Trade Review'Third Person recasts the nebulous history of biopolitics with insight and ingenuity. Weaving together the biological, anthropological, linguistic and philosophic filaments of its genesis, Esposito finds that both liberal traditions of personalism and the catastrophic biopolitics of the twentieth-century share a common focus in the centrality of personhood.'Evening Haze"In this slim and powerful volume, Roberto Esposito not only diagnoses how this dispositif undermines attempts to secure human rights, but he also provides humankind a means of moving forward, past the person, into the life-validating realm of the impersonal."Marx and Philosophy "Is there a term that dominates thought today more than person? From biotechnology and social networking to corporations, person increasingly appears as the dark heart of contemporary life. In this compelling and at times troubling reflection, Roberto Esposito measures the biopolitical costs of our obsession with everything personal in a failed project of the common. In place of the person, Esposito counsels the impersonal perspective of the 'third person.' Part genealogy, part philosophical guide-book, this book is a bold reflection on life and politics that continues in unexpected ways Esposito's previous readings of biopolitics."Timothy Campbell, Cornell University "Beyond the horizon of Western subjectivity, behind the sacralization of the person, lies Esposito's impersonal life. Deconstructing the 'human' and its juridical-biological constitution, Third Person casts incisive light on the perilous region which silently encircles it - the event, its anonymity and uncanniness."Andrea Rossi, Lancaster UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction i. The double life (The machine of the human sciences) ii. Person, man, thing iii. Third person 1. Non-person 2. The animal 3. The Other (Autrui) 4. He/She 5. The neuter 6. The outside 7. The event

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume, a powerful short prose piece by Blanchot with an extended essay by Derrida, records a remarkable encounter in critical and philosophical thinking.Trade Review“This is a very useful book because it makes Blanchot’s powerful text widely available in both French and English.”—The European LegacyTable of ContentsThe Instant of my Death Maurice Blanchot Demure: Fiction and Testimony Jacques Derrida Reading 'beyond the beginning' or, on the Venom in Letters: Postcript and 'literary supplement' Notes.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice.Trade ReviewPsychoanalyst and philosopher by profession, feminist by choice, and radical by nature, Irigaray is one of the most important women writers of contemporary France, with an armful of books since the early seventies, two of them now translated into English. * The Antioch Review *This Sex is complex, readable, and worth the effort it takes to make it part of what you know. It is a valuable step in disrupting phallic discourse and jamming the theoretical machinery itself. * Perspectives *The publication of these two translations is an event to be celebrated by feminists of all persuasions. * Women's Review of Books *Table of Contents1. The Looking Glass, from the Other Side2. This Sex Which Is Not One3. Psychoanalytic Theory: Another Look4. The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine5. Cosi Fan Tutti6. The "Mechanics" of Fluids7. Questions8. Women on the Market9. Commodities among Themselves10. "Frenchwomen," Stop Trying11. When Our Lips Speak TogetherPublisher's Note and Notes on Selected Terms

Read more less

Book SynopsisMichel Foucault's work was described at his death as 'the most important event of thought in our century'. As a philosopher, historian and political activist, he certainly left behind an enduring and influential body of work, but is this acclaim justified? "Introducing Foucault" places his work in its turbulent philosophical and political context, and critically explores his mission to expose the links between knowledge and power in the human sciences, their discourses and institutions. This book explains how Foucault overturned our assumptions about the experience and perception of madness, sexuality and criminality, and the often brutal social practices of confinement, confession and discipline. It also describes Foucault's engagement with psychiatry and clinical medicine, his political activism and the transgressive aspects of pleasure and desire that he promoted in his writing.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFeatures a revised and expanded translators' introduction and an updated translation, as well as the English versions of author's draft of a portion of the text and of his later critique of his own lectures.Trade Review"The translators have improved upon their excellent, earlier translation: nuances have been made clearer and the style brought closer to Heidegger's own style. Eminently readable, this translation should stand the test of time."—Dennis J. Schmidt, Pennsylvania State University"This revised edition of the translation of Heidegger’s 1935 lectures, with its inclusion of helpful new materials, superbly augments the excellent translation provided in the first edition. The result is a richly rewarding volume, to be recommended to every student of Heidegger’s works, whether a novice or a long-time reader."—Daniel Dahlstrom, Boston University"The quality of the translation is outstanding, and the introduction and glossary are eminently clear and helpful."—Bret W. Davis, author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit"There is no questioning the exceedingly high quality of Polt and Fried’s translation as well as their reliably judicious choice of words. Students and scholars alike profit immensely, too, from the explanations that they give of specific translations."—Daniel Dahlstrom, Boston University"Fried and Polt have produced a first-rate edition of this pivotal and important text. Their new translation is rigorous and abides by the best standards of Heidegger scholarship. It also has a new fluency that brings this difficult text into reach of English language readers."—Dennis J. Schmidt, Penn State University

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Young-Bruehl gives us the story of a woman so thoroughly of her time and circumstances that she epitomizes a historical moment. . . . [Her] thorough, beautifully written, erudite presentation of Hannah Arendt wisely emphasizes her signal contribution to philosophy and to political theory."—Julia Epstein, The Philadelphia Inquirer (Books/Leisure) (on the earlier edition)“Both a personal and an intellectual biography . . . It represents biography at its best.”—Peter Berger, front page, The New York Times Book Review“Indispensable to anyone interested in the life, the thought, or . . . the example of Hannah Arendt.”—Mark Feeney, Boston Globe"Philosophy is concerned with two matters: soluble questions that are trivial, and crucial questions that are insoluble. Hannah Arendt always knew the difference; her critics sometimes did. In the disparity lay the tragedies and consolations of a career still sparking debate 19 years after the appearance of her most controversial book."—Stefan Kanfer, Time (on earlier edition)"Young-Bruehl portrays the thinker's personal life and intellectual development within the context of the historical, political, and philosophical issues which informed Arendt's life and work. Insightful commentary on 20th-century philosophy, Jewish self-awareness, politics and moral thought after World War II, and Arendt's relationship to other thinkers and writers (including Heidegger, Jaspers, poets and editors) makes this a particularly well-rounded biographical study. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries."—Library Journal (on the earlier edition)“A story of surprising drama . . . . At last, we can see Arendt whole.”—Jim Miller, Newsweek"In this scholarly and dramatic work, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl dramatically portrays one of the most prominent and controversial political philosophers of our time. . . . With a wealth of quotation, description, and explanation, Young-Bruehl . . . has created an intimate and powerful picture of Arendt, her work, and her world."—Lorraine Hermann, Christian Science Monitor (on earlier edition)"Highly sympathetic [and] comprehensive. . . . Young-Bruehl has unearthed revealing new material."—Publishers Weekly (on earlier edition)"She was a hero and a challenge: an impassioned advocate of public freedom, yet also a figure of Olympian reserve, imperious and remote. . . . Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, one of her former students, has written this first full-length biography based on extensive interviews and on her private papers. It is a story of surprising drama. . . . At last, we can see Arendt whole."—Jim Miller, Newsweek (on earlier edition)"An exemplary biography of one of the leading intellectual luminaries among the Jews from Germany who emigrated to this country in the wake of the Nazi rise to power. . . . Equally at home is discussing philosophical issues, offering psychological reflections, and simply recounting the life struggles of an immigrant and her community, the author has shared with us a portrait that will contribute greatly to our understanding of the century through which we have lived."—from the citation for the 1982 Kenneth B. Smilen Present Tense Award for the best book in Biography/Autobiography (on the earlier edition)"Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's Hannah Arendt is to be commended for its impressive mastery of twentieth-century central European history and its keen perception of the way events and philosophical probings coalesced in this displaced intellectual. The intimate exploration of Arendt's life and friendships illuminates the importance of her contribution to twentieth-century American thought, both through her writings and through her strong personal presence."—YUP Governor's Award citation (on the earlier edition)Winner of the 1983 Alfred Harcourt Prize Award for Biography and Memoirs Nominated for the 1983 National Jewish Book Award in History"Haunting and powerful, . . . [this book is an] exemplary adventure story engaging as well the life of the mind. . . . Young-Bruehl's accomplishment is of the highest order, and all of us who either knew Hannah Arendt of are acquainted with her writings owe an enormous debt to the author."—Norman Jacobson, University of California, Berkeley (on the earlier edition)

Read more less

Book Synopsis“A clarion call for seeing the world as a whole,” this philosophical bestseller takes readers through history, from the Big Bang through the 21st century—now featuring an afterword with the writer-director of the Matrix franchise (San Francisco Chronicle) Join one of the greatest contemporary philosophers on a breathtaking tour of time and the Cosmos—from the Big Bang right up to the eve of the twenty-first century. This accessible and entertaining summary of Ken Wilber’s great ideas has been expanding minds now for two decades, providing a unified field theory of the universe. Along the way, Wilber talks on a host of issues related to that universe, from gender roles, to multiculturalism, environmentalism, and even the meaning of the Internet.   This special anniversary edition contains an afterword, a dialogue between the author and Lana Wachowski—the award-winning writer-director of the Matrix film trilogy—in which we’re offered an intimate glimpse into the evolution of Ken’s thinking and where he stands today. A Brief History of Everything may well be the best introduction to the thought of this man who has been called the “Einstein of Consciousness” (John White).

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less