Western philosophy from c 1800 Books

Book SynopsisSartre''s powerful political passions were united with a memorable literary gift, placing him foremost among the novelists, as well as the philosophers, of our time. Iris Murdoch''s pioneering study analyses and evaluates the different strands of Sartre''s rich and complex oeurve. Combining the objectivity of the scholar with a profound interest in contemporary problems, Iris Murdoch discusses the tradition of philosophical, political and aesthetic thought that gives historical authenticity to Satre''s achievement, while showing the ambiguities and dangers inherent in his position.Trade ReviewA penetrating introduction to the romantic rationalist, novelist and penseur * The Times *Iris Murdoch's concise study... reads as clear and logical as it did in 1953, and remains one of the best friends to anyone who wants to understand what existentialism was all about * Evening Standard *With a cool and luminous introduction...Sartre: Romantic Rationalist is all about the thinker, about his philosophy and his novels... Her fair if unflattering book is the best way in to what finally matters to Sartre * Observer *A remarkably intelligent and penetrating introduction to Sartre * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisSarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood, growing up on the "hippie trail" through Asia and in Australia. She studied philosophy at the University of Essex, and worked for many years as a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library, London, before becoming a full-time writer. Her books include How to Live: a life of Montaigne, which won the Duff Cooper Prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Prize, and At the Existentialist Café, a New York Times Ten Best Books of 2016. She was also among the winners of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. She still has a tendency to wander, but is mostly to be found either in London or in Italy with her wife and their family of dogs and chickens.www.sarahbakewell.comTrade ReviewIt's not often that you miss your bus stop because you're so engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly that while immersed in Sarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café. The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange, fun and compelling reading. If it doesn't win awards, I will eat my proof copy -- Katy Guest * The Independent on Sunday *My book of the year is Sarah Bakewell’s At The Existentialist Café, a marvellously rich and evocative journey through one of the most powerful philosophical movements of the twentieth century… This graceful book speaks to our parochial and inward-looking age. -- Sudhir Hazareesingh * Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year *A wonderfully readable combination of biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection. -- John Walsh * Independent *At the Existentialist Café takes us back to…when philosophers and philosophy itself were sexy, glamorous, outrageous; when sensuality and erudition were entwined… [Bakewell] shows how fascinating were some of the existentialists’ ideas and how fascinating, often frightful, were their lives. Vivid, humorous anecdotes are interwoven with a lucid and unpatronising exposition of their complex philosophy… Tender, incisive and fair. -- Jane O’Grady * Daily Telegraph *Quirky, funny, clear and passionate…Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisRichard Rorty is one of the most provocative figures in recent philosophical, literary and cultural debate. This collection brings together those of his writings aimed at a wider audience, many published in book form for the first time. In these eloquent essays, articles and lectures, Rorty gives a stimulating summary of his central philosophical beliefs and how they relate to his political hopes; he also offers some challenging insights into contemporary America, justice, education and love.Table of ContentsPart 1 Autobiographical: Trotsky and the wild orchids. Part 2 Hope in place of knowledge - a version of pragmatism: truth without correspondence to reality; a world without substances or essences; ethics without principles. Part 3 Some applications of pragmatism: the banality of pragmatism and the poetry of justice; pragmatism and law - a response to David Luban; education as socialization and as individualization; the humanistic intellectual - eleven theses; the pragmatist's progress - Umberto Eco on interpretation; religious faith, intellectual responsibility and romance; religion as conversation-stopper; Thomas Kuhn, rocks and the laws of physics; on Hiedegger's Nazism. Part 4 Politics: failed prophecies, glorious hopes; a spectre is haunting the intellectuals - Derrida on Marx; love and money; globalization, the politics and identity and social hope. Part 5 Contemporary America: looking backwards from the year 2096; the unpatriotic academy; back to class politics.

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Book SynopsisWritten after Nietzsche had ended his friendship with Richard Wagner and had been forced to leave academic life through ill health, Human, All Too Human (1878) can be read as a monument to his personal crisis. It also marks the point when he matured as a philosopher, rejecting the German romanticism espoused by Wagner and Schopenhauer and instead returning to sources in the French Enlightenment. Here he sets out his unsettling views in a series of 638 stunning aphorisms - assessing subjects ranging from art to arrogance, boredom to passion, science to vanity and women to youth. This work also contains the seeds of concepts crucial to Nietzsche''s later philosophy, such as the will to power and the need to transcend conventional Christian morality. The result is one of the cornerstones of his life''s work.Table of ContentsOf first and last things; on the history of moral feelings; religious life; from the soul of artists and writers; signs of higher and lower culture; man in society; woman and child; a look at the state; man alone with himself.

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Book Synopsis''This is a blast of fresh air'' Jonathan Clark, TLS''Thank goodness for Gottlieb'' Daily Telegraph''A joy to read'' EconomistThe author of the celebrated The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of modern thought from Descartes to RousseauIn a short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark on Western thought. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversity - and what is government actually for? Their questions remain our questions, and it is tempting to think these philosophers speak our language and live in our world; but to understand them properly, we must step back into their shoes. Gottlieb puts readers in the minds of these frequently misinterpreted figures, elucidating the history of their times while engagingly explaining their arguments and assessing their legacy. Gottlieb creates a sweeping account of what they amounted to, and why we are still in their debt.Trade ReviewWondrously perceptive and exceptionally well-written -- Edward O. WilsonAn entertaining introduction to a range of daring thinkers of the long Enlightenment from Descartes to Rousseau. The author has a light touch, and his book is a joy to read. He manages to convey the excitement of ideas, and the humanity of thinkers, without swamping readers with complexity. * Economist *Vivid and illuminating ... a compact but fairly comprehensive survey, along with much historical detail ... Gottlieb's highly readable book can be recommended as an engaging personal introduction to some of our most brilliant moral and intellectual ancestors. -- Thomas Nagel * New York Review of Books *He wears his learning lightly with an engaging and entirely comprehensible sequence of crystal-clear paragraphs. ... His prose is as witty as it is punctilious, peppered with clever, memorable lines. ... Because Gottlieb does not take an excessively idealistic view of the power of reason, he is able to put the achievements of the thinkers in this book in their place, neither exaggerating nor diminishing them. -- Julian Baggini * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis''Astonishing ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour every generous, erudite and undogmatic page'' Boyd Tonkin, Financial Times''We English men have wits,'' wrote the clergyman Ralph Lever in 1573, and, ''we have also framed unto ourselves a language.''Witcraft is a fresh and brilliant history of how philosophy became established in English. It presents a new form of philosophical storytelling and challenges what Jonathan Rée calls the ''condescending smugness'' of traditional histories of philosophy. Rée tells the story of philosophy as it was lived and practised, embedded in its time and place, by men and women from many walks of life, engaged with the debates and culture of their age. And, by focusing on the rich history of works in English, including translations, he shows them to be quite as colourful, diverse, inventive and cosmopolitan as their continental counterparts.Witcraft offers new and compelling intellectual portraits not only of celebrated British and American philosophers, such as Hume, Emerson, Mill and James, but also of the remarkable philosophical work of literary authors, such as William Hazlitt and George Eliot, as well as a carnival of overlooked characters - priests and poets, teachers, servants and crofters, thinking for themselves and reaching their own conclusions about religion, politics, art and everything else.The book adopts a novel structure, examining its subject at fifty-year intervals from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Researched over decades and illuminated by quotations from extensive archival material, it is a book full of stories and personalities as well as ideas, and shows philosophy springing from the life around it. Witcraft overturns the established orthodoxies of the history of philosophy, and celebrates the diversity, vitality and inventiveness of philosophical thought.Trade ReviewRée spans a vast ocean of ideas. He introduces us to their shapers and breakers, and gently captains us in 50-year stretches across the seas of English-language thought with astonishing skill as both map-maker and way-finder ... enjoy its riches slowly, and savour every generous, erudite and undogmatic page -- Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times *Rée's book may well be the most fun we've ever had with anglophone philosophy -- Stuart Jeffries * Spectator *Dead philosophers, and indeed dead philosophies, here feel alive, and integrated with the rest of history -- Nakul Krishna * Daily Telegraph *Witcraft is the story of philosophy in English told in a new way, narrated with relish and considerable wit -- Jonathan Egid * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThis epoch-making book cuts through confused thinking and forces us to re-examine many cherished ideas about knowledge, imagination, consciousness and the intellect. The result is a classic example of philosophy.

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Book SynopsisSimone Weil was one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century: a philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist and political activist. This anthology spans the wide range of her thought, and includes an extract from her best-known work ''The Need for Roots'', exploring the ways in which modern society fails the human soul; her thoughts on the misuse of language by those in power; and the essay ''Human Personality'', a late, beautiful reflection on the rights and responsibilities of every individual. All are marked by the unique combination of literary eloquence and moral perspicacity that characterised Weil''s ideas and inspired a generation of thinkers and writers both in and outside her native France.

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Book Synopsis''The most esteemed philosopher to have produced a general introduction to his discipline since Bertrand Russell'' Independent In these essays, one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century writes about communism and socialism, the problem of evil, Erasmus and the reform of the Church, reason and truth, and whether God is happy. Accessible and absorbing, the essays in Is God Happy? deal with some of the eternal problems of philosophy and the most vital questions of our age. Leszek Kolakowski has also written on religion, Spinoza, Bergson, Pascal and seventeenth-century thought. He left communist Poland after his expulsion from Warsaw University for anti-communist activities. From 1970 he was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.''His distinctive mix of irony and moral seriousness, religious sensibility and epistemological scepticism, social engagement and political doubt was truly rare ... a true Central European intellectual-perhaps the last'' Tony Judt, The New York Times Review of BooksTrade ReviewThere can be few more eminent figures in the world of ideas * The Times *The most esteemed philosopher * Independent *His distinctive mix of irony and moral seriousness, religious sensibility and epistemological scepticism, social engagement and political doubt was truly rare ... a true Central European intellectual - perhaps the last -- Tony Judt * The New York Times Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisLudwig Wittgenstein''s interest in the writings of Rabindranath Tagore, is recognized among scholars worldwide though little has been written on his fascination with Tagore''s poetry and symbolic plays. In Language, Limits, and Beyond, Priyambada Sarkar explores Tagore and Wittgenstein''s philosophical arguments on the concept of ''threshold of language and meaning'', highlighting the systematic connections between Tagore''s canon and Wittgenstein''s early works. Situating her study in the early 1900s, when Tagore''s poetry had just become available in Europe, Sarkar finds similarities between Tagore''s and Wittgenstein''s exploration of the limits of language. She argues that Wittgenstein''s early philosophy can be better understood when juxtaposed with Tagore.Drawing parallels between the worlds of philosophy and poetry, Sarkar identifies the point of convergence of their two philosophies in the realm of language, tracing how they reach surprisingly similar conclusions through entire

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Book SynopsisThis book assembles leading legal, political, and moral philosophers to examine the legacy of the work of Ronald Dworkin. They provide the most comprehensive critical treatment of Dworkin''s accomplishments focusing on his work in all branches of philosophy, including his theory of value, political philosophy, philosophy of international law, and legal philosophy. The book''s organizing principle and theme reflect Dworkin''s self-conception as a builder of a unified theory of value, and the broad outlines of his system can be found throughout the book. The first section addresses the most abstract and general aspect of Dworkin''s work--the unity of value thesis. The second section explores Dworkin''s contributions to political philosophy, and discusses a number of political concepts including authority, civil disobedience, the legitimacy of states and the international legal system, distributive justice, collective responsibility, and Dworkin''s master value of dignity and the associated values of equal concern and respect. The third section addresses various aspects of Dworkin''s general theory of law. The fourth and final section comprises accounts of the structure and defining values of discrete areas of law.Table of ContentsContributors Wil Waluchow and Stefan Sciaraffa, Editors' Introduction Part I The Unity of Value 1. A Hedgehog's Unity of Value Joseph Raz Part II Political Values: Legitimacy, Authority, and Collective Responsibility 2. Political Resistance for Hedgehogs Candice Delmas 3. Ronald Dworkin, State Consent and Progressive Cosmopolitanism Thomas Christiano 4. To Fill or Not To Fill Individual Responsibility Gaps? Some Reflections on a Dworkin-Inspired Problem François Tanguay-Renaud 5. Inheritance and Hypothetical Insurance Daniel Halliday Part III General Jurisprudence: Contesting the Unity of Law and Value 6. Putting Law in Its Place Lawrence G. Sager 7. Dworkin and Unjust Law David Dyzenhaus 8. The Grounds of Law Luís Duarte d'Almeida 9. Immodesty in Dworkin's 'Third' Theory: Modest Conceptual Analysis, Immodest Conceptual Analysis, and the Lines Dividing Conceptual and Other Kinds of Theory of Law Kenneth Einar Himma 10. Imperialism and Importance in Dworkin's Jurisprudence Michael Giudice 11. A Theory of Legal Obligation Christopher Essert Part IV Value in Law 12. Originalism and Constructive Interpretation David O. Brink 13. Was Dworkin an Originalist? Larry Alexander 14. The Moral Reading of Constitutions Connie S. Rosati 15. Authority, Intention and Interpretation Aditi Bagchi 16. Concern and Respect in Procedural Law Hamish Stewart Index

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Book SynopsisThe long nineteenth-century--the period beginning with the French Revolution and ending with World War I--was a transformative period for women philosophers in German-speaking countries and contexts. The period spans romanticism and idealism, socialism, Nietzscheanism, and phenomenology, philosophical movements we most often associate with Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Marx--but rarely with women. Yet women philosophers not only contributed to these movements, but also spearheaded debates about their social and political implications. While today their works are less well-known than those of their male contemporaries, many of these women philosophers were widely-read and influential in their own time. Their contributions shed important new light on nineteenth-century philosophy and philosophy more generally: revealing the extent to which various movements which we consider distinct were joined, and demonstrating the degree to which philosophy can transform lives and be transformed by lived experiences and practices. In the nineteenth century, women philosophers explored a wide range of philosophical topics and styles. Working within and in dialogue with popular philosophical movements, women philosophers helped shape philosophy''s agenda and provided unique approaches to existential, political, aesthetic, and epistemological questions. Though largely deprived formal education and academic positions, women thinkers developed a way of philosophizing that was accessible, intuitive, and activist in spirit. The present volume makes available to English-language readersin many cases for the first timethe works of nine women philosophers, with the hope of stimulating further interest in and scholarship on their works. The volume includes a comprehensive introduction to women philosophers in the nineteenth century and introduces each philosopher and her position. The translations are furnished with explanatory footnotes. The volume is designed to be accessible to students as well as scholars.Trade Review...a much-needed contribution to literature on the history of philosophy * M. W. Westmoreland, Ocean County College, Choice Connect *This book provides contemporary readers with an excellent and much-needed introduction to German women philosophers of the long nineteenth century. * Alison Stone, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 61.3 *Table of ContentsEditors' Introduction Translation, Acknowledgements, Sources Chapter One: Germaine de Staël Introduction On Women Writers Kant On the Influence of the New Philosophy on the Sciences Chapter Two: Karoline von Günderrode Introduction Fichte's The Vocation of Humankind Philosophy of Nature The Idea of Nature The Idea of the Earth Chapter Three: Bettina Brentano von Arnim Introduction Günderode Chapter Four: Hedwig Dohm Introduction Nietzsche and Women The New Mother The Old Woman On the Sexual Morality of Women Chapter Five: Clara Zetkin Introduction For the Liberation of Women Women's Suffrage Save the Scottsboro Boys! Chapter Six: Lou Salomé Introduction Selections from The Erotic Chapter Seven: Rosa Luxemburg Introduction Wage Labor, selections from Introduction to Political Economy Chapter Eight: Edith Stein Introduction Selections from On Empathy Chapter Nine: Gerda Walther Introduction A Contribution to the Ontology of Social Communities (selections) Bibliography for Editors' Introductions Bibliography for Translated Text

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Book SynopsisThis book consists of fifteen dialogues between Bryan Magee and some of the outstanding thinkers of the twentieth century. It is based on a highly successful BBC television series which had enormous impact. The informality and clarity of the conversational form makes even the most difficult ideas accessible to the general reader.Isaiah Berlin opens by considering the fundamental question ''What is philosophy?'' Subsequent conversations examine such widely different schools as Marxism and existentialism. Chomsky, Quine, Marcuse, and others discuss their own work; A. J. Ayer reviews logical positivism; Iris Murdoch talks about the relation between philosophy and literature. Moral philosophy, political philosophy, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of science are all treated in depth by the thinkers whose work has shaped the fields.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'Intellectual instruction and entertainment of a high order' * Observer *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. An Introduction to Philosophy ; 2. Marxist Philosophy ; 3. Marcuse and the Frankfurt School ; 4. Heidegger and Modern Existentialism ; 5. The Two Philosophies of Wittgenstein ; 6. Logical Positivism and its Legacy ; 7. The Spell of Linguistic Philosophy ; 8. Moral Philosophy ; 9. The Ideas of Quine ; 10. The Philosophy of Language ; 11. The Ideas of Chomsky ; 12. The Philosophy of Science ; 13. Philosophy and Politics ; 14. Philosophy and Literature ; 15. Philosophy: The Social Context ; Suggestions for Further Reading

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Book SynopsisStephen Mulhall explores how J. M. Coetzee's 'Jesus' Trilogy engages with themes drawn from Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and how Wittgenstein's and Coetzee's thought relates to the critique of modernity elaborated in the work of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre.Table of ContentsIntroduction Acknowledgements Part One Novilla: The Deviant Pupil Part Two Estrella: The Marionette Part Three Estrella: The Orphan Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book examines important movements of 20th century German philosophy, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and critical theory. With chapters on Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas, and Apel, Gorner discusses the philosophers and philosophies against the background of what is most distinctive in the German philosophical tradition.Trade ReviewOne of Gorner's strenghs is that he brings the usual clarity of analytic philosophy to the often fuzziness of German philosophy.'/Christopher Adair-Toteff, British JOurnal for the History of Philosophy, Vol 10, No.4, November 2002Table of ContentsThe German Tradition ; Husserl's Phenomenology ; Heidegger: Fundamental Ontology ; Heidegger: The History of Being ; Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics ; Habermas: Critical Theory ; Apel's Transcendental Pragmatics ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisMuch philosophical debate has attempted to reconcile the human capacity to view the world both objectively and subjectively. Thomas Nagel''s ambitious and lively book tackles this fundamental issue, arguing that our divided nature is the root of a whole range of philosophical problems, touching, as it does, every aspect of human life. He deals with its manifestations in such fields of philosophy as the mind-body problem, personal identity, knowledge and scepticism, thought and reality, free will, and ethics.From reviews of the hardback:`Remarkable ... all of his discussions are clear and insightful, but some reach a level of originality and illumination that opens genuinely new avenues of philosophical thought ... a rare combination of profundity and clarity, along with simplicity of expression. It should be recommended to all those who are bored with or despair about philosophy.''Times Literary SupplementTrade Review`This is a book rich in insight and argument, written with elegant simplicity, and ... refreshingly modest in tone.' InquiryTable of ContentsI: Introduction II: Mind III: Mind and Body IV: The Objective Self V: Knowledge VI: Thought and Reality VII: Freedom VIII: Value IX: Ethics X: Living Right and Living Well XI: Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

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Trade ReviewPassionate, comprehensive, and personal defence against attacks on the Franco-Californian sage's ideas and personal life - and on Halperin's own. Strongly recommended, both as a thorough introduction to Foucault and current issues, and for many intriguing ideas and observations by the author. * Alan Sinfield, Gay Times, October 1995 *Seeks to rescue Foucault from his critics and to portray him as a model of an engaged gay life, an attempt that requires a certain intellectual sleight of hand and close reading of the sort Halperin excels at. The book is remarkably engaging, combining elements of both brilliance and silliness. * Arena Magazine *a provocative read ... Halperin's book is highly engaging. * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times. In their attempt to evolve ways of life appropriate to our modern world culture, says Kwame Gyekye, African people and societies face a number of challenges, some stemming from the values and practices of their traditional cultures, and others representing the legacy of European colonialism. Defending the cross-cultural applicability of philosophical concepts developed in Western culture, Kwame Gyekye attempts to show the usefulness of such concepts in addressing a wide range of specifically African problems. Among the issues he considers are: economic development, nation-building, the evolution of viable and appropriate democratic political institutions, the development of appropriate and credible ideologies, political corruption, and the crumbling of traditional moral standards in the wake of rapid social change. Throughout, Gyekye challenges the notion that moderTrade ReviewDr. Gyekye makes wonderfully illuminating contribution to theoretical debates, while also having acute remarks to make on their practical political implications. Moreover this book contains a penetrating discussion of African culture. It is a genuinely exciting book. * Alasdair MacIntyre, Duke University *Gyekye makes wonderfully illuminating contributions to theoretical debate, while also having acute remarks to make on their practical political implications. Moreover, this book contains a penetrating discussion of African culture. It is a genuinely exciting achievement. * Alasdair MacIntyre, Duke University *I find this an excellent work on a topic which has been generally overlooked in the historiography of Africa. Not only does the author discuss philosophies of Africa, but how these philosophies in terms of traditions must compete in a changing world. * Sundiata A.K.M. Djata, Northern Illinois University *An excellent text and ueful in a variety of courses. It combines traditional African ideas with modern concepts very effectively. * Dennis Brutus, University of Pittsburgh *

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Book SynopsisThis volume of "Classics of Philosophy" covers the works of philosophers from Descartes to Rawls. Intended for courses in modern and contemporary philosophy, it includes 48 extensive selections - 17 of them complete - from 29 philosophers.Table of ContentsPREFACE; PART III: THE MODERN PERIOD; PART IV: THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

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Book SynopsisPresents an innovative view of time and contemporary physics. The author urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the paradoxes of time to look at the world from a fresh perspective, and throws light on some of the great mysteries of the universe.Trade Reviewsplendidly provocative ... enjoy it as a feast for the imagination * Sunday Times *a useful addition to the literature on time, particularly as it reveals the influence of modern science on the way a philosopher thinks * New Scientist *the author has done physicists a great service in laying out so clearly and critically the nature of the various time-asymmetry problems of physics * John Barrow, Nature *Table of ContentsThe View from Nowhen; More Apt to Be Lost than Got: The Lessons of the Second Law; New light on The Arrow of Radiation; Arrows and Error in Contemporary Cosmology; Innocence and Symmetry in Microphysics; In Search of the Third Arrow; Convention Objectified and the Past Unlocked; Einstein's Issue: The Puzzle of Contemporary Quantum Theory; The Case for Advanced Action; Overview.

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Book SynopsisAll of us are engaged in a personal, ongoing battle with sin and vice. The seven deadly sins - lust, greed, envy, anger, pride, gluttony, and sloth - are our main antagonists in this struggle. They are primary causes of unhappiness and immorality, and because of their pervasive nature, have been of perennial interest to religious thinkers, philosophers, dramatists, and poets. In The Seven Deadly Sins, Solomon Schimmel explains why psychology must incorporate many of the ethical and spiritual values of religion and moral philosophy if it is to effectively address the emotional problems faced by modern men and women, be they believers or agnostics. Drawing on the psychological insights of the Bible, Aristotle, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Shakespeare, among others, he shows how all of us can learn from them about the relationship between virtue and psychological well-being and vice and emotional distress. This insightful and fascinating work guides us to master our passions rather than be eTrade Review"An ardent and eloquent argument for bringing back the biblical notion of sin and putting it to work in our own benighted world....Challenging, even radical. Essentially, Schimmel questions the conventional wisdom of...psychotherapy."--Los Angeles Times"Schimmel artfully weaves ideas from Judaism, classical philosophy, and Christianity to observe the ways the seven cardinal sins...are played out in the modern world....It is a scholarly rendering of ancient thought applied to modern times."--Contemporary Psychology"Schimmel's examples are penetrating and pointed....Read this book. It is time and effort well spent....[He] is literate, insightful, and has a wonderful narrative style."--Rocky Mountain News"This is a surprising, humane handbook for self-transformation."--Publishers Weekly"This book mediates the moral wisdom of antiquity in a very useful and engaging way. It shows that the temptations to which we are all subject do not change. What does change is our willingness to recognize and overcome them. Few of us can afford not to read this book."--Jon D. Levenson, Harvard University"A well-argued attack on value-free theories of psychoanalysis for general religion and psychology collections."--Library Journal"A useful study.... The book is welcome and valuable, especially for teachers."--Horizons

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Book SynopsisThis collection of original essays explores the social and relational dimensions of individual autonomy. Rejecting the feminist charge that autonomy is inherently masculinist, the contributors draw on feminist critiques of autonomy to challenge and enrich contemporary philosophical debates about agency, identity, and moral responsibility. The essays analyse the complex ways in which oppression can impair an agent''s capacity for autonomy, and investigate connections, neglected by standard accounts, between autonomy and other aspects of the agent, including self-conception, self-worth, memory, and the imagination.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Autonomy refigured ; PART 1: AUTONOMY AND THE SOCIAL ; 1. Autonomy, social disruption and women ; 2. Autonomy and the social self ; 3. Feeling crazy: self worth and the social character of responsibility ; 4. Autonomy and the feminist intuition ; 5. Individuals, responsibility and the philosophical imagination ; 6. Imagining oneself otherwise ; 7. Intersectional identity and the authentic self?: Opposites attract ; 8. The perversion of autonomy and the subjection of women: discourses of social advocacy at century's end ; PART II: RELATIONAL AUTONOMY IN CONTEXT ; 9. Choice and control in feminist bioethics ; 10. Autonomy and interdependence: quandaries in genetic decision-making ; 11. Relational autonomy, self-trust, and health care for patients who are oppressed ; 12. Relational autonomy and freedom of expression

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Book SynopsisThomas Nagel is widely recognized as one of the top American philosophers working today. Reflecting the diversity of his many philosophical preoccupations, this volume is a collection of his most recent critical essays and reviews. The first section, Public and Private, focuses on the notion of privacy in the context of social and political issues, such as the impeachment of President Clinton. The second section, Right and Wrong, discusses moral, political and legal theory, and includes pieces on John Rawls, G.A. Cohen, and T.M. Scanlon, among others. The final section, Mind and Reality, features discussions of Richard Rorty, Donald Davidson, and the Sokal hoax, and closes with a substantial new essay on the mind-body problem. Written with characteristic rigor, these pieces reveal the intellectual passion underlying the incisive analysis for which Nagel is known.Trade Review"[A] wonderful book. It is wonderful partly for the further excellent review articles that it adds to the Other Minds archive, and partly for the lively and accessible introduction it provides to Nagel's own thought and intellectual personality...[T]he essays in this volume, taken together, do more than any other philosophical writings known to me to bring out the complex and treacherous truth in the old maxim that the personal is political."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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Trade ReviewAnyone familiar with Bennett's classic will certainly want to seek out Garrett's book ... Highly recommended. * C. A. Colmo, CHOICE *There may initially seem to be no need for a collection of all of Don Garrett's "greatest hits" on Spinoza. Because Garrett's papers are very often timeless gems with which so many of us are already familiar, there may seem to be no call for such a collection. But this collection promises to deepen and extend the admiration of Garrett's fans -old and new -for an amazing body of work. Garrett's collection [also] includes several new instant classics -four substantial postscripts -which defend and develop his earlier contributions. These postscripts remind us that Garrett is still bringing forth new essays on Spinoza to which we can look forward. * Michael Della Rocca, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

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Book SynopsisSimone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is the first full-length study of Beauvoir''s political thinking. Best known as the author of The Second Sex, Beauvoir also wrote an array of other political and philosophical texts that are less well known. Together, these constitute an original contribution to political theory and philosophy. The book both locates Beauvoir in her own intellectual and political context and demonstrates her continuing significance. For, in her unique voice, Beauvoir still speaks to a range of pressing theoretical and practical questions concerning politics. These include the political value and dangers of liberal humanism; how oppressed groups become complicit in their own oppression; how social identities are perpetuated; the limits to rationalism and the place of emotions, such as the desire for revenge, in politics. In discussing Beauvoir''s reflections on these and other matters the book puts her ideas into conversation with those of many contemporarTrade ReviewKruks has provided us with a book of exemplary clarity which opens our eyes to the continuing relevance of the neglected writings of a fine political philosopher and has hopefully opened the door to further analysis of Beauvoirs texts. * David Drake, History of Political Thought *Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is valuable not only for its contribution of a missing link in contemporary Beauvoir scholarship, but also for the broader challenge it presents to political projects and philosophical considerations that fail to take seriously the contingency and ambiguity of situations and political action. * Hypatia Reviews Online *... Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity provides readers with an erudite yet accessible reading of the political theory of one of the great intellects of the twentieth century. ... It is well worth careful study and raises questions that will haunt the reader long after it is concluded. * Review of Politics *... Sonia Kruks provides a highly readable, rich and concise account Beauvoir's ideas but also deftly navigates contemporary debates in political thinking. This book is a must read. * Canadian Journal of Political Science *Table of ContentsList of abbreviations ; Introduction ; Chapter 1: Humanism After Posthumanism ; Chapter 2: Theorizing Oppression ; Chapter 3: Confronting Privilege ; Chapter 4: Dilemmas of Political Judgment ; Chapter 5: "Eye for Eye": The Question of Revenge ; Bibliography

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Trade Review"Landy's book delivers what has gone long and scandalously missing: a philosophical analysis of Proust's incomparable book that is muscular, concise, philosophically informed and sophisticated. . . . The book should for a long time be inescapable for anyone writing philosophically about Proust, and perhaps for anyone writing philosophically about imaginative literature, full stop. It is that good."-Philosophy and Literature"Landy's persuasive thesis is that the Recherche converges unwittingly with the philosophy of Nietzsche, whose prescription, 'In order to act we require the veil of illusion: such is Hamlet's doctrine,' Landy cross-refers to Proust with telling results."-Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION: PHILOSOPHY AND FICTION (NOBODY'S MADELEINE) ; CODA: STYLE (PROUST'S SENTENCES)

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Book SynopsisAmerican pragmatism, born in the 1870s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has as its central insight the idea that our philosophical concepts of truth, knowledge, probability, and so on must start with, and remain linked to, human experience and inquiry. This book traces and assesses the strong influence of American pragmatism on British philosophy, with particular emphasis on Cambridge during the inter-war period, on post-war Oxford, and on recent developments. Most philosophers would say that American pragmatism received only a hostile reception in England when the ideas first travelled across the Atlantic. But this volume argues that the movement of pragmatist ideas in Britain was a strong and important current, cutting new channels to fruitful ways of thinking about philosophy''s most profound problems. Its ideas have found a home in the work of Wittgenstein, Ramsey, Anscombe and, more recently, Simon Blackburn and Huw Price.

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Book SynopsisThe book is both an introduction to a thinker, Gilles Deleuze, whose current influence on multiple sectors of the humanities and social sciences arguably exceeds that of any other, and a book-length demonstration of the ramifications of Deleuzian thought for critical biblical scholarship.Trade ReviewArguably the most prominent and prolific critic when it comes to reading the Bible with theory, Moore has done it again with what he calls 'post-poststructuralist' theory. * Tat-siong Benny Liew *Yet another prodigy from Moore's cabinet of wonders. * A K M Adam *Stephen D. Moore produces an impressively generative approach to Deleuze (and Guattari) and affect. * Gregory J. Seigworth *The Bible after Deleuze contributes to this growing literature by reading the New Testament through the lens of Deleuzian theory. * Brent Adkins, The Heythrop Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations INTRODELEUZE (who and why?) Deleuze in Theory The Box and the Machine The Deleuze Affect ELand the Bible? 1. TEXT (the Bible without organs) Part I: At the Bible Study with Foucault and Deleuze What Is a Biblical Author? Knowledge, Power, Desire Part II: At the Bible Study with Deleuze and Guattari In Flux, in Assemblage The Book of Order-Words A Bible That Expresses Everything While Communicating Nothing How Do You Make Yourself a Bible without Organs? 2. BODY (why there are no bodies in the Bible, and how to read them anyway) Part I: The Eclipse of the Ancient Body Bodies Discoursed and Performed Bodies in a Noumenal Night Part II: The Ponderous Weight of the Incorporeal Synoptic Body Nonrepresenting the Synoptic Body What Is a Body When It Is Incorporeal? The Mundane Miracle of Reading (Everywhere Enacted Daily) 3. SEX (a thousand tiny sexes, a trillion tiny Jesuses) Part I: The Deleuzian Queer Desiring and Naming The Proletariat of Eros (Producing the Product Society Cannot Want) Part II: Queer Mark The Coming, and Becoming, of Christ The Crucified Body without Organs The Risen Body without Organs 4. RACE (Jesus and the white faciality machine) Part I: The Matter of Race White Light Dark Matter, I Jesus in Jackboots Dark Matter, II Is Race Structured Like a Language? Part II: Race and Face Assembling Race Facing Race Defacing Race 5. POLITICS (beastly boasts, apocalyptic affects) Unmethodological Prelude Tweets from the Bottomless Abyss Larval Fascisms, Insect Apocalypses Horrible Hope Post-Beast Postscript Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsForeword by Linda Martin Alcoff Introduction by Robert Bernasconi Acknowledgments Note on Sources I. What Is Critical Philosophy of Race in the Continental Tradition? Chapter 1. Critical Philosophy of Race II. The Construction of Race Chapter 2. Racialization and the Construction of Religions Chapter 3. The Philosophy of Race in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 4. Racial Science in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 5. The Policing of Race Mixing: The Place of Biopower within the History of Racisms Chapter 6. Crossed Lines in the Racialization Process: Race as a Border Concept III. Black Philosophers Speak Out Chapter 7. Ottobah Cugoano's Place in the History of Political Philosophy: Slavery and the Philosophical Canon Chapter 8. A Haitian in Paris: Anténor Firmin as a Philosopher Against Racism Chapter 9.

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Book SynopsisLa Peste (in English The Plague), originally published in 1947 by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Albert Camus, chronicles the progression of deadly bubonic plague as it spreads through the quarantined Algerian city of Oran. While most discussions of fictional examples within aesthetics are either historical or hypothetical, Camus offers an example of pestilence fiction. Camus chose fiction to convey facts--about plagues in the past, his own bout with tuberculosis at age seventeen, living under quarantine away from home for several years, and forced separation from his wife who remained in Algiers while he was abroad in Nazi-occupied France. His own lived experiences undergird an imaginative account of shared human realities with which we can identify: vulnerability to the disease, isolation, fear, and finally humanitarianism. The Plague teaches us to neither covet nor expect what we so casually took for granted. This collection of original essays on philosophical themes in The Plague is of special relevance during and in the aftermath of Covid-19 but also provides reflections that will be of lasting value to those interested in this classic work of literature. The novel explores questions of enduring importance. Do we collectively meet the threshold of ethical behaviour posed by Camus who wrote, What''s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves? Or does the absurd undermine the compassionate? Do heroes dutifully fight a plague with common decency, or does human nature resign itself to the normalization of uncontrollable suffering and death? There are myriad ways to approach the novel and this volume encourages readers to ponder human dilemmas in fictional Oran informed by our current pandemic.Trade ReviewRecommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886) poem Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Contributors List of Illustrations Introduction, Peg Brand Weiser Chapter 1: The Plague and the Present Moment, Steven G. Kellman Chapter 2: Present in Effacement: The Place of Women in Camus's Plague and Ours, Jane E. Schulz Chapter 3: The Meaning of a Pandemic, Andrew Edgar Chapter 4: Grief and Human Connection in The Plague, Kathleen Higgins Chapter 5: Examining the Narrative Devolution of the Physician in Camus's The Plague, Edward B. Weiser Chapter 6: Horror and Natural Evil in The Plague, Cynthia A. Freeland Chapter 7: 'I Can't Breathe': Covid-19 and The Plague's Tragedy, Margaret E. Gray Chapter 8: Modern Death, Decent Death, and Heroic Solidarity in The Plague, Peg Brand Weiser

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewthis book is excellent. * Choice *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Preface Chapter 1: Introduction Part I: The Bipartite Reading and the Role of Agreement Chapter 2: The Justificatory Question (§185) Chapter 3: The Justificatory Investigation (X-§201) Chapter 4: The Grammatical Investigation (§§199-242) Chapter 5: Agreement (§§240-242) Chapter 6: The Twofold Investigation: Philosophical Methodology and the Tractatus 1 Part II: Wittgenstein and Meaning Skepticism Chapter 7: Wittgenstein and Kripke Chapter 8: Kripkensteinean Skepticism through a Wittgensteinean Lens Chapter 9: Dispositions: an Exegetical Aside Chapter 10: Notions of Uniformity: A 'Wittgensteinean' Solution and its Precursors Chapter 11: Relativism: Communities, Languages, and Forms of Life Chapter 12: Kripke v. Wittgenstein: Some Final Remarks Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA wide-ranging, razor sharp exploration of the debate between optimism and pessimism throughout the history of philosophy, author Mor Segev's The Value of the World and of Oneself considers the question of existence and recounts what our greatest thinkers--Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus--have made of the matter.

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together essential essays by an important but neglected thinker in early twentieth-century German philosophy, Edith Landmann-Kalischer. As the first English translation of her writings, this volume represents a landmark step in the effort to restore to its rightful place her philosophy and, in particular, its methodologically unified approach to aesthetic, moral, and epistemic value. The three essays translated - On the Cognitive Value of Aesthetic Judgments: A Comparison of Sensory Judgments and Value Judgments (1905), On Artistic Truth (1906), and Philosophy of Values (1910) - demonstrate a philosophical mind at home with the then emerging disciplines of phenomenology and psychology during one of the most fecund eras of philosophy in German-speaking lands. Drawing on the ferment of this period and engaging with its leading thinkers (e.g., Brentano, Husserl), Landmann-Kalischer crafts a unique and powerful contribution to aesthetics, the philosophy of art, and valueTable of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgements Editorial Notes Introduction by Samantha Matherne Chronology Primary and Secondary Sources Three Essays On the Cognitive Value of Aesthetic Judgments On Artistic Truth Philosophy of Values Translator's Afterword Lexicon Bibliography Index Names Subjects

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Book SynopsisXiong Shili (1885-1968) is widely recognized as a founding figure of the modern New Confucian school of philosophy and seen by many as one of the most important and creative Chinese philosophers of the twentieth century. His ultimate concern throughout his long intellectual career was to show that Reality (ti) and function (yong) are non-dual. Reality is the locus that ontologically grounds the phenomenal yet is not different from the phenomenal. His onto-cosmology draws syncretically on a diverse range of resources in the Chinese philosophical tradition to construct his own overarching metaphysical vision, articulated within the broader context of advancing a systematic critique of both Madhyamaka and Yogacara Buddhist thought, the culmination of nearly four decades of critical engagement.Treatise on Reality and Function (Ti yong lun) is the mature expression of Xiong''s signature metaphysical doctrine. Published in 1958, Xiong considered it to be his most important philosophical achiTable of ContentsForeword by Han Yuankai Superfluous Things Chapter 1: Explaining Transformation Chapter 2: Buddhist Teachings, A Chapter 3: Buddhist Teachings, B Chapter 4: Forming Material Things Chapter 5: Explaining the Mind (Listed as "Forthcoming") Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisPublished here for the first time is much of a final and long-anticipated work on philosophy of history by the great Oxford philosopher and historian R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943). The original text of this uncompleted work has only recently been discovered. It is accompanied by further, shorter writings by Collingwood on historical knowledge and inquiry, selected from previously unpublished manuscripts held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. All these writings, besides containing entirely new ideas, discuss further many of the issues which Collingwood famously raised in The Idea of History and in his Autobiography. The volume includes also two conclusions written by Collingwood for lectures which were eventually revised and published as The Idea of Nature, but which have relevance also to his philosophy of history. A lengthy editorial introduction sets these writings in their context, and discusses philosophical questions to which they give rise. The editors also consider why CollingwoTrade Reviewlong and quite masterly Introduction * Michael Bentley, EHR Vol. 116 *an important venture * Michael Bentley, EHR Vol. 116 *The cumulative effect of this labour of love, indeed, is to confound Knox's prejudice that the later years of Collingwood's writing merit suppression and to round off the project of bringing the entire gamut of Collingwood's work out of the archives and into the public domain. The result will surely be a continuing reappraisal of the only British philosopher of history whose work is still read by historians. * Michael Bentley, EHR *an important venture * Michael Bentley, EHR *Table of ContentsEDITORS' INTRODUCTION; PART I: THE PRINCIPLES OF HISTORY: INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I; 1. EVIDENCE; 2. ACTION; 3. NATURE AND ACTION; 4. THE PAST; HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY; PART II: ESSAYS AND NOTES ON PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 1933-1939: NOTES TOWARDS A METAPHYSIC; HISTORY AS THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRESENT; INAUGURAL: ROUGH NOTES; REALITY AS HISTORY; CAN HISTORIANS BE IMPARTIAL? NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF HISTORIOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY; NOTES ON HISTORIOGRAPHY; CONCLUSIONS TO LECTURES ON NATURE AND MIND; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX.

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