Ben Brice
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199290253
- eISBN:
- 9780191710483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290253.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it ...
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The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it in his attempts to provide an adequate verbal equivalent — or that he is faithfully copying the prior, incarnate language of God that he has discovered in the very fabric of nature (an ontic logos). It is argued that this blending of the separable notions of ‘writing on’ and ‘reading from’ the language of nature is consonant with the logos doctrine, which finds in human words a fallen, finite echo of the divine word of God in creation. However, Coleridge is also alert to the possibility that his claimed discovery of the language of God in nature may be only a projected ‘phantasy’ of his own earnest wish to find it there.Less
The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it in his attempts to provide an adequate verbal equivalent — or that he is faithfully copying the prior, incarnate language of God that he has discovered in the very fabric of nature (an ontic logos). It is argued that this blending of the separable notions of ‘writing on’ and ‘reading from’ the language of nature is consonant with the logos doctrine, which finds in human words a fallen, finite echo of the divine word of God in creation. However, Coleridge is also alert to the possibility that his claimed discovery of the language of God in nature may be only a projected ‘phantasy’ of his own earnest wish to find it there.
Robert J. Fogelin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195387391
- eISBN:
- 9780199866489
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387391.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This work is a narrative study of the interactions between Hume's naturalism and his skepticism as they unfold in the Treatise of Human Nature and the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. More ...
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This work is a narrative study of the interactions between Hume's naturalism and his skepticism as they unfold in the Treatise of Human Nature and the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. More specifically, it examines the way in which the relationship between Hume's naturalism and skepticism shifts dramatically as he delves more deeply into the operations of the human understanding. At first, Hume's skeptical arguments largely play a subservient role of eliminating intellectualist competitors to his naturalistic account of belief formation. This is true, with one minor exception, in the first three parts of book 1 of the Treatise. The situation changes radically in part 4 of book 1, where Hume's investigation of human faculties reveals them to be capricious and unreliable. Hume finds the situation so dire that he comes to question whether anyone, himself included, possesses mental faculties capable of producing a science of human nature. This is Hume's skeptical crisis. The remainder of the book examines Hume's various efforts to extract himself from this difficulty, ending, in the Enquiry, with the claim that a suitable mitigated, or moderate, form of skepticism can arise by bringing radical Pyrrhonian doubts into a proper balance with common instinctive beliefs.Less
This work is a narrative study of the interactions between Hume's naturalism and his skepticism as they unfold in the Treatise of Human Nature and the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. More specifically, it examines the way in which the relationship between Hume's naturalism and skepticism shifts dramatically as he delves more deeply into the operations of the human understanding. At first, Hume's skeptical arguments largely play a subservient role of eliminating intellectualist competitors to his naturalistic account of belief formation. This is true, with one minor exception, in the first three parts of book 1 of the Treatise. The situation changes radically in part 4 of book 1, where Hume's investigation of human faculties reveals them to be capricious and unreliable. Hume finds the situation so dire that he comes to question whether anyone, himself included, possesses mental faculties capable of producing a science of human nature. This is Hume's skeptical crisis. The remainder of the book examines Hume's various efforts to extract himself from this difficulty, ending, in the Enquiry, with the claim that a suitable mitigated, or moderate, form of skepticism can arise by bringing radical Pyrrhonian doubts into a proper balance with common instinctive beliefs.
Barbara K. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781683401049
- eISBN:
- 9781683401728
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683401049.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
How we determine what is nature, what is wild, or even what in nature is worth protecting occurs through our human perspective. Whether it is a charismatic manatee or a majestic redwood, we care ...
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How we determine what is nature, what is wild, or even what in nature is worth protecting occurs through our human perspective. Whether it is a charismatic manatee or a majestic redwood, we care about and protect the things we love because they offer us something we value. To make this value relevant in the economic marketplace of competing choices, Wild Capital: Nature’s Economic and Ecological Wealth relies on the ecosystem services model, where nature’s value is determined through the services intact ecosystems provide to our well-being. As one of the recreation components of this model, this book uses ecotourism and the changing tourist dynamic, as well as our evolving relationship with nature, to demonstrate how we can assign a measurable worth to natural resources. If a developer or a policy maker can more equitably compare the capital asset value of development with that of wild nature, better decisions regarding economic and ecological trade-offs can be made. Wild Capital then incorporates the cultural bias we have for charismatic megafauna to link policy decisions regarding biodiversity and habitat conservation to those charismatic animals we care about so intensely. The five megafauna case studies provide solid evidence of the role charismatic species can play in protecting our planet’s biodiversity and ensuring our well-being long into the future.Less
How we determine what is nature, what is wild, or even what in nature is worth protecting occurs through our human perspective. Whether it is a charismatic manatee or a majestic redwood, we care about and protect the things we love because they offer us something we value. To make this value relevant in the economic marketplace of competing choices, Wild Capital: Nature’s Economic and Ecological Wealth relies on the ecosystem services model, where nature’s value is determined through the services intact ecosystems provide to our well-being. As one of the recreation components of this model, this book uses ecotourism and the changing tourist dynamic, as well as our evolving relationship with nature, to demonstrate how we can assign a measurable worth to natural resources. If a developer or a policy maker can more equitably compare the capital asset value of development with that of wild nature, better decisions regarding economic and ecological trade-offs can be made. Wild Capital then incorporates the cultural bias we have for charismatic megafauna to link policy decisions regarding biodiversity and habitat conservation to those charismatic animals we care about so intensely. The five megafauna case studies provide solid evidence of the role charismatic species can play in protecting our planet’s biodiversity and ensuring our well-being long into the future.
Gideon Yaffe
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199268559
- eISBN:
- 9780191601415
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019926855X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Manifest Activity examines Thomas Reid's efforts to provide answers to a host of traditional philosophical questions concerning the nature of the will, the powers of human beings, motivation, and the ...
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Manifest Activity examines Thomas Reid's efforts to provide answers to a host of traditional philosophical questions concerning the nature of the will, the powers of human beings, motivation, and the relation between human action and natural change. The concept of ‘active power’ stands at the centre of Reid's philosophy of action. He holds that actions are all and only the events of which some creature is the ‘efficient cause’, and he thinks a creature is the efficient cause of an event just in case it has the power to bring that event about and exerts it. Reid's conception both of human actions and changes in nature is deeply teleological. He holds that to exert a power is to direct an event towards an end, and he holds that all changes, whether actions or events in nature, flow from the exertion of power. The book explains the details of this view, Reid's reasons for holding it, and its implications to our understanding of action, agency, and our relation to the natural world.Less
Manifest Activity examines Thomas Reid's efforts to provide answers to a host of traditional philosophical questions concerning the nature of the will, the powers of human beings, motivation, and the relation between human action and natural change. The concept of ‘active power’ stands at the centre of Reid's philosophy of action. He holds that actions are all and only the events of which some creature is the ‘efficient cause’, and he thinks a creature is the efficient cause of an event just in case it has the power to bring that event about and exerts it. Reid's conception both of human actions and changes in nature is deeply teleological. He holds that to exert a power is to direct an event towards an end, and he holds that all changes, whether actions or events in nature, flow from the exertion of power. The book explains the details of this view, Reid's reasons for holding it, and its implications to our understanding of action, agency, and our relation to the natural world.
Anthony Quinton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199694556
- eISBN:
- 9780191731938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694556.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his ...
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This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his creation, are not distinct things, but are one and the same. This pantheist doctrine had been anticipated by some ancient Greek thinkers and it is to be found in much Oriental thought. But the all-encompassing influence of Christianity had made it unacceptable to the European mind for more than a thousand years. For Spinoza the creator and his creation were not separate things but one single thing, viewed from different sides.Less
This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his creation, are not distinct things, but are one and the same. This pantheist doctrine had been anticipated by some ancient Greek thinkers and it is to be found in much Oriental thought. But the all-encompassing influence of Christianity had made it unacceptable to the European mind for more than a thousand years. For Spinoza the creator and his creation were not separate things but one single thing, viewed from different sides.
Wallace Matson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812691
- eISBN:
- 9780199919420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812691.003.0021
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Spinoza, more concerned than Hobbes with the ancient conception of the role of philosophy in delineating the Good Life, made Substance, God, and Nature into synonyms. God is eternal, free, and ...
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Spinoza, more concerned than Hobbes with the ancient conception of the role of philosophy in delineating the Good Life, made Substance, God, and Nature into synonyms. God is eternal, free, and all-powerful, but in no way personal, operating for no end, but from the necessity of its nature. Nothing is contingent. This entity, of whose infinite Attributes we know two, Thought and Extension, and whose Modes are the particular things (including us) of our experience, is all there is. Mind and Body are “the same thing, expressed in two ways.” A particular mind is composed of Ideas –beliefs, active entities, not the “dumb pictures on a tablet” of Descartes. Some ideas are adequate, others are inadequate, “confused and fragmentary.” The more we replace our inadequate ideas by adequate ones, the closer we attain to blessedness, and indeed share in the eternity of God.Less
Spinoza, more concerned than Hobbes with the ancient conception of the role of philosophy in delineating the Good Life, made Substance, God, and Nature into synonyms. God is eternal, free, and all-powerful, but in no way personal, operating for no end, but from the necessity of its nature. Nothing is contingent. This entity, of whose infinite Attributes we know two, Thought and Extension, and whose Modes are the particular things (including us) of our experience, is all there is. Mind and Body are “the same thing, expressed in two ways.” A particular mind is composed of Ideas –beliefs, active entities, not the “dumb pictures on a tablet” of Descartes. Some ideas are adequate, others are inadequate, “confused and fragmentary.” The more we replace our inadequate ideas by adequate ones, the closer we attain to blessedness, and indeed share in the eternity of God.
Edward O. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195310726
- eISBN:
- 9780199785179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310726.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson ...
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Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson is also a world authority on ants. In 1990, in collaboration with the German biologist Bert Hölldobler, Wilson published the Pulitzer prize-winning The Ants, a massive work of 732 beautifully illustrated pages. Moving beyond ants, he has expanded into the study of social insects, social animals, and human beings. Wilson is also known as an environmentalist and for his work in evolutionary psychology.Less
Edward O. Wilson is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of On Human Nature, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Biophilia, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, and many other books. Wilson is also a world authority on ants. In 1990, in collaboration with the German biologist Bert Hölldobler, Wilson published the Pulitzer prize-winning The Ants, a massive work of 732 beautifully illustrated pages. Moving beyond ants, he has expanded into the study of social insects, social animals, and human beings. Wilson is also known as an environmentalist and for his work in evolutionary psychology.
Miranda Fricker
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198237907
- eISBN:
- 9780191706844
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter traces the genealogy of the virtue of testimonial justice back to the State of Nature. Building on Bernard Williams' account of two basic ‘virtues of truth’, namely Accuracy and ...
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This chapter traces the genealogy of the virtue of testimonial justice back to the State of Nature. Building on Bernard Williams' account of two basic ‘virtues of truth’, namely Accuracy and Sincerity, it is argued that an original virtue of Testimonial Justice is similarly a fundamental virtue of truth. The question of the virtue's status as either an intellectual or ethical virtue is addressed. It is argued that testimonial justice is a genuine hybrid — both ethical and intellectual — for it aims at once at truth and justice.Less
This chapter traces the genealogy of the virtue of testimonial justice back to the State of Nature. Building on Bernard Williams' account of two basic ‘virtues of truth’, namely Accuracy and Sincerity, it is argued that an original virtue of Testimonial Justice is similarly a fundamental virtue of truth. The question of the virtue's status as either an intellectual or ethical virtue is addressed. It is argued that testimonial justice is a genuine hybrid — both ethical and intellectual — for it aims at once at truth and justice.
Jean Bethke Elshtain
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571833
- eISBN:
- 9780191722264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571833.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Reinhold Niebuhr's theological anthropology receives less critical attention than his direct pronouncements on political and social matters, especially those that touch on conflict and war. But ...
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Reinhold Niebuhr's theological anthropology receives less critical attention than his direct pronouncements on political and social matters, especially those that touch on conflict and war. But Christian realism of the Niebuhrian sort turns on a cluster of interlocked features, including theological realism with its attendant commitment to a particular account of the nature of human beings after the fall. This chapter explores Niebuhr on this issue, turning to his major work, The Nature and Destiny of Man. In the first volume of this work, Niebuhr's Gifford Lectures, Niebuhr critiques models of man he finds woefully inadequate even as he unpacks his own views. In our era, when talk of ‘human nature’ is proscribed in many circles as tales of ‘constructionism’ dominate — as if human beings are infinitely malleable and entirely ‘constructed’ out of features of the culture in which they find themselves — Niebuhr's views are a refreshing tonic. What do we make of what we are given? And what is given in the first instance? To appreciate Niebuhr's efforts is not, of course, to endorse them perforce. One must ask certain questions: Are his views adequate and persuasive? Is there a clear connection between his theological anthropology and his political and social arguments and conclusions? If there are flaws or shortcomings in Niebuhr's understanding of the ‘nature of man’ does this undercut his Christian realism in any significant way? These and other considerations are examined.Less
Reinhold Niebuhr's theological anthropology receives less critical attention than his direct pronouncements on political and social matters, especially those that touch on conflict and war. But Christian realism of the Niebuhrian sort turns on a cluster of interlocked features, including theological realism with its attendant commitment to a particular account of the nature of human beings after the fall. This chapter explores Niebuhr on this issue, turning to his major work, The Nature and Destiny of Man. In the first volume of this work, Niebuhr's Gifford Lectures, Niebuhr critiques models of man he finds woefully inadequate even as he unpacks his own views. In our era, when talk of ‘human nature’ is proscribed in many circles as tales of ‘constructionism’ dominate — as if human beings are infinitely malleable and entirely ‘constructed’ out of features of the culture in which they find themselves — Niebuhr's views are a refreshing tonic. What do we make of what we are given? And what is given in the first instance? To appreciate Niebuhr's efforts is not, of course, to endorse them perforce. One must ask certain questions: Are his views adequate and persuasive? Is there a clear connection between his theological anthropology and his political and social arguments and conclusions? If there are flaws or shortcomings in Niebuhr's understanding of the ‘nature of man’ does this undercut his Christian realism in any significant way? These and other considerations are examined.
Martyn Percy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571833
- eISBN:
- 9780191722264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571833.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This brief chapter lightly sketches the contours of the difficulties churches currently face, in our modern secular society, of talking about sin. Implied within this, of course, comes a ...
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This brief chapter lightly sketches the contours of the difficulties churches currently face, in our modern secular society, of talking about sin. Implied within this, of course, comes a complementary struggle: how to talk about salvation and redemption, but in terms other than those that reflect our zeitgeist, namely greater spiritual fulfilment and personal development. The focus is the grammar and doctrine of sin: pondering its absence in public space, some of the consequences of that absenteeism, and how Reinhold Niebuhr's insights contained within the two volumes of The Nature and Destiny of Man might help us to reflect on this situation.Less
This brief chapter lightly sketches the contours of the difficulties churches currently face, in our modern secular society, of talking about sin. Implied within this, of course, comes a complementary struggle: how to talk about salvation and redemption, but in terms other than those that reflect our zeitgeist, namely greater spiritual fulfilment and personal development. The focus is the grammar and doctrine of sin: pondering its absence in public space, some of the consequences of that absenteeism, and how Reinhold Niebuhr's insights contained within the two volumes of The Nature and Destiny of Man might help us to reflect on this situation.
Laura Garwin and Tim Lincoln (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226284132
- eISBN:
- 9780226284163
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226284163.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Many of the scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century were first reported in the journal Nature. This book brings together in one volume Nature's greatest hits—reproductions of seminal ...
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Many of the scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century were first reported in the journal Nature. This book brings together in one volume Nature's greatest hits—reproductions of seminal contributions that changed science and the world, accompanied by essays written by leading scientists (including four Nobel laureates) that provide historical context for each article, explain its insights, and celebrate the serendipity of discovery and the rewards of searching for needles in haystacks.Less
Many of the scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century were first reported in the journal Nature. This book brings together in one volume Nature's greatest hits—reproductions of seminal contributions that changed science and the world, accompanied by essays written by leading scientists (including four Nobel laureates) that provide historical context for each article, explain its insights, and celebrate the serendipity of discovery and the rewards of searching for needles in haystacks.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised ...
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The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.Less
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.
Paul Russell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195110333
- eISBN:
- 9780199872084
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195110333.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Although it is widely recognized that David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1739‐40) belongs among the greatest works of philosophy, there is little agreement about the correct way to interpret ...
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Although it is widely recognized that David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1739‐40) belongs among the greatest works of philosophy, there is little agreement about the correct way to interpret his fundamental intentions. Among almost all commentators it is an established orthodoxy that skepticism and naturalism are the two dominant themes in this work. The difficulty has been, however, that Hume's skeptical arguments and commitments appear to undermine and discredit his naturalistic ambition to contribute to “the science of man”—a schism that appears to leave his entire project broken‐backed. The solution to this riddle depends on challenging another, closely related, point of orthodoxy: namely, that before Hume published the Treatise he removed almost all material concerned with problems of religion. This book argues, contrary to this view, that irreligious aims and objectives are fundamental to the Treatise and account for its underlying unity and coherence. Hume's basic anti‐Christian aims and objectives serve to shape and direct both his skeptical and naturalistic commitments. When Hume's arguments are viewed from this perspective we can not only solve puzzles arising from his discussion of various specific issues, we can also explain the intimate and intricate connections that hold his entire project together. The irreligious interpretation provides a comprehensive and fresh account of the nature of Hume's fundamental aims and ambitions in the Treatise. It also presents a radically different picture of the way in which Hume's project was rooted in the debates and controversies of his own time, placing the Treatise in an irreligious or anti‐Christian philosophical tradition that includes Hobbes, Spinoza, and their freethinking followers. Considered in these terms, Hume's Treatise constitutes the crowning achievement of the Radical Enlightenment.Less
Although it is widely recognized that David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1739‐40) belongs among the greatest works of philosophy, there is little agreement about the correct way to interpret his fundamental intentions. Among almost all commentators it is an established orthodoxy that skepticism and naturalism are the two dominant themes in this work. The difficulty has been, however, that Hume's skeptical arguments and commitments appear to undermine and discredit his naturalistic ambition to contribute to “the science of man”—a schism that appears to leave his entire project broken‐backed. The solution to this riddle depends on challenging another, closely related, point of orthodoxy: namely, that before Hume published the Treatise he removed almost all material concerned with problems of religion. This book argues, contrary to this view, that irreligious aims and objectives are fundamental to the Treatise and account for its underlying unity and coherence. Hume's basic anti‐Christian aims and objectives serve to shape and direct both his skeptical and naturalistic commitments. When Hume's arguments are viewed from this perspective we can not only solve puzzles arising from his discussion of various specific issues, we can also explain the intimate and intricate connections that hold his entire project together. The irreligious interpretation provides a comprehensive and fresh account of the nature of Hume's fundamental aims and ambitions in the Treatise. It also presents a radically different picture of the way in which Hume's project was rooted in the debates and controversies of his own time, placing the Treatise in an irreligious or anti‐Christian philosophical tradition that includes Hobbes, Spinoza, and their freethinking followers. Considered in these terms, Hume's Treatise constitutes the crowning achievement of the Radical Enlightenment.
Stephen Clingman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199278497
- eISBN:
- 9780191706981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278497.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The chapter begins by considering aspects of the biography of the black British writer Caryl Phillips, whose work sets out key features in contemporary transnational fiction. Brought to England from ...
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The chapter begins by considering aspects of the biography of the black British writer Caryl Phillips, whose work sets out key features in contemporary transnational fiction. Brought to England from the West Indies at a very young age, the question of identity has always been a profound one for him. Instead of retreating into the self, however, Phillips has found extraordinary points of conjunction and contiguity with others, not least with the Jewish experience in Europe. The chapter explores key ideas in relation to Phillips: questions of ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ (an illuminating etymology of the term), constellation and faultline, as well as his extraordinary narrative forms. In The Nature of Blood these patterns emerge in narratives involving a female Holocaust survivor and Othello, among others. A Distant Shore explores topics of exile, the national, and transnational in the fragmented spatio-temporal locus of Britain.Less
The chapter begins by considering aspects of the biography of the black British writer Caryl Phillips, whose work sets out key features in contemporary transnational fiction. Brought to England from the West Indies at a very young age, the question of identity has always been a profound one for him. Instead of retreating into the self, however, Phillips has found extraordinary points of conjunction and contiguity with others, not least with the Jewish experience in Europe. The chapter explores key ideas in relation to Phillips: questions of ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ (an illuminating etymology of the term), constellation and faultline, as well as his extraordinary narrative forms. In The Nature of Blood these patterns emerge in narratives involving a female Holocaust survivor and Othello, among others. A Distant Shore explores topics of exile, the national, and transnational in the fragmented spatio-temporal locus of Britain.
Filippo Del Lucchese
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474456203
- eISBN:
- 9781474476935
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474456203.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This volume is the first systematic investigation into the concept of monstrosity in ancient philosophy and culture. The Author suggests that far from being a peripheral problem, monstrosity is one ...
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This volume is the first systematic investigation into the concept of monstrosity in ancient philosophy and culture. The Author suggests that far from being a peripheral problem, monstrosity is one of the main conceptual challenges for every philosophical system. Ancient authors explores metaphysics, ontology, theology, politics attempting to respond to the threat presented by the radical alterity of monstrous manifestations, both in nature and in thought. Does order come from, and put an end to, chaos or is chaos the monstrous destiny of any supposed order? Is monstrosity a positive sign of the divine or is it its negation and perversion? Does everything, in nature have a meaning and a purpose and, if so, what is the purpose of monsters? Is monstrosity what we call the lowest level of nature's reassuring hierarchy or does it, more threateningly, speak about the absence of such a hierarchy and the illusion of axiology? These are only some of the questions that ancient authors discussed across the centuries, from the early mythical cosmogonies, through the classic and hellenistic period, up to late antiquity and early Christianism. This book offers a fundamental reading not only of the different answers to these questions, but also of the reasons why and the manners in which they have been asked in different cultural and intellectual contexts.Less
This volume is the first systematic investigation into the concept of monstrosity in ancient philosophy and culture. The Author suggests that far from being a peripheral problem, monstrosity is one of the main conceptual challenges for every philosophical system. Ancient authors explores metaphysics, ontology, theology, politics attempting to respond to the threat presented by the radical alterity of monstrous manifestations, both in nature and in thought. Does order come from, and put an end to, chaos or is chaos the monstrous destiny of any supposed order? Is monstrosity a positive sign of the divine or is it its negation and perversion? Does everything, in nature have a meaning and a purpose and, if so, what is the purpose of monsters? Is monstrosity what we call the lowest level of nature's reassuring hierarchy or does it, more threateningly, speak about the absence of such a hierarchy and the illusion of axiology? These are only some of the questions that ancient authors discussed across the centuries, from the early mythical cosmogonies, through the classic and hellenistic period, up to late antiquity and early Christianism. This book offers a fundamental reading not only of the different answers to these questions, but also of the reasons why and the manners in which they have been asked in different cultural and intellectual contexts.
James Mitchell, Lynn Bennie, and Rob Johns
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199580002
- eISBN:
- 9780191731099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580002.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The nature and extent of SNP activism is discussed. The SNP has a particularly active membership. Traditional forms of activity remain important but there is evidence of the growing importance of new ...
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The nature and extent of SNP activism is discussed. The SNP has a particularly active membership. Traditional forms of activity remain important but there is evidence of the growing importance of new forms of campaigning. Extra-party activity is also explored and the SNP membership is found to be well integrated into civic society. A picture emerges of the kinds of members who are most active.Less
The nature and extent of SNP activism is discussed. The SNP has a particularly active membership. Traditional forms of activity remain important but there is evidence of the growing importance of new forms of campaigning. Extra-party activity is also explored and the SNP membership is found to be well integrated into civic society. A picture emerges of the kinds of members who are most active.
Paul Russell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195110333
- eISBN:
- 9780199872084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195110333.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter begins with a review of the classical (Reid‐Beattie) skeptical interpretation of Hume's Treatise followed by an account of Norman Kemp Smith's influential naturalistic interpretation of ...
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This chapter begins with a review of the classical (Reid‐Beattie) skeptical interpretation of Hume's Treatise followed by an account of Norman Kemp Smith's influential naturalistic interpretation of Hume's fundamental intentions. Other more recent interpretations, falling on either side of the skeptical/naturalist divide, are also described, including several interpretations that have paid more careful attention to the historical context in which the Treatise was composed and published. This account of the various alternative interpretations provides a framework for explaining the fundamental “riddle” of the Treatise: namely, that Hume's (radical) skeptical commitments appear to undermine and discredit his effort to make a contribution to “the science of man.”Less
This chapter begins with a review of the classical (Reid‐Beattie) skeptical interpretation of Hume's Treatise followed by an account of Norman Kemp Smith's influential naturalistic interpretation of Hume's fundamental intentions. Other more recent interpretations, falling on either side of the skeptical/naturalist divide, are also described, including several interpretations that have paid more careful attention to the historical context in which the Treatise was composed and published. This account of the various alternative interpretations provides a framework for explaining the fundamental “riddle” of the Treatise: namely, that Hume's (radical) skeptical commitments appear to undermine and discredit his effort to make a contribution to “the science of man.”
Paul Russell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195110333
- eISBN:
- 9780199872084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195110333.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
The central thesis of this chapter is that the scope and structure of Hume's Treatise is modeled or planned after that of Hobbes's The Elements of Law and that in this respect there exists an ...
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The central thesis of this chapter is that the scope and structure of Hume's Treatise is modeled or planned after that of Hobbes's The Elements of Law and that in this respect there exists an important and unique relationship between these two works. The immediate significance of this relationship between Hobbes's and Hume's project of the “science of man” is that it indicates the underlying unity and coherence of Hume's entire project in the Treatise. However, although the “plan” of the Treatise is modeled closely after Hobbes's work, we should not infer that there are no significant issues where Hobbes and Hume diverge. On the contrary, there are (several) significant issues where Hobbes and Hume do indeed diverge—an observation that is in no way inconsistent with the fact that Hume's project is modeled after Hobbes's similar project of a “science of man.” Nevertheless, once we recognize the nature and significance of Hume's Hobbist plan in the Treatise, we are in a position to excavate and systematically uncover Hume's fundamental irreligious intentions throughout the Treatise.Less
The central thesis of this chapter is that the scope and structure of Hume's Treatise is modeled or planned after that of Hobbes's The Elements of Law and that in this respect there exists an important and unique relationship between these two works. The immediate significance of this relationship between Hobbes's and Hume's project of the “science of man” is that it indicates the underlying unity and coherence of Hume's entire project in the Treatise. However, although the “plan” of the Treatise is modeled closely after Hobbes's work, we should not infer that there are no significant issues where Hobbes and Hume diverge. On the contrary, there are (several) significant issues where Hobbes and Hume do indeed diverge—an observation that is in no way inconsistent with the fact that Hume's project is modeled after Hobbes's similar project of a “science of man.” Nevertheless, once we recognize the nature and significance of Hume's Hobbist plan in the Treatise, we are in a position to excavate and systematically uncover Hume's fundamental irreligious intentions throughout the Treatise.
Mary Shelley
David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262533287
- eISBN:
- 9780262340267
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262533287.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold ...
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris. Victor, “the modern Prometheus,” tried to do what he perhaps should have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often discussed in literary-historical terms—as a seminal example of romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science fiction—Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully for readers with a background or interest in science and engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript—meticulously line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world’s preeminent authorities on the text—with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays by Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred NordmannLess
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris. Victor, “the modern Prometheus,” tried to do what he perhaps should have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often discussed in literary-historical terms—as a seminal example of romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science fiction—Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully for readers with a background or interest in science and engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript—meticulously line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world’s preeminent authorities on the text—with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays by Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred Nordmann
Hugh Epstein
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474449861
- eISBN:
- 9781474477086
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474449861.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The first book-length study of connections between these two major authors, this book reads the highly descriptive impressionist fiction of Hardy and Conrad together in the light of a shared ...
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The first book-length study of connections between these two major authors, this book reads the highly descriptive impressionist fiction of Hardy and Conrad together in the light of a shared attention to sight and sound. By proposing ‘scenic realism’ as a term to describe their affinities of epistemology and literary art, this study seeks to establish that the two novelists’ treatment of the senses in relation to the physically encompassing world creates a distinctive outward-looking pairing within the broader ‘inward turn’ of the realist novel. This ‘borderland of the senses’ was intensively investigated by a variety of nineteenth-century empiricists, and mid- and late-Victorian discussions in physics and physiology are seen to be the illuminating texts by which to gauge the acute qualities of attention shared by Hardy’s and Conrad’s fiction. In an argument that re-frames the ‘Victorian’ and ‘Modernist’ containers by which the writers have been conventionally separated, thirteen major works are analysed without flattening their differences and individuality, but within a broad ‘field-view’ of reality introduced by late-classical physics. With its focus on nature and the environment, Hardy, Conrad and the Senses displays the vivid delineations of humankind’s place in nature that are at the heart of both authors’ works.Less
The first book-length study of connections between these two major authors, this book reads the highly descriptive impressionist fiction of Hardy and Conrad together in the light of a shared attention to sight and sound. By proposing ‘scenic realism’ as a term to describe their affinities of epistemology and literary art, this study seeks to establish that the two novelists’ treatment of the senses in relation to the physically encompassing world creates a distinctive outward-looking pairing within the broader ‘inward turn’ of the realist novel. This ‘borderland of the senses’ was intensively investigated by a variety of nineteenth-century empiricists, and mid- and late-Victorian discussions in physics and physiology are seen to be the illuminating texts by which to gauge the acute qualities of attention shared by Hardy’s and Conrad’s fiction. In an argument that re-frames the ‘Victorian’ and ‘Modernist’ containers by which the writers have been conventionally separated, thirteen major works are analysed without flattening their differences and individuality, but within a broad ‘field-view’ of reality introduced by late-classical physics. With its focus on nature and the environment, Hardy, Conrad and the Senses displays the vivid delineations of humankind’s place in nature that are at the heart of both authors’ works.
