Jay L. Garfield, Tom J. F. Tillemans, and Mario D'Amato
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195381559
- eISBN:
- 9780199869244
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381559.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book contains chapters by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with ...
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This book contains chapters by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These chapters address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions.Less
This book contains chapters by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These chapters address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions.
Jan Olof Bengtsson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199297191
- eISBN:
- 9780191711374
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297191.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter discusses the current accounts and assessments of personalism in general and in the form of ‘personal idealism’ by historians of philosophy. It further looks at the view of the defining ...
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This chapter discusses the current accounts and assessments of personalism in general and in the form of ‘personal idealism’ by historians of philosophy. It further looks at the view of the defining American school of personalism of the sources, development, and nature of personalism. Finally, it introduces briefly some larger historical and comparative perspectives on personalism that have hitherto been absent in its scholarly treatment.Less
This chapter discusses the current accounts and assessments of personalism in general and in the form of ‘personal idealism’ by historians of philosophy. It further looks at the view of the defining American school of personalism of the sources, development, and nature of personalism. Finally, it introduces briefly some larger historical and comparative perspectives on personalism that have hitherto been absent in its scholarly treatment.
Graham Priest
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199263301
- eISBN:
- 9780191718823
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263301.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
This book advocates and defends the view that there are true contradictions (dialetheism), a view that has flown in the face of orthodoxy in Western philosophy since Aristotle's time. The book has ...
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This book advocates and defends the view that there are true contradictions (dialetheism), a view that has flown in the face of orthodoxy in Western philosophy since Aristotle's time. The book has been at the centre of the controversies surrounding dialetheism ever since the first edition was published in 1987. This text contains the second edition of the book. It expands upon the original in various ways, and also contains the author's reflections on developments over the last two decades.Less
This book advocates and defends the view that there are true contradictions (dialetheism), a view that has flown in the face of orthodoxy in Western philosophy since Aristotle's time. The book has been at the centre of the controversies surrounding dialetheism ever since the first edition was published in 1987. This text contains the second edition of the book. It expands upon the original in various ways, and also contains the author's reflections on developments over the last two decades.
Linda Martín Alcoff
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195137347
- eISBN:
- 9780199785773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137345.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter discusses the philosophical critique of identity. In order to understand the current aversion to cultural identity, one needs to retrace the development of the philosophical treatment of ...
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This chapter discusses the philosophical critique of identity. In order to understand the current aversion to cultural identity, one needs to retrace the development of the philosophical treatment of the self in modern, Western philosophy. Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self (1989) is the best recent attempt to do this, and the chapter begins with an overview of some of the main ideas in his philosophical history that relate to the question of identity. Based on readings of Hegel, Sartre, and other key figures, a genealogy of the philosophical critique of identity is developed, which shows that its more fundamental basis is not actually in the Western concept of rationality but in the modern Western treatments of the Other developed in the context of the European colonialism. Finally, it is shown how this legacy lives on today in some aspects of postmodern philosophy.Less
This chapter discusses the philosophical critique of identity. In order to understand the current aversion to cultural identity, one needs to retrace the development of the philosophical treatment of the self in modern, Western philosophy. Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self (1989) is the best recent attempt to do this, and the chapter begins with an overview of some of the main ideas in his philosophical history that relate to the question of identity. Based on readings of Hegel, Sartre, and other key figures, a genealogy of the philosophical critique of identity is developed, which shows that its more fundamental basis is not actually in the Western concept of rationality but in the modern Western treatments of the Other developed in the context of the European colonialism. Finally, it is shown how this legacy lives on today in some aspects of postmodern philosophy.
Ayesha Jalal
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199239979
- eISBN:
- 9780191716874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239979.003.0025
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
For a diehard secularist, Amartya Sen may not appear to have much in common with Muhammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher of the East who took great pride in his Muslim identity. This chapter argues ...
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For a diehard secularist, Amartya Sen may not appear to have much in common with Muhammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher of the East who took great pride in his Muslim identity. This chapter argues that the two, although removed in time and space, actually had broad-ranging and overlapping intellectual interests in philosophy, economics, politics, and nationalism. The philosophy and economics that molded Iqbal's thinking in the first decade of the 20th century were obviously different from what Sen was exposed to half a century later. Yet there are some important parallels in their philosophical conceptions of human freedom and equality that merit identification and elucidation. In analyzing these, the chapter demonstrates that far from being a barrier, their divergent stands on religion create a fruitful tension that offers fresh insights into the relevance of their respective approaches to the problem of poverty and inequality in the contemporary world.Less
For a diehard secularist, Amartya Sen may not appear to have much in common with Muhammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher of the East who took great pride in his Muslim identity. This chapter argues that the two, although removed in time and space, actually had broad-ranging and overlapping intellectual interests in philosophy, economics, politics, and nationalism. The philosophy and economics that molded Iqbal's thinking in the first decade of the 20th century were obviously different from what Sen was exposed to half a century later. Yet there are some important parallels in their philosophical conceptions of human freedom and equality that merit identification and elucidation. In analyzing these, the chapter demonstrates that far from being a barrier, their divergent stands on religion create a fruitful tension that offers fresh insights into the relevance of their respective approaches to the problem of poverty and inequality in the contemporary world.
I. A. Menkiti
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195114409
- eISBN:
- 9780199785827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019511440X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This essay contends that traditional African culture is largely misunderstood. It is not rooted in supernaturalism and its metaphysics are empirically grounded. Westerners should acquire a more ...
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This essay contends that traditional African culture is largely misunderstood. It is not rooted in supernaturalism and its metaphysics are empirically grounded. Westerners should acquire a more informed perspective on traditional African thought and have much to learn from traditional African thought that will help them solve salient philosophical concerns within Western philosophy.Less
This essay contends that traditional African culture is largely misunderstood. It is not rooted in supernaturalism and its metaphysics are empirically grounded. Westerners should acquire a more informed perspective on traditional African thought and have much to learn from traditional African thought that will help them solve salient philosophical concerns within Western philosophy.
Graham Priest
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199254057
- eISBN:
- 9780191698194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199254057.003.0018
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter examines the possible relevance of philosopher Nāgārjuna's work on contradictions arising at the limits of thought. It states that Nāgārjuna has endorsed the possibility of true ...
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This chapter examines the possible relevance of philosopher Nāgārjuna's work on contradictions arising at the limits of thought. It states that Nāgārjuna has endorsed the possibility of true contradictions which confirms that he is indeed a rational thinker. It provides an interpretation of how Nāgārjuna may view logic or the limits of thought. This chapter demonstrates that Nāgārjuna's two linked limit paradoxes satisfy a schema common to a number of well-known paradoxes in Western philosophy.Less
This chapter examines the possible relevance of philosopher Nāgārjuna's work on contradictions arising at the limits of thought. It states that Nāgārjuna has endorsed the possibility of true contradictions which confirms that he is indeed a rational thinker. It provides an interpretation of how Nāgārjuna may view logic or the limits of thought. This chapter demonstrates that Nāgārjuna's two linked limit paradoxes satisfy a schema common to a number of well-known paradoxes in Western philosophy.
Guy Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823222919
- eISBN:
- 9780823235513
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823222919.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book is a critical reflection on the tangles and confusions of modern Western philosophy: logical necessity, machine intelligence, the relation of science and religion, determinism, skepticism, ...
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This book is a critical reflection on the tangles and confusions of modern Western philosophy: logical necessity, machine intelligence, the relation of science and religion, determinism, skepticism, and the question of foundation and origins. In this clearly written, historically informed brief, the book locates the problem in philosophy’s Cartesian search for truth — abstract, elusive, difficult to discover — rather than in its power to help us think and talk clearly about the everyday world.Less
This book is a critical reflection on the tangles and confusions of modern Western philosophy: logical necessity, machine intelligence, the relation of science and religion, determinism, skepticism, and the question of foundation and origins. In this clearly written, historically informed brief, the book locates the problem in philosophy’s Cartesian search for truth — abstract, elusive, difficult to discover — rather than in its power to help us think and talk clearly about the everyday world.
A. Raghuramaraju
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195693027
- eISBN:
- 9780199080359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195693027.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter concludes with a look at the complexity of contemporary Indian philosophy and the nature of the postcolonial self. It also makes some clarifications regarding the terrain of contemporary ...
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This chapter concludes with a look at the complexity of contemporary Indian philosophy and the nature of the postcolonial self. It also makes some clarifications regarding the terrain of contemporary Indian philosophy. It is a strange mixture of both contemporary Western philosophy and classical Indian philosophy, and it may be necessary to evaluate this strange combination. It is argued that both classical Western and classical Indian philosophies are context-sensitive. There are certain serious logical differences between monism and non-dualism. In addition, their positive association is only the result of negative relation, that is, both non-dualism and monism fall outside dualism. Making an attempt to produce an active contemporary Indian philosophy might make philosophical activity in India today sensitive to the contemporary processes, and assign to it new notions of both autonomy and responsibility, though not necessarily social responsibility.Less
This chapter concludes with a look at the complexity of contemporary Indian philosophy and the nature of the postcolonial self. It also makes some clarifications regarding the terrain of contemporary Indian philosophy. It is a strange mixture of both contemporary Western philosophy and classical Indian philosophy, and it may be necessary to evaluate this strange combination. It is argued that both classical Western and classical Indian philosophies are context-sensitive. There are certain serious logical differences between monism and non-dualism. In addition, their positive association is only the result of negative relation, that is, both non-dualism and monism fall outside dualism. Making an attempt to produce an active contemporary Indian philosophy might make philosophical activity in India today sensitive to the contemporary processes, and assign to it new notions of both autonomy and responsibility, though not necessarily social responsibility.
Daniel B. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142913
- eISBN:
- 9781400842261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142913.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both ...
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This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both positively and negatively, as a point of reference—in his own eyes, and certainly in the eyes of others. In the history of the image of Spinoza, Mendelssohn looms large for several reasons. The first is his pioneering role in softening Spinoza's heretical reputation in German thought and thus aiding his integration into the canon of modern Western philosophy. However, near the end of his life, Mendelssohn defended Judaism by effectively rebutting Spinoza. Indeed, Mendelssohn furnished ammunition for friends and foes of Spinoza alike. His legacy was thus one of both reclamation and resistance.Less
This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both positively and negatively, as a point of reference—in his own eyes, and certainly in the eyes of others. In the history of the image of Spinoza, Mendelssohn looms large for several reasons. The first is his pioneering role in softening Spinoza's heretical reputation in German thought and thus aiding his integration into the canon of modern Western philosophy. However, near the end of his life, Mendelssohn defended Judaism by effectively rebutting Spinoza. Indeed, Mendelssohn furnished ammunition for friends and foes of Spinoza alike. His legacy was thus one of both reclamation and resistance.
Ronald Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758161
- eISBN:
- 9780804779661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758161.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the ...
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This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the method of doubt”). The author argues that many problems of interpretation—including notorious problems of circularity—arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, he views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character—The Demon's Advocate—whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, the author contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate.Less
This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the method of doubt”). The author argues that many problems of interpretation—including notorious problems of circularity—arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, he views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character—The Demon's Advocate—whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, the author contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate.
A. Raghuramaraju
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198092230
- eISBN:
- 9780199082599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198092230.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter discusses Akeel Bilgrami, who, without exploring the exemplars from the West, be it Socrates or Christ, offers Gandhi’s views of exemplar as the way out for solving the problems ...
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This chapter discusses Akeel Bilgrami, who, without exploring the exemplars from the West, be it Socrates or Christ, offers Gandhi’s views of exemplar as the way out for solving the problems surrounding Western moral philosophy. In this context the chapter points out how this project is an inverted version of the colonial thematic. The colonial thematic consists of India as a reservoir of problems and the West as a reservoir of solutions. The larger theoretical problem in these versions, the original colonial version and its inversion in Bhattacharyya and Bilgrami, is the underlying assumptions about the essential East and West. The chapter suggests an alternative binary between the pre-modern and the modern to be more inclusive and pluralistic. It also argues how this is closer to Gandhi than the East–West binary.Less
This chapter discusses Akeel Bilgrami, who, without exploring the exemplars from the West, be it Socrates or Christ, offers Gandhi’s views of exemplar as the way out for solving the problems surrounding Western moral philosophy. In this context the chapter points out how this project is an inverted version of the colonial thematic. The colonial thematic consists of India as a reservoir of problems and the West as a reservoir of solutions. The larger theoretical problem in these versions, the original colonial version and its inversion in Bhattacharyya and Bilgrami, is the underlying assumptions about the essential East and West. The chapter suggests an alternative binary between the pre-modern and the modern to be more inclusive and pluralistic. It also argues how this is closer to Gandhi than the East–West binary.
John Davenport
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225750
- eISBN:
- 9780823235896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225750.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter relates the concept of “heroic” or “striving” will to a positive attitude toward self-assertion prominent in certain Western thinkers and defends it against ...
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This chapter relates the concept of “heroic” or “striving” will to a positive attitude toward self-assertion prominent in certain Western thinkers and defends it against criticisms found in opposing Eastern traditions. Topics covered range from Hindu and Buddhist teachings through Saint Augustine to Martin Luther, Friedrich Nietzsche, and contemporary Continental thought. Heroic willing is explained in the existential conception of striving will. Comparison and contrast of “Eastern” and “Western” views on heroic willing reveals the possibility of a moderate concept of volitional determination or resolve that is distinct from its corrupt forms as the conatus ascendi or libido dominandi. It is argued that this heroic sense of “willing” was given a bad name by major schools of Eastern philosophy and by several Western thinkers who also saw it as the will to domination. The resources to establish a clearer picture of willing are found in diverse work on ethics and moral psychology in both recent analytic and Continental philosophy.Less
This chapter relates the concept of “heroic” or “striving” will to a positive attitude toward self-assertion prominent in certain Western thinkers and defends it against criticisms found in opposing Eastern traditions. Topics covered range from Hindu and Buddhist teachings through Saint Augustine to Martin Luther, Friedrich Nietzsche, and contemporary Continental thought. Heroic willing is explained in the existential conception of striving will. Comparison and contrast of “Eastern” and “Western” views on heroic willing reveals the possibility of a moderate concept of volitional determination or resolve that is distinct from its corrupt forms as the conatus ascendi or libido dominandi. It is argued that this heroic sense of “willing” was given a bad name by major schools of Eastern philosophy and by several Western thinkers who also saw it as the will to domination. The resources to establish a clearer picture of willing are found in diverse work on ethics and moral psychology in both recent analytic and Continental philosophy.
James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835521
- eISBN:
- 9780824870270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835521.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This section provides an overview of Modern Academic Philosophy in Japan, with particular emphasis on disputations about terminology and the beginnings of philosophy. It first looks at the ...
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This section provides an overview of Modern Academic Philosophy in Japan, with particular emphasis on disputations about terminology and the beginnings of philosophy. It first looks at the introduction of Western philosophy into Japan in the mid-sixteenth century, courtesy of Catholic missionaries who taught Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas in seminaries and appealed to proofs for the existence of God in disputations held with Buddhists. It then considers the Western analytic approach and the Eastern holistic way, along with Inoue Enryō's 1886 essay An Evening of Philosophical Conversation. It also discusses the origins of Japanese philosophy as a formal academic discipline before presenting translations of a variety of texts by Japanese philosophers, including Nishi Amane, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nakae Chōmin, Inoue Tetsujirō, Inoue Enryō, and Ōnishi Hajime.Less
This section provides an overview of Modern Academic Philosophy in Japan, with particular emphasis on disputations about terminology and the beginnings of philosophy. It first looks at the introduction of Western philosophy into Japan in the mid-sixteenth century, courtesy of Catholic missionaries who taught Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas in seminaries and appealed to proofs for the existence of God in disputations held with Buddhists. It then considers the Western analytic approach and the Eastern holistic way, along with Inoue Enryō's 1886 essay An Evening of Philosophical Conversation. It also discusses the origins of Japanese philosophy as a formal academic discipline before presenting translations of a variety of texts by Japanese philosophers, including Nishi Amane, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nakae Chōmin, Inoue Tetsujirō, Inoue Enryō, and Ōnishi Hajime.
Gavin Rae
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474445320
- eISBN:
- 9781474465205
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474445320.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
While Western moral, philosophical, and theological thought has historically privileged the good, this has been accompanied by profound, if subterranean, interest in evil. This book charts a history ...
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While Western moral, philosophical, and theological thought has historically privileged the good, this has been accompanied by profound, if subterranean, interest in evil. This book charts a history of evil as it has been thought within this tradition. Showing that the problem of evil, as a conceptual problem—that is, as a problem to be dealt with through rational means—came to the fore with the rise of monotheism, this book initially outlines the dynamics that led to it becoming the problem of Christianity, before tracing how subsequent thought, first within an explicitly theological framework, and subsequently from secular foundations, developed from this problematic. With chapters on figures in early and Medieval Christian philosophy, modern philosophy, German Idealism, Nietzsche, Arendt, post-structuralism, and contemporary analytical philosophy, it demonstrates the breadth and depth of thinking on evil within this tradition and includes discussions on thinkers not normally included in analyses of the topic, such as Jacques Lacan and Cornelius Castoriadis. These reveal that, far from being something clear and obvious as common-sense, everyday intuition tends to hold, the meaning and nature of evil has been remarkably complex, differentiated, and contested.Less
While Western moral, philosophical, and theological thought has historically privileged the good, this has been accompanied by profound, if subterranean, interest in evil. This book charts a history of evil as it has been thought within this tradition. Showing that the problem of evil, as a conceptual problem—that is, as a problem to be dealt with through rational means—came to the fore with the rise of monotheism, this book initially outlines the dynamics that led to it becoming the problem of Christianity, before tracing how subsequent thought, first within an explicitly theological framework, and subsequently from secular foundations, developed from this problematic. With chapters on figures in early and Medieval Christian philosophy, modern philosophy, German Idealism, Nietzsche, Arendt, post-structuralism, and contemporary analytical philosophy, it demonstrates the breadth and depth of thinking on evil within this tradition and includes discussions on thinkers not normally included in analyses of the topic, such as Jacques Lacan and Cornelius Castoriadis. These reveal that, far from being something clear and obvious as common-sense, everyday intuition tends to hold, the meaning and nature of evil has been remarkably complex, differentiated, and contested.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, ...
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This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, Annicereans, and Theodoreans. Such a comprehensive study would need not only to reconstruct the surviving doctrines and arguments, but also to understand the behavioral and cultural contexts within which Cyrenaic theories seemed both cogent and attractive, at least to certain individuals. The chapter also seeks to illuminate the philosophical significance of Cyrenaic ethics. This significance is sometimes spelled out by making the Cyrenaics the originators of the hedonistic tradition in Western philosophy. While all hedonists organize their beliefs around the high valuation of pleasure, those beliefs are also shaped by many other contexts, among them intellectual history, popular ethics, and the practices and institutions which define philosophy in any given era.Less
This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, Annicereans, and Theodoreans. Such a comprehensive study would need not only to reconstruct the surviving doctrines and arguments, but also to understand the behavioral and cultural contexts within which Cyrenaic theories seemed both cogent and attractive, at least to certain individuals. The chapter also seeks to illuminate the philosophical significance of Cyrenaic ethics. This significance is sometimes spelled out by making the Cyrenaics the originators of the hedonistic tradition in Western philosophy. While all hedonists organize their beliefs around the high valuation of pleasure, those beliefs are also shaped by many other contexts, among them intellectual history, popular ethics, and the practices and institutions which define philosophy in any given era.
Ernest Sosa
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691183268
- eISBN:
- 9781400883059
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691183268.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts ...
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In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts of epistemology tend to focus on limited questions of knowledge and skepticism, such as how we can know the external world, other minds, the past through memory, the future through induction, or the world's depth and structure through inference. The book steps back for a better view of the more general issues posed by the ancient Greek Pyrrhonists. Returning to and illuminating this older, broader epistemological tradition, the book develops an original account of the subject, giving it substance not with Cartesian theology but with science and common sense. Descartes is a part of this ancient tradition, but he goes beyond it by considering not just whether knowledge is possible at all but also how we can properly attain it. In Cartesian epistemology, the book finds a virtue-theoretic account, one that is extended beyond the Cartesian context. Once epistemology is viewed in this light, many of its problems can be solved or fall away. The result is an important reevaluation of epistemology that will be essential reading for students and teachers.Less
In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts of epistemology tend to focus on limited questions of knowledge and skepticism, such as how we can know the external world, other minds, the past through memory, the future through induction, or the world's depth and structure through inference. The book steps back for a better view of the more general issues posed by the ancient Greek Pyrrhonists. Returning to and illuminating this older, broader epistemological tradition, the book develops an original account of the subject, giving it substance not with Cartesian theology but with science and common sense. Descartes is a part of this ancient tradition, but he goes beyond it by considering not just whether knowledge is possible at all but also how we can properly attain it. In Cartesian epistemology, the book finds a virtue-theoretic account, one that is extended beyond the Cartesian context. Once epistemology is viewed in this light, many of its problems can be solved or fall away. The result is an important reevaluation of epistemology that will be essential reading for students and teachers.
Christopher I. Beckwith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691176321
- eISBN:
- 9781400866328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691176321.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Pyrrho of Elis went with Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India during the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334–324 BC. There he met with early Buddhist masters. This book ...
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Pyrrho of Elis went with Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India during the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334–324 BC. There he met with early Buddhist masters. This book shows how their Early Buddhism shaped the philosophy of Pyrrho, the famous founder of Pyrrhonian scepticism in ancient Greece. The book traces the origins of a major tradition in Western philosophy to Gandhara, a country in Central Asia and northwestern India. It systematically examines the teachings and practices of Pyrrho and of Early Buddhism, including those preserved in testimonies by and about Pyrrho, in the report on Indian philosophy two decades later by the Seleucid ambassador Megasthenes, in the first-person edicts by the Indian king Devanampriya Priyadarsi referring to a popular variety of the Dharma in the early third century BC, and in Taoist echoes of Gautama's Dharma in Warring States China. The book demonstrates how the teachings of Pyrrho agree closely with those of the Buddha Sakyamuni, “the Scythian Sage.” In the process, it identifies eight distinct philosophical schools in ancient northwestern India and Central Asia, including Early Zoroastrianism, Early Brahmanism, and several forms of Early Buddhism. It then shows the influence that Pyrrho's brand of scepticism had on the evolution of Western thought, first in Antiquity, and later, during the Enlightenment, on the great philosopher and self-proclaimed Pyrrhonian, David Hume.Less
Pyrrho of Elis went with Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India during the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334–324 BC. There he met with early Buddhist masters. This book shows how their Early Buddhism shaped the philosophy of Pyrrho, the famous founder of Pyrrhonian scepticism in ancient Greece. The book traces the origins of a major tradition in Western philosophy to Gandhara, a country in Central Asia and northwestern India. It systematically examines the teachings and practices of Pyrrho and of Early Buddhism, including those preserved in testimonies by and about Pyrrho, in the report on Indian philosophy two decades later by the Seleucid ambassador Megasthenes, in the first-person edicts by the Indian king Devanampriya Priyadarsi referring to a popular variety of the Dharma in the early third century BC, and in Taoist echoes of Gautama's Dharma in Warring States China. The book demonstrates how the teachings of Pyrrho agree closely with those of the Buddha Sakyamuni, “the Scythian Sage.” In the process, it identifies eight distinct philosophical schools in ancient northwestern India and Central Asia, including Early Zoroastrianism, Early Brahmanism, and several forms of Early Buddhism. It then shows the influence that Pyrrho's brand of scepticism had on the evolution of Western thought, first in Antiquity, and later, during the Enlightenment, on the great philosopher and self-proclaimed Pyrrhonian, David Hume.
Antonie Vos
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624621
- eISBN:
- 9780748652372
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624621.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
John Duns Scotus was arguably one of the most significant philosopher theologians of the middle ages, and has often been overlooked. This book serves to recover his rightful place in the history of ...
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John Duns Scotus was arguably one of the most significant philosopher theologians of the middle ages, and has often been overlooked. This book serves to recover his rightful place in the history of Western philosophy, revealing that he is in fact one of the great masters of our philosophical heritage. Among the fields to which Scotus made an immense contribution are logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, and ethical theory. This book provides a formidable yet comprehensive overview of the life and works of this Scottish-born philosopher. It combines Scotus's lifetime of dedicated study with the significant body of biographical literature, resulting in a look at the life and works of this philosopher-theologian.Less
John Duns Scotus was arguably one of the most significant philosopher theologians of the middle ages, and has often been overlooked. This book serves to recover his rightful place in the history of Western philosophy, revealing that he is in fact one of the great masters of our philosophical heritage. Among the fields to which Scotus made an immense contribution are logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, and ethical theory. This book provides a formidable yet comprehensive overview of the life and works of this Scottish-born philosopher. It combines Scotus's lifetime of dedicated study with the significant body of biographical literature, resulting in a look at the life and works of this philosopher-theologian.
Roberto Esposito
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823276264
- eISBN:
- 9780823277001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823276264.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book explores the conceptual trajectories of two of the twentieth century's most vital thinkers of the political: Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil. Taking Homer's Iliad as the common origin and ...
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This book explores the conceptual trajectories of two of the twentieth century's most vital thinkers of the political: Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil. Taking Homer's Iliad as the common origin and point of departure for our understanding of Western philosophical and political traditions, the book examines the foundational relation between war and the political. Drawing actively and extensively on Arendt's and Weil's voluminous writings, but also sparring with thinkers from Marx to Heidegger, the book traverses the relation between polemos and polis, between Greece, Rome, God, force, technicity, evil, and the extension of the Christian imperial tradition, while at the same time delineating the conceptual and hermeneutic ground for the development of the notion and practice of “the impolitical.” Within the book, Arendt and Weil emerge “in the inverse of the other's thought, in the shadow of the other's light,” to “think what the thought of the other excludes not as something that is foreign, but rather as something that appears unthinkable and, for that very reason, remains to be thought.” Moving slowly toward their conceptualizations of love and heroism, the book unravels the West's illusory metaphysical dream of peace, obliging us to reevaluate ceaselessly what it means to be responsible in the wake of past and contemporary forms of war.Less
This book explores the conceptual trajectories of two of the twentieth century's most vital thinkers of the political: Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil. Taking Homer's Iliad as the common origin and point of departure for our understanding of Western philosophical and political traditions, the book examines the foundational relation between war and the political. Drawing actively and extensively on Arendt's and Weil's voluminous writings, but also sparring with thinkers from Marx to Heidegger, the book traverses the relation between polemos and polis, between Greece, Rome, God, force, technicity, evil, and the extension of the Christian imperial tradition, while at the same time delineating the conceptual and hermeneutic ground for the development of the notion and practice of “the impolitical.” Within the book, Arendt and Weil emerge “in the inverse of the other's thought, in the shadow of the other's light,” to “think what the thought of the other excludes not as something that is foreign, but rather as something that appears unthinkable and, for that very reason, remains to be thought.” Moving slowly toward their conceptualizations of love and heroism, the book unravels the West's illusory metaphysical dream of peace, obliging us to reevaluate ceaselessly what it means to be responsible in the wake of past and contemporary forms of war.
