Daniel Garber and Donald Rutherford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199659593
- eISBN:
- 9780191745218
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth ...
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Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. Topics covered include Spinoza's political philosophy, Leibniz, monadic domination, Newton's ontology of omnipresence and infinate space, Hume, and Descarte.Less
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. Topics covered include Spinoza's political philosophy, Leibniz, monadic domination, Newton's ontology of omnipresence and infinate space, Hume, and Descarte.
Donald J. Morse
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234707
- eISBN:
- 9780823240760
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234707.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This book considers John Dewey's early philosophy on its own terms and aims to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. ...
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This book considers John Dewey's early philosophy on its own terms and aims to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. This fuller treatment reveals that the received view, which sees Dewey's early philosophy as unimportant in its own right, is deeply mistaken. In fact, Dewey's early philosophy amounts to an important new form of idealism. More specifically, Dewey's idealism contains a new logic of rupture, which allows us to achieve four things: a focus on discontinuity that challenges all naturalistic views, including Dewey's own later view; a space of critical resistance to events that is at the same time the source of ideals; a faith in the development of ideals that challenges pessimists like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; and a non-traditional reading of Hegel that invites comparison with cutting-edge Continental philosophers, such as Adorno, Derrida, and Zizek, and even goes beyond them in its systematic approach. In making these discoveries, the book forges a new link between American and European philosophy, showing how they share similar insights and concerns. It also provides an original assessment of Dewey's relationship to his teacher, George Sylvester Morris, and to other important thinkers of the day, giving us a fresh picture of John Dewey, the man and the philosopher, in the early years of his career. This book discusses a wide range of topics, from Dewey's early reflections on Kant and Hegel to the nature of beauty, courage, sympathy, hatred, love, and even death and despair.Less
This book considers John Dewey's early philosophy on its own terms and aims to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. This fuller treatment reveals that the received view, which sees Dewey's early philosophy as unimportant in its own right, is deeply mistaken. In fact, Dewey's early philosophy amounts to an important new form of idealism. More specifically, Dewey's idealism contains a new logic of rupture, which allows us to achieve four things: a focus on discontinuity that challenges all naturalistic views, including Dewey's own later view; a space of critical resistance to events that is at the same time the source of ideals; a faith in the development of ideals that challenges pessimists like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; and a non-traditional reading of Hegel that invites comparison with cutting-edge Continental philosophers, such as Adorno, Derrida, and Zizek, and even goes beyond them in its systematic approach. In making these discoveries, the book forges a new link between American and European philosophy, showing how they share similar insights and concerns. It also provides an original assessment of Dewey's relationship to his teacher, George Sylvester Morris, and to other important thinkers of the day, giving us a fresh picture of John Dewey, the man and the philosopher, in the early years of his career. This book discusses a wide range of topics, from Dewey's early reflections on Kant and Hegel to the nature of beauty, courage, sympathy, hatred, love, and even death and despair.
Steven Nadler
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199247073
- eISBN:
- 9780191598074
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199247072.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the ...
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This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the immortality of the soul play a role in the decision to excommunicate Spinoza. The work begins with a discussion of the nature of cherem or banning within Judaism, and in the Amsterdam community, in particular, as well as of a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban. It then turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious and philosophical thought on the post‐mortem fate of the soul and the after life. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind in the Ethics and the role that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical and political project. Part of the book's argument is that Spinoza's views were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in medieval Jewish rationalism (especially Maimonides and Gersonides).Less
This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the immortality of the soul play a role in the decision to excommunicate Spinoza. The work begins with a discussion of the nature of cherem or banning within Judaism, and in the Amsterdam community, in particular, as well as of a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban. It then turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious and philosophical thought on the post‐mortem fate of the soul and the after life. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind in the Ethics and the role that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical and political project. Part of the book's argument is that Spinoza's views were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in medieval Jewish rationalism (especially Maimonides and Gersonides).
Benjamin Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583645
- eISBN:
- 9780191738456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583645.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the ...
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This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the essays in the volume and a brief biography of Suárez, placing his life and works into some historical context.Less
This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the essays in the volume and a brief biography of Suárez, placing his life and works into some historical context.
Erich H. Reck
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195133264
- eISBN:
- 9780199833580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195133269.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
It is well known that Frege and his writings were an important influence on Wittgenstein. There is no agreement, however, on the nature and scope of this influence. In this paper, I clarify the ...
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It is well known that Frege and his writings were an important influence on Wittgenstein. There is no agreement, however, on the nature and scope of this influence. In this paper, I clarify the situation in three related ways: (1) by tracing Frege's and Wittgenstein's actual interactions, i.e., their face‐to‐face meetings and their correspondence between 1911 and 1920; (2) by documenting Wittgenstein's continued study of Frege's writings, until the very end of his life in 1951; and (3) by constructing, on that basis, a new framework for understanding the themes that connect Wittgenstein to Frege, both in his early and his later works.Less
It is well known that Frege and his writings were an important influence on Wittgenstein. There is no agreement, however, on the nature and scope of this influence. In this paper, I clarify the situation in three related ways: (1) by tracing Frege's and Wittgenstein's actual interactions, i.e., their face‐to‐face meetings and their correspondence between 1911 and 1920; (2) by documenting Wittgenstein's continued study of Frege's writings, until the very end of his life in 1951; and (3) by constructing, on that basis, a new framework for understanding the themes that connect Wittgenstein to Frege, both in his early and his later works.
Yulia Ustinova
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199548569
- eISBN:
- 9780191720840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548569.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
The Retrospect draws together the major themes explored in the book, focusing on the modalities common to prophecy, early philosophy, and mystery cults. It offers new integrative interpretations of ...
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The Retrospect draws together the major themes explored in the book, focusing on the modalities common to prophecy, early philosophy, and mystery cults. It offers new integrative interpretations of these phenomena, highlighting the role of seers and sages as intermediaries between immortals and mortals who sought superhuman knowledge in altered states of consciousness, inside caves or isolated rooms, and stressing that for the Greeks, cave experiences were a well-known way to attain ultimate truth.Less
The Retrospect draws together the major themes explored in the book, focusing on the modalities common to prophecy, early philosophy, and mystery cults. It offers new integrative interpretations of these phenomena, highlighting the role of seers and sages as intermediaries between immortals and mortals who sought superhuman knowledge in altered states of consciousness, inside caves or isolated rooms, and stressing that for the Greeks, cave experiences were a well-known way to attain ultimate truth.
Roger Ariew
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583645
- eISBN:
- 9780191738456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583645.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions ...
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This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the endLess
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the end
Steven Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195133264
- eISBN:
- 9780199833580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195133269.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In this paper I argue, contrary to the traditional interpretation, that dividing Wittgenstein's career into “The Early Wittgenstein” and “The Later Wittgenstein” is a serious distortion. The main ...
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In this paper I argue, contrary to the traditional interpretation, that dividing Wittgenstein's career into “The Early Wittgenstein” and “The Later Wittgenstein” is a serious distortion. The main task of the paper is to outline a reading of the Tractatus that will give us one Wittgenstein. Building on the work of James Conant, Cora Diamond, Juliet Floyd, Warren Goldfarb, John McDowell, and Hilary Putnam, I will argue that throughout his career, Wittgenstein argued against metaphysical realism. I offer a reading of the Tractatus which is a retelling of the history of early analytic ontology.Less
In this paper I argue, contrary to the traditional interpretation, that dividing Wittgenstein's career into “The Early Wittgenstein” and “The Later Wittgenstein” is a serious distortion. The main task of the paper is to outline a reading of the Tractatus that will give us one Wittgenstein. Building on the work of James Conant, Cora Diamond, Juliet Floyd, Warren Goldfarb, John McDowell, and Hilary Putnam, I will argue that throughout his career, Wittgenstein argued against metaphysical realism. I offer a reading of the Tractatus which is a retelling of the history of early analytic ontology.
Juliet Floyd and Sanford Shieh (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195139167
- eISBN:
- 9780199833214
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513916X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Among contemporary philosophers there is a growing interest in recounting the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. Those who discuss what is more or less loosely called “analytic ...
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Among contemporary philosophers there is a growing interest in recounting the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. Those who discuss what is more or less loosely called “analytic philosophy”—among them some who reject the methods of analysis outright—are increasingly engaged in attempting to delineate the origins and significance of the analytic tradition. This collection of essays is meant to be a contribution to the growing historical consciousness of contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. More than that, however, the decision to bring together these particular essays stems from the editors’conception of present difficulties facing the historiography of recent philosophy. Both partisans and critics of what is called "analytic philosophy" assume that it is definable by a small number of questions, theories, principles, or concepts. This volume calls into doubt these often unquestioned, even unconscious, assumptions about the history of recent philosophy. Containing 21 previously unpublished articles by such luminaries as W.V. Quine, John Rawls, Stanley Cavell, Warren Goldfarb, Hilary Putnam, and others, this volume represents a new approach to the history of philosophy as well as a novel portrait of 20th-century analytic philosophy.Less
Among contemporary philosophers there is a growing interest in recounting the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. Those who discuss what is more or less loosely called “analytic philosophy”—among them some who reject the methods of analysis outright—are increasingly engaged in attempting to delineate the origins and significance of the analytic tradition. This collection of essays is meant to be a contribution to the growing historical consciousness of contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. More than that, however, the decision to bring together these particular essays stems from the editors’conception of present difficulties facing the historiography of recent philosophy. Both partisans and critics of what is called "analytic philosophy" assume that it is definable by a small number of questions, theories, principles, or concepts. This volume calls into doubt these often unquestioned, even unconscious, assumptions about the history of recent philosophy. Containing 21 previously unpublished articles by such luminaries as W.V. Quine, John Rawls, Stanley Cavell, Warren Goldfarb, Hilary Putnam, and others, this volume represents a new approach to the history of philosophy as well as a novel portrait of 20th-century analytic philosophy.
Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199579914
- eISBN:
- 9780191745959
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579914.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, ...
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This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, neglected the place of emotions in cognitive life. This collection of articles refocuses the discussion of emotion in the medieval and early modern periods to their role in cognition. Second, though many have aimed to clarify relationship between the later thinkers and their predecessors with regard to issues in metaphysics and epistemology, there has been very little effort at tracing similar lines of thought about emotion. As a whole, the contributions to this volume serve to begin a discussion about the continuities between medieval and early modern thinking about the emotions. In this regard, there is also a discussion of the emotions of cognitive life of the Renaissance. Though we get only a snapshot of a period of philosophical work often passed over, even this snapshot invites questions about how to weave an intellectual history about accounts of our emotions in our cognitive lives. Finally, attention to the concerns that engage philosophers of the medieval, renaissance and early modern periods can inform the contemporary debate regarding the relationship between emotions, cognition, and reason. The thirteen contributions explore this from the point of view of four key themes: the situation of emotions within the human mind; the intentionality of emotions and their role in cognition; emotions and action; the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.Less
This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, neglected the place of emotions in cognitive life. This collection of articles refocuses the discussion of emotion in the medieval and early modern periods to their role in cognition. Second, though many have aimed to clarify relationship between the later thinkers and their predecessors with regard to issues in metaphysics and epistemology, there has been very little effort at tracing similar lines of thought about emotion. As a whole, the contributions to this volume serve to begin a discussion about the continuities between medieval and early modern thinking about the emotions. In this regard, there is also a discussion of the emotions of cognitive life of the Renaissance. Though we get only a snapshot of a period of philosophical work often passed over, even this snapshot invites questions about how to weave an intellectual history about accounts of our emotions in our cognitive lives. Finally, attention to the concerns that engage philosophers of the medieval, renaissance and early modern periods can inform the contemporary debate regarding the relationship between emotions, cognition, and reason. The thirteen contributions explore this from the point of view of four key themes: the situation of emotions within the human mind; the intentionality of emotions and their role in cognition; emotions and action; the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.
Cora Diamond
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195133264
- eISBN:
- 9780199833580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195133269.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
I start from Hans Sluga's paper “Truth before Tarski”, in which he argues that the establishing of Tarski's approach to truth brought loss as well as gain to analytic philosophy: what was lost was ...
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I start from Hans Sluga's paper “Truth before Tarski”, in which he argues that the establishing of Tarski's approach to truth brought loss as well as gain to analytic philosophy: what was lost was our understanding of the problem of truth. To recover what was lost, he says, we must examine the variety of pre‐Tarskian views. My paper picks up that task and focuses on Wittgenstein's Tractatus. I interweave ideas borrowed from Thomas Ricketts, P. T. Geach, Warren Goldfarb, Peter Hylton, and Juliet Floyd, and thereby try to explain the relation between Wittgenstein's conception of sense and his view of truth.Less
I start from Hans Sluga's paper “Truth before Tarski”, in which he argues that the establishing of Tarski's approach to truth brought loss as well as gain to analytic philosophy: what was lost was our understanding of the problem of truth. To recover what was lost, he says, we must examine the variety of pre‐Tarskian views. My paper picks up that task and focuses on Wittgenstein's Tractatus. I interweave ideas borrowed from Thomas Ricketts, P. T. Geach, Warren Goldfarb, Peter Hylton, and Juliet Floyd, and thereby try to explain the relation between Wittgenstein's conception of sense and his view of truth.
Steven Nadler
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226457635
- eISBN:
- 9780226627878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226627878.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter first considers the familiarity with — and, to some degree, the influence of — Maimonides by central early modern philosophers: Malebranche, Bayle, Leibniz, and Newton, and especially ...
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This chapter first considers the familiarity with — and, to some degree, the influence of — Maimonides by central early modern philosophers: Malebranche, Bayle, Leibniz, and Newton, and especially Spinoza. The author concludes that Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (as well as parts of his Mishneh Torah) was read and known by many of them, although it is difficult to discern significant influence or impact on (as opposed to parallels with) any of them with the one major exception of Spinoza. After discussing Maimonides’ influence, positive and negative, on Spinoza, the chapter then looks at the role that scholarship on Maimonides has or has not played in recent Spinoza scholarship. Finally, the author briefly examines the influence that Shlomo Pines’s translation of the Guide of the Perplexed in particular may have had on Spinoza scholarship since its publication.Less
This chapter first considers the familiarity with — and, to some degree, the influence of — Maimonides by central early modern philosophers: Malebranche, Bayle, Leibniz, and Newton, and especially Spinoza. The author concludes that Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (as well as parts of his Mishneh Torah) was read and known by many of them, although it is difficult to discern significant influence or impact on (as opposed to parallels with) any of them with the one major exception of Spinoza. After discussing Maimonides’ influence, positive and negative, on Spinoza, the chapter then looks at the role that scholarship on Maimonides has or has not played in recent Spinoza scholarship. Finally, the author briefly examines the influence that Shlomo Pines’s translation of the Guide of the Perplexed in particular may have had on Spinoza scholarship since its publication.
Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199579914
- eISBN:
- 9780191745959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579914.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human ...
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In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human mind; emotions, intentionality, and cognition; emotions and action; and the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.Less
In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human mind; emotions, intentionality, and cognition; emotions and action; and the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.
Warren Goldfarb
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195133264
- eISBN:
- 9780199833580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195133269.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Frege and Russell were the most significant influences on the young Wittgenstein, but the relative weight of their impacts is less clear. Some interpreters (Geach, Diamond, Ricketts) have claimed for ...
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Frege and Russell were the most significant influences on the young Wittgenstein, but the relative weight of their impacts is less clear. Some interpreters (Geach, Diamond, Ricketts) have claimed for Frege an influence far surpassing that of Russell. I cast doubt on this claim, by reviewing the evidence we have of Wittgenstein's pre‐Tractatus understanding of Frege. Wittgenstein did eventually come to some views more like Frege's than Russell's; I suggest it was his own thinking rather than direct influence from Frege that led him in this direction.Less
Frege and Russell were the most significant influences on the young Wittgenstein, but the relative weight of their impacts is less clear. Some interpreters (Geach, Diamond, Ricketts) have claimed for Frege an influence far surpassing that of Russell. I cast doubt on this claim, by reviewing the evidence we have of Wittgenstein's pre‐Tractatus understanding of Frege. Wittgenstein did eventually come to some views more like Frege's than Russell's; I suggest it was his own thinking rather than direct influence from Frege that led him in this direction.
Oliver Primavesi
Carlos Steel (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199639984
- eISBN:
- 9780191743337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199639984.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
he volumes of the “Symposium Aristotelicum” have become in the last fifty years the obligatory reference works for all studies on Aristotle. In this 18th volume a distinguished group of scholars ...
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he volumes of the “Symposium Aristotelicum” have become in the last fifty years the obligatory reference works for all studies on Aristotle. In this 18th volume a distinguished group of scholars offers a chapter-by-chapter study of the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aristotle presents here his philosophical project as a search for wisdom, which is found in the knowledge of the first principles allowing us to explain whatever exists. As he shows, the earlier philosophers all had been seeking such a wisdom, though they had divergent views on what these first principles were. Before Aristotle sets out his own views, he offers a critical examination of his predecessors' views, ending up with a lengthy discussion of Plato's doctrine of the Forms. Book Alpha is not just a fundamental text for reconstructing the early history of Greek philosophy, it sets itself the agenda for Aristotle's own project of wisdom after what he had learned from his predecessors. Besides eleven chapters, each dealing with a different section of the text, the volume also offers a new edition of the Greek text of Metaphysics Alpha by Oliver Primavesi, based on an exhaustive examination of the complex manuscript and indirect tradition. The introduction to the edition offers new insights into the question which has haunted editors of the Metaphysics since Bekker, namely the relation between the two divergent traditions of the text.Less
he volumes of the “Symposium Aristotelicum” have become in the last fifty years the obligatory reference works for all studies on Aristotle. In this 18th volume a distinguished group of scholars offers a chapter-by-chapter study of the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aristotle presents here his philosophical project as a search for wisdom, which is found in the knowledge of the first principles allowing us to explain whatever exists. As he shows, the earlier philosophers all had been seeking such a wisdom, though they had divergent views on what these first principles were. Before Aristotle sets out his own views, he offers a critical examination of his predecessors' views, ending up with a lengthy discussion of Plato's doctrine of the Forms. Book Alpha is not just a fundamental text for reconstructing the early history of Greek philosophy, it sets itself the agenda for Aristotle's own project of wisdom after what he had learned from his predecessors. Besides eleven chapters, each dealing with a different section of the text, the volume also offers a new edition of the Greek text of Metaphysics Alpha by Oliver Primavesi, based on an exhaustive examination of the complex manuscript and indirect tradition. The introduction to the edition offers new insights into the question which has haunted editors of the Metaphysics since Bekker, namely the relation between the two divergent traditions of the text.
Mogens Laerke, Justin E. H. Smith, and Eric Schliesser (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199857142
- eISBN:
- 9780199345427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this ...
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Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this requirement, however, there is very little agreement as to what kind of methodology to follow when approaching past philosophical texts and what relationship, exactly, the study of the history of philosophy should have to contemporary philosophy, to the history and philosophy of science, or to intellectual history. This volume takes a measure of the current range of views on this complicated issue. The contributors have been chosen among specialists working in the area of early modern philosophy. It is with the early modern philosophers that basic questions of how to approach them – as colleagues with whom you discuss philosophy in the hallway, or as historical aliens speaking a different philosophical tongue – come up with the greatest urgency. The volume will however be of interest to a wide variety of specialists, teachers, and reflective students of other periods as well. The collection reflects the rapid internationalization of research that has opened up the field to a wide range of approaches within the last decades. The contributors include both specialists in the history of philosophy, as well as philosophers who work primarily on current problems in systematic philosophy but who have a pronounced interest in history.Less
Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this requirement, however, there is very little agreement as to what kind of methodology to follow when approaching past philosophical texts and what relationship, exactly, the study of the history of philosophy should have to contemporary philosophy, to the history and philosophy of science, or to intellectual history. This volume takes a measure of the current range of views on this complicated issue. The contributors have been chosen among specialists working in the area of early modern philosophy. It is with the early modern philosophers that basic questions of how to approach them – as colleagues with whom you discuss philosophy in the hallway, or as historical aliens speaking a different philosophical tongue – come up with the greatest urgency. The volume will however be of interest to a wide variety of specialists, teachers, and reflective students of other periods as well. The collection reflects the rapid internationalization of research that has opened up the field to a wide range of approaches within the last decades. The contributors include both specialists in the history of philosophy, as well as philosophers who work primarily on current problems in systematic philosophy but who have a pronounced interest in history.
Frederic R. Kellogg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226523903
- eISBN:
- 9780226524061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226524061.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American ...
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This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American Civil War, and Holmes and several Cambridge friends followed a renewed debate over the ground of knowledge and discovery, contextualized by early modern philosophy, a debate engaged in by the scientists William Whewell, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. It encompassed a disagreement between Whewell and John Stuart Mill over scientific method. Holmes’s often misinterpreted perspective stems from surprising sources, the debate over scientific method and the reformism that drove Mill’s empirical attitude; but this collided in Holmes with his experience of violent ideological conflict, creating a sense of the precariousness of human hopes and accomplishments. His view of conflict resolution contemplated a threshold of failure and resort to violence, as had occurred in 1861. Holmes’s interests, meetings with peers, and research are traced through his personal diaries and reading lists to his early essays from 1870 to 1880. They reveal an inductive turn focused on retrospective translation of particular judgments into legal rules and principles. In addressing the problem of conflict, Holmes added a uniquely social element to the logic of induction.Less
This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American Civil War, and Holmes and several Cambridge friends followed a renewed debate over the ground of knowledge and discovery, contextualized by early modern philosophy, a debate engaged in by the scientists William Whewell, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. It encompassed a disagreement between Whewell and John Stuart Mill over scientific method. Holmes’s often misinterpreted perspective stems from surprising sources, the debate over scientific method and the reformism that drove Mill’s empirical attitude; but this collided in Holmes with his experience of violent ideological conflict, creating a sense of the precariousness of human hopes and accomplishments. His view of conflict resolution contemplated a threshold of failure and resort to violence, as had occurred in 1861. Holmes’s interests, meetings with peers, and research are traced through his personal diaries and reading lists to his early essays from 1870 to 1880. They reveal an inductive turn focused on retrospective translation of particular judgments into legal rules and principles. In addressing the problem of conflict, Holmes added a uniquely social element to the logic of induction.
Daniel Garber and Donald Rutherford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198829294
- eISBN:
- 9780191867880
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829294.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth ...
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Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 8 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant.Less
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 8 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant.
Laurence Lampert
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226488110
- eISBN:
- 9780226488257
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226488257.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Nietzsche’s “foreword” to Schopenhauer as Educator consists of one long sentence in the Foreword to Things Human All Too Human Vol. 2. That sentence emphasizes an all-important fact: Nietzsche was ...
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Nietzsche’s “foreword” to Schopenhauer as Educator consists of one long sentence in the Foreword to Things Human All Too Human Vol. 2. That sentence emphasizes an all-important fact: Nietzsche was already deep within “the moral skepticism and dissolution, that is, as much the critique as the deepening of all pessimism hitherto,” that he displayed publicly only years later. Nietzsche concedes that he practiced what he later called “Jesuitism” and defined as “consciously holding on to illusion and forcibly incorporating that illusion as the foundation of culture.” As proof, he invites his reader to consult an essay he had “kept secret,” On Truth and Lie in the Extra-moral Sense.” This chapter examines that essay showing that it was the first part of a much longer work intended to answer the question: How could philosophy ever arise in the world? “On Truth and Lie” answered that question theoretically; the other part of his book would answer it historically: entries in a workbook show that Nietzsche’s history of pre-Platonic philosophers traced how philosophy in fact first arose and developed into a complete program of insight and social renewal first in Empedocles, then in Plato. This chapter gives a detailed study of that workbook.Less
Nietzsche’s “foreword” to Schopenhauer as Educator consists of one long sentence in the Foreword to Things Human All Too Human Vol. 2. That sentence emphasizes an all-important fact: Nietzsche was already deep within “the moral skepticism and dissolution, that is, as much the critique as the deepening of all pessimism hitherto,” that he displayed publicly only years later. Nietzsche concedes that he practiced what he later called “Jesuitism” and defined as “consciously holding on to illusion and forcibly incorporating that illusion as the foundation of culture.” As proof, he invites his reader to consult an essay he had “kept secret,” On Truth and Lie in the Extra-moral Sense.” This chapter examines that essay showing that it was the first part of a much longer work intended to answer the question: How could philosophy ever arise in the world? “On Truth and Lie” answered that question theoretically; the other part of his book would answer it historically: entries in a workbook show that Nietzsche’s history of pre-Platonic philosophers traced how philosophy in fact first arose and developed into a complete program of insight and social renewal first in Empedocles, then in Plato. This chapter gives a detailed study of that workbook.
Christopher Moore
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691195056
- eISBN:
- 9780691197425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691195056.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows ...
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This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows how it first referred to aspiring political sages and advice-givers, then to avid conversationalists about virtue, and finally to investigators who focused on the scope and conditions of those conversations. Questioning the familiar view that philosophers from the beginning “loved wisdom” or merely “cultivated their intellect,” the book shows that they were instead mocked as laughably unrealistic for thinking that their incessant talking and study would earn them social status or political and moral authority. Taking a new approach to the history of early Greek philosophy, the book seeks to understand who were called philosophoi or “philosophers” and why, and how the use of and reflections on the word contributed to the rise of a discipline. The book demonstrates that a word that began in part as a wry reference to a far-flung political bloc came, hardly a century later, to mean a life of determined self-improvement based on research, reflection, and deliberation. Early philosophy dedicated itself to justifying its own dubious-seeming enterprise. And this original impulse to seek legitimacy holds novel implications for understanding the history of the discipline and its influence.Less
This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows how it first referred to aspiring political sages and advice-givers, then to avid conversationalists about virtue, and finally to investigators who focused on the scope and conditions of those conversations. Questioning the familiar view that philosophers from the beginning “loved wisdom” or merely “cultivated their intellect,” the book shows that they were instead mocked as laughably unrealistic for thinking that their incessant talking and study would earn them social status or political and moral authority. Taking a new approach to the history of early Greek philosophy, the book seeks to understand who were called philosophoi or “philosophers” and why, and how the use of and reflections on the word contributed to the rise of a discipline. The book demonstrates that a word that began in part as a wry reference to a far-flung political bloc came, hardly a century later, to mean a life of determined self-improvement based on research, reflection, and deliberation. Early philosophy dedicated itself to justifying its own dubious-seeming enterprise. And this original impulse to seek legitimacy holds novel implications for understanding the history of the discipline and its influence.
