- The Affirmation of Life
- Bernard Reginster
- While most recent studies of Nietzsche's works have lost sight of the fundamental question of the meaning of a life characterized by inescapable suffering, Bernard Reginster's book The Affirmation of Life brings it sharply into focus. Reginster identifies overcoming nihilism as a central objective of Nietzsche's philosophical project, and shows how this concern systematically animates all of his main ideas.
- Hardcover 2006 / Paperback 2008
- All or Nothing
- Paul W. Franks
- In this work, the first overview of German Idealism that is both conceptual and methodological, Paul W. Franks offers a philosophical reconstruction that is true to the movement's own times and resources and, at the same time, deeply relevant to contemporary thought. The result is a characterization of German Idealism that reveals its sources as well as its pertinence--and its challenge--to contemporary philosophical naturalism.
- Hardcover 2005
- Ancilla to Pre-Socratic Philosophers
- Kathleen Freeman
- This book is a complete translation of the fragments of the pre-Socratic philosophers given in the fifth edition of Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker.
- Paperback
- Aristotle and the Renaissance
- Charles B. Schmitt
- Hardcover 1983
- The Art of Plato
- R. B. Rutherford
- This book is not a study of Plato's philosophy, but a contribution to the literary interpretation of the dialogues, through analysis of their formal structure, characterization, language, and imagery. Among the dialogues considered in these interrelated essays are some of Plato's most admired and influential works, including Gorgias, the Symposium, the Republic and Phaedrus.
- Hardcover 1998
- Belief and Resistance
- Barbara H. Smith
- What happens to law, science, and the pursuit of social justice when the ideas of truth, reason and objectivity are rejected? This question is at the heart of the controversies between traditionalists and "postmodernists." Barbara Herrnstein Smith here examines the debate across a wide range of disciplines and through important and ongoing controversies.
- Paperback 1997 / Hardcover 1997
- Civilization and Enlightenment
- Albert M. Craig
- The idea that society progresses through stages of development, from savagery to civilization, arose in eighteenth-century Europe. Craig traces how Fukuzawa Yukichi, deeply influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, “translated” the idea for Japanese society, both enriching and challenging the concept.
- Hardcover 2009
- Commentaries on Plato, Volume 1, Phaedrus and Ion
- Marsilio Ficino
- Edited and translated by Michael J. B. Allen
- Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus, was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This volume contains Ficino’s extended analysis and commentary on the Phaedrus.
- Hardcover 2008
- The Consolation of Philosophy
- Boethius
- Translated by David R. Slavitt
- Introduction by Seth Lerer
- Composed while its author was imprisoned, this book remains one of Western literature’s most eloquent meditations on the transitory nature of earthly belongings, and the superiority of things of the mind. Slavitt’s translation captures the energy and passion of the original. And in an introduction intended for the general reader, Seth Lerer places Boethius’s life and achievement in context.
- Hardcover 2008
- The Conversion of Imagination
- Matthew W. Maguire
- In a bold reinterpretation of a crucial development in modern European intellectual history, Matthew W. Maguire uncovers a history of French thought that casts the imagination as a dominant faculty in our experience of the world. Original and thought-provoking, The Conversion of Imagination will interest a range of readers across intellectual history, political theory, literary and cultural studies, and the history of religious thought.
- Hardcover 2006
- Dante
- John Freccero
- Editor and with an introduction by Rachel Jacoff
- Freccero enables us to see the Divine Comedy for the bold, poetic experiment that it is. Too many critics have domesticated Dante by separating his theology from his poetics. Freccero argues that to fail to see the convergence of the letter and the spirit, the pilgrim and the poet, is to fail to understand Dante's poetics of conversion.
- Hardcover 1986 / Paperback
- The Death of Socrates
- Emily Wilson
- Socrates's death in 399 BCE has figured largely in our world ever since, shaping how we think about heroism and celebrity, religion and family life, state control and individual freedom, the distance of intellectual life from daily activity--many of the key coordinates of Western culture. In this book, Wilson analyzes the enormous and enduring power the trial and death of Socrates has exerted over the Western imagination.
- Hardcover 2007
- Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
- Wilfrid Sellars
- Richard Rorty
- Study Guide by Robert B. Brandom
- The most important work by one of America's greatest twentieth-century philosophers, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind helped bring about a sea change in analytic philosophy. This publication makes comprehensible a difficult but important figure in this movement.
- Paperback 1997 / Hardcover 1997
- German Idealism
- Frederick C. Beiser
- Hardcover 2002 / Paperback 2008
- The Greek Concept of Justice
- Eric Havelock
- Eric Havelock presents a challenging account of the development of the idea of justice in early Greece, and particularly of the way justice changed as Greek oral tradition gradually gave way to the written word in a literate society.
- Hardcover 1978
- The Greek Pursuit of Knowledge
- Edited by Jacques Brunschwig
- Edited by Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd
- Translated by Catherine Porter
- Ancient Greek thought is the essential wellspring from which the intellectual, ethical, and political civilization of the West draws and to which, even today, we repeatedly return. In this volume drawn from the reference work Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge, major scholars take up basic topics in philosophy and science, offering an account of the extraordinary explosion of desire for knowledge in the classical Greek world.
- Paperback 2003
- A Guide to Greek Thought
- Edited by Jacques Brunschwig
- Edited by Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd
- Catherine Porter, Translated under the direction of
- The philosophers, historians, and scientists of ancient Greece inaugurated and nourished the tradition of Western thought. This volume, drawn from the reference work Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge, gives fresh insight into the originality of major figures and the legacy of important currents of thought.
- Paperback 2003
- Having Thought
- John Haugeland
- The unifying theme of these thirteen essays is understanding. In the first group of essays John Haugeland addresses mind and intelligence. Intelligibility comes to the fore in a set of "metaphysical" pieces on analog and digital systems and supervenience. In the third set of papers Haugeland elaborates and then undermines a battery of common presuppositions about the foundational notions of intentionality and representation. Finally, the fourth and most recent group of essays confronts the essential character of understanding in relation to what is understood.
- Hardcover 1998 / Paperback 2000
- Historical Ontology
- Ian Hacking
- With the unusual clarity, distinctive and engaging style, and penetrating insight that have drawn such a wide range of readers to his work, Hacking here offers his reflections on the philosophical uses of history. The focus of this volume, which collects both recent and now-classic essays, is the historical emergence of concepts and objects, through new uses of words and sentences in specific settings, and new patterns or styles of reasoning within those sentences.
- Hardcover 2002 / Paperback 2004
- The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance and the Reformation
- Erika Rummel
- In the last half of the fifteenth century, the classic Platonic debate over the respective merits of rhetoric and philosophy was replayed in the debate between humanists and scholastics over philology and dialectic. The intense dispute between representatives of the two camps fueled many of the most important intellectual developments of the Renaissance and Reformation.
- Paperback 1998 / Hardcover
- Intention
- G. E. M. Anscombe
- Intention is one of the masterworks of twentieth-century philosophy in English. First published in 1957, it has acquired the status of a modern philosophical classic. The book attempts to show in detail that the natural and widely accepted picture of what we mean by an intention gives rise to insoluble problems and must be abandoned. This is a welcome reprint of a book that continues to grow in importance.
- Paperback 2000
- Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy
- John Rawls
- Edited by Samuel Freeman
- This last book by the late John Rawls offers readers an account of the liberal political tradition. Constantly revised and refined over three decades, Rawls's lectures on various historical figures reflect his developing and changing views on the history of liberalism and democracy. With its clear and careful analyses of the doctrine of the social contract, utilitarianism, and socialism, this volume has a critical place in the traditions it expounds.
- Hardcover 2007 / Paperback 2008
- Maimonides after 800 Years
- Edited by Jay M. Harris
- Moses Maimonides was the most significant Jewish thinker, jurist, and doctor of the Middle Ages, and author of a monumental code of Jewish law, and the most influential and controversial work of Jewish philosophy. The essays in this volume were written to mark the 800th anniversary of Maimonides' death in 1204. Written by the leading scholars in the field, they cover all aspects of Maimonides' work and influence.
- Hardcover 2008
- Martin Heidegger
- Rüdiger Safranski
- Ewald Osers, Translator
- One of the century's greatest philosophers, without whom there would be no Sartre, no Foucault, no Frankfurt School, Martin Heidegger was also a man of great failures and flaws, a Faustus who made a pact with the devil of his time, Adolf Hitler. The story of Heidegger's life and philosophy, a quintessentially German story in which good and evil, brilliance and blindness are inextricably entwined and the passions and disasters of a whole century come into play, is told in this brilliant biography.
- Hardcover 1998 / Paperback 1999
- The Meaning of Stoicism
- Ludwig Edelstein
- "Despite their individual differences, the Stoic dissenters remained Stoics. That which they had in common, that which made them Stoics, is what I understand as the meaning of Stoicism." Thus delimiting his framework, Ludwig Edelstein attempts to define Stoicism by grasping the elusive common element that bound together the various factions within the ethical system.
- Hardcover 1966
- Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality
- John McDowell
- This is the second volume of John McDowell's selected papers. These nineteen essays collectively report on McDowell's involvement, over more than twenty years, with questions about the interface between the philosophies of language and mind and with issues in general epistemology. Throughout McDowell focuses on questions to do with content.
- Hardcover 1998 / Paperback 2001
- Mind, Value, and Reality
- John McDowell
- This volume collects some of John McDowell's most influential papers of the last two decades. These essays deal with several themes including the interpretation of Aristotle and Plato's ethical writings, questions in moral philosophy that arise from reflection on the Greek tradition, Wittengensteinian ideas about reason in action, and issues central to the philosophy of mind.
- Hardcover 1998 / Paperback 2001
- Mindsight
- Colin McGinn
- The guiding thread of this book is the distinction McGinn draws between perception and imagination. McGinn shows what the differences are, arguing that imagination is a sui generis mental faculty. He goes on to discuss the nature of dreaming and madness and investigates the role of imagination in logical reasoning, belief formation, and the comprehension of meaning. His overall claim is that imagination pervades our mental life, obeys its own distinctive principles, and merits much more attention.
- Hardcover 2004 / Paperback 2006
- New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and Ancient
- Julia Annas, Editor
- Christopher J. Rowe, Editor
- In recent years, scholars have looked more closely at the philosophical importance of the imaginative and literary aspects of Plato's writing, and have begun to appreciate the methods of the ancient philosophers and commentators who studied Plato and their attitudes to Plato's appropriation of Socrates. This study brings together leading philosophical and literary scholars who investigate these new-old approaches and their significance in distancing us from the standard ways of reading Plato.
- Hardcover 2003
- Platonic Theology, Volume 4, Books XII-XIV
- Marsilio Ficino
- Translated by Michael J. B. Allen
- Edited by James Hankins
- Platonic Theology is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his Platonic Theology, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
- Hardcover 2004
- Platonic Theology, Volume 5, Books XV-XVI
- Marsilio Ficino
- Translated by Michael J. B. Allen
- Edited by James Hankins
- The Platonic Theology is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his Platonic Theology, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance. This is the fifth of a projected six volumes.
- Hardcover 2005
- Platonic Theology, Volume 6, Books XVII-XVIII
- Marsilio Ficino
- Translated by Michael J. B. Allen
- Edited by James Hankins
- The Platonic Theology is the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. He was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. This book is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
- Hardcover 2006
- Providence Lost
- Genevieve Lloyd
- In our ever more secular times—is providence lost? Perhaps, but as Lloyd makes clear, providence still exerts a powerful influence on our thought and in our lives. This book traces a succession of transformations in the concept of providence through the history of Western philosophy.
- Hardcover 2008
- The Romantic Imperative
- Frederick C. Beiser
- The Early Romantics met resistance from artists and academics alike in part because they defied the conventional wisdom that philosophy and the arts must be kept separate. Indeed, as the literary component of Romanticism has been studied and celebrated in recent years, its philosophical aspect has receded from view. This book, by one of the most respected scholars of the Romantic era, offers an explanation of Romanticism that not only restores but enhances understanding of the movement's origins, development, aims, and accomplishments--and of its continuing relevance.
- Hardcover 2004 / Paperback 2006
- A Secular Age
- Charles Taylor
- The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
- Hardcover 2007
- Seven Wise Men of Colonial America
- Richard M. Gummere
- Gummere explores the attitudes toward the classics of seven prominent colonial Americans--Hugh Jones, Robert Calef, Michael Wigglesworth, Samuel Davies, Henry Melhior Muhlenberg, Benjamin Rush, and Thomas Paine. Each of them was essentially pragmatic and judged the value of the classics not only on the basis of their intrinsic worth but also for their relevance to contemporary problems.
- Hardcover 1967
- The Struggle against Dogmatism
- Oskari Kuusela
- The Struggle against Dogmatism elucidates Wittgenstein’s view that there are no theses, doctrines, or theories in philosophy. This book makes Wittgenstein’s philosophical approach comprehensible by presenting it as a response to specific problems relating to the practice of philosophy, in particular the problem of dogmatism.
- Hardcover 2008
- The Veil of Isis
- Pierre Hadot
- Translated by Michael Chase
- Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words "Phusis kruptesthai philei." How the aphorism, usually translated as "Nature loves to hide," has haunted Western culture ever since is the subject of this engaging study by Pierre Hadot. Taking the allegorical figure of the veiled goddess Isis as a guide, and drawing on the work of both the ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger Hadot traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words.
- Hardcover 2006 / Paperback 2008
- Weaving Truth
- Ann Bergren
- "What if truth were a woman?" asked Nietzsche. In ancient Greek thought, truth in language has a special relation to the female by virtue of her pre-eminent art-form--the one Freud believed was even invented by women--weaving. The essays in this book explore the implications of this nexus: language, the female, weaving, and the construction of truth.
- Paperback 2008
- Who Rules in Science?
- James Robert Brown
- Brown takes us through the various engagements in the science wars--from the infamous "Sokal affair" to angry confrontations over the nature of evidence, the possibility of objectivity, and the methods of science--to show how the contested terrain may be science, but the prize is political: Whoever wins the science wars will have an unprecedented influence on how we are governed.
- Hardcover 2001 / Paperback 2004
- Yearning for the Infinite
- Steven Lowenstam
- This work about Plato investigates the aims and objects of human desire, the ways in which humans can identify what they most need, the likelihood of realizing their goals, and the prospect of whether they ever cease to desire. The book focuses on three Platonic dialogues: the Symposium, Lysis, and Phaedrus.
- Paperback