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Philosophy, theology, and politics : a reading of Benedict Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus /
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The interpretation of Spinoza's theologico-political teaching remains a matter of controversy. Is Spinoza simply addressing contemporary difficulties in The Netherlands of the late 1660s? Or is he attempting to solve a more basic and enduring human problem? In this book, it is argued that against the background of contemporary concerns, Spinoza treats the more fundamental "natural problem" of reconciling those who live by "the dictates of reason" with those who live by "the urgings of the passions." Based upon his accounts of theology, human nature, and politics, Spinoza fashions a theocratic or "theologico-political solution" to the "natural problem" by holding that the "universal religion" and the democratic liberalism of the treatise share a common purpose. Thus, Spinoza becomes a "new Moses."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-249) and index. :
9789047432753 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Micro and Macro Philosophy: Organicism in Biology, Philosophy, and Politics /
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What role can philosophy play in a world dominated by neoliberalism and globalization? Must it join universalist ideologies as it did in past centuries? Or might it turn to ethnophilosophy and postmodern fragmentation? Micro and Macro Philosophy argues that universalist cosmopolitanism and egocentric culturalism are not the only alternatives. Western philosophy has created a false dichotomy. A better solution can be found in an organic philosophy that functions through micro-macro interactions. According to biologists, the twentieth century was the century of the gene, while the twenty-first century is destined to be the century of the organic. Micro and Macro Philosophy attempts to establish such a view in philosophy: by highlighting micro-macro patterns found in history, it seeks to design new ways of "organic thinking" in the human sciences.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004440425
9789004439078
John Lach's practical philosophy /
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John Lachs (1934-) has been one of the most interesting American philosophers for nearly sixty years. His philosophical, educational, and public activity has been an attempt to show the relevance of philosophy to life. This is the first book dedicated to his thought. International scholars have proposed different themes in Lachs' philosophy, so as to present its enormous potential. Lachs' responses to his critics shows that dialogue with his critics is an inspirational activity for both sides. Lachs' way of philosophizing can be seen as exemplary for those who want to unify and present a clear and understandable articulation of moral and philosophical messages to everyone.
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1 online resource (348 pages) :
9789004367647 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Islamic Philosophy in the Maghreb during the Early Modern Period : Aḥmad al-Wallālī's (d. 1716) Philosophy of Monotheism (Ashraf al-Maqāṣid) /
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This monograph endeavors to chart the development of kalām and Islamic philosophy during the early modern Maghreb. The primary focus is on the Moroccan thinker Ibn Yaʿqūb al-Wallālī (d. 1716) and his text Ashraf al-Maqāṣid fī Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid. It sheds light on al-Wallālī's contribution to Islamic philosophy by examining his interpretation of some topics in epistemology, metaphysics, and physics. It also involves the reception of al-Rāzī's (d. 1210) and al-Taftāzānī's (d. 1390) works in the Maghreb. The book attempts to offer a re-evaluation of the prevailing claims in the scholarship that has dominated the region, asserting that the engagement with Islamic philosophy in the Maghreb continued beyond the time of al-Sanūsī (d. 1490).
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1 online resource (260 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004699205
God's acting, man's acting : tradition and philosophy in Philo of Alexandria /
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The topic tackled in this book is Philo's account of the complex, double-sided nature of God's acting - the two-sided coin of God as transcendent yet immanent, unknowable yet revealed, immobile yet creating - and also the two sides of acting in humans - who, in an attempt to imitate God, both contemplate and produce. In both contexts, divine and human, Philo considers that it would not be proper to give precedence to either side - the result would be barren. God's acting and man's acting are at the same time both speculative and practical, and it is precisely out of this co-presence that the order of the world unfolds. Philo considers this two-sided condition as a source of complexity and fertility. Francesca Calabi argues that, far from being an irresolvable contradiction, Philo's two-fold vision is the key to understanding his works. It constitutes a richness that rejects reduction to apparently incompatible forms and aspects.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-246) and indexes. :
9789047431602 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philosophy, rhetoric, and sophistry in the high Roman Empire : Maximus of Tyre and twelve other intellectuals /
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How is it possible that modern scholars have labelled Maximus of Tyre, a second-century CE performer of philosophical orations, as a sophist or a 'half-philosopher', while his own self-presentation is that of a genuine philosopher? If we take Maximus' claim to philosophical authority seriously, his case can deepen our understanding of the dynamic nature of Imperial philosophy. Through a discursive analysis of twelve Imperial intellectuals alongside Maximus' dialexeis , the author proposes an interpretative framework to assess the purpose behind the representation of philosophy, rhetoric, and sophistry in Maximus' oeuvre. This is thus as yet the first book-length attempt at situating the historical communication process implicit in the surviving Maximean texts in the concurrent context of the Imperial intellectual world.
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1 online resource (vii, 329 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-320) and indexes. :
9789004301535 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Heresiography in context : Hippolytus' Elenchos as a source for Greek philosophy /
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The study of the Elenchos (c. 225 CE) involves the whole range of ancient interpretative traditions concerned with Greek Philosophy, from Aristotle to the Late Neoplatonists. The present inquiry places Hippolytus' important reports about the Greek philosophers in the context of these traditions and so is able to illuminate not only what he has to offer but also to increase our knowledge of the traditions he depends on. For him the Pythagoreanizing current in Pre-Neoplatonism is of paramount importance. Accordingly, he constructs a succession ( diadoche ) starting with Pythagoras and including Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, and argues that the diadoche of the Gnostic heresiarchs is parasitical on its Pythagorean predecessor. A new assessment of the sources used - the first serious attempt since that of Diels in 1879 - hinges on an analysis of Hippolytus' method of presentation, which is a blend of cento and exegesis geared to his anti-Gnostic purpose.
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1 online resource (xvii, 391 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 332-357) and index. :
9789004320765 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
God, beyond me : from the I's absolute ground in Hölderlin and Schelling to a contemporary model of a personal God /
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German idealism has attempted to think an absolute ground to self-conscious I-hood. As a result it has been theologically disqualified as pantheistic or even atheistic since many maintain that such a ground cannot be reconciled with a personal God. In the early writings of Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854), it is clear that he and his contemporaries were aware of this difficulty. His Tübinger fellow student, Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843), was convinced of the ultimate inadequacy of any philosophical system to grasp the unitary ground of all that is and turned to poetry. The metaphysical insights expressed in his poetry have been largely neglected in both philosophical and theological scholarship. Drawing on the 20th century metaphysics of Dieter Henrich and Karl Rahner, this book elaborates on Hölderlin's poetry. This results in a novel concept of God as both unitary and personal ground of I-hood.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004182172 :
1878-9986 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Spinoza: Journal of an Emendation /
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For the last 350 years, nearly all writing devoted to Spinoza is exegetic, providing endless interpretations of his many propositions, axioms, definitions, and scholia. When reflecting on this enormous corpus, the following question immediately springs to mind: instead of adding one more interpretation to Spinoza's scholarship, is it possible to undertake the emending project that he proposes in his Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and the Ethics? Emendation does not mean altering for the better, but simply choosing a better perspective. Can such a change of perspective be actually achieved? This book attempts to carefully follow and live out Spinoza's emendation project today.
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1 online resource (248 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004756373
Creative actualization : a meliorist theory of values /
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This book presents a major new value theory, value as creative actualization. The book takes a radically new approach to values. All potential values, whether artistic, scientific, political, or economic must be creatively actualized in the world. The theory argues for an active view in which value involves creation of novelties and thereby changes the world in some respect. Thus value is neither transcendent nor subjective, as a good of some sort has emerged in the world. Moreover, creative actualization means we can actualize standards, ideals, kinds and other norms. Creative actualization thereby dissolves the distinction between idealism and realism, since value changes the "real" with novel goods. The ideal is made real by creative actualization. The book examines traditional issues such as inherent value, modes, and meaning in the light of value as creative actualization. The later part of the book critically evaluates the history of value theory, arguing that it is insensitive to the environment and inconsistent with inherent values. Creative actualization extends historical pragmatism in novel ways. This value theory includes an ecocentric ethic, tying value theory to debates in environmental philosophy. The theory attempts to take the environment into consideration in ethics.
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1 online resource (xxvi, 381 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-361) and index. :
9789042032545 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Anthropology in the Age of Technology : The Philosophical Contribution of Günther Anders /
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This book is the first to discuss, for an English-speaking audience, the ideas of the German-Jewish man of letters, thinker, and activist Günther Anders. Anders is one of few philosophers to deal intensely with the moral consequences of Auschwitz and Hiroshima. He can rightly be called the philosopher of the atomic age, and his thinking a philosophy of modern technology. In biting manifestoes, sharp aphorisms, and penetrating essays, in stirring diary notes and political fables, Anders strikes out the age in which we live. As a twentieth-century visionary, he exposes the absence of the moral and social imaginations that is necessary to prevent our history from ending in a total catastrophe. In the gap between our technical creations and our utter inability to imagine their destructive potential lies the basis for the unstoppable activity of this practical philosopher. From every possible angle, he attempts to comprehend this modern schizophrenia in its roots and consequences. Anders is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He tried to describe and analyze the variety of manifestations of the "self-destructive progress of our technical civilization," which makes humanity into an "anti-quated" sort. He diagnosed countless important problems, ranging from the world of media to the dictates of the world of machinery, and he investigated their social, political, and philosophical meaning. To read his writings is more than becoming acquainted with a rich and colorful philosopher. It is more than an encounter with a moving and passionate individual. It is ultimately a confrontation with oneself, with our own guilt and responsibility, with our personal hopes and fears, with our lack of imagination and with our need to recover it.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004495708
9789042014022
Apparences et dialectique : Un commentaire du Sophiste de Platon /
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Dans le Sophiste de Platon, un mystérieux étranger venu d'Élée entreprend de définir méthodiquement le rival le plus farouche du philosophe, le sophiste. Sa définition est cependant interrompue par une tentative de réfuter l'ontologie de Parménide. La signification propre de cette réfutation et sa relation exacte avec la chasse au sophiste demeurent très controversées dans la littérature secondaire. Ce livre propose un commentaire suivi du dialogue montrant comment la distinction, souvent négligée, entre dialectique et apparences permet de trancher dans les controverses suscitées par le Sophiste , tout en restaurant l'unité et l'originalité profondes de la pensée de Platon. In Plato's Sophist , a mysterious Eleatic Stranger, the main character of the dialogue, undertakes a systematic definition of the philosopher's fiercest rival, the sophist. His hunt for a definition of the sophist, however, is interrupted by an attempt to refute the ontology of Parmenides. The philosophical significance of this refutation and its exact relationship to the sought-after definition remains a matter of great scholarly dispute. This book, by means of a running commentary on the dialogue, argues that the oft-neglected distinction between dialectic and appearances is not only the key to solving this and other exegetical conundrums, but also reveals the unity and originality of Plato's argument in the Sophist .
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1 online resource :
9789004533066
9789004533080
Tradition vs. traditionalism : contemporary perspectives in Jewish thought.
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This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present's unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing through an ongoing dialogue between present and past. The Jewish philosophers discussed in this work-Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, David Hartman, and Eliezer Goldman-ascribe compelling canonic status to the tradition, and the analysis of their thought discloses the tension between these two models. The book carefully traces the course they have plotted along the various interpretations of tradition through their approach to Scripture and to Halakhah.
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1 online resource (235 pages) :
9789401206426 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Maximilian Beck: Ausgewählte Schriften. Phänomenologie, Erkenntnistheorie, Ontologie /
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This book is the first attempt at a critical edition of selected works and letters by Maximilian Beck-the "forgotten phenomenologist". Maximilian, or Max, Beck was one of the representatives of the early phenomenological tradition and in particular of the so-called "Munich" phenomenological circle. In the introductory chapter, Daniele De Santis presents his life, his most important publications and the general character of his philosophy. Beck supported a strong objectivism in ontology and theory of ideas and advocated a radical form of "naïve realism" in the theory of knowledge. He was the author of the first long, critical discussion of Heidegger's Being and Time and a radical critic of all forms of transcendentalism and idealism, especially those of Husserl and Heidegger. Dieses Buch ist der erste Versuch einer textkritischen Ausgabe ausgewählter Werke und Briefe von Maximilian Beck-dem "vergessenen Phänomenologen". Maximilian, oder Max, Beck war einer der Vertreter der frühen phänomenologischen Tradition und insbesondere des sogenannten "Münchner" Phänomenologiekreises. In der Einleitung stellt Daniele De Santis sein Leben, seine Veröffentlichungen und den allgemeinen Charakter seiner Philosophie vor. Beck unterstützte einen starken Objektivismus in der Ontologie und Ideentheorie und vertrat einen "naïven Realismus" in der Erkenntnistheorie. Beck war der Autor der ersten langen und kritischen Besprechung von Heideggers Sein und Zeit und ein Kritiker aller Formen von Transzendentalismus und Idealismus, insbesondere derjenigen von Husserl und Heidegger.
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1 online resource (379 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004723986
"Mathesis of the mind" : a study of Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and geometry /
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This is the first major study in any language on J.G. Fichte's philosophy of mathematics and theory of geometry. It investigates both the external formal and internal cognitive parallels between the axioms, intuitions and constructions of geometry and the scientific methodology of the Fichtean system of philosophy. In contrast to "ordinary" Euclidean geometry, in his Erlanger Logik of 1805 Fichte posits a model of an "ursprüngliche" or original geometry - that is to say, a synthetic and constructivistic conception grounded in ideal archetypal elements that are grasped through geometrical or intelligible intuition. Accordingly, this study classifies Fichte's philosophy of mathematics as a whole as a species of mathematical Platonism or neo-Platonism, and concludes that the Wissenschaftslehre itself may be read as an attempt at a new philosophical mathesis, or "mathesis of the mind."
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Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 2009. :
1 online resource (iii, 304 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789401207683 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Contingency and normativity : in dialogue with Richard Rorty /
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Richard Rorty's "neo-pragmatism" launched a powerful challenge to entrenched philosophical certainties of modernity, articulating a powerful picture of normativity as a distinctive activity of human beings. This "contingentism," with its emphasis on indeterminacy, ambiguity, uncertainty, and chance, depicts normativity as a practical human possibility rather than a metaphysical bottleneck which we must overcome at the cost of repudiating the concrete ways we grant epistemic and ethical meaning to our activities. The book is a critical survey of Rorty's philosophy, in light of contemporary theoretical debates around language, truth, justification, and naturalism, as well as his own resourceful attempts to renew philosophy from within by using the conceptual tools and argumentative techniques of both analytic philosophy and pragmatism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004393837 :
0929-8436 ;
Virtual reality : the last human narrative?.
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Is virtual reality the latest grand narrative that humanity has produced? Our civilization is determined by a shift from an "original event" to a virtual "narrative". This concerns not only virtual reality but also psychoanalysis, gene-technology, and globalization. Psychoanalysis transforms the dream into a narrative and is able to spell out the dream's symbols. Gene-technology narrates dynamic, self-evolving evolution as a "gene code". Discourses on "globalization" let the globe appear as once more globalized because reproduced through narrative. Finally, reality itself has come to be narrated in the form of a second reality that is called "virtual". This book attempts to disentangle the characteristics of human reality and posthuman virtual reality and asks whether it is possible to reconcile both.
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1 online resource (242 pages) :
9789004302303 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theoria, praxis, and the contemplative life after Plato and Aristotle /
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Studies of the notion of theoria and of the contemplative life have often been restricted to Plato and Aristotle. This volume shows that aspirations to contemplation and the life of the intellect survived long after the classical period, turning into topics of heated debates, powerful arguments and original applications throughout the Hellenistic, imperial, and late antique periods. The introduction attempts to reconstruct all the problems pertaining to the contemplative life in Antiquity, and the twelve papers, written by distinguished scholars, offer a thorough study of the appropriation, criticism and transformation of Plato's and Aristotle's positions on the contemplative life, including its epistemological and metaphysical foundation. The volume ranges from Theophrastus to the end of Antiquity, including Jewish and Christian authors, with a focus on Platonism from Cicero to Damascius.
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1 online resource (306 pages) :
9789004230040 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The revolt of unreason : Miguel de Unamuno and Antonio Caso on the crisis of modernity /
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This book examines solutions to the crisis of modernity proposed by the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno and the Mexican philosopher Antonio Caso. Acceptance of the objective claims of modern scientific rationality and the consequent rejection of the objective validity of artistic, moral, and religious claims generates the crisis of modernity. The problem is that of justifying artistic, moral, and religious claims. Miguel de Unamuno in his classic work, The Tragic Sense of Life , addresses the conflict between the belief in personal immortality and modern scientific rationality. Holding that there is no rational justification for the belief in immortality, Unamuno finds a solution in a "saving scepticism" to act "as if" he deserved immortality. In his book Existence as Economy, as Art, and Charity Caso attempts to create an aposteriori metaphysics based on the "current" results of science supplemented by the intuitions of art and morality. In doing so, Caso believes that he has enlarged the scope of the knowable to include objects of art, morality, and religion. Unamuno, by accepting the strict line of demarcation between faith and reason has no other recourse but to turn to decisionism. By turning to intuitionism, Caso believes that he has blurred the line of demarcation. Decisionism and intuitionism, therefore, are worthy of further exploration.
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1 online resource (xii, 193 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401208215 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Lenn E. Goodman : Judaism, humanity, and nature /
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Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Trained in medieval Arabic and Hebrew philosophy and intellectual history, his prolific scholarship has covered the entire history of philosophy from antiquity to the present with a focus on medieval Jewish philosophy. A synthetic philosopher, Goodman has drawn on Jewish religious sources (e.g., Bible, Midrash, Mishnah, and Talmud) as well as philosophic sources (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian), in an attempt to construct his own distinctive theory about the natural basis of morality and justice. Taking his cue from medieval Jewish philosophers such as Maimonides, Goodman offers a new theoretical framework for Jewish communal life that is attentive to contemporary philosophy and science.
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1 online resource (xv, 239 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-239). :
9789004280762 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.