Philosophy

Starting from the minimal principle of generative anthropology—that human culture originates as "the deferral of violence through representation"—the author proposes a new understanding of the fundamental concepts of metaphysics and an explanation of the historical problematic that underlies the postmodern "end of culture."

Part I begins with the paradoxical emergence of the "vertical" sign from the "horizontal" world of appetite. Two persons reaching for the same object are a minimal model of this emergence; their "pragmatic paradox" can be resolved only by substituting the representation of the object for its appropriation. The nature of paradox and the related notion of irony, as well as the fundamental concepts of being, thinking, and signification, are rethought on the basis of this triangular model, leading to an anthropological interpretation of the origin of philosophy and semiotics in Plato's Ideas. Part I concludes with an exploration of the psychoanalytic categories of the unconscious and the erotic.

Part II develops the idea that material exchange originates in the sparagmos or violent rendering of the sacrificial victim from which each participant obtains a roughly equal portion. The dependence of the process on the central victimary figure culminates in the Holocaust, the extermination of the Jews, whose crucial role in Western culture is their rejection of the central image in favor of peripheral exchange. As a result, postmodern dialogue becomes dominated by the rhetoric of victimage, and the culture of centrality gives way to an aesthetic of the marginal.

This is the third volume to appear in an edition that will be the first complete, critical, and annotated English translation of all of Nietzsche's work. Volume 2: Unfashionable Observations, translated by Richard T. Gray, was published in 1995; Volume 3: Human, All Too Human (I), translated by Gary Handwerk, was published in 1997. The edition is a new English translation, by various hands, of the celebrated Colli-Montinari edition, which has been acclaimed as one of the most important works of scholarship in the humanities in the last half century.

The present volume provides for the first time English translations of all of Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks from the summer of 1872 to the end of 1874. The major works published in this period were the first three Unfashionable Observations: "David Strauss the Confessor and the Writer," "On the Utility and Liability of History for Life," and "Schopenhauer as Educator." Translations of the preliminary notes for these pieces are coordinated with the translations of the published texts printed in Volume 2: Unfashionable Observations.

The content of these notebooks goes far beyond the notes and plans for published and unpublished Unfashionable Observations, encompassing numerous sketches related to Nietzsche's major philological project from this period, a book on the pre-Platonic Greek philosophers. The ideas that emerged from Nietzsche's deliberations on these early Greek thinkers are absolutely central to his thought from this period and contribute in significant ways to the development of several of his major themes: the role of the philosopher vis-à-vis his age and the surrounding culture; the relationships among philosophy, art, and culture; the metaphorical nature of language and its relationship to knowledge; the unmasking of the modern drive for absolute "truth" as a palliative against the horror of existence; and Nietzsche's "unfashionable" attack on modern science and modern culture, especially on the Germany of the Bismarck Reich. These notebooks represent important transitional documents in Nietzsche's intellectual development, marking, among other things, the shift away from philological studies toward unabashed cultural criticism.

This is a broad-ranging and ambitious attempt to rethink aesthetic and literary studies in terms of an “anthropology” of symbolic media generally. Central to the author’s argument is the proposition that the idea of literature—at least as it has been understood in the West since the eighteenth century—as the paradigm for artistic experience is both limited and limiting. In its place, the author offers a more general theory of aesthetic experience appropriate to a wide range of media (in the term’s broadest sense) and geared toward performativity and bodily experience.

The author develops the idea of the “protoliterary” as a cultural-aesthetic discourse prior to and external to the “literary” as traditionally conceived in Western aesthetics. Manifestations of the protoliterary tend to occur within forms of multimedia theatricalization in which suggestive images of the body loom large. The appeal of the protoliterary lies in its ability to function on both cognitive and somatic levels, thereby neutralizing such distinctions as self/society and reality/fiction.

The author’s argument is indebted to John Dewey’s belief in a basic human need for aesthetic experience, a need that can be met in a variety of ways, from tattoos and scarification, through sports, parades, and cosmetics, to literature, opera, and film. From this basis the book theorizes a history of the development of separate, hierarchical arts in the West while suggesting that independent histories of single arts and artistic experience are no longer desirable or even possible. Although the genesis of particular forms of media are inextricably linked to specific historical, sociological, and technological conditions, their potential functions and effects are not tied to those conditions, nor should they be.

In this book of brilliantly erudite and precise discussions, Pierre Hadot explains that for the Ancients philosophy was not reducible to the building of a theoretical system: it was above all a choice about how to live one's life.

One of the most influential historians of ancient philosophy in the world today, Hadot is adept at using ancient philosophers to illuminate the relevance of their ideas to contemporary life. In this book, which is an ideal introduction to Hadot's more scholarly What is Ancient Philosophy?, we learn that to be an Epicurean is not merely to think like one; it is to adopt a way of living where limiting desires is the condition for happiness. Being an Aristotelian, similarly, is to choose a life that involves contemplation, and being a Cynic is to follow Diogenes in his refusal of quotidian convention and the mentality of ordinary people. If so many Ancient philosophers founded schools, Hadot explains, it was precisely because they were proposing how to live life on a daily basis. We learn here that the history of philosophy has been something more than just that of a discourse. The founding texts of Greek philosophy, after all, were notes taken from oral exercises undertaken in concrete circumstances and contexts, most often a dialogue between students and specific interlocutors who meant to shed light on their students' real existence. The immense contribution of this book, which also traces Hadot's own personal itinerary in a touching manner, is to remind us, through direct language and numerous examples, what the theoretical aspect of philosophy often masks: its vital and existential dimensions.

In Poetry and Apocalypse, Franke seeks to find the premises for dialogue between cultures, especially religious fundamentalisms—including Islamic fundamentalism—and modern Western secularism. He argues that in order to be genuinely open, dialogue needs to accept possibilities such as religious apocalypse in ways that can be best understood through the experience of poetry. Franke reads Christian epic and prophetic tradition as a secularization of religious revelation that preserves an understanding of the essentially apocalyptic character of truth and its disclosure in history. The usually neglected negative theology that undergirds this apocalyptic tradition provides the key to a radically new view of apocalypse as at once religious and poetic.

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) has long been recognized as one of the greatest poets of the German language, but his importance to philosophy has surfaced only comparatively recently. Although Schelling and Hegel acknowledged Hölderlin early on as their equal, for a long time his philosophical thought remained unknown outside the small circle of his friends.

Among the most prominent figures in the rediscovery of Hölderlin's thought is Dieter Henrich, who, in a series of highly influential studies over the last thirty years, has shown that Hölderlin played a decisive role in the development of philosophy from Kant to Hegel, and hence in the formation of German Idealism. Among other things, Henrich demonstrated that Hölderlin, while still a student, launched a powerful critique of Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and outlined an alternative to the dominant view of the foundation of philosophy. This alternative proved pathbreaking for his philosophical friends, forcing Hegel, for example, to abandon his own Kantianism and, eventually, to give systematic articulation to a position that went even beyond Hölderlin's.

This volume includes six of Henrich's most important essays on Hölderlin's philosophical significance. Among the topics discussed are Hölderlin's motivation and methodological orientation in his work on German Idealism, the intellectual atmosphere of Hölderlin's student years and the philosophical problems that occupied him, Hölderlin's attitude toward any first-principle philosophy, and the complex personal and philosophical relationships between Hegel and Hölderlin. The last essay is a long, detailed interpretation of one of Hölderlin's greatest poems, "Remembrance." In elucidating its lyric composition and structure, Henrich also seeks to show how it incorporates and develops Hölderlin's philosophical thought.

This study of models of action seeks to respond to the loss of faith in political action that seems to predominate in Western societies, to the sense that there is nothing we can do to change the course of events, or that political action is ultimately useless, without effect in a world governed by independent political and economic laws. Its topic is the tension between the theme of the impossibility of acting, a question since Hamlet, and the impression that many events involving human agency do indeed take place. The author deals with both philosophical and dramatic texts in addressing this question.

These texts formulate the impossibility of acting in terms of the difficulty of the passage à l'acte, which each inflects differently. Marlowe's Faustus bargains his soul away to a powerful servant capable of sparing him the necessity of action, but ultimately cannot refrain from acting. Hamlet spends his time wishing for the passage à l'acte to take place, wondering why he does not act. In Locke's Two Treatises of Government, citizens are more than willing to renounce a considerable amount of their power to act in exchange for the political power of their word. Milton's Samson and Shelley's Prometheus find themselves literally bound by their speech acts; whereas Samson wants to be free to act, Prometheus would like to be free from action.

Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy denounces and dethrones the Kantian subject, who wills himself abstracted from what he contemplates, and instead dramatizes the human subject as a spectator who is already part of the spectacle. Bakhtin addresses this fallen transcendental subject by explaining that the distance between subject and action is but the displacement (transportation) of the fundamental distinction between "me" and the "other." If Bakhtin returns agency to every life, Beckett and Wittgenstein show that it is still necessary to bring actions back within the realm of the practicable. Finally, in Baudrillard's and Lyotard's texts, the issue becomes irrelevant because the future has been programmed, if not physically accomplished, in cosmic and televisual spheres. By couching this historical narrative of concern about action in terms of models of action, the author hopes to critique positions like those of Baudrillard and Lyotard and help establish renewed modalities for accommodating action into our understanding of literature and of the world.

Along with Husserl's Ideas and Heidegger's Being and Time, Being Given is one of the classic works of phenomenology in the twentieth century. Through readings of Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida, and twentieth-century French phenomenology (e.g., Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and Henry), it ventures a bold and decisive reappraisal of phenomenology and its possibilities. Its author's most original work to date, the book pushes phenomenology to its limits in an attempt to redefine and recover the phenomenological ideal, which the author argues has never been realized in any of the historical phenomenologies. Against Husserl's reduction to consciousness and Heidegger's reduction to Dasein, the author proposes a third reduction to givenness, wherein phenomena appear unconditionally and show themselves from themselves at their own initiative.

Being Given is the clearest, most systematic response to questions that have occupied its author for the better part of two decades. The book articulates a powerful set of concepts that should provoke new research in philosophy, religion, and art, as well as at the intersection of these disciplines.

Some of the significant issues it treats include the phenomenological definition of the phenomenon, the redefinition of the gift in terms not of economy but of givenness, the nature of saturated phenomena, and the question "Who comes after the subject?" Throughout his consideration of these issues, the author carefully notes their significance for the increasingly popular fields of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Being Given is therefore indispensable reading for anyone interested in the question of the relation between the phenomenological and the theological in Marion and emergent French phenomenology.

In The Democratic Soul, Aaron L. Herold argues that liberal democracy's current crisis—of extreme polarization, rising populism, and disillusionment with political institutions—must be understood as the culmination of a deeper dissatisfaction with the liberal Enlightenment. Major elements of both the Left and the Right now reject the Enlightenment's emphasis on rights as theoretically unfounded and morally undesirable and have sought to recover a contrasting politics of obligation. But this has re-opened questions about the relationship between politics and religion long thought settled.

To address our situation, Herold examines the political thought of Spinoza and Tocqueville, two authors united in support of liberal democracy but with differing assessments of the Enlightenment. Through an original reading of Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, Herold uncovers the theological foundation of liberal democracy: a comprehensive moral teaching rehabilitating human self-interest, denigrating "devotion" as a relic of "superstition," and cultivating a pride in living, acting, and thinking for oneself. In his political vision, Spinoza articulates our highest hopes for liberalism, for he is confident such an outlook will produce both intellectual flourishing and a paradoxical recovery of community.

But Spinoza's project contains tensions which continue to trouble democracy today. As Herold shows via a new interpretation of Tocqueville's Democracy in America, the dissatisfactions now destabilizing democracy can be traced to the Enlightenment's failure to find a place for religious longings whose existence it largely denied. In particular, Tocqueville described a natural human desire for a kind of happiness found, at least partly, in self-sacrifice. Because modernity weakens religion precisely as it makes democracy stronger than liberalism, it permits this desire to find new and dangerous outlets. Tocqueville thus sought to design a "new political science" which could rectify this problem and which therefore remains indispensable today in recovering the moderation lacking in contemporary politics.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) transformed the philosophical, cultural, and religious landscape of modern Europe. Emphasizing the priority of practical reason and moral autonomy, Kant's radically original account of human subjectivity announced new ethical imperatives and engendered new political hopes. This collection of essays investigates the centrality of progress to Kant's philosophical project and the contested legacy of Kant's faith in reason's capacity to advance not only our scientific comprehension and technological prowess, but also our moral, political, and religious lives. Accordingly, the first half of the volume explores the many facets of Kant's thinking about progress, while the remaining essays each focus on one or two thinkers who play a crucial role in post-Kantian German philosophy: J. G. Herder (1744-1803), J. G. Fichte (1762-1814), G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). This two-part structure reflects the central thesis of the volume that Kant inaugurates a distinctive theoretical tradition in which human historicity is central to political philosophy.

By exploring the origins and metamorphoses of this tremendously influential tradition, the volume offers a timely perspective on fundamental questions in an age increasingly suspicious of the Enlightenment's promise of universal rational progress. It aims to help us face three sets of questions: (1) Do we still believe in the possibility of progress? If we do, on what grounds? If we do not, why have we lost the hope for a better future that animated previous generations? (2) Is the belief in progress necessary for the maintenance of today's liberal democratic order? Does a cosmopolitan vision of politics ultimately depend on a faith in humanity's gradual, asymptotic realization of that lofty aim? (3) And, if we no longer believe in progress, can we dispense with hope without succumbing to despair?

Friedrich Nietzsche is often depicted in popular and scholarly discourse as a lonely philosopher dealing with abstract concerns unconnected to the intellectual debates of his time and place. Robert C. Holub counters this narrative, arguing that Nietzsche was very well attuned to the events and issues of his era and responded to them frequently in his writings. Organized around nine important questions circulating in Europe at the time in the realms of politics, society, and science, Nietzsche in the Nineteenth Century presents a thorough investigation of Nietzsche's familiarity with contemporary life, his contact with and comments on these various questions, and the sources from which he gathered his knowledge.

Holub begins his analysis with Nietzsche's views on education, nationhood, and the working-class movement, turns to questions of women and women's emancipation, colonialism, and Jews and Judaism, and looks at Nietzsche's dealings with evolutionary biology, cosmological theories, and the new "science" of eugenics. He shows how Nietzsche, although infrequently read during his lifetime, formulated his thought in an ongoing dialogue with the concerns of his contemporaries, and how his philosophy can be conceived as a contribution to the debates taking place in the nineteenth century. Throughout his examination, Holub finds that, against conventional wisdom, Nietzsche was only indirectly in conversation with the modern philosophical tradition from Descartes through German idealism, and that the books and individuals central to his development were more obscure writers, most of whom have long since been forgotten.

This book thus sheds light on Nietzsche's thought as enmeshed in a web of nineteenth-century discourses and offers new insights into his interactive method of engaging with the philosophical universe of his time.

In 1484, humanist philosopher and theologian Marsilio Ficino published the first complete Latin translation of Plato's extant works. Students of Plato now had access to the entire range of the dialogues, which revealed to Renaissance audiences the rich ancient landscape of myths, allegories, philosophical arguments, etymologies, fragments of poetry, other works of philosophy, aspects of ancient pagan religious practices, concepts of mathematics and natural philosophy, and the dialogic nature of the Platonic corpus's interlocutors. By and large, Renaissance readers in the Latin West encountered Plato's text through Ficino's translations and interpretation.

In Plato's Persona, Denis J.-J. Robichaud provides the first synthetic study of Ficino's interpretation of the Platonic corpus. Robichaud analyzes Plato's works in their original Greek and in Ficino's Latin translations, as well as Ficino's non-Platonic writings and correspondence, in the process uncovering new aspects of Ficino's intellectual work habits. In his letters and works, Ficino self-consciously imitated a Platonic style of prose, in effect devising a persona for himself as a Platonic philosopher. Plato's dialogues are populated with a wealth of literary characters with whom Plato interacts and against whom Plato refines his own philosophies. Reading through Ficino's translations, Robichaud finds that the Renaissance philosopher seeks an understanding of Plato's persona(e) among all the dialogues' interlocutors. In effect, Ficino assumed the role of Plato's Latin spokesperson in the Renaissance.

Plato's Persona is grounded in an extensive study of scholarship in Renaissance humanism, classics, philosophy, and intellectual history, and contextualizes Ficino's intellectual achievements within the contemporary Christian orthodox view of Platonism. Ficino was an influential figure in the early Italian Renaissance: the key intermediary between Greek and Latin, and between manuscript and print, giving voice to Plato and access to the ancient frameworks needed to interpret his dialogues.

When political theorists teach the history of political philosophy, they typically skip from the ancient Greeks and Cicero to Augustine in the fifth century and Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth, and then on to the origins of modernity with Machiavelli and beyond. Paul Stern aims to change this settled narrative and makes a powerful case for treating Dante Alighieri, arguably the greatest poet of medieval Christendom, as a political philosopher of the first rank.

In Dante's Philosophical Life, Stern argues that Purgatorio's depiction of the ascent to Earthly Paradise, that is, the summit of Mount Purgatory, was intended to give instruction on how to live the philosophic life, understood in its classical form as "love of wisdom." As an object of love, however, wisdom must be sought by the human soul, rather than possessed. But before the search can be undertaken, the soul needs to consider from where it begins: its nature and its good. In Stern's interpretation of Purgatorio, Dante's intense concern for political life follows from this need, for it is law that supplies the notions of good that shape the soul's understanding and it is law, especially its limits, that provides the most evident display of the soul's enduring hopes.

According to Stern, Dante places inquiry regarding human nature and its good at the heart of philosophic investigation, thereby rehabilitating the highest form of reasoned judgment or prudence. Philosophy thus understood is neither a body of doctrines easily situated in a Christian framework nor a set of intellectual tools best used for predetermined theological ends, but a way of life. Stern's claim that Dante was arguing for prudence against dogmatisms of every kind addresses a question of contemporary concern: whether reason can guide a life.

Is freedom our most essential belonging, the intimate source of self-mastery, an inalienable right? Or is it something foreign, an other that constitutes subjectivity, a challenge to our notion of autonomy? To Basterra, the subjectivity we call free embodies a relationship with an irreducible otherness that at once exceeds it and animates its core.

Tracing Kant’s concept of freedom from the Critique of Pure Reason to his practical works, Basterra elaborates his most revolutionary insights by setting them in dialogue with Levinas’s Otherwise than Being. Levinas’s text, she argues, offers a deep critique of Kant that follows the impulse of his thinking to its most promising consequences. The complex concepts of freedom, autonomy, and subjectivity that emerge from this dialogue have the potential to energize today’s ethical and political thinking.

Avicenna is the most influential figure in the intellectual history of the Islamic world. This book is the first comprehensive study of his theory of science, which profoundly shaped his philosophical method and indirectly influenced philosophers and theologians not only in the Islamic world but also throughout Christian Europe and the medieval Jewish tradition. 

A sophisticated interpreter of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, Avicenna took on the ambitious task of reorganizing Aristotelian philosophy of science into an applicable model of scientific reasoning, striving to identify conditions of certainty for scientific assertions and conditions of adequacy for real definitions. Riccardo Strobino combines philosophical and textual analysis to explore the scope and nature of Avicenna’s contributions to the logic of scientific reasoning in his effort to recalibrate Aristotle’s model and overcome some of its internal limitations. Focusing on a broad array of philosophical innovations at the intersection of logic, metaphysics, and epistemology, this book casts light on an essential aspect of the thought of the preeminent philosopher and physician of the Islamic world.
 

Jürgen Habermas is Germany’s most important postwar philosopher, the leading figure of the Frankfurt School in this period. He is best known for the concept of the public sphere, which forms the basis of his communicative understanding of democratic politics. Habermas has not only theorized the public sphere—he has also taken part in it through frequent commentary on current social, political, and cultural issues. Yet since Habermas’s extensive public-facing writings have been overlooked, his philosophy has often been criticized as apolitical.

This book transforms our understanding of Habermas by focusing on his work as a public intellectual, showing how he has shaped debates far beyond the ivory tower. Peter J. Verovšek argues that while Habermas maintains a strict separation between his academic and his public-facing writings, he has also ensured that these two aspects of his work are part of a consistent whole. The book highlights the development of Habermas’s views over time and the changing nature of his public interventions. His early political writings focused on questions tied to the particular situation of postwar West Germany, but since 1989 he has increasingly turned his attention to the future of Europe and global politics more broadly. Verovšek sheds light on the interrelationship between Habermas’s participation in the public sphere and his theoretical work, demonstrating that his political engagement is crucial to understanding his philosophy. In a moment when public debate is under threat, this book offers timely new insight into Habermas’s lifelong project of defending the public sphere—both in theory and in practice.

This is the story about twenty-eight Polish philosophers who shaped both the continental and the analytical traditions of world philosophy. Each is portrayed and discussed with three key words.

In one of his most famous essays, Noam Chomsky lays out the idea that intellectuals’ relative privilege imbues them with greater responsibility—one that was to be the guiding principle of his intellectual life

“Chomsky is a global phenomenon. . . . He may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet.” —The New York Times Book Review

As a nineteen-year-old undergraduate in 1947, Noam Chomsky was deeply affected by articles about the responsibility of intellectuals written by Dwight Macdonald, an editor of Partisan Review and then of Politics. Twenty years later, as the Vietnam War was escalating, Chomsky turned to the question himself, noting that “intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments” and to analyze their “often hidden intentions.”

Originally published in the New York Review of Books, Chomsky’s essay eviscerated the “hypocritical moralism of the past” (such as when Woodrow Wilson set out to teach Latin Americans “the art of good government”) and exposed the destructive policies in Vietnam and the role of intellectuals in justifying them.

Chomsky then turns to the “war on terror” and “enhanced interrogation” of the Bush years in “The Responsibility of Intellectuals Redux,” an essay written on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. As relevant now as it was in 1967, The Responsibility of Intellectuals reminds us that “privilege yields opportunity and opportunity confers responsibilities.”

Our ideas about Confucius come from the stories told about him. He often appears as the great sage of ancient China, handing down timeless moral precepts to his disciples and to posterity. Yet over the course of twenty-five centuries, Confucius has meant many different things to different people, representing varied views on political order, ethical behavior, and personal well-being.

This book explores enduring narratives about Confucius, shedding light on his role as a symbol of cultural ideals and a fulcrum of ideological debates across eras. Wai-yee Li translates and provides commentary on a wide range of key texts, examining how Confucius’s legacy was interpreted in different historical moments. Beginning with the canonical account by the historian Sima Qian, she canvasses Daoist and Legalist writings from the Warring States, a ballad about a homicidal Confucius from the Tang dynasty, an eighteenth-century anthology of jokes, modern writers such as Lu Xun, and contemporary rap music, among others. Focusing on how these stories are told, Li identifies continuities, ruptures, and unexpected connections in the representations of Confucius and considers the questions they raise. Suitable for a range of courses, this book offers new ways to understand Chinese cultural and intellectual history through Confucius and his transformations.

Zhuangzi (late 4th century BC) was one of China's most significant proponents of Daoism. Daoism is an ancient philosophy that strives for harmony with nature, virtuousness and self-development. Zhuangzi's story of the dreaming philosopher and the butterfly is meant to challenge us to think about one big question: how do we really know what's real?

By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages – from 1 to 100! – to the biggest names in philosophy.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher and a proponent of pessimistic philosophy. Deeply cynical of love and the want for children, he believed humans are all mere animals – just far more unhappy, because of our self-awareness.

The porcupine dilemma is a metaphor about the challenges of human intimacy. Schopenhauer believed that, despite our good intentions, human intimacy cannot occur without substantial harm.

By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages – from 1 to 100! – to the biggest names in philosophy.

Epictetus (c. 50-c. 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He believed that philosophy should be a way of life and not just a theoretical study. In this story, Epictetus is reminding us to focus only on what we can control – our own actions – and not spend time worrying about what we can't control. Happiness can only be achieved when we accept what we can't control and adopt the most positive outlook we can.

By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages – from 1 to 100! – to the biggest names in philosophy.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is one of the most influential – and controversial – philosophers of the twentieth century. He is mostly associated with existentialism (the study of human experience) and phenomenology (the study of consciousness), and his work was enormously influential.

In this story, Heidegger is exploring the relationship between 'beings' and their environments. How much does each – the rock, the lizard and the human – understand of the world around them?

By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages – from 1 to 100! – to the biggest names in philosophy.

In 2020, Black Lives Matter activists toppled Confederate monuments and occasionally vandalized police vehicles and stations. Climate activists have damaged natural gas pipelines and famous artworks. In Hong Kong, pro-democracy students targeted businesses sympathetic to the mainland government. On January 6, 2021, far-right groups at the US Capitol mistreated public and private property as part of their efforts to disrupt finalizing election results. Property damage constitutes an increasingly commonplace feature of global political protest. How then to interpret and evaluate its proliferation? The media regularly describes such acts as “violent,” as do most scholars. However, William E. Scheuerman’s book pushes back against conflating politically motivated violations of property rights with violence. Political violence has no place in democratic politics. Yet indiscriminately grouping property damage together with acts destructive of and harmful to persons is conceptually confusing and politically misleading. After all, Americans celebrate the Boston Tea Party. So why do most of us now categorically condemn many seemingly parallel acts?

Scheuerman tackles challenging and politically timely questions. When, if ever, are politically motivated property harms justifiable? What standards should we expect of those pursuing them to meet, under democratic conditions? How are those standards undermined by the rise of authoritarian populism around the world? Focusing on identifiably nonviolent varieties of what Scheuerman calls property disobedience, his book explores a variety of real-life examples, both past and present, to understand how and why such acts may be politically justifiable—or should instead be viewed as beyond the pale.

Approaching concepts of nature through a multidisciplinary lens, Nature as Resource, Aesthetic Experience, and Ecological Challenge assembles essays by scholars from the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Bringing together perspectives in philosophy, theology, literary studies, cultural ecology, art history, and the bio-sciences, the volume engages with crucial concerns regarding perceptions of nature in the Anthropocene and the increasing social and ethnic inequalities in the wake of environmental damage. The essays address aesthetic and ethical questions about nature, providing novel perspectives on representations of nature in literature and the visual and performative arts. They investigate nature as threatened by human interference and resulting issues of social (in)justice, and they explore the potential of decolonial approaches to nature. The volume treads new ground by combining expertise from a wide spectrum of research fields and cultural backgrounds, with the aim of fostering the development of new ethical principles and ways of planetary thinking. It thus adds an innovative perspective to existing discourses on ecologically sustainable forms of coexistence between human and nonhuman – or more-than-human – nature.

Metaphern spielen außerhalb der Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften, der Rechtswissenschaft sowie der Theologie, wo sie seit jeher von Bedeutung sind, eine zentrale epistemologische Rolle in der Mathematik sowie in den Natur- und Sozialwissenschaften. Metaphern bilden in ihrer Erkenntnisfunktion aber auch die Grundlage für zunächst disparate Gebiete der Philosophie, von der Sprachphilosophie, der Hermeneutik, der philosophischen Anthropologie und der Wissenschaftstheorie über die philosophische Rhetorik, Ästhetik und Ideologiekritik bis hin zur Philosophie des Geistes und der Verkörperungsphilosophie. Diese Gebiete überschneiden sich wiederum mit anderen Wissenschaften, wie der Soziologie oder der Psychologie. Ausgehend von zunächst unverbunden erscheinenden Bereichen wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis versammelt der Band interdisziplinär Beiträge zur figurativen Erkenntnis. Aufgegriffen werden dabei unter anderem Ansätze der Analytischen Philosophie, der Kritischen Theorie, der Psychoanalyse, der Kulturphilosophie und der Dekonstruktion im weitesten Sinn. Auf diese Weise arbeiten die Beiträge je verschieden hin auf eine transdisziplinäre Epistemologie der Metapher.

Una obra fundamental del pensamiento estoico para aprender a vivir.

«La perfección moral consiste en vivir cada día como si fuera el último, no ser apasionado ni indiferente y no actuar con falsedad.»

Entre campañas militares y obligaciones de gobierno, el emperador Marco Aurelio encontró el tiempo para dejar otro legado: sus Meditaciones, una de las obras más influyentes de la historia de la filosofía.

«Si no es conveniente, no lo hagas. Si no es cierto, no lo digas. Sé dueño de la iniciativa.»

Con sentencias a un tiempo simples y cargadas de profundidad, este texto fundamental del pensamiento estoico nos da las claves para vivir con humildad y con arreglo a la razón, nos enseña a pensar en nosotros mismos como miembros de la comunidad, nos insta a estar en el presente de manera consciente y a aceptar con naturalidad el paso del tiempo. En definitiva, es, aún hoy, la mejor caja de herramientas para quienes estén dispuestos a ser mejores personas.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

A foundational work of Stoic thought for learning how to live.

“Moral perfection consists in living each day as if it were your last, being neither passionate nor indifferent, and never acting falsely.”

Between military campaigns and the duties of ruling, Emperor Marcus Aurelius found time to leave another legacy: his Meditations, one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy.

“If it’s not appropriate, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. Take initiative.”

With reflections that are both simple and profound, this essential Stoic text offers the keys to living humbly and rationally, teaches us to see ourselves as part of a greater community, urges us to be present with awareness, and to accept the passage of time with grace. Ultimately, it remains today the best toolkit for anyone willing to become a better person.

Consciousness is Curvature envisions consciousness—human and artificial—as a dynamic curvature of informational and computational spaces, drawing parallels with the theory of general relativity’s malleable spacetime and with quantum theory’s probabilistic nature. This collection of philosophical essays on artificial intelligence (AI) sees intelligence as a universal, relational phenomenon, transcending the binary of human minds versus thinking machines. It explores how AI, from narrow systems to potential Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Superintelligence (ASI), will affect humanity’s future and its very connection to the cosmos, reshaping human understanding of awareness and meaning. While confronting the risks—uncontrolled systems, amplified biases, and the erosion of human essence—the book rejects techno-pessimism’s dystopian tropes. Instead, it offers a balanced vision, embracing AI’s potential to elevate human existence and deepen humanity’s exploration of the cosmos. These meditative, forward-looking essays invite readers to ponder the possibilities and perils of AI’s future, while advocating a nuanced approach to a technology that will inevitably redefine humanity’s place in the universe.

In this mature dialogue Plato takes great pains to nail down what a sophist really is, since he finds the sophist a dangerous individual. But is the sophist so for us? The term has fallen into disuse as if obsolete. We might find in Plato’s attempt neither urgency nor even interest, unless...

... unless we ask ourselves how we have become inured to living in a world devoted to a cult of images, counterfeits, and appearances, starting even with ourselves? A world where money has become the criterion for all other values and misrepresenting merchandise is the pinnacle of commercial astuteness? 

Where we are no longer shocked by the commodification of culture, where expressing opinions has become synonymous with liberty, where all dialogue becomes debate and all debate a spectacle for its own sake? What is worst is that all this is leading us fundamentally to mistrust language and to deny it any possibility of being true. But in the Sophist it is no less than language and its truth that Plato sets out to save, by anchoring it in being; and thereby he becomes able to deal with the most redoubtable of difficulties. 

For these reasons the Sophist is without doubt the most radical and the most thrilling of all the Dialogues of Plato. 

In a deeply unequal world, numerous categories of people have been consigned to disadvantaged positions. Are those on society’s fringes doomed to remain there, or might marginality offer potential pathways toward a more equitable future?

This groundbreaking book reimagines marginality as a transformative force, interweaving personal narratives with cultural, literary, and philosophical analysis to reveal how perspectives from the margins can catalyze social change. Drawing on her own experiences as an Asian American female philosopher specializing in non-Western thought within an academic world dominated by white male–centered Western traditions, Jin Y. Park argues that personal stories are essential to philosophical inquiry. Ranging across non-Western philosophy, South Korean literature, and Asian American and African American voices as well as Western philosophy, she invites readers to examine their own feelings of marginality, reflecting on how lived experiences shape the search for meaning and values.

Bridging theoretical insights and real-world issues, Marginality offers fresh perspective on contemporary challenges such as violence, social discrimination, and economic inequality. Urging a radical rethinking of how we understand power, community, and social justice, this book calls on readers to embrace the solidarity of the margins to drive positive change.

Gianni Vattimo (1936–2023) was among the most significant Italian philosophers of the last fifty years. A controversial figure both at home and abroad, he sometimes described himself paradoxically as a “nihilist” and as a “communist Catholic.” Despite his provocations—and unusually for an academic philosopher—he served two terms in the European Parliament. For decades, Vattimo was at the forefront of developments in continental philosophy, spanning hermeneutics, postmodernity, and the “return to religion.” Drawing on the work of figures such as Heidegger, Marx, Nietzsche, Gadamer, Rorty, and Kuhn, Vattimo constructed his signature concept of “weak thought,” a way of approaching the persistent problems of ideology, violence, and social division after the so-called end of metaphysics.

In this book, Thomas Jared Farmer provides a groundbreaking examination of Vattimo’s life and work. He considers the distinctive contributions that Vattimo made to postmodern thought as well as to recent debates in political philosophy and religion. This book provides an accessible introduction to Vattimo’s overall philosophical project while also contextualizing it through discussions of important intellectual figures, key events in Italian history, and details about his personal trajectory. Authoritative and comprehensive, it is an indispensable companion to the works of one of the most original thinkers to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century.

Examines episodes of philosophical embarrassment, highlighting how Hume, Wittgenstein, and others grappled with critiques that undermined philosophy’s foundations, leading to redefinitions of its aims and cautionary responses to scientism and self-deception

This book consists of diverse essays held together by the thread of embarrassment that runs through them. Sometimes, embarrassment is front and center as when we discuss its conceptual features; at other times, its presence is oblique, as when we take a closer look at Rousseau’s existential outrage at the very idea of a culture of embarrassment; or when we look at Darwin’s theory and George Eliot’s critique of it. We unearth deeply buried embarrassments in the history of philosophy treating them as useful entry points into the major figures from an unusual if not idiosyncratic angle. All this raises a somewhat different but important line of enquiry, one that is meta-philosophical. Hume and Wittgenstein are our prime examples of philosophers who are aware that they and their subject have undone themselves and thus have been thoroughly embarrassed. What are the upshots, they ask, for philosophers and their subject? Perhaps this issue is the answer to Rousseau’s tantrums: embarrassment is useful. Throughout the book, we have many things to say about its uses and its abuses. One question this raises for us is how to proceed in philosophy with equipment that tends to run off the rails with considerable regularity. Do we proceed with all modesty, alive to these facts about us and ready to be embarrassed the next time our reach exceeds our grasp? Or do we, as the early Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Quine seem to have done, radically revise key elements of the philosophical project—the pursuit of truth and objectivity in all matters, for example—in an attempt to avoid future embarrassments? If you narrow your subject, and if you are competent in that narrowness, you can avoid embarrassment and achieve your modest goals. Such a course is in keeping with the approach of modern philosophy, since it has taken science as a model of sorts. However, when science exceeds its competence, claiming it can solve any and every problem, it loses its experimental modesty, and we no longer have science but scientism. It should come as no surprise, then, that one of our essays is a set of reflections on Wittgenstein’s cautionary remarks about the embarrassments of scientism and his warnings about the related inclination to self-deception. A definition, Kant remarked, should come toward the end rather than at the beginning of an investigation; hence, in the final essay, we provide a perspicuous overview of embarrassment.

A bestselling moral philosopher dissects and explodes the crazy—but deadly serious—ideas that have spread, bred, and metastasized throughout contemporary society.

What is happening to the world? Why does it seem like everyone has gone insane? Why are so many things that seemingly everyone believed the day before yesterday suddenly held to be retrograde, hateful, or even criminal? And why are things that everyone seemed to view as lunacy the day before yesterday suddenly taught or even required? 

In Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, University of Texas philosopher J. Budziszewski patiently explains the delusions that beset us. Ranging over the topics of morality and happiness, politics and government, family and sexuality, God and religion, Budziszewski makes the case for sanity in commonsense language accessible to all. 

Pandemic of Lunacy will be treasured by anyone who is troubled or confused, anyone who wonders whether the world has gone crazy or whether they have, and anyone who feels the need for a trustworthy guide in a topsy-turvy age.

Paul Natterers systematischer Kommentar zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft schließt eine in der Kant-Forschung seit langem bestehende Lücke. Er beruht auf der Auswertung der gesamten deutschen und angelsächsischen Literatur zur Kritik seit 1945.

Der Einfluß des Kantischen Denkens auf die Gegenwartsphilosophie ist ungebrochen. Der Autor macht es sich zur Aufgabe, dessen Leistungsfähigkeit im einzelnen zu überprüfen. Er tut dies insbesondere mit Blick auf die Kognitionswissenschaft und die Philosophie des Geistes: Entstanden ist somit eine systematische Evaluation der Kritik der reinen Vernunft als Metatheorie der interdisziplinären Kognitionsforschung der Gegenwart.

In diesem Zusammenhang legt Natterer erstmals eine detaillierte Aufarbeitung der Systemstellen von empirischer Psychologie, formaler Logik und allgemeiner Metaphysik in der Kantischen Theorie der Kognition vor. In wissenschaftshistorischer Perspektive leistet er darüber hinaus einen Abgleich der Kritik der reinen Vernunft mit den antiken, scholastischen und neuzeitlichen Traditionen, in denen das Kantische Denken sich verorten läßt.

Übersichten, Register und die Strukturierung in 36 kompakte Kapitel bieten einen schnellen methodischen Zugriff auf die umfangreiche und vielschichtige Materie.

1795 erschien die 1. Auflage von Kants Schrift "Zum ewigen Frieden". Zu einer der vordringlichsten, von der Philosophie aber häufig vernachlässigten Aufgaben der Politik stellt sie bis heute den wichtigsten klassischen Text dar. Kant entfaltet in ihm die philosophischen Grundlagen für eine internationale Rechts- und Friedensgemeinschaft. Gleichzeitig stellt er sich aber auch die Frage nach einer Vermittlung von normativer Theorie und politischer Praxis. In 12 Beiträgen wird Kants Text in diesem Band 'entschlüsselt', interpretiert, auf seine systematische Überzeugungskraft und auf seine politische Tragweite hin untersucht und in seinen und unseren sozialgeschichtlichen Kontext gestellt.

Roman Ingardens Werk über das Kausalproblem führt entscheidend über den Problemstand hinaus, wie er von John Stuart Mill und seinen Nachfolgern gekennzeichnet und seither kaum mehr verändert worden war. Anknüpfend an deren Analyse von Bedingungszusammenhängen unternimmt Ingarden es, die Bereiche und Verteilungen ursächlicher Beziehungen im Sinne relativ isolierter Systeme innerhalb des einen Weltzusammenhanges zu interpretieren. Es gelingt ihm mittels einer formalen Analyse, verschiedene Typen möglicher kausaler Beziehungen zu unterscheiden und insbesondere das Determinismusproblem aus der leidigen Alternative "Zufall oder Notwendigkeit" herauszuführen.

Die historische Bedeutung der religiösen Heterodoxien der Frühen Neuzeit - der vergessenen wie der fortwirkenden - für die Entwicklung des europäischen Denkens kann kaum überschätzt werden. Nicht zuletzt im Kontext dieser minoritären Positionen werden erstmals die Werte und Normen und die anthropologischen Vorstellungen artikuliert, die die Aufklärung systematisieren und durchsetzen wird und die noch immer unsere Gegenwart bestimmen. Der vorliegende Band, hervorgegangen aus einem Kolloquium an der Universität Passau, behandelt einige der Aspekte dieses Prozesses in der Frühen Neuzeit.

Im zweiten Halbband der Formalontologie wird zunächst das Problem der Identität eines individuellen zeitlich bedingten Gegenstandes erörtert, sodann die Form eines Seinsgebiets und die Form der Welt betrachtet und schließlich, nach der vorbereitenden Analyse seines materialen Wesens, die Form des reinen Bewußtseins untersucht, das als Strom eines reinen Ichs kein Seinsgebiet, sondern ein individueller Gegenstand ist. Erst auf dieser Grundlage werden die möglichen existentialen Beziehungen zwischen dem reinen Bewußtsein und der realen Welt diskutiert. Dabei fällt neues Licht auf die eigentümliche Verkoppelung der Frage nach der Existenz der Welt mit dem Problem des Verhältnisses von Leib, Seele und Bewußtsein.

Im ersten Teil der »Formalontologie« werden zunächst alle in Frage kommenden Begriffe der Form, die häufig genug in der Philosophie ohne genügende Klärung verwendet werden, geschieden, analysiert und genau definiert. Die Aufklärung der Grundform des seinsautonomen individuellen Gegenstandes und seiner Abwandlungen - des Ereignisses, des Vorgangs und des in der Zeit verharrenden Gegenstandes - bildet das erste Hauptthema der formalontologischen Untersuchung. Sodann werden die Formen des rein intentionalen Gegenstandes, der Idee, des Sachverhalts und des Verhältnisses analysiert. Die Gegenüberstellung schließlich des Wesens eines zeitlich bedingten Gegenstandes und seiner veränderlichen Bestimmtheiten ermöglicht es, das schwierige Problem der Identität des in der Zeit verharrenden Gegenstandes zu fassen und eine Lösung vorzubereiten, die im zweiten Halbband gegeben wird, ehe das Problem der Form eines Seinsgebietes und insbesondere einer Welt aufgeworfen werden kann.

Husserls »Logische Untersuchungen« sind eines der folgenreichsten Werke der neueren Philosophiegeschichte. Mit dem ersten Erscheinen in den Jahren 1900 und 1901 (Max Niemeyer Verlag, Halle/Saale) nimmt jene Schule ihren Anfang, deren Name im Untertitel des zweiten Bandes zum ersten Mal sinnfällig wird: die Phänomenologie. Husserl sah damals in diesem Werk »Versuche zur Neubegründung der reinen Logik und Erkenntnistheorie«, die den Grund zu einem größeren Gedankengebäude zu legen imstande waren. Sie wollten freilich kein bloßes Programm sein, sondern »Fundamentalarbeit an den unmittelbar erschauten und ergriffenen Sachen« darstellen. Die weitere Arbeit an der Ausprägung der phänomenologischen Philosophie führte schon nach wenigen Jahren zu neuen Problemen, zu vertieften Erkenntnissen und zu schärferen Formulierungen. Ihnen trägt die zweite, zum Teil tiefgreifend umgearbeitete Auflage Rechnung, deren Text seither in unveränderter Form immer wieder nachgedruckt wurde.

Die Studie entwickelt einen neuen Begriff des Politischen. Im Ausgang von Freiheit und Recht vereint das Politische apriorische und aposteriorische Aspekte interagierender Menschen. Als Ideale zur Ordnung koexistierender freier Wesen werden Nomokratie und liberaler Gesellschaftsvertrag gedeutet. Der systematische Zusammenhang wird mittels Analysen klassischer Entwürfe und Kritiken des Gesellschaftsvertrages von Hobbes bis Hegel deutlich gemacht.

Thema des Buches sind verschiedene Zugänge zur Geschichte der Philosophie, nämlich narrative, philologische, hermeneutische und systematische, samt den zugehörigen Prinzipien der Beurteilung, gerade auch im Blick auf das rechte Verständnis heute noch relevanter Probleme. Dabei wird die Dialektik als Form der Rekonstruktion von Ideenentwicklungen in ihrer Bedeutung am Beispiel von Problemlagen, Explikationsformen, Lösungsvorschlägen und Denkfäden der abendländischen Philosophie vorgeführt, von Parmenides' Methode der Wahrheit bis zur logischen Semantik der Gegenwart, von Platons Idee personaler Bildung bis zur modernen Debatte um eine philosophische Ethik, und zwar in partieller Kritik an allzu üblich gewordenen Epochenerzählungen und philosophischen 'Ismen'.

Pluspunkte:

• sehr bekannter Autor
• Thema erstmals systematisch behandelt
• hervorragend und einführend geschrieben

Mit der Kampfschrift Der Fall Wagner ist es Nietzsche nach Jahren völliger Nichtbeachtung 1888 gelungen, die Aufmerksamkeit des Lesepublikums wieder zu gewinnen. In der Rezeptionsgeschichte hat die radikale Kritik an Wagner eine wichtige Rolle gespielt. Die Götzen-Dämmerung bietet Nietzsches Spätphilosophie ‚in nuce‘. Das Werk zeigt Nietzsche auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Schaffenskraft und führt die Experimentalphilosophie in der Praxis vor Augen.

Die Frage des Menschen nach sich selbst beschäftigt Menschen zu allen Zeiten und an allen Orten, so auch in der Gegenwart. Die hier versammelten Wissenschaftler, Politiker, Theologen, Journalisten und Schriftsteller aus verschiedenen kulturellen Traditionen geben in über fünfzig prägnanten Beiträgen ihre persönliche Antwort auf die aufgeworfene Frage. Was ist davon zu erwarten? Sicherlich keine abschließende Lösung der Frage. Doch ist ein schillerndes Spektrum aktueller Positionen zum menschlichen Selbstverständnis entstanden – zugleich kritisch und konstruktiv, pointiert und tiefgründig.

Eingeleitet und kommentiert wird die Sammlung mit Beiträgen von Volker Gerhardt, Julian Nida-Rümelin, Detlev Ganten und Jan-Christoph Heilinger.

Falk Wunderlich präsentiert einen grundlegend neuen Ansatz zum Verständnis der Kant'schen Bewusstseinstheorie.

Im ersten Teil bietet er eine detaillierte Rekonstruktion der bewusstseinstheoretischen Diskussionen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die Rekonstruktion des Geflechts von Diskussionen, in dessen Kontext sich Kants Überlegungen bewegen. Auf diese zeitgenössischen Debatten werden im zweiten Teil Kants bewusstseinstheoretische Ansätze bezogen. Der Autor vertritt die These, dass Kant die zeitgenössischen Standardansichten über Bewusstsein, Apperzeption und Selbstbewusstsein entgegen dem Anschein nur einschränkt modifiziert und ihre begrifflichen Grundlagen beibehält. Schließlich wird vor dem Hintergrund dieser Kontextualisierung eine alternative Interpretation der transzendentalen Deduktion entwickelt.

While Nietzsche’s influence on philosophy, literature and art is beyond dispute, his influence on sociology is often called into question. A close textual analysis of Nietzsche’s works and those of important sociologists – Max and Alfred Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies, Rosa Mayreder – provides the first comprehensive account of their study and use of Nietzsche’s writings. Above all, Nietzsche’s critique of modernity, morality and culture are shown to have had a decisive influence on the development of sociology and the work of its leading thinkers at the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th.

"Nicht nur der Historische Materialismus ist uns insgeheim in Fleisch und Blut übergegangen, wie ich bereits behauptet habe. Wir sind durchaus auch latente Anhänger der guten alten Theorie vom Klassenkampf ..."

Mit diesem Buch liegt eine beachtenswerte Neuinterpretation zentraler Teile des Marxismus - der Marx'schen Geschichts- und Gesellschaftstheorie - vor.

In einem ersten Schritt lässt Iorio Widersprüche und Mehrdeutigkeiten im Denken von Marx sichtbar werden. Es gelingt dem Autor jedoch, diese Widersprüche im Rahmen einer einheitlichen Theorie der Gesellschaft und des gesellschaftlichen Wandels zu überwinden, die vor allem darum bemüht ist, eine tief greifende Spannung zwischen dem Historischen Materialismus und dem marxistischen Konzept des Klassenkampfes aufzulösen. Diese Auflösung zeigt, wie die über-individualistisch strukturalistischen Aspekte des Historischen Materialismus mit Marxens Überzeugung zu versöhnen sind, dass menschliche Individuen Gesellschaften konstituieren und selbst ihre Geschichte machen.

Der Begriff des Lebewesens ist einer der Grundbegriffe unserer Alltagsontologie. Die Biologie ist zwar die Wissenschaft von den lebenden Wesen, nicht aber davon, was ein Lebewesen ist. Diese Frage ist vielmehr metaphysischer Natur. Die Autorin untersucht grundlegend den ontologischen Status von Lebewesen. Sie wendet sich gegen die cartesianische Auffassung von Lebewesen als Körpern und argumentiert statt dessen für eine am aristotelischen Substanzbegriff orientierte Auffassung. Dafür verteidigt sie zunächst die allgemeine Kategorie der Kontinuanten (der "fortdauernden" Gegenstände) gegenüber prozessontologischen Einwänden, um dann zu zeigen, warum Lebewesen keine Dinge sind, sondern eine eigene Kategorie von Kontinuanten bilden.

"Emotionen wie Furcht, Scham, Misstrauen durchziehen so sehr die menschliche Existenz, dass man sich schwer vorzustellen vermag, wie ein menschliches Leben überhaupt aussehen könnte, in dem sie gänzlich fehlten."

Was sind Emotionen? Woran erkennen wir sie bei uns und bei anderen? Wie kommunizieren wir unsere Emotionen? Christiane Voss entwickelt in ihrem Buch eine Theorie der "narrativen Emotionen": Ihr zufolge liegt Emotionen eine gemeinsame Struktur zugrunde, sofern die körperlichen und geistigen Komponenten emotionaler Reaktionen stets in einem erzählerischen Sinnzusammenhang miteinander verflochten werden müssen, um überhaupt als Einheiten erfahrbar zu sein. Die gefühlsmäßige Wahrnehmung einer Emotion, so lautet die pointierte These der Autorin, ist die Wahrnehmung eines solchen narrativen Geflechts, das sich sprachlich in Form von Geschichten ausdrücken lässt.

Erstmals findet der Leser in diesem Buch eine sowohl historische als auch systematische Einführung in die Emotionsforschung.

Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit einer objektiven und zugleich kritischen Theorie der Gesellschaft darzustellen. Als Grundlagen dienen dem Autor Kants theoretische und praktische Philosophie, insbesondere das Verhältnis der Natur- und Freiheitsbegriffe in dessen drei Kritiken.

Die Diskussion der theoretischen Konzeption von Horkheimers und Adornos Kritischer Theorie vor dem Hintergrund der Philosophie Kants führt in Richtung einer Theorie der Gesellschaft, die beiden Forderungen gerecht wird: der nach Objektivität sowie der nach der Möglichkeit einer moralischen Beurteilung des Gegenstandes der Theorie.

Anhand historischer und quellenkritischer Untersuchungen analysiert das Buch entscheidende Momente des Verhältnisses von Kunst und Wissenschaft in Nietzsches Werk. Zum Leitmotiv der vorgeschlagenen Interpretation wird die Idee einer "Tragödie der Erkenntnis" als Vervollständigung der ästhetischen Tragödie. Aldo Venturelli beleuchtet damit auch Aspekte von Nietzsches besonderer Stellung im philosophischen Diskurs der Moderne.

Wissenschaftliches Wissen wird durch tätigen Eingriff in die Natur gewonnen: Um Homo Sapiens sein zu können, muss der Mensch zugleich Homo Faber sein. Im Anschluss an das philosophische Werk von Jürgen Mittelstraß begründen und differenzieren die Beiträge des Bandes diese These sowohl in ihrer historischen als auch in ihrer systematischen Dimension (einschließlich ihrer praktisch-philosophischen Implikationen).

Seit Beginn der Neuzeit spielen die Verhältnisse von Wissen, Wissenschaften, Technik und Lebenswelt eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle. Indem die Beiträge aus Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte zu Wissen und Wissenschaften, Grundfiguren des Denkens von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zum Deutschen Idealismus und moderner Technik und modernen Technologien die historischen Entwicklungen aufzeigen, gelangen sie zu den Herausforderungen, denen wir uns heute zu stellen haben.

Entwürfe einer Ethik des guten Lebens haben zur Zeit Konjunktur. Sie verstehen sich in der Regel als Gegenentwürfe zur so genannten Pflichtethik Kants, in der die Frage nach dem Lebensglück keinen Platz zu finden scheint. Beatrix Himmelmann zeigt, wie viel Kant zu dem angeblich verbannten Thema des Glücks zu sagen hat. Sie gibt eine historische und systematische Gesamtdarstellung der Ethik Kants, ortet darin den Glücksbegriff, der zentraler ist als üblicherweise angenommen, und zeigt schlüssig, warum jüngere Diskussionen zur Frage nach dem guten Leben nicht bis auf die antike Philosophie zurückgehen müssen.

In der Debatte über den moralischen Status menschlicher Embryonen ist nicht immer klar, über welche Argumente genau eigentlich gestritten wird. Dieses Studienbuch bietet Studierenden und Forschenden, aber auch dem an der aktuellen Debatte interessierten Laien die Möglichkeit, sich über den gegenwärtigen Diskussionsstand gezielt zu informieren und die wichtigsten Argumente in klarer und knapper Form kennenzulernen. Sie besagen folgendes: Da Embryonen als Mitglieder der Spezies homo sapiens sapiens Menschen sind, besitzen sie Würde (Spezies-Argument); Embryonen entwickeln sich kontinuierlich, d.h. ohne moralrelevante Einschnitte, zu erwachsenen Menschen, die Würde besitzen (Kontinuumsargument); Embryonen sind in moralrelevanter Hinsicht identisch mit erwachsenen Menschen, die Würde besitzen (Identitätsargument); Embryonen haben das Potential, Menschen zu werden, und dieses Potential ist uneingeschränkt schützenswert (Potentialitätsargument). Diese Argumente werden jeweils durch eine Pro-Position und eine Contra-Position dargestellt und verteidigt oder kritisiert. In einem begleitenden Beitrag der Herausgeber werden die vier Argumente im Zusammenhang rekonstruiert, bewertet und durch neue Argumente unterstützt.

Der Band wird ergänzt durch eine knappe Darstellung der embryonalen Frühphase, ein naturwissenschaftlich- medizinisches Glossar, eine ausführliche Bibliographie zur Embryonendebatte sowie durch ein Personen- und Sachregister.

Das Studienbuch enthält grundlegende Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Geistes. In chronologischer Reihenfolge stellt es eine Auswahl der wichtigsten Gestalten dieser Philosophietradition aus der Perspektive analytischer Philosophen vor: Platon, Aristoteles, Plotin, Augustinus, Thomas von Aquin, Descartes, Malebranche, Hume, Kant und Husserl.

Jedes Kapitel orientiert sich an einer systematischen Fragestellung. So vermittelt der Band zugleich einen Einblick in die Grundfragen der modernen Philosophie des Geistes: Welche Relation besteht zwischen mentalen und physischen Zuständen? Welchen ontologischen Status hat das Ich? Verfügen wir über Selbstwissen und wenn ja, in welchem Sinne?

How much does what we think depend on what we want? Descartes' much-discussed position has often been interpreted to mean that we hold an opinion as the result of a decision. In Scepticism, Freedom and Autonomy, Araujo argues against this interpretation, asserting that we retain control over our opinions only through selective attention. Even for this limited control, however, Cartesian Scepticism implies the possibility of self-delusion, symbolized in the writings of Descartes by the figure of the evil god. Hence, the existence of an evil god would not only cast doubt on our claims to knowledge but also jeopardize our freedom.

In this new interpretation, the Cartesian Scepticism, which is usually ascribed only epistemic significance, proves relevant for a fundamental moral question, that of human autonomy in general.

Der Autor gibt einen umfassenden Überblick über die vielfältigen Formen philosophischer Nietzsche-Rezeption außerhalb des deutschsprachigen Raumes. Zu den behandelten Autoren gehören unter anderem Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, Danto, de Man, Eagleton, Rorty, Colli, Montinari und Vattimo. Zudem arbeitet Reckermann systematisch die Voraussetzungen in den jeweiligen Ländern heraus, die es ermöglichten, Nietzsche für entscheidende Fragen der Gegenwartsphilosophie fruchtbar zu machen. Das Buch enthält eine ausführliche Bibliographie sowie Personen- und Sachregister.

Der moralische Kontraktualismus ist neben der kantischen und utilitaristischen Tradition die dritte Haupttradition einer aufgeklärten Moralphilosophie. Seine Kernthese besagt, daß moralische Normen und Forderungen legitim sind, wenn die Betroffenen sich aus ihren Interessen heraus auf die Etablierung dieser Normen hätten einigen können. Eine vernünftige Moral ist demnach, obwohl sie Freiheitsbeschränkungen verlangt, zum gegenseitigen Vorteil der Einzelnen.

Die Autoren des Bandes diskutieren im Lichte neuerer Arbeiten die Vorzüge und Schwierigkeiten der moralischen Vertragstheorie. Zentrale Themen sind der Begriff der Moral, das Problem der moralischen Normativität, der Zusammenhang von Moral und Interesse, von Moral und Rationalität sowie die Frage, welche moralischen Normen eine kontraktualistische Theorie konkret zu begründen vermag.

Die fünf Bände enthalten die überarbeiteten Fassungen aller Haupt- und Sektionsvorträge des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, der im März 2000 an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität stattfand.

Die Beiträge gliedern sich in die folgenden Sektionen:
Der vorkritische Kant, Kants Theoretische Philosophie, Kants Praktische Philosophie, Kants Ästhetik, Kants Religionsphilosophie, Kants Geschichtsphilosophie, Kants Rechts-, Staats- und Politische Philosophie, Kants Anthropologie, Kants Naturphilosophie und das Opus postumum, Kants Logik, Kant und die Aufklärung, Kant, Deutscher Idealismus und Neukantianismus, Kant und die Folgen.

Zu den Autoren zählen u.a. Manfred Baum, Mario Caimi, Konrad Cramer, Jean Ferrari, Eckhardt Förster, Michael Friedman, Simone Goyard-Fabre, Paul Guyer, Gary Hatfield, Agnes Heller, Dieter Henrich, Otfried Höffe, Wolfgang Kersting, Béatrice Longuenesse, Onora O'Neill, Robert Pippin, Gerold Prauss und Michael Wolff.

This analysis of Wittgenstein's concept of a Spielraum, in which the author approaches the Tractatus Logico-philosophicus both systematically and from the perspective of the history of philosophy and knowledge, opens up a new and important perspective in Wittgenstein research.

In establishing unexpected cross-connections between physics, the theory of perception, and logic, Hyder also makes a valuable contribution to the history of 19th century science. In particular, the links he establishes between early sensory physiology and the logicism of Russell and Frege yield a sharper and more plausible account of the notion of a "space" of possible meanings than has hitherto been available in the secondary literature. In showing this notion to be a formal precursor to that of a language game, the study also provides important pointers for the interpretation of Wittgenstein's late work.

Beckett's novel Molloy and the question how this work evokes a particular kind of feeling associated with its exhibition of meaninglessness, namely the feeling of the sublime, is the point of departure for this study.

Kant's theory of the sublime is interpreted within the framework of his aesthetic and moral theories, suggesting a way to understand the claim to universal validity for aesthetic judgements. Kant claims that the judgement of the sublime serves morality but he fails to provide this link, so a theory of how this aesthetic judgement can contribute to the cultivation of moral character is developed. It is argued that Kant held that art, including narrative art like the novel, can be sublime. Kant's theory of the sublime is shown to be relevant for modern works of art, and the application of this Kantian framework throws new light on the discussion of the moral aspects of Beckett's literary work. According to this account, Molloy is a sublime work of art, and despite its amoral content can serve the reader's moral cultivation.

In this collection of original papers, leading international authorities turn their attention to one of the most important questions in theoretical philosophy: what is truth?

To arrive at an answer, two further questions need to be addressed in this context: 1) Does truth possess any essence, any inner nature? and 2) If so, what does this nature consist of?

The present discussion focuses on the antagonism between substantial or robust theories of truth, with correspondence theory taking the lead, and deflationist or minimalist views, which have been commanding an increasing amount of attention in recent years. Whereas substantial theories proceed from the premise that truth has an essence, and that therefore the objective is to discover this essence, the challenge presented by deflationism is to dispense with this very premise.

Der Systembegriff in Kants Konzeption der apriorischen Erkenntnisformen ist ein organologischer. Einem so gedachten System wesentlich ist die Einheit des Zwecks. Erkenntnistätigkeit transzendentaler Subjektivität ist mithin zielgerichtetes selbstorganisiertes Tun mit dem Erfahrungsurteil als seinem Telos. Die vorliegende Untersuchung unternimmt es, diese Grundeinsicht zur Deutung der wesentlichen Glieder transzendentaler Erkenntniskonstitution, d.h. der reinen Anschauungsformen und der Kategorien, fruchtbar zu machen.

Erfahrung in diesem forcierten Verständnis ist lebendiger Selbstvollzug eines selbst in seinen theoretischen empirischen Urteilen verantwortlichen Subjekts. Letztlich ist diese Tätigkeit sogar als Praxis im moralischpraktischen Sinn zu deuten.

Diese Ergebnisse extrapolieren Thesen, die bei Kant selbst zuweilen verdeckt und manchmal sogar konterkariert sind, weshalb gelegentlich mit Kant gegen Kant argumentiert werden muß. Sie bringen auch Aspekte hervor, die von der gängigen Kant-Rezeption nicht thematisiert oder von dieser in den Schriften Kants bisher vermißt wurden.

Obwohl Kant die Quelle der Grundbegriffe unserer Erkenntnis im Verstande sieht, ist bis heute umstritten, ob er auf das Denkvermögen oder auf die Einheit aller Erkenntniskräfte abzielte. Mit seiner Analyse der vorkritischen Schriften und der Kritik der reinen Vernunft sucht der Autor diese Fragen zu klären. Zudem erläutert er das System dieser Begriffe.

Im Unterschied zu anderen Interpreten, die den Ursprung der Kategorien in der Einheit der Apperzeption (wie die nachkantischen Idealisten, Cohen, Henrich usw.) oder in der Einbildungskraft als Wurzel aller Vermögen (Heidegger) setzen und diese Lehren Kant selber zuschreiben, entfaltet der Verfasser das System dieser Begriffe aus der Beziehung der Apperzeption auf die Einbildungskraft und sondert seinen Versuch als eigenständige Entfaltung einer Kantischen Möglichkeit von dem Werk des Denkers methodisch ab.

Der Band verzeichnet erstmals sämtliche Werke und Noten aus Nietzsches persönlicher Bibliothek (BN) bis Anfang Januar 1889. Er listet sowohl die Bestände der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek als auch die des Goethe- und Schiller-Archivs in Weimar auf. Die kritische Analyse anderer Bestandslisten ermittelte zudem zahlreiche heute nicht mehr vorhandene Titel. Ferner wurden sämtliche Bücherrechnungen und -quittungen von Buchhändlern und Buchbindern ausgewertet, die im Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv aufbewahrt werden.

Neben den ca. 2.200 Titeln aus Nietzsches rekonstruierter Bibliothek enthält der Band auch ein Verzeichnis sämtlicher 'Lesespuren' Nietzsches (ca. 20.000), z.B. Anmerkungen, Unterstreichungen und Eselsohren. Ergänzt durch zahlreiche Faksimile-Reproduktionen sowie durch philosophische, historische und bibliographische Einführungen, stellt der Band ein unverzichtbares Arbeitsinstrument jeder zukünftigen Nietzsche-Forschung dar.

Im Zentrum der Studie steht das Problem personaler Identität. Die Diskussion insbesondere der angelsächsischen Gegenwartsphilosophie wird durch reduktionistische Ansätze dominiert, die psychologische Kontinuität als Identitätskriterium benennen. Der Autor stellt diese Theorien in einen umfassenden historischen und systematischen Zusammenhang. Er schließt eine wesentliche Lücke der bisherigen Diskussion: Die Kriterienproblematik wird verbunden mit einer Untersuchung der Konstitutionsbedingungen von Personalität. Entgegen vorschnellen Vereinfachungen führt die Analyse zu dem Ergebnis, daß die Kontextabhängigkeit des Personbegriffs eine Pluralität von spezifischen Identitätskriterien bedingt.

Dieses Buch ist in kritischer Abgrenzung zu anderen Bemühungen um Hegels System der bislang entschiedenste Versuch, diese Philosophie als eine "ontologische Option" aus "nicht-metaphysischer" Sicht zu interpretieren. Hegels Wissenschaft der Logik wird gedeutet als dialektische Entwicklung jener Kategorien des Denkens, die zugleich Seinskategorien sind. Der Autor versteht die Hegelsche Logik als eine Theorie, die die Wahrheitsfähigkeit des Denkens nachweisen will, sofern dieses Anspruch auf Wirklichkeitserkenntnis erhebt.

Hartmanns opus posthumum bietet darüber hinaus einen konstitutiv-kritischen Kommentar zu einem der schwierigsten und bis heute nicht vollständig erschlossenen Werk der Philosophie.

Mit dieser überarbeiteten Neuauflage wird das Standardwerk endlich wieder verfügbar. Die Ausgabe ist bereichert durch ein Vorwort und einen Essay Nietzsches politische Philosophie in der philosophischen und politischen Diskussion der Gegenwart und eine Übersicht über die neuere Nietzsche-Forschung.

Band II der Nietzsche-Interpretationen präsentiert bisher unveröffentlichte oder erheblich erweiterte Untersuchungen zum vieldeutigen Verständnis von Freiheit bei Nietzsche in der von ihm als Chaos interpretierten Welt. Décadence in der Kunst verweist Nietzsche zufolge auf den Niedergang der Kraft menschlicher Freiheit. Nietzsches Bestreitung der Willensfreiheit in deren traditioneller Bedeutung erfolgt zugunsten der Ausarbeitung des Instinkts der Freiheit, der als Wille zur Macht verstanden wird. Um die Weltprozesse zu deuten, nimmt Nietzsche Anleihen bei der zeitgenössischen Ökonomie. Von ihnen her fällt neues Licht auf Nietzsches Spätphilosophie. Mit dem Gedanken der ziellosen ewigen Wiederkehr des Gleichen verschärft und vertieft sich seine Auffassung vom Chaos.

Die Studie greift die philosophische Frage nach den Grenzen und der möglichen Überwindung des Formalismus auf. Sie bietet eine kritische Rekonstruktion des Frühwerks von Georg Lukács, in dem eine eigenartig ästhetizistische Kulturkritik mit einer ethischen Utopie dostojewskischer Prägung ergänzt werden sollte. Das Aufzeigen der Einheit wie der Aporien dieses zweigleisigen Ansatzes wirft neues Licht auf Lukács’ marxistische Wende Ende 1918.

Band I der zweibändigen Nietzsche-Interpretationen enthält sowohl bisher unveröffentlichte wie auch ergänzte und stark erweiterte Abhandlungen zu dieser zentralen Thematik in Nietzsches Philosophie. In ihnen werden die wichtigsten Schritte der vom Verfasser vertretenen und viel diskutierten Interpretation des "Willens zur Macht" sichtbar. Die Prozesse "der" Willen zur Macht konstituieren den "absoluten Fluß" des Werdens; im Ja-sagen zu dessen ewiger Wiederkunft vollendet sich auch Nietzsches "Philosophie der Macht". Die Deutung des Werdens als "Wille zur Macht" ist entscheidend von der Nachlaß-Kompilation der Schwester Nietzsches beeinflußt worden. Der letzte Beitrag des Bandes geht der Geschichte dieser Wirkung und den mit ihr verbundenen Mißverständnissen nach.

Günter Schenk gilt als einer der besten Kenner deutscher und europäischer Karnevalsbräuche. Für seine zahlreichen Publikationen zur Geschichte und Entwicklung der Fastnacht wurde er 2011 mit dem Kulturpreis der Deutschen Fastnacht ausgezeichnet.

In einer präzisen Rekonstruktion des Kantischen Begriffs des Erhabenen wird gegen das metaphysische Verständnis der Tradition eine kritische Lesart des Erhabenen geltend gemacht, die jedem Aktualisierungsversuch heute zugrundeliegen muss und gleichzeitig das Kantische System neu beleuchtet.

In this compelling account of the origins and evolution of our secular worldview, Theo Hobson shows how Christian values continue to underpin our public morality, how faith remains indispensable to Western humanism, and how atheistic humanism represeents a dead end. At the same time, he offers a timely warning against the dangers of a religious-secular culture war, given the radically politicized and destructive forms of religion endemic in the world today.

Here is a fresh and provocative argument about religion and politics – but one that doesn't fit into the normal boxes. It suggests that although the public creed of the West is best described as 'secular humanism' we can only really understand and affirm secular humanism if we see how firmly it is based on Christian norms and values. If we don't, the West is divided: mired in a stagnant stand-off between fundamentalist atheism and an equally hard-line Christian theism.

This book offers a more nuanced and historically more persuasive way forward, showing just how much our secular morality owes to Christianity, and how it can only find coherence through a new and positive view of its origins.

Contents
Introduction
1 The ideology in the room
2 Sowing the seeds
3 Mutations of Protestantism
4 Struggling to be born
5 The secular century
6 In our time
7 So what? How is Christianity credible?

Bringing together essays from an international set of Kant scholars, most of whom have particular expertise in political and social theory, this volume explores the normative and empirical features of Kant’s engagement with cosmopolitan right and migration challenges. It provides early-stage researchers in particular with a broad overview of the inspiring features as well as the flaws stemming from Kant’s cosmopolitan accounts. It also makes a valuable contribution to current scholarship with approaches proposed by scholars coming from different continents. The first section of the volume – Normative Accounts of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Order – brings together essays that take stock of Kant’s cosmopolitan right as a normative theory capable of providing the contemporary political agenda with duties and legal demands towards precarious and vulnerable subjects and groups. The second section of the volume – Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future – focuses on putting Kant’s cosmopolitanism in discussion with Modern sources of global mobility and contemporary theories of global political order (Rawls, Benhabib, Carens, Miller). The third section of the volume – Contemporary Migration Under the Lens of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right – addresses the social drama of migration as a phenomenon that might be considered from a Kantian cosmopolitan standpoint, even if the contemporary world radically changed the conditions of belonging to a national state.

Which kind of artificial intelligence do we want to live with? Should machines explain themselves to us? Machine learning techniques are developing at a rapid pace and find applications not only in banal everyday uses, but also in high-stake situations, including science, medicine, banking, law, and business. But it is impossible to reconstruct how they reach their results and to judge whether they reach their results in the intended way. The mechanism is entirely opaque. This prompts a lot of justified skepticism and criticism of these computer programs. By closely investigating the foundations of opacity and explanations from a philosophy of science and epistemological perspective, Buchholz comes to more optimistic conclusions. This book derives practical consequences from a rigorous conceptual analysis of opacity, paving the way to an effective regulation of machine learning, and will advance the debate about the nature of explanation in the philosophy of science.

This book presents the first critical edition and translation into a European language of a text that has been largely overlooked by scholars: the Solution to the Doubts about Galen, by Abū al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zuhr, a physician dwelling in twelfth-century al-Andalus. He composed it to defend Galen against Abū Bakr al-Rāzī's (d. 925) attacks in his Doubts about Galen (published in the same series). The Solution is of threefold interest: firstly, regarding Graeco-Arabic studies, it includes numerous testimonies of treatises by Galen of Pergamum (129–c. 216 CE) lost in Arabic, but also sometimes in Greek. The most famous of these lost texts is without a doubt Galen’s most important logical treatise, On Demonstration. The Solution is thereby a veritable goldmine for Graeco-Arabic studies and our reconstruction of the Arabic Galen. Secondly, even though Abū al-ʿAlāʾwas a physician more than he was a philosopher, his answers to Rāzī contribute to our understanding of the history of Islamicate philosophy: they provide access to several arguments circulating in the twelfth century on topics related to epistemology and natural philosophy, such as the existence of the void, for example. Finally, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ includes colorful - and pitiless - comments on the medical milieu of his time. The book will be useful for students and scholars of ancient and medieval medicine and philosophy, as well as those engaged in the study of the classical world, Graeco-Arabic studies or Islamic studies.