Philosophical traditions and schools of thought Books

Although normally associated with modernity or modernism, utopia has made a comeback in the age of globalization. Just as the discoveries of the New World and the social upheavals of early modern Europe inspired Thomas More's Utopia and its many...

The aim of this volume is to offer an updated account of the transcendental character of phenomenology.

Aristotle's Poetics is the first philosophical account of an art form and the foundational text in aesthetics. The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle and the Poetics is an accessible guide to this often dense and cryptic work. Angela Curran...

On Humanism is a timely and powerfully argued philosophical defence of humanism and an impassioned plea that we turn to ourselves, not religion, if we want to answer Socrates' age old question: what is the best kind of life to lead?

This is Volume VII of seven in a collection of works on Hegel in the Library of Philosophy which was designed as a contribution to the History of Modern Philosophy under the heads: first of Different Schools of Thought-Sensationalist, Realist, Idealist,...

This book examines the meaning and implications of the sociological maxim, 'make the familiar strange'. Addressing the methodological questions of why and how sociologists should make the familiar strange, what it means to 'make the familiar strange',...

This thought-provoking volume explores the phenomenon of childhood experiences of sudden moments of self-awareness. Locating them as meaningful developmental events, it draws on, and is illustrated by, detailed analysis of individuals' narratives of...

This book features fourteen original essays that critically engage the philosophy of Richard Rorty, with an emphasis on his ethics, epistemology, and politics. Inspired by James' and Dewey's pragmatism, Rorty urged us to rethink the role of science and...

The New Rhetoric is founded on the idea that since "argumentation aims at securing the adherence of those to whom it is addressed, it is, in its entirety, relative to the audience to be influenced," says Chaïm Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, and they...

This "AhHa Guide..." is a curious combination of a 'Joy ride' of discovery, bizarre insights, and a mythic "Hero's journey" ascending up a mountain of Higher consciousness, based on a three law ten step vertical structure. As it ascends in our present...

In this widely hailed and long out of print classic of twentieth century philosophic commentary, Professor Farber explains the origin, development, and function of phenomenology with a view towards its significance for philosophy in general.The book...

Terence Irwin presents a study of the development of moral philosophy, from ancient Greece to the Renaissance. Starting with the seminal ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, he guides the reader through the centuries that follow.

Dante and the Other brings together noted and emerging Dante scholars with theologians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists, bridging the Florentine's premodern world to today's postmodern context. Exploring how alterity has become a...

This book, first published in 1984, examines the impact of the US Polaris base at Holy Loch, Scotland, upon the people of Cowal in Argyll, and its imposition upon them by powers outside the locality. It evaluates the ecological, economic, political and...

The current rise in new religions and the growing popularity of New Ageism is concomitant with an increasingly anti-philosophical sentiment marking our contemporary situation. More specifically, it is philosophical and psychoanalytic reason that has lost...

This book explores the role that American pragmatism played in the development of social philosophy in 20th-century Europe.The essays in the first part of the book show how the ideas of Peirce, James, and Dewey influenced the traditions of European...

Plato's Pragmatism offers the first comprehensive defense of a pragmatist reading of Plato. According to Plato, the ultimate rational goal is not to accumulate knowledge and avoid falsehood but rather to live an excellent human life. The book contends...

This new edition introduces the reader to the philosophy of early Christianity in the second to fourth centuries AD, and contextualizes the philosophical contributions of early Christians in the framework of the ancient philosophical debates.It...

For several years Mouni Sadhu steeped himself in the teachings of the foremost Hindu ascetic, Sri Ramana Maharshi. This book, first published in 1957, is the best attempt by a European to describe without technicalities what such teachings entail, what...

In this final edition of his classic study of St. Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson presents the sweeping range and organic unity of Thomistic philosophical thought. The philosophical thinking of Aquinas is the result of reason being challenged to relate to...

D. D. Raphael provides a critical account of the moral philosophy of Adam Smith, presented in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Whilst it does not have the same prominence in its field as his work on economics, The Wealth of Nations,...

One of America's most respected Buddhist teachers distills a lifetime of practice and teaching in this groundbreaking exploration of the new Buddhist tradition taking root on American soil.

Crossing the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, and literature, the Danish writer Soren Kierkegaard is regarded as one of the most significant and influential figures in contemporary thought. In Kierkegaard's view, faith is the most...

Striving To be Humanexamines what our moral values are, how we came to have them, and how we can add a spiritual dimension to them.Westerners live in liberal, secular democracies. The religious and moral certainties of the past have lost their influence...

The first book of its kind, Buddhist Moral Philosophy: An Introduction introduces the reader to contemporary philosophical interpretations and analyses of Buddhist ethics. It begins with a survey of traditional Buddhist ethical thought and practice,...

New concepts are constantly being introduced into our thinking. Conceptual Systems explores how these new concepts are entered into our systems along with sufficient continuity with older ideas to ensure understanding. The encyclopedic breadth of this...

Einstein, Relativity and Absolute Simultaneity is an anthology of original essays by an international team of leading philosophers and physicists who have come together to reassess the contemporary paradigm of the relativistic concept of time. A...

Baruch Spinoza is one of the most influential and controversial political philosophers of the early modern period. Though best-known for his contributions to metaphysics, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (1670) and his unfinished Political...

" Reflexivity" is defined as the regular exercise of the mental ability, shared by all normal people, to consider themselves in relation to their (social) contexts and vice versa. In addition to this sociological interest, it allows us to hold idle or...

Desireless action is typically cited as a criterion of the liberated person in classical Indian texts. Contemporary authors argue with near unanimity that since all action is motivated by desire, desireless action is a contradiction. They conclude that...