Topics in philosophy Books

Since the ages of the Old Testament, the Homeric myths, the tragedies of Sophocles and the ensuing theological speculations of the Christian millennium, the theme of loneliness has dominated and haunted the Western world. In this wide-ranging book,...

Counterfactual thinking has become an established method to evaluate decisions in a range of disciplines, including history, psychology and literature. Elke Reinhuber argues it also has valuable applications in the fine arts and popular media. A...

The eminent scholar Lewis R. Gordon offers a probing meditation on freedom, justice, and decolonization. What is there to be understood and done when it is evident that the search for justice, which dominates social and political philosophy of the North,...

This book offers a systematic critique of recent interventionist just war theories, which have made the recourse to force easier to justify.The work argues that these theories, including neo-traditionalist prerogatives to national leaders and a...

What makes individuals what they are? How should they judge their social and political interaction with the world? What makes them authentic or inauthentic? This original and provocative study explores the concept of "authenticity" and its relevance for...

Winner of the 2022 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book AwardTogether we can often achieve things that are impossible to do on our own. We can prevent something bad from happening, or we can produce something good, even if none of us could...

In Utilitarianism in the Early American Republic James E. Crimmins provides a fresh perspective on the history of antebellum American political thought.Based on a broad-ranging study of the dissemination and reception of utilitarian ideas in the areas of...

Virtually every figure in the climate justice literature agrees that states are presently failing to discharge their duties to take action on climate change. Few, however, have attempted to think through what follows from that fact from a moral point of...

Originally published in 1972, this book clarifies 'ethical' concepts such as 'values', 'norms' and 'precepts'. It begins with a discussion of the conceptual problems faced by any inquiry into moral codes. The author looks in particular at the numerous...

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in evolutionary debunking arguments directed against certain types of belief, particularly moral and religious beliefs. According to those arguments, the evolutionary origins of the cognitive mechanisms...

Notions of the sublime are most often associated with the extraordinary, and include the intra-psychic, high-cultural and exceptional occurrences of elation and exaltation as part of the experience. Using psychoanalytic and aesthetic theories, this...

This book explores the thought of - and is dedicated to - David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his...

This book examines issues related to the concepts of space, time and causality in the context of modern physics and ancient Indian traditions. It looks at the similarity and convergence of these concepts of modern physics with those discussed in...

Hermeneutics, as a discipline of the humanities, is often assumed to be in thrall to the same subjectivity of every interpretive method, in direct contrast to the objectivity prized by the natural sciences. This book argues that there is a false...

Examines motion pictures produced or sponsored by Ford Motor Company from a rhetorical perspective, demonstrating how the films reveal a long-term rhetorical project that has helped embed corporations into many of the social systems guiding societies...

According to a fairly standard view, there are several reasons for denying that existence is a real property of individuals. One is that 'exists' cannot be predicated of individuals, and another is that first-level properties are parasitic on individuals...

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,...

Provocative and eye-opening, Why Our Decisions Don't Matter is one of three slim selections of philosophical texts and excerpts--along with Why We Need Love and Why We Fight--introduced and contextualized by acclaimed author Simon Van Booy (Love Begins...

Provocative and eye-opening, Why We Need Love is one of three slim selections of philosophical texts and excerpts--along with Why We Fight and Why Our Decisions Don't Matter--introduced and contextualized by acclaimed author Simon Van Booy (Love Begins...

A groundbreaking work of science that confirms, for the first time, the independent existence of the mind-and demonstrates the possibilities for human control over the workings of the brain.Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind'...

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...

This book sets out first to explain how two fairly recent developments in philosophy, externalism and modalism, provide the basis for a promising account of knowledge, and then works through the different modalized epistemologies extant in the...

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,...

Over fifteen years have passed since Cora Diamond and James Conant turned Wittgenstein scholarship upside down with the program of "resolute" reading, and ten years since this reading was crystallized in the major collection The New Wittgenstein. This...

Philosophy of art is traditionally concerned with the definition, appreciation and value of art. Through a close examination of art from recent centuries, Art and Phenomenology is one of the first books to explore visual art as a mode of experiencing the...

Are fictional characters such as Sherlock Holmes real? What can fiction tell us about the nature of truth and reality? In this excellent introduction to the problem of fictionalism R. M. Sainsbury covers the following key topics:what is fiction? realism...

Philosophers, anthropologists and biologists have long puzzled over the question of human nature. It is also a question that Kant thought about deeply and returned to in many of his writings. In this lucid and wide-ranging introduction to Kant's...

" 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...

Mulla Sadra is one of the most important Islamic philosophers after Avicenna. In this exploration of his philosophy, Sajjad H. Rizvi examines the central doctrine of the modulation of being, and contextualises his work within the intellectual history of...

What is knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge? What is the value of knowledge? What can we know? Arguing About Knowledge offers a fresh and engaging perspective on the theory of knowledge. This comprehensive and imaginative selection of readings...

Those with a belief in open society base the demand for liberty on the recognition of human ignorance; we need to be free because we are ignorant and fallible. Free social cooperation permits us to mobilize our knowledge and develop methods of discovery...

The death of a friend is a source of pain and grief for anyone. For David B. Burrell, it is also a source of reflection on the role of friendship in our ongoing pursuit of truth. In this small but penetrating book, Burrell offers five essays that explore...

A short pithy saying that sums up a general truth, the aphorism is the oldest written art form. Following in such a long tradition from Ancient Greeks like Plato and Heraclitus to Romans like Seneca and Cicero all the way to moderns like Nietzsche, the...

Who are you? What is your purpose here? I can't provide your answers to these questions, but I can share some guidance from beings who can. This book is a portal for you to open your awareness to the infinite. The very existence of infinity is poorly,...

Having children is probably as old as the first successful organism. It is often done thoughtlessly. This book is an argument for giving procreating some serious thought, and a theory of how, when, and why procreation may be permissible.Rivka Weinberg...

This book concerns the foundations and implications of a particular form of liberal political theory. Colburn argues that one should see liberalism as a political theory committed to the value of autonomy, understood as consisting in an agent deciding...

Philosophy, Science, and History: A Guide and Reader is a compact overview of the history and philosophy of science that aims to introduce students to the groundwork of the field, and to stimulate innovative research. The general introduction focuses on...

This book investigates how we should form ourselves in a world saturated with technologies that are profoundly intruding in the very fabric of our selfhood.　New and emerging technologies, such as smart technological environments, imaging technologies and...

This book describes how, in the era of megamedia culture, aggression in communication constitutes a threat to the communication community.Based on the theoretical incorporation of transcendental pragmatics, the book explores how conceptualizing the...

Winner of the Internationl Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) Book Award for Best Edited Book 2021There is a broad consensus that we are in a time of profound transition. There is worldwide political and social turbulence, with an underlying loss of...

This book addresses the complex relationship between the values of liberal democracy and the values associated with scientific research. The chapters explore how these values mutually reinforce or conflict with one another, in both historical and...

This book offers a philosophical analysis of the moral and legal justifications for the use of force. While the book focuses on the ethics self-defense, it also explores its relation to lesser evil justifications, public authority, the justification of...

This is the first monograph to develop a hermeneutic approach to the digital-as both a technological milieu and a cultural phenomenon. While philosophical in its orientation, the book covers a wide body of literature across science and technology...