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Causation has always been a central topic in the history of philosophy. Many theories causation have been advanced, but not one has approached anything like general acceptance. Yet the concept of causation is prevalent in many areas of contemporary philosophy: there are the causal theories of language, of action, of personal identity, of knowledge, of perception, of scientific explanation, and of reference. If causation is doing all this philosophical work, it seems essential to strive for an intelligible account of what a 'cause' actually is. One obvious place to start is Hume's analysis of causation, which is generally thought to be the most significant and influential single contribution ...
"No philosophical dictum is better known than Descartes's assertion about the intimate relation between thinking and existing. What remains unknown is how we are to understand the 'I' who thinks and exists. This book is about the ways that the concept of an 'I' or a 'self' has been developed and deployed at different times in the history of Western Philosophy. It also offers a striking contrast case, the 'interconnected' self, who appears in some expressions of African Philosophy. Appealing to philosophy to illuminate the concept of a 'self' may seem unnecessary. Anyone who can read this book is a self, so why can we not just tailor a concept to fit what we already know about ourselves? This objection has considerable force and provides a constraint on efforts to fashion a self-concept. Although there is a sense of 'self-knowledge' in which it is said to require a lifetime of serious effort to achieve (and which is the topic of another volume in this series), what is at issue here is simply knowing that one is a self"--
A clear and thorough account of Peirce's life and thought, his major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to this important and complex thinker.
Antonia Lolordo presents an original interpretation of John Locke's metaphysics of moral agency, in which to be a moral agent is simply to be free, rational, and a person. Her account bears on Locke's metaphysics and political theory, and helps us understand his wider philosophical project and his accounts of liberty, personhood, and rationality.
David Hume bridges a gap between classical and non-classical philosophy. Two major approaches in 20th century systematic philosophy – naturalism and relativism – have both basically been inspired by Hume and create the most controversy nowadays. The dethroning of the knowing agent and the spiritual substance from their privileged place opens way to “the death of God” (F. Nietzsche) or “the death of the Author” (R. Barthes). Hume’s criticism of causality corresponds to the indeterminism of the quantum mechanics (B. Russell). K. Popper’s falsificationism would hardly be possible without Hume’s account of induction. L. Wittgenstein’s considerations on rule following reveal s...
Historical Dictionary of Confucianismis devoted exclusively to Confucianism, the great Chinese tradition that has gathered around the teachings of Confucius (Kongzi) for more than 2,500 years. Confucianism encompasses a broad array of moral, social, philosophical and religious ideas, values and practices. It is an ancient and immense tradition of great subtlety and complexity. This work provides ready access to terms, personalities, movements, and texts of the tradition as it has made its trek throughout East Asia, especially Korea and Japan. This book contains a chronology, introduction, and extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 700 cross-referenced entries on terms, personalities, movements, and texts of the tradition. Historical Dictionary of Confucianism is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Confucianism.
Martin Heidegger’s thinking is a complex, and his terminology is as nuanced, as any thinker in the history of philosophy. As the historian of philosophy par excellence, he also exhibits both a greater appreciation and mastery of previous thinkers than any almost any other philosopher before or since. The Historical Dictionary of Heidegger's Philosophy, Third Edition addresses this dual challenge of reading, understanding, and interpreting Heidegger’s vast writings. The book provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the key terms shaping Heidegger’s philosophy, as well as outlining the development of his thought spanning the entirety of his career spanning almost sixty years. The...
An important new monograph that re-examines Hobbes's political writings in the context of the rest of his corpus and the work of his contemporaries.
Jay L. Garfield defends two exegetical theses regarding Hume's Treatise on Human Nature. The first is that Book II is the theoretical foundation of the Treatise. Second, Garfield argues that we cannot understand Hume's project without an appreciation of his own understanding of custom, and in particular, without an appreciation of the grounding of his thought about custom in the legal theory and debates of his time. Custom is the source of Hume's thoughts about normativity, not only in ethics and in political theory, but also in epistemological, linguistics, and scientific practice- and is the source of his insight that our psychological and social natures are so inextricably linked. The cen...