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Optimism and the Best Possible World
This volume presents original essays on the ideas of philosophical optimism and the best possible world. It highlights the historical and philosophical nuances of an idea that remains under-treated within the literature despite its long and influential history. Optimism—broadly, the thesis that God does the best, or that this is the best possible world—is often associated with the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. However, there exists a rich tradition of philosophical optimism not only after Leibniz but before him as well. The chapters in this volume address the philosophical nuances of optimism within the ancient, medieval, enlightenment, modern, and contemporary eras. They cover a variety of thinkers ranging from Plato, Aquinas, Rousseau, Voltaire, Jonathan Edwards, the new optimists of 19th-century France, and the non-theistic optimists of the 20th century. Optimism and the Best Possible World will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of religion, history of philosophy, religious history, and intellectual history.
Representation
What makes historical writing distinctive? In Representation, Franklin Rudolf Ankersmit—the preeminent figure in the philosophy of history today—offers a deeply original way of understanding the practice of historical writing and a powerful vindication of history as an empirical discipline. Based on a new reading of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, Ankersmit constructs a rigorous framework for understanding the nature of historical argument. Representation argues that while previous states of affairs have left evidence that can be used to formulate true statements, the past itself is irretrievably lost. A condition of historical writing is that the past as such does not exist. Historical texts are best understood as complex signs that mutually criticize one another to compose a historical reality fundamentally distinct from common-sense notions of the past. Representation casts an entirely new light on fundamental concepts such as historical truth, historical debate, and historical rationality. Cogent, forceful, and provocative, this book is the most ambitious work in the philosophy of history in many years.
Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy
This book explores different accounts of powers and abilities in early modern philosophy. It analyzes powers and abilities as a package, hopefully enabling us to better understand them both and to see similarities as well as dissimilarities. While some prominent early modern accounts of power have been studied in detail, this volume also covers lesser‐known thinkers and several early modern women philosophers. The volume also investigates early modern accounts of powers and abilities in a more systematic fashion than has been previously done. By broadening its scope in these ways, the volume uncovers trends and tendencies in early modern thinking about powers and abilities that are easy to...
Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-matter
Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-matter tells the story of small matter such as bacteria, coral, fungi, lichen, pollen, protozoa, and viruses. With short entries that are organized like a herbarium or similar specimen collection, the book is a "microbium"-both the term for a single microbe and a play on "microbiome." As such, Microbium makes visible the often overseen but huge impact of miniscule matter on human culture and the environment. Each entry is a "microscopic reading" that describes the natural history and scientific discovery of a particular form of micro-matter, while also telling a story about the cultural and artistic roles it has played over the centuries. From the poet...
Critical Thinking: The Basics
Critical Thinking: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the field of critical thinking, drawing on philosophy, communication, and psychology. Emphasising its relevance both to academic literacy and to decision-making in a range of contexts, this book introduces and explains the knowledge, methods, and skills needed to identify and avoid poor reasoning, reconstruct and evaluate arguments, and engage constructively in dialogues. Topics covered include: The relationship between critical thinking, emotions, and the psychology of persuasion The role of character dispositions such as open-mindedness, courage, and self-knowledge Argument identification and reconstruction Fallaci...
Empiricisms
Empiricisms is about the value of experience and experiments. Why do we esteem them and what is their contribution to knowledge? The work is unique in the detail with which it explains empiricism, from its beginning in ancient medicine to its emergence as a philosophy of modern science. It elucidates the ideas of the so-called radical empiricists, clarifying their relation to historical empiricism, and explaining what is "radical" about them, and develops a comparison between European empiricism and ideas and practice in traditional China. Bringing China into the argument is an unexpected innovation, and makes the work a model for comparative philosophy.
Beyond the Learned Academy
Comprising fifteen essays by leading authorities in the history of mathematics, this volume aims to exemplify the richness, diversity, and breadth of mathematical practice from the seventeenth century through to the middle of the nineteenth century.
Environmental Philosophy and East Asia
This book explores the contributions of East Asian traditions, particularly Buddhism and Daoism, to environmental philosophy in dialogue with European philosophy. It critically examines the conceptions of human responsibility toward nature and across time presented within these traditions. The volume rethinks human relationships to the natural world by focusing on three main themes: Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, human responsibility toward nature, and Buddhist perspectives on life and nature. By way of discussing East Asian traditions and European thinkers, this collection reveals that the impact of humanity on the environment is shaped not only by distinctive modes of econom...
Locke’s Twilight of Probability
This book provides a systematic treatment of Locke’s theory of probable assent, and shows how the theory applies to Locke’s philosophy of science, moral epistemology, and religious epistemology. There is a powerful case to be made that the most important dimension of Locke’s philosophy is his theory of rational probable assent, rather than his theory of knowledge. According to Locke, we largely live our lives in the “twilight of probability” rather than in “the sunshine of certain knowledge.” Locke’s theory of probable assent has far-reaching significance insofar as it contains a wealth of novel, independently interesting, and prescient elements that precede the modern field ...
Descartes’s Moral Perfectionism
This book offers a novel and comprehensive interpretation of Descartes’s moral philosophy. In contrast to other influential interpretations, the book argues that the central tenet of his ethical thought is that each person ought to live in the way that is most conducive to their degree of overall perfection. While Descartes’s ethical thought has attracted only a very modest amount of attention among scholars, this book demonstrates that it constitutes an important and integral component of his philosophical project as a whole. It argues that Descartes’s ethics constitutes a form of moral perfectionism. In the Cartesian picture, we satisfy this requirement of perfection by using our fre...
