Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy is an original and timely volume that examines the distinctive and important role played by humanism in the development of early modern philosophy. Focusing on individual authors as well as intellectual trends, this collection of essays aims to portray the humanist movement as an essential part of the philosophy of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
Postmodern Media Culture examines the relationships between theories of the postmodern and contemporary media institutions, products, and consumers. It analyzes the function of media examples in the work of a number of key theorists -including Adorno, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Habermas, Jameson, Lyotard, and McLuhan -and discusses contemporary media production, products, and audiences, to test and reorient theoretical models of the postmodern. The book deals with film, television, information technology, consumer products, and popular literature and assesses challenges to conceptions of the postmodern based on gender, race, and region. The book also addresses the confusion of terms in this subject area (such as "modernity," "postmodernity," "postmodernism," the "postmodern") and integrates a wide-ranging analysis of contemporary media culture with theories of the postmodern. Topics discussed include mass culture, technologies of media production and consumption, simulation and spectacle, apocalypse and the end of history, the politics of consumption, media aesthetics and politics, heterogeneity and difference, and contemporary culture as a global village or a postmodern condition.
In recent years, the recognition of Gilles Deleuze as one of the major philosophers of the twentieth century has heightened attention to his brilliant and complex writings on film. What is the place of Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 in the corpus of his philosophy? How and why does Deleuze consider cinema as a singular object of philosophical attention, a specific mode of thought? How does his philosophy of film combine and further his approaches to time, movement, and perception, and how does it produce an escape from subjectivity and a plunge into the immanence of images? How does it recode and utilize Henri Bergson's thought and André Bazin's film theory? What does it tell us about perceiving a world in images -- indeed about our relation to the world?
The History and Philosophy of Social Science proves that it is possible to meet the most exacting scholarly standards while also managing to make the history of the social sciences enjoyable to read. Scott Gordon provides a comprehensive review of the historical development of the social sciences from their beginnings in Renaissance Italy to the present day. He examines the problems that the great thinkers have confronted in their attempts to construct systematic theories of social phenomena. At the same time, he presents an authoritative survey of the major writers in the fields of economics, sociology, and political science.
What better introduction to the world of philosophy than through the lives of its most prominent citizens. In The Philosophers, we are introduced to twenty-eight of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization, ranging from Aristotle and Plato to Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Sartre. An illustrious team of scholars takes us on a concise and illuminating tour of some of the most brilliant minds and enduring ideas in history. Here is Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Plato's cave of shadows, Schopenhauer's vision of reality as blind, striving Will, Hegel's idea of the World Spirit, Bentham's principle of the Greatest Happiness, Mill's contributions to our understanding of liberty, William James's theory of the stream of consciousness, Husserl's phenomenology, and much more. Readers will find thoughtful discussions of everything from Kant's categorical imperative, to the Christian philosophies of Augustine, Aquinas, and Kierkegaard, to the materialism of Hobbes or Marx, to the modern--and quite different--philosophical systems of Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Each article is illustrated with a portrait of the philosopher, the contributors provide lists for further reading, and the volume includes a chronological table that gives valuable historical context. Here then is an authoritative and engaging guide to the ideas of the most notable philosophers, ranging from antiquity to the present day. The Philosophers shows how these great thinkers wrestled with the central problems of the human condition--with important questions of free will, morality, and the limits of logic and reason--as it illuminates their legacy for our time.
Logic: The Basics is a hands-on introduction to the philosophically alive field of logical inquiry. Covering both classical and non-classical theories, it presents some of the core notions of logic such as validity, basic connectives, identity, ‘free logic’ and more. This book: introduces some basic ideas of logic from a semantic and philosophical perspective, uses logical consequence as the focal concept throughout, considers some of the, controversies and rival logics that make for such a lively field.
Now in its fourth edition, Nigel Warburton's best-selling book gently eases the reader into the world of philosophy. Each chapter considers a key area of philosophy, explaining and exploring the basic ideas and themes including: what is philosophy? Can you prove God exists? Is there an afterlife? How do we know right from wrong? Should you ever break the law? Is the world really the way you think it is? How should we define Freedom of Speech? Do you know how science works? Is your mind different from your body? Can you define art? For the fourth edition, Warburton has added new sections to several chapters, revised others and brought the further reading sections up to date. If you've ever asked 'what is philosophy?', or wondered whether the world is really the way you think it is, this is the book for you.
Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century, but he is also one of the least accessible. This volume provides a comprehensible guide to his work by a wide range of experts who are actively engaged in new work on Wittgenstein. The essays, which are both expository and original, address central themes in his philosophy of mind, language, logic, and mathematics and clarify the connections among the different stages in the development of his work.
Rousseau, the great political theorist and philosopher of education, was an important forerunner of the French Revolution, though his thought was too nuanced and subtle ever to serve as mere ideology. This is the only volume that systematically surveys the full range of Rousseau's activities in politics and education, psychology, anthropology, religion, music, and theater. New readers will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Rousseau currently available, while advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Rousseau.
Each volume of this series of companions to major philosophers contains specially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars and will serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists. John Rawls is the most significant and influential philosopher and moral philosopher of the twentieth century. His work has profoundly shaped contemporary discussions of social, political and economic justice in philosophy, law, political science, economics and other social disciplines. In this exciting collection of new essays, many of the world's leading political and moral theorists discuss the full range of Rawls's contribution to the concepts of political and economic justice, democracy, liberalism, constitutionalism, and international justice. There are also assessments of Rawls's controversial relationships with feminism, utilitarianism and communitarianism. New readers will find this the most accessible guide to Rawls currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Rawls.
This book elaborates and elucidates the concepts and characteristics of China's Buddhist culture with special emphasis on two aspects: (1) the historical evolution of Chinese Buddhism as well as related ancient books, records, basic doctrines, systems and protocols, and famous historical and cultural sites; and (2) the influence of Buddhism on such aspects of Chinese culture as politics, ethics, philosophy, literature and art, and folk customs, as well as the differences and similarities between Buddhism and both Confucianism and Taoism. This book further summarizes the structure, core beliefs, internal and external relations, root of evolution, and peculiarity of China's Buddhist culture system. This book aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the historical status of Buddhism and its important role in the evolution of Chinese culture.