The Minds of the Moderns

The Minds of the Moderns
Author: Janice Thomas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2014-12-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317492404

This is a comprehensive examination of the ideas of the early modern philosophers on the nature of mind. Taking Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in turn, Janice Thomas presents an authoritative and critical assessment of each of these canonical thinkers' views of the notion of mind. The book examines each philosopher's position on five key topics: the metaphysical character of minds and mental states; the nature and scope of introspection and self-knowledge; the nature of consciousness; the problem of mental causation and the nature of representation and intentionality. The exposition and examination of their positions is informed by present-day debates in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of psychology so that students get a clear sense of the importance of these philosophers' ideas, many of which continue to define our current notions of the mental.Again and again, philosophers and students alike come back to the great early modern rationalist and empiricist philosophers for instruction and inspiration. Their views on the philosophy of mind are no exception and as Janice Thomas shows they have much to offer contemporary debates. The book is suitable for undergraduate courses in the philosophy of mind and the many new courses in philosophy of psychology.

On Schopenhauer's Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason

On Schopenhauer's Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
Author: F. C. White
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1992
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9789004095434

This book is a philosophical commentary on Schopenhauer's "Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason," dealing with each of Schopenhauer's principal topics in turn. It also provides the reader with a general survey of Schopenhauer's later philosophical views and puts them into an historical context

The Philosophy of Schopenhauer

The Philosophy of Schopenhauer
Author: Dale Jacquette
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317494474

Dale Jacquette charts the development of Schopenhauer's ideas from the time of his early dissertation on The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason through the two editions of his magnum opus The World as Will and Representation to his later collections of philosophical aphorisms and competition essays. Jacquette explores the central topics in Schopenhauer's philosophy including his metaphysics of the world as representation and Will, his so-called pessimistic philosophical appraisal of the human condition, his examination of the concept of death, his dualistic analysis of free will, and his simplified non-Kantian theory of morality. Jacquette shows how these many complex themes fit together in a unified portrait of Schopenhauer's philosophy. The synthesis of Plato, Kant and Buddhist and Hindu ideas is given particular attention as is his influence on Nietzsche, first a follower and then arch opponent of Schopenhauer's thought, and the early Wittgenstein. The book provides a comprehensive and in-depth historical and philosophical introduction to Schopenhauer's distinctive contribution to philosophy.

Space and the Self in Hume's Treatise

Space and the Self in Hume's Treatise
Author: Marina Frasca-Spada
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2002-04-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780521891622

A rich and original examination of Hume's discussion of the idea of space.

The Metaphysics of Self-realisation and Freedom

The Metaphysics of Self-realisation and Freedom
Author: Colin Tyler
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2017-03-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1845405692

This first part of Colin Tyler's new critical assessment of the social and political thought of T.H. Green (1836–1882) explores the grounding that Green gives to liberal socialism. Tyler shows how, for Green, ultimately, personal self-realisation and freedom stem from the innate human drive to construct a bedrock of fundamental values and commitments that can define and give direction to the individual's most valuable potentials and talents. This book is not only a significant contribution to British idealist scholarship. It highlights also the enduring philosophical and ethical resources of a social democratic tradition that remains one of the world’s most important social and political movements, and not least across Britain, Europe, North America, India and Australia. Dr Colin Tyler is Reader in Politics at the University of Hull and joint convenor of the Centre for British Idealism.

The Renaissance and 17th Century Rationalism

The Renaissance and 17th Century Rationalism
Author: Prof G H R Parkinson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2023-05-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000948676

This fourth volume traces the history of Renaissance philosophy and seventeenth century rationalism, covering Descartes and the birth of modern philosophy.

Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise

Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise
Author: Louis E. Loeb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2002-09-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198033508

David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature is famous for its extreme skepticism. Louis Loeb argues that Hume's destructive conclusions have in fact obscured a constructive stage that Hume abandons prematurely. Working within a philosophical tradition that values tranquillity, Hume favors an epistemology that links justification with settled belief. Hume appeals to psychological stability to support his own epistemological assessments, both favorable regarding causal inference, and unfavorable regarding imaginative propensities. The theory's success in explaining Hume's epistemic distinctions gives way to pessimism, since Hume contends that reflection on beliefs is deeply destabilizing. So much the worse, Hume concludes, for placing a premium on reflection. Hume endorses and defends the position that stable beliefs of unreflective persons are justified, though they would not survive reflection. At the same time, Hume relishes the paradox that unreflective beliefs enjoy a preferred epistemic status and strains to establish it. Loeb introduces a series of amendments to the Treatise that secures a more positive result for justified belief while maintaining Hume's fundamental principles. In his review of Hume's applications of his epistemology, Loeb uncovers a stratum of psychological doctrine beyond associationism, a theory of conditions in which beliefs are felt to conflict and of the resolution of this uneasiness or dissonance. This theory of mental conflict is also essential to Hume's strategy for integrating empiricism about meaning with his naturalism. However, Hume fails to provide a general account of the conditions in which conflicting beliefs lead to persisting instability, so his theory is incomplete. Loeb explores Hume's concern with stability in reference to his discussions of belief, education, the probability of causes, unphilosophical probability, the belief in body, sympathy and moral judgment, and the passions, among other topics.

The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists

The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists
Author: Peter P. Nicholson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1990-01-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521371025

This book offers a reassessment of the political philosophy of the British Idealists, a group of once influential and now neglected nineteenth-century Hegelian philosophers, whose work has been much misunderstood. Peter Nicholson focuses on F. H. Bradley's idea of morality and moral philosophy; T. H. Green's theory of the Common Good, of the social nature of rights, of freedom, and of state interference; and Bernard Bosanquet's notorious theory of the General Will. By examining the arguments offered by the Idealists and by their critics the author is able to penetrate the deep layers of hostile comment laid down by several generations of later writers and to show that these ideas, once properly understood, are not only defensible but interesting and important.