Hegel and Newtonianism

Hegel and Newtonianism
Author: Michael John Petry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 636
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401116628

It could certainly be argued that the way in which Hegel criticizes Newton in the Dissertation, the Philosophy of Nature and the lectures on the History of Philosophy, has done more than anything else to prejudice his own reputation. At first sight, what we seem to have here is little more than the contrast between the tested accomplishments of the founding father of modern science, and the random remarks of a confused and somewhat disgruntled philosopher; and if we are persuaded to concede that it may perhaps be something more than this - between the work of a clearsighted mathematician and experimentalist, and the blind assertions of some sort of Kantian logician, blundering about among the facts of the real world. By and large, it was this clear-cut simplistic view of the matter which prevailed among Hegel's contemporaries, and which persisted until fairly recently. The modification and eventual transformation of it have come about gradually, over the past twenty or twenty-five years. The first full-scale commentary on the Philosophy of Nature was published in 1970, and gave rise to the realization that to some extent at least, the Hegelian criticism was directed against Newtonianism rather than the work of Newton himself, and that it tended to draw its inspiration from developments within the natural sciences, rather than from the exigencies imposed upon Hegel's thinking by a priori categorial relationships.

Science in the Age of Baroque

Science in the Age of Baroque
Author: Ofer Gal
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2012-11-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400748078

This volume examines the New Science of the 17th century in the context of Baroque culture, analysing its emergence as an integral part of the high culture of the period. The collected essays explore themes common to the new practices of knowledge production and the rapidly changing culture surrounding them, as well as the obsessions, anxieties and aspirations they share, such as the foundations of order, the power and peril of mediation and the conflation of the natural and the artificial. The essays also take on the historiographical issues involved: the characterization of culture in general and culture of knowledge in particular; the use of generalizations like ‘Baroque’ and the status of such categories; and the role of these in untangling the historical complexities of the tumultuous 17th century. The canonical protagonists of the ‘Scientific Revolution’ are considered, and so are some obscure and suppressed figures: Galileo side by side with Scheiner;Torricelli together with Kircher; Newton as well as Scilla. The coupling of Baroque and Science defies both the still-triumphalist historiographies of the Scientific Revolution and the slight embarrassment that the Baroque represents for most cultural-national histories of Western Europe. It signals a methodological interest in tensions and dilemmas rather than self-affirming narratives of success and failure, and provides an opportunity for reflective critique of our historical categories which is valuable in its own right. ​

Eduard Gans and the Hegelian Philosophy of Law

Eduard Gans and the Hegelian Philosophy of Law
Author: M.H. Hoffheimer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1995-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780792332701

This volume provides the first sustained treatment of the legal theory of Eduard Gans (1789--1839) and the first translation of Gans's Systems of Roman Civil Law in Outline (1827). Hegel's close personal friend and recognized leader of the Hegelian movement, Gans posthumously edited Hegel's Philosophy of Law and Philosophy of History. As Professor of Law in Berlin, Gans championed legal codification in opposition to Savigny and the Historical School of Jurisprudence. Hoffheimer argues that Gans's legal writings, especially his systematic exposition of Roman Law, combined a brilliant application of Romanist legal scholarship with a creative, original vision of Hegelian methodology. The teacher of Karl Marx and Felix Mendelssohn, Gans promoted a liberal interpretation of Hegel and influenced an important generation of German thinkers.

Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung

Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung
Author: Sébastien Charles
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2014-07-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400748108

The Age of Enlightenment has often been portrayed as a dogmatic period on account of the veritable worship of reason and progress that characterized Eighteenth Century thinkers. Even today the philosophes are considered to have been completely dominated in their thinking by an optimism that leads to dogmatism and ultimately rationalism. However, on closer inspection, such a conception seems untenable, not only after careful study of the impact of scepticism on numerous intellectual domains in the period, but also as a result of a better understanding of the character of the Enlightenment. As Giorgio Tonelli has rightly observed: “the Enlightenment was indeed the Age of Reason but one of the main tasks assigned to reason in that age was to set its own boundaries.” Thus, given the growing number of works devoted to the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers, historians of philosophy have become increasingly aware of the role played by scepticism in the Eighteenth Century, even in those places once thought to be most given to dogmatism, especially Germany. Nevertheless, the deficiencies of current studies of Enlightenment scepticism are undeniable. In taking up this question in particular, the present volume, which is entirely devoted to the scepticism of the Enlightenment in both its historical and geographical dimensions, seeks to provide readers with a revaluation of the alleged decline of scepticism. At the same time it attempts to resituate the Pyrrhonian heritage within its larger context and to recapture the fundamental issues at stake. The aim is to construct an alternative conception of Enlightenment philosophy, by means of philosophical modernity itself, whose initial stages can be found herein. ​

Tommaso Campanella

Tommaso Campanella
Author: Germana Ernst
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2010-03-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 904813126X

A friend of Galileo and author of the renowned utopia The City of the Sun, Tommaso Campanella (Stilo, Calabria,1568- Paris, 1639) is one of the most significant and original thinkers of the early modern period. His philosophical project centred upon the idea of reconciling Renaissance philosophy with a radical reform of science and society. He produced a complex and articulate synthesis of all fields of knowledge – including magic and astrology. During his early formative years as a Dominican friar, he manifested a restless impatience towards Aristotelian philosophy and its followers. As a reaction, he enthusiastically embraced Bernardino Telesio’s view that knowledge could only be acquired through the observation of things themselves, investigated through the senses and based on a correct understanding of the link between words and objects. Campanella’s new natural philosophy rested on the principle that the books written by men needed to be compared with God’s infinite book of nature, allowing them to correct the mistakes scattered throughout the human ‘copies’ which were always imperfect, partial and liable to revisions. It is in the light of these principles that he defended Galileo’s right to read the book of nature while denouncing the mistake of those – be they Aristotelian philosophers or theologians – who wanted to stop him from carrying on his natural investigations. However, Campanella maintained that the book of nature, far from being written in mathematical characters, was a living organism in which each natural being was endowed with life and a degree of sensibility that was appropriate for its preservation and propagation. Nature as a whole was an organism in which each single part was directed towards the common good. This is the reason why Campanella thought that nature had to be regarded as an ideal model for any political organisation. Political structures were often ruled by injustice and violence precisely because they had departed from that natural model. This book charts Campanella’s intellectual life by showing the origin, development and persistence of some of the fundamental tenets of his thought.

Monopsychism Mysticism Metaconsciousness

Monopsychism Mysticism Metaconsciousness
Author: Philip Merlan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401193150

Part of the material contained in the present book was presented in the form of a lecture course given by me at the University of Oxford in I962 as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer. Scripps College and the Claremont Graduate School contributed to the cost of research and publication. The staff of the Honnold Library, Claremont, California, was extremely obliging in matters concerning inter-library loans. The page proofs were read in part by Professor Richard Walzer, the University of Oxford. Mr. Salih Alich, Blaisdell Institute, Claremont, California, corrected many errors occurring in the transliteration from Arabic in Section V. To all these institutions and persons I express my most sincere thanks. The manuscript was essentially completed early in I960. Scripps College, Claremont, California. TABLES OF CONTENTS I GENERAL I Introduction 1-3 II Three neoaristotelian and neoplatonic concepts: mono psychism, mysticism, metaconsciousness III Three A verroistic problems I Collective immortality and collective perfection in A verroes and Dante 2 Ecstatic conjunction, death, and immortality in the individual 102 94- 3 The double truth theory and the problem of per sonal immortality in A verroes 102-II3 IV Collective consciousness, double consciousness, and metaconsciousness (unconscious consciousness) in Kant and some post-Kantians 114-137 V Select bibliography of translations of philosophical works by al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, ibn-Bagga, and Averroes 138-150 VI Index of names 151-154 11 ANALYTICAL OF SECTION 11 I The starting point: Plotinus, Enn. V 1. Plotinus' principle l)'rL oux ~~c. u VOU 't"oc V01)'t"CX.

Exciting the Industry of Mankind George Berkeley’s Philosophy of Money

Exciting the Industry of Mankind George Berkeley’s Philosophy of Money
Author: C.G. Caffentzis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2000-07-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780792362975

A comprehensive examination of George Berkeley's revolutionary views on money and banking. Berkeley broke the conceptual link between money and metallic substance in "The Querist", a work published between 1735 and 1737 in Dublin, consisting entirely of questions. This study explains what economic and social forces caused Berkeley to write "The Querist" in response to a major economic crisis in Ireland. It falsifies the view that Berkeley has nothing to tell us about our present and future social and economic life. For the "idealism" Berkeley found in the money form is becoming a fact of global economic life, when "xenomoney" and "virtual money" exchanges begin to dwarf commodity transactions, and the future becomes the dominant temporal dimension of economic activity. Philosophers, historians, cultural theorists, economists and lovers of Irish history should find this volume of interest.