Bøger i Modern European Philosophy serien

This major study of Kant provides a detailed examination of the doctrine of transcendental illusion in his theoretical philosophy. The author argues that we cannot understand Kant unless we take seriously his claim that the mind inevitably acts in accordance with ideas and principles that are 'illusory'.

This is a book about the philosophy of Henri Bergson (1859-1941) which shows how relevant Bergson is to much of contemporary philosophy. Written in a terse and clear style, this book will prove appealing to teachers and students of philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, religious studies and literature.

This 1996 book provides a detailed, systematic reconsideration of the neglected nineteenth-century positivist Auguste Comte. Apart from offering an accurate account of what Comte actually wrote, the book argues that Comte's positivism has never had greater contemporary relevance than now.

A systematic reconstruction of Heidegger's account of time and temporality in Being and Time. The author locates Heidegger in a tradition of 'temporal idealism' with its sources in Plotinus, Leibniz, and Kant. Focuses on a neglected but central aspect of Heidegger's work.

The essays collected in this volume all explore the problem of the relation between moral philosophy and modernity. Written in a distinctively lucid style and covering a wide compass, these essays will be of particular interest to professional philosophers and political scientists, but will also appeal to general readers concerned with ethics and politics.

This 1991 book is a critical study of the philosophical culture of the USSR, and the first substantial treatment of a Soviet philosopher's work by a Western author.

Professor Holdcroft's book expounds and elaborates Saussure's central ideas - that the primary object in studying a language is the state of that language at a particular time - a so-called synchronic study. It also offers a critical assessment of them, arguing that many of Saussure's claims are either questionable or have been misunderstood.

Jon Stewart's study is a major re-evaluation of the complex relations between the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel. Scholars working in the tradition of Continental philosophy will find this an insightful and provocative book. It will also appeal to scholars in religious studies and the history of ideas.

This book provides an authoritative account of Hegel's social philosophy at a level that presupposes no specialised knowledge of the subject. Hegel's social theory is designed to reconcile the individual with the modern social world.

Gottlob Frege has exerted an enormous influence on the evolution of twentieth-century philosophy, yet the real significance of that influence is still very much a matter of debate. This book provides a completely new and systematic account of Frege's philosophy by focusing on its cornerstone: the theory of sense and reference.

An introduction to the critical interpretation of the work of Michael Foucault.

Franz Brentano stands at the origins of the phenomenological tradition. This critical exposition of this theory of intrinsic value will interest those concerned with the development of phenomenological value theory and more generally with the connections between ethics and philosophical psychology.

This study explores the theme of freedom in the philosophy of Hegel and Nietzsche. In bringing Hegel and Nietzsche together into a conversation, Will Dudley has developed some original interpretations that will be of considerable importance to students of these philosophers, and to political theorists and historians of ideas.

This book systematically examines Hegel's idealism in relation to the metaphysical and epistemological tradition stemming from Aristotle. No serious student of Hegel can afford to ignore this major interpretation.

Gary Gutting offers a powerful account of the nature of human reason in modern times. His own position is defined as 'pragmatic liberalism'. Gutting analyzes the work of three dominant philosophical voices in our time: Richard Rorty, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor.

Charles Griswold has written a comprehensive philosophical discussion of Smith's moral and political philosophy. This 1999 book is a major historical and philosophical reassessment of a key figure in the Enlightenment.

Richard Eldridge argues that Romantic thought, interpreted as the pursuit of freedom in concrete contexts, remains central to both artistic work and philosophical understanding. The first serious philosophical defense of the ethical ideals of Romanticism, this volume, first published in 2001, will appeal particularly to all professionals and students in philosophy, literature and aesthetics.

Speight argues that behind Hegel's appeal to literature in the Phenomenology of Spirit lies a concern with understanding human agency in the modern world. Hegel looked to three literary genres - tragedy, comedy, and the Romantic novel - as offering privileged access to three moments of human agency: retrospectivity, theatricality, and forgiveness.

Professor Winch provides a fresh perspective on the complete span of Simone Weil's work, and discusses the fundamental difficulties of tracing the dividing line between philosophy and religion.

Written by one of the preeminent interpreters of Heidegger, this book is an important statement about the basis of human sociality that is a major contribution to the continuing debates about Heidegger in particular, and ethics in general.

Theodor W. Adorno is best known for his contributions to aesthetics and social theory. In this highly original contribution to the literature on Adorno, J. M. Bernstein offers the first attempt in any language to provide an account of the ethical theory latent in Adorno's writings.

An important contribution to Kant scholarship. Henry Allison, a pre-eminent interpreter of Kant, offers a comprehensive, systematic, and philosophically astute account of all aspects of Kant's views on aesthetics. No one with a serious interest in Kant's aesthetics can afford to ignore this study.

This major study of Heidegger is the first to examine in detail the concept of existential truth that he developed in the 1920s. Daniel O. Dahlstrom critically examines the genesis, nature and validity of Heidegger's radical attempt to rethink truth as the disclosure of time, a disclosure allegedly more basic than truths formulated in scientific judgements.

In this important collection of essays Robert Pippin takes issue with some prominent assessments of what is or is not philosophically at stake in the idea of a modern revolution in Western civilisation, and presents an alternative view. This volume will interest philosophers, literary theorists, and social and political theorists.

This 1997 work is a book-length treatment of the unique nature and development of Nietzsche's post-Zarathustran political philosophy. Daniel Conway has written a powerful book about Nietzsche's own appreciation of the limitations of both his writing style and of his famous prophetic 'stance'.

This is the first book in English on the major works of the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814). It examines the transcendental theory of self and world from the writings of Fichte's most influential period (1794-1800). This book takes its place as the ideal introduction to Fichte's thought.

An analytical account of the central topics of Nietzsche's epistomology and metaphysics.

Hegel's Science of Logic has received less attention than his Phenomenology of Spirit, but Hegel himself took it to be his highest philosophical achievement and the backbone of his system. The present book focuses on this most difficult of Hegel's published works. Beatrice Longuenesse offers a close analysis of core issues, including discussions of what Hegel means by 'dialectical logic', the role and meaning of 'contradiction' in Hegel's philosophy, and Hegel's justification for the provocative statement that 'what is actual is rational, what is rational is actual'. She examines both Hegel's debt and his polemical reaction to Kant, and shows in great detail how his project of a 'dialectical' logic can be understood only in light of its relation to Kant's 'transcendental' logic. This book will appeal to anyone interested in Hegel's philosophy and its influence on contemporary philosophical discussion.

Debates over the 'end of art' have tended to obscure Hegel's work on the arts themselves. Benjamin Rutter opens this study with a defence of art's indispensability to Hegel's conception of modernity; he then seeks to reorient discussion toward the distinctive values of painting, poetry, and the novel. Working carefully through Hegel's four lecture series on aesthetics, he identifies the expressive possibilities particular to each medium. Thus, Dutch genre scenes animate the everyday with an appearance of vitality; metaphor frees language from prose; and Goethe's lyrics revive the banal routines of love with imagination and wit. Rutter's important study reconstructs Hegel's view not only of modern art but of modern life and will appeal to philosophers, literary theorists, and art historians alike.

Modern philosophers generally assume that music is a problem to which philosophy ought to offer an answer. Andrew Bowie's Music, Philosophy, and Modernity suggests, in contrast, that music might offer ways of responding to some central questions in modern philosophy. Bowie looks at key philosophical approaches to music ranging from Kant, through the German Romantics and Wagner, to Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Adorno. He uses music to re-examine many ideas about language, subjectivity, metaphysics, truth and ethics, and he suggests that music can show how the predominant images of language, communication, and meaning in contemporary philosophy may be lacking in essential ways. His book will be of interest to philosophers, musicologists, and all who are interested in the relation between music and philosophy.