Bøker i Modern European Philosophy-serien

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.

This book proposes a radical new reading of the development of twentieth-century French philosophy. Henry Somers-Hall argues that the central unifying aspect of works by philosophers including Sartre, Foucault, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Derrida is their attempt to provide an account of cognition that does not reduce thinking to judgement. Somers-Hall shows that each of these philosophers is in dialogue with the others in a shared project (however differently executed) to overcome their inheritances from the Kantian and post-Kantian traditions. His analysis points up the continuing relevance of German idealism, and Kant in particular, to modern French philosophy, with novel readings of many aspects of the philosophies under consideration that show their deep debts to Kantian thought. The result is an important account of the emergence, and essential coherence, of the modern French philosophical tradition.

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.

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 book is at once an important application of Heidegger's thought to contemporary philosophical discussion, and a profound argument for a humanistic rather than scientific account of what it is to be a human being.

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.

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.

Introduction to Hegel's thought for the student and general reader, emphasizing in particular his social and political thought and his continuing relevance to contemporary problems.

Habermas and earlier members of the Frankfurt School have presented critical theory as a radically new form of knowledge. It is differentiated from the natural sciences as essentially 'reflective': the knowledge it provides guides us towards enlightenment as to our true interests, and emancipation from often unsuspected forms of external and internal coercion. Its first paradigms are in the writings of Marx and Freud. In this book Raymond Geuss sets out these fundamental claims and asks whether they can be made good. Is a science which does not simply describe and explain social phenomena, but also criticizes? The concept of ideology plays a crucial role in this discussion. Geuss carefully analyses it here, its relation to our beliefs and interests, and the account of truth and confirmation required by its critique and the concomitant goal of self-knowledge. The book does not presuppose acquaintance with the works of the Frankfurt School and can serve as a lucid introduction to their central, distinctive theses. But in its scrupulous and incisive consideration of these, and the modified support for them that emerges, it will also interest experts on critical theory and others concerned with the methods and purposes of the social sciences in general.

This collection of essays offers an original interpretation of the tradition of German Idealist thought. This collection will be of special interest to students of German philosophy, literary theory and the history of ideas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Edmund Husserl discusses the question of whether the world is of our making or whether some form of realism is true. In this book Robert Tragesser sets out to determine the conditions under which a realist ontology of mathematics and logic might be justified, taking Husserl as his starting point.

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.

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

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

A major new study of Kant's ethics, arguing that Kant's ethical vision is grounded in the idea of the dignity of the rational nature of every human being. Focuses on the central role played in Kant's ethical theory by the value of rational nature as an end itself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As well as aiming to revive interest in Meinong's thought, this book challenges many of the most widespread assumptions of philosophical logic. It will reopen questions about existence and the logical form for representing it which many have regarded as closed and stimulate them to rethink their positions.