A Companion to World Philosophies (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)

A Companion to World Philosophies (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) Review

This outstanding volume offers students, teachers and general readers a complete introductory survey of the major non-western philosophical traditions.

A Covenant of Creatures: Levinas's Philosophy of Judaism (Cultural Memory in the Present)

A Covenant of Creatures: Levinas's Philosophy of Judaism (Cultural Memory in the Present) Review

"I am not a particularly Jewish thinker," said Emmanuel Levinas, "I am just a thinker." This book argues against the idea, affirmed by Levinas himself, that Totality and Infinity and Otherwise Than Being separate philosophy from Judaism. By reading Levinas's philosophical works through the prism of Judaic texts and ideas, Michael Fagenblat argues that what Levinas called "ethics" is as much a hermeneutical product wrought from the Judaic heritage as a series of phenomenological observations. Decoding the Levinas's philosophy of Judaism within a Heideggerian and Pauline framework, Fagenblat uses biblical, rabbinic, and Maimonidean texts to provide sustained interpretations of the philosopher's work. Ultimately he calls for a reconsideration of the relation between tradition and philosophy, and of the meaning of faith after the death of epistemology.

Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger (Phoenix Books)

Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger (Phoenix Books) Review

This anthology is remarkable not only for the selections themselves, among which the Schelling and the Heidegger essays were translated especially for this volume, but also for the editors' general introduction and the introductory essays for each selection, which make this volume an invaluable aid to the study of the powerful, recurrent ideas concerning art, beauty, critical method, and the nature of representation. Because this collection makes clear the ways in which the philosophy of art relates to and is part of general philosophical positions, it will be an essential sourcebook to students of philosophy, art history, and literary criticism.

Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources

Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources Review

The leading anthology of its kind, this volume provides the key works of seven major philosophers, along with a rich selection of associated texts by other leading thinkers of the period thoughtfully chosen to enhance the reader s understanding of modern philosophy and its relationship to the natural sciences of the time. Texts are provided in their entirety or in substantive selections.

Enhanced in its second edition by the addition of selections from Montaigne and Reid, as well as judiciously expanded selections from the works of Newton and Hume, Modern Philosophy remains the preeminent text for the teaching of modern philosophy.

Introducing Eastern Philosophy

Introducing Eastern Philosophy Review

Eastern philosophy is the most ancient form of thought known to man. More and more people are turning towards the integrated approach of Eastern thought, but often in a vague and generalized way. "Introducing Eastern Philosophy" focuses on India and China, the two oldest and most influential origins of Eastern thought. It brilliantly explains the complex branches of Indian Buddhism, the traditions of Confucius and the Tao in China, and demonstrates their fundamental differences to Western notions of truth. It makes clear the Eastern view of ultimate reality, the emphasis on selfless ethics and the quest for Enlightenment. This is an ideal guide for the Western reader to the historical and philosophical basis of Eastern cultures.

Gilles Deleuze and the Fabulation of Philosophy: Powers of the False, Volume 1

Gilles Deleuze and the Fabulation of Philosophy: Powers of the False, Volume 1 Review

Although much has been written about Deleuze’s engagement with the arts, Gilles Deleuze and the Fabulation of Philosophy concerns the art of his philosophy. Gregory Flaxman suggests that Deleuze’s notorious rejection of representation gives rise to a singular task—to create new concepts and invent new means of philosophical expression. Tracing this task throughout Deleuze’s vast oeuvre, Flaxman argues that Deleuze’s ambition to think and write “otherwise” constitutes the fabulation of philosophy itself.

For Flaxman, Deleuze’s philosophy is organized around the notion of the friend (philos). This book dramatizes the practice of friendship in Deleuze’s intimate affairs with philosophers—including Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, and Foucault—and close encounters with a range of writers, including Homer, More, Kafka, Woolf, and Borges. Flaxman traces Deleuze’s relationship with Nietzsche, the friend from whom he learned to write “in his own name,” to explain how apprenticeship becomes the initial condition of Deleuze’s philosophical method. Detailing the transformation of Nietzsche’s genealogy into “geophilosophy,” Flaxman goes on to show how Deleuze’s philosophy of the earth precipitates his return to ancient Greece and induces his resolution to overturn Platonism. In this spirit, the book demonstrates Deleuze’s evocation of the “powers of the false” by examining how, in his battle against representation, he makes fiction the basis for a minor philosophy. This first volume draws to a close with a timely elaboration of Deleuze’s avowed, if enigmatic, “style as politics” in an age when capitalism and communication challenge the claims of philosophy as never before.

A stunning and original contribution, Flaxman’s book restores the question of aesthetics to Deleuze’s thinking and writing. Gilles Deleuze and the Fabulation of Philosophy not only revitalizes our sense of the philosopher but revises the sense of his philosophy, provoking critical problems and novel possibilities with which readers will wrestle for years to come.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism Review

British philosopher John Stuart Mill approached ethical theory with a scientist's eye in his contributions to utilitarianism. Building upon the premise set forth by Jeremy Bentham, Mill subjected his own work to the scientific method and deep, incisive inquiry. Mill formulated utilitarianism on the "greatest-happiness principle." Under this principle, it is ethical only to act in such a way that will deliver the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest amount of people. The work outlines how Mill defines and orders higher and lower forms of happiness as well as stressing the importance of holding an objective perspective when determining the ethical status of an event. A must-read for anyone with an interest in ethical inquiry.