Allegory in Early Greek Philosophy examines the role that allegory plays in Greek thought, particularly in the transition from the mythic tradition of the archaic poets to the philosophical traditions of the Presocratics and Plato. It explores how a mode of speech that «says one thing, but means another» is integral to philosophy, which otherwise seeks to achieve clarity and precision in its discourse. By providing the early Greek thinkers with ...
Shortly before he was assassinated in 1940, Leon Trotsky — one of Marx's most devoted converts and a key figure in the Russian Revolution — made this selection from Capital, to which he appended his own lengthy and insightful introduction. Compact and fascinating, this invaluable work not only presents Marx's thoughts in his own words but also places them in the swirling context of the 20th century. A critical analy ...
Thorough and lucid survey of Western philosophy from pre-Socratics to mid 20th century: major figures, currents, trends, literature, significance, and more. Valuable section on contemporary philosophy — Brentano, Ortega, Heidegger, others. One of the best elementary history of philosophy available. «Brevity and clarity of exposition…» — Ethics. ...
Charles S. Peirce in the opinion of many authorities was the most profound and original philosopher that America has produced. A master of exact science, our foremost logician, the founder of pragmatism, Peirce was one of the most remarkable and versatile minds of the 19th century, whose scattered writings made important contributions to such varied fields of logic, mathematics, geodesy, religion, astronomy, chemistry, physics, psychology, histo ...
The most famous and influential work of distinguished French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859–1941), Creative Evolution features the fullest expression of the philosopher's ideas about the problem of existence, propounding a theory of evolution completely distinct from these of earlier thinkers and scientists.In discussing the meaning of life, Bergson considers the order of nature and the form of intelligence, including the geometr ...
In his monumental Critique of Pure Reason, German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) argues that human knowledge is limited by the capacity for perception. He attempts a logical designation of two varieties of knowledge: a posteriori, the knowledge acquired through experience; and a priori, knowledge not derived through experience. Kant maintains that the most practical forms of human knowledge employ the a priori judgments that are ...
This 1790 polemic by one of philosophy's most important and influential figures attempts to establish the principles that support the faculty of judgment. Kant's third critique — after Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Pure Reason — remains one of the most important works on human reason. The Critique of Judgment informs the very basis of modern aesthetics by establishing the almost universally accepted f ...
Plato's brilliant dialogues, written in the fourth century B.C., rank among Western civilization's most important philosophical works. Presented as a series of probing conversations between Socrates and his students and fellow citizens, they form a magnificent dialectical quest that examines enduring political, ethical, metaphysical, and epistemological issues. Here, in one inexpensive edition, are six of Plato's remarkable and re ...
Hegel wrote this classic as an introduction to a series of lectures on the «philosophy of history» — a novel concept in the early nineteenth century. With this work, he created the history of philosophy as a scientific study. He reveals philosophical theory as neither an accident nor an artificial construct, but as an exemplar of its age, fashioned by its antecedents and contemporary circumstances, and serving as a model for the future ...
