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Anton Wilhelm Amo's Philosophical Dissertations on Mind and Body

Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703–after 1752) is the first modern African philosopher to study and teach in a European university and write in the European philosophical tradition. This book provides an ... More

Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703–after 1752) is the first modern African philosopher to study and teach in a European university and write in the European philosophical tradition. This book provides an extensive historical and philosophical introduction to Amo’s life and work, and provides Latin texts, with facing translations and explanatory notes, of Amo’s two philosophical dissertations, On the Impassivity of the Human Mind and the Philosophical Disputation containing a Distinct Idea of those Things that Pertain either to the Mind or to our Living and Organic Body, both published in 1734. The Impassivity is an extended argument that the mind cannot be acted on, that sensation is a being-acted-on by the sensed object, and therefore that sensation does not belong to the mind, and must belong instead to the body. The Distinct Idea works out the implications for the mind’s actions, and tries to show how the mind understands, wills, and effects things through the body by ‘intentions’ which direct motions in our body intentionally toward external things. Both dissertations try to show how far each type of human act belongs to the mind, how far to the body, and expose and resolve earlier philosophers’ self-contradictions on these questions.Less

Locke Among the Radicals: Liberty and Property in the Nineteenth Century

Daniel Layman

During the nineteenth century, the Lockean radicals—Thomas Hodgskin, Lysander Spooner, John Bray, and Henry George—picked up the loose ends of Locke’s property theory and wove them into two competing ... More

During the nineteenth century, the Lockean radicals—Thomas Hodgskin, Lysander Spooner, John Bray, and Henry George—picked up the loose ends of Locke’s property theory and wove them into two competing strands. Each strand addressed problems of liberty and equality that were emerging with industrial capitalism, but each did so in a different way. In one camp, Hodgskin and Spooner—the libertarian radicals—argued that the world of resources is common to all people only in the negative sense of being originally unowned by anyone. According to them, there are no just grounds for state redistribution except to correct past injustices, and governments are typically little more than thieving and oppressive gangs. In the other camp, Bray and George—the egalitarian radicals—held that all people have a positive claim to share equally in the world’s resources. According to them, states should ensure, through redistributive taxation and other progressive policies, that our institutions respect this common right. Locke Among the Radicals tells the forgotten story of the Lockean radicals and the role they played in addressing problems latent in Locke’s theory. In addition, it argues that some of the radicals’ insights can provide a blueprint for a form of liberal distributive justice that is applicable today.Less

Marx in Motion: A New Materialist Marxism

Thomas Nail

Socialism is back, and with it comes a renewed interest in Marx’s critique of capitalism. After the 2008 financial crash, international book sales of Capital exploded for the first time in decades. ... More

Socialism is back, and with it comes a renewed interest in Marx’s critique of capitalism. After the 2008 financial crash, international book sales of Capital exploded for the first time in decades. In a world of rising income inequality, right-wing nationalisms, and global climate change, people are looking to the father of modern socialism for answers. This book has been written to help those returning to Marx get answers to their pressing questions about the nature of wealth, ecological crisis, gender inequality, colonialism, migration, and the possibility of socialism. This book also offers readers a new perspective on several major ideas in Marx’s work. It argues that Marx, contrary to conventional wisdom, did not think history was deterministic or that reality could be reduced to classical materialism. Marx was not an anthropocentric humanist, nor did he have a labor theory of value. The unique contribution of this book is that it begins with Marx’s earliest and most neglected book on ancient naturalism in order to show its lasting methodological effect on his “process materialism,” defined by the primacy of motion. This “kinetic Marxism” offers a new way to reread Capital that bears directly on a number of contemporary issues. This also makes Marx in Motion the first book to offer a new materialist reading of Marx. The result is a fresh new view on the important theories of primitive accumulation, metabolism, value, fetishism, dialectics, and the possibility of a kinetic communism for the twenty-first century.Less

Joyce's Ulysses: Philosophical Perspectives

Philip Kitcher (ed.)

Ulysses is a famously difficult book. Philosophy is well-known as an abstruse subject. Yet thinking about Joyce’s great novel in philosophical ways provides not only new approaches for seasoned ... More

Ulysses is a famously difficult book. Philosophy is well-known as an abstruse subject. Yet thinking about Joyce’s great novel in philosophical ways provides not only new approaches for seasoned Joyceans but also orientation for those perplexed by Ulysses. Six eminent scholars, philosophers and literary critics, combine philosophical and literary analysis to present accessible perspectives on one of the world’s masterpieces. Successive chapters explore Joyce’s revisionary attitudes to the emotions, to consciousness, to the roles of the senses, to the relation between fiction and reality, to the impact of history and tradition on human lives, and to the ways in which we can reorganize the experiential worlds in which we live.Less

John Rawls: Debating the Major Questions

Jon Mandle and Sarah Roberts-Cady (eds)

This collection of original essays explores major areas of debate inspired by the political philosophy of John Rawls. The volume is divided into ten parts, exploring ten distinct questions: Can ... More

This collection of original essays explores major areas of debate inspired by the political philosophy of John Rawls. The volume is divided into ten parts, exploring ten distinct questions: Can Rawls’s conception of public reason offer determinate answers to major questions of justice? Is ideal theory useful or relevant to resolving issues of justice in the nonideal world? Are libertarians correct to criticize Rawls’s work for failing to prioritize economic liberty? Should the problems of distributive justice be understood in terms of luck egalitarian or relational egalitarian assumptions? When institutions aim at equality, what is it that they should seek to equalize—primary goods, capabilities, or welfare? Does Rawls’s theory of justice have the resources to address justice for people who are significantly dependent on others and their caregivers? Is Rawls’s theory adequate for addressing gender injustice? Can or should Rawls’s theory include justice for nonhuman animals? Should the principles of economic justice that hold at the global level be similar to the egalitarian principles of justice that hold at the domestic level? Is Rawls’s theory of global justice too tolerant of nonliberal societies? For each question, there is an introductory essay, providing an overview of the relevant arguments from Rawls’s work and the historical contours of the debate that ensued. Each introductory essay is followed by two essays written by scholars who take opposing positions, moving the discussion forward in a fruitful way.Less

Surrounding Self-Control

Alfred R. Mele (ed.)

This book is one of the fruits of the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control project, a three-year project designed to explore the topic of self-control from a variety of angles: neuroscience; ... More

This book is one of the fruits of the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control project, a three-year project designed to explore the topic of self-control from a variety of angles: neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; decision theory; and philosophy. The book is divided into four main parts: “What is self-control and how does it work?”; “Temptation and goal pursuit”; “Self-control, morality, and law”; and “Extending self-control.” Part I explores conceptual and empirical questions about the nature of self-control and how self-control functions. Questions featured here include the following: How is self-control related to willpower and ego depletion? What are the cultural and developmental origins of beliefs about self-control? Does self-control entail competition between or coordination of elements of the mind? Is self-control a set of skills? What is inhibitory control and how does it work? How are attempts at self-control hindered or helped by emotions? How are self-control and decision-making related? A sampling of questions tackled in Parts II, III, and IV includes the following: How do one’s beliefs about one’s own ability to deal with temptation influence one’s behavior? What does the ability to avoid temptation depend on? How is self-control related to moral concerns and beliefs? How should juvenile responsibility be understood, and how should the juvenile justice system be reformed? How does the framing of possible outcomes bear on success at self-control? How are self-control and empathy related? Can an account of self-control help us understand moral responsibility and free will?Less

Seeing Clearly: A Buddhist Guide to Life

Nicolas Bommarito

Many of us, even on our happiest days, struggle to quiet the constant buzz of anxiety in the background of our minds. All kinds of worries—worries about losing people and things, worries about how we ... More

Many of us, even on our happiest days, struggle to quiet the constant buzz of anxiety in the background of our minds. All kinds of worries—worries about losing people and things, worries about how we seem to others—keep us from peace of mind. Distracted or misled by our preoccupations, misconceptions, and, most of all, our obsession with ourselves, we do not see the world clearly—we do not see the world as it really is. In our search for happiness and the good life, this is the main problem. But luckily there is a solution, and on the path to understanding it, we can make use of the rich and varied teachings that have developed over centuries of Buddhist thought. This book explores the central elements of centuries of Buddhist philosophy and practice, explaining how they can improve life and teach us how to live without fear. Mining important texts and lessons for practical guidance, it provides a guide to the very practical goals that underpin Buddhist philosophy. After laying out the basic ideas, the text walks readers through a wide range of techniques and practices we can adopt to mend ingrained habits.Less

Wisdom: A Humanistic Conception

John Kekes

This book develops and defends a humanistic conception of wisdom as a personal attitude that guides how we evaluate the possibilities and limits of life in the context in which we live. The attitude ... More

This book develops and defends a humanistic conception of wisdom as a personal attitude that guides how we evaluate the possibilities and limits of life in the context in which we live. The attitude is formed of our beliefs, emotions, desires, evaluations, and experiences that make our inner life what it is. It is personal, pluralistic, and fallible. Its components differ from person to person and each may be mistaken. It is a wise attitude if it is based on a critical enough understanding of the reasons for and against its components; if its basic factual and evaluative assumptions are realistic; and if it involves a sufficiently reflective and deep understanding of the prevailing conditions, personal and social problems and possibilities, and of the strengths and weaknesses of the available evaluative resources. We all have some attitude of how we should live, but it is difficult to have a wise attitude. That is why wisdom is at once rare and precious because the sense we can make of our life depends on it. This humanistic conception of wisdom is personal, pluralistic, and fallible. It is a radical departure from traditional conceptions of wisdom understood as knowledge of the ideal of The Good that holds for everyone, always, everywhere. It is a conception that is personal, not theoretical; anthropocentric, not metaphysical; context-dependent, not universal; and humanistic, not scientific. The conception that emerges from this book is intended to be a contribution to philosophy as a humanistic disciplineLess

Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

We live at a time when human lifespans have increased like never before. As average lifespans stretch to new lengths, how does this impact the values we hold most dear? Do these values change over ... More

We live at a time when human lifespans have increased like never before. As average lifespans stretch to new lengths, how does this impact the values we hold most dear? Do these values change over the course of our ever-increasing lifespans? Ending Midlife Bias argues that at different life stages, different values emerge as central. During early life, caring and trust matter more, given human vulnerability and dependency. By early adulthood, growing independence provides a reason to value autonomy more. Later in life, heightened risk for chronic disease and disability warrants focusing on maintaining capabilities and keeping dignity intact. Part I (Chapters 1–5) sets forth a conceptual framework that captures these shifting life stage values. Chapter 1 argues against the privileging of midlife values (midlife bias) and explains why population aging lends urgency to identifying values for later life. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce dignity as a central concern for older adults and argue that respecting dignity requires supporting central human capabilities. Chapter 4 explores the metaphor of life as a story, which serves as a corrective for midlife bias by keeping attention on the whole of life. Chapter 5 sets forth principles for age group justice. Part II (Chapters 6–12) turns to practical concerns, including geriatric and pediatric bioethics (Chapter 6); caregiving by family members, migrant workers, and robots (Chapters 7 and 8); ageism in clinical trials, healthcare allocation, and mandatory retirement (Chapter 9); and ethics at the end-of-life (Chapter 10). The closing chapters explore the future of population aging (Chapter 11) and make a pitch for life stage sensitive moral theory (Chapter 12).Less

Norms and Necessity

Amie L. Thomasson

This book develops a new approach to understanding our claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible: modal normativism. While claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible ... More

This book develops a new approach to understanding our claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible: modal normativism. While claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible have long played a central role in metaphysics and other areas of philosophy, such claims are traditionally thought of as aiming to describe a special kind of modal fact or property, or perhaps facts about other possible worlds. But that assumption leads to difficult ontological, epistemological, and methodological puzzles. Should we accept that there are modal facts or properties, or other possible worlds? If so, what could these things be? How could we come to know what the modal facts or properties are? How can we resolve philosophical debates about what is necessary or possible? The normativist rejects the assumption that modal claims aim to describe modal features or possible worlds, arguing instead that they serve as useful ways of conveying, reasoning with, and renegotiating semantic rules and their consequences. By dropping the descriptivist assumption, the normativist is able to unravel the notorious ontological problems of modality, and provide a clear and plausible story about how we can come to know what is metaphysically necessary or possible. Most importantly, this approach helps demystify philosophical methodology. For we are able to see that resolving metaphysical modal questions does not require a special form of philosophical insight or intuition. Instead, it requires nothing more mysterious than empirical knowledge, conceptual mastery, and an ability to explicitly convey and renegotiate semantic rules.Less