Nothing is more common in moral debates than to invoke the names of great thinkers from the past. Business ethics is no exception. Yet insofar as business ethicists have tended to simply mine abstract formulas from the past, they have missed out on the potential intellectual gains in meticulously exploring the philosophic tradition. This paper seeks to rectify this shortcoming by advocating a close reading of the so-called “great books,” beginning the process by focusing on Aristotle. The Nichomachean Ethics and (...) The Politics points to Aristotle’s emphasis on tying business morality to a universal conception of the good life. This conception defines personal happiness to chiefly consist in practicing the virtues, a life in which both desire and the pursuit of wealth is kept under check. According to Aristotle, virtue reaches its height with the exercise of the intellectual virtues of prudence and wisdom – the first manifest in the leadership of organizations, and the second in the philosophic search for truth. From an Aristotelian point of view, therefore, the greatest ethical imperative for business is to give individuals opportunities to thoughtfully participate in the management of company affairs and to contemplate the ultimate meaning of things. (shrink)

When a series of corporate scandals erupted soon after the collapse of the 1990s bull market in equities, policy makers and reformers chiefly responded by augmenting and refining the checks and balances surrounding publicly traded corporations. Through measures such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, securities regulations were intensified and corporate governance was tightened. In essence, reformers followed the tradition of modern political philosophy, developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, in its insistence that pro-social outcomes are best produced through (...) institutional mechanisms that harness self-interest. The empirical evidence, however, suggests the institutional approach will do little to prevent future ethical breakdowns. To corroborate this finding, we survey the literature on board composition, auditor consulting practices, shareholder activism, and executive compensation. Consequently, we look to another stream of political philosophy, the ancient tradition comprising Plato and Aristotle, which argues that social groupings, such as corporations, work best when led by individuals of good character. Applying the ancient view to modern commercial realities, the paper concludes that Benjamin Franklin's attempt to connect virtuous character with enlightened self-interest offers a compelling ethic for corporate leaders. (shrink)

Smith's famous invocation of the invisible hand -according to which self-interest promotes the greater good — has popularly been seen as a fundamental challenge to business ethics, a field committed to the opposite premise that the public interest cannot be advanced unless economic egoism is restrained by a more socially conscious mindset, one that takes into account the legitimate needs of stakeholders and the reciprocity inherent in networked relationships. Adam Smith has been brought into the discipline to show that his (...) authority cannot be summoned to fully support the free market sceptics of business ethics. Little has been done, however, to illustrate that Smith's moral writings actually contain the fundamentals of a business ethics teaching for managers who necessarily work within a variety of networks. This article analyses his moral thought to infer a Smithean framework of business ethics for managers. Smith believes that self-interest should be subordinated to moral imperatives, even in the business world. However, Smith rejects the principles of corporate social responsibility on the argument that benevolent impulses cannot be expected to prevail in the commercial arena. Instead of consciously trying to advance the social good, Smith's ideal manager will endeavour to personally live up to the standards enforced by an impartial spectator of his conduct, a theoretical entity reflecting the ethical requirements posed by the manager's social networks and stakeholder relationships. While this internalized onlooker expects a limited degree of benevolence, the overriding demand is for the manager to abide by the dictums of justice and prudence. (shrink)

Recent corporate scandals raise an old question anew: is capitalism fundamentally infected by immorality? A now almost forgotten answer to this question was advanced at the dawn of capitalism, an answer that students of business ethics would find profit in considering. In the early eighteenth century, Bernard Mandeville authored The Fable of the Bees, which became notorious in its day for arguing that capitalism created wealth while necessarily relying on vicious impulses. The fundamental dilemma is that morality requires self-denial while (...) capitalism runs on self-interest. As such, Mandeville claims that business and ethics are essentially separate.While this would appear to align him with skeptics of business ethics, Mandeville does suggest a role for moral theorists in dealing with the challenges of commercial societies. The Mandevillean business ethicist proceeds by separating the public and private spheres. In the former, where government policy toward business is at issue, the Mandevillean ethicist applies a market-friendly utilitarianism. In the latter, where individual conduct is at issue, the Mandevillean gently articulates a market-critical ethic predicated on self-restraint. (shrink)

Recent corporate scandals raise an old question anew: is capitalism fundamentally infected by immorality? A now almost forgotten answer to this question was advanced at the dawn of capitalism, an answer that students of business ethics would find profit in considering. In the early eighteenth century, Bernard Mandeville authored The Fable of the Bees, which became notorious in its day for arguing that capitalism created wealth while necessarily relying on vicious impulses. The fundamental dilemma is that morality requires self-denial while (...) capitalism runs on self-interest. As such, Mandeville claims that business and ethics are essentially separate.While this would appear to align him with skeptics of business ethics, Mandeville does suggest a role for moral theorists in dealing with the challenges of commercial societies. The Mandevillean business ethicist proceeds by separating the public and private spheres. In the former, where government policy toward business is at issue, the Mandevillean ethicist applies a market-friendly utilitarianism. In the latter, where individual conduct is at issue, the Mandevillean gently articulates a market-critical ethic predicated on self-restraint. (shrink)

The quest to foretell the future is omnipresent in human affairs. A potential solution to this epistemological conundrum has emerged through mass collaboration. Motored by the Internet, prediction markets allow a multitude of individuals to assume a stake in a security whose value is tied to a future event. The resulting prices offer a continuously updated probability estimate of the event actually taking place. This paper gives a survey of prediction markets, their history, mechanics, uses, and theoretical foundation. We also (...) review the literature surrounding their efficacy. Though there are shortcomings with prediction markets, as well as practical constraints, they hold out the prospect of improving the quality of organizational decisions and increasing the level of participation in the deliberative process. We also note that lessons can be drawn from these markets to guide the epistemological practices of disciplines and inquiries in which empirical methods are difficult to apply. (shrink)

It is a common lament that people, the young especially, are increasingly shyingaway from books and instead turning for intellectual sustenance to video games, film, andtelevision - that is, images are displacing words, with the result that the culture isbecoming less tolerant of cognitive complexity .1Instead of vainly tryingto reform, or negate the influence of, popular entertainments, it might be better toembrace them, making selective use of them to cultivate an interest in philosophic topicsamong young minds. Perhaps we can lead (...) them to the words of the great philosophic textsby showing them how some of the actions and dialogues portrayed in the images theyavidly consume exemplify and explore themes, concepts, and arguments otherwise dealtwith by the likes of Plato, Descartes, and Hume. Guided by this pedagogical hope, thispaper aims to plumb the philosophic significance of Memento. (shrink)

This article attempts to uncover the relevance of Cicero’s thought to present-day management through an analysis of his last philosophical study, On Duties. Applying a methodology grounded in Socratic skepticism, Cicero synthesizes the Stoics and Aristotle to create his own moral theory. From this theory, we derive a Ciceronian set of recommended traits that make up a model business leader. Central to this model is the recognition that there are two lodestars in life, the beneficial and the honorable. The first (...) directs each of us to attend to our personal happiness, and the second to our moral worth. In Cicero’s view, the life of leading sizable associations is what best satisfies this dual imperative. The honor of a business leader is secured by the practice of four virtues: wisdom, justice, greatness of spirit, and seemliness. A leader properly seeks his/her own benefit by recognizing that success comes from the relationships he/she establishes and that he/she are more apt to cultivate these by being virtuous. Cicero is not so naïve as to fail to see that the beneficial and the honorable may come into tension, noting various examples from business to illustrate the dilemma. But he insists a businessperson can be ethical and prosper at the same time once he/she comprehends the social fellowship of humanity. (shrink)

This article attempts to uncover the relevance of Cicero's thought to present-day management through an analysis of his last philosophical study, On Duties. Applying a methodology grounded in Socratic skepticism, Cicero synthesizes the Stoics and Aristotle to create his own moral theory. From this theory, we derive a Ciceronian set of recommended traits that make up a model business leader. Central to this model is the recognition that there are two lodestars in life, the beneficial and the honorable. The first (...) directs each of us to attend to our personal happiness, and the second to our moral worth. In Cicero's view, the life of leading sizable associations is what best satisfies this dual imperative. The honor of a business leader is secured by the practice of four virtues: wisdom, justice, greatness of spirit, and seemliness. A leader properly seeks his/her own benefit by recognizing that success comes from the relationships he/she establishes and that he/she are more apt to cultivate these by being virtuous. Cicero is not so naïve as to fail to see that the beneficial and the honorable may come into tension, noting various examples from business to illustrate the dilemma. But he insists a businessperson can be ethical and prosper at the same time once he/she comprehends the social fellowship of humanity. (shrink)

Brillant geschriebenes und nobelpreisgekröntes Hauptwerk Bergsons, das weit über die Lebensphilosophie hinaus auf die Literatur und Ästhetik der Folgezeit wirkte und auf Autoren wie Proust, Gide, T. S. Eliot und Musil großen Einfluß ausübte. Mit seinem epochemachenden Hauptwerk "L'évolution créatrice", für das er 1927 den Nobelpreis für Literatur erhielt, greift Bergson unmittelbar in die Diskussion über zeitgenössische Evolutionstheorien ein, die die Biologie um die Jahrhundertwende beherrschten. Gegenüber mechanistischen Konzepten wie dem Neo-Darwinismus, die er - mit großer Sachkenntnis im Detail - (...) als unzureichend für das Verständnis der Komplexität evolutionärer Prozesse kritisiert, versucht Bergson für die Philosophie die Deutungshoheit über den Lebensbegriff zurückzugewinnen. Die Grundfrage des Werks lautet: Gibt es etwas, das alle Lebewesen in ihrer Entwicklung gemeinsam haben und das insofern ein bestimmendes Merkmal des Lebens selbst ist? Bergson findet die Antwort im titelgebenden Begriff der "schöpferischen Evolution". Nicht nur ist die Evolution als schöpferisch zu denken, sondern zugleich der schöpferische Akt als "evolutiv". Als treibende Kraft und Ursache aller Veränderungen macht Bergson dabei den ursprünglichen "élan vital" (Lebensimpuls) aus, der zu einem Zentralbegriff seiner Philosophie wurde. Die Kritik am Szientismus seiner Zeit führt Bergson darüber hinaus zu einem neuen Zugang zur Lebenswirklichkeit, den er in der (methodisch präzise bestimmten) "Intuition" entdeckt. So wird die Auseinandersetzung mit der Evolutionstheorie zugleich zu einer großangelegten Neubestimmung der philosophischen Methode. L'évolution créatrice wurde 1912 von Gertrud Kantorowicz zum ersten Mal ins Deutsche übertragen. Ihre in Sprache und Terminologie stark vom George-Kreis geprägte Übersetzung wurde für diese Neuausgabe vollständig überarbeitet und enthält jetzt auch die in der ersten deutschen Ausgabe fehlenden Anmerkungen und Nachweise Bergsons. (shrink)

La Metaphysique d'Aristote culmine dans le livre Lambda (XII). Il resume les livres precedents, puis se lance dans une fantastique description de Dieu, Premier moteur immobile de l'univers et Penser se pensant soi-meme. Le premier a nous en avoir laisse un commentaire est Themistius, au IVe siecle. Entre lui et l'epoque d'Averroes, d'Albert le Grand, de Thomas d'Aquin, rien ne nous est reste sur Lambda. Themistius paraphrase le texte et y mele de tres importantes digressions. L'original grec est perdu. De (...) la traduction arabe, nous n'avons que des fragments. Mais elle avait ete integralement traduite en hebreu. C'est a partir de ces deux sources que Remi Brague propose ici une traduction litterale, avec une introduction et des notes explicatives. (shrink)

Armes de destruction massive, pollution, extinction démographique : tout ce qui menace l'homme en tant qu'espèce vivante ne fait plus de doute. Mais il existe des facteurs qui viennent de l'homme lui-même, visant à saper son humanité propre. Ces facteurs ont beau être plus difficiles à saisir, c'est eux que Rémi Brague tâche de repérer à travers une analyse fulgurante et radicale de l'idée d'humanisme. Car il ne s'agit plus de savoir comment nous pouvons promouvoir la valeur homme et ce (...) qui est humain, en luttant contre toutes les figures de l'inhumain. Il s'agit désormais de savoir s'il faut vraiment promouvoir un tel humanisme. C'est l'humanisme lui-même qui est mis à mal. Ce phénomène récent, Rémi Brague en aperçoit des signes avant-coureurs dans trois oeuvres majeures du XXe siècle, celle du poète russe Alexandre Blok, qui écrivait à l'ère de la révolution d'Octobre, et, plus près de nous, celles des philosophes Michel Foucault et Hans Blumenberg. Nous ne pouvons plus nous bercer d'illusions. Il est facile de prêcher un humanisme réduit aux règles du vivre-ensemble, mais comment le fonder? La pensée moderne est à court d'arguments pour justifier l'existence même des hommes. En cherchant à bâtir sur son propre sol, à l'exclusion de tout ce qui transcende l'humain, nature ou Dieu, elle se prive de son point d'Archimède. Est-ce une façon de dire que le projet athée des temps modernes a échoué? C'est au lecteur d'en juger. (shrink)

Il faut être "modérément moderne", et non "résolument" ; comme le préconisait Rimbaud dans un slogan aussi galvaudé que creux. Et prendre ses distances d'avec cette maladie, la "modernite". De ces fameux "Temps Modernes", que peut dire un philosophe qui a décidé de ne pas avancer masqué? Complaisante modernité, qui se clame en "rupture" avec tout! Et d'abord avec le passé pour lequel elle a inventé le nom de "Moyen Age". Alors que la modernité en vit comme un parasite, dans (...) une dialectique autodestructrice. Car au fond, qu'a-t-elle inventé? Ni la révolution technique, ni l'urbanisation, ni la société civile, ni même la personne comme sujet de libertés... Les idées modernes ne sont que des idées prémodernes, maquillées comme une marchandise volée. Avec le recul et la capacité d'analyse que lui permet sa formidable culture, Rémi Brague nous offre une série de réflexions incisives sur les notions de Modernité, de Culture, d'Histoire, de Sécularisation, de Progrès... Chemin faisant, il met en avant des penseurs qui sortent des sentiers battus, des idées qu'on avait oubliées, des rapprochements qui font avancer. Peut-on guérir de la "modernite"? C'est l'ambition de cet essai revigorant, qui n'interdit pas d'être résolument optimiste. (shrink)

Histoire de la philosophie et liberté -- Le monde libre -- Le récit du commencement : une aporie de la raison grecque -- La vraisemblance du faux (Parménide, fragment I, 31-32) -- Sur le plan du Timée -- La cosmologie finale du Sophiste (265b4-e6) -- La communauté humaine dans la philosophie grecque -- Note sur la définition du mouvement (Physique III 1-3) -- Le fou stoïcien.

Modernity as a problem -- On modernitis -- Can europe survive modernity? -- From one transcendental to another -- Sacred cows or mad cows? -- To ground reason -- Atheism or superstition? -- Is secularization modern? -- Democracy and theocracy -- Reaction to progress -- Culture -- Are there really two cultures? -- Does culture support the idea of truth? -- Heirs without a will? -- To temporize -- From time to time -- How one writes history -- The conditions (...) of a future -- Reconstruction -- An educational dream -- Not to betray: the tradition. (shrink)

The power of the word should be at its height when the spoken word is deemed authoritative, when speech is the master of discourse. This authority can be no greater than when the word derives from what the Greeks called “the more powerful (than us),” (hoi kreittones) or even, in monotheistic religions, from He who can be called – to use a term that avoids confusion – “the Almighty.” The mighty word is the divine word. The power of this word (...) is a result of its divine origin. (shrink)

The best of the living things -- Domination -- Three incomplete prefigurations -- Metaphorical dominations -- The new Lord of creation -- Attempts and temptations -- Deployment -- The formation of the modern project -- The beginnings of the realization -- The master is there -- Moral dominion -- The duty to reign -- The iron rod -- The new meaning of humanism -- The sole Lord -- Failure -- Kingdom or wasteland? -- Man, humiliated -- The subjugated subject -- (...) Man remade -- Man surpassed and ... replaced -- Checkmate? -- Lights out. (shrink)

C'est à l'époque moderne que l'homme en est arrivé à se dire le créateur de sa propre humanité. Autrefois, il se croyait l'oeuvre de la nature ou l'enfant de Dieu. Désormais, il entend conquérir l'une et s'affranchir de l'autre. Il veut rompre avec le passé, se donner souverainement sa loi, définir ce qui doit être, dominer. Telle est l'ambition vertigineuse que raconte cet ouvrage. Descartes rêvait d'un homme maître et possesseur de la nature ; deux siècles plus tard, Nietzsche allait (...) décréter que l'homme doit être dépassé, n'étant plus à la hauteur des attentes que lui-même avait définies. Rémi Brague interroge les origines de ce projet et retrouve les traits qui vont progressivement dessiner la nouvelle humanité dont nous sommes les héritiers. Pour reconstituer la longue trajectoire de l'homme moderne, ce livre convoque aussi bien la philosophie que la littérature ; il y découvre les espoirs et l'enthousiasme qui portent ses débuts, mais aussi, à l'épreuve de cette expérience impossible, l'angoisse et les désillusions qui en marquent l'échec. Le Règne de l'homme clôt une longue enquête sur la manière dont l'homme, de l'Antiquité à nos jours, a pensé successivement son rapport d'abord au monde, ensuite à Dieu et, pour finir, à soi-même. (shrink)

Imagine you suddenly find yourself in the control room of a vast technological apparatus, sometime in the future, where you are told that science has satisfied all the needs of all living humans. Furthermore, you learn, the next generation of the species will not be produced in the usual way, but instead by this machine, provided only that somebody push a little red button. The catch: you have to give a reason for pushing it. You hesitate: what do you say? (...) Our own world is more like this scenario than we at first may be inclined to admit, not least in the fact that, mutatis mutandis, we seem to be struggling to come up with a good answer. The problem, says Rémi Brague, is fundamentally a metaphysical one. Now, mention of 'metaphysics' in decent society these days is likely to elicit a smile or an unimpressed shrug. If there is a shelf with that label on it in your typical bookstore you are as likely to find guides to crystals, chakras, or hemp care there as you are treatises by Aristotle, Aquinas, or Kant. And, in spite of the ongoing revival of academic interest in metaphysics, it remains a rather specialist domain, a marginal sub-discipline in departments of philosophy, be they analytical or continental in cast. But if you should take it too seriously, you'll lose your bearings in the real world, and you'll go adrift in some ethereal sea of dreams. It is, in a word, irrelevant--right? (shrink)

Ein Leben lang leidet der Mensch an der nie zu überwindenden Endlichkeit seiner Vernunft, die ihn heftig mit Fragen bedrängt, zu deren Beantwortung sie selbst gar nicht in der Lage ist. Im Blick auf den Versuch, dieses Paradoxon aufzulösen, dass nämlich einerseits das metaphysische Bedürfnis der Vernunft zwar von dieser nicht aus eigener Kraft zufriedengestellt werden kann, andererseits aber diese Einsicht keineswegs ihr bohrendes Fragen zum Schweigen bringt, wird die Verführung nachvollziehbar, das Kind mit dem Bade auszuschütten und der Vernunft (...) rundweg und grundsätzlich eine tragfähige lebens- und handlungsleitende Kraft abzusprechen. Grosse Teile der Postmoderne sind von diesem tiefen Misstrauen, das den Abschied von aller Vernunft zu rechtfertigen scheint, geprägt. Die Alternative zu ihrer Verabschiedung im Aufweis der Möglichkeit - ja Notwendigkeit - von Metaphysik auch und gerade angesichts einer stets in ihrer Endlichkeit gefangenen Vernunft wird in diesem Buch gezeichnet."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Idealist philosopher Georg Hegel defied the traditional epistemological distinction of objective from subjective and developed his own dialectical alternative. Remarkable for its breadth and profundity, this work combines aspects of psychology, logic, moral philosophy, and history to form a comprehensive view that encompasses all forms of civilization. Its three divisions consist of the subjective mind (dealing with anthropology and psychology), the objective mind (concerning philosophical issues of law and morals), and the absolute mind (covering fine arts, religion, and philosophy). Wide-ranging (...) in its influence, this survey of the evolution of consciousness is essential reading for all students of philosophy and history. (shrink)

The topic of a priori knowledge is approached through the theory of evidence. A shortcoming in traditional formulations of moderate rationalism and moderate empiricism is that they fail to explain why rational intuition and phenomenal experience count as basic sources of evidence. This explanatory gap is filled by modal reliabilism -- the theory that there is a qualified modal tie between basic sources of evidence and the truth. This tie to the truth is then explained by the theory of concept (...) possession: this tie is a consequence of what, by definition, it is to possess (i.e., to understand) one’s concepts. A corollary of the overall account is that the a priori disciplines (logic, mathematics, philosophy) can be largely autonomous from the empirical sciences. (shrink)

This important new work surveys the source and ramifications of the famed Nuremburg Code -- recognized around the world as one of the cornerstones of modern bioethics.

TRANSLATORS PREFACE THE PRESENT TRANSLATION OF GEORG SIMMEL'S Schopen- hauer und Nietzsche: Ein Vortragszyklus (1907), ...

"This book is a sorely needed corrective. Animal Spirits is an important--maybe even a decisive--contribution at a difficult juncture in macroeconomic theory.

touch 27 Thirrdly, the straining of the eye 28 The occasions which suggest distance have in their own nature no relation to it 29 A difficult case proposed by Dr. Barrow as repugnant to all the known theories 30 This case contradicts a ...

In »Materie und Gedächtnis« , seinem Hauptwerk, erörtert der französische Philosoph und Nobelpreisträger Henri Bergson das Zusammenwirken von Körper und Geist in der freien Handlung. Auf höchstem gedanklichen Niveau, aber in bestechend einfacher Sprache geschrieben, zählt das Werk zu den wenigen herausragenden Grundtexten der Gegenwartsphilosophie, vergleichbar »in ihrer Zeit mit Berkeleys Principles oder Kants Kritik« .Nachdem Bergson im Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience das Verhältnis von Freiheit und Determinismus auf eine neue Basis zu stellen versucht hat, wendet (...) er sich hier, in Auseinandersetzung mit der Psychologie und Hirnphysiologie seiner Zeit, dem alten philosophischen Problem des Verhältnisses von Geist und Materie zu. Dabei reduziert er ›Materie‹ weder – idealistisch – auf reine Vorstellungen noch nimmt sie – materialistisch – als deren dinglichen Grund an, sondern sieht sie als eine Gesamtheit von ›Bildern‹, wobei er den Bildbegriff auf halbem Wege zwischen Ding und Vorstellung ansetzt und damit vor die Trennung von Existenz und Erscheinung zurückgeht. Eine herausragende Bedeutung kommt dabei dem Gedächtnis zu: hier verstanden nicht als ›mechanisches‹ Registrieren aufgenommener Inhalte, sondern als ›reines‹, lebendiges Gedächtnis, das sich einer geistigen, in der Vergangenheit entstandenen Bilderwelt bedient und der Dauer korrespondiert. Das auf Dauer ausgerichtete Gedächtnis verweist auf eine Selbstständigkeit des Geistes, die allerdings qua Handlung wieder auf den Körper zurückwirkt. »Der Geist entnimmt der Materie die Wahrnehmungen, aus denen er seine Nahrung zieht, und gibt sie ihr zurück in Form von Bewegung, der er seine Freiheit aufgeprägt hat«. (shrink)

"Maimonide, 1135-1204, médecin, juriste, philosophe est sans conteste le plus grand penseur du judaïsme médiéval, si ce n'est du judaïsme tout court.

Functionalism would be mistaken if there existed a system of deviant relations (an “anti-mind”) that had the same functional roles as the standard mental relations. In this paper such a system is constructed, using “Quinean transformations” of the sort associated with Quine’s thesis of the indeterminacy of translation. For example, a mapping m from particularistic propositions (e.g., that there exists a rabbit) to universalistic propositions (that rabbithood is manifested). Using m, a deviant relation thinking* is defined: x thinks* p iff (...) x thinks m(p). Such deviant relations satisfy the commonly discussed functionalist psychological principles. Finally, a more complicated system of deviant relations is constructed, one satisfying sophisticated principles dealing with the self-conscious rational mind. (shrink)

Marketing Ethics addresses head-on the ethical questions, misunderstandings and challenges that marketing raises while defining marketing as a moral activity. A substantial introduction to the ethics of marketing, exploring the integral relations of marketing and morality Identifies and discusses a series of ethical tools and the marketing framework they constitute that are required for moral marketing Considers broader meanings and background assumptions of marketing infrequently included in other marketing literature Adds direction and meaning to problems in marketing ethics through reflection (...) on concepts such as individual choice, freedom and responsibility, desire satisfaction, noncoercive exchanges, and instrumental efficiency. (shrink)

The description for this book, Desert, will be forthcoming.

George Berkeley (1685-1753) is the superstar of Irish Philosophy. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1700 and became a fellow in 1707. In 1724 he resigned his Fellowship to become Dean of Derry, and in 1734 he was made Bishop of Cloyne. He settled in Oxford in 1752 and died the following year. The work of George Berkeley is marked by its diversity and range. His writings take in such topics as mathematics, psychology, politics, health, economics, deism and (...) education, as well as that with which he is most associated - philosophy. Whatever topic he dealt with, his grasp of the subject matter was always impressive and his criticisms of his contemporaries often acute. Among the most noteable of the British Empiricists, he took his starting point from Locke's new 'way of ideas', but he rejected abstract ideas and the possibility of real existence outside perception. It is for this doctrine that he is most known - that there is no such thing as matter, and that things are collections of ideas which can exist only in our minds and only for so long as they are perceived. This philosophy, summed up in his phrase 'to be is to be perceived', he termed 'immaterialism'. A.C. Fraser's collection includes a series of what were previously unpublished notes by Berkeley on all the main topics of his philosophy. This, the 1901 edition, was the first complete edition of his works. (shrink)

The idea of nature in medical theory and practice -- Diseases -- Health: popular concept and philosophical question -- Is a pedagogy of healing possible? -- The problem of regulation in the organism and in society.

Berkeley's Idealism both advances Berkeley scholarship and serves as a useful guide for teachers and students.

The Phenomenology of Spirit, first published in 1807, is G. W. F. Hegel's remarkable philosophical text that examines the dynamics of human experience from its simplest beginnings in consciousness through its development into ever more complex and self-conscious forms. The work explores the inner discovery of reason and its progressive expansion into spirit, a world of intercommunicating and interacting minds reconceiving and re-creating themselves and their reality. The Phenomenology of Spirit is a notoriously challenging and arduous text that students and (...) scholars have been studying ever since its publication. In this long-awaited translation, Peter Fuss and John Dobbins provide a succinct, highly informative, and readily comprehensible introduction to several key concepts in Hegel's thinking. This edition includes an extensive conceptual index, which offers easy reference to specific discussions in the text and elucidates the more subtle nuances of Hegel's concepts and word usage. This modern American English translation employs natural idioms that accurately convey what Hegel means. Throughout the book, the translators adhered to the maxim: if you want to understand Hegel, read him in the English. This book is intended for intellectuals with a vested interest in modern philosophy and history, as well as students of all levels, seeking to access or further engage with this seminal text. (shrink)

Georges Sorel's Study on Vico is a revelatory document of the depths and stakes of French social thought at the end of the 19th century. What brought Sorel to the 18th century Neapolitan theorist of history? Acute awareness of the limitations of Marxist thought in his day, a profound concern with the material underpinnings of language, law, and culture, and the imperative to understand the possibilities of revolutionary change. We find here a different Sorel, one who speaks in surprising ways (...) to the 21st century. The translation is accompanied by an introduction and by a set of notes which situate the text both in Sorel's overall intellectual trajectory and in the fin de siècle debates from which it emerged. (shrink)

What drives much of the current philosophical interest in the idea of group cognition is its appeal to the manifestation of psychological properties—understood broadly to include states, processes, and dispositions—that are in some important yet elusive sense emergent with respect to the minds of individual group members. Our goal in this paper is to address a set of related, conditional questions: If human mentality is real yet emergent in a modest metaphysical sense only, then: (i) What would it mean for (...) a group to have emergent cognitive states? (ii) Is this even a metaphysically coherent view? (iii) Relative to which notion of emergence do we have reason to believe that certain groups in fact have emergent cognitive states? We shall argue that evidence from a wide variety of social science domains makes it plausible that there are group cognitive states and processes no less metaphysically emergent than human cognitive (and other special science) states and processes. (shrink)