In libro suo cui titulus Discursus de metaphysica Leibnitius quaestionem movet, quomodo homo in mundum harmonia gaudentem praestabilita agere debeat eiusque bonitatem, quo melius se explicet, adiuvare. Responsio ab eo allata vero discrepantiam quandam prae se fert ad docendum valde utilem. Una ex parte enim Leibnitius docet dari ordinem naturalem a Providentia firme constitutum, altera ex parte tamen suae aetatis doctrinam profitetur, scil. mundum agentibus humanis, ut technologiae cultoribus, infinitas praebere possibilitates. Aliorum Leibnitii textuum perscrutatio necnon eorum cum Aristotele, S. (...) Thoma, I. Kant comparatio revelat, quam acriter Leibnitii in mente veneratio antiquae et a maioribus traditae rationis philosophiam naturalem colendi, quae est scientia pure speculativa, pugnat cum ipsius dedicatione ad modernam notionem naturae dominationis, quod propositum e contra est valde pragmaticum ac transformativum.In the Discourse on Metaphysics Leibniz addresses how human beings ought to intervene in a preharmonized world and contribute to the unfolding of its goodness. His view exhibits an instructive tension between belief in a providentially fixed natural order, on the one hand, and, on the other, a characteristically early modern belief in a world of infinite possibilities for human actors, that is, developers of technology. Other texts in Leibniz, as well as comparison with Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant, helps to reveal the extent to which Leibniz is torn between venerating the ancient tradition of natural philosophy, a purely “contemplative” discipline, and embracing the modern project of mastery of nature, a pragmatic and transformative enterprise. (shrink)

Peter Kwasniewski shows that St. Thomas contemplates the nature of ecstasy at key stages in the development of his thought and that it plays a crucial role in his doctrine of love. St. Thomas recognized that all love involves ecstatic transcendence, whether it be the creature's self-oblation to the Creator, the reverence of an inferior for a superior, a superior's generosity toward an inferior, or the mutual affection and help of equals joined in friendship. Love of persons for their own (...) sake generates an ecstatic love in which the self is borne as a gift to another subject by sharing a common life aspiring to common goods. Kwasniewski also examines Aquinas on the question of whether or not God experiences ecstasy, and if so, in what ways. (shrink)

Among the interlacing series of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous and acknowledged works published during his lifetime, the various sets of Christian discourses occupy a decisive place. These two volumes in particular share a close thematic relationship extending to the very topics written on—for example, the lessons taught by the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, or the right dispositions for receiving holy communion. Readers acquainted only with Kierkegaard’s more widely-read books, like Sickness unto Death, Philosophical Fragments, and Either/or, (...) would do well to read his explicitly Christian writings if they wish to gain a better sense of the proper context and foundations of his thought. Looking back over his works in 1849, he discerned a progression “from ‘the poet,’ from the esthetic—from the philosopher, from the speculative—to the intimation of the most inward interpretation of the essentially Christian”. (shrink)

“I believe that I would do philosophers a great service if they were to adopt a category which I myself have discovered and utilized with great profit and success to exhaust and dry up a multitude of relations and qualifications that have so far been unwilling to resolve themselves—it is the category of higher lunacy”. These words could be the motto for Kierkegaard’s brash enterprise in this delightful book, which contains, in addition to the Writing Sampler, a collection of eight (...) prefaces to books that will never be written because the wife of their author refuses to let him be unfaithful to her by romancing his own ideas. The target of Kierkegaard’s satire is always shifting: Hegelians and their pretentious encyclopedias; journalists and their self-glorifying arbitration of public taste ; book reviewers and their pseudo-omniscience ; the cultivated public which thinks so unspeakably highly of itself; progressive Christians who feel that religion has finally reached maturity in their urbane relativism. (shrink)

“I dare to guarantee [the reader] that from this book he will acquire a clarity about and a deft drilling in individual dogmatic concepts that usually are perhaps not so easily obtained”, writes Kierkegaard at the beginning of this fascinating inquiry into the character of Adolph Peter Adler, a rural pastor and advocate of Hegelian philosophy who asserted in 1843 that he had received a special revelation from Christ but later contradicted himself in a flurry of intellectual prevarication. As Kierkegaard (...) notes, the supposed revelation looks suspiciously like Hegelian metaphysics confusedly combined with half-understood Christian concepts, and the “clarifications” Adler later sent to an ecclesiastical investigator are “evasions”, a way of changing essentially what he had earlier reported. Adler’s ever-changing story about who or what he is, his comical back-and-forth between the incompatible roles of apostle and man of letters, reveals a rootless soul that does not know itself: “he is a private, confused lyrical genius who casually exegetes incidental Bible verses ‘accordingly as these appeal to him’”. Having laid claim to a revelation, however, Adler must be called to account: either he must return to this revelation-fact with the simplicity and fervor of faith, or he must renounce his pretensions and revoke his original statement. For many years Kierkegaard labored over different versions of the book before he abandoned plans for its publication. One can understand his hesitancy. The finished product demolishes Adler’s position with the fury of a worked-up pugilist who keeps hitting his opponent after the knock-out bell has rung. Kierkegaard felt sorry for Adler and feared that his withering critique would “have too strong an effect on him”. (shrink)

In this book, Goodman has made a major contribution to the study of the social and political currents of the French Enlightenment. Previous histories of the period tended to gloss over, or ignore downright, some of the most important people and institutions involved in the gradual extension of literacy and public debate that would culminate in the upheavals of the French Revolution. In particular, the central role of the Parisian salon and the work of its presiding genius, the salonnière, have (...) not received the attention they merit. It is Goodman's thesis that the salon was chief home to the adventuresome forays of the philosophes, providing a fertile context for the development and communication of ideas essential to the eighteenth-century vision of encyclopedic and humanistic learning. Without the weekly salon meetings, without the tireless epistolary and conversational efforts of their female governors, the "work of enlightenment" would not have materialized, let alone evolve as it did. (shrink)

Kierkegaard wrote much on the subject of love, but few of his treatments are as eloquent and penetrating as this series of "disputations" built around texts of sacred scripture. His lucid analysis of the parallelism and divergency of worldly and Christian love make this book a great classic in the subject and a fine place to begin reading Kierkegaard if one has not had the pleasure of his acquaintance. As with other works of the author, one finds here the same (...) unique combination of impassioned argument, rapt storytelling, and flashes of wisdom. It is often impossible to say whether Kierkegaard is speaking philosophically, theologically, poetically, or autobiographically. A large part of the mesmerizing beauty of his prose comes from the interchange of earnest exegesis and lyrical digression. (shrink)

This volume contains translations of Xenophon's Apology of Socrates, Oeconomicus, and Symposium, accompanied by illuminating critical essays. In his introduction, Bartlett notes that "after a century and a half of neglect, stemming from indifference or outright contempt, the writings of Xenophon are once again attracting serious scholarly study". These three sets of text and commentary will convince any student of ancient philosophy that Xenophon's masterful dialogues deserve a higher place than they often receive. It is not surprising that Cicero, Quintillian, (...) and Plutarch among the ancients, and Edward Gibbon among the moderns, found such profit in his works, for Xenophon is a daring rhetorician and a brilliant exponent of Socratic method. Many earlier translators, resting on prejudice and indulging in literary affectation, have done great disservice to our appreciation of Xenophon. The translations offered in this new volume dispel at once all such impediments. Here we have conversations characterized by finesse, wit, and spiritedness, qualities that emerge simply by letting the author's vigorous rhetorical style speak for itself in English that mirrors the Greek as closely as possible. (shrink)