Download or read book Logic Metaphysics and the Natural Sociability of Mankind written by Francis Hutcheson and published by Natural Law and Enlightenment. This book was released on 2006 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Moore states that "some of the most distinctive and central arguments of Hutcheson's philosophy - the importance of ideas brought to mind by the internal senses, the presence in human nature of calm desires, of generous and benevolent instincts - will be found to emerge in the course of these writings.""--Jacket.
Download or read book Spectres of False Divinity written by Thomas Holden and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spectres of False Divinity presents a historical and critical interpretation of Hume's rejection of the existence of a deity with moral attributes. In Hume's view, no first cause or designer responsible for the ordered universe could possibly have moral attributes; nor could the existence (or non-existence) of such a being have any real implications for human practice or conduct. Hume's case for this 'moral atheism' is a central plank of both his naturalistic agenda in metaphysics and his secularizing program in moral theory. It complements his wider critique of traditional theism, and threatens to rule out any religion that would make claims on moral practice. Thomas Holden situates Hume's commitment to moral atheism in its historical and philosophical context, offers a systematic interpretation of his case for divine amorality, and shows how Hume can endorse moral atheism while maintaining his skeptical attitude toward traditional forms of cosmological and theological speculation.
Download or read book Moral Philosophy in Eighteenth Century Britain written by Colin Heydt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new account of a vital period in the history of ethics, focusing on the content of morality.
Download or read book Thomas Reid Essays on the Active Powers of Man written by Thomas Reid and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-27 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788) was Thomas Reid's last major work. It was conceived as part of one large work, intended as a final synoptic statement of his philosophy. The first and larger part was published three years earlier as Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (edited as vol. 3 of the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid). These two works are united by Reid's basic philosophy of common sense, which sets out native principles by which the mind operates in both its intellectual and active aspects. The Active Powers shows how these principles are involved in volition, action, and the ability to judge morally. Reid gives an original twist to a libertarian and realist tradition that was prominently represented in eighteenth-century British thought by such thinkers as Samuel Clarke and Richard Price.
Download or read book The Opinion of Mankind written by Paul Sagar and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How David Hume and Adam Smith forged a new way of thinking about the modern state What is the modern state? Conspicuously undertheorized in recent political theory, this question persistently animated the best minds of the Enlightenment. Recovering David Hume and Adam Smith's long-underappreciated contributions to the history of political thought, The Opinion of Mankind considers how, following Thomas Hobbes's epochal intervention in the mid-seventeenth century, subsequent thinkers grappled with explaining how the state came into being, what it fundamentally might be, and how it could claim rightful authority over those subject to its power. Hobbes has cast a long shadow over Western political thought, particularly regarding the theory of the state. This book shows how Hume and Smith, the two leading lights of the Scottish Enlightenment, forged an alternative way of thinking about the organization of modern politics. They did this in part by going back to the foundations: rejecting Hobbes's vision of human nature and his arguments about our capacity to form stable societies over time. In turn, this was harnessed to a deep reconceptualization of how to think philosophically about politics in a secular world. The result was an emphasis on the "opinion of mankind," the necessary psychological basis of all political organization. Demonstrating how Hume and Smith broke away from Hobbesian state theory, The Opinion of Mankind also suggests ways in which these thinkers might shape how we think about politics today, and in turn how we might construct better political theory.
Download or read book Socializing Metaphysics written by Frederick Schmitt and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human life is conducted within a network of social relations, social groups, and societies. Grasping the implications of that fact starts with understanding social metaphysics. Social metaphysics provides a foundation for social theory, as well as for social epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, action theory, ethics, and political philosophy. This volume will interest anyone concerned with mind, action, or the foundations of social theory. Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers, from a broad array of voices, to the basic questions of social metaphysics. What is it for human beings to stand in social relations or form social groups? Do these relations and groups bring about something above and beyond the individuals involved? Is there any sense to the notion of a human being apart from social relations? How can an individual achieve autonomy within a society? In what sense are human kinds like race and gender socially constructed? The answers are found within.
Download or read book The Enlightenment of Sympathy written by Michael L. Frazer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-18 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Enlightenment of Sympathy reclaims the sentimentalist theory of reflective autonomy as a resource for enriching social science, normative theory, and political practice today. The sentimentalist description of the reflective process is more empirically accurate than the competing rationalist description, and can guide scientists investigating the processes by which the mind formulates moral and political principles. Yet the theory is much more than merely descriptive, and can also contribute to the philosophical project of finding principles--including principles of justice--that wield genuine normative authority. Enlightenment sentimentalism demonstrates that emotion is necessarily central to our civic life, and shows how our reflective sentiments can counterbalance the unreflective feelings that might otherwise lead our political principles astray.
Download or read book Pufendorf s Theory of Sociability Passions Habits and Social Order written by Heikki Haara and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-08 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book centres on Samuel Pufendorf’s (1632–1694) moral and political philosophy, a subject of recently renewed interest among intellectual historians, philosophers and legal scholars in the English-speaking world. Pufendorf’s significance in conceptualizing sociability in a way that ties moral philosophy, the theory of the state, political economy, and moral psychology together has already been acknowledged, but this book is the first systematic investigation of the moral psychological underpinnings of Pufendorf’s theory of sociability in their own right. Readers will discover how Pufendorf’s psychological and social explanation of sociability plays a crucial role in his natural law theory. By drawing attention to Pufendorf’s scattered remarks and observations on human psychology, a new interpretation of the importance of moral psychology is presented. The author maintains that Pufendorf’s reflection on the psychological and physical capacities of human nature also matters for his description of how people adopt sociability as their moral standard in practice. We see how, since Pufendorf’s interest in human nature is mainly political, moral psychological formulations are important for Pufendorf’s theorizing of social and political order. This work is particularly useful for scholars investigating the multifaceted role of passions and emotions in the history of moral and political philosophy. It also affords a better understanding of what later philosophers, such as Smith, Hume or Rousseau, might have find appealing in Pufendorf’s writings. As such, this book will also interest researchers of the Enlightenment, natural law and early modern philosophy.
Download or read book Essays on David Hume Medical Men and the Scottish Enlightenment written by Roger L. Emerson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scottish Enlightenment was a period of intellectual and scientific progress, in a country previously considered to be marginal to the European intellectual scene. Yet the enlightenment was not about politeness or civic humanism, but something more basic - the making of an improved society which could compete in every way in a rapidly changing world. David Hume, writing in 1752, commented that 'industry, knowledge and humanity are linked together by an indissoluble chain'. Collectively this volume of essays embraces many of the topics which Hume included under 'industry, knowledge and humanity': from the European Enlightenment and the Scots relation to it, to Scottish social history and its relation to religion, science and medicine. Overarching themes of what it meant to be enlightened in the eighteenth century are considered alongside more specific studies of notable figures of the period, such as Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, and David Hume, and the training and number of Scottish medical students. Together, the volume provides an opportunity to step back and reconsider the Scottish Enlightenment in its broader context and to consider what new directions this field of study might take.
Download or read book Samuel Pufendorf and the Emergence of Economics as a Social Science written by Jürgen G. Backhaus and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-21 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses Samuel Pufendorf and his contributions to the development of the European Enlightenment and the emergence of economics as a social science. Born in 1632 in Saxony, Pufendorf wrote widely on natural law, ethics, jurisprudence, and political economy and was one of the most important figures in early-modern political thought. Although his work fits within the intellectual framework of natural jurisprudence, there is an argument to be made that his ideas promoted the development of economics as a distinct discipline within the social sciences. Written by participants in the 34th Heilbronn Symposion in Economics and the Social Sciences, the contributions to this volume give an overview of Pufendorf’s influence on other authors of the Enlightenment, such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, as well as addressing the theoretical implications of his extensive writings. Further chapters place a special focus on Pufendorf’s discussion of economic matters, such as property rights theory, price theory, taxation, and preferences and decision-making. The book concludes with analyzing Pufendorf’s influence on Adam Smith, his anticipations of elements of modern economic theory, and his impact on the history of economic thought. Providing a fresh look at one of the foundational scholars of social science, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of the history of economic thought, political economy, economic history, and political philosophy.
Download or read book Handbook of the History of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy written by Gianfrancesco Zanetti and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-03 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook discusses representative philosophers in the history of the philosophy of law and social philosophy, giving clear concise expert definitions and explanations of key personalities and their ideas. It provides an essential reference for experts and newcomers alike.
Download or read book Wittgenstein and Natural Religion written by Gordon Graham and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gordon Graham presents a radically innovative study of Wittgenstein's philosophy, in relation to the age-old impulse to connect ordinary human life with the transcendent reality of God. He offers an account of its relevance to the study of religion that is completely different to the standard version of 'Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion' expounded by both its adherents and critics. Graham goes on to revitalize the philosophy of 'true religion', an alternative, though not a rival, to the lively philosophical theology of Plantinga and Swinburne that currently dominates the subject. This alternative style of philosophy of religion has equally deep historical roots in the philosophical works of Spinoza, Hume, Schleiermacher, and Mill. At the same time, it is more easily connected to the psychological, sociological, and anthropological studies of William James, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, and Mary Douglas. Graham uses Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy to argue in favour of the idea that 'true religion' is to be understood as human participation in divine life.
Download or read book Sociability and Cosmopolitanism written by David Burrow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays expands the focus of Enlightenment studies to include countries outside the core nations of France, Germany and Britain. Notions of sociability and cosmopolitanism are explored as ways in which people sought to improve society.
Download or read book The Best Effect written by Ryan Darr and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-12-06 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A theological history of consequentialism and a fresh agenda for teleological ethics. Consequentialism—the notion that we can judge an action by its effects alone—has been among the most influential approaches to ethics and public policy in the Anglophone world for more than two centuries. In The Best Effect, Ryan Darr argues that consequentialist ethics is not as secular or as rational as it is often assumed to be. Instead, Darr describes the emergence of consequentialism in the seventeenth century as a theological and cosmological vision and traces its intellectual development and eventual secularization across several centuries. The Best Effect reveals how contemporary consequentialism continues to bear traces of its history and proposes in its place a more expansive vision for teleological ethics.
Download or read book Sovereignty Property and Empire 1500 2000 written by Andrew Fitzmaurice and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-23 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adopting a global approach, Fitzmaurice analyses the laws that shaped modern European empires from medieval times to the twentieth century.
Download or read book Mandeville s Fable written by Robin Douglass and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why we should take Bernard Mandeville seriously as a philosopher Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees outraged its eighteenth-century audience by proclaiming that private vices lead to public prosperity. Today the work is best known as an early iteration of laissez-faire capitalism. In this book, Robin Douglass looks beyond the notoriety of Mandeville’s great work to reclaim its status as one of the most incisive philosophical studies of human nature and the origin of society in the Enlightenment era. Focusing on Mandeville’s moral, social, and political ideas, Douglass offers a revelatory account of why we should take Mandeville seriously as a philosopher. Douglass expertly reconstructs Mandeville’s theory of how self-centred individuals, who care for their reputation and social standing above all else, could live peacefully together in large societies. Pride and shame are the principal motives of human behaviour, on this account, with a large dose of hypocrisy and self-deception lying behind our moral practices. In his analysis, Douglass attends closely to the changes between different editions of the Fable; considers Mandeville’s arguments in light of objections and rival accounts from other eighteenth-century philosophers, including Shaftesbury, Hume, and Smith; and draws on more recent findings from social psychology. With this detailed and original reassessment of Mandeville’s philosophy, Douglass shows how The Fable of the Bees—by shining a light on the dark side of human nature—has the power to unsettle readers even today.
Download or read book Thomas Reid on Practical Ethics written by Thomas Reid and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-06 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pervasiveness of Protestant natural law in the early modern period and its significance in the Scottish Enlightenment have long been recognised. This book reveals that Thomas Reid (1710-1796) - the great contemporary of David Hume and Adam Smith - also worked in this tradition. When Reid succeeded Adam Smith as professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow in 1764, he taught a course covering pneumatology, practical ethics, and politics. This section on practical ethics took its starting point from the system of natural law and rights published by Francis Hutcheson. Knud Haakonssen has reconstructed it here for the first time from Reid's manuscript lectures and papers, and it provides a considerable addition to our understanding not only of Reid but of the thought of the Scottish Enlightenment and of the education system of the time. The present work is a revised version of a work first published by Princeton University Press in 1990 which has long been out of print.
