Bøger i Continuum Studies in Philosophy serien

A comprehensive study of the relationship between Machiavelli and Spinoza's political philosophy. It explores Spinoza's political philosophy by confronting it with that of Niccolo Machiavelli. It shows how closely tied the two thinkers are in relation to realism.

Wittgenstein once said, "I cannot help seeing every problem from a 'religious point of view'. "However, since he never advocated any one religion many people have wondered just what this religious point of view could be. This book answers this question by clarifying the overall nature(s) of his philosophies (the early and the later).

An historical analysis that challenges traditional readings which have reduced two of German idealism's most important thinkers to opposing caricatures: Hegel the uncompromising systematist, blind to the novelty and contingency of human life and Schelling the protean thinker, drawn to all manner of pseudoscientific charlatanry.

Presents a comprehensive study of the roots of the concept of genius in Kant's understanding of nature and his notion of the artist. While many studies have chronicled the Romantic legacy of artistic genius, this book uncovers the roots of the concept of genius in Kant's third Critique, alongside the development of his understanding of nature.

Presents a fresh approach to philosophy of mind that combines naturalistic and rationalist perspectives usually thought to be at odds. This title offers various proposals for bringing the two approaches into a mutually enhancing - though also mutually provocative - relationship.

Examines Spinoza's moral and political philosophy and his engagement with Stoicism. This book explores the problematic view of the relationship between ethics and politics that Spinoza apparently inherited from the Stoics and in so doing asks some important questions that contribute to a crucial contemporary debate.

Schelling is often thought to be a protean thinker whose work is difficult to approach or interpret. This title shows that the philosophy of art is the guiding thread to understanding Schelling's philosophical development from his early works in 1795-1796 through his theological turn in 1809-1810.

Offering a reading of Kant's "Critique of Judgment", this book draws on the great volume of philosophical work on the text and on the context of 18th Century aesthetics. His text is used as a basis on which to construct a radical alternative solution to the antinomy of taste, the basic problem of the aesthetic.

Argues for the relevance of Rousseau's thought to contemporary debates about democracy and the work of such thinkers as Lefort, Laclau and Mouffe. This book stresses the theoretical consistency of his political though against those influential deconstructive readings of his work by thinkers such as Derrida and De Man.

Argues that the Enlightenment conception of rationality that feminists are fond of attacking is no longer a live concept. The author shows how contemporary theories of rationality are consonant with feminist concerns and proposes that feminists need a substantive theory of rationality, which she argues should be a virtue theory of rationality.

An original investigation of the structure of human morality, that aims to identify the place and significance of moral deeds. It revokes and renews the tradition of Kant's moral philosophy. Through a novel reading of contemporary approaches to Kant, it draws a new map of the human capacity for morality.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is simultaneously one of the most obscure philosophers of the Western world and one of the most influential. This book examines in particular Kierkegaard's understanding of the fall of the self and its recovery and the implications of his entire corpus for the life of the individual.

'Can a Christian answer the empire's call to military duty and still answer a clear conscience before God? Fifth-century philosopher, St Augustine of Hippo, sought to provide a solution to the two problems. This title also identifies the effect of the Augustinian legacy upon medieval and modern philosophical reflections on the nature of warfare.

"The concept of spontaneity is central to Kant''s philosophy, yet Kant himself never dealt with it explicitly. Instead it was presented as an insoluble problem concerning human reason. The ambiguity surrounding his approach to this problem is surprising when one considers that he was a philosopher who based his theoretical programme on the critique of the faculties of knowledge, feeling and desire. However, this ambiguity seems to have avoided up to now any possible critique. This highly original book presents the first full-length study of the problem of spontaneity in Kant. Marco Sgarbi demonstrates that spontaneity is a crucial concept in relation to every aspect of Kant''s thought. He begins by reconstructing the history of the concept of spontaneity in the German Enlightenment prior to Kant and goes on to define knowing, thinking, acting and feeling as spontaneous activities of the mind that in turn determine Kant''s logic, ethics and aesthetics. Ultimately Sgarbi shows that the notion of spontaneity is key to understanding both Kant''s theoretical and practical philosophy."

In modern philosophy, German idealism, Hegel in particular, is said to have made significant innovative steps in redefining the meaning, scope and use of dialectic. This title studies the significance of Hegel's dialectic. It examines the epistemological import of Hegelian dialectic in the widest sense.

Intentionality - the relationship between conscious states and their objects - is one of the most discussed topics in contemporary debates in philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience and the study of consciousness. This book brings together phenomenological and analytic-empirical approaches to this issue in our understanding of consciousness.

Philosophers who wish to argue for the rationality of belief in God frequently employ a 'god-of-the-gaps' strategy. Drawing on work in the theory of action, this book shows that we can attribute God's agency to an event in nature without eliminating the possibility that it might be explained scientifically.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is an enigmatic figure in many ways. This book explains Rousseau's true place in the Enlightenment by paying particular attention to his account of virtue. It shows that Rousseau shares important characteristics with his contemporaries as well as with the tradition of Aristotle.

In taking up the problem of evil as it is found in the work of the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, the author has uncovered a framework that allows the notion of radical evil to be properly articulated. His book traces the sources of Kierkegaard's conception from its background in the work of Kant and Schelling.

Argues that the notion of the person that lies at the heart of the liberal tradition is derived from a Kantian and Cartesian metaphysic. This title also argues that there is a strand of Kierkegaard's writing that offers a metaphysical picture which recognises the dependence of people upon one another.