This comprehensive account of the history of ancient Greek thought circa 600 to 400 B.C. offers an accessible, nontechnical introduction to Presocratic philosophy.

A new translation of Aristotle's classic work on the natural sciences.

1. It is evident that the contrast between ‘life’ and ‘death’ is an important one for Heraclitus. But his words remain cryptic, perhaps more so on this subject than on most others. Ideally, any elucidation would occur as an application of, and as in its turn confirming, some overall view of his theorising activity. The suggestions which follow are not intended to achieve that. I work within the well-worn assumptions that Heraclitus is putting forward a “general theory of the soul” (...) that goes substantially beyond the evidence available; and that Heraclitus is a highly systematic theorist, and in particular that there is a close analogy between his theory of the soul and his theory of the cosmos, with fire playing the central role in each, and each being an application of the master-pattern of ‘unity-in-opposites’. I hope to show that, even within this “traditional” approach, there is room for new insights, if we respect both the Homeric-Hesiodic background and Heraclitus’ own method of self-expression. (shrink)

In the field of natural science, Aristotle recognizes as his forerunners a select group of theorists such as Heraclitus of Ephesus, Empedocles of Acragas, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, and Leucippus and Democritus of Abdera. In addition, he mentions in the same contexts some whose claims to be “natural philosophers” are doubtful, yet who deserve notice in the same context, including Parmenides of Elea, Melissus of Samos, the people called Pythagoreans, and Plato as the author of the Timaeus. Aristotle takes seriously almost (...) all of these people, treating them as exemplary pioneers and valuable partners in the enterprise of “natural philosophy.” This article examines earlier opinions on certain fundamental questions about the natural world, as treated in the first three books of the Physics and in the first book of the Metaphysics. In Physics II and III, Aristotle represents most if not all of his predecessors as disastrously misunderstanding, in more than one way, the nature underlying the natural world. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Homer and Hesiod: A Pre‐scientific Conception of the World Innovation at Miletus: Aristotle on Thales His New Style of Cosmology The Theoretical Enterprise Unfolds: A Post‐Aristotelian Interpretation Theoretical Reflections on the Limits and Presuppositions of Cosmology: The Origins of Greek Philosophy Questions and Disputes Bibliography.

The Nature of God explores a perennial problem in the philosophy of religion.

In this paper it is argued that we have three dispositions, each of which is very laudable in itself: a preference for the positive, constructive and creative aspects of human endeavours; a desire to be open‐minded and tolerant concerning ideas and beliefs; and an admiration of profundity. I have suggested that these dispositions can, if exaggerated or employed uncritically, seduce us into intellectual positions that are very dubious. These arguments are applied to some of the debates within the philosophy of (...) nursing. (shrink)

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an open access, dynamic reference work designed to organize professional philosophers so that they can write, edit, and maintain a reference work in philosophy that is responsive to new research. From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they (...) are made public. (shrink)

Beginning by offering a conceptual analysis of change – a statement of what change of any kind is – the paper sets out to examine possible ways of understanding a very common and important variety of change that may be called ‘evolutionary’. These changes include anything from the production of a clay pot on a potter's wheel to the emergence of a system of management, or from the effects of an analgesic drug to the development of a new programme of (...) care. As few philosophers have discussed such topics, theories are borrowed from the philosophy of science that attempt to explain the development and rationality of science. The ideas of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn are discussed and criticized, before turning to evolutionary theories: Darwinian and Lamarckian. The paper ends by offering a model that, it is hoped, may help in thinking about a wide range of changes. (shrink)

The essays in this collection were originally given at the international colloquium _Cent Ans de Bataille: La Bataille de Cent Ans_ held at the Fondació Tàpies in Barcelona in September 1998. They are written from a variety of perspectives but are drawn together by the singular aim of addressing and interrogating Georges Bataille as our contemporary whose fascination with the rupture between mythical and experimental forms of discourse defines our own age as much as it did in Bataille’s own time. (...) More precisely, the essays in this collection range over Bataille’s status as a novelist, a poet, an art critic, a philosopher and a prophet of post-modernity with this aim in mind. They not only seek to advance and clarify debate about Bataille’s present status in the post-modern canon but also shed new light on the complex relation between Bataille and the present generation of readers who have come to him through the prism of post-modernist thought. It is of significance for each writer in this collection, most crucially, that the premonition of catastrophe which defined Bataille’s fluid political positions is also located between tragedy and irony. (shrink)

First published in 1903, this volume revolutionized philosophy and forever altered the direction of ethical studies. A philosopher’s philosopher, G. E. Moore was the idol of the Bloomsbury group, and Lytton Strachey declared that Principia Ethica marked the rebirth of the Age of Reason. This work clarifies some of moral philosophy’s most common confusions and redefines the science’s terminology. Six chapters explore: the subject matter of ethics, naturalistic ethics, hedonism, metaphysical ethics, ethics in relation to conduct, and the ideal. Moore's (...) simplicity of style and precise use of everyday language exercised an enormous influence on the development of analytic philosophy, and they contribute to the continuing resonance of his compelling arguments. (shrink)

This chapter sets out the traditional natural law defense of the claim that the death penalty can in principle be a just punishment for certain offenses. It begins by explaining the relevant principles of traditional natural law theory and how they are grounded in a broadly Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics. It then shows how the goodness of retribution follows from these principles, and thus is intelligible given that metaphysical picture. This is followed by an application of these results to the justification of (...) capital punishment specifically, as an instance of retributive justice. Finally, Feser responds to some objections. (shrink)

According to the offense principle, the fact that wrongs are offensive makes them eligible for criminalization. Section “Introduction” unpacks this principle. Section “Offense and Offensiveness” discusses what it is for X to be offensive. Section “Offensiveness and Criminalization” argues that, whether we interpret offensiveness subjectively or objectively, the offense principle is not a sound principle. The fact that a wrong is objectively offensive does not bear on whether it should be criminalized. The fact that a wrong is subjectively offensive is (...) no reason to tackle it using the criminal law. Section “The Value of Offense” considers the conditions under which offense has value. It argues that, under some conditions, the fact that X is subjectively offensive counts against criminalizing X, while the fact that X is not subjectively offensive counts in favor of criminalization. Feinberg’s version of the offense principle—which holds that subjective offensiveness gives us reason to criminalize—is something close to the opposite of the truth. (shrink)

This paper is perhaps an impressionistic response to accounts of the extraordinary set-theoretical activity being undertaken by W. Hugh Woodin and colleagues in the present moment, in the context of the mathematical ontology proposed and elaborated by Alain Badiou. The argument presented is that the prevailing and sustained incoherence of the mathematical ontology underscores a contemporary deficit of humanity’s symbolic organization which, in turn, yields confusion and conflict in terms of subjective orientation. But a new axiom promises to realize a (...) coherent set theory, i.e. stable, consistent and complete. This remarkable development offers hope for the pursuit of a modern symbolic, and a consequent resolution of the general subjective disorientation. (shrink)