This book applies philosophical hermeneutics to biblical studies. Whereas traditional studies of the Bible limit their analysis to the exploration of the texts' original historical sense, this book discusses how to move beyond these issues to a consideration of biblical texts' existential significance for the present. In response to the rejection of biblical significance in the late nineteenth century and the accompanying crisis of nihilism, B. H. McLean argues that the philosophical thought of Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer, Habermas, Ricoeur, Levinas, Deleuze (...) and Guattari provides an alternative to historically oriented approaches to biblical interpretation. He uses basic principles drawn from these philosophers' writings to create a framework for a new 'post-historical' mode of hermeneutic inquiry that transcends the subject-based epistemological structure of historical positivism. (shrink)

The author has made this treatise on Madhva’s realistic school of Ved?nta philosophy convincing to the modern mind by employing western logical apparatus in substantiating Madhva’s ideas. Following the Indian classical tradition, the author has examined the validity of Advaitaved?nta, the Absolute Monism of ?a?kara and Bh?skara as P?rvapak?a, and logically proved its inconsistencies. He has then established the Dvaitasiddh?nta i.e., the Monotheistic Dualism of Madhva. He has successfully brought out the nuances of the realistic school of Indian philosophical thought (...) in this work. A Modern Introduction to M?dhva Philosophy is Prof B H Kotabagi’s posthumous publication. (shrink)

An attempt to "remove the obstacles to a more positive kind of philosophizing than is now usually cultivated," and to "restore the traditional scope of philosophy." Eight historical chapters very rapidly review and criticize almost every major philosopher from Descartes on, claiming that there has been an unduly restricted conception of the data of experience and too narrow a view of the powers of thought. Four final "reconstructive" chapters sketch out a program for a modern synthesis which will continue the (...) Greek and medieval tradition, beginning from a truly adequate empiricism and allowing full scope to the powers of human thinking, "uninhibited by Kantian presuppositions." This synthetic program might be taken more seriously if the preceding historical and critical chapters had been more carefully worked out.--B. H. (shrink)

The solution is that there can be no justification of induction, "the rule we use to make inferences about unknown events from a sample of data drawn from experience." A principle may be justified either by validation or by vindication; Hume's argument showed conclusively that no validation of induction is possible, but left open the possibility of a vindication. Reichenbach explored this possibility within the framework of a frequency theory of probability. Katz now explores Reichenbach's treatment in detail, finding that (...) it ultimately fails to produce either a "preferability vindication" or an "expediency vindication." Katz then argues that it is in principle impossible ever to modify Reichenbach's account in a way which would allow such vindication-for the inductive rule or, in fact, any convergent rule whatever, whether on a "frequency" or a "degree of confirmation" interpretation of probability. But if no vindication is possible, then no justification of any kind is possible, providing we have correctly reduced the problem; so the problem of induction has received its solution. This in no way calls for skepticism or conventionalism concerning empirical knowledge; we can certainly criticize various inductive procedures and show that one canon is better than another. We can "convince those who are in agreement about basic standards but are interested in more precise versions and their proper application to particular cases"; these are quite different issues from the general "problem of induction." A boldly-outlined argument, drawing upon a good deal of complex material, and handled very skillfully.--B. H. (shrink)

Brian Wormald provides a fundamental reappraisal of one of the most complex and innovative figures of the late-Elizabethan and Jacobean age. In the centuries since his death, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has been perceived and studied as a promoter and prophet of the philosophy of science--natural science--but he saw himself also as a clarifier and promoter of what he called "policy" or the study and improvement of the structure and function of civil states. Mr. Wormald shows that Bacon was concerned equally (...) with the knowledge of the world of nature and with that of policy. The junction between the two enterprises was effected by his work in history; and in the end it was Bacon's conception and practice of history that provided the answer to his efforts to advance policy and natural philosophy. (shrink)

Recovers some of the value in the Wittgensteinian period of philosophy, using certain logical systems: Prior's theory of operators and Hilbert's epsilon calculus. This work applies, discursively, the previous largely technical results published in Prolegomena to Formal Logic (Aldershot, Gower 1989) and Intensional Logic (Aldershot, Ashgate 1994) to resolve matters of current interest in philosophy, logic and linguistics - notably attacking a variety of realisms found in comtemporary cognitive science and the philosophy of mathematics.

This fifty-page essay treats Marx's concept of action as the principle underlying his whole system. Activity for Marx is described as both a philosophical concept and an element of human experience demanded by his system. The principle of activity is present as early as in Marx's doctoral dissertation and its influence is traced on his materialism, epistemology, and conception of philosophy. In the process, some strong similarities are shown with Dewey's concept of action, despite the difference in goals of the (...) two philosophers. The concept of action was not original with Marx as the author demonstrates in his discussion of Kant's epistemology and Hegel's dialectics. What distinguishes Marx's concept of action is the unification of theory and practice, and the interrelationship of the two on a materialist foundation. To Marx, there was no meaningful theory without practice and no effective action without theory. Furthermore, the oft-quoted statement by Marx that philosophers have only interpreted the world whereas the point is to change it asserts only half of the case. Marx is not advocating change for the sake of change or change in accordance with any interpretation of the world. He is proposing change of a very specific kind and his concept of action cannot be separated from its content. This point does not emerge as clearly as it should in the essay under consideration because the author tends to treat the concept of activity in isolation and as an uninfluenced influence on the rest of Marx's thought. The author welcomes Marx's emphasis on practice as a much-needed antidote to the trend that makes philosophy a world apart. He also approves Marx's active personal role in society and his unhesitating entry into debate with the finest minds of his time. Of great value to those interested in the young Marx is the author's translation of Marx's doctoral dissertation on The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature. This is the first complete translation to appear in English. It occupies half the space of the present volume.--H. B. (shrink)

Although Dilthey is increasingly recognized as a seminal philosopher whose thought finds significant expression in the works of Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, Mannheim, Weber, Spranger, Simmel, Troeltsch, and Buber, his writings are available in English in only the scantiest of excerpts. Book-size English commentaries on Dilthey can be counted without exhausting the fingers of one hand. The present, slim volume would, therefore, be of interest for no other reason than that it adds a reference to an all-too skimpy library. Fortunately, it (...) is of value for much better reasons. What Tuttle has attempted is the first systematic exposition of Dilthey's life-long attempt to establish an objectively valid basis for his theory of Verstehen and Nacherlebnis.. This may belie the subtitle of the book, but it can hardly be denied that the exposition is at least equal in importance to the critical analysis which follows it. The reconstruction of Dilthey's arguments consists of a description of: his concept of the special nature of human life which permits the subject and object of historical knowledge to be the same; the original descriptive psychology which Dilthey worked out as the basis for the study of history and of all the human sciences; his somewhat equivocal abandonment of psychology because of its ahistorical and law-like character in favor of an emphasis on empirical life assertions which are internalized by the method of Verstehen; his notion of human nature and the tension between its historically changing aspect and its unchanging epistemological aspect; the role of motives in Dilthey's system as causes of historical action; and his theory of ideal types as a methodological device for generalizing without having to utilize the causal explanations of natural science. The book begins and ends on the same note; namely, that Dilthey is unable to verify that the re-experience of the historian is actually a duplicate of the experience of the historical agent. But in between the opening statement and its repetition at the end, a wealth of insight into Dilthey's thought is provided.--H. B. (shrink)

The [[sic]] Arabic contribution to literary criticism is still very imperfectly known among Western scholars. It is important not only for the history of Arabic poetry, but for Latin Europe as well. Al-farabi’s discussion of poetry in his Catalog of the Sciences was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona and also incorporated into an important essay On the Division of Sciences by Dominicus Gundissalinus in the twelfth century. In 1256 Hermannus Almannus [[sic]] translated the Middle Commentary of Averroës on (...) Aristotle’s Poetics. This translation provided the first hazy glimpse of Aristotle’s theory of poetry available in the Latin west. It circulated widely in manuscript, it was printed in Venice in 1491, and it was reprinted in the Giunta editions of "Aristotle with Averroës" during the sixteenth century. (shrink)

Lemos’s examination of the political philosophies of Hobbes and Locke has as its intended focus "the timeless philosophical significance of their positions and arguments." He is as much concerned, however, with correcting their arguments and carrying out the implications of his own corrections as he is with their thought. Lemos’s decision to disregard the metaphysics, physics, psychology, and epistemology of Hobbes and Locke is merely stated, without support. One might dispute its validity. Likewise, his exclusion of any references to the (...) predecessors or contemporaries of Hobbes and Locke and references to other interpretations costs his book valuable perspective. (shrink)

Francis Bacon could imagine the delights of the promised land of science, but he stands today as a propagandist rather than a practitioner. He was no Copernicus or Vesalius or Galileo; he was not even a Gabriel Harvey or a Thomas Harriot. As James Stephens observes in this study he was "never able to provide examples of the interpretation of nature" adequate to validate his claims. A great deal of his thought was taken up not with new experiments but with (...) the problem of how to express the new scientific philosophy in a way that would be intellectually rigorous and at the same time appealing to at least the better educated members of a general audience. Not unlike some modern analytic philosophers, he felt that language is one of the prime causes of human error. The use of language had been systematized for the ancients in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, with later contribution by Isocrates, Cicero, Quintilian, and Seneca, among others. If men’s minds were corrupted by false rhetoric, Bacon’s solution was to offer a true rhetoric. (shrink)

Compared to philosophers, the leading Latin American novelists, poets, and playwrights are relatively well known in the United States and many of their works are available in English translations. The Latin American philosophers, however, are an unknown quantity--not only to the reading public at large, but also to practically all U.S. philosophic and scholastic communities. Yet, Latin America contains a number of important original thinkers whose works would reward study here. Philosophical concepts developed in an ambient of young and not (...) yet fully-formed nations, without a long national cultural tradition of their own and struggling to overcome semi-primitive economic and political conditions, are bound to add some interesting dimensions to what is commonly called the "philosophy of the western world." This is particularly true when the philosophizers are distinguished--as they are in many cases--by a personal moral commitment to social and political involvement and activity. Jose Vasconcelos was such a figure. The volume under review gives us our first English summary of Vasconcelos' whole philosophical system: his metaphysics, his epistemology, his ethics and his aesthetics. It also ties in his social and political philosophy and some biographical details. The full impact of Vasconcelos' aesthetic monism comes through clearly, concisely and forcefully in nine carefully-chosen selections in the Appendix. It is to be hoped that this little volume portends a new trend toward making available in English the works of other outstanding Latin American philosophers.--H. B. (shrink)

The history of Athenian relations with Sicily in the fifth century is beset with difficulties; and no part of it, perhaps, is more obscure than the story of what is commonly known as the First Sicilian Expedition, which set sail from Athens in the late summer of 427 under Laches, and was reinforced under Pythodorus, Sophocles and Eurymedon in the winter of 426.

Richard Tuck’s book reconstructs the historical debate that led ultimately to the modern concept of natural right. His study has the virtue of supplying a critical perspective often missing in the current controversy over the nature and status of rights.