Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of history's most enigmatic figures. Our knowledge of him comes to us second-hand, primarily from the philosopher Plato, who was Socrates' most gifted student, and from the historian and sometime-philosopher Xenophon, who counted himself as a member of Socrates' inner circle of friends. We also hear of Socrates in one comic play produced during his lifetime (Aristophanes' Clouds) and in passing from the philosopher Aristotle, a student of Plato. Socrates is a figure of enduring interest. (...) He is often considered the father of Western Philosophy, yet the four most famous accounts we have of him present a contradictory, confusing picture. Just who was Socrates? A brilliant philosopher, at times confounding and infuriating, morally serious and yet ironic; the ever-worldly man, sometime mystic, and uncommon martyr depicted by Plato? Or did Plato conflate Socrates' views with his own startling genius, as Aristotle suggests? Was So rates instead the less impressive, more mundane man whose commonsense impressed the laconic Xenophon? Or was Socrates the charlatan, the long-winded phony of Aristophanes' play? The Socratic works of Diogenes Laertius (3rd century AD), Libanius (AD 314 -- c. 393), Maximus of 'Tyre (2nd century AD), and Apuleius (born c. AD 125) add important dimensions to the portrait of Socrates: Diogenes Laertius' Life of Socrates emphasizes Socrates' deep ethical nature and his extraordinary personality; Libanius' Apology of Socrates is based on sources now lost to us; Maximus of Tyre's Whether Socrates Did the Right Thing When He Did Not Defend Himself makes the star ling claim (against testimony of Plato and Xenophon) that Socrates never spoke athis own trial; from Apuleius' On the God of Socrates we hear at length of Socrates' infamous daimonion: the "divine sign" only mentioned elsewhere, the sign that warned Socrates against certain courses of action. In short, from these four texts we are reintroduced to Socrates, and new wrinkles are added to an already intriguing historical figure. (shrink)

Michel Foucault had a great influence upon a wide range of disciplines, and his work has been widely interpreted and is frequently referred to, but it is often difficult for beginners to find their way into the complexities of his thought. This is especially true for readers whose background is Anglo-American or "analytic" philosophy. C. G. Prado argues in this updated introduction that the time is overdue for Anglo-American philosophers to avail themselves of what Foucault offers. In this clear and (...) greatly-revised second edition, Prado focuses on Foucault's "middle" or genealogical work, particularly Discipline and Punish and Volume One of The History of Sexuality, in which Foucault most clearly comes to grips with the historicization of truth and knowledge and the formation of subjectivity. Understanding Foucault's thought on these difficult subjects requires working through much complexity and ambiguity, and Prado's direct and accessible introduction is the ideal place to start. (shrink)

The remarkable poem in which Aristotle addresses ‘Αρετά and honours the memory of his dead friend Hermias is fortunate in being well preserved. The complete text is given by Athenaeus XV 696a and by Diogenes Laertius V 27, and these authorities are now supplemented by the papyrus of Didymus’ Commentary on Demosthenes, which leaves few of the textual problems in need of a solution. But the poem still raises some questions. It is not clear what kind of poem (...) it was; its literary antecedents and affinities have not been fully studied; its contents still call for some remarks. In spite of Wilamowitz's brilliant treatment and Jaeger's acute comments it is puzzling enough to justify a few words of discussion. (shrink)

De 1805 a 1830, Hegel professe neuf series de cours sur l'histoire de la philosophie. Explorant et meditant les pensees de ses predecesseurs, il en nourrit sa pensee et les eclaire en retour de la sienne. A ce titre, K.L. Michelet, a qui l'on doit la restitution de ces lecons a partir des notes de Hegel et de celles de ses auditeurs, voit dans ce texte la meileure cle pour la comprehension de son oeuvre. C'est par le berceau de la (...) philosophie, la Grece, que Hegel commence son exploration de l'histoire de la philosophie. Divisant la pensee grecque en trois periodes (la premiere s'etend de Thales a Aristote; la seconde englobe epicurisme, stoicisme et scepticisme; la troisieme, Platon et Aristote), il s'agit pour lui de partir du commencement de la pensee philosophante pour aboutir au stade ou l'idee prend la forme de la totalite. Ce deuxieme tome presente, au sein de la premiere periode, les lecons dediees aux sophistes (Protagoras, Gorgias), a Socrate et aux trois grandes ecoles socratiques: megarique (Euclide, Eubulide, Stilpon), cyrenaique (Aristippe, Theodore, Hegesias, Anniceris), cynique (Antisthene, Diogene et cyniques posterieurs). (shrink)

L’utopie est nominalement un nulle part qui est aussi, comme nous le dit Thomas More, un “bon” endroit. Bien qu’il existe des notions concurrentes, la description grecque occupe une place importante dans la plupart des récits d’utopie. Les détails de cet idéal sont si précis que la littérature utopique consiste en un catalogue (et une critique) de ces caractéristiques. Cet essai attire l’attention sur le parfum attribué aux « Îles des bienheureux » de Lucien, ainsi que sur la description qu’en (...) fait Nietzsche, sur sa sensibilité à l’odorat et sur l’attention portée par Illich à l’« atmosphère » et au nez. On aborde également le scepticisme envers l’utopie et des parallèles sont établis, d’une part, avec les critiques pragmatiques de l’utopie comme étant intrinsèquement totalitaires, d’autre part, avec la « bonne vie » dans la théorie politique et le défaut programmatique de la fantaisie techno-utopique. L’article se termine par une discussion d’Illich sur la pax – c’est-à-dire la respiration. (shrink)

This book is parapsychological study of the meaningful coincidence of events, extrasensory perception, and similar phenomena.

This book prints for the first time two remarkable interlocking sequences of letters between Paris and the Netherlands: 40 letters from Gilles Ménage in Paris to Johann-Georg Grævius in Utrecht, and 30 from the printer Henrik Wetstein, in Amsterdam, to Ménage. Their principal focus is the publication of a considerable number of Ménage’s works outside France, above all his monumental edition of Diogenes Laertius’s _Lives of the Philosophers._ The letters give an engaging picture of mutual help within the (...) community of scholars, Dutch, German, English, and French, including Huguenot exiles like Le Clerc and Bayle. Ménage’s are full of information from Paris; while Wetstein’s, forthright and humorous, concentrate on publishing details in a sometimes stormy relationship. The great Diogenes edition encountered an extraordinary range of problems: difficulties at every stage of publication, hazardous wartime communications, and, not least, a bizarrely eccentric collaborator in Marcus Meibomius. The two correspondences provide a fascinating case-study of the practical working of international scholarly publishing in time of war, and the European network of learned correspondence in the later seventeenth century. Each letter is printed in full, accompanied by a summary, detailed commentary, and extensive annotations. (shrink)

The concept of 'Archteypes' and the hypothesis of 'A Collective Unconscious' are two of Jung's better known and most exciting ideas. In this volume - taken from the Collected Works and appearing in paperback for the first time - Jung describes and elaborates the two concepts. Three essays establish the theoretical basis which are then followed by essays on specific archetypes. The relation of these to the process of individuation is examined in the last section. _The Archetypes and the Collective (...) Unconscious_ is one of Jung's central works. There are many illustrations in full colour. (shrink)

"From The collected works of C.G. Jung, volumes 4, 8, 12, 16"--P. [i].

_Psychological Types_ is one of Jung's most important and most famous works. First published by Routledge in the early 1920s it appeared after Jung's so-called fallow period, during which he published little, and it is perhaps the first significant book to appear after his own confrontation with the unconscious. It is the book that introduced the world to the terms 'extravert' and 'introvert'. Though very much associated with the unconscious, in _Psychological Types_ Jung shows himself to be a supreme theorist (...) of the conscious. In putting forward his system of psychological types Jung provides a means for understanding ourselves and the world around us: our different patterns of behaviour, our relationships, marriage, national and international conflict, organizational functioning. Appearing in paperback for the first time this central volume from Jung's Collected Works will be essential to anyone requiring a proper understanding of Jung's psychology. (shrink)

Concern with elective-death decisions usually focuses on individuals' competence and understanding of their situations and prospects. If problematic influences on individuals are considered, they almost invariably have to do with matters such as depression and the effects of medication. Too little attention is paid to how individuals, as subjects, are products of both external cultural and social influences on them, and of internal efforts and needs that determine their subjectivity.

Reprint. Originally published: 1959; 1st Princeton/Bollingen pbk. ed. published: 1970.

We consider the astrophysical and cosmological implications of the existence of a minimum density and mass due to the presence of the cosmological constant. If there is a minimum length in nature, then there is an absolute minimum mass corresponding to a hypothetical particle with radius of the order of the Planck length. On the other hand, quantum mechanical considerations suggest a different minimum mass. These particles associated with the dark energy can be interpreted as the “quanta” of the cosmological (...) constant. We study the possibility that these particles can form stable stellar-type configurations through gravitational condensation, and their Jeans and Chandrasekhar masses are estimated. From the requirement of the energetic stability of the minimum density configuration on a macroscopic scale one obtains a mass of the order of 1055 g, of the same order of magnitude as the mass of the universe. This mass can also be interpreted as the Jeans mass of the dark energy fluid. Furthermore we present a representation of the cosmological constant and of the total mass of the universe in terms of ‘classical’ fundamental constants. (shrink)

Recently, Brukner and Zeilinger (Phys. Rev. Lett. 83(17) (2001) 3354) have claimed that the Shannon information is not well defined as a measure of information in quantum mechanics, adducing arguments that seek to show that it is inextricably tied to classical notions of measurement. It is shown here that these arguments do not succeed: the Shannon information does not have problematic ties to classical concepts. In a further argument, Brukner and Zeilinger compare the Shannon information unfavourably to their preferred information (...) measure, I(p), with regard to the definition of a notion of ''total information content.'' This argument is found unconvincing and the relationship between individual measures of information and notions of ''total information content'' investigated. We close by considering the prospects of Zeilinger's Foundational Principle as a foundational principle for quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Contents: Mandalas. I. A Study in the Process of Individuation. II. Concerning Mandala Symbolism Index Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in (...) the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. (shrink)

In the 1950s and 60s, H. L. A. Hart's writings were responsible for the revitalizing of legal philosophy in the UK and worldwide. This new collection of essays by distinguished philosophers and legal theorists addresses the enduring significance of Hart's work, focusing upon some of its more neglected aspects, including his work on causation and the philosophy of action. Two essays discuss Hart and Honore;'s Causation in the Law, a book that has been undeservedly overlooked in many philosophical discussions of (...) causation. The majority of the essays consider Hart's views on the justification of punishment. They discuss Hart's dislike of retribution, his claim that harmless immorality should not be punished, and his search for a non-retributivist theory of mens rea and excuses. Other topics examined include Hart's definitions of key legal and philosophical concepts, including 'punishment', 'responsibility' and 'voluntariness', and his views on punishing negligent acts. (shrink)

According to Jonathan Lowe's ‘Personal Agency’, free actions begin with a volition or act of will, which is itself a freely performed action. However, Lowe's explanation of why volitions are free actions is viciously circular: he argues that volitions qualify as free actions because they are rationally explicable, but claims that an action can only be rationally explicable if it is freely performed.