As one of the most important ethicists to emerge since the Second World War, Alan Gewirth continues to influence philosophical debates concerning morality. In this ground-breaking book, Gewirth's neo-Kantianism, and the communitarian problems discussed, form a dialogue on the foundation of moral theory. Themes of agent-centered constraints, the formal structure of theories, and the relationship between freedom and duty are examined along with such new perspectives as feminism, the Stoics, and Sartre. Gewirth offers a picture of the philosopher's theory and (...) its applications, providing a richer, more complete critical assessement than any which has occurred to date. (shrink)

The ten essays in this collection approach the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas not merely as an object of scholarly interest but also as a framework for addressing perennial philosophical questions, even as they are raised and debated in our own times. The f.

Este artículo apunta varios temas éticos en los cuales el análisis de Tomásde Aquino emplea la noción de voluntad, mientras que el de Aristóteles no lo hace. Se sostiene que las explicaciones de Aquino son más completas precisamente porque introduce la voluntad en la discusión. Esta introducción de la voluntad representa un mayor énfasis en la libertad de los actos morales.

Can humans truly be the measure of all things? Is relativism a corrosive concept, undermining any chance we have of getting clear about things? Should we seek foundations for our values, or is such an effort a waste of time? With David Gallagher, Shannon Jordan, and Joshua Halberstam.

This volume is the third in a new series which makes available the writings of the new French liberals, of whom Pierre Manent represents a leading figure. These thinkers come to grips with modern liberal democracy, not in order to replace it, but in order to understand its origins, its history, its internal tendencies, its strengths, its pitfalls. This is a refreshing movement, insofar as it attempts to understand philosophically the modern political situation without either dismissing it in the light (...) of some utopia or criticizing it by a contrast to some idealized historical condition like the city-state. In this volume Manent proposes to clarify liberalism, the dominate understanding of the political in our time, but he does so in terms of liberalism's own history, that is, as the product of several great political thinkers' reactions to one another and to political and social changes in Europe and America. Accordingly, each chapter of the book treats a major thinker from Machiavelli through Tocqueville. (shrink)

This book questions whether a philosophic Thomistic ethics is possible. In so doing, it stands alongside Wolfgang Kluxen’s Philosophische Ethik bei Thomas von Aquin which was, until now, the most thorough and original treatment of the issue. Kluxen argued that one could not simply extract certain “philosophical” passages from Aquinas’s theological works; rather, a philosophical ethics would require a work of interpretation. Still, he thought the project attainable. Bradley, in explicit contrast to Kluxen, argues forcefully that not only is it (...) impossible to extract a philosophical ethics from Aquinas’s own works, but it is also impossible to develop any systematic philosophical ethics that could be properly called “Thomistic.”. (shrink)

This book aims to present Thomas Aquinas’s theory of natural law as a cogent theory of ethics for those trained in Anglo-American analytic philosophy. To this end, Lisska explains the Thomistic theory in language intelligible to those untrained in scholastic philosophy and also takes up modern criticisms leveled against Aquinas with respect to his naturalism, his reliance on an outmoded metaphysics of essences, his failure to acknowledge the is/ought distinction, the absence of categorical imperatives, and so forth. In addition, Lisska (...) locates his own interpretation of Aquinas’s theory among other contemporary interpretations, particularly those of John Finnis and Henry Veatch. (shrink)

With this book Salkever issues a timely call for political and ethical theory to return to more classical modes of theorizing. His central claim is that Aristotle's approach to social science as presented in the Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, an approach which cuts across many modern dichotomies, is workable and in fact provides a more adequate framework for understanding modern political practice than any modern theory. He looks to Aristotle not for the content of his political theory, but for its (...) "style" of theorizing. The book does not pretend to explicate fully Aristotle's political philosophy, but rather to encourage discussion of it ; it offers no theory of modern politics, but simply urges us to theorize in the style of Aristotle. (shrink)

The central theme which unites the essays is the fundamental shift, occurring at the end of the twelfth and throughout the thirteenth century, in how knowledge and education were understood. Up to this time human knowledge was classified primarily under the rubric of artes and philosophy was conceived and taught within the schema of the seven artes liberales. During these pivotal decades, however, under the influence of Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, the concept of scientia becomes dominant, and the rules and methods (...) productive of scientific knowledge become an ever more prominent theme. Knowledge is now rigorously divided into a plurality of scientiae with the divisions among the individual sciences receiving sophisticated philosophical justifications. This new conception of knowledge finds expression in the rise of the universities as well as in the formation of a separate Arts faculty. Precisely this understanding of science, moreover, with its rigorous method as well as divisions according to the objects studied, represents an enduring contribution of the Middle Ages to succeeding centuries. (shrink)

In an exemplary cooperation between science and philosophy, Augros and Stanciu synthesize the discoveries and reflections of leading biologists in recent decades. More importantly, they show how these discoveries, when coupled with this century's overthrow of classical physics, calls for a new, more holistic understanding of animate beings and a philosophical re-thinking of the realm of nature as a whole. This book will be of great interest for those engaged in the philosophy of science and will undoubtedly appeal to all (...) those who suspect that the simple reductionism which modern science is purported to uphold cannot do justice to the marvelous richness and complexity of the plant and animal kingdoms. (shrink)