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William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics: Thinking Metaxologically
by Dennis Vanden AuweeleThis volume collects seventeen new essays by well-established and junior scholars on the philosophical relevance of metaxological philosophy and its main proponent, William Desmond. The volume mines metaxological thought for its salience in contemporary discussions in Continental philosophy, specifically in the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, and aesthetics. Among others, topics under discussion include the goodness of being, the existence and nature of God, and the aesthetic dimensions of human becoming. Interest in metaxological philosophy has been on the rise in recent years, and this volume provides both a practical introduction and thorough engagements with it by experts in the field. The volume concludes with a series of responses by William Desmond on the issues raised by the contributors.
William E. Connolly: Democracy, Pluralism and Political Theory (Routledge Innovators in Political Theory)
by Terrell Carver Samuel A. ChambersWilliam E. Connolly’s writings have pushed the leading edge of political theory, first in North America and then in Europe as well, for more than two decades now. This book draws on his numerous influential books and articles to provide a coherent and comprehensive overview of his significant contribution to the field of political theory. The book focuses in particular on three key areas of his thinking: Democracy: his work in democratic theory – through his critical challenges to the traditions of Rawlsian theories of justice and Habermasian theories of deliberative democracy – has spurred the creation of a fertile and powerful new literature Pluralism: Connolly's work utterly transformed the terrain of the field by helping to resignify pluralism: from a conservative theory of order based on the status quo into a radical theory of democratic contestation based on a progressive political vision The Terms of Political Theory: Connolly has changed the language in which Anglo-American political theory is spoken, and entirely shuffled the pack with which political theorists work.
William Empson: Prophet Against Sacrifice (Critics of the Twentieth Century)
by Paul H. FryWilliam Empson: Prophet Against Sacrifice provides the most coherent account of Empson's diverse career to date. While exploring the richness of Empson's comic genius, Paul H. Fry serves to discredit the appropriation of his name in recent polemic by the conflicting parties of deconstruction and politicized cultural criticism. He argues that Empson is a larger, more important figure than the orthodox in either camp can acknowledge, deserving to be considered alongside such versatile critics as Walter Benjamin, Kenneth Burke and Roland Barthes.
William James: Essays and Lectures
by William James Daniel Kolak Richard KamberPart of the “Longman Library of Primary Sources in Philosophy,” this edition of the William James' Selected Essays is framed by a pedagogical structure designed to make this important work of philosophy more accessible and meaningful for undergraduates.
William James: Empiricism and Pragmatism (Thought in the Act)
by David LapoujadeOriginally published in French in 1997 and appearing here in English for the first time, David Lapoujade's William James: Empiricism and Pragmatism is both an accessible and rigorous introduction to James's thought and a pioneering rereading of it. Examining pragmatism's fundamental questions through a Deleuzian framework, Lapoujade outlines how James's pragmatism and radical empiricism encompass the study of experience and the making of reality, and he reopens the speculative side of pragmatist thought and the role of experience in it. The book includes an extensive afterword by translator Thomas Lamarre, who illustrates how James's interventions are becoming increasingly central to the contemporary debates about materialist ontology, affect, and epistemology that strive to bridge the gaps among science studies, media studies, and religious studies.
William James and a Science of Religions: Reexperiencing The Varieties of Religious Experience (Columbia Series in Science and Religion)
by Wayne ProudfootThe "science of religion" is an important element in the interpretation of William James's work and in the methodology of the study of religion. An authority on pragmatism and the philosophy of religion, Wayne Proudfoot and a stellar group of contributors from a variety of disciplines including religion, philosophy, psychology, and history, bring innovative perspectives to James's work. Each contributor focuses on a specific theme in The Varieties of Religious Experience and suggests how James's treatment of that theme can fruitfully be brought to bear, sometimes with revisions or extensions, on current debate about religious experience.
William James and Sigmund Freud on the Mind: Saving Subjectivity (Philosophy and Psychoanalysis)
by Alfred I. TauberThis is the first extended study comparing the philosophies of mind promoted by Sigmund Freud and William James, whose opposing views had profound influences on the development of twentieth-century philosophy, cognitive science, and psychology.Each asked, can the mind be scientifically characterized? While Freud thought that psychoanalysis had established a science of the mind, James maintained that the subjective could not be objectified, and psychology was left with only "the crumbs" of analysis. Tauber’s presentation of a conjured philosophical confrontation occasioned by their first and only meeting in 1909 uncovers the clashing philosophies of mind underlying their respective positions. In comparing their opposing portraits of the psyche, persistent questions about self-knowledge, personal identity, and moral agency are presented at their fin de siècle origin. In this setting, the James-Freud dispute offers a unique perspective about our own contemporary dilemmas swirling around selfhood, consciousness, and the subjectivity of human experience.This eclectic history of early psychology will interest psychoanalysts, psychologists, and philosophers as well as those interested in the origins of pragmatism, phenomenology, modernism, and twentieth-century positivism.
William James and the Moral Life: Responsible Self-Fashioning (Routledge Studies in American Philosophy)
by Todd LekanThis book offers a compelling new interpretation of James’ moral philosophy: an "ethics of responsible self-fashioning." James’ performative writing style articulates this conception by showing how moral inquiry serves both social and personal transformation. James the social moral philosopher seeks to create an inclusive moral order through expansion of sympathetic concern among those committed to different ideals. James the existential moral philosopher defends the right to adopt hope-grounding metaphysical beliefs which encourage strenuous moral action in the face of evil and suffering. The power of James’ ethics is demonstrated by its application to current discussions about the status of marginalized nonhuman animals and that of the cognitively disabled. William James and the Moral Life is of interest to a wide variety of ethicists and has special appeal to scholars and advanced students in moral philosophy, social philosophy, pragmatism, and American philosophy.
William James and the Quest for an Ethical Republic
by Trygve ThrontveitPragmatist philosopher William James has long been deemed a dubious guide to ethical reasoning. This book overturns such thinking, demonstrating the coherence of James's efforts to develop a flexible but rigorous framework for individuals and societies seeking freedom, meaning, and justice in a world of interdependence, uncertainty, and change.
William James in Focus: Willing to Believe (American Philosophy)
by William J. Gavin“A bold and provocative introduction to James’s philosophy that will be of interest to many scholars of American philosophy.” —Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce SocietyWilliam James (1842–1910) is a canonical figure of American pragmatism. Trained as a medical doctor, James was more engaged by psychology and philosophy and wrote a foundational text, Pragmatism, for this characteristically American way of thinking. Distilling the main currents of James’s thought, William J. Gavin focuses on “latent” and “manifest” ideas in James to disclose the notion of “will to believe,” which courses through his work. For students who may be approaching James for the first time and for specialists who may not know James as deeply as they wish, Gavin provides a clear path to understanding James’s philosophy even as he embraces James’s complications and hesitations.“A concise and mostly effective sketch of James’ arc of thought, in which the theme of the impressive and engaging nature of James’ philosophical ‘outline’ is expressly tackled.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews“Gavin’s book is meta-continuous, operating at more than one level at a time. Our responsibility is to take James seriously, and Gavin provides cogent reasons for doing so. William J. Gavin’s work continues to warrant the title ‘Jamesian.’” —The Pluralist“This praiseworthy volume presents a viewpoint on James that brings the novice reader into conversation and reminds the more experienced reader of the big-picture of James, of the zest and novelty of his vision.” —William James Studies
William James on Democratic Individuality
by Bush Stephen S.William James (1842-1910) argued for a philosophy of democracy and pluralism that advocates individual and collective responsibility for our social arrangements, our morality, and our religion. In James' view, democracy resides first and foremost not in governmental institutions or in procedures such as voting, but rather in the characteristics of individuals, and in qualities of mind and conduct. It is a philosophy for social change, counselling action and hope despite the manifold challenges facing democratic politics, and these issues still resonate strongly today. In this book, Stephen Bush explores how these themes connect to James' philosophy of religion, his moral thought, his epistemology, his psychology, and his metaphysics. His fresh and original study highlights the relevance of James' thought to modern debates, and will appeal to scholars and students of moral and political philosophy.
William James on Ethics and Faith
by Michael R. SlaterThis book offers a new interpretation of William James's ethical and religious thought. Michael Slater shows that James's conception of morality, or what it means to lead a moral and flourishing life, is intimately tied to his conception of religious faith, and argues that James's views on these matters are worthy of our consideration. He offers a reassessment of James's 'will to believe' or 'right to believe' doctrine, his moral theory, and his neglected moral arguments for religious faith. And he argues that James's pragmatic account of religion is based on an ethical view of the function of religion and a realist view of the objects of religious belief and experience, and is compatible with his larger conception of pragmatism. The book will appeal to readers interested in the history of modern philosophy, especially pragmatism, as well as those interested in moral philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas.
William James on Religion
by Henrik Rydenfelt Sami PihlströmA team of international experts present a collection of articles on William James's philosophy of religion and its current relevance. A new look at his philosophy of religion is crucially important for the development of this field of inquiry today.
William James on the Courage to Believe (American Philosophy)
by Robert J. O'ConnellWilliam James’ celebrated lecture on “The Will to Believe” has kindled spirited controversy since the day it was delivered. In this lively reappraisal of that controversy, Father O’Connell contributes some fresh contentions: that James’ argument should be viewed against his indebtedness to Pascal and Renouvier; that it works primarily to validate our “over-beliefs” ; and most surprising perhaps, that James envisages our “passional nature” as intervening, not after, but before and throughout, our intellectual weighing of the evidence for belief.
William James, Pragmatism, and American Culture (American Philosophy Ser.)
by Deborah WhiteheadWilliam James, Pragmatism, and American Culture focuses on the work of William James and the relationship between the development of pragmatism and its historical, cultural, and political roots in 19th-century America. Deborah Whitehead reads pragmatism through the intersecting themes of narrative, gender, nation, politics, and religion. As she considers how pragmatism helps to explain the United States to itself, Whitehead articulates a contemporary pragmatism and shows how it has become a powerful and influential discourse in American intellectual and popular culture.
William James Pragmatism in Focus (Philosophers In Focus Ser.)
by Doris OlinThis book presents William James's Pragmatism together with critical commentary and focuses on the theories of meaning and truth central to Pragmatism. It includes several articles three of which were roughly contemporaneous with the publication of Pragmatism.
William James, Sciences of Mind, and Anti-Imperial Discourse
by Bernadette M. BakerIn the past few decades, the humanities and social sciences have developed new methods of reorienting their conceptual frameworks in a 'world without frontiers'. In this book, Bernadette M. Baker offers an innovative approach to rethinking sciences of mind as they formed at the turn of the twentieth century, via the concerns that have emerged at the turn of the twenty-first. The less-visited texts of Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James provide a window into contemporary debates over principles of toleration, anti-imperial discourse and the nature of ethics. Baker revisits Jamesian approaches to the formation of scientific objects including the child mind, exceptional mental states and the ghost to explore the possibilities and limits of social scientific thought dedicated to mind development and discipline formation around the construct of the West.
William James's Hidden Religious Imagination: A Universe of Relations (Routledge Studies in Religion)
by Jeremy CarretteThis book offers a radical new reading of William James’s work on the idea of ‘religion.’ Moving beyond previous psychological and philosophical interpretations, it uncovers a dynamic, imaginative, and critical use of the category of religion. This work argues that we can only fully understand James’s work on religion by returning to the ground of his metaphysics of relations and by incorporating literary and historical themes. Author Jeremy Carette develops original perspectives on the influence of James’s father and Calvinism, on the place of the body and sex in James, on the significance of George Eliot’s novels, and Herbert Spencer’s ‘unknown,’ revealing a social and political discourse of civil religion and republicanism and a poetic imagination at the heart of James understanding of religion. These diverse themes are brought together through a post-structural sensitivity and a recovery of the importance of the French philosopher Charles Renouvier to James’s work. This study pushes new boundaries in Jamesian scholarship by reading James with pluralism and from the French tradition. It will be a benchmark text in the reshaping of James and the nineteenth-century foundations of the modern study of ‘religion.’
William James's Radically Empirical Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave Perspectives on Process Philosophy)
by J. Edward HackettThis book takes a stand against and critiques readings of William James that do not pay attention to the metaphysics of experience. Such interpretations overlook the first mentions of radical empiricism in James’s Will to Believe argument. By attending to James's metaphysics of experience, this book argues that James’s universe is a “quasi-chaos” of becoming in our relations with nature and other people, so that things independent of us relate, evolve, and change in space and time. James’s metaphysics of relations is what unifies his various psychological, poetic, mystical, and religious commitments. These metaphysical implications have consequences for how James understood what metaphysics can do in philosophy, how it relates to theology, what we can say about his will-to-believe argument, mysticism, free-will, God’s finitism, the problem of One and the Many, and panpsychism.
William Lycan on Mind, Meaning, and Method (Philosophers in Depth)
by Mitchell Green Jan G. MichelWilliam Lycan is an internationally renowned American philosopher whose work since the late 1960s has been not only extensive but also influential, particularly in the areas of philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and more recently metaphilosophy. This contributed volume features high-quality contributions by prominent or up-and-coming philosophers who critically examine many aspects of Lycan’s work; it also contains an essay by Lycan responding to these contributions. In this way, not only is the importance of William Lycan’s work appreciated, it is also made accessible for further research. The book is also suitable for teaching purposes at universities.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Volume 1, 1874-1923
by Robert Macgregor DawsonWhen William Lyon Mackenzie King retired in 1948, he had held office as Prime Minister of Canada for a total of 7829 days, a longer term of service than that of any other Prime Minister in the history of the British Commonwealth. Like Roosevelt, his contemporary of many momentous years, he was greatly admired and greatly hated, but none dispute the tremendous influence he exerted on the history of his country, or, indeed, his place in world history. In this official biography, great days of Canadian history are given life and meaning, and at the centre of all the events is a phenomenal personality gifted with intelligence, intrepidity, and luck, with amazing insight into his times and the nature of his political occupation. The biography, based largely on sources hitherto unavailable, permits the reader to witness the unfolding of important events as a chief participant himself saw them and to view far-reaching decisions through the eyes of the man who made them, for Mackenzie King speaks in his own words through much of these volumes. They allow us to observe an extraordinarily complex and powerful personality at work. In this first volume, Mackenzie King's life and political career are traced up to the firm establishment of his first administration as Prime Minister. The forces in is background, education, and early interests which eventually led him into politics are brought out vividly. It is both fascinating and touching, for instance, to observe in letters and personal papers the intimate family relationships which so largely determined what Mackenzie Kind became. Once public service had been chosen, he displayed such talents that a leading role seems almost inevitable to all who knew him.
William of Ockham: A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings
by Arthur Stephen Mcgrade John Kilcullen William Of OckhamMore than any other single thinker, William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) is responsible for the widely held modern assumption that religious and secular-political institutions should operate independently of one another.
William of Ockham: A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government
by William Of Ockham Arthur Stephen Mcgrade John KilcullenWilliam of Ockham (c. 1285-c. 1387) was the most eminent theologian and philosopher of his day, a Franciscan friar who came to believe that the Avignonese papacy of John XXII had set out to destroy the religious ideal on which his order was based: the complete poverty of Christ and the Apostles. A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government is an attack on the claims of the medieval Church, specifically the papacy, to universal spiritual and secular power. Written at the time of the emergence of the European nation-states, Ockham's work issued a direct hard-hitting challenge to the claims of limitless papal power. The text is accompanied by a full bibliography, a chronology and an introduction setting his work in its intellectual and historical context.
Williamson on Modality
by Juhani Yli-Vakkuri Mark McCullaghTimothy Williamson is one of the most influential living philosophers working in the areas of logic and metaphysics. His work in these areas has been particularly influential in shaping debates about metaphysical modality, which is the topic of his recent provocative and closely-argued book Modal Logic as Metaphysics (2013). This book comprises ten essays by metaphysicians and logicians responding to Williamson’s work on metaphysical modality, as well as replies by Williamson to each essay. In addition, it contains an original essay by Williamson, ‘Modal science,’ concerning the role of modal claims in natural science. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.
Willing Slaves Of Capital
by Frederic LordonWhy do people work for other people? This seemingly naïve question is at the heart of Lordon's argument. To complement Marx's partial answers, especially in the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic employee, Lordon brings to bear a "Spinozist anthropology" that reveals the fundamental role of affects and passions in the employment relationship, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation as the capture and remolding of desire. A thoroughly materialist reading of Spinoza's Ethics allows Lordon to debunk all notions of individual autonomy and self-determination while simultaneously saving the ideas of political freedom and liberation from capitalist exploitation. Willing Slaves of Capital is a bold proposal to rethink capitalism and its transcendence on the basis of the contemporary experience of work.