Books in the Continuum Studies in British Philosophy series

In 1911, Bertrand Russell began a historically formative interchange about the nature of logic and cognition with his student, Ludwig Wittgenstein. This work presents a treatment of Russell's decisive 1913 exchanges with Wittgenstein. It also incorporates little-known notes and diagrams into a different analysis of the problems Russell was facing.

Focuses on how Wittgenstein and Gadamer treat language in their accounts of language as game and their major writings on the subject - "Philosophical Investigations" and "Truth and Method", respectively. This book brings the work of two major modern philosophers in to dialogue.

A monograph that examines Hobbes' political writings in the context of the rest of his corpus and the work of his contemporaries. It considers what it is that makes the study of Hobbes so compelling. It shows the relevance of Hobbes to contemporary debates around the radically democratic potential of the 'multitude'.

Tracing the development of Popper's account of objectivity by examining his contributions to key issues in the philosophy of science, here, the author argues that Karl Popper's philosophy offers a radical treatment of objectivity that can reconcile freedom and progress in a manner that preserves the best elements of the Enlightenment tradition.

A monograph that presents a non-sceptical outlook on David Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature" by analysing the hitherto neglected role of the belief in other minds. It considers the problem of other minds as a special problem within the debate about scepticism. It focuses on Hume's discussion of sympathy.

One of the influential debates in John Locke's work is the problem of personal identity over time. This problem is that of how a person at one time is the same person later in time, and so can be held responsible for past actions. This title offers an emphasis on Locke's theological commitments, and those of Rene Descartes and Thomas Hobbes.

David Hume, one of the most influential philosophers to have written in the English language, is widely known as a skeptic and an empiricist. This book studies Hume's philosophy of religion, a topic central to his whole philosophical project.

Offers an appreciation of Iris Murdoch's philosophy, focusing the importance of images and the imagination for her thought. This book examines how literature and imagination enabled Murdoch to form a philosophical response to the decline of religion. It also reconsiders various contemporary assumptions about what philosophy is and does.

Shows how Wittgenstein's philosophy of language points towards a different philosophy of life, thereby making a contribution to ethical and political thought. Tracing the development of Wittgenstein's work from 1914 to 1951, this book explores the notion of 'form' in the Tractatus.

Shows the inseparability of the British idealists' social and political radicalism from the inherent logic of idealism. This book grounds a critique of abstract rationalism as an alienating and potentially totalitarian method of designing social and economic institutions. It makes use of certain British idealist manuscripts.

Examines Russell's work, particularly from 1900 to 1950, and exposes a repeated emphasis on, and turn to, linguistic considerations. This book considers how 'linguistics' and 'philosophy' were struggling in the twentieth century to define themselves and to create appropriate contemporary disciplines.

Offers an original reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's views on such topics as radical scepticism, the first- and third-person asymmetry of mental talk, Cartesianism, and rule-following.

Wittgenstein's work is notoriously difficult to understand and, at least superficially, deals almost exclusively with obscure and technical problems in logic and the philosophy of language. He has been blamed for leading philosophers away from the problems of the real world.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) is remembered only as an alleged 'Social Darwinist' who applied the theory of the survival of the fittest to society. This book provides the modern survey of the corpus of Spencer's thought. It introduces a Spencer very different to his posthumous reputation.

Analyses a host of issues in philosophy of mind and visual studies, including the concepts of visual meaning, visual qualia and the ineffability of visual experience. This work explores the relation between conceptual analysis and causal explanation in the theory of perception, and the relation between visual syntax and visual meaning.

Argues that Wittgenstein, though himself often silent on particular ethical matters, gives us immense resources for understanding the aims appropriate to any philosophical ethics. This work re-examines some of the landmarks in the history of moral philosophy in order to cast contemporary ethical philosophy in a fresh light.

Thomas Aquinas has always been viewed as a highly importantfigure in Western Civilization, and the chief philosopher of RomanCatholicism. In recent decades there has been a renewed interest inAquinas'' thought as scholars have been exploring the relevance of histhought to contemporary philosophical problems.The book will be of interest not only to historians of medievalphilosophy, but to philosophers who work on problems associated withthe nature of material objects. Because human beings are typicallyunderstood to be a kind of material object, the book will also be ofinterest to philosophers working on topics in the philosophy of religion,philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of human nature. Although thework contains the kinds of details that are necessary for a work of historical scholarship, it is written in amanner that makes it approachable for undergraduate students in philosophy and so it would be awelcomed addition to any university library.

A collection of papers by one of the leading experts on the superstar of Irish Philosophy, George Berkeley (1685-1753). It includes an essay that examines a range of Berkeley's achievement, looking at his classic works of 1709-1713, "Alciphron" (1732) and his final book, the enigmaic "Siris" (1744).

Tackles some of the problems in Berkeley's philosophy by providing a fresh interpretation of Berkeley's core ontological doctrines and their relationship to his views about self-consciousness. This work examines that Berkeley is led to adopt a model of self-consciousness because he rejects basic metaphysics of many of his predecessors.

A development in Wittgenstein Studies has been the advancement of a therapeutic reading of the Tractatus. This book offers an extended application of this reading of Wittgenstein, encompassing Wittgenstein's later work too, to examine the implications of Wittgenstein's work as a whole upon the domains of literature, psychopathology, and time.

Presents an original reading of David Hume's text, "A Treatise of Human Nature", and political writings published after it, articulating a view of his theory of human nature in society and his political philosophy. This book explores hitherto neglected social contexts within which Hume's ideas were conceived.

Draws upon the tradition of 'Philosophical Romanticism' to account for Murdoch's enigmatical quality and her embrace of paradoxical truths. This study analyses Murdoch's version of Kant's Copernican Revolution, the centrality of learning and the sublime to her redemptive vision, and her understanding of philosophy, imagination, freedom, and art.

Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy comes alive when it is used as a vehicle for philosophical discovery, rather than when it is interpreted as a system of propositions. This volume offers a study of Wittgenstein's later work on the philosophy of psychology, his cryptic remarks on visual meaning and the analysis of the concept of perception.

Thomas Reid (1710-96) was one of the most daring and original thinkers of the eighteenth century. His work became the cornerstone of the Scottish School of Common Sense Philosophy. This book begins by characterizing the state of moral epistemology at the time when Reid was writing. It offers an assessment of the success of Reid's ethical project.

Takes issue with the near-universal tendency of Hobbes scholars to emphasize the influence of Hobbes's natural philosophy on his political philosophy. This book shows how Hobbes's political ideas influence his natural philosophy.

Presents an interpretation of David Hume's account of what a 'cause' is. This book emphasises on the connections between Hume's theories of cause, space and time, morals, and aesthetics. It presents an argument that Hume's causal theory is best understood as 'quasi-realist', an intermediate position between realism and anti-realism.

Attempts to re-examine and evaluate the development of Russell's concept of perception and the relation of perception to our knowledge of the external world. This book focuses on Russell's work from 1905 to 1919, during which period Russell attempted a reductionist analysis of empirical knowledge.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the philosophy of John Stuart Mill has never been more relevant. Can we reconcile individual liberty with the demands of the common good? This book argues that Mill's liberal utilitarianism can indeed support a system of rights rich enough to guarantee individual liberty.