Books in the Continuum Studies in British Philosophy series

Wittgenstein once said, "I cannot help seeing every problem from a 'religious point of view'. "However, since he never advocated any one religion many people have wondered just what this religious point of view could be. This book answers this question by clarifying the overall nature(s) of his philosophies (the early and the later).

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'.

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.

John Austin was a towering presence in nineteenth-century English jurisprudence. He lived at the centre of the utilitarian movement in London during the 1820s and 1830s, and became its leading philosopher of law after Bentham's death (1832).

Just before and during the English Civil War of the 1640s, Thomas Hobbes wrote in defence of the monarchy, his aim being to eliminate the root causes of civil war and internal strife. This book examines Hobbes's arguments for how best to achieve this aim, taking into account the political, philosophical, and religious context of Hobbes's time.

Bertrand Russell was not only one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, he was also a humanitarian and activist who fought for many moral, social, and political causes. This book brings a new dimension to our understanding of Russell's life, his activism, and his contribution to moral philosophy.

Francis Bacon is considered the 'father' of modern experimental science. This book speaks up for Bacon, and focuses on Bacon's "Novum Organum, The Advancement of Learning and De Augmentis", in order to discern the theoretical nature of his programme for the 'renovation' of the natural sciences.

Views that Wittgenstein, in his discussion of logic, describes the boundaries of factual discourse for the purpose of fixing a common language. This book argues that, he suggests when religious and ethical statements fall outside this common language, we should reconstruct them to make sense within the common language.

This process reveals those characteristics of mechanical explanations that make them superior to elemental theories of chemical explanation, characteristics that have become an enduring feature of the scientific enterprise.

Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903-1930), Cambridge mathematician and philosopher, was one of the most brilliant people of his generation. He lived in an extraordinarily stimulating milieu, surrounded by figures such as Russell, Whitehead, Keynes, Moore, and Wittgenstein.

Examines the interrelated positions of Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Henry More and Robert Boyle in their individual contexts and in John Locke's treatment of them. This title argues that, in this way, we can better understand Locke and his position on personal identity and immortality.

Exploring the life, work and ideas of the great 19th Century utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, this study takes a look at his intellectual project from the point of view of the development of his political thought and later reassessment of his own ideas.

Discussion of John Stuart Mill's ethics has been dominated by concern with right and wrong action as determined by the principle of utility. This book unearths the context of moral and socio-political debate that Mill did not have to make explicit to his Victorian readers.

A study of analytic philosophy in twentieth-century British thought. It explores how philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, AJ Ayer, Gilbert Ryle and Isaiah Berlin believed in a link between German aggression in the twentieth century and the nineteenth-century philosophy of Hegel and Nietzsche.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was one of the important and influential thinkers of the 20th century. This book studies Wittgenstein's philosophy of value to deal with ethics, aesthetics and religious value. It clarifies his many ideas and arguments related to the notion of value and implications of his work for debates in contemporary ethics.

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.