Books in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series

We often explain the activities of human and non-human animals by referring to their special faculties. But what are faculties? How do they work? And how can they be individuated? This book discusses these questions, covering a wide period from Plato up to contemporary debates about faculties as modules of the mind.

Recurrent questions about space have dogged philosophers since ancient times. Can an ordinary person draw from his or her perceptions to say what space is? Or is it rather a technical concept that is only within the grasp of experts? Can geometry characterize the world in which we live? What is God''s relation to space? In Ancient Greece, Euclid set out to define space by devising a codified set of axioms and associated theorems that were then passed down for centuries, thought by many philosophers to be the only sensible way of trying to fathom space. Centuries later, when Newton transformed the ''natural philosophy'' of the seventeenth century into the physics of the eighteenth century, he placed the mathematical analysis of space, time, and motion at the center of his work. When Kant began to explore modernnotions of ''idealism'' and ''realism,'' space played a central role. But the study of space was transformed forever when, in 1915, Einstein published his general theory of relativity, explaining that the world is not Euclidean after all. This volume chronicles the development of philosophical conceptions of space from early antiquity through the medieval period to the early modern era. The chapters describe the interactions at different moments in history between philosophy and various other disciplines, especially geometry, optics, and natural science more generally. Fascinating central figures from the history of mathematics, science and philosophy are discussed, including Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Ibn al-Haytham,Nicole Oresme, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Kant. As with other books in the series, shorter essays, or Reflections, enrich the volume by characterizing perspectives on space found in various disciplines including ecology, mathematics, sculpture, neuroscience, cultural geography,art history, and the history of science.

This volume provides a genealogy of the concept of a person. By asking when and why the concept of a person came into existence, it explains what the concept of a person is and how it differs from the concept of a human being and the concept of a self.

Thirteen original essays examine the conceptual history of evil in the west: from ancient Hebrew literature and Greek drama to Darwinism and Holocaust theory. Thirteen reflections contextualize the philosophical developments by looking at evil through the eyes of animals, poets, mystics, witches, librettists, film directors, and tech executives.

Thirteen original essays examine the conceptual history of evil in the west: from ancient Hebrew literature and Greek drama to Darwinism and Holocaust theory. Thirteen reflections contextualize the philosophical developments by looking at evil through the eyes of animals, poets, mystics, witches, librettists, film directors, and tech executives.

This book brings together contributions by historians of philosophy and medicine to trace the concept of health from ancient Greece and China, through the Islamic world, down to modern thinkers like Descartes and Freud. Major themes include the parallel between mental and physical health and the difficulty of defining health.

This book brings together contributions by historians of philosophy and medicine to trace the concept of health from ancient Greece and China, through the Islamic world, down to modern thinkers like Descartes and Freud. Major themes include the parallel between mental and physical health and the difficulty of defining health.

This volume traces the history of animals in philosophy, from antiquity down to contemporary times. Negative attitudes towards animals, as found in Aristotle and Descartes, turn out to be more nuanced than usually supposed, while remarkable discussions of animal welfare appear in late antiquity, India, the Islamic world, and Kant.

Like other books in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series, Pleasure traces the development of the concept from ancient times through the 20th century. The volume touches on ancient philosophy, including Plato, Aristotle, and Islamic philosophy, through to the early modern era and the development of scientific psychology, as well as contemporary notions of pleasure. Interdisciplinary reflections focus on pleasure in subjects other than philosophy,including music and painting.

In everything from philosophical ethics to legal argument to public activism, it has become commonplace to appeal to human dignity. Dignity refers to the fundamental moral worth or status supposedly belonging to all persons equally. But this is relatively new. In this volume, leading scholars across a range of disciplines attempt to clarify the variegated and murky history of "dignity," and explain how it arrived it is current and historically unusualmeaning.

Embodiment--defined as having, being in, or being associated with a body--is a feature of the existence of many entities, perhaps even of all entities. Why entities should find themselves in this condition is the central concern of the present volume. The problem includes, but also goes beyond, the philosophical problem of body: that is, what the essence of a body is, and how, if at all, it differs from matter. On some understandings there may exist bodies, such as stones or asteroids, that are not the bodies of any particular subjects. To speak of embodiment by contrast is always to speak of a subject that variously inhabits, or captains, or is coextensive with, or even is imprisoned within, a body. The subject may in the end be identical to, or an emergent product of, the body. That is, a materialist account of embodied subjects may be the correct one.But insofar as there is a philosophical problem of embodiment, the identity of the embodied subject with the body stands in need of an argument and cannot simply be assumed. The reasons, nature, and consequences of the embodiment of subjects as conceived in the long history of philosophy in Europe as well as in the broader Mediterranean region and in South and East Asia, with forays into religion, art, medicine, and other domains of culture, form the focus of these essays. More precisely, the contributors to this volume shine light on a number of questions that have driven reflection on embodiment throughout the history of philosophy. What is the historical and conceptual relationship between the idea of embodiment and the idea of subjecthood? Am I who I am principally in virtue of the fact that I have the body I have? Relatedly, what is the relationship of embodiment to being and to individuality? Is embodiment a necessary condition of being? Of being an individual? What are the theological dimensions of embodiment? To what extent has the concept of embodiment been deployed in the history of philosophy to contrast the created world with the state of existence enjoyed by God? What are the normative dimensions of theories of embodiment? To what extent is the problem of embodiment a distinctly western preoccupation? Is it the result of a particular local and contingent history, or does it impose itself as a universal problem, wherever and whenever human beings begin to reflect on the conditions of their existence?Ultimately, to what extent can natural science help us to resolve philosophical questions about embodiment, many of which are vastly older than the particular scientific research programs we now believe to hold the greatest promise for revealing to us the bodily basis, or the ultimate physical causes, of who we really are?

Self-knowledge is often taken to constitute both the beginning and the end of humans' search for wisdom. Not surprisingly, the Delphic injunction 'Know thyself' has fascinated philosophers of different times, backgrounds, and tempers.

Moral Motivation provides a history of moral motivation by ten eminent scholars, covering Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, the consequentialists and others. It shows the complexity of the historical treatment of moral motivation and, moreover, how intertwined discussion of moral motivation is with central aspects of ethical theory.

Moral Motivation provides a history of moral motivation by ten eminent scholars, covering Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, the consequentialists and others. It shows the complexity of the historical treatment of moral motivation and, moreover, how intertwined discussion of moral motivation is with central aspects of ethical theory.

This volume offers a historical overview of some of the most significant attempts to come to grips with sympathy in Western thought from Plato to experimental economics. The contributors are leading scholars in philosophy, classics, history, economics, comparative literature, and political science.

In recent decades, memory has become a dominant topic in philosophy, politics, history, science, literature, and the discussions of trauma and the Holocaust. This volume shows how the concept of memory has been used in different historical circumstances and how it has changed throughout the history of philosophy.

In recent decades, memory has become a dominant topic in philosophy, politics, history, science, literature, and the discussions of trauma and the Holocaust. This volume shows how the concept of memory has been used in different historical circumstances and how it has changed throughout the history of philosophy.

This volume is a collection of new essays by specialists that trace the concept of efficient causation from its discovery (or invention) in Ancient Greece, through its development in late antiquity, the medieval period, and modern philosophy, to its use in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science.

This volume is a collection of new essays by specialists that trace the concept of efficient causation from its discovery (or invention) in Ancient Greece, through its development in late antiquity, the medieval period, and modern philosophy, to its use in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science.