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586 results in History of philosophy

Page 1 of 30

Hobbes's Leviathan
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by S. A. Lloyd
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    August 2026
    Print publication:
    31 August 2026
  • The seventeenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly known as Leviathan, has fascinated, alarmed, and challenged readers ever since its publication in 1651. Both a modernization of natural law theory and an early and influential contribution to social contract theory, Leviathan offers a powerful, systematic theory of the rights and duties of sovereigns and subjects, governors and citizens. This Critical Guide provides scholars, students, and anyone curious about Hobbes's political theory access to the latest research into Hobbes's views of philosophical method, human psychology, morality, law, liberty, governance, power relations, obligation, agency and responsibility, the requisites of social stability, pride, honor, theism, and organized religion. In fourteen original essays by many of today's leading Hobbes scholars, the volume provides overviews and in-depth investigations into those aspects of Hobbes's thinking in Leviathan that are of greatest interest today.

Rethinking Capital Punishment
  • The Pre-History of the Abolition of the Death Penalty
  • Peter Garnsey
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • The death penalty was accepted almost universally until the eighteenth century, when Giuseppe Pelli of Florence and Cesare Beccaria of Milan produced works calling for its abolition. Why was this form of punishment so integrated into laws and customary practices? And what is the pre-history of the arguments in favour of its abolition? This book is the first to trace the origins of these ideas, beginning with the Lex Talionis in the Code of Hammurabi and moving across the Bible, Plato, to the Renaissance, and the emergence of utilitarianism in the 18th century. It also explores how the advance of the abolition of the death penalty was held up for a time in Britain, and stalled, apparently permanently, in America. Peter Garnsey ranges across philosophy, theology, law, and politics to provide a balanced and accessible overview of the beliefs about crime and punishment that underlay the arguments of the first abolitionists. This study is a compelling and original contribution to the history of ideas about capital punishment.

Why Read Pascal Today?
  • Yuval Avnur
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    26 February 2026
  • Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) made important contributions to mathematics, the theory of probability, and several scientific fields, was one of the inventors of the first mathematical calculator, and was also a deeply religious thinker who grappled with issues concerning the existence of God, the possibility of human salvation, and the sinfulness of human life. His famous Wager is often discussed, but there is much else of interest and relevance in his thought which remains undiscovered. This book provides an accessible yet detailed account of Pascal's philosophy and how it applies to important issues facing all of us today, as well as novel interpretations of Pascal's ideas. It will stimulate and challenge anyone who is interested in the role of the heart in rationality, human nature, our relation to reality and our individual and collective purpose, and the underexplored thoughts of one of history's greatest geniuses.

Why Read Wollstonecraft Today?
  • Sandrine Bergès
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    26 February 2026
  • What relevance does Mary Wollstonecraft's thought have today? In this insightful book, Sandrine Bergès engages Wollstonecraft with contemporary social and political issues, demonstrating how this pioneering eighteenth-century feminist philosopher addressed concerns that resonate strongly with those faced by twenty-first-century feminists. Wollstonecraft's views on oppression, domination, gender, slavery, social equality, political economics, health, and education underscore her commitment to defending the rights of all who are oppressed. Her ideas shed light on challenges we face in social and political philosophy, including intersectionality, health inequalities, universal basic income, and masculinity. Clear and accessible, this book is an invaluable resource for students and anyone interested in discovering who Mary Wollstonecraft was and how her ideas can help us navigate the struggles of today's feminist movement.

Why Read Maimonides Today?
  • Steven Nadler
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    February 2026
    Print publication:
    26 February 2026
  • Maimonides (Moshe/Moses ben Maimon, 1138–1204) was not only the dominant rabbinic and Jewish intellectual figure of the later medieval period, but also one of history's greatest philosophers. As the author of the Mishneh Torah (ca. 1180), a compendium and systematization of the Jewish legal code, he remains an unsurpassed (if not uncontroversial) authority on halakha (Jewish law). His philosophical masterpiece, however, is the Guide of the Perplexed (1185-1190), in which he systematically presents his views on theology, metaphysics, cosmology, natural science, epistemology, Scriptural hermeneutics, law and ethics. This accessible and highly readable book introduces the reader to Maimonides' life and thought, and uses a number of enduring and popular philosophical topics – including the problem of evil, freedom of the will, and the relationship between virtue and happiness - to show that he continues to be interesting and relevant to readers today.

Categories
  • A Study of a Concept in Western Philosophy and Political Thought
  • Luke O'Sullivan
  • Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 February 2026
    Print publication:
    31 July 2024
  • In ancient and modern Western thought, the problem of the nature of categories has been inseparable from arguments about the nature of selfhood; about how knowledge is organised; about how power should be distributed; and about how history should be understood. For Plato, Forms belonging to a timeless order of being played the role of categories or fundamental concepts; for Aristotle categories were immanent in things; for Kant they were a priori logical structures of our consciousness; and for Hegel they were dynamic, dialectical inter-related ideas. In Categories, O'Sullivan shows how these answers have gone forward into the contemporary era, and identifies three key schools of thought that have developed since Hegel in particular. He explains modern thought as a tension between a desire for a single dominant perspective, whether scientific or phenomenological; a belief in irretrievable fragmentation; and an effort to find a middle ground.

The Cambridge History of Rights
  • Volume 3, The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
  • Edited by Andrew Fitzmaurice, Rachel Hammersley
  • Published online:
    31 January 2026
    Print publication:
    19 January 2026
  • In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemporary authors explored the myriad ways in which the concept of rights could be understood but almost always arrived at the same conclusion: It was vital that rights should never be conflated with power. Through twenty-six expertly written essays, Volume III of The Cambridge History of Rights focuses on the language of rights, exploring its use in contexts as diverse as the English family, trading relations, and Asian powers. This was a period in which rights came to the forefront of political discourse, making it crucial to the longer history of rights reflected in this series. By foregrounding the idea of rights in action, the volume considers the relationship between the ways in which rights were articulated – by individuals, institutions, and states – and how they were enacted in practice. In doing so, it uncovers the complexities inherent in the development of the language of rights during this formative period.

The Cambridge History of Rights
  • Volume 5, The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
  • Edited by Samuel Moyn, Meredith Terretta
  • Published online:
    31 January 2026
    Print publication:
    27 November 2025
  • The concept of a right, and the idea of human rights, were familiar abstractions on the brink of the twentieth century. But the history of political mobilization since shows that human rights had a transformative capacity in that century that no prior age had demonstrated. Through the twentieth century, human rights became institutionalized internationally in laws, movements, and organizations that transcended state-based citizenship and governance – which irrevocably changed the politics around them. Rights continued to evolve as the imperial world order transitioned to a postcolonial world of sovereign states as a primary form of political organization. Through twenty-six essays from experts around the world demonstrating how this period is historically distinctive, volume five of The Cambridge History of Rights is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the history of rights in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The Cambridge History of Rights
  • Volume 1, The Ancient World
  • Edited by Clifford Ando, Mirko Canevaro, Benjamin Straumann
  • Published online:
    31 January 2026
    Print publication:
    27 November 2025
  • The ancient world existed before the modern conceptual and linguistic apparatus of rights, and any attempts to understand its place in history must be undertaken with care. This volume covers not only Greco-Roman antiquity, but ranges from the ancient Near East to early Confucian China; Deuteronomic Judaism to Ptolemaic Egypt; and rabbinic Judaism to Sasanian law. It describes ancient normative conceptions of personhood and practices of law in a way that respects their historical and linguistic particularity, appreciating the distinctiveness of the cultures under study whilst clarifying their salience for comparative study. Through thirteen expertly researched essays, volume one of The Cambridge History of Rights is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the history of rights in the global ancient world and highlights societies that the field has long neglected.

A Philosophical History of the Concept
  • Edited by Stephan Schmid, Hamid Taieb
  • Published online:
    30 January 2026
    Print publication:
    19 February 2026
  • The concept of concept plays a central role in philosophy, serving both as a subject of study in disciplines such as logic, epistemology, and philosophy of mind, and as a methodologically central notion for those who think that philosophy is essentially concerned with analysing, deconstructing, developing, or ameliorating concepts. But what exactly are concepts, and why have they become so significant in philosophy? The chapters of this volume explore critical moments in the history of the concept of concept, investigating why and how philosophers across different eras and cultures have addressed concepts' nature, acquisition, and relationship to the entities to which they apply. Spanning classical Greek to modern Western philosophies, and incorporating Chinese, Indian, and Islamic traditions, the volume examines concepts as means for categorizing the world – tracing their evolution from elements of thought to foundational components of reality, and the transformation of the concept into the key notion of philosophy.

The Sociological Heritage of the Scottish Enlightenment
  • Edited by Tamás Demeter
  • Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    24 January 2026
    Print publication:
    31 August 2024
  • This book provides answers to two sorts of questions. It explores, on the one hand, how and what sociological ideas were developed in the Scottish Enlightenment. And, on the other hand, how the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment would emerge and develop in subsequent traditions of sociology. Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed and refined a descriptive-explanatory approach and methodology to explore social and economic processes - an approach that was different from the normative and justificatory aspirations of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century social and political philosophies. This distinct contribution of the Scottish Enlightenment is frequently overlooked, even if some of its central figures are acknowledged as important forerunners of contemporary social sciences.

    This book offers a synoptic view on individual contributions and a connective view of theoretical achievements that are otherwise typically treated in isolation.

Kierkegaard's Works of Love
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Jeffrey Hanson, Wojciech Kaftanski
  • Published online:
    01 January 2026
    Print publication:
    19 February 2026
  • Kierkegaard's Works of Love, published in 1847, is considered a monumental text on love from one of the nineteenth century's greatest thinkers. It considers different types of love including Christian love and love of God, as well as love of a parent, a spouse, and a friend. It was initially considered austere and unrewarding as a philosophical and religious text, but is now being appraised more appreciatively from a diverse range of perspectives. The essays in this Critical Guide engage with Kierkegaard's unique view of love and expand upon topics including duty, virtue, selfhood, friendship, authenticity, God, hermeneutics, environmentalism, politics, justice, self-righteousness, despair, equality, commitment, sociality, and meaning in life. Drawing on both analytic and continental European traditions, they revisit the vexed and contested questions of this book and demonstrate its continuing relevance and importance to present-day debates.

Aristotle's Parts of Animals
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Sophia M. Connell
  • Published online:
    31 December 2025
    Print publication:
    19 February 2026
  • Aristotle's Parts of Animals is a foundational text in both the history of philosophy and the history and philosophy of biology. Critically important for understanding his mature philosophical programme, the Parts of Animals has two chief aims. PA Book I is an introduction to the study of animals and plants and provides preliminary considerations for how to investigate all aspects of their nature. PA Books II-IV is the most comprehensive example of the application of Aristotle's philosophical methodology to real world examples of substances, that is, to animals. In this book, a team of international experts cover topics such as Aristotle's exhortation to study biology, his methodology in the study of natural entities and kinds, the study of mind as part of nature, his analysis and use of concepts such as essence, substance, definition, matter, form, species, analogy and teleology, and the influence and legacy of the text.

Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Paul Russell
  • Published online:
    25 December 2025
    Print publication:
    19 February 2026
  • David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were published posthumously in 1779 and are considered one of the most important contributions to the philosophy of religion. Throughout Hume's philosophical career his views on religion were highly controversial and many of his own contemporaries regarded his philosophy as a defence of atheism and irreligion. The Dialogues is Hume's final and his most definitive statement of his views on this subject. In this Critical Guide, leading scholars engage with topics including the argument from intelligent design, the cosmological argument, the problem of evil, religion and morality, miracles, suicide and immortality, and the natural origins and roots of religious belief. The volume updates and expands our critical understanding of this major philosophical work, and will be of interest to a range of readers in philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas.

Augustine's ‘Confessions'
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Thomas Williams
  • Published online:
    16 December 2025
    Print publication:
    22 January 2026
  • Augustine's Confessions, written between AD 394 and 400, is an autobiographical work which outlines his youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is one of the great texts of Late Antiquity, the first Western Christian autobiography ever written, and it retains its fascination for philosophers, theologians, historians, and scholars of religious studies today. This Critical Guide engages with Augustine's creative appropriation of the work of his predecessors in theology generally, in metaphysics, and in philosophy as therapy for the soul, and reframes a much discussed - but still poorly understood - passage from the Confessions with respect to recent philosophy. The volume represents the best of contemporary scholarship on Augustine's Confessions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and builds on existing scholarship to develop new insights, explore underappreciated themes, and situate Augustine in the thought of his own day as well as ours.

Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe
  • Published online:
    05 December 2025
    Print publication:
    08 January 2026
  • David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, published anonymously in 1739–40, was his first major work of philosophy, and his only systematic, scientific analysis of human nature. It is now regarded as a classic text in the history of Western thought and a key text in philosophical empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism. This Critical Guide offers fourteen new essays on the work by established and emerging Hume scholars, ranging over Hume's epistemology and philosophy of mind, the passions and ethics, and the early reception of the Treatise. Topics include the significance of Hume's treatment of the passion of curiosity, the critical responses to Hume's account of how we acquire belief in external objects, and Hume's depiction of the human tendency to view the world in inegalitarian ways and its impact on our view of virtue. The volume will be valuable for scholars and students of Hume studies and in eighteenth-century philosophy more generally.

Suárez's Metaphysical Disputations
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Shane Duarte, Sydney Penner
  • Published online:
    13 October 2025
    Print publication:
    30 October 2025
  • Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), one of the most important early modern scholastic philosophers, had considerable influence not only on canonical early modern philosophers such as Descartes and Leibniz, but even more so on subsequent scholastic philosophers and theologians. His Metaphysical Disputations of 1597 was intended to provide the reader with a complete grounding in metaphysics and is one of the most detailed, comprehensive elaborations of an Aristotelian metaphysics ever published. This Critical Guide offers fourteen new essays on a wide range of topics in the Metaphysical Disputations, including Suárez's metaphysics of modality, his nominalism, and his accounts of the categories, prime matter, falsity, time, and causation. The volume will be valuable for scholars and students of early modern scholasticism, and also for those researching later thinkers whose work was influenced by Suárez.

Islamist Occidentalism
  • Sayyid Qutb and the Western Other
  • Nadia Duvall
  • Published by:
    Gerlach Press
    Published online:
    05 September 2025
    Print publication:
    01 February 2019
  • Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was the most important radical Islamist ideologue in modern times. This groundbreaking new study analyses Qutb's thinking from his early years in Cairo to the radical Islamist stance he adopted towards the end of his life.

Occidentalism, Conspiracy and Taboo
  • Collected Essays on Islam and Politics
  • Sadik J. Al-Azm
  • Published by:
    Gerlach Press
    Published online:
    05 September 2025
    Print publication:
    15 January 2019
  • Sadik J. Al-Azm was one of the foremost Arab public intellectuals, who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on Islam and the West, Secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue.

    This fourth collection of his essays includes: (i) Syria in Revolt (2014); (ii) Experience or 'Regime of Truth'? About Translation, Arabic and the Postmodern (2014); (iii) Orientalism of the Worst Kind (2015); (iv) The Shari'a from a Secular Perspective (2015); (iv) Crossing Borders: Orientalism, lslamism and Postmodernism (2016); (v) What's in a Name: Middle East or West Asia? (2016).

Ockham’s Summa Logicae
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Claude Panaccio, Jenny Pelletier
  • Published online:
    04 September 2025
    Print publication:
    18 September 2025
  • William of Ockham's Summa Logicae (The Sum of Logic), composed in the mid-1320s, is a major work in the history of Western philosophy. It was highly influential for several centuries following its appearance. Ostensibly a textbook on logic, the work is an essential resource for understanding Ockham's philosophical project at large and contains numerous innovative ideas about thought, language, and ontology that are now attracting much interest in contemporary philosophy. Despite an abundant growth in Ockham scholarship in recent decades, this Critical Guide is the first collection of essays to be devoted to the Summa Logicae. The volume covers a wide range of topics, including nominalism, metalanguage, modes of signifying, Ockham's theory of the categorical syllogism, and modal logic. It provides both fresh perspectives on existing debates and new contributions on topics that have not yet entered mainstream scholarship on Ockham.

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