abstract: The Protagoras’s case against akrasia comes in two stages. First, at 352b–c, we get an extremely quick argument grounded on knowledge as an epistemic ideal. This argument does not persuade the many, and so the dialogue turns, starting at 355a, to a technical and carefully developed argument that proceeds on an entirely different basis. This argument has considerable force, but only once we

abstract: Aristotle is history’s most famous and influential proponent of the view that there are exactly five senses. But was he entitled to hold this view, given his other commitments? In particular, was he entitled to treat touch as a single sense, given the diversity of its correlated objects? In this paper, I argue that Aristotle wished to individuate touch on the basis of its correlated objects

abstract: In this paper, I investigate Aristotle’s claim in Nicomachean Ethics III.1 about situations that “overstrain human nature.” By setting out and answering several interpretative questions about such situations, I offer a comprehensive interpretation of this passage. I argue that in (at least some of) these cases, the agent voluntarily does something wrong, even though there is a right action

abstract: Shaftesbury is famous for claiming that “Beauty and Good” are “one and the same.” This claim is central to Shaftesbury’s philosophy, and it exerted great influence on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European thought. At the same time, the claim has long been criticized as being ill-conceived, unclear, and confused. I explicate the meaning of Shaftesbury’s claim and show that it is not

abstract: This essay examines Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s The Education of the Human Race (EHR) in order to elucidate his philosophy of history. It pays special attention to the fact that Lessing presents EHR both as a work of philosophy that aims to reveal the truth and as a work of poetry that aims to provoke an experience of beauty. Because Lessing goes out of his way to characterize EHR as a poetic

abstract: Aron’s writings are lauded for their contributions to liberal political theory, international relations, and sociology. I argue that his early thought also offers phenomenological considerations for a relativist view of historical meaning, whose important role in the text’s argument has been suppressed by received interpretations. Drawing a direct link between introspective, intersubjective

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Pythagorean Precepts (How to Live a Pythagorean Life) by Aristoxenus of Tarentum Christopher Moore Aristoxenus of Tarentum. The Pythagorean Precepts (How to Live a Pythagorean Life). Edition, commentary, and introduction by Carl A. Huffman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xi + 636. Cloth, $170.00. Like

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Light of the Lord (Or Hashem) by Hasdai Crescas Daniel Frank Hasdai Crescas. Light of the Lord (Or Hashem). Translated by Roslyn Weiss. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. vi + 379. Cloth, $70.00. With Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed (1190) and Gersonides’s Wars of the Lord (1329), Hasdai Crescas’s Light of the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Singular Voice of Being: John Duns Scotus and Ultimate Difference by Andrew LaZella Mary Beth Ingham CSJ Andrew LaZella. The Singular Voice of Being: John Duns Scotus and Ultimate Difference. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019. Pp. x + 269. Cloth, $64.99. While much has been published on the philosophical and theological

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Living Mirrors: Infinity, Unity, and Life in Leibniz’s Philosophy by Ohad Nachtomy Christian Leduc Ohad Nachtomy. Living Mirrors: Infinity, Unity, and Life in Leibniz’s Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xi + 219. Cloth, $85.00. The concept of life and the importance of the life sciences in Leibniz have

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Self-Love, Egoism, and the Selfish Hypothesis: Key Debates in Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy by Christian Maurer Aaron Garrett Christian Maurer. Self-Love, Egoism, and the Selfish Hypothesis: Key Debates in Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. Pp. viii + 230

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: From Moral Theology to Moral Philosophy: Cicero and Visions of Humanity from Locke to Hume by Tim Stuart-Buttle James A. Harris Tim Stuart-Buttle. From Moral Theology to Moral Philosophy: Cicero and Visions of Humanity from Locke to Hume. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. x + 277. Cloth, £55.00. It would be difficult

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Kant on Freedom and Spontaneity ed. by Kate A. Moran Desmond Hogan Kate A. Moran, editor. Kant on Freedom and Spontaneity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xiii + 309. Cloth, £75.00. This fine collection of essays is dedicated to Paul Guyer. It includes work by distinguished experts and younger scholars across

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Experimenting at the Boundaries of Life: Organic Vitality in Germany around 1800 by Joan Steigerwald Sebastian G. Rand Joan Steigerwald. Experimenting at the Boundaries of Life: Organic Vitality in Germany around 1800. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019. Pp. xi + 460. Cloth, $55.00. Throughout her wide-ranging

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: For the Love of Metaphysics: Nihilism and the Conflict of Reason from Kant to Rosenzweig by Karin Nisenbaum Gunnar Hindrichs Karin Nisenbaum. For the Love of Metaphysics: Nihilism and the Conflict of Reason from Kant to Rosenzweig. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xi + 280. Cloth, $85.00. Nisenbaum offers an account

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Meaning and Embodiment: Human Corporeity in Hegel’s Anthropology by Nicholas Mowad Elisa Magrì Nicholas Mowad. Meaning and Embodiment: Human Corporeity in Hegel’s Anthropology. Albany: SUNY Press, 2019. Pp. xxvi + 313. Cloth, $95.00. Readers of Hegel’s philosophy will welcome Nicholas Mowad’s interpretation of Hegel’s anthropology

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Being Inclined: Félix Ravaisson’s Philosophy of Habit by Mark Sinclair Leonard Lawlor Mark Sinclair. Being Inclined: Félix Ravaisson’s Philosophy of Habit. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xii + 229. Cloth, $60.00. Being Inclined is erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Unpublished Fragments from the Period of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Summer 1882–Winter 1883/84) by Friedrich Nietzsche Paul Bishop Friedrich Nietzsche. Unpublished Fragments from the Period ofThus Spoke Zarathustra (Summer 1882–Winter 1883/84). Translated, with an afterword, by Paul S. Loeb and David F. Tinsley. The Complete

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Moral Psychology with Nietzsche by Brian Leiter Paul S. Loeb Brian Leiter. Moral Psychology with Nietzsche. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xi + 198. Cloth, $65.00. Brian Leiter’s second book on Nietzsche brings together ideas and arguments that have already had a significant influence on the field through their

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Bergson by Mark Sinclair Tano S. Posteraro Mark Sinclair. Bergson. New York: Routledge, 2020. Pp. xxi + 303. Paper, $35.95. Mark Sinclair’s book is the first attempt at a comprehensive introduction to Bergson to be published in English in the last decade. Bergson begins with an intellectual biography, intended as “the most

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Working from Within: The Nature and Development of Quine’s Naturalism by Sander Verhaegh Sean Morris Sander Verhaegh. Working from Within: The Nature and Development of Quine’s Naturalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxi + 218. Cloth, $74.00. Verhaegh’s excellent book provides the first complete account of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Books Received ________ Chikurel, Idit. Salomon Maimon’s Theory of Invention: Scientific Genius, Analysis and Euclidian Geometry. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020. Pp. x + 168. Cloth, $97.99. Faucher, Nicolas. La volonté de croire au Moyen Âge: Les théories de la foi dans la pensée scolastique du XIIIe siècle. Studia Sententiarum, 4. Turnhout:

A common theological perspective holds that God does not deceive because lying is morally wrong. While Plato denies the possibility of divine deception in the Republic, his explanation does not appeal to the wrongness of lying. Indeed, Plato famously recommends the careful use of lies as a means of promoting justice. Given his endorsement of occasional lying, as well as his claim that humans should

This paper presents the first systematic investigation into Johann Christoph Sturm's natural philosophy and his account of causation and scientific explanations. While Sturm maintains that God is the only true cause of natural effects, he also claims that the specificity of natural effects must be empirically investigated by inquiring into natural forms. Forms, however, do not have any active role

Is there a particular experience-type associated with the exercise of agency? This question was subject to lively philosophical debate in nineteenth-century France. William James paid close attention to these debates, and for most of his academic life argued that the answer was "no." However, in this article, I show that a few years before the end of his life, under the influence of the French spiritualist

abstract:B. F. Skinner and W. V. Quine, arguably the two most influential proponents of behaviorism in mid-twentieth century psychology and philosophy, are often considered brothers in arms. They were close friends, they had remarkably parallel careers, and they both identified as behaviorists. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the relation between the two. How did Skinner and Quine develop their

abstract:This paper examines the current state of early modern scholarship. After tracing the contours of the contextualist revolution that gained momentum in the 1980s, I argue that rational reconstructionism is a thing of the past and that early modernists are now devoted to employ all available skills, both philosophical and scholarly, to maximize our understanding of an increasingly broad range

abstract:Kenelm Digby is now best remembered for his attempt at reconciling Aristotelianism with the new philosophies of his time. In his Two Treatises of 1644, Digby argued that, while the notion of form has no place in natural philosophy, it remains indispensable in metaphysics. This division of labor has not received much attention, but we argue that it played an important role in Digby’s thought

abstract:The importance of Plato for Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the history of metaphysics is now well known and documented. However, what is arguably his most radical interpretation of a Platonic dialogue, a 1930–31 seminar on the Parmenides, remains largely unknown and for two reasons. First, while Heidegger's notes were published in 2012 as part of the Gesamtausgabe (vol. 83), they are

abstract:Some claim that Kant's commitment to the explanatory priority of judgments over concepts is one of his most important contributions to the philosophy of mind. There is, however, extensive disagreement over the nature and extent of this commitment. Existing interpretations ignore a substantial body of textual evidence and offer no account of the origins of Kant's view. This paper corrects for

abstract:This paper explores the theory of freedom that Emilie du Châtelet advances in her essay "On Freedom." Using contemporary terminology, we can characterize this theory as a version of agent-causal compatibilism. More specifically, the theory has the following elements: (a) freedom consists in the power to act in accordance with one's choices, (b) freedom requires the ability to suspend desires

abstract:There are two rival models on how to interpret causal chains in Kant. Traditional event-event models take it that events are causes of events, which are in turn causes of other events. Watkins’s causal powers interpretation, on the contrary, has it that substances have unchangeable grounds, and the series of events is only a series within the effect. By comparing Kant to Crusius, I argue that

abstract:I present a reading of Eudemian Ethics V.12/Nicomachean Ethics VI.12 according to which Aristotle argues for an executive account of φρόνησις (practical wisdom) to show why it is useful to possess this virtue. On this account, the practically wise person’s actions are expressive of his knowledge of the fine, a knowledge that only the practically wise person has. This is why he must not only

abstract:This article provides a novel interpretation of Grotius’s conception of natural law. Prior interpretations have overlooked Grotius’s doctrine of supererogation and have hence misrepresented, in varying ways, the content of his law of nature and its relation to justice and individual rights. Grotius, I contend, created logical space for supererogation by making natural obligation rather than

abstract:My goal in this paper is to draw attention to the importance of empeiria in Aristotle’s account of moral development in his ethical treatises, and concretely in his account of the formation of phronêsis. I argue that empeiria and good habits make different and complementary contributions to our moral development and to the content of our deliberations about how to act. While good habits equip

abstract:Collective action is a much-discussed topic today, but not in the historiography of philosophy. Therefore, I would like to contribute a little bit to our understanding of the history of this concept by exploring the political philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. A compelling interpretation of his treatise On Kingship emerges when we read it not, as is often the case, in terms of his moral perfectionism

abstract:Some Plato scholars have recently argued that the "City of Pigs"—described in Book II of the Republic, before Socrates goes on to describe Kallipolis and the definition of justice—is better and more just than Kallipolis itself. I argue that this interpretation misconstrues Plato's conception of justice by ignoring three significant conditions that he establishes for making an entity eligible

abstract:Hobbes's philosophy involves a fundamental shift in ideas about the theological, metaphysical, and axiological significance of sex, gender, reproduction, and the family. He fundamentally rejects the idea that dominion is naturally or divinely ordained, using a strategy I call 'dethroning.' In this paper, I argue that the Amazon myth, which Hobbes invokes in every version of his political theory

abstract:Bernard Bolzano developed his theory of grounding in opposition to the rationalists' Principle of Sufficient Reason (the PSR). He argued that the PSR fails because there are fundamental, that is, ungrounded truths. The current paper examines Bolzano's views on fundamentality, relating them to ongoing debates about grounding and fundamentality.

as we see in Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian Wars, is equally attributable to both Athenians (according to Pericles’s funeral oration [II.39–40]) and Spartans (according to their Corinthian allies [I.68, 84]). The third and final part of Annas’s book traces the development and reception of lawabidingness in the Stoic and Jewish traditions. She points out that, although Plato “rejects the

abstract:The neo-Kantian Hermann Cohen is famously anti-empiricist in that he denies that sensations can make a definable contribution to knowledge. However, in the second edition of Kant's Theory of Experience (1885), Cohen considers a proposition that contrasts with both his other work and that of his followers: a Kantian who studies scientific claims to truth—and the grounds on which they are made—cannot

abstract:This is the first bibliography collecting all studies that have been entirely devoted to Johannes Clauberg or that contain a substantial discussion of his works, from the early nineteenth century down to our day, namely, in the age when scientific philosophical historiography arose and reached full maturity. Clauberg (1622–1665), known as a representative of modern German reformed scholasticism

First, it suggests that the practices of life science sought, in the terms of Kant, to “minimize appeal to the supernatural” (Critique of Judgment, §81). Hence, “naturalization” was an endeavor to lower the metaphysical cost associated with the various theories of organism. Yet, at the same time, strictly deriving the living from the general laws of physics remained largely inconceivable—even for many

philosophers, Catharine Macaulay (1731–1791), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), and Sophie de Grouchy (1764–1822), who were engaged in efforts at reform that were centered on liberty: it may have seemed to them that they themselves might be liberated through reform. Moreover, while Mary Astell and her contemporaries predicate their arguments about liberty on the idea that women have equal rational capacity

abstract:The present study investigates the atomism of Muḥammad ibn 'Abd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī (c. 1075–1153). After a survey of traditional Islamic atomism and Avicenna's devastating critique of it, I argue that Shahrastānī developed a new form of atomism in light of Avicenna's critique. Briefly, unlike earlier forms of atomism, which viewed atoms as actualized and discrete entities within the body

More generally, I find Arthur’s criticisms of the idealist reading to be a bit too quick and dismissive, and his characterizations of that view at times tendentious, as for example when he portrays it as supposing that bodies are “eliminatively reduced” (228, 285, 291) and do not actually exist (2, 17). The fact nonetheless remains that this book contains much of value. It should be essential reading

abstract:Berkeley's idealism and his theory of signs are linked by his doctrine that mind is the cause by which objects are intelligible. What this means in the context of his claim that minds are spiritual substances has puzzled commentators, many of whom explain Berkeley's position by suggesting that he draws on Cartesian assumptions. However, such explanations treat mind as an abstraction, something

Agnes Taubert, and on Olga Plümacher, who emerges as a particularly forceful proponent of pessimism and, in my view, Hartmann’s best defender. While they are the major actors in this chapter, their sharpness of intellect and wit was directed against attacks by little-known philosophers and theologians such as Johannes Huber or Hugo Sommer and better-known neo-Kantian philosophers such as Wilhelm Windelband

abstract:The notion of the Gesinnung plays a crucial role in Kant's late moral philosophy. An individual's Gesinnung constitutes the most fundamental level of her moral character, for Kant. Moreover, the ultimate moral quality of her actions is determined in his view by whether they are done from a good or evil Gesinnung. Kant's notion of the Gesinnung, however, raises a host of questions. Most importantly

abstract:This paper critically examines Stephen Gaukroger's claim that "The list of prerogative or privileged instances [in Bacon's Novum Organum II] … serve very much the function of the topics, as conceived by Aristotle … and by his Renaissance followers as rhetorical guide." Gaukroger's comparison of the prerogatives with the topics provides a basis for an inclusive account of the twenty-seven prerogative

Hickman lays open the need for further inquiry into the varieties and complexities of theological argument and religious dissent in Britain in the eighteenth century. Drawing on Quentin Skinner and J. G. A. Pocock, and looking to the eighteenth century and beyond, she points to the inherently social and political nature of even the most abstract theological arguments, and to the need for historical

abstract:Emphasizing the abstractness of figures, recent scholarship has tended to reject the standard view that geometrical figures belong in Spinoza's "book of nature." In this paper, I outline an interpretation of Spinozan nature as geometrically tractable that both addresses the challenges facing the standard view and clarifies its basis. I argue that many of the problems that have been raised

abstract:Sources for Stoicism present conflicting accounts of the Stoic principles. Some suggest that the principles are inseparable from each other. Others suggest that they are separable. To resolve this apparent interpretive dilemma, I distinguish between the functions of the principles and the bodies that realize those functions. Although the principles cannot separate when realizing their roles

abstract:I examine Spinoza’s use of the term quatenus. It is, I argue, an operator working in the context of a broader logical theory and blocking certain inferences that, according to critics such as Pierre Bayle, lead Spinoza’s metaphysical system into absurdities. I reconstruct this crucial theory from some treatises on logic to which Spinoza had access. I then show how a later logical theory—that

abstract:I argue that Emilie du Châtelet's metaphysics of corporeal substance in the 1740s was a species of realism. This result challenges the ruling consensus, which takes her to have been decisively influenced by Leibniz, an idealist. In addition, I argue that du Châtelet's ontology of body is a mixture of realism and idealism, likewise non-Leibnizian. This, too, questions the scholarly consensus

abstract:In his dialogue, Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, Plutarch of Chaeronea criticizes Epicurus for not believing that the gods are provident over human affairs and for not believing that our souls survive death. However, Plutarch's arguments are striking in that they do not offer any theoretical justification for believing either of these religious claims to be true; rather, they aim

abstract:This paper addresses Ludwig Wittgenstein's discussion of solipsism in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. It demonstrates that, throughout his early and middle periods, Wittgenstein's work on solipsism was focused on traditional solipsism, not semantic solipsism as is standardly supposed. It furthermore argues that the Tractatus's stated support for solipsism should be taken as a straightforward

abstract:Despite the frequency and intensity of scholarly attention to Plato's important divided line passage in Republic 6, an ancient puzzle has repeatedly baffled interpreters: the two middle segments of the line are of equal length, although Socrates declares that the degree of clarity and truth increases in proportion to the contents of each of the line's four segments. The missing piece of the

Another set of essays tackles a cluster of difficult questions concerning inner sense, selfconsciousness, and the cognitive subject. Ralf Bader gives an account of how both inner and outer objects end up in time, even though time is only the form of inner sense. Though Kant is typically read as denying that we have any awareness of a substantial self, Andrew Chignell argues that there are no good textual

In this essay, I present and explicate Avicenna’s doctrine of truth in his Metaphysics of the Healing. I begin by discussing the way Avicenna introduces his doctrine of truth within his presentation of the first principles of metaphysics and their integration with his innovative appropriation of Aristotle’s four senses of being. I then canvass the doctrines of truth found in Aristotle and al-Kindı̄