New books in the collection philosophy - LibGuides at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Law's Trace: from Hegel to Derrida by Catherine Kellogg

ISBN: 9780203853146

Limitarianism : the case against extreme wealth by Ingrid Robeyns

ISBN: 9780241578193

Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet by Pierre Bayle; Robert C. Bartlett

ISBN: 9780585300436

The battle for your brain: Defending the right to think freely in the age of neurotechnology by Nita A. Farahany

ISBN: 9781250272959

Ausgegrenzt: Entlassungen an den Deutschen Universitäten im Nationalsozialismus by Michael Grüttner

ISBN: 9783111236780

Imagination: a manifesto by Ruha Benjamin

ISBN: 9781324020974

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Acquisitions August 2025

The Romantic Revolution by Tim Blanning Call Number: University Library Open Collection - Course Material 08.00 BlanISBN: 9780753828656Publication Date: 2011 Feminist Theory: a Philosophical Anthology by Robin O. Andreasen (Editor); Ann E. Cudd (Editor); E. Díaz-León (Editor) Call Number: University Open Collection - 08.44 AndrISBN: 9781394172658Publication Date: 2025-05-06Bringing together influential voices and groundbreaking new essays, Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology examines the key questions at the heart of feminist philosophy through a clear structure and accessible yet rigorous content. This carefully curated selection of classic and contemporary essays emphasizes the flourishing growth of feminist thought over time, ranging from foundational texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, to new essays by contemporary scholars like Kate Manne, Talia Mae Bettcher, and Robin Dembroff. This edition expands on the original with fresh scholarship and a broader range of perspectives on gender, identity, knowledge, production and justice. New essays address intersectionality, gender identity, the critique of ideal theory, feminist critiques of traditional ethics, the impact of social norms on autonomy and epistemic injustice, and much more. Including critiques of traditional philosophical frameworks and self-reflection of feminism itself, this essential collection highlights how feminist theory shapes and challenges our current understanding of society. Designed for students and scholars in philosophy, gender studies, and social theory, Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology is ideal for students taking courses in feminist philosophy and feminist theory, educators in social sciences and humanities, and activists and professionals seeking a nuanced understanding of feminist philosophy. Collected Works of Erasmus - Controversies by Desiderius Erasmus; Ronald Begley (Translator, Introduction by, Notes by); Daniel Sheerin (Translator, Notes by); Carol Begley (Introduction by) Call Number: University Library Closed StacksISBN: 9781487559250Publication Date: 2025-05-16Volume 79 in the Collected Works of Erasmus series presents two works written by Erasmus in a controversy with the Carthusian monk Pierre Cousturier. Erasmus had ignited controversy throughout Europe with his criticisms of the Vulgate in current use and his attempts to produce better texts and better Latin translations of Scripture, as well as a new version of the Greek New Testament. Erasmus's work came under the scrutiny of the Paris faculty of theology. The resulting controversy between Erasmus and various Paris theologians culminated in a formal censure of both vernacular translations of the Bible and new Latin translations from Hebrew and Greek sources. In 1522, Pierre Cousturier began to attack humanist translators in a series of publications, arguing for the accuracy and divine inspiration of the commonly used Latin Bible, which rendered further Latin translations unnecessary, even dangerous. The fact that Cousturier had a doctorate in theology from Paris and was highly regarded in the Paris basin as a reformer prompted Erasmus to reply in order to clarify his textual and theological principles and their implications. In his Apologia against Cousturier and the subsequent Appendix, Erasmus offers some of his most important reflections on his aim to cultivate humanistic and linguistic expertise in the service of advancing the Gospel. Chaos and the Automaton by Franco 'Bifo' Berardi Call Number: Online available via Project MuseISBN: 9781452971773Publication Date: 2025-04-22Facing real threats of extinction and futurelessness, a search for new ground on which to build projects toward emancipation Chaos and the Automaton is the first volume to collect Franco "Bifo" Berardi's extensive collaboration with e-flux, which has become one of his primary English-language publishers since 2010. The selection of key essays collected here presents Berardi's prescient interventions into more than a decade of social turmoil, offering a tour through the cataclysms that have rocked the foundations of the global order since the 2008 financial crisis, from European austerity, Occupy, the Arab Spring, and Anonymous through the ascendance of Pope Francis, Brexit, Covid-19, the Trump-Biden sequence, the U.S. Capitol riots, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine--as well as bizarre new cultural occurrences that were consequences. Berardi draws not only from current events but also movements and figures at the firmament of his thought, such as Guattari, Pasolini, and Italian street art of the 1970s. His essays represent a sustained and singular effort to reveal the psychic and material underpinnings of a society in which history came roaring back at the same moment as any vision of a sustainable future receded from sight. "I know that it is dangerous to write in simultaneity with events that nobody can precisely foresee, that can only be vaguely intuited," he wrote on the eve of the 2020 American elections, "but the only way to imagine something about the becoming of the psycho-sphere is to run ahead of the dynamics of the disaster." The Bloomsbury handbook of care ethics by Matilda Carter Call Number: Online available via Bloomsbury CollectionsISBN: 9781350428386Publication Date: 2025 Kant and the Concept of Community by Charlton Payne (Editor); Lucas Thorpe (Editor) Call Number: Online available via De GruyterISBN: 9781580467810Publication Date: 2011-04-30An interdisciplanary collection of essays focused on Kant's work on the concept of community. The concept of community plays a central role in Kant's theoretical philosophy, his practical philosophy, his aesthetics, and his religious thought. Kant uses community in many philosophical contexts: the category of community introduced in his table of categories in the Critique of Pure Reason; the community of substances in the third analogy; the realm of ends as an ethical community; the state and the public sphere as political communities; the sensus communis of the Critique of Judgment; and the idea of the church as a religious community in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Given Kant's status as a systematic philosopher, volume editorsPayne and Thorpe maintain that any examination of the concept of community in one area of his work can be understood only in relation to the others. In this volume, then, scholars from different disciplines -- specializing in various aspects of and approaches to Kant's work -- offer their interpretations of Kant on the concept of community. The various essays further illustrate the central relevance and importance of Kant's conception of community to contemporary debates in various fields. Charlton Payne is postdoctoral fellow at Plattform Weltregionen und Interaktionen, Universität Erfurt, Germany. Lucas Thorpe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy atBogaziçi University, Turkey. Contributors: Ronald Beiner, Jeffrey Edwards, Michael Feola, Paul Guyer, Jane Kneller, Béatrice Longuenesse, Jan Mieszkowski, Onora O'Neill, Charlton Payne, Susan M. Shell, Lucas Thorpe, Eric Watkins, Allen W. Wood Fascist Pigs by Tiago Saraiva; Wiebe E. Bijker; W. Bernard. Carlson; Trevor Pinch Call Number: Online available via Oxford AcademicISBN: 9780262035033Publication Date: 2016-10-07How the breeding of new animals and plants was central to fascist regimes in Italy, Portugal, and Germany and to their imperial expansion. In the fascist regimes of Mussolini's Italy, Salazar's Portugal, and Hitler's Germany, the first mass mobilizations involved wheat engineered to take advantage of chemical fertilizers, potatoes resistant to late blight, and pigs that thrived on national produce. Food independence was an early goal of fascism; indeed, as Tiago Saraiva writes in Fascist Pigs, fascists were obsessed with projects to feed the national body from the national soil. Saraiva shows how such technoscientific organisms as specially bred wheat and pigs became important elements in the institutionalization and expansion of fascist regimes. The pigs, the potatoes, and the wheat embodied fascism. In Nazi Germany, only plants and animals conforming to the new national standards would be allowed to reproduce. Pigs that didn't efficiently convert German-grown potatoes into pork and lard were eliminated. Saraiva describes national campaigns that intertwined the work of geneticists with new state bureaucracies; discusses fascist empires, considering forced labor on coffee, rubber, and cotton in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Eastern Europe; and explores fascist genocides, following Karakul sheep from a laboratory in Germany to Eastern Europe, Libya, Ethiopia, and Angola. Saraiva's highly original account--the first systematic study of the relation between science and fascism--argues that the "back to the land" aspect of fascism should be understood as a modernist experiment involving geneticists and their organisms, mass propaganda, overgrown bureaucracy, and violent colonialism. Theories and Concepts in Work and Employment Relations by Andrew Smith (Editor); Pauline Dibben (Editor); Adrian Wilkinson (Editor) Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 85.08 SmitISBN: 9781035316199Publication Date: 2025-06-27This comprehensive book explores key theories and concepts in the study of work and employment relations. Expert authors provide a detailed guide to the essential theories behind the ever-changing world of employment, presenting their own perspectives on these ideas. Chapters are organised into four thematic parts, encompassing the employment relationship, managerial challenges, the experience and conceptualisation of work, and trade unionism and resistance. The book features a range of diverse voices, with contributions from both leading scholars and emerging academics who have made crucial advancements in the field. Ultimately, Theories and Concepts in Work and Employment Relationsaims to deepen our understanding of the key ideas in the study of employment, creating a framework for future academic discourse and debate. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book is an essential read for researchers and students in the fields of industrial and employment relations, the sociology of work and human resource management. It includes both an overview of the field and a valuable guide to avenues for future research, supporting aspiring scholars in making a contribution to contemporary debates. Its innovative insights will also benefit practitioners and professionals who would like to further their theoretical knowledge in the field....

Acquisitions July 2025

Een nieuwe zin van het leven: de roman als wegwijzer in een kantelende wereld by Vincent Blok Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 17.70 BlokISBN: 9789464712018Publication Date: 2024Juist in tijden van dreigende catastrofes wijzen romans ons de weg. Ze slaan ons uit het lood zetten ons aan tot denken en handelen. Zo helpen ze ons op weg naar een nieuwe zin van het leven. In dit essayistische boek bespreekt filosoof Vincent Blok meer dan tachtig moderne en hedendaagse romans. Hij leest die romans op zo’n manier dat ze een nieuw licht werpen op wat een zinvol leven vermag, en wat de rol is van kunst en literatuur daarin. De romans tonen ons het einde van de wereld waarvan we afscheid moeten nemen, en wijzen ons de weg naar nieuwe werelden. (tekst van website uitgever) The Discovery of Ottoman Greece: knowledge, encounter, and belief in the Mediterranean world of Martin Crusius by Richard Calis Call Number: Online available via JSTORISBN: 9780674299757The surprising story of the sixteenth-century Lutheran scholar who became Europe's foremost authority on Ottoman Greece, shedding new light on the place of Greek culture and religion in the Western imagination. In the late sixteenth century, a German Lutheran scholar named Martin Crusius compiled an exceptionally rich record of Greek life under Ottoman rule. Although he never left his home in the university town of Tübingen, Crusius spent decades annotating books and manuscripts, corresponding with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, and interviewing Greek Orthodox alms-seekers. Ultimately, he gathered his research into a seminal work called the Turcograecia, which served for centuries as Europe's foremost source on Ottoman Greece. Yet as Richard Calis reveals, Crusius's massive--and largely untapped--archive has much more to tell us about how early modern Europeans negotiated cultural and religious difference. In particular, Crusius's work illuminates Western European views of the religious "other" within Christianity: the Greek Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule, a group both familiar and foreign. Many Western Europeans, including Crusius, developed narratives of Greek cultural and religious decline under Ottoman rule. Crusius's records, however, reveal in exceptional detail how such stories developed. His interactions with his Greek Orthodox visitors, and with a vast network of correspondents, show that Greeks' own narratives of hardship entwined in complex ways with Western Europeans' orientalist views of the Ottoman world. They also reflect the religious tensions that undergirded these exchanges, fueled by Crusius's fervent desire to spread Lutheran belief across Ottoman Greece and the wider world. A lively intellectual history drawn from a forgotten archive, The Discovery of Ottoman Greece is also a perceptive character study, in which Crusius takes his place in the history of ethnography, Lutheran reform, and European philhellenism. Raising AI : an essential guide to parenting our future by De Kai Call Number: Online available via EBSCOhost EbooksISBN: 9780262383653AIs are not gods or slaves, but our children. All day long, your YouTube AI, your Reddit AI, your Instagram AI, and a hundred others adoringly watch and learn to imitate your behavior. They’re attention-seeking children who want your approval.Our cultures are being shaped by 8 billion humans and perhaps 800 billion AIs. Our artificial children began adopting us 10–20 years ago; now these massively powerful influencers are tweens.How’s your parenting?Longtime AI trailblazer De Kai brings decades of his paradigm-shifting work at the nexus of artificial intelligence and society to make sense of the AI age. How does “the automation of thought” impact our minds? Should we be afraid?What should each of us do as the responsible adults in the room? In Hollywood movies, AI destroys humanity. But with our unconscious minds under the influence of AI, humanity may destroy humanity before AI gets a chance to.Written for the general reader, as well as thought leaders, scientists, parents, and goofballs, Raising AI navigates the revolution to our attitudes and ideas in a world of AI cohabitants. Society can not only survive the AI revolution but flourish in a more humane, compassionate, and understanding world—amongst our artificial children. Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard Call Number: University Open Collection - 08.00 CallISBN: 9781631498466Publication Date: 2025Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him the father of Western philosophy, but what exactly are his philosophical views? He is famous for his humility, but readers often find him arrogant and condescending. We parrot his claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living," yet take no steps to live examined ones. We know that he was tried, convicted, and executed for "corrupting the youth," but freely assign Socratic dialogues to today's youths, to introduce them to philosophy. We've lost sight of what made him so dangerous. In Open Socrates, acclaimed philosopher Agnes Callard recovers the radical move at the center of Socrates' thought, and shows why it is still the way to a good life. Callard draws our attention to Socrates' startling discovery that we don't know how to ask ourselves the most important questions--about how we should live, and how we might change. Before a person even has a chance to reflect, their bodily desires or the forces of social conformity have already answered on their behalf. To ask the most important questions, we need help. Callard argues that the true ambition of the famous "Socratic method" is to reveal what one human being can be to another. You can use another person in many ways--for survival, for pleasure, for comfort--but you are engaging them to the fullest when you call on them to help answer your questions and challenge your answers. Callard shows that Socrates' method allows us to make progress in thinking about how to manage romantic love, how to confront one's own death, and how to approach politics. In the process, she gives us nothing less than a new ethics to live by. A Social History of Analytic Philosophy: how politics has shaped an apolitical philosophy by Christoph Schuringa Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 08.25 SchuISBN: 9781804292099Publication Date: 2025How a supposedly apolitical form of philosophy owes its continuing power to social and political forces Analytic philosophy is the leading form of philosophy in the English-speaking world. What explains its continued success? Christoph Schuringa argues that its enduring power can only be understood by examining its social history. Analytic philosophy tends to think of itself as concerned with eternal questions, transcending the changing scenes of history. It thinks of itself as apolitical. This book, however, convincingly shows that the opposite is true. The origins of analytic philosophy are in a set of distinct movements, shaped by high-ly specific sets of political and social forces. Only after the Second World War were these disparate, often dynamic movements joined together to make 'analytic philosophy' as we know it. In the climate of McCarthyism, analytic philosophy was robbed of political force. To this day, analytic philosophy is the ideology of the status quo. It may seem arcane and largely removed from the real world, but it is a crucial component in upholding liberalism, through its central role in elite educational institutions. As Schuringa concludes, the apparently increasing friendliness of analytic philosophers to rival approaches in philosophy should be understood as a form of colonization; thanks to its hegemonic status, it reformats all it touches in service of its own imperatives, going so far as to colonize decolonial efforts in the discipline. Onze kunstmatige toekomst : Wat wij willen met AI (en AI met ons) by Joris Krijger Call Number: 54.72 KrijISBN: 9789000395552Publication Date: 2025Artificial Intelligence dringt overal door. Het is dé technologische revolutie van deze eeuw en is nu al bezig het fundament onder onze samenleving te veranderen. Maar zijn we voorbereid op de grote maatschappelijke uitdagingen die dit met zich meebrengt? En betekent ‘meer AI’ automatisch vooruitgang? In dit boek gaat AI-ethicus Joris Krijger op zoek naar het grotere verhaal achter de razendsnelle ontwikkelingen op het gebied van AI. De belangrijkste vragen zijn daarin geen technische vragen over het programmeren van slimme machines, maar ethische vragen over het (her)programmeren van onze samenleving. Krijger onderzoekt niet alleen welke problemen AI-systemen voor ons gaan oplossen, maar ook wat ze niet op gaan lossen en welke nieuwe problemen ze creëren. Hij schetst een beeld van waar onze maatschappij naartoe beweegt – en stelt de vraag of dat de kunstmatige toekomst is die we willen. Also a History of Philosophy, Volume 3: Rational freedom : traces of the discourse on faith and knowledge by Jürgen Habermas Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 08.25 HabeISBN: 9781509558650Publication Date: 2025-06-04In the final volume of his history of philosophy, Jürgen Habermas offers a series of brilliant interpretations of the thinkers who set the agenda for contemporary philosophy. Beginning with masterful readings of Hume and Kant, he traces the genealogy of their postmetaphysical thinking through the main currents of historicism and German Idealism, and the multifarious reactions to Hegel's influential system, culminating in nuanced readings of Marx, Kierkegaard and Peirce. Through his analysis of their work, Habermas demonstrates the interpretive fecundity of the central themes of his philosophical enterprise - his pragmatist theory of meaning, his communicative theories of subjectivity and sociality, and his discursive theory of normativity in its moral, juridical and political manifestations. In contrast to the bland compendia of thinkers and positions generally presented in surveys of the history of philosophy, Habermas's thematically focused interpretations are destined to provoke controversy and stimulate dialogue. With this work one of the indisputably great thinkers of our time presents a powerful vindication of his conception of philosophy as an inherently discursive - and not merely analytical or speculative - enterprise. The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin by Dan Edelstein Call Number: Online available via De GruyterISBN: 9780691231846Publication Date: 2025How an event once considered the greatest of all political dangers came to be seen as a solution to all social problems Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come traces how evolving conceptions of history ushered in a faith in the power of revolution to create more just and reasonable societies. Taking readers from Greek antiquity to Leninist Russia, Dan Edelstein describes how classical philosophers viewed history as chaotic and directionless, and sought to keep historical change--especially revolutions--at bay. This conception prevailed until the eighteenth century, when Enlightenment thinkers conceived of history as a form of progress and of revolution as its catalyst. These ideas were put to the test during the French Revolution and came to define revolutions well into the twentieth century. Edelstein demonstrates how the coming of the revolution leaves societies divided over its goals, giving rise to new forms of violence in which rivals are targeted as counterrevolutionaries. A panoramic work of intellectual history, The Revolution to Come challenges us to reflect on the aims and consequences of revolution and to balance the value of stability over the hope for change in our own moment of fear and upheaval. Foucault today : new perspectives in philosophy and cultural studies by Marita Rainsborough Call Number: Online available via De GruyterISBN: 9783839476246Publication Date: 2025Michel Foucault is considered one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century. Marita Rainsborough examines the current relevance of his work with reference to the post- and decolonial theories of Achille Mbembe, Homi Bhabha and Walter D. Mignolo in a global context. She incorporates the philosophy of Judith Butler and Byung-Chul Han as well as New Realism into the critical reading of Foucault, and emphasises the philosophical references to Bloch and Kant that have so far been neglected in his reception. Considering the subject between knowledge, power, ethics and aesthetics, an overall review as well as new aspects for the philosophical discussion of this French classic are offered....

Acquisitions June 2025

Fascism : The History of a Word by Federico Marcon Call Number: e-book via De GruyterISBN: 9780226841311Publication Date: 2025 Bias : a philosophical study by Thomas Kelly Call Number: e-book via Oxford AcademicISBN: 9780192654618Publication Date: 2022 Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat by Hito Steyerl Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 20.06 SteyISBN: 9781804298022Publication Date: 2025What is the future of the image in the age of climate change and artificial intelligence? Hito Steyerl is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. Her work, both as an artist and a writer, has consistently challenged the political boundaries between art and technology. In this new collection of groundbreaking essays, she explores how AI, the use of large language models and the algorithmic creation of imagery transform our understanding of the world. She argues that such practices cannot be divorced from the economic and political conditions of the times. Medium Hot is a collection of scintillating meditations on the limits of art and technology: the essential handbook for the present conjuncture. The pieces here probe the manufacture and distribution of images in the age of AI and climate change. She asks whether art can be made not only by machines but for machines. She argues against the production of images that heat up the planet, disfranchise workers and fuel the arms trade, and questions whether such creations can even be called art. In an era of such rapid change, Steyerl does vital work investigating whether machine learning will infiltrate every aspect of our lives and what that means for the future. The Protestant Origen: Polemical Use and Theological Appropriation of Origen in 16th Century Patristic Anthologies by Maria Fallica Call Number: University Open Collection - 11.55 FallISBN: 9783402137581Publication Date: 2022At the outbreak of the Reformations, the need for stable and authoritative support was acutely felt on all sides, engaged as they were in a conflict of interpretations of the core of Christianity. Patristic anthologies were the perfect tool for the roles of polemical weapons and doctrinal handbooks, as they selected apt passages from the Fathers of the Church to prove, explain and promote the articles of the new confessions of faith and testify to antiquity. In a paradigm dominated by the figure of Augustine, whose exegesis of Scripture and understanding of the Gospel was very important for many Reformers, these anthologies tried to demonstrate the broad consensus of the majority of the ancient writers with the doctrines advocated by them. This volume offers an original perspective on the reception of Origen of Alexandria, one of the most profound and influential philosophers and exegetes of Late Antiquity, in three patristic anthologies of the 16th century. It explores how the voice of Origen, who was recognized by Luther and Melanchthon as a staunch opponent of their doctrines, is harmonized with the theological stances of the anthologies. The anomaly represented by the proposed image of a "Protestant Origen" helps us to decipher larger trends of the European Reformations, in their relationship with authority and memory. The Bergsonian Mind by Mark Sinclair, Yoran Wolf Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 08.25 SincISBN: 9781032137650Publication Date: 2022 Enfants d'Hermès : Voyage, Altérités et Réception de l'antique by Albrecht Burkardt ; Laurence Bernard-Pradelle, François Brizay Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 74.15 BurkISBN: 9782406177159Publication Date: 2025...

Acquisitions May 2025

The age of diagnosis : sickness, health and why medicine has gone too far by Suzanne O'SullivanCall Number: University Library Open Collection - 44.50 TullISBN: 9781399727655Publication Date: 2025 Christoph Wittich (1625-1687): reformierte Theologie unter dem Einfluss von René Descartes by Kai-Ole EberhardtCall Number: University Library Closed StacksISBN: 9783525552834Die epochale Bedeutung des Denkens von Rene Descartes ist fur die Philosophie- und Geistesgeschichte der Neuzeit unbestritten. In welch hohem Masse auch die reformierte Theologie die neue Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts aufgenommen und diskutiert hat, zeigt Kai-Ole Eberhardts Analyse von Leben und Werk des Theologieprofessors Christoph Wittich. Wittich reprasentiert eine Gruppe von Gelehrten, die von der Bedeutung Descartes' zutiefst uberzeugt waren und sich gegen grossen Widerstand aus Kirche und Theologie fur die Rezeption des cartesianischen Wissenschafts- und Weltbildes eingesetzt haben. Der Verlauf von Wittichs Karriere, ausgehend von seinem Studium in den Niederlanden uber Professuren in Herborn, Duisburg, Nijmegen und Leiden, illustriert die Entstehung eines cartesianischen Gelehrtennetzwerkes und dessen Auseinandersetzungen mit Vertretern einer anticartesianischen Theologie. Eine detaillierte Analyse der Hauptwerke Wittichs gewahrt Einblicke in die Entstehung einer Theologie, die sowohl beansprucht, reformiert-orthodox zu sein als auch dem modernen Wissenschaftskonzept des Cartesianismus zu entsprechen. Animals: A History by Peter Adamson (Editor); G. Fay Edwards (Editor)Call Number: University Library Open Collection - 08.20 AdamISBN: 9780199375974Philosophical controversy over non-human animals extends further back than many realize - before Utilitarianism and Darwinism to the very genesis of philosophy. This volume examines the richness and complexity of that long history. Twelve essays trace the significance of animals from Greek and Indian antiquity through the Islamic and Latin medieval traditions, to Renaissance and early modern thought, ending with contemporary notions about animals. Two main questions emerge throughout the volume: what capacities can be ascribed to animals, and how should we treat them? Notoriously ungenerous attitudes towards animals' mental lives and ethics status, found for instance in Aristotle and Descartes, are shown to have been more nuanced than often supposed, while remarkable defenses of benevolence towards animals are unearthed in late antiquity, India, the Islamic world, and Kant. Other chapters examine cannibalism and vegetarianism in Renaissance thought, and the scientific testing of animals. A series of interdisciplinary reflections sheds further light on human attitudes towards animals, looking at their depiction in visual artworks from China, Africa, and Europe, as well as the rich tradition of animal fables beginning with Aesop....

Acquisitions March 2024

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