The Sceptical Idealist

The Sceptical Idealist PDF Author: Roy Tseng
Publisher: Imprint Academic
ISBN: 9780907845225
Category : Enlightenment
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This is the first book-length study to provide a structured interpretation of the significance of Michael Oakeshott's critique of the Enlightenment. By seeing the thinker as a 'sceptical idealist' posing a serious challenge to the intellectual positions informed by the Enlightenment, this book attempts to resolve some of the issues debated by Oakeshott scholars. The author argues that Oakeshott's famous critique of philosophisme and Rationalism in fact expresses a sense of the crisis of philosophical modernity. Moreover, notwithstanding some recent interpretations, throughout his intellectual career Oakeshott has never altered his analysis of these two themes: philosophy as the persistent re-establishment of completeness by transcending abstractness, and the modes of experience as self-consistent worlds of discourse. To apply this philosophy in his moral and political writings, Oakeshott has redressed an imbalance in favour of the Enlightenment ethical position -- 'the sovereignty of technique', 'demonstrative moral truth', 'the politics of faith' and 'enterprise association' -- by revitalising the importance of 'traditional knowledge', 'conversation', 'intimation', 'the politics of scepticism' and 'civil association'. Oakeshott is neither a doctrinal liberal nor a dogmatic conservative, but a philosophical sceptic. Moreover, Oakeshott's contribution to history not only lies in his effort to transcend the Enlightenment historiographical position -- by separating the historical from the naturalised conception of History on which so-called 'scientific history' rests -- but also in his idealistic solution for the 'temporal dilemma' and the 'epistemic tension' in history that have long bothered philosophers.

The Sceptical Idealist

The Sceptical Idealist PDF Author: Roy Tseng
Publisher: Imprint Academic
ISBN: 9780907845225
Category : Enlightenment
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first book-length study to provide a structured interpretation of the significance of Michael Oakeshott's critique of the Enlightenment. By seeing the thinker as a 'sceptical idealist' posing a serious challenge to the intellectual positions informed by the Enlightenment, this book attempts to resolve some of the issues debated by Oakeshott scholars. The author argues that Oakeshott's famous critique of philosophisme and Rationalism in fact expresses a sense of the crisis of philosophical modernity. Moreover, notwithstanding some recent interpretations, throughout his intellectual career Oakeshott has never altered his analysis of these two themes: philosophy as the persistent re-establishment of completeness by transcending abstractness, and the modes of experience as self-consistent worlds of discourse. To apply this philosophy in his moral and political writings, Oakeshott has redressed an imbalance in favour of the Enlightenment ethical position -- 'the sovereignty of technique', 'demonstrative moral truth', 'the politics of faith' and 'enterprise association' -- by revitalising the importance of 'traditional knowledge', 'conversation', 'intimation', 'the politics of scepticism' and 'civil association'. Oakeshott is neither a doctrinal liberal nor a dogmatic conservative, but a philosophical sceptic. Moreover, Oakeshott's contribution to history not only lies in his effort to transcend the Enlightenment historiographical position -- by separating the historical from the naturalised conception of History on which so-called 'scientific history' rests -- but also in his idealistic solution for the 'temporal dilemma' and the 'epistemic tension' in history that have long bothered philosophers.

All Or Nothing

All Or Nothing PDF Author: Paul W. Franks
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674018884
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
Interest in German Idealism--not just Kant, but Fichte and Hegel as well--has recently developed within analytic philosophy, which traditionally defined itself in opposition to the Idealist tradition. Yet one obstacle remains especially intractable: the Idealists' longstanding claim that philosophy must be systematic. In this work, the first overview of the German Idealism that is both conceptual and methodological, Paul W. Franks offers a philosophical reconstruction that is true to the movement's own times and resources and, at the same time, deeply relevant to contemporary thought. At the center of the book are some neglected but critical questions about German Idealism: Why do Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel think that philosophy's main task is the construction of a system? Why do they think that every part of this system must derive from a single, immanent and absolute principle? Why, in short, must it be all or nothing? Through close examination of the major Idealists as well as the overlooked figures who influenced their reading of Kant, Franks explores the common ground and divergences between the philosophical problems that motivated Kant and those that, in turn, motivated the Idealists. The result is a characterization of German Idealism that reveals its sources as well as its pertinence--and its challenge--to contemporary philosophical naturalism.

Kant and Skepticism

Kant and Skepticism PDF Author: Michael N. Forster
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691129877
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Presents a reappraisal of Immanuel Kant's conception of and response to skepticism, as set forth principally in the "Critique of Pure Reason". This book argues that Kant undertook his reform of metaphysics primarily in order to render it defensible against these types of skepticism.

Moore and Wittgenstein

Moore and Wittgenstein PDF Author: A. Coliva
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023028969X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Does scepticism threaten our common sense picture of the world? Does it really undermine our deep-rooted certainties? Answers to these questions are offered through a comparative study of the epistemological work of two key figures in the history of analytic philosophy, G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

A World for Us

A World for Us PDF Author: John Foster
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019153806X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
A World for Us aims to refute physical realism and establish in its place a form of idealism. Physical realism, in the sense in which John Foster understands it, takes the physical world to be something whose existence is both logically independent of the human mind and metaphysically fundamental. Foster identifies a number of problems for this realist view, but his main objection is that it does not accord the world the requisite empirical immanence. The form of idealism that he tries to establish in its place rejects the realist view in both its aspects. It takes the world to be something whose existence is ultimately constituted by facts about human sensory experience, or by some richer complex of non-physical facts in which such experiential facts centrally feature. Foster calls this phenomenalistic idealism. He tries to establish a specific version of such phenomenalistic idealism, in which the experiential facts that centrally feature in the constitutive creation of the world are ones that concern the organization of human sensory experience. The basic idea of this version is that, in the context of certain other constitutively relevant factors, this sensory organization creates the physical world by disposing things to appear systematically world-wise at the human empirical viewpoint. Chief among these other relevant factors is the role of God as the one who is responsible for the sensory organization and ordains the system of appearance it yields. It is this that gives the idealistically created world its objectivity and allows it to qualify as a real world.

Transcendental Ontology

Transcendental Ontology PDF Author: Markus Gabriel
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441108238
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Transcendental Ontology in German Idealism: Schelling and Hegel sheds remarkable light on a question central to post-Kantian philosophy: after the Copernican Revolution in philosophy, what can philosophy say about the world or reality as such? What remains of ontology's task after Kant? This is a question often overlooked in contemporary scholarship on German Idealism. Markus Gabriel offers a refreshing reinvigoration of a range of questions concerning scepticism, corporeality, freedom, the question of being, the absolute and the modal status of our determinations and judgments, all crucial to our understanding of the truly radical nature of post-Kantian philosophy. Gabriel's assessment of the experiments undertaken in post-Kantian ontology reaffirms Schelling's and Hegel's place at the heart of contemporary metaphysics. The book shows how far we still have to go in mining the thought of Hegel and Schelling and how exciting, as a result, we can expect twenty-first century philosophy to be.

The Discovery of Chance

The Discovery of Chance PDF Author: Aileen M. Kelly
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674969413
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
Alexander Herzen—philosopher, novelist, essayist, political agitator, and one of the leading Russian intellectuals of the nineteenth century—was as famous in his day as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. While he is remembered for his masterpiece My Past and Thoughts and as the father of Russian socialism, his contributions to the history of ideas defy easy categorization because they are so numerous. Aileen Kelly presents the first fully rounded study of the farsighted genius whom Isaiah Berlin called “the forerunner of much twentieth-century thought.” In an era dominated by ideologies of human progress, Herzen resisted them because they conflicted with his sense of reality, a sense honed by his unusually comprehensive understanding of history, philosophy, and the natural sciences. Following his unconventional decision to study science at university, he came to recognize the implications of early evolutionary theory, not just for the natural world but for human history. In this respect, he was a Darwinian even before Darwin. Socialism for Russia, as Herzen conceived it, was not an ideology—least of all Marxian “scientific socialism”—but a concrete means of grappling with unique historical circumstances, a way for Russians to combine the best of Western achievements with the possibilities of their own cultural milieu in order to move forward. In the same year that Marx declared communism to be the “solution to the riddle of history,” Herzen denied that any such solution could exist. History, like nature, was contingent—an improvisation both constrained and encouraged by chance.

The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism

The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism PDF Author: Karl Ameriks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107147840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Comprehensive and incisive, with three new chapters, this updated edition sees world-renowned scholars explore a rich and complex philosophical movement.

German Idealism and the Problem of Knowledge:

German Idealism and the Problem of Knowledge: PDF Author: Nectarios G. Limnatis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402088000
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
The problem of knowledge in German Idealism has drawn increasing attention. This is the first attempt at a systematic critique that covers all four major figures, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. The book offers a fresh and challenging analysis.

Infinite Minds

Infinite Minds PDF Author: John Leslie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199248933
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
John Leslie unfolds his view of the nature of the universe in this book - a view which is unusual yet rich in philosophical inspiration and suggestion. Over the last three decades he has been developing his theory in a series of publications, and with this title he brings it to its definitive conclusion.