If there exists on any subject a philosophy (that is, a system of rational knowledge based on concepts), then there must also be for this philosophy a system of pure rational concepts, independent of any condition of intuition, in other words, a metaphysic. It may be asked whether metaphysical elements are required also for every practical philosophy, which is the doctrine of duties, and therefore also for Ethics.

Perhaps this book will be understood only by someone who has himself already had the thoughts that are expressed in it-or at least similar thoughts. -So it is not a textbook. -Its purpose would be achieved if it gave pleasure to one person who read and understood it. The book deals with the problems of philosophy, and shows, I believe, that the reason why these problems are posed is that the logic of our language is mis-understood. The whole sense...

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Hegel's philosophical history of the world is a work that grows out of a genre in philosophy that looks at history as the development of human abilities and charts the progress of humankind through a series of epochs. For Hegel, history is centered largely on political developments, on the deeds of the great historical figures, such as Alexander the Great and Napoleon...

From one of the greatest prose stylists of any generation, the essay that inspired the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, Camp: Notes on Fashion
Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility—unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it—that goes by the cult name of "Camp."
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Who am I? What is justice? What does it mean to live a good life? Many of the fundamental questions of philosophy are questions that we begin to ask ourselves as young adults when we look at the world around us, at ourselves, and try to make sense of things. This engaging and accessible book invites the reader to explore the questions and arguments of philosophy through the work of one hundred of the greatest thinkers within the Western intellectual...

First published in 1757, the treatise "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", by the Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, provides a distinct transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. Burke's treatise was the first fully realized exposition that separated the definition of the sublime from the beautiful. His work received much attention from other philosophers upon its publication and influenced thinkers...

To the mentality that assumes, more or less consciously, that we must of necessity find a solution to every problem, belongs the argument based on the disastrous consequences of a thing. Take any book of apologetics-that is to say, of theological advocacy-and you will see how many times you will meet with this phrase-"the disastrous consequences of this doctrine." Now the disastrous consequences of a doctrine prove at most that the doctrine is disastrous,...

First published in 1954, "Stolen Legacy" is the thought-provoking and controversial book by George G. M. James, a Guyanese-American historian and author. James makes the argument that Greek philosophy originated in Ancient Egypt, rather than Greece and was stolen and used without acknowledgement by Greek philosophers. In support of his premise, James contends that when Alexander the Great invaded Egypt and sacked the Royal Library at Alexandria he...

This book is one in a series that has been extracted in its entirety from M. James Ziccardi's "Fundamentals of Western Philosophy".It is intended to serve as a primer for students of the moral and political ideas of Aristotle.

Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, these classic essays deal not only with Paul Kristeller's specialty, Renaissance humanism and philosophy, but also with Renaissance theories of art. The focus of the collection is on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance. For this...