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This tentative table of contents is for early review purposes; the final contents may not include all of the selections listed here. Most chapters conclude with “Study Questions.”
Preface.
General Introduction.
I. PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE.
Prologue to the Philosophy Of Nature.
1. Nicholas Copernicus: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
On the Revolutions (selections).
2. Johannes Kepler: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
New Astronomy (selections).
3. Galileo Galilei: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
Siderus Nucius or The Sidereal Messenger (selections).
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (selections).
4. Isaac Newton: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
The Principia (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Newton's Influence.
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of the Nature Philosophers.
Study Questions.
Bibliography.
II. RATIONALISM.
Prologue to Rationalism.
5. Renê Descartes: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
Meditations.
Objections and Replies II, III, and IV.
Rules for the Direction of our Native Intelligence.
Philosophical Bridges: The Cartesian Influence.
6. Blaise Pascal, A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
Pensêes (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of Pascal.
7. Baruch Spinoza: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
Ethics, Parts I-V (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of Spinoza.
8. Gottfried Leibniz: A Historical Biography.
Philosophical Overview.
Letters to Arnauld.
Primary Truths (selections).
Necessary and Contingent Truths (selections).
New System (selections).
Discourse on Metaphysics (selections).
Monadology.
Letters to Clarke: Third and Fourth letters.
Philosophical Bridges: Leibniz's Influence.
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of the Rationalists.
Study Questions.
Bibliography.
III. EMPIRICISM.
Prologue to Empiricism.
9. Francis Bacon: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
The Great Instauration and Novum Organum (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Bacon's Influence.
10. Thomas Hobbes: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
The Leviathan (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Hobbes' Influence.
11. John Locke: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (abridged).
A Treatise Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Locke's Influence.
12. George Berkeley: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (abridged).
Philosophical Bridges: Berkeley's Influence.
13. David Hume: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, (abridged).
A Treatise of Human Nature (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Hume's Influence.
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of the Empiricists.
Study Questions.
Bibliography.
IV. ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY.
Prologue to Enlightenment Philosophy.
14. Jean Jacques Rousseau: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
On the Social Contract (selections).
Philosophical Bridges: Rousseau's Influence.
15. Francois Voltaire: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
Philosophical Dictionary (selections).
16. Immanuel Kant: A Biographical History.
Philosophical Overview.
Critique of Pure Reason (abridged).
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (selections).
What is Enlightenment?
Philosophical Bridges: Kant's Influence.
Philosophical Bridges: The Influence of the Enlightenment Philosophers.
Study Questions.
Bibliography.
Philosophical Bridges: The Modern Influence.
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William Raine
reviewed The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy on November 26, 2014
The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy
I read this as I have read it before for a grad course I am teaching on Language, Literacy and Democracy. And Pragmatism. This book is a series of lectures James gave more than a hundred years ago to help explain pragmatism as a method, not as just yet another philosophical position. It's a method of approaching truth as against abstract theory. Seeing truth not as Truth and the self as something clear and solid we need to discover but multiple, social, shifting, flexible, continually constructed in engagement with experience. Which makes it sound like a lot of contemporary postmodern philosophy. Right, the ideas have been around for centuries, nothing new, James says, and these skeptical "show me" ideas continued through the work of contemporary pragmatist practitioners such as Richard Rorty. Anti-"isms," which can be single theoretical explanations of the world, like Marxism, Feminism, anti-racism. Single bullet explanations that are fixed and a-contextual. Grand Theories that claim to explain How the World Works. Bull hockey to that, James says.
The central idea here is that the meaning (or truth) of any idea ' philosophical, political, social, or otherwise ' has validity only in terms of its experiential and practical consequences. In other words, you think this, you believe this. . . so what? What difference does it make in the world? What good is to believe that? James and pragmatism HATE abstractions and the emptiest most ethereal reaches of philosophizing. They're anti-dogma. As one raised to believe in a Calvinist brand of religion, I have some history that leads me to say amen to James and draw closer to anarchy (against a fixed system of rules) than fascism, let's just say.
James is also responding to Darwin, who was of course all the rage in the late nineteenth century. Darwin says, among other things, that we are mostly determined by our biology, by genetics. He shows us this true through scientific experiment. And he has a point. But James says nope, anything that claims you are completely determined by any one thing in particular ways is just plain limited. You are changing and always will be. Not fixed by experience but open because of it.
James and the pragmatists say that you in part make yourself and your world. A hopeful view, perhaps a little naive, you say, you cynic, but as a teacher, I have to believe in possibilities for learning and life, and James helps me not be so. . . hopeless about the world and its future. He helps, at least. And as someone in academia, I hitting it helps to be less certain than too damned cocksure of oneself.
James, the brother of novelist Henry, was one of the great thinkers of his time. He wrote Principles of Psychology to help found that field, he wrote Varieties of Religious Experience to examine people's experience with belief/religion/psychic phenomena, in various cultures. He's a little stuffy and not all of what he cared about then matters to me, but I still like his contribution to thinking about thinking.
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Add The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy, With selections of philosophers from the earliest times to the present, this anthology provides significant learning support and historical context with biographical introductions, topic Prologs, reading introductions and Philosophical Overviews, Phi, The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy, With selections of philosophers from the earliest times to the present, this anthology provides significant learning support and historical context with biographical introductions, topic Prologs, reading introductions and Philosophical Overviews, Phi, The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy to your collection on WonderClub |
