The Sense of the Past : Essays in the History of Philosophy / Bernard Williams; Myles Burnyeat.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Bernard, author.

Contributor:

Burnyeat, Myles, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy--History.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Philosophy, Modern.

Philosophy.

Local Subjects:

Philosophy--History.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Philosophy, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (415 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2009]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Before his death in 2003, Bernard Williams planned to publish a collection of historical essays, focusing primarily on the ancient world. This posthumous volume brings together a much wider selection, written over some forty years. His legacy lives on in this masterful work, the first collection ever published of Williams's essays on the history of philosophy. The subjects range from the sixth century B.C. to the twentieth A.D., from Homer to Wittgenstein by way of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Sidgwick, Collingwood, and Nietzsche. Often one would be hard put to say which part is history, which philosophy. Both are involved throughout, because this is the history of philosophy written philosophically. Historical exposition goes hand in hand with philosophical scrutiny. Insights into the past counteract blind acceptance of present assumptions. In his touching and illuminating introduction, Myles Burnyeat writes of these essays: "They show a depth of commitment to the history of philosophy seldom to be found nowadays in a thinker so prominent on the contemporary philosophical scene." The result celebrates the interest and importance to philosophy today of its near and distant past. The Sense of the Past is one of three collections of essays by Bernard Williams published by Princeton University Press since his death. In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument, selected, edited, and with an introduction by Geoffrey Hawthorn, and Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, selected, edited, and with an introduction by A. W. Moore, make up the trio.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface / Williams, Patricia

Introduction / Burnyeat, Myles

Greek: General

ONE. The Legacy of Greek Philosophy

TWO. The Women of Trachis: Fictions, Pessimism, Ethics

THREE. Understanding Homer: Literature, History and Ideal Anthropology

Socrates and Plato

FOUR. Pagan Justice and Christian Love

FIVE. Introduction to Plato's Theaetetus

SIX. Plato against the Immoralist

SEVEN. The Analogy of City and Soul in Plato's Republic

EIGHT. Plato's Construction of Intrinsic Goodness

NINE. Cratylus' Theory of Names and Its Refutation

TEN. Plato: The Invention of Philosophy

Aristotle

ELEVEN. Acting as the Virtuous Person Acts

TWELVE. Aristotle on the Good: A Formal Sketch

THIRTEEN. Justice as a Virtue

FOURTEEN. Hylomorphism

Descartes

FIFTEEN.Descartes' Use of Scepticism

SIXTEEN. Introductory Essay on Descartes' Meditations

SEVENTEEN. Descartes and the Historiography of Philosophy

Hume

EIGHTEEN. Hume on Religion

Sidgwick

NINETEEN. The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and the Ambitions of Ethics

Nietzsche

TWENTY. Nietzsche's Minimalist Moral Psychology

TWENTY-ONE. Introduction to The Gay Science

TWENTY-TWO. "There are many kinds of eyes"

TWENTY-THREE. Unbearable Suffering

R. G. Collingwood

TWENTY-FOUR. An Essay on Collingwood

Wittgenstein

TWENTY-FIVE. Wittgenstein and Idealism

Bernard Williams: Complete Philosophical Publications

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9786612159220

9781282159228

1282159224

9781400827107

1400827108

OCLC:

440799790