"Evolution in Modern Thought" is a significant work that explores the intricate ideas surrounding evolution and its impact on contemporary philosophy and science. The book delves into the contributions of notable figures such as William Bateson, who advanced the understanding of genetics, and Ernst Haeckel, who popularized evolutionary theory. It also examines the philosophical implications of evolution as discussed by thinkers like J. B. Bury and Harald Hoffding, providing a comprehensive...

Wilhelm Leibnitz, like Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza, is convinced of the importance of the mechanical explanation of nature. His three predecessors regarded the mechanical principles as self-evident and as given once for all, and assumed the task of interpreting the various elements of reality in harmony with the principle of mechanical causality. Leibnitz however subjects the principle of causality to a profounder analysis by inquiring into its presuppositions and seeking to refer it bac...

René Descartes is one the great philosophers and scientists whose thoughts and works influenced the development of the modern philosophy. He is also known for his Cartesian coordinate system in Mathematics. He was, in the full sense of the word, a partaker of the modern spirit and the first of the modern school of mathematicians. What is the influence of his work on the scientific thoughts up to nowadays? This is the story of René Descartes, the founder of the modern philosophy, the father...

What is Enlightenment?Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. "Have courage to use your own reason!" - that is the motto of enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant and the Critical Philosophy."The critical philosophy has nothing to do with a theory of the evolution of knowledge, in the modern sense of the word. Its distinctive task is to discover the necessary principles which must be presupposed—howsoever human nature may be constituted—if a mental function, no matter whether it be cognition, aesthetic or ethical evaluation, or religious trust, is to attain any valid results. It investigates the conditions of the v...

Born to be misunderstood, Spinoza was a man whose theology was banned for Godlessness. The very virtuosity of his reasoning left logicians unsettled, while even to professional thinkers in our own time, Spinoza has seemed too clever by half.And yet, as Roger Scruton shows in this strikingly readable introduction to the man and his though, Spinoza's concerns were both simple and sublime. Few philosophers, indeed, have shown such a straightforward, sustained and honest interest in un...

Regarded as the central figure of modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant produced comprehensive and systematic work in the theory of knowledge, ethics and aesthetics, which greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy. In his major work, ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’, Kant analyses the relationship between reason and human experience, moving beyond the failures of traditional philosophy and metaphysics. This comprehensive eBook presents Kant’s collected works, with numerous illustrations...

In 2005 St Andrews Studies published a volume of essays by Anscombe entitled Human Life, Action and Ethics, followed in 2008 by a second with the title Faith in a Hard Ground. Both books were highly praised. This third volume brings essays on the thought of historical philosophers in which Anscombe engages directly with their ideas and arguments. Many are published here for the first time and the collection provides further testimony to Anscombe's insight and intellectual imagination.

Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Practical Reason" serves as a foundational text in moral philosophy, elucidating his pivotal concepts of duty, moral law, and autonomy. Written in a rigorous and systematic style, this work extends the exploration initiated in his earlier "Critique of Pure Reason," bridging theoretical understanding with practical application. Kant articulates the necessity of a universal moral law grounded in reason, arguing for a categorical imperative that compels individual...

The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals or Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (German: Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, 1785), Immanuel Kant's first contribution to moral philosophy, argues for an a priori basis for morality. Where the Critique of Pure Reason laid out Kant's metaphysical and epistemological ideas, this relatively short, primarily meta-ethical, work was intended to outline and define the concepts and arguments shaping his future work The Metaphysics of Moral...

Written by famous writer David Hume, the present book titled 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding' was first published in the year 1748. This was appreeciated by famous socio-economic thinker Immanuel Kant and has been regarded as a classic in modern philosophical literature.

The atmosphere of silence all around provided a faithful setting for Heidegger’s philosophy. I could not help comparing it with the atmosphere I had encountered in the house of Professor Berdyaev near Paris and that of Professor Jaspers in Heidelberg. In every case, the external world faithfully reflected the world of the mind. In Berdyaev’s case it was the spirit of communion; in Jaspers’s that of spiritual engagement. But in Heidegger’s case it was the spirit of overwhelming solitude. Wi...