#philosopherOTM

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This September the OUP Philosophy team honours John Duns Scotus (b. c. 1265/1266–d. 1308) as its Philosopher of the Month. Scotus was one of the most significant Christian philosophers and theologians of the medieval period. Scotus made important and influential contributions in metaphysics, ethics, and natural theology. Little was known of his life but he was born in Scotland, became a Franciscan monk, spent his learning and professional life at Oxford and Paris, and died in Cologne.  Although Aristotle’s ideas were prevalent during the turn of the 13th century, he belonged to Franciscan tradition which, as opposed to Aristotle, emphasised the power of faith and will. He was also much influenced by Arabic philosophers, especially Avicenna, with their emphasis on Being as the metaphysical object.

Scotus’s approach to philosophy was characterised by rigorous philosophical analysis, meticulous exposition of arguments and its use of technical concepts. Because of his nuanced and technical reasoning, he was referred to as the “subtle doctor.” His univocal concept of being – the idea that words describing the nature of God mean the same thing as they apply to creatures and people – is also arguably his most famous position in this respect. He argued that we can apply certain predicates univocally to God and creatures with exactly the same meaning.  

For more on this philosopher, explore our collection for blog posts, articles, and reading suggestions, Follow us on @OUPPhilosophy on Twitter.

John Duns Scotus: Selected Writings on Ethics edited by Thomas Williams

Duns Scotus by Richard Cross

Medieval Philosophy: A history of philosophy without any gaps, Volume 4  by Peter Adamson

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy by John Marenbon

Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by John Marenbon

Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 by Robert Pasnau

Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy by Simo Knuuttila

Some Later Medieval Theories of the Eucharist: Thomas Aquinas, Gilles of Rome, Duns Scotus, and William Ockham by Marilyn McCord Adams

'John Duns Scotus on the Passions of the Will'  in Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro from The Oxford Scholarship Online        

'Emotions in Medieval Thought' in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion, edited by Peter Goldie from Oxford Handbooks Online

‘Universals (Avicenna and Abelard)’ in Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction  by John Marenbon from Very Short Introductions

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5 things you didn’t know about Hypatia

This July, the OUP Philosophy team honors Hypatia as their Philosopher of the Month. Below are five interesting facts about the great Alexandrian thinker. All facts below are taken from Oxford Reference Online: 

1. Widely acclaimed during her lifetime, Hypatia was a noted philosopher, astronomer, and at one point the world’s foremost mathematician.

2. She is the first female mathematician of whose life and work we have reasonably detailed and accurate knowledge.  

3. Hypatia’s father, Theon of Alexandria, was a noted mathematician, and they collaborated on a number of works together.  

4. Much of our knowledge of Hypatia is informed by the letters of Synesius of Cyrene, one of her students.  

5. An active public figure, Hypatia played a leading role in the civic affairs of Alexandria, and giving popular lectures on philosophy and geometry.

For more information about Hypatia, follow #PhilosopherOTM and @OUPPhilosophy on Twitter.

Image credit: “Portrait of Hypatia” by Jules Maurice Gaspard, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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5 Facts about Albert Camus

The Nobel Prize winner, Albert Camus (1913-1960) is one of the best-known French philosophers of the twentieth century and also a widely-read novelist, whose works are frequently referenced in contemporary culture and politics. His literary and philosophical works explore the themes associated with existentialism, alienation, and the conditions of absurdity in the human condition. 

Here are 5 interesting facts about Camus you might not know:

1. Camus was born in Algeria to a French father (killed in the First World War) and Spanish mother. Despite his poor background, Camus excelled at school, won a scholarship to a prestigious lycée in Algeria, and went on to study for a philosophy degree at the University of Algiers.

2. In 1940 after moving to Paris, he worked as a journalist and became involved in the French Resistance. He was the editor-in-chief for its clandestine newspaper, Combat, during the German occupation of France.

3. Camus played regular football at a high level for his university team and wrote that the sport gave him important ethical lessons: "What I know most surely in the long run about morality and obligations, I owe to football" (France Football, 1957). He, however, contracted tuberculosis as a teenager, which prevented him from becoming a professional footballer.

4. Camus achieved recognition with his debut novel, The Stranger (1942 ), and his philosophical essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). He became associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and the existentialist movement. 

5. His 1942 masterpiece, L'Étranger (The Stranger) opens with a famous sentence, "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas." ("Mother died today. Or perhaps it was yesterday, I don’t know."). It explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons

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To celebrate #PrideMonth, the OUP Philosophy team honours Michel Foucault (1926-84) as its Philosopher of the Month. Foucault was one of the most influential French philosophers and historians of ideas, best known for his theories on discourses and the relation of power and knowledge. His seminal works, such as History of Madness (1961), Discipline and Punish (1975), and History of Sexuality (1976–84), examine the emergence of the powerful, state institutions (penal, scientific, and medical), and their mechanisms of control. They chart western attitudes towards the insane, criminals, and sexual deviants and consider the ways in which societies have penalized those who are outside the norms.

In History of Sexuality, Foucault famously put forward the view that the homosexual category did not exist until the 19th century. Although same sex relations have been practiced throughout history, people who practised homosexuality were not classified as homosexuals and did not think of themselves in terms of sexuality. He argued that, in fact, there was a proliferation of new medical, juridical, and psychological discourses concerning sex and obsessive discussions about sex, and these led to the construction of sexual identities, designed to regulate rather than suppress sexuality.

An early victim of AIDS, Foucault died in Paris on June 25, 1984 at the age of 57. His theories have had an enormous impact across a range of disciplines from philosophy, literary criticism, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and queer theory.

Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography by David M. Halperin

Foucault: A Very Short Introduction by Gary Cutting

Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy Since 1960 by Gary Gutting

The Will to Punish by Didier Fassin and Edited by Christopher Kutz

Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction by Catherine Belsey

Sexual Dissidence by Jonathan Dollimore

Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies by Cressida J. Heyes

The Biopolitics of Gender by Jemima Repo

The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies edited by Jenny Helin, Tor Hernes, Daniel Hjorth, and Robin Holt

Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity by Daniel Orrells

Sexuality: A Very Short Introduction by Veronique Mottier

‘The Turn to Ethics: Derrida, Levinas, and Foucault’ by Gary Cutting in Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy Since 1960 from The Oxford Scholarship Online

“Michel Foucault (1926–1984)” by Richard Weiskopf and Hugh Willmott in The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies from Oxford Handbooks Online

“Modern Sex” in Foucault: A Very Short Introduction from Very Short Introductions

“Difference and Desire” in Postructuralism: A Very Short Introduction from Very Short Introductions

For more on this philosopher,explore our collection for blog posts, articles and reading suggestions. Follow us @OUPPhilosophy on Twitter.

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5 Facts about Friedrich Schiller

German poet and playwright, Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was a profound philosopher who wrote highly influential works on aesthetics and played a role in the development of German idealism and Romanticism. Schiller insisted upon the importance of arts in human’s life and saw an aesthetic education as the key to the realisation of morality and a free and just society whereby a human can realise his full potential. His achievement in literature also covers an astonishing range of forms

Here are 5 interesting facts about Schiller, you might not know:

1. Born in Marback in Germany, Schiller attended the military academy of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg and emerged as an army doctor in 1780. He however rebelled against his training by writing and reading “Sturm and Drang”. His first play The Robbers (1781), the story about a nobleman turned robber, caused a sensation on its first performance. Forbidden by Karl Eugen to pursue his literary ambitions, Schiller had to flee in 1782 to Manheim in Palatinate and became a resident playwright at the Manheim National Theatre from 1783-1784.

2. He is sometimes referred to as the German Shakespeare for his immense influence on German literature and theater. His other famous works include the trilogy Wallenstein, and four major dramas, Maria Stuart, The Maid of Orleans, The Bride of Messina and Wilhelm Tell.

3. Immanuel Kant was a major influence on Schiller who developed Kant’s ethics and aesthetics towards post-Kantian idealism. On the basis of Kant's Critique of Judgement (1790), Schiller argued that beauty is ‘freedom in phenomenal appearance’. On the Aesthetic Education of Humanity in a Series of Letters(Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen, 1795) is his most influential and best-known work.

4. He became Professor of History at Jena in 17889, and wrote several historical works during his lifetime.

5. He was a close friend with Goethe (1749-1832) and collaborated with him on a literary journal Die Horen (1795-7) to raise the standard of art and literature. Both are considered seminal and notable figures of the Weimar Classicism, a movement in literature and theatre associated with the culture of the Weimarcourt at the turn of the eighteenth century.  

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons

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Can ‘good’ be defined’?

G.E. Moore (1873-1958) was a British philosopher (seen center here), who alongside Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the early twentieth century at Cambridge University, was a key protagonist in the formation of the analytic tradition during the twentieth century. 

This extract from OUP's Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction explores Moore's concern with the attempt to define "good'"— a key theme of Moore's major work, Principa Ethica.

The central question of Principia Ethica is ‘What is good?’, and Moore’s main claim is that ‘good’ is indefinable, or, as it might also be put, that goodness is unanalysable and hence has to be regarded as a simple quality. His main argument for this is the ‘open question argument’, as it has come to be called. Consider a possible definition of ‘good’, say, as ‘that which we desire to desire’, which Moore himself takes as one of the more plausible. It seems, though, that we can quite genuinely ask ‘Is that which we desire to desire good?’ 

Read the rest of this chapter:

Do You Know What I Mean?

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons 

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5 Facts about Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault (1926–84) was an influential and controversial post-structuralist philosopher of the twentieth century and social historian, whose work influenced a multitude of disciplines from philosophy, history. gender studies to social sciences.

Here are 5 interesting facts about Foucault, you might not know:

1. Born into a prominent provincial family, Foucault was a son of a successful and authoritarian doctor. Though emotionally troubled, he was an academically brilliant student at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure.

2. Foucault began his teaching career at various European universities in the 1950s before being appointed a professor of the history of systems of thought at the prestigious Collège de France in 1970. He also lectured at major universities abroad (Japan, Brazil, California, among other countries).

3. He was associated with the structuralist and post-structuralist movements. He was classified by the popular press as a member of the structuralist Gang of Four, along with Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Lacan, and Roland Barthes.

4. The book that would establish his fame was Les mots et les choses (1966, trs. as The Order of Things). It was an academic bestseller.

5. Foucault was politically active during his lifetime. He was a founder of the Groupe d’information sur les prisons and often protested on behalf of marginalized groups against oppressions. His most important works, L’histoire de la folie à l’âge classique (1972, trs. as History of Madness, 2006), Surveiller et punir (1975, trs. as Discipline and Punish, 1977), and Histoire de la sexualité(1976–84, trs. as History of Sexuality, 1979–88) examine western attitudes towards madness, punishment, and sexuality.

For more on this philosopher,explore our collection for blog posts, articles and reading suggestions. Follow us @OUPPhilosophy on Twitter.

Image Credit: Michel Foucault portrait (1926-1984), French philosopher, by Nemomain. CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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This October, the OUP Philosophy team honours William Godwin (1756–1836) as their Philosopher of the Month. Godwin was a moral and political philosopher and an author of political novels, such as Things as they were or Caleb Williams which engages with the ideas of liberty, justice and rebellion against tyranny.  He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous feminist philosopher, and was the father of Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein.  He was also friends with Coleridge, Lamb and Hazlitt and a mentor of Wordsworth and Shelly.

Godwin was the chief exponent of British radicalism, in the tradition of the French Revolution.  In Enquiry concerning Political Justice (1793), now considered a classic work of philosophical anarchism, Godwin argues that all government should be abolished since by its very nature they oppress and infringe personal liberty as well as corrupting governors and people at the top of the hierarchy. The book was very influential in its time and had an impact on later generation thinkers such as Marx and Thoreau.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

‘An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice’,  by William Godwin

‘Caleb Williams’, by William Godwin, Edited by Pamela Clemit

Oxford World's Classics

‘The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century’, Edited by James A. Harris

‘Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy’, by James A. Harris

‘The Social and Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft’, by Sandrine Bergès and Alan Coffee

‘Unbounded Attachment: Sentiment and Politics in the Age of the French Revolution’, by Harriet Guest

‘The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy,’ by Edited by David Estlund

‘Thomas Paine: Britain, America, and France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution’, by J.C.D.Clark

‘Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since the Eighteenth Century’, by Jeremy Jennings

‘The Adventures of William Godwin’ in The Happiness Philosophers: The Lives and Works of the Great Utilitarians, by Bart Schultz

‘Philosophical Fictions and ‘Jacobin’ Novels in the 1790s’, by Deidre Shauna Lynch, from The Oxford Handbook of the  Eighteenth-Century Novel’

‘Looking At Rights’ in Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Clapham from  Very Short Introductions

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5 Facts about William Godwin:

This October, the OUP Philosophy team honours William Godwin (1756–1836) as their Philosopher of the Month. Godwin was a famous moral and political philosopher and was the central figure in the radical political and literary circles of London. His best-known work,  An Enquiry concerning Political Justice (1793) is now considered a founding text of philosophical anarchism. In it, he argues that all government should be abolished since they oppress and infringe personal liberty and that society can only progress if states encourage people to decide and think for themselves on the best course of action.

Here are 5 interesting facts about William Godwin, you might not know:

Godwin was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and was educated to become a dissenting minister, following in the footsteps of his father. He was sent to a dissenting seminary to study under Samuel Newton, in Norwich who was a strict hyper-Calvinist.

An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice was published after the execution of Louis XVI in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The work was an immediate success and established Godwin as the proponent of philosophical enquiry, rationalism and public benevolence. It brought him wide public acclaim and new literary connections as well as inspiring followers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Hazlitt etc.

He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous feminist philosopher and the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Their daughter was Mary Shelley, the author of the gothic novel, Frankenstein.

Godwin was also a successful novelist. His best-known novel is Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794). It is a tale about tyranny, the corruption of aristocracy and injustice meted out to an innocent individual.

The philosopher also set up a children's publisher and a bookstore, the 'Juvenile Library'. For twenty years he found it hard to make the business work, and was always in financial difficulties, although it produced a number of very important literary works for children such as Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Featured image: William Godwin by James Northcote, 1802, Oil on Canvas. National Portrait Gallery. Public Domain

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This September, OUP Philosophy honors Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) as the Philosopher of the Month.  Schopenhauer was largely ignored by the academic philosophical community during his lifetime, but gained recognition and fame posthumously. His philosophy can be seen as a synthesis of Plato and Kant, whom he greatly admired, along with the Upanishads and Buddhist literatures. Schopenhauer was best known for  his work, The World as Will and Representation, which he published in 1818.  The work was intended as a continuation of Kant’s ‘transcendental idealism’: ‘My philosophy is founded on that of Kant, and therefore presupposes a thorough knowledge of it.’ Kant argued that the world is not the ‘thing-in-itself’, but rather a complex of mere appearances. Schopenhauer, however, tells us that the world must be viewed at a deeper level, as will or a manifestation of human desire.

Here are 5 interesting facts about Arthur Schopenhauer, you might not know:

Schopenhauer did not have a traditional academic education when he was young. Following in his father’s footsteps, he undertook a merchant apprenticeship, a choice which he later regretted. He however enrolled at the university of Göttingen in 1809 to study metaphysics and psychology and completed his education in philosophy at the university of Berlin in 1811.

Schopenhauer’s mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, was a German literary author who established a popular salon in Weimar, Germany, frequented by the intellectuals and writers such as Goethe.

The philosopher was amongst the first thinkers in Western philosophy to share and endorse Buddhist and Hindu philosophy.

Schopenhauer was known for being the philosopher of pessimism. He believes that life is full of suffering as the world is driven by insatiable desires and senseless striving. The philosopher however stated that the only way to freedom is to extinguish desires. In this way, his philosophy is connected to the Buddhist thoughts.

Schopenhauer’s works reflected the realities and tragedies of life and so the philosopher had a remarkable influence on late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century writers, artists, and thinkers, such as Tolstoy, Turgenev, Maupassant, Wagner, Nietzsche, Proust, Hardy, Conrad, Mann, Wittgenstein, Joyce, and Beckett.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #PhilosopherOTM on Twitter.

Featured image: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

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This September OUP Philosophy honours Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)as the Philosopher of the Month. Schopenhauer was largely ignored by the academic philosophical community during his lifetime but gained recognition and fame posthumously. He arrived at his philosophical position very early on and his philosophy can be seen as a synthesis of Plato and Kant whom he greatly admired, along  with the Upanishads and Buddhist literatures.

Schopenhauer only wrote one seminal work of philosophy, The World as Will and Representation,  which he published in 1818. The work was intended as a continuation of Kant’s ‘transcendental idealism’: ‘My philosophy is founded on that of Kant, and therefore presupposes a thorough knowledge of it.' Kant argued that the world is not the ‘thing-in-itself’ but rather a complex of mere appearances. Schopenhauer, however, tells us that the world must be viewed at a deeper level, as will.

What determine and govern our actions is will  - a range of emotions and desires which result in actions. The world as Will in reality, according to Schopenhauer, is pure willing or a blind force/craving in the sense that it is undirected, futile, illogical and unmotivated.  For this reason, Schopenhauer was known for being the philosopher of pessimism.  The world as Will is thus objectified as driven by the desire to survive at the expense of others. The human condition is characterized by universal conflict, envy, competition, opposition and above all suffering. 

‘Reconstructing Schopenhauer's Ethics: Hope, Compassion, and Animal Welfare’,  by Sandra Shapshay

‘The Riddle of the World: A Reconsideration of Schopenhauer's Philosophy’, Edited by Barbara Hannan

‘The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics’, by Arthur Schopenhauer, Oxford World's Classics Edited by David Cartwright, Edward E. Erdmann, and Christopher Janaway

‘Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction’ by Christopher Janaway from  Very Short Introductions

‘German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche’ by Roger Scruton, Peter Singer, Christopher Janaway, and Michael Tanner

‘Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900’ by Frederick C. Beiser

‘Compassionate Moral Realism’, by Colin Marshall

‘Kantian Ethics: Value, Agency, and Obligation’, by Robert Stern

‘Self-Knowledge: A History’, Edited by Ursula Renz

‘The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche’, Edited by Ken Gemes and John Richardson

‘Schopenhauer’s Pessimism’ by Frederick C. Beiser from The Oxford Scholarship Online

‘Selflessness: The Struggle with Schopenhauer’ by Christopher Janaway from The Oxford Scholarship Online

‘Schopenhauer on Love', by Fiona Ellis from  The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Love

‘The World as will and representation’ in Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction’ by Christopher Janaway from  Very Short Introductions

‘Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy’, by Christopher Janaway

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

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This August, the OUP Philosophy team honours Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274) as their Philosopher of the Month.

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian philosopher, theologian, and Dominican friar and was regarded by many as the greatest figure of scholasticism. Despite this, he and his work have received centuries of neglect by thinkers outside of the Catholic Church. Aquinas' writings are now increasingly studied by members of the wider philosophical community however, and his insights have been put to work in present-day philosophical debates.

Below we’ve compiled a reading list highlighting our favourite works on Saint Thomas Aquinas. Enjoy!

‘Turning to Aquinas on Virtue’ by Candace Vogler from Oxford Handbooks Online.

‘The Influence of Aquinas’ by Christopher Upham from Oxford Handbooks Online.

‘Aquinas, Philosophy, and Theology’ by Brian Davies from Oxford Scholarship Online.

‘Aquinas and Empiricism: From Aquinas to Brentano and Beyond’ by Anthony J. Lisska from Oxford Scholarship Online.

‘What is an angel?’ from Angels: A VSI by David Albert Jones. from Very Short Introductions.

‘Life and Times’ from Thomas Aquinas: A VSI by Fergus Kerr. from Very Short Introductions.

“How Many Angels Can Dance on the Point of a Needle? Transcendental Theology Meets Modal Metaphysics” by John Hawthorne and Gabriel Uzquiano from the journal Mind.

How Do We Know God?: (A Radio Conversation between Karl Barth and Thomas Aquinas) by Richard Dickinson from the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil by Brian Davies.

Aquinas on Friendship by Daniel Schwartz.

Aristotle in Aquinas's Theology edited by Gilles Emery, O.P. and Matthew Levering.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

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This April, the OUP Philosophy team honours Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) as its Philosopher of the Month. Tagore was a highly prolific Indian poet, philosopher, writer, and educator who wrote novels, essays, plays, and poetic works in colloquial Bengali. He was a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance, a cultural nationalist movement in the city. In 1913, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his English version of his celebrated poetic collection, Gitanjali.

Tagore also made a significant contribution to the development of Indian philosophy in the early 20th century. His philosophical works have religious and ethical themes. He was also a social critic and an educator who believed that education should encourage creativity, imagination, moral awareness, and sympathy in students.

We have highlighted some of our best resources on Tagore and Indian philosophy below.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

The Oxford India Tagore: Selected Writings on Education and Nationalism by Uma Dasgupta

Rabindranath Tagore: An Illustrated Life by Uma Das Gupta

The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE by Jan Westerhoff

The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy edited by Jonardon Ganeri

Minds Without Fear by Nalini Bhushan and Jay L. Garfield

Hindu Political Philosophy by Dennis Dalton from Oxford Handbooks Online

Tagore, Dewey, and the Imminent Demise of Liberal Education by Martha Nussbaum from Oxford Handbooks Online

On the Very Idea of a Renaissance by Nalini Bhushan from Oxford Scholarship Online

Rabindranath Tagore, “Pathway to Mukti” (1925) by Nalini Bhushan and Jay L. Garfield from Oxford Scholarship Online

Reason and Belief: Richness and Diversity in Indian Thought by Sue Hamilton in Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction from Very Short Introductions

“Natural Supernaturalism?” The Tagore–Gandhi Debate on the Bihar Earthquake

Tracing Vaishnava Strains in Tagore by Makarand R. Paranjape from Journal of Hindu Studies

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5 Facts about our Philosopher of the Month: Plato (c. 429 BC – c. 347 BC)

This February, the OUP Philosophy team honours Plato (c. 429 BC – c. 347 BC) as their Philosopher of the Month. Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient Greek philosophers. His philosophy laid the foundation for Western philosophy and theology.

Here are 5 interesting facts about Plato, you might not know:

1. Plato was born into a noble and distinguished family in Athens during the great Peloponnesian War.

2. When his revered teacher Socrates was sentenced to death in c. 399 BC, Plato grew discouraged with political life and travelled to various places, including Egypt, Italy, and Sicily. He studied with other philosophers including the mystic mathematician Pythagoras during his travel.

3. Around 387 BC, at the age of 40, upon his return to Athens, Plato founded the Academy, an early ancestor of Western University, devoted to philosophical and mathematical enquiry. Its most celebrated member was Aristotle. The Academy survived for nearly three centuries after his death.

4. In c. 367 BC, at the request of the ruling family of Syracuse, he travelled to Sicily to coach the young monarch Dionysius II in kingship but the visit was fruitless.

5. Plato wrote 36 dialogues on a range of philosophical issues. His most famous dialogues are the Republic, an extended dialogue on justice, in which he outlined his view of the ideal state; Phaedo (on death and the immortality of the soul), and the Symposium (a discussion on the nature of love).

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Image Credit: Cropped Image of Plato and Aristotle from “The School of Athens” by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1511), Vaticans Museum. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

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5 Facts about the philosopher of the month: William James (1842-1910):

This January, the OUP Philosophy team honours the great Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) as their Philosopher of the Month. James was considered the ‘Father of American psychology’ and brought new approach to the fields of psychology, philosophy and religion. With Charles Sanders Peirce, he established the philosophical school known as pragmatism.

Here are 5 interesting facts about William James, you might not know:

James was the son of a Swedenborg theologian, and the brother of the famous novelist, Henry James and was surrounded by a very intellectual and literary family life from a very early age. The father was very well connected to the intellectual elites of the day.  

At the age of eighteen, he attempted to become an artist and studied painting with the prominent American artist William Hunt.

James gave up art and made a switch to study sciences at Harvard. In 1869, he graduated with a medical degree in 1869 from Harvard Medical School. He never practised medicine but spent most of his academic career at Harvard.

In 1875 James taught one of the university’s first courses in psychology and established the university’s psychology department and the first American experimental psychology laboratory at Harvard. His students were luminaries such as Theodore Roosevelt, George Santayana, W. E. B. Du Bois, G. Stanley Hall, Ralph Barton Perry, and Gertrude Stein.

James had an abiding interest in religion and faith. He believed that divine existence can be justified by the emotional benefits it brings to one's life. The Varieties of Religious Experience: a study in human nature (1902) examines different forms of religious experience such as mystical experiences, conversion, saintliness, and spirituality from the point of view of a psychologist. 

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons.

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Fun Facts about 2018’s Top Philosophers of The Year

As 2018 draws to a close, the OUP Philosophy team marks the end of a great year by honouring three of 2018’s top Philosophers of the Month. The immeasurable contributions of Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to the field of philosophy ensure their place among history’s greatest thinkers. To celebrate, we’ve compiled fun facts about the lives of these philosophers. Enjoy!.

For more on our Philosopher of the Month, follow @OUPPhilosophy and the hashtag #philosopherotm on Twitter.

Here are six facts you might not have known about Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, Maurice Merleau-Ponty:

When living in London, Marx and his family faced extreme poverty. He worked for various newspapers including for ‘New York Tribune’, receiving a fee of £1 per article and had to be supported by the wealthier Friedrich Engels.

Fearing for safety from the authorities, Marx used several pseudonyms in his life, often when renting a house or flat. In Paris, he used that of "Monsieur Ramboz", whilst in London he signed off his letters as "A. Williams".

Merleau-Ponty went to the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied alongside other French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Merleau-Ponty was a political editor for Les Temps modernes, the leftist magazine of existential writings and political views established by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1945. He left the editorial board over a row with Sartre and other editors over the political issue of the support for North Korea’s invasion of South Korea.

Schopenhauer never married, but had a relationship with Caroline Richter, an opera singer, beginning in 1821.

Although Schopenhauer’s work failed to garner attention during his life, the philosopher had a remarkable posthumous influence on late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century writers, artists, and thinkers, such as Tolstoy, Turgenev, Maupassant, Wagner, Nietzsche, Proust, Hardy, Conrad, Mann, Wittgenstein, Joyce, and Beckett.

Image Credit:

Photograph of Karl Marx in 1870s by John Mayall, National Portrait Gallery. Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Photograph of Arthur Schopenhauer, 1852 by Jacob Seib. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Photograph of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons