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| ASPECTS OF ANCIENT GREEK CULT : Context, Ritual & Iconography ((Aarhus Studies in Mediterranean Antiquity)) [Jesper Jensen, George Hinge, Peter Schultz & Bronwen Wickkiser (eds)] The papers in this volume illustrate the interplay between the studies of classical archaeology, religion, history, and musicology. The eight papers by the young scholars and their Nestor, Richard Hamilton, offer a fresh look at various aspects of ancient cult, including the use of the word cult in the academic disciplines of Archaeology and the History of Religion; the introduction of Asklepios to Athens, and a detailed study of the same god's sanctuary on the south slope of Akropolis, where it will be demonstrated that the layout of the early sanctuary on the east terrace was carefully designed after one central monument. The book also contains an innovative study of the Philippeion at Olympia, where it is argued that the tholos with its sculpture was a prototype for the use of divine images and royal ideology by Hellenistic rulers. Other papers include a statistical approach to the illustration of baskets on Classical votive reliefs, a theoretical study of the role of music in ancient Greek cult, and analysis of the use of the chorus as one of the most important expressions of ancient cult in Sparta. { 280pp, 170x240mm, June 2008; HB, £22.75, 8779342531:9788779342538 , Aarhus University Press } |
| ETHICS AT A STANDSTILL : History & Subjectivity in Levinas & the Frankfurt School [Asher Horowitz] In ETHICS AT A STANDSTILL, Asher Horowitz explores the philosophies of Levinas and the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, demonstrating the ways in which their works diverge from and complement each other. As Horowitz explains, the manner in which these thinkers are here related to each other resembles Adorno's suggestion, or even program, for thinking in constellations. Demonstrating an authoritative command of both the thinkers themselves -- including Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Marcuse -- and the various philosophical contexts (German idealism, phenomenology, Marxism, psychoanalysis) in which they are embedded, Horowitz offers a politically thoughtful and philosophically provocative analysis based on a wide range of texts and a critical reconstruction and confrontation between the positions. While a few studies have previously addressed the philosophical relationship between Levinas and Adorno, in particular, Ethics at a Standstill is unique in arguing that each of these ways of thinking calls forth from the other, respectively, a social-critical and ethical supplement that is insufficiently developed in their own work. { February 2008; HB, £46.99, 0820704075:9780820704074 , Duquesne University Press } |
| HEIDEGGER'S JEWISH FOLLOWERS : Essays on Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Hans Jonas, & Emmanuel Levinas [Samuel Fleischacker (ed)] Given Heidegger's eventual alliance with Nazism -- which many scholars feel had its roots in his thought from its inception -- it is remarkable that many of his students and followers were Jews. HEIDEGGER'S JEWISH FOLLOWERS addresses very important and relatively unexplored questions, namely, in what way did Heidegger's thought affect his most prominent Jewish students, and how did they respond to this influence? By focusing on four students who certainly came to be important philosophical figures in their own right -- Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas -- these essays by a wide range of scholars weave together philosophical analysis, religious tradition, and historical background. { May 2008; PB, £18.50, 0820704148:9780820704142 / HB, £45.50, 0820704121:9780820704128 , Duquesne University Press } |
| LATIN ELEGY : An Anthology in Translation [Edited & Translated, with an Introduction by Steven J Willett] This collection, designed for use in a broad range of courses including Roman gender, sexuality, and elegy offers scrupulous new translations of Catullus, Tibullus, Sulpicia, Propertius (including the complete Monobiblos) and Ovid (with selections from the Amores, the Ars Amatoria, the Heroides, Tristia and Epistolae ex Ponto). An Introduction discusses the historical background of elegy, the rhythmic and stylistic function of elegiac distich, and introductions to the authors. { 288pp, April 2009; PB, £7.95, 087220765X:9780872207653 / HB, £24.95, 0872207668:9780872207660 , Hackett Publishing } |
| LAW OF NATIONS : or Principles of the Law of Nature Applied to the Conduct of Nations & Sovereigns ((Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics Series)) [Emmeich de Vattel; Edited by T J Hochstrasser] The significance of THE LAW OF NATIONS resides in its distillation from natural law of an apt model for international conduct of state affairs that carried conviction in both the Old Regime and the new political order of 1789-1815. { June 2008; PB, £8.95, 0865974519:9780865974517 / HB, £13.95, 0865974500:9780865974500 , Liberty Fund } |
| LEVINAS STUDIES, VOLUME 3 : An Annual Review [Jeffrey Bloechl (ed)] This volume contains essays probing Levinas's thought as it develops a theory of ethical politics capable of attending to themes such as community, statehood, peace, and violence, as well as others examining the relation of that theory to the work of contemporary political philosophers including Antonio Negri, Charles Taylor, and Simone Weil. The volume begins with an interview with Levinas hitherto published only in Dutch. { April 2008; HB, £45.50, 0820704067:9780820704067 , Duquesne University Press } |
| METHODICAL SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL LAW : Or, the Laws of Nature & Nations -- with Supplements & a Discourse by George Turnbull ((Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics Series)) [Johann Gottlieb Heineccius] Heineccius’s theory of natural law was in many ways an independent development situated both temporally and philosophically between the earlier natural law tradition of Samuel Pufendorf and Christian Thomasius, and the later theories of Christian Wolff, writes of co-editor Peter Schröder. "While Heineccius was influenced by Pufendorf, and to a lesser extent by Thomasius, his natural law theory differs in various crucial aspects. Most importantly, Heineccius did not derive the law of nature from human qualities or human nature, as Pufendorf attempted with his concept of sociability. Heineccius thought that the law of nature was entirely derived from the will of God." Heineccius’s Methodical System was first printed in 1737. George Turnbull’s translation of 1742 was one of the first to be made and was issued twice. Turnbull (1698-1748) was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. His extensive commentaries on the text present a comprehensive overview of the sophisticated and wide-ranging European discourse on natural law, while his appended Discourse is a work of independent importance in moral thought. { 155x230mm, March 2008; PB, £8.95, 0865974799:9780865974791 / HB, £13.95, 0865974780:9780865974784 , Liberty Fund } |
| ON BEING & ESSENCE [Peter King] This new translation of a short, classic, early work of Aquinas, which nevertheless offers an elegant and sophisticated exposition of many themes to which he returned in later works, offers more the reader more aids -- including notes and a commentary -- than does any other translation. { 128pp, October 2009; PB, £9.95, 0872206157:9780872206151 / HB, £29.95, 0872206165:9780872206168 , Hackett Publishing } |
| ORIGIN OF HUMAN NATURE : A Zen Buddhist Looks at Evolution [Albert Low] Offers an original and fertile way to integrate spiritual and scientific views of human evolution. It offers a new and refreshing alternative to the way we think about our origins: random mutation (mechanistic neo-Darwinism), Genesis (God did it all personally), and Intelligent Design (God personally does what we can't otherwise account for). The result is an invigorating perspective on how our best qualities -- our capacity for love, our appreciation of beauty, our altruistic capability, our creativity and intelligence -- have come into being and evolved. How we think about our origin matters: if we think we are machines living among other machines, we will act accordingly. By showing evolution as a creative and intelligent process with its own inherent logic, THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN NATURE resolves the dilemma of how to have, at the same time, both truth and ethics. Instead of starting in an imagined remote and 'uncertain past' and moving to the present, this book starts at the certain and 'immediate present' and works back. That consciousness, creativity, and intelligence exist is certain. The question is: how can these have evolved? Dr Albert Low has made a study of human nature throughout his life. To write this book he draws on his prolonged meditations on creativity and the human condition, his years of providing psychological and spiritual counseling, and a wide-ranging knowledge of Western psychology, philosophy, and science. REVIEW: "In The Origin of Human Nature, Dr. Albert Low breathes new life into old terms - the transcendent, consciousness, awareness, evolution, creativity, intention - not by going around science, but by going through it. In the current frenzy to purge science of purpose, meaning, direction, and values, Low’s insights are a welcome resource. One might say that our survival depends on the wisdom in this book." -- Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Everyday Things. "The old religious models don’t seem to work for us these days. And so we have turned to secularity, to the cooler gaze of science, especially the neo-Darwinism of Richard Dawkins and others. Albert Low shows that the bloom of their answer - the random-mutation mechanistic evolutionary system - that once seemed so promising, cannot account for our capacity for love, appreciation of beauty, altruism, creativity or intelligence. And it cannot offer us meaning or direction. So we find ourselves in an uncomfortable place of ambiguity... The Origin of Human Nature offers a model that lives creatively in just that ambiguity." -- Professor Robert Forman, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, CUNY, founding Co-Editor of The Journal of Consciousness Studies and author of Grassroots Spirituality. "In this intelligently written book Albert Low gives us a modern Guide for the Perplexed; a richly thoughtful reflection on the roots of human nature that glows with a deep respect for both science and the spirit." Allan Combs, author of The Radiance of Being. "The battles over evolution are fought by two sides that are far too rigid in their thinking, the Biblical literalists on the one hand and the mechanistically committed materialists on the other. But our human and spiritual nature is much bigger than fanatic literalism or scientistic dogmatism, and Low’s refreshing book offers a more open direction to explore the potentials of evolution for real human beings." -- Charles T. Tart is Core Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UC Davis. He is the author of many books, including Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality. "I enthusiastically recommend this book. As a hard-core scientist, I was overjoyed to read Dr. Low’s ‘knowing’ centered approach to human origins and nature, as well as his eloquent rebuttal of the ‘selfish gene’ neo-Darwinism that now dominates mainstream views. Dr. Low’s vision dovetails perfectly with the broader scientific vision of evolution that I work with but perhaps it takes a Zen master to communicate the profundity of its human implications to a world so desperate for a deeply felt understanding of purpose and meaning." -- Dr. S. J. Goerner, Director of The Integral Science Institute, and author of After the Clockwork Universe: The Emerging Science and Culture of Integral Society. "Albert Low offers us a strikingly original vision of evolution and human nature. He presents us with a choice that is stark, with implications that are far-reaching. On the one hand, we can take the metaphor of ‘man as machine’ literally and, as a consequence, abandon those very qualities that make us human and make life worth living. On the other hand, we can come to see that the evolutionary process, and therefore ourselves, is fundamentally intelligent and creative. The choice, Low tells us, is fateful and ours to make." -- Dr William Byers is Mathematics Professor at Loyola University, Montreal. He is the author of How Mathematicians Think (Princeton University Press), selected for the Scientific American book club. "Transcending the clichés on both sides of the modern God/evolution debate, Dr. Low’s book offers a most welcome invitation to the joyful work of thinking like a human being about what an evolving human being is and can - for the sake of our world, must - become." -- Jacob Needleman, Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, and author of many books including Why Can’t We Be Good? { 245pp, 152x229mm, January 2008; PB, £17.99, 1845192605:9781845192600 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| PROPHET FOR A DARK AGE : A Companion to the Works of René Guénon [Graham Rooth MD MRC Psych] René Guénon is a major figure for anyone who recognises a need to rediscover the spiritual roots from which Western society has become so comprehensively alienated. Immersing himself in the search for spiritual truth, he chose Islam as the vehicle for his spiritual life. Settling in Egypt, he clarified and deepened our understanding of the teachings of traditional metaphysics, his central message being that there is at the source of all humanity's traditions a 'Primordial Tradition' -- a Universal Metaphysics which sets out the principles that underlie this Tradition. The truths it embodies are universal and unchanging, and form part of a unified body of higher knowledge which transcends the multiplicity of religious dogmas and philosophical systems that abound in Western society. He wrote about the need to transcend the formal and emotional aspect of religion in order to prepare ourselves for an understanding of 'pure metaphysics'. He explained how traditional societies achieved this, exploring the symbols used, in order to help individuals forward to levels of understanding which are otherwise inaccessible to minds blinkered by the limitations of the currently prevailing Western approach to existence and its meaning. { 400pp, 152x229mm, April 2008; PB, £29.95, 1845192516:9781845192518 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHILDREN ((Studies in Childhood and Family, Volume 12)) [Samantha Brennan & Robert Noggle (eds)] What do we as a society, and as parents in particular, owe to our children? Each chapter in this book offers part of an answer to that question. Although the contributors vary in the approaches they take and the conclusions they draw, each one explores some aspect of the moral obligations owed to children by their caregivers. Some focus primarily on the re-sponsibilities of parents, while others focus on the role of society and government. The essays reflect a mix of concern with the practical and the philo-sophical aspects of taking responsibility for children, addressing such topics as the limits and extent of parental obligation, the nature and extent of the rights and entitlements of children, the responsibility of the state to protect children, the role and nature of public education in a liberal society, the best ways to ensure adequate child protection, the question of whether we should license parents, the conflicts over children's religious education, and questions about children's health. "Taking Responsibility for Children" will be of interest to philosophers, advocates for children's interests, and those interested in public policy, especially as it relates to children and families. { 184pp, 155x230mm, February 2008; PB, £19.50, 1554580153:9781554580156 , Wilfrid Laurier University Press } |
| WORLDLY WISDOM : Great Books & the Meanings of Life [James Sloan Allen] The author engagingly explores some fifty classic works of philosophy, social thought, and literature (mainly but not exclusively from the West) to elucidate their contents and draw out ideas valuable for understanding human life in this world and for living that life well. This book has a distinctly humanistic slant, with a suggestion of a thinker's self-help book. As Allen writes: "You don't have to be a philosopher to think about the meaning of life. Everyone does it. Sometimes we think about the meaning of life itself -- where it came from, where it is going, what is its purpose, and so on. But more often we think about the many smaller meanings of our lives as we live from day to day... These ideas may not be altogether conscious. And most probably go unstated. But we cannot live without them... There would not be any classic writings, or Great Books, of world civilisation without these ideas either... In one way or another, these writings all deal with how we find meaning in our lives -- or how we give meanings to our lives. Classic authors just differ from other people by having more elaborate ideas on this subject, and by articulating their ideas more memorably. This is how classic writings give us what I will call 'good ideas', and 'useful humanism', and 'worldly wisdom'. { 416pp, 155x235mm, May 2008; HB, £25.99, 1929490356:9781929490356 , Frederic C Beil } |