The Classics of Western Philosophy

This volume provides a strong statement of the continuing case that the classics of Western thought ought to be read and reflected upon as a component of the well-examined life. It also expands what counts as a classic, bringing the list up through to the 1960s, thus providing a thoughtful, pointed, and, above all, useful window into the development of Western thought over its whole history. James Turner Johnson, Rutgers University This impressive collection of essays many by some of the best-known philosophers writing today provides a unique and first-rate introduction to Western philosophy from the time of the Pre-Socratics to the second half of the twentieth century. All the essays are clearly written, highly informative, and generous in their suggestions for further reading. Brian Davies, Fordham University

Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is author of several books, including Hispanic/Latino Identity (Blackwell, 2000) and How Can We Know What God Means? (2001). He is editor, with Timothy B. Noone, of A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Blackwell, 2003). Gregory M. Reichberg is Senior Research Fellow at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and associate editor of the Journal of Military Ethics. He has published widely on the ethics of war and peace, and on topics in Thomistic philosophy. Bernard N. Schumacher is Privatdocent of Philosophy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He is the author of Une philosophie de lesprance (2000) and Auseinandersetzung mit dem Tode (2003). He is also the editor of several books, including Penser lhomme et la science (1996).

Notes on Contributors. Preface. 1. Pre-Socratics, Fragments (c. 600440 BC): The Birth of Philosophical Investigation. (T. M. Robinson). 2. Plato, Phaedo (c. 385 BC): The Soul's Mediation Between Corporeality and the Good (Kenneth Dorter). 3. Plato, Republic (c. 380 BC): The Psycho-politics of Justice. (C. D. C. Reeve). 4. Aristotle, Metaphysics (367323 BC): Substance, Form, and God. (Michael J. Loux). 5. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (367323 BC): A Sort of Political Science. (T. H. Irwin). 6. Lucretius, De rerum natura (c. 9955 BC): Breaking the Shackles of Religion (David Sedley). 7. Plotinus, Enneads (250270): A Philosophy for Crossing Boundaries. (Dominic J. O'Meara). 8. Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will (388395): Evil, God's Foreknowledge, and Human Free Will. (Gareth B. Matthews). 9. Augustine, Confessions (c. 400): Real-life Philosophy. (Scott MacDonald). 10. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (c. 525): How Far Can Philosophy Console? (John Marenbon). 11. Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion (c. 1078): On Thinking of That-than-which-a-Greater-Cannot-Be-Thought. (Jasper Hopkins). 12. Averros, The Incoherence of The Incoherence (c. 1180): The Incoherence of the Philosophers. (Deborah L. Black). 13. Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (c. 1190): The Perplexities of the Guide. (Alfred L. Ivry). 14. Thomas Aquinas, On Being and Essence (ante 1256): Toward a Metaphysics of Existence. (Jorge J. E. Gracia). 15. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae (c. 1273): Christian Wisdom Explained Philosophically. (James F. Ross). 16. John Duns Scotus, Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle (c. 1300): A New Direction for Metaphysics. (Timothy B. Noone). 17. William of Ockham, Summa Logicae (c. 1324): Nominalism in Thought and Language. (Claude Panaccio). 18. Nicolas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance (c. 1440): Byzantine Light en route to a Distant Shore. (Peter Casarella). 19. Niccol Machiavelli, The Prince (1513): Politics as the Pursuit of Power. Bjrn Thommessen). 20. Francisco de Vitoria, De Indis and De iure belli relectiones (1557): Philosophy Meets War. (Gregory M. Reichberg). 21. Francisco Surez, Metaphysical Disputations (1597): From the Middle Ages to Modernity. (Jorge J. E. Gracia). 22. Francis Bacon, New Organon (1620): The Politics and Philosophy of Experimental Science. (Robert K. Faulkner). 23. Ren Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (1641): Thought, Existence, and the Project of Science. (Emily R. Grosholz). 24. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651): The Right of Nature and the Problem of Civil War. (Henrik Syse). 25. Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics (1677): The Metaphysics of Blessedness. (Don Garrett). 26. John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690): An Empirical View of Knowledge and Reality. (Vere Chappell). 27. George Berkeley, Three Dialogues (1713): Idealism, Skepticism, Common Sense. (George Pappas). 28. G. W. Leibniz, Monadology (1714): What There Is in the Final Analysis. (Robert Sleigh). 29. Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1730/1744): The Common Nature of Nations. (Donald Phillip Verene). 30. David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature (1740): A Genial Skepticism, an Ethical Naturalism. (Fred Wilson). 31. Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748): From Political Philosophy to Political Science. (David W. Carrithers). 32. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract (1762): Transforming Natural Man into Citizen. (Richard Velkley). 33. Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason (1781): A Lawful Revolution and a Coming of Age in Metaphysics. (Allen W. Wood). 34. Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785): Duty and Autonomy. (Andrews Reath). 35. Friedrich Schiller, The Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (1795): The Play of Beauty as Means and End. (Daniel O. Dahlstrom). 36. G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit (1795): Thinking Philosophically Without