Kenny – författare

Sir Anthony Kenny tells the fascinating story of the birth of philosophy and its remarkable flourishing in the ancient Mediterranean world. This is the first of four volumes in which he will unfold a magisterial new history of Western philosophy. Specially written for a broad popular readership, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought.

England is ruled directly from Westminster by institutions and parties that are both English and British. The non-recognition of England reflects a longstanding assumption of 'unionist statecraft' that to draw a distinction between what is English and what is British risks destabilising the union state. The book examines evidence that this conflation of England and Britain is growing harder to sustain, in light of increasing political divergence between the nations of the UK and the awakening of English national identity. These trends were reflected in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, driven predominantly by English voters (outside London). Brexit was motivated in part by a desire to restore the primacy of the Westminster Parliament, but there are countervailing pressures for England to gain its own representative institutions, and for devolution to England's cities and regions.The book presents competing interpretations of the state of English nationhood, examining the views that little of significance has changed, that Englishness has been captured by populist nationalism, and that a more progressive, inclusive Englishness is struggling to emerge. We conclude that England's national consciousness remains fragmented due to deep cleavages in its political culture, and the absence of a reflective national conversation about England's identity and relationship with the rest of the UK and the wider world. Brexit was a (largely) English revolt, tapping into unease about England's place within two intersecting Unions (British and European), but it is easier to identify what the nation spoke against than what it voted for.

John Wyclif is best known as the originator of the first Bible in English, and as a theologian whose ideas anticipated the Reformation. This collection of essays is based on a series of lectures given in 1984 to celebrate his sexcentenary. It illustrates the full breadth of his achievements as the foremost thinker of medieval England, and to this end contributors from a wide range of specialities examine the importance of Wyclif in their own fields of history, philosophy, theology, and English language and literature. They might disagree about the interpretation of the fundamental doctrines of the Reformer but all would agree that Wyclif was a metaphysical thinker of compelling power, and a historical figure of far-reaching influence.

Sir Anthony Kenny continues his magisterial new history of Western philosophy with a fascinating guide through more than a millennium of thought from 400 AD onwards, charting the story of philosophy from the founders of Christian and Islamic thought through to the Renaissance.The middle ages saw a great flourishing of philosophy, and the intellectual endeavour of the era reaches its climax in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the systems of the great schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus.Specially written for a broad popular readership, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought.

Sir Anthony Kenny tells the fascinating story of the development of philosophy in the modern world, from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Alongside (and intertwined with) extraordinary scientific advances, cultural changes, and political upheavals, the last two centuries have seen some of the most intriguing and original developments in philosophical thinking, which have transformed our understanding of ourselves and our world. In the first part of the book Kenny offers a lively narrative introducing the major thinkers in their historical context. He then proceeds to guide the reader lucidly through the nine main areas of philosophical work in the period, offering a serious engagement with the ideas and arguments. Among those we meet are the great figures of continental European philosophy, from Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche to Heidegger and Sartre; the Pragmatists who first developed a distinctively American philosophical tradition; Marx, Darwin, and Freud, the non-philosophers whose influence on philosophy was immense; Wittgenstein and Russell, friends and colleagues who set the agenda for analytic philosophy in the twentieth century.Philosophy in the Modern World brings to completion Kenny's magisterial New History of Western Philosophy. The four volumes have been designed to dovetail with each other: they offer a unified overview of the entire development of philosophy, allowing readers to trace themes through the centuries, from antiquity to the present day. The story is illuminated by a selection of intriguing and beautiful illustrations.