Best of
Philosophy

1934

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam


Muhammad Iqbal - 1934
    These lectures were delivered by Iqbal in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh. The last chapter, "Is Religion Possible?", was added to the book from the 1934 Oxford Edition onwards.In Reconstruction, Iqbal called for a re-examination of the intellectual foundations of Islamic philosophy. The book is a major work of modern Islamic thought.

Thought and Language


Lev S. Vygotsky - 1934
    Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought.Now Alex Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Press translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and adds materials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions. Kozulin has also contributed an introductory essay that offers new insight into the author's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods.

Technics and Civilization


Lewis Mumford - 1934
    Mumford has drawn on every aspect of life to explain the machine and to trace its social results. "An extraordinarily wide-ranging, sensitive, and provocative book about a subject upon whichphilosophers have so far shed but little light" (Journal of Philosophy).

Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, Volume I: Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens


Werner Wilhelm Jaeger - 1934
    Paideia, the shaping of Greek character through a union of civilization, tradition, literature, and philosophy is the basis for Jaeger's evaluation of Hellenic culture.Volume I describes the foundation, growth, and crisis of Greek culture during the archaic and classical epochs, ending with the collapse of the Athenian empire. The second and third volumes of the work deal with the intellectual history of ancient Greece in the Age of Plato, the 4th centuryB.C.--the age in which Greece lost everything that is valued in this world--state, power, liberty--but still clung to the concept of paideia. As its last great poet, Menander summarized the primary role of this ideal in Greek culture when he said: The possession which no one can take away from manis paideia.

Revolt Against the Modern World


Julius Evola - 1934
    In order to understand both the spirit of Tradition and its antithesis, modern civilization, it is necessary to begin with the fundamental doctrine of the two natures. According to this doctrine there is a physical order of things and a metaphysical one; there is a mortal nature and an immortal one; there is the superior realm of "being" and the inferior realm of "becoming." Generally speaking, there is a visible and tangible dimension and, prior to and beyond it, an invisible and intangible dimension that is the support, the source, and the true life of the former." -- from chapter one. With unflinching gaze and uncompromising intensity Julius Evola analyzes the spiritual and cultural malaise at the heart of Western civilization and all that passes for progress in the modern world. As a gadfly, Evola spares no one and nothing in his survey of what we have lost and where we are headed. At turns prophetic and provocative, Revolt against the Modern World outlines a profound metaphysics of history and demonstrates how and why we have lost contact with the transcendent dimension of being. The revolt advocated by Evola does not resemble the familiar protests of either liberals or conservatives. His criticisms are not limited to exposing the mindless nature of consumerism, the march of progress, the rise of technocracy, or the dominance of unalloyed individualism, although these and other subjects come under his scrutiny. Rather, he attempts to trace in space and time the remote causes and processes that have exercised corrosive influence on what he considers to be the higher values, ideals, beliefs, and codes of conduct--the world of Tradition--that are at the foundation of Western civilization and described in the myths and sacred literature of the Indo-Europeans. Agreeing with the Hindu philosophers that history is the movement of huge cycles and that we are now in the Kali Yuga, the age of dissolution and decadence, Evola finds revolt to be the only logical response for those who oppose the materialism and ritualized meaninglessness of life in the twentieth century. Through a sweeping study of the structures, myths, beliefs, and spiritual traditions of the major Western civilizations, the author compares the characteristics of the modern world with those of traditional societies. The domains explored include politics, law, the rise and fall of empires, the history of the Church, the doctrine of the two natures, life and death, social institutions and the caste system, the limits of racial theories, capitalism and communism, relations between the sexes, and the meaning of warriorhood. At every turn Evola challenges the reader's most cherished assumptions about fundamental aspects of modern life.

Oppression and Liberty


Simone Weil - 1934
    A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores in Oppression and Liberty its political and social implications. Analysing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responsesand presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil.

The Creative Mind


Henri Bergson - 1934
    Through essays and lectures written between 1903 and 1923, Bergson retraces how and why he became a philosopher, and crafts a fascinating critique of philosophy itself. Until it leaves its false paths, he demonstrates, philosophy will remain only a wordy dialectic that surmounts false problems.With masterful skill and intensity, Bergson shows that metaphysics and science must be rooted in experience for philosophy to become a genuine search for truth. And in the quest for unanswered questions, the spiritual dimension of human life and the importance of intuition must be emphasized. A source of inspiration for physicists as well as philosophers, Bergson's introduction to metaphysics reveals a philosophy that is always on the move, blending man's spiritual drive with his mastery of the material world.

Essays in Zen Buddhism, Third Series


D.T. Suzuki - 1934
    Traces relationship between Zen and two chief Mahayana sutras, Gaṇḍavyuha and the Prajñāpāramitā.

God: His Existence and His Nature (A Thomistic Solution of Certain Agnostic Antinomies, #1)


Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange - 1934
    Here we again take up the study of these first principles, not so much as they are concerned with the functioning of the faculty of common sense, but with reference to the classical proofs for Gods existence. We have set ourselves the task of demonstrating the necessity of these principles, their dependence upon the first principle, and their ontological and transcendent validity. It will seen that the proofs for Gods existence rest ultimately upon the principle of identity or of non-contradiction, their proximate basis being the principle of sufficient reason, and their immediate basis the principle of causality. . . .

The Logic of Scientific Discovery


Karl Popper - 1934
    It remains the one of the most widely read books about science to come out of the twentieth century.(Note: the book was first published in 1934, in German, with the title Logik der Forschung. It was "reformulated" into English in 1959. See Wikipedia for details.)

Pure Theory of Law


Hans Kelsen - 1934
    A landmark in the development of modern jurisprudence, the pure theory of law defines law as a system of coercive norms created by the state that rests on the validity of a generally accepted Grundnorm, or basic norm, such as the supremacy of the Constitution. Entirely self-supporting, it rejects any concept derived from metaphysics, politics, ethics, sociology, or the natural sciences. Beginning with the medieval reception of Roman law, traditional jurisprudence has maintained a dual system of "subjective" law (the rights of a person) and "objective" law (the system of norms). Throughout history this dualism has been a useful tool for putting the law in the service of politics, especially by rulers or dominant political parties. The pure theory of law destroys this dualism by replacing it with a unitary system of objective positive law that is insulated from political manipulation. Possibly the most influential jurisprudent of the twentieth century, Hans Kelsen [1881-1973] was legal adviser to Austria's last emperor and its first republican government, the founder and permanent advisor of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Austria, and the author of Austria's Constitution, which was enacted in 1920, abolished during the Anschluss, and restored in 1945. The author of more than forty books on law and legal philosophy, he is best known for this work and General Theory of Law and State. Also active as a teacher in Europe and the United States, he was Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna and taught at the universities of Cologne and Prague, the Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Harvard, Wellesley, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Naval War College. Also available in cloth.

Philosophy of Spinoza: Unfolding the Latent Process of His Reasoning


HA Wolfson - 1934
    It is with pride that we make it available again in a one-volume edition.

Defense of the Idol


Omar Cáceres - 1934
    The myth around him survived thanks to the inclusion of fifteen poems from Defense of the Idol in the groundbreaking anthology Antología de poesía chilena nueva from 1935. Presented here for the first time in English translation, along with the sole foreword Vicente Huidobro ever wrote for a poet, the poems of Cáceres possess a ghostly, metaphysical energy combined with modern-age imagery: bows pulsate, moons hurtle, rains sing, trees drag their shadows in drunk stupors, winds break the sky open. But the interior life of the poet assumes dominance, interrogated through anguished, turbulent dreamscapes of language.

Freedom And Organization (Routledge Classics)


Bertrand Russell - 1934
    It traces the main causes of political change during a period of one hundred years, which he argues were predominantly influenced by three major elements - economic technique, political theory and certain significant individuals. In the witty, approachable style that has made Bertrand Russell's works so revered, he explores in detail the major forces and events that shaped the nineteenth century.

The Logical Syntax of Language


Rudolf Carnap - 1934
    In The Logical Syntax of Language, Carnap explains how his entire theory of language structure came to him like a vision when he was ill. He postulates that concepts of the theory of logic are purely syntactical and therefore can be formulated in logical syntax.

The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life


Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange - 1934
    St. Thomas has fear neither for logic nor for mystery. Indeed, logical lucidity leads him to see in nature those mysteries that speak in their own particular ways of the Creator. Likewise, this same lucidity aids him in putting into strong relief other secrets of a far superior order—those of grace and of the intimate life of God, which would remain unknown were it not for Divine Revelation.

The Philosophy of Spinoza


Harry Austryn Wolfson - 1934
    

On the Three Types of Juristic Thought


Carl Schmitt - 1934
    At the time of its publication in 1934 and during the war and the post-war years, the treatise was seen as a rationalization of the Nazi legal order. With the renaissance of Schmitt studies beginning in the 1980s, the man and his work, and this volume in particular, was reinterpreted. While some maintained that it was a foundation of Nazi legal theory and practice, others see it as a failed attempt at a conservative counterweight to the most extreme tendencies in National Socialism. Most see it in the context of Schmitt's intellectual growth and the challenges of the era.An extended introduction and notes trace out the development of Schmitt's ideas as well as the various interpretations ehat have emerged to explain his work. Given the importance of Schmitt's ideas in modern political and judicial thought as well as its impact on constitution making, this translation will make this significant volume accessible to a wider readership of students and scholars of twentieth century political and legal theory.

St. Thomas and the Problem of the Soul


Anton C. Pegis - 1934
    

Philosophical Studies


J.M.E. McTaggart - 1934
    In his lucid and well-argued style, he tackles the fundamental aspects of metaphysical inquiry: the existence of God, belief and mysticism, time, eternity, causality, self, immortality, the nature of good, individual purpose, and value.

The Transformation of Nature into Art


Ananda K. Coomaraswamy - 1934
    Written with all the author's enormous erudition in art history, aesthetics oriental languages, philosophy and religion, it analyses the community of theory behind medieval european and Asiatic art. the author demonstrates that both differ radically from post-Renaissance European art because of a basic philosophic orientation on the part of the medieval and Indian artist. For both "art is religion, religion art, not related but the same."

A Preface To Metaphysics: Seven Lectures On Being


Jacques Maritain - 1934
    

Philosophy of Science


Fulton J. Sheen - 1934
    

Reflections on the End of an Era


Reinhold Niebuhr - 1934