Haḳdmat ha-ʻorekh -- Le-harim et ha-shamayim -- Ḥalomot gedolim -- Zeman -- Torah -- Tefilah -- Teshuvah -- Ḥinukh -- Yaḥid ṿe-yaḥad -- Ahavat Yiśraʼel -- Ḥerut ṿe-ḥitḥadshut -- Galut ṿe-Geʼulah -- Adam ṿe-ʻolam -- Ish ha-maʻalah.

This is a 1988 philosophical introduction to Aristotle, and Professor Lear starts where Aristotle himself starts. The first sentence of the Metaphysics states that all human beings by their nature desire to know. But what is it for us to be animated by this desire in this world? What is it for a creature to have a nature; what is our human nature; what must the world be like to be intelligible; and what must we be like to understand it (...) systematically? Through a consideration of these questions Professor Lear introduces us to the essence of Aristotle's philosophy and guides us through the central Aristotelian texts - selected from the Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics and from the biological and logical works. The book is written in a direct, lucid style which engages the reader with the themes in an active, participatory manner. (shrink)

Christian Non-Resistance (1846) is the major philosophical statement by the nineteenth-century theorist of nonviolence, Adin Ballou. Ballou argued that the Biblical injunction "resist not evil" should be understood as "resist not personal injury with personal injury." While prohibiting the injury of any person under any provocation whatsoever, Ballou taught that Christians have a duty to resist, oppose, or prevent evil by all uninjurious means, including the use of "uninjurious benevolent force." He believed that this would allow a community to (...) adopt non-resistant principles while still maintaining public safety and order. Once dismissed as a relic of the naive and sentimental optimism of pre-Civil War America, Christian Non-Resistance is now recognized as an important contribution to the theory of nonviolent resistance. Ballou's combination of the utmost moral resistance to evil with the uninjurious physical restraint of evildoers provides a conceptually simple, flexible approach to the problem of resisting evil without becoming evil oneself. This edition contains the essay "Christian Non-Resistance in Extreme Cases" (1860), in which Ballou takes up a type of challenge often put to pacifists: "Suppose a robber attacks you in some lonely place on the highway? Suppose you and your family are attacked by a gang who design to commit rape, robbery and murder? How can the downtrodden peoples of the earth ever gain their liberty without fighting to the death against their tyrants?"". (shrink)

Kurz vor seinem Tod erzählte Plenty Coups, der letzte große Häuptling der Crow, seine Geschichte – bis zu einem gewissen Punkt: »Als die Büffelherden verschwanden, fielen die Herzen meiner Leute zu Boden und sie konnten sie nicht mehr aufheben. Danach ist nichts mehr geschehen.« Diese verstörende Äußerung über ein Volk, das vor dem Ende seiner Lebensweise steht, ist Ausgangspunkt für Jonathan Lears bewegende philosophische Untersuchung. Ihm zufolge wirft die Geschichte von Plenty Coups eine tiefgreifende ethische Frage auf, die uns (...) alle angeht: Wie sollen wir mit der Möglichkeit umgehen, dass unsere eigene Kultur zusammenbrechen könnte, wie mit dieser Verwundbarkeit leben? Ist es sinnvoll, sich einer solchen Herausforderung mutig zu stellen? -/- Auf Grundlage der Anthropologie und Geschichte der nordamerikanischen Ureinwohner und mittels Philosophie und psychoanalytischer Theorie erforscht Lear die Geschichte der Crow im Angesicht der kulturellen Zerstörung. Sein Buch ist eine tiefschürfende und höchst originelle philosophische Studie über eine eigentümliche Verletzlichkeit, die den Kern der conditio humana betrifft. (shrink)

" Here Jonathan Lear argues that irony is one of the tools we use to live seriously, to get the hang of becoming human.

Der Beitrag entwickelt aus verschiedenen Perspektiven Überlegungen dazu, was Dankbarkeit ist, wie sie sich zur Freiheit verhält, vor dem Hintergrund von welchen Kontexten sie zu sehen ist, welche Emotionen in ihr eine Rolle spielen können und wie sie sich in der psychoanalytischen Behandlung und überhaupt im Sozialen auswirkt.

Aristotle was the first and one of the greatest logicians. He not only devised the first system of formal logic, but also raised many fundamental problems in the philosophy of logic. In this book, Dr Lear shows how Aristotle's discussion of logical consequence, validity and proof can contribute to contemporary debates in the philosophy of logic. No background knowledge of Aristotle is assumed.

What is the appropriate relation of human reason to the human psyche--indeed, to human life--taken as a whole? The essays in this volume range over literature and ethics, psychoanalysis, social theory, and ancient Greek philosophy. But, from different angles, they all address this question. Wisdom Won from Illness probes deep into the heart of psychoanalysis to understand how it illuminates the human condition. At the same time it goes back to the origins of psychological thinking in ancient Greece--and the effort (...) to understand the ethical life of human beings. It examines the continuing travails of the Crow Nation in its efforts to find ways to live after cultural catastrophe. It probes the deep meaning of Kierkegaard's irony. It also considers two of the great writers of our time--John Coetzee and Marilynne Robinson--and their use of literature to change the human mind. Socrates thought reason should rule over the whole psyche; but much hangs on what we might mean by this claim. We humans have inflicted unimaginable suffering on each other, justified by arrogant conceptions of reason, and of ruling. The same is true of our treatment of other animals. False images of reason regularly blind us to the claims and reality of others. One way to react to all this pain and destruction is to denounce the very idea of reason as nothing more than an ideological tool of power. This book argues that is the wrong way to go. We should not be too quick to dismiss our real human capacities just because they have so often been put to such poor uses. The essays in this book aim to offer a philosophical anthropology and psychology that is adequate to who we are--and who we might legitimately hope to become.--. (shrink)

The Erez Series, A Concise Guide to Mahshava contains an anthology of passages that address profound questions that have challenged the greatest minds throughout Jewish history. We focus not only on the content of the passages and descriptions of events, but on responses to questions such as: Why? What is the meaning of this? Much of the material brought here relates to the content of the other books in this series, but this volume also contains a selection of various problems (...) and responses to general questions relating to the nation and the individual, to life, fate, and purpose. Essentially, one will find here a series of meditations and contemplations that are relevant to anyone insofar as he contemplates his own humanity. The book draws from the writings of many authors that relate, each in their own way, to these essential questions. The array of sources includes works composed since the time of the Sages, beginning approximately in the eighth century, until the twentieth century. One will also find here thoughts and ideas from people who lived more recently, up to the present day. Features: Carefully curated sources from the wide variety of Jewish approaches Summaries and explanations that distill complex concepts Concise biographies of the great thinkers of Jewish history Aphorisms and poetry that add layers of meaning English bibliography - delve further into texts that pique your curiosity Full integration with other Concise Guide volumes The Erez Series is comprised of the Concise Guides to the full gamut of Jewish thought, from the Torah to modern halakha (Jewish law) and Mahshava (Jewish philosophy). The late Rabbi Adin Even Israel Steinsaltz zt"l was one of the leading thinkers of the modern age and the most prolific author of Jewish thought and commentary since the middle ages. The Erez Series distills the essence of 4 of the principal schools of the Jewish tradition Torah, the Sages (Hazal), Halakha, and Mahshava as a tool for review or introduction to the world of Jewish thought. (shrink)

Gabriel Richardson Lear presents a bold new approach to one of the enduring debates about Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: the controversy about whether it coherently argues that the best life for humans is one devoted to a single activity, namely philosophical contemplation. Many scholars oppose this reading because the bulk of the Ethics is devoted to various moral virtues--courage and generosity, for example--that are not in any obvious way either manifestations of philosophical contemplation or subordinated to it. They argue that Aristotle (...) was inconsistent, and that we should not try to read the entire Ethics as an attempt to flesh out the notion that the best life aims at the "monistic good" of contemplation. In defending the unity and coherence of the Ethics, Lear argues that, in Aristotle's view, we may act for the sake of an end not just by instrumentally bringing it about but also by approximating it. She then argues that, for Aristotle, the excellent rational activity of moral virtue is an approximation of theoretical contemplation. Thus, the happiest person chooses moral virtue as an approximation of contemplation in practical life. Richardson Lear bolsters this interpretation by examining three moral virtues--courage, temperance, and greatness of soul--and the way they are fine. Elegantly written and rigorously argued, this is a major contribution to our understanding of a central issue in Aristotle's moral philosophy. (shrink)

After this, nothing happened -- Ethics at the horizon -- Critique of abysmal reasoning.

In this brilliant book, Jonathan Lear argues that Freud posits love as a basic force in nature, one that makes individuation -- the condition for psychological health and development -- possible.

Jonathan Lear; XII*—Aristotelian Infinity, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 80, Issue 1, 1 June 1980, Pages 187–210, https://doi.org/10.1093/aris.

This chapter contains sections titled: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

In this fully updated second edition, Jonathan Lear clearly introduces and assesses all of Freud's thought, focusing on those areas of philosophy on which Freud is acknowledged to have had a lasting impact. These include the philosophy of mind, free will and determinism, rationality, the nature of the self and subjectivity, and ethics and religion. He also considers some of the deeper issues and problems Freud engaged with, brilliantly illustrating their philosophical significance: human sexuality, the unconscious, dreams, and the theory (...) of transference. Lear’s approach emphasizes the philosophical significance of Freud’s fundamental rule – to say whatever comes to mind without censorship or inhibition. This binds psychoanalysis to the philosophical exploration of self-consciousness and truthfulness, as well as opening new paths of inquiry for moral psychology and ethics. The second edition includes a new Introduction and Conclusion. The text is revised throughout, including new sections on psychological structure and object relations and on Freud’s critique of religion and morality. One of the most important introductions and contributions to understanding this great thinker to have been published for many years, _Freud, second edition_ will be essential reading for anyone in the humanities, social sciences and beyond with an interest in Freud or philosophy. (shrink)

Explores the relationship between philosophers' and psychoanalysts' attempts to discover how man thinks and perceives himself.

Whether aristotle wrote a work on mathematics as he did on physics is not known, and sources differ. this book attempts to present the main features of aristotle's philosophy of mathematics. methodologically, the presentation is based on aristotle's "posterior analytics", which discusses the nature of scientific knowledge and procedure. concerning aristotle's views on mathematics in particular, they are presented with the support of numerous references to his extant works. his criticism of his predecessors is added at the end.

But if, with Jonathan Lear, we scrutinize these thinkers' attempts to explain human behavior in terms of a higher principle--whether happiness or death--the ...

Timothy Smiley has made ground-breaking contributions to modal logic, free logic, multiple-conclusion logic, and plural logic. He has illuminated Aristotle’s syllogistic, the ideas of logical form and consequence, and the distinction between assertion and rejection, and has worked to debunk the theory of descriptions. This volume brings together new articles by an international roster of leading logicians and philosophers in order to honour Smiley’s work. Their essays will be of significant interest to those working across the logical spectrum—in philosophy of (...) language, philosophical and mathematical logic, and philosophy of mathematics. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Beauty and Goodness Patterns of Beautiful Poetry Human Excellence and the Standard of Poetic Beauty Moral Psychology Love of Beauty and Being Just Conclusion.

The prelims comprise: To Kalon as Effective Teleological Order The Visibility of the Fine Pleasure and Praise The Value of the Fine Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Further reading.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction to environmental geopolitics -- Population and environment -- Resource conflict and slow violence -- Climate change and security -- Science, imagery, and understanding the environment -- Building from here -- References -- Index -- About the author.

This paper considers Cora Diamond's conception of the difficulty of reality. It asks how one might think of this experience of difficulty in relation to Aristotle's conception of happiness (and unhappiness). It then takes up the phenomena of mourning and our conceptions of how to live more or less well with death and loss. It investigates whether a “revolt against mourning” might be understood in terms of the difficulty of reality.

Aristotelian theory of virtue and of happiness assumes a moral psychology in which the parts of the soul, rational and non-rational, can communicate well with each other. But if Aristotle cannot give a robust account of what communicating well consists in, he faces Bernard Williams's charge that his moral psychology collapses into a moralizing psychology, assuming the very categories it seeks to vindicate. This paper examines the problem and proposes a way forward, namely, that Freudian psychoanalysis provides the resources for (...) the development of a satisfying Aristotelian moral psychology. (shrink)

Le...rabi Shneʼor Zalman Meliyadi baʻal ha-tania ṿeha-shulḥan ʻarukh.

This chapter contains sections titled: The Good Conceived as an End The Good as a Convergent End The Meaning of “Eudaimonia” Happiness vs. the Happy Life The Finality Criterion The Self‐sufficiency Criterion Inclusivism The Shape of the Happy Life Concluding Remarks Notes Bibliography.

Morality exercises a deep and questionable influence on the way we live our lives. The influence is deep both because moral injunctions are embedded in our psyches long before we can reflect on their status and because even after we become reflective agents, the question of how we should live our lives among others is intimately bound up with the more general question of how we should live our lives: our stance toward morality and our conception of our lives as (...) having significance are of a piece. The influence is questionable because morality pretends to a level of objectivity that it may not possess. Moral injunctions are meant to be binding on us in some way that is independent of the desires or preferences we may happen to have. When one asserts that a certain action is morally worthy or shameful one is, prime facie, doing more than merely expressing approval or disapproval or trying to get others to act as instruments of one's own will. If moral assertions were shown, at bottom, to be merely such exhortations, then they would be shown to wear a disguise. Morality would be revealed as pretending to an objectivity it does not have, and such a revelation could not but have a profound impact on our lives. It is doubtful that such a revelation could be kept locked up inside our studies. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: I II III IV V VI.

1. In Authority and Estrangement, Richard Moran shows us with marvelous clarity how our capacity for avowal is constitutive of our freedom as rational agents. But philosophers also need to acknowledge that avowal plays a crucial role in keeping us unfree. This eludes Moran’s attention, I suspect, because he uses the therapeutic situation as a contrasting paradigm to our ordinary capacity for avowal.

Our first encounter with Socrates in the Symposium is bizarre. Aristodemus, surprised to run into Socrates fully bathed and with his sandals on, asks him where he is going “to have made himself so beautiful (kalos)” (174a4, Rowe trans.). Socrates replies that he is on his way to see the lovely Agathon, and so that “he has beautified himself in these ways in order to go, a beauty to a beauty (kalos para kalon)” (174a7–8). Why does Socrates, who in just (...) a few moments will be lost in contemplation out on the front porch, care about being beautiful? His remark to Aristodemus is clearly in some sense ironic, but on the other hand, he really has taken unusual care with his physical appearance. Later, in his encomium to love, he will claim that beauty has this effect on lovers: the beauty of the beloved causes the lover to disdain his former way of life and “give birth” to beautiful “offspring.” Is the image of the squat and snub-nosed Socrates all freshly scrubbed and kitted out a comic foreshadowing, or a debunking, of his serious speech? Does Socrates really believe in the transformative power of beauty? (shrink)