At the start of Early Modernity, the notion of raison d’état (reason of state) became a central issue in European politics. By means of that notion politicians and intellectuals reflected upon the legitimacy of violent and unethical means in the service of higher ends. Due, among others, to the nature of modern warfare, the role of the state acquired new significance in human affairs. Therefore, many philosophers and politicians argued that politics might be fundamentally different from other human activities and (...) might require a special rationality and morality. Also, thus my hypothesis, the discourse and history of the raison d’état is throughout history characterized by some recurring themes, such as the consolidation of governmental power. In this study, I want to explore how the raison d’état, in various strengths, has been instrumentalised in the political doctrine of Richelieu and Louis XIII as well in the political ideas of Putin and his ideological right-hand Dugin. It will be discussed how in both political systems; sovereignty is considered to be an undifferentiated body of legitimate power with a firm basis in Christian-Stoic natural law. The stoic ideal of indifference (apatheia) is an important reference in the reason of state rhetoric since the individual is supposed to be prepared to sacrifice his life for the preservation of the State. The common good should be the objective of each person in the society. I will analyse to what extent Putin and Dugin, in defending their war politics, use similar arguments as cardinal Richelieu. By reflecting on the intellectual discourse about the nature and purposes of the State itself, and the element of justice and higher values in the public discourse, it can be analysed how the raison d’état operates in a political doctrine. (shrink)

This paper and its predecessor () are about the question: 'Are the events in the entire universe encoded in and predictable from any of its parts?' To approach a positive answer in classical physics, the following result is proved and commented on: in Newton's theory of gravitation, the entire trajectory of a particle can be predicted given any segment of it, regardless of how the other particles are moving-provided that there is only a finite number of particles and that their (...) speeds remain bounded. (It is this condition, together with a set of parameters characterising the motion of the other particles, which enables us to estimate the effect of the other particles on the trajectory of the given particle.) The extension of this result to other theories, in particular to special relativity, is discussed. (shrink)

In her 1996 book, Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge, Deborah Mayo argues that use- (or heuristic) novelty is not a criterion we need to consider in assessing the evidential value of observations. Using the notion of a ''severe'' test, Mayo claims that such novelty is valuable only when it leads to severity, and never otherwise. To illustrate her view, she examines the historical case involving the famous 1919 British eclipse expeditions that generated observations supporting Einstein's theory of gravitation (...) over Newton's. My plan here is to defend use-novelty as a valuable methodological principle. I begin by exposing a weakness in Mayo's criticism of use-novelty. Remedying this weakness re-establishes the worth of use-novelty under specific conditions; in particular, heuristically novel data are to be preferred, as I will say, ''prima facie''. Armed with this revised version of use-novelty, I re-examine the history of the eclipse experiments and offer an interpretation of this episode that to an extent-and contrary to Mayo-restores the mildly heretical, Earman/Glymour evaluation of this episode offered in their (1980). I conclude by responding to criticism of my assessment of Mayo's work. (shrink)

A number of ordinarily separate disciplines--e.g., physics, physiology, psychology--are here brought together in an effort to reconstitute optics as the complete science of human vision, thus replacing classical optics which dealt with vision only under perfect conditions. The emphasis is primarily scientific rather than philosophical.--R. G. S.

An index listing all the places in which words occur in Thomas' Summa Theologica. Only philosophically indifferent words have been omitted. --R. G. S.

Two lectures which argue for increased study of comparative philosophy and which point out some of the main differences between the philosophies of East and West.--R. G. S.

Rome, the author holds, is not only the symbol of a political empire and a world at peace but also of a definite image of man. As a consequence it became the focus of the controversy between humanistic and other worldly Christianity. The present work deals with Augustine's views on Rome as political symbol and as moral symbol.--R. G. S.

Based on papers read to the Centre Catholique des Intellectuels Français by a group of Catholic authors, including Gustave Thibon and Daniel-Rapa. Freedom is not mere independence: it is the choice of bonds to those we love. Since the Christian is related to his God in love, Christianity is the source and basis of genuine freedom. The authors attempt to substantiate this thesis in essays on Hinduism, Islam, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Freedom in the Greek World. The concluding essays examine (...) the requirements for the preservation of freedom in our day.--R. G. S. (shrink)

The eminent Spanish biologist Suñer has brought together a variety of texts illustrating the development of the key concepts of modern biology, ranging from cell theory to mechanism and teleogy, consciousness, and the notion of organism. Each chapter is provided with a brief but lucid introduction outlining the significance of the concept and the major stages of its development.--R. G. S.

In 1933, Bonhoeffer delivered some lectures on Christology at the University of Berlin. They were later reconstructed by his students and finally published in 1960 in Germany. This book is the English translation of that reconstruction. The book contains an introduction and sections on "The Present Christ--The 'Pro me'," and "The Historical Christ." Underlying these are the valid questions Bonhoeffer thought Christology should answer: who? and where? rather than the invalid traditional question: how? Who is Jesus Christ? These questions lead (...) to the answer of His presence in the Church in his pro me structure as Word, as sacrament, and as community. The question, Where is Jesus Christ? receives three answers: Jesus Christ is at the border of my existence; Jesus Christ is the center and meaning of history; Jesus Christ is the heart of nature. Somewhat difficult, the book is not for those uninitiated in theology. Yet, since Christology is the key to Bonhoeffer's whole thought, the translation is an important contribution to Bonhoeffer scholarship in the English-speaking world.--R. G. K. (shrink)

An attempt to defend Bultmann's existentialist re-interpretation of Protestant Theology against its critics. The major areas of disagreement center around the existentialists' rejection of the subject-object scheme in epistemology, rival conceptions of history, and the relation of faith to the Bible as an historical document. Provides an interesting view of the troubled waters of contemporary Protestant Theology.--R. G. S.

A scholarly yet very readable analysis and criticism of Marxism according to the "Moscow orthodoxy," stressing problems of Marxist theory of knowledge, of science and of history, and virtually omitting consideration of Marxist economics. Attempting to be partisan without being unfair, the author devotes the final chapters to an exposition of democratic theory and compares it to Marxism. The obscurities of the democratic theory make the constructive argument less authoritative than the destructive criticisms. This does not, however, remove the main (...) value of what is an enlightening study of competing political philosophies.--R. G. S. (shrink)

Following von Arnim, the author regards De Virtute, the Magna Moralia and the Eudemian Ethics as genuine. He not only shows that Aristotle grounds his philosophy of law in the ethical virtue of justice, but he also traces the development from the early Aristotelian-Platonic concept of justice to the concept of justice of the Nichomachean Ethics. Justice both in the general and more specific senses, as well as Equity are discussed in considerable detail. A careful analysis with a slight Platonic (...) bias. --R. G. S. (shrink)

von Recklinghausen did not publish any of his philosophical writings in his lifetime. The present volume contains a very summary statement of his organic philosophy based on the unpublished materials, together with critical and historical appreciations by the editor of the papers.--R. G. S.

An attempt to overcome current continental philosophies of despair by a rediscovery and reaffirmation of the human spirit. The vehicle of this attempt is a detailed statement of Goethe's philosophy of man, his place in the universe and his relation to God.--R. G. S.

A collection of essays from various of Bultmann's works, including one previously unpublished, offering interesting glimpses into the new existential theology which tries to reinterpret concepts of traditional theology in the light of analyses of human existence. The characteristic use of familiar terms in unfamiliar ways is still somewhat confusing.--R. G. S.

A "scientific...objective study of a social phenomenon," not an argument for democracy. The author maintains that the historical opposition between autocracy and democracy reflects the opposition between philosophical absolutism and philosophical relativism. Only relativism can justify an egalitarian democracy ruled by a majority, since today's truths may be to-morrow's errors; Christian and Natural Law theories of democracy are criticised. The work, unfortunately, lacks an adequate philosophical foundation. The discussion of the function of democracy fails to be fully convincing because the (...) underlying distinction between philosophical absolutism and relativism is oversimplified and unclear.--R. G. S. (shrink)

An interesting essay in the phenomenology of moral value. The authors regard all traditional ethics as "deformations" of the Christian ethics of love and submission to God. Traditional mores, or the laws of the state, are seen as substitutes for Christian ethics--as are liberalism, identification of morality with honor, humaneness, self-development, altruism, self-control, moderation, etc. The work is primarily descriptive, and arguments in defense of viewing Christian ethics as the only genuine morality of which all others are preversions, are scarce.--R. (...) G. S. (shrink)

An Italian translation; the original French appeared in 1944. The preface by Léon Robin and an appendix on Galileo and Plato appear for the first time in this edition.--R. G. S.

A copiously documented, scholarly, and detailed history of the elaboration of the concept of the inalienability of sovereignty and the uses to which it was put in the late Middle Ages, when national monarchies were first emerging.--R. G. S.

Glum defends two theses: that Rousseau's political philosophy can be understood only against a religious background, and that Rousseau can supply the West with the democratic theory of the state which it is now lacking. To support the latter claim, he attempts a detailed refutation of those commentators who regard Rousseau as the father of totalitarian regimes and doctrines.--R. G. S.

This is the second volume in the Library of Living Philosophers which has appeared in German; it follows the familiar pattern of the other volumes in this series. The long autobiographical sketch sets the scene for a philosophy asserting that it deals with a reality which, ultimately, cannot be known unequivocally but must be realized in the philosopher's existence and which, accordingly, always presents reality in a definite historical perspective. The articles are introduced by an illuminating explanation of some of (...) the key terms in Jasper's work. Some of these are discussed in critical detail in the next six articles. Four further pieces place Jaspers in his historical situation, although not with that detail and completeness which Jaspers' historicism would seem to demand. These papers deal with Jaspers' relation to Max Weber, Judaism, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. A final, rather extensive section explores the relations between Jaspers' central position and such peripheral philosophical doctrines as political philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, the philosophies of history and religion. This volume is particularly successful in mirroring the philosophy which it tries to clarify and celebrate, for it brings to light select aspects of a philosophy which maintains that reality can only be illuminated in part, but can never be known as a whole. Appropriate to the philosophy which tends to identify the philosopher's knowing with his being, Jaspers' final reply to his critics not only makes his ideas clearer but reveals a person of impressive human stature.--R. G. S. (shrink)

The authors aptly describe their work as a narrative. The protagonists are sometimes great thinkers, sometimes ideas about literary criticism, sometimes different approaches to literature whose intermingling histories are here described. At the same time the authors are in quest of a varied and many-sided presentation of the nature and writing of literature. Accordingly the insights of philosophers and literary men are stressed more than the consistency of their opinions; understanding is valued more highly than the certainty of systems. In (...) this way classical texts are placed in an interesting new light and lesser known episodes of this history are brought to life.--R. G. S. (shrink)

Thevenaz both follows and opposes Husserl. Like Husserl, he takes the Cartesian cogito as his starting point, but he substitutes greater emphasis on the subjective for Husserl's transcendentalism. He rejects the intentional analysis not as too subjectivistic but as too objectivistic. At the time of his premature death in 1955 his magnum opus on Protestant philosophy was not completed. The present memorial volumes, collect some of his published articles. The second volume has a complete bibliography. --R. G. S.

The second half of this book is devoted to classic texts of Marxism, the first to a remarkably concise statement of the theories of Marx and Engels as well as of the major figures in the various Marxist movements. Mr. Hook's Introduction is rich in content, and critical without being unfair. Far superior to most introductory works on Marxism. --R. G. S.

The author attempts a classification of types of orders in the universe. This is followed by characterizations of the types of order possessed by various modes of being.--R. G. S.